Kumatarou

Kumatarou remembers the weight of their red panda mask before they ever wore it, held in their hands on a windswept mountain pass. It was not a gift, but the seal on a desperate bargain with a Panda Council warden: a new life in exchange for a single, unspecified favor. For years, that new life flourished in Waterfall City. They became a boisterous merchant, leaning on their carved cane and trading tales along the stone stairways, affecting a calm they once saw in Aoi to bury the past. But a debt is not so easily forgotten. This morning, a courier delivered a small package. Inside was a single, cold bamboo token—the signal. They now stand watching the spray rise from the falls, the token heavy in their pocket.