Pied Piper Chronicles - Part 1: Gun-toting Photographer with a Red Eye

[Note to readers: Just a little bit of harmless fun. All factual inaccuracies are intended.]

Hoshino was a photographer with a gun, which he kept hidden in a holster underneath his overcoat. He was a gun-toting photographer with a slight mutation that grafted into his left socket, a single, crimson iris, which was absolutely no use to him or his unsatiated romance for uncovering the mysterious. It was of no help in anything before, and it was of no help as he sat cross-legged on the tatami mats inside the village head's humble abode, nursing a cup of tea, and tried his best to ignore as the latter questioned him on his "red eye."

"Is that a red eye you've got there?" the old man asked with a quizzical brow. The village head, a small shrunken man with dark, plum eyes regarded him curiously over the table. His wispy-white sideburns rustled as he spoke.

Hoshino cleared his throat. His eyes darted nervously toward the only other person in the room, but unfortunately for him, Midori's gaze was fixed on her hands, which lay folded neatly on her lap.

"Yes, it is," he replied, transfixed on her soft, delicate hands.

"I ain't never set sights on nobody with a eye so red before."

"It's a mutation from birth," sauntered in a third voice. It was Midori. Her eyes were brown and apologetic.

"A red eye!" snorted the village head in disbelief.

"What does that have to do with the subject at hand?" Hoshino asked through clenched teeth.

"I don't know about you," - the village head addressed Midori, - "but I ain't never trusted
no man with a red eye before. Well, I've seen red eyes, but not of this nature."

"Look..." Hoshino began, while at the same moment, the village chief said, "It's just, he's almost a freak of ---"

"Chief," Midori interrupted, "Hoshino is capable of doing the job because he has a gun."

The village head settled back onto his cushion and retrieved a pipe from the inside of his worn coat, while Hoshino scowled from his corner of the table.

Hoshino hated it when people mentioned his gun even more than his red iris. Nobody had a red iris, and nobody else (at least no one without money) had a gun, and if they could take anything away from him, it certainly wasn't going to be his red eye.