Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

Hikigaya couldn't help but imitate himself counting sheep while sleeping, murmuring in a low voice, "One day... two days... less than a month... "

If possible, Hikigaya hopes that the cabinet can pass through parliament to change the summer vacation time to three months, or directly to half a year.

With the mood of counting down to the end of the earth, Hikigaya put an extra cross on the calendar on the refrigerator, and found that there were only less than three weeks left of summer vacation.

Hello, am I traveling through time?

Is there a well in the backyard? If you jump in, you will travel back to the Warring States Period and meet a half-demon dog named Inuyasha?

Seriously suspecting that there was something wrong with the world, or that he had counted the time wrong, Hikigaya used his fingers to count the dates on the calendar one by one.

Just then, the phone suddenly rang.

"Hey, Hikigaya."

"Who's that voice? Ibuki?"

"Yes."

Ibuki Mio from Class C, no, now it was Class B who called me after a long time. It seemed like she wanted to talk to me about something, but she didn't show any intention of speaking up.

The atmosphere suddenly fell into a kind of silence.

Hikigaya had no choice but to take the initiative to ask: "What's the matter?"

"No... nothing happened."

"Why are you calling me for no reason?"

I have no idea what Ibuki's attitude is, or rather, Hikigaya can clearly feel that he has something to ask him, but it doesn't seem like it's something that can be said casually.

In fact, it was true that Ibuki Mio seemed to have something to say, but couldn't say it all at once. Finally, she instinctively began to change the subject: "Well, didn't you ask me to investigate Karuizawa in your class before? I have been tracking and investigating her and things related to her during this period of time."

"Really?" Hikigaya's expression became a little serious when he didn't expect Ibuki to bring up this matter suddenly. "Did you find out anything?"

"Uh, I'm sorry there hasn't been much progress... She's been acting pretty normal, there's hardly anything weird going on."

"Well, that's only natural."

Hikigaya didn't think at all that if Ayanokouji and Karuizawa had any plans, it would be easily discovered.

Given Ayanokouji's style, he probably wouldn't have any overt communication with Karuizawa, and even would use a temporary account to evade inspection when chatting on the phone.

Ibuki wants to discover Ayanokouji's secret from Karuizawa, which seems to be a difficult task.

"Yeah, that Karuizawa was threatened by Manabe and the others in our class before, but recently he seems to have become tougher than before for some reason. His attitude is very strange, but I can't find anything wrong with it... Uh, no, I'm not here to talk to you about these things."

Ibuki Mio seemed to finally realize that the topic was becoming increasingly off-topic, and her originally firm attitude suddenly became a little complicated and hesitant.

But she finally made up her mind and said slowly: "Well, just treat what I'm going to say as a joke, don't take it seriously."

"Then let me hear it first."

Hikigaya had no idea what Ibuki Mio's purpose was. To be honest, he didn't think he would have any interaction with her other than work.

Ibuki took a deep breath and spoke slowly, "Well, it is said that a very effective fortune teller came to our school's shopping mall during the summer vacation. This topic has been very popular in our class recently. The club activities are all about the fortune teller, so I am very curious."

"Divination, my sister would probably like this topic very much."

Although Komachi's personality is partly inherited from her own genes, she is generally a junior high school girl with sound social skills. Therefore, she is not as withdrawn as her good-for-nothing brother and has very normal social preferences.

Of course, most girls may not like fortune-telling, but it is different in this school. Due to the completely closed management model of Tokyo Metropolitan High School, the school does not have infinite possibilities like the outside world. Idol concerts, amusement parks, zoos, etc. do not exist.

In such a school, whenever a new activity comes, students will get excited about any small topic, even if it is the less popular divination.

Ibuki Mio seemed to be interested in this divination, but she pretended to be pretentious and asked: "What about you? Are you interested in divination?"

"Should I say yes or no?"

Hikigaya himself naturally had no interest in divination. He did not believe in such pure feudal superstition at all, and he did not believe that one could predict fate through so-called divination.

However, considering that his sister Komachi might be interested in this kind of thing, he still thought it would be great if he could create a topic for her when writing letters or going home.

On the other side, Ibuki Mio seemed to have heard Hikigaya's hesitation. She suppressed her joy as much as possible and quickly asked, "Are you interested in fortune-telling?"

"Well, you can go."

"When are you going?"

"Tomorrow? Or the day after tomorrow. There should be a queue for places like this. Maybe I can get up early."

For the sake of his sister, Hikigaya has always been willing to do anything without hesitation, even if it means going to crowded places or participating in some strange divination. He will not hesitate at all.

"Isn't there a specific time?"

Ibuki Mio felt a little uncomfortable when she heard his words.

"It's just a fortune-telling anyway, so we can go anytime."

"No, wait, are you planning on going alone?"

"What else? Do you need someone to accompany you for this kind of thing?"

"Ah this..."

Unexpectedly, Hikigaya only considered the situation of one person attending the divination, and Ibuki's prepared lines were stuck in his mouth.

The most important thing is that because she just missed the best opportunity, she has no way to invite Hikigaya to go for divination together.

"Then there is nothing else. Thank you for telling me about divination in Karuizawa."

"Uh, no, it's okay."

Ibuki said something that was not in his heart.

She felt extremely anxious yet helpless at the moment.

After all, she had called him specifically in order to ask Hikigaya to accompany her to fortune-telling, but unfortunately her personality prevented her from making an open invitation.

As the phone call was hung up, the girl sighed helplessly from the bottom of her heart. For the first time, she felt disgusted with her own unfrank character.

……

Although he had decided to go for fortune-telling, Hikigaya still felt a little nervous when he thought about going to such a crowded place alone.

"If I had known earlier, I should have tried inviting Ibuki to see if she would be interested."

Hikigaya regretted hanging up the phone too early, and searched for someone who might accompany him to fortune-telling.

The first person who came to his mind was Kushida, but after the incident when Horikita's hand got stuck in the kettle, Kushida hadn't contacted him again, so he was too embarrassed to take the initiative to contact him.

Among the other people I know, Shiina and Ichinose would most likely agree to my invitation, but to be honest, I don't really want to go to the shopping mall with those two people who attract too much attention. I feel that it will easily lead to strange rumors.

Among the remaining people, he is not that familiar with Kamuro from the former Class A, and the relationship between Karuizawa and Sakura from Class D is also delicate.

Sakayanagi was someone he would never actively invite.

After thinking it over, he realized that the only person he could possibly invite was Horikita Suzune, who was in some sense the same kind of person as him.

But precisely because they were of the same kind, he didn't think it was possible for him to invite the other party.

But he finally gave it a try: "Well, Horikita, do you like fortune-telling?"

"You asked a strange question right out of the gate."

"You don't seem interested."

"It's not that I don't have interest, although I'm not enthusiastic about it, but I'd be lying if I said I hated it."

Is there any hope?

After hearing Horikita's unexpected answer, Hikigaya told Horikita what Ibuki told him and tried to invite him.

"If possible, would you like to go together?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"I also hope this is a joke."

"Sorry, I refuse."

Horikita's rejection of the invitation was as straightforward as ever, and it felt like this scene had happened countless times since the start of school.

"Can I hear the reason?"

"You also know that I don't particularly like to be in the crowd, right?"

"Too."

Hikigaya agreed with Horikita's words. He actually didn't like those lively occasions, he just did it on a whim just to have something to talk about with his sister.

In this case, it seems that I can only go alone.

……

With inexplicably complicated feelings, Hikigaya went to the shopping mall where the fortune teller who was rumored to be in school was the next day.

As soon as he got here, Hikigaya couldn't help but feel regretful.

Because even in the early morning, the overly hot sun still roasted people as if they were cooked through, and on the concrete ground in front of the roadside trees, you could see a swaying and distorted phantom.

Fortunately, the school, which is proud of its large land area, has planted many street trees, so there is plenty of shade on the sidewalks to avoid the sun.

Hikigaya walked into the shopping mall with the determination to cross the Sahara, but as soon as he entered the elevator, he found that it was crowded with students, and it seemed that they were going to the same floor as him.

As a person with social phobia, just being in such an environment makes me want to shut myself in on the spot.

However, Hikigaya never expected that the problems he encountered before were just small splashes before the real storm.

When he arrived at the fifth floor where the fortune teller was, he saw a scene that almost made him feel overwhelmed.

“They are all couples…”

A man and a woman were paired in a group - in other words, the majority of the students were very likely to be in a relationship. Of course, there were some groups with only boys or only girls, but they were smaller in number.

So-called divination is originally something like this.

The content that most people come to consult for divination is basically related to love.

If Hikigaya came to tell fortunes, he would also be curious about who the rich woman he would be with in the future.

So, with a strong sense of shame and a little curiosity, Hikigaya walked forward to line up, but the woman in charge of the end of the line suddenly walked up to him and said, "Good morning, will your companion come over later?"

"Companions? No, I am alone."

"Is that so?" The female clerk seemed a little confused about the situation and continued as if she was very sorry, "To receive the teacher's divination, we need a team of two, right?"

"You mean that if you are alone, you can't tell fortunes?"

"That's it."

The female clerk nodded and explained the cruel reality to Hikigaya in clear words.

Just when Hikigaya was feeling frustrated that he had gone out so early in the morning and ended up wasting so much time, the female clerk suddenly laughed and said, "By the way, there is someone here who also came to do divination without a companion. If you can't find a companion, maybe you can find one."

"Want to be a partner?"

Hikigaya was no stranger to this kind of ride-sharing and sharing tables in restaurants.

In fact, he had experienced similar situations many times before and was very familiar with keeping a certain distance from strangers and establishing friendly superficial relationships.

Instead of leaving in disgrace and accepting the fact that you have wasted several hours of your time, it might be best to try to group up with others and do divination together.

That’s what Hikigaya originally thought.

Until he saw the face of another fortune teller who came alone.

"Wow."

"what……"

Ayanokouji saw Hikigaya appear in front of him and showed an obviously confused expression.

Hikigaya never expected to meet this guy's eyes, and the two of them froze in place.

Why did I meet this guy?!

Oh my god, am I going to have a love fortune-telling session with Ayanokouji?!

Don't be too rebellious.

Chapter 421: Befriending Ayanokouji? Just thinking about that kind of thing gives me nightmares!

Unexpectedly, the person the female clerk called was actually Ayanokouji.