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Chapter 156: Chapter 1 Part I

I knew it, but the late August morning assaulted by a heatwave made it a burning hell. I could even see a mirage forming and gently fluctuating on the concrete that lies ahead near the roadside trees. Of course the school facilities are all air conditioned and so we don\'t feel the heat in there. In corridors, in lobbies or in our rooms. However, when directly exposed to the sun, one instantaneously starts to sweat.

So this is how humans die. While thinking thoughts like that, I desperately attempt to find some shade. Fortunately for me, the school that boasts of its large school grounds has quite a bit of trees planted. Thanks to that, there is no shortage of shadows to obstruct the sunlight. It is currently 9:30 before the students start their various activities. I\'m heading towards the rumored fortune-teller\'s location. It seems they start their fortune-telling at 10:00, but I don\'t plan to stick around for long. I\'ll just have them quickly divine my fortune and just as quickly leave. That is my aim. But as I got closer to my destination, I realize that my expectations have been betrayed.

At Keyaki Mall which I had expected to be mostly empty, a crowd of students wearing summer outfits were already there. While I had hoped not all of them would be here for the same reason I am, that is unlikely to be the case. For now, to escape the burning hell outside, I decided to take shelter inside Keyaki. Since the event seems to be hosted on the 5th floor, I looked around for a nearby elevator.

"Geeh..."

Such a voice unexpectedly leaked out of me. Because close to ten students had already formed a crowd in front of the elevator. I wonder if people with the same communication deficiency I have would be able to understand too. Whenever I take the elevator alone, I\'m the type of person to repeatedly hit the \'Close\' button as soon as I get in. But I\'m not as good at taking the elevator with a large group of people the same age as me. I will need a fair bit of courage to get in with the crowd.

It might be a bit troublesome, but for now let\'s take a detour and choose another elevator elsewhere. There is another elevator in the opposite direction that is currently unused by students and is kept as a reserve.

"This is calming..." I muttered.

This did require additional effort on my part, but I\'m grateful just for the peace of mind it gave me. It is sad though. Having arrived on the 5th floor, I quickly search for the fortune-teller\'s location.

And there I encountered a situation more perplexing than the one before.

"There are only couples here".

Boy and girl. Two-in-one groups. In other words, a crowd made up predominantly of students in a lovers\' relationship. Of course there are groups with only boys and groups with only girls here too, but they are the minority.

Fortune-telling was originally meant for this sort of thing after all.

Just divining the compatibility between a boyfriend and a girlfriend is not such a special thing in and of itself. However, it\'s just I realized this place is a lot more uncomfortable than I had expected.

There\'s not many people who came to the fortune-teller on their own. More so if it\'s just a boy like me. In any case, since there\'s already a queue forming I decided to line up with them. And when I did, a woman who seemed to be managing the queue called out to me.

"Good morning. Will your partner be coming later?" she asked me.

"Partner? No, I\'m alone" I replied to her.

Of course, given that the people around us are mostly couples it\'s natural to ask that question, but I\'d like her to think more about us singles.

"Ummm...".

Perhaps she still has something to say, but the woman with an apologetic face continued on.

"I\'m afraid Sensei\'s fortune-telling is for couples only..." she told me.

"So it\'s impossible for me alone?" I asked.

She nods slightly and points forward. I could not see it well through the crowd of people, but there was a certain note that warned about the requirements.

\'We will be guiding you as a pair. Please be aware of this fact\' it said.

Reasonable. There shouldn\'t be a single person like me here after all. Since I had not been confronted with an awkward situation like this before, it couldn\'t be helped. It seems right now, I\'m in a very difficult position.

And also, I understand now the reason why Sudou wanted to invite Horikita out here. In this format of fortune-telling, he and Horikita would have a long time to talk to each other while lining up for the fortune-telling and they can spend a long time together until the fortune-telling is over.

"That also means I never even mattered from the start" I muttered.

Having realized it all now, Sudou\'s words and behaviour start to take on an entirely new meaning. That I was never even invited in the first place. And even if I had been, I wonder if he would have found an excuse to shake me off. What a sad story.

"By the way, the queue beside you is the same, is it not?" I asked.

"...Yes. Ukon-sensei\'s only telling the fortune for pairs..." the female clerk answers.

"I understand".

I bowed my head towards the clerk and left the queue. And the students, who were already lining up behind me, simply took one step forward. I never expected this kind of trick to be involved. As for me, my image of fortune-telling was that of an old woman on the side of the street counting coins while doing her job, something like that. But recently, it seems recommended for couples fortune-telling like this also exists.

I thought it wouldn\'t be too bad to experience fortune-telling once at least, but it seems it can\'t be helped. There\'s not much point in trying to invite Horikita out again, so I\'d better retreat here quietly.

"Huh? So you\'re telling me I can\'t get in alone?"

It seems in the queue beside me, there\'s another single victim who came alone, as a voice that sounded like they were angry could be heard from there. And as I sent a sympathetic gaze their way, my eyes unfortunately met with that person\'s.

"Ah".

That short answer came from a person who happened to be an acquaintance of mine. When I pretended to have not seen her and attempted to leave, for some reason, with the same timing, she walked in the same direction I did. I quicken my footsteps.

"Wait".

Perhaps she thought I was attempting to run away (I was attempting to run away), but she chased after me.

"Is there something I can help you with?" I asked her.

"Where is Horikita?".

Having asked that brief question, the girl quickly scanned her surroundings.

She was Ibuki Mio, a student of Class C. She too, like Sudou, seemed to be attempting to get at Horikita through me. However, unlike Sudou, Ibuki\'s actions in this case is reasonable.

It\'s just, it would be a great help if she could get to Horikita without needing to pass through me.

"It\'s not like I\'m always hanging out with her, I\'m alone today" I told her.

"Ahh. I see".

In the previous uninhabited island test, this Ibuki was sent to Class D as a spy and tried to throw the class into chaos. And then she later fought with Horikita, and since then, Ibuki has been antagonistic towards Horikita. A rivalry would be more accurate for their relationship.

Although her usual tsun attitude has not changed, she does have a pretty good fashion sense and definitely leaves a good impression. If she acted a bit more mature, I wouldn\'t be surprised if she became popular.

"Normally fortune-telling is done one-on-one isn\'t it? I didn\'t expect this at all, don\'t you agree too?" Ibuki asks me.

"I suppose so. I did have that sort of image" I replied to her.

"So? Didn\'t you ask Horikita out for this?" she asked.

First it was Sudou and now Ibuki. The topic of the conversation is always about Horikita, who\'s not even here.

"I didn\'t. If you want to talk to Horikita that much, why don\'t you go and see her yourself? Tell her you want to go see the fortune-teller together" I told Ibuki.

"Huh? Absolutely not. It\'s not like I have anything to talk to her about anyways".

If that\'s the case then I\'d like you to not talk about Horikita again and again.

"I never was really interested in fortune-telling from the start so I have no regrets here. How about you?" I asked her.

"I\'d be lying if I said I have no regrets..." Ibuki told me. It seems the pair requirement presents a difficult problem for her which she realized, as she shook her head while stating her regret.

"I can\'t do anything but give up now. I\'m also bad at talking" Ibuki said.

That was an answer that wasn\'t really an answer at all. She did say she was bad at talking, but unlike Sakura, she didn\'t seem like the type that would have trouble carrying on a normal conversation. In fact she is perfectly capable of talking to me on equal terms...or even talking down on me.

"Why don\'t you invite Ryuuen?" I asked Ibuki.

I said that as an added joke, but she made a face of disgust equal to or perhaps even greater than Horikita\'s.

"I\'d absolutely hate to see his face even during the holidays. You must be joking" Ibuki replied to me.

"But you were together with him on the ship, weren\'t you? Isn\'t it normal to think you two are intimate?" I asked her.

"...that\'s only because I felt responsible for not figuring out the leader of Class D" Ibuki said.

She answered weakly like that. If what she says is true, that would mean Ibuki acted together with Ryuuen then as a means of taking responsibility for her failure. That alone didn\'t give me the whole picture but that must be something only Class C would understand. Even so, in the first part of the special exam, the uninhabited island test, Ibuki successfully identified Horikita as Class D\'s leader, and she was not wrong in her assessment. If I had not interfered, she would have made a big contribution to Class C undoubtedly.

"I wanted to ask you something, but during the island test, who was Class D\'s leader?" Ibuki asked me.

"I wonder".

"I wonder? It\'s not like you don\'t know" she said.

"Even if I knew, I wouldn\'t really tell you. But I really don\'t know. I think most of Class D is also in the dark, wouldn\'t they be? Horikita was moving in the shadows, and she must have pulled it off somehow and that\'s all I can make of this" I told Ibuki.

Ibuki stares at me as though looking through me. But, I\'m not so foolish as to be seen through by such a simple observation.

"...well, if it were that easy I wouldn\'t need to go through this much trouble" Ibuki shrugs her shoulder as if she had given up.

"If Ryuuen is no good, why don\'t you invite girls from your class?" I asked Ibuki.

"If I had such a person I wouldn\'t be in this much trouble. I absolutely dislike the girls in my class" Ibuki said. It seems even her classmates are included in the category of people she absolutely dislikes.

Ibuki is like Horikita...or even more so in her antisocial nature. In that sense, they are birds of a feather. And with a trigger, it feels like they could get along perfectly.

"But just like you\'re talking to me right now, Ibuki you should be able to talk to anyone else normally. I don\'t get the feeling that you\'re particularly bad with people" I told her.

"That\'s not true. When you talk with me you get that feeling don\'t you? A thorny feeling" she replied.

"I guess that\'s true".

Whenever I would talk with Ibuki, I get the feeling that I\'m being pierced by a sharp saw. That is probably, Ibuki\'s expression of her distance with others. I\'m sure this feeling would be conveyed to the other students as well.

"Whatever I do, the mood always ends up bad like this. You get it?" Ibuki said.

In other words, because she\'s bad at socializing, she cannot invite her classmates. It is still doubtful whether \'bad at socializing\' is appropriate or not, but it must be a fact that this Ibuki likely sees even her classmates in an antagonistic light.

I can even picture her challenging the fortune-teller with that headstrong attitude of hers.

"Even though you\'re bad at dealing with people, it\'s strange that you would try having your fortune told".

"That\'s another one of my troubles. It\'s sort of like liking cats but having an allergy to cats too. That sort of thing" Ibuki told me.

That must have been truly frustrating. Even though one likes something, they still find it difficult to accept or do, or something like that.

"It\'s amazing you\'d be the spy in Class D even though you\'re like that" I told her.

Even though she always had a tsun attitude, she never showed any sign of discomfort during her spy activities, not once. Because even the Class D students, without suspecting Ibuki, took her in.

"That and this are different. In any case, talking to others makes me anxious. And because I get anxious, I become nervous. I don\'t like that. That\'s why it can\'t be helped. It\'s not like I became like this because I like it. Why am I even talking to you about this? What if we get misunderstood?" Ibuki stopped the conversation at that while looking away.

But that\'s also my line. And before I realized it, the people around us had already moved up the queue and only the two of us were left behind alone. The other students might misunderstand us. But still, getting nervous after getting anxious, huh? So that\'s where the root of her weakness lies. If that is true, a method to counter it might be unexpectedly easy.

There is a plan that would counter this weakness without needing to figure out the roots of what had made her anxious in the past.

"Earlier, you said it was a different matter when you were spying, didn\'t you?" I asked Ibuki.

"I did. Because it is a fact".

"Then what\'s the difference between that time and usual?" I continued the question.

Having heard the question, Ibuki mulled over the answer and was silent for a while. And answered in a way that was very like her.

"I don\'t know. Different things are different. That\'s all" she said.

More than an answer, it seems she\'s given up on trying to tell the difference entirely.

"It looks like you haven\'t given it much thought" I said.

"Obviously. I wouldn\'t notice such trivial differences. I was acting then after all" Ibuki replied to me.

"No. I think it\'s surprisingly simple. The difference between talking to others and your acting back then, is simply a matter of \'recognition\' I believe" I said.

"\'Recognition\'?".

In response to the word she did not expect to hear, Ibuki\'s interest must have been piqued since she turned to look at me.

"Anyone would feel anxious if they imagine talking to a person face-to-face. But, that nervousness is only because you\'re conscious of it, whether there was acting involved or not is irrelevant" I told Ibuki.

For instance, somebody who\'s bad at dealing with members of the opposite sex, even if they convince themselves \'I\'m going to become a normie\', and go to mixers and such. There\'s no guarantee that their anxiety wouldn\'t prevent them from talking with loquacity. As a result, they would not be able to exert more power than they usually do. If they are still able to talk skillfully despite that, that would only mean from the start, they always had that capability in them.

All it takes is to consider communication skills and athleticism as the same. Your talent and ability you\'ve cultivated are tested in that sense.

In other words, Ibuki has the \'ability to talk with others\' but simply lacks the ability to \'properly carry it out\'.

"Until now, you\'ve been projecting your delusions onto the various people you meet, and when you come face-to-face with them you seize up. That turns into anxiety and as a result, you\'re unable to talk well with them, isn\'t that it?" I told Ibuki.

"What\'s that supposed to mean? If it\'s someone with a high communication ability they would not even notice. But normally when you come face-to-face with a person, anyone would get anxious right?" Ibuki replies.

"Naturally. I\'m the same too, but getting anxious even towards merchants and the such is a bit too much. For instance but, would you still feel anxious even if you\'re talking to a convenience store clerk?" I asked Ibuki.

"Huh?".

"For example, meeting the clerk face-to-face at a convenience store you usually go to. Do you have a point card? Would you like it warm? Do you get anxious when the clerk says those words, surely not?".

"That\'s...well" Ibuki muttered.

In the end, you become conscious of the one you\'re talking to and end up anxious after all. I wonder what they\'ll think of me, I want to be thought of often, I\'d like them to be a good person. It\'s because one thinks things like that they start being anxious.

But the Ibuki who infiltrated Class D surely had no time to think things like that. She would have been busy playing the victim that she had no time to be conscious of the fact that she wanted to talk to others. That\'s why without even needing to think, she was able to pull it off. That is because by letting out her feelings and letting them overflow like it was usual, she was able to convince them of her confrontation with Class C.

"Now that you say it, that is true..." Ibuki muttered.

"It is inevitable that you would feel anxious since it\'s natural to have the impression that you would be face-to-face with the fortune-teller, but by not thinking too deeply about it. That would help relieve some tension, wouldn\'t it?" I told Ibuki.

"...I see. Hey, why the hell do I have to be lectured about this by you?". Once Ibuki noticed her own relief, she glared at me as though she were about to jump on me.

"Once you\'ve been a loner long enough, you notice small details like that. It starts when you start wondering why you are unable to make friends, and like I said earlier you think about the difference between people you get nervous towards and people you don\'t. And then you end up thinking where people come from and where they go" I told Ibuki.

"Creepy...You seem like the type to become a mass murderer in the future...were you always this kind of person?" Ibuki asks me.

"...well something like that" I replied.

I had thought to pass this off as just a deep reflection of mine, but it seemed to have taken an odd turn. I may have given her the impression that I was a crank.

"I\'m going back for now. How about you?" I asked Ibuki.

"I think I\'ll go back too. It doesn\'t seem like I can get my fortune told alone anyways. I was interested in Tenchuusatsu though...".

"Tenchuusatsu?".

I replied without thinking to those words you wouldn\'t hear normally.

"You came here without even knowing such a thing?" Ibuki sighed in resignation. But even if you say that, I genuinely am an amateur at fortune-telling. I just came here with a vague idea of having my fortune told freely.

"If I have to put it simply, it\'s fortune-telling that tells you which days are unlucky for you" Ibuki told me.

I have heard that the world of fortune-telling is a deep one, but I didn\'t know it was possible to tell the fortune of a specific target. From the perspective of an ameteur like me, things like \'wear the color red\' or \'beware of losing your possessions this month\' were the full extent of fortune-telling. But from what Ibuki is telling me, it seems it isn\'t limited to just that.

"I was hoping for that, really. I never thought it was only for love affairs" Ibuki said while looking at the long queue with a dismayed expression.

"But looking from the perspective of the students, using fortune-telling for love affairs like that isn\'t strange, right? This Tenchuusatsu? There must also be people interested in that who came here" I replied to her.

"Even so, it\'s impossible as soon as they put the pair restriction on it" Ibuki said.

And with that, without even leaving so much as a parting word behind, Ibuki left.