You've Been Secretly Badmouthing Me Behind My Back, Haven't You, Shichimiya Shizuha?! / The First Step to Becoming the Dark Lord: Cursing My Own Name

But now that everyone had cultivated Ripple, if that really happened, you could use Ripple to put the other person into a deep sleep. Once she got enough rest, she should probably return to normal.

Even though it was the weekend, I, Teacher Tom, had still taken some precious time to give you another lesson. I would teach you how to use Ripple to quickly put someone into deep sleep. It worked far better than sleeping pills or melatonin.

It was also because of this diary entry that the girls had followed the trail into the nearby alleyways and discovered Little Bocchi, slumped on the ground and trembling, as well as Shinomiya Kaguya, who looked somewhat strange beside her.

As for Shinomiya Kaguya's condition, after questioning her personal maid, Hayasaka Ai, they had confirmed that she was indeed in her Little Kaguya state.

Afterward, they suggested sitting in a nearby café for a while and discussing today's diary entry.

Of course, to avoid any problems, they were now basically communicating through the group chat.

Kashiko Kasumi: "So that bastard You Know Who must have been nearby just now, right? Otherwise, how did he know that Little Bocchi had come too, besides us? And how could he accurately describe Kaguya's current condition?"

Kashiko Kasumi: "Maybe every move we make is under his watch right now."

Seeing Kasumigaoka Utaha's message, the girls instinctively looked around, but naturally, they found nothing.

UMR: "Does You Know Who have the ability to turn invisible? Could he be standing right next to us right now?"

UMR: "And we're clearly all together, so why didn't he mention me? Do I really have so little presence? I'm a little mad!"

Fallen Saint Black Cat: "Wouldn't it be better if he didn't mention you? I'm still hung up on why You Know Who started saying something and then refused to continue... Why did he tell me to talk more with Teacher Kashiko Kasumi about emotional issues?"

Black Cat, who had originally felt indifferent about her future, found herself caring more and more because of You Know Who's actions.

Kashiko Kasumi: "...Could he be hinting that you're also a losing heroine in your story?"

Fallen Saint Black Cat: "Impossible, absolutely impossible! How could the mighty Fallen Saint Black Cat of Chiba so easily form a contract with anyone else? No matter how you look at it, something's wrong here!"

Kashiko Kasumi: "Just take it as that bastard's twisted sense of humor. Anyway, we'll talk about that later. Let's get back to the point."

Kashiko Kasumi: "Never mind where You Know Who is hiding right now. I think we should wake Kaguya's original consciousness. Otherwise, today's gathering will probably end here. What do you think?"

Fallen Saint Black Cat: "Wouldn't that be a little risky? There are Shinomiya Family bodyguards all around, and Kaguya's personal maid probably won't let us lay our hands on her, right?"

Kashiko Kasumi: "Miss Hayasaka should be the person Kaguya trusts most. As long as the Diary doesn't issue a warning, I think we can give it a try."

Anyway, it should be going premium tomorrow.

To be honest, as a purely comedic novel, this book was pretty hard to write.

I still had quite a few ideas in my head, but expanding them into a readable novel was indeed not easy. It basically took me more than two hours to write each chapter, setting a record for my slowest writing speed.

As for whether it would fall apart, I actually felt it was fine. After all, the works I really wanted to write hadn't even appeared yet.

Besides, I never intended for this book to be all that serious. I just followed a rough outline of a few hundred words and let my imagination run wild.

Later on, more things would probably keep making cameo appearances, and the targets of the jokes and torment would not be limited to these characters and works.

Honestly, because of the frequent ridiculous stunts over at Noragami and Jujutsu Kaisen lately, the soul of snark within me was already burning fiercely. Unfortunately, I couldn't write that far yet, so all I could do was sigh in regret.

Lastly, about updates.

Because of the author's health, I probably wouldn't be able to mass-release chapters very often. I've been taking care of my health every day. I only started writing this book after reading dozens of diary-style novels on some Eggplant site and being unable to resist the urge to complain.

Anyway, when it goes premium tomorrow, there should be at least five updates. After that, I'll keep a steady update schedule. Thank you all for your support.

Is that you secretly cursing me behind my back, Kasumigaoka Utaha?!

Kasumigaoka Utaha tried to ask Hayasaka Ai to let them take care of Shinomiya Kaguya, but Hayasaka Ai naturally rejected the request without hesitation.

This had been within Kasumigaoka Utaha's expectations. If Hayasaka Ai had really agreed, she would have suspected that Hayasaka Ai was You Know Who in disguise.

She gradually lowered her demands while probing the limits of what Hayasaka Ai could accept, as well as how much this personal maid actually knew about Shinomiya Kaguya's situation.

The matter of the diary could not be revealed, so all they could talk about was themselves and Ripple Chi Kung.

Based on Kasumigaoka Utaha's cautious questions, she gleaned some information from Hayasaka Ai's equally cautious answers.

During the first few days after Shinomiya Kaguya received the Diary, she had investigated many of the people mentioned in it, presumably to verify whether the Diary was real.

This naturally included Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had been briefly mentioned in the first day's diary entry.

Later, as Shinomiya Kaguya began cultivating Ripple Chi Kung, her suspicions toward the diary lessened considerably. She herself also became much more cautious and no longer casually investigated other people's information as she had before.

As for Ripple Chi Kung, Hayasaka Ai should have merely had some suspicions without any solid proof. The two of them went back and forth for quite a while over the matter.

Kasumigaoka Utaha said that since Shinomiya Kaguya's current condition was caused by poor sleep quality, she had a massage technique that could quickly put someone into deep sleep. It should be able to return Shinomiya Kaguya to normal in a short time, though the process was a family secret.

Hayasaka Ai almost instantly thought of the incident from a few days ago, when she had inexplicably slept in Lady Kaguya's bed for an entire night and had even been reprimanded by the main family the next day because of it.

Thus, Hayasaka Ai responded that her young lady had recently often used this method to help her enter deep sleep, then proactively asked whether she could learn the technique herself.

Seeing Hayasaka Ai's sincere expression, Kasumigaoka Utaha might actually have believed her if this Ripple hypnosis technique had not only been written in You Know Who's diary today.

In the end, Kasumigaoka Utaha did not reveal the matter of Ripple Chi Kung, while Hayasaka Ai confirmed through the attitudes of the girls that the people her young lady knew truly had something unusual about them.

Ultimately, Hayasaka Ai agreed to give Kasumigaoka Utaha and the others some time alone with her young lady.

Of course, calling it time alone was a stretch. They were merely separated by some distance.

Hayasaka Ai did not even leave the café. She simply sat on the other side of it with her back to Kasumigaoka Utaha and the others.

After spending some of the Reading Points she had just obtained today, Kasumigaoka Utaha successfully mastered a new use for Ripple and used it on the innocent-looking Shinomiya Kaguya.

Watching Shinomiya Kaguya rest her head on her lap and sweetly enter a state of deep sleep in merely two or three minutes, Kasumigaoka Utaha's group once again experienced the practicality of Ripple.

At the very least, they would not have to lose sleep in the future because of overly shocking things You Know Who wrote in his diary.

But was it really appropriate to let the Shinomiya Family's young lady sleep with her head on her black-stockinged thighs?

Kasumigaoka Utaha hesitated for a while before having Umaru call Hayasaka Ai over. After all, she was the professional maid here.

Only after Hayasaka Ai carefully carried Kaguya aside and placed her head on her own lap did Kasumigaoka Utaha's gaze fall on Bocchi, who was trying her best to make herself seem inconspicuous.

Unfortunately, this Guitar Hero did not possess the sort of aura Kato Megumi had that made people instinctively overlook her.

The more she tried to hide herself, the more conspicuous she became in the eyes of the others.

This level of social anxiety was truly troublesome.

Kasumigaoka Utaha softened her voice as much as possible and asked the pink-haired girl a question.

"Um... we'll call you 'Little Bocchi,' just like You Know Who wrote in the diary. You don't mind, do you?"

The pink-haired girl's body stiffened, then she shook her head at an astonishing speed to show that she did not mind.

Not bad. At least she reacted.

Kasumigaoka Utaha skipped the questions that might make the other girl uncomfortable and directly asked whether she had seen anyone suspicious in the alley.

That bastard You Know Who had previously said he did not want to come and affect her mood, yet this morning's diary entry had directly exposed the fact that he was clearly at the scene. He simply had not been discovered.

Little Bocchi trembled as she thought it over, and her face could not help but reveal an expression on the verge of tears.

You Know Who had clearly discovered her hiding in the alley long ago, yet she had not noticed it at all from beginning to end. How was she supposed to answer now that someone was asking her?

What should I do? If I say I don't know anything, won't they suspect that You Know Who bought me off?

At a time like this, do I need to commit seppuku to prove my innocence?

Ahhh, why did I suddenly lose my mind this morning and run here? This was obviously not a place for a reclusive, gloomy shut-in like me!

As she imagined her life possibly coming to an end at this very moment, the girls watched Little Bocchi's face rapidly turn pale.

Kasumigaoka Utaha hurriedly spoke up to soothe her. "All right, all right. It's fine even if you didn't find anything. I never thought You Know Who would show himself before us so easily anyway."

It seemed they would not be able to get any useful information from Bocchi.

All they could do next was wait for Shinomiya Kaguya to return to normal and see whether she had any ideas.

Thinking this, Kasumigaoka Utaha could not help quietly cursing You Know Who again, wherever he was hiding and spying on them.

As for You Know Who himself, Miyauchi Hiyage, whom Kasumigaoka Utaha kept muttering about, he really was not far from the girls.

He was currently inside a private booth at an internet café near Shinjuku Station.

In terms of straight-line distance, he was less than two kilometers away from the girls.

At this moment, Miyauchi Hiyage played games while occasionally making notes in his diary.

"Hmm, Kasumigaoka Utaha cursed me again. I'll remember this grudge."

As he said this, Miyauchi Hiyage added another mark to the diary.

The diary now contained the names of several girls who had attended today's gathering.

Kasumigaoka Utaha was at the top. After her name were two complete tally groups and a third tally group with three strokes, representing that she had cursed Miyauchi Hiyage thirteen times today so far—more than all the other diary holders combined.

Below were the names of Black Cat and Umaru, each followed by a few marks, though the two of them together had not yet made up even one complete tally group.

As for Little Bocchi and Shinomiya Kaguya, there was still nothing after their names, meaning they had not cursed him even once so far.

It was precisely because Shinomiya Kaguya had not only failed to curse him today, but had not even mentioned him once, that Miyauchi Hiyage had written in the diary that she might have become Little Kaguya.

As for why Miyauchi Hiyage could know so much about the girls' circumstances even while at an internet café, it was naturally because of the reward he had drawn last night.

Taking the first step toward becoming a Dark Lord by cursing your own name

Anyone who had read Harry Potter should know why almost no one in the story dared to directly say Voldemort's name, only calling him You Know Who or the Dark Lord instead.

It was not merely because they feared Voldemort, that demon. More importantly, Voldemort had placed a curse on his own name.

As long as someone said his name, he and his Death Eater followers could learn that person's current location, then go capture and torture them.

Miyauchi Hiyage, who had been disguising himself as You Know Who in the diary, had obtained this very curse as last night's reward. It counted as successfully taking his first step toward becoming a Dark Lord.

In fact, the Name Curse rewarded by the diary was a fully optimized version, and it even came with several complete sets of casting materials. Miyauchi Hiyage could not help giving the diary a thumbs-up for its generosity.

In comparison, Voldemort's curse in Harry Potter was actually a simplified version. It only reacted to the name Voldemort, while names such as You Know Who, the Dark Lord, and even his real name, Tom Riddle, would not trigger it.

Its advantage was that it consumed fewer materials and covered a sufficiently wide range.

Voldemort's curse covered all of Britain and even half of Europe, making the entire British wizarding world afraid to directly speak Voldemort's name for decades.

On Miyauchi Hiyage's side, after using himself as the target of the spell and completing a complicated ritual, the curse's effective range had shrunk, but its precision had greatly improved.

Whether someone called out his name, a nickname, or even a pet name, as long as they spoke a form of address that referred to him, Miyauchi Hiyage could sense it.

Within a hundred kilometers, he could vaguely sense the other person's direction.

Within fifty kilometers, he could sense the other person's exact location.

Within ten kilometers, he could hear relatively clearly the voice of the person speaking his name.

If he got within one kilometer, Miyauchi Hiyage could not only hear the other person's entire conversation after they said his name, but directly see what they looked like as well.

Miyauchi Hiyage was now less than two kilometers away from Kasumigaoka Utaha and the others. The curse's effect allowed him to hear the next two or three sentences they said and vaguely see their figures.

Originally, Miyauchi Hiyage truly had not wanted to come join the excitement. One reason was out of respect for a super conglomerate like the Shinomiya Family, and another was that he feared being noticed by Yotsuya Miko.

But now that he had this ability, he naturally had far fewer concerns.

No matter how powerful the Shinomiya Family was, no matter how much Yotsuya Miko could see, neither could affect him several kilometers away.

Even if those girls brought Conan over to help and turned all of South Shinjuku upside down, they would never possibly connect it to him.

Sensing Kasumigaoka Utaha curse him again, Miyauchi Hiyage happily took a sip of soda and added another mark to the diary.

Let's see how many times you can curse me in a single day.

You like using "You Know Who deserves to die" as a secret code, huh? You want to write me into your new book as some pathetic villain the protagonist uses as a stepping stone, huh? I can hear all that now, and I've written it down.

Why can't you learn from Little Bocchi? Little Bocchi has been thinking kindly of me the whole time. When she was hiding in the alley, she was even thanking me for giving her the nickname "Little Bocchi."

You should know that I still haven't written your nickname, "Old Fat Kasumi," in the diary. If you keep this up, you're making things very difficult for me.

As Miyauchi Hiyage muttered to himself, Little Bocchi in the café sneezed several times in a row. Then, sensing the curious gazes of the chatting girls falling on her, she immediately curled herself into a ball and began frantically apologizing. "Ah... sorry, I interrupted everyone's conversation!"

After spending an entire noon together, Little Bocchi had finally become brave enough to speak in front of everyone.