Diviner

"Hello, Ms. Takizawa. My name is Sagara Zoya. Welcome to Advanced Nurturing High School." Sagara greeted the stylish and sexy woman before him, a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

"Hello there, Sagara-kun. Surprised? Is it not quite what you imagined a fortune teller would look like?" Takizawa caught onto Sagara's hesitation immediately; she had encountered this situation many times before.

"Even a fortune teller is a woman who loves beauty, so of course I have to dress up properly," Takizawa explained casually. "People probably imagine a fortune teller as some old hag wrapped in layers of cloth, holding strange tools, and muttering bizarre things."

"My apologies, that was rude of me."

Keyaki Mall, Fifth Floor

This was a floor specifically reserved by the school for hosting events, such as idol performances or concerts. These were only held occasionally, and inviting a fortune teller was one such event.

The school really understood the psychology of its students. Students at this age were at a stage where they held fantasies about things with a touch of mystery, making this the perfect method to reclaim Private Points from the students' hands.

The school was always using various means to induce students to spend their Private Points.

Following Ms. Takizawa's instructions, Sagara had the staff set up the venue properly, then issued her a temporary school pass and arranged her accommodations.

Once the reception work was finished, Sagara bid Ms. Takizawa farewell, but as he left, she said this:

"See you tomorrow, Sagara-kun."

"Huh?" Sagara was puzzled for a moment before realizing, "Was that a fortune you just cast, Ms. Takizawa?"

"Well, you could say that." Takizawa nodded and said, "I'm looking forward to officially performing a reading for you tomorrow, Sagara-kun. My intuition tells me that something very interesting will happen."

"Is that so?"

Sagara just smiled, not taking her words to heart. He had no interest in fortune-telling.

"Sagara, Ms. Takizawa said she hopes someone can help maintain order on her first day of business tomorrow," the President called that evening. "She also said she hopes it's someone she knows, to make communication easier."

"..." Ms. Takizawa, so this is your 'fortune-telling'? Truly impressive.

The only person she knew at this school was him, the one in charge of her reception. No wonder she had been so confident about her prediction earlier.

"Can I refuse, President?" Sagara made one last attempt.

"You don't want to go? Then it's decided. Remember to uphold the image of the Student Council." Upon hearing Sagara's reluctance, the President issued a direct, mandatory order.

"..."

Sagara suddenly regretted his previous actions. He should have been even more excessive, perhaps by calling Vice President Nagumo over as well.

"Good morning, Sagara-kun." Ms. Takizawa greeted him with a beaming smile.

"Good morning, Ms. Takizawa. Your method of fortune-telling is certainly unique," Sagara said in a deep tone.

"Ahahaha, no need to flatter me like that." Takizawa laughed heartily. "How do you like my outfit?"

"It's hard to tell it's you, Ms. Takizawa." Sagara marveled at her makeup skills. The mature, sophisticated woman now looked like an old hag in her forties or fifties, draped in a black robe. "Though, it certainly feels like a fortune teller."

"I get the feeling you aren't saying anything nice." Takizawa replied in a slightly raspy voice.

At nine in the morning, with all preparations complete, the fortune-telling event that the students had been looking forward to finally began.

Perhaps because the pre-event publicity had been so successful, a long line had formed by the first morning.

Because Ms. Takizawa had set a rule that guests must come in pairs, most of those who arrived were couples.

Ah, this fortune teller was truly cunning. This way, she could use the third person present to observe more information and avoid relatively difficult questions, such as those about secret crushes.

After all, fortune-telling was just speculation based on existing information, not actually seeing the future. For questions where it was difficult to gather enough information, it would be very troublesome for a fortune teller to answer.

Even more troublesome was if the fortune teller gave a positive prediction, the person became overjoyed and confessed, only to end in a miserable failure—that would make things even worse.

"Ibuki, I didn't expect you to be interested in fortune-telling." Sagara was surprised to run into an acquaintance here. Come to think of it, he had always treated Ibuki like a less-intelligent version of Ryuen, almost forgetting she was a girl.

"Planning to check your love life?"

After all, that was the most likely thing for adolescent boys and girls to ask. That was why this fortune teller was so cunning; she had preemptively blocked the hardest parts of such questions. No wonder there were rumors that she was very accurate.

"No, I have no interest in measuring that kind of thing. I'm only interested in the Heavenly Killing. But they won't let you do it alone, so I guess I have to go back." Ibuki swung her fist in frustration. Having come with high expectations only to leave disappointed, the feeling was naturally unpleasant.

"If you don't mind, I'll accompany you for a reading," Sagara offered.

"But aren't you doing Student Council work? Won't that be a problem?" Upon hearing Sagara's offer, Ibuki's eyes lit up, then quickly dimmed. "I don't really care about that stuff anyway. Fortune-telling isn't very reliable."

Ibuki waved her hand to show she didn't care at all.

"What problem could there be? I'm just slacking off secretly; who would see?"

"I would!" A purple-haired girl with a bun, who was standing in the line nearby, looked at Sagara with dissatisfaction and shouted.

"..." Sagara fell silent. He had just mentioned slacking off and immediately ran into Tachibana-senpai. He felt like his luck today was not very good.

However, Tachibana-senpai appearing here probably meant she wanted to ask about her and the President.

"Student, please do not shout." Sagara's silence ended in an instant, and he quickly reacted by turning the tables and accusing the lovely Tachibana-senpai.

"Secretary Tachibana, as a member of the Student Council, you must hold yourself to high standards even in your private time and not damage the image of the Student Council."

Tachibana stared dumbfounded at Sawahara, who was pointing fingers at her as if planning to ditch work.

You're the one damaging the Student Council's image!

After righteously scolding Senior Tachibana, Sawahara leaned in and whispered to her.

"Senior Tachibana, you wouldn't want me to tell the President about you coming here to divine your compatibility with him today, would you?"

Of course, she didn't want Manabu Horikita to know. If he did, the person who came with her wouldn't be her best friend but the President himself.

She didn't want to expose her crush on the President yet. Because she didn't know the President's thoughts, she had always been worried. If she confessed her feelings, could their relationship remain as it was now?

In the end, she could only lower her head indignantly and grit her teeth, saying.

"I'm sorry."