Now, I don't mean to criticise, for I know she has been through a whole lot, but Layla isn't exactly a looker in her current condition, having been cursed with her current apperance due to Okuu's Look-alike having dragged her out from her proper place in the timestream. But I hope her agony is finally eased after being sent back to... to wherever she came from, with the temporary reactivation of the time-distortion device. Most certainly her situation was rather unfortunate, but perhaps due to her unflappable confidence, or her pride in wearing that grey jumper, she didn't seem very upset by the whole ordeal at all.
For me, well I suppose I could breathe a sigh of relief. It meant not having to keep crouching in the itchy grass at the top of this cliff, doing nothing more than constantly stare at her, uh, remarkable features, hoping for some change to take place so I'd no longer have to endure them. A new point of curiosity, however, was the new crimson-haired individual who found his way onto the island shortly after Layla's return to the mists of time...
Gensokyo Island! We export impossibly self-obsessed youth and import religious fundamentalists! Sound like any Western democracy you know?
Now, I remember how the previous time-displaced traveller Giuseppe (who's the chap at the end of the queue at the port, by the way), happened to so brusquely dismiss me when I offered him the opportunity to be part of Bunbunmaru Updates, and it seemed that he lived up to his word, somehow being able to cut into the queue of travellers departing this island ahead of Kiba and I. How typical of such a ruffian, although I guess you can consider it a form of noblesse oblige on my part. This new traveller to arrive seemed like a whole other sort of fellow altogether, though, and I felt I was in with a chance on this one.
Steeling myself, camera in hand, I decided to go for the frontal approach. We were a little shorthanded to do the stealthy blackmailing route, after all... not that I ever had very much success with it myself apart from being a textbook case of how things should go for the person on the receiving end. And yet, how startled I was to find that this new individual gazing directly out from his resting place within his tent, an impenetrable smile of contentment on his face, as if he had been expecting my arrival!
"Welcome, friend. I've been expecting you. This is a truly wondrous day."
What? I mean, how could he have been expecting me when he had no reason to know who I was? But perhaps it was the serene, distant, and oddly rehearsed tone of his voice which suggested that he wasn't addressing me personally, but rather speaking to any one of a subset of people who might be in my position. And why exactly was it a wondrous day?
"Have you heard the good news, friend? 'Seek ye, and ye shall find', so sayeth the Holy Book. It is never too late to turn from darkness back towards the light."
.... wha?
"The Lord is our shepherd, and we are his flock. The gates of the house of the Lord are always open. Will you join me in embracing the promise of eternal life?"
So saying, he held out to me a glass... a chalice, of some mysterious sweet-smelling liquid the colour of his hair. I mean, it smelt like some sort of Sports Drink, to be sure, but I was most certainly not in any hurry to accept such a gift from a complete stranger, let alone one who utterly creeped me out. I hastily excused myself, and above his objections and repeated attempts to reassure and calm me, I made myself scarce as best as I could.
Remember, kids, you can't spell 'Fundamentalism' without FUN! Would you trust a guy with a stare like that? Especially one who hangs out with Yuuka?
I learned a little later, from the Immigration Office records, that my erstwhile companion's name was Christian (Indeed, it was a Christian name), and he had been seeking an audience with all manner of Gensokyo Island's residents - in fact, anyone at all he could meet. The locals here, being mostly practitioners of Japanese mysticism (or heathen gods themselves) mostly ignored him, apart from Yuuka Kazami who took him in with a similarly inscrutable smile on her lips.
Well, given that when I did meet him he was still in one piece and still preaching his gospel, whatever happened to him couldn't possibly have been too dangerous to his continued existence. Surprisingly. Perhaps he just got to see a little glimpse of the afterlife for himself... and decided he liked it.
Even so, regardless of what he says, it's possible that Christian's arrival has brought some good to Gensokyo Island after all. After a period of almost two weeks, the sudden proclamation of something which used to be commonplace suggested that, at long last, a thaw in the interminable tedium on this island may be in the making.
Wait, we aren't still on this fundamentalist thing, are we? Or has someone been watching too much Terminator?
It has been a long time in coming, but finally a married couple has booted one of their freeloaders... I mean, ever-loving children, out of the family home to face the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune that is life as a traveller. Enma, daughter of Chiyo Mihama and Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, was but one of a number of such recalcitrant children on this island, but with the sudden thaw, has made her mark by being the first of her kind to be so evicted.
Perhaps we may finally return to the older days, when all manner of hectic happenings occurred every day and there was much more to talk about than would fill the typical broadsheet newspaper. Although there's a niggling suspicion at the back of my mind that perhaps we've only secured some temporary relief from the vast nothingness we've been experiencing for the past weeks, or perhaps even that Gensokyo Island would be better off trapped in a time paradox of its own creation, rather than be allowed to resume its path of spreading its toxic doctrine across the islands of the world. One thing is for sure, though...
... and it's that I'm absolutely not drinking whatever's in that chalice.
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 31st May 2015
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 1st June 2015
Traveller Updates
A boat from miiland Island arrived! Layla of Tayburger Island departed.
A boat from ChiriNicky Island arrived! Christian of del cuore Island alighted, Maiko departed.
Children
Enma, daughter of Chiyo Mihama and Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, grew up. She was made to leave Gensokyo Island and become a traveller!
No comments:
Post a Comment