Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

"Stop rambling and being so mystical. Explain yourself clearly: what exactly is going on in our relationship?"

Tomie's brows furrowed, and her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly, a dangerous glint flashing in the flickering candlelight.

"Your story begins with the ruins of the tower's collapse. The Fool embarked on a path of no return, and the misaligned wheel of fate has transformed you beyond recognition."

The fortune teller gathered the tarot cards, looked up at Tomie, and smiled faintly. Her smile seemed unfathomable in the dim candlelight, and she exuded a mysterious charm.

Her voice was soft, like a breeze drifting from a distant place.

"If I had to draw a definitive conclusion, it would be that you two are very mismatched."

The moment the words left his mouth, the air in the room seemed to freeze.

Amamiya Rin's eyelids twitched.

How should I put it? He felt that what the fortune teller said was true. Wasn't the relationship between him and Tomie exactly what the fortune telling had predicted?

However, there are different kinds of truths, some that can be told and some that cannot. After all, this is a fortune-telling shop; why would they tell customers such unpleasant things? Even if they have real skills, a shop that specializes in love fortune-telling doesn't need any real skills.

Amamiya Rin calmly muttered to herself.

"I'll allow you to say it again."

Tomie's expression remained unchanged; her face was the same as before, her eyes the same as before. However, Amamiya Rin could clearly feel that the oppressive aura emanating from her was increasing at a visible rate.

That's not an illusion.

The room temperature seemed to be both decreasing and increasing, a contradictory feeling that made her very uncomfortable. Her powerful life force, amplified by her anger, acted like a blazing furnace, genuinely affecting the airflow outside.

It wasn't just Amamiya Rin who sensed this phenomenon; the fortune teller sitting opposite her also noticed the change in the airflow and the oppressive aura emanating from Tomie.

Shall we continue?

The fortune teller hesitated; the woman before him seemed to be more than just immortal.

"Didn't you hear me? I gave you permission! Say it again!"

Tomie leaned her upper body towards the fortune teller, her gaze fierce, looking down at him condescendingly.

Under Tomie's pressure, a hint of displeasure flashed in the fortune teller's eyes.

Even if she is not immortal, nor a witch with power, what does it matter if she is just a big, burly Muggle with great strength?

The displeased fortune teller spoke bluntly.

"Your relationship will encounter all sorts of ups and downs, and staying together will only lead to mutual torment. It's better for both of you to break up sooner rather than later."

Her voice was soft and her tone concerned, sounding as if she genuinely cared about the other person.

Veins bulged on Tomie's forehead. She raised her right hand, and then...

"Smack—!!!"

A loud bang exploded in the small room.

The solid wood square table broke in two, the splinters of wood scattering jaggedly everywhere. The crystal ball rolled to the ground, spinning several times before hitting the corner of the wall and coming to a stop. Tarot cards were scattered all over the floor, and the candles were knocked over by the impact.

The room was plunged into darkness.

Only the light filtering through the gaps in the curtains could barely outline the silhouettes of the three people.

Tomie stood up.

Her figure appeared exceptionally tall in the dim light, with taut shoulders and slightly bulging arm muscles. She resembled a volcano about to erupt, and that powerful sense of oppression enveloped the entire room, giving one the illusion that it was hard to breathe.

"Are you good at fortune telling? Did you predict whether you'd get beaten up today?"

She looked down at the fortune teller with a vicious grin. Her once beautiful face now looked rather frightening, the muscles in it now appearing as if they were fleshy.

The fortune teller's smile vanished, and he instinctively shrank back, his body tense like a fully drawn bow, a hint of fear and surprise flashing in his eyes. Those eyes, which had just been feigning profundity, suddenly contracted in size.

Tomie's sudden outburst really startled her.

The solid wood table was shattered with a single slap. If that force had struck her, she and the table would have ended up in the same fate.

Oh no! We've run into a tough opponent.

The fortune teller remained silent on the surface, but inwardly he was groaning.

There's a saying that goes, "When a scholar meets a soldier, reason is useless," and the same applies to her encountering such a reckless man.

"Alright, stop messing around. Love fortune telling and stuff is just for fun. There's no need to hit people."

Amamiya Rin reached out and grabbed Tomie's arm, stopping her from going over to beat up the fortune teller.

"Entertainment? If it's really just for entertainment, I might as well let her beat me up."

Tomie turned to look at Amamiya Rin, her face full of unhappiness, her chest heaving violently like an enraged female leopard.

Because this is not entertainment at all.

Both she and Amamiya Rin knew very well that this woman was truly capable. Her words just now, her interpretations of the tower, the Fool, and the Wheel of Fortune, clearly revealed her and Amamiya Rin's past. Those things couldn't have been fabricated casually, nor did they contain any ambiguous attitude.

"So what? She's not wrong, is she?"

Amamiya Rin held her wrist and said calmly.

Upon hearing this, Tomie's eyes widened, and she glared resentfully at Amamiya Rin.

"Our destiny is such that we are destined to be together for life. No matter what twists and turns we encounter, we will be bound together by fate forever. Whether we live or die, nothing can separate us."

Amamiya Rin raised his head and met Tomie's gaze. His tone was neither deliberately sentimental nor affectedly affectionate; he simply stated his words in a straightforward manner.

"She interprets our relationship based on her own ideas, but isn't this the kind of ill-fated relationship we have? Even if it's a terrible ill-fated relationship, it's still a life we ​​won't give up because of what others say."

His words were flat and devoid of emotion, and Amamiya Rin's eyes were as calm as a still lake, without a ripple. Yet, this unremarkable description of their relationship caused Tomie's cheeks to gradually flush. The blush started at her ears, slowly creeping up her cheeks, and finally even her neck was tinged with a faint pink.

"You...you bastard..."

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her mind blank, so she stomped her foot.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, several cracks appeared in the floor tiles.

"So annoying! Who wants to listen to this?"

Tomie turned her head away, her ears burning red, and her voice softened, tinged with a mixture of exasperation and embarrassment. The previous intimidating tone was gone.

"Why can you always say such things so casually? Don't you feel ashamed of saying such cheesy things?"

Why be shy? I'm just stating a fact.

No, it's not just stating the facts, it's just repeating what Tomie once said to him in reverse to Tomie.

Amamiya Rin's heart was as still as water, undisturbed by any ripples.

Behind the table, broken in two, the fortune teller watched this scene with an expression as complex as if he had swallowed a live spider.

Although I wasn't actually beaten, this feeling was even worse than if I had been.

"Sorry, I broke your things..."

Yu Gonglin took out his wallet, pulled out five 5 yuan bills, and handed them to the fortune teller.

The fortune teller narrowed her eyes, then suddenly smiled. She stretched out her right hand, her fingertips touching the banknotes, but she didn't take them directly.

Her fingers slid along the edge of the banknote, gently grasped Yu Gonglin's hand, and lightly brushed his palm with her fingertips.

The movements were slow, with a deliberate ambiguity.

"Sir, you are so gentle."

The fortune teller's voice was soft and sweet, as if it were soaked in honey. His pupils gleamed with a moist light in the dim light. He looked up at Yu Gonglin in front of him, and their eyes met. The tender and affectionate look in his eyes made Yu Gonglin feel a little strange.

It seems he... overlooked something?

"but……"

The fortune teller sighed softly, his eyes filled with concern and worry.

"Having such a rough girlfriend must be very tough, right? You have to take care of her emotions and clean up the messes she makes. A gentle and handsome man like you should be treated well."

Brother, your girlfriend won't beat me up if she finds out, unlike me, I'll only feel sorry for Giegie.

After the fortune teller finished speaking, Amamiya Rin inexplicably experienced an auditory hallucination, and her expression became slightly strange.

Just as he finished speaking, the temperature in the room suddenly rose a few degrees.

Tomie's face was still red, but that embarrassment and annoyance had turned into anger.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the fortune teller's right hand resting on Amamiya Rin's palm. Her jawline tightened, and her fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

"You bitch! When will you ever stop? I've put up with you for way too long!"

Before she could finish speaking, Tomie, no longer caring about Amamiya Rin's feelings, grabbed the fortune teller's arm and lifted her petite body off the sofa like a chick.

"Bang--!"

A dull thud echoed in the small room as the fortune teller was thrown solidly to the ground by Tomie, her back slamming against the shattered wooden table wreckage, causing her face to contort in pain.

"it hurts!"

She curled up, let out a cry of pain, raised her head, her eyes reddening, and looked pitifully at Amamiya Rin.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?"

Tomie squatted down, grabbed her collar with one hand, and lifted her upper body off the ground.

"I've put up with you for far too long."

Tomie's face was so close that the fortune teller could see the burning anger in her pupils, her beautiful face bearing an undisguised sneer and malice.

"Wake up, you ugly woman! You've been acting like a slut ever since you walked in. Do you think I'm blind? With a face like yours, nobody would want you even if you paid them. And you dare to seduce Ah Lin right in front of me? Don't you have any self-awareness?"

"I didn't... I didn't..."

The fortune teller had completely lost the mystique she had when she first started divining; tears welled in her eyes as she spoke with aggrieved expression.

"Still putting on airs with me? Putting on airs in front of me? Don't you know I'm the expert in this area?"

Seeing the fortune teller's expression, Tomie couldn't help but sneer.

Although she stopped using Tomie's seductive techniques after she started building her muscles, the fortune teller's little tricks were like showing off his skills in front of Guan Yu.

Feigning helplessness? Feigning weakness? They had used these tactics on Amamiya Rin countless times before.

"That's it! I know what I overlooked!"

Amamiya Rin clapped his hands, suddenly realizing what was going on.

Seduction, yes, seduction. From the moment he entered, this fortune teller had been using special methods to seduce him. However, his introductory meditation method was the White Bone Contemplation. After so many years of practice, he had deeply penetrated the power of the mind, and even Tomie's charm could not sway his mind.

That is why the fortune teller seemed to have used some kind of power, but he was completely unaware of it.

Amamiya Rin looked thoughtfully at the fortune teller, but did not immediately stop Tomie's violent behavior.

"Is it not just the ability to divine, but also genuine supernatural power?"

Simple divination can be considered a technique, or one of the phenomena of this world. However, the allure of seduction is no longer as simple as a technique.

Amamiya Rin simply took out her notebook and started reading.

After flipping through a few pages, Amamiya Rin's gaze paused, fixing on one particular page.

"Found it!"

The fortune-telling witch, from Junji Ito's short story "The Rich Man," features a mysterious witch who runs a fortune-telling shop. In Tomie's words, she's a whore who enjoys seducing handsome men. Of course, this is just a facade; the witch's true target is the heads of handsome men.

She possesses a special kind of magic, or rather, a curse, that allows her to use her own hair as a medium to inflict a decapitation curse on men. When a man wears a high-necked garment woven from her own hair, the neckline will gradually shrink over time until it strangles him.

However, due to the curse, even if the neck is broken, the person will not die. Even if the head is separated from the body for a short time, it will be fine as long as it is put back.

"...I almost forgot, there are also these kinds of bizarre stories..."

Amamiya Rin seemed to be deep in thought.

Looking at the events recorded in his notebook, he suddenly remembered another person, and a flash of inspiration lit up his mind.

Fujino Terumi, could this curse apply to her situation?

Or, is there any connection between the curse of the human head balloon and the curse of this fortune teller witch?

Amamiya Rin raised her head and looked around, her gaze quickly locking onto the corridor leading deeper into the room.

If his records are correct, this sorcerer witch would hang the male's head in a secret room for safekeeping after cutting off his target's head.

The sight of a human head hanging in mid-air inevitably evokes images of human head balloons. Well, while there might not be a real connection, a manga artist's inspiration has its limits. Junji Ito has penned many stories involving the use of sound to cast curses or exert other influences.