Nox's POV:
"Sorry little nut chaser, but you were just on the wrong branch at the right time for a distraction!" I muttered to the critter I had wronged.
As someone who conquered the unforgiving wilderness of the magic continent, I know some tricks to mess with the wildlife. I had needed a distraction if I was going to get out of there alive, so I had flailed around a bit to grab the attention of the squirl sitting right over the monocled rat. Even through the ghost costume I still strike fear into the hearts of any forest critter that lays eyes on me. I had used that to freak out the squirl to fall on the rat to cause a scene. Then I had shed some ectoplasm to escape the old man's cold living hand. I then ran through the fog while hiding my presence. It wasn't long until I reached the other side of the mountain and escaped through the barrier.
"*Inhale* FREEDOM!" I listened to the echoes of freedom as I began looking for a safe hiding place I can begin fixing my core.
The stuff I got off those disrespectful intruders who invaded the forbidden forest should at least be enough to open my dimensional storage. There should be enough inside to fix my core and then some.
"Hm? Oh, well isn't that something!" I said to myself as I felt something nostalgic in the distance.
…
Inside a dark and rusty prison cell a little girl could be heard sobbing as she cried out for help
"*Sob* Daddy! *Sob* Where are you! *Sniffle* I'm scared! *Sob* I want to go home!"
She was Ito Hikari, the daughter of a city lord managing a nearby city. She had been locked up and confined to her room for reasons that were beyond her control not long after she was born.
For her entire life, she had only been allowed to see the outside world from the safe distance of her bedroom window, but one day she had had enough. She had managed to sneak out of her manor under the veil of night to go see the world up close, only to get kidnapped by bandits soon after, and taken for ransom.
*Sob*
*Squelch*
"*Sob* Who is there?"
*Squelch*
She struggled to see the dark figure squirming in the corner of her cell as her eyes were filled with tears.
"M-y! B-a-b-y!"
*Splash*
*Creak*
Just as the figure seemed to grow into the shape of a human, it suddenly collapsed with a loud splat as a door creaked open, casting a light on the floor in front of Hikari's jailcell. The door was not visible from inside Hikari's cell, but she could see the shadow of the person as it made its way towards her.
The person who stood in front of Hikari's cage was none other than Nox. The bottom half of her tattered hanfu had been stained red in blood along with her right arm still dripping red from the blood of her latest kill.
*sob*
*Creak*
"Why are you crying?" Nox asked as she pushed open the rusty cell door.
"*Sob* I want to go home!"
"Okay kid! Let's go home!" Nox said as she reached out her left hand to Hikari.