Chapter Text
Rei has always liked the countryside between Seasoning City and Pan City. It’s very green and peaceful whenever she drives through on the way to or from her sister’s house. There’s one particular road that has always seemed very tempting—there’s something about the crooked way the street sign stands, or the trees she can see lining it, that makes it inviting. Today more than ever, it looks like somewhere she wants to be. And since she has nowhere to be until six, and her gut feelings have a history of working out, she turns onto the road.
It pretty quickly turns into gravel and begins to wind through fields full of tiny green plants that have just sprouted. New beginnings, right? That’s always good luck.
She passes a few roads that wind further away to little farms. They’re nothing special, just little farms, until one of them is special. She slows and stops in the middle of the empty dirt road, trying to figure out what’s so lucky about that particular farm. The plants in the fields are maybe a little taller, a little greener, but really everything about the farm is just beautiful. There’s a very cute farmhouse with a couple extensions built haphazardly on, some lovely old oaks and willows and a large cherry tree that’s in bloom. Before she even means to, she’s already turned and started driving toward the house.
She parks next to three other cars, gets out, and then hesitates at the steps. The front door opens, like the house itself knows she’s arrived, and an old lady pokes her head out. “Are you one of Shigeo’s friends? Come in, come in.”
Rei wants to protest that she has no idea who Shigeo is, but her gut is telling her to go inside. So she smiles and says, “Thanks.” It’ll work out. It always does.
Inside there’s a bit of a party going on. She can tell that some of the people at the party are lucky, or more important, or whatever it is her gut tells her. She’s also seeing a lot more of those things than she normally does, the things she doesn’t want to call hallucinations but has to admit they might be. Is she feeling weird from too much luck in one place? What does that even mean?
She stands awkwardly in the doorway, wondering if any of them will notice her. They’re mostly gathered around the kitchen table, looking at some kind of magazine. But the old lady stands next to her and clears her throat loudly like she’s announcing Rei’s presence. “Shigeo, another one of your friends is here. You really should pay more attention. Didn’t you hear her car?”
One of the people standing next to the table looks up. He’s very plain, wearing a collared shirt in faded red. “Oh, sorry. I was just focused. Plant catalogues are very interesting. I’ve never tried to choose plants for decorative purposes before. I’m Kageyama Shigeo. Welcome.”
Is he not going to ask why she’s in his house? She shifts her weight from foot to foot, confused, wishing she had any gut feelings that would tell her what she’s supposed to do next. She settles on a simple introduction. “Hi, I’m Kurosaki Rei. Nice to meet you?”
More of the people around the table are looking up now. One of them, a boy with blondish reddish hair, points suddenly at her. “Ah! You’re a psychic!” The woman next to him slaps his hand and hisses something at him, probably about how it’s rude to point.
“Um,” says Rei.
“That’s what I said,” says the old lady.
“Oh, are we using Shigeo’s friends as a euphemism now?” says another person at the table.
It feels a bit like an argument, and although Rei feels she needs to stay she kind of doesn’t want to. She has no idea what’s going on here, why she felt compelled to come here, or why everyone is acting like they know her. “Um, should I leave?” she says, unsure if she’ll be heard over the pointing kid. “Or does someone want to explain… everything?” The room quiets down a little bit, with one last mutter from the pointing kid, who gets elbowed by the woman next to him.
“Why did you come here?” asks the ‘euphemism’ man, who has short, spiky hair and the same hooded eyes as Kageyama Shigeo.
Rei winces in anticipation of being told off. “Honestly, I don’t have a reason for being here. It just seemed like a nice place, and I sort of followed my gut.”
“Clairvoyant,” proclaims the pointing kid. “Probably. I’ve done a lot of research, so I know about this.” He looks around at everyone at the table, and then back at her. “Hi, Kurosaki-san. I’m Reigen Arataka, exorcist-in-training and spiritual expert. These are my minions—ow! Tome-san! Fine. Introduce yourselves, then.”
“Kurata Tome,” says the woman, extricating herself from the group around the table to stick out her hand to Rei. Rei shakes it. Kurata has a very firm grip. “Pleased to meet you. I’m like the only person here without psychic powers. You don’t count, Arataka-kun.”
“Of course not,” says Arataka.
“I suppose Masaru and I don’t count either?” says the woman. “Oh, I’m Chiyo, dear.”
“Pleased to meet you,” murmurs Rei as Chiyo pats her hand.
“I’ll get you some tea. Go ahead and sit down, make yourself comfortable. Shigeo, wasn’t Musashi baking something?”
“Of course they count,” Kurata is saying, while behind her Chiyo is already talking to Shigeo. The people at the table have already started a new conversation, too. Rei feels lost, but optimistic. At least everyone seems pretty friendly.
Somehow, Rei finds herself sitting with a cup of jasmine tea and a small plate of hot cookies, listening to Kageyama Ritsu (the unnerving one) talk about what kind of plants he wants for his new business. Apparently he’s starting a psychic agency sixty kilometers east of here, near Grain City. As far as she can tell he’s been psychic all his life, so it’s a little weird that he’s only starting a business now. It’s also pretty weird that his priority is which kinds of plants to have in his office, but maybe when all your friends are farmers that’s just the way you think.
Luckily, no-one expects Rei to say anything of substance, so she just observes. It seems that the reason this is such a lucky place to be is because five of the people here are psychic, and because the luck she feels with her gut is something psychic too. She ends up feeling very relaxed, because the atmosphere is so calm and friendly. She even finds out that Shigeo has a husband, more or less, who runs the farm, and it makes her feel a lot safer to know that she’s in good company for once. In fact, she ends up much too relaxed; at about 5:30 her sister calls to ask for an ETA and she realizes she completely forgot that she had somewhere to be. That’s the kind of spell this place put on her.
She hurriedly says her goodbyes to everyone, shaking hands with Asahi and Kurata and Shigeo (and for some reason, Arataka). Shigeo insists on giving her his phone number and his husband’s email address (?) in case she needs to talk about any psychic problems or just wants to visit. She leaves the house at a run, with a paper towel full of cookies, trying to text her sister and unlock her car at the same time. She thinks she’ll visit again on the way back. Maybe next time there won’t be a party happening. Then again, she didn’t end up minding the party as much as she thought.