"Did something happen last night?" Teru asked in curiosity as he poured a cup of coffee into Nora's bottle for her to take to school as the girl helped Tiara put on her shoes. "Tiara, do you have your Akoada? And then your show and tell item?" Nora asked the young girl who smiled and pulled out a vanilla plush toy.
"I do!" Tiara cheered happily as Nora ruffled her hair slightly. "Kou, are you done? Did you get your science homework done?" The witch asked as the boy let out a muffled response, descending the stairs with his bag in his hand and three papers in his mouth as she visibly cringed.
"Nora." Teru called out. "Okay you two. Be careful crossing the roads." Nora warned as they nodded. "Have a good day Tiara." Nora leaned down so that the eldest daughter and only daughter of the Minamoto famil could peck her cheek before waddling over to Teru who picked her up and peppered her cheeks in pecks before placing her back down.
The five year old girl intertwined her hands with Kou as they set off to her school first.
The witch whizzed right past Teru as she grabbed her metal cup, twisting the cap shut and shoving it into the side of her bag as she ran upstairs to grab something before coming back down with the red ribbon in her hand. The same one she used to tie her hair back with everyday.
Quicker than she tied his tie, the girl braided two small pieces of her hair, tying it back as she pulled the ribbon through, creating a small and simple knot, adjusting the bow she had created to perfectly fit.
Teru narrowed his cerulean eyes at her. "Nora."
When there was no response he sighed. Using prayer beads on Nora would only result in them being snapped, courtesy of when his father had tried it once, the witch had easily cut them off with one of her sharp claws. So often, it was up to force to get her attention, something he particularly disliked using as a gentlemen on people that weren't supernaturals.
She stared at the looming figure that pressed her against the wall gently, still being careful with her. She placed a hand on his forehead before letting out a hum. "You recovered quickly for someone who passed out at twelve in the morning." Nora said simply. Teru had two hands placed on either side of her head as she awaited for his next words.
"Did something happen last night?" Teru asked once more as she looked up at his tall figure and nodded. "You passed out." The witch played dumb as Teru flicked her forehead, causing her to wince and wither in pain with a frown. "I was being honest!"
"That was being cheeky." He corrected, narrowing his eyes at her as she sighed and ducked beneath his arm. "We're going to be late." Nora picked up her bag from the floor as she slipped on her stockings.
"Nora." The male drawled as she turned back from the doorway. "Teru, if a girl ignores you, she obviously doesn't want to talk to either you or the subject. Besides, there were two parties, you should ask the second one if the first one isn't answering." The witch said bluntly as she left first, he sighed realizing that he too, was going to be late if he didn't get a move on.
Nora sat on top of the desk, her raven tail waving back and forth as she stared at the chalkboard Akane was aggressively writing on like a mad detective. "Remind me again what rejection you're currently on, Akane?" Nora raised a brow at the boy who had a white headband tied around his forehead, it's loose ends read 'AKANE AOI ❤︎'.
He turned around brightly. "3,620!" The witch blinked at the number as she mumbled the numbers, running the mental math in her head. "That'd be .. a confession every single day for almost ten years straight .." Nora stared at him wide eyed as he simply smiled happily, turning back to the chalkboard in which he was using to intricately plan his next confession.
"You know .. I never took it seriously before but .. you're absolutely crazy, Akane." Nora muttered to him, bewildered as she watched him calculate the perfect timing and angle as well as the length of his shadow at the certain time of day he would be confessing. "Of course! This is Ao-chan we're talking about, Senpai!"
The witch leapt onto Teru's shoulder, something she hadn't done in some time. "When was the last time we got his head checked?" The witch whispered to the president who stopped writing and looked up to the ceiling as he pondered the question. "Maybe it's natural?" Teru suggested as the witch shuddered.
She stared out the window where she spotted two familiar mops of hair. "Natsuhiko and ... Nene?" Nora had teleported herself onto the other side of the glass as Teru blinked and stood up, looking at where the cat was staring at as she slowly leapt down the tiles of the roof top.
Her ears twitched as they listened in to the conversation. "Er um .. Why are you holding a goldfish bowl?" Yashiro's familiar light voice had rung out. "Why do you think?" Natsuhiko drawled with a smile. "Oopsy daisy!" Although Nora didn't have full view of the scene, she heard a splash of water.
Presumably onto Nene. Meaning that these two knew of her mermaid curse. "Gotcha!" It was a childish voice, not belonging to anyone the witch knew of. And the scent .. smelled like that of someone who was already dead. An apparition.
The two boys carried the passed out Yashiro away as Nora's medallion orbs narrowed down on them sharply before returning back to the student council room where Teru was waiting at the window for her in which she had teleported back in and onto his head where she sat, careful not to fall off as he walked.
"What was it?" The president asked as he continued to review over the budget plans of the Student Council. Nora shifted on her paws as she leapt onto Teru's desk. "I found the yucky apparition who's been spreading his nasty smell everywhere. Especially on Kou." Nora's nose twitched in disgust.
Teru let out a hum. "And?"
"Hm. We probably won't be able to exorcise him. I didn't get a good look at his face but he has a non bounded human working with him along with his bond one. They kidnapped Nene." Nora had spoken more cheerily than the situation sounded as he glanced at her. "You sound confident."
"Because I am. Besides .. Nene still has a few months left at the very least. She isn't going to die. Not yet and not now. Regardless .. I'll save her if things go awry." Nora sprawled her legs out, stretching.
"Good job, Nora." Teru praised as he scratched the back of her ears, stroking the top of her raven fur.
On the topic of death, Nora flickered her eyes to Akane who muted them out as he tapped his chin, adjusting a few calculations here and there. They had another one who's life was coming to an end soon as well. Akane Aoi. Coincidentally, she was best friends with the two least normal people in her class.
When the day came when Aoi's soul was stranded in the far shore and Akane had to let her go, Nora may actually pity the boy endearingly. It was quite clear that Akane loved her quite a bit, hell bent on his future with Aoi inside of it. Although he had no clue that the girl would be disappearing soon in near future.
Teru accompanied her down the hall of the old abandoned side of the school as she skipped down the halls. The pair made their way to the boundary or rather home of the Seventh School Wonder, Hanako of the Bathroom.
The boy had nearly fallen off of the sink as the sudden slam of the door swinging open had startled him as he stared at the two new intruders, one of which he certainly didn't wish to see again as Minamoto Teru glowered at the ghost with hateful and burning cerulean eyes that even caused Hanako to break out into a sweat.
The apparition had an old-fashioned phone on his lap as Nora smiled. "Hanako!"
He flinched, scooting backwards ever so slightly as the ravenette approached him, clearly more friendly than last time. "What brings you two here?" He asked wearily. Surely it wasn't to exorcise him, considering Teru didn't have his blade drawn like last time. "To help of course!" Nora beamed brightly.
Hanako blinked. "Help?"
"Well, Nene is in a pinch isn't she?" Nora asked curiously as Hanako raised a brow at her, immediately getting on the defensive as one of his tsueshiro swirled around the pair, however Teru placed a hand on the hilt of hit katana, frightening the boy more than the girl did as he held his hands up in surrender. "Now .. how do you know that .. Natsuki?"
She blinked before making an 'o' shaped mouth. "Senpai is fine, but to get straight to the point, I rather like Nene. That and .. the place that she's in is rather convenient for me to get to." Nora said as she clasped her hands together in delight.
Yashiro Nene looked around her new surrounding in confusion. It was a void of darkness with many doors and Mokke. "There's no water on the floor .." The first year noticed, in comparison to her previous setting in the room where she was having tea with Sakura moments ago, this place wasn't a boundary.
"Well ... I don't think it's quite the same as a boundary." Hanako's voice rung out as the girl snapped her head around to where the voice emanated from. "This voice .. Is that you, Hanako? Where are you?" The girl asked hopefully.
"Right here." Out came a pink Mokke from behind the door with a steel box sitting on top of its ears heavily. "Given where you are .. I guess you probably got tricked again."
Letting the two converse a bit, Nora kicked her legs back and forth as she sat on the sink next to Hanako's with Teru leaning against the wall, his eyes shut as he listened in, wordlessly. The two of them also seemed to share a rather warming bond. A human and an apparition. Two mixes that don't go together and will never go together.
A living person and a dead person, it was similar just as to how the nearshore and the far shore are both separate from one another and can never merge to become one. Simple, because they were complete opposites that would never work.
"Now, I don't know how long this signal will last, since I got it with some help, so I'll make this short. The place you're in right now isn't the world of the living or the dead, or even a boundary. It's nowhere." Hanako said to his assistant who held the radio in her hands, blinking in confusion.
"Nowhere?" Yashiro repeated.
Nora snatched the phone from the boy. "Ding ding ding! It's both everywhere and nowhere. You can reach anywhere in the past, or future from it. That's where those doors lead to." The new intrusion of a voice had startled Yashiro as she nearly dropped the box, however thankfully didn't. "Natsuki?!" The two voiced chorused.
"Oh. Looks like you're stuck too, Natsuhiko. I guess Sakura was in a bad mood and tossed you in." Nora shrugged as the apparition snatched his phone back.
"The place is really annoying. I'm not sure who in their right mind would create it. I'm trying to have Haku-joudai find you but that place is huge. I'd like you to do your part, Yashiro." Hanako jumped off of the sink and onto the floor as he handed the phone to Nora begrudgingly.
"What should I do?" Yashiro listened intently.
"Well, you see a lot of doors, right Nene?" Nora switched as she spoke. "Yeah." Yashiro replied, her eyes peering to all of the different types of doors that surrounded her. "Each of those doors connects to a different place in a different world. There should be one that connects to your original world somewhere. I want you to find that door and open it."
"Although then again, I'll be able to find you, but it might take some time." Nora said with an airy sigh, drawing on the mirrors with her breath as Hanako tried his best not to protest especially with Teru eyeing his every move in the corner of the room.
"So I should just start opening doors?" Yashiro questioned. Nora chuckled. "Good grief no. Just ones that you recognize. Some of them connect to really dangerous places, so be careful." Those were the last words Yashiro had heard from her senpai before the line crackled and broke apart as Nora sighed and placed down the phone.
"Well that's that." Nora jumped off the sink as well as Hanako's amber eyes eyed her carefully. "You said that you came to help .. So how do you plan on doing that, Senpai?" Hanako spoke the honorific with dripping sarcasm as Nora turned and smiled at him, pinching his cheek harshly as he flailed around. "Because, you're looking at the insane person who created that place. I don't like calling it nowhere. I prefer calling it a void." Nora's voice was sharp as she let go of the supernatural's cheek as he rubbed it in disdain.
"Why would you ever create that place, for what reason? More importantly .. Who are you?" He asked with a raised brow. She simply laughed.
"Witch of the Void. It's a pleasure. I had forgotten all about a few of my voids honestly, the doors being one of them. I'm not sure if I remember how to get there myself." The witch said sheepishly as Hanako stared at the airhead. "Anyways .. to be precise .. I created the void of doors myself, along with some assistance from my now deceased mother. It marks the time periods and stamps that I lived in, the places i've been to and explored, that specific frame of time, replaying over and over in that one door, restarting over and over every minute, hour and or second." Nora explained as her finger drew a circle.
"It's convenient for teleporting." Thus, the entire reason she created it in the first place. "A useless creator ..." Hanako muttered beneath his breath as Nora held up the tip of a sacred sutra against his neck. "What was that, you cheeky brat?"
He pursed his lips and kept his mouth shut.
"Hmm well .. let's see." Nora stared at the bathroom stall door as Hanako raised a brow at her. "Teru .. I'm going to remove my seal for a bit." The witch smiled at him. He nodded his head as Hanako watched Nora roll up her sleeve, extending it to Teru who began to undo her watch. With a click it unclasped as the witch began rubbing her wrist, knocking on the bathroom stall as Hanako was opening his mouth to complain a little more, Teru held the sheath of his katana at the boy's neck as he pulled a book out.
"Okay, I'll be right back." Nora waved as she knocked on the bathroom stall, a key appearing in her hands as she injected it into the red stall, much to his surprise, the key was absorbed as Nora kicked the door open where it swung open to reveal a pitch black nothingness. Without hesitation, Nora leapt in.
She could feel Haku-joudai as well as Natsuhiko and Yashiro wandering around in her void. Natsuhiko was in a gate, there was no way she was getting him out; regardless, he was going to survive. However she quickly made her way to Yashiro who looked around cautiously with Mokke following and trailing behind her.
"So these doors can lead to the past? I wonder if I could .." Yashiro thought about the memory she saw in Tsuchigomori's yorishiro. "Would you like to?" Nora appeared in front of her hanging upside down as the first-year jumped and nearly fell on the floor.
"N-N-Natsuki-senpai! What are you doing here?!" Yashiro stammered, screeching in surprise as her eyes went wide, nearly popping out of their sockets as Nora smiled. "Here to rescue my dear kouhai of course! I hope my void has been treating you well." The witch said as she looked around, taking Yashiro's hands into her own. "Y-Yes ..." She stuttered out, unsure and hesitant.
But she looked up to the older girl who had her usual soft smile graced onto her features. Yashiro had the luck of encountering not one but two beauties today. They really were breathtaking. "Natsuki-senpai .. What did you mean about if I wanted to?" Yashiro fiddled with her gloves as she stared up, slightly hopeful at the witch with her magenta eyes.
"This is my void, I created this place with some help. I know where my doors lead and I know what you want. You want to go see Yugi Amane in the past." Nora said simply as the girl flinched and nodded her head. "Can I really?"
Nora beamed at her. "Of course, but, only for five minutes and I'm sending you back to Hanako. He's waiting like a puppy right now." Much to the first year's surprise when Nora had begun flying in the air, pulling Yashiro along with her to a door. A familiar one as a tune rung out. The after school 5:30 bell as they came upon a mahogany door. Without hesitation, Yashiro twisted the knob and leapt into an old classroom setting.
Nora snapped her fingers as she created a new door, to Hanako's bathroom as she stepped in, blankly blinking as she saw the two boys in .. a heap. Teru had the sheath of his katana pressed against Hanako's neck in a choke-hold.
Immediately, Hanako shoved off the exorcist. "Where's my assistant?" He asked, amber orbs glowering at the witch who only smiled daintily. "She'll be here in about four minutes." Nora said simply as Teru strapped the watch back on to her wrist.
"Tell Nene to come visit me!" Nora waved as the apparition simply stood there as she left on her merry way with Teru.
"Where did you send her?" Teru asked the witch who turned to him simply. "Just to Yugi Amane for a few minutes, no worries." Teru hadn't a clue who that was so he simply nodded his head as they crossed over to the new school building and left the old one.
He glanced over to the seventeen year old walking beside him merrily, seemingly contempt with the current setting and situation. "Nora. Are you really not going to tell me what happened last night? What really happened?" Teru questioned as the ravenette turned to him with a hum. "Just listen to the over exaggerated story that the elders tell you and then tone down the exaggeration a bit and voila!" Nora said as she began to pet a sudden Mokke on her shoulder.
"Besides, according to them, I seduced you." Nora chuckled as he stared out the window. "Maybe you did." Teru said airily as the witch raised a brow at him, unsure if he was being serious or if it was a tease. "Well that's not good, now is it. Should I alter my appearance?" The witch asked, playfully as Teru pat her head. "I like this one." Was all he said as they made their way back to the student council room.