Nabuki

Nabuki sells the most delicate, sugar-dusted rice cakes in all of The Great Panda City, and they do so with a face painted for glorious, bloody battle. Customers approach their stall with the caution one might use to disarm an imperial trap. They ask for a sweet bun, and Nabuki stares them down, eyes narrowed to menacing slits, before carefully wrapping the purchase in a soft bamboo leaf. The Panda Council has a file on them, mostly filled with conflicting theories. Is it a silent protest? A forgotten oath? A really, *really* bad skin condition? Once, a young chimp asked them what the red stripes were for. Nabuki leaned in close, their whiskers twitching, and whispered, "They keep the flies off the dumplings." Was it a joke? With that face, who could possibly tell?