Hatred That Will Not Fade

The next moment, Shadow Yuuko appeared in front of Miyauchi Hiyage asked him a question in her sharp and piercing voice.

Sitting on the stone tablet, Kanoe Yuko stared in astonishment at this suddenly appearing "other self".

Unlike her current self, who wears a clean, old-fashioned school uniform, has her long black hair styled to be smooth and silky, and looks like an impeccable beautiful girl.

The person I am right in front of me.

Disheveled long hair, ferocious appearance.

Wearing a tattered school uniform, exuding a black aura, and even covered in bloodstains.

Isn't this exactly how she looked when that overheated camera captured her?

So, this is the real her?

She stood up, looking nervously at the "herself," wondering what the other person intended to do to Miyauchi Hiyage.

Looking at such a ferocious face and feeling the negative emotions emanating from the other person.

Miyauchi Hiyage Himekage did not feel threatened.

After all, the other party has not yet completed its final evolution and cannot be considered a top-tier Vengeful Spirit.

If Miyauchi Hiyage hadn't sealed away his Ripple and Pure Yang Body, this level of Vengeful Spirit would probably only be slightly better than the high-level Vengeful Spirit in Beika Town that he unconsciously cleared away with his AOE. He wouldn't have been so bad that we couldn't even see what he looked like.

However, although Beika Town is teeming with Vengeful Spirit, no exceptionally powerful Vengeful Spirit have ever appeared there.

It is precisely because Beika Town has no top-tier Vengeful Spirit, and because once the first and second-tier Vengeful Spirit there are dealt with, they will quickly gather and spawn a new batch of non-aggressive Vengeful Spirit within a month or two, that neither the Front World nor the Reverse Side World has spent much effort on Beika Town, this Vengeful Spirit dump.

Thinking this, Miyauchi Hiyage's gaze quickly swept back and forth between Shadow Yuuko and Yuuko, then he made a gesture that seemed to indicate that he understood.

"So, all those painful memories and negative emotions that Ms. Kanoe Yuko forgot ultimately coalesced into you?"

Upon discovering that the boy in front of her did not experience any negative emotions, Shadow Yuuko revealed a sinister smile.

"What a clever man."

"Although your appearance disrupted my plans, I still have to thank you for this."

She turned to look at Kanoe Yuko, whose face showed unease.

"For the past half-century, I have wanted to appear before you and let you experience the hatred that has been burning within me for the past half-century."

"But unfortunately, you can't accept your ugly side, which is me, so you can never see the existence of my shadow."

"Even you, as the original being, have been subconsciously suppressing my actions, preventing me from harming other humans."

She slowly walked towards Kanoe Yuko's direction.

"However, having abandoned your past memories and hatred, how could you know how powerful these things you have given up could be in this era?"

"I, who have memories, grow stronger because of this inextinguishable hatred, while you, who have no memories, probably can't even maintain your sanity now."

"I thought it would take several more months to fully absorb your presence and become a complete being. I never expected that these guys could not only make contact with you during those brief few minutes at dusk, but also make you recall your memories from back then and realize my existence."

"Since that's the case, then today you will become one with me again, starting with this school built on filth, and take revenge on those who killed us and their descendants!"

As she said this, Shadow Yuuko reached out to Kanoe Yuko, trying to use her power to forcibly merge with this frail body.

Then...

After a while, looking at Kanoe Yuko seemed completely unaffected, Shadow Yuuko stood there stunned for a few seconds.

Then she realized that she was still maintaining contact with Kanoe Yuko in front of her.

However, an irresistible force suddenly appeared in this connection, making it impossible for her to absorb Kanoe Yuko into her body!

Chapter 181: An Unquenchable Hatred

Shadow Yuuko didn't know what methods those outsiders had used to finally make Kanoe Yuko, a ghost who had been hiding for more than half a century, decide to face herself.

Because of this, she didn't have much of a desire to kill Miyauchi Hiyage and the others.

At least she would give the other person a quick and painless death.

Compared to Kanoe Shizuuko, who had spent the last half-century thinking about how to torment her opponent, dying sooner was indeed a relief.

But now, she has waited for decades, watching herself gradually devour Kanoe Yuko's true form, completely replacing her and becoming Kanoe Yuko's true "original form".

But now she finds herself unable to merge with the Kanoe Yuko in front of her!?

An unshakeable force stood between them so easily, making it impossible for her to cross this chasm and fulfill her long-cherished wish of half a century.

"You actually had a backup plan?"

Shadow Yuuko shook her head in disbelief, the resentment on her body almost materializing at that moment.

"No, how could you possibly have a backup plan? We are one entity. If you possessed such power, there would be no way you could hide it from me!"

Shadow Yuuko stared intently at Kanoe Yuko with her dark pupils.

At this moment, she finally noticed the seemingly ordinary gray Diary in Kanoe Yuko's hand.

She was certain that Kanoe Yuko had never taken out anything like this before.

In other words, did Kanoe Yuko's ability to resist him originate from this Diary that the other party had obtained at some unknown time?

Meanwhile, Kanoe Yuko's gaze fell on the Diary in her hand when she saw the incredibly ugly version of herself in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel a chill.

Almost the instant Shadow Yuuko appeared, she recalled her past that she wanted to forget, and in a very short time, she understood how this ugly version of herself had come into being.

More than half a century ago, she was chosen by her own sister to be an offering to the gods.

Then, to her disbelief, the villagers broke her legs to prevent her from escaping.

Then they threw her into the basement of the Old Schoolhouse, where there were only a few candles, which was also the last shrine left in this world by the Kanoe Family's shrine.

She didn't die immediately in the basement.

Instead, they died of hunger due to despair, confusion, anger, and hatred.

Looking at the "Kanoe Yuko" in front of her, she could fully feel how twisted her heart had been at that time.

Even on his deathbed, he would make a request towards the shrine, hoping to gain the power to take revenge on everyone.

"If we cannot take revenge on those people, then this resentment will never be resolved."

Kanoe Yuko recalled the vow she made before she died.

But she was unable to fulfill this vow.

Perhaps this is what they call karma.

When she regained consciousness as a ghost, all the villagers who had killed her had perished in the plague.

The only one still alive is her biological sister.

However, at the last moment before killing her sister, Kanoe Yuko still hesitated.

One reason is that when she was about to kill her sister, she saw her own incredibly ugly appearance through the sister's eyes, which made her unable to accept that this was who she was now, and she was unwilling to kill her own sister, the last bloodline of the Kanoe Family left in the world.

The other person, upon seeing his sister's expression of seeking relief through death, had a darker thought: he felt he couldn't let her die so easily.

The goal is to ensure that the other person is forever trapped in the agonizing and regretful state of mind where they know they killed their own sister, but their sister, even after becoming Evil Spirits, refuses to kill them to vent her anger.

Only after torturing the other person until they are completely worthless do they kill them with their own hands to satisfy their desire for revenge.

These two very different mindsets led to the same idea.

The end result is that Kanoe Shizuuko, as the only survivor of that sacrificial incident, has been unable to escape the shadow of that time for half a century.

After that, Kanoe Yuko gradually diverged into two different beings.

Kanoe Yuko is the original form, but she has lost her memories;

Kageyuko is filled with hatred for humanity, but is unable to Shadow Yuuko others due to the constraints of her physical form.

Just as the other person said, although they had been separated for half a century, in the end, she and the other person were indeed one.

Only when the two different aspects of Kanoe Yuko are combined can they be considered the complete "Kanoe Yuko".

In this situation, since she could see the Diary that suddenly appeared in front of her, the other party should be able to see it as well.

To be precise, the "self" in front of me probably also has control over this Diary.

It was only because she mentioned the Kanoe Yuko had set up for her at school when she was in Miyauchi Hiyage that she wanted to come and check it out, which is why she acquired ownership of the Diary first.

So, the warning the Diary was giving her meant that the person in front of her wanted to completely devour her?

The emergency access granted to her by the Diary was to sever the connection between her and her other self, preventing the other from directly devouring her.

Sensing the other party's anger and helplessness, at this moment, Kanoe Yuko also understood why this Diary was next to this stone tablet.

She began to feel fortunate that the Diary hadn't ended up in the Old Schoolhouse.

If it really appeared around the Old Schoolhouse, then with less than ten minutes of conscious time each day, there's no way I could have found this Diary in front of my current self.

At that point, facing the other party's devouring, she will probably just disappear completely in a daze.

Thinking of this, Kanoe Yuko's gaze towards Shadow Yuuko in front of her couldn't help but carry a trace of sadness.

It was precisely because she understood the other person's existence that Kanoe Yuko was able to more clearly realize what the hatred in the other person truly meant.

Unless she, as the original body, can actively merge with the other party and then completely let go of this hatred.

Otherwise, the hatred in Shadow Yuuko's heart could not be resolved and would only continue in her heart.

If she were truly devoured by the other party, then only hatred would remain in her heart, and without all restraints, Kanoe Yuko would launch a revenge against all of humanity.

Although she knew Shadow Yuuko's purpose, Kanoe Yuko could only bitterly realize that she seemed to be unable to do anything at the moment.

Her strength was far less than that of the "self" before her, a being built up from negative emotions.

She is currently able to evade the opponent's devouring only because of the Diary's abilities.

Even if she were several times stronger, she probably wouldn't be a match for her opponent.

If it were more than ten years ago, when the Mystery Revival had just begun, she could still use her original identity to control the other party.

But now, Kanoe Yuko is completely unable to have any influence on Shadow Yuuko in front of her.

Even if she were to devour Shadow Yuuko now, she probably wouldn't be able to digest her completely, even if she ate until she was stuffed.

More importantly, even after regaining some of her memories, Kanoe Yuko herself is still somewhat confused.

Even now, with some of her memories integrated, she still can't let go of all hatred and achieve enlightenment instantly.

If she were to fully accept the hatred that Shadow Yuuko had harbored for over fifty years, she felt that she might very well be assimilated by the hatred in Shadow Yuuko's heart.

"Even if you do devour me and complete your revenge, what can you possibly do?"

Kanoe Yuko looked at her ugly self and couldn't help but shake her head.

"If you really take that step, utter destruction will be the only thing that awaits us."

There is no shortage of strong people among humankind.

After regaining her senses and recalling many past memories, Kanoe Yuko, though confined to the area around the school, still managed to meet some Exorcists and sorcerers from the human world.

The main reason she and Shadow Yuuko are still alive is that she has never actively harmed anyone; at most, she has only scared ordinary people.

Therefore, Kanoe Yuko's current idea is simply to get Shadow Yuuko to temporarily give up her revenge and see if they can find a way to coexist peacefully.

"Since you can see it, you should also be able to feel its power. If you don't want to be erased by it, I think you'd better go back now," Kanoe Yuko said, holding up her Diary, trying to scare Shadow Yuuko first, and then figure out a way to solve the problem.

However, it was clear that although Shadow Yuuko was somewhat exasperated by the failure of the fusion, her eyes were filled with vigilance and fanaticism as she looked at Kanoe Yuko and the Diary in her hand.

However, when faced with Kanoe Yuko's request for peace talks, she immediately showed a disdainful expression.

"Then you can destroy me, or find a way to reunite with me and use your will to make me give up the idea of revenge."

He noticed a hint of hesitation on Kanoe Yuko's face.

Shadow Yuuko's already wide smile became even more exaggerated.

"So, it seems that the power can only barely protect you, and you actually have no control over it at all."

"But if this force is only used for passive defense, how long can it last?"

Shadow Yuuko seemed to be able to perceive Kanoe Yuko's inner turmoil more clearly now.

"I'm not like you, who has lost your memory and just wanders around aimlessly at dusk every day before going back to rest. I've been preparing for today for a long time."

"Those so-called Exorcists and sorcerers cannot stop the arrival of the next era."