Witches were dangerous. Not all of them had nine lives like Nora's line of family and ancestors, but they all had the same blood running through their veins in some way or form, it was what connected them all, it was what made them witches to the bone deep of their eerie soul that flickered in a fleeting light.
They called themselves sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts and cousins. They called themselves relatives; family. They labeled themselves with words that inaccurately described their relationship. They described themselves as a term that was supposed to filled with love, trust and care.
Things that did not exist in a witch's dictionary.
In their world there were only three things. Survival, knowledge and power. They were gluttons, filled with greed to the very brink of their existence, hungry for knowledge, new spells to invent and test then upon the humans who degraded their kind.
Nora strove for none of the three. She was considered a disgrace amongst witches, not having enough drive or power, for she wanted to live inside the world of a fairytale where love existed, and care, trust, happiness. They were delusional hallucinations that caused animosity among the witches toward her, the misfit, the odd one.
It was an entire let down, considering her lineage. Everyone had high hopes for her, in which she had soon shattered as it all came crashing down.
But none of their standards mattered to her anymore. Any and all witches aside from herself were already dead, long, long, dead, including her mother who was roving in the land of the dead, most likely cursing and hexing her daughter to oblivion. Her daughter, a witch from a prestigious blood line, playing big sister and house pet along with high school student when she should have been out killing humans instead of co-existing with them.
"Care to tell me what you've been smiling about this entire time while you've been ignoring what I've been saying?" Teru inquired, a scary grin etched itself on his face as she stretched her cheeks, causing her to let out a whine, surrendering as she tapped his hand. "Do you really want to know?" She asked him, massaging her sore cheeks with a delicate frown as the two walked to school.
He looked up to the clear morning sky that dawned down on them before smiling once again. "No, not really."
"Teru, if I were to disappear three years from now, would you miss me?" She asked him out of the blue, her ruby red orbs flickering to the cerulean ones that were already staring at her with curiosity. "That's an odd question Nora." He said with a sigh as she chuckled lightly at his reply. "Then never mind. Forget I said anything." The witch quickened her pace to school as she tugged the male to move faster.
"What brought this up? I mean, if you were to disappear three years from now, no— if you were to disappear in general, Princess and Kou would miss you a lot, you know?" He said heartily as they took a right turn. Nora let out a hum.
Teru had said what Tiara and Kou would feel, but not him. She was unsure how to feel about it. "If you want to keep talking about it, then ... I've told you before right? I never live past the age of twenty. I'll eventually die and live my eighth life and then my ninth life until I finally stay in the far-shore for the rest of eternity, and if I'm lucky, our paths will meet again and you, Kou or Tiara will exorcise me. But I expect it to be you since the two of them would go soft." Nora chuckled.
"Well you sound like you have this all planned out, don't forget we still have that contract. Don't tell me you're planning to escape~" He put her in a choke hold jokingly with his arm.
At the end of the day, Teru cared more about his siblings than anything else in the world, be it his parents or even Nora whom he had known longer than his own younger sister. Because blood was thicker than water, and they were family, she was an outsider that didn't belong, no matter how much Keiko said she did.
In all honesty, Nora wished for that day to never come, to be exorcised by Teru. She knew of his viewpoint on supernaturals; they were all bad, terrible monsters. She knew the cold look of disgust that he gave them with even just a single glance, and the mercy that he would not spare when he exorcised them.
So when it came down to it, Nora hoped, wished and prayed that by the time she was on her ninth life and died, she would have no regrets and pass on to the afterlife peacefully without roaming as an aimless supernatural.
"I know, I know. But let's see, shall we?" She hummed, looking up to the taller male with an expression that even he couldn't describe in his own words.
The charming duo waved to their fellow second years as they walked the halls and to their classroom for their first class being Japanese. Although when they entered, there was much chatter and bustling as everyone was crowded around a certain someone's desk. "Morning." The two chorused with a wave.
"Is there something wrong?" Teru slipped his bag off of his shoulder as one of the boys turned around to him. "Yeah! It's creepy, look! On your desk ..." They pointed.
The two of them curiously weaved through the crowd where Nora stifled a laugh and Teru stared at his desk blankly where two green cucumbers and two tomatoes sat, glistening in the classroom lights. "Hey .. what are you laughing for?" He poked at Nora who covered her lips and looked away.
"Summer vegetables!" They chorused, surprised. Apparently the vegetables had already been on his desk before the first student had arrived, and no one wanted to move them since there was a thank-you note directed toward the student council president who scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Did you help a fox or something?" Nora asked him, picking up a tomato as she tossed it up into the air and caught it. He pondered the question for a moment before shaking his head, unsure of who he had helped that would give him such a present.
"I guess we won't be needing to buy any cucumbers or tomatoes for Kou anytime soon .." Teru said as he placed the vegetables underneath his desk so that he could take them home later that day, giving them to his brother so that the boy could decide what was for dinner that night.
-
The eldest son of the infamous exorcist family had been walking down the hallway with a navy blue haired female classmate as they were discussing the lesson topic for that day, when their conversation had come to a stop. "Um, Minamoto-senpa--" There was a voice in the background, but it was eluded by the girl who stood beside Teru as she pointed to his sleeve.
"Oh! Minamoto-kun, you lost a button." She said as he looked down, realizing that she was correct as he blinked, holding up the sleeve closer to his face as he examined it. "You're right. I wonder when that came off." He muttered to himself. Weird occurrences had been happening to him all day, starting with those vegetables, or rather his odd conversation with Nora that morning.
"Use one of mine!" The same girl had immediately volunteered, tearing off a grey button from her uniform. "No, use mine!" A blonde had butted in beside her, holding one in her hand.
"I will become Minamoto-kun's button!" It had become like a cult as they all began bickering and arguing amongst themselves, shoving each other as they tore buttons off of their uniform with Teru in the middle, chuckling nervously.
Thankfully, he narrowly managed to get out with a bit of shoving as he ran away from the button obsessed horde, breathing a sigh.
Nora whom had been running an errand for her homeroom teacher had received a text message from her phone as she set the stack of papers down, reading the text message from Teru, in which it asked her to come to a certain empty classroom in the old abandoned part of the school building, which was odd.
Although it was a creepy request, she shrugged and made her way to the classroom where Teru sat on the floor, looking haggard and disheveled. His collar was messed up, his tie was crooked and his hands ran through his hair.
"I leave for one moment to get copies for sensei .. What on earth happened to you?" She inquired as he handed her a sowing kit he had grabbed from the crafts room with an exasperated sigh, holding his sleeve to her face. "A button came off and everyone got all excited about it."
That sounded very plausible as she let out a hum. "Looks like you aren't so immune to bad luck as you thought, genius." She knelt down onto the ground, pulling the thread through the needle head as their hands grazed against one another.
Teru hadn't noticed it significantly before, but Nora's hands were always cold. "I think it's the opposite." The male had suddenly spoken as she stopped the needle midway through the hole of the button, looking up to him with a raised brow. "Elaborate?"
"Well when you're around, everything is pretty normal right? But when you're not around, things like this happen to me, so I think that you're my charm of good luck." His tone was cheery and blunt as she blinked at him. "To think that you can say that with such a straight face, maybe you hit your head somewhere today too, President." She pinched his cheek as he let out a whine.
"Ouch .. that hurt, Nora. You're so cold." He said with a soft chuckle. "Yes, yes, you can let your button fan-club know about how I bullied you while sowing your button on." She said sarcastically, placing the needle back into the box as Teru blinked.
"Done already? Wow~" He checked her work, and it looked rather perfect, no different from the rest of the buttons on his shirt as she stood up and dusted off her skirt. "Well, I was trying to work fast. You realize that this situation would look bad if someone walked in on us together?" She raised a brow.
"Student council president alone in an empty dark room with a helpless second-year doing who knows what." She mocked as he let out a chuckle as well, the students in Kamome Academy were rather gossipy. Word traveled fast around the halls, which is why and how the Seven Wonders still existed; because of their rumors that rooted from them.
"I guess so. Oh well, let's head back now before your little statement becomes a reality." He let out a grunt as he stood up, holding the sowing kit that he still needed to return.
As the duo had returned back to their classroom during break, their was something that caught their eye, once more sitting atop the desk of Minamoto Teru as he grimaced, not wanting to know what it was as he sat down into his seat, Nora standing there with a coy little smile that flickered with amusement.
Tanaka, their classmate who sat infront of the exorcist had leaned back into his seat, turning around to talk to Teru as he blew a low whistle. "Oh! Is that from a girl? You lucky dog!" The boy chimed, staring at the pink wrapped bento box as Teru looked up to the ravenette.
"Nora?" He beckoned as her face turned sour, immediately shaking her head. "In your dreams Teru. I don't make lunches." She said as his eyes peered down at it. "Maybe Kou?" She tried suggesting as he ruffled his blonde locks. "Last I remembered, we didn't have pink wrapping, so who could have .." He unwrapped the box, pulling off its lid as they all jumped back.
Horror washed over their faces as Nora turned into a sickening blue, although at the same time, stifling a chuckle as Teru turned to her with a whine, offering the box to her as she deadpanned at him. "I'm not a garbage disposal for unwanted food." She hit him over the back of his head as he chuckled and rubbed the sore spot she had just hit, while grimacing at the bento.
It was .. a monster. Or rather monsters. There was even a picture of a skull. He immediately put the lid back on. "I think someone forgot this ... I'll bring it to the lost and found." He wrapped it back up and wearily held it in his hands, although wanting to drop it into the trashcan.
When away from the gazes of other students he dropped the box into the trash, dusting off his hands as Nora peered into the trashcan. "Well that was mean."
He looked back at her with lazy ocean blue eyes. "Well, any food that isn't Kou's or yours is practically garbage." The boy spoke in a monotone, his rather dark side coming out as she sighed and pushed him back toward the direction of the classroom as his smiley face reappeared.
"Eh? So you really didn't put that lunch box onto my desk?" Teru scratched his cheek as they still tried to debunk the mystery of the pink bento box as Kou stared at them blankly in confusion after listening to the story of the start of their extremely mysterious day. Nora let out a sigh as the two looked at her.
"My guess is either another secret admirer, or just a psychopath." She shrugged. Kou rubbed his chin before adamantly nodding his head and agreeing. It happened to the two of them rather often.
The duo had been walking down the hall as Teru picked up some books from the library for their homeroom teacher as they had coincidentally bumped into Kou as well, thus leading them to their current conversation.
"You look troubled, Kou." Nora placed a hand on top of his head as he tried to think of the next words of response that would come out of his lips.
Teru, who also seemed curious at his brother's anxious behavior wanted to know as well. "I .. a .. test.." Kou muttered something nearly incoherent to them as they blinked. "Huh?"
"I got a failing mark on one of my tests." He mumbled louder as he stared to the ground.
Kou wasn't as academically smart as his elder brother or Nora for that matter. He was already borderline supplementary classes that he couldn't afford to take because it would mean Nora would have to pick up Tiara and then she would also have to prepare dinner, two things he didn't want to bother her with since she hardly had the time an energy for any of it from the beginning. Straight after dinner she had to begin exorcism rounds till the crack of dawn with Teru.
Then they would have to wake up early and get ready for class and student council duties and stay late after school for paperwork.
Teru ranked first in their grade with Nora in the top ten, although if she wanted, she most likely could have tied with Teru in top spot, but instead she had asked Tiara to pick a number from one to three hundred and seventeen, the number she picked would be the spot that she placed on the little girl's demand.
Teru let out a chuckle, trying to cover his lips in amusement as he hit Kou over the head lightly with the black clipboard he was always seen carrying around. "In which class?" The elder asked.
The boy looked up from the ground as he tried to recall. "English."
The word lit up Teru's smile as his head lowered down to his younger brother's height. "That's my favorite subject~ What a coincidence. Why not ask me for help, Kou?"
As of late, Teru's greatest concerns that he shared about with Nora was the fact that Kou no longer relied on him as much as he used to. Nora chuckled at the boy's bashfulness. Although the three of them didn't get to spend much time together as they used to, Kou had tried to become independent from them, which sometimes worried the two greatly because he was growing up much too quickly for their own liking.
"Because ... I don't want to bother you or Nora-nee.." Kou mumbled, twiddling with his fingers nervously.
"And why is that?" Nora pried. She always told him that it was okay, that she was okay, nothing proved otherwise. She basically worked like a superhuman around the clock and regenerated from colds within a day. It was a miracle that she had yet to pass out.
"Because you two already do enough work." His voice was a lot less shaky this time, staring at the pair who had suddenly stopped walking. Teru dropped the books into Nora's arms as he engulfed his younger brother in a headlock, ruffling his hair playfully while the boy choked for air, Teru digging a finger into his temple.
"Helping you isn't qualified as work, it's called spending quality time with your big brother." Teru had a smile on his face but his voice dripped with firm authority as Kou began to foam from the mouth, causing Nora to smack him over the head with a book as the boy let go of the younger Minamoto.
"Okay! Tutoring lessons with your big brother start when I get home from student council work!" Teru said tenaciously as Kou stared at him in surprise before a child-like smile crept onto his face as he saluted. "Okay!"
Student council was tiring, and there was really no point in the two of them joining it in the first place, but it made it easier for the two of them to monitor both the school and its students. Suspicious behavior, classes, anything, they had permission to act.
"Oh that's right, we have some nice vegetables for you to cook with when you get home. The tomato that Teru got was bigger than half my head." Nora clapped her hands in delight as the boy grinned. "We can have myoga salad with tomato as a side dish for tonight's meal then." The boy had thought in the blink of an eye.
"Whatever you make is delicious, so I don't mind what we have tonight." Teru's angelic smile flounced around.
Just as Nora was about to say something, she heard a voice squeak out. "Now!"
"Kou--" She was cut off with a sudden mop of ashen hair that whizzed past her as they rammed into the middle child, with a thud. "Kou?! Kou!" Teru had shouted. The blonde haired boy who had been standing in between the two had suddenly disappeared as his limp barley conscious body laid at the bottom of the stairs. "Hey! Someone just went flying down the stairs! Is he okay?!" People had begun to gather as Nora acted upon instinct and leapt down the stairs.
"Stars .. moons .. sk..y .. What's it doing inside of scho..ol..?" The boy's head was spinning as he stared up to the ceiling, his head throbbing. Teru had dropped his books as he ran down the stairs as well where Kou laid still hanging on to a small linger of consciousness.
The silvernette who rammed into him looked around in a daze. "Huh? Who did I run into?" She let out a cry as she saw who was down at the bottom of the flight of stairs along with the two second years that were by his side, she immediately shivered, catching the gaze of Natsuki Nora who glanced at her.
Of course Yashiro Nene had heard of her, but never dared speak to her. Nora had an air around her that made her seem intimidating sometimes despite the shiny energy she radiated like a star. That and, Yashiro could never see herself even standing beside Nora.
But as of now, the expression on her face was dark as Kou's head laid in her lap while Teru attempted to shake his younger brother awake, even slapping him lightly to no avail. "I'm so sorry!" The first-year cried out, but it didn't seem like anyone heard her. Or so she thought, but Nora indefinitely did.
She whispered something into Teru's ear as the older male nodded and hauled his younger brother onto his back. "Excuse us." Nora's delicate and soft voice rung out as she picked up the books Teru had dropped as they made their way to the infirmary, murmurs following from behind.