“What should I put in today’s fried rice?”
“Shirasu.”
“That sounds good… Should we add some pickled plums, too?”
“Splendid.”
It was about a ten-minute walk from Kibagami-do to the shopping complex in front of the train station, a chaotic combination of home improvement store, supermarket, and arcade.
I’d finished two appointments that morning, and now I was out buying lunch with Sayako-san.
I owned a car, of course, but when the destination was this close, I preferred walking. Shopping together, chatting and laughing along the way, was much more fun.
At home, Sayako-san was generally in charge of the cooking. I’d lived alone for years, so I could make pretty much anything myself, but she refused to let me take over the kitchen.
Not that I minded. We often cooked together, anyway.
Of course, the order of our three basic needs sometimes got a little mixed up along the way.
It couldn’t be helped! Before I knew it, Sayako-san would be wearing a naked apron or some outrageously provocative underwear. How was I supposed to concentrate on cooking under those circumstances?
“Egg soup is a must. Let’s splurge on the slightly more expensive freeze-dried kind today.”
“Are you sure? Here, take some money.”
“Haha. No need.”
Kibagami-do was doing reasonably well, and I’d made a pretty penny filling in for Myozen the other day. We weren’t hurting for cash.
Besides, money like that was better spent than saved. It wasn’t exactly the sort of income I could count on receiving regularly.
For the record, I kept it in a safe on the second floor.
Anyone foolish enough to try stealing it would find themselves cursed to death by Sayako-san’s beautiful hair, which I also kept inside the safe.
Having a presumed vengeful spirit around really did come in handy.
“Ah!”
As we strolled through the store, flirting and debating what to have for lunch, we heard a familiar voice.
“Puppy.”
Sayako-san sounded unusually pleased.
I turned toward her and spotted a group of high school girls in their uniforms. One of the shortest girls in the group came running straight at me.
“Brother Gen! Long time no see!”
She threw herself at me with enough force to qualify as a tackle.
“Gah! Careful!”
“Ritsu, it hasn’t been that long. We only saw each other last month, didn’t we?”
“But that was last month!”
“I suppose you have a point.”
A high school girl with shoulder-length hair clung to me, her eyes sparkling with delight.
Her name was Yasaka Ritsu, my much younger stepsister.
She was only a first-year in high school, but her behavior hadn’t changed much since middle school.
“Hey, Sayako! Long time no see!”
“Mm-hm.”
Sayako-san gently patted Ritsu’s head.
Ruffle, ruffle.
The scene looked less like two people greeting each other and more like someone petting a Shiba Inu.
Ritsu was the daughter of my father’s new wife. My surname, Kibagami, had belonged to my late mother, but I’d kept using it because it sounded suitably mysterious for a fortune teller.
Ritsu and I weren’t related by blood, and there was nearly a ten-year age gap between us.
For some reason, though, she was extremely attached to both me and Sayako-san.
I suspected Sayako-san liked her, too. Ritsu had a certain puppy-like charm.
My wife generally didn’t bother talking to people she disliked.
In fact, if she really hated someone, she’d curse them.
“You know, I was actually on my way to your place, Brother Gen!”
“My place?”
“Yep! Everyone, come over here!”
At Ritsu’s call, the other girls approached.
There were three of them in total, including Ritsu.
Hmm? That girl…
Ah, I see.
“This is my big brother, Gen-niisan, and his wife, Sayako-nee-san!”
Ritsu introduced us with a huge smile.
Could you perhaps not announce it quite so loudly? Everyone was staring.
I was a six-foot-tall man wearing sunglasses, and standing beside me was a beautiful woman who was nearly seven feet tall.
We were hardly inconspicuous.
“Whoa! They’re huge! Like models!”
“They’re both so tall!”
They say that when three women get together, the noise level triples. Judging by the excited chatter around me, the saying seemed accurate.
And at their age, even watching a chopstick fall to the floor could apparently be cause for celebration.
“Um, I’m Genichiro Kibagami. Thanks for looking after Ritsu. Anyway, if you’ve come to see us, we might as well head back together.”
“It would be better to have bread for lunch.”
As expected of my wife. She understood the situation perfectly!
…
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
We returned to Kibagami-do with Ritsu and her friends. Sayako-san had prepared sandwiches, and everyone happily tucked in.
Once we’d finished eating and had a chance to relax, I changed into my usual kimono and headed downstairs.
“Your brother always looks so cool when he’s working, Ritsu!”
“Very.”
Please stop. You’re making me blush.
Ritsu had brought her friends over because one of them wanted a fortune-telling session.
We didn’t offer family discounts, but students got a special rate: three thousand yen for an hour, half the usual price.
It was still a fair amount of money for a high school student, but they’d agreed to pay.
“Sorry, but could I ask you to wait upstairs with Ritsu, Miss Tashiro?”
“Yes!”
For privacy reasons, the first floor was reserved for the client, me, and Sayako-san.
Ritsu and her friend Tashiro went up to the second floor to wait in Ritsu’s room. Since Ritsu visited us regularly, she knew her way around and should have felt right at home.
And no, there was nothing particularly adult or inappropriate up there.
If there had been, Sayako-san would have gotten jealous and squeezed the life out of it.
Not that I needed any of that stuff, anyway. With the ultimate perverted curse goddess living under the same roof, adult videos couldn’t exactly compete.
Besides, the last time Sayako-san had gotten jealous, it had been because I’d forgotten to throw away an old DVD.
“Now, then… Just relax. Um, Miss Kanda?”
“Y-yes.”
The girl sitting across from me was today’s client.
Ritsu had explained a little on the way back. She and the other girl were classmates and close enough to spend the night at each other’s houses.
Her name was Miki Kanda.
Unlike the lively Ritsu, Kanda had the look of a classic Japanese beauty. She was tall for a girl, with naturally black hair tied neatly into a ponytail.
“Don’t worry. The clock hasn’t started yet. Have some tea and take your time.”
Today, Sayako-san had chosen apple tea. A neatly sliced piece of baumkuchen sat on the plate beside it.
“Thank you… Mmm! It’s delicious! Did you make this yourself?”
“My wife’s an amazing cook.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Sayako-san gave me an embarrassed little pat on the shoulder.
But it was the truth!
A lot of my female clients seemed to relax when they saw us fooling around together like this.
I couldn’t blame them. My usual appearance consisted of a man in a kimono wearing a fox mask. I looked suspicious enough to make anyone wary at first.
“Um… I think I’m ready now.”
Kanda had finished her tea and cake, and she seemed considerably calmer.
All right, then. Let’s get started.
“I see. I understand.”
I listened to Kanda’s story for about thirty minutes.
For roughly the past six months, she’d felt as though she’d been plagued by terrible luck.
At first, she’d assumed she was imagining things. But items she was certain she’d checked would go missing, and she’d nearly been hit by cars several times on her way to school.
She was constantly overcome by sudden drowsiness during class. Even when she got plenty of sleep, her head felt heavy every day, as though she were perpetually sleep-deprived.
She also suffered from sleep paralysis on a regular basis.
And those weren’t the only problems.
For some time, she’d felt as though someone, or rather, something, was always watching her.
When she’d been discussing these experiences with her friends, Ritsu had overheard them and mentioned that her older brother was a fortune teller.
And that was how Kanda had ended up at Kibagami-do.
I understood now. I’d thought her makeup looked a little heavy for such a serious-looking high school student, but it seemed she’d been using it to hide her unusually pale complexion.
“Hmm. You said this started about six months ago, Miss Kanda. Did anything unusual happen around that time?”
“Anything unusual…?”
Kanda thought for a moment. Then her eyes widened slightly, and she looked at me with an embarrassed expression.
Ah. That sort of reaction, huh?
“Oh, before you answer, let me assure you of something. I won’t tell your sister or anyone else what you share with me here today.”
She visibly relaxed.
“Let me make a guess, then. Around that time, you were having some trouble involving a romantic relationship, weren’t you?”
“Huh?! H-how did you know?!”
“That’s a secret.”
I answered with a quiet smile and took a sip of tea.
As I drank, I shifted my gaze toward the back of the room, looking beneath the edge of my mask.
There it was.
A black mass had wrapped one of its hands around Kanda’s neck.
Judging by its outline, it seemed to be a woman.
I’d noticed it at the supermarket earlier, too. It had been hard to miss.
Of course, being strangled by a spirit didn’t mean Kanda would immediately suffocate. As I’d explained before, it was difficult for ordinary human emotions to exert a strong influence on someone who was alive and actively going about their life.
This shadow was taking its time, slowly wearing her down.
I’d seen enough supernatural phenomena over the years to recognize the signs.
This was probably a vengeful spirit, or something close to one.
More importantly, someone who was still alive had directed a curse at Kanda.
“Um… y-yes. A second-year student from the soccer club confessed to me, but… I turned him down.”
“Oh? May I ask why?”
Kanda faltered, struggling to find the words. Eventually, she lowered her eyes and spoke hesitantly.
“When I was in middle school, a pervert almost attacked me… Ever since then, I’ve been afraid of men. Especially men who resemble him, strong, athletic types…”
“I’m sorry. That must have been difficult to talk about. You don’t have to say anything more.”
Her eyes had filled with tears, and I didn’t want to force her to relive the experience.
Still, I hadn’t expected her to tell me so much. I was a fortune teller, yes, but I was also her friend’s older brother, a man she’d only just met.
Perhaps she’d found it easier to open up because I was married.
In any case, the boy who’d confessed to her was almost certainly connected to the cause of her troubles.
Resentment, jealousy, envy… Something had driven a woman to hold a grudge against Kanda.
And judging by the way the spirit’s influence had gradually intensified, the curse had probably been built up little by little. Whoever was responsible wasn’t an expert, but they clearly knew a thing or two about the occult.
The curse itself was almost too well constructed. It looked like something straight out of a textbook.
Were there really textbooks on cursing people? If so, the world was in even worse shape than I’d thought.
Living with Sayako-san, an absurdly powerful curse goddess, had taught me a fair amount about curses through sheer exposure.
“Miss Kanda, here. Please take this.”
“Huh? What is it? Oh, it’s so cute!”
I took a small yellow charm from my pocket and handed it to her.
A plump, stylized cat was embroidered on its surface.
“It won’t make everything in your life go perfectly, but it might bring you a little good luck. Believe it or not, it’s a genuine charm from an old shrine in Kyoto. There’s no extra charge, so keep it with you for a while.”
“Thank you so much!”
Kanda hugged the charm to her chest, looking delighted.
Well, I couldn’t guarantee it would bring her good luck. It was a legitimate charm that the shrine actually distributed, though.
But that wasn’t the real reason I’d given it to her.
(Sayako, send it back.)
(All right…)
Sayako-san’s voice echoed inside my head.
The next instant, the black shadow clinging to Kanda’s neck,
Pop!
It vanished.
I’d seen it through Sayako-san’s eyes.
(Sorry you didn’t get to eat it.)
(I didn’t need it in the first place.)
Good. Then we were all on the same page.
Besides, this wasn’t the sort of thing we wanted to pass around to someone else. And student clients weren’t exactly big spenders.
“…Huh? My shoulders feel lighter somehow!”
“Haha. Sometimes talking things through with someone can help more than you’d expect. Though I suppose I’ve ended up giving you life advice rather than fortune-telling.”
I smiled at her.
“Is there anything else you’d like to ask? We still have time.”
Kanda seemed to have a pretty strong sixth sense if she could notice the change so quickly.
This time, everything had worked out. But I wondered whether she might attract something unpleasant again in the future.
Well, she didn’t seem to have any ill intentions toward me. If something happened again, I could always help her then.
And if she kept coming back even after she started working, she’d become a valued regular.
“Is that all right? In that case…”
Seeing Kanda looking so much better, I finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
…
“Brother! Brother!”
“Yeah?”
Four days later, Ritsu came over to visit again.
This time, she was sprawled across the sofa with her head resting in my lap.
Sayako-san occupied my other knee.
According to my wife, Ritsu was apparently the sort of girl who wouldn’t mind being with me.
Well, we weren’t related by blood, but she was still my adorable little sister. And naturally, I had absolutely no romantic interest in her.
Besides, I was about fifty centimeters too short for her tastes.
“Apparently, there’s been a ghost sighting at my school!”
“Oh? That sounds very high-school-like. So, what happened?”
For the record, Ritsu had absolutely no psychic ability.
She believed my fortune-telling was more like counseling than anything supernatural.
“Your shop is trustworthy because you don’t try to sell people weird vases or talismans!” she’d told me before.
Don’t confuse fortune-telling with spiritual scams. But fine, I’d take the compliment.
My father had no psychic abilities whatsoever, so I assumed mine came from my late mother’s side of the family.
“Okay, so! There’s this second-year student. He was chased by a ghost through the school building after classes, fell down the stairs, and ended up in the hospital! And other people have seen it, too! They say it’s just a black upper body!”
That was the one Sayako-san had sent back.
The curse had been unusually well constructed, which probably made its backlash all the more potent when it struck its caster head-on.
He who curses others digs two graves.
I hoped he was prepared to face the consequences.
Personally, I cared more about Ritsu and her friends than I did about the boy who’d apparently started all this.
He’d chosen to cast the curse of his own free will. Whatever came back at him was his own responsibility.
Besides, as far as I knew, there wasn’t any law against a supernatural counterattack.
“Ghosts are so scary! Big Brother, you’ll protect me if something happens, right?”
“Hahaha. I don’t have that kind of power. But here…”
I took a cat charm from my pocket and gently placed it on Ritsu’s nose.
“Wow! What’s this? It’s so cute! It looks like it’ll bring good luck!”
“Something like that. A little more than you’d expect, actually.”
Unlike the charm I’d given Kanda, this one was specially made.
With Sayako-san’s permission, I’d mixed a little of her hair into it.
Even a vengeful goddess was still a goddess. Her divine protection ought to be tremendous.
Rather than attracting good fortune, this charm was more like a weapon designed to obliterate every last trace of evil.
“Thank you, Big Brother!”
“You’re welcome.”
I was weak when it came to family.
A little special treatment wouldn’t hurt.
“Hey, can I stay over tonight?”
“Sure.”
Sayako-san gave her permission before I could even answer.
Which meant my plans for tonight would have to be postponed.
Oh, well.
I’d call Dad later.
…
“…I sense a powerful curse.”
“Hirata brought this on himself, but… we can’t just ignore it.”
“It looks like we’ll have to do a little investigating.”