The heat of the day had ebbed to a comforting warmth. The sunshine had lost its brightness and the colors of the verandah softened. The last of the sun's rays cosseted behind soft grey cloud.
The branches swayed in the wind, creaking into the gusting air as a warm hue of orange painted over the entire school, leaving bristling shadows that danced across the outdoor seating area, coincidentally Nora's favorite spot throughout the school building. Secluded, located in the very center of the school buildings where they merged outside.
Pillars surrounded the area and an old wrinkly bench that aged with time, having been there for decades. The sound of crows cawing as they flew into the setting sun that blazed across the sky.
The overhead trellis that had branches and vines climbing, twisting and wrapping themselves around the lattice had created a delicate pattern of shadows and iridescent rays of light that shone down on the student council president whom sat cross legged on the bench, his ocean blue eyes skimming over their finance reports of the month.
He thought a change of setting would help him get his work done faster so that he could head home earlier than usual.
The sudden protrusion of footsteps echoing against the hard concrete floors as the crisp brown leaves fluttered across the pavement as Teru stood up at the sudden appearance of a girl that he recognized to be one of his fellow second-years. He had talked to her a few times, but they weren't too close.
She look flustered, her thumbs playing around with one another as Teru smiled simply, awaiting her next words.
"U-Umm... Minamoto-kun! I ... I've liked you ever since first year!" She blurted out. He could tell that she was flustered and embarrassed as he tried to think of words to let her down gently since she overall meant no harm. The tips of her ears were a blazing fury red and she could barley make eye contact with him that he felt kind of bad.
But it would only make him feel worse if he lied to her about reciprocating her feelings as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I see.. I'm sorry but .. There's someone else that I like.." They were the words enough to shatter any girl's heart, especially since he was so docile and gentle about it, even a small, almost unnoticeable faint blush that crept onto his cheeks while talking about the mystery girl that was enough for everyone to envy.
"I've liked her for a long time, and I wouldn't want to be with anyone else but her. So .. I'm sorry.." He said softly as the girl looked up to him, disappointment was evident on her face, but she wasn't shocked as she looked up, slightly teary eyed, thanking him for his time as he waved her off with a sigh.
"Were you there the entire time, Nora?" He asked turning around as a girl emerged from the shadow of a pillar with a smile on her face as the wind fluttered her hair a bit. "Maybe. It's convenient when the nurses office has a window that's right above this area." She pointed upward as he remembered she was correct.
Teru let out another exasperated sigh, plopping back down onto the bench. "Still using me as an excuse for your confessions?" Nora asked with a raised brow as he let out a light chuckle, looking up at her with crinkled cerulean orbs.
"What makes you say that it's you?" He raised a brow. She scoffed, flicking his forehead. "You're an exorcist, I'm an exorcist, we don't have time to socialize and make friends outside of school. We barley get enough sleep as it is, nonetheless days off to have fun and mingle." Nora said bluntly as she stretched out her limbs.
Teru let out a hum, her observation was spot on. "How's Kou?"
Nora, whom had been tending to the boy with a pass to skip her classes, ignored the question for a moment as she stared over in the distance. "Nora?" He beckoned as she blinked and snapped out of the daze. "Oh .. Yeah, he got sent home with just a bruise on the back of his head and that's it. No concussion or anything thankfully."
"I asked him if he wanted me to pick up Princess but he said that he could do it. From what I saw, he was still able to walk straight, so he should be okay." She said, as if her thoughts were a separate distance from the words she had actually spoken. "What are you staring at?" He questioned.
She narrowed her eyes, walking over to a spot behind a few boxes not too far away. "Did you see anyone here?" She replied to his question with another one as she picked something off from the ground. He shook his head. Maybe he was too indulged in his conversation with the girl from earlier that he hadn't noticed that another girl other than Nora had been watching.
"Nope, is there something off?" He walked over to where she was crouched onto the ground. "I felt someone here .. But they disappeared." She handed him the item that she picked up from the floor.
His eyes widened a bit as he examined the pearly object. "This is .. a mermaid scale."
She morphed into a cat within the blink of an eye as she leapt onto his shoulder, her head peering around as her pink nose twitched. "Number seven has been around the school, everywhere. Along with .. his contracted human that's bound to him." Nora muttered. She could smell the two faint scents in the air, one coming from the scale.
Tiara and Nora sat on the wooden back porch of the manor as the young five year old child had played with the older girl's long locks of hair as she sat on Nora's lap happily. The two of them watched the two brothers who were on the grass.
Apparently Teru deemed that the first English tutoring session would be post poned since Kou's head had enough for the day, and instead Teru pulled something out from the family vault. That being a sacred heirloom.
A spirit staff that Teru was teaching Kou how to use while the two girls watched. "Go Kou-oniichan!" Tiara cheered as Kou grinned at her, his spirit staff clashing with Teru's sheathed katana blade where lightning sparkled and crackled, causing Tiara to clap her hands in delight, the Minamoto children were all the same.
They all liked lightning. Well it was natural, considering it was their exorcism affinity.
Not being of neither Minamoto blood or descent, it was a no-brainer that Nora's affinity wasn't lightning. However being a shrine maiden in one of her seven lives, she had an affinity to air, in which she was lucky that Keiko had a perfect exorcism tool that fit her, a small hand fan with a peacock design.
Kou had been given the staff before when he was younger, around the age of ten, but at that time, the staff had been much too strong for him, so they gave him smaller objects to build up his endurance, and apparently, Teru had decided that now was a good time to pull out the spirit staff and return it back to Kou.
After tucking Tiara into bed, she swung the door open to her shared room with Teru in which he was tucking in the hem of his kimono into the waistband of his hakama pants.
The pink floral train of her kimono trailed behind her on the floor as she walked into the room, plopping onto the bed while waiting for him to finish. "Teru, are you sure that was a good idea?" Nora chimed, resting her chin atop the palm of her ivory hand as he stared back at the teenage girl in the mirror.
A sly smile made its way to his face as he turned around, feigning innocence. "Was what a good idea?" The boy asked.
She snapped her fingers and the emerald green tips of his kimono tucked themselves in. "Was assigning Kou to the Seven Wonder's case a good idea? Was giving him the spirit staff back a good idea? We both know that he doesn't have nearly enough control of his spiritual powers to properly use the staff."
Teru only smiled, knowing that her concerns were the same as the ones drilling into the back of his unconscious mind.
Scarlet eyes bore into his soul as he picked her up, slipping his hands under her arms as she dangled from the air with a frown graced onto her facial expressions while the exorcist who was holding her like a child smiled brightly. "Are you worried, Nora?"
Her form flickered into a cat as she bit his hand, sinking her fangs into his flesh as he continued to smile happily and merrily climbing down the stairs while swinging the cat back and forth. He felt no pain, but his hand was going to be sore the next morning.
After deciding that she had enough, she morphed back into a human, prim and proper as if she didn't just bite someone like a feral animal.
"Hanako is a dangerous apparition, Teru. There's a reason why your grandma sealed away more than half his spiritual power, with the cost of never exorcising another supernatural again." Nora spoke as they walked the halls of the school, eliminating small fry supernaturals while upholding the beginning of a conversation.
Teru eyed her carefully. His mother must've told the witch the story. In the dark, his cerulean eyes looked like black seas of infinity, dull and void. "We need him to grow as an exorcist. He's fourteen now, Nora. We don't take him on our patrols, and he's developing too slowly and the clan elders are getting impatient." Teru sighed.
"You're apart of the main family, shut them up. They're old morons that are going to die sooner or later. They can barley even exorcise high level supernaturals anymore." Nora slammed an apparition against the wooden walls of the school building, causing it to rumble as Teru chuckled at her remark.
The blonde tapped the tip of his sheath against her forehead as a small spark erupted from it, zapping her lightly as she took a step back, wincing. "Ow."
"You can't kill anymore humans, Nora. Otherwise, I'd have to kill you. Don't forget." He warned her, halfheartedly before staring out the window.
"But they're right. Kou needs to pull his own weight, especially when we're not there to protect him. He hasn't done any actual exorcism yet and he's already at a late age. Assigning him to the Wonder's case would help speed up the process so that the elders could simmer down already." Teru said exasperatedly, scratching the back of his head as he sent out a spark of obsidian black electricity running through the halls.
-
"Ah! I found you! The little rascal who's been stealing all of my candy from the student council room!" Nora pointed at the small figure retreating into the shadow of the halls. Thankfully for her, it was already after school hours as she morphed into a cat, shifting her weight onto all four paws as the small creature screamed, trying to run.
Within the blink of an eye, she had already sunken her fangs into it as it hung limply from her mouth. Her paws padded across the rooftop tiles on the academy building. Although it was dangerous, she jumped from rooftop to the window ledge a few feet below.
A certain male, catching a flash of ebony in the corner of his eye had heard a small and light knock on the door. A hunch on who it was, he opened the door glass windows of the student council room and in leapt a certain witch that landed on his shoulder as he returned to his seat.
Nora dropped the pink, rabbit-like creature that quivered as it hid itself onto the student council president's shoulder, hiding from the black cat's sharp gaze as she held her candy bag inside her mouth. "So you're the little supernatural that's been causing trouble ..." Teru pulled out his katana as the rabbit supernatural shuddered in fear.
Nora dropped her bag of candy onto the desk as she soon shifted into a young seventeen year old girl whom was seen sitting nonchalantly on top of the desks, popping a strawberry flavored candy into her mouth. "Listen to what it says first, Teru."
He looked up at her with a raised brow. "You're suddenly being merciful after getting your sweets back, especially after bugging Aoi all day to buy you a new bag." Teru had noted as she nodded happily, offering him a candy as he shook his head, denying it. As the little pink Mokke had begun to gather, suddenly hearing about her offering, she let out a hiss, causing them to all scurry off.
"You know the rumor going on about Yousei, right? The mysterious monster that steals your items and the one that you should never look in the eye." Nora's words were muffled and nearly incoherent as she tried chewing on the candy. The president took a moment to process the words before nodding with a chuckle.
"Turns out that they were just Mokke." Nora smiled softly as she poked one as it let out a type of noise that was indescribable to her.
Teru raised a brow. "Is that so .." He watched one walk across his desk. Hailing from an exorcist family, he knew well what Mokke were, the small nearly harmless little creatures who liked to play pranks and tricks here and there. Their Princess, Tiara was rather fond of them, so Teru decided to place down his katana with a sigh.
"That's odd though, isn't it?" Nora cocked her head to the side as the blonde exorcist let out a hum of agreement. "I wonder." He said simply. She raised a brow at him. He had been awfully quiet about the entire ordeal, much to her surprise.
"They're apparitions who have been around for hundreds of thousands of years now. And their rumor suddenly changes by a sudden second party to monsters that would hurt students, and then a third party is out and about changing their rumors back to little harmless creatures." Nora pet one on the head.
"It's almost as if someone is doing this intentionally. Their rumors had remained unchanged for quite some time now. For it to change out of the blue can only be the work of another apparition and human working together." Teru sighed as Nora pursed her lips. "This is starting to look like more work for us to do .." She whined softly.
Teru slapped a paper onto the thick stack beside him that was already piling up as he stood up from his chair and picked the cat up from the ground. "Well, we do have patrol tonight, so let's head home. Aoi can do the rest of the papers without me." The president had smiled, eerily carefree despite the fact that they knew the vice-president would be protesting in the morning about having to do his president's leftover paperwork.
However, she could care less about the whiny first-year whom they abused quite frequently as she merrily head home with Teru.