Minamoto Teru

Minamoto Teru (源輝) is a second year student at Kamome Academy's High School Division and the school's Student Council President. He is also Kou's elder brother and a member of a renowned family of exorcists, the Minamoto Clan.

Appearance
Teru is tall and slim, with blond hair (slightly longer and less spiky than his younger brother Kou's) and blue eyes. He is widely considered to be handsome, leading to his high popularity within the school.

He wears the standard high school division uniform, with the exception of a long-sleeved cream-colored blouse with the sleeves folded back, instead of the short-sleeved blue blouse worn by most of the other male students. The reason for this difference is unknown.

Teru also wears a red-and-white Student Council armband on his left arm, like Akane. He sometimes carries a black clipboard with some papers clipped on.

Like Kou, Teru carries exorcist tools with him even in school, always wearing a red-and-yellow bracelet (similar to prayer beads) on his right wrist. He also often carries a sword, either in a sheath hanging from his belt on the left side, or in a black cloth case on his back.

As an exorcist, he occasionally wears traditional clothing when fighting supernaturals. When he was younger, he carried the sword sheath from a strap over his left shoulder.

On his days off, he casually wears an unbuttoned shirt with a T-shirt inside.

Personality
Calm and collected, not to mention reliable, he's well-liked by his peers. He is also very perceptive, as he is able to easily recognize supernatural happenings and identify them.

In the first chapter, Nene describes Teru as handsome, smart, and an amazing person who is kind to everyone: the Prince of the school. Teru himself, however, does not seem to be conceited over this reputation. After hearing Nene's compliment about him, he just thanked her, and apologized for surprising her.

Nene describes Teru as handsome, smart, and an amazing person who is kind to everyone: the Prince of the school. She also compares him to television stars or idols, as just seeing him is enough to make people happy. His kind-hearted personality attracts not only girls his age, but also boys, as some are even willing to rip his button off to give Teru a replacement for his lost button.

He is especially kind towards his siblings, Kou, and his sister, as he almost always does what they asked of him. When shoved a doughnut from Kou to shut up, instead of rejecting the doughnut he just quietly eats the doughnut, twice, even. Despite his seemingly kind personality, he also can be sadistic and harsh sometimes. Towards Akane, his vice student council president, he is pretty strict and would not afraid to give him punishment when he does mistakes.

When exorcising, he always puts off a disgusted face, as he seems to think all supernaturals are evil beings and should be exorcised. Though there seems to be some exceptions, for example towards Mokkes, as he seems to neither particularly hate or like them, and tolerates their presence as his sister Tiara likes them.

His style of exorcising seems to heavily rely on making the enemy helpless, then proceeding to exorcise them, which may seem like a somewhat cruel way of exorcising.

Hanako-san of the Toilet
Teru is one of the first named characters to be introduced (after Hanako and Nene), as the target of Nene's crush and her wish to Hanako. Teru had previously picked up Nene's pencil case, though she does not yet know his first name at this point, only addressing him as "Minamoto-senpai".

He then becomes the subject of Nene and Hanako's various love strategies: giving him summer vegetables that Nene planted, stealing his shirt cuff button, making him a character bento, and trying to collide with him in the corridor. After all the strategies fail, Nene swallows one of the mermaid scales (taken from Hanako), and plans to give Teru the other scale so that they will be bonded together under the mermaid curse.

However, when she finally finds Teru, another girl is already confessing to him. Teru declines, saying that there's already someone he's liked for a long time, and is shown still talking to the girl as Nene turns into a fish.

The Young Exorcist Arc
In a flashback, an eight year old Teru is shown singlehandedly exorcising a supernatural with the sword while Kou secretly watched (having snuck out of the house against Teru's instructions). When Kou declares he's going to become stronger than Teru someday, Teru smiles and encourages him.

Teru appears on the rooftop while Nene is talking about him, thanking her for the compliments and introducing himself. He then gives Hanako a cold look before pulling Kou aside for a conversation about Kou's mission to exorcise the Seven Mysteries. Despite Kou's objections, Teru declares vehemently that there are no good supernaturals. Teru intends to take on the task of exorcising the Seven Mysteries himself, but agrees to wait for a while more when Kou asks him to.

While Hanako is threatening Kou with the knife, Teru severely shocks Hanako with lightning from behind, knocking him out. Teru asks Kou to move aside and binds him with the bracelet when he refuses, telling him that he doesn't need to think about unnecessary things. Teru greets Hanako cordially, but it's revealed that he's already created a lightning cage around the two of them, trapping Hanako's hakujoudai outside the cage to prevent him from calling on them. He then speaks harshly of Hanako's true nature, calling him unsightly before moving in to attack and knock Hanako off balance.

Teru stabs the sword through Hanako's hand and channels lightning through it. They continue fighting, and Teru tells Hanako to give up and accept his punishment of moving on. Hanako retorts that disappearing would be a relief instead, and he still has things to do here. Despite acknowledging this, Teru still stabs Hanako in the chest with the sword and prepares to finally exorcise him, only for Kou (having broken free of his restraints) to grab the sword and pull it out.

Shocked, Teru tells Kou to stop, but Kou throws him backwards and shouts at Teru not to treat him like an idiot. When Kou tells Teru to leave the decision of exorcising Hanako to him, he objects once, saying that Hanako may attack the students tomorrow. Teru eventually agrees for this one time, saying that he doesn't want to be hated by Kou anyway, though he still believes that it would be better to exorcise Hanako right there and then.

The Donuts
Teru "helps" Kou in making donuts before Kou asks Nene to come over, although Kou claims to Nene that the mess in the kitchen and inedible black substance are due to him instead of Teru.

After Nene and Kou finish making the donuts, Teru arrives before they can start eating, and scolds Kou for leaving him out even though he'd been the one to buy the ingredients. Nene says that she helped Kou since he's poor at cooking, but Kou stuffs a donut in Teru's face before he can fully correct her, and Teru contentedly eats it. When Teru tries to reprimand Kou for rudely stuffing donuts at people, Kou stuffs him with another donut, and Teru continues eating. After Nene leaves, Teru points out that Kou does all the chores at home, and things catch fire or turn into poison if Teru tries to help. Teru then asks Kou why he suddenly wanted to make donuts, and whether he likes Nene, to Kou's denial.

The Three Clock Keepers Arc
After Akane drags the possessed Nene to the rooftop, Kou mentions that he's heard about Akane from Teru, who told him to stay away from Akane as he easily goes berserk where Aoi is concerned.

Akane also makes multiple references to Teru throughout the Arc, such as noting Kou's resemblance to Teru (after Mirai turns his time forward), and planning to reduce Teru's harsh treatment of him by doing Kou a favour.

Teru appears right at the end of the arc, after Kako has rewound time and reversed the changes caused by Mirai. Teru smilingly says that he's been lenient since Akane is still a human, until this major school-wide ruckus, and finally drags Akane away to the Student Council room while he yells for help.

Searching Arc
In the science preparation room, Kou says that he'd gotten Teru to help him gather insects for Tsuchigomori, causing a horde of other students to join in when they noticed.

Teru arrives at the Student Council room after Nene comes to return Hanitaro to Akane. It's revealed that Teru has bound Akane in a bowing position with the bracelet, since Akane entered the room after being dragged off in the previous arc. Teru temporarily releases Akane from his bindings, saying that it'd be pathetic for him to be in that position in front of a girl, then removes Akane's glasses. Teru explains to Nene that he made the glasses at Akane's request to suppress his spiritual energy to a regular human's level. Putting the glasses on, Teru muses to Nene that being unknowing, unable to see, and uninvolved can sometimes be a stronger protection than anything else, as many things in this world are better off unknown. He notes that Nene doesn't really understand, and tells her that he saw Hanako climbing up the stairs to the roof.

After Nene leaves, Akane snatches the glasses back while commenting on Teru's leniency about Nene's involvement with Hanako, despite having tried to exorcise the latter recently. Teru answers that he'd only been keeping things in check while also teaching his brother, and that there's no way to protect Nene after all, implying that he already knew about Nene's lifespan. He then shocks Akane with lightning for being disrespectful to a senior.

The Hell of Mirrors Arc
While Nene and Mitsuba are in No.3's boundary, Teru (or rather a mirror version of him) is one of several characters who appear in the mirrors to taunt Nene about having radish legs.

Mokke of the Dead
At the start of the chapter, Teru is shown to be in school at night, going to inject a bound Mokke with an unknown liquid while it asks him to stop.

Teru then appears with Akane while Kou and Nene are hiding in a gym locker, chuckling when Kou knocks Akane out with his staff. He brings them (along with the unconscious Akane) to the PE storeroom. After they calm down, Teru begins a strategy meeting by explaining the situation: the candy zombie infestation is due to "kegare" (energy depletion), likely because someone brought an infected wild Mokke from outside the school. Akane wakes up at this point, and Teru observes with surprise when Nene's canned drink apparently cures Akane of the infection, before Kou knocks him out again. Picking up the can of salty mikan juice, Teru says that he'd originally intended to go back earlier, but now wants to try a little experiment.

When Nene and Kou are pursued by zombies on the rooftop (where Teru told them to go), Teru saves them by zapping Hanako and the other zombies from the adjacent rooftop. Jumping over to their rooftop, he shows them the jar of salt he'd gone to retrieve, and runs with them to the edge of the roof. Teru tells them to close their eyes if they're scared, and they jump off, falling towards the swimming pool. Nene opens the salt jar on Teru's signal as they fall, and Teru uses some kind of magic to spread the salt among the falling zombies. He later reassures Kou that Yokoo and Satou are fine and will wake up soon, and says that this haphazard saltwater purification only worked because Nene is a special girl.

That night, Teru walks home with Kou, and says that they'll be keeping the now-purified Mokke (who was originally infected) at their house. Teru reveals that the infected Mokke was brought to him by their younger sister who asked him to purify it, but he accidentally let it escape before he could successfully purify it in school. Kou denies him dessert after dinner for causing the day's incident, and Teru is dismayed.

The Melancholy of the New No.3
While Mitsuba is wondering where he should be, Teru appears, drawing his sword and saying that a supernatural seeking a place in the world of the living is inherently wrong. When Mitsuba asks who he is, Teru says that Mitsuba's identity is more important than his, addressing Mitsuba as No.3 of the Seven Mysteries and saying there is no place for supernaturals in this world. Mitsuba realises Teru's resemblance to Kou, and asks him not to make such a scary face. Natsuhiko, who is hiding in the adjacent corridor, then shouts that Teru is looking for a lover, causing chaos and distracting both Teru and Mitsuba. Mitsuba sneaks away while Teru is swamped by an eager crowd of students, and Teru glares intently at Mitsuba and Natsuhiko while they escape.

Hanako
Teru is the subject of Nene's initial wish to Hanako, though they do not really meet until the Young Exorcist arc.

As Hanako is one of (and even the boss of) the 7 mysteries, Teru intends to exorcise him. However, he decided to leave the case to Kou.

In Chapter 10, due to Kou hesitating to exorcise Hanako, he immediately took the case to himself and tried to exorcise him.

Like other supernatural, Teru sees Hanako with hatred, even go as far as to describe him as "self-serving and violent". After Kou's persuasion, however, he stopped attempting to exorcise him, leaving his case entirely to his brother.

Hanako is clearly afraid of him from that memory, which is shown when he avoids older Kou in volume 6 due to him having similar looks to Teru.

Yashiro Nene
At the start of the series, Teru's relationship with Nene is a purely one-sided crush from her, and he is the target of various love strategies, though he does not know Nene is behind them. Teru also helped pick up Nene's pencil case prior to her summoning Hanako, though Teru does not appear to remember this interaction when he introduces himself later and thanks Nene for taking care of Kou.

Despite being infatuated with him, Nene did not even know his name. As such, she did not realise his given name was Teru until chapter 9 or that Kou was his younger brother.

Teru is kind towards her, like how he would towards anyone else. Nene herself seems to have witnessed a little of Teru's sadistic side, though she seems to still admire Teru as usual.

Despite Teru's hatred of supernaturals and intent to exorcise Hanako, Teru does not appear to oppose Nene's involvement with Hanako. When Akane points this out, Teru explains that there's no way to protect Nene, suggesting that he had already known about her impending death.

Minamoto Kou
Teru cares deeply for his younger brother Kou, and is almost always supportive of him, tasking him to exorcise the Seven Mysteries so that Kou could grow as an exorcist. This was the case even when they were younger, as shown in a flashback during the Young Exorcist Arc, where Teru told Kou to stay home as it was dangerous to follow him, and encouraged Kou in his wish to become stronger. Teru is willing to do what Kou asks him to, including buying ingredients and making donuts together (though it results in a toxic mess), and helping to gather insects during their lunch break. He also sometimes teases Kou, such as asking whether he likes Nene, and telling him to close his eyes if he's scared before they jump off the roof during Mokke of the Dead. Despite their increasing differences, Teru clearly wants to maintain this good relationship between them, as seen when he decides to leave Hanako's exorcism to Kou so that Kou won't hate him, and when he initially hid his responsibility in causing the Mokke of the Dead incident.

Their main point of conflict is their different perceptions of supernaturals: Teru firmly believes that there are no good supernaturals, while Kou disagrees after coming to know Hanako. This is most apparent in the Young Exorcist Arc, when Teru finally binds Kou with the bracelet after he refuses to move away from Hanako, and tells Kou that he doesn't need to think about unnecessary things. However, Teru is still visibly shocked and concerned when Kou gets injured pulling the sword out of Hanako, and eventually agrees not to exorcise Hanako because he does not want to be hated by Kou. When Akane asks about it later, Teru says that his actions were also meant to teach Kou, in addition to keeping things in check.

On the other hand, Kou looks up to his elder brother as a skilled exorcist, and wants to become as strong or even stronger than Teru someday. His idealised image of Teru is somewhat broken through the incident with Hanako, when he finally sees the true expression of disgust and hatred that Teru directs towards supernaturals. Kou is now clearly aware of Teru's dislike for supernaturals, as shown when he decided not to tell Teru that the donuts were made for Hanako, and by his concern for Akane when Teru dragged him away after the Clock Keepers Arc.

As the Minamoto parents are never shown, Teru and Kou along with their younger sister Tiara appear to be the only ones in the Minamoto household, and Teru relies on Kou to do all the household chores. Teru likes Kou's cooking, happily eating donuts (despite Kou stuffing them in his mouth mid-sentence), asking for seconds during their dinners at home, and looking disappointed when Kou revokes his post-dinner dessert for causing the candy zombie outbreak. They also occasionally spend time together even in school (in fact, Kou's first appearance is him walking beside Teru in Chapter 1, when Hanako is planning for Nene to run into Teru), and are shown walking home together after the Mokke of the Dead incident..

Aoi Akane
As a half-supernatural who regularly works with Teru in the Student Council, Akane often bears the brunt of Teru's hatred for supernaturals, especially after the Clock Keeper Arc. Though Teru was previously lenient towards Akane as he is still human, Teru binds him (using the bracelet) in a fixed kneeling position for his part in the Clock Keeper incident, and zaps him with spirit lightning for being disrespectful. In return, Akane often tells Teru to stop this behaviour, even going so far as planning to do Kou a favour (by freezing Kou while Kako turns back time) so that he can lessen Teru's harsh treatment of him.



However, their relationship is not purely antagonistic, and they work together as president and vice-president of the Student Council. Teru also appears to acknowledge that Akane did not voluntarily become a supernatural but was instead half-forced into it. When Akane said that he wanted to continue living a normal life after becoming a Clock Keeper, Teru specially enchanted a pair of glasses to lower Akane's spiritual energy to that of a regular person. During the candy zombie infestation, Teru is with Akane when they find Kou and Nene (suggesting that they had been working together, though Akane had been searching for Aoi instead), but Teru does not seem concerned when Kou knocks Akane unconscious twice.

In a flashback during the Clock Keepers Arc, Teru describes Akane as someone who is obedient and serious, but easily turns reckless when it comes to his childhood friend (Aoi), warning Kou to stay away from him.

Mokke
Though Teru generally hates supernaturals, he tolerates the Mokke because his younger sister Tiara likes them, and even agrees to help purify an infected Mokke that Tiara found so that she can keep it as a pet. When Teru binds Akane in a bowing position due to his responsibility for the Clock Keepers incident, the Mokke surround Akane as well, though it's unclear whether this was on Teru's instructions or not.

Minamoto Tiara
Teru greatly treasures Tiara, calling her "princess" and seating her on his lap during mealtimes at home, instead of in her own chair. At her request, Teru also helps purify a Mokke to keep as her pet (which he even brings home in a wicker basket decorated with a bow), contrary to his usual negative attitude towards supernaturals..

Mitsuba Sousuke
Mitsuba encounters Teru once after becoming No.3, and Teru showed clear dislike for him, saying that there is no place for supernaturals in this world and intending to exorcise Mitsuba (before Natsuhiko rescued him).

Akane Aoi
Both Aoi and Teru are often depicted as King and Queen of Popularity by Nene. It is unclear on the nature of their relationship, but as shown in Chapter 58, they seem to know each other.

Other characters
Teru appears to be friendly with several of his classmates, including a boy who teases him about the bento that Nene leaves on his desk, and a girl who confesses to him.

In response to a confession, Teru has said that there's someone he's liked for a very long time, though it's not known whether this is true or merely a polite rejection.

Spirit blade and lightning
As the eldest son of the MInamoto clan, Teru has been a highly skilled exorcist since young, and was capable of singlehandedly exorcising a large supernatural using the sword and spirit lightning even when he was eight years old (though his younger sister Tiara is said to have even higher spiritual energy despite her young age).

Teru carries around a long blade as his main attack weapon. Unlike Kou and Tiara (who have white lightning), Teru creates black spirit lightning with his sword. Teru's lightning is shown to be considerably stronger than Kou's, as it is capable of greatly hurting Hanako to the point of knocking him out, and directly damages the opponent's soul from the inside after they are stabbed. The lightning can also travel over some distance, as seen when Teru shocked Hanako from behind, and when he zaps multiple zombies from an adjacent rooftop. On the other hand, it is not known whether Teru's lightning would have any effect against Hanako when the latter is wearing the cape, like Kou's.

Lightning cage
Teru is able to form a lightning cage which can keep Hanako's hakujoudai out. According to Kou, the lightning cage cannot be escaped, although Teru should not be able to manipulate lightning so readily using the sword, since it is a tool specialised for attack.

Bracelet
Teru always wears a bracelet around his wrist as an exorcist tool, which is able to easily move and change its length at a gesture from Teru. He is most often shown using this bracelet on Akane, through binding and dangling him from the ceiling, or restraining Akane to a specific position by putting it in a ring around him. Though it is meant for capturing supernaturals, Teru has also used it against Kou once, to keep him out of the way while Teru attacked Hanako. However, unlike Akane, Kou was eventually able to break free of the restraints, though Teru seemed greatly surprised at this.

Other abilities
Besides exorcisms, Teru is shown to be capable of other things, such as enchanting glasses for Akane, and spreading the salt in the air after Nene opens the far. He also prepared a proper purification with salt water for the infected zombie Mokke, though it escaped before he could purify it.

Teru is also physically fit, as seen when his kick knocked Hanako off balance and made him drop his knife, which allowed Teru to attack with the sword, and Kou notes that this is Teru's usual method of exorcising supernaturals. Teru is also capable of physically dragging Akane away against his will, and easily jumping between rooftops across a considerable gap.

Trivia
He's very popular among the students.His favorite snack are sweet potatoes. His recent concern is that Kou doesn't seem to need him as much, compared to when they were little.He cannot cook, or even do household chores. He somehow makes a black toxic substances if he tries, and also sets things on fire.When asked about his preferred type, Teru refused to comment.In an extra illustration from Volume 2, Teru's age is stated to be 17. Given that he is in second year of high school, this implies that his birthday may be early in the Japanese academic year (beginning in April), as it as already occurred by the time of canon (in summer, around June or July). According to Chapter 59, Teru's best subject is English, and he does not have any weak subjects. In the previous round of examinations, he was ranked first among 231 students in his year. In the end-of-term examinations, he is again ranked first with a total of 502 out of 500 points, with the bonus 2 points having come from his English essay which exceeded expectations. 