𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 † tokrev

✧𝐈𝐗

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August 2017.

Festive times should be celebrated with family, friends or lovers—the people you feel the most comfortable with being yourself and not pretend a fake persona to their liking.

However, sharing with no one one's company is also a way to stay true to oneself but a rather dismal option that many desperately try to evade even at the cost of playing the role of a stranger with the aid of Apate.

Yet that was not in Washi's case.

He lost his naive face many years ago and regained one of cruel maturity and could finally slash out with the hidden side of himself with no regard for his fellow men and environment. It felt so liberating like letting go of all the build-up anger by punching wildly against the punching bag like a madman.

Some might call him a madman but only in their mind, too scared of the consequences of their loose mouth. It wasn't as if he disagreed with them—no he wholeheartedly shared the same opinion, but that didn't mean that they could get away without a near death experience when realizing it.

"Wakamono, would you like to try it too?"

An elder man addressed him and pointed to the activity that his stall provided—goldfish scooping. On his stroll through the festival Washi had seen many other stalls offering the same game and wanted to decline at first, until he saw a small group of toddlers watching their tall friend failing to get any fish out of the pool much to their disappointment.

Having changed his mind, he smilingly affirmed and received a poi, making his way towards the pool and kneeled down next to the children. He knew their curious gazes were fixated on him now, so he entertained them a bit and showed off his skills.

"Woah! Onii-san is so cool! He got six without breaking his poi!"

Their awing turned into sulking, when realizing that they didn't get any fish despite their efforts and could only stare with longing after the ones Washi had just caught. However, a surprise awaited them.

"Oji-san, please one plastic bag per fish."

Swiftly following his customers, Washi now had six bags in hand and crouched down to the toddlers' height. He presented them the animals and said with a gentle smile, "Here, that's for you guys."

They couldn't contain their excitement and cheered in joy, but the one that previously failed to catch any fishes stayed rational and turned to the adult, "But are you sure, onii-san? You're the one who won them."

Chuckling at his hesitation, he affectionately ruffled his blond hair and reassured him, "I won them for you. Just promise me to enjoy your time with your friends."

The kids eagerly nodded their heads and rushed off in excitement to the adults that accompanied them to the festival and showed them heatedly what they had just been gifted by the kind onii-san.

After seeing their figures vanish into the crowd, he started to aimlessly stroll again through the Musashi Festival and life.

Heh, mature for a little guy.

"Aniki, I saw you yesterday with someone... I want you to stop that. It'll do you both more harm than good."

He stopped at the familiar parking lot.

No—he froze, when his head started to ache from the sudden flashbacks and felt like exploding any moment the more vivid pictures appeared of himself on the telephone at his apartment, being interrupted during his diligent studies by a call of the fanged boy.