The Perfect Pumpkin

Mission:

Oda awoke gradually, rubbing his eyes and climbing out of the bed with his usual sunny demeanor. He gave a long yawn followed by an equally long stretch. For once his house was clean, and he sat in the cleanliness for a brief moment with a smile before getting dressed and making himself some tea.

He meandered out of his apartment. With a mission slip in one hand and tea in the other, he walked leisurely through Tsukigakure. Oda usually woke very early in the morning, so he knew he had plenty of time until the beginning of his simple mission. He liked to walk along the paths of Tsukigakure early in the morning and watch the mist get burned away by the sun. This particular month however, the sun rose later, and it created a persistent fog that permeated throughout Tsukigakure. It created an eerie atmosphere, as the sounds of the village were dampened, and the visibility was low.

After some time sitting in the parks and drinking his tea he made his way to the house to begin his mission, he would be helping a child pick out a pumpkin to carve. Apparently he only had until tonight to find one, and the issue was urgent as the kids parents put it. Oda was happy to take on a more low stakes mission, and welcomed the reprieve. He knocked on the door, mission slip and Id card in hand.

Two parents answered, seemingly flustered by something going on inside, a high pitched voice could be heard yelling in the back, although the yelling was indecipherable. “Yes-Yes honey he’s here, ok- ok hun, just calm down okay?” He could hear one of the parents say as he looked off further into the house. The mother smiled, somewhat embarrassed. “Hi, you must be Oda?” She said, “Yes ma’am that's me, I’m here to help find a pumpkin!” He gave a grin. She returned the smile but only half-heartedly, Oda could tell that she needed a break.

As If on cue, the child squeezed between his parents legs and looked up at Oda, jumping up and down excitedly “PUMPKIN PUMPKIN PUMPKIN!” He said with zeal. Oda laughed and the parents gave a tired laugh along with him. “Make sure not to be too picky, Yushi.” The kid nodded in agreement and began running in the direction of the pumpkin patch. Oda began to walk after him before the father grabbed his arm “No seriously, don’t let him get too picky. Last time we went we were at the pumpkin patch for 6 hours.” Oda gave a slight chuckle “Oh I’m sure we’ll find a good one. Not to worry sir!”.


Oda and the boy returned seven hours later.

The boy, jumping with zeal and holding a nearly perfect pumpkin, Oda with a look on his face like he had been through war. He walked up slowly to the house and knocked on the door with an exhausted arm, his uniform was in disarray and foliage and grass stuck out of various spots of his vest. The parents answered the door and recoiled in surprise as the boy ran into the house with his pumpkin briefly stopping to say thankyou to Oda. The father gave a knowing look “Hope he didn’t give you too much trouble”. Oda took on a thousand yard stare briefly.



Oda perched on a precarious ledge trying to get to an out of the way pumpkin patch that was positioned on a sloping hill. He was no longer having fun, in fact that stopped around the 3 hour mark, now he was determined, now he was serious.

His Clone held his back to keep him from falling backwards, and the two Oda’s were slowly inching along a very narrow ledge, the boy stood some feet further on more solid ground, cheering him on. As Oda got to the secret pumpkin patch he saw it, it was as if a beam of sunlight rained down just on this pumpkin, it was perfect in every way. Spherical, but not too much, orange but not too bright.

As he was grabbing the pumpkin his frantic elation with finding it caused him to lose focus, popping the clone out of existence, he tried to grab on to anything around him to not fall but he refused to let go of the pumpkin. Shielding the pumpkin with his body Oda began to tumble down the hill, he could hear the laughs of the boy as he did so. Finally, after a small amount of time tumbling, he came to rest at the bottom of the hill. Pumpkin in hand, and foliage sticking out of his hair.




He snapped back to reality and looked at the parents, wanting to remain professional he gave a reassuring smile. “No no, he was great. It was a fun time and I’m glad we found the pumpkin he wanted!” The boy made a noise further in the house and the parents looked back “we should go see what that was, thank you again Oda you're a lifesaver!” As they left however, the father and mother stopped and whispered to eachother before turning back and giving a sheepish smile "Would you be ok with taking our son to go get his costume? We are just so swamped with setting up the halloween party..." Oda paused, his exhaustion showing, before gently smiling "Of course, when would you like that done?" The parents relaxed and gave a laugh "Oh thankyou so much, I know he can be a handful sometimes. If you don't mind coming back here tommorow morning that would be great."  Oda simply gave a tired nod and waved, the parents returned the goodbye, before Oda trudged back up to his apartment building.

“Yeah Oda just take on an easy mission it will be fine” he said, mocking himself as he plopped down on the bed and nearly instantly fell asleep. Leaves and sticks still protruding from his clothes.

[EXIT]

WC: 904

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