Sixty-Seventh Spell: Reaching Out

Haru's mind then drifted back to the botched performance. "Was I really as scary as you guys make me sound like? In how I portrayed Orochimaru?"

"It was quite frightening," Rui admitted. "But I'm glad you're now back to your normal self."

"What is normal?" Haru mumbled. "I now live in a world full of wizards and magic, yet nothing about it makes sense."

"How?"

"You wouldn't get it, since you've grown up in this world all your life. Imagine you're in my shoes: a kid who thought he was normal suddenly learns that he's not normal, but then he finds out he's extra-special among the not-normal ones so he doesn't know what to do about any of it."

"And you think what happened tonight has to do with your extra-specialness?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure."

Rui suddenly put her hands over Haru's, which made him feel flustered. "To me, you're not extra-special. You're just a scared boy that needs help."

"But how can you help me when I don't even understand myself?" Haru then let go of Rui's hands and tucked himself under the covers of the bed he was lying on.

"I can't help you if you don't let me," Rui insisted. "We'll figure this out together with Hikari."

"Hikari doesn't care about me. She just wants to use me to figure out this storage house mystery to satisfy her own curiosity."

Rui folded her arms. "She cares about you more than she wants to admit. Otherwise, she wouldn't have bothered to use the Raincloud Jinx to snap you out of Shō's power."

Thinking back on the other times when Hikari was surprisingly helpful and kind, Haru knew Rui was probably right.

"Hope you sleep well," Rui said as she got up from the chair she sat in.

"Goodnight, Rui," Haru responded before falling into an uneasy sleep.

After being examined by Popuri-dono the next morning, he determined Haru was okay to leave.

"What do you think happened last night?" Haru asked Popuri. "Do you think it was magic that made me act the way I did, or something more sinister?"

"Like what?" Popuri asked.

"Maybe…I really am evil, like what some of my classmates think."

"Now why would you say that?"

"If all I had to do was give into becoming Orochimaru, like what I did in the play, what's to stop me from doing the same thing in real life?"

"But if that were true, you would have willingly gone with Warumo when he called you by your true name when your Manai parents were killed."

"Yeah, I guess."

"And by that same token, Warumo would have no reason to put an Onryō Curse on you if you were as susceptible to evil as you think."

"So what was last night's performance? A moment of weakness on the part of my mother's seal, or the omamori charm?"

Haru reached into his robes. Gripping the wooden omamori charm tightly, he removed it from his neck and threw it across the room in frustration.

"From my own observations, it would seem that the strength of your mother's seal is determined by your emotions," Popuri said as he picked up the charm from the floor. "If they are positive, the seal's power is strengthened. But if they're negative, that weakens the seal."

Haru looked down at his dragonfly-shaped birthmark in awe.

"This charm works in a similar way," Popuri continued as he held the charm by its ribbons. "If you strongly believe in its protective power, it will work just fine."

"But if I don't, the charm's power will falter," Haru said. "That's what Shō-sensei said when I thought I could use it to protect myself during Obon, when I summoned my dead Manai family."

Surprised by this, Popuri demanded an explanation. And so Haru told him what happened and showed him the spot on his left shoulder that still felt cold from when Daichi touched it.

"You should have told me sooner," Popuri said after he finished examining Haru's shoulder with a magnifying glass. "Once an onyrō touches a living being, they succumb to sickness and even death if the onryō isn't appeased in some way."

Haru flinched upon hearing that. "So what can I do?"

"Find the onryō that did this to you, and fulfill their unfinished business before using the Appeasement Ritual to send their tortured soul to the afterlife."

"Higa said the same thing. Should I join his search for the onryō that's causing the island animals to become sick and injured, assuming it's the same onryō that affected me?"

"If we're talking about your stepsister Daichi, then yes, you should accompany Higa," Popuri agreed. "Though I doubt Shō-sensei or Dōmeki-sama would let you do that."

"What if I convinced Shō-sensei? Then maybe she can talk Dōmeki into letting me accompany Higa," suggested Haru.

Then to himself, Haru thought, It will also give me a chance to get a better look at Shō's robes to see if she's hiding some kind of magical sword. And if I can figure out which type it is, that might clue me in on why she's after the thing in the storage house and how that ties into what she did to me last night.

"You can try, but Sayuri Shō is a tough woman to convince. I've been at odds with her many times, even when she was attending Mahoutokoro with your birthmother."

"Shō-sensei knew my real mother?" This shocked Haru.

"Oh, yes, they were childhood friends even before they attended Mahoutokoro together," Popuri sighed. "It was so precious to see them holding hands, picking flowers from the garden during spring, even feeding the koi fish in the courtyard pond. But that all changed after your birthfather Taka came into Kiku's life. Sayuri was devastated as Kiku spent more time with Taka than her, and drifted apart from her overtime."

"What about Shinjiro Tanai? Did you know him?"

To be continued…