Fortieth Spell: Trustworthy

"How long have you been standing there?" Haru demanded.

"Not much," answered Hikari. "But I just saw Shō-Sensei walking to Dōmeki's office and one of her sleeves was covered in slime. You know what that means, right?"

Realizing Hikari was talking about Nuru the Ōgama toad, Haru's anxiety skyrocketed. "Did she see you?"

"I don't think so," Hikari said. "When she was coming down the hallway, I stepped out of the lantern's range of light and went further back down this hallway."

Looking down the perpendicular hallway Hikari was standing near, it was darker further back.

"Then earlier when I was following Shō-Sensei down the summit, I saw her deliberately antagonize the oni to make it attack her," Hikari added. "So I think Shō used the oni attack to give her an excuse to head back to the school sooner, which gave her just enough time to get to the storage house without being noticed. Then inside, she tried to get past the giant toad but got slimed in the process like I did."

"But why would she want to go in there?"

"Obviously, it's because of the thing that toad is guarding."

All at once, Haru recalled Higa leaving him suddenly at the Kyoto train station because he had to deliver the sachet he took from the Gaikin Bank to Dōmeki. Then he thought about his last conversation with Higa, and how he said the only two people who knew what the toad was guarding were Dōmeki and someone else named Tamanoya.

"What are you staring at?" Hikari asked. "You'd better not be staring at my boobs."

Snapping back to reality, Haru was taken aback. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. You just went blank and I wasn't sure where you were looking."

"Look, I wasn't staring at your boobs! I just figured out what the toad is guarding inside the storage house."

Hikari looked doubtful "Really?"

"When I was getting money from Gaikin with Higa to buy my school supplies, he took something out of one of the vaults. He couldn't tell me what it was, and even lied to a couple of Kōsen detectives about it after the break-in at Gaikin."

"You must have seen the item then. What did it look like?"

Shaking his head, Haru said, "I couldn't tell you what the item looked like, because Higa carried it inside a small purple sachet."

For a moment, Hikari pondered over Haru's words. "So you're saying whatever was inside that sachet is what the toad is guarding currently, and Higa was taken by the Kōsen for questioning because he refused to tell them what it was."

"Exactly! And I think whoever tried to break into Gaikin was also after the item in the sachet. Because the vault that got broken into was the one Higa took the sachet from."

"But who else could've known about the item in the sachet? Gaikin doesn't just give out information about what's inside their vaults to anyone outside of whoever owns them or their family members."

"Maybe it's this person Higa accidentally mentioned one time: Tamanoya. Does that name ring a bell to you?"

Thinking about it, Hikari got frustrated. "I feel like I've heard that name before, though I can't remember who it is."

"I'll see if I can get Higa to tell me more about Tamanoya, and you could look them up in the school library," Haru suggested.

"What makes you think I would want to work with you?" Hikari said with an incredulous frown.

"As thanks for saving your life from the oni. Plus, we might get somewhere in solving this mystery if we work together instead of separately."

Hikari paused. "Why should I trust your information? You seem to be awfully close to Higa, even though from what I've heard he was only pretending to be your uncle while you lived with that Manai family. How do I know you're not secretly working with him to shush me up about this mysterious sachet item?"

Sighing, Haru said, "If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. You're way smarter than me, and I don't know who else to talk to about this information."

"Flattery won't work on me. Unless you tell me something else I don't know, how can I fully trust you?"

"Okay, I know the giant toad is—

"An ōgama! I figured that out after we parted ways following our first encounter with it."

"But did you also know the toad is named Nuru and used to belong to Higa?"

"Nuru? What an oddly cute name," Hikari remarked. "I guess you must be telling the truth, because you're not creative enough to make this stuff up."

Unsure of whether to be insulted by Hikari or not, Haru responded, "Higa also told me that Nuru was loaned to Dōmeki from his sister Gen, who took ownership of the toad after Higa tried to avenge his father."

"I see. Then we have no choice but to look up this Tamanoya person."

"'We'?" Haru couldn't believe his ears.

Groaning, Hikari corrected herself, "I'm only agreeing to work with you on figuring out what's in the storage house for the sake of my curiosity, and you seem to have more information about it than I thought. But that doesn't mean we're friends! Got it?"

"Loud and clear."

"And I want whatever we talk about to stay between us, so don't go telling your girlfriend Rui or any of your other so-called friends."

"Rui is not my girlfriend!"

"Keep your voices down!" shouted Ako the Shitanaga uba as she came down the perpendicular hallway with a mop and bucket. "It's past your bedtime, kids. Now get back to your dorms or I'll tell Dōmeki-Sama."

"Yes, Ako-San!" Hikari said irritably before walking back into the main corridor. "I was just about to leave anyway."

"Same here," Haru responded, following Hikari.

"I've got my eyes on you two," Ako warned. "And I won't hesitate to lick the skin off of your bums if I catch you wandering these hallways at night again!"

Ako wagged her incredibly long tongue out in a threatening manner, to which Heshi responded by flicking her tongue from Haru's jacket pocket.

To be continued…