Seventy-Eighth Spell: Faloni
"What was that?" Haru asked, still frozen from hearing the wailing sound.
"I don't know," Shō said. "You wait here while I take a look. And don't even think of following me, or I'll take away more points from Byakko."
Haru was too scared to protest as Shō walked away with the Chōchin Lantern. In the quiet darkness, Haru felt very vulnerable as he took out his plum tree wand for protection. Then not long after Shō left, the thing Haru thought he saw multiple times in the forest came into his line of vision.
"Daichi!" Haru exclaimed, recognizing the spectral apparition of his adopted sister.
Like the time Haru saw her in the boys' bathroom, Daichi's mouth and throat were bleeding.
"You shouldn't be here," said Haru as he held up the Omamori charm. "I just started wearing this again, so Warumo's Onryō Curse shouldn't be affecting me right now."
"A curse?" Daichi exclaimed. "Is that all you think I am? How can you say that about me, your own sister!"
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Haru said, trying to correct himself as Daichi started crying. "Look, just tell me what you meant when you said, 'find me' and I'll try to help you."
"If you can't help me, then no one can." Daichi's tears turned into blood and she lunged toward Haru with her tiny hands grabbing his throat.
Unlike before, Haru felt his adopted sister's spectral form hit him like she were physically solid. This caused Haru to lose his balance and the two ended up tumbling down the slope of the island. Haru's tried to pry his sister's cold hands from his throat, but she held on like a leech.
"Please stop, Daichi," Haru pleaded. "This isn't like you!"
Daichi didn't seem to listen as she continued to choke Haru's neck, even when he hit a tree causing them to stop tumbling. A shaft of moonlight broke through the foliage, causing Daichi's transparent body to shimmer. Then a shadow suddenly blocked out the moonlight as a tall figure approached Daichi and Haru. When Daichi looked up at the figure, she stopped choking Haru but still kept her hands around his throat.
"Warumo!" Haru said, recognizing the same figure clad in white with the serpentine mask that appeared at his adopted parents' house and in his dream about Higa. "I thought you were—
"Only present in your nightmares?" Warumo interrupted. "No, Hebi, I am very much real!"
"Then you're here, at this school?" Haru secretly prayed he was wrong, despite the sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Very much so!" confirmed Warumo. "How else would I be able to use my kotodama on you? Let alone cast the Onryō Curse?"
"So you are the reason I've been haunted by my sister's ghost this whole time! Were you also responsible for making the ghosts of my adopted parents showed up on Obon?"
"You summoned your adopted father's ghost through your own power. But I did make your adopted mother's ghost appear, for she is just as restless of a spirit as your adopted sister is!"
Remembering the wailing sound from earlier, Haru came to a sudden realization. "Then you used my adopted mother's ghost to distract Shō-sensei to separate me from her."
"Exactly, Hebi! You're almost as smart as your real mother Kiku was. Such as shame she had to die so young…."
"But you're the reason she's dead! If you hadn't told my father Taka to kidnap her—
Suddenly, another shadow crept over Warumo's shoulder. He looked up and moved quickly to the side as a giant creature landed on the sloped ground. It resembled a giant moth with gray fuzzy wings and antennae, though its mouth was full of sharp teeth and its eyes glowed yellow like two full moons. Daichi immediately vanished, letting go of Haru in the process.
The giant moth then hissed at Warumo, who took off on the winter winds. Flexing its wings, the giant moth flew after him. But not long after, it circled back to Haru.
"You're the Boy Who Vanished, aren't you?" said the giant moth in a deep female voice.
"Um, yes," Haru said, unsure of whether the moth was going to eat him or not. "My name is Haru Ryuji."
"I thought so," the giant moth responded snootily. "Your accursed scent was unmistakable."
"Why does everyone think I'm cursed?" Haru said, clenching his fists as he stood up. "First, Ako says it, then Hikari, and now you—whatever you are!"
"For your information, I am Faloni, and I'm a Shinchū."
"Shinchū? What's that?"
"A special kind of Yokai that eats other Yokai," Faloni explained. "We also don't eat humans. So there's no reason to be afraid of me, Haru Ryuji."
Feeling embarrassed, Haru unclenched his fists. "I'm sorry I yelled, Faloni. Thank you for saving me."
"No need to thank me, Haru Ryuji. I just happened to be in the area when I caught that monster's evil scent on the wind."
"Monster? You mean Warumo, or my adopted sister Daichi's ghost?"
"Both," replied Faloni. "Warumo may be responsible for bringing back this adopted sister of yours from the dead, but she has harmed many animals in this forest and eluded my grasp many times. And now the two of them have committed the greatest crime of killing a Kodama!"
"How can you be sure it's dead?"
"Warumo dropped what was left of it while he fled from me, which made me lose him."
From her fuzzy back, Faloni pulled down a lifeless body that was bioluminescent like the blood on the tree. She held the body out to Haru, who tepidly took it from Faloni's fanged mouth. His heart sank when he saw the body was a small creature that resembled a ball of cotton with a tiny face and gaping wounds full of the same glowing blood from the tree with no sign of breathing.
"It is said that drinking the blood of a Kodama will rejuvenate anything that is near death, but for the price of being forever cursed," Faloni said.
"Then you're saying Warumo used Daichi to draw out the Kodama from its tree so he could drink its blood?"
"Yes, and you know why Warumo would risk doing something that awful to be here."
Deep down, Haru knew it had to be the Jinsei Stone since it would allow Warumo to come back from whatever death-like state he might be in and become an unstoppable threat once more.
To be continued…