Eighty-Ninth Spell: Game

Hikari paused nervously before speaking. "Back in Mahoutokoro's Preliminary School, a few girls invited me to play Kokkuri-san with them. I was too scared and declined. But a few weeks later, one of the girls in that group started acting erratically. The other two girls guessed she was possessed by Kokkuri-san because she held onto the coin after the game was over.

"So I told Dōmeki-sama, and she performed an Exorcism on the possessed girl. It nearly killed her, though she somehow survived as Kokkuri-san was expelled. After that, Dōmeki-sama banned use of the Kokkuri-san board—even for academic study."

"But if that were true, what's a Kokkuri-san board doing here?" Haru wondered.

"I'm not sure," Hikari said. "We should just leave it alone and press on."

"What about Rui?"

Irritated, Hikari responded, "You didn't seem that concerned when we left Nayu behind."

"Only because I was still getting my bearings before Rui opened the door to the Wind Tunnel Trap. Besides, I overheard you talking to Rui about Nayu being too wounded to come with us and how she might stop us from getting to the Jinsei Stone."

"And that's why we need to keep going. If we waste time trying to undo the Ward and get Rui, then Shō could catch up to take the stone which will put our school in danger! Do you want that on your conscious apart from the deaths of your Manai family?"

This made Haru angry. But he stopped himself from flying off the handle, knowing Hikari had a good point. So he picked up the lantern from the table and looked around the room. Across from the table was an ornate wooden door that looked like the one they just came through along with the two doors at both ends of the Wind Tunnel Trap.

He walked over to it and tried to pull on the handle. But like the other door, it wouldn't budge. So taking Hikari's suggestion, Haru tried to use the Liquidation Spell Kobutai Huà. An invisible wall glowed briefly, causing the round metal door handle to not melt.

"It would seem this door has a Ward over it too," Hikari noticed. "And Maki-sensei hasn't taught our class how to dispel Wards yet."

"Then how are we supposed to get out of here?" Haru said, looking around for any other exit.

Unfortunately, there was none. He had hoped to hear his adopted father's voice again, but heard nothing. Suddenly, a crazy idea entered his head.

"Maybe we need to speak to Kokkuri-san," Haru suggested. "I mean, why else would there be a Kokkuri-san board in the middle of the room?"

"Of course!" Hikari said as she snapped her finger. "This is another trap, just like the Wind Tunnel one we just left. Someone cast a spell in this room that prevents us from leaving until one of us uses the Kokkuri-san board. But if we use the Kokkuri-san board, then we'll be at the mercy of Kokkuri-san herself."

"But if we can persuade her to let us go, it might be our only chance to get to the stone before Shō does," Haru pointed out. "So let me talk to her."

"NO!" Hikari snapped. "If anyone's going to use the Kokkuri-san board, it's going to be me."

"Why?" Haru found this selfless gesture very uncharacteristic of Hikari.

"You're not as charismatic as I am," Hikari said bluntly, which made Haru feel insulted. "And if something goes wrong, I'd rather not live with the guilt of letting a bad thing happen to a fellow classmate when I could've saved them."

Haru found Hikari's logic a little convoluted. "You could just say you want to help a friend."

Upon hearing that, Hikari blushed and turned away folding her arms. "But you're not my friend! And neither is Rui."

"Yet you've been helpful to me multiple times, and came all the way down here with us," Haru said. "Isn't that what a friend would do?"

Hikari didn't answer. Instead, she sat down at the table with the Kokkuri-san board. She placed her finger on the bronze Sei coin and moved it over to the red Torii gate.

"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san," Hikari chanted. "Tell us how we can leave this room and reach the place where the Jinsei Stone is being kept."

The lantern in Haru's hand suddenly flickered and the air grew colder. Hikari looked down and saw the coin moving underneath her finger across the board on its own, spelling out the word 'PLAY'.

"Play?" Hikari was confused. "A game?"

Now the coin moved to the corner of the board that said, 'Yes.'

"Okay, what kind of game?" asked Hikari.

The coin moved again, this time spelling out the word 'TENBUTSU'.

"What?" Hikari exclaimed. "You want to play that?"

Again, the coin moved to 'Yes.'

"But how? I didn't bring my deck with me," Hikari said.

From out of thin air, a deck of Tenbutsu cards appeared on the table. With her finger still on the coin, Hikari used her other hand to flip through the deck.

"This is my deck," Hikari realized. "How did you do that?"

"I can be in multiple places at once," said a female voice that neither Hikari or Haru recognized.

"Is that you, Kokkuri-san?" Hikari said, though she already knew the answer. "Why are you not speaking through the board?"

"Once a connection is established through the board, I can choose whether I want to speak through the board or directly to the person I'm speaking with," said the female voice.

"Can you also choose whether to make yourself visible to the person you're talking to?" Hikari continued, having her Spirit Bell bracelet at the ready.

"Yes," Kokkuri-san replied. "Would you like me to be visible?"

Hikari nodded. "If that is within your power, Kokkuri-san."

A thick mist formed on the second chair across from Hikari. It took the shape of a tall slender woman with long blonde hair covering her face. Poking out from the sides of her head were a pair of upright dog ears that were white which matched the color of her robe that had a red Torii gate symbol embroidered on the front. Haru also noticed something poking out from behind the woman's back, and noticed it was a white tail that was bushy like a raccoon dog's. Then the woman parted her blonde hair, revealing the face of a white fox with golden eyes outlined in red.

To be continued…