Chapter Text
To Eli, wolves were clever creatures, but also creatures that she learnt to hate over the years. Her hatred quickly turned into an obsession with killing, and she just had to know if that wolf was what she considered the worst of the worst - a werewolf - before she went at it with a gunful of silver bullets.
The shrine on the mountain had slowly become a place of interest to Eli, after she heard about second year Honoka Kosaka’s encounter with one of the wolves at the shrine. No wolf Eli had seen had purple fur (Eli was more accommodated with white furred ones), and so she quickly concluded that the wolf Honoka had encountered must have been a werewolf. Purple was quite an odd colour for a werewolf, let alone a normal wolf, but maybe it was a black furred wolf that Honoka mistook for purple. Either way, she’d soon find out once she climbed the hill.
With her mind dead set on finding out what that wolf was, Eli set off for the shrine as soon as her student council duties had been completed. She usually made a call to her senior hunter, the one that taught her, but Eli wanted to go solo up the mountain tonight. Besides, her senior had a habit of being far too laid back.
The shrine was situated about halfway up the mountain, and Eli was surprised to find it… clean. There were signs of plant growth here and there, but they had been visibly cut back, as if someone had been clearing the area on a regular basis.
‘The area is clear… no sign of overgrowth… does someone live here? Or maybe the-’
Eli’s thoughts were broken as growls filled the area. Then the breaking of twigs hit her ears, and the growls became snarls as Eli found herself surrounded by a wolf pack. They were all the average white wolves she had expected, except for one odd one out. It was just what Honoka described: a purple wolf, snarling the loudest at Eli before suddenly rushing into the shrine.
“Why are you snarling? Is someone outside?” Eli heard a feminine voice ask.
‘So there is someone here!’
The voice sighed, “I hope you didn’t scare her away.”
Eli now heard footsteps coming from the shrine, human ones. The wolves quieted their snarling as the woman came into Eli’s view. Eli estimated her to be a few centimeters shorter than herself, with purple hair messily done up in a low twin-tail style, teal eyes and dressed in the typical shrine maiden garb.
“I never expected someone to travel this far and not run away from my friends here,” the woman said.
“The rumors about this place were too intriguing for me to just run away.“ came Eli’s reply, “I wasn’t expecting to find another person around here.”
“Oh, these nine are harmless. Only my purple dear is aggressive, but she’s pretty much the alpha of the pack, so that’s to be expected. These cuties just follow her…” explained the woman, starting to pet the wolf closest to her, “May I ask the name of my first guest not to run away?”
“A-Ayase Eli.”
“What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman. I am Toujou Nozomi.”
Eli keep her eyes on the wolf Nozomi was petting, she was a bit cautious after seeing that purple wolf.
“Is something wrong?” Nozomi inquired, “Your eyes tell me that you’re cautious. is it that you heard the rumors of a werewolf in this area?”
“It’s more of a fact that purple is not the usual color I’d expect to see for a wolf,” Eli replied.
Nozomi giggled, “You’re eyes must be playing tricks on you Ayase-san. Maybe you see purple fur in the place of black fur.”
“I highly doubt that,” Eli muttered.
“I can reassure you that not a single wolf in this pack is a werewolf,” Nozomi formed as she stopped petting the wolf, “You know…you have the smell of a hunter. Is that what you are?”
“Yes,” Eli blurted out, “U-Uh…I mean-”
“-I’m not too keen on hunting,” Nozomi interrupted, “ a bit too…barbaric, but each to their own.”
That sounded suspicious to Eli. Her senior did warn her to watch out for anything suspicious.
“You must have reasons to hunt down werewolves,” Nozomi remarked, “Just like I have my reasons to be against such things.”
“You sound really suspicious…are you the werewolf?” Eli questioned, she really wanted to go after Nozomi brought up hunting having her reason, she really didn’t want to think about what happened to Alisa.
“Me? I’m just your average girl, I can understand that you don’t trust me just yet, Ayase-san, but it’s the truth. Perhaps you could visit when the full moon comes on Saturday and find out for yourself.” Nozomi offered.
'I would have time to prepare myself… maybe that’s not such a bad idea.’
Eli nodded, “Yeah, okay, that could work.”
Nozomi smiled, “Excellent! Unfortunately, I’ll be busy that day, but I’m not the one you want to watch. Simply climb up here and the others will keep you safe. Just be careful of my dear purple wolf.” With this, she started to walk back to the shrine, “Till we meet again…”
Before Eli said anything, Nozomi had vanished, “But for all I know, you might be the one.”