It's a lovely morning in Koi...

Oh! Oh! It is present receiving time! The Goose still does not understand the reason for it, does not comprehend the idea of holidays, but they what they do understand is… that they’re being given things, and that’s all that matters to them.

The Goose poses regally in their newfound cloak, struts a few steps forward! The corn is eyed greedily, and the Goose sticks head in, devouring all–

Wait, they step back? They’ve left some? They look at the little Duck. It seems, that they’ve left some for her to have as well…! It’s only about a tenth of what was originally there, but it’s something!

You know, Hiroto was never really fond of the appearance of Geese. He found them ugly. Loud and obnoxious but…Maybe he could make an exception for this one. It was still ugly but in a cute kind of way.  He just hopes this one didn’t crap everywhere.

His eyes widen as he watches the Goose comes closer, he almost feels joy for a moment until an unsighted snowball topples the bird over.

“HEY! Watch where you’re throwing your snowballs!”

Hiroto yells out towards the direction the snowball came from before making his way over to the goose, kneeling down and brushing the snow off from its feathers carefully. He makes sure that he’s keeping a distance, in case it gets up out of fright.

Once the snow was cleared, his hand slid into the traditional garbs he wore, pulling out a pouch. From the purple pouch, a couple of walnuts were pulled out and crushed in his hand, Hiroto soon threw those into the snow in front of the Goose, figuring the snow would help water the crushed walnuts down.

“Some people can be careless… But here, you hungry? I only got walnuts but the snow should make them easier to eat, Goose-san.”

For everything annoying that the Goose does, pooping everywhere is not one of them, so Hiroto’s in luck. Though if he voiced his opinion about them being cute in an ugly sort of way, the Goose would probably just stare at them; after all, to a bird, the one who looks strange are the no-wingeds.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Goose is currently not in the position to judge harshly. Once the shock of the impact settles, they flap wings desperately, trying to right themselves upwards! Someone touches them, and at first they flap harder, but they settle slightly when they realise the hands are simply wiping the snow away.

When they finish, and the Goose gets themselves upright, they turn their head around furiously, as if searching for the culprit-- eyes find Hiroto first, of course, but even the Goose knows when someone helps them, so that no-winged is scratched off the suspect list immediately-- though whoever threw it seems to have long gone, chasing after their friends and possibly not even aware of their cruel misdeed. 

Indignant, and slightly sore, the Goose honks in the general direction the snowball had come from. Curse! Curse! Curse upon you and all your offspring! May your bread be soggy and your seeds empty! 

Once they’re satisfied-- or, rather, once Hiroto pulls out something even more interesting that pointless yelling --the Goose lifts their beak up, questioning expression as they watch the no-winged remove something from their clothing and smash it between their hands. Head tilts, and bird edges slightly towards the ground where the crushed walnuts are dropped.

Honk...? Honk...? 

The Goose awaits at the exit, with a stolen hand warmer in mouth that is delivered promptly to comrade. The Blade Master has been eliminated from the strange no-winged battle royale, but, personally, the Goose thinks it’s a bit of a sham anyway.

(Tthe Goose tried to make a snowball, but... It didn’t work out well. Curse their lack of hands! Curse!)

He tries his best to ignore the goose standing in the bushes, he really does, yet after a few more bites of his sandwich he sees a white blur moving quite rapidly towards him. Looking in the direction of the blur, he quickly jumps onto the bench, grabbing the rest of his sandwich seconds prior— as if jumping up onto the bench would manage to stop a rogue goose on the hunt for a sandwich.

“Hey, hey, hey! No! Bad! This is mine! Shoo, shoo!” He shouts, holding both sandwich halves in the air as he balanced on one leg, trying to shoo the goose away with the other. It was surely a recipe for disaster, especially if he lost his balance, yet like hell he was going to hand his lunch over to a rogue goose!

Blur almost meets target-- innocent boy just trying to enjoy his lunch-- but they shout and jump up unto the bench they’d been seated on with only moments to spare. 

Momentum is hard to stop, so the Goose digs their feet into the ground but still finds themself running and falling just a little bit past the bench. They’d intended to do a body slam, it seems, and had thrown all of their weight behind it.

They only stay dazed for less than a second, before jumping up and swivelling their head around like some beast from a horror movie, bleating honks of indignation before they scramble back over closer to the bench and--

The Goose, though they do not understand the idea of festivities and holidays, has seen many bells and sparkly things around Koi lately. 

Something to do with a fat no-winged? Wearing feathers on their face? Giving things to people other than the Goose? Honestly, it seems ludicrous to the bird, but… The moment someone gives them a present, they’re very much for the season.

The Goose opens beak wide! Shock! Awe! A sparkly crinkly box has been bestowed upon them! Long honk comes from them, moment of peace, before…

They descend. Paper is thrown across the room. Bow finds itself stuck on foot, somehow, but they do not seem cowed. Chaos ensues for several minutes, before the Goose plomps down on their new pile of paper scraps. 

Such a lovely gi—

Hang on? There’s something sharp in their new nest? They honk again, take a step back, and push the scraps away to find…

Another sharp!!!!!!!! Oh, how pleased are they! The Goose sings! They seemed to have been under the impression the wrapping itself was their present, and are pleasantly surprised by this revelation! 

Oh, she had noted that much, feathered companion clearly had no intentions of harming her ( which is a relief, since she is aware of how much that would hurt! )— that said, she doesn’t want to accidentally cause that situation, nor does she want to reflexively hurt Goose without meaning to.

That aside, no amount of convincing will get girl to budge on her position that easily. She doesn’t want either side getting hurt, pacifistic soul just wants both sides to be happy; though unfortunately, that is easier said than done. “Yeah, but…I dunno, it just doesn’t seem right. Plus they’re probably at an advantage…” She’s not reassured very much at all by the honking, because even if her fellow avian is strong, that does not mean that they are stronger than the humans and their technology.

Uncomfortable might be just a tiny bit of an understatement to describe the current circumstances, and Ahiru wishes she might have the words to better explain why she’s not so big on the idea of removing the sign. Really, she doesn’t have any desire of getting in trouble either, and it’s hard to think of a solution that might please everyone…

“Well…” A thoughtful pause, a bite of her lip. “Well, I guess that might be ‘kay. But how’re we gonna replace it? P-Plus, if someone sees us mess with the sign, they might not be so happy…”

The Goose, contrarily, does not want no-winged to get hurt, but instead just does not register when they are. Oh, of course, obvious moments arise-- bird recognises red as pain, feels some sense of pity-- but for the most part, body language between species is so different that of course sense of morality does not connect precisely either. 

Little Duck feels differently, and though the Goose does not quite understand (does not recognise her form and experiences, does not wonder why the no-winged treat the little Duck so much differently, thinks it because of her young age), the Goose does their best to work around it nonetheless.

Older bird is silent while little Duck thinks it over, and tilts beak upward to watch small one carefully. Though agreement is reached after a few moments, new predicament arises, and the Goose takes a few steps forward, turns, and paces for a while, still quiet. 

Strange sight, perhaps, cogs turning in bird’s mind. Then, a honk!

We shall use those strange mud sticks and sticky leaves! We shall make a new, better sign! One that protects birds as well as no-winged! 

Pillows? Pillows? Pillows are evil. The Goose has seen the truth.

Samurai leaps a bit over the bird’s loud honking over certain words, but smiles when it waddles up, displaying it’s own (plastic) blade. ❝ Fufun, it seems you have good taste, Goose-dono. ❞ Souma was still unsure if there could be a mutual understanding, but it seemed to understand him if he said ‘blade’ or ‘katana’. He thought on it for a moment, before making a motioning wiith his hand and began walking toward where he was headed before the encounter. ❝ Join me in cleaning my blade? I promise to refine the one you carry as well! ❞ 

The Goose does not seem to notice the Blade Master’s response to their loud outbursts, far too focused on both their Knife Of Many Cuts and the Blade Master’s sleek katana.

An appreciative eye! Praise for the Goose’s weapon falls from their compatriot’s mouth, and the Goose bobs their head alongside a honk as if to return the compliment in kind.

The Goose remembers their goal in approaching the Blade Master, and goes to open their beak and inquire about blade upkeep, but...

No words need be spoken between fellow blade enthusiasts, the Blade Master understands instinctually and motions with their hand whilst the Goose follows, still walking with their head high and Knife Of Many Cuts on display.

They get a few incredulous looks.

Ango cooed out loud when the feathered creature’s and the swan boat’s beaks touch, fleetingly thinking about how amazing nature can be sometimes. He fails to realize that this goose, this one particular goose, is no ordinary goose but the embodiment of pure chaos. While that moment is very wholesome, it can be very startling when they suddenly scream (honk?) on your face. 

Surprised that the goose is trying to get inside the boat, Ango tries to calls after it though… How do people call geese? He can’t make that ‘wswswswsws’ noise like when he’s trying to pet a stray cat, can he? Oh, screw dignity, he’s going in and talk to the goose.

“Hey! Uh, goose?? Birdy?? Come here I have uh…” Should he offer them his lunch? Is it okay for geese to eat bread? He reads somewhere that white bread is bad for water fowls so is wholegrain okay? “You can have some bread if you want.” And leave the poor guys alone, maybe.

Cacophony of noises surround the Goose. From inside poor enslaved bird, comes cries of confusion and terror! From the bank comes... offerings of food? Momentarily head cranes back to look, find no-winged wearing glasses-- finally, the Goose seems to have realised that not everyone wearing glasses is the Boy-- but turns back attention to their quest.

First and foremost, they must rescue their new friend!

With that in mind, they honk, and somehow manage to successfully climb into the boat, immediately beginning to flap wings and wield sharp spurs to assault the occupants. Feathers fly, hats are lost and though it is hard to see through the chaos, after a few moments...

It seems Ango has witnessed... A murder most fowl.