While Kaguya was confronting her own Shadow Kaguya, Hikari, tied up not far away, was still playing the role of a guest commentator there.
"I think I understand a bit. Does her Stand have multiple abilities?"
"First was the control ability she used when pulling customers before, it's just that this ability doesn't seem very strong. We and they weren't controlled by this power."
"Then there's the one she's showing now, the ability to turn other people's shadows into physical entities. But this ability doesn't seem very useful."
Hikage looked at Hikari, who suddenly had a flash of insight, albeit not much. Under the diary's shielding mechanism, being able to deduce to this extent was already pretty good.
Shadow Hitori's first ability wasn't that it couldn't affect those girls, but rather it should have restrictions during use.
First is that her ability still acts on the shadow, probably reversely affecting the main body's actions through manipulating the shadow.
But the premise is that the main body itself cannot have too much psychological resistance, otherwise at the very beginning there wouldn't have been a few passersby who ignored her ability and left directly.
Then this control also needs time to deepen the influence bit by bit.
At the beginning, Shadow Hitori could probably only make these people sit down and listen to her play patiently, but as time passed, her influence on the people within range grew deeper and deeper. Only after half an hour had passed could she forcefully use her ability to control these people's shadows just now.
Those girls weren't affected. The inability of diary-holding girls to attack each other was indeed very important, but it was also because their contact time with Shadow Hitori was short, and they inherently had a resisting mentality towards her, so she couldn't affect them.
As for why they weren't affected?
It wasn't because Hikari was her fan so she went easy on them, but because from the beginning, after realizing Shadow Hitori had the ability to manipulate shadows, Hikage had kept a Simple Reality Marble open within a two-meter radius under his feet.
In his world, as long as it's not a rule-mastering god like Tohru, it isn't that easy for external powers to erode his world.
At least an ordinary Stand couldn't do this.
Moreover, through his disguise, the Simple Reality Marble displayed integrated perfectly with the surrounding environment.
Yukino's Byakugan might be able to detect some special energy flows, but under the influence of Shadow Hitori's power, the energy fluctuations on Hikage's side weren't that conspicuous.
Hikage simply explained the abilities shown by Shadow Hitori to Hikari, and then answered Hikari's final question, which was "What's the use of Shadow Hitori pulling out Shadow Kaguya?".
"Didn't you notice? She probably intended to use this ability on Kaguya from the very beginning. It's just that it might need some medium and time in between, which is why she forcefully controlled those ordinary people to create opportunities and time for her."
"She spent so much effort, there must be a reason."
"Another you, born from your shadow, completely inheriting your memories, your abilities, and even identical in genetic testing. After a long time, who is whose shadow will be hard to say."
Hikage reasonably inferred Shadow Hitori's abilities. Since in the diary's judgment, Hitori and Shadow Hitori were parts of the same person, then Kaguya and Shadow Kaguya could naturally pass the diary's detection too.
Based on his understanding of Stands, plus the rhetorical question "why can't I become the main body" Shadow Hitori mentioned herself earlier, he could naturally deduce that Shadow Hitori might be able to swap the status of the shadow and the main body under certain conditions.
"You mean, this Shadow Kaguya might replace Kaguya's existence?" Hearing this, Hikari became somewhat nervous.
Because of Hikage, Kaguya could be considered half a friend to her. Kaguya would also help resolve some tricky interviews for the Journalism Club when she heard about them.
Even knowing Kaguya did this to gain her brother's favor, Hikari still remembered these things in her heart.
Although she came to watch the show, she didn't want to actually see any accidents.
"Rest assured, I'm watching, and this is actually an opportunity for Kaguya too," Hikage shook his head, telling his sister not to worry.
Just as Shadow Hitori said, she couldn't use her abilities to take any "harmful" actions against these girls who also held diaries.
So, she simply summoned Kaguya's shadow, without imposing any commands on this shadow.
All of Shadow Kaguya's actions were based on Kaguya's own inner thoughts. Even if she had a dispute with Kaguya, that was Kaguya's own conflict with herself.
Although this move was a bit tricky, it indeed bypassed the diary's mechanism. And now she was peacefully acting as Shadow Kaguya's shadow, waiting for the situation to develop.
Kaguya looked at the "self" in front of her whose eyes were much clearer, only feeling a headache coming on.
"So, do you have any special feelings now?" She asked her shadow.
Shadow Kaguya looked at her current state and gave a thumbs up to her main body: "Never felt so free before. This feeling is quite magical."
Hearing the other party say such words, Kaguya knew it probably wouldn't be easy to make the other party peacefully turn back into her shadow.
Feeling the worried gazes of the other girls around her, Kaguya rubbed her forehead: "Anyway, let's go back to the hotel first. Staying here will only increase the possibility of being discovered by ordinary people."
These ordinary people were still under Shadow Hitori's control, but no one knew when this control would end.
To reduce subsequent cleanup work, it was better to quickly leave here and restore this place to its original state.
Shadow Kaguya didn't show any resistant emotions towards this either, just looked around, and then was obediently pulled away by Kaguya.
If it weren't for Kaguya somewhat eerily not having a shadow, the appearance of these two people right now really looked a bit like twin sisters with a very good relationship.
"Then how should we leave? We're still tied up by these spider silks right now. We're not going to be taken to have our memories wiped later, are we?" Hikari knew a little about how the Inner World handled ordinary people who were accidentally dragged into supernatural events.
It was either directly erasing memories or signing a Binding Vow not to speak of this matter to ordinary people.
Hikage had signed this Binding Vow, but for someone of his strength, it basically had no binding force; at most, he just had to beat around the bush a bit when talking.
Later, after he completed the data docking of EMIYA's Unlimited Blade Works, he also casually used Rule Breaker copied from Caster to break this Binding Vow.
But for Hikari, whether it was erasing memories or signing Binding Vows, it all sounded a bit nerve-wracking to her.
"No need for such trouble. We'll just run away directly when no one is paying attention," Hikage glanced at Megumi.
Megumi still had that calm look. After feeling Hikage's gaze, she nodded, indicating her ability was already activated.
As the presence of the four of them weakened under Megumi's ability, Hikage took advantage of the moment when everyone's sight wasn't on them to silently activate the power of fate, crossing that barrier that couldn't block space and the power of fate, and left this place.
Following the familiar pulling sensation, when the three girls opened their eyes again, they had already returned to Mashiro's room.
The only problem was that they were still tied up with spider silk, which looked somewhat unsightly.
"Hikage, I know you definitely have a way to break free from the spider silk. Quickly help us untie these spider silks!"
Hearing his sister's words, Hikage shrugged, and then under the girls' eyes, easily broke free from the restraints using Hamon breathing.
Then, under Hikari's expectant gaze, he put the Hamon mask on her face, and simultaneously used Hamon to change her appearance back.
"The Hamon conductivity of this spider silk isn't high, so using Hamon to break free isn't too hard. Just take this opportunity to train yourself well. Anyway, it's three hours at most."
As the Hamon mask was put on, Hikage casually tossed his sister onto the bed, and then took out a Nichirin Sword to help Megumi and Eriri untie the spider web restraints and change back to their original appearances.
"Um, don't we need to use this method to train?" While Hikage accurately untied the spider silk with the Nichirin Sword without damaging their clothes, Eriri couldn't help but ask.
"Your Hamon strength isn't enough, this method might even injure your own body. Megumi doesn't need to be forced to train with this method, she'll work hard on her own."
Hikage completely didn't care if his sister heard these words. If Hikari could work hard because of these words, he could save a lot of worry over her.
"Anyway, you guys rest in Mashiro's room first. I'll go out and see their situation."
Just now, unsurprisingly, Kaguya had sent him a message asking for help.
In just about ten minutes, Hikage saw Kaguya hurrying back.
"Going out for a trip, how did you lose your own shadow?" Before Kaguya could speak, Hikage smiled and pointed at Kaguya's empty feet and the slightly darker-skinned Shadow Kaguya behind her.
Then in the next moment, Shadow Kaguya standing behind Kaguya directly stepped past her main body, wanting to lunge at Hikage.
But before Shadow Kaguya could get close, Hikage had already nonchalantly reached out and pressed on her head, stopping her next move.
"Your shadow is truly lively," Hikage looked at Kaguya whose expression was somewhat subtle, and then his eyes emitted a blue light as he sized up Shadow Kaguya.
"Hmm... not a real physical body, but almost no difference from a physical body. Things humans can do, this body composed of supernatural power can probably do too. Stand abilities are truly interesting."
Shadow Kaguya looked at Hikage somewhat aggrievedly: "I just wanted to feel your embrace, Hikage-kun. Looking at a girl like this is very ungentlemanly behavior."
Hikage looked at Kaguya: "So is this your own thought, or your shadow's thought?"
Kaguya's eyes drifted slightly, and then she decisively passed the buck to her shadow.
"This is definitely Bocchi's Stand playing tricks. You know me, all my thoughts now are on improving my strength and developing the Shinomiya family's power in the Inner World, I don't have the mind to consider these messy things."
Although, occasionally she indeed thought about such things before going to sleep at night.
But they were all suppressed by her conviction not to turn back into that love-struck self from the original work.
But who could have imagined her shadow would be so direct.
Even that love-struck self in the original work wouldn't do something like throwing herself at someone the moment she came up!
Kaguya felt she might have repressed herself for too long, which was why her shadow turned out like this.
Fortunately, Hikage didn't dwell on this point, just continued looking at Shadow Kaguya.
"I basically saw everything. Your actions were indeed a bit reckless. This isn't the Metaverse. Although Gotoh-san's Stand is a manifestation of the other side of her heart, it isn't those shadows in the Metaverse. From the beginning when you guys wanted to force Gotoh-san's Stand to return, you had already taken the wrong path."
"From the moment Gotoh-san's Stand was born, I have been watching her."
Hikage looked at the shadow under Shadow Kaguya's feet.
"Your guitar playing is very good. Don't you want to participate in the music concert at the end of June as Guitarhero?"
Following Hikage's statement, the shadow under Shadow Kaguya's feet also shifted slightly, and Shadow Hitori's head popped out from the shadow.
"Right? You have quite a good eye. Although my guitar skills are on the same level as the main body, at critical moments, only I can stably unleash the strength of Guitarhero. With the main body's personality, even if she can occasionally exceed her limits, she is completely not as stable as me. She might even directly mess up the performance."
She reached out and patted her chest, speaking as a matter of course: "So, putting other times aside, at least during the performance, you definitely have to let me take the stage!"