Here's my theory, with the latter part going into the crackpot realm. Ryou is the reincarnation of Okiku's past lover. Okiku on her death regretted that she wasn't able to stay with Ryou's past self, giving rise to great ghost 1. She also hated everyone who she thought stood by and let her be killed over the plate, giving rise to great ghost 3.

This gave Okiku a split personality with 2 ghosts in one 'body?', with ghost 1 being filled with desire, love and other positive emotions, and ghost 3 being filled with hatred, anger and other negative emotions. Ghost 1 is stronger than ghost 3 when it comes to control over the body, but ghost 3 can perceive ghost one, while the opposite isn't true. Probably explained by how we bottle up our negative emotions and don't notice them ourselves.

It's extremely unlikely that Okiku will ever kill Ryou, Ghost 3 can't keep control for long enough. I see it as being a fakeout, with something else having hurt Ryou.

Now for the weird jump in logic which probably will be wrong. I think that Meguru could be a partial reincarnation of Okiku. Since Okiku is 2 ghosts in 1, there's simply not enough room in the body for 2 ghosts. The rest of her, parts of both ghost 1 and 3 has reincarnated as Meguru. This is why Meguru and Okiku feel similar. It also would explain why ghost 3 appears in shadows and mirrors around Meguru, and her intense love for Ryou. It would mean that the friendly ghost in Ryou's past attacked meguru because she felt the malice in her, as otherwise she went really quickly from exorcise me now to attacking Ryou's friend.

Seers can see visions. But there's something else they can do--they can lie. I don't trust her. She's doing just a bit too much manipulating.

Thanks @lesbmuffin and @wlftchtr82 for such detailed analysis! Now we know the identity of the last ghost. However, this makes me very curious as to why the author chose this ghost instead of Otsuyu? Is it because the story of Otsuyu was published in 1886, which is a bit out of the Edo period?

Anw, I'm assuming that the vision Oiwa saw isn't Okiku herself, but rather the 3rd ghost taking over Okiku, since the last ghost is super powerful.

It's still possible that there just isn't going to be a clear parrellel between what's in the kaidan and the ghosts in the manga. It seems the author is taking a lot of liberties. Oiwa is already very different from anything.

last edited at Apr 12, 2023 4:39PM

^
Exactly. As I have said, Oiwa should also have half of her face damaged.

Also, I don’t think the author is trying to portray her as a “friend or foe”, since every time she looked suspicious, she justified.

Take Chapter 4 for example: Okiku calls her out for lying about her reasons for staying in Ryou’s house, saying she’s been watching Ryou all the time. Oiwa answers her, and “comes clean” to Okiku. It doesn’t seem like she’s revealing the third ghost thing with ill intentions.

Finally, this specific chapter, we see her looking quite somber after she says “Think nothing of it”, and later we understand that chances are what she saw once she formed a pact with Okiku (and please note that she looks absolutely chocked) is the vision she reveals to Ryou. Oiwa is not particularly an enemy to Okiku, she just started seeing her as a threat after her vision, and seems she has nothing against the exorcist. She’s more of a gray character to me.

last edited at Apr 12, 2023 5:32PM

First of all, sorry if my english hurts.
I feel that´s not a coincidence o lazy design that Okiku´s ex totally looks a alike Ryou, adding the fact that Ryou can see Okiku´s past on her dreams, but not any scene of her past, the scenes when the other girl is involved. Memories from her past life maybe?. So here´s my crazy theory: Okiku´s ex is some
Ryou's ancestor, so Okiku loves her and hates her at the same time, what it caused a fragmentation on her on two evil spirits, the revenger one who can´t forgive her killers and keeps cursing them (Maybe her ex is who ordered her death?); and the lover one who divides herself from the other one (Like Piccolo, but backwards, the good one from the bad one) to protect her lover´s descendants but she lost some part of her memories on the fragmentation.

last edited at Apr 12, 2023 9:41PM

bro, this artist can draw breasts as good as they are at scaring the actual daylights out of me with how creepily they can draw. i feel like they know how to set the mood of horror in a comedy manga.

DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THE SMILING SHADOW ON THE LAST PAGE OF CHAPTER 5?!?!
is that like a foreshadow? or is it just there to be creepy? if its a foreshadow does it have something to do with her wearing something like funeral wear with a flower on a table beside her

bro, this artist can draw breasts as good as they are at scaring the actual daylights out of me with how creepily they can draw. i feel like they know how to set the mood of horror in a comedy manga.

DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THE SMILING SHADOW ON THE LAST PAGE OF CHAPTER 5?!?!
is that like a foreshadow? or is it just there to be creepy? if its a foreshadow does it have something to do with her wearing something like funeral wear with a flower on a table beside her

Yeees! And also i might be overthinking but when the 3rd ghost shows up in chapter 5 i feel like she's closer to Meguru than she is from Ryou so maybe the 3rd ghost is related to Meguru in some way.

page 20 of chapter 3 scared the shit out of me, didn't expect that

last edited at Apr 16, 2023 6:29AM

So it's a background couple that helped Ryou out.

Good deeds do pay back

Chapter 9 made me believe even more on my theory that Oiwa is a morally grey character, not an enemy or the one who will turn out to be a big villain, not fully an ally but not out of ill intent. She does see both MCs as her friends (what she said on chapter 6 + her reaction when Ryou said Oiwa wanted to save Okiku too), but is still on guard because of her vision.

Additionally, Yuino you ain't slick. And she was there too. First time we see her full body. Creepy ghost's height seems to be the same as Okiku's, but it could be a matter of perspective here.

Thank you for the translation! If I recall, Ch.10 is the latest release so far, right? Haven't seen the 11th on the raws (publisher's site).

The fact Ryou supposedly dies on a bridge setting like where Okiku and her old lover first met, I’m betting that Meguru and Ryou meet at that place and Ryou’s indecisiveness of her love towards Meguru and Okiku will gather enough malice from Meguru and Okiku being in one location to allow the third ghost to fully manifest.

I believe the real reason Ryou is being targeted by the ghost is because of her past with Meguru. The ghost originally manifested with Meguru but as Meguru found Ryou, it chose to target her after the events of witnessing what happened between the two as she saw it as Ryou leaving Meguru as a selfish act rather than a selfless one to trigger the malice of unpleasant memories of what could’ve happened with Okiku in her past life. So I believe it’s waiting for the moment one of the two, either Meguru or Okiku, feels torn by Ryou’s decision to trigger the vision to occur.

A revelation! ^_^

These kinds of ghost stories often end with the ghost leaving at the end. I hope this story avoids that pattern in some way. I'm still wondering how the childhood friend comes in. It's possible she'll end up as the endgame. However with Ryou clearly loving Okiku, if Okiku's vanishing is what leads to the friend's romantic ending it'll be difficult to avoid the feeling that the friend was a "rebound" (or only a replacement for what was the real true but impossible love). Then there's the ghost connected to the friend and who the third ghost will be. We also still have this lingering ghost. A lot to deal with and I'm looking forward to it.

last edited at Apr 17, 2023 10:55AM

Wow, that's some good food! I hope that when Ryou finally kicks it, she gets to stay with Okiku as a ghost too.

... come to think of it, I forget: what's Okiku's unresolved grudge anyway?

That is such a funny pic where Okiku is "running" from a nekkid miku with her gohei. She looks so happy.

As sweet as this all is

I want the Childhood friend to enter the story again

These kinds of ghost stories often end with the ghost leaving at the end. I hope this story avoids that pattern in some way. I'm still wondering how the childhood friend comes in. It's possible she'll end up as the endgame. However with Ryou clearly loving Okiku, if Okiku's vanishing is what leads to the friend's romantic ending it'll be difficult to avoid the feeling that the friend was a "rebound" (or only a replacement for what was the real true but impossible love). Then there's the ghost connected to the friend and who the third ghost will be. We also still have this lingering ghost. A lot to deal with and I'm looking forward to it.

One way it could be done is if Okiku herself tries to set them up

I get it. reincarnations. somehow, meguru is probably a reincarnation of okiku in some way

I get it. reincarnations. somehow, meguru is probably a reincarnation of okiku in some way

That would be a very questionable move on the author's side, as you really should not be able to be a reincarnation of someone who hasn't moved on yet.

These kinds of ghost stories often end with the ghost leaving at the end. I hope this story avoids that pattern in some way. I'm still wondering how the childhood friend comes in. It's possible she'll end up as the endgame. However with Ryou clearly loving Okiku, if Okiku's vanishing is what leads to the friend's romantic ending it'll be difficult to avoid the feeling that the friend was a "rebound" (or only a replacement for what was the real true but impossible love). Then there's the ghost connected to the friend and who the third ghost will be. We also still have this lingering ghost. A lot to deal with and I'm looking forward to it.

One way it could be done is if Okiku herself tries to set them up

Possibly but I don't know that, that would avoid the issue of Meg's being a replacement for a love that was impossible. Even if Okiku acquiesces because of her limitations, Meg's love would still be contingent on Ryou's current love being impossible. It would still be a matter of "if I could stay here, she would never choose you." That's not an writing issue, it's just not a conclusion that I would find unsatisfying. Plenty of stories have ended that way though. If the author wants to avoid that, I'd imagine that they would need to separate Okiku and Ryou's love before that in order to avoid the issue (if they care about it). But I don't see it (and don't want it).

Anyway there's a lot to happen and none of this may be the intent anyway. Just something I think about.

last edited at Apr 17, 2023 6:24PM

how would a ghost and a human shag…
food for thought

how would a ghost and a human shag…
food for thought

I don't see a problem. (het)

Ecchi with a side of tragedy is enough to make or break your day.

last edited at Apr 20, 2023 10:19AM

Just read Ch.10 and I am so fucking confused now. The tits were nice tho.

alright, after reading chapter 10 I have a great theory: I think the author is trying to combine the story of Otsuyu and Kasane since both stories are written by the same author and was published rather close to each other.

I'm assuming the ghost that's haunting our dear Ryou-chan is in fact, the servant of Otsuyu, and she is Kasane herself. Which explains why she's so powerful but she's not Otsuyu.

That's just my theory though, I could be completely wrong lol