"May I ask what you two would like to have your fortunes told about?" Takizawa's deliberately lowered, hoarse voice came from beneath the black robe as she pushed the menu across the table.
"Please pay the fee first."
Sawahara looked over the menu. Most of the packages were related to romance and marriage. Was this a couples-only special? Were they planning to cash in on all those restless hormones?
Still, the prices weren't high. Even an average student could afford them.
"Hold on. What if your fortune-telling is wrong?" Sawahara narrowed his eyes at the fortune-teller across from him. His purpose was clear: he'd come looking for trouble.
"Fortune-telling isn't something that can ever be completely accurate. Whether you believe it or not is up to you, dear customer." Takizawa let out a couple of eerie giggles as she spoke, continuously stroking the crystal ball in her hand.
"What a slippery answer." Sawahara curled his lip. "I'll start with the basic package."
"And what about you?" Takizawa asked, turning to Ibuki, who was sitting beside him.
"I'll choose the basic package too." Ibuki thought it over before making her choice.
Sawahara went first.
Leaving aside the usual platitudes about longevity and the like—for if you went to have your fortune told, the other person would probably say something like that—when it came to his finances, she claimed that Sawahara would be rolling in money in the future and would never have to worry about it.
But then she got to his love life.
"You have a lot of admirers. You're already surrounded by quite a few potential romances, but it's a shame: they're interested in you, but you... aren't interested in them.
Your path to love probably won't be smooth."
That was pretty harsh. But surprisingly accurate. She couldn't have figured that out from just a few words.
"Your financial luck is excellent, but your overall luck isn't. Your fortune has been on an upward trend, but it started very low. Your luck was probably at its lowest when you were born, and it didn't reach an average level until you were eleven.
I imagine you went through quite a few hardships before you turned eleven, didn't you?"
At that, Sawahara's gaze shifted slightly as he looked at the fortune-teller, but he didn't respond to her so-called 'fortune-telling.'
After that, it was Ibuki's turn. There wasn't much to say about her reading. The fortune-teller mostly told her positive things, with only an occasional reminder to be careful.
"Ibuki, you can head back first. There are a few things I don't quite understand, and I want to discuss them with the fortune-teller."
"Oh." Ibuki didn't think much of it and left the room as Sawahara had asked.
After Ibuki left, the room fell into complete silence.
"You said there was something you wanted to discuss with me, but you've just been staring at me without saying a word," Takizawa finally spoke first.
"When did you find out?" Sawahara asked.
He'd already determined that the woman in front of him came from that place. He didn't believe in fortune-telling, and he couldn't believe the number eleven was just a coincidence.
"From the very beginning. Okada never believed you'd lost your memory from being so badly frightened by that shooting incident." Takizawa recalled what had happened back then.
When they'd found Sawahara, the people who reported back had said he'd lost his memory because of the shooting. That had made Okada mock Tsukishiro.
"My finest work wouldn't lose his memory over something so trivial," Okada had said.
"'Work,' huh? That's exactly the sort of thing he'd say." Sawahara rubbed his temples, trying to sort through the memories gradually surging up in his mind.
"You really were unlucky." Takizawa smiled. "A year after you escaped from there, it stopped operating."
"Oh, how lucky for me," Sawahara replied, looking thoroughly relieved. "If it had been any later, I might not have had a chance to escape."
Stopped operating? What a joke. The truth was probably that it had gone underground and started operating more secretly. If that had happened, the escape plan he'd spent three years putting together would have been useless.
"Tell me, what exactly do you want from me?" Sawahara looked at the old woman speaking in a mature, seductive voice. Everything he hadn't understood before now made perfect sense.
"You must have heard that title plenty of times before: the Greatest Masterpiece." Takizawa brought up a codename that had made a deep impression on Sawahara.
"Heh. Okada never stopped going on about it." After all, that title was what Okada had expected him to live up to.
"He's in this school too. Find him and get him expelled." Takizawa explained why she'd come to see Sawahara. "This is the assignment your kindly mentor, Okada, left you, Shin."
"...My name is Sawahara Zoya now."
"Heh. Changing your name won't erase your past." Takizawa sneered. "You don't think you can escape your destiny, do you?
"Now, stop bothering me while I work and get out."
As she spoke, she waved Sawahara away. She didn't care whether he completed the assignment properly; she was only passing along a message from Okada. Making money was more important. Ah, it really was easy to make money off kids in their rebellious years.
Sawahara said nothing more and turned to leave the room.
He'd always known that one day his past would come after him like a rabid dog, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.
"The Greatest Masterpiece, the top student among the fourth-generation students?" Sawahara pondered the information he'd received. Which class was he in?
"The most likely answer is Class A."
After all, he was the top student among the fourth-generation students. Even if the title of Greatest Masterpiece was a bit of an exaggeration, he should still be quite capable.
The most likely candidate was... Sakayanagi Arisu. Could it be her? From what he'd seen of her before, she seemed to know something about him. But the Greatest Masterpiece shouldn't have such a weak physique. Was she hiding her true abilities, or was it someone else? Was there anyone else in Class A keeping a low profile? Or was he in another class...?
Looks like he'd have to be more cautious from now on.
As for the assignment Takizawa had mentioned, what did he care?
"But why did the Greatest Masterpiece from the White Room come to Advanced Nurturing?" Without enough clues, Sawahara couldn't figure out what was really going on.
"Never mind. There's not much point thinking about it now."
Let the adults scheme all they wanted. In the end, he'd be the one to win.
Now that he knew the real reason Takizawa had summoned him, there was no point staying here any longer. It definitely wasn't because he found maintaining order here boring and wanted to skip work.
After finding himself a good excuse for skipping work, Sawahara decided to leave.
"Sawahara-kun?"
Should he have exorcised some bad luck before leaving home today?
Before you continue