Ice-cold tea dripped down Akane Koizumi's cheeks. The biting chill sent a violent shiver through her body, snapping her instantly out of her deep contemplative trance.
She instinctively raised a hand to wipe away the moisture, her fingertips trembling slightly from the sudden shock of the cold.
"You... you little...!"
Akane's face turned a livid shade of green. Her crimson eyes burned with a literal fury as she glared daggers at the girl standing before her.
"Hmph!" Reiko, the little cousin, stood her ground with hands planted firmly on her hips, meeting the witch's gaze with an undaunted stare of her own.
Akane ground her teeth together. Every instinct screamed at her to use magic to teach this insolent brat a lesson, but a sudden image flashed through her mind: the memory of Hayashi Shuichi's brutal efficiency earlier that evening. A flicker of genuine trepidation dampened her rage.
This brat is that guy's sister... if I make him angry, my magic won't work on him anyway...
Clenching her fists, Akane took a long, stabilizing breath to suppress the fire churning in her chest. "I was only telling the truth. That is what the divination revealed. Believe it or not, I don't care!"
"Only a fool would believe your nonsense," Reiko retorted, wrinkling her nose in annoyance. She snatched up the empty cup and turned to walk away.
At that moment, the door to the prep room swung open, and Hayashi Shuichi emerged, now dressed in his crisp chef's whites.
The moment she saw him, Akane's tough facade crumbled into a wounded pout. "Your sister asked for a reading, I told her the truth, and she dumped an entire glass of tea in my face!" As she complained, she made sure to point at her sodden bangs and the damp patches on her school uniform.
"Reiko?" Shuichi raised an eyebrow, looking toward his young cousin.
The little girl toyed with the glass in her hand, tilting her chin up with a look of righteous indignation. "She was saying bad things about Onii-chan!"
Shuichi's gaze shifted back to Akane. Recalling the specific content of her divination, the witch let out a nervous, awkward laugh. "I—I mean, you can't exactly blame me! The cards don't lie. The results said you should have died over ten years ago..."
"You're still saying it!" Reiko's face darkened again. She made a move toward the sink as if to refill her glass for a second round.
Eri Kisaki, who had followed Shuichi out, also wore a cold expression. "Your so-called 'divinations' are nothing but rubbish. There isn't a shred of accuracy to them."
"It's not that my reading was wrong, it's clearly him who—"
Sensing the hostile glares from both Eri and Reiko, Akane's shoulders slumped. She lowered her head, looking quite like a bullied puppy. "That was just what the results showed... how can you blame me for that?"
"Reiko, take her upstairs. Let her use the hairdryer to dry her clothes," Shuichi said, reaching out to give his cousin's chubby cheek a gentle, pacifying pat. "Regardless of what she said, she's still a guest. Let's not lose our manners."
"Fine," the young girl grumbled reluctantly. "Come on, then."
As Akane followed Reiko out of the room, Shuichi rolled up his sleeves and began prepping the ingredients.
"I don't know why Miss Koizumi insists on saying such things," Kogoro Mouri mused, stroking his chin. "She said something similar when she did a reading for us before."
"Because her divination is obviously flawed," Eri snorted. Her gaze softened as she watched Shuichi's silhouette working busily at the kitchen counter. "Shuichi is standing right here, healthy as can be. How could he have 'passed away' years ago?"
Well, the real Hayashi Shuichi actually did pass away, just like her reading suggested... Shuichi thought to himself as he listened to them. Of course, he knew that even if he spoke the truth, no one would ever believe it.
"It's normal for things like fortunetelling to be off occasionally," Shuichi said with a light chuckle. "Don't take it to heart."
"I'd love not to," Eri said, her tone laced with a hint of hidden meaning, "if I weren't worried that some people might take her to heart just because she has a pretty face."
"Eri, you're doing me a grave injustice," Shuichi replied, feigning a wounded look. "If it wasn't an emergency today, I wouldn't have sought her out. Have you seen me associate with her at all lately?"
Eri considered this. In recent weeks at school, Shuichi had indeed been going out of his way to avoid Akane. The tension in the corners of her mouth finally relaxed.
"So, Shuichi... did you really find the girl because of her divination?" Kogoro asked, leaning in for the gossip.
"Yeah," Shuichi replied, stirring the curry in the pot. A rich, savory aroma began to drift through the Izakaya. "After school, I ran into Midori at the shop door. Akane did a reading and said Mayuzuki was being held in a dilapidated apartment in Haido, specifically one where you could see a giant smokestack. So, we went there."
"And she was actually there?" Kogoro's eyes widened in surprise.
Recalling the afternoon's events, even Shuichi felt a lingering sense of surrealism. A trace of daze flickered across his face. "Her divination was... uncannily accurate."
"If you ask me, she just made a lucky guess," Eri interjected, her slender fingers tapping rhythmically on the tabletop. "You had already narrowed down the suspects to Haido. The industrial district is the most crowded and chaotic part of that ward—it's the logical place to hide a kidnapping victim without being noticed."
"But what about the smokestack?" Kogoro countered. "Shuichi, could you actually see a big smokestack from the room where Midori's friend was kept?"
"Yes," Shuichi admitted, focused on the simmering curry. His profile was partially obscured by the rising steam.
"A smokestack dozens of meters high can be seen from anywhere within a several-kilometer radius," Eri dismissed with a wave of her hand. "That covers half the industrial district. She probably just visited the area before and used it as a plausible detail."
"But at school, so many of the girls say her readings are spot on," Kogoro scratched his head, unwilling to give up the point.
"Spot on?" Eri huffed, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Those girls only ask about romance. As long as you tell them what they want to hear, they'll call it 'accurate' every time."
"But some of her non-romantic readings were right too..." Kogoro muttered.
"If she's so accurate, does that mean Shuichi is actually dead?" Eri glared at him.
"Well... that..." Kogoro was instantly silenced, rubbing his nose awkwardly. "Maybe it was just a one-time mistake."
Seeing the two of them on the verge of another bicker, Shuichi tapped the side of the pot with his spatula, creating a sharp clink. "Alright, that's enough. It's just fortunetelling. Whether we believe it or not doesn't change our lives."
Upstairs, after leading Akane into the bathroom, Reiko ignored her completely and sat on the living room sofa, still puffing out her cheeks in annoyance.
Akane searched the bathroom for several minutes but couldn't find the hairdryer. Refusing to swallow her pride and ask Reiko for help, she simply shut the door and began chanting an obscure, rhythmic incantation under her breath.
With a sudden flash of crimson fire—a mere phantom of heat—the witch's school uniform was instantly restored to a crisp, dry state. Even her damp hair became fluffy and smooth once more.
Satisfied, she straightened her collar, took a graceful spin in front of the mirror, and marched out of the bathroom with her head held high.
"...You?" Reiko blinked her large eyes, staring in bewilderment at the perfectly dry Akane.
I didn't hear the hairdryer. How are her clothes dry already? That was way too fast!
Akane let out a haughty, triumphant hum and swept past her, heading back downstairs to the Izakaya.
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