"What? Yashiro, you found Hanitaro for me!? You're a lifesaver! I looked everywhere! Ao-chan gave it to me once upon a time. I take him with me wherever I go, but he always manages to disappear on me ... Seriously, thanks! Would you leave him right there? I'm a little .. preoccupied at the moment." Akane muttered.
Yashiro stared down at him, deadpanning at his prayer position as he was on all fours, his head bowed down to the ground with a talisman on his head and prayer beads surrounding him in a circle as well as Mokke that were cheering for him as another drop of the boy's sweat had dripped onto the ground.
"Um .. What are you doing?" Yashiro asked curiously, putting his belonging down.
Akane chuckled nervously. "Oh, well, ha-ha .. You know how Mirai wrecked havoc all over school today? It made Minamoto-senpai and Natsuki-senpai just a little upset, I guess. I think its been about an hour since I came into this room .. And I haven't .. been able to move .. one millimeter from this position .."
It was a perfect form, a miracle that he wasn't shaking, although it was expected. Despite his figure, Akane was rather lean himself, having exercised and worked out when his childhood friend Akane had developed a crush on someone strong. "That's rough .." Yashiro muttered.
"Keep moving your mouth and you may be in trouble." Nora snapped at him as the door opened, revealing the pair, dubbed king and queen of popularity apparently. "It's Yashiro-san. We don't see you here often, hello." Teru greeted as he placed the stack of papers he'd just picked up from the lounge onto the table.
"H-Hello .. ❤︎" Yashiro managed to mumble as she stared up at him in awe. "What brings you here?" Teru questioned as he smiled at her.
"I was bringing Akane something of his .. and I'm looking for Hanako." The first-year explained as Teru let out a hum. "From the Seven Mysteries." Teru snapped his fingers as a loud gasp filled the room, the sound of Akane being freed from his restraints as he sat up, sweat drenched, panting heavily.
"Whew! I can move!" He declared happily as the beads wrapped themselves around Teru's wrist once again. "I thought it might be a little too cruel to keep you in that position in front of a girl .. Just for now." Teru said simply as the boy flinched and shuddered. "You're gonna make me do it again when this is over?" Akane whined.
"No.1 has fallen!"
"Take him down!"
"Waaah!" The Mokke chanted as they surrounded him, however Akane showed no reaction to them as Yashiro blinked and turned toward the president. "Is he going to be okay? Doesn't he see them?" Yashiro asked, referring to the Mokke.
Patting the tired Nora's head as she leaned against the wall, propped up in a chair in her human form as she blinked lazily. Teru turned to his vice president as he walked over. "Aoi."
"Yes?" The boy replied. Walking behind the clock keeper, Teru reached for his glasses. "Yoink. ★" Teru snatched the glasses off of the boy's face and pushed his head down as his eyes blinked, adjusting to blurry figures that stared up at him. "WAAH!" He let out a cry as the vicious Mokke leapt on him with matches lit and hammers in their ears.
"See? These glasses're special. They were enchanted by Nora over here." He gestured to the girl as he slipped on the glasses himself.
At the sudden beckon of her name, she realized that they were talking about her. "Oh yeah .. When he's wearing them, his spiritual power his reduced to that of an ordinary human's. Before he was half forced into a contract with the School Mysteries, Aoi was a normal human being. So of course he couldn't see supernaturals."
"He said he wanted to live life like he used to, so I had Nora do a favor and enchant these glasses for him so that he could do so." Teru finished Nora's explanation as Yashiro understood, nodding her head. "But ... can't it be dangerous for him not to see supernaturals?" The girl asked curiously, remembering the confession tree incident.
Teru hummed. "Probably. The fact is, because of these glasses, Aoi can't usually see supernaturals. And he succumbs to spells easily. But .. Not knowing .. not seeing .. not being able to get involved .. Sometimes those things can be out best defense." Teru stared out the window. The witch peeked an eye open as she stretched her arms out.
"What do you mean ..?" Yashiro asked curiously. "Once you've learned something .. You can't go back to before you've learned it. There are many things in this world that are best left unknown. That's what I mean." Teru said with a small smile as he turned around, extending his arm out to the witch as he pat her head.
Yashiro had stared at him blankly before her eyes turned into one of adoration as Teru chuckled. "The look on your face says that you don't understand .."
"What's going on?! AHH!" Akane's shouts echoed throughout the room as Mokke continued to gang up on him, some crawling into his uniform, others hitting his head and poking his body as they restrained him.
Yashiro stared at the witch. "Um .. Is Natsuki-senpai alright?" She noticed that the witch was much more lethargic than usual as Teru chuckled. "She'll be alright. Nora here is a witch, she just used a little too much magic during the time turning incident and she just needs a little rest because she's tired."
The silvernette nodded her head. "I see .."
"You wanted to know where No.7 is?" The witch spoke as she rubbed her eyes. Yashiro snapped out of her daze of admiring the two and their compatibility as she blinked and stiffened up. "Oh yes! I've just been missing him all day .. I see he hasn't been here." Yashiro said as she looked around the room.
With a swish of Nora's finger, she opened the door. "I saw him go up the stairs to the roof a little while ago." The seventeen year old directed. Yashiro's face brightened up. "Thank you!"
As the door shut with a click, Nora took the glasses off of Teru's face. "Your emotions got a little bit too dangerous Akane, and it snapped you out of the enchantment despite you having your glasses on. Now I need to re-enchant them." Nora sighed as Akane flung all of the Mokke off of him, taking his glasses back from her fingers.
"Are you sure that's okay?" Akane asked, a serious expression masking his face as he marched up to the student council president. "What is?" Teru questioned, feigning innocence.
"Don't play dumb with me as if you didn't try to exorcise Honorable No.7 the other day .. But whenever Yashiro wants to go see him, you just let her go?" Akane asked with a scowl on his features. Teru sighed, waving his hand dismissively, sitting on the desk beside the lackadaisical Nora.
"Oh please, It's called keeping him in check. And it helped educate my little brother." Teru said with a shrug, recalling their near exorcism incident the other day. "And besides .. There's no way to protect her anyway." Teru muttered regretfully as Nora pursed her lips.
Akane let out a snort of disbelief. "Right .. so you knew about Yashiro's life expectancy, I figured considering the Hag knew too. You're a shrewd bastard .." The vice-president said disdainfully with a grunt as he pushed the glasses further up the bridge of his nose as Teru turned to him with a smile.
"Aoi .. Watch how you speak to your elders. ★" Teru electrocuted him with the sheath of his blade as he let out a yelp.
While Teru had the boy in a bowing position again, Nora took off his glasses, placing it into the palm of her hands. "I want .. sticky rice cake with red bean paste." Nora said softly, moping as she stared up at Teru pleadingly as Akane deadpanned at the witch. "We can stop by and get some for Princess on our way."
"Seriously?!" The first-year exclaimed. While he was being punished, Nora was allowed to get sticky rice cakes with the President paying for it. Teru decided that the witch had done a good job today, so he didn't mind.
As she finished enchanting the glasses, she slid it back onto the younger boy's face. He was passed out on the ground from exhaustion after his punishment, courtesy of Teru who enthusiastically continued to look through his paperwork. "Teru." Nora called out to him as he looked up with a hum. "Hm?"
"That girl .. Akane Aoi .. she doesn't want to be saved." Nora said simply. Teru had blinked, a face of surprise until it had fallen onto the floor, revealing a desolate expression, sullen and exasperated. "I see .. What a shame." He murmured. Nora thought the same thing.
"I can save her." Nora said out of the blue as Teru blinked. "But she said that she doesn't want to be saved, Nora." He repeated her words. The witch placed a jacket over Akane's sleeping frame as she stared at him. "But I know how to save her. It isn't very difficult."
Nora had figured out the entire thing. "Let's hear it then."
The village that the school was built on top of, had a cliff that was a pit to the far-shore, meaning that they were directly related. To keep peace and to keep the yokai at bay, they threw in sacrifices of the Akane family. Female sacrifices to keep their village peaceful and happy, allowing them to live like so for the next years, decades, however long.
They baited the young sacrifices by telling them that the girls who offered themselves up for the village's sake would cross over to the other world where the gods resided, and enjoy everlasting happiness by the gods' side. However .. they didn't specify that the girls would cross over to the land of the dead, where the god of death resided, and would be trapped there for eternity.
There was neither the land of gods or happiness down the pit.
The time No.6 would come, would be the time that the pit would re-open again completely and supernaturals would be swarming. This time would be around obon, when the living commemorate and remember their deceased ancestors, allowing their spirits to return to the farshore to visit.
This would be the most dangerous time and when the pit of the far-shore would be wide open for apparition, spirits and the dead to crawl through because of the prayers of humans, praying for their ancestors to return. This was when they were most busy.
At this time, No.6 would need a kannagi, Akane Aoi, being an Akane, had kannagi blood running through her veins, and Yashiro, having a close tie to both the far-shore and Hanako, was also a kannagi, but her potency was not as strong, considering she was already near death in the beginning.
A kannagi was a maiden whom had the capability of talking to gods. It made them the perfect sacrifice to shut the pit of the far-shore and seal the borders so that the apparitions could no longer run wild.
"And so, I had a plan .. but Aoi-chan doesn't want to be saved, Nene-chan is going to die, Akane is going to spiral into a depression, and we'll be free at the sacrifice of two lives. A win lose situation." Nora sighed as she swiped he hand, causing the windows to open up, allowing the cool summer breeze to bellow into the room.
"It seems like this year's first year class of ours is quite a bit of trouble, isn't that right, Nora?" Teru asked light heartedly as the witch sighed airily, knowing that Akane Aoi may not change her mind.
"I hated humans, I hated children-- no, I still do. But they're my little kouhai. Maybe I'm saying that as an excuse for me to help them. Maybe it's because I can't watch them die, knowing that I'm capable of saving them because of those crying faces I saw laced with anguish, of those people who were wishing for my demise as I burned on a stake."
"In every life, I atoned by dying. Killed in my sleep, burned alive, drugged by the villagers. In every life, I let them, because it was my fault in the first place. But saying that I've atoned, while still feeling guilty for no reason, that's probably why I'm growing soft."
"Everytime I start a new life, I watch the stupid humans re-do their pointless and endless cycle of greed, selfishness, corruption, turning on one after another for their own desires. Because that's the type of creatures we are. Fickle , cruel monsters that do anything and everything on impulse without a second thought as long as it benefits our needs and wants in some type of way."
"And so, just as the world rejected me, I began to reject the world. Nothing was ever easy, but maybe that was the beauty of it. But I'll say, this life has been an odd experience." Nora chuckled as she sat on the edge of the window sill, her legs kicking back and forth.
"Basically what I'm saying is .. I'll probably won't forget you. Or this, or here. For as long as I continue to live, and some time after that too." Nora turned around and smiled at him. It was the most genuine one he had seen come out of her ever. Her words almost sounded like one of farewell, as though she knew that her happiness wouldn't last for long.
In that moment, all he could think of was how ethereal she looked. It was an odd thought, but the way that the warm breeze caressed her soft ebony locks and the sun kissed her porcelain ivory skin, the flutter of the cherry red ribbon that he had given her long ago.
All he could do was stand there, while being afraid that she was going to fall into a deep and dark void. An abyss of nothingness where she would disappear and fade from his memories and into oblivion where she would reside and sit for the rest of her nine lives. For she was a witch who had roamed this early for over a century.
"So thank you. For being the home to my hiraeth. It's been a little less lonely, and a lot better living these last few years." It was only wishful thinking, but in the back of her dark and misty mind, she really hoped .. that they could end up happy together.
For a moment, only silence lingered in the air as Teru tried to decide what to reply with as he opened his eyes, revealing his calm ocean blue orbs that rocked the tides and waves as he extended his arm out to her.
"Come here, Nora." Those words were enough to pull the tides and calm the storms back into his ocean of blue eyes. The witch morphed into a cat and leapt from the window and onto his shoulder where she belonged.
-
Minamoto Teru and Natsuki Nora both owned their individual debit cards and money that they had earned. Of course, patrolling the town every night, taking care of the other two Minamoto children and subduing as well as exorcising supernaturals while sacrificing their sleep at the same time wasn't some cheap work for free.
Goodness no.
After all, Keiko and Daisuke were being hired all over the world for exorcisms, leaving their eldest son and Nora behind to do all of their dirty remaining work in the city. Keeping in mind the fact that the city was the most apparition and supernatural infested, that being because the roots and ancestors of the citizens of the city were tied with it's deep and old culture, having had spiritual energy in the past.
The supernaturals came to their town, attracted by the energy, as well as that of the Seven Mysteries whom were apostles of god himself, their powers given to them by god to be his eyes and ears, as well as representatives.
And so, every month, Nora and Teru were paid quite a generous amount by Keiko and Daisuke, for one, their own needs, two, the needs of Kou and Tiara, three, their school funding, four, their wages for exorcism, and five, just to do whatever they wanted with the rest. Nora tended to hire tailors or buy new yukata and clothes for everyone in the house.
They didn't use their money often, although when they did, they didn't use much and still tried to go for cheap things.
Last month, Nora had used a little bit of her wages to buy an electric portable keyboard, just for fun. This month .. she sat at the table with her new packages of vases that were all over the floor as she stared.
The girl received quite a bit of flowers everyday at school, tired of leaving them around the tables on the houses everywhere, or decorating them in Tiara's hair, she got into a hobby of flower arrangement, a suggestion given by Keiko through letters.
And so, as of current, the Minamoto house had become a floral shop. It was rather nice really, although there was quite literally a vase of flowers everywhere, including one randomly sitting on the top of their water fountain outside. Perhaps the witch had gone a tad bit too overboard with the flowers.
Although Tiara seemed rather thrilled about them all, so she was satisfied with the work, snapping her fingers as the boxes and vases disappeared into the backyard shed.
Pitter patter of feet rumbling down the stairs had caught the witch's attention as she turned her head away from the vase with a peony in her hand. "Princess?" The witch blinked and the youngest Minamoto child was by her legs, hugging her from the waist down as her brilliant blue eyes stared up at the ravenette.
"Nora-nee! I wanna go!" Tiara cried out as the witch blinked, trying to understand her young five year old mind. "Go where?" Nora picked her up and placed her on the wooden chair as she tried to decide where to put the white peony. Either on the left or right of her bouquet. The center already had too many.
Tiara pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the ruby eyed witch who took it from her grasp and stared at it, reading it's contents. "Princess, where'd you get this?" The second-year mused as Tiara grinned at her. "I stole it from Kou-nii!"
Nora had figured so, because on the bottom of the page was a familiar handwriting from a certain first-year that she particularly liked. 'Shall we go together? -Nene' It was a message from Yashiro, addressed to Kou, inviting him to the Tanabata Festival, also known as the Star Festival that took place on the weekend, just a few days from the current date.
It was on July 7th, as far as she knew, they didn't have any particular plans that day other than the usual exorcism rounds. If they went, it'd just mean that they'd have to start rounds later and continue on until morning drew over the horizon, which Nora didn't particularly mind since it'd be a weekend.
"Pretty please, Nora-nee!" Tiara's eyes begged like a puppy as her lips curved into a small pleading frown as the young girl tugged on the hem of Nora's thin jacket as she sighed with a soft smile, patting the top of her golden blonde hair. "Alright, we can go, but let's ask Teru-nii if he wants to come with us."
That was all that was needed to be said as the girl immediately darted up the stairs, ready to pounce and beg her big brother to tag along as the witch chuckled, making her way up the stairs as well but much slower as she watched Tiara swing the door open to Teru's room where he was sitting on his table finishing up some assignments.
His head turned around at the sudden footsteps, just in time to catch his younger sister who flung herself at him as she giggled gleefully. "Teru-oniichan!"
"Well hello there, Princess." Teru coddled his younger sister, setting the girl on his lap as he looked up to Nora who had just entered the room as well, handing the flyer to the exorcist as he unraveled it curiously. "What's this?" The sapphire eyed male asked as the witch let out a light chuckle, allowing Tiara to explain.
"It's a festival! I wanna go with Teru-onii, Nora-nee and Kou-nii!" She exclaimed merrily as Teru ruffled her already spiky hair that resembled theirs. "Oh? What's this?" He spotted the note written by Yashiro as he plucked off the sticky note to read it clearer as Nora laughed.
"Kou got asked out on a date by his upperclassman."
Teru smiled softly before letting out a long and dainty sigh. "He's growing up too fast .." The male fake wiped tears from the corner of his eyes. "So, are you coming along with us?" Nora questioned as Tiara waddled her way over to the witch who picked the girl up in the air with a wave of her finger, causing the five year old to giggle.
"If I won't, who will?" He smiled as Tiara's face brightened like a light-bulb.