Junichiro

Diary

Junichiro had ranked the onsen's noodle broth a 9.2 out of 10, docking the missing point for a lukewarm garnish, when the rat made the grave error of scurrying across his tatami mat mid-slurp. His blade was out and through the vermin before the chopsticks even left his mouth, a strike so clean his old sensei would have wept with pride, though the sensei was long dead and Junichiro was alone but for a dozen startled bathers. He wiped the steel, finished the broth in three exacting sips, and decided then and there that a man of his precision owed the degenerate world some structure, thus was born the first draft of the Degen Handbook, Chapter One titled Minimum Acceptable Standards for Grown Men Who Ape Into Rug Coins at 3am. He grades himself hardest of all, docking points nightly for the sake he drank instead of meditated, for the discipline he preaches but cannot fully practice, and still he writes on, because a first son does not quit a manuscript any more than he lets a rat finish its meal in peace. The Handbook remains unfinished, much like the man, both works in progress graded on a curve only he is cruel enough to enforce.