Ninety-Second Spell: Zodiac Combo

"Very good, Hikari," Kokkuri-san complimented, her face showing no pain from the bleeding wound in her right shoulder. "And here I thought the game was going to be easy."

Hikari said nothing as Kokkuri reshuffled the deck of Tenbutsu cards for the third time. Unlike the previous two rounds, this one went on longer as neither Hikari or Kokkuri had a good hand forcing them to keep discarding cards or adding more cards to their hands. But Haru immediately noticed several cards on the board depicted the season of spring.

"Um, Hikari," Haru said quietly.

"What?" Hikari growled.

"Can you…pick cards from the same season, even if they don't form some of the combos you've used so far?"

"Of course," Kokkuri interjected. "You can use them to create a Zodiac combo."

"A Zodiac combo?" Haru looked back at the cards. "What do these animal cards have to do with the Zodiac?"

"Didn't Seiza-sensei teach you about the Chinese Zodiac in Remedial Astronomy?" Hikari sighed. "Basically, there are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac: the rooster, the tiger, the ox, the snake, the rat, the pig, the dragon, the rabbit, the horse, the monkey, the goat, and the dog. And then there's the thirteenth animal, the cat, which is no longer considered part of the official zodiac. So that's why it's a wild card in Tenbutsu."

"Then all these animal cards are really representations of the Chinese Zodiac animals?" Haru realized, now remembering Seiza's lecture on the Chinese Zodiac which Haru nearly fell asleep while listening to.

"Exactly," Hikari nodded. "So if you can get 12 animal cards that depict the same season, you get a Zodiac combo for 12 points."

"But the same two animals can't be in the combo, and they take a long time to assemble," Kokkuri added, eyeing the animal cards on the board that depicted spring.

Hikari eyed them too, but she didn't choose them. Instead, she picked a winter rat and autumn pig from the board to create a Water combo for four points. Then she used an autumn monkey and summer rooster from her own hand to make a Metal combo, which added up to another four points giving her eight points in total. Kokkuri then discarded one of her cards and ended her turn abruptly.

Why isn't she forming any combinations? Haru wondered, looking at Kokkuri suspiciously. Does she have a bad hand? Or—

Then Haru looked back at the board and realized what Kokkuri was planning. He wanted to warn Hikari, but didn't know how without Kokkuri overhearing him. As he was figuring out what to do, the lingering coldness on his shoulder from Daichi's touch ached strongly which didn't make him feel better.

I feel so helpless! Just like when my stepparents died, and Daichi got taken by Warumo…. Haru clenched his free hand in frustration.

"You're not helpless, son," a familiar voice said close to Haru's ear.

Surprised, Haru looked up and saw the ghost of his adopted father Uenō Dende standing behind him. Just like when he appeared during the Obon Festival spirit summoning, Uenō's dark hair and mustache were scorched.

"What are you doing here, Dad?" Haru whispered, hoping to not draw attention to himself. "I thought I sent you away when I ended the ritual at the Shrine of Idesei."

"Seeing my daughter and wife again at the shrine has made my spirit too restless to return to the afterlife," Uenō explained. "And so I've decided to help you bring their spirits to rest, knowing they're being controlled by the man who killed them."

"Then I really did hear your voice in the Wind Tunnel Trap?"

Uenō nodded.

"Can anyone else see you?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Even Kokkuri-san?"

"As far as I can tell, I'm invisible to her as well."

"Odd," Haru remarked. But he fought the urge to contemplate why that was as there were more urgent matters at hand. "Then if you're invisible to everyone except for me, you can warn Hikari that Kokkuri-san is planning to create a Spring Zodiac Combo."

"How can you tell, son?" Uenō asked.

"Kokkuri hasn't been making other combinations with her Tenbutsu cards, and she keeps eyeing the cards with the season of spring on them. So I think she's trying to stall for time until she can put together a full Zodiac combination of 12 spring-themed cards which will give her 12 points. That will trump Hikari's eight points, and then she might decide to end the round which won't be good for Hikari."

"I'll see what I can do."

Staying out of the light from the lantern on the table, Uenō's spirit made its way toward Hikari. Then he leaned down and whispered into Hikari's ear. For a moment, she shuttered and looked toward Haru.

"Did you say something?" Hikari asked.

"Um, yeah," Haru lied. "I was just wondering if we could wrap this round up soon, considering we're running out of time."

Hikari looked back at the door they came through, which was still shut. "Has anyone come in since we started this game?"

"None," Kokkuri answered bluntly. "And I've had my eye on the door the whole time."

This relieved Haru, knowing his stepfather's ghost was definitely invisible to Kokkuri since he would've been in her line of vision.

"Back to the game, I will combine the spring dog, rooster, and horse from the board and combine them with my spring pig, dragon, goat, monkey, rat, snake, tiger, ox, and rabbit from my hand," Kokkuri declared. "That gives me a Spring Zodiac Combo of 12 points!"

Upon combining the cards from the board with her hand, leaving her with two cards left, a glowing circle appeared behind Kokkuri that was made up of all the animals depicted on the cards with sakura petals swirling around them.

"I had a feeling this was going to happen," Hikari said confidently and revealed four cards from her hand. "That's why I put together a combination of the spring dragon, the summer dragon, the autumn dragon, and the winter dragon creating the Four Dragons Combo for eight points. But I'm going to use Ten-Ten to turn it into the Dragon Kings Combo for 16 points, giving me a total of 24 points!"

As four different-colored dragons circled over Hikari's head, Kokkuri seemed unconcerned and looked down at her cards. But then Haru noticed Kokkuri slip a card out of her kimono sleeve, replacing one of the cards she had in her hand.

"Kokkuri's cheating!" Haru shouted, getting Hikari's attention.

To be continued…