Chapter 74: Because the Fortune-Teller Said It, It Has to Be True!
Luke, unable to feel at ease letting Mikasa handle the incident alone, followed from a distance. He was afraid that if he got too close, some evil spirits might not dare show themselves, so he kept a gap between them.
However, the companion he had brought along…
Luke looked at him with dissatisfaction.
"Didn't you say today would pass peacefully?"
"Yeah~ It's pretty peaceful."
As his companion, the fortune-teller Shibuya Jun said it as if it were only natural, spinning the crystal ball used for divination in his hand.
"But the cultist under you isn't convincing at all."
Luke pointed at the cultist, or rather, the antisocial element Shibuya Jun was sitting on.
This group of cultists was completely different from exorcists like them. Their thought process was strange, and they believed human history must contain traces of those mysterious existences.
They believed humanity's future lay within myths and urban legends.
So they did not hesitate to risk their lives in pursuit of the evil spirits attached to human society, trying to create the so-called great and salvational gods they spoke of. Among their members, there were even former exorcists whose hearts had grown twisted because of evil spirits.
If that was all, it would have been fine. At most, they would only be a group of lunatics who did not value their own lives.
The problem was that when they risked lives, the lives in question were sometimes other people's.
They had not come out to cause trouble for a long time, yet who would have thought they would run into them again today?
"Yo, you still haven't passed out? Your head's pretty hard."
Feeling movement beneath him, Shibuya Jun picked up a brick and struck the man's head once more.
Bang.
This time, he passed out completely.
"No shit. If his head weren't hard, how could he become an antisocial lunatic?"
Luke tracked Mikasa and Miura's location through his phone.
"True."
Shibuya Jun nodded in agreement.
"By the way, what did you come to me for?"
Luke asked.
"I didn't come looking for you. I came looking for these guys."
Shibuya Jun pointed at the cultist beneath him.
"When you see these people, you just beat them up. That's all."
Their definition of cultists was simple: they might not know what those people were plotting, but they were definitely plotting something.
So there was only one measure to take when encountering cultists.
Beat them first.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with doing that.
"Fine."
Luke said casually, adjusting his schoolbag.
"This generation of cultists really isn't impressive. They're even interested in a girl who gained a spirit-attracting constitution because of an evil spirit incident."
He looked at another batch of people approaching.
Seeing that these cultists had come because of Miura, Luke kicked Shibuya Jun beside him.
Still, these guys are ordinary people?
He felt it was a little strange.
"Oh, more of them."
Shibuya Jun, who had been watching TV through his crystal ball, hurriedly stood up.
"Leave them to me. I already said the area around that girl would become peaceful today, so it has to become peaceful."
Looking at the cultists who wanted to deal with him first, Shibuya Jun muttered under his breath.
"Because the fortune-teller said it, it has to be true."
The action-first liberal fortune-teller Shibuya Jun had one guiding principle:
"A fortune-teller's words are one part truth and one part guess. So if you want your fortune to come true, you have to work hard yourself!"
And so, facing the terrifying cultists, Shibuya Jun removed his eye-catching robe, revealing a body covered in tough, well-trained muscle.
Holding the crystal ball in his hand, he spoke to the cultists in front of him, who looked somewhat like normal people.
"Allow me to tell your fortune…"
The crystal ball reflected the sunlight, scattering a brilliant rainbow glow like the River Styx.
"Mm. It seems your time of death has arrived."
Seeing that light, Shibuya Jun nodded and took a fighting stance.
The cultists looked at one another, then decisively lifted their legs.
Is it some kind of technique?
Shibuya Jun guessed in his heart.
Then, in the next instant, he saw the cultists…
Run away.
"Hey, don't run!"
Shibuya Jun hurriedly chased after them. Since he was a fortune-teller, he had to make sure his words came true.
"That guy…"
Luke watched Shibuya Jun's retreating back with a speechless expression, then picked up the robe he had dropped.
That guy clearly could have just kept the robe on and pretended to be frail. That alone would have been enough to lure the fish onto the hook.
But no, he had to show off that bulky body and scare the other side away.
He created trouble for himself for no reason.
Also, was flexing his muscles some kind of mandatory ritual? Did he feel like all his training would be wasted if he did not show them off? And why did he insist on showing them to men?
Seriously, even though Luke sometimes caused trouble every day, compared to his colleagues, he was actually the most proper one.
Sigh. A man with a family really was different.
"Huh? Where did Shibuya Jun go?"
As Luke sat down, Kasumizuki appeared at some point and walked over in her usual witch-style dress.
At least someone slightly more reliable had arrived.
"He went to tell the cultists' fortunes."
Luke answered.
Kasumizuki nodded, already understanding.
"Oh. He went to hunt down cultists."
"By the way, why are all of you leaving Tokyo and running to Chiba instead of staying where you're supposed to?"
Luke looked speechlessly at the woman who served a god.
Instead of properly serving the deity in her temple, why was she running around everywhere every day?
"Isn't it because cultists came out to stir up trouble again?"
Kasumizuki pointed at the cultist beneath him.
Luke asked her, "I remember you guys saying before that these cultists were all stubborn one-track-minded people. Their previous plan clearly wasn't even finished yet, but now they're changing direction?"
"Sigh…"
Kasumizuki sighed.
"Don't think of those people as that stupid. They are stubborn, yes, but they aren't so stupid that they'll keep repeating the same mistake."
That was true too…
Still, their relaxed attitude toward cultists was entirely because of the cultists' own achievements.
They trusted them unconditionally. They believed there was nothing those cultists could not screw up.
"Last time, they were planning a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, right?"
Luke, who had not participated in the previous cultist suppression operation, asked.
"Yeah. Those people dug through all the powerful evil spirits across the country, but before they could even act, the gathered evil spirits started fighting each other first."
Kasumizuki continued casually.
"They killed each other until barely any evil spirits were left. The whole country was a lot quieter during that period."
"After that, plenty of exorcists couldn't make money and changed careers. People who didn't know better would've thought the cultists were trying to go straight and compete with us for the exorcism market."
Luke shrugged.
"Then what about the time before that?"
"They handed out subsidies, gifts, and cash rewards to gather people to worship a divine statue. The plan was to collect faith and create a god."
"And the result?"
"They didn't have enough funding and got fleeced dry."
"…Are they some new type of charity organization?"
And so, Kasumizuki showed him the cultists' many bizarre plans, such as overturning society, communicating with the mysterious, summoning gods, and more.
Every single one of those ideas sounded absurd, but those people truly dared to act on them.
Even if almost none of them succeeded.
…
(Don't forget to vote and leave a comment below! The more you vote, the more chapters I upload weekly.)
...
Read more chapters in advance:
patréon.com/U22
(Note: Replace "é" with "e" on your web browser.)