The Onsen Encounter
Ch. 7
by Bottou-chan
The line, indeed, was long. It was primarily made of the class girls who nervously spent their wait phrasing and rephrasing important queries regarding love, school, and the future. The front of the line moved slowly, as each took their turn entering the room individually. Three or four minutes would pass before the door opened again, to allow them to exit.
Fuuko had been adeptly maneuvered to fall in the middle of the group, after Yanagi and Domon, but before Recca and Mikagami. This, she assumed glumly, was their way of ensuring that she didn't escape their watchful gaze by finishing first and running away.
How clever of them.
"How'd it go?" Fuuko whispered as Yanagi emerged and Domon entered.
Yanagi blushed, too embarrassed to speak, but flashed the victory sign to her friend.
Domon's turn didn't last too long, but when he exited, leaving the door open for Fuuko, he looked ponderous, as though turning over a weighty riddle in his mind.
"How'd it go?" whispered Fuuko.
"I don't know yet," he replied vaguely. "I have to think about it for a while."
Fuuko refrained from making any jokes; instead, she slipped inside, pulling the door tightly shut behind her.
The room was small, dimly lit with candles. Incense curled in ghostly tendrils, floating up towards the ceiling and dissipating. The fortune teller sat at a low table, shuffling a pack of cards with long, quick fingers. Age and gender were impossible to determine; the fortune teller's figure was obscured in their robes, and their features were masked in shadows cast by the uncertain candles and an enormously floppy hat.
"Sit down," came the casual invitation, accompanied by a slight gesture to indicate the pillow upon which Fuuko should sit. "Make yourself comfortable. You appear to have some weighty questions on your mind. Matters of great importance. You've been through a lot, so please, confide."
The voice still wasn't helpful. Definitely young. But was it a quiet low-voiced woman or was it a man with exceptional gentleness?
Fuuko automatically placed her offering-money in a small bowl at the fortune-teller's elbow; her eyes were drawn to his? her? hands, which were mechanically shuffling, dividing, shuffling, dividing, shuffling, dividing the pack of cards. Fluently, but absentmindedly nonetheless. It reminded her of her last encounter with a fortune teller, back at the beginning of the Tendoujigoku affair. She and Ganko had been playing in the park, three days prior to the true beginning of their adventure. That fortune teller had predicted "death" in her future, and had passed her a secret message. And then---
Understanding dawned upon Fuuko's face as comprehension clicked in her mind. The hands continued their mechanical shuffling, but she almost imagined a small, secret smile on the fortuneteller's shadowed face.
"You're such a quiet one. Don't know where to begin?"
Fuuko placed her fingertips lightly on the table, staring at them for a few moments as she collected her thoughts. Lifting her eyes, she proceeded in a deliberate tone.
"I have a problem. There's a person in my life, and he means a lot to me. But I don't think I mean so much to him. He's… older than I am… and he's been through a lot of rough things. Worldly experiences, you know. He doesn't always act like a good person, though I think his core self is a very good person. He has his own share of personal demons, and he needs to come to grips with them. And that's okay. I understand that. I can accept that. But I'm confused, because sometimes, he seems to draw me close; other times, he pushes me far away."
"You don't need a fortune teller to tell you he sounds pretty unstable. You're best to leave him to go his way."
"But that's just it. He's a very… constant person. Very loyal. Very dedicated. Very singleminded. It's just the circumstances have kept changing, and his allegiance is to other things besides me. Those obstacles, though, are now gone. I want to know--- what do the cards say is in store for me now?"
The fortune-teller ignored the cards, which were still being idly shuffled from hand to hand. "Is it worth it to you to pursue this individual?"
Fuuko felt her chest tighten. "Yes," she said in a low voice.
"Do you have it in you to try and weather the storms that would inevitably come from any kind of connection with such an individual with such a turbulent past?"
"Yes," said Fuuko, with more conviction.
"And even after having survived whatever turbulence may have come, are you willing to run the risk of heartache in the end, if all does not go to your master plan?"
The nervousness was now nearly unbearable; her knees felt drained of all energy, and Fuuko vaguely wondered if she would be able to stand when dismissed. But her voice was strong. "I would have to be, wouldn't I?"
"Well, then," said the fortune teller, as though the problem was solved. "Live your life. Bide your time. I see, from the quality of your words and the intensity of your aura, that you are also a person of much intrigue and attractiveness. Hearts surround you for the taking. Chances are, you have not left your special someone unaffected yourself. Carry yourself with dignity, with pride, with energy. A chance encounter will be yours. Seize the moment. Take advantage of it. You may go."
The reading was concluded with remarkable abruptness, and Fuuko wondered if she had offended her companion. She stood up, bowed awkwardly, and hurried from the room without daring to ask for any further elaboration.