Volume 4.5, 1: Intro - Ibuki Mio is surprisingly a person with common sense

Volume 4.5, Chapter 1: Intro - Ibuki Mio is surprisingly a person with common sense

Special exam. The first thing that comes to mind upon hearing that word would normally be writing exams or practical tests related to sports or something along the lines of that. However, at the school I attend, the Advanced Nurturing High School, special exams aren't simple things like that. A special exam that pits classes against each other in a survival test on an uninhabited island, or an intellectually demanding game that pits liars against liars on a cruise ship. Such tests that surpass logic continued one after another over the course of the summer vacation.

For a 1st year like me, the days of brief respite from all that, including today, numbered only 7. Once that time is up, the second semester will resume. And by the way, the manner in which I spent those days of rest was quite simple. I just spend day after day without calling anyone or speaking to anyone. In other words, it was very lonely.

"I don't mind either way".

I'm already satisfied with just having my freedom, I don't wish for any extra happiness. It's not like I wanted friends of my own. But recently, I had begun thinking something like that.

The more connections I forge with people, the more people I would be able to hang out with. But that in itself is problematic. If a friend of mine were to ask me out, there's a possibility that I may be overjoyed by that. But even in solitude, there are things I can still do. As a matter of fact I'm doing one of those things right now, using my phone to access my point balance. I saw on the screen that I currently had 106,219 points. Of them, I transferred 100,000 points to one of my classmates, Sudou Ken. And not too long after, the person who received the transfer, Sudou, called me.

"Yo, Ayanokouji. What are you doing just now?" he asks.

"Nothing in particular. I was just wondering what to have for dinner".

"I see. I ate some Sasami just now. The taste is simple and easy to get tired of, but for that, I can change it up a bit. I can bake it or boil it...but what the hell that's not important. What I wanted to ask was about the fortune-teller" Sudou said.

Fortune teller? Now that's a word I didn't expect Sudou to say.

Normally Sudou, who thinks in terms of black and white, prefers things that are simple like the Sasami he just ate. I never expected that Sudou to talk about things as abstract as fortune-telling.

"The thing is, it seems a really accurate fortune-teller is here at Keyaki Mall just for the summer vacation. It seems to be trending among the upperclassmen. Even during my club, everyone was talking about that fortune-teller. Since I got some 'extra points' as well I feel like playing there. That's why let's go together. Of course I'll treat you" Sudou told me.

It was an invitation to hang out with my fellow classmate, Sudou. Speaking of Keyaki Mall, it seems to be that facility that students often use. Since students are obligated to live on school grounds, it is necessary to prepare the required facilities for students. But it's not as diverse and unlimited as the outside world. For instance, there are no idol concerts, no amusement parks and no zoos. Since the area is limited, facilities are naturally also limited. To put it simply, it's a small world. And in such a school, whenever something new happens, it always ends up trending among the students, but I never expected it to be fortune-telling of all things. It was unexpected. But even so, I reply back in a positive tone.

Since no one had ever invited me to hang out with them before, I was so happy I could not stop those feelings and quickly asked him back.

"When are you going?".

"Tomorrow morning. Apparently it's happening at 10 but if you don't go there early it seems you'll be stuck in a queue, we should be there by 9:30" Sudou tells me.

It seems Sudou already has the schedule planned out in his head, that means it'll save us time.

"I'm fine on my end, but what about your club?" I asked him.

"Yeah. The tournament I was telling you about a while ago ended just now so it's fine. We've been training every day until we collapse, you know. If they don't let us rest once a while our bodies won't hold up" Sudou replies.

Sudou was in a basketball tournament today. Even though he had been practicing quietly on his own every day, I was concerned about the results of the tournament. And another thing as well.

"Did you have any 'trouble'?" I asked him. I made sure to emphasize the word 'trouble' so Sudou understood the meaning of it quickly.

"Yeah. It was fairly hard, with directors and coaches all there. The level of supervision there can't even be compared to the middle school days. We weren't even allowed to chat it up with students from other schools other than direct contact during the competition. The restrictions go as far as our toilet breaks. It thought it was impossible" Sudou tells me.

Even though club activities were technically outside the school, it seems as expected the school still keeps a severe check on it.

"But anyways, I managed it somehow. I got through it somehow with guts" he said.

"I see. That's a relief. How about Yamauchi?" I asked.

"I made sure to delete the data so don't worry about it. I understand that much at least".

Even Sudou's school life rides on this, so he won't do anything rash. But just in case, I should meet Yamauchi directly to confirm that the data has been deleted, just to be on the safe side.

"By the way, did you manage to play in the important match?".

"Yeah. And among the 1st years, it was only me who got to play. I even received special praise for it. But I lost the match so it's not much to be proud of" Sudou said.

I don't know much about this, but being able to debut in a game as a 1st year itself is a praiseworthy thing. And from Sudou's words, I sensed more of an acceptance than a feeling of frustration anyways. Rather, it should be seen as him steadily achieving results in the basketball club. He was probably practicing hard for this tournament. Especially since the 1st years were away from school on the special exams, so to make up for that, he must have been practicing harder than any other student.

"So what're you gonna do? Fortune-telling. You going or not?" Sudou asked me.

"There's nothing I have planned so I guess I'll go".

Once I had agreed to go, Sudou changed the conversation and told me "Make sure to invite Suzune too. Absolutely invite her. Understand?" Sudou said.

"...I see"

It seems that Sudou never wanted to ask me to go see the fortune-teller but rather wanted to go with Horikita. But he must have felt even if he invited her, the chances of her accepting were low hence relied on me.

"Just so you know...I don't think she's interested in fortune-telling" I told him.

"Even so, make sure to invite her. This is the one speciality you're good at right?" Sudou asks me.

What speciality? I want him to stop using me as a Horikita invitation machine.

"I'll try asking her. But don't expect too much" I told him.

"Try isn't good enough" Sudou replied.

"Not good enough?....."

I felt that Sudou's words which slightly contained his anger had a weight to them. He's planning out tomorrow on the assumption that Horikita would definitely be there.

"You need to absolutely do it. If you don't invite Horikita, there's no meaning to this" he said.

"Even if you say that, I don't know her plans for tomorrow either. And it's still uncertain if she's interested in fortune-telling or not. Isn't it easier to invite her out for shopping or watching a movie instead?" I asked.

"No worries. Every woman likes fortune-telling" Sudou said.

I think that's just absolutism...

But anyways, girls do have the image of liking fortune-telling. But when it comes to Horikita, I cannot imagine her acting like a normal girl and enjoying fortune-telling.

"You get it? Whether you invite her or not, make sure to tell me. Absolutely, you got it?" Sudou told me.

And after saying that, Sudou cut the call by force. I had thought it was strange for Sudou to invite me out for fortune-telling, it seems this is what he really wanted.

While I felt slightly disappointed, I quickly changed my feelings. I better call Horikita quickly. If Sudou finds out later I ignored his request, it would be troublesome for me as well. Before I forget, I call Horikita on the scene right away. And soon enough, Horikita picked up the call.

"Hey Horikita, do you like fortune-telling?" I asked her.

Every woman likes fortune-telling. If there's a woman capable of destroying my perceived notions about girls in general, it is undoubtedly this woman.

"You say the strangest thing as an opener" Horikita said.

Indeed. But for me, I have nothing else to open up the conversation with, so there was no choice.

"It would be very helpful if you answered me" I told her.

"So that means if I don't answer you at all, there's a possibility you won't be saved?" she asks.

I didn't expect her to reply like that, but there is indeed a possibility of me not being saved if she doesn't answer. The image of Sudou putting me in a headlock came to mind.

"So? Will you save me?" I asked her.

"If you don't mind owing me one".

So I'll be owing her one just for answering whether or not she likes fortune-telling huh? I resisted the urge to move my fingers and quickly end the call now, but I have to hold on, Sudou's angry face appeared in my mind after all.

"Please consider it like that" I told her.

Having realized that her answer is worth something, Horikita raised her voice slightly and answered.

"Let's see...I'm not very enthusiastic about it but it would be a lie to say I dislike it" she answered me.

Unexpected, unexpected. Horikita had answered me as if affirming fortune-telling.

"Have you ever had your fortune-told before perhaps?" I asked her.

"Of course nothing like that. It's just I've seen fortune-telling come up in the news every morning" Horikita said.

Perhaps she's talking about the fortune-telling by birthday month that comes up in the news.

I can't imagine a Horikita who changes her clothes or buys accessories after hearing her lucky color is red from a television screen.

"Are you perhaps addicted to fortune-telling?" she asks.

"No, not like that. There's been rumors floating around recently, have you heard about that fortune-teller?".

"Fortune-teller?..."

Silence as though she had remembered something settled in, and perhaps she remember something but Horikita soon replies in a convinced tone.

"Indeed there seems to be quite an uproar over it. I've heard of it" she said.

"I was slightly curious about it. They keep saying it's accurate, I wanted to see how accurate it really was. But, I can't really believe that fortune-telling could be so accurate about something".

I had expected her to agree with me but a different opinion came back from the other side of the phone.

"Is that really true? I think a person with real power can be accurate" Horikita said.

"No, no. Only an esper or something can be that accurate" I quickly replied.

Horikita seemed to believe in that unexpectedly. Things like predicting a person's future from their face, hands or date of birth. I don't believe in such unrealistic things.

"Not like that. The fortune-teller has no power to divine the future. Isn't that obvious? It's as absurd as someone who believe ghosts exist. But unlike psychics, fortune-tellers have access to a large amount of your past data, in other words, they base their predictions based on a human's patterns. So the skill of a fortune-teller that can guess such things from their customer is indeed high" Horikita told me.

So she's not just a dreaming girl but actually had an answer grounded in theory.

"In other words, a power derived from cold reading, huh?".

"You know quite some cheeky things" Horikita answered in an amused tone.

"We cannot view ourselves objectively but expert fortune-tellers, in a short amount of time, can extract information about you and know even things that the person being divined does not realize. And that's what's left as the result of fortune-telling. Couldn't we think of it like that?" Horikita said.

Cold reading. Literally means reading someone's mind without any prior preparation. It's a technique that draws out information from a person through casual conversation to make them think you know more about them than you actually do. Using 'observation' and 'insight' skills to gain information on your target. And make them believe you could see the future and past by using words masterfully. It's easy to say, but actually doing it while avoiding mistrust from the target and making them believe in it requires a high level of skill.

"I've become a bit interested".

"I'm glad. I think it'll be good for you to go" Horikita said.

"Then why don't you come along?" I asked her.

"You're kidding, right?" she replies.

"I'm quite serious".

"I refuse" Horikita said.

I tried slipping in words of invitation into our brief conversation but she brilliantly rejected them all. But I have my own reasons for not being able to accept her rejection simply.

"I'm an amateur when it comes to fortune-telling, so I think it's better for me to have someone like Horikita with me" I tell her.

"I'm sorry but I'll pass. I'm the type that's bad at dealing with crowds, you know too" Horikita replies.

Indeed that is true. Naturally there would be a lot of students crowded around the fortune-teller that so happens to be a hot topic right now. There's even the possibility that it won't simply be students but also adults that would go. I certainly cannot imagine Horikita being in a crowd like that.

I tried to reconfirm it with her without retreating, but even if I stick to it I'll just end up arousing her suspicions. As for me, if I had truly understood Horikita's words, there would no longer be any reason to stick around. I'm sure Sudou won't cause a big problem too. Maybe. Once I had quickly given up on inviting her, I cut the call. Then I briefly sent Sudou a message in the chat. Of course, it immediately registered as 'read' and dissatisfied words came back to me.

Sudou had replied "Then I quit" to me in the mail. As I had thought, my existence was only necessary to him for inviting Horikita. And since I had failed, he had no more use for me. But I must admit it would be weird for two men to go together to the fortune-teller.

"But even so...fortune-telling huh?" I muttered.

I was not interested initially, but after my conversation with Horikita I had become slightly interested.

I suppose I'll go check it out tomorrow.