It was time, 'Seikatsu' moved his form back through the festival grounds on towards the ceramist's workplace. He'd painted his mask last night the colours of the Tanuki it represented, and had left it out to dry. He'd also made holes on either side of the mask to allow the thick leather string he carried to be pushed through them to hold the mask onto his face. When he arrived at the ceramist's workshop, he found that his mask was still there. Walking up and picking it up, he noted that it was dry, solid, and seemed at least mostly well made. The fire spirit in the jar was no longer out with the mask, so he had to assume that the ceramist had returned. Right? Without waiting for an answer to his inward question, the man made his way around the workshop to find the door and knock on it thrice. After the three raps of knuckle to wood, there was movement from behind the door. The door opened shortly after to expose the obese oni, looking at 'Seikatsu' with beady eyes before recognition hit. He chuckled and hurried back to his work space, grabbing a special looking stamp and ink box, bustling past 'Seikatsu.'

With a quizzical look upon his face, the man followed the oni back towards where his mask lay, hands in his pockets, fidgeting with the leather cord. When the oni stopped over by the mask, his hands gingerly touched it, examining the craftsmanship. He picked it up to hold into the light, turning it over a few times, his beady eyes becoming focused like that of a shark that's found its meal. When he'd finished looking it over, he grunted with satisfaction and placed the stamp into his ink, and then pressed down onto the middle of the Tanuki mask's forehead. A symbol that looked runic and otherworldly appeared on the place he had stamped for only a few seconds before disappearing completely. "Whenever you decide to go to the masquerade, this symbol will allow you entry. It's been a pleasure seeing this come together, and I hope you realize how much more worth it this has been having done it yourself. Do come back if you ever need someone to help you eat dango again, yes?"

The oni picked up the mask and handed it off to the man. The two bowed to each other, a low and respectful stance, before they stood straight once more. The man took the mask in both hands, turning to leave.  With a word of thanks behind him, he rushed off to go back towards where he'd come. It was not long before he'd ducked into the trees around the festival grounds, making his way out to a tent in a small circle of trees. It was his campsite, where he'd been staying since the festival had started, in order to keep on the low. Once he'd reached his tent, he pushed his hand in to grab an exquisite blade within a black hilt wrapped in blue cloth bands. He also procured a hand mirror, and setting the mask down for now, he held the mirror up to show his face. He had long and scruffy hairs on his face forming a beard with patches in it, as well as long hair upon his head, nearly reaching the beard he bore. One hand set the weapon down and reached up to pull off his eye patch, exposing the blue eye beneath it. After setting that aside, he went to work.

He took his weapon from the sheathe, a brilliant blue bladed tanto that looked sharp enough to slice a hair in half vertically. It was with this that he began to cut his hair and trim his beard with, moving in slow, calculated motions. His eyes never blinked or wavered, never moved from what he was doing as reflected in his mirror. It took nearly half an hour to get done, but eventually the man underneath the hair was shown once more. His hair was shorter and was a half inch from touch his eyebrows, the beard was nearly clean shaven with a five o' clock shadow left. He had one emerald eye, and one dark blue eye. To remedy this, he grabbed his contact case from his pocket and pushed the emerald hued contact into place over his left eye. With his work done, the man set everything save for his mask back into place in the tent, then pulled out the leather cord from his pocket. Looping it through one hole in the side of the mask, then grabbing his tanto to cut in half, he did it to the other side's hole as well. When this was done, the weapon was stored and the mask was put onto his face, the leather cord being tied behind it. It was finished, and soon he would be able to put it to better use.

841

750/750
91 Discarded

[Mission Complete, Thread Concluded]