bearer.

no one ever asked what the blue was for, nor where it came from. she always stuck to the corners of a dark classroom - away from the windows. that’s what made the blue so obvious ; because the red sat upon her crown was so much warmer under the sun.

a second year transfer student at a high school in kyoto. it’s unknown to the student base as to the reason of the girl’s transfer, but rumor has it that it had something to do with her mother.

due to her dyed hair and tendency to remain around the darker corners of rooms, added to by her habit of wearing hoodies, minoru is often confused for a delinquent.

she is a member of her school’s band class — and has attended her fair share of competitions in the hopes of displaying her guitar skills in a professional sense. she doesn’t hide this but due to her reputation, finding out would be rather embarrassing on her end.

koito-chan in her high school verse is now her toddler baby sister rather than... whatever she is in her normal verse. her mother’s last gift to her, she focuses all her energy in raising koito in her father’s place. as if to add more credence to her delinquent persona, she often misses classes or is late taking care of her baby sister.

                               ❝  shadowing .  ❞    ❝  --  got a bit boring when i outdid the sorcerer i’m meant to learn from .  ❞

she’s no fool to the way junpei’s gaze teeters from her appearance. a line under one sole eye, the irrefutable disgust that lies beneath his tongue.          her own would click where it sits  heavy  in her mouth, and the umbrella she’s held out for him is dropped back onto her shoulder.   so much for extending the olive branch  --  doesn’t someone know how to let bygones be bygones  ?

❝  can’t help that they get to choose where we go .  ❞  sky blue hues peer out to the rolling clouds above as she speaks.   the rhythm of a bouncing foot  sinking  into rain water by her soles filling in the awkward spaces of silence  ;  and not once after that point does she venture her eyes down to the boy sat below her.  ❝  . . .  just gotta go with the flow . that’s what it’s like when you’ve hit the big leagues . ❞

                    but that wasn’t here nor there. neither did she much think --- that he’d care.

           ❝  asking all these questions of me but don’t think i’m just going to let you keep tugging me around without getting a word in . so what of you, huh  ?  ❞  he knows he isn’t the type. that pink haired wildfire of a boy  -  to leave this boy in  particular  out to wallow.  ❝  made a friend, didn’t you  ?  heard all about it from the higher folk  . . .  doesn’t seem like the type who’d let you sit out like this  --  unless, of course  ...  ❞  she’s reached her point. crossing it is hardly a difficult task.

his eyes are green. murky, like a swamp. what a sad sack.

         𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙝𝙞’𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧   received a welcoming such as this.   of course,  megumi’s shown the shikigami off before   -   times like this were common when he was younger.   learning something new,   practicing it,   perfecting it,   and showing it off to gojou whilst acting as uninterested as possible.   but he’s never been given a reaction such as this   -   it’s nice,   that someone appreciates the shikigami as much as he does  ;  even if he’s quiet in his own admiration.

         𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩,    he’s already accepted that he’s now stuck here for the time being.   rather than answer,  megumi sticks his middle and index finger together, and makes a shooing motion in minoru’s direction.   orochi obeys instantaneously.   as slowly as he’d instructed,  the snake moves,  hissing quietly as it does.   it circles around minoru,  coiling up but never touching her,  and stops moving when it’s fully encircled her  ;  leaving serpent and girl face to face.    ‘   go ahead.  ‘ 

           she’s certain that if she pinches herself, she’ll awake to find herself tangled within her many sheets and pillows.

somewhere deep within, there’s an appreciation in the boy’s lack of words  --  and the lack of questioning.    why a creature of such magnitude, of such species, would be of such  interest  to her. ignite such immense joy and fascination.            she knows that she will not tell him if he did. that it was a matter of motherly favoritism  -  and that, in some manner, it’s fallen into her lap as well.  (  gazing up at the creature which has spun around her, she’s reminded of a day long past. when she was much  smaller  and her mother was  ---  standing there once as well. with the same smile that emerges upon minoru’s cheeks.   )

❝  i knew just seeing you from afar that you weren’t as scary as mai-chan said you were  . . .  !  and you know it too, don’t you, you big cutie  !  ❞  her movements betray the voice that leaves her.    full to the brim with warmth, yet her palms carry a careful path as they run across the creature’s smooth scales. with a sensitivity she rarely showed.    out of  respect for the shikigami  --  and perhaps as well . . .  ❝  like shikigami, like master, huh  ?  all prickly but just a big ol’ softie from deep within  !  ❞  the girl coos  ;  chuckling in the boy’s direction as she turns to catch hold of how he may react to her words.

            ❝  of course i’m motivational  . ❞         ❝  ---  i wouldn’t be here otherwise, aoi-chan   !  ❞

it’s easy to settle here, sat atop the boy’s form.    with another, she’s sure she’d have her arms raised away from her, shaking to gather her balance for all its  worth  --  but here, she is as steady as a rock. quietly strumming  away at steel core strings to the tune of todo’s rise and fall.

       the reaction is instantaneous  ---  an expression,  rare  as a jewel, pulling in its entirety across the girl’s visage.

                                   ❝  he  --  hello  . . .  !  ❞  she’s enraptured.

though she doesn’t make any new movements, aside from the retrieval of her hand from megumi’s removal,   the urge is there.  in her hands, in her feet  ;  reverberating  through every cell and nerve in her body. vibrating from head to toe with excitement.  ❝  h - hello there big girl  !  big boy  ?  b -- big one  !  ❞  not of importance  !  ❝  just look at you, you’re  --  you’re  ---  ❞  it takes a considerable breath, long and deep, but she grounds herself.    in her urgency and childlike glee, she’s lost the point  ;  gawking was nice, but  . . .