Private Messages from the Other Diary Holders / Hahahaha, I'm Not Studying

Underground Idols could not earn much money, and after joining the training program, she had even more expenses for clothes.

She felt that as long as she kept some distance from Kamiki Hikaru and used the lies she had made up to fool him, the two of them would have nothing more to do with each other once the training program was over.

What mattered more to her now was responding to the expectations of her mysterious fan from another world and becoming an even more dazzling Idol!

In that state of mind, even sleeping poorly the next day and then seeing her mysterious fan write in the diary that this world was mysterious, as well as that the two children she would have in her original future were both reincarnators, failed to cause much of a stir in her heart.

Then, on the third day, she once again won over the audience with a flawless performance. When she returned backstage, she saw the several densely written pages of introductory Ripple Chi Kung training methods that had appeared in the diary.

Those who practiced Ripple Chi Kung could strengthen their bodies, preserve their youth and beauty, and even use it for self-defense. Those were all things she needed most right now!

Her spirits lifted once more.

Preserving her youth and beauty went without saying. A perfect appearance was the most important thing for an Idol.

Strengthening her body would allow her to maintain her perfect image onstage for longer.

As for self-defense, that was naturally for dealing with the extreme fan who might take her life, as well as the mastermind behind everything.

The only problem was that, having grown up in an orphanage and begun Idol training at the age of twelve, her education was quite limited. Ripple was such an abstract thing, and one she could not experience directly, that she felt it would be difficult for her to get started.

"Though I appreciate my mysterious fan's good intentions... I completely don't understand this stuff about maintaining the rhythm of my breathing and then drawing out the life energy inside my body," Hoshino Ai said with some distress.

She had already tried following the breathing method in the Diary for over an hour, but she had not felt anything special at all.

All she could do was use the clumsiest method: repeatedly read through the diary, take out paper and pen, and copy down the key points bit by bit. She would first memorize this entire Breathing Technique and get it down pat before worrying about what came next.

Fortunately, her memory was not bad. By the time it was nearly midnight, she could haltingly recite the key points of Ripple Breathing.

Just as she was rather satisfied and about to lie on the bed to practice the Ripple Breathing Technique until she fell asleep, planning to memorize the entire text tomorrow, a notification suddenly sounded by her ear.

You have obtained the introductory breathing method for Ripple Chi Kung. Would you like to consume Reading Points to increase your proficiency?

Private Messages from Other Diary Holders

Reading Points could be used to increase proficiency?

Hoshino Ai, who read the diary every day, naturally knew about Reading Points. However, unlike Shinomiya Kaguya, she had not frantically questioned the Diary. She only knew that once Reading Points accumulated to a certain amount, they could raise the Diary's permissions.

Learning that Reading Points had another use was certainly something worth being happy about.

Hoshino Ai did not think too deeply about it. She currently had three Reading Points, so she would just use one and see what happened.

Then, a portion of the cultivation insights for Ripple Chi Kung flooded into her mind.

There was not much, but when she tried adjusting her breathing rhythm according to the method in her memories, she was astonishingly skilled, as though she had trained tirelessly for several days and nights.

Hoshino Ai closed her eyes and experienced the sensation of memories being transmitted. Though this experience might not be useful, perhaps it would come in handy someday?

"It seems like I can already draw out the life energy in my body fairly proficiently... And that was only one Reading Point. I wonder if this convenient function can be used elsewhere too?"

Her mysterious fan had mentioned that ordinary people needed about a week of Ripple training to draw out their life energy. If so, did one Reading Point roughly equal a week of training?

Hoshino Ai made a simple judgment.

"The diary said ordinary people could more or less master Ripple Breathing in a month. If one Reading Point is equivalent to about a week, then once the diary updates tomorrow, won't I have mastered Ripple Breathing?" After doing the math, Hoshino Ai's eyes lit up.

This was only her third day with the Diary, yet it had already given her such a huge surprise. She was beginning to look forward to what would happen once the Diary's permissions were unlocked.

Would it let her contact the holders of other diaries? Or, more directly, would she be able to become pen pals with her mysterious fan and communicate through the Diary?

"But it's already the third day, and no one has contacted me yet. Are the other Diary holders still observing, or am I the only one who has received a Diary so far?"

But upon further thought, Hoshino Ai felt that there was no way she could monopolize such good fortune.

As a teenage Idol, her contact information was naturally private. Very few people even knew her personal phone number.

Communication with outsiders was handled by her nominal adoptive father, Saito Ichigo, the owner and manager of Strawberry Productions, who had also brought her into the entertainment industry.

"If there are other diary holders, perhaps they would choose to contact me through private messages?" Thinking of this, Hoshino Ai really wanted to check the private message history on her social media accounts.

Of course she read messages from fans.

On every previous day off, she would set aside some time to read fan messages, choosing a few fans to reply to and thank.

It was only because the Diary had suddenly appeared that she had been temporarily too busy to deal with that these past few days.

Copying down and memorizing Ripple Chi Kung had made her somewhat sleepy, but when her life energy was drawn out, much of her drowsiness dispersed. Now that she had thought of this possibility, she could no longer sit still at all.

She opened several social media apps she commonly used on her phone and quickly began scrolling through her private messages.

There were quite a few more messages than before, which was something to be happy about.

Fortunately, her main target tonight was the messages from the past three days, so the workload would not be too large.

In just over ten minutes, she had found three suspicious comments and private messages.

First was a newly followed user named "Evil King's True Eye Emissary." This user looked about the same age as her, but their way of speaking always gave off an indescribably strange feeling.

The other party had not used private messages, instead leaving a comment directly under her latest tweet:

"I am the emissary of the Evil Eye, and I wish to form a contract with thee. Tell me, art thou also one destined by fate, just like me?"

Under that comment, the user had also used the same tone to tell her to leave the man who had recently become closest to her, bluntly stating that the seemingly radiant man would bring her "the deepest misfortune."

This was probably what people called chuunibyou, right?

Hoshino Ai lightly twirled a strand of hair before her forehead and came to that conclusion.

Still, she did not dislike people like that.

After all, the reason she had become an Idol in the first place was because she "wanted to know what it felt like to love and be loved." Wouldn't that sound just as chuunibyou to others?

The other two were both private messages. Though they were somewhat evasive when mentioning the Diary, they both directly warned her to be careful around Kamiki Hikaru.

Feeling the concern and warnings from strangers she had never met, Hoshino Ai thought for a while. She first deleted her reply to the Evil King's True Eye Emissary, then used an account on another phone to follow the two of them.

Hoshino Ai frankly explained her identity in the private messages, then seriously told them that she would keep her distance from Kamiki Hikaru from now on.

It was also a subtle way of admitting that she possessed a diary as well.

If I get the chance later, I'll invite them to watch my performance. But I need to work even harder and get onto a bigger stage as soon as possible! Hoshino Ai decided in her heart.

Afterward, she carefully went through the private messages and comments from her other fans as well, only going to sleep peacefully when it was nearly one in the morning.

In a place unknown to Miyauchi Hiyage, many things were quietly changing because of Ripple Chi Kung.

But he himself did not care about any of it.

Last night, he had spent the entire evening teaching the Ripple Chi Kung Breathing Technique to his parents.

Out of trust in their child, his parents did not ask much about the Breathing Technique. Once they confirmed that Miyauchi Hiyage had not been deceived, they did not question where it had come from.

After learning that this Breathing Technique could strengthen the body and preserve youth and beauty, they still did not quite believe it. But it was only breathing, after all; it was not as if it required them to do anything else.

They could simply treat it as a health regimen and follow along for a few days.

As for Miyauchi Hiyage, he inconspicuously placed a thread of Ripple Energy that would actively guide life energy into his parents' bodies. Once they felt the changes in their bodies, they would naturally continue practicing.

The next day, he used the same method to teach the Breathing Technique to his eldest sister, Ichisu-nee.

However, considering that his eldest sister was even lazier and more prone to slacking off than he was, after teaching her the Breathing Technique, Miyauchi Hiyage made some minor adjustments to her body in a manner similar to what he had done for Renge. Over the next half month, while she slept, her breathing rhythm would gradually adjust itself to Ripple Breathing.

After finishing all that, Miyauchi Hiyage wiped his forehead.

"I've really gone to great lengths for this family."

"What did you do now?" Miyauchi Kouka, who had just returned home from outside and knew nothing, subconsciously asked when she seemed to hear Miyauchi Hiyage's voice.

Then, without caring about his answer, she added first, "I only bought one popsicle. If you want some, I can give you one bite at most."

Hahaha, Not Learning

Miyauchi Hiyage looked at his sister, who could happily grin to herself for quite a while just from eating a popsicle, and felt somewhat conflicted.

He had given the Ripple Breathing Technique to everyone in the family, but Miyauchi Kouka alone had been kept in the dark because her careless personality might expose it. No matter how he looked at it, that seemed a little unfair.

"We're going to Tokyo in a few days... Do you have any plans for these next few days?" Miyauchi Hiyage carefully asked Miyauchi Kouka.

"Plans?" Miyauchi Kouka did not think much of it. Seeing that her little brother had no intention of stealing her popsicle, she complained while biting into it, "If you were going to Tokyo with me early, then I'd have plenty of plans."

“What plans could I have here in Asahigaoka? It's either staying at home every day or going out and wandering around aimlessly.”

Miyauchi Kouka made no effort to hide her boredom.

Of course, Miyauchi Hiyage knew that his foolish sister had her heart set on Tokyo right now. But he had not finished handling things in Asahigaoka, so there was no way he could simply wash his hands of everything.

Furthermore, the sudden appearance of the Diary, this cheat ability, had completely overturned his original plans. In the future, he could no longer devote all his energy to one place as he had over the past three years.

For Asahigaoka to continue developing, he naturally had to arrange a suitable successor for himself.

But Miyauchi Kouka definitely would not understand any of that, so there was no need to say it.

Looking at his second sister, who seemed to radiate a clear and foolish Aura from head to toe, Miyauchi Hiyage rubbed his chin and decided to exchange sincerity for sincerity with her.

So he told her about Ripple Chi Kung. Naturally, because she would soon be going to Tokyo with him, he concealed some details when explaining it.

"Well? Do you want to give it a try?"

Then he watched Miyauchi Kouka clutch her stomach and burst out laughing in front of him.

"Hahahaha! Hiyage, you're way too bored! You're about to become a high school student, and you're still trying to fool me with stuff from when we were kids!"

"I'm telling you, even though your big sister really isn't as smart as you, you can't fool me with such nonsense. Even Renge wouldn't believe it!"

Miyauchi Kouka began listing the times her little brother had fooled her when they were young.

There was no need to mention the time he had tricked her into planting trees, since all the students in the school had been fooled by him that time.

If they only counted the times she alone had been fooled, the earliest was when he had found a key from who knew where and told her she could use it to become a magical girl. As a result, she had boldly performed magical girl transformations in front of her family dozens of times.

Later, he had taken a few branches and led her to chop swallows by the river, telling her that Sasaki Kojiro had used that very method to train his "Secret Sword: Swallow Reversal," which could slash three times at once. So she had chopped at swallows by the river for an entire week, only stopping after she had driven them all away.

After that, he had told her that a dried-up well in the village had been sealed, and that opening the seal would allow them to travel back to the Warring States period and become companions with legendary great yokai...

There were countless stories like that. Miyauchi Kouka could be said to have grown up being fooled by Miyauchi Hiyage, so she naturally had developed considerable resistance by now.

Miyauchi Hiyage appropriately showed a regretful expression. "I'm not fooling you this time. Why don't you ask Renge? I taught her all afternoon yesterday."

"Bleh, bleh, bleh. Renge has listened to you ever since she was little. Won't she just say whatever you tell her to say?" Miyauchi Kouka shook her head, not believing him in the slightest.

"Then go ask Ichisu-nee. She learned it too."

"Ichisu-nee is definitely sleeping right now. I can't be bothered to ask."

"I really am not fooling you this time. You really don't want to learn?"

"Hahahahaha, not learning!"

"What a shame." Miyauchi Hiyage shook his head regretfully.

It seemed that he had teased her too much when they were young, leaving the siblings so distrustful of each other now.

Still, she was the one who said she would not learn. It was not that he did not want to teach her!

Even if the truth came out in the future, he would have an excuse.

Miyauchi Hiyage walked outside with a face full of regret. "I'll be back late tonight. You don't need to save dinner for me."

Watching her little brother's dejected appearance, Miyauchi Kouka frowned.

Had she acted too smart and made her little brother uncomfortable?

Then next time, should she pretend to fall for it, then ask her little brother for more allowance afterward as compensation?

Ah, why had she not realized that just now? She had lost out on so much allowance this time.

Thinking this to herself, Miyauchi Kouka decided that if something like this happened again in the future, she would definitely cooperate properly with her little brother.

As for Miyauchi Hiyage, after teasing his second sister, he headed toward the Koshigaya Family home.

The Koshigaya Family was one of the households he knew best in the village. After all, the three Koshigaya siblings were all his schoolmates, and aside from the eldest brother, Koshigaya Suguru, the other two sisters, Koshigaya Komari and Koshigaya Natsumi, were both main characters from the anime.

As for their ages, they were respectively one, two, and three years younger than him.

Even in the countryside, having three children in three consecutive years was quite rare. All one could say was that the mother of the Koshigaya siblings was truly in good health.