Forty-Eighth Spell: Nightmare

"Mikoto…Shinabe?" Haru was both perplexed and disappointed. "But then who is Tamanoya? And why did you recognize Tamanoya when I mentioned the name the first time?"

"I don't know," Hikari responded grumpily. "Maybe I confused the name for someone else."

"So that leaves us back at square one."

"Unfortunately, yes, but now we know that someone else does know about the thing inside that sachet. And if we look up this person, it might tell us what the thing is."

"I'm just impressed you were able to get ahold of the information you did without getting caught. So thank you."

Hikari stopped walking and gave Haru a confused look. "For what? I told you I'm doing this mainly for myself."

"But if that were the case, you would be keeping that information to yourself and not saying anything to me," Haru pointed out. "That shows you must trust me to an extent."

"Only because I don't think you would be stupid enough to give away what we've discovered to anyone else. You haven't done that, right?"

"Definitely not," Haru lied, being worried about what Hikari would think if she knew Rui had been informed of their speculations on the thing in the sachet.

"Good."

After Hikari went to the Suzaku Wing, Haru returned to the Byakko Wing only to see Daichi standing in the middle of the Sitting Room. Per Popuri-Dono's advice, he ignored Daichi and went into the Boys' Dorm. But as he drifted into sleep, he found himself having the same dream of being held by a woman with a bloodstained hand. Only this time, several shadows came out of nowhere with blurred faces.

He heard crying noises as the shadows got closer, and then he noticed snow was falling from a dark sky. One of the shadows got close enough for Haru to realize it was Higa, who unsheathed his katana and thrust it forward. Worried that he was about to get stabbed, Haru woke up.

"Did Higa…kill my mother?" Haru shook his head. "No, that can't be it. He wouldn't do that!"

"Are you sure, Hebi?"

Feeling the familiar pain in his chest, Haru looked around. "Who's there?"

"You know who I am," said the menacing voice he heard during Flying Class.

"Warumo? Is that you?"

In Haru's mind, he heard a quiet laughter.

"Tell me where you are right now!" Haru demanded, sitting up in bed.

"Much closer than you think."

"Enough with your games, Warumo! You think you can taunt me with images of my stepsister and expect me to just crumble? Well, you're wrong!"

Suddenly, Haru felt the air grow cold. Then from out of the darkness appeared the same snake-like mask Warumo wore when he emerged from the Dendes' ruined house.

"Looks like your mother's seal is holding up better than I thought," Warumo said, looking down at Haru's chest. "It would explain why you haven't fainted from hearing your true name compared to the last two times. Unless…you've developed a natural resistance to my magic, just like your mother. Let's put that to the test, shall we?"

Reaching his hand down, Warumo touched Haru's chest which made him cry out in pain.


"Wake up, Haru!"

A tickling sensation on his nose made Haru wake up and see Heshi staring at him in her snake form. He was sweating all over, even though it was slightly cool in the bedroom.

"Did I sleep through the crowing of Dōmeki's Yatagarasu?" Haru asked.

"You did," said Heshi. "I woke up not too long ago, hoping you would feed me some tasty mice. But then I saw you tossing around in your bed like you were being hurt by something, and decided to wake you up myself. What was going on?"

"I was…having a nightmare, I think," Haru said, looking down at his chest.

His birthmark shaped like a dragonfly was still intact, but there were no visible signs of him being physically touched by Warumo. So he concluded it was just a nightmare caused by stress from seeing Daichi and thinking about Warumo constantly.

"So what is a nightmare?" Heshi asked. "Does it hurt?"

"No, it's a thing that happens when you're dreaming. But instead of seeing nice things like in a dream, you see scary stuff."

"Oh, I think I had a nightmare once! When I was living in the woods, there was this mean old weasel that kept competing with me over food. He nearly injured me to death one time, and I couldn't sleep after that happened cuz I kept seeing his ugly face in my dreams. Luckily, uwabamis can heal quickly. So I was able to recover from my injuries and then I killed that weasel in an epic battle where I pumped him full of enough venom to kill him instantly!"

"Venom?" Haru winced upon hearing this. "You're venomous?"

"Sure I am. Uwabamis have venom that's stronger than the most deadly snakes on the planet."

"Can it be cured?"

"Not that I'm aware of. But I would never hurt you."

"Let's hope not."

After feeding Heshi a couple of dried up mice, Haru got dressed and got to Class 110B just as the warning crow echoed through the classroom. Unfortunately he didn't have breakfast, so he was hungry during classes until he was able to stuff his face during lunch.

"You look unusually pale today," Rui noted. "Are you still recovering from that minor concussion you had?"

"I've been doing okay on that, apart from the occasional lightheadedness. But I woke up from a scary nightmare this morning."

"What about?"

Haru looked up and down the Byakko table, which was mainly occupied by Rui's siblings, before he whispered, "I saw Warumo enter my room and talk to me."

Rui almost dropped her rice porridge bowl. "What did he say?"

"Something about my 'true name' and then he touched my chest, which made me scream from how painful it felt."

"That doesn't make sense. Why would his touch cause you pain?"

To be continued…