Rin swallowed the lump on her throat, fret visible from the tears climbing in her eyes. The yokai had given her no other choice but death or imprisonment no matter how much she begged.
"No I don't want to die. How can you easily kill me for a crime I didn't commit on purpose? I didn't mean to destroy those shrines. I got lost and wandered into the same school of shrines over and over as if there's some kind of invisible energy guiding me to the same place again and again." She swallowed, trying to control her rising voice.
Her anger got through the yokai somehow. "Did you mean that?"
The glare in her face told him Rin meant every word she said. She has no reason to lie.
The yokai blinked. The hardness in his eyes disappeared. He ruled a calming breath. Suddenly, he looked more human than a yokai monster. Rin could've swore some of the feathers shading the outline of his jaws and part of his chest retracted flashing more of his smooth skin. He withdrew a few steps back until he's hovering near the wall and willed himself to take another look at her.
His shapely eyebrows fell upon his eyes, the sound of his voice simmering from all its anger and wrath. "If I let you lose, will you promise to eat?"
Rin let her gaze wandered in to the feast served before her. "What choice do you give..."
"I'm giving you a choice to live, human. You might find that living with us might not be so bad." He offered her a soft smile much like the offer of new life he's willing to give her. "What have you got to lose....beside an unfulfilling life in the human world?"
The yokai moved away from the wall and turned his attention to the feast before them. He began to pile food on her plate until they were overflowing with all kinds of dishes piled on top of each other and placed it before her nose. "Eat, it should be an honor being served by me."
Rin felt the tightness of the invisible rope loosened. The yokai stepped back to give her some space.
Rin picked up the pair of chopsticks lain beside her began picking food into her mouth.
"Good girl." The yokai groaned. the latch of his fathomless stare never left her, watching her with interest as she ate.
She put food in her mouth again and again, tasting them and chewing them. Food in the spirit world tasted much better, just as how the spirits are more beautiful and their world are so much brighter. Rin chewed on the food feasting on its flavor and juices, gorging herself to eat. She couldn't help it, it is as if the food were like magic itself.
Then she felt it, the magic exploded and began to work itself inside her, spreading into her veins and into her blood stream. The blurriness of her vision cleared and the heaviness of her body lifted.
Then she stole another glimpse of him again, his stare still arrested on her, watching her with unblinking eyes under the cage of his long dark lashes.
She saw all the fine details of him, the clearness of his skin, his large smoldering dark eyes perfectly framed by his thick eyebrows, even with half of his face suddenly covered with dark feathers again, she could tell the handsome face hidden beneath all of it.
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Rin ate and ate until the yokai made another wave of his hand vanishing all the food away into thin air. "That's enough," said the yokai worriedly. "You'll wind up throwing up all over the place."
She put the chopsticks down to now empty table and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. All while the demon waved the rest of the feast away and ushered another command. "Go get some rest, I know you're tired."
Another servant stepped out of the darkness, he is nothing but a shadow with shape of a human with no features to distinguish him. He moved towards Rin with uneasiness on his steps peeling himself from the darkness that seemed to want to devour him.
"Clean her, and give her proper clothing." Commanded the yokai to the servant and vanished into thin air soon after.
