'The child thief.' She was hearing that label being thrown around more often these days, and she could only assume they were about her. Thief meant stealing something that wasn't theirs, didn't it? But what made those living fools think they owned the small lives? What made them think Ikiryo was doing anything other than helping? She was growing more and more weary over the name recently given to her. Thief. The children were pure, beautiful, and ownerless creatures, and she was only doing them a favor. A favor of love and compassion. The yōkai smoothly slipped within the village without a sound, her feet gliding over the rough terrain. The charms meant to keep her out did little to nothing, rendered useless by the mask of her kind. They didn't prevent the woman from slipping into houses, fluidly sliding through walls and brushing cold fingers against the forehead of the sleeping innocents. Smooth lips pursed as a finger raised to shush them, a silent warning for the children to not awaken their parents. She had a treat for them, but if the adults knew they'd simply ruin it for them. They'd never understand her honest attempt to bring to the children a world of beauty and honesty. A world where one couldn't lie. A world where everything you gazed upon flickered with colors not known in this juvenile world they currently resided within.
However, one child did not keep quiet and wailed into the night, alerting the adults she found so irksome. Her hands reached out, snatching two children and vanishing into the world of spirits, leaving behind the screams of its parents and mourning of their village. Yet, why did they cry so? The child, now having abandoned their flesh body, seemed so pleased within the paradise she had brought him to. His merry laughter was the obvious indicator.
Content with her "good deed", the creature returned to the living world, stepping into a field of spirits. Flickering lights surrounded her as she curled up within the field, closing her eyes for a brief rest. Doing good things was quite tiring, wasn't it?
She didn't quite hear the three spirits who always hung around her wailing as she dozed off.
'Ikiryo, there's someone living around!"
'An adult living!"
'Don't blame us if someone snatches you!"
PixelDeerest
