Twenty-Seventh Spell: Dropped Out

After an uneasy sleep back in the dorms, Haru made his way into the Student Dining Hall with bags under his eyes.

"You don't look so good," Rui noticed. "Are you picking up Seita's bad sleeping habits?"

"Is that why he's always tired?" Haru asked, sipping his green tea very slowly.

"That's what the rumors say."

From the Suzaku table came a loud yawn, which surprisingly came from Hikari. But she hid her embarrassment with a typical huff followed by an upturned nose.

"Hikari's more snooty than usual today," Rui said. "I wonder what's got her all riled up."

For a moment, Haru didn't want to say anything. But thinking about what happened to Seita's robes the other day, he decided to tell Rui about him and Hikari's accidental discovery of what lay inside the storage house near the courtyard.

"Wow!" Rui said, eyes wide. "I never would've guessed a giant toad would be inside that storage house."

"Neither did I," replied Haru.

"And your sister's appearance…I think a yokai disguised as her to fool you."

"There are yokai that can shape-shift?"

"Of course! There's a whole chapter on them in Yokai and Other Dangerous Creatures if you don't believe me."

So Haru took out the book and indeed there was a whole chapter on shape-shifting yokai. The most common ones were: the fox-like kitsune, the raccoon dog-like tanuki, the cat-like bakeneko and its more powerful cousin the nekomata. But there were rarer ones such as the mujina, which resembled a badger, and the marten-like itachi.

"I don't know if any of these fit," Haru said after looking through the chapter. "Why would a yokai go out of its way to trick me of all people?"

"You have become famous since your arrival here," Rui said and held up a newspaper. "In fact, you're in today's Maichi Yosoku."

Curious, Haru looked at the newspaper and couldn't believe what he saw printed:

BOY WHO VANISHED CONSIDERED SUSPECT IN GAIKIN BANK BREAK-IN ALONG WITH MAHOUTOKORO GROUNDSKEEPER

"This is ridiculous!" Haru objected. "All that happened was Higa and I were questioned by a couple of Kōsen, then they left."

"Not according to this," Rui said and recited some lines from the article. "'After Haru Ryuji and Rakurai Higa spoke of their whereabouts during the time of the break-in, Kōsen detectives Ayane Maiya and Tao-yi Sukōge spent the following week verifying their answers. But when they came up short of vital information, they had no choice but to bring Higa in for further questioning yesterday.'"

Haru didn't like the sound of this, knowing how important the secrecy of the item inside the sachet Higa took from the bank vault was. But what confused Haru was why he and Higa were being considered suspects, unless the Kōsen failed to come up with any other leads.

"Sounds like we might have a criminal in our school," Gaane teased.

"Another Warumo in the making," Fuyou chimed in.

"Knock it off, guys!" Peri said. "This is a serious manner! Our school's reputation is at stake!"

"Maybe if we didn't let kids with mysterious pasts into our school, this wouldn't be an issue," Daizō said bluntly.

This made Haru angry, and with it came a strange rattling noise that rang in his ears. But then his chest started hurting again, which made him almost pass out.

"Do you need to see Popuri-Dono again?" Rui asked, seeing Haru trying to stay awake.

"I'm fine," Haru insisted. "These chest aches are not going to get the best of me!"

So Haru got up and left the Student Dining Hall. He took a few slow, deep breaths just as Dōmeki's yatagarasu made a warning crow. Looking at the storage house through the windows, it reminded him of what happened last night and frightened him.

Whatever that toad is guarding must be important, Haru guessed. Otherwise, why would they allow such a dangerous creature to be in this school?


In Room 110B, the remedial lessons continued as normal with Midorime discussing the health benefits of Kampo teas and Denshō the Yonaki ishi continuing his lecture on the clash between Queen Himiko of the magical kingdom Yamatai and the Clan of Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed serpent. With the Four Auspicious Beasts aiding her, Himiko was able to defeat Orochi but it came at the cost of her life. Then her successor Princess Iyo founded the school of Mahoutokoro to honor Himiko and the Four Auspicious Beasts, though in time Yamatai ceased to exist as the country of Japan unified under the rule of the Manai Emperors.

"WHILE THE FOUR AUSPICIOUS BEASTS BECAME PART OF THE STARS ONCE MORE, OROCHI WAS NOT QUITE DEAD!" Ishi stated. "NOW REDUCED TO A WEAKER FORM RESEMBLING AN ORDINARY SNAKE, HE WANDERED THE EARTH IN AGONY LOOKING FOR A WAY TO GET BACK AT HIMIKO AND HER DESCENDANTS FOR HIS HUMILIATING DEFEAT! THEN ONE DAY, HE FOUND WHAT HE WAS LOOKING FOR! BUT THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED TOMORROW! RIGHT NOW, IT'S TIME FOR THE FIRST POP QUIZ!"

Because Haru was still tired, he didn't do well on the pop quiz which caused five points to be taken from Byakko. Then because Nayu failed her quiz, another five points were taken. Meanwhile, Seita managed to ace his quiz causing him to receive five points for Genbu. Annoyed by this, Haru didn't go into Flying with a great mood.

"Listen up, chickies!" Gōgu-Dono announced, getting everyone's attention. "Those of you who passed the Lion's Test will get to continue this class for the rest of the semester. But those who failed will be dropped out and have a chance to retake the class next year."

From there, Gōgu read the names of those who succeeded. While Hikari and Daizō were unsurprisingly on the list, Rui and Cheng were also mentioned much to Haru's surprise.

"Now, Ryuji-Kun, you technically passed the Lion's Test," Gōgu stated. "But since you passed out during class, I've decided to hold you back till next year."

"That's not fair!" Rui objected. "He's doing fine now, so why don't you give him a chance?"

Gōgu shook his head. "I'm sorry, Wataka-Chan, but this decree came from Dōmeki-Sama. So I couldn't give him another chance even if I wanted to."

To be continued…