Chapter 105: Yotsuya Miko's Initiative, Sobu High's Grand Plan
It turned out Yoru was the one with the dirty mind.
Miko was indeed innocent; she didn't think in that direction at all.
Yoru felt he had fallen into a cognitive trap.
From Mai and Haruno, he confirmed that injecting (fluids) into ordinary people was useless.
That was why he thought of using Miko or Rio to conduct an experiment.
But it seemed...
It didn't necessarily have to be injecting cream.
"Kissing..."
Listening to Yoru's murmurs, Miko felt her heart tighten instantly.
She didn't understand what he meant by "injecting."
Miko had a misconception.
Seeing Yoru's noncommittal appearance, was he unwilling to have such intimate behavior with her?
Am I being sentimental?
At this moment, Miko suddenly took a deep breath, firmness appearing in her golden eyes.
Hesitation is defeat.
Whether exorcism or love, the principle was the same.
Meeting him, joining the club, or becoming a spirit medium.
Clearly...
I was first.
"Yoru-kun!"
Miko shouted suddenly, almost startling Yoru.
"What's up? Are you going to eat me?"
Miko also realized her tone was a bit too excited. A hint of embarrassment appeared on her face, but she still spoke firmly.
"I... I am willing to kiss you..."
Speaking of this, Miko's voice suddenly became much smaller, lowering her head and muttering.
"Re... regardless of whether it is for analytical experiments or... or for my personal will, I, I am willing."
Miko made a choice.
She chose to A (Attack/Initiate).
If not A now, when?
Miko took a deep breath, stood up directly, and sat next to Yoru.
She closed her eyes, long eyelashes trembling, and slowly pressed her lips forward.
"Hmm?"
Feeling the subtle touch on his lips... wait, not lips.
Miko felt confused.
This feeling, why isn't it quite right?
Yoru's slightly helpless voice sounded.
"Why are you kissing my forehead? Cosplaying Tsunade and Naruto?"
Miko opened her eyes only to find she had kissed the wrong place. She instantly blushed scarlet, retreated a bit, and said timidly.
"Th... that, I don't have experience in this area, sorry."
Yoru said matter-of-factly.
"Sigh, look at what you're saying. It's my first time too."
"Eh? Really?"
"Of course, I auto-refreshed." (Reset).
Miko didn't understand what "auto-refresh" meant.
Anyway, if Yoru said it was his first kiss, then it was.
Miko breathed a sigh of relief, clenched her fair right fist, made a cheering gesture for herself, and said firmly.
"One more time. This time I will definitely succeed."
"Why go through so much trouble?"
Unexpectedly for Miko, her soul true body, Hyakume, appeared beside them directly without being summoned.
Hyakume, with a thin cloth covering her eyes, leaned lazily against the wall and said nonchalantly.
"If you really can't do it, I'll help you. You close your eyes, I'll help you aim. Wouldn't that solve it?"
"You, you, you, shut up!"
Miko's face was so red she was about to turn into a steam engine.
Hyakume pouted, disapprovingly.
"Hmph, what I said is originally just your inner thought. Otherwise, why would I come out? Hmm?"
"Don't say anymore! Disappear!"
Miko waved her hand hurriedly, dispersing Hyakume's true body, forcibly ending Hyakume's torture of her.
After this interlude, her originally nervous mood relaxed a lot.
Miko looked at Yoru, smiled awkwardly, and then sighed sincerely.
"Your Ghost Hand can't speak, right?"
"Mmhmm, correct."
"That's so good..."
Miko had realized something during this period.
Most Soul Manifestations of spirit mediums had this problem.
Soul Manifestation was the true manifestation of the user's heart.
Rio's Hone-Onna was very violent and taciturn.
And what was the greatest wish in Miko's heart?
It was not to live in fear every day, to be able to express any emotional fluctuations freely.
This resulted in her Soul Manifestation, Hyakume, having a personality that could be called outspoken, unrestrained, and bold.
The key was.
Miko couldn't refute it.
After all, what the other party said represented her true inner thoughts.
Just then.
Hyakume's figure condensed again suddenly.
"Oh right, one more thing."
Before Miko could stop her, she leaned close to Yoru and grinned.
"Don't look at her pretending to be calm; actually, she is dying of anxiety inside. She wants to kiss you so badly, and wants to kiss for at least half an hour, and wants hugs too. Don't forget."
After speaking, Hyakume dissipated on her own before Miko could scold her.
The atmosphere became a bit subtly silent.
Miko put her two snow-white feet on the sofa, pulled up the hood of her hoodie to cover her head, retracted her legs into the large hoodie, and then hugged her knees with her arms.
Ostrich Mode: Activated.
Looking at Miko's curled-up jade feet painted with light pink nail polish, Yoru really wanted to play with them.
But he was afraid she would overheat and explode.
After a long time, Miko's voice, as tiny as a mosquito's, came from the hoodie.
"Did... did you hear everything just now?"
Yoru chose to play dumb.
"Hear what? I don't know (Bu Dao Ah). What thing? Aiya, my ears haven't been working well recently; getting old."
"Stop bullshitting."
Miko hit Yoru's shoulder, both angry and amused, scolding playfully.
"If it were an ordinary person, of course they couldn't hear, but how could you not hear? Do you take me for a fool?"
Yoru was very sincere.
"You indeed aren't very smart."
"You!"
Miko huffed angrily. Immediately after, with a posture of smashing the jar (going for broke), she jumped up directly and sat on Yoru's lap.
She wrapped her arms around Yoru's neck, looking very serious.
"Since you heard it, what do you think?"
"What else can I think?"
"'What else can I think', is what do you think?"
"If you want to kiss, just kiss."
Miko frowned tightly, looking very unhappy.
"What do you mean 'if you want to kiss just kiss'? I'm not asking about the act itself; I'm asking..."
Speaking of this, Miko hesitated.
But thinking that if she didn't say it, Hyakume might pop out again and say something shameless, she finally decided to endure the shyness and speak actively.
Miko looked straight into Yoru's eyes and said very solemnly.
"Do you like me or not? Not the like as a club member, nor as a friend, nor as a fellow exorcist, but the like for the opposite sex. Is there any?"
Yoru answered without hesitation.
"Of course there is."
Getting this affirmative answer made Miko breathe a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden was lifted.
She really couldn't imagine.
If her confession was rejected, how could she continue to stay in the Super-Quant Club?
How to get along with other members and Yoru.
Precisely because she considered this layer, Miko used the skill cultivated from facing evil spirits in the past to forcibly suppress her feelings.
As a result, today, she finally couldn't hold it back because of Hyakume's autonomous appearance.
Fortunately.
The result was satisfactory.
"Then I want to kiss."
Miko said in a coquettish tone, ensured the position this time, and kissed him.
Success.
Unlike her appearance which had no expression and was close to emotionless (Kuudere/Dandere), Miko's kiss was very passionate.
Yoru remembered Hyakume's reminder and wrapped his hands around Miko's waist.
Miko was wearing a large hoodie, but underneath were sports shorts.
Sometimes, Yoru even suspected that his Soul Manifestation was two hands because his hands were too dexterous.
Without Miko noticing, his hands had already changed positions.
The left hand quietly slipped into the large hoodie, and the right hand pressed against her snow-white, smooth, slender yet fleshy leg.
Touch, touch hard.
Miko's skin was really smooth.
Her black-blue long hair carried the scent of shampoo, combined with the girl's body fragrance; it indeed smelled very good.
"Mmm, Yoru, you..."
Miko parted her lips. A flush appeared on her pretty face, and mist rose in her golden eyes; her gaze was almost melting.
She took a deep breath, raised her hand to tidy her messy hair tips, and scolded with a blushing face.
"You... hugging is fine, but what does reaching inside mean?"
At this time, Yoru changed from his usual frivolous and easy-going appearance and asked back directly.
"Can't I touch?"
Miko froze, biting her lower lip lightly. Like a wronged little rabbit, obedient but with a hint of unaccustomedness, she nodded.
"If... if you want to touch, then touch."
"Can I touch anywhere?"
"Wher... wherever you like."
....
Meanwhile, at Futaba Rio's home.
"Hmm... really a bit complicated."
Rio crossed her legs, holding a cup of coffee in her left hand and a book on Quantum Mechanics in her right. On the table were various pieces of intelligence she had collected in the Otherworld during this period. She held a ballpoint pen in her mouth, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
The more she contacted the Otherworld, the more she felt it was a magical place.
Evil spirits and black mist permeating the entire city, various buildings restoring the real Kyoto one-to-one.
After comparison, Rio found that except for humans and items carried by humans, all details in the Otherworld and the physical world were absolutely identical.
Vehicles in the Otherworld could also be started as long as there were keys.
And Rio didn't tell anyone, including Yoru.
She conducted an experiment privately.
First time: Moved an item in her house in the Otherworld.
Returned to the physical world, found the item's position didn't move.
Second time: Swapped the order, moved the item in her home in the physical world first.
This time, after entering the Otherworld and confirming, she found the position of the corresponding item in the Otherworld also shifted.
Conclusion drawn:
The Otherworld mirrors the Real World, not the other way around.
Confirming this was important.
In this way, if the Super-Quant Club entered the Otherworld, they could take whatever they wanted, drive cars as they pleased.
It wouldn't happen that an item in the real world suddenly changed position.
Rio was also very interested in the Otherworld itself.
She once asked Tamamo-no-Mae, who lived in the Otherworld, whether the contents of those legends in Sakura Prefecture were true.
The answer exceeded Rio's expectations.
According to Tamamo-no-Mae, she had lived in the Otherworld since her birth and had never been to the real world.
Until the appearance of the "Door," the Otherworld and the real world had contact for the first time.
In the records of Sakura Prefecture's legends, Rio couldn't find any place matching the characteristics of the Otherworld.
The only thing that could be related...
Was Hell.
And what truly shocked Rio was a sentence Tamamo-no-Mae said.
"The time of the 'Door's' first appearance? Let me think..."
"Probably more than a month ago..."
"March 20th."
When she heard this date, the shock in Rio's heart was indescribable.
She tried her best not to show any abnormality in front of Yoru and Miko.
Rio's memory was extraordinary, almost photographic.
She had seen one thing.
The diary notebook Yoru used to record daily changes after awakening his ability.
Of course, he stopped recording after entering Sobu High and meeting Miko.
Rio still remembered the first diary entry and the first sentence.
[March 20th, Weather: Overcast.]
[Today, I awakened the ability to see evil spirits and ghosts.]
....
At this time, Sakurajima Mai was sitting on the sofa in her luxury apartment.
Logically speaking, she wanted to go to Yoru's house to sleep.
But tonight, on one hand, he had an appointment with Miko.
No.
Put that way, she should go even more.
Unfortunately, Mai had a very important call to answer today.
The moment the clock pointed to 8:00, the phone rang on time.
Mai looked at the familiar number and the familiar contact name below. After a few seconds of silence, she finally picked it up.
"Hello."
From the other end of the phone came a cold mature woman's voice.
"Have you decided to come back?"
"No."
"Then what was that airship promotion a while ago about?"
Before Mai could answer, the woman on the other side was aggressive, giving her no time to breathe, and spoke immediately.
"I said back then, during that rising period of your career, you should have struck while the iron was hot. Choosing to retire was a stupid decision."
"Do you understand how rare an opportunity it is for you, who debuted as a child star, to have a chance to hype up the topic again after being out of fashion for a while?"
Facing the woman's questioning, Mai just replied coldly.
"Shooting bikini photos for magazines? You call this an opportunity? I am an actress, not a model. I don't need such so-called opportunities, relying on selling flesh to gain attention."
This tough reply made the woman on the other side seem unexpected, stunned for a moment.
"You... you never spoke to me like this before."
Mai replied in that same calm but sharp tone.
"Since you treat me as a tool, I don't need to treat you as a mother. This is my attitude towards my manager... no, towards my former manager."
The woman on the other end was Mai's former manager.
And also her mother.
"You..."
Mai's mother was silent for a while, then suddenly said.
"Did you fall in love?"
For her daughter to undergo such a big personality change suddenly, Mai's mother couldn't think of any other reason besides falling in love.
She actually guessed right.
Mai showed hesitation, but thinking she had already decided not to return, she replied toughly.
"I'm about to become an adult too. I hope you won't ask about these private matters in the future."
"You also know you are about to become an adult, not already an adult. Now, I am still your guardian!"
"I don't need you to manage me!"
....
Mai hung up the phone directly, buried her head between her knees, seeing only the cold floor.
She sat on the ground like that, her eyes full of complex emotions, murmuring.
"What... should I do..."
.....
On the other side, inside Kirisu Mafuyu's home.
"Hey hey hey, your house is too messy, right?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka, with a slender lady's cigarette in her mouth, looked at the living room that could be called chaotic in front of her, feeling unwell.
Kirisu Mafuyu coughed twice, her cheeks slightly red, pretending to be nonchalant.
"I devote myself to students' education every day; personal life will inevitably be neglected a bit."
"You are just purely lazy, right?"
Perhaps wanting to change the subject, Kirisu Mafuyu changed the topic.
"By the way, regarding that student Yoru in your class achieving first place in the whole grade for all subjects this time, something seems wrong."
"Sigh, what can be wrong about this."
Hiratsuka Shizuka waved her hand, opened the can of beer in her hand, took a big swig, and replied.
"That Furuhashi Fumino, although also a literary genius, the quality of Liberal Arts can ultimately be distinguished. Yoru's literary level has far exceeded ordinary high school students. She didn't lose unjustly."
"What about Ogata Rizu? Science is rigorous, without the influence of the examiner's subjective judgment. Both got full marks; why is Ogata Rizu ranked second?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka glanced at Kirisu Mafuyu, smiling ambiguously.
"Do you really not understand or are you pretending not to understand?"
Kirisu Mafuyu frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka: "In the previous Joint Exam, Ogata Rizu and Furuhashi Fumino ranked at the top of the entire Sakura Prefecture in Science and Liberal Arts respectively, right?"
Kirisu Mafuyu nodded.
"That's true. If not for their partiality being too severe, they might not have chosen to come to Sobu High."
"Since you know..."
Hiratsuka Shizuka smiled, speaking meaningfully.
"Then Shuchiin definitely knows too."
Kirisu Mafuyu froze for a moment, then realized immediately.
"You mean... the school deliberately ranked Ogata Rizu, who also got full marks, second, wanting to reveal this matter to the outside world? Letting them know that the genius who ranked first in this year's Joint Exam didn't slack off because of entering Sobu High, and even defeated two geniuses in both Arts and Science, to arouse Shuchiin's competitiveness? What is the purpose?"
"Of course, to decide the winner."
"That's impossible."
Kirisu Mafuyu shook her head.
"That is the Private Shuchiin Academy. How could our Sobu High win?"
"Hard to say."
Hiratsuka Shizuka smiled and took another swig of cold beer.
"We can't win on average score."
"But if we only compare which side's student took first place..."
"I don't think we will lose."