The Moon Illuminates a World of Fancy

Chapter Six: see you make your way through the crowd

Ryuunosuke waited anxiously for Atsushi by the bank of the creek. Gin stood beside him, lazily toying with the fallen leaves of the Japanese maple overhead.

The facade he showed was stoicly patient, but inside he was all a wreck. He barely felt the cold at all as he leaned over the railing of the pond, hands intertwined in the safe confines of his yukata's sleeves as he attempted to stall the nervous, anxious stuttering in his chest.

He was failing abysmally. 

"Sit tight, Nii-san," Gin murmured, watching a leaf drift away down the stream.

"What do you expect me to do?" he grumbled.

The rustling of zori against the paved earth came from a hasty rush to a stop a few feet away. Ryuunosuke looked up and met the beautiful violet-gold eyes of Nakajima Atsushi.

"Sorry we're late, Ryuu." she said in her gentle breathy voice. "The crowd in the marketplace is bigger than I thought."

Atsushi was wearing a white yukata with clusters of square pixel patterns on the hem, her left shoulder and the hem of his right sleeve. Such a different sight from the Atsushi he saw who usually wore Western clothes, but just as heavenly.

Behind him were three men Ryuunosuke presumed to be his father and brothers: Sigma looked a little awkward not wearing his usual attire, opting for a set of seaweed green robes, while Karma glanced about awkwardly, fidgeting in his dark blue tunic studded with a yellow stellar pattern in yellow thread. The tallest and oldest man, on the other hand, seemed calm, with a restrained liveliness in his deep red eyes and his serene smile, his long snow hair fluttering behind him.

"Shibusawa-san, Sigma-san, Karma-kun." Ryuunosuke politely inclined his head. Gin did the same.

"At ease, Akutagawas." Shibusawa said, imperially but not unkindly. The man seemed like a king and a father figure to the brother and sister at the same time.

"Relax, Ryuu, let us all enjoy the night," Atsushi chirped, dispelling the sharp tension in the air. Nobody needed to be told to go and enjoy themselves, they all began to move about, taking in the sights of the festive night.

The older individuals felt rejuvenated & young again, like they used to, and the young relived their childhood with a fleeting freedom, as they roamed the square. Music, laughter, the smell of fresh food and colors filled the dark scenery.

For a young man who was all about business and welfare, Sigma was surprisingly good at catching goldfish and the games that tested a man's accuracy. He threw all ten darts he had into their respective bullseyes, each pin striking the red heart dead in the center.

Karma and Gin were enamored by the play a troupe put up. It was depicting a folktale about a *monk who was mocked for his ridiculously large nose, and to get even with this ridicule he made up a story that a pond near the temple he served in housed a black dragon, one of their favorites. As the youngest members of the group, they were under Shibusawa's watchful eye.

As for Ryuunosuke and Atsushi, they were trying their hands at calligraphy in a stall, the former having a more skilled hand and a passionate adoration for the graceful, practiced strokes of the pen than the latter, when they heard a round of cheers from the middle of the square. After completing a set of characters to copy, Atsushi paid for the brushes the duo decided to purchase, told the owner of the stall to wait for them, then she took Ryuunosuke with him.

A crowd was watching from seats in the amphitheater a game; fifteen people had been struggling to climb an obstacle course tower. On the lowest part were rotating poles and rope ladders; on top of that were rotating rafter platforms; the main body of the tower was rigged with push-pull poles that the gamers had to grab onto and hoist themselves up to get to the top. At the top of that was a roof with a hatch, and directly above that was the flag that was the goal of the course.