"Eh? Isn't that Gotoh-san?"
After arriving at school, Katou Megumi and Shin came to the door of their classroom—however, Katou Megumi discovered a furtive figure at the classroom door.
That pink-haired figure kept poking her head to look inside from the classroom doorway. At first glance, she looked like someone preparing to commit a crime.
However, Shin and Katou Megumi knew this person—still wearing a tracksuit in the middle of summer, she was undoubtedly Gotoh Hitori herself.
If it was Gotoh Hitori, then doing this kind of furtive behavior seemed quite normal. After all, she was extremely socially anxious and didn't really dare to talk to strangers.
Although recently, with Shin's help, Gotoh Hitori had made quite a few friends and could communicate normally with people around Shin, she would still become socially anxious when facing strangers.
It seemed that right now, Gotoh Hitori wanted to ask classmates in the classroom to help call someone, but had been hesitating all along, so she could only pace back and forth at the classroom door.
"...What are you doing at the classroom door?"
Shin walked over somewhat speechlessly, patted Gotoh Hitori's shoulder, and asked her.
"Don't be all furtive at the classroom door like that. Other classmates will be scared if they see you."
"Eek—!"
Being suddenly patted on the shoulder from behind, Gotoh Hitori seemed to be startled, her whole body twitching, jumpy.
But very quickly, Gotoh Hitori realized that the voice just now seemed to be Shin's, so she hurriedly calmed down and turned around to look at Shin.
After seeing that familiar face, the somewhat nervous expression on Gotoh Hitori's face instantly relaxed, showing an expression of having survived a disaster:
"...Shin-san, so you weren't in the classroom just now. I was just looking for you..."
Hearing this, Shin and Katou Megumi immediately understood that Gotoh Hitori must have been looking for Shin.
It was just that this girl was too socially anxious and didn't dare enter the classroom at all, so in the end, she didn't even know whether Shin had arrived at the classroom or not.
"I didn't expect Gotoh-san would actually come to find Shin alone. That's great progress."
Katou Megumi smiled at Gotoh Hitori, showing a kind of "the child has grown up" expression.
Although there was a girl who wanted to talk alone with Shin, Katou Megumi should have been jealous, but since it was Gotoh Hitori, Katou Megumi instead felt this was progress.
After all, Gotoh Hitori usually spoke very little, and Katou Megumi and the others saw this. Therefore, if Gotoh Hitori could become slightly more outgoing, Katou Megumi and the others would be happy to see it.
"N-no... it's not that kind of thing!"
Gotoh Hitori naturally heard the subtext in Katou Megumi's words. She waved her hands somewhat frantically, seemingly wanting to indicate that what she wanted to talk about was serious business.
However, Katou Megumi just smiled slightly at her, then looked at Shin and said:
"Then Shin, you have a good chat with Gotoh-san. I'll go into the classroom first."
After saying this, Katou Megumi walked into the classroom, leaving only Shin and Gotoh Hitori looking at each other at the classroom door.
Since blocking the classroom door wasn't very appropriate, Shin and Gotoh Hitori went to a corner of the hallway.
"So, what did you need from me?"
Shin looked at Gotoh Hitori and asked somewhat curiously—he had just helped Gotoh Hitori awaken her Stand yesterday, and today Gotoh Hitori came running over to find him. Could there be some problem with the Stand?
However, very quickly, Shin saw Gotoh Hitori raise her head and say with a quite frightened expression:
"Shin... Shin-san, after I went home yesterday, I suddenly could see some strange things. What should I do?"
"Strange things?"
Shin was momentarily stunned, then suddenly reacted.
The "strange things" Gotoh Hitori mentioned should refer to evil spirits, right?
After awakening her Stand, her spiritual power had greatly increased, allowing Gotoh Hitori to also become able to see evil spirits—this was also a common trait of Stand users who awakened in this world.
Because evil spirits were now too weak and insignificant for Shin, not worth mentioning, and he would casually clear them away when he saw them on the road every day, Shin had almost forgotten about this.
Precisely because of this, Shin hadn't reminded Gotoh Hitori about this matter, so when Gotoh Hitori saw evil spirits for the first time, she must have been scared badly.
After all, Gotoh Hitori was just a socially anxious female high school student, different from the Kiryuu-gumi people.
As for why Gotoh Hitori didn't notice the existence of evil spirits immediately after awakening her Stand yesterday...
That was of course because the evil spirits in the school had all been cleaned up by Shin, so Gotoh Hitori didn't see anything.
Moreover, now that Yotsuya Miko had also awakened her Stand, she was like someone wanting to vent the resentment of having been scared by evil spirits before, clearing evil spirits even more diligently than Shin.
In this situation, Gotoh Hitori naturally couldn't see a single evil spirit's existence in school. Even if new evil spirits wandered into the school, they would be quickly dealt with by Shin or Yotsuya Miko.
"Hmm... It seems I need to specifically make time to teach you how to use your Stand in combat."
Shin looked at Gotoh Hitori's frightened appearance and said thoughtfully.
If it were someone else, they should immediately realize they could use their Stand to fight and eliminate the evil spirits.
But Gotoh Hitori was special—this girl was too socially anxious. When encountering evil spirits, she probably couldn't muster the courage to attack.
Moreover, this girl's Stand...
Shin looked at Gotoh Hitori's shoulder—on her shoulder, her Tsuchinoko Stand slowly poked its head out and glanced at Shin.
It didn't look like it had much direct combat capability either.
Shin estimated that Gotoh Hitori hadn't been attacked by evil spirits precisely because every time evil spirits asked Gotoh Hitori "Can you see me?" they were ignored by Gotoh Hitori's socially anxious trait.
Very quickly, Shin made his decision:
"In that case, after school today, I'll give you some individual tutoring and tell you about some techniques for using Stands."
After all, Gotoh Hitori was quite close with Shin, so Shin wouldn't just leave her to fend for herself.
"I-individual... alone?"
However, Gotoh Hitori obviously thought of something else. After hearing Shin's words, a somewhat shy expression appeared on her face.
But before Gotoh Hitori could mentally prepare herself, Shin's phone rang.
He took out his phone and looked at it, then saw that the person who sent the message was Yukinoshita Yukino.
After seeing the content of the message Yukinoshita Yukino sent, Shin's face couldn't help but reveal a peculiar expression.
Finally, he put away his phone, looked at Gotoh Hitori and said:
"It seems that after school today, you won't be the only one I need to instruct."
To be continued…