Mission:

The man dressed in tatters that hung loosely around his body wandered through stalls and crowds looked like any normal homeless man. Behind his shaggy hair matted over his face shone an emerald eye with the careful gaze of cat stalking prey. The left side of his face had more hair covering it, and so his left eye was nowhere to be seen, but anyone who looked closely enough could see the fabric of a string tied behind his head, which lead directly to the left eye. If one would note his other features, they'd notice that not only did he have a thick head of scruffy and unkempt hair, he had a beard to match. It was no less scruffy than his head but had a few patches in it as though it didn't fully grow out correctly. He wore tattered and torn clothing that was loose upon his body, but he walked with an air of jubilant happiness and.. pride?

The male sauntered up nonchalantly to a stall and pulled a scroll from a pocket in his tattered pants. He unrolled it and held it up to a strange, cat-like yokai. The yokai silently gauged the man with his slitted eyes before checking over the image in front of him. It was of an obese oni, who was the local ceramist. It appeared that the mortal before him wanted a mask for some reason. With a shrug, the feline yokai pointed over in the direction of a dango stall with his black paw and went back to the other customers. Giving a slight bow in thanks, the man moved away in the direction he was pointed and swayed his hands a bit in his walking. He was having a great time already, and he'd only just arrived at the festival. He'd learned that some activities required a mask, though. While he did in fact have a mask elsewhere, it was best for that mask not to be seen around here. Lest it start trouble.

Once he arrived at the dango stall, he sat next to the obese oni chowing down on sweet tsukumi dumplings. When he sat down the man set down the scroll with the art depicting the oni and the mission to find him. The oni looked from the image to the man who had sat down, and emerald green hue meeting with a little blue one. They stared at each other for a while before the man waved a server over and ordered more tsukumi for the two, placing his money on the stall's counter. When the food arrived, the man and oni ate together peacefully, enjoying each other's company as they did so. They regaled each other with stories of their travels, either in this life or another and by the time the food was gone, the oni clapped his new acquaintance on the back. "I'd be honored to help you on your quest for a mask during the festival! Come see me tomorrow so we can work out the style, shape and such you want eh?" With that, the ceramist departed, leaving the man to sit alone, ordering another round of dango for himself.

While he did so, the male looked around at the festival grounds, taking in everything. He would have to make sure he had adequate time to take as much in as possible. He didn't want to miss anything, but knew that doing it all would require more time than he really had. The male thought back to his responsibilities for a moment and sighed. He was out here having fun when his home was in need of him, though he was sure they'd be getting along fine he couldn't help but feel guilty. Still, his travels were not over just yet, he had a few questions that needed to be answered. The questions he had couldn't be answered in the hidden sand village, nor at the festival. It was just his shame that he hadn't turned up any new leads on his mission. With a sigh, the man thanked the server for bringing his food and paid, placing the dumplings in a small bag while he stood. He began to walk back the way he came through the fair grounds, popping a dango in every once in a while to keep himself sated as he did so. He had a lot of work to do, but that didn't mean there wasn't time for fun in there as well.

764/750
14 Discarded

[Mission Complete, End Thread]