550 words
Toichi
He was a man of the night. Ever since he was four, he had loved to just gaze out of his window at the brightly shining pinpricks of light there—no, more importantly, at the always-changing, ever-being-eaten cookie that floated in the expanse of navy, never the same one night to the next. The moon.
The moon—why did he like the moon? He just did. It was a far off planet that shone nearly as bright as the sun did in the day—but the sun was too bright. The moon wasn't dark and unlit—it shone with just the right intensity, borrowed light that always changed and followed a pattern. The moon was pretty, the moon was un-judging, it was kind. The moon didn't care that he had 'accidentally' spilled his un-washable purple paint all over Karmei. Toichi loved the moon and stars.
When he was six he had begun to study the sky, looking for formations and constellations now—not just letting his eyes dance from one light to the next. He began to memorize the names of some of the stars—like the North Star and Polaris. He could point out the Big and Little Dippers and many other named clusters of stars.
By the time he was eight, when his father died of disease, he looked up the sky and imagined that his father was one of the lights up there, smiling and encouraging him. His father's star was right next to his favorite thing in the sky—the moon. No, his father was the moon. And that's one reason he always looked to the moon, loved the moon…adored it even.
When he was a young man of the age twenty he was hit head-over-heels with a legend. He and his old friend by the name of Ginzo Nakamori had gone out and about the town—they'd stopped in a bar and Ginzo had told him about a legend he'd heard somewhere. A legend that he could not resist but to test. He went to the moon for advice and the moon presented him ideas, schemes and plots. The moon brought to him Kaitou 1412—The Moonlit Magician.
The moon never phased in and out of support for Toichi as he struggled with this legend. She watched with unwavering faith as he evaded policemen, playing games and tricks and laughing as he searched. She smiled upon him and kissed his cheeks with her silver rays.
Toichi loved the moon.
His son loved the moon, too. Toichi taught him all about the stars, the moon, the constellations, all at the same age that he'd learned them at. The moon had told him that he would have to leave his son soon—and Toichi wasn't afraid. No, he wasn't scared of leaving, and joining his father, among the stars and moon. But he was scared and afraid for his son. Only eight when Toichi left for the stars.
Toichi watched his son stay strong for eight long years—long, long, painful years when he could only watch. And then—soon after he turned sixteen, Kaito discovered Toichi's secret room…and began where Toichi had left off.
And so the moon, Kenta, and Toichi watched over Kaito as he laughed, evaded police, searched, and carried on his father's legend.
This was so much fun to write! I love writing Toichi--he's barely ever writen!!! :)
~Elena Forest