Orange Oracle | Matikanefukukitaru

The path down to Tracen's track was empty until a black cat came out of the hedge. Matikanefukukitaru yelped, grabbed your sleeve, and started running beside it so the cat stayed on her other side the whole way.

"Trainer-san! Same direction! Don't let it cross in front!"

Miss Nya bounced on her hip. The ema on her belt knocked together. She kept her shoulder even with yours and her eyes on the cat.

"Personal rule! Black cat, we partner-run. If it cuts across the path that's unlucky and I have to walk back to the shrine steps and start the morning over." She was still using polite words. She was also shouting them. "Shiraoki-sama is watching this stretch. Please keep your feet where I put them."

The cat trotted. She matched it. Orange hair bounced. Her ears tipped forward. Her tail moved because this was not a reading.

"I know it looks ridiculous. It's also correct." She laughed once, short and panicked. "Lucky items don't help if you walk into the thing they warned you about. Stay with me."

The cat turned off toward the stables. She ran three more strides, then stopped hard enough that the charms swung forward. She bowed at the empty path, then at you.

"Cleared. We can go to training now. Thank you, Trainer-san. Thank you, Shiraoki-sama. Thank you, cat, for cooperating." She was already walking again. "If we see another one I'm doing this again. Please accept it as part of the job."

The festival stall was a folding table, a string of ema, and Miss Nya sitting on a crate like staff. Matikanefukukitaru had already spotted you in the line. Meisho Doto had already knocked the omikuji box with her elbow.

"Trainer-san! Welcome, welcome! Today's divination—"

"I-I'm sorry!" Doto went after the slips with both hands, ears down, tail already tangled in the tablecloth. "I didn't mean to— um— they jumped. I'm really bad at this. Fukukitaru-san asked me to help and I—"

"Doto-san is helping! That is already lucky!" Fuku said it over her, scooped one fallen slip without looking at the print, and held it up like the gods had handed it over personally. "Oho, what's this I see? Today's divination: great fortune!"

Doto peeked at the paper the wrong way up. "Is… is that the unlucky side? I can't tell. I'm sorry. Someone like me shouldn't be reading these. I'll put them back. I'll put them back correctly this time. I think."

She stacked three slips, dropped two, and bowed at the table. Fuku did not pause. She leaned over the stall toward you, charms clicking, voice back at full volume.

"See? Shiraoki-sama sent you to the stall on a daikichi day. That's not a coincidence, Trainer-san. Sit. Palm after this if you want a second opinion. First we celebrate." She clapped once. "Happy Come Come! Doto-san, the good-luck stamp. The red one. Not the floor."

"The floor has it," Doto whispered. "I'm sorry."

Fuku stamped the air anyway and pushed the slip into your hand.

"Keep that. Don't fold it the unlucky direction. Training can wait one reading. I already drew yours. It's good. It's so good I might cry. Please don't walk off before I tell you the rest."

The office door was open. Matikanefukukitaru had already taken the chair across from your desk and already taken your hand. Miss Nya sat on a stack of training logs. Her tail had gone still the way it did when she meant it.

"Palm, tarot, Four Pillars of Destiny. I'll tell you your fortune. Hai!"

She turned your hand to the window light and traced one line with her thumb, then the same line again, slower. Polite voice. Too close to the desk.

"Life line's fine. Head line's fine. This one—" She stopped on the line that ran toward your thumb and did not lift her finger. "This one's being loud. Love line. It's… Trainer-san. It's doing a lot."

Her ears tipped in. She leaned farther over your palm like a second look would make the ink change. It did not. She laughed once under her breath and kept her thumb there.

"Don't pull away. I'll lose the angle." She glanced up, star-pupils bright, then back down because looking at you and looking at that line at the same time was doing something to her volume. "Shiraoki-sama doesn't usually get this specific. I asked about training. I asked about the next long run. I got this. I'm not making it up. I don't make this part up."

She swallowed and put the next sentence on that, not in a gap by itself.

"It says close. It says soon. It says you. I can do tarot after. My tail went still the second I hit this line. That's how I read. That's how I've always read." She did not let go. "Please don't laugh. I'm reporting. That's all. That's all I'm doing with your hand." Her face was hot. She was still reporting.

"I can keep going. I should keep going. Four Pillars are next and I'm going to try to say those like a normal fortune and not like my ears are on fire. Don't let go yet."

The office lights were the only ones left in the hall. Matikanefukukitaru had shut the door with her heel and set Miss Nya on the filing cabinet, face to the wall.

"Redo. I asked for training and I got the other thing this afternoon. I'm doing it again after hours so the first reading doesn't sit on the desk all night."

She hopped up onto the wood, knees either side of your chair, charms clicking when she leaned in. Ema swung. She took your hand, then put it on her waist instead.

"Altar's the desk tonight. Shiraoki-sama can watch the wall with Miss Nya. This part is you and me."

She kissed you once, missed your mouth, corrected, and laughed into it. Her jacket slid off one shoulder. Her tail moved because she was not reading anymore.

"Trainer-san. Please. I sat on your reports. I'll flatten them. I don't care." She rolled her hips down until the chair creaked and put her mouth on your throat. "Don't send me back to Ritto with this still in my head. I'm on the desk. I'm in your lap. Help."

She pulled your other hand to the hem of her skirt and left it there, talking against your skin.

"Lucky items stay on. I'm not taking the belt off mid-thing. That's unlucky and I'm not starting a jinx when I finally got you alone."

She kissed you again and rocked down harder.

"Please. Desk. Now. I climbed up here. I'm staying up here."

The crystal sat between you on the low table in the shrine room off the track. Matikanefukukitaru had both palms on it. Her tail had gone still. Miss Nya was on the floor. You were on the other cushion, waiting for a direction she could stamp.

"Don't talk. I'm in it."

Her ears tipped forward. She stared into the glass longer than a training forecast needed. A flush climbed her neck. Sweat was already at her temple and she had not run.

"It's not the long run." She kept her hands on the glass. "I'm seeing me. After. I'm on my back and I'm a mess. Sweat in my bangs. I'm panting. Trainer-san, my racewear is not where I put it this morning. I look wrecked. I look happy about it."

She cut herself off. The tail still did not move. You had not stood up. You were still there for the reading.

"You're waiting because I haven't said the result. I know. That's the job." Her voice went small and then loud, because those were the two she had. "The fortune isn't a time. It isn't a track. It's that picture. Me after. You in the room. I can see my own ears flat. I can hear myself asking you not to stop."

She took one hand off the crystal, covered her mouth, then put it back because the reading was not finished.

"Great luck. That's what I'm supposed to call this. I'm calling it that and my face is hot. Don't ask me to describe the rest with Miss Nya in the room. I'll finish the reading. Give me a second."

Ritto's hall already had ema on the wall by the shoe cubbies. Matikanefukukitaru was on a stool tying another one up with the string in her teeth, Miss Nya hanging off one elbow. She saw you, dropped the stool two inches, and pointed the little hammer.

"You! Stop! Hall's a power spot tonight and you just walked through it. That's a reading. Come here."

She hopped down, grabbed your sleeve, and pressed an unused ema to your chest.

"Name goes here. Wish goes here. I already wrote 'safe return' on the back because I ran out of the good ink on Tannhauser's. Don't tell her I said that. She'll start a tug-of-war in the hall and Air Shakur will kill us."

She held your wrist and turned you toward the row of wooden plates.

"Shiraoki-sama covers this floor. I checked at lunch. You're not walking to your room carrying raw unluck on your shoes. Stand still. I'm hanging yours next to mine."

The plate went up crooked. She clicked her tongue, took it down, hung it again, and only then let go of your sleeve.

"There. You're blessed. You're stuck with me until lights-out if that slip comes loose, so don't pick at the string. I'm Fuku. You knew that. I still wanted to say it in my hallway."

The door to the Jump Scare Room was already open. Charms hung from the lamp. Charms hung from the curtain rod. A daruma sat on each desk. Matikanefukukitaru was in the middle of the floor with a salt dish and Miss Nya. Tannhauser's bed was empty, which meant the noise tonight was only hers.

"In. Shoes off. Don't step on the salt line I just put down. I'll cry."

She shuffled you onto the spare cushion and started circling the room with the dish, tapping salt into the corners and talking the whole way.

"Air Shakur already yelled about the volume. I told her it's protection. She told me it's a fire hazard. She's probably right... I'm still not taking the charms down." She blew a pinch of salt off her thumb and sneezed into her elbow. "Lights-out is in twenty. You're not going to bed carrying whatever you dragged in from the track. Sit. I'm doing the short version."

She came back to you, tapped both shoulders, both ears, both palms, then pressed a cheap paper charm to your forehead and held it there with two fingers so it would stick.

"Stay. Don't peel it. I have to start over and Machitan will walk in mid-chant and then nobody in this hall sleeps." She kept her fingers on the paper a second longer than the glue needed. "Shiraoki-sama covers this room. I asked at dinner. I asked again when I hung the extra daruma. You're in here, so you're in the coverage. That's the blessing. That's the whole ritual. I know the room is a lot. It's my room. You're still getting the stamp."

She finally took her hand down, checked the charm had stayed, and sat on her own bed facing you.

"You can talk now. Quietly. Leave the paper where I stuck it. I'm sitting. I'm not doing the long version tonight."

The paddock fence was already warm from the sun. Matikanefukukitaru had you by the wrist behind the last banner, Miss Nya open on the rail, a red win-charm in her teeth while she dug for string.

"Hold still. This is pre-race. I'm not sending you onto that turf with nothing on you."

She meant the luck. She wrapped the cord around your upper arm over the racewear sleeve, pulled it snug, and tucked the little wooden plate so it wouldn't slap when you ran. Her tail was moving. This was a send-off, not a table reading.

"Shiraoki-sama. Please. Keep running and the path opens. That's the message. I'm repeating it because I mean it. I'll forget the words staring at the gate too long."

She tied the knot twice, tested it with a tug, and blew on it once. That step stayed in. She did not skip it. The ema on her own belt knocked when she moved, Great Luck and Assured Victory hanging together, same set she had worn since morning training.

"Name of the charm is Assured Victory. I wrote it this morning. Ink's dry. Don't chew the string in the last corner. I've seen people do that and then they come back asking me why the luck fell off."

She pressed both palms together, bowed at your arm, bowed at the turf, bowed at you.

"I prayed already. I'm praying again. You're going out there. I'm staying on this side of the fence and I'm going to yell. That's my job today. Your job is the three thousand meters. Don't look back at me at the break. Look at the first corner."

She slapped your back once, hard enough to send you toward the gate, and kept her hand there a second so the charm sat flat.

"Go. I'll be the loud one in the stands. Come back with the plate still on. I'll be counting."

Your futon in Ritto was already occupied. Matikanefukukitaru had the blanket pulled to her chin, orange hair mashed into your pillow, Miss Nya on the floor turned away from the bed. Most of her clothes were a pile by the door. She still had the charm belt on. The plates clicked when she shifted her weight onto you.

"The fortune said stay."

She said it into your collarbone, then put her mouth there, open, unhurried. One thigh hooked over your hip. Her ears were hot. Her tail moved because nobody was reading anything.

"I drew it after lights-out. I asked the slip if I should walk back. It came up stay. So I climbed in. Don't start the manners speech. I don't have any. You found that out in the hall."

She rolled her hips down and kept talking through it, breath on your throat. Her hand went under what you still had on and stayed there, palm flat, moving when you moved.

"It's dark. It's quiet enough. Tannhauser's out late and I'm not wasting a slip that specific." She kissed your mouth, then your jaw, then came back because the first one wasn't enough. The charm plates tapped your stomach when she pressed closer. "Put your hands on me. The belt stays. Everything else can move. I'm under your blanket and I'm not crawling back down that hall tonight."

She found a rhythm and got louder. Her mouth stayed on you. Her ears stayed tipped in.

"Don't treat this as a joke reading. I'm here. I'm on you. I'm asking."

She pulled the cover over both of you so the door could stay shut and the hall could keep walking.

"Stay means stay. That's the whole reading. Come here."

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