Chapter Text
Teru Minamoto once thought he could handle any supernatural that came his way. Why wouldn’t he? The countless patrols he ran around the school and surrounding areas proved he was more than capable of managing the dangerous supernaturals threatening the local residents.
Night after night he dispatched his foes, darting from rooftop to rooftop to chase rogue Qirins and slinking through alleys to send a calculated volt of lightning through eight-armed demons roaming in its darkness.
Every move he made with his sword was calculated, swift, planned; training for years under the watchful eye of his father had honed his skills to perfection. His Senior wanted the best in him after all, not just in exorcism duties but every other aspect in his life. High grades, high school status, high expectations.
But Teru didn’t once complain. The only thing he should do is grit his teeth and carry on.
That Tuesday shouldn’t have been any different from any other. There was the incessant chattering of his classmates as they flocked around his desk, the drone of Tsuchigomori’s voice and the sunlight from the windows starting to dim.
The blonde watched as the sun began its downward descent, filling the trees with golden sparkles. ‘Almost time for my patrol,’ He tapped his shoes impatiently, feeling static electricity begin to coil restlessly on his arms.
And did a double take when he saw a giant silhouette with wings barreling straight towards the classroom windows.
It happened in a flash- dark talons spreading outwards, Teru dashing to grab his sword from under his desk, the students still paying rapt attention to Tsuchigomori, who had only just begun to notice something dark blocking out the light.
The window panes exploded on impact, eliciting sharp cries from his classmates. After the initial breach, Tsuchigomori yelled at everyone to get out of the classroom to avoid the shards on the floor. Teru could only register a screeching ball of feathers and arms and wings quickly filling the room, until it reared its ugly head: A crow tengu.
Its beak was full of sharp spikes, snapping at the desks and the terrified students who scrambled to escape. While Tsuchigomori led the kids out of the room safely, Teru got into his fighting stance, letting his lightning hum from his arms to course through his sword in blue arcs. ‘Guess my job will start a bit early today. All the better,’ A cruel grin spread across his face.
The tengu seemed to pause at his action, contracting its wings and then spreading them out to full length with a bang that sent the walls left and right crumbling into rubble. Teru’s eyes narrowed. It was opening up more space to attack- clearly it was smarter than he’d initially assumed.
As pieces from the ceiling cracked and fell, the tengu lunged at him, cawing so loud that his ears rang. A little disoriented from the noise, Teru held firm until it came within striking range, and then zipped to the side, letting loose a stream of lightning from his blade that tore through the downy feathers of its back. The creature shrieked, and Teru saw its next move, saw the talons arching back to pounce, and with perfect reflexes he trained his eyes on the base of its neck, went in for the kill-
And was promptly flicked into the wall by one of the tengu’s huge wings. The feathered appendages were solid like cement, heavier than anything Teru had expected.
He crumpled onto the floor.
His lungs- they weren’t responding, seizing up as if compressed into a sheet of paper.
Teru could tell that strike had been the barest of touches, not even a fraction of the force it was capable of.
The exorcist forced his airways open, taking in a breath that stung all the way to his bronchi. Clambering to his feet quickly to not leave himself open, he readied his stance again, trying to ignore the ache beginning to form in his chest.
The Tengu reared up once more, swinging with its arms and wings in a frenzy of limbs that left him unable to counterattack. He bitterly realized, for once, he was on the defense. His cocky grin dropped into a scowl.
Every time he tried to look for an opening, the tengu would strike, kicking at him with its scaly legs and flapping its wings in the air to shed enough feathers to make a hundred pillows. Its attacks were becoming faster and faster, and Teru could barely keep up, dodging becoming so excruciatingly painful that he grimaced whenever he jostled his torso.
But he couldn’t let this thing win, couldn’t run away and hide despite his cowardly brain screaming at him to stop. He was Teru of the Minamoto clan, the eldest son, perfect in every way. It didn’t matter if he got hurt as long as he could finish it off.
He couldn’t keep up for long.
After a few minutes of zipping around, the tengu finally memorized his dodging patterns and caught him with a clawed foot mid-air, slamming him into the ground so hard that Teru was left gasping. He cried out in pain as its hold tightened around his abdomen, feeling the dull ache worsen tenfold. If he hadn’t broken anything before, then it was definitely broken now.
How had he been so careless?! How could this even happen?
No matter how much he tried to wriggle free, the tengu only squeezed him further.
His vision was starting to swim, unwelcome tears forcing their way out of his eyes.
Wasn’t he always so careful about these things?
Wasn’t he always the one who scored the victory, who never needed the assistance of others?
Wasn’t he perfectly capable on his own?
And yet here he was, trapped in the talons of a supernatural, helpless to do anything but watch as the demon bird didn’t even flinch as feeble bolts of lightning swarmed on his arms, fueled by desperation and fear.
He shut his eyes, bracing for another strike, apologizing to Kou and Tiara for being so utterly useless.
To his surprise, he was met with a loud THWACK and a startled caw.
Hesitant, he opened his eyes a crack.
Someone was…standing over him? In his bleary peripheral he could make out white pants, dark brown sleeves, a mop of familiar red-orange hair tied back in a ponytail.
“Akane..?” The redhead turned his head to shoot him one of his signature frowns.
“It’s Aoi to you, idiot, and don’t think I’m doing this because I want to.“ The annoyed look in his gaze faded when the blonde tried to stand but then doubled over in pain.
Seeing its chance at the distraction, the tengu screeched one last caw and smashed through one of the walls to stumble into the main hallways.
Teru’s eyes widened at its retreating form. “Shit, it’s getting away!”
Picking his sword off the ground, he pulled himself up, fully intending to chase after it, but Akane blocked his path.
“Aoi. Let. Me. Pass.”
Akane’s eyes flashed with anger and something else Teru couldn’t quite place.
“The hell are you doing?! You’re injured, dumbass!”
“I’m not,” he seethed.
“Yes, you are. From the way that you stand and how stiffly you’re moving I can tell you’re in a great deal of pain.”
He tried to push past him, pretending his words fell on deaf ears, but the clock keeper wasn’t going to let him off that easily.
When Teru tried to take another step, the redhead blocked him again, jostling him just enough that a sharp pang of pain made him clutch at his chest on instinct.
“Let me go, I have to-,”
Akane cut him off with a stern glare. “You’re in no condition to be fighting right now.
“Shut up, you don’t know anything,“
“It’s not going to do any good for anyone if you get yourself seriously hurt like this!”
“Shut up-“
“WHAT IF YOU DIED FIGHTING IT?!!”
“IT DOESN’T MATTER IF I DIED!! ”
Teru’s shoulders hunched defensively, as if he had struck a nerve. “It doesn’t.. matter.”
Akane saw his determination, saw his unwillingness to back down, and was faced with a difficult situation. If the exorcist was going to let himself be put in harm’s way…for whatever reason, Akane could not bear to let him do it.
He was probably going to be exorcised for what he was about to do next.
Teru’s eyes widened when he saw the glimmer of a watch in his fingers.
“Oh don’t you dare , you prick-“
He tried to knock it out of his hand, to prevent him from turning the knob- but it was too late.
Time slowed to a few beating moments before stopping completely, freezing him in place.
The exorcist’s last moments of consciousness were of Akane giving him an apologetic look before he ran off to the trail of rubble left in the Tengu’s wake.
