Saturday Morning - Street
A solitary teenager walked through the streets of Shikatsu, wearing the uniform of Uchima Senior High… along with a short red cape on his back, which certainly drew attention… not that the teenager knew this.
This boy’s name was Ishido Yoichi, and he was focusing hard on a notebook which he held firmly in his hands.
“Uchima Senior High’s in the east… and it’s near some detective agency, isn’t it? That’s what Mr and Mrs Yoichi told me…” Ishido stated, reading out the scrawls he’d written in his notebook. “But I just can’t seem to find it.”
Ishido sighed.
“I’ve been looking for two hours… I think. I just don’t know how it’s so hard to find this place. I’m excited to go to school, but I don’t know I’ll ever find it at this rate. Maybe I should just ask somebody, but….”
Ishido continued his trek down the streets of Shikatsu, earning quite a few odd glances with his odd attire. Eventually, he passed by a young woman behind a stand of sorts. Near her were several cards. ‘She looks young… Maybe… just maybe…’ Ishido began to ponder as his eyes looked upon the woman. ‘Maybe she’s a student too? Maybe she’ll know where to go.’
Ishido calmly approached the young woman’s stall, intent on locating the elusive Uchima Senior High once and for all. In the past few days, Ishido had tried his best to locate the school… but his attempts proved unsuccessful, and usually led to Ishido getting lost and then simply going home.
Ishido stopped to a halt in front of the woman’s stall, taking note that it seemed to deal with ‘Tarot Readings’ – whatever that was. Ishido briefly wondered if he knew what it meant in his past life… before he became afflicted with his amnesia.
Both the woman and Ishido locked eyes, neither of them uttering a word for a brief few moments. Ishido was waiting for the woman to say something, but she herself seemed to be waiting for Ishido to say something. Eventually, the silence was broken by the young woman.
“Prolonged eye contact – the start of any good romance!” The young woman enthusiastically exclaimed. “Are you here for a tarot reading…? I sure hope you are! I’ll even make it free for you, daaarling!”
Ishido scratched his head in confusion. He’d simply had eye contact with the tarot reader… he didn’t exactly grasp how that related to romance.
“Uh… I came over to you because you looked young, like a student or something. I’m looking for Ushima Senior High… school started yesterday, but I’m a day late.”
“I look young?! Oh, you flirt! I’m only seven years out of senior high!” The woman replied excitedly, as she began to play with her dark black hair. “I’ll tell you where Ushima Senior High is… if you take my tarot reading.”
‘This is kinda weird… I thought she was younger…’ Thought Ishido. ‘Plus… I’m not sure if I’m imagining things, but her breath is awful…’
“So what’s this ‘tarot reading’ thing? … Because I’ve got no idea.” Ishido admitted, as he shifted his gaze from the tarot reader to the towering buildings nearby.
With a giggle, the tarot reader motioned towards a large deck of cards, which she then grabbed hold of… and forced into Ishido’s hands.
“Some tarot readers make you draw out six cards,” The tarot reader spoke. “Boring! That’s five too many! That’s why I call myself the fun and unique tarot reader! All you’ve got to do to get your reading is to shuffle the deck, then pick out a random card! That’ll tell you what Arcana is prominent in your life at the moment! It’s kind of like seeing your fortune!”
‘… Seeing my fortune? That’s possible…? I’ll do this – if it’s fortune telling, then it’ll tell me if I find Uchima Senior High… I think.’
Ishido clumsily began to shuffle the deck. He knew the basics of shuffling a deck of cards… but he didn’t know much else about it, which he chalked up to his amnesia. Ishido continued shuffling the deck over and over, for three minutes; which is when the tarot reader told him to stop, with a bit of a giggle.
Somehow, Ishido remembered that the tarot reader told him to pick out a random card.
‘Alright… well… I’ll just take the fifth card. Mr. and Mrs. Yoichi tell me that’s my lucky number.’
Ishido carefully pried the fifth card out of the deck, while simultaneously taking care not to drop the deck of tarot cards onto the ground. Ishido eyed the card he’d drawn from the deck. It was an illustration of an armoured skeleton riding upon a snow white horse. In the skeleton’s hand was a large, ominous black flag, with a bright white insignia of sorts in the centre. Below the armoured skeleton’s horse was a man lying down, seemingly dead… and in front of the skeleton and his horse was another man dressed in bright yellow, his hands held together, along with a kneeling woman in white and a child.
The final detail Ishido noticed was the presence of words near the bottom of the card.
‘XIII – Death’.
As soon as Ishido read this, he was filled with shock and confusion. The card didn’t say anything about his future! It was essentially just a picture! “I thought this was going to tell my fortune?” Ishido inquired. “This card doesn’t say anything, though… are you tricking me?”
In response, a grin formed on the tarot reader's face. “Ah, what a joker you are, darling! You’ve got quite the sense of humor – it tickles my funny bone, to say the least.” The tarot reading woman laughed. “You drew the death card-“
“Wait… death card?” Ishido uttered in worry. “So if this is telling my fortune… I’m going to die, right?”
The tarot reading woman laughed once more as she pulled over a sheet of paper, which was covered in writing.
“It doesn’t mean you’re going to die soon, darling.” The lady spoke, her gaze fixated on Ishido. “From what I hear, the death card symbolizes… beginnings and endings, that kind of thing. My paper compares it to the sun… it says ‘The sun appears to ‘die’ each night but is reborn fresh and new every morning.’ So I think it means something in your life is going to end… but something else will come in its place…?”
Ishido felt as if the woman wasn’t sure of what she was talking about… but he didn’t know if that was truly the case. Regardless, Ishido had a question to ask. “But how’s that relate to my fortune? It doesn’t say if I’m going to find Uchima Senior High or anything.”
“Oh no, darling… that’s not how the tarot works. It won’t tell you exactly what’s going to happen.” The tarot reader explained with a sudden wink. “It gives you an idea, I think. Something is going to end for you, but then something else will begin in its place…”
The tarot reader’s explanation managed to click with Ishido in a way… she spoke of endings and beginnings. Ishido’s old, non-amnesia afflicted life presumably came to an end… but it also led to Ishido’s new life.
Or, perhaps Ishido was giving it too much thought. But he had something else on his mind… “So where’s Uchima Senior High? I need to get there. I’m a day late.”
“Darling… don’t they start on April 5th?” The tarot reading woman asked. “That’s how it was for me – back when I was even younger! I bet you would’ve loved to see that… I was a real bombshell! If you wait around, I’ll get you some of my pictures...”
Ishido ignored the tarot reader’s offer, not wondering why he'd want pictures... and what exactly would they be of? This didn't interest Ishido.
“I don’t think they do… Mr and Mrs Yoichi say they start on April 21st.” Answered back Ishido, to which the tarot reader immediately grinned.
“Aha-ha! You know the Yoichi family? So do I! Maybe we’ll be seeing more of each other…” The tarot reader winked.
“Uh… I hope not..” Ishido meekly muttered back. “So where’s Uchima High –“ Ishido’s question was interrupted by the tarot reader.
“The arcana I drew is The Lovers – “ The tarot reader interjected… but Ishido repaid the favour by interrupting her.
“You’re kind of creeping me out…” Ishido admitted. “I’m leaving unless you tell me where Uchima Senior High is.”
The tarot reader was silent for a minute as she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, then began sketching directions onto it.
Ishido was quite relieved. He wanted to be away from this strange lady as soon as he could. Ishido wasn’t sure, but he felt as if the woman was hitting on him… but he wasn’t sure.
Eventually, the woman handed over the paper with the directions to Ishido with a sly, almost devilish smile… a smile that revealed the woman’s heavily rotted teeth, some of which were a bright shade of yellow.
“Thanks, I’ll be going now.” Ishido darted off from the tarot reader’s stall and down the street. He could hear the tarot reader calling out to him to stop, but he didn’t listen. He’d had enough of that strange woman for a day, maybe even a week.
As Ishido ran off, he could hear the tarot reader complaining that another ‘cute boy’ had left her. Upon hearing this, Ishido couldn’t help but run even faster… it sounded like Ishido wasn’t one of this woman’s first victims.
‘… At least I’ve got directions to Ushima Senior High now… but that lady was weird. And that tarot stuff… it’s kind of neat.’ Ishido’s mind then began to wander.
‘… Aren’t tarot cards those cards people play that Pokey game with?’
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Saturday Morning - Park
Ishido had followed the directions the tarot reader had given him to a tee. As far as he knew – he hadn’t made a single error…
But if he hadn’t made an error, he would have arrived at Uchima Senior High. Instead, he’d arrived at a location he’d visited occasionally in the past three months… the park, where Mr. and Mrs. Yoichi often visited for a breath of fresh air.
‘This doesn’t look like Uchima Senior High… was that woman messing around with me?’ Ishido pondered to himself, raising a hand to his chin. ‘No… maybe Uchima Senior High is around here. As weird as that lady was… I don’t think she was lying. Why would she?”
Ishido then began to scour the area for anything that looked remotely like a school. His search drew some attention to him, due to his odd combination of school uniform and a small, red cape, which billowed in the wind.
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Saturday Morning - A Few Blocks Away From The Park
To Ishido’s disappointment, the school he sought – Uchima Senior High was nowhere to be found in the park… which led to Ishido choosing to investigate the surrounding areas nearby the park. The tarot reading woman had given him directions to Uchima Senior High, and Ishido couldn’t think of why she’d lie.
Ishido was certain that it was nearby. In search of this oddly elusive school, Ishido headed down into the suburbs a few blocks away from the park. But, unfortunately for the caped amnesiac… he didn’t see any signs of Uchima Senior High on the street. A few people were heading through the area… but there was still no sign of a school.
Lightly cursing under his breath, Ishido realized he’d need to take desperate measures if he wanted to locate Ushima Senior High.
He’d have to ask another person for directions… which he wasn’t too keen on. After all, his last attempt led to an encounter with a strange, black haired tarot reader… whose demeanour made Ishido rather uncomfortable.
Ishido spotted a woman further down the area. This woman was a brunette, and was wearing glasses…
‘Glasses…!? Mrs. Yoichi tells me that many smart people wear glasses. Along with that… smart people come from schools… perhaps this lady can help me out?’ Ishido thought. ‘I don’t particularly want to ask anyone for directions, but I’ve got no choice…’
Hurriedly, Ishido speedily walked over to this brunette wearing glasses, a question on his mind. It didn’t take him too long to catch up…
“Hello. If it isn’t a bother… do you know where I can find Uchima Senior High?” Ishido calmly inquired. “I’ve been looking for it since the school year started – the 21st, I think?”
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