𝔅𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔶 || Minamoto T. || JSHK

8.0 time

About 5 years ago-

Curious eyes gazed at the two older children who were speaking with the adults. One, his older brother, who nodded from time to time, a smile on his face. The other, a girl who recently joined the family, no expression on her face but her eyes were full of sadness. At the time, Kou couldn't understand what was happening.

"Oh, was there something you needed Kou?" Yumeko peered at the younger boy, leaving Teru and the Minamoto adults. They were speaking about the next training session as well as the next possible subjugation, both things Yumeko had zero interest in but would be filled in by Teru later.

Kou's chubby cheeks darkened a pink color, shifting his eyes from the ground to her face and back to the ground again. He wasn't a shy child but Yumeko was a rather pretty girl. "No, just wanted to play with Nii-chan but he looks busy. It's okay though!!"

His voice went soft before returning to it's normal pitch, not wanting to sound spoiled in front of the older girl. She glanced back to Teru who was signaling her to wait before looking back at Kou's wide eyes. Stretching out her hand, Yumeko said nothing but Kou's lips turned into a grin.

Sure she hadn't always been in the family but in that short time, the small girl had warmed her way into Kou's heart. Of course, he had developed a small crush on her at first but slowly he saw her as an older sister who would be there for him when Teru couldn't be around. Someone who helped him with his homework and played with him too! Maybe not cook together, Yumeko seemed to hate any and all food no matter what she tried to eat. But that was ok! Even his older brother couldn't cook and he was good at a lot of things (please no one ever allow him into the kitchen without Kou supervising).

Though maybe it had been more so the one time when Yumeko had saved him from untimely doom. Kou had been outside playing one day, he had forgotten about his curfew; he was having fun playing, where was the harm in that? He hadn't noticed the looking figures of certain apparitions making their way towards him and only at the last second had he noticed something was near him. But it was too late, for the insect looking apparition was already swinging down.

Kou covered his head, eyes closing waiting for it to hit him but nothing happened. His eyes opened only to see Yumeko and Teru both fighting the thing that was about to get him. Tonight wasn't a night when his older brother would be out subjugating with the other exorcists but it was still really cool to see him fighting against apparitions. Adding Yumeko into the mix was really amazing to see, watching her dodge and attack and distract the figure for Teru to deal the final blow, Kou was in awe of their teamwork.

So much so was he distracted by the two that again he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings. As he was about to be struck by a flying limb, Yumeko appeared in front of the young boy, taking the blow but successfully protecting him. Even though the force of it should have knocked her off her feet, Yumeko remained standing, holding a protective pose in front of Kou as the last remaining piece of the apparition faded away.

"Kou are you alright? You didn't get hurt right?" Kou shook his head at his brother's questioning. He was fine, if anything it was the older girl who should be checked up on. When she turned slightly to see how he was doing, he had seen blood on her and was worried. The older Minamoto saw the gaze toward the older girl before reassuring Kou, "She's okay. She's not bleeding, it's from whatever was about to hurt you."

With that, the case was solved. Using a handkerchief, the younger boy wiped away the blood on the girl's face before scurrying away to his brother. The trio headed home, Kou holding Teru's hand while Yumeko walked about two steps behind them, keeping guard just in case anything else appeared.