Fifty-Fourth Spell: Ghastly Truths
"I'm so sorry," Uenō said, lowering his nearly transparent head.
"For what?" Haru didn't understand. "I should be the one apologizing to you. Because of me, you and Mom…died."
"Don't say that!" said a concerned female voice.
Uenō straightened himself as his wife Papurika suddenly appeared next to him. Like him, she was nearly transparent wearing a partially scorched dress with her short brunette hair having charred edges.
"Mom?" exclaimed Haru. "I didn't summon you!"
"But your heart did," said Papurika. "You wanted to speak to the both of us, right?"
"Yes, if I could," Haru admitted.
"Stop the ritual," Shō ordered. "If you didn't summon the woman by choice, it could be a malicious spirit trying to trick you."
"No, Shō-Sensei," Haru insisted. "Let me talk to them first."
"If you continue to speak to these spirits, you'll only put yourself in danger. Now end the ritual!"
Haru paused, looking at his deceased stepparents who seemed genuinely concerned. Then he looked down at the omamori amulet around his neck and showed it to Shō.
"As long as I have this, no evil spirit is going to harm me!" Haru declared.
"Only if you believe the amulet will protect you," Shō argued. "But if your belief in it falters, the amulet's power means nothing!"
"Please, don't send us away," Uenō pleaded to Haru. "We want to make amends."
"For what?" asked Haru.
"Not telling you who you really were," Papurika said. "When Higa brought you to us when you were a baby, he said your real name was Haru Ryuji. He agreed to let us raise you if we changed your name, and so we did that."
"Then you both knew I was a wizard? All along?" Haru felt numb.
"Yes," Papurika nodded. "We kept that a secret between us, thinking it wouldn't matter since your magic powers were sealed away by your real mother. But after what happened at the Kyoto Zoo, we immediately consulted Higa to figure out what to do about you."
"And that was interrupted by Warumo when he destroyed the house," Haru said.
"It was, though Higa did nothing to stop him," Uenō responded with slight anger in his voice.
"Wait, Higa was in the house when Warumo attacked?" Haru dropped his beaded necklace in shock. "He told me he was on his way to the house…. Did he lie to me?"
"Ryuji," Shō growled. "If you don't stop the ritual now, I will do it for you!"
Just then, Haru felt something cold touch his shoulder. He looked up and was surprised to see Daichi standing right behind him. Uenō and Papurika noticed her too, looking just as shocked.
"My baby," Papurika said, tearing up. "What's happened to you?"
"Come with us," Uenō urged, holding his arms opened. "You don't need to linger here."
"Not until he finds me," Daichi said, looking up at her parents with blood trickling from the side of her mouth.
Papurika tried to leave the circle of stones, but an invisible barrier kept her inside. Uenō hit the barrier as well, and the two tried to push against it.
"Send them away, Ryuji!" Shō demanded. "You're making things worse if you let them stay! That goes double for your stepsister."
Haru raised his wand with one hand and held Daichi's hand. Though because it was transparent, his hand went right through hers.
"I will find you, Daichi," Haru said. "Just hang in there. Seikāi!"
With a swift wave of Haru's wand, his whole stepfamily vanished from the cave and the doors on the shrine closed.
"For not listening to me, five points will be taken from Byakko," Shō said as she put her wand away. "I hope you've learned something from this."
As Shō walked out of the cave, Haru noticed something moving underneath her robes that resembled a katana. But he didn't see it clearly enough to tell what the color of the katana's scabbard or hilt was. So he kept looking as he followed Shō out where Seita and Nayu approached him.
"You were in there for a long time," Nayu said. "Did you have a good conversation with the spirit you summoned?"
"The opposite, actually," Shō said. "Ryuji had more than one spirit show up uninvited, and one of them was an onryō. I told him to send the spirits away, but he didn't listen."
"Did you have to interfere?" Seita asked Shō.
"No. He eventually gave in and stopped the ritual," replied Shō. "But he lost five points for Byakko because he disobeyed me."
Nayu became upset. "So the points I earned for Byakko…mean nothing now?"
"Yes, because of the foolishness of your classmate, Rakkashi," Shō stated.
"That's not fair!" Haru objected. "I wanted to speak to both of my stepparents, but I knew you wouldn't approve. So that's why I summoned just my stepfather, though my stepmother showed up anyway."
"Because she preyed upon your desire to speak with her and your stepfather," Shō said. "That kind of action is only done by restless or malicious spirits, which is why I wanted you to end the ritual."
"So why did Daichi show up in addition to my stepparents?"
"The information you got from your stepparents weakened your belief in the amulet, causing its protective effect to falter."
"Was Daichi the onryō?" asked Nayu.
Reluctantly, Haru nodded.
"And was she the Manai child that got kidnapped by Warumo?" When Haru gave him a confused look, Seita said, "The Maichi Yosoku did a story about what happened to your Manai family a week after it happened. It's how most of the kids at school knew about your situation before you arrived at Mahoutokoro."
Haru then remembered Rui's older twin sisters Gaane and Fuyou talking about the 'rumor' they heard about his stepfamily, and realized they must have been referring to the story in the Maichi Yosoku newspaper.
"Yeah, Daichi was taken by Warumo," Haru said. "She's my stepsister, or was my stepsister…."
Feeling Daichi's cold touch lingering on his shoulder, Haru walked away from the shrine back to the school's main castle in a state of inconsolable despair. Nayu tried to follow him, but she kept tripping on the way. So Seita had to help her along as they caught up to Haru.
But Haru wouldn't speak to either of them and went straight to the Byakko Wing. Kuro the Nekomata was standing guard by the hidden entrance, licking her paw-like hands before noticing Haru walking towards her.
"Hi!" Kuro said, waving at Haru. "Did you have a good Obon celebration?"
"I'm not in the mood to talk," Haru muttered. "Kamilo!"
The hidden entrance of the Byakko Wing revealed itself, allowing Haru to enter the sitting room area. He changed out of his yukata into his pajamas and went right to bed. Immediately, Heishi the Uwabami slithered out of her tree in serpent form and curled next to him.
To be continued…