Find the Culprit!

Determined to reach Momo in the library, Okarun bolts down the corridor and runs into Sanjome, who scolds him for sprinting and then tags along, pressing him about where he is rushing and what he is hiding. When Okarun asks to explain later, the advisor refuses and launches into a rambling lecture on noise cancellation, metronome synchronization, and bacteria, finally asking whether Okarun will concede to all this knowledge. Okarun agrees just to move on, an answer that visibly rattles Sanjome, who half draws a small blade from his pocket before slipping it away and walking off.

Inside, Momo describes the girl who came after her with a knife, and Aira tucks her into a blazer pocket so she can spot the attacker as the group sweeps the school. Asked about identifying traits, Momo recalls the girl's long hair and her strange demand that Momo yield, the exact word Sanjome had just used, which Okarun does not miss. The close conversation gets misread by Aira as Okarun talking to her chest, and his clumsy attempt to defuse it, plus her jab calling Momo four eyes, leaves Momo fuming. She slams a chair into Okarun with her powers and orders Aira to back off.

Elsewhere, the girl hunting Momo is corrected by a voice coming from a locker, which tells her she must force her target to surrender before stealing her power. She confesses she cannot yet command it, and the voice insists she give herself over to it and become who she wants to be. Tiny figures, resembling the small creature Momo saw earlier, gather behind her.

Sanjome floods Okarun with trivia about germs and vibrations on the way to the library, pushing him to admit defeat against his knowledge. Okarun complies, but the answer shocks Sanjome for an unexplained reason, and he leaves his hidden knife untouched. Momo warns the club about the unsettling girl who attacked her, then grows jealous as Aira flirts with Okarun. A voice from inside a locker instructs the strange girl that her victim must concede first for the power theft to work, urging her to become her ideal self while the pygmies swarm at her back.

The installment belongs to Volume 20 and was published on October 8, 2024, within the Ultimate Yokai Saga. It introduces the recurring motif of forced surrender as the mechanism behind the power-stealing scheme and confirms the small pygmy creatures are tied to the girl pursuing Momo. Sanjome's reaction hints he may be linked to the same conspiracy.