HALCYON [Minamoto Teru]

31

The exalted black ball of fur curled itself onto the male's lap, gently snoozing away, her tail waving ever so lightly as Minamoto Teru bundled her up into a blanket using his hoodie and placed her on top of the couch, allowing the witch to succumb to a sleeping rest from her long exhausted state.

"After so many years of violating her sleep schedule and giving her so much stress and insomnia, it's okay to let Nora have some sleep nowadays." Teru muttered, taking a sip of his tea.

For a girl who had been taking care of not just his siblings, but his family for years now, saving the so-called humans who prejudiced her ancestry, Nora was a well respected witch by the main branch of the Minamoto Clan, whether the elders agreed or not.

Akane blinked once, and then twice before his mouth slowly drew itself into a look of pure horror and surprise. "Don't tell me -- that hag lives here .." Akane slowly muttered the words with hesitance as the two blondes looked at each other, and then him, with a dumbfounded nod.

"For someone who placed second, you sure are slow on your awareness of your surroundings, Aoi."

He paled -- ghostly white pale, along with Yashiro who let out a squeal. Like Aoi and Akane, the vice-president had presumed Nora was a neighbor of the Minamoto siblings. "Nora-nee has been living with us for a while now, right Teru-nii?" It had been many long years, and their relationship had gone along the road for some time.

"Six years since I stumbled upon her while exorcising some apparitions in a storm. I still have the scars from her scratches." Teru rolled up the sleeve of his arm, a discolored thin line ran across his bicep as Akane grimaced.

"So .. Natsuki-senpai has been living with you two ever since?" Yashiro reached out to pet the older girl, but then retracted her touch, wondering if it was okay. "You can go ahead, Nora is fond of her kouhai, including Akane over there. They got along right off the bat when we'd first met him." Teru let out a chuckle.

Akane clicked his tongue as Yashiro pat Nora's soft fur. "Got along my ass. She nearly killed me and said I smelled like rotten apples."

"I wouldn't say living with us per se. She used to -- but now she spends more time sleeping in Teru-nii's room more than anything." Kou said lightly as he took a bite of his thumbprint cookie. Akane sent Teru a dirty look, in which his senior replied with a beaming innocent smile.

"Back to our main topic at hand .. I can give you three a brief run-down of my findings, since my little assistant is currently napping away merrily."

"First off .. The Seven Mysteries each have something with a deep connection to their origins in this town .. after all, they died here, or were born and created here. Even with the severance, because their roots go so deep into said connection, a pathway should be able to be created using these connections to a boundary."