Babysit your God-daughter okay?

That woman had woken her up again, of course she had bathed her and used that nice smelling powder and what not before outfitting her with a diaper and bottle while deciding to carry her around much to her dismay. Da wasn't around so there was no point crying about it seeing as that would just cause the woman to fuss over her even more, either way Jazz wondered what today would be like hopefully the woman would bring her into the big room with the loud noises and things that smash other things. She loved watching the woman do something that she was at least good at, well that was what she figured seeing as many people came in to get stuff. Still she didn't understand why the woman collected the shiny metals in exchange for the stuff she made perhaps that was a system of exchange they give her shiny stuff and she gives them things that she took days making. People were odd...then again apparently the shiny stuff could be used for everything she remembered the time where Da got her fluffy food using some of the shiny stuff, it tasted nice, though she told her not to tell the woman because apparently "candy" was bad for her.

While all this was going on of course Jasmine was completely oblivious to the thoughts of her daughter and was currently making breakfast while waiting for Rika to arrive, she had told her yesterday that she needed her to come over early in the morning for something important. Of course she didn't tell her that she needed her to babysit but just in case she was willing to file a mission report so it would be listed as a simple D-rank if anything came up, her peace treaty of course being the breakfast that she was making for Rika. Now then..where is she.

Rika made her way through the streets of Sheol on her way to Jasmine's house. She had been there a couple times now so she knew the way fairly well. The streets weren't as packed as usual. Seems the influx of refugees had died down a little bit, probably literal in use of the term died. Rika pushed that thought out of her mind, no need for such negativity. The war was hard on everyone, dwelling on it wouldn't do any good. Rika always received looks from people. It was different from her time in Dipu where her existence as a shogunate was more or less unknown. Here everyone knew who she was and what she did, some being on her side, some not so much. Rika was growing tired of the attitudes of the common people, it had started with a heated discussion with Rebecca. And since had grown overtime. She didn't hate Rebecca, she just didn't agree with her opinions on politics, so whenever around her Rika tried to avoid the subject entirely, which was rather difficult, considering the majority of her life revolved around the politics of the shinobi world.

Rika finally caught sight of her friends house. The baby had been born a while ago now, Jazz wasn't a normal child, she grew very quickly. She couldn't help but wonder what Jasmine had in mind asking her to come over, perhaps an errand that Jasmine needed done but didn't want to bring Jazz on so she was forced to ask someone else to do it for her. Rika walked up the steps and drew in a breath before knocking on the door. She wasn't sure what Jazz would even look like, or how big she would be, guess she was about to find out.

Come in, it's open. Jasmine said loud enough that Rika would hear seeing as the window near the door was open a curtain covering it so that people couldn't see inside but it was open enough to let a fresh breeze in at the very least. She would finish with the eggs and place them in a plate along with toast and bacon, before getting a pitcher of orange juice and placing it on the table as well while setting Jazz in her high chair. Or at least attempting to seeing as she was standing up instead of just sinking into the chair like a good girl, so it took a couple of tries before Jasmine could get her to sit. Hey your going to be a good girl for your godmommy right? Psh what am I saying your a wonderful baby aren't you yes you are she said while smothering her daughter with kisses unknowingly much to Jazz's annoyance. Thankfully she was too buzy enjoying her milk to throw a fit and instead would look towards the door when Rika came in.

Hey Rika-chan, sorry for calling you over so early but I have to ask for a super favor. See I have to meet up with important merchants in Gehenna and you know as well as I do that, that is no place to bring along a baby. Becca is somewhere around Limbo looking for raw materials for her consumables so yeah um. Can you babysit for me? Please please I know you might be buzy if anything I'll file it as a D-rank mission so it's not as if your not err working. Please help me with this, besides Jazz is really good she rarely ever cries unless she wants something or is actually hurt. It's easy to tell the difference though if she's trying to get your attention she cries in bursts me and Becca have developed a chart for it, but if she's hurt she'll cry until she needs to catch her breath and will continue until you figure out what's wrong. Jasmine said pulling out a sheet of paper which had her writing on it along with some numbers depicting how many cries in a row meant a certain thing. I also made you breakfast heh. Oh if she's hungry her formula is in the workshop, in Becca's "fridge" the top section is a heater actually so it's always kept at the perfect temp for her. Any err questions?

Rika heard her cue to enter and came in to find Jasmine giving Jazz food. She stood an waited, watching Jasmine have issues getting the baby in her chair. At last she won the fight and smothered Jazz with affection, mentioning something about being good for "her godmommy". Wait a sec... was this what she thought it was? Naww Jasmine would never make Rika watch the kid. If Rika ever had to take over it would be when Jazz was already grown, or at least out of the toddler and baby stages. She wasn't exactly.. comfortable around children. She had been around few over the course of her life, and even less since she had become grown, her work didn't exactly have her around children very much. Rika looked over to Jazz, not quite as big as Rika had expected, perhaps she had exaggerated the accelerated growth in her head, though Jazz was still a lot bigger than any kid her age would ever be. The rapid growth was clearly there just not as potent as Rika was expecting it to be.

Jasmine finally turned and spoke to Rika and what came was what Rika was hoping she wasn't gonna ask her. She needed a babysitter. Aren't there like a bunch of genin around to do it? Rika sighed, she knew she was trusted, and well she was Jazz's godmother after all, although she didn't think that title would force her into any responsibility unless Jasmine died, Rika shuddered at the thought. Losing one of her few friends isn't something she thought she could handle. Rika nodded slightly after Jasmine asked her, and then Jasmine proceeded to launch into an explanation throwing a bunch of information at Rika. "Uhhh.... o-ok..." she said as she looked at Jazz. The look on Rika's face was a mix of concern and plain discomfort, but she would do it for Jasmines sake. She didn't really have much else planned for the day, she figured she would just clean her puppets and make sure they were in working condition. "So uhh... when do you think you'll be back?"

You will awesome, I'll be back hmm around five? Since it'll take me sometime to get to Gehenna and back even though I'll be riding on my Aruserutasu. But yeah she's not really the fussy type thankfully. Anyways gotta run we'll catch up layer okay. Jasmine said beaming planting a final kiss on Jazz before rushing over and giving Rika a hug before going to the door patting down her body for her keys and walking out. She would lock the door and make her way to the stables where she kept Flame and Poison before taking the latter out and climbing on top of the large insect. Once she was in place Poison would take off leaving Rika and Jazz by themselves in the house, hopefully Rika would be able to handle the responsibility, as Jasmine knew she had just sprung it on her but she honestly felt that it would be good for her. She hated how Rika was so awkward around others sure it was adorable but she was subtly trying to influence her and humanize her so that she wasn't always a shinobi who dealt out death and what not. She was still young after all she needed to just enjoy life and not be tied down by duty and what not.

Jazz would inwardly repress the sigh of happiness that she was about to release now that the woman was gone, before using her free hand to wipe at her face her frown concealed partially due to the bottle. Thankfully the woman hadn't placed on colorful lips because she absolutely hated when she left the bright colors on her skin, either way she was stare at the new person who was watching her. Hopefully she wouldn't baby her like the woman did sure she realized that her body now looking like a borderline 9 month old so it still wasn't enough to really take her seriously. Regardless she felt since this wasn't the woman or Da she would be more perceptive to the fact that she wasn't a stupid as her counterparts. I want to go to the workshop. Jazz would say though unfortunately it would come out as babbling causing her to point towards the door where it was, hopefully Rika would realize that she wasn't trying to be cute or asking where her mother was but actually wanted to go somewhere.

Rika was hugged by Jasmine before she left. Rika sighed, it seemed this would be an all day ordeal. She was pretty uncomfortable with the situation, but hopefully Jazz would be as easy to handle as Jasmine had sad she was. Rika looked over to Jazz who was still in her chair. She looked over the workshop and pointed, Rika wasn't sure if she was allowed over there but she couldn't imagine Jazz doing too much harm in there. Rika figured she could go in there along with her and keep and eye on her while working on her puppets. Ira was in need of a cleaning after the last mission she went on, he was still covered in blood.

Rika walked over to Jazz and gulped before reaching down to pick her up. Rika lifted from her sides and hoisted her up, resting Jazz on Rika's hip. She was heavy, heavier than Rika expected. Rika brought her over to the work shop and gently set her down being as careful as possible not to bump her head on anything. Afterwards Rika stood back up and looked around to make sure there wasn't anything dangerous in the little girl's reach, it seemed to be ok so she let out a breath of relief and pulled out Ira, placing him on Jasmine's work bench. Rika pulled out a rag and some cleaning solution and got to work on scrubbing him down. Slowly revealing his shiny black body frame under all the dust and blood.

Jazz would let the new person pick her up using her free hand to clutch her shoulder while continuing to drink her formula, thankfully she had gotten the hint and when Jazz was set down she would watch as Rika pulled out something black and shiny yet big before wiping on it. She would watch while finishing her formula before shifting around a bit and tapping Rika before pointing to the puppet looking back and forth between it and Rika. What is that? Jazz said in gibberish as usual her linguistics consisting of nothing any adult could decipher, sure her thoughts made sense if anyone was telepathic they'd be able to actually read her mind and know what she wanted just her body wasn't developed enough to actually make use of her intellect but soon enough she guessed. Maybe in a couple of weeks after all she was still in the process of learning how to walk without falling down it was quite difficult.

Of course if Rika didn't answer she would pull back her hand and would continue to watch noticing how it was dusty and covered in blood. She had learned that word when Da had accidentally cut herself while attempting to cook for the woman, she kept repeating the word so Jazz figured that red stuff that came out of body was called blood. Though it didn't look like the new person was bleeding so it probably wasn't her own blood but someone elses, that was odd why did she have other people's blood on it. It was shiny though wouldn't blood stain it, or maybe they had been playing with it and then hurt themselves and she was just now cleaning it or maybe there was a reason she didn't clean it right away some things could have blood on them for a while and other things like the table that Da, the woman and Jazz ate on had to be cleaned quickly.

OoC: Changing speech color, it was readable on my old computer but on this one its pretty bad.

Rika grimaced as she scrubbed a rather nasty chunk of skin tissue off of Ira's chestplate. He was awfully close to an enemy when they came into contact with Invidia's explosive blood, and well... the remains rained down on him like some kind of sick storm of guts. Rika was just glad she kept her distance in that fight, else she might have ended up scrubbing this stuff off of her own body instead. She shuddered at the thought of that. Finally she managed to get that one spot clean, she took a look at the rest of Ira and sighed, she wasn't even close to being done, he was a mess.

Rika began scrubbing a new spot when she felt a nudge from her side, she looked down to find Jazz pointed at the puppet and looking at Rika questioningly. It wasn't hard to figure out she was wondering what Ira actually was, after all he was a big black humanoid puppet, larger than Rika, it was probably an odd sight for a child. Rika sat up and stepped away from the puppet, holding Jazz's hand and slightly pulling her back as well. She grinned as Ira seemingly came to life and sat up from the table, stepping down to the ground and standing at full height, towering over Jazz. Rika didn't want to scare the girl though, so she walked over to Ira and poked him in the chest, releasing her control over him at the same moment and letting him tumble to the ground. "Nothing to be afraid of, no more than a tool." Rika remembered the child probably couldn't understand her. She thought for a moment before grabbing a hammer and pointing to it. "Tool" she said, before setting it down and pointing to Ira "Tool" she said again.

Spoiler:

Jazz would look at Rika before her gaze would shift to Ira her eyes widening when it came to life and started moving, she didn't cry of course though it was surprising a healthy dose of fear being instilled into her body as she hadn't seen any of the things the woman made in action before. She did know that this one was part of the things that she had made as she had spied another thing looking similar to this one albeit being partially constructed. Perhaps these were made earlier it was part of a set or something like that, like when Da bought her popsicles and they came in six but all of them tasted differently. Except these weren't things that tasted good but judging by the fact that they had the smell of red liquid, which got her heart racing for some strange reason, they were meant to hurt people and spill more. She would blink when Rika pointed to the thing and said tool before saying the same thing to a hammer trying to make her understand that they were one in the same. Of course she realized on some level that yes a person can hurt another person with both of those things but in her juvenile, not really, mind the black thing was much cooler than a simple hammer.

Make it move again. Jazz said gurgling much to her own disappointment she would point to the hammer before making a swinging motion seeing as she knew how it was used. Before pointing to the puppet and tilting her head to the side ever so slightly trying to convey her confusion on how such a thing operated. Did Rika have to touch it first and it moved, was that the secret, she wanted to touch it as well and make it move as well. Or was it one of those things that she'd be scolded for being too curious about like the time she wanted to turn the fire making thing on because she was hungry. She had watched the woman enough times to learn how to make breakfast, if not for her own lack of co-ordination and her height impediment she was sure she could do it herself by now.

Rika watched and was amused by Jazz's reaction. Afterwards she picked up the hammer and made a swinging motion before pointing to Ira, it seemed she wanted Rika to "use" Ira again. Jazz's understanding seemed quite beyond the level of a regular child her age, sure she couldn't talk but to be able to figure out how to convey her thoughts and wants in such a way was remarkable at her age. Rika gave her a warm smile before crouching down next to her and once again using her puppetry field to lift Ira up. Ira would then get down on one knee and lightly pat Jazz's head. Rika wondered if Jasmine would be ok with this. She couldn't think of any reason that Jasmine wouldn't like it, after all Rika had full control of the puppet and there was nothing dangerous about Jazz being close to it unless Jazz could utilize kugujutsu, which at her age was impossible, so there shouldn't be any big deal. Overall it seemed Jazz was quite curious and wanted to learn about how things worked, sure most little kids were like that, but Jazz seemed much more so into it than other children her age.

Jazz's eyes would widen once again as she would look at the puppet before closing her eyes slightly as she was pat on the head causing her to shake her head a bit when the puppets hand was removed, a small smile appearing on her face. She would look at the puppet before looking at Rika back and forth her eyes narrowing a bit as she tried to make sense of how it was operating moving her arm a bit back and forth before deciding that she was at a conundrum. Rika was someone she hadn't interacted with yet, so maybe just maybe if she conveyed her intelligence it wouldn't just be brushed off as random circumstance like how the woman and Da seemed to treat her. Hence why she had resigned herself to not being able to communicate with either of her parents at the current period of time besides even if Rika did tell them that Jazz was much much more intelligent than she should be she could always feign ignorance. Show me how to use it. Jazz said or at least she wanted to say as babbling was once again all she was capable of however this time she would gesture to Rika then the puppet and moving her arms before pointing to herself and the puppet and moving her arms again the same exact way. She would then pause staring at Rika expectantly as she waited to see whether or not her babysitter understood what she was attempting to convey through a mixture of "words" and actions.