Ibuki Mio has Surprisingly Good Sense - Alternate Ending

"One more prediction for you. Go straight back instead of taking any detours. If you take a detour unnecessarily, you may be stuck for a long time. But even if you get stuck, do not panic. Stay calm and if you cooperate, you should be able to overcome that too," the fortune-teller told me.

She left behind such words of prophecy.

Ibuki and I continued out of Keyaki mall, trying to make light conversation so that things wouldn't be too awkward on the way back.

"How was your first fortune-telling experience?" she asked me, but I could tell she wasn't really all that interested.

"What about you?" I redirected the question back to her, still gathering my thoughts.

"Mostly satisfied. That fortune-teller is quite famous around the world. It's said that her accuracy is quite high as well," Ibuki told me.

"I suppose so...it looks like a simple profession but it's surprisingly difficult."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ibuki asked. A slight irritation could be found in her voice as if she was acknowledging this line as me being a non-believer.

More than half of it was just based on a template, the images and words one normally hears in fortune-telling. But within that, there is no denying that there were also accurate facts, and that is something she could not have divined using only the keywords I had provided her with. I can no longer simply write it off as something one gains from living a long life or having fortune-telling experience.

"From now on, I won't write it off as mere fortune-telling anymore. That's how I feel."

Her abrasiveness ceased, "Ah, I see."

Despite her being the one to ask first, the disinterested tone she had carried on as she dismissed what I was saying. We soon arrived at the elevator, but it was crowded as it had been before.

"Ugh, it's crowded again," I sighed. For people like Ibuki and I, going in a crowded elevator with people around our age was absolutely not an option.

"Sorry but I'll be taking a detour back," I told Ibuki.

"Me too."

We began to walk towards the direction of a distant elevator, but during our journey the words of the fortune-teller returned back to my head.

"Speaking of which, earlier..." I began, "The fortune-teller told us not to take a detour."

Our eyes met for a moment, debating whether we should turn back and face our anxiety or continue on and take our chances with this detour.

"I suppose it might be interesting. Let's find out how accurate that prediction is."

If it wasn't anything, then it wouldn't have mattered. At the same time, I wanted to know whether the prediction was right. Ibuki nodded back at me, and we continued towards the elevator.

That's how we got into the current predicament. The elevator was completely stopped in between floors one and two, with the lights having gone out for a minute before the emergency lights came on. But that was only the beginning of our worries. When I pressed the emergency call button there was no response, and it didn't seem to be working. We decided to call for help using our phones, and although Ibuki's phone died I think I managed to get my message across to Katsuragi in time seeing as there was no one else I could call who would be reliable, and wasn't Horikita.

At that point, there wasn't much panic within us, we would just wait for help to arrive. The AC was still working fine and—then it shut off...

"This can't be real..." Ibuki said desperately.