Perfect Imperfection (Mayuri Kurotsuchi)

The Hat but No Clogs ////\\\\

We were wondering around the festival with the rest of the 12th division behind us and Mayuri tied up with a rope being dragged by brother. Mayuri keeps muttering cuss words, but brother doesn’t even seem fazed by him. When we’d eaten dinner, everyone had been loud and boastful. It’d been funny to see how everyone interacted with brother. He’d become accustomed to being the captain and so had everyone else, even his lieutenant; despite the fact that she still felt the need to attack him.

As we walked the length of the Matsuri, the rest of the division was amazed and occasionally ran off to play games or get food but they always seemed to come back to the little line we were in. Brother and I had settled to sharing a few Ika Yaki (fried squid) but other than that we hadn’t done much.

I wanted to play games with brother, but everyone else was keeping brother’s attention while I held his hand. I glanced around at the nearby stands as we continued to walk.

“Come try to nab a water balloon! Win a prize! You, miss, why don’t you come try?” I blinked as I realized that man was talking to me.

I stopped in my tracks, making brother and the 12th division stop. I pointed to myself.” Me?”

“Yes ma’am!” He smiled at me. “Just 300 yen. Why don’t you get something for your boyfriend there!” He pointed to brother.

I looked back at brother who blushed, which confused me but I dropped it. I chuckled.” He is my brother.” I looked back at the man.

The man blinked.” O-oh, well… Come win him something.” He chuckled. “It is just 300 yen to play.”

I let go of brother’s hand and walked over to the brightly colored stand and looked down at only the colorful water balloons.” What are the rules?” I suddenly wanted to get brother something really nice, since he always has taken care of me. He would pay attention to me a lot if I got him something, right?

“Get a blue balloon, you get a big prize.  Get a red balloon, you get a small prize. Get an orange balloon; you get a medium sized prize. You get a prize no matter what!” The man chuckled. “The catch is you have to use this scoop to get one.” He held out the scoop. “Are you willing to try?”

I pulled out my wallet from my purse and took at 300 yen. I held it out to him. “Yes. I’d like to try.”

The man took the yen from me and held out the scoop to me. I watched as the balloons began to move around and swim, bumping into each other. I gulped and quickly swiped up a balloon with my eyes closed. I held it out and waited for the man to tell me what color I got.

“BLUE BALLOON!” The man cheered. I opened my eyes and saw the blue balloon sitting there in my scoop.

I yelped happily and smiled back at my brother and the 12th division.” I did it!”

They all clapped and cheered for me. I turned back around to the man.” Alright, choose your prize. You don’t have to choose a large. You can choose 2 mediums or 3 small.” The man gestured to the large wall behind me.

I looked over the wall carefully until my eyes zeroed in on a striped green and white hat that I believed would go great with brother’s yukata. When I was younger I would always remember him complaining about the sun getting in his eyes when I made him take a walk with me.

“That hat!” I pointed at it eagerly.

“That is a medium prize so you’ll have to choose another one as well.” The man informed me.

Beside the hat was a striped green and white leather bell necklace. I could match with him.” The striped necklace right beside it, please.” I smiled pointing at it.