Baby, baby, baby, NO!

The letter to the guild came so smoothly and innocently, just waiting there to be opened. Why one would ask a mage to do such a thing was beyond her, but surely there was good reason, right? Or was this just another annoying case? Either way, it paid a small sum of jewels, and that was what the youthful wizard was needing about now to cover the last bit of her rent. She could steal or hunt for her own food and any other objects of necessity. However, when it came to paying for the room in the guild hall, Izayuki had second thoughts about wanting to swindle anyone, namely, a guildmate. Be that Sophie, Kakuma, or whoever received the money in the end, she at least wanted to be honest there. Besides, she hated direct confrontation when it came to having lied- and she knew that it would happen if she went about her normal ways of ‘paying’- turning leaves into money with an illusion. The victim would later only find a pile of leaves long after she had left… had that happened here, it would have been very embarrassing.

And thus, Izayuki opened the letter to read and consider whatever tedious task was at hand for a few spare jewels…
     “Me and my husband are going for a big party and it’s out of town. Our son, our naughty-inhumane-son, is going to spend the night alone if he doesn’t have any babysitter to take care of him. We need you to take care of him and when we come back we expect him asleep; or else I will not reward you. This may sound like an easy job to do, but in fact it’s hard. The fact that I say that is because; he’s an inhumane baby: he’s very naughty, and dangerous. This one time, I saw him taking a knife and nearly cut his cute fingers off. Anyway, good luck!”

Pathetic.

Izayuki was okay with little human children, but she was aware that they could most certainly be a pain to put up with. This one definitely sounded like it was the tiny stereotype nightmare. Well, from one monster to the next, right? The young wizard made her way to Magnolia Town with an easy flight while transformed, using her basic yokai powers for travel. How the other Black Rose members moved from place to place so easily was beyond her. On another note, she had made it to the house- a mini-mansion by ordinary standards, and definitely living well out of their means… thankfully, not too well.

Before long, Izayuki was introduced to the parents and soon the son. He was very young, and seemingly harmless- barely able to speak properly and legibly, but still polite. All would have been good, but the Tanuki could smell trouble almost literally. The two saw the parent couple off, and heartbeats later, the mage was completely alone with the ‘baby’. ”Now… don’t get into too much trouble, m’kay?” she said, unsure of what to really say to such a little kid.

”Kay!” the boy responded, an innocent smile on his face. Sighing, Iza made her way to the couch, sitting down and ready to watch the clock for the evening… his bedtime was early, so it would not be long now. Then again, just another hour or less was going to be hard. The crash in the kitchen made the tanuki girl dash up on agile legs and move for the source of the sound… it seemed that she really could not take her eyes off of him for even a minute. Entering the kitchen, fully alert, Izayuki narrowed her almost cat-like pink eyes at the little boy. He had been trying to scale the counters to reach the supposedly ‘safe’ basket of sharp, pointy objects such as knives, scissors, and so on. Glaring at him in a special and rare ‘death stare’, Izayuki quickly moved the objects out of reach, literally freezing a strong case of ice around them. It would melt before long, but he would hopefully be in bed by then.

”What was that I said about trouble?” Iza said, going on to look through the drawers in the rich kitchen to ensure there were no more items of interest and danger. ”Seems ya really like sharp, pointy, shiny objects, hm?”

The boy blinked and only stared at Iza, feigning innocence, as she continued to look through the drawers. She had to figure out how to distract him from his inhumane obsession… aha! Pink-hued eyes resting on a spoon, the yokai began to work her Bakedanuki abilities, manipulating the perception of the kid to make him see the spoon as a knife. ”Well…. I s’pose if ya want it that bad…. here ya go~!” she said, handing him the ‘shapeshifted’ spoon. To his eyes, it would appear to be exactly what he wanted. But could he hurt himself or anyone with it? Absolutely not. ”Okay, bedtime!”

The kid looked disappointed, but nodded slowly as he started for his room, Iza following close behind. She knew that getting them to sleep would be hard for any person, but then again, she was no ordinary human. Nor was she human at all. A small grin on her face, the Tanuki tucked the boy in bed, turned out all the lights save for the cute little nightlight, and closed the door. Once outside, she simply sat down and waited, a sly smile on her face. She had used her Bakedanuki powers again to make it so the room would never end. Open the door? Fall right back into your old room… a rather humorous illusion. It was easy to use one so strong on a child, and he deserved it as well. Eventually after an hour passed, she could hear him give up in his room and finally go to bed for real. Finally. One case solved… human children were such a pawful. Would she ever have children? Maybe. If she could find a suitable tanuki… hopefully raccoon dog pups were not this much trouble. Humans were tiresome.