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."
"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."
"But .. Nora's mother had a bad reputation — blacker than black, running deep into the roots of this entire country. And carrying that burden, carrying the lives that both herself and her mother took — they killed people, both of them. With this, Nora's guilt overtook her, and she succumbed to it, allowing humans to kill her willingly."
"Nora has never cursed anyone with bad luck — only herself. And it's because of the curse she placed upon herself, that she's a powerful little witch."
"And this stray of ours, doesn't like being alone very often these days!" Teru had attempted to brighten up the mood after such an ominous and bleak story, wrapping it up happily with a smile on his face.
"The contract that consists of the Minamoto family and the Witch of the Void, Nora, is equivalent exchange. In exchange for her cooperation, service, comfort and life, on the condition that she works for our family and doesn't kill any humans — we won't kill, or seal her away, and she'll stay with us." Teru explained simply as they nodded their heads.
Teru had never been told Nora's backstory entirely. Over the span of the last six, almost seven years, Nora let out bits and pieces of herself to the male in moments of trust and faith. After every short fragment of her life that was told, he would compile it into a journal of his, slowly wracking together her lifetimes.
"Senpai wouldn't happen to know the Seven Mysteries before they died .. would she?" Yashiro asked slowly processing the information.
Teru tilted his head to the side, letting out a long hum, pondering the thought. "Maybe that's a question you'll get to ask later, but, it's getting dark out, you two get home safely while I go tuck this witch of mine into bed."
"President — was it alright for you to tell us that story?" Akane raised a brow.
Teru merely grinned. "Probably not. But, it was for your understanding, to not be afraid of Nora, and don't hate her too much .. because most of the things she does, is with good reason. Because shes soft for you all .. Must've started with Princess." Teru only laughed to himself, climbing up the stairs, leaving Kou to bid his two upperclassmen farewell.
"And I hope you don't have to make that face again for a long time .. Nora." The way her face dropped into one of despair, like the wisp of light fading away from her touch, afraid, whenever she told stories of the past. Her voice always dropped light, like the spring bells chiming to dismiss the melting snowflakes of winter.
And winter had long passed. Summer was here, and the light speckled through the alabaster clouds. And the light would pave the path through her void.
The clock read the times of the witching hour, very late at night where the moon was high on it's throne, and the silhouette of the curtains blew against the gust of wind as Nora sat up slowly, snapping her fingers to change into normal sleep wear.
She closed the window before standing in the middle of the messy bedroom simply. Teru's Katana was on a stand beside his bed, there was an old cat bed in the corner of the room for Nora — however it remained un-used. The desk behind he laid dozens of papers, notebooks and books altogether from late night crams.
"You love me, you said?" Nora sat down on the bed, leaning against the bed frame as Teru had instinctively reached out for her in his sleep, hugging her waist despite the frown etched onto her face, attempting to push him off.
"You silly delusional boy." The witch chuckled as her fingers brushed through his golden hair, blessed by the sun god himself. "I even fell asleep after the 'I love you' part. Your non-sense had bore me to sleep, isn't that funny?" However Nora remained conscious and aware of her own words.
"Do you know what happened to my mother, Teru? Why she had activated her final trump card and put Hokkaido into a slumber after abandoning me to die? To just exist in a space time continuum?"
"It is because she loved. Because she was in love, those who have loved .. they change quickly. Because they have been in that electrifying accursed emotion before. I don't like love. They cry, they fall apart. Everything breaks down ... It's a foolish fleeting emotion that leaves nothing behind."
"Nothing .. "
"behind .." A droplet.
"I don't like love. I don't want to see it again. I will never love again. Witches love desperately, and many times over, during their endless lifetimes. That's why they appear so often in legends and fairytales — and just about in all of them, we're monsters, because that's what love did to us. Heart break and abandonment."
"And now look at me, the last witch of her kind, nearing her last couple lives." Teru had eventually shifted himself onto her lap, burying his nose into her abdomen as she pat his head.
And slowly, the feeling of everything floating away, gnawed at her flesh, it's teeth sinking into her skin, taking and tearing off a bite of her heart. The precious thoughts and memories that passed by like the death sentence of a clock. It was like an hourglass.
"In the end, theres doubt in love and broken faith in trust. Although you're a human different from the rest — you're still a human, Teru. And although humanity believes that the deadliest weapons are bombs, nukes, and all of that nonsense, they don't realize what fuels these things — emotions."
"Emotions are the reason why supernaturals such as the Seven Mysteries are so powerful, retaining their semi-human fractions. Fear is instinctual, and it triggers a fight or flight instinct, just like when you corner a rat, it begins to become vicious — but the cat bears its fangs and sinks its teeth into it's prey."
"And love .. in a conspiring swirl of never ending treachery. I've seen too much in my lifetime to not be weary, but felt too little of it to not be attracted toward it.
She was nothing left but a bittersweet wilted bush of thorny roses.
"Then embrace it." The thumb brushed against her cheek, meeting the gleaming cerulean eyes that stared up at her groggily. Nora's eyes were like crystal pendants of rubies, shining so magnificently like the raging hot gas of a fiery star.
But the larger the star is, the more gas it would continue to burn out faster — until it died.
"Have I ever seen you cry? I don't think so .." Teru attempted to re-call, but his mind was much too hazy and his eyes were much too tired, but they were awake enough to sense distress and feel warm droplets of salty exuberance fall onto his face. awaking him.
She too, seemed to not have realized that she was crying as she reached up to her cheeks where they were wet and glistening, turning to Teru with a throb in her heart.
Her eyes were like the marble cracks of shattered glass pieces. "I .. I'm —" Nora's breathing rapidly began to go downhill as she hyperventilated. The accumulation of the emotions that the human, Natsuki Nora, had been penting in so much, had burst like a dam.
"Can you feel the humanity inside of you yet .. Nora?" Teru asked gently as the girl threw them both flopping onto the bed as her muffled shrilled screams reverberated against his chest, clenching his shirt. The abandonment, the pain, infidelity and sacrilege of it all.
It hurt.
Nora had been hurting for decades now — even more.
"Take it back. Take it back! I don't want this humanity! I don't want to feel this!" Nora hit his chest repeatedly, but it didn't hurt, even so, Teru grabbed her wrist gently. "You were always a human, Nora." He cradled her head, rocking them back and forth as she choked out a miserable hiccup.
"I hate humans .. I hate them — they're selfish, they're greedy, they're monsters .." She was tired, worn out and eroded.
Teru only smiled, letting out a chuckle. "Are you not human then, Nora? Are you not selfish and greedy either? The reason this hatred is coming from you, is that you can feel your greed getting stronger by the day — You feel miserable because you love me more than you love them. That's why you're so bitter. But now i'm here. That's all that matters." He kissed her forehead, but the witch only hit his chest again.
"Stop it. Stop it!"
"I don't love you — I don't .." She buried her face in her hands, letting out a soft sob.
"I hate .."
"You hate me, Nora?" Teru pulled the girl into his arms .. it was safe. Safe, away and protected from the world and their judgmental gazes, just like that council meetings all those years ago.
"I hate how much I need you .. I hate your warm hands — you're mean, you're cruel — and I hate .. I hate that most of all .. you make me feel like this .."
"Because really .. I don't hate you at all .. not even a little bit." Nora hesitated but she wrapped her arms around him, sniffling through the fragile words. "Not even a little bit .. huh." Teru laughed.
"I don't want to love .. don't love me .. don't." Nora whispered, her voice cracked so incoherently as she nearly trembled. "Don't give me hope." Hope on something that was not meant for her long weary soul that was exhausted. Teru was patient with the ravenette, gently kissing away her tears as she sniffed.
"Then what do you want me to do, Nora? What do you want?"
She froze on the spot. What did she really want? Not sweets and desserts, or clothes. An actual desire as she met the azure eyes that melted into a sapphire within the presence of inviting moon beams. "I don't know what I want .. but I do know .. that I don't like love .." Her horse voice croaked out.
"I don't want to feel human — I don't want to feel all of these things .." She was being overwhelmed, her small dainty mind, memories sealed away in a box that had oxidized and poisoned her delusions over time, rusting the chains and metals, clanking them to the floor.
"You don't like love .. you don't want to love, none of that applies to me loving you." He pressed a kiss onto her forehead, it was warm and tender.
"You're afraid of love .. the idea of it, it terrifies you, because you're afraid to be hurt again, to get betrayed .. If you don't want to be human, first, you need to give your heart to a human." Teru stroked the back of her head .. and she allowed him to.
"I'm not giving my heart to you .." Nora whispered.
"But you already have, don't you see, my cute little witch? The reason you're crying right now, is because you realized it. You realized that you feel the same way I do .. but you just don't want to accept the reality .. because the void has been your home for so long, all you see is the dark."
"It's time to come out, and see some of the light, Nora. I'll protect you, I always have, haven't I? So .. will you trust me?" It was a soft repose of peace on his face as their foreheads touched. Teru's fingers dancing through the threads of her ebony locks.
"Won't you let me take care of you?" He whispered, intertwining their fingers together like lace. His hands wrapped over the crevices of her fingers, squeezing them tightly before gently shaking them.
This was Nora's greatest fear. It wasn't the fear of spiders, or flying bat apparitions — it was this. To give her heart someone, to rely on a human.
She was in a vulnerable spot. For the first time in a long time — Nora's cheeks were flushed red as Teru kissed the back of her hand. "Who knew witches could be this cute? You've been hiding this cute side of you away from me." Teru had teased her lightly as she pouted with a frown.
"What if the light rejects me?"
"Nora, did you forget the name I gave you?" Teru had reminded as she shook her head. "Natsuki .."
"Tsuki means moon — just like night and day don't co exist, and neither of them can sit on the throne at the same time .. I don't expect you to be the sun — because from the moment I brought you home — you were the moon, and the night sky is your void, and you .. ha .. you, Nora, are the beautiful celestial maiden in the sky that everyone reaches to touch, but they can't — because the moon is mine."
"So even if you don't give me yourself tonight .. as long as you stay by my side and you don't give up to anyone else .. until then, I'll show you, Nora. I'll show you that it isn't all bad .. only if you let me."
She swallowed down the boulder of mortality down her throat as she had allowed Teru to cup her cheeks. "Okay .." The single trickle of a tear slipped down her scarlet eye as they fluttered shut, closing the proximity of distance, enflaring heat like the conductor of electricity.
He would be but a star in her pitch black void that had engulfing her being whole.
And Minamoto Teru would be the first and last human she would give her heart to, and the stars would be their witness, sealing this promise with a kiss. The male was gentle with her, as he always was, no matter what hissy fit or breakdown she threw — Teru knew her better than she knew herself.
He wiped away her tears gently, using his other hand to play with her fingers as he pulled away.
"You look cute when you cry, Nora~" Teru left butterfly kisses over her tear stained face. "You sadist."
"Nora .. I'm afraid if anyone else saw this side of you — more people might just fall in love with you too .." Teru whined. "So only show this face to me, only say those words to me .. and only do these things, with me."
"Okay .."
Teru pulled the witch into his arms again as he rested her face against his chest. It was safe .. and she was home.
After being alone for so long — dying without comfort or closure, Nora's eyes fluttered close. If she had the ability to stop time — she would do so, because Nora wanted this to last forever.
I thought it was time to write out a lot of Nora's bottled up stuff. From her anger toward the elders, her feelings after joining school to observe human emotions and interactions, and her abandonment issues. Keeping a front, acting that she was indifferent and hated humans when in reality she loved them. She just hated what they could do to her.