Eighty-Seventh Spell: Wind Tunnel
"Did you guys hear that ringing sound?" Hikari asked.
"Yeah," Rui said as she cast the Firelighting Charm once again.
In the light from Rui's wand, Haru and the girls found themselves looking down a sloped incline made of dirt and gravel. At the bottom was a wooden door that looked identical to the one behind them. Wrapped around its handle was a round bell made of copper with a circle carved into its surface that had Kanji and Mandarin letters inside.
"That's a Suzu Bell," Rui guessed as she pointed at the bell. "And that carving looks like a Magic Circle of some kind."
"Can you tell what kind of spell is being cast?" Hikari asked.
"Not from this angle," Rui said. "I need to get a closer look."
Rui then descended down the slope and approached the door. The ringing sound from earlier came from the bell attached to the door at the bottom of slope, which summoned a gust of wind that sent Rui flying back up the slope. Haru managed to catch Rui before she slammed against the door at the top of the slope while Hikari assisted him.
"So that's where the wind came from," Hikari realized. "It's from the Magic Circle on that bell."
"And apparently it's triggered if you get too close to the door," Rui added. "That means we need a long-range spell to destroy the bell from here."
"Do you know any?" asked Haru.
Before Rui could speak, a ringing sound came from behind them followed by a second gust of wind that sent Rui, Haru, and Hikari tumbling down the sloped incline. Luckily, they didn't land close enough to the door at the bottom of the incline to make that bell ring.
"Where did that wind gust come from?" Hikari demanded as she and the others got to their feet.
Looking back up the slope, Rui noticed the handle of the door they came from had a bell that was identical to the one at the bottom of the slope with the same Magic Circle carved into it. Rui said as she sent the firelight from the tip of her wand over to the door at the top of the slope.
"When I opened the door in the basement, it triggered that bell's Magic Circle," Rui realized.
"Okay, but that doesn't explain the gust of wind that blew us down here just now," Hikari said.
Haru looked down at his elbow. "I think my arm brushed against the door handle at the top of the slope when I caught Rui."
Groaning in irritation, Hikari said, "Then the Magic Circle on the bell at the top of the slope is triggered when the door handle is touched, which means we can't get back into the basement. And we can't go forward because the bell on the door in front of us is triggered if someone gets close to the door. What kind of a setup is this?"
"It's a trap," Rui responded quietly. "A Wind Tunnel Trap to be exact."
"Wind Tunnel Trap?" Hikari blinked. "How do you know that's what we're in?"
"A few years ago, I did an extra-credit project for History of Magic on Wizard Lords in the Edo period of Japan," Rui explained. "There was one lord named Maeda Toshitsune who filled an entire temple with traps, and one of them was the Wind Tunnel Trap. It consisted of a hallway with two identical doors on each end and Suzu Bells wrapped around the handle of each door. If a person tried to open one of the doors, the bell would ring and activate the spell carved into the bell's Magic Circle."
"But because both doors had enchanted bells on them, it would prevent the intruder from going back the way they came or go forward," Hikari realized. "Thus the intruder would either starve to death being trapped in the hallway, or fully succumb to the effects of the spell."
"Then the reason it's called a Wind Tunnel Trap is because the spell cast on both bells generates wind that blows through the hallway like a natural wind tunnel," Haru added.
"Exactly," Rui said. "And there's one kind of spell that can do that: the Wind-Summoning Spell, which creates an invisible wind spirit that picks up objects."
"So all we have to do is just destroy the bell to the door in front of us without triggering it," Hikari said. "And I know just the spell! Inazugō!"
From Hikari's wand came a bolt of lightning that struck the bell on the door in front of them, smashing it to pieces as a result. But just as Hikari smiled, the broken pieces of the bell suddenly reformed and rang causing another wind gust that sent Hikari and the others tumbling back up the slope.
"What did I do wrong?" Hikari grumbled as she got back up, her knees now covered in scrapes and bruises. "I thought the Lightning Strike Curse would be more than enough to destroy one lousy bell!"
"If you recall, a Magic Circle often contains more than one spell," Rui said as she used the Firelighting Charm to illuminate the bell on the door behind them. "So this Magic Circle may have the Wind-Summoning Spell carved into it, but also a second one that repairs the bell if it gets broken."
"But why do the bells ring?" Haru asked. "What does that accomplish?"
"It's like a Manai alarm system," Hikari said. "When a person tries to open a door that's connected to an alarm, it senses the movement of the door and goes off to alert the authorities. These bells work in a similar manner as they are enchanted to sense an intruder's movement and ring to activate the Magic Circles on them. So maybe if we examine the Magic Circles themselves, it'll give us insight as to how to deactivate them."
So while Rui examined the Magic Circle on the bell of the door at the top of the slope, Hikari went down to look at the second one without getting too close to the door. Meanwhile Haru walked up and down the slope trying to find a hidden door that might get them out. Sadly, he didn't find anything.
"Don't give up, son," Uenō Dende's voice whispered in Haru's ear. "I know you can save your mother and sister…."
Haru was startled, causing him to look around. But apart from the girls, there was no one else standing at either end of the incline.
To be continued…