Six Lines Divination

The familiar shopping street had reached its liveliest hour of the day, with students just getting out of school.

Of course, weekends were an exception. There might even be more people around then.

The crowds bustled, the din rose and fell, and students gathered in groups of three and five, their laughter and chatter filling the air.

Shop signs flickered, their lights mingling with the sun's glow to create a lively scene.

But none of that was the point. What mattered was that someone had set up a street stall on this familiar shopping street, where that sort of thing was rarely seen.

And what's more, he was telling fortunes!

Students passing by glanced over curiously, but most only took a quick look before moving on.

The stall owner was a mysterious man wearing a tiger-striped mask. He leaned back on his stool, humming a little tune.

Some people wondered if this tiger-masked man had anything to do with the two masked "lovebirds" from yesterday.

After all... they all wore masks and were equally eccentric.

At that thought, the tiger-masked man's figure came into view. That's right, it was U Amakusa.

U Amakusa had come up with the terrible idea of using this useless cheat ability to tell fortunes. He had nothing better to do, anyway.

If U Amakusa remembered correctly, people in Japan were pretty interested in this sort of thing.

Besides, he had checked himself with his glasses, and the method seemed workable.

Bored out of his mind, U Amakusa rested his elbows on the table and clasped his hands beneath his chin. Then he remembered that he still hadn't asked Horikita Manabu for the points.

No, he should say that Horikita Manabu hadn't come to see him yet.

He couldn't rush this. Whoever got impatient first would end up at a disadvantage, making it harder to negotiate the price. Horikita Manabu knew that, too.

There were seven videos in all: three from Class 3-A, two from Class 3-B, and two from Class 2-A.

U Amakusa's absolute minimum was two million Private Points per video, a figure he'd arrived at by taking Class 3-A's Class Points into account.

Class 3-A had a whopping 2,249 Class Points, which meant each student had a full 220,000 Private Points.

But as time went by, the videos would gradually become useless, since they could no longer serve as proof of injuries.

Their value would only keep dropping.

Horikita Manabu had probably seen that coming.

U Amakusa knew he was already at a disadvantage, because what he wanted was points, not Class 3-A.

He didn't like trouble. If it came to a lawsuit, it would do him more harm than good.

So the right move had been to demand points from the start.

But there was a troublesome person in the Student Council. That was the real reason U Amakusa hadn't gone to demand the points.

"Whew..."

Just as U Amakusa was sighing, a girl stopped at his fortune-telling stall.

"Fortune-telling? Can you really get it right?" the girl asked doubtfully.

"Guaranteed accurate! And here's a friendly tip: the first customer of the day gets a free reading." A clear female voice rang out.

U Amakusa had spoken in a woman's voice, a skill he'd mastered in his previous life.

Back when he was in college, wasn't it pretty common for a bored student with nothing better to do to learn how to sound like a girl and catfish his roommate online?

As he spoke, U Amakusa pointed to the sign beside him. It read "Astounding Predictions" on the left and "Every Wish Granted" on the right.

However... the sign on the table in the middle of the stall read: "5,000 points per reading. Pay first, then get your fortune told."

That was way too expensive...

The girl complained silently to herself, but at least she was getting a free reading. Otherwise, she probably would've left without a second thought.

"Really? Then why don't you tell me my name?"

Special ability: super...

Okay, there was no need to summon anything. He already had his glasses on.

"Believe, and it'll come true. Doubt, and it won't. Why not give it a try, Fukada?"

Fukada looked surprised. After hesitating a little, she sat down. "Then... could you tell my fortune about... um... my childhood friend, Natsu-kun..."

"I mean... about love."

As she spoke, Fukada's cheeks flushed. It was obvious from her eyes that she was imagining herself being all lovey-dovey with the boy she liked.

Right, a classic love-life fortune-telling question.

U Amakusa nodded to himself. Young men and women really were at their most hormone-crazed during adolescence.

A lovestruck girl coming to ask whether her romance had a chance of blossoming was perfectly reasonable.

U Amakusa slid a sheet of paper across the table to Fukada, along with a pen.

"Hm? What's this for?"

Seeing that Fukada was confused, U Amakusa kindly explained, "This is the latest fortune-telling method. Please write down what you most want to know, and I'll tailor the reading to your question."

"Is that so? I didn't know there was a method like that."

Fukada didn't think much of it. She picked up the pen and began writing down what she wanted to know. Her actions also made a few curious onlookers stop nearby.

Watching them, U Amakusa wondered if he should get a tent or something. But he quickly dismissed the idea.

He hadn't even made any points yet, and he was already supposed to keep investing? Forget it.

Students who made it into Advanced Nurturing were all pretty capable, except for some of the students in this year's Class 1-D.

Although they were curious enough to look over, they kept a respectful distance, giving Fukada some privacy.

U Amakusa took the paper with Fukada's question, drew a horizontal line beneath it, and set it on the table. Then he began making a show of casting a spell over the crystal ball.

The crystal ball immediately glowed pink, but that wasn't the end of it.

Next, U Amakusa pulled three coins out from under the table. More importantly, they were arcade tokens.

He'd already had the tokens with him when he came. They were coins, after all. He might as well save where he could.

He'd spent around 60,000 points in total and still had 4,590,000 Private Points left.

U Amakusa would need to do at least nine readings to break even, even at such a high price. And who knew? He might have to lower it later.

Fukada didn't dare interrupt U Amakusa. She just quietly watched him toss the coins, even though she really wanted to ask why he was using arcade tokens.

(Most of what follows is the author rambling nonsense. The author doesn't understand this, so please don't criticize if you do.)

"This is the Six Lines Divination method, a form of divination from China. An odd number of lines means yang; an even number means yin."

With that, U Amakusa looked at the coins he'd just tossed. Two showed the same side, while one showed the other.

"Two yin and one yang."

Then U Amakusa picked up the coins and tossed them again. He repeated this five times, for a total of six tosses.

After the six tosses, U Amakusa drew the resulting hexagram on the paper. Looking at it, he let out a sigh for no apparent reason.

"Fukada, this is an ill omen!"

"Ah?! What does that mean?" Fukada asked anxiously.

U Amakusa shook his head, handed her the paper with the hexagram, and replied, "This hexagram means the offspring line holds the position of the host. In Six Lines Divination, that's an ill omen for matters of the heart."

"You mean... things won't work out between Natsu-kun and me?"

Fukada's impression of U Amakusa instantly changed. She'd thought he seemed pretty professional, but now she was sure he was a fraud.

But how could U Amakusa fail to see that? The corner of his mouth lifted beneath his mask.

"Of course that's not what it means. You have to understand, Fukada, that a hexagram isn't absolute. What matters most is what you do."

If he was using Six Lines Divination, wasn't the crystal ball's magical display redundant?

"Look, the crystal ball glowed pink, which means there's a possibility. But the Six Lines Divination says otherwise, because it represents what things are like right now."