She typically charged for such a service?

Spiritual Ability users… did Spirit Controllers typically do such things!?

Mika's mouth was now wide agape in astonishment.

"Teehee…* Ruri giggled at this.

She clutched her arms as she covered her mouth and laughed. There was an alluring light in her red eyes.

"Hee hee hee… I was just joking."

"Eh?"

"I was just joking, making things up," Ruri stated in a casual manner. "I didn't expect that you'd treat it all as real, and even had such an expression. You're so cute."

Mika was left speechless.

"M… Master!"

This joke was a bit overboard! Mika's expression became angry.

Ruri smiled as she looked at Mika's face. Something flashed in Ruri's eyes.

"Although I was joking, I basically understand now that you're an honest and well-behaved child."

"Er?"

"If you chose to 'take care' of the matter in either fas.h.i.+on, I really do have the power to do what I just said. But, you didn't choose to do so, how well-behaved of you… or should I call you naïve?"

Ruri reached out with her hand and smiled ambiguously as she caressed Mika on the cheek.

"I don't dislike disciples like you."

Mika didn't know what to say as she felt the touch of Ruri's hand on her cheek.

"Heh heh." The red-eyed young woman retracted her hand. "See you later this afternoon, Mika."

She turned around and left with her hair flowing in the wind.

Stunned, Mika simply stared at Ruri's disappearing figure.

She felt something indescribable in her heart… she didn't regain her senses until a familiar voice called out to her.

"What's the matter, being so lost in your thoughts? Did you fall in love with your beautiful teacher?" Chiaki joked.

Then, she saw that Mika had a complex expression.

"What's with your expression? Did something happen?"

"No… it's nothing." Mika averted her gaze.

It was quite obvious that it wasn't nothing.

Seiji and Chiaki exchanged awkward glances.

"What exactly happened, Mika? Is there something weird about that teacher of yours?" 'This identically named Ruri isn't actually a chuunibyou as well, is she?' Seiji thought the last part to himself.

The twintailed girl fell silent for a moment.

"Should I say that she's a little weird, or terrible…?" she muttered to herself.

Seiji and Chiaki were both mystified.

"I think it should be fine… probably." Mika sighed after struggling with her inner conflict.

After that, she didn't say anything else.

Although they were still somewhat worried about Mika's condition, Seiji and Chiaki were unable to pry any further since Mika herself said that things "should be fine."

Afterwards, the three of them returned to the Uehara apartments.

Seiji was going to take Reo with him, and Mika was taking her mother as well. They were all going to go together to the shrine to greet the New Year.

The moment Seiji entered his apartment, he saw that Kaede was in the living room playing games together with Reo.

"Happy New Year, Harano-kun."

"Happy New Year, Juumonji-sensei." Seiji looked at her. "We're about to go greet the New Year. Would you like to come with us, Sensei?"

"Sure." Kaede smiled as she agreed.

After taking the loli and the mature woman with him, he saw the widow from next door.

"Happy New Year, everyone." Nozomi Uehara greeted them.

Seiji and the others wished her a Happy New Year as well.

Then, Nozomi gave Reo some money as a New Year's present, and Reo delightedly thanked Nozomi.

'Should I be giving Reo some spending money as well?' Seiji wondered to himself.

Their procession headed for the shrine.

"Seigo, when we're drawing fortunes for this new year, let's have a compet.i.tion about who has the best fortune." Chiaki started a topic of conversation.

"Alright then, what should we bet on for winning and losing?" Seiji accepted.

"If I win, you have to sleep with me."

"Don't immediately ask for something ridiculous!"

"If I lose, I have to sleep with you."

"Hey! Isn't that the exact same thing!"

"If I can have Harano-kun sleep with me if I win, then I want to join this little betting compet.i.tion as well." Kaede grinned as she joined in.

"Sensei, please take more care of yourself!" Mika retorted.

"I also somewhat want to partic.i.p.ate." Nozomi was also grinning.

"Mom! Same with you!"

"I get to sleep together with Harano onii-san every day. I don't need to partic.i.p.ate." Reo proudly lifted her face.

The atmosphere instantly froze over.

"Harano-kun…"

"Is what she said true?"

Kaede and Nozomi maintained their smiles as they both stared at Seiji with something abnormal flas.h.i.+ng in their eyes.

Seiji was rendered speechless.

He felt like he was breaking into a cold sweat.

"Um… that's because there's no more beds in my apartment…"

He explained while withstanding an invisible pressure, and did his very best to not appear insecure at all.

Chiaki grinned as she watched this scene, and refrained from making more chaos for the time being. Mika observed this coldly.

With Reo being a witness, Kaede and Nozomi accepted Seiji's explanation. He was barely able to escape from being suspected as a pervert.

"How unfortunate that you weren't executed… whoops, I meant that's great, Seigo." Chiaki smiled.

"You! It's all because of you!"

"How about we discuss next about what you feel about sleeping together with Reo every night?"

"Please stop! It's all my fault!"

Seiji almost felt like crying, only tears wouldn't come out.

Chiaki giggled, then finally stopped teasing him and changed the topic of conversation.

Everyone laughed and had fun chatting with each other as they walked towards the shrine.

They finally reached the shrine.

There were many people as expected. It was quite lively.

Seiji and the others pa.s.sed through the hordes of people and arrived at a torii gate which was quite commonly seen in anime. They went to the was.h.i.+ng area to wash their hands and cleanse themselves, then went through another torii to the main temple.

There was a line of people waiting to greet the New Year here.

When it was Seiji and his friends' turn, they tossed coins into the offering box, shook bells, bowed, clapped, and made wishes.

Seiji's wish was for this New Year to be peaceful and happy for him and his friends.

But judging from what happened already, that didn't seem likely…

After greeting the New Year, it was time to draw fortunes.

Seiji received his fortune, and opened it up to see...

"Great Misfortune."

Seiji's eyes twitched at this sight.

'Hey hey, aren't the chances of drawing 'Great Misfortune' on the New Year supposed to be incredibly small? Why did I get it with only a single try!?'

If only he had such luck in his previous life making random draws in his cell phone games.

"What did you draw, Seigo? …Ahaha!" Chiaki came over to peek at his fortune, and instantly broke out into laughter. "You actually drew Great Misfortune! That's so amazing, this one is even harder to draw than Great Fortune!" She kept laughing uncontrollably.

"Seigo got Great Misfortune?" Mika came over to have a look as well. "…This is my first time ever seeing the Great Misfortune fortune."

Kaede, Nozomi, and even Reo clamored to have a look.

"This is my first time seeing Great Misfortune as well," Kaede said.

"I drew it once when I was young. This is only my second time, though," Nozomi mentioned.

"Great Misfortune? It seems really impressive." This was Reo's comment.

"It's really amazing. It's the most difficult fortune to obtain, so it's the coolest fortune of all!" Chiaki chuckled. "It's your victory, Seigo."

"I don't want such a cool fortune at all to help me win our bet," Seiji sighed.

"Actually, fortune or misfortune isn't so important. What's important is the content of your fortune," Nozomi smiled. "Take a look to see what's written."

Seiji checked over his fortune carefully.

Romance, work, money, family, and health… according to his fortune, all of the above categories would have great misfortune. Then, the fortune also suggested how to mitigate or avoid such disasters from befalling him.

At any rate, it seemed somewhat accurate but also somewhat inaccurate.

That was how things like fortunes were. Either you believed them, or you didn't.

"Did you finish reading your fortune? Show me as well! I'm quite curious what's written on a Great Misfortune." Chiaki made such a request.

"Please allow me to refuse," Seiji said decisively as he folded up his fortune.

"Just let me take a little look, don't be so stingy~"

"I want to see it as well, especially what it says for the 'romance' category."

"I want to as well…"

"Brother, I also want to see it."

"Heh heh, I'd like to see it as well."

"Please allow me to refuse!"

Seiji felt as if some great misfortune would immediately befall him if he really showed them his fortune… so he adamantly refused and hid his Great Misfortune fortune away in the area for hanging up the fortunes.