(Iris POV)
"Ahhhh~ Daddy caught me~"
"No, Daddy~ Don't catch me~"
"Daddy, I'm over here~"
"Ehehehe~ I got caught by Daddy~"
I looked on with mild amusement at the sight in front of me.
The 'child' and I managed to avoid the Master chasing after us by running through some bushes, making Him chase after some other 'children' that were nearby.
I thought the game would end for you if you were caught but that did not seem like the case. The 'children' who were tagged simply had to 'tag' someone else to remove their 'tagged' status, making this a potentially never ending game.
What I once again fail to understand was that it would make much more sense to simply find a place to hide like the game 'hide and seek' to prevent yourself from getting tagged, yet there were several 'children' intentionally making themselves seen to be chased around out in the park.
What made even less sense was that the 'child' with me also thought that it would be a good idea for us to run out of the bushes and into the open again.
"Why are we not hiding?" I asked, running to keep up with the 'child'.
"Eh?! But how would we get chased if we just hid ourselves?"
"Is the goal of the game not to be caught in the first place?"
"Ehehe~ It is! But the fun is in the chase! If you don't get chased then the game loses its meaning! Come on!"
Truly incomprehensible… Yet I followed her anyway.
One of the 'child' that had been tagged earlier by Master saw us and immediately came bolting towards us, clearly intent on passing over his 'tagged' status to one of us.
"Ahhh~ Run!" The 'child' with me cried out, though there wasn't really much urgency in her voice considering she was giggling the entire time.
The tagged 'child' sped up when he realised we had spotted him, catching up to us quickly before we could get away.
Unfortunately, the thought of me being bested by a 'child' even in a game was abhorrent to me so I almost Ended his existence to prevent such a thing from happening.
I had to stop myself when Omniscience suddenly showed me the sight of a very disappointed looking Master which distracted me long enough for the 'child' to touch me on my arm.
"Tag! You're it!" He chuckled before running away from me.
"Awww… Looks like we both got tagged," The 'child' that had been accompanying me giggled as a split body of Master also tagged her from the front. "Let's split up and tag someone else!"
Without waiting for my response, the girl sped off in another direction, chasing after another group of 'children' who scattered when they saw her approaching.
Not wanting to lose, I looked for my own target to tag and found a 'child' a short distance away from me.
He was distracted by one of Master's split bodies who was in the midst of chasing another 'child' near him, putting him in a position where he could not see me.
Seeing my chance, I sprinted the few metres between us to reach him and tapped his arm with my hand.
"Tag… You're it…" I told him the words needed to establish the change of roles with a deadpan voice.
He had a look of shock on his face before changing it into one of determination as he turned his sights on me.
Omniscience already told me what he was planning to do and I had no intention of being 'it' again, which prompted me to start dashing away from the 'child' before he could tag me.
Unperturbed, the 'child' was hot on my heels, determined to return the 'tagged' status back to me.
He was destined to fail since even without resorting to using my powers, my body was created to be perfect so it was an easy task for me to maintain a speed faster than his. That ensured that I remained ahead of him with no chance of him catching up.
I felt Omniscience warn me of another 'child' headed my way and I looked to the side to see another 'child' headed towards me. I surmise she was also tagged by someone and for some reason also decided that I was the prime candidate to pass off her 'tagged' status to.
It took me a moment to realise that she had planned to use the first 'child' to corral me to a corner of the park so that she could cut off my escape route and tag me.
That might have worked if it was anyone else, but there was no way that a simple trick like this would have worked on me.
I continued on my path to give her the illusion that her plan was working, allowing myself to be cornered which prompted her to sprint the last metre towards me.
She reached out her hand to touch me, the words already forming on her lips but instead of reaching me, her hands grasped empty air as I ducked underneath her hand, avoiding being touched entirely.
The other 'child' thought this would be his chance to get me and tried to reach out for me as well, only to also touch nothing as I did a spin to the side to dodge him.
While the two of them stumbled over each other, I sped off once again, feeling quite satisfied that I managed to avoid them with such a simple move.
The two of them quickly recovered and started chasing me again, both of them fueled by the desire to 'tag' me after the humiliation I gave them.
I hid a smile as I found amusement in their futility, it's clear that they were no match for me and yet they still believe they stood a chance.
That was when the third 'child' that was tagged came leaping at me from the side, thinking that I was unaware of their presence since I had my attention on the other two.
Unfortunately for him, Omniscience had warned me of him a while ago so it was a simple thing for me to stop my own movements and watch with mild interest at the 'child' sailing through the air to flop onto the ground embarrassingly.
The two from behind also reached me at that moment and both of them stretched out their hands towards me at the same time.
In response, I swayed my body to the side and the two of them tripped over each other while trying to change the direction of where they were reaching.
The three 'children' looked up at me with faces of awe even while on the ground, clearly surprised that I managed to avoid all of them.
A small feeling of what I felt to be satisfaction welled up from within me and I even found myself smiling at them.
Ara, ara? Just by seeing these 'children' look up at me from below… I could get this kind of feeling?
Ufufufu~
I then continued running once again before they recovered their wits.
I admit now… This game is actually quite amusing~
