If Shinomiya Kaguya hadn't been observing the girls in the room carefully enough, she really might not have been able to notice the shadow, a thing that always exists but few people normally pay attention to.
But when truly realizing this point, the absence of a shadow appeared exceptionally abrupt.
As the girls' gazes fell on Gotoh Hitori's feet, the socially anxious girl instantly trembled slightly. Not to mention, when she looked down and actually found that she had no shadow now, she almost fainted on the spot.
"Eh—What, what is going on!?"
To prove this point, a few girls even specially took out their phones, turned on the flashlights, and shone them on Gotoh Hitori. However, no matter how they tried, they couldn't make Gotoh Hitori's shadow appear on the ground.
"So, this is the Stand ability Bocchi awakened?" Kasumigaoka Utaha waved her hand in front of the dazed Gotoh Hitori's eyes, trying to bring her back to her senses.
"It should be. But we can't rule out the possibility that Bocchi encountered something outside these past few days that took away her shadow." Shinomiya Kaguya thought about how the Mysterious Person mentioned in the diary that this place, Morioh Town, not only had Stand users but also many things that could be called urban legends. For a moment, she couldn't judge which situation this was.
Explaining like this, she continued to question Gotoh Hitori, confirming whether she felt any abnormalities in her body.
It was just that after Gotoh Hitori finally recovered from the fact that she lost her shadow, she carefully felt it for quite a while, but still didn't feel any problems.
"I don't feel anything at all. So when exactly did my shadow run away from home?!"
She tried to recall, but the presence of a shadow normally was simply too low. Even if she tried hard to remember, she couldn't.
"How about you try to control it with your mind?" Shinomiya Kaguya guided Gotoh Hitori using her experience of manipulating Psychokinesis, while telling Gotoh Hitori to maintain the breathing rhythm of Hamon breathing.
This was something they had gradually figured out over the past month.
This breathing rhythm was average for producing Hamon efficiently, but it could allow people to clear the tedious thoughts in their heads as much as possible in a short time and calm their moods down.
In this state, it was also easier to feel the changes in other powers.
For example, when she used Psychokinesis, in that state, it was easier to use Psychokinesis to execute some precise operations.
Gotoh Hitori calmed herself down as much as possible, trying to use her mind to feel her shadow.
It was just that after trying for quite a while, there were still no results.
Gotoh Hitori frowned with a bitter face, looking at the girls like she was about to cry but had no tears: "I can't feel it at all. I even spent one Reading Value and still can't feel the problem."
Reaching this step, Shinomiya Kaguya could only seek help from Miyauchi Hikage again.
At least they had to figure out first whether Gotoh Hitori's current situation was caused by a Stand ability or something else.
As the call Shinomiya Kaguya made to Miyauchi Hikage connected, she quickly told Miyauchi Hikage the current situation, and then asked Miyauchi Hikage what they should do now.
"It seems you guys are very efficient, finding the first awakened person so quickly."
On the other end of the phone, Miyauchi Hikage's first sentence made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
Since it was the awakening of a Stand ability, then it definitely wasn't some other messy curse.
The gazes everyone looked at Gotoh Hitori with also couldn't help but carry some envy, but they also felt it was relatively natural.
After all, Gotoh Hitori had an internet account as "Guitarhero". Although still a long way from a super internet celebrity like Miyauchi Hikage who could casually create a hit account with a million followers, speaking only of the guitar circle, Gotoh Hitori's guitar skills had long flawlessly reached the professional level. Even placed in a professional band, Gotoh Hitori's level could be considered quite excellent.
Knowing that the awakening of a Stand more or less depended on the exquisite degree of the skills each person mastered, Gotoh Hitori had always been a highly guessed target.
Just didn't expect her to be so confused, completely feeling nothing when she awakened a Stand herself.
"So, where did her shadow run off to now?"
"Probably just running around everywhere around Morioh Town. After confirming she was harmless, I didn't pay much attention to her anymore. Regarding this, I have to congratulate Gotoh-san. It seems her Stand belongs to the kind with very high intelligence, able to act independently from the main body, and can also be very far away from the main body."
"Although I indeed can help you figure out the location of the shadow, I think for such a commemorative event, it would be more interesting to explore it yourselves."
Miyauchi Hikage said this, and then added: "Similar to the existence of a Persona, a Stand is also a reflection of the Stand user's inner thoughts. Just think about what Gotoh-san's inner self is thinking after being released, and I think it shouldn't be too hard to find her whereabouts."
As Miyauchi Hikage's words fell, the girls' gazes gathered on Gotoh Hitori again, carrying a trace of an exploring meaning.
Seeming to want to figure out what Gotoh Hitori was thinking in her heart.
Gotoh Hitori only felt her legs going a bit soft.
To be honest, she really didn't know what her true inner desires were.
After all, she was just a socially anxious person, usually locking herself in the closet to play the guitar, without any other hobbies.
But she also had to admit that she indeed had quite a lot of inner drama, considered a chuunibyou and delusional person who didn't show it much outwardly.
But like this, she knew even less about what she was thinking inwardly.
It was just that under everyone's expectant gazes, she could only hum and haw dryly there, analyzing herself how her inner self little by little became the socially anxious person she is today.
However, before she could say a few sentences about how she fell in love with the guitar, she was interrupted by Kasumigaoka Utaha who was familiar with her.
"Okay, no need for such nervous self-dissection, we understand what you mean," Kasumigaoka Utaha patted Gotoh Hitori's shoulder, "What you mean is, at first you wanted to rely on the guitar to find more friends and make yourself more popular. But you accidentally forgot to interact with others while being addicted to rock music, resulting in yourself becoming bad at interacting with people instead."
"Don't forget, the Mysterious Person sent your anime to you last month, and then you shared these resources into our group."
Hearing this, Gotoh Hitori scratched her head awkwardly.
There seemed to be such a thing.
During the Golden Week holiday last month, Jerry sent her a lot of manga, as well as the anime CDs of Bocchi the Rock! and several albums of their band.
After watching her own story, she originally wanted to just follow the walkthrough directly. But as a result, her acting skills in the middle were somewhat too clumsy. To prevent her band from failing midway, she indeed shared her work for everyone to see and give her ideas.
And then, with the help of the girls in the group, she was able to complete the formation of the band and their first stage performance faster than the original work.
Of course, this process was more or less somewhat rushing things.
For example, Kita Ikuyo originally chose to run away because she couldn't play the guitar. After being brought back, although she indeed practiced very hard, her guitar skills naturally couldn't improve rapidly in just a month.
Even though Gotoh Hitori secretly taught Kita Ikuyo some breathing methods of Hamon Breathing in private, slightly speeding up the progress, the current her could only barely complete some simple chords on stage.
Although Gotoh Hitori held the script, she was ultimately not a personality good at comforting others. So she could only watch Kita Ikuyo competing with herself there, making the band's atmosphere somewhat tense recently.
It was also after relaxing for a few days here in Morioh Town that it became much better than before. This could also be considered an inevitable conflict of performing on stage early.
However, compared to the original work, because of the encouragement and support from the girls in the group, the current Gotoh Hitori could indeed be considered much more cheerful than in the same period of the original work.
But being mentioned about this matter, Gotoh Hitori was still somewhat ashamed.
Actually, more than two months after obtaining the diaries, the shame of the girls in the group towards their original trajectories had increased a lot.
But saying some things out loud would still produce quite a big reaction.
Just like Kasumigaoka Utaha now, when mentioned about the actions she took to pursue that Aki Tomoya in the original story, she would more or less have a reaction of turning anger from embarrassment.
Similarly, Shinomiya Kaguya was currently relatively sensitive to the word "photographer". Even though she had already collected her manga and read it from beginning to end several times, to this day she still couldn't understand what kind of mentality her manga self had when saying that sentence.
As for Gotoh Hitori, she felt exceptionally ashamed of her messy and exceptionally abstract inner drama in the anime.
Listening to the girls in the room inferring her inner thoughts based on her performance in the anime, she really had the thought of burying her head in the ground and playing dead.
Fortunately, the analysis of her inner self didn't last too long.
Soon the girls came to a conclusion.
Beneath the superficial appearance of her social anxiety, hiding a restless and abstract inner self.
"Inwardly, you want to gain more people's attention, just because of your personality you appear very passive. But obviously, your Stand doesn't have this concern."
"She might actively do some special actions in front of others in order to gain more attention."
Shinomiya Kaguya looked at Gotoh Hitori, who had lost her shadow at this time: "Your Stand ability is definitely related to your shadow. And according to Hikage-kun, it might still be wandering outside wearing your appearance, so your Stand probably also has a physical body."
Speaking of this, Shinomiya Kaguya seemed to remember something, and then reminded Gotoh Hitori: "Have you contacted your band members these past few days? Perhaps your Stand went to find them without your knowledge?"
"Probably not. I even practiced with them for a while this afternoon, and they didn't have any special reactions either." But after being reminded by Shinomiya Kaguya like this, Gotoh Hitori also hurriedly took out her phone to contact her teammates.
It was just that what surprised her a bit was that after the call to Kita Ikuyo connected, Kita Ikuyo on the other end of the phone instead asked about her whereabouts with some confusion.
"Bocchi, why did you suddenly run away just now? I thought you had some urgent matter?"
"Just, just now I was with you?" Gotoh Hitori's mouth was somewhat tied in knots. After finishing practice in the afternoon, she had stayed in her room the whole time. It wasn't until Shinomiya Kaguya came out of Miyauchi Hikage's room and she saw the message on her phone that she came to gather at Shinomiya Kaguya's room.
"What's wrong with you? Haven't you been helping me practice since we disbanded practice?" Kita Ikuyo on the other end of the phone was also a bit confused, seeming to feel that Gotoh Hitori on this end of the phone was somewhat strange.
The girls in the room looked at each other a few times. It seemed that until just now, that Stand of Gotoh Hitori had been practicing with Kita Ikuyo in her room.
This was indeed not considered anything out of line, and could even be considered reducing the burden on the main body, Gotoh Hitori. No wonder Miyauchi Hikage didn't take this Stand seriously.
And Shinomiya Kaguya also without another word contacted Hayasaka Ai, asking her to get the surveillance footage of the hotel to investigate.
On Gotoh Hitori's side, fortunately she had already mentioned some things about supernatural abilities when she taught her teammates Hamon Breathing before. When coming to Morioh Town, because they also had the possibility of awakening Stands, she also briefly mentioned about Stands. It was just that the other three girls, except Yamada Ryo, seemed not to have taken it to heart too much.
But as Gotoh Hitori mentioned that she had stayed in her room the whole time after disbanding in the afternoon, Kita Ikuyo on the other end of the phone confirmed several times before realizing that Gotoh Hitori didn't seem to be lying.
"You mean, the one helping me practice guitar there all afternoon wasn't you, but your shadow?!"
Listening to Kita Ikuyo's voice on the other end of the phone suddenly become panicked, Gotoh Hitori could only ask her to come to Shinomiya Kaguya's room first, and let Yotsuya Miko help see if her body was affected.
At the same time, the efficiency on Hayasaka Ai's side was also astonishingly fast.
After all, this hotel was originally already booked by the Shinomiya zaibatsu. To ensure everyone's safety, the security guards of the Shinomiya family had been keeping an eye on the surveillance.
Following Hayasaka Ai's request, these security guards naturally quickly found that "Stand" that looked exactly like Gotoh Hitori, hurriedly leaving Kita Ikuyo's room and then directly disappearing in the next surveillance camera shot.