The Girl Who Should Have Died Five Years Ago

Now, due to an attack by Vengeful Spirit, he awakened in a moment of crisis and became a superhuman. He also managed to establish connections with the Shinto through his strong social skills.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that the intensity of the Ripple within Miyauchi Hiyage's body was still very low, and that there was also the proof of Shiina Mashiro as the holder of the Diary, Honma Meiko would have really suspected that Miyauchi Hiyage might be the You Know Who.

However, because Shiina Mashiro was praised by Kasumigaoka Utaha in the group as a natural airhead who would never lie, Miyauchi Hiyage is now the most innocent person in the group.

Regardless of what changes have occurred in Miyauchi Hiyage, they all seem to fit his "genius" persona, which has been certified by the You Know Who.

Therefore, when she heard that Miyauchi Hiyage was going to take her to Chichibu Shrine to find someone to help her get a medical check-up, Honma Meiko couldn't help but feel a little touched.

"The intensity of the Ripple within you should be enough for you to live a normal life, but your body is still so weak. Perhaps there is some unclean thing attached to you. I may not be able to solve these problems, but the shrine maidens at Chichibu Shrine are knowledgeable and experienced. They will definitely have a solution."

As Miyauchi Hiyage said this, he also took out his phone to contact the shrine maiden of Chichibu Shrine.

He had the other person's phone number saved and knew that the other person's surname was Kano.

In fact, the shrine maidens at Chichibu Shrine generally do not take the initiative to act.

After all, they spend most of their time in the shrine practicing and communicating with the Ley Line, and they don't go out to entertain the guests who come to worship.

Then there's the fact that there are already talismans for warding off evil spirits pasted on the entrance of Chichibu Shrine.

Ordinary evil spirits cannot even enter the gates of a shrine. Unless you encounter a particularly persistent and eerie spirit, people who are entangled by ordinary Vengeful Spirit can get rid of those evil things by simply visiting the shrine once.

However, since Miyauchi Hiyage is already considered one of the people in the Reverse Side World, and seems to have a pretty good relationship with Satoru Gojo from the Jujutsu Society, it's not a problem for him to help out.

In fact, Honma Meiko did visit a shrine after she drowned, but her health deteriorated afterward, and she could no longer go out freely. Even when her family visited the shrine during the New Year, it was only her parents who went to pray for her.

Since her health deteriorated, Honma Meiko hasn't visited a shrine.

Upon hearing Miyauchi Hiyage's invitation, Honma Meiko felt a long-lost excitement.

Perhaps, with the help of Miyauchi Hiyage and the other shrine maidens, she won't need to wait until the deadline of the commission to figure out what's happening to her body.

Under the gentle evening breeze, Miyauchi Hiyage quickly led Honma Meiko to the entrance of Chichibu Shrine by taxi.

Chichibu Shrine is not located on a mountain, but rather in the city center. This area is also the main Ley Line of the entire Chichibu City Chichibu Shrine. By controlling this Ley Line, one can unify the smaller Ley Line in the surrounding areas.

There was no one to greet them at the shrine entrance. After all, Miyauchi Hiyage was just a nobody right now. The fact that the other party was willing to help out over the phone was already a favor, so there was no way they would come to Miyauchi Hiyage.

As they entered the shrine's torii gate, Miyauchi Hiyage's gaze was drawn to a talisman that was not easily noticed and was pasted on a torii gatepost.

His eyes could clearly see that this talisman was like a switch. When the talisman was affixed, it would separate the world outside the torii gate from the world inside the torii gate. It was a kind of barrier that did not target humans or ordinary creatures, but was specifically effective against Vengeful Spirit.

He entered the shrine with ease, without sensing anything unusual.

Then he turned to look at Meiko behind him.

Honma Meiko's expression remained unchanged.

A barely perceptible glint flashed in Miyauchi Hiyage's eyes as he confirmed that the thread had not disappeared and was still connected to the other person.

Does it seem that the shrine's barrier cannot withstand this "curse"?

Or is this actually not a curse at all?

After all, neither before nor now, Miyauchi Hiyage has seen any ominous signs from this line.

Miyauchi Hiyage noticed Honma Meiko's slight frown and asked him nervously, "Hikage-kun, what did you discover?"

Miyauchi Hiyage nodded. "If you had any curse on you, you should have felt some kind of reaction when you walked through the torii gate. But since you haven't felt anything, either there's nothing wrong with you and it's just a lingering effect from the drowning you had years ago, or your problem is more serious than I thought."

"No matter what the outcome, it doesn't seem good... But I'm just guessing, so don't worry too much. I heard there's a top-level Spirit Medium at the shrine. Anyway, let's go in quickly."

The shrine occupies a fairly large area. When Miyauchi Hiyage, one of the shrine maidens who was cleaning the shrine saw that people were still coming at this time and reminded them that it was already past 6 p. m. and if they wanted to worship, they should wait until the next morning.

Before Miyauchi Hiyage could explain, the Kano Shrine Maiden, whom Miyauchi Hiyage had met once before, came out from the shrine next to her and indicated that this was her guest, and that the shrine maiden could go back to rest.

After the Miyauchi Hiyage and the others a few times before putting down her broom and leaving, the Kano Shrine Maiden at the Miyauchi Hiyage gate nodded to Honma Meiko, and then gestured for them to go inside and talk.

Knowing that it was the Miyauchi Hiyage led Honma Meiko and followed Kano Shrine Maiden inside.

After entering an empty room, the Kano Shrine Maiden gestured for the two to sit down, then brought out several cups of tea before sitting down opposite the Miyauchi Hiyage.

After sitting down, she began to carefully examine Honma Meiko's appearance.

After looking at her for a while, she said to Honma Meiko, "Have you ever thought about becoming a full-time shrine maiden at the shrine?"

There are generally two types of shrine maidens: one is a part-time shrine maiden who works part-time and receives a salary. Even national Shinto shrines recruit some young girls to work as part-time shrine maidens.

After all, apart from a few, very few of these superhumans would be willing to do the work of entertaining guests, cleaning, and selling shrine merchandise. So these tasks would naturally have to be done by hired workers.

Another type of full-time shrine maiden either becomes a shrine maiden naturally as the daughter or relative of the shrine's head priest, or they take a special exam to obtain Shinto qualifications and become a full-time shrine maiden, earning a higher salary than assistant shrine maidens.

This qualification is the result of a series of talent selection mechanisms that Shinto has developed over the years.

Those who obtain clergy qualifications do not necessarily possess Spiritual Power aptitude.

However, 99% of those who fail the priesthood qualification exam are definitely not Spiritual Power gifted.

The reason why the Kano Shrine Maiden is saying this now is probably because she has seen the Spiritual Power talent that Honma Meiko possesses.

Although there was nothing wrong with Honma Meiko shrine maiden, Miyauchi Hiyage still coughed lightly and changed the subject to Honma Meiko's physical condition, wanting to have the Kano Shrine Maiden check on her first.

Happy New Year 2025 everyone!

Chapter 198: The Girl Who Should Have Died Five Years Ago

At the Chichibu Shrine's office, after a brief consultation, the Kano Shrine Maiden invited Honma Meiko to a separate room next door to examine her body.

This is considered a hidden feature within the shrine; wealthy people generally don't know about this special package.

Only those of high enough status, qualified to know about the Reverse Side World, can enjoy this examination package that uses Spiritual Power to perform a comprehensive scan of a person's body.

She had never heard of Miyauchi Hiyage's name before, but Asahigaoka's name was quite well-known.

After all, Asahigaoka is so close to Chichibu. It was originally just a rural village, but in just a few years it has become Japan's number one internet celebrity village, and its fame is even spreading overseas.

Until Miyauchi Hiyage was reserved by the Jujutsu Society, he not only had Satoru Gojo, a rising star among the younger generation, to protect him, but also awakened his extraordinary abilities while dealing with Vengeful Spirit, officially becoming a part of the Reverse Side World.

Furthermore, the fact that the other party was filming videos of the haunted house, which could easily expose information about the Reverse Side World, brought his situation to the attention of the higher-ups in Shinto.

A day was enough time for Shinto to get a pretty good idea of the situation within the Miyauchi Hiyage.

It was only after reviewing Miyauchi Hiyage's identity information that Kano Shrine Maiden, believing he had great potential, agreed to let him bring another ordinary girl who wasn't from the Reverse Side World to the Miyauchi Hiyage.

It's just using Spiritual Power to help a weak girl improve her health; there's no loss for them in this matter.

However, after seeing Honma Meiko, the Kano Shrine Maiden only glanced at Honma Meiko a few times before discovering that the girl's Spiritual Power talent seemed quite good.

To be precise, she doesn't yet know exactly how good Honma Meiko's Spiritual Power talent is, but she seems to have a very high compatibility with the Ley Line.

Despite being just an ordinary person, the Spiritual Power emanating from the shrine's Ley Line showed an extremely high affinity for Honma Meiko after she entered the shrine.

Even though she was already a Level 1 transcendent, the Kano Shrine Maiden had never seen many people in recent years who had such a high affinity with the Ley Line.

Therefore, the Kano Shrine Maiden immediately took a liking to talent and wanted to take Honma Meiko as her disciple.

She didn't think that since Miyauchi Hiyage was from the Jujutsu Society, the people he brought were also from the Jujutsu Society.

Then she would also say that Miyauchi Hiyage clearly knows quite a few people in the Jujutsu Society, yet he still brought Honma Meiko to the shrine to seek help.

Since that's the case, and Honma Meiko is from Chichibu City, she should become a shrine maiden on our Shinto side!

In any case, due to the decline of the mystical realm for more than a century, the various forces in the Reverse Side World were forced to abandon their past sectarian differences under the circumstances.

Or it could be said that those forces or families unwilling to abandon their sectarian biases have long been buried in the dust of history.

Now that the Mystery Revival, although the interactions between different forces are still full of open and covert struggles, they have become much more normal in the past two years under the restraint of the higher-ups.

On the Shinto side, although the shrine maidens are still nominally "divine children" who serve the gods, the idea of serving the gods is just a joke.

Not to mention that more than half of the current shrine maidens are just temporary assistants, the main problem is that the gods who truly possessed great power in the past haven't shown their faces in the human world for two hundred years.

The gods that truly exist today are almost all newly created gods who were artificially elevated to godhood by the higher-ups in the Shinto after Mystery Revival.

Therefore, even top-level Spirit Medium in Shinto are no longer restricted from marrying; at most, they were restricted from marrying into other factions in the past.

However, this limitation was already broken during the Mystery Revival.

Most of the extraordinary forces nowadays have sealed away a large number of basic cultivation methods from other forces.

You can find cultivation methods that utilize Buddhist power, Spiritual Power, Cursed Energy, Mana, monster power, and even resentment power.

Therefore, as long as it doesn't involve more core secrets, Honma Meiko can still be with Miyauchi Hiyage, who is developing in the Jujutsu Society, after becoming a shrine maiden.

It's no wonder that the Kano Shrine Maiden would think that way.

Despite the fact that Miyauchi Hiyage's profile suggests he has many so-called "childhood sweethearts" and "confidantes" around him.

However, after Miyauchi Hiyage awakens his extraordinary power and enters the Reverse Side World, it means that he will definitely have more dealings with other extraordinary beings in the Reverse Side World in the future, and his relationship with ordinary people will probably only drift further and further apart.

At least in the eyes of the Kano Shrine Maiden Miyauchi Hiyage, who has already become a superhuman, would never choose to marry an ordinary person in the future, unless she chooses to take a concubine—

Although Japan officially abolished the concubine system after the Meiji Restoration, there are still many powerful figures in the Front World who secretly keep mistresses, not to mention in the Reverse Side World, where the overall rules are still determined by the Reverse Side World -ups.

Furthermore, the stronger the superhuman, the harder it is for them to have offspring, and the offspring of superhumans are more likely to become a "binding" to the superhuman. This means that if superhumans want to form a stable superhuman family, they must adopt a benevolent model of widespread sowing and concentrated harvesting.

Therefore, the rule against taking concubines is still just a piece of paper with little binding force in the Reverse Side World. As long as it doesn't come out in the open, everyone tacitly agrees that the powerful members of those extraordinary families in the Reverse Side World should take more concubines to pass on their outstanding talents.

With this in mind, the Kano Shrine Maiden used her Spiritual Power to begin examining Honma Meiko's body.

"Hmm..." As soon as she touched it, the Kano Shrine Maiden sensed that something was wrong.

There seemed to be another warm power flowing within Honma Meiko's body.

Although it is not as powerful as Spiritual Power, it seems to be gentler in nourishing the body than Spiritual Power.

This same force is also what sustains the life force within the other person's body.

If this warm energy were removed, this pale-faced girl would likely have difficulty even walking.

Immediately, the Kano Shrine Maiden became more alert and used her Spiritual Power to examine Honma Meiko's physical condition even more carefully.

The more she investigated, the more alarmed the Kano Shrine Maiden became.

Aside from being a bit thin, the other person's body appeared to be fine.

But its internal organs are almost completely hollowed out; this body is only being held up by that special power.

Her assessment that the child couldn't get out of bed was somewhat conservative.

Without the nourishment of that power, this girl's body would probably only last until this summer at most!

What could have caused this girl's body to be so hollowed out?

The Kano Shrine Maiden finally understood why the White Miyauchi Hiyage came to them for help; there was indeed a hidden story behind this girl's body.

She first slowly channeled a stream of pure Spiritual Power into the other person's body, nourishing the body in conjunction with that power.

Then he asked Honma Meiko about her physical condition and the nature of the power within her.

Feeling reassured that she hadn't sensed any threat from the Diary and that the other party genuinely wanted her to join the shrine as a shrine maiden, Honma Meiko was much calmer. Then, following the explanation that Shiina Mashiro had given her to Miyauchi Hiyage, she fabricated the origin of the Breathing Technique.

It must be said that the Shinto faction does indeed possess significantly more secret intelligence than other forces.

After hearing about the Breathing Technique, the Kano Shrine Maiden couldn't recall it at first. However, after reporting the matter to the only top-level Spirit Medium in the shrine, the Omiya Shrine Maiden pondered for a while and realized that it wasn't that she couldn't remember it, but rather that she had too many things related to breathing in her mind and needed to do some screening.

Breathing is an activity that is closely related to life; every living thing has the process of breathing.

Therefore, among extraordinary forces, there are naturally quite a few power systems related to breathing.

Qigong, Daoist breathing exercises, Breathing Technique...

After thinking it over, upon hearing about Honma Meiko's frail condition, the Omiya Shrine Maiden actually remembered a Breathing Technique that had disappeared for nearly a hundred years but was still being passed down in a small circle.

"Besides the ancient kingdom where many Daoist practices related to breathing are still practiced, it could also be the Demon Slayer Corps, which was established from the very beginning to hunt down a so-called Demon King. That force had a very close cooperative relationship with a branch of Shinto and left behind relatively complete written records. It can be considered one of the few supernatural forces that were still frequently active during the period of mystic decline."

She briefly explained the situation of the Demon Slayer Corps to the Kano Shrine Maiden.

"Back then, that demon king was classified as a top-tier vampire, possessing vitality comparable to a true ancestor. His blood could also cause ordinary humans to lose their minds and become Evil Spirits who obeyed his commands. Moreover, he was very good at escaping. Even when his head was cut off and his body was cut into thousands of pieces, he could still survive. Relying on this ability, he survived in the world for nearly a thousand years. His only weakness was that, like most low-level vampires, he was extremely afraid of sunlight."

"Based on later speculation, it is possible that it is precisely because of its huge weakness of fearing sunlight that it is far more violent than ordinary vampires. In addition, it is also very good at escaping. When it discovers other special-class beings, it will choose to run away, which is why it has been able to live until modern times."

"The Demon Slayer Corps relied on a special Breathing Technique developed by a swordsman from the Sengoku period, combined with the Nichirin Blades made from a special mineral imbued with the power of the sun, to have the ability to fight against the Demon King and the Evil Spirits he created."

"After entangled with that Demon King for hundreds of years, the Demon Slayer Corps finally managed to defeat him during a period of mysterious decline. They took advantage of the Demon King's weakness in trying to overcome sunlight, lured him out when he was in a weakened state, and finally destroyed him after making huge sacrifices. After that, the Demon Slayer Corps disbanded."

"That Breathing Technique has been passed down among the descendants of those Demon Slayer Corps. Because overuse of that Breathing Technique can lead to a reduction in lifespan, although our shrine has some of it, we generally don't allow people to practice it."

The Kano Shrine Maiden frowned.

"You mean that Breathing Technique might be the reason why Ms. Honma's body is depleted?"

The Omiya Shrine Maiden shook her head. "I'm just guessing. After all, I haven't practiced Breathing Technique, and I can only learn about what happened back then from the records."