The Golden Dragon a night of Trick or Treatin(3/3)

Mission:

The night of Hallows Eve was a particularly cold one, and as Oda sat at a table placed just outside of a tea house he was thankful for the warm drink in front of him. His day had been relatively uneventful, as he was trying to stay well rested for the trick or treating to come later that night. Yushi was a good kid, and he deserved a fun hallows eve, and as Oda sat waiting for their scheduled meet he thought about what he could do to make the dragon costume really come alive. As he brainstormed he wrote various ideas down in a small notebook.

A thick fog permeated throughout Tsukigakure, and the illumination of the decorations for Hallows Eve gave the town a downright eerie and mysterious energy. Already kids and parents began to traverse misty villages, getting candy and playing various games set up all over town. An entire section of the market was converted into one very large haunted market with various monsters hiding within ready to scare unaware citizens and hand out candy afterwards. There was a haunted maze set up at one of the larger clearings within the town, illuminated by rows of paper lanterns. The festivities were in full force, and Oda reached his time to go meet with Yushi and his parents. He paid for his tea, making sure to leave a large tip, and began his walk to Yushis house.

He made sure to carry a large bag of candy, giving it out to various kids as they walked by in their costumes. There were many who dressed as ghosts, all with intricate and unique wooden masks depicting different spirits of folktale. There were kids dressed as different animals, such as the spirits of the land like Inazuma the Panther or Terranox the badger. Some kids dressed as shinobi, a sight that made Oda swell with pride. He made particular note of the lack of large articulating dragons and further swelled with pride at how unique Yushis costume was going to be.

Oda knocked on the door to the home and waited outside, the heat of his breath making small clouds of vapor in the air in front of him. The father answered the door this time, buttoning the shirt to his uniform and giving a half tired half apologetic smile to Oda.

“Thanks again, you’ve been a life saver these last few days, we can’t thank you enough” The father said as they both stepped into the house.

“It’s nothing sir, it's my pleasure.” Oda deflected trying to remain humble.

“Well it doesn’t go unnoticed, I work at the ‘Drowning Fox’ stop by whenever for a drink on me whenever you need!” The man said enthusiastically before turning to another area of the house. “Honey Odas here, I have to head to work!”

The wife returned back echoing through the house “Alright! Have a good night at work honey.” With that the man left, leaving Oda sitting in the empty living room of the house, a brief awkward silence ensuing. Suddenly from the back room of the house he could hear Yushi giggling and his mother saying something about waiting.

The mother called out “Oda! Yushi is very excited to show you his costume! He's coming out now! Okay Yushi, go show Oda.” Oda stood in anticipation, waiting to see the costume he had won. Nothing, however, could prepare him for Yushis costume.

Yushi had taken apart the dragon and repurposed it to fit around his body, even going so far as to take some of the tail and make it smaller but still articulate. The head of the dragon was altered to be smaller too, with some of the leftover mechanisms used to create an articulating mouth that he used to open and roar out of. Instead of a long dragon, Yushi was now a humanoid looking dragon man with a sword that Oda had never seen before. He was simply blown away by the intricacies and craftsmanship that Yushi displayed and he burst out in a huge smile.

“Yushi, this is amazing!” He said, the boy gave a giggle and swiped his sword around a couple of times, it looked to be made of harmless lightweight bamboo, finely painted to resemble fire. His mother entered the room closely after Yushi and beamed with pride. “And I didn’t even help, he refused it!” She said, the pride in her son shining through. Yushi was only 10 years old and he was already showing incredible crafting skills.

“Wow, your son has real talent ma’am.” He said to her, She thanked him and kneeled down to give a pep talk to Yushi. “Ok so I want you to be on your best behavior ok? Listen to Oda!” She said with some finality and gave her son a hug before standing up again. Oda took the boy's free hand and walked out of the door, stopping to turn and wave goodbye “I’ll have him back by 11!” The two of them waved goodbye and made their way into Tsukigakure to go trick or treating.

Him and Yushis first stop was the various market stalls handing out candy, as it was the easiest pickings. They walked through the market, occasionally stopping to converse with different groups of kids as they shared their costumes, giggling and playing pretend. Oda watched along with the parents, there were a few other shinobi also accompanying kids in lieu of the parents, and they all talked amongst themselves as the kids ran to and fro collecting candy and playing. Next came the houses, and Yushi made sure to stop at certain peoples houses as those were known to give out the big candies. Oda made sure to always present Yushi with a background and daring tale of his adventures, Yushi was eating it up, and by the time they were done with the houses they had established an entire lore about the Golden Dragon, protector of the innocent!

By now Oda had gotten creative, and would introduce Yushi with a smoke veil technique, having him burst through it and roar. He got many applause from the nearby patrons and festival goers. Finally with most of the available spots for candy passed through, Yushi expressed interest in going to the haunted market. Oda briefly considered saying no, it was usually reserved for people a few years older than Yushi, and it could be quite scary. A part of Oda didn’t like scary stuff, but with Yushi persisting and with his desire to make the night memorable he finally acquiesced. Yushi gave a shout of joy as he bounded ahead towards the haunted market.
By the time they reached the haunted market however that enthusiasm was subdued a bit at the sight of it, the festival planners had done an excellent job making it seem truly haunted, and the entire section of the market had an eerily silent and ominous feel to it. Occasionally shouts of fright could be heard from deeper within the market as kids were jump scared by various employees. Yushi took an apprehensive step back, now that he had seen the place upclose he was nervous. Oda took it as an opportunity to teach, and leaned down to Yushi “It's ok big guy, youre the Golden Dragon! We got this, I’ll be right by your side the whole time.” At the mention of the Golden Dragon he could see Yushi get a determined look on his face, his bravery taking hold. Oda nodded in approval and they made their way into the maze of market stalls.

Most of the stalls were empty, occasionally a fake skeleton would be set up, or an employee who acted like a zombie behind the stall. There were various buckets of toys and candy spread out throughout the market incentivizing kids to walk through it, and as Yushi grabbed a piece of candy it seemed to activate some sort of pre programmed trap, as 2 employees dressed as demons, clad in black clothes with scary and bright colored masks charged forward yelling and making strange clicking noises.

Oda had to admit, they scared even him, and Yushi and he squealed in terror as they ran together away from the demons. They stumbled through the market for a little bit after that, getting further scared by some mummies who looked to be statues at first but would move and chase after people as they got closer. They eventually found themselves at the center of the haunted market, a large bucket sat at the center of an open courtyard setting, him and Yushi sat crouched near a bush and planned, they both know some sort of trap would be set off if they grabbed something, but they were determined to get a good prize. Oda was determined to make sure that Yushi was the one to grab it, this was his chance to instill some true confidence in the child. He also wanted to stick to the theme of the Golden Dragon, so he devised a plan based around that.

With Yushi waiting near the bush, he positioned himself a little further away and quickly whistled a familiar tune. Yushi was instructed to charge forward on the final note of the tune, and the timing was flawless.

Yushi burst out of the bushes, yelling out to all the employees that surely hid in the shadows “I am Yushi Tamatorra, and I am the Golden Dragon!” As he shouted the final two words defiantly into the night air, that air suddenly heated up around Yushi as a Fire dragon made from Oda’s Fire Dragon Bullet Technique raced overhead and twirled around the open courtyard, no doubt causing the employees some level of shock. Odas deft use of the jutsu ensured no property would be damaged but he was sure he was going to hear some sort of reprimand about it later.

Regardless, it was worth it seeing the look on Yushis face as he roared and ran to the center, grabbing one of the toys without looking and running back. One employee to his credit still tried to go after Yushi, but it was obviously half hearted as the shock from the fire dragon still rang through the courtyard. Giggling and high fiving, Oda and Yushi ran back into the cover of the maze of stalls, and he could hear the Employees step out from their hiding spots griping about the legality of Oda's plan. Oda didn’t care, all that mattered to him was that Yushi was having a blast, and he gave a big grin as Yushi turned around holding a finely crafted wooden doll with a little miniature headband of Tsukigakure carved into it. “This is the one I wanted! I’m going to grow up and be an awesome shinobi who helps the village just like you!” Oda beamed with pride and was only saved by the onslaught of scary zombie employees, otherwise he would have cried. The two laughed and ran away from the market, toys and candy in hand.

They capped the night off with some hot cocoa from one of the many food stalls spread out around town, Yushi sat on the chair dangling his legs and happily sipping on the cocoa. Oda sat with him, enjoying the rest. He could see as a group of teenage boys made trouble at one of the stalls, pranking one of the kids. They were quickly shooed away by the kids parents, as the group of troublemakers made their way through the market he could sense their attention on Yushi. As they got closer Oda gave the leader of the group a deadly and sharp stare, his eyes flickering like flame. The leader of the group paled a bit and convinced his cronies to move along, Yushi was none the wiser.

After their cocoa Oda and Yushi made their way back to Yushis house with an arm full of prizes and candy. The parents talked briefly with Oda for an update on how the night went, and Yushi gave a big cheer, running into the house after a quick goodbye and spilling his candy out on the table to sort and eat. Oda smiled and reassured the parents that it was no problem and he was happy to do the job, they thanked him one more time before heading in to enjoy the final hours of the holiday with their child.

Oda walked back home alone, but happy and fulfilled. Today was another day that he did good in the world and that fact gave him a tremendous amount of purpose. He smiled all the way home, plopping down on his bed and quickly falling asleep.

[exit]

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WC: 2125
5,000 Ryo / 25 AP / 20 Fall Fest Tickets and 1 Festival Poster

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