監
憾
緩 - Slacken
At a summer matsuri, a wandering samurai gets Slacken when he sees a flock suddenly abducted mid-flight, one duck tugging the others back into line - like a too-tight rope being pulled.
He laughs, loosens his yukata sash, and watches a bright red lantern sway on a silky Thread, drifting slower and slower until it almost stops.
The crowd chants “ゆるゆる,” that onomatopoeia for slack and sway, and the samurai thinks: ah, this is what it means to Slacken - let the Thread ease, release the abducted pull, and relax into the night.
