Kotori found her vision painted in a rainbow of colors
[Is this what spirits see?]
The views constantly shifted
One moment, she was in a world that looked very much like her own with skyscrapers all around. And other times she was in very primitive worlds where the humans wore animals' skins. Only one thing remained consistent.
Something was dying.
The vision always found her sucking the mana out of a dying creature in much the same way that she used [Hunter].
Sometimes it was a human, other times it was the tiniest creatures.
This went on for quite a while. Often, she would see a figure that looked like Gabriel but it was always brief and he was always scowling. The emotions that rose when seeing him were not pleasant.
She found herself in front of a man.
A dying man.
From her snout, she saw the dying man whisper
"Beautiful"
She felt disgusted at this mortal who would attempt to speak to her. She was especially brutal with his soul-sucking.
More images. She found herself on a battlefield. The same man again, his body covered in wounds
[It looks like he was trying to die]
The man looked her in the eyes again
"Beautiful" He whispered softly
Again. Again, Again.
She was a proud spirit.
How many lifetimes had this man gone through? Each time he spoke the same thing. He shouldn't even remember this process.
Every time she met him. It was the same thing.
She became curious about this man.
He probably said this to her sisters as well.
[That womanizer!]
She asked her sisters about a curious soul that would say "beautiful" every time they met. None of them had encounters such a soul.
She began to wonder about the soul. She would go out and seek him.
The man who would call her "beautiful". On the battlefields, his body riddled in holes. On the deathbed as he died from cancer. Even the few times he committed suicides. She once tried to ask the soul why he would say such a thing but he died before she could get an answer.
She felt flustered. A proud spirit shouldn't be this involved with a mortal. But still, It was just to pique her curiosity right?
When she sucked the soul from the man, she secretly gave it sentience again. A move that would get her punished if caught.
As she saw the glowing soul it only looked at her in wonder. She forced it to answer her.
"Why are trying to die mortal?"
The soul glowed softly,
"So, the fox can take me away"
She was confused, even more. Soul's shouldn't remember anything. She removed the sentience. And checked the memory core of this curious soul. All she could see were images of her.
Each time she had appeared the soul had remembered. She tried to scrub the soul of such memories but it was impossible without destroying the soul entirely.
[Does it exist for the purpose of me?]
Souls could often attach themselves to purposes, but this was odd.
She quickly gave the soul back to the angels.
She was a proud spirit after all.
And still, she kept running into the man. He was getting even bolder. Actively finding ways to die in the most spectacular fashions keeping enough karma to reincarnate as a human but not staying much longer after that.
[Enough is enough!]
She was tired of seeing the man.
She found a small gap in heaven and hid the man in there. Souls were low maintenance after all.
She stuffed the soul in the hole and left it.
Things were quiet for a while. But she began to miss the man
[A proud spirit shouldn't care about a mortal soul] she would think
Still…
She checked on the soul and was shocked. Somehow it had gained sentience through sheer force of will and was talking to her ogling her.
[Gross] She left the soul to its own devices and told it to stay put or else it would be caught.
Still..
She felt bad
The soul was stuck there because of her own selfishness after all.
So, she checked on it. Her sisters would often ask her where she was going and she would brush it off.
The soul would always cheer every time she came. He began to call her "Okateratsu"
She dismissed the name. Proud spirits don't need names after all.
She began to enjoy her little visits. The little soul always tried to cheer her up even if she wasn't in a bad mood.
[What a persistent soul]
She kept visiting the soul. What? She needed to take care of it right?
She began to enjoy her visits. Look forward to them,
A spirit doesn't fall in love, right?
Right?
Her sisters asked her why she was working less and less. She told them she was tired. They didn't believe her, spirits don't get tired.
She turned the little hole in heaven into a quaint home. Bringing a bed, chair, and a table so the little soul would have a place to sit and lie down. Not that it needed it, but souls are often attached to their mortal comforts.
She moved from her designated nest to living with the soul. Her sisters asked where she was going, and she would say that she was doing work.
Her work suffered but Okateratsu didn't mind. She was happy.
A proud spirit must be happy right?
The little soul gave her comfort. It had grown, being supported by her spiritual presence. Soon she saw the man who had always called her "beautiful" in his image.
That day it proposed.
A proud spirit should be married right?
Okateratsu would rush to finish the minimum amount of work and come to the "home" she had built.
She didn't use her fox form very much at home and preferred to use her human form. The soul seemed to like it.
They lived quietly
Happily.
A child was born.
She looked much more like Okateratsu than the soul. The soul didn't mind.
They lived in bliss.
Until.
That wretched day.
Okateratsu came back to her hole. The entirety of it smashed to bits. She looked frantically for the soul and her child. That's when "he" appeared.
That evil angel.
She was scolded.
Punished.
Her sister didn't come to her aid
They told her "A proud spirit follows the rules"
The angel cast her and her child down. She watched the soul of the man ripped to bits.
He would never again say she was beautiful.
She was chained to a world in which she had never visited. Using her mana, she hid away. She felt shame, she didn't want to see her sisters who had laughed and jeered at her for selling her divinity for the sake of soul She fell into grief.
She had one blessing, and that was that she was able to keep her child.
She built a hollow. Much like the one she was originally in heaven. She told her child to sleep. That one day they would meet her father.
And so she waited.