The Shrine Maiden of Chichibu Shrine

After confirming that there was no Persona 5 story in this world, Miyauchi Hiyage, who had obtained this "Otherworld Navigator App" app, already regarded it as his future training ground.

However, he hasn't opened or used the app yet.

In the setting, the Impression Space is regional; each region should have its own local Impression Space, and the entrance to this Impression Space is usually located in the most densely populated area of the region.

Impression Space in Tokyo is located beneath Shibuya Station and is represented by the subway network that runs underground in Tokyo. When entering Impression Space from other parts of Tokyo, you will randomly appear in one of the locations inside Impression Space.

The only way to leave the Impression Space is to return to the entrance. In other words, no matter where he was originally in Tokyo, as long as he entered the app, he would appear at Shibuya Station when he returned to reality from the Impression Space.

In a sense, this can be considered a form of spatial teleportation. However, for Miyauchi Hiyage Himekage, who possesses true teleportation abilities, this ability is not very practical unless there is not enough time for him to escape.

Then, the current location of Miyauchi Hiyage is in the countryside of Saitama Prefecture.

Miyauchi Hiyage is unsure about the situation of the Impression Space in Saitama Prefecture, but the entrance will most likely be in Saitama City.

As for Asahigaoka... although it has been quite popular in recent years, there aren't that many tourists visiting here. Unless you include online crowds, the entrance to Impression Space is definitely not in Asahigaoka.

Miyauchi Hiyage can only use his teleportation twice consecutively at most. If he is actually teleported to downtown Saitama, he won't be able to teleport back and will have to wait for the train in Saitama.

So he planned to test the effect again when he left Asahigaoka, so that even if he was teleported to Saitama, he could take a train directly from the station there to Tokyo.

In short, with this app, Miyauchi Hiyage does indeed have the ability to grant others special powers—although the power of Persona requires recognizing one's own heart, and that threshold alone is not that low, and most of the time it can only be effective in the Impression Space.

However, since Miyauchi Hiyage Himekage already possesses the spiritual power of a Stand, and another Persona with a similar existence is added, perhaps the fusion of the two will produce an even more wondrous chemical reaction?

Perhaps then he will be able to use the power of Persona in real life as well.

In short, Miyauchi Hiyage has no plans to spread this app as widely as Ripple Chi Kung has for the time being.

After all, it takes years of practice to master Ripple Breathing, and its main functions are to strengthen the body and protect oneself.

Even if those girls have Reading Points that can speed up their rest, it would still take at least a year or two for someone with average talent to develop combat power.

Miyauchi Hiyage only spread the Ripple after ensuring that his advantage was obvious enough.

However, the Impression Space is different. The stronger a person's inner self is, the stronger the Persona they acquire. Such power is unstable, and there is also a certain degree of danger within the Impression Space, so it is not suitable to spread outwards.

Shiina Mashiro, Jerry, and, to be honest, Shadow Yuuko, who is under his control, these are the people that Miyauchi Hiyage has brought in so far.

As for the others, Miyauchi Hiyage can naturally trust the three people on Asahigaoka's side: Monomi, Kaede, and Koshigaya Suguru. However, Miyauchi Hiyage himself is not very willing to let them give up their current lives and come into contact with those dangers when they can live a stable life.

Then there's Tokyo. Sakakibara Kouichi and Conan are trustworthy in terms of character and personality. They certainly wouldn't be like Goro Akechi, using the Impression Space to fulfill their own selfish desires. We could find time to take them to the Impression Space to broaden their horizons. However, we definitely won't hand over the app to them so easily.

As for Itou Kaiji?

This guy does have some serious personality flaws. He can use agreements to forcefully control things in the Reverse Side World, but for other things, you have to be careful that he might inadvertently leak them out.

However, given his destiny, as long as he continues to film these videos and appear at the scene of the incident, he will eventually awaken extraordinary powers.

Miyauchi Hiyage wasn't worried that the app would automatically switch to Itou Kaiji's site.

Because this Otherworld Navigator App is a reward from the Diary, Miyauchi Hiyage also has certain management permissions. Although she cannot choose whether to awaken Persona, she can decide the number of people entering the Impression Space each time, and whether to allow others to access the Otherworld Navigator App on their phones.

With this permission, it prevents situations like in the original work where you might accidentally drag other people into the Impression Space and cause the app to appear on other people's phones and become undeletable.

Only after Miyauchi Hiyage has figured out the situation at the Impression Space and can ensure that it will not get out of control will it be distributed on a small scale.

As for Itou Kaiji, he was unaware of the meaning behind Miyauchi Hiyage's words.

But after hearing what Miyauchi Hiyage said, they realized that they also had talent and might awaken extraordinary powers in the future.

Just from that one sentence, Itou Kaiji probably won't be able to sleep well tonight. He'll be thinking about it all night, wondering what kind of power he could gain if he obtained supernatural abilities.

Fortunately, he didn't have anything planned for tomorrow, and he didn't need to drive the family car. They simply found a bus from the film studio to take them there.

Seeing Itou Kaiji's energetic appearance, Miyauchi Hiyage patted him on the shoulder, thus ending the conversation.

After a good night's rest, the next day arrived quickly, which was the annual spring outing day for the Asahigaoka Branch School.

Quite a few people participated in this spring outing.

Besides the three Koshigaya Family siblings and Miyauchi Renka from the original work, thanks to the rise of Asahigaoka, the Asahigaoka Branch School now has a student body that is barely in the double digits. In addition, Kaede Kagayama, Fujimiya Miki, and some previous graduates of Asahigaoka will also be participating, so there are nearly twenty people on the bus.

However, apart from Ichijo Hotaru, who just transferred to the school this year and has never met Miyauchi Hiyage, the other students had all been taught by Miyauchi Hiyage in various ways after enrolling. Even though they hadn't seen him for more than a month, they still held Himakage Miyauchi Hiyage in their hearts and felt admiration and awe.

Therefore, when Miyauchi Hiyage appeared on the bus carrying Renge, the chatter of the people on the bus instantly became barely audible.

It wasn't until Miyauchi Hiyage waved to them and then casually found a seat in the front row that the bus became lively again.

Ichijo Hotaru, who had never seen such a scene before, asked Komari, who was sitting next to her, with some curiosity, "Is that... the Miyauchi Hiyage- senpai that you guys always talk about?"

The fame of Miyauchi Hiyage within Asahigaoka is completely disproportionate to that outside Asahigaoka.

Everyone in Asahigaoka knows who caused the changes in Asahigaoka over the years, so everyone remembers Miyauchi Hiyage fondly.

Outside of Asahigaoka, due to Miyauchi Hiyage's low profile, in the hundreds of videos from Asahigaoka, apart from the other party's voice appearing as narration, the other party's image has never appeared in the videos.

Just like how Koshigaya Suguru, despite frequently appearing in videos, never uttered a single line in them due to Miyauchi Hiyage's request and his own habits.

Specifically, Miyauchi Hiyage takes some of the previous generation's craft videos and transforms them into the classic daily life of Doraemon and Nobita. First, Natsumi or Komari, or someone else in the village, encounters a problem and then asks Koshigaya Suguru for help. In the end, Koshigaya Suguru Taku silently develops an invention that seems useful but is actually useless. Finally, Miyauchi Hiyage provides a serious commentary in the video.

Koshigaya Suguru's craft channel is one of the origins of Asahigaoka's success. Although he only Shinichi every one or two months, Koshigaya Suguru also uploads some exquisite craft videos to satisfy his fans' requests. He develops both invention and crafts, so Koshigaya Suguru is quite famous outside.

However, compared to Miyauchi Hiyage, whose narration had undergone some tuning, not only was no one outside able to recognize Miyauchi Hiyage's voice, but few people had also heard of Miyauchi Hiyage's name.

Ichijo Hotaru only learned these truths after she came to Asahigaoka and became friends with everyone at the school.

From that moment on, she became curious about Miyauchi Hiyage, whom she had never met but who had completely transformed Asahigaoka over the course of a few years.

Today, I finally met him. Looking at Miyauchi Renka sitting affectionately on Miyauchi Hiyage's lap, Ichijo Hotaru couldn't help but sigh, "Miyauchi Hiyage- senpai seems quite gentle, so why does everyone seem a little afraid of him?"

Koshigaya Komari looked longingly at him. "Because before Niikage graduated, he was the one who taught us. You've been here for a month now, so you know how lazy Ichijo-sensei is. We basically just study the lesson plans that Ichijo-sensei gave us."

"Those lesson plans were actually prepared for us by Brother Riying before he graduated."

Then, Koshigaya Komari seemed to remember something, her body trembled slightly, and she shook her head. "However, when it comes to studying, Hinkage-nii is indeed quite strict. Basically, all of us younger ones, except for our older brothers, have been scolded by Hinkage-nii all the way through."

Upon hearing Komari's words, Ichijo Hotaru couldn't help but try to think about how Miyauchi Hiyage, who seemed so easy to get along with, would scold someone in a way that would leave such a deep impression.

However, since the person in question is sitting right in front of the bus, Koshigaya Komari certainly wouldn't dare to imitate her on the bus. She could only say that she would find an opportunity to learn after getting off the bus.

She had always wanted to show her senior's authority in front of her juniors, so she had memorized the words Miyauchi Hiyage used to reprimand people, just waiting for the opportunity to use them.

Although she wasn't entirely satisfied with this scenario, it seemed to be the only time she could indulge herself under such circumstances.

Chichibu is about ten kilometers away from Asahigaoka as the crow flies, but there is a mountain range in between. It might be possible for an off-road vehicle to take that shortcut, but buses shouldn't even think about taking that shortcut.

Following the road, they circled around the outer edge of the mountains, and after more than an hour, they finally arrived at Chichibu City.

At the agreed-upon location, Miyauchi Hiyage met Honma Meiko, who still looked somewhat pale and was sitting in a wheelchair.

Her younger brother is behind her in the wheelchair.

Although the Ripple Chi Kung ability has greatly improved her physical condition and allowed her to move around like a normal person, her parents are still worried about letting her go out alone, just to be on the safe side. No matter what, someone has to be with her.

Miyauchi Hiyage silently activated his Destiny skill, focusing his gaze on Honma Meiko.

In Honma Meiko's destiny, there is still that thread influencing her life, and it seems to be slightly thicker than when she saw it in Asahigaoka.

As for the direction, it was indeed the mountain where she fell into the water all those years ago.

It's a simple math problem: the intersection of two non-parallel line segments. Miyauchi Hiyage isn't bad with directions; after glancing at a map a few times, he can quickly pinpoint the exact location.

I don't know if it's because this line has grown a bit more in the past few days, or if the line gets thicker the closer Honma Meiko is to that mountain.

Miyauchi Hiyage felt the latter was more likely, since a few days shouldn't be enough time for this storyline to grow that fast.

In other words, if Honma Meiko were far enough away from Chichibu, she might lose contact with that mountain.

As Miyauchi Hiyage pondered this, he helped Honma Meiko lift her wheelchair onto the bus at the door.

"How have you been feeling these past couple of days? Have you felt any better?"

Honma Meiko managed a weak smile, "I've been spending more time in the sun these past few days, but so far there hasn't been much of a change."

For the past few days, she has been struggling with the sudden new request she received, trying to figure out why her body has become the way it is now.

However, because it was still early, she was not yet ready to go to the place where she had fallen into the water.

The girls in the group also advised her to make ample preparations before taking action, especially before the deadline.

However, her inner voice kept reminding her that it would be best to go to that mountain as soon as possible and find out the truth about her body.

Chapter 197: The Miko of Chichibu Shrine

The spring Miyauchi Hiyage was originally arranged by Kaede Kagayama, so Miyauchi Hiyage didn't have to worry about much and just had to follow the itinerary.

Chichibu isn't very large, but because it's surrounded by mountains, it served as a post station for merchants and travelers in ancient times. As a result, there are many natural landscapes in the surrounding area, and the city also has several shrines with a long history.

As a tourist destination, it is also one of the cities with the most festivals in the Kanto region, with more than 400 festivals of all sizes throughout the year.

In May, after the cherry blossom season ends across the country, Chichibu in late spring welcomes the Shibazakura Festival following the cherry blossom festival, as well as the Chichibu Shrine Festival currently being held.

Kaede Kagayama's plans for this morning include attending the Moss Phlox Hill Chichibu, followed by picking the last batch of strawberries of late spring at a pre-booked farm in the afternoon, and then soaking in the hot springs at the most famous mineral spring hotel in the city in the evening. They will then drive back to Asahigaoka together tomorrow morning.

After a day of fun, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even Honma Meiko, who wasn't feeling well, picked a basket of strawberries herself in the orchard.

Kaede Kagayama seemed quite pleased with herself, after all, she had organized the entire spring outing, and even Miyauchi Hiyage hadn't offered any opinions.

The only problem is that Miyauchi Hiyage spent the whole day holding Renge and trying to make her happy, and he ruthlessly refused when she tried to hug Renge.

Last month, she frequently went to the school to bring Renge delicious food and inquire about her studies. Renge, that little girl, doesn't know how to take the initiative.

It wasn't until they were soaking in the hot springs that evening that Kaede Kagayama finally managed to wrest the right to care for Renge from Miyauchi Hiyage.

She gently pinched Renge's little face, as if to say, "Why are you so attached to Miyauchi Hiyage, you little rascal?"

Miyauchi Renka, whose face was being pinched, maintained her expressionless face and waved her hands, trying to break free from Kaede Kagayama's grasp.

However, the girls in the girls' hot spring all knew how much Kaede Kagayama doted on Renge, so they just watched the two of them playing around.

Only Fujimiya Miki looked towards the men's hot spring area.

By now, Miyauchi Hiyage should have already taken action.

After that, she would help cover up the whereabouts of Miyauchi Hiyage.

At the entrance of the hot spring hotel, Miyauchi Hiyage, who hadn't gone to soak in the hot spring, was chatting with Honma Meiko, who hadn't gone either.

Honma Meiko didn't go to hot springs because she wasn't feeling well and was prone to fainting from soaking in them.

Then she received a text message from Miyauchi Hiyage, asking her to meet her at the hotel entrance.

Because she had already confronted Miyauchi Hiyage Himekage about the Ripple Breathing technique, Honma Meiko Miyauchi Hiyage trusted him.

Since Miyauchi Hiyage had something to ask her, then she must really have something on her mind.

Then Miyauchi Hiyage brought up what had happened a couple of days ago.

During the filming of the video, he encountered a real Vengeful Spirit, and under the coercion of that Vengeful Spirit, he successfully awakened extraordinary powers and also made some connections with Shinto and the Jujutsu Society.

Miyauchi Hiyage didn't go into too much detail, but Honma Meiko, who was listening nearby, was still quite worried.

She carefully examined Miyauchi Hiyage from head to toe, confirming that he had not been harmed by the Vengeful Spirit.

"I'm fine. When I sensed something was wrong, I already called for help. There were just a few unexpected incidents, but I managed to escape successfully after awakening my abilities."

He mentioned that he had asked a shrine maiden from the Takanomiya Shrine for help, and through this operation, he got to know many priests from both inside and outside Saitama Prefecture.

"Speaking of which, there are real shrine maidens stationed at Chichibu Shrine. I even exchanged contact information with one. If you feel there's something wrong with your body, I can take you to see that shrine maiden and have her examine you."

Takanomiya Shrine is an ancient shrine passed down through generations of the Hiiragi Family. Although it is under the management of the Shrine Headquarters, the Shrine Headquarters does not actively interfere with the operation and inheritance of these shrines.

The fact that Hiiragi Inori, as the heir to the Takanomiya Shrine, could be invited by people from the Jujutsu Society to help shows that she has a lot of freedom of movement.

Chichibu Shrine is different. This shrine, named directly after Chichibu City, was built by the government and is a standard national Shinto. The priests and shrine maidens inside are basically directly managed by the Shrine Headquarters.

At Chichibu Shrine, there is always a top-level Spirit Medium stationed there year-round. However, because Shinto's power system is centered on Ley Line, not to mention top-level combatants, even the first-level shrine maidens rarely leave the areas they are responsible for.

The Miyauchi Hiyage Chichibu Shrine Himekage met was a level one Spirit Medium, and her strength should be even greater than that of Hiiragi Inori.

In fact, to be honest, her location is closer to the Seikyou Academy.

However, since they were directly under the management of the Shrine Headquarters, and Kento Nanami had no connection with them, he naturally couldn't ask them to come and help.

It was only after Hiiragi Inori reported Kanoe Yuko's situation that Yuko was temporarily reassigned by the Shrine Headquarters to help.

Listening to Miyauchi Hiyage's explanation, Honma Meiko couldn't help but look at Miyauchi Hiyage with a hint of admiration.

These girls, who own Diary, have had Diary for over a month.

As a result, only Shinomiya Kaguya has been able to access the Jujutsu Society through the power of the Shinomiya Family, and then she joined the Jujutsu High together with Miko Yotsuya Miko had already awakened her Spirit Vision.

The other girls are mostly still practicing with the Spiritual Power they got from Ripple and Shinomiya Kaguya, and haven't come into contact with many other superhumans.

It turns out that Miyauchi Hiyage had only been learning Ripple Breathing from Shiina Mashiro for about half a month after meeting her. Not only did she help Shiina Mashiro perfect her breathing rhythm, but she also caught the attention of people in the Jujutsu Society because of filming a haunted house exploration video.