《Nandemonogatari: The Story of Something Else》Chapter 03 - The Story of Prediction

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Yuuri heads towards the Math classroom with Kirika, Yuudai, and Saito following close behind. They pass by the students that fill the halls as they do so. Yuuri whispers to herself, “Numata-sensei, Numata-sensei…” Kirika pets her bat as Yuuri speaks up. “Oh, I hope he plays along~! He is rather young though, so I don’t know if he'd like this kinda stuff.”

Saito turns to Yuuri. “By the way mang, what do we do if the teachers don’t wanna pay us?”

Yuuri waves her hand. “I’ll think of something in the classroom, don’t worry about it. Anyway, let’s go! Numata-sensei is our first target! Come on, boys and girl.”

Yuudai speaks up from the back, “Why would someone not want to get their fortune told? It sounds very exciting!”

“So Miss Komori, do you have a set of cards handy?,” Yuuri asks the little girl.

Kirika searches her pockets. “Uhh, I should have a deck of those cards in one of these pockets…” Her face lights up, then she pulls out a very girly deck of cards.

Yuuri sees the cards, then claps her hands together and smiles. “How cute! They might not be spooky at all, but they should do just fine.”

Kirika holds the cards up. “They’ll work! I have a spooky bat, after all!”

Yuudai looks at the cards. “What exactly are these… cards?”

Yuuri turns to Yuudai. “I'm glad you asked Mr. Akiyama! Tarot cards are playing cards from the 15th century that are popular among occultists and mystics for divine reasons. They are commonly used for fortune reading though, which is what we will be doing. Or rather, Miss Komori will be doing while we tag along.”

After Yuuri’s long winded explanation Yuudai puts his hand to his chin. “So you mean… these things can read the future?”

Saito shakes his head. “I think it's like a superstition thing, my dude.”

Yuuri shakes her head in response. “No! They can if you know how to use them! And little Komori here knows how, right?” She pats Kirika on the head.

Kirika smiles and hums. “Y-yeah!” I should know enough, more than anyone else!”

Yuudai snaps his fingers. “Interesting! I’ll have to see these in action!”

“I like your attitude, Akiyama!,” Yuuri loudly says.

Their discussion has carried them all the way to Numata’s classroom. Suddenly the door swings open and Numata sticks his head out.

“Why are you all being so loud?” This startles Yuuri, who quickly spins around, bows, and says, “O-oh, Numata-sensei! What a surprise!!”

Numata shakes his head and simply asks, “Well, what can I do for you?”

Yuuri, still blushing from her surprise, says, “W-well, we have something you just might be interested in! Kirika, pull them out!”

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Kirika pulls the girly tarot cards out of her pocket. “P-please excuse the cards, Sensei, but we’d like to read your fortune!”

Numata gently chuckles. “Such cute cards, I’m sure they’ll give me a kind fortune. This sounds like fun, so I’ll play along!”

Yuuri proudly smiles. "You see Numata-sensei, I know you’re pretty young so we thought you would like us to predict what may lie in your future. Miss Komori, set the table!"

Kirika moves towards the desk. “Okay, give me a minute,” she says, as she prepares for the reading.

The others look on in amazement as Kirika quickly sets up the desk, and Yuuri continues. “Our little Komori is skilled enough with these cards to accurately tell your future. She's simply amazing.”

Kirika finishes and lays the cards face down in front of Numata-sensei. Yuuri puffs her chest out as she continues to boast about Kirika’s skill, “You see that!? Oh, what could the future have in store for you, Numata-sensei!?”

Kirika shushes Yuuri, then says, “Everyone, quiet please. This will be a… unique, special reading. Now think, and ask yourself a question as you shuffle the cards.” Numata shuffles the cards slowly, fumbling slightly as he doesn’t know his way around a deck. As he does so he thinks up a question and then hands the cards back to Kirika.

“Okay…,” Kirika says as she splits the deck one more time, then reassembles them and deals out six cards in a cross. She turns to her pet and gestures towards Numata. “Okay Kokoro, go to him. Sensei, I want you to ask the question to my bat, and she will pick out your cards.”

Numata chuckles to himself and whispers his question into the bat’s ears, making sure to say it clearly. He pulls back and says with a smile. "Alright, show me what the cards hold for me.”

Kirika’s bat flies around the table in circles before landing on three cards. As the bat picks the cards, Kirika flips them over, revealing The Fool, The Emperor, and Justice. “Hmm…,” Kirika says while smiling at the kindly teacher. She holds out for suspense as everyone waits silently. “Good news, Sensei! The Fool and the Emperor combined tell me that in your near future you will be placed in a position of utmost power and will make assured judgement. The Justice card says that you may be falsely accused or will be dealing with false accusations, though…”

Yuuri pipes up. “Ohh, Sensei! You better watch out as you climb the power ladder! Someone may be out to get you...”

Numata leans back and gives a light chuckle. “I doubt that will be happening any time soon, but it's something to strive for, besides the false accusations anyways. You girls put on a nice show, here's 5000 yen for your efforts.”

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Yuuri happily takes the bill and sticks it in her pocket. “Five thousand!? Thank you so much Sensei!”

Kirika bows with a smug look on her face and adds in, “Thank you, Sensei!,” as Kokoro squeeks her thanks as well.

Yuuri turns towards Kirika. “That was amazing!”

“Thanks, senpai.” She only gets smugger when Yuuri adds her praise. “Uhuhu, It was nothing, really.” Saito can’t help but laugh at her smugness.

Yuuri cuts off the Kirika praise parade, and turns to the rest. "With this we can just head back to the club! I hope the others did well too. Let’s go.”

The group makes their way towards the clubroom, noting that the halls are now empty. “The day is almost over, I hope the others made the amount I asked them to,” Yuuri says, strolling casually.

Saito scratches his head. “Did they even have cards?” He then shrugs. “Eh, I’m sure that girl made something up on the spot, actually.”

Yuuri sighs, then replies, “Hopefully she did nothing that would slander our club's name.”

Saito shugs. “I ain't worried, at worst people will be afraid of us and leave us alone.”

Kirika cheerily says, “Who would try and fight the Paranormal club? We have scary powers!”

They reach the classroom, then enter it. As they settle in, the other group pops in. Cerys walks in and deadpans, “Yeah, we got the money. I’m disgusted, but we did it.”

Yuuri smiles and says, “Ah, great! I'll give this to Katsuki and we should be good.”

Yui, who followed Cerys in, says, “It was real scary too!”

Kirika curiously asks, “W-what happened?”

Cerys sighs and points to the door. “I’d rather let her show you.”

Yuuri looks to the door with a sour look on her face. “No, I’d rather she didn’t.”

Saito adds in, “Spare us the details, or better yet show them when I’m not here.”

Mayumi walks in at last, looking nonplussed. She reaches into her cleavage and takes her purse out. She then pulls the money out of it. “Got your bread,” she says as she gives the 5000 yen to Yuuri. Mayumi puts the purse back where it came from and sulks off to the corner.

Yuudai ignores Mayumi’s foul mood and says, “Good job! How did you guys read his fortune?” Yui blushes and looks away, while Cerys gives Yuudai a death glare. Yuudai, with a look of confusion, says, “Wow, was his fortune that bad?”

Katsuki breaks the awkward air by walking in and slamming the brand new club roster on the table, “With this, we’re an official club! Well, as long as you guys got the money.” Yuuri hands over the money with a smile on her face. Katsuki takes it and smiles back. “Well, I don't know how you guys did it, but thanks. Hell of a day for me, paper after paper after paper. And we’ve only had one day of class!” She puts the money away and looks back at the newly formed club. “Good job everyone, hope you all had fun.”

As Mayumi lights up a cigarette in the background, Yui says, “Fun would be a funny word to describe that.”

Mayumi takes a long drag, then puffs out a thick cloud of smoke. “Yeah. Fun. Next time, I’m just stomping a mudhole in some otaku.”

Cerys agrees with, “Yeah, that would be more enjoyable.”

Kirika looks concerned, asking, “W-what did Mayumi-senpai do? A-and can you please put that out?”

Mayumi kills her cigarette, saying, “It’s better you don’t know.”

Cerys angrily blurts, “Oh no, I think they should all see what you did. I would hate to be the only one to see your… ‘Skills’.” She spits out the last word like it’s a curse.

Yuudai cluelessly asks, “Is it an alternative way of fortune telling?”

Saito shrugs. “Man, who cares. We got the money, right? That’s all that matters. At least, it matters more than Mayumi’s well being.”

Mayumi whips around and flips him off. “Shove it.”

Katsuki takes back control of the room. “Maybe another time, it’s getting close to curfew and we’re not that close to the dorms. Though I do want to see whatever you did under the Paranormal Club's banner.”

Yuudai nods his head, saying “I’d like to see that too!”

Yui starts to shudder, but is unable to speak up before Mayumi stands up and flips her hair. “...fortune telling is a load of shit, anyway. There’s more honest ways to make money. Like robbery.”

Yuuri reads the mood, then moves to the door. “Er, right… We should be heading out.”

Yuudai chimes in as well. “Oh yeah... I guess curfew is a thing.”

Yui follows Cerys and Yuudai out, asking, “What’s curfew?”

Saito says, “Yeah, I’m out. Peace,” as he heads out the door after the others.

Mayumi blows a mocking kiss to no one in particular and lazily waves at the president then walks out. Katsuki stays behind in the clubroom, thinking about the people who’ve joined her club, and thinks of the crazy year she’s about to have with a smile. She stands up and makes her way out with the others, closing the door behind her.

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