"Akira-kun?"
Tashiro Kurenai's concerned voice pulled Kuroha Akira back from the edge of his spiraling thoughts. She was watching him with obvious worry, her brow furrowed.
"You look so pale... Is my palm reading that bad?"
Kuroha Akira forcibly composed himself, pushing the existential dread down into a dark corner of his mind where it could fester quietly. He shook his head.
"No, it's nothing to do with you, Miss Toshiro. I just suddenly remembered something..."
He attempted a reassuring smile, though it probably looked more like a grimace.
"I'm sorry if I scared you. I didn't mean to hide anything. And honestly, you shouldn't take my abilities too seriously—palm reading's just for fun, really."
Unfortunately, his attempted deflection had the opposite effect. The more he tried to wave it off, the more it seemed like he was covering something up. Tashiro Kurenai's expression grew more serious.
"Akira-kun, just tell me directly. Don't lie to me." Her voice was steady, accepting. "Whatever the outcome is, I can handle it."
"..."
Kuroha Akira wasn't naturally an optimist, but he'd never been a fatalist either.
If human lives were completely controlled by fate from beginning to end—if every tragedy was pre-written and unavoidable—then all struggle became a cruel joke. What was the point of fighting against darkness if the outcome was already determined?
Yes, fate was unpredictable. No one could completely control their circumstances. But Kuroha Akira chose to believe that people could exercise their subjective will, create more options for themselves, and choose the path they'd regret the least. That was enough.
He was never going back to corporate life. That much was absolute.
Still, to quiet the uneasy whispers in his heart, he hesitated for a moment before deciding to ask Miss Toshiro directly.
"Miss Toshiro... in your previous life, were you blind?"
"!!!"
Tashiro Kurenai's reaction was immediate and dramatic. Her eyes flew wide open, round as copper bells. Her mouth formed a perfect O shape—large enough, Kuroha Akira noted distantly, to fit an egg.
She hadn't expected palm reading to reveal something like that.
"How did you know?!" Her voice came out slightly strangled. "I never told anyone about that!"
"Miss Toshiro, you really can't see the words on your hand, can you?"
"Words on my hand?" She looked down at her palm as if expecting text to materialize.
"I don't actually know how to read palms." He decided honesty was the best approach now. "After transmigrating, I gained a special ability—I can see a person's talents and skills by touching their hand."
This was the first time Kuroha Akira had revealed his cheat to anyone since arriving in this world. He was telling Miss Toshiro because he needed her trust first, which he could then exchange for the information he wanted.
"I saw that you know Braille. And you mentioned earlier that you can read very few novels—that's because there are pitifully few novels translated into Braille, isn't it?"
This world was designed for the majority, for ordinary people. The disabled were the most vulnerable group, unable to access even basic entertainment.
"I also saw other abilities that ordinary people rarely develop. But now you have normal vision. That's why I guessed you were blind in your previous life."
"...I see."
Perhaps because she'd already experienced something as outrageous as transmigration, Tashiro Kurenai accepted his special ability with surprising quickness. Understanding dawned on her face.
"I know what you're worried about, Akira-kun." Her voice softened. "You're afraid that you'll still meet the same end in this world as you did in your previous life, right?"
"Yes..."
Miss Toshiro was sharp. She'd grasped the source of his unease without extensive explanation.
"About that..." She considered her words carefully. "I don't think you need to worry. The current us are 'ourselves who have embarked on different lives.' We won't necessarily encounter the same things. That's my belief."
"Hmm..."
"This isn't just speculation—there's some evidence. Let me tell you about my previous life. Would you like to hear it?"
"I'm listening."
Tashiro Kurenai took a breath and began slowly recounting her journey.
"First, about being blind... yes, I was blind in my previous life."
"Even though I was a college student, I chose a major related to my interests. I studied cosmetic production technology."
"My makeup skills were decent, I understood various cosmetics well, and my grades were excellent. After graduating, I successfully joined a famous cosmetics company as a product quality inspector."
So that was it. Miss Toshiro had discovered her talent early and, fortunately, it aligned with her interests. Her talent grade was only C, but genuine passion was the strongest motivation. When you loved what you did, proficiency improved naturally.
"Back then, my heart was full of hope. I believed that even with a humble background, I could achieve results through hard work. But soon..." She paused. "I encountered the event that changed everything."
Tashiro Kurenai took a deep breath, steadying herself. Even after all these years, even in a new world, bringing up this memory stirred old resentment—resentment toward an unjust heaven.
A thin rope breaks at its weakest point. Misfortune seeks out the unfortunate.
"During a factory inspection of a new product, there was an accident. I was splashed in the face with undiluted, high-concentration chemical reagents." Her voice remained steady, but Kuroha Akira could hear the weight behind each word. "My face was disfigured. And I lost my eyesight."
She almost smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes.
"The company compensated me five hundred thousand."
"My sight. My face as a woman. My right to live as an ordinary person."
"All of that combined was worth only five hundred thousand." A hollow chuckle escaped her. "Heh..."
Kuroha Akira had no words. No casual comfort felt appropriate. Who was he to soothe such pain? This was the rawest possible example of fate's unpredictability—how quickly everything could be stripped away.
"But no matter what, a person has to live. Has to support themselves." She continued, her voice growing stronger. "So I returned to my hometown. Used the compensation money to open a massage parlor. Learned massage techniques from scratch."
Ah. So that explained the massage proficiency. And from the Lv4 rank, he could see she'd truly dedicated her life to it. This wasn't a casual skill—it was her profession, her identity, her survival.
"The 'blind massage' signboard has a certain reputation, you know." A genuine smile tugged at her lips this time. "People saw I was genuinely blind and trusted my skills more. In small cities, elderly folks with back pain or leg issues would come regularly. Business was good enough to support myself."
Kuroha Akira had seen plenty of massage parlors using fake "blind massage" signs to deceive customers. A genuinely blind technician was the only real authentication.
"Miss Toshiro..." He looked at her with newfound respect, something warm stirring in his chest. "You're truly amazing."
From the bottom of his heart, he meant it.
After suffering such a catastrophic accident—losing her sight, her face, her planned future—she hadn't cursed fate or given up. She'd pulled herself together, learned an entirely new skill from scratch, and built a life for herself through sheer determination.
Greatness in the ordinary.
That phrase existed specifically for people like her.