Seventy-Fifth Spell: The Jinsei Stone

Haru closed his mouth and lay perfectly still as Ryosei Maki let go of Sayuri Shō's throat. He walked to where Haru was sitting, and leaned down. Ryosei then reached toward Haru, who feared Ryosei's hand was going to touch the Namahage Cape any moment.

"Maki-sensei! Shō-sensei!" cried a familiar elderly voice that Haru recognized was Ako's. "Come quickly!"

This forced Ryosei to retreat his hand and follow Shō down the hallway. Breathing a sigh of relief, Haru got up.

"Ako must be looking for me, assuming Inku told her about what happened in the Inner Library," Haru guessed.

He eventually reached the Byakko dorms where he removed the Namahage Cape and mask before passing out on his bed from exhaustion. The next morning, he discreetly passed a note to Hikari, telling her to meet him in the gazebo at the center of the courtyard after breakfast.

"What's the big idea, Ryuji?" Hikari said as she sat down with Haru in the pagoda. "You didn't say anything in your note on what this was about."

"I didn't want to be too specific in case the note got picked up by someone else by accident," Haru explained.

Then Haru told Hikari everything that happened the previous night from sneaking into the Inner Library to overhearing the confrontation between Shō and Ryosei.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this new development," Hikari remarked after Haru finished his story. "You just happen to get a Namahage Cape for New Year's from a mysterious sender, which was exactly what you needed to get into the Inner Library."

"I know it's strange, but the Namahage Cape must have come from someone who wanted to help us," Haru assumed.

"We can't be sure of that," Hikari argued. "The sender may have had their own reasons for wanting you to enter the Inner Library that didn't necessarily involve helping you."

"Like what? They wanted to find out Mikoto Shinabe's—sorry, Tamanoya's identity and they didn't want to look him up themselves in case they looked suspicious?"

"Exactly! And if you got caught in the Inner Library, you would most likely get blamed for it as opposed to the sender since they went through the trouble of hiding their identity to you."

"And my reputation certainly wouldn't help my case if I tried to plead innocence…."

"But that doesn't change the fact that we have valuable information. We now know where to find information on Tamanoya, and have confirmation that Shō is definitely up to something if Maki-sensei is threatening her."

Haru thought back to how cold Ryosei's face looked when he was pointing his wand at Shō's throat, which was the exact same expression he had when he killed the Kamikiri by exploding it. This made him think there was some significance to that expression since Heshi the Uwabami told Haru that she didn't feel comfortable around Ryosei after he gave Haru the stuff he needed to take care of Heshi.

"Could it be possible that Shō isn't a follower of Warumo?" Haru speculated.

"And Maki-sensei is?" Hikari shook his head. "He wouldn't do that."

"How do you know?"

"I've taken classes with Maki-sensei for many years, and he seems too nice to be involved with someone like Warumo."

"But just because he's nice doesn't mean he isn't innocent. I watched him kill a yokai in class for no reason, and the way he threatened Shō last night…it wasn't the same person you're describing."

"You don't know if Shō was threatening him before you showed up. And let's not forget the Ōgama toad slime we saw on Shō's robe after the Mount Ōe field trip. Plus, Rui saw a Kurami Sword on Shō's person and Shō acted suspiciously during the play and Quidditch match!"

"Okay, I get it! There's too many pieces of evidence to support the idea of Shō being involved with Warumo to not disregard."

"Unless you have further evidence to prove Maki-sensei works for Warumo, I'm only going to consider it a baseless speculation. Now let's get into the library and find that book."

"What book?"

"The Artifacts of Ancient Japan book, duh!"

In the school library, Haru tried to act normal with Inku floating around while Hikari went to look for the book. She came with a huge scroll in her hand and laid it down on the table Haru sat at, letting it roll onto the floor.

"I didn't even think to look in this book for answers," Hikari grumbled. "I was so focused on the person we were trying to find that I didn't try to remember why the name 'Tamanoya' sounded familiar to me."

After flipping through the scroll and its many watercolor illustrations on various magical objects of historic value, she finally stopped. The page she was on showed a small jewel made of jade stone that was shaped like a curled teardrop. Below the illustration was a description of the object, along with a smaller picture of a nervous-looking man with long horse-brown hair.

"'The Jinsei Stone: one of the three Sacred Treasures, it was created by Tamanoya, a wizard who was close friends with Amaterasu, Susano, and Tsukiyomi. From this stone, life can be created while also making its wearer immortal,'" Hikari recited.

"'Life can be created'?" Haru repeated. "What does that mean? And how did you know Tamanoya's name would be mentioned on this page?"

"I read this scroll years ago when I did a project in Preliminary School on the Sacred Treasures," Hikari explained. Then she continued reading the scroll, "'Originally, the Jinsei Stone was given to Tsukiyomi, which made him invisible during his siblings' many battles with dangerous yokai and monsters before it was given to Jimmu and then considered lost following the final battle between the Manai Clans Minamoto and Taira."

"Oh yeah!" Haru realized. "The Tale of the Heike ends with a major sea battle between the Taira and Minamoto Clans, where the Imperial Regalia gets thrown into the sea."

"And the Imperial Regalia is just another name for the Sacred Treasures." Hikari's eyes widened. "That's it!"

"What is it?" Haru was confused.

To be continued…