Heās making a racket and a fool of himself again.
This time though, heās outside of a temple, having just sat with himself in silence for a few moments and said his prayers before exiting.
The chunin stops just outside of the double wooden doors and looks to his immediate right. A set of giant, wide eyes donāt meet his gaze and instead stay frozen to the tori gate at the mouth of the stone steps.
Komainu, guardian to the temple, stays ever vigilant in its duties, huge fangs on proud display from its partially opened maw. Itās well maintained and even more well loved, no sign of algae growing anywhere on its visage yet the tops of its paws have been worn smooth from being lovingly rubbed and patted by generations upon generations of worshippers.
Kotetsu is among them now, fingertips gliding around in the smoothed out bowl on its right paw, marveling at how much more coarse the stone is in comparison to its beard or cheeks. Thatās when his eyes move to an object of interest; a ball, made of stone, dyed red by ancient copper powder and trapped in the cage of the lion-dogās long canines- the treasured pearl the statue was made to protect from evil spirits.
He looks over one shoulder, then the other, then checks the inside of the temple to make sure it was truly just him and the shrine maiden left on the temple grounds, before he reaches a hand up toward the loose stone and pinches it with all the strength he can muster in his right hand.
The Kamizuki compound is littered with many of the same statue- some carved from wood or marble and decoratively flaked with colorful paints or a simple gold trim. He remembers trying to steal the jewels from those statues mouths too, but never succeeded.
He destroyed a statue once, just to get what he wanted, but once the statue was left in ruins and what he held in his hands was far less remarkable than what it seemed like within the statueās jaws, the guilt and disappointment set in quick.
Kotetsu knew better now though, having grown from a young 7 year old boy into the 28 year old chunin he was now, but old habits died hard.
He couldnāt help but try his hand at this silly puzzle he knew had only one solution: quit trying before he embarrassed himself!
The grinding of stone on stone and his grunts of effort werenāt exactly quiet though.
