Chapter 2: Ibuki Mio has Surprisingly Good Sense
“Special test.” Those words would normally mean a written exam, or some kind of athletic trial. However, at the Advanced Nurturing High School, special tests weren’t trivial affairs. A contest of survival on an uninhabited island. A battle of wits aboard a cruise ship. Those outlandish tests came one after another during our summer vacation.
Between the two tests, I, a mere first-year student, had only seven days of actual rest. That included today. Soon, the second semester would begin. I’d spent the days off rather simply. I didn’t call anyone, and no one called me. In other words, it had been lonely.
“Well, I don’t really care,” I said aloud.
The freedom was enough. I wouldn’t ask for more. Having too many friends wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
The more people I connected with, the more troublesome it would become to manage all those relationships. If a friend called me, I might have been thoroughly overjoyed. But there was also a chance that I wouldn’t have been.
Even alone, there were many things for me to do. I was doing one of those things today: using my phone to check my remaining point balance (106,219 points).
I transferred 100,000 of those points to someone from my class—Sudou Ken. Soon afterwards, Sudou called me.
“Yo, Ayanokouji. What are you doing right now?” he asked.
“Nothing much. Was just thinking about what to have for dinner.”
“Gotcha. I just ate some chicken tenders a little while ago. Pretty basic stuff. Tastes all right, but I’d definitely get tired of them if I ate them too often, so I try to change things up a bit. I can fry ’em, boil ’em… Wait, what the hell am I talking about? I wanted to talk to you about fortune-telling.”
Fortune-telling? I never expected those words to come out of Sudou’s mouth. He was the sort of guy who saw the world in black and white. He liked simplicity, like the chicken he just ate.
“Truth is, I’ve heard there’s this crazy-accurate fortune-teller over at the Keyaki Mall, but they’re only gonna be there during summer vacation. I guess it’s big among the seniors. Even when I’m doing club stuff, all anyone talks about is that fortune-teller. I got some extra cash, so I felt like having some fun, you know? Let’s check it out together. My treat, of course.”
The Keyaki Mall was a complex on the school grounds that students often went to. Because students were forced to live on the school grounds, the school was equipped with all sorts of facilities, although it couldn’t give us all the options of the outside world. We didn’t have idol concerts, amusement parks, or zoos. Our world was small. When something new cropped up, it naturally became a hot topic among the students.
Even so, fortune-telling was unexpected.
Since no one had invited me to hang out in a long, long time, I couldn’t hide my happiness. “When are we going?”
“Tomorrow morning. Sounds like it starts at ten, but apparently, if you don’t get in line early, you’ll be waiting forever. I wanted to get there around 9:30,” said Sudou. Apparently, he’d already planned out a schedule.
“I’m fine with that, since I don’t have plans. But will your club be cool with it?”
“Yeah. Tomorrow’s my day off. The tournament ended, so it’s fine. Besides, we’ve done nothing but train our butts off. If they don’t let us rest a little, our bodies will fall apart,” he told me matter-of-factly.
Sudou had just played in a basketball tournament. Even though I saw him quietly practicing day after day in preparation, I was admittedly kind of curious about the tournament’s results. One more thing to think about.
“Did you have any trouble at all?” I asked.
I made sure to stress the word “trouble.” Sudou understood what I was referring to.
“Yeah. It was pretty tough. I mean, they supervise you way more—you have the team captain and the coach watching you. It’s nothing like playing in junior high. I can’t open my mouth at all, except when we need to talk during a game. The school puts a ton of restrictions on us, even on bathroom breaks. I thought it was going to be impossible,” Sudou said.
Even though club activities were separate from coursework, the school rules were still strict.
“Anyway, it all worked out. I did pretty well, ’cause I got the chops,” he added.
“I see. Well, that’s a relief. What about Yamauchi?” I asked.
“I made sure to delete the data before heading back,” Sudou said, once again referring to our secret business. “I wouldn’t worry. I mean, even I’m not that dumb.”
Sudou’s school life rode on this. He probably wouldn’t do anything reckless. Even so, it might be a good idea to get in touch with Yamauchi later, to confirm that the data was successfully deleted. Just in case.
“By the way, did you actually get to play in the big game?” I asked.
“Yeah. I was the only one out of all the first years to play. I even scored. We still lost in the end, though, so I’m not exactly that proud.”
I didn’t really understand the intricacies, but a first-year student playing in a game like that seemed like a pretty big deal. I sensed acceptance, rather than frustration, from Sudou. He’d probably practiced hard for the tournament, and saw this as steadily making progress.
He had to have practiced hard, since the first-year students left the school grounds to participate in those special exams. That meant Sudou had had less time to practice than the older students.
“So, what are you gonna do? Fortune-telling—you gonna go or not?”
“Well, I don’t really have anything planned. So, sure, I’ll go.”
Now that I’d agreed, Sudou cut straight to the chase. “Definitely invite Suzune out, too. Definitely. Understand?” he said.
“I see,” I answered.
Apparently, Sudou didn’t actually want to go see the fortune teller with me, but rather, with Horikita. He probably knew that, if he invited her himself, his chances of success were rather slim.
“Well, it’s just… I can’t imagine that she’s interested in fortune-telling,” I added.
“Even so, invite her. This is like your one special skill, right?”
What kind of special skill? I really wish he’d quit trying to use me as some kind of Horikita Invitation Machine.
“Well, I’ll give it a shot. But don’t expect anything,” I said.
“Giving it a shot isn’t good enough,” he answered.
“Not good enough?”
Sudou’s emphatic words contained traces of anger. He seemed to plan on Horikita definitely being there tomorrow.
“You absolutely need to do it. If you don’t invite Horikita out, there’s no point,” he told me.
“Look, I don’t know what plans she might have tomorrow. And I don’t know if she even has any interest in fortune-telling. Wouldn’t it be easier to invite her to go shopping or check out a film festival?”
“There’s nothing to worry about. All girls love fortune-telling,” he answered.
That was an extremely broad generalization. I couldn’t really imagine Horikita showing any curiosity about things that ordinary girls liked.
“Got it? Later, after you invite her, get in touch with me. Okay? You gotta.”
With that, Sudou abruptly ended the call. I’d thought it was strange for Sudou to invite me to check out a fortune-teller. Well, it seemed as though he was really after Horikita. While I did feel a little disappointed, I needed to call Horikita right away. If Sudou found out later that I ignored his request, it would be a huge headache.
Horikita answered her phone immediately.
“Hey, Horikita. Do you like fortune-telling?” I asked.
If there was one woman in the whole world capable of destroying anyone’s preconceived notion that all girls liked fortune-telling, it was Horikita.
“You open conversations in the strangest way,” she answered.
True. But I didn’t really have anything else to say. “You’ll be saving me if you give me an answer.”
“So, if I don’t answer you, there’s a possibility that you won’t be saved?” she asked.
That was certainly a possibility. The image of Sudou putting me in a headlock stuck in my mind.
“So, are you going to save me?” I asked.
“If you’re comfortable owing me one,” she answered.
I’d have to owe her one just for answering a question? I was filled with the urge to hit the “end call” button, but I pictured Sudou’s angry face and resisted.
“Fine. If you answer me, I’ll owe you,” I told her.
Horikita, realizing her answer’s value, paused for a moment. “I see. Well, I’m not exactly an enthusiast or anything, but it would be a lie to say I dislike fortune-telling.”
This was unexpected. “Have you ever had your fortune told before?” I asked.
“Of course I haven’t. I’ve simply noticed horoscopes and such in the morning news.”
She was probably talking about the daily horoscope things that were usually based on your birth month. I had a hard time picturing Horikita as the type of girl who would go change her clothes, or buy new accessories, if someone on TV said her lucky colors were red and white.
“Are you addicted to getting your fortune told, by chance?” she asked.
“No, that’s not it. There’ve been some rumors going around lately about a fortune-teller. Have you heard?”
“A fortune-teller?” Horikita fell silent for a while, then eventually answered in a tone that sounded as though she understood. “Yes, there does seem to be quite the uproar. I’ve heard about it.”
“Well, I was a little curious. They say that the fortunes are really accurate, so I was wondering how accurate. But I can’t honestly imagine that something like fortune-telling would be so spot-on.”
I expected her to agree with me, but she apparently held a different opinion.
“Indeed? I think that someone with real power could be accurate.”
“No way. You’d have to be psychic,” I replied. The power to predict the future by reading a person’s face or hands, or based on their birthdate? That was ridiculous, and I didn’t believe it existed.
“No, that’s not what I mean. Fortune-tellers don’t have the power to divine the future. That’s obvious, isn’t it? That would be as foolish as someone saying that they believe in ghosts. However, the big difference between fortune-tellers and psychics is that fortune-tellers give readings based on a massive amount of past data. In other words, they interpret patterns to understand people.”
Horikita wasn’t a fanciful girl. Her answer was grounded in logic and reason.
“In other words, you’re talking about fortune-tellers’ ability to cold read, right?” I asked.
“You’re rather cheeky, but I guess you do know some things.” Horikita sounded slightly amused. “We can’t evaluate ourselves objectively. However, a good fortune-teller can extract information from the person they’re reading through a short conversation. They can pick up on things that the person themselves hasn’t noticed. Don’t you think so?”
Cold reading. Quite literally, that term meant reading someone’s mind without prior preparation. It referred to a technique which extracted information through casual conversation, and thus, gave the person being read the impression that you knew more than you did. You used observation and deduction to obtain information about your target, then made the person believe that you could see their past and future. It sounded simple, but actually, being able to extract information without the mark noticing was incredibly difficult. It required a high degree of skill.
“I’m a little interested,” I admitted.
“That’s good. I think you should go,” Horikita said.
“How about you come along?”
“Are you joking?”
“No, I’m quite serious.”
“I refuse,” she answered.
She’d shot me down instantly, but I couldn’t just accept that. “I’m a total novice when it comes to fortune-telling. I thought it’d be good to have you along, Horikita, so I understand better.”
“Sorry, but I’ll pass. You know I don’t enjoy dealing with crowds, right?”
That was certainly true. Fortune-telling was so popular, a lot of very excited students were bound to be there. Some adults from campus might go, too. I certainly couldn’t imagine Horikita wanting to enter a crowded place like that.
If I pushed any further, I’d probably just end up souring Horikita’s mood. As far as I was concerned, I’d received her message loud and clear. Sudou probably wouldn’t be that big a problem, anyway. Probably.
After I ended the call, I shot him a brief message. I immediately noticed the “read” marker pop up. Shortly afterward, I received a disgruntled reply.
“Then forget about it,” the message read.
I existed only as a means for Sudou to invite Horikita. Since I’d failed to invite her, Sudou had no further use for me. Well, it probably would’ve been a little weird for two dudes to see a fortune-teller together.
“Even so… A fortune-teller, huh?” I murmured aloud.
After that conversation with Horikita, my interest was piqued. I decided to head over tomorrow and check the fortune-teller out.
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