A Suspicious Woman

On her way to class, Koki Yukishiro, the girl stalking Momo, knocks into someone in the corridor without being noticed. Inside the classroom she points out a girl sitting in her seat, but the classmate brushes her off as nothing more than a nearby ghost's voice, so Koki resigns herself to standing at the rear instead. Back at her house, she hears her relatives heap praise on her sister Alice for taking first prize while running her down as untalented and a shadow of her younger self. Surrounded by the awards she once won at the piano as a child, Koki asks herself where her life went wrong to make everyone look down on her, and in a desperate bid for recognition she posts an anonymous nude photo of herself from her phone. A man later confronts her, certain she is the girl in the picture, and though she denies it he stays unconvinced, offering to keep the matter from her parents and the police on a single condition tied to a power extraction knife, which he hands over.

Meanwhile History and Culture Research Club members reach Class E to learn whether Momo's hunter is among the students, but no one confirms having seen her. After trying to stand out through her obvious absence, Momo is told by Aira to focus on finding the girl and suddenly spots her. Koki sees Momo too and slips out of the room once Momo tells Aira, Okarun, and Kinta she has found her attacker. Aira warns Jiji, who is busy goofing off, and Bamora that the fleeing girl is their target, and they join the pursuit. Sanjome catches the club racing down the hall and orders them to stop, which they pretend to do until he is gone. Trailing Koki to another room, Momo has Jiji and Bamora guard the back way out while Okarun and Aira come in the front, and Okarun steps in ahead so Aira is not hurt by the knife, only for the two to find that Koki has vanished.

Koki comes across as deeply withdrawn, with no friends at school. Her mother and sister look down on her for becoming a letdown despite the many piano contests she won as a girl. Craving acceptance, she puts nude photos of herself online, only for a stranger to track them down and corner her behind the building. To keep the pictures buried, she accepts the knife he offers and obeys him. After spotting their target in Class E, Momo and the others pursue Koki along the corridors until she holes up in the home economics room.

Twenty pages long, this Volume 20 chapter released on October 15, 2024 under the title 怪しい女 in the Kozuka Knives Arc of the Ultimate Yokai Saga. Positioned between Chapter 169 and Chapter 171, it features the debut of Alice Yukishiro and the blackmailer Takeshi Murakami, plus a hallway appearance by Sanjome.