The rain came, oblivious to the life it gave. It washed the world, quenching soil and the life whom depended upon it. In either warmth or coldness, sunlight or moonlight, rain came, humble to its role. In the almost-spring afternoon, it was the percussion to the birdsong and the bringer of brightness to every hue of bark and leaf.
It floated in gentle waves, as if gravity was a soft music from the Earth, a sweet beckoning serenade. Two brothers walked underneath its downpour with umbrellas in hand as they stepped out of the grocery store.
Puddles rippled in multitudes of waves as their foot made contact with the small body of water that had formed itself over on the concrete. A domino effect as one hit the other and the other, continuing, making a ripple.
Cerulean eyes stared up at the bleak cloudy sky as his brother discussed plans for dinner.
Suddenly, the younger of the two had stopped walking, immediately halting the older one who was holding the umbrella, careful not to leave his brother in the heavy rain. "Kou?" Teru had called out to the blonde who remained unresponsive.
The exorcist peered over the younger's shoulders, eyes locking at whatever Kou was staring at in the dark alleyway as a pair of slit olive green eyes stared back at them. A wild cat shriveled in the alleyway stared at them, it's eyes bore into their souls as Kou gulped and took one step forward as his older brother placed a hand on his shoulder.
The younger blonde turned around with an unsure, wavering expression as Teru shook his head, causing Kou to sigh as they returned home.
It had been some time since they had seen Nora. The house returned back to normal when she had left. It was quieter. Although the witch herself didn't speak as much as them, remaining wordless most of the time, the house felt a little bigger and also a little emptier without her presence everywhere out of the blue.
Teru was still perplexed over his mother's intention of making him become Nora's contractor instead of his father who was likely much more suited for the job.
The two of them had a different list of terms and conditions than she did when she had a contract with Keiko. The enchanted paper laid in front of them as they listed a long list of details about what they wanted from one another. Even despite the fact that Teru wouldn't be able to see the witch for the next eight to nine months.
As they signed the contract, Teru noticed something when she had simply written down her signature. "Witch of the Void?" He inquired as she nodded. "That's me."
This was new information to him as he blinked. "I also need a name from you to seal the contract." She tapped the sheet of paper. A new owner meant a new name. But Teru and everyone else had adjusted to calling her Nora, so instead he had a different idea, snapping his fingers.
"You don't have a surname right, Nora?" The boy had asked as she nodded her head patiently awaiting his conclusion. He let out a hum, unsure of how to take this. In all honesty, the twelve year old boy was bad at naming, anything and everything.
After all, his mother was the one who named both himself and Kou.
Nora's name meant stray, it described her well, and he didn't want to ruin his mother's work, so he had to think of a name that would fit her.
"Witch of the Void ..." He said aloud, tapping his chin as he drew on the dirt. A void. It was empty, black. A pit of never ending nothingness. His azure eyes flickered out the window where the moon shone brightly as he suddenly got an idea.
Nora blinked as she watched him draw something in the dirt. It was a crescent, representing the moon that was shining out that night. A starless midnight black sky, just like a void. And a moon that sat in the middle of it all, illuminating everything that sat beneath it's brilliant moon beams.
As the stick followed his hand movements, he inscribed something in the dirt. "Tsuki .." Nora read aloud. "Natsuki ..?" The witch tilted her head to the side in curiosity as Teru circled the character 'Tsuki' within the name. "Tsuki means moon." He pointed out before pointing back up to the sky.
The sky too, was a void. The ink black atmosphere above them simply was the outer galaxy in which they sat in. It was a never-ending void that they didn't know where it led, because it was endless. An eternal mystery. But even out in the void, the galaxy, there were stars, planets and moons that lit up all of the celestial bodies.
The void was always home to something. In their world, it was the moon. In others, it may have been the stars.
"How about Natsuki Nora then?" Teru had said, tapping the piece of paper as Nora had thought about it for a moment, writing it onto the palm of her hand before nodding, signing the paper by the recognized first and surname as the paper glowed and dropped onto the floor, sealing their contract with a drop of drawn blood.
They hadn't told anyone about the terms and conditions of their contract, but at the same time, no one asked, trusting that the next head of the Minamoto clan had done his part correctly.
Neither of the two said it aloud, but they both were quite content with the name.
Nora was happy, given names that had meaning, other than being called fake aliases and a dirty witch. Teru was quite proud of the name that he had thought of, deeming it not bad for his first time. The girl looked quite satisfied with it, so the exorcist was as well as he pat the top of her raven hair.
-
The girl's scarlet eyes had blinked before they widened. Daisuke immediately scrambled to his feet as he steadied his wife. "Well. That's not good." Nora said as she stood there like a doll. Daisuke's contorted face of rage snapped toward her. "Then do something about it!" He shouted.
She raised a brow at him. If the man was almost forty and hadn't ever had experience in giving birth, she was confused as to what he thought she, a twelve year old child could do.
The girl stared at the puddle of water on the floor. Keiko's water had just broke. "Call the hospital. I can take her there." Nora helped hold the woman who rubbed her stomach, taking deep breaths, having already been through the process twice with two boys.
They had eased up on the exorcism missions as of the last two weeks, knowing that Keiko's due date was extremely near. Quite honestly, Nora was not thrilled about having to live alongside a baby. One that would most likely cry and whine all day long.
As soon as they were teleported, Keiko was helped onto a bed as they prepped the drugs and checked the dilation. They still had a few hours, but keeping her in the hospital private room until then was the best option.
Kieko had noticed as she was getting prepped in bed, that Nora had already disappeared.
It didn't take long for the cat's ears to twitch as she listened to Keiko's loud shouts as she begun to feel the contractions. It was going to be a long painful process for the woman, drugs or not, and Daisuke would be making his way here in a matter of hours.
The process would take over eight hours, meaning she had plenty of time to nap, considering Daisuke had been waking her up non-stop at the crack of dawn to repeatedly run spells on the woman, checking her status and the baby's status.
The two Minamoto boys had already been contacted, making their way to the hospital with the help of the family butler who dropped them off.
Both boys arrived an hour later, due to the fact that they had been in school and had just left, immediately making their way to where their mother was. Surprisingly enough, Daisuke arrived quicker than his two sons by via helicopter as he headed into the room to hold his wife's hand.
As the two boys ran down the hall to where the waiting area was, it wasn't difficult to spot a black cat sticking out like a sore thumb in a painfully white hospital. As per usual, the witch was asleep, and the boys weren't allowed to go in while their mother was in labor, meaning they were all stuck doing the same thing.
Playing the waiting game.
Six hours in, Kou had already fallen asleep on his older brother's shoulder and the cat laid in his lap still snoozing away as he stroked the witch's fur coat. The same one that he had drenched into cold water once as he dropped her into an ice cold tub of water after an exorcising mission.
It had been quite some time since the two had seen one another, Kou was ecstatic, whispering loudly, poking and prodding at Nora while she was unconscious. Teru concluded that the girl must have been abnormally tired, usually waking up quite quickly due to her enhanced hearing as a cat. However, she did not.
He could notice that she indefinitely grew in size a bit. But that was the same for all of them. The clan elders had been pushing the eldest Minamoto to the bone of work. He was haggard every day, rejuvenating himself through the delectable dinner, courtesy and hand-made by his cute younger brother that he liked to dote on.
Night had shied away the blazing star, known as the sun, pushing it's light away to sleep as a carriage of midnight rode across the sky, engulfing it whole.
Only then did Nora's body decide that it had slept enough as her ears twitched, as did the muscles in her four limbs as she begun to stir, eyes cracking open and wincing at the bright hospital lights and white walls that shined a little bit too bright for her own liking as she realized something blinking, just to make sure that the hospital walls weren't causing her to hallucinate.
A familiar presence and scent as she drooped back down to her original position, curling into a ball, fluttering her eyes shut again. "Natsuki." It was the first time he had called her name as her ears perked up, raising her head as she stared at his cerulean irises.
The cat let out a mewl as she stretched, knowing that now Teru knew she was awake, there was no going back to sleep. "I don't understand why giving birth takes so long.." The witch whined lightly as the boy chuckled, picking her up by the scruff of her neck.
"Just be patient, Nora. Our baby sister is going to be born." Teru had a smile on his face as he stared at the door. Although the boy looked patient, he was anything but that. The witch could feel the impatient thump of his leg as he practically drilled holes into the door with his gaze alone.
"I can finally go back after this .." She let out an exasperated sigh, extending her paw out to the boy who grabbed it and shook it lightly. "Kou's missed you a lot. He wouldn't stop sulking for the first month that you were gone." Teru chuckled as she stared at the sleeping boy who was stuck in a deep slumber.
"Your father is .. a madman. He reduced my sleep schedule to nothing. Waking me up at the crack of dawn for no reason." She muttered under her breath bitterly. Although Nora looked like she was nothing more than a whiny, stubborn cat, she had been rather patient with the head of the Minamoto clan.
Despite that he had gotten onto each and every last one of her nerves, day by day, she surprisingly put up with him more compliantly than Keiko had originally thought.
"I see you've been having a fun time with mom and dad." Teru had said, chuckling teasingly as he ran his fingers through the cat's fur coat. It had been a long long few months and both Teru along with Nora were completely worn down to the very bane of their existence. Solo exorcising supernaturals without the help of one another was doable but tedious in more ways than words could describe alone.
"Welcome back, Natsuki." He said as he leaned his head atop his younger brother's, also beginning to feel tired. "Mhm .. I'm back." The cat managed to mutter before dipping into an abyss.