HALCYON [Minamoto Teru]

31

"After all, they're all strong supernaturals, each with special abilities and a usual non existent craving for human souls — but they are unstable with their emotions, due to being humanoid in some shape, form, substance, or way, thus making it possible for them to have emotions and relationships. No matter what, you can't sever their bonds entirely -- unless they're dead of course!"

"Just like persistent oil stains, aren't they?" Kou and Yashiro seemed to be quite hesitant on his cruel outlook of supernaturals, but they said nothing, allowing him to continue on.

"That's why .. we were thinking that we could try from our end, to figure out which things or places they share a deep connection with." Teru smiled, encouragement flushed fluid relief into their bodies about his harsh and sharp attitude toward distasteful supernaturals.

"So for the time being, we can split up. For the younger Minamoto and Yashiro .. hm first, you guys can start with No.3, The Hell of Mirrors. Didn't you get along with him?" Akane tilted his head, watching Kou's face go blank. His lips parted, but Yashiro brushed against his arm reassuringly.

The third-year junior high student swallowed the lump in his throat.

"We'll look into the other Seven Mysteries .. In this case, President, the hag can go solo, right?" Akane questioned as Yashiro and Kou looked at him with curiosity, however Yashiro raised a hand up first. "Am I missing something? I-I mean .. calling Natsuki-senpai a .. hag?" The silvernette stammered, not wanting to be rude or disruptive, like the polite young girl she was.

Teru picked up the bundled kitten. "When I first got Nora, I had no idea she was a witch. I stepped on her paw one day and she ended up taking me back home. But my parents had a rather different reaction and tossed her into a cell. We've kept this tight lipped from Kou for some time too."

"You're right .. Nora has the capabilities and knowledge of this town to go alone. However .. It would be best not to do that." Teru warned. For the wavering split second, like a waning gibbous, his voice had turned into a trickling inkling of black. Protectiveness.

"When the clan elders had found out that she was a witch, their first immediate suggestion was to kill her. She was ten or eleven at the time, and she didn't bother batting an eye at the mention of death. After all, she'd been to it's door many times, and in the end, even death threw her out of it's realm, and sent her back to this world, the nearshore, where humans rejected and shunned her."

"It doesn't matter which form she's in. For now and until she dies, prejudice will always follow her in blood. Nora is our stray -- that's why Mom named her like that."

"This city -- these people and all of the nearshore don't hold pleasant memories for her. Because cats have nine lives, and this one, has already been through seven of them." Nora was nearing the cliff of the River of Styx, where she was destined to fall, and drown in the end, after being ripped and torn apart by Cerberus.

"Those who see black cats as bearers of misfortune, are the ones bearing misfortune upon it. They live their lives alone in recluse, berated and despised. Yet what can they do? They simply wander throughout their long lives about why people reject them so much, cursed. Nora was cursed by her own misfortune."

"By her own pleas of not wishing to harm anyone, her magic subconsciously converted itself into misfortune for herself. Because no matter what Nora says, she loves humans. She was willing to protect them .. from herself, despite the ditch they tossed her into."

This was the tale, of the dusk maiden. The Witch of the Void, long fallen from the graces of the midnight sky like a shooting star.

"And her quiet wishes and pleas that turned into self-inflicted bad luck, had morphed into a curse, condemning Nora to death. A painful death in whichever lifetime she lived upon. Nora has never lived beyond the age of twenty, but has existed for over a century now, wandering for a place, somewhere to assume her presence."