Thirty-Third Spell: Personal Flaws
As the Tenbutsu round continued, Haru started to get the hang of the game. Apart from the seasonal backgrounds behind the animal illustrations on the cards, there were elemental symbols on the top-right corners of each card, yin/yang symbols on the top-left or bottom-right corners, and a square in the bottom-left corner with numbers ranging from 1 to 4.
"The squares represent celestial palaces," Rui said.
"You mean like the ones Seiza-Sensei was talking about, where different corners of the night sky are broken up into 'palaces' with different constellations and stars in them?" Haru guessed.
"Exactly, and so different animals are part of different palaces," Rui said.
"Did I say you could talk?" Hikari interrupted.
"Um, no," Rui muttered.
"Now let's finish this round!" Hikari insisted. "Do you want to end the round now, or Ten-Ten?"
Haru looked down at his face-up cards. Apart from the Fire Combo with the autumn horse and snake cards for four points, he had a Metal Combo which included one of the spring monkey cards from the board of six face-up ones and a summer rooster card from his hand which added four more points giving him eight.
Meanwhile, Hikari had combined the summer ox from before with the winter dragon from the board with two of her own cards that consisted of a summer goat and a spring dog. This gave her an Earth Combo, which was worth eight points in total.
Realizing they were tied, Haru wasn't sure what to do. If he did Ten-Ten, it would double his points with whatever combos he got. But then he'd risk losing those points if Hikari got a better combination than him and ended the round. Though upon reflection on how this whole thing started, he knew what he had to do.
"I'm ending the round," Haru said.
Everyone around the table was shocked, though especially Hikari whose eyes were as big as teacup saucers.
"But why?" Hikari demanded. "We're tied, Ryuji! Neither of us won!"
"And that's why I stopped," Haru explained. "I would've played into your game if I did Ten-Ten, which would have made me lose like Seita did."
"You could have won, though!"
"Even if I did, there's no way you would've been able to afford fifteen packets of Exploding Mochi Balls."
"How do you know that? Do you not see my kimono?"
Suddenly, Haru reached across the table and grabbed a corner of Hikari's orange kimono sleeve revealing a paper tag sticking out from the inside with '300 Ryōki' written down in ink.
"You clearly paid a lot of money for this kimono, assuming the enchanted kimonos are more expensive than the regular ones," Haru said. "And if you were rich, you wouldn't be wearing our regular school slippers."
Embarrassed, Hikari looked down at the black slippers she wore that had her name written on the white straps.
"That means you probably don't have a lot of money left, and hoped to cheat someone out of their money in a Tenbutsu game to recuperate your losses," Haru guessed. "Is that why you challenged Seita?"
Hikari's cheeks flushed red with anger. "You're not just an idiot, Ryuji, but you're also a jerk!"
Then Hikari got up from the table and stormed off, leaving the crowd of students confused and disappointed at the same time.
"You meanie!" Sumi said in an accusatory tone while she picked up the cards from Hikari's deck. "How dare you accuse Hikari of cheating people out of money!"
"But that's what she tried to do to me!" Seita argued. "She asked how much allowance money I had, so I fibbed and told her I had a lot. Then she immediately challenged me to Tenbutsu, saying she would call me a coward if I didn't play with her."
Sumi didn't look convinced. "Why should we believe you? How do we know you're not lying about not having a lot of money?"
"I saw the whole thing from the beginning," said a familiar voice.
The crowd of students parted, revealing Nayu with her hair done in wavy curls wearing a purple kimono with white pollenating dandelions.
"Nayu!" Haru exclaimed. "When did you get here?"
"About an hour ago," Nayu said. "But Haru is right! Hikari was counting the change in her coin purse, which didn't amount to much, before she asked Seita about his allowance money. He looked nervous before he answered her, and that's when they started playing."
"Whatever, Nayu!" Sumi responded. "You're just making Hikari look bad because you have a secret crush on Seita."
While the crowd of students made as series of 'oohs' at Nayu, she hid her face and ran away. Seita then felt everyone's prying eyes on him, forcing him to leave as well. Then Sumi left to find Hikari, and the crowd dispersed leaving Rui and Haru as the only ones left.
"Hey, guys!" Cheng said as he showed up. "What did I miss?"
Once the stars Orihime and Hikoboshi had passed in the night sky, everyone went to the edge of the Cloud Forest outside the school's main castle walls to put the wishes they had written on paper charms on the trees.
I wish for Daichi to be unharmed, wherever she is, and to see her again so I know she's all right, Haru thought, reciting his wish.
Nearby, Haru noticed Seita and Nayu quietly talking to each other before they put their wishes on the branch of a chinquapin. Then further back, Hikari put her wish on a tree branch and walked away without making a sound.
"You should just leave her alone," Rui suggested. "She doesn't like to be confronted about her flaws. But she'll get over it and be back to her usual snobby self soon enough."
"Do you think I went too far?" Haru asked. "I mean, I know she's our classmate. But she's a real piece of work."
"That's how I felt when I first met her. Overtime, though, I came to realize her snobbiness is just a front."
"A front for what?"
Rui shrugged. "I may have spent four years with her in Primary School, but I don't know a single thing about her. She doesn't speak much about her past, or her parents."
Haru took this into consideration, and decided he would apologize to Hikari at some point.
To be continued…