i mean i tried. i'm not good coming up with spooky stories tho ^^;

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—where do these stories begin?

grey eyes follow the man wiping the counter down and putting glasses away with a reserved curiosity.

the man pauses and looks up at his last customer. he regards them critically before scoffing, "ask yourself. your answer would be better than mine."

he goes back to cleaning.

the customer does not look offended by the terse reply. rather, they become a little more open about their curiosity.

they think the bartender is an odd person. strangely wonderful, but odd.

—you're odd.

the man sighs and throws their rag down. he lifts his head up and glares at them in annoyance.

"yes, i'm so incredibly odd. especially to you, oh lord of normalcy," he sarcastically says.

—do you not fear death, insulting your lord?

"you're not my lord, and you will not kill me. you still don't have the answer you seek."

—on the contrary, my interaction with you has been quite enlightening. i believe i have my answer, now.

"do you, now? are you going to share your epiphany with the rest of the world, or are they hellbound for eternity?"

—neither.

"well, are you going to kill me then?"

—i don't think so.

"that's something, i guess. will i be killed anyway?"

—not exactly killed. purified.

"so killed."

—yes, killed.

"wonderful. any way i can avoid that?"

—i'm afraid i'm not looking for any asylum seekers.

"that's a shame. got any work slots for a bartender, though?"

—maybe. depends. are you afraid of monsters?

the man smiles.

"i wouldn't be casually chattin' with you if i were, now would i, fallen lucifer?"

...i mean it was supposed to be more relevant to the prompt, but clearly i'm pretty incapable of that so idk what i was expecting

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no more brave 10 lasted for three prompts. in my defense, thunderstorms work really well thematically with kamanosuke b/c of his wind powers.

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dancing in the storm; the sky crackles underneath kamanosuke's will. wind rolls from his fingertips.

the rain is a force of its own, casting the brave in soaked perfection. he clashes fiercely with it— he will never be "perfect" as a sorrowful maiden blanketed by a doomed sky.

he is perfect in dance. he carries himself with robust elegance that is neither graceful nor clumsy. it is swift and inconsiderate in its pace. the man that matches his speed with tactical carefulness— whose own inconsideration is far more egregious than his— ruins his perfection.

distance makes him vexingly perfect again.

i'm not sure where i was going with this. i think i had some sort of idea for something after i realized kamanosuke wear's an outfit based on saizō's for most of the story. once he gains his full tornado-y powers, he returns back to his old outfit (or something more similar looking anyway). i kinda interpret this as kamanosuke really being unable to grow as a person until he starts thinking beyond saizō. i mean, saizō will always be his obsession, but it's only until he finally starts internalizing his own issues that he's able to finally grow.

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