Minamoto Teru

## Minamoto Teru源輝

* Manga
* Anime

**Minamoto Teru** (源 (みなもと) 輝 (てる) , *Minamoto Teru*?) is a second year student at Kamome Academy's High School Division and the school's Student Council President. He is also Kou and Tiara's elder brother and a member of a renowned family of exorcists, the Minamoto Clan.

## Appearance

Teru is a tall and slim boy, with blond hair (slightly spikier and longer around the base of his neck 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, but with a long-sleeved cream-colored blouse with folded back sleeves instead of the usual short-sleeved blue blouse worn by most of the other male students. 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 onto it.

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 while fighting Supernaturals. When he was younger, he carried the sword sheath with a strap over his left shoulder.

On his days off, he casually wears an unbuttoned shirt with a T-shirt underneath. He also has a crush on an unknown person.

## Personality

Calm, collected, and 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 compliments about him, he just thanked her and apologized for surprising her.

Nene also compares him to television stars or idols, as just seeing him is enough to make people happy. His kindhearted personality attracts not only girls his age, but also boys. He is especially kind towards his siblings, his brother Kou and his sister Tiara, as he almost always does whatever they ask of him.

Despite his seemingly kind personality, he also can be sadistic and harsh sometimes. He's especially strict with Akane, the vice student council president; Teru isn't afraid to punish him whenever he makes mistakes.

Teru seems to think that all Supernaturals are evil beings and should be exorcised. He only has a few exceptions, such as Mokkes, as he seems to neither particularly hate or like them — he tolerates their presence because Tiara likes them.

His style of exorcising seems to heavily rely on making the enemy helpless, then proceeding to exorcise them, which sometimes comes across as a cruel method to others.

## Abilities

### Spirit Blade and Lightning

As the eldest son of the Minamoto clan, Teru has been a highly skilled exorcist since he was young. He was capable of single handedly exorcising a large Supernatural using his sword and spirit lightning even when he was only eight years old (although Tiara is said to have even higher spiritual energy than he does despite her young age).

Teru carries around a long katana as his main attack weapon. Unlike Kou and Tiara (who have white lightning), Teru creates black spirit lightning with his katana. 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 an 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 zapped multiple zombies from an adjacent rooftop. On the other hand, it is not known whether or not Teru's lightning would have any effect against Hanako when the latter is wearing his cape, since Kou's doesn't.

#### 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 his sword, since it is a tool specialized for attack.

### Bracelet

Teru always wears a bracelet around his right wrist as an exorcist tool, which is able to easily move and change its length with 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. Although 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 for exorcisms, Teru is shown to be capable of other things, such as enchanting glasses for Akane, and spreading salt in the air after Nene opens a jar. He was able to prepare a proper purification with salt water for an infected zombie Mokke, although it escaped before he could purify it.

Teru is also physically fit, as seen when his kick Hanako and knocked the latter off balance and made him drop his knife. It allows Teru to attack with the katana, 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

* His favorite snack is 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 well, or even do household chores. He somehow makes a black toxic substance if he tries, and also sets things on fire.
* In an extra illustration from Volume 2, Teru's age is stated to be 17. Given that he is in the second year of high school, this implies that his birthday may be early in the Japanese academic year (which begins in April), as it has already occurred by the time of canon (in summer, around June or July).
* 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.
* He goes on rounds to exorcise Supernaturals at night, forcing him to only be able to rest after school.
* He is mentioned in the pilot, where his last name is implied to be "Adashino" instead of his actual last name from the main series, Minamoto.
* Contrary to Aoi, he prefers the right direction.
* Like his little sister, he thinks lightning is fun to witness.
* When it's snowing, he wants to play in it.
* In real-world history, the surname Minamoto was bestowed upon members of the Imperial Family who were excluded from the line of succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Volume 4 Extra Pages
2. ↑ *Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Chapter 15 (p. 25)
3. ↑ *Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Chapter 59 (p. 11, 27)
4. ↑ *Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Chapter 59 (p. 31)
5. ↑ *Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Chapter 13
6. ↑ *Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga*: Volume 13 Extra Pages
7. ↑ *Aidairo's Twitter Post*: Sept. 11th, 2020
8. ↑ Aidairo's Twitter Post: Jan. 2nd, 2023