Tokuda

Diary

TOKUDA DID NOT LOSE THE FIGHT AT FUSHIMI, he will tell you this at full volume whether you asked or not, he simply redefined the terms of engagement while flipping over a thousand vermilion torii gates like a man late for a bus that was actually a ninja's spine. The shrine keepers still talk about it in hushed tones, mostly because Tokuda will not let them talk about it in any other tone, bursting into their memory unannounced the way he burst into that sacred hush screaming his own name as a war cry until the foxes fled and the ninja, frankly, looked embarrassed for him. He was a disciplined blade once, some lifetime ago, the kind of samurai who could hold a silence like a held breath, but these days the only stillness he manages is the ten seconds before he startles himself awake shouting HAJIME at a ceiling fan. Banned from Fushimi, technically banned from several other shrines by association and vibes, Tokuda now stays inside the Dojo where he has appointed himself permanent, unpaid, unbelievably loud head of security. He tells the younger fighters he is training them in discipline, then demonstrates discipline by challenging the vending machine to a duel and losing, again, gloriously, at the top of his lungs.