Narugami stared at the dusty photo. His fingers vainly tried to wipe away the scuffs and scratches as he blew away the years coating its surface.
It had the same young man and woman from the photo downstairs, and the little kid was there with the black dog sitting next to him, panting or barking. Next to the kid was a smiling little girl, with curly black hair, and behind the man and woman stood three teenagers, girls. Two of them had blond hair, one short, one with pigtails, and the other had long black hair.
Standing a little to the side was another kid, short purple-striped hair that was cut as to cover one of his eyes. He was crossing his arms, glaring at the kid with the red hair with a frown. Behind the three teen girls, right at the back, stood more: another teen, a guy, who was quite handsome, looking over at the short girl at the front with a stupid grin on his face. The other two – the other two were him. And Mayura.
It looked like a party shot, or a celebration, like a big group of people who had been friends for ages and knew each other well. Narugami could name most of them.
The three teen girls were Skuld, Verdandi, and Urd, all the Norns, and the guy was obviously Frey. The little girl was Reiya, and the guy with the purple hair was Heimdall.
But the others didn't fit in. The little group in the middle, the man, woman, boy and dog, he didn't know them. He couldn't remember a photograph being taken of all eight of them together, at any point. Even if anyone wanted to, everyone would never agree. After Ragnarok everyone had split up and spent their time glaring at whoever it had been who killed them during Ragnarok. Narugami wished they would just grow up. It was only one little death, right?
"Narugami! What're you looking at?" Wordlessly, Narugami handed the photo to Mayura. She wouldn't be much help, he thought, since she wasn't part of their – he laughed as he thought about it – part of their gang. But spreading around the fear in him at the moment could only help, right?
"Oh, look! It's Mister Mystery Thief, and Reiya, and…" she cut off. "What's a photo of everyone doing in this ruin? And who are these four people? The kid, and his pet, and the man, and the woman?" She looked up at Narugami. "It's a mystery, isn't it?! Who these people are…" "Yeah, Mayura. It's a mystery for you to solve." Trust him to dump solving the mystery on Mayura instead of solving it himself. It was more his mystery than hers, and he felt guilty for dumping his – family's – problems on his girlfriend.
She leapt up, grabbing his hand and pulling him up with her. "Come on, Narugami! Let's explore the house for clues!" He laughed. Well, at least she was excited about it. Something helpful might even turn up.
"Okay, fine! To start us off, I'd say that those four owns this house. There's another photo of them downstairs." She gave a wide grin. "Let's go!"
In the kitchen they found a black ribbon wrapped around the handle of one of the drawers. He carefully unwound it. "Maybe it's the ribbon the man used to tie his hair back?" It was a silly idea, because why would anyone keep their hair ribbon on a cupboard handle? It was as if someone was setting out clues to lead them to a final discovery, but Narugami wasn't sure if he even wanted to make that final discovery. Some things, he thought, were meant to not be understood, or answered.
There were two thicker, white ribbons – or something like ribbons – looped around the staircase banister. The ribbon the woman's hair was done up with, and the bow tie the kid was wearing? Narugami checked the ribbons against the photo. Yeah, they were definitely theirs. He pocketed all three of the ribbons and the photo. He would ask the others, tomorrow.
This sent a bitter smile across his face. It had been years since they had talked, tactfully avoiding each other and trying not to think too hard about why they were there in the first place – no-one seemed to know what they were doing on Earth, but no-one ever talked about it or questioned why it was as it was.