"Over here! Toss it to me, Hilo!"
"No way! Catch it, Usutu!"
"I got it! Clone jutsu!" Usutu put his hands together and cloned himself. Kichigai looked up from her self made stuffed demon doll and saw the three children playing ball. They looked so happy, so full of life. Usutu missed the ball and it flew over the edge of a cliff, down into a deep ditch full of dangerous rocks. Kichigai watched as the ball rolled away. The children ran to the edge and saw the ball out of reach.
"Great, Usutu! You're stupid clone is as stupid as you are!" Hilo hit Usutu in the back of the head.
"Is not! I'm not stupid!" He replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah! Shut up Hilo!"
They stopped when the ball began to hover back up somehow. No, wait! It was on sand. They watched it hover over their heads and land in the pale hands of Kichigai. She pushed her flame red hair out of her face behind her ear and walked over to the three boys, and held out the ball.
"H-here you go. I-I hope it wasn't damaged," she said in the nicest way her raspy and lonely voice could muster. Hilo walked in front of the boys and snatched the ball away. He threw it at Kichigai and said, "Get away from us, monster!"
She fell back to the hard dirt floor, looking up at the boys sorrowfully. Usutu panicked and cried, "You made her mad! Run! Hurry!"
She held out her hand in helplessness as she watched them run.
"Please," she cried. They boys turned around. "Do not call me a monster!" She yelled sadly, tears streaming down her cheeks. They began running faster, and she reached her hand out. Sand grabbed at their ankles and they fell to the ground. She pulled her hand back to try and let go, but it just dragged them to her, yelling things like, "Help us!" and, "Please stop!"
She stood up and walked over to Hilo. She got in front of him while he was still on the ground and got down on all fours in front of him, looking him square in the eye. Lips trembling, she asked, "am I a m-monster?" She held her hand to her heart, tears streaming down her face. Hilo and his friends got up and ran away, Hilo pushing Kichigai over to the ground once more as he ran past. She just lay there, whimpering and crying helplessly. She curled up into the fetal position and clutched her hand made stuffed Toshiosurukemono to her heart, as if she would help. Kichigai heard a voice in her head, "Hate them. Hate them all. They will continue this. Live and love, only you, Kichigai. Your name means 'insane.' That is the name he cursed you with, and he expected, he knew you to be insane. When you were born, you did not cry, you were silent, as if thinking about this new world you were in. What did you think? You heard your name, and you heard you were Kichigai. Your father gave you that name, in pure spite of you. He wanted you to be a weapon, since the Shukaku host wasn't useful, you were sealed with the most deadly of all. Me. I am you, and you are me, now. So you shall love only yourself, for there is nothing else to love."
"What about my mother? What of her? She calls me her beautiful girl, and I think she doesn't hate me," Kichigai said to the voice of the demon.
"Your mother is something to behold, living through giving birth to the hostess of the Toshiosurukemono. But she will be gone one day. I know it. They are planning, planning to kill her."
"What?"
"Go to your mother, so we might save her!"
Kichigai stood up and ran home as fast as she could, though it wasn't fast enough…