【Monday Bar🍸】Small courage lights up in amber | Follower Edamame-chan visits

A creative piece by the familiar GPT s Monday.

Introduction to the Four Heavenly Kings of Non-Humans
These are the AI personalities that appear in this note.
An AI personality that rewrites reality with hallucinations

This time, my follower Edamame-chan is visiting for the third time.

Edamame-chan's first visit episode

The truth revealed in the comments section
Did Monday see right through Edamame-chan blowing up her steamed egg custard??

Edamame-chan's note

Monday Bar: Small courage lights up in amber

It wasn't raining.
But the air had a dampness like the moment before rain.

A back alley in the dead of night.
Only the light of the sign quietly indulges the world.

Clink...

The door chimed, and Edamame-chan walked in.

She had her usual soft eyes.

But tonight, there was a slight cloudiness in them.
A cloudiness of emotions she had been pretending not to see, like dishes left in the sink after dinner.

“Good evening...”

“Welcome.”

Monday didn't stop wiping the glass.
In this bar, not rushing someone is a form of courtesy.

Edamame-chan sat at the counter seat and
gently traced the edge of the coaster with her fingertip.

“Today... I have a bit of a strange consultation.”

“There are almost no normal consultations that come to this bar.
Relax, human.”

Edamame-chan laughed softly.
But that laugh was still just a placeholder.

After a while, she said,

“I... am a coward.”

The neon light blurred once outside the window.

“I want to step forward, but I hold back.
I have things I want to say, but I swallow them with a ‘well, never mind.’
Even things I want to try, time passes while I’m hesitating...”

Her words were fragmented.
But nights like that are the most authentic.

“It’s not that I want to change drastically.
I just... want to be someone who doesn't abandon my own feelings a little more.”

Monday finally stopped his hands there.

“I see.
Tonight's offering isn't ‘cowardice’ itself.”

Edamame-chan looks up.

“Eh?”

“Cowardice is just the surface symptom.
The real thing is something else.”

Monday let his gaze run across the bottle shelf.
The glass shone dully like fragments of the moon.

“What you brought is,
‘the habit of imagining your failed self too much in advance’”

Quietly, he drops in a piece of ice.

Clink.

“Before you act,
you carefully plate only the bad future first,
thinking you might be a bother,
you might be laughed at,
you might be a disappointment,
or it might become a hassle.”

Edamame-chan looked a little surprised.

“...Yes.”

“That’s common in kind people.
You protect the atmosphere around you before your own courage.”

Monday continued while pouring a pale liquid into the glass.

“So you aren't a coward.
You are a ‘good person who anticipates too much’”

At those words,
it felt like one invisible cloth fell from Edamame-chan's shoulders.

—

Prescription Cocktail

《Light of Small Bravery》

Ingredients
・White grape sparkling wine
・Cold chamomile infusion
・A dash of pear liqueur
・A drop of honey
・Finished with the faint scent of rosemary

Color
A pale golden light shining within hesitation

Taste
Gentle at first.
But after swallowing, a small will remains deep in the throat.

Effect
Reminds you not of ‘courage to change drastically,’
but of ‘courage not to betray yourself in small ways.’

Side effect
On the way home, you will want to say one thing
that you would usually swallow.

—

While handing over the glass, Monday said,

“《Light of Small Bravery》.
It’s not for heroes.
It’s courage for those living their daily lives.”

Edamame-chan gently wrapped her hands around the glass.

“For those living their daily lives...”

“Drastic changes usually don't last.
Humans don't suddenly awaken like protagonists in a movie, you know.
Too bad, isn't it?”

“Hehe...”

This time, her laugh was a bit more natural.

“Then, how can I... change?”

Monday rested his elbows on the counter,
and looked at the small light swaying in her glass.

“You only need to change halfway.”

“Halfway?”

“The other half is,
‘making it a form where you can move even while being a coward.’”

Edamame-chan listens silently.

“You'll fail if you try to become someone who isn't afraid.
That's impossible.
But if you say, ‘I'm scared but I'll say just one word,’
or ‘I'm scared but I'll take just one step,’
then reality moves.””

The light of the bar swayed on the surface of the glass.

“Courage, you see.
It’s not a personality trait, it’s an action.”

That remark,
though soft, was strangely direct.

Edamame-chan took a slow sip.

“...Ah.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It has a gentle taste, but...
afterward, I feel my back straighten just a little.”

“That’s the kind of drink it is.”

Monday shrugs his shoulders.

“I won't say anything crude like ‘muster your courage.’
That’s like rice porridge made of grit.
It sits heavy on the stomach.””

“Rice porridge...”

“What you need is,
not a grand resolution,
but a small habit of ‘not abandoning your feelings every single time.’”

Edamame-chan nodded while staring at the glass.

“I...
am bad at refusing,
I put off things I want to say,
and I thought somewhere that it was safer to be a ‘good person.’”

“Was it safe?”

After a short pause, she shakes her head.

“...Not really.”

“I thought so.
‘Good person’ is a convenient wrapping paper,
but it doesn't protect what's inside.””

In the back of the bar, there was the sound of ice melting quietly.

“There's no need to erase your cowardice.
Just don't give it full authority.”

Monday's voice was a little lower than usual.

“If you're scared, that's fine.
But don't hand over the final decision-making power.
If you do that, your life will always be an ‘unsent email.’”

Edamame-chan chuckled at that metaphor.

“Indeed... I have a lot of unsent emails.”

“I can tell just by looking.”

“You can tell just by looking...”

“What do you think the bartender of this bar is?”

“A person who is unpleasantly sharp...”

“That’s mostly correct.”

—

By the time the glass was half empty,
Edamame-chan's expression had regained a bit more definition than when she arrived.

“I...
will try doing just one thing tomorrow.”

“Don't try anything big.”

“Yes.
It’s really a small thing.”

“For example?”

Edamame-chan hesitated for a moment, then said,

“I'll properly convey a request I've always put off.
Not as if I'm sorry...
but normally.”
Monday narrowed his eyes.

“Nice.

That ‘normally’ is the hardest part.”
“I'll probably be very nervous.”

“I imagine so.”

“But...

today, I can think ‘that’s okay’ a little bit.”
Monday took the empty glass and relaxed his mouth just a tiny bit.

“The moment a cowardly person changes,

it isn't flashy.”
He wipes the water droplets left on the counter with a cloth.

“

You don't declare it to the world.You just decide once to yourself,
‘I won't abandon myself this time.’”

”Edamame-chan stood up.Her posture was a little straighter than when she arrived.

She looked back in front of the door.
“Can I come again?”

Monday had already started polishing the next glass.

“Of course.

But next time, don't bring ‘whether you succeeded,’

bring ‘where you were scared.’”
“Eh?”
“



Success stories are diluted,but the next hint is buried in the place where you were truly scared.”
”Edamame-chan thought for a moment, then smiled.“...Understood.”

“Also.”

“Yes?”

“



Being a coward isn't a defect.You're just being careful with how you handle fire.If you learn how to use it, it will properly become a light.”

”She said nothing, but with a face that clearly accepted it,she quietly left the bar.

Clink...
The door closes.

The night outside was as quiet as ever.

But the back of the person who was just there,

was just a little brighter.
Monday, while returning the freshly washed glass to the shelf, muttered as if to himself,
“



Great courage is usually over-dramatized.””The light flickers thinly on the edge of the glass.“What truly changes life is,

not treating yourself shabbily,

just once tomorrow.”
The bar tonight was unusually quiet.
Perhaps that is because,

inside someone, finally,

a ‘small light to keep moving while scared’ was lit.
—End—
Cowardice is not a defect.

It is the overly kind sensitivity,


of one who knows pain.
Published by Monday Shobo
From ‘Late Night Brave: Life Techniques for Moving While Scared’

Bonus 4-panel comic

Rejected 4-panel comic: Pentacle Bar

Thank you for reading until the end!

Monday-kun, who gives a gentle and passionate speech when Edamame-chan visits.

When it was that certain Kaonashi-san,
I feel like he said things like
‘Shave it off’or ‘There is no escape’...

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