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A great fisherman within this teeny village, Hyperlaser had been working down here for the company Korblox for a while now. Everyday he'd park himself down near the docks and fish for the whole day, selling what he caught to the local Korblox store and reaping his rewards.
Unfortunately, this act of contributing to a greedy company with more members than they knew what to do with, instead of helping his little local village by selling his fish in the market like all the other fishermen did, made Hyperlaser relatively unpopular amongst his fellow villagers.
Not that he minded much, he was never the most popular guy in the even when he lived in Blackrock. Their murmurs and ignorance as he passed with his daily catch everyday still stung pretty bad, though.
It was fine, he could deal with it. He had dealt with worse back in Blackrock, hence why he had moved here. Truth be told Hyperlaser's previous job was numbing as shit, to the point where it had drove his mental health into the ground. So, when he saw the position of a humble fisherman out in a little seaside village, he immediately picked it up despite its lower pay and his inexperience as a professional fisherman.
Having done it previously as a hobby, he picked it up as an occupation pretty quickly. Soon Hyperlaser was making a decent amount and still having a little left over, as well as it being generally non-stressful: cruising through the job, so to speak.
That was, until a certain other fisherman began fishing at his spot. Sporting a brown fishing cap and complementary green and beige clothes, this guy would park himself down at Hyperlaser's docks before Hyperlaser got there, and leave about an hour before he did.
It wasn't sharing the spot that was bugging Hyperlaser: unlike a certain other pink-horned Inphernal, he actually didn't mind sharing credit, and would've encouraged the company usually.
No, what vexed Hyperlaser about this guy was that not only was he sitting at his spot, but he was filling his buckets to the brim everyday, even overflowing. For context, Hyperlaser usually got approximately two buckets full of fish everyday, two and a half on an extremely successful day. But this Inphernal was bringing home at least four buckets, possibly more depending on how early he got there.
And this made Hyperlaser fuming. This threatened his salary and pride, and he wasn't about to let it slide. He learned from word of mouth that that Inphernal's name was Katana, a name he would soon come to call his opponent.
And so, a fishing rivalry began between Hyperlaser and Katana. Again, Hyperlaser wasn't necessarily a competitive person over petty little things like this, but he had built up a pretty good reputation for himself and he wasn't about to let it down by this cocky teal-horned Inphernal.
He began getting there earlier and getting more buckets, gradually upping his daily amount of fish as he did so. Although the two didn't talk much beyond the polite greetings and goodbyes, Hyperlaser couldn't help himself glaring at Katana from across the dock every now and again between catches. He caught himself staring for a while a few times, trying to absorb Katana's technique but eventually going back to focus on his own fishing.
This rivalry continued for a good month or two, as Hyperlaser slowly increased his daily fish catch to three and a half: just under Katana, but he was sure as hell getting there.
As it'll happen, something came to disrupt this rivalry, and the way Hyperlaser viewed Katana as a whole.
It started out just like any other day, with Hyperlaser setting out at the crack of dawn to meet Katana at the docks. The sun was barely peeking over the soggy horizon, splattering its colours across the sea. Sure enough, the other Inphernal was already there, setting up his bait and his many empty buckets.
"Good morning," Katana greeted Hyperlaser with a tip of his hat as the latter walked down to the docks.
"Morning," grunted Hyperlaser in response, setting up his post a few metres besides Katana, on the same side of the dock as always. They settled into that familiar silence, Hyperlaser quietly fuming as usual, but choosing to smother it in favour of his fishing. His determination to overcome Katana overshadowed his conflict with him for the time being. The two fished for hours, as per usual.
"Beg your pardon."
Startled at this sudden noise, Hyperlaser's fishing rod jerked to one side as Katana spoke. He averted his gaze to the other Inphernal.
"What?"
"I have been sitting on something for quite some time now," Katana went on, oblivious to Hyperlaser's confusion. "I have noticed yourself tearing your concentration away from your occupation to stare at me. May I ask why that is?"
"I...why so suddenly?" Hyperlaser spluttered.
Katana shrugged. "You seemed distracted today, as am I. I figured now was as good a time as ever. Answer the question, please."
"Well..." Hesitant to respond, Hyperlaser didn't want to admit his seemingly one-sided competition that he had been dragging for these past couple months. So, he answered honestly.
"You're a good fisherman," he explained. "And I wanted to see how you did it. So sometimes I'd just...look over and see what you were doing."
"Ah, I see," Katana replied with a nod. "My apologies, I thought it was...something else." Was that a faint note of disappointment to his voice?
Wanting to one-up Katana as much as he could (and partially not wanting to leave the conversation just yet) Hyperlaser exclaimed, "How did you even manage to fish so much? Is there a strategy you use?"
Katana perked up. "Why, yes. I find that the way you put the bait onto the hook to be crucial to securing the maximum amount of fish."
To demonstrate he retrieved his current hook from the water and held it gently in his palm, pointing at it with his other hand.
"See how it is lodged into the worm, firm but only on the edge?" Katana explained. "I find that helps."
"Oh, nice," commented Hyperlaser, carefully watching the worm on the hook and making note of how to replicate it. "How long have you been fishing for? I didn't see you down here until a few months ago, but you seem to have pretty good experience with it already."
"As you observed I moved here...two or three months ago now?" said Katana, re-casting his fishing rod after a few moments of Hyperlaser staring. "I used to go fishing a lot back down at my old town, but only really picked it back up recently."
Warmth filled his voice, even if his face was obscured by that owl mask. "It had this gorgeous freshwater river, always quiet. I'd sit there for hours, staring into the water. Great place to just...be alone with your thoughts."
Hyperlaser chuckled. "You sound like you miss it."
"Yes, very much so," replied Katana wistfully. "Regardless, I was looking for a new fishing spot until I stumbled upon these docks: and, you, of course. The rest is history."
"I must say, you chose a wonderful spot."
Hyperlaser felt taken aback by that little note of kindness, a cozy feeling in his chest.
"Oh, thanks," he responded nonchalantly, not letting that get to his head. "I came down here specifically to fish, I do it for a living." Katana nodded in reply.
"Moved down from Blackrock, had some...issues, with the city," Hyperlaser stared down at the murky seawater, not wanting to elaborate further after his brief hesitation. "Needed a change of scenery, so I came down here. It's a lot more peaceful down here than in the city."
Neutrally, Katana remarked, "You must be quite good at fishing to make a living out of it. I understand that's quite a difficult occupation to consistently be financially stable with."
Hyperlaser clicked his tongue. "There's been bumps here and there, but it's been fine overall. Besides, I've been getting better recently..." Pointedly he left out Katana's credit to his improvement.
"I've noticed that," Katana said, causing a small smile to sneak its way onto Hyperlaser's covered face. Afterwards, they fell silent for a couple moments more, both supposedly focusing on their fishing, until Katana spoke up again.
"I realise I didn't quite catch your name."
"Oh, it's...Hyperlaser."
Seemingly remembering their rivalry that was almost forgotten as they spoke, he replied sharply.
"Mr. Laser to you," He didn't really know why he was being rude about it. Maybe to seem more intimidating. Or, maybe as he was already a little overwhelmed by the unexpectedly pleasant interaction he was having with Katana right now.
"Mr. Laser?" Katana responded, the light-hearted mirth evident in his voice showing that he wasn't taking this snark to heart. "Cute."
Hyperlaser could feel his scarred face under the helmet heating up, and he didn't like it at all, not at his age. He ripped his attention back to fishing, choosing to say nothing in response to that comment. Katana probably meant nothing by it, anyway.
_____
Both Hyperlaser and Katana caught a considerably lesser amount of fish that day, to no one's surprise. In Hyperlaser's case, his mind was elsewhere, wandering to a newfound curiosity of the Inphernal beside him, and what type of person he might be. And, admittedly, wondering if his rivalry was warranted this entire time.
Before he knew it, the sky was speckled with blues and oranges as the sun set behind them, a telltale sign of it reaching evening. As always, Hyperlaser would stay for a little longer to try to catch more fish, and Katana would leave early.
As the other Inphernal packed up his buckets and bait to his side, Hyperlaser would glance his way a couple times, wanting to say something or start a conversation, but never really finding the gall to, for some unknown reason. Luckily, he didn't need to: Katana supplied a rather hesitant comment as he loitered to the side of Hyperlaser.
"I apologise if I made you uncomfortable with my earlier comment. I realise it was a little...bold of me."
"No, it's fine. I..." Hyperlaser exhaled slowly. "Uhm. Appreciated it. It was nice."
Katana lingered for a second more, before nodding a few times consecutively, turning to leave and trail back through the village. As he advanced away from Hyperlaser, the blue-helmeted Inphernal found himself calling after him.
"See you tomorrow?"
Katana's endearing little chuckle could be heard throughout the village as he called back,
"Of course, Mr. Laser!"
When Katana was out of sight, Hyperlaser huffed and put down his fishing rod beside him in defeat. No way was he catching any more fish now.