Ninety-Third Spell: Caught Cheating
"What do you mean you just caught Kokkuri-san cheating?" Hikari demanded, looking between Haru and Kokkuri.
"I just saw her took a card out of her sleeve," Haru said, pointing at Kokkuri's right sleeve.
"You must bee seeing things," Kokkuri responded, holding up her two cards. "If I did pull an extra card out, I would have three cards. But as you can see, there are only two."
"Then if you empty that sleeve, there shouldn't be any cards in there," Haru said.
Kokkuri hesitated to move her right sleeve.
"Is that an admission of guilt?" Hikari said, folding her hands.
"But you're no better," Kokkuri claimed, pointing at Uenō's ghost. "That spirit told you about my planned Spring Zodiac Combo, didn't he?"
Hikari looked back and was surprised to see Uenō, who was just as surprised to realize she could see him.
"Did you forget that I control everything in this room as long as I'm connected to the board of my namesake?" Kokkuri said mockingly. "I knew this human spirit was here the whole time, but chose to ignore him figuring that even if he helped you I would still have the upper-hand."
"And you were going to accomplish that through cheating?" Haru didn't understand.
"Why call out a fellow player's cheat when you can use your own cheat to your advantage without getting caught?" Kokkuri argued. "But if I did get caught cheating, I could expose your cheat in turn and leave us at a draw."
"Then you're saying that this current round doesn't count because we both cheated?" Hikari's face turned red from anger. "But that's absurd! I didn't know I was being helped by a spirit, so that's not really cheating!"
"It doesn't matter whether you knew or not," Kokkuri stated. "A cheat is a cheat, no matter what form it takes."
Hikari glared at Haru. "This is all your fault, Ryuji!"
"I was only trying to help since I can't do much of anything else!" Haru argued. "Besides, we don't know how much cheating Kokkuri was doing before I caught her."
"She was doing a lot of cheating from what I saw," Uenō interjected.
"But I hold the power here, so it doesn't matter what I do!" Kokkuri argued.
"Not if you don't have a medium," Hikari pointed out and nodded to Haru. "Move the coin to the gate symbol, Ryuji."
So Haru did as Hikari said and moved the bronze Sei coin to the red Torii gate symbol on the Kokkuri Board.
"Um, Hikari, what are you doing?" Kokkuri asked, looking nervous.
"If you fail to repeat what I'm about to say, Ryuji, I will never forgive you," Hikari warned. Then she said, "Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, thank you and goodbye!"
"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, thank you and goodbye!" Haru repeated.
As soon as Haru said this, Kokkuri became transparent as the Tenbutsu cards disappeared from the table. She cried out in anger, but her voice grew silent as she disappeared altogether. Before Haru and Hikari could move, the lantern suddenly went out bathing the room in complete darkness. Haru stumbled out of his chair trying to find his wand as Hikari tried to get her wand out as well.
"Looking for this, Hebi?" said a familiar ominous voice.
Haru felt a tab on his shoulder and looked back to see Warumo staring right at him. He had an unnatural cold-blue light around him, which made his white robe and cypress snake demon mask stand out. In his left hand, he was holding Haru's wand. Before either Haru or Hikari could react, Warumo used Haru's wand to push Haru through the door on the opposite side that Haru couldn't open before.
After hitting the ground hard, Haru could barely move from the pain he was feeling all over. Looking up, he saw Warumo float towards him. Behind Warumo, Hikari tried to follow him. Warumo turned around and waved Haru's wand at the fallen door which repaired itself instantly. Yet Uenō's spirit moved right through the door and tried to attack Warumo, but Warumo took a small scroll from his robe sash which glowed bright yellow and wrapped itself around Uenō's spirit binding him from head to toe.
"What did you do to my stepfather's ghost?" Haru asked, trying to get up.
"Used a Spirit Scroll to immobilize him," Warumo explained. "That way, he won't interfere with our unfinished business."
The door Haru just crashed through suddenly rattled, causing Warumo to use Haru's wand again to cast a Ward over the door causing it to not open no matter how much Hikari pushed against it from the other side.
Angered, Haru got up. But as he did this, he realized he was in a cavern of some kind that had dripping stalactites and a pool of eerily calm water. The only source of light came from a small island in the middle of the pool, though Haru couldn't see what was making the light because of how bright it was.
"Where are we?" Haru wondered out loud before turning his attention back to Warumo. "And how did you follow me?"
"I stayed back far enough to watch you and your friends spring the enchantments protecting the Jinsei Stone," Warumo said. "That way, I could get through them without having to deal with them myself."
"So you used me to get to the stone," Haru realized and a crazy idea hit him. "Is this place where the stone is?"
"One would assume so," Warumo guessed. "And you're going to get it for me."
To show he was being serious, he pointed Haru's wand at Haru.
"You must have a strong enough willpower to use my wand, even though it's rightfully mine," Haru said.
"No, it's because I have the exact same wand," Warumo revealed, pulling out a wand that looked like Haru's from the dark urushi lacquer sheen to the plum wood handle.
Haru then thought back to what the Wandmaker Yashinoki said about Haru's birthfather Taka's wand. "Does your wand have Kirin hair inside?"
"It sure does, and from the same Kirin whose hair is in your wand," Warumo confirmed.
To be continued…