Mieruko-chan - Ch. 64

[Snowave]

I'll be wait for more!

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

Chibi Michiru is so preciously deranged.

 

[Kashranox]

i'm guessing that the old man is a reaper of some kind

 

[unkman]

It being a shinigami makes sense, but it choosing to curse those who see it is somewhat less scary than my initial theory, I was under the impression that this was something many realms above from the other ghosts.

While everyone seems to have different ways to perceive the spirits, when it comes to actually seeing them they seem to become harder to see depending on how above the hierarchy they are or how much spiritual energy they have. For example remember the ghosts near the donut store from chapter 4? Miko can see both the ghosts lining up and the thing that eats them but Yulia and Mitsue only see the ghosts lining up, I believe that the spirit eating them is in a higher realm than the other ghosts as it fulfills a given function inside of this weird "ecosystem".

I've used the word ecosystem and hierarchy because I believe that what Miko sees is a mirage of the afterlife, as in it exists in a different realms but overlapping with the world of the living. Spirits like the one eating ghosts at the donut store and the axe guy at the train are in charge of processing different kinds of ghosts, axe guy deals with the ones possessing people and donut guy with those weird ghosts that line up in front of it.

Not sure if it's an actual ecosystem or more like a system designed by some higher spirt or god but I think that any given spirit belongs to a given realm depending on either having a given function inside the afterlife or having accumulated enough energy from prayers, draining it from people or preying on weaker ghosts, the higher their spiritual energy or position in the hierarchy the higher the realm.

The higher the realm the less details mediums can perceive regarding the particular spirit or ghost, evidently this is affected by the medium's talent, as such what I first thought when we found out the old guy didn't look that way to Rom was that it was a spirit far beyond Miko's ability to see and that Rom could barely make out anything from it. However the old guy's appearance from Miko's perspective seemed pretty odd to me as it didn't look like those nearly transparent silhouettes other mediums see, my answer was that it was "taking a peek" at Miko, it was purposefully nearing Miko and as such she could see enough detail to make out it's facial features but not enough to actually see it's inhuman attributes.

Because of all of this I thought of it as some sort of eldritch horror/deity instead of just another spirit, a bit like the god from the first volume but more authentic/ancient, the idea that it would purposefully target beings like Michiru/Pii-chan or Rom lowkey shoots down that idea tho, or at least to me that makes it look less scary, as that would mean it needs to deal with them as opposed to having hurt them simply by existing.

i think it's more du to hana, her aura is able to buff any medium or entity near her, we have many case in the manga, miko is the first example, because she is always near her since the father's accident, hana passively level up miko's true death vision, that the case with mitsue too, originally, mitsue was unable to see the fox priest of the fox god as stated during that arc, but since she encounter hana, her power greatly improved, and the author make sure that mitsue doesn't encounter too often hana.

michiru too, when she trap hana, there the old man head square that try to have a revenge against pii in chapter 53, but since hana physically touch michiru, the surge of power level litterally burn the head square and any old gnome around pii.

another case with snail spirit from chapter 10, that spirit use other ghost to eat safely the power emaning from hana.

from what i have seen, the best way to max your power with hana is physical contact.

 

[UzukiP]

He's just standing there... MENACINGLY

 

[123hahahuhu]

Ok, there’s a lot of bad shit going down but we cannot forget that this rabbit is draining the life force. Sure she had too much and it attracted ghosts, but this is not something to be ignored.

Or maybe Hana just unconsciously pour her life aura into her favorite trinket like, as a back up tank
cause if it really drain her aura like crazy, Hana stomach would rumble just like when she encounter those evil ghosts in the past
Then again, her old Lamba rabbit taken by Rom was also filled with Hana's life aura

 

[capricieux]

Fuckity fuck!

 

[Flames378913]

Ok, there’s a lot of bad shit going down but we cannot forget that this rabbit is draining the life force. Sure she had too much and it attracted ghosts, but this is not something to be ignored.

I feel like instead of it “draining” her life force since she has so much of it and it just regenerates when she eats I feel like it’ll turn into a kind of saving grace (a kind of grenade) and somehow save Miko from death (assuming since it’s holding a sickle or a “reaping” blade if you will)

 

[Deanefa]

Wait a minute, there is Mieruko-chan LIVE ACTION?!

 

[xunkissed]

wait but who is the hana illusion/ghost? are we dealing with a ghost that can shape shift?

 

[iseedrawnpeople]

Final arc?

Stahp it!

https://imgur.com/k0jPoN6

 

[EggsNRice]

the reason can be du to the modus operandi of that ghost, the main attack of that particular ghost is not cursing to provoke sickness to his victims, but "bad luck that provoke death", each time he appear in the serie, miko is prone to having an fatal accident, remember chapter 43 when she was saved by michiru before being isekaied into an other world by truck kun, or in chapter 64 with a vase falling, potentially, the death of miko's father can potentially traced to him.

the cursing seem to be a defensive mode when someone try to discover the ghost, or because someone is perceived as an obstacle between the ghost and his prey like here with michiru, it's the second time she save miko.

the ghost seem to be a shinigami, with the costume and accessory that resemble a japanese farmer rice cultivator:

https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-...ice-farmers-planting-rice-paddy-image12914305

the asian version of our old westerner grim reaper, and i higly doubt that his face is his real face, but a mask made from real skin a la leather face.

another thing i found, is that the ghost approach miko little by little, if we consider that the ghost was here since she was in elementary school like in the photo of chapter 50, the more he is near her, the more violent and recurent his attack will be.

all of that lead me to 2 possible explaination of how miko is able to see dead spirit :

first one, the least possible for me, she was cursed by the shinigami to see the dead spirit, and when you see the kind of horror she see, it lead to madness or jumping into the sea with concrete shoes.

the second one, she has faced death with the accident of her father, and because of it she is able to see dead spirit, think of it like harry potter and sombral for the concrete exemple.

and because she is friend with hanna, who is literrally a living battery that can buff anything, miko's power to see thing upgrade really fast, like mitsue the old medium, just being near hanna level up the capacity of the old medium as explain in chapter 27

Upon some rereading some interesting things to take note of are 1. Miko doesn’t seem to be able to see Hana’s aura, which could mean her ability to see is linked to Hana’s aura, all the other mediums can see Hana’s aura regardless of “power level”, 2. the only entities Miko was ”protected” from by the shrine were ones she actively acknowledged, this probably means most spirits are only harmful once interacted with, and 3. there are multiple instances of ghost that keep their humanity I.e. cat guy’s wife, the farmer, the shopkeeper, Miko’s dad, the family in the hospital, which likely means the monstrous ones are either not ghosts and or are ghosts that have lost their humanity either through time or maybe lingering obsessions.

So, theory time. I’m guessing the guy is a reaper, Miko’s father probably died because of it, or perhaps died and it is his claimer? What if Miko was suppose to die instead of her father since we haven’t been told how that situation went down and now the reaper is actively trying to get Miko. It’s probably not a ghost/spirit since Miko never actively interacted with it and thus it would be a way more dangerous entity than average. I’m guessing Miko can see ghosts and whatnot because of being in a state near death? If Miko was suppose to die maybe she acts like a life force vessel and Hana restores it by being Hana, we’ve literally seen her imbue objects and people with her aura. I’m guessing the reaper can’t act with Hana around because too much life force but when Miko is separated it can? The two main times we’ve seen it ”attack” are truck kun and now with the flower pot, the common denominator is Michiru or rather Pii-chan touching Miko I’d guess maybe sucking away Hana’s aura? Though there’s the whole festival where Michiru was with Miko and the guy didn’t act maybe it’s stuck to just near the school? And since Hana is pretty much always with Miko at school the guy can’t act most of the time? And maybe Pii-chan “died” because it transferred its aura back to Miko to protect her this time.

 

[Highorse]

So... is the unassuming middle-aged man the grim reaper or some sort of malevolent apparition of death or something? The little scythe he's holding would be indicative of that I guess? Also a big fan of the menacing Mr. Seto and the fucking Rat Pack featuring Freak Sinatra & Co

 

[JustSomeoneElse]

My honest reaction this his return in this chapter:

 

[soggyfrenchfry]

okay out of all the countless horrifying monsters izumi-sensei has drawn in this manga, this... guy? scares me the most by far. it felt like i was being stared at through the screen. whats his DEAL!!

 

[niveuslee]

Gave the victim a bunch of bad fortune. Pay attention to the middle-aged man's presence times.
He seems to had the power to bring bad fortune for the victim and increase the power of evil spirits.

Miko-chan's dad (dead by car accident), Miko-chan (avoided same fate, visited the shrine to ask for fortune but received 3 tickets of big bad fortune at New year's Eve), Romm-san (all the evil spirits he sealed suddenly became stronger, escaped and attacked him, having no choice – he called Seto-sama for help), Ichijou-chan (saved Miko-chan from the truck – the flower pot and old-man took out Ichijou because she was quite annoying). I'm don't deny the idea he's a grim reaper. But he maybe is an evil spirit that may have cursed the entire Miko-chan family lineage since ancient times. The neutral spirit good boi (black aura, human hair, two pair of ear, 2 hands, etc.) in the tatami room may be the embodiment of the grudges of each generation of the Miko-chan family lineage that was killed by that evil spirit.

So what his deal with Miko-chan? Perhaps the Miko-chan family has a closer relationship with the spirit world than we think. The ancestors of the Miko-chan family can be intermediaries (Shinto shrine shamans) between the holy realm - the mortal realm - the evil realm.

"Your head right now: WTF are you talking about dude?".
Calm down, calm down. Keep reading.

Remember the time when Miko-chan and Hana-chan prayed at the evil spirit shrine (GPS error – IMO absolutely not)? Without Hana-chan's aura, Miko-chan cannot enter the temple (the only thing she can do is become a GPS guide). That evil spirit gained its power thanks to the sacrifice of a girl with an aura like Hana-chan at ancient times. Even though that girl's soul was bound to evil spirits from ancient times and saw tons of cruelty. But her soul and aura remained pure and chaste. In addition, Tawako-sama accepted to become a shire spirit just to protect her. So IMO is:

She might be a descedant of Kami. And if that's true, then Hana-chan is also a descendant of Kami.
Fandom cite notes: Hana's surname Yurikawa means "lily" (百合) (yuri) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa), which can be roughly translated as "a river of lilies". White lilies symbolize purity and chastity (what a coincidence LOL).

Evil shrine mistook Miko-chan is a real 巫女 – miko (but not LFMAO), so he whispered into Miko-chan's ear over and over again: "Take the Kami's child (e.g. Hana-chan) to the shrine quickly." LOL. The evil spirit was so angry that Miko-chan didn't understand what it meant, so it was fine to eat Miko-chan (Romm-san's fashion style LOL). Because they already know Hana-chan's identity, it's okay to leave it later.

The ability to see the spiritual world is might only can passed down to females in theYotsuya clan. So Miko-chan's father (and good boi – kind of) was not able to avoid the curse. Having no choice, Miko-chan's father and ancestors opened Miko-chan's ability and Hana-chan's Kami aura helped that ability to complete sooner.

The handsome middle-aged man's goal is: OFC is a Hana's Kami aura LOL (but because Miko-chan is a real 巫女 – miko, evil spirit wants to get rid of her). Evil spirits are Hana fans (the evil shrine, the Lambda festival boy ate Hana's power cake, the river evil – poor one, the long nails, the santa claus LOL, the old middle-aged man, etc.)
Thanks for reading my nonsense theory. Please don't throw rocks at me if I'm wrong LMAO.

 

[unkman]

Gave the victim a bunch of bad fortune. Pay attention to the middle-aged man's presence times.
He seems to had the power to bring bad fortune for the victim and increase the power of evil spirits.

Miko-chan's dad (dead by car accident), Miko-chan (avoided same fate, visited the shrine to ask for fortune but received 3 tickets of big bad fortune at New year's Eve), Romm-san (all the evil spirits he sealed suddenly became stronger, escaped and attacked him, having no choice – he called Seto-sama for help), Ichijou-chan (saved Miko-chan from the truck – the flower pot and old-man took out Ichijou because she was quite annoying). I'm don't deny the idea he's a grim reaper. But he maybe is an evil spirit that may have cursed the entire Miko-chan family lineage since ancient times. The neutral spirit good boi (black aura, human hair, two pair of ear, 2 hands, etc.) in the tatami room may be the embodiment of the grudges of each generation of the Miko-chan family lineage that was killed by that evil spirit.

So what his deal with Miko-chan? Perhaps the Miko-chan family has a closer relationship with the spirit world than we think. The ancestors of the Miko-chan family can be intermediaries (Shinto shrine shamans) between the holy realm - the mortal realm - the evil realm.

"Your head right now: WTF are you talking about dude?".
Calm down, calm down. Keep reading.

Remember the time when Miko-chan and Hana-chan prayed at the evil spirit shrine (GPS error – IMO absolutely not)? Without Hana-chan's aura, Miko-chan cannot enter the temple (the only thing she can do is become a GPS guide). That evil spirit gained its power thanks to the sacrifice of a girl with an aura like Hana-chan at ancient times. Even though that girl's soul was bound to evil spirits from ancient times and saw tons of cruelty. But her soul and aura remained pure and chaste. In addition, Tawako-sama accepted to become a shire spirit just to protect her. So IMO is:

She might be a descedant of Kami. And if that's true, then Hana-chan is also a descendant of Kami.
Fandom cite notes: Hana's surname Yurikawa means "lily" (百合) (yuri) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa), which can be roughly translated as "a river of lilies". White lilies symbolize purity and chastity (what a coincidence LOL).

Evil shrine mistook Miko-chan is a real 巫女 – miko (but not LFMAO), so he whispered into Miko-chan's ear over and over again: "Take the Kami's child (e.g. Hana-chan) to the shrine quickly." LOL. The evil spirit was so angry that Miko-chan didn't understand what it meant, so it was fine to eat Miko-chan (Romm-san's fashion style LOL). Because they already know Hana-chan's identity, it's okay to leave it later.

The ability to see the spiritual world is might only can passed down to females in theYotsuya clan. So Miko-chan's father (and good boi – kind of) was not able to avoid the curse. Having no choice, Miko-chan's father and ancestors opened Miko-chan's ability and Hana-chan's Kami aura helped that ability to complete sooner.

The handsome middle-aged man's goal is: OFC is a Hana's Kami aura LOL (but because Miko-chan is a real 巫女 – miko, evil spirit wants to get rid of her). Evil spirits are Hana fans (the evil shrine, the Lambda festival boy ate Hana's power cake, the river evil – poor one, the long nails, the santa claus LOL, the old middle-aged man, etc.)
Thanks for reading my nonsense theory. Please don't throw rocks at me if I'm wrong LMAO.

not a bad one, but i doubt that the middle aged man aim for hana, he specifically aim for miko, each time he appear, he appear near miko, not hanna, more over, the second time he strike, he use an illusion of hanna to lure miko, so potentially he aware that miko is able to see spirit, the first attack potentially hint at that idea, miko was fleeing michiru and pii when she nearly die after all.
and if he truly wanted hanna, he can stick to hanna, like the snail ghost, or the river one as done, that not the case here.
another problem with the idea of cursing the bloodline of miko, if that was truly the case, then the ghost is suposed to aim for the brother too, but we never see that for the moment, he target only miko, so until author expand on that one, the only plausible explaination for now is that miko is on his "hit list".

EggsNRice:​

So, theory time. I’m guessing the guy is a reaper, Miko’s father probably died because of it, or perhaps died and it is his claimer? What if Miko was suppose to die instead of her father since we haven’t been told how that situation went down and now the reaper is actively trying to get Miko. It’s probably not a ghost/spirit since Miko never actively interacted with it and thus it would be a way more dangerous entity than average. I’m guessing Miko can see ghosts and whatnot because of being in a state near death? If Miko was suppose to die maybe she acts like a life force vessel and Hana restores it by being Hana, we’ve literally seen her imbue objects and people with her aura. I’m guessing the reaper can’t act with Hana around because too much life force but when Miko is separated it can? The two main times we’ve seen it ”attack” are truck kun and now with the flower pot, the common denominator is Michiru or rather Pii-chan touching Miko I’d guess maybe sucking away Hana’s aura? Though there’s the whole festival where Michiru was with Miko and the guy didn’t act maybe it’s stuck to just near the school? And since Hana is pretty much always with Miko at school the guy can’t act most of the time? And maybe Pii-chan “died” because it transferred its aura back to Miko to protect her this time.

i doubt that pii chan is a real problem here, but that ghost is a very perticuliar nutjob, he completly defies what we know from other ghost, there a real possibility that ghost know that miko can see spirit, each time he appear, he use miko's abilitie against her, in chapter 42 at the end, miko was blinded thanks to pii's tentacle, and was nearly hit by the truck, the second time in chapter 64, he lure miko by creating an illusion of hana.

and that pretty strange, all the ghost that begin to understand that miko can see them go completly rabid and try to kill her, here with that guy, he doesn't do that, he doesn't jump on her, no he always try to pass it as an accident.
it really possible that the middle man ghost is a bound spirit to the school, but i am not sure, without any map on where the attack, and potentially the father's accident, happen, it's difficult to be sure.