Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture, Vol. 4: Thus, the Gates to the Spirit Realm Open

Its spring, and Naoki is now a second-year college student. As usual, hes working as Professor Takatsukis assistant. One day, Takatsuki receives a request from a woman working in an architectural firm. Whats the truth behind the creepy things happening in the office related to the number four? In June, a weekly magazine publishes an article about the appearance of a mermaid, causing quite the stir. The fervor about mermaids heats up even in Takatsukis lecture. On such a day, a dapper British gentleman wanders onto campusand hes Takatsukis uncle?! Unexpectedly, the man tells Naoki about Takatskis sorrowful past. Then on a day off, they go investigate the area where the mermaid appeared. There, they meet a boy who tells them that his mother turned into a mermaid. Naoya Fukamachi is a university student whose ability to infallibly detect lies has left him friendless and isolated. But when he writes a paper about a strange festival he wandered into as a child, he catches the fancy of his folklore studies professor Akira Takatsuki, a handsome and eccentric man with a passion for all things mysterious. Soon, Naoya finds himself working as Akiras assistant, helping him to interpret an array of unexplainable phenomena, from haunted objects and cursed effigies to urban legends. As this odd couple continues their investigations, however, Naoya realizes that his professor has had a few bizarre childhood experiences of his own Naoya, a university student who can infallibly detect lies, embarks on another investigation into mysterious phenomena with his eccentric professor, Akira Takatsuki. Their latestclient claims that theyve contacted the spirit of a missing classmate while playing the Kokkuri fortune-telling game. Afterwards, a famous actress comes to Naoya looking for advice about ghosts, and more of Takatsukis enigmatic past comes to light!