Starting With The Sefirah Castle In The Anime World

For a witch, divination is indeed a simple matter. Even if the space is not ideal, Akako can still use tarot cards to perform a basic reading.

After shuffling the cards, she began to draw.

The first card was The Fool, the second was The Hermit, and the third was The World.

"???"

"Why is this spread so strange?"

These three cards correspond to the person holding the Dark Star, but seeing these three appear together was rare.

The Fool is a special card with a very unusual meaning.

This card had never appeared before in Akako's previous readings.

Following The Fool came The Hermit, representing someone who is good at hiding and dislikes being exposed.

And then came The World, a card that directly opposes The Fool.

The Fool stands for the beginning, and The World symbolizes the end.

All three cards were upright, which meant they were all favorable. It indicated that the person's fate was just like the cards: beginning and end connected, with the middle focused on concealment.

A person who has a touch of perfectionism, avoids the spotlight, and values starting and finishing things.

"Got it?"

Kaito was curious.

"All this tells us are the person's traits. But this person is special. They are accompanied by The Fool and The World, with The Hermit in between."

"So, what does that mean?"

"The Fool represents the beginning of everything, the start of an adventure, and freedom of travel. It is both the beginning and end of the tarot deck. Everything in the cards is like what The Fool experiences during the journey."

"The World represents the destination of that journey. It is the result of The Fool's travels. Whether good or bad depends on the card's upright or reversed position. But both The Fool and The World point toward a path of freedom."

"It is very rare for these two cards to appear together. Even rarer for them both to be upright."

"The Hermit in the middle represents rationality and calmness. These three cards together point clearly to one person, making it easier to understand who they are."

Akako paused here.

"That was how it should have been, but this time the reading was interrupted."

"Interrupted?"

Kaito's curiosity grew.

"Can a reading even be interrupted?"

"Of course."

Akako rolled her eyes.

"My divination is strong, but this is just a quick reading. No special rituals, no crystal ball to assist, just an ordinary deck of tarot cards. To be able to describe that person with this much accuracy is already very good."

"Also, I'm a witch. My divination is a way to determine luck and direction. It's not some search engine that pinpoints someone's location."

"If I really had that kind of ability, do you think I'd be the only witch left in this era?"

Kaito thought about it and realized that she was right.

Even if she hadn't pinpointed a person directly, the amount of information she provided was enough that, with further investigation, the person's identity could be found.

It was already surprising enough that a divination could reach this level.

If Akako could precisely locate someone, that would be terrifying.

Kaito didn't dare imagine such a thing.

"It's still impossible to confirm whether Mrs. Suzuki knows this person or not."

Although Akako had clarified the traits of that person, it was still true that she could not immediately confirm their identity.

"You think she knows them?"

"With so many black pearls scattered around, do you think a thief like you can tell which one it is?"

Kaito paused, then shook his head helplessly.

"I can't be sure."

In this mix of genuine and fake, old pearls and brand-new ones, he had no way to be certain which pearl was the Dark Star.

"You can't even be sure. How could she be?"

"If she knew, you would have already found a way to figure it out. Do you really think she has such a plan?"

Kaito thought for a moment, then nodded slightly.

"So you should have let me divine from the start to see if she knew who held the Dark Star. Why go through so much trouble?"

In fact, no matter who performed the divination, the outcome could be predicted. Unfortunately, right now the circumstances weren't ideal. With no proper ritual tools and the scene being noisy, the reading was bound to have distortions.

Akako sighed. Why was she even doing this here?

She grumbled in her heart but still quickly focused on the reading again.

Keeping the question simple helps make up for the loss of accuracy.

Because this question was simple, only the upright or reversed position of the card would matter.

So this time, she just shuffled the deck and drew a single card.

The card drawn was Death, reversed.

"The card is reversed. So Mrs. Suzuki doesn't know who owns the black pearl."

Akako's answer made Kaito's expression turn pale. It was now clear that he had completely lost to Mrs. Suzuki this time.

This loss wasn't just because he had been outmaneuvered, but because of the method she used.

She cut off all her own retreat, leaving herself no way out, which also completely destroyed his retreat.

Mrs. Suzuki won by eliminating all her own options.

This victory was not a surprise. It didn't rely on any tricks. It simply surpassed his predictions about human nature.

"Well… alright. I've completely lost this time."

Kaito quickly composed himself.

It wasn't that he couldn't accept failure, especially when Mrs. Suzuki had gone to such lengths.

The only thing unclear now was how Jii had been exposed.

But there was no need to pursue that. As long as a person leaves traces, this kind of result is much more reasonable than anything else.

Perhaps the Suzuki conglomerate's investigation was just that thorough.

(To be continued.)