『ᴋᴏᴜ ᴍɪɴᴀᴍᴏᴛᴏ: ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 6』
"Exorcise me, eh? I don't think you can pull it off." Hanako grinned as he stopped the umbrella by holding onto it.
In return, Minamoto smirked at him, "You don't, do you?"
The sound of lightning crashes down on Hanako's hand, "Well, too bad Hanako." The crackling and zaps that came from the staff weakened Hanako significantly, his eyes looking at his hand in shock.
"Ngh!" He staggered forward before falling to the ground, Yashiro calling out his name and running towards him. You glared at the young boy in anger, these were your first friends in thousands of years and this is how he treats them.
"This is an anti-evil artifact that has been handed down through my family for generations—the Raiteijou!" He grinned happily as he bragged about his weapon's power, "it's a spirit staff that turns its user spirit energy into demon-vanquishing lightning that zaps evil!"
Hanako groaned on the floor from the pain, looking up at Minamoto who pointed the staff at him, "and you touched it with your bare hands! You must be pretty dense and stupid!"
Raising his staff to prepare for a swift stab, he shouted: "It's over!" Hanako trembled underneath him while Yashiro screamed in horror.
The clashing of steel and gold weapons echoed, Hanako's eyes widening at the sight of you holding out your scissors to protect him. You still had one hand on your fan, covering your face while the other one is shaking against Minamoto's staff. Your face expressed anger as both weapons began to falter due to the pressure being used against each other.
"O-Oi! Miss!"
You narrowed your eyes at him, "shut up." You deflected his staff and charged at him.
"Damn spirits. . . You-!" Minamoto grits his teeth as he tries to match your speed. "You must be the Kuchisake-onna! Why are you here with Hanako?!"
Your scissors glided against the staff each time he tried to hit you, your movements dancing around the poor boy to avoid any fatal contact with the weapon. "That name isn't for me, it's Jiyuu now! The name that Hanako gave me!"
Minamoto yelped as you ran towards him while deflecting his staff, the metals sliding against each other with a spark.
You drew back a fist and punched him across the face. "Don't you ever call him stupid!"
"Please stop you two!" Yashiro cried out, pulling you away from the small boy while you growled. "Neither of them did anything wrong! Why are you attacking them?!"
"Who even are you?!" Minamoto shouted from the floor. He caressed his bruised cheek while staring at the group.
"Yashiro Nene! A first-year in the high school division. I'm Hanako-kun and Jiyuu-chan's assistant and friend!" She scowled (albeit in a cute way) "If you do anything mean to either of them, I'll get really mad!"
"Huh?! You don't even understand what they are!" Minamoto quickly got up from the floor, "they're evil spirits that need to be exorcised!"
"They're not bad spirits! Hanako-kun saved my life!" Yashiro argued, pulling both her arms to her chest to calm her fast-beating heart.
Minamoto grabbed onto her shoulders tightly, "Are you nuts-er, you got it all wrong miss!" He looked into Yashiro's eyes and spoke in a serious tone.
"They're not just any supernatural. It took all of my grandmother's strength to seal away Hanako-san of the bathroom. He's really a diabolical evil spirit!"
"T-That's-" "And look, he uses a carving knife as a weapon, she uses those golden scissors! That's proof that they used it as a weapon when they were alive." Yashiro felt tears swell in her eyes as she shook her head, continuing to deny these facts.
"They used those weapons to kill people!" Yashiro shoved him, her tears dripping down her cheeks. She couldn't believe the words that was coming out of his mouth, he had to be lying. In the time that Yashiro met you, you were nothing but sweet to her. Hanako may be extremely annoying and mischievous but he had saved her countless times, she can't accept these cruel words about you two from a student she never met.
"No. . . You're lying." Yashiro's lips trembled.
"You're being tricked senpai! You can't trust him! You'll be-" He was swiftly cut off by a knife and presence behind him that pointed her tip at his neck.
"The cats out of the bag. . ." "Why did you make Yashiro-san cry? It makes me really angry." The two spirits glared at him and Hanako dragged Yashiro away from the blonde.
"I was hoping to keep it to myself longer. . . Come here, Hakujoudai." The ball-like spirit wrapped around his outstretched arm and into his chest, turning into a cape.
"You're right. I did kill a human being. But God told me that. . ." He spoke in a low tone as he kept his gaze at Minamoto.
"If I fulfill my duty here. . ." His cape drapes around his shoulders dramatically, ". . . It'll erase my guilt."
Hanako points his knife at Minamoto while giving his usual grin, "So I can't let you exorcise me, sorry!"
"You don't even make sense." Minamoto snarled and elbowed you to escape your grasp. You coughed at the sudden impact and stepped backward.
"You-!"
You watched as the younger boy ran towards Hanako in order to exorcise him. As you were about to step in, Yashiro went towards you and pushed against you. "Jiyuu-chan! Don't get involved!"
"He made you cry!" You bit your tongue in frustration as you witnessed the boys fight each other.
The boys looked as if they were playing on the rooftop, except one was trying to hurt the other intentionally. To Hanako, this was merely a game. He knew from the very start that this Minamoto kid was a mere newbie at exorcism, this was a cakewalk in his eyes. Hanako was running and balancing himself on the railings of the roof while the other boy chased after him, yelling at him constantly to fight him properly. Hanako smirked as he makes a disappearance and reappears to Minamoto's side, gripping onto his staff.
"Hey, doesn't that hurt your hand?" Minamoto gulped and unleashed another blast of lightning, the skin of his hand burning and the mark being red.
"Hah! You never learn do you-" Hanako's smile never left his face while Minamoto's face drained of color, "Wha-It didn't work?!"
"Hyah! Take this! And this!" Hanako playfully swung his knife at Minamoto, purposefully missing in order to scare the boy into submission. "I really like this staff of your's, kid. Give it to me and I might let you go."
"Don't you dare look down on me!" He shouted, "I ain't gonna run!"
Hanako immediately let go of him, "okay!" And watched as Minamoto fell to the floor in surprise. Hanako quickly got on top of him, raising his knife and Minamoto closed his eyes in fear. He anticipated the knife piercing through him, but he felt his forehead being flicked.
"Take that!"
"Ow!"
"I win!" Yashiro let out a breath of relief as she saw Hanako spare his life. You on the other hand, still felt the tension growing between you and Minamoto. Your hand tightens its grip on your scissors, but your face remained cool behind the fan you held up.
"Well. . . I'll just seal this away so it doesn't hurt anybody." Minamoto protested and grabbed back his stolen heirloom. "W-What?! It won't come off! Take off the seal!" He complained as he tried to peel and scratch the seal off to no avail.
"Don't wanna!" Hanako covered his ears and pretended not to hear him as he walked towards Minamoto, "More importantly. . ." taking his hand and flipping it over to reveal the burn mark.
"Just as I thought. It's like you have no idea how to use the spirit staff's power, you're zapping yourself every time you unleash lightning." Minamoto flinched at the pain and reeled his hand away from Hanako.
"Using power you can't control will only lead you to ruin, kid."
"N-Nobody asked!" He spoke in pure determination, "I don't care what happens to me as long as I can protect everyone!"
"How passionate!" Hanako gave him a closed eye smile. "There's no rush, you'll be a fine exorcist one day. You'll be so good, a little spirit like me would be a piece of cake to expel."
"So, I'll be looking forward to it."
Hanako took a couple of steps forward, "That being said. . ." He punched Minamoto hard in the stomach, "You're a total pushover right now!"
As he blacked out, he could see Hanako celebrating his victory over his body while the girls stared in confusion.