Eighty-Second Spell: Looming Storm

"You don't look so good," Rui said to Haru during breakfast the following day. "Did Warumo visit you in your dreams again?"

"No," Haru muttered. "I saw Jiro."

"Is that the guy your birthmother Kiku was supposed to marry before she ran off with your birthfather Taka?"

"Yes, and he was standing over Kiku after she fell over from a blade in her stomach."

"Son of a Kitsune!" Rui exclaimed. "Could these nightmares you've been having actually be memories from when you were a baby?"

"I really think they are, especially after this latest one. But now I'm more confused about what happened to my birthmother."

"How? It seems like Jiro killed Kiku to me."

"But in the previous nightmare, I saw Higa thrust his sword towards Kiku. So he could have killed her and then Jiro showed up right after."

"True. Did you see how long the blade was? The one in Kiku's stomach?"

"It was only in my vision for a moment before she fell."

Just then, the doors to the Student Dining Hall opened. A tall well-endowed woman with short platinum hair, an eyepatch, and black leather clothing came in focusing her one eye on the Byakko Table.

"Ruri Wataka!" shouted the platinum-haired woman. "Come with me!"

"Yes, Shiriki Kagaya!" Rui said and immediately walked up to the platinum-haired woman.

Looking annoyed, Kagaya said, "I thought I told you kids to just call me 'Kagaya-sensei.'"

Rui bowed her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, Kagaya-sensei!"

Haru didn't see Rui again for the rest of the morning until Lunch Break when Rui joined him at the Byakko Table. She explained the reason for her absence was because Higa had spoken to Kagaya about the nobusuma, and Kagaya decided to take Rui to Dōmeki's office. There, Kagaya proposed that Rui be allowed to care of the nobusuma as an extra-credit assignment in Kagaya's Care for Magical Creatures class since Rui's grades were abysmally low as of late.

"So what was the verdict?" Haru asked Rui.

"Dōmeki-sama said I could help the nobusuma recover until it's able to fly back north to the Kochi prefecture," Rui said with a sad look on her face.

"Well, it's probably better that way, right? So it can be with its own kind."

"That's what Dōmeki-sama said too. And there's a chance the nobusuma might return to this island in the winter because nobusumas are apparently migratory."

"You mean they travel to different places depending on the season, like ducks?"

"Pretty much. I want to be happy, but…I'm not."

As Rui started crying, Haru held her close in comfort. Behind him, Rui's older twin sisters Gaane and Fuyou snickered.

"Mom's going to be so mad," Fuyou said.

"Did you tell him, Rui?" Gaane added.

"Tell me what?" Haru looked confused.

"Oh, we wouldn't want to ruin the moment," Fuyou responded. "Keep hugging your girlfriend, cuz it might be the last time you see her."

"What are you two talking about?" Haru looked to Peri at the head of the Byakko Table. "Peri-sempai, is there something I'm missing?"

Peri stirred her udon noodles solemnly before answering. "Gaane and Fuyou told our mother about you befriending Rui during Winter Break, and she wasn't too happy. So she told Rui to stop hanging out with you."

"Stop hanging out with me?" Haru couldn't believe what he just heard. "What did I do?"

"It's nothing you've done," Peri clarified. "But your reputation as the Boy Who Vanished has made our mother wary of letting us befriend you."

"That's not fair, though! What about me being the Boy Who Vanished makes her so worried?"

"It has to do with to your birthparents' connection to Warumo-uragi. Plus, the fact that you disappeared without a trace only to appear now has made the Japanese Wizarding World nervous. Especially since Warumo-uragi showed up not long after you did."

"And he was gone for eleven years," Fuyou added. "So some people are speculating that your reappearance might be the reason Warumo-uragi has returned."

Haru thought these accusations were ridiculous, but he couldn't think of a counterpoint to them given his recent encounters with Warumo both in his dreams and the real world.

Several months later, Final Exams were upon Mahoutokoro. These not only determined whether the students would pass their classes for the Spring Semester, but also if they would graduate to the next grade. And thus, Haru and his classmates spent any amount of free time they could to study and take practice exams in preparation for the real thing instead of hanging out or doing club-related activities.

Yet the strangest thing during this time was the lack of further sightings of Warumo or Daichi, which should have made Haru relieved. But instead, it made him more nervous like seeing looming storm clouds on the horizon. He also couldn't stop thinking about the cloaked figure who appeared in the window of Higa's cottage, and whether they overheard Higa talking about Nuru's weakness to mist or not. Then on the eve of his first exam, Haru was suddenly overcome by a fever as his chest was burning despite the soothing sensation from the omamori charm.

"Heshi," Haru said, feeling sweat beads dripping down his forehead.

"What is it?" Heshi slithered out of her bonsai tree home and looked concerned. "You don't look so good."

"Get Popuri-dono quick! I'm burning up!"

Immediately, Heshi transformed from her white serpentine form into her human form that resembled a young girl wearing a white multilayered robe with white stripes in her black hair.

"No, I didn't mean transform into your human…self…."

After Haru blacked out, he woke up in the Healers' Wing with the white-haired Popuri-dono examining him. Behind Popuri stood Heshi, who was still in her human form.

"Did she bring me here?" Haru asked Popuri.

"I brought you here after your uwabami friend woke me up," Popuri explained. "But she apparently got into a scuffle with Byakko's Guardian Spirit Kuro on the way. Luckily, her injuries were fairly minor."

Apart from some tears in her robe, there were cat scratches across Heshi's cheek. Then Haru noticed Heshi's ice-blue eyes looked unusually pale and opaque, like she was blind.

To be continued…