[Day 8, Late Evening] Beautiful Loser (Open)

[Bayushi Choudai]

While his player had no idea how the display for the competition had gone, Choudai was enough of a moody artiste that a certain melancholy could be presumed for his state of mind as the eighth day wound down.

As he had done what seemed a lifetime ago in the Painted City, he wandered the streets alone.

But there, he'd been an easily-dismissed figure, just another bushi working in the city guard, one who'd perhaps put his foot in it a bit, but not a figure of interest.

But here?

Here he had achieved both a degree of fame and infamy, and simply by being a Scorpion, he stood out.

Say one thing for his time in Teitaku, say it had made Choudai pay for everything he'd gotten out of it.

Nothing is too much trouble if turns out the way it should. Grandmother told me that.

I still need to make the arrangements for Mikan, but that can be done when I get home.

I might need to do something about some wagging tongues here, but I'm probably best off just ignoring them. Ogoe or Shino could probably do something, hell, Ayame could. Ozaki...

His baby brother probably would have found an excuse to get into a fistfight by now.

Certainly, if a pack of guards had come to his room on such an idiotic errand, there would have at least been a few teeth knocked out.

But then, that was why Ozaki almost never got to travel.

That reminds me, his birthday is coming up soon. I'll need to make some mochi for him.

Choudai strolled through the streets, seemingly lost in thought- but not quite.