When the school day was done, we returned to the Demalgo house and waited in the living room for Scarlon. Thankfully, the room was much neater than it has been that morning. He emerged from the large staircase a few minutes later with a few books under his arms.

"I see that you have made some progress on this case." He remarked as he sat down in his armchair. "Those pictures were most helpful and shows that there's definitely a summoning ritual happening in those woods, but what about those books? Any luck there?"

"Kind of." Akiyomi said as she took out the list of books and placed it on the desk. "Most of the books they checked out weren't really worth looking into since they are quite common, but I did find a couple where there was little to no information on them."

"Don't be so quick to brush off common books, Miss Arizuno." Scarlon said as he picked the list up. "I can think of at least one or two popular children's books and songs that accidentally contain spells, or at least bits of them, though the ones you crossed out are definitely nothing special. The one you circled, though..." He looked up at us and smirked before placing the books in his arms on the table. "I believe it might be one of these."

Akiyomi looked from her list to the books on the table and, much to her surprise, found the same title on one of them.

"Wow. It really is the same book!" Akiyomi gasped. "Wait. Did you suspect that this was among the books my friends got?"

Scarlon nodded. "I had a hunch it might be it. There were a few possibilities since I'm familiar with the books in that library, but I just hoped I was wrong and it's clear now that I wasn't."

"Why? What is this book?" She asked.

"A spellbook put together a long time ago by an insane magician. Fortunately, there are only five copies of it in existence." He explained.

"And you knew one was in the school?" Akiyomi asked. "How?"

"I suspected it only because I know the rough whereabouts of all five copies. One is sitting before you, and three are in the possession of private collectors far away from here who have earned my trust. Last I heard from them, which was quite recent, none of those books have disappeared. The last copy was a gift from that magician to a friend of his who happened to be the grandfather of your school's founder, who in turn was the grandfather of the current principal if I'm not mistaken. As I feared, either the founder or your principal used his ancestor's collection for his school library!" He paused to collect his breath. "But that has nothing to do with the case at hand since the magician, his friend, and your school's founder are long dead. However, having a copy of this book will certainly help us."

"Really? Is there by any chance anything in it about summoning monsters?" Akiyomi asked.

"I believe there is and that's probably the least of what is in this tome, but don't quote me on that since the last time I looked at this cursed thing was when your grandfather was studying with me as a boy." Scarlon said. "By the way, that wasn't a coincidence. Toyoshi was always quite the troublemaker."

"He still is." She replied.

"I wasn't worried." He laughed as he opened the book and we started looking through it. I then spotted a section on summoning spells after looking at all sorts of spells that I'd never seen before, and hopefully never will again. "I think we found something." I said as I found a page that mentioned summoning creatures from the world of demons.

Scarlon then examined the spell on the page. "Yes. Good work, Colin. Those pictures you took certainly line up with what this spell calls for. This also gives us the chance to catch your friends in the act, Miss Arizuno."

"How so?" She asked as she looked at the page. "Oh. The type is a little hard to read in places and the language is a little archaic, but I think I can make out something about performing the spell when certain weather conditions are met, such as rain storms, along with certain phases of the moon."

"Right you are, Miss Arizuno." Scarlon said. "This spell seems to work best when there is both a storm and a half moon, though preparations do have to be made beforehand. If I'm not mistaken and providing the weather forecast is reasonably accurate, the best opportunity will be within the week."

"Yeah. I do remember listening to some weather guys predicting a massive storm in a few days." Akiyomi said as I looked up at a calendar upon a nearby wall.

"Right when the moon is half full." I gulped.

"Indeed." Scarlon remarked as he looked at the calendar. "I don't think you could ever find a more perfect opportunity, at least in the near future."

"If we have a rough time, can't we stop my friends from going through with this if we show up, say, a few days early and destroy everything they have in place?" Akiyomi asked.

"I wouldn't recommend that course of action. If your friends are intelligent, which I assume they are, I'm guessing that they'll have already summoned something to guard the area." Scarlon replied.

"How do you mean, Scarlon?" I asked.

Scarlon placed a tablet on the table and brought up one of the photos I had sent to him. "I don't know if you can see it in the photo or if you even saw it at the place, and in fact it took me several looks before I spotted it myself, but I can barely make out a smaller summoning portal a little above the main one."

"What does that mean?" Akiyomi asked. "I don't really know much about these things."

"And a good thing too." Scarlon said, his face looking grim. "There are few things as unpredictable as a summoning, especially summoning the creatures known to you as demons. Sometimes you'll end up with a good one, one who will end up helping you in some way solely for their own benefit, or one who will try to take over or destroy the planet they are summoned on. Not that I'll ever let one get that far if it's attempted here. I would never recommend demon summoning, even if you do know what to do and have done it successfully. Even trained summoners shouldn't do this, and I'm guessing your classmates haven't done anything like this before."

"Yeah. They know some basic magic, but nothing like this!" Akiyomi shouted. "But how do you know all this, and what does that have to do with what my friends are doing?"

"When you've been dealing with the supernatural as long as I have, you tend to learn many things." Scarlon replied.

"I guess that makes sense." She said. "I suppose you deal with stuff like this on a regular basis?"

"Definitely, Miss Arizuno." He sighed. "Barely a month has gone by without some fool attempting a summoning ritual since I started doing this centuries ago, but none of those were on this scale. Anyway, the spellbook mentions that the first thing to do is a smaller summoning for what is known as a lesser demon before setting things up for the main one. While it isn't directly necessary, something that book never mentions, it is helpful for protecting the summoning sight from intruders and local wildlife. Otherwise, what's to stop someone from coming across the sight and destroying it before the ideal conditions are met?"

"Someone like us." Akiyomi said.

"Exactly."

"So the presence I sensed in the woods was probably this guard demon?" I asked.

Akiyomi nodded. "Yeah. Along with the voices I heard."

"It seems likely. If you try to destroy the summoning site, no doubt this demon will try to kill you both since it's on this side." Scarlon said as he looked at me. "While your skills have been advancing at an astounding pace, even taking down a lesser demon on your own is probably outside of your skill set at present."

"Then you can probably do something, can't you?" Akiyomi asked Scarlon.

He nodded. "Indeed I can, but the creature is only doing its job and I won't directly get involved until I know there's a serious threat or if this particular set of portals is even your friends' doing, though I have little doubt that it's both. However, I will accompany you on the day of the summoning."

"What are your reasons for waiting?" Akiyomi snapped, sounding a little miffed.

"For one, this isn't an immediate threat. If it was, I would've joined you this morning and destroyed that place." Scarlon said. "The creatures I can best describe as lesser demons, as a general rule, don't attack unless they're provoked and rarely move beyond the area they are supposed to protect, be it a place or a person. However, it would be quite another thing if your friends were caught in the act and I saw whoever they're summoning, or if the guard demon made its way to the town and/or killed innocent bystanders. Unlikely since few people would want to go near that section of the woods. Basically, I'm waiting for them to make the first move. I am hesitant to take any life except in defense, even demons. Surely Toyoshi told you that much about how I do things?"

Akiyomi nodded. "He might've mentioned once or twice. It does sound a little familiar."

"I hope it does." Scarlon said. "Another reason is that interrupting a summoning like that could lead to some drastic results outside of our control."

"Oh. Good reason." She said.

Scarlon nodded as he picked his tablet back up and flicked through a few things on it. "Then let's meet up on the day of that storm which will be in three days' time."

"I guess that's the best we can do." She sighed. "I suppose there's a reason you've been doing this for so long, after all."

"Indeed there is." He responded. "I'll treat you to a nice dinner and then one of us can help you home if you like."

She shook her head. "Dinner sounds nice. I should be fine getting home myself since I live fairly close by, but thank you for the offer."

"No problem." Scarlon said.

We had a nice dinner before Akiyomi headed home for the night.

Akiyomi returned to the Demalgo house on the day we had decided on and knocked on the door. I answered a few moments later.

"Ah. Just in time." I remarked.

"Yes, but---" Akiyomi paused as she heard a couple of voices coming from the living room. "I know Scarlon's voice by now, but who's he talking to?" She asked. "It sounds like quite the lively conversation, too. Did another potential client show up?"

I shook my head. "No. Scarlon's sister returned rather unexpectedly this morning."

"Oh." She said. "I do recall grandfather saying that she often disappeared for days or weeks at a time to go on all sorts of trips. She still does that?"

I nodded. "Indeed she does. Now why don't you come inside so we can get ready for our little operation?" I asked before leading Akiyomi inside and closing the door behind her.

"So where does his sister go on her trips?" Akiyomi asked as we walked down the hall to the living room.

"I don't really know and I'm not convinced she does until she gets there, but when she comes back she usually has all sorts of stories to tell." I said.

Scarlon was sitting in one of the armchairs in the center of the room as opposed to his usual one, and sitting across from him was a girl his age. When he heard the door open, he looked up and saw us standing there.

"Ah. Is it that time already?" Scarlon muttered, looking between Akiyomi and the girl next to him. "Miss Arizuno, this is my lovely sister Vanessa Demalgo. Vanessa, this is the client I was talking about."

Vanessa looked at Akiyomi while holding a hand out. "Oh yes. You're Toyoshi's granddaughter, aren't you? Arizuno Akiyomi, correct?"

Akiyomi nodded as she shook Vanessa's hand. "Yes, Miss Vanessa."

"Please. Just Vanessa is fine." She replied. "My brother told me about your little problem with the demon summoning friends and I'm glad I got back in time to offer my assistance."

"Oh? Are you going to help us, Vanessa?" Akiyomi asked.

Vanessa grinned. "I sure am. Fighting some demons and helping out the granddaughter of a guy who's both a good friend and a past student? How can I ever pass something like that up?"

"By disappearing to who knows where at the worst possible time?" Scarlon asked in a rather snarky tone.

Vanessa glared at him. "Like you're innocent of that, dear brother!" She shot back. "Anyway, shouldn't we be heading there around now? At least according to what you were telling me."

"Yeah." Akiyomi began. "I can tell just by looking at the clouds outside that the storm will start at any moment, and I'd rather be there before it starts."

Scarlon nodded. "A wise choice. I've no doubt it's also for the best that all of us will be here to take care of this."

"Oh? And why is that?" Akiyomi asked, looking puzzled.

"I have a few guesses and if it comes to that, you'll see." I replied.

"I'll take your word for it." She sighed.