Take Care Of My Baby!

Job Description:

A burnt dusk settles on-top of the sky, with stringy stretched out clouds all parading through it. Kiku holds out her hand, in it is the job request she had just accepted. The description sounded off, like there may be something more to this child than the parents were willing to let on. “Almost cut his own fingers off?!” Kiku reads aloud, stopping in the middle of the driveway for the house given in the description of the job. is this a wise idea? Kiku thinks to herself, but the thought is interrupted by the sight of two frantic adults running from the house out to a car, over and over, back and forth. It's quite a spectacle, and Kiku takes her time to enjoy this strange rat race that she can only surmise as the parent's burning desire to flee from this house. Kiku loudly clears her throat, garnering the partial attention of the mother, but she is still trying to pack this magically driven car with strange boxes on which are even more strange labels. booze? Kiku ponders. “Hello, I presume you to be Katy, I have read and accepted-” Kiku is interrupted by a violent handshake from the woman
“Yes, I'm Katy-” She says in a constant rapid flow of words “-Ducky is inside taking a little nap, when he wakes up we've got food in the pantry and as long as you leave him to his toys he should be able to entertain himself. If there is an emergency we've set up a communication lacrima by the fireplace, but only in the event of an extreme emergency, alright? I don't want a call saying that he's too much for you. Oh, what guild are you from?” Katy takes a deep breath, as if she winded herself from not breathing the entire time
“I am-” Kiku is interrupted again, this time by the man grabbing onto Katy and slinging her into the car
“Sorry, no time at all, we really must be on our way, it was great meeting you and I'm sure regardless of what guild you're from you'll do just fine” the man slams the door behind them and barks to the driver to hurry up and get going. He said it was great to meet me... Like we had actually met... Kiku pouts, another social interaction failed. But this wasn't the time for that, she had a child to look after and there was a strange noise coming from the house. A faint chuckle could be heard coming from upstairs, and as Kiku looks up to the windows the curtains get tugged about, as if someone had been watching her.

Kiku is standing in the middle of the street, pondering what to do when a chair crashes through the second floor window of the house. She quickly sprints inside and rushes up the stairs they didn't tell me which room he's in! Kiku pictures the window outside, and references it to her current orientation. “This one!” Kiku shouts as she swings the door open. Bits of shattered glass litter the ground around the window, where the curtains scrape against the jagged edges left over from the break. The room is completely empty except for a small table, slightly too small for Kiku to fit at. not his room, but who threw the chair out? The Pitter-patter of tiny feet comes from the hallway as Kiku swings around to look behind her, but whatever was there has vanished. Kiku steps forward, looking up and down the hallway for the intruder. I suppose it would be best to check each of the rooms then... Kiku walks to the door across the hallway and turns the knob, but as she pulls the door handle slides clean out of the slot and falls on the floor. I'm not paying for that Kiku thinks as she leans forward to peek in through the door handle hole. The room is brightly colored with blues an greens all swirling around, toys strewn about the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Among castle sets and mansions lies a crib, and a small swirl of blankets can be seen clumped on-top. “Ducky?” Kiku calls out.

A growl responds to Kiku, but not from the toy room. At the end of the hall there stands a shadowy figure, about half the height of Kiku. It's arm outstretched, seems to be holding something. a knife? Kiku ponders. The small being leaps onto the wall and runs on all fours at Kiku, lunging for her with the knife. Quickly, Kiku sidesteps and speaks "Astaroth." but her eyes could not follow and she lost sight of it. Kiku scans the dark and dusty hallway. Floorboards are split, and the wallpaper is pealing what kind of a home is this for a child? Kiku thinks as her mind wanders to the short childhood she had. The Sakura trees were her favorite part of any season change, and this strange dusk reminded her of them for some reason. Kiku had never fully understood why the trees had to change, she always wished that they could bloom all year around. Those dazzling pinks and the flurry of petals that would come at her near fall. Kiku loved to dance in the petals, swirling amidst their flickering beauty. And dusk, that wonderful time in which she was least supervised. A memory once sealed, something her nursemaid said, in response to Kiku's seasonal frustration. “Without the cycle of life and death there would be no such beauty, young Kikuchiyo. There is a point in this cycle, the pinnacle of life, that we all yearn for. A moment in time in which we, and all other things, are in harmony with nature. This is true beauty my lady, and without these wilting petals you could never see them bloom so blissfully.”

Kiku noticed her distraction and snapped back to reality, but only a moment too late. The little being dropped down from the ceiling and again lunged at Kiku with the knife outstretched. "Damn monster-" Kiku spurts out as the knife slices into her cheek, taking some hair with it. This time Kiku locks her eyes on it, and fires a chain from the palm of her hand while the creature is mid air. Somehow it slides to the right, dodging the chain, but Astaroth dominates the shadows, and the chain shoots through the wall and pops out right next to where the creature lands, snaring it.
"What in the!-" The little creature says.
Kiku's eyes spread wide and her hair lifts up as if statically charged "Who are you? What are you? Why are you here? what is your purpose!" She shouts.
"Let go! Let me go!" it says as Kiku locks her chain into place on the floor.
"Tell me now or else I'm going to get rough." Kiku says, walking towards the creature, starring into it's eyes. It begins to violently thrash and swing the knife around, all the while yanking on the chain trying to break free. "it's useless, something as weak as you could never break Astaroth's chain." Kiku gloats.

Kiku takes a closer look while the little thing turns to her. A dim and orange light permiates from the broken window, revealing a mature and masculine face. "Oh god..." Kiku says in disgust. "What the hell are you?" She demands.
"Don't be shocked little girl, as handsome as I am you really shouldn't gawk, it's rude you know! Furthermore I haven't got no name, I'm a doll see? A doll and I'm here sew chaos! Chaos with this family, and chaos with that baby you see?" the man states in a snarky demeanor.
"You're here for what? That makes no sense, what kind of baby is that in there? They sure as hell don't look rich, though they did have a driver... And a nice car... But you sure as hell aren't a doll, you're too squishy." Kiku pulls on on his face, stretching his skin out and then snapping in back on. He swings the knife at her but she steps back a bit and he gets pulled onto the floor by the chain.
"I'm a doll and that's all there is too it! I aint' lookin' for money neither, I want some serious heartache, y'know?" The light illuminates him further and his face is a chiseled Adonis on a six year old's body.
"Oh god..." Kiku says backing away. “I'll deal with whatever you are in a moment...” Kiku claims, running out of patience for this now extremely strange job. She kicks in the door to the toy room and walks over to the cradle, carefully pulling each layer of blanket off of the baby. Inside the bundle is a small child, with puffy red cheeks and a poke-dotted pajama ones-y. “This thing is almost as bad as the other one...” Kiku says, letting out a sigh of frustration. She picks up the baby and returns to the little Adonis. “Listen, whatever you had planned, it's over. You cannot touch this baby, or else I'll burn you and this entire house to the ground, understand? I'll stick a chunk of magnesium into your mouth and watch your face melt onto the shitty broken floorboards, have I made myself clear.” The man seems frightened, and suddenly bursts into tears “Oh god...” Kiku exclaims, slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand. The light that was once dim has now grown to an enthusiastic radiance. how long have I been here? Kiku ponders. She hears an engine revving from the broken window, the very same one that the couple drove away in. The sound collects the little Adonis' attention as well. The light peaking in from the window begins to burn Kiku's chain, so she makes a snap decision and kicks the little Adonis in the face. He's now laying on the floor, out cold, drooling bubbles down onto the broken floorboards.

Kiku quickly gets downstairs to inform the couple of the situation, but before even a word can escape her mouth the mother begins a marathon of words.
“Kika! We're so glad to see you're alright, little Ducky wasn't too much of a problem was he?”
“It's Kiku, and-” The father cuts Kiku off.
“Where is he now Kika? Still playing I'd wager, he probably didn't slow down for a second did he? Always such a bottle rocket that little tike. The never-ending powerhouse of unadulterated energy! A true son of mine like there's never been!”
“SHUT YOUR TRAP!” Kiku screams. The two adults look on in shock. “Now that I've garnered your attention, Ducky here has been sleeping this whole time, and you're now going to adress me as lord Kikuchiyo or so help me I'll burn your house down!” Kiku hands the wrapped up baby to the mother. “However there was something especially strange that I came across-”
“What's this?” The mother inquires, interrupting Kiku yet again. A vein is now pulsating on her forehead out of rage for these interrupting maniacs. “This is some random street rat we bought so Ducky could be entertained.” Katy hands the baby to her butler. Kiku pays close attention to the father's face. A well pronounced jawline, distinguished features, chiseled chin, there was no mistaking it.
“Oh god...” Kiku rubs the top of her nose with her thumb and index finger, perplexed and utterly out of effort for this job, or any of these people. “Then the job is still accomplished, your child is inside sound asleep, in-fact so asleep he was sniveling and snoring. Can I have My payment now?” The couple is still in shock, but the butler walks out of the house with Ducky in-hand
“I've checked master Ducky's status, and he is indeed asleep, though there is some bruising.” The father snaps out of his state of disbelief and chimes in.
“What's a few battle scars! The kids fine, pay Kika, anyone hard enough to play Ducky into the ground deserves it.” The butler hands Kiku her reward and she looks up at the parents. “Good, now that that's done, I've some unfinished business with your household. I said that you WERE TO ADDRESS ME AS LORD KIKUCHIYO!” Kiku jets her right arm up into the air and screams “EFREET!” Sprinting in through the front door she slides her hand along she broken floorboards with the butler in tight persuit. But the flames are already spreading to the walls, and Kiku turns to the upstairs, grabbing Ducky under her left arm, she leaps out of the broken window and tumbles to the ground. Kiku drops Ducky and snaps her fingers, watching as the beatific conflagration consumes the entirety of the household. Sparking and crackling, the white fire bursts the other windows, and collapses the roof. “God that's satisfying.” Kiku says in delight. Counting the Jewels as she leaves, the chorus of embers and burning broken floorboards acts as a perfect epilogue for this particularly unusual mission which Kiku hopes to soon forget by drinking her fill back at the guild hall.