The Chronicles of Jin and Le Fou
Running…. Breathing fast…. Left here, then right…. Got to loose them quickly…. Damn, how did they find me again?.... Not much farther now…. And more importantly, why did they have to resist?.... Hehe… That's probably how they found me…. Follow the people running away screaming….
"There he is! Get him!" Damn, more of them…. Where to go now?... There! Got to jump, crate, horse, against the wall and on the roof and then I'll escape easily… Almost there… 10 more metres… crate… Why is the damn horse moving?....*BOINK*… Against the wall alright… "We got him now!"
"Oh my god, are you alright?" a woman ask. "Yeah, you see those people running towards me?" I say as I position myself so that she's in between. "Well yes, what's.." TERROR! And I jump through the window while the woman is running towards the men.
"Who are y…" Terror! "What do y…" Terror!
If I wasn't running this would be fun… Need to find the exit… A door… Bathroom… "WHAAA!" Ugh ugly! Self terror!... Next door… Outside again, water, a boat, seems like a good hiding place and right on time, they're almost at the door as well… Wait for it… 3… 2… 1… *BOINK* That's got to hurt, poor door. Now, time to check out where that boat is going to… And where better to find the captain then in the nearest pub.
The pub is very crowded but on the far end I spot a table with only a few important looking people. While I'm trying to get there I remember this is the very same pub I was in last week, they had a very lovely waitress here which I promised something… If I could only remember what it was. Behind me a couple of pissed off guys enter the pub as well and curse loudly as they see me. I give the meanest looking guy around me a couple of avatar and tell him those guys have a lot more of it and continue towards the table.
When I'm almost there someone at my left says "Hey, you came back to fulfil your promise?" "Well yes of course" I say while I take a nearly full bottle of rum from the table and cast blackout on the owner of the bottle before he can respond. "Here have a drink while I search my pockets, I have something for you." But as soon as she starts drinking I cast paralyse on her and a terror on the guy who doesn't remember how he got in the bar and take his place.
I introduce myself as Fungijl to the captain sitting right in front of me and tell him I want to make a little boat trip. He takes a sip of his gin and takes a good look around. He sees half of his crew fighting with some strangers, a very beautiful yet paralysed waitress getting drunk, his second in command running away scared and the entire place nearly trashed.
"It seems I need a new second in command" he says and tosses me a full bottle and even though I resist blackout magic I don't remember much of the night. The few things I do remember is that his name was Tonic and he drinks gin or his name was Jin and he drinks tonic.
The next morning I wake up, stand up and stretch while I look at the ocean in front of me. I seem to have fallen asleep on deck. Behind me Jin is also getting up but he isn't as relaxed as me. He jumps up startled, looks around quickly, falls back on his knees and turns his face towards the sky screaming "NOOOOO!" The seagulls fly away scared, the crew jumps up, the sailor in the crow nest falls out and somewhere far away we hear wolves howling.
It seems we took the wrong boat. None of the people on the boat look anything like yesterdays crew. They all wear long brown cloaks and do their work in silence. They either seem to be ignoring us or are all deaf because it's impossible not to have heard Jin screaming. I take a seat on a barrel while Jin is trying to calculate how far we could be from the harbour. On the other side one of the men in cloaks is approaching.
"May I ask what you are doing on our ship?" the cloaked figure asks. "Right now, I'm enjoying the fine weather and my friend is freaking out. Could you tell us where we're headed?" But before the cloaked figure can respond Jin's saying: "My hat! I need to find my hat! I want to marry her! How will I find her again?"
The cloaked figure stares at Jin in complete confusion and asks me if he's okay. "Well, usually I'm the one responsible for weird stuff but I have nothing to do with this. I'm innocent! I haven't done anything... yet." Jin turns towards him and asks where we're headed and who they are on which the figure responds "We're The Brotherhood of Love and we're working for world peace. Since our abbey had been destroyed we've build this ship out of its remains and now we can more easily spread the word of love throughout the world."
Now it's Jin's turn to stare in confusion and I whisper to him "Watch out where you sleep tonight because you don't want to wake up next to one of them. Who knows what they'll do when you sleep." Jin opens his mouth and closes it again not knowing what to say for a moment and I add "But whatever happens at night, remember I'll be innocent."
"Let's just start over, I'm Brother Love and you are?" after which Jin opens his mouth a second time trying to utter a sound but nothing comes out so I say: "This is my friend Jin and I'm innocent. I'm sorry, I'm Fungijl and do you perhaps have a spare hat for my friend. He seems to be in dire need of one."
Jin finally seems to be able to snap out of it and says "No I don't need a new hat, I want my old one, or better said, the one wearing it. She's a gorgeous woman and I'm about to marry her but now I'm here and she's there and I really…" "Stop right there!" Says Brother Love "This is a job for The Brotherhood of Love! We'll help you retrieve the love of your life so you can shower her with your love!" He turns towards his fellow brothers and screams "Brothers! raise the Love-flag! We're on a mission now! This young lad is looking for a beautiful woman with a hat! My Brothers, come over here to greet our passengers and shower them with love like only our Brotherhood can!"
Terror! Terror! Terror! Oh god, there's just too many of them… Terror! "Protect me Jin!" Terror! Nooo… He got me… Wait… He's only hugging… Please don't do anything else… Oh god, another one… I can't cast like this… Oh wait… This is not so bad… This is actually not bad at all… What's that hard thing down there?.... Don't think… It'll be over soon… Oh no, one from behind… Another hard thing down there… This can't be happening…Why me?... I'm still so young…. They probably like that…Finally, they're letting go…
"My Brothers, take your holy book and let's chant for them for they will find true love on their path." And with these words all the Brothers take a big hard book from down there and start singing together in a strange language "Vrolijke vrolijke vrienden, vrolijke vrienden dat zijn wij…"
After an entire evening of chanting, hugging and drinking their self brewed beer we get a room appointed to us. One without brothers but with a doctor called Doctor Love which is in my opinion not much safer…
The next morning I'm surprised I'm still fine and not hurting in special places. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Jin, he slept on a couple of those books or at least, that's his explanation. So I walk and Jin limps to Brother Love and decide our route. Jin tells us his hat went to Peace Island and has a day headstart on us. Brother Love turns the wheel immediately and we start the pursuit. Everybody works as hard as possible and I help them get on their position faster by casting terror every time they have to move.
After a few days some strange things happened on the ship. Some of the brothers seem to be behaving more and more strange, even for their behaviour. Brother Love is getting worried because apparently not even his brothers usually go surfing in the sea while they're sailing or make a swimming pool on deck or go hugging the mast. I'm sitting on my favourite barrel enjoying the view as Jin approaches.
"The weirdest are those brothers thinking they're butterflies. Have you ever seen something like that?" he asks me. "Oh, only about once every month or so. It's probably my influence again. Next they'll be dancing in big circles and playing terror tennis." I say very seriously but Jin thinks I'm joking and he goes off to the back of the ship saying "I'll go ask Brother Love, somebody got to invest this."
I remain there writing some stuff down in my diary, thinking about the last few years. I've been on the run for so long, never being able to stay in one place for too long. They always seem to find me and now that my influence spreads so easily it's gotten even harder to remain hidden. Jin doesn't seem to get influenced which is a good thing because he's a fun guy. Maybe we should travel together for a while. It's been a long time since I've been in the same company for longer as a week. Funny, he's searching for his marriage while I'm running for mine.
Over the next few days the brothers act even stranger, actually even dancing in circles and playing terror tennis with each other, exactly as I predicted. The only two who don't seem to be joining are Jin and me. Even Brother Love has his occasional burst of madness. Jin and I are sitting on a couple of barrels talking about the events like we've been doing every evening now. This is the last night on the ship, tomorrow we'll arrive at a harbour to get some more provisions for the rest of the journey.
"So what will you do when you get out of this madhouse?" I ask him. "I'm going to the local pub, trying to find some sane people with a boat and a decent wine. It's been too long since I've tasted a really good one. How about you? Have you figured out where you want to go to?" "I dunno." I reply. "Maybe I'll go with you to Peace Island, the Brothers have convinced me I need some inner peace but they're not doing a very good job." He smiles at these words but I don't know if it's because I'll join him or because I said I was going to look for inner peace on that Island.
The next morning we land at the harbour and the Brothers jump out of the boat before it's actually tied to the quay. They run around crazy and every person they meet they stop and open their cloak. Apparently they're not wearing anything anymore underneath it. Jin and I toss a coin and ultimately decide he goes looking for food and water for the trip and I look for a new crew. If the Brothers don't regain their senses the next morning they're not going to need their ship anyway. So I set out to the nearest pub. Every couple of steps somewhere in the city someone screams when they see a Brother passing by.
Later that day, almost evening Jin arrives at the pub. "I found food and water for the trip but it's not much because my ship bought most of it yesterday. How did your search go?" He asks me so I stand up, get on the table and give a sign to some people to come closer. I tell him not to worry about the food because the crew I found eats less as a normal crew. He gives me a weird look but a moment later he smiles understandingly. Everyone I enlisted is female and more importantly gorgeous.
Grinning he asks me if they're capable of sailing a ship like ours. I respond to him "Of course they're capable. They're even very good at what they do. I tested all of them personally." After which all the women look surprised at first, astonished next and very angry at last. One of them takes a step forward and shouts "You cheated on me with all of them? Today?" so I say to Jin while we take a few careful steps backwards "I think it's time to leave this place. It seems I didn't find a good crew but at least we got some extra motivation now to move a little faster."
Not much later we're both running through the city chased by a very angry female mob.
Running… Faster… Not much further… Almost there… Why am I getting used to this?.... "Left here!"… Jin is right behind me…. There!... In the light of those torches.... An escape route… "Jin!" I scream…. "We jump! On the crate, on the horse, against the wall and on the roof!"… It's got to work… I remember something… Almost there… ten more metres…. Crate… The horse is moving… Why is the horse moving?.... Not again… BOINK… That's the wall alright… BOINK… That's Jin alright… How close are they?... Too close…. Quick… Look around…. What's that?... We're safed!.... "Jin! We're safed!"
From our side The Brotherhood Of Love appears, attracted by the light of the torches. They're flapping their cloaks like big butterflies, still not wearing anything underneath it. "Brothers! Shower them with your love!" I scream while we run past them. At the end of the street we take a look behind us and see one big wriggling mass. We look at each other and burst out laughing. Finally we can relax a little and walk through the night back to the boat. We'll find us a crew tomorrow.
The next morning Jin wakes up early and decides to walk around in the city to find him a crew or at least some capable scoundrels to navigate a boat.
"Damn, if Rhamu was here, in only a few seconds he would have found us a crew" he whispers silently. After a long walk he finds the market crowded with artist, musicians and a lot of food and drinks. "Ah maybe here I can find a decent wine and some food." After a long time he finds one bottle of wine and some of the city's specialities. Whistling happy he walks back to wake up Fungijl to have a decent breakfast and then look for a crew but shortly before he arrives at the harbour he sees a woman running away and hears "Terror! Terror!" and "Jin, I need a little help over here."
Jin takes a quick look and sees Fungijl surrounded by some of yesterdays women. Jin sighs sarcastic "a morning exercise, excellent…"
"Ladies, how about we talk instead of this brainless fighting?" he says with a neutral tone. One of the women grumbles "Are you calling us dumb?" Fungijl laughs out loudly but when the women turn around again he stops laughing and says "It wasn't me, it was… that dog. Listen closely, you'll here the dog talking. Please say something again."
The angry women slowly move forward, a murderous glare in their eyes, weapons at the ready, on the toes of their bare feet, ready to leap forward. Fully focused on Fungijl they never saw it coming, shattering in their midst and pieces suddenly laying everywhere, waiting to penetrate the skin of their bare feet. As Jin screams "That bottle was supposed to go with this breakfast!", he throws some of his newly bought food in the face of the nearest woman and the rest of it right through the middle hitting multiple women. Totally surprised by the new threat the women step backward, straight in the glass and that's all Fungijl and Jin need to escape to the market.
"I think we lost them." Jin says but I'm still moving forward. Something in the crowd caught my attention, something familiar. I keep walking towards it, pushing through the masses strolling the market. Jin is right next to me looking around franticly to discover what it is that got my full focus. As we get closer we notice the back of a small crowd and the moment we reach them they start applauding and some people move away. We arrive just in time to see a guy bowing down to his audience, thanking them for watching his show while two other guys walk around with their hats in front of them to collect money.
As Jin starts saying it's one of the artists he saw this morning the artist straightens his back and walks away. I try to go after him but get halted by a guy holding a hat in front of my nose saying "Some money please for the great Spirelli.". I throw in some avatars and go after him again. Behind me Jin is searching his cloths for some money but doesn't seem to find any so I continue without him. Spirelli goes around a corner, I'm right behind him but as I turn around the corner he's nowhere to be seen.
I stand there thinking but not for long. Jin comes running around the corner as well and nearly bumps into me. "Who was that?" He asks me and I respond "The great Spirelli, a famous circus artist and he might have the solution for our problem." After which Jin asks me "A circus artist with a crew?" I hear the sceptic tone in his voice but I answer smilingly "Something even better as a crew, now we only need to find him." I look around and notice a dog not too far away and tell Jin "He looks a lot like that talking dog, maybe he knows where Spirelli went to."
Jin stares at me and I hear him mumbling "Is everybody going insane around here?" while I try to talk to the dog. After about a minute of trying Jin is getting a little annoyed and says "The dog is not going to talk, he's only looking up at you hoping you'll give him something to eat." But that had a different effect on me as Jin expected. I turn to him and tell him he's a genius. "Of course, all we have to do is look up, then we'll find Spirelli easily." And saying this I search the sky for a sign and so does Jin, wondering if I completely lost my mind.
As Jin opens his mouth to say something we hear a loud bang and we see a guy flying high up in the sky and already running to the source of the bang I scream to Jin "This way, it sounded nearby." Jin follows and soon we reach a huge circus tent with a sign on it saying circus. We slow down to walking speed and while we move closer I tell Jin Spirelli helped me escape in the past. When we enter the big tent some people outside stare at me and some other greet me and we hear them both whispering to each other "Fungijl has returned. What's he doing here?" but none of them stops us.
Inside we immediately see the enormous cannon standing in the middle of the tent. Jin's not moving an inch anymore staring at the cannon with great surprise but I pull him forward saying "Don't worry, he's only overcompensating for something else". Right next to the cannon we see the great Spirelli polishing up his cannon and when we approach him I say "Long time no see my old friend." Spirelli turns around and tries to take a step backwards but hits his head against the cannon and says "No please, don't stay. It took us too long to get sane again." I tell him reassuringly that we won't stay long and only need to get to Peace Island very fast.
Spirelli doesn't seem to be needing to think it over and tells us to jump in the cannon so he can shoot us to the water close to Peace Island but Jin turns pale and says "No way I'm going in that thing!" I try to reassure him "Oh come on. It's perfectly safe as long as we land in the water." Jin takes a couple of steps backwards, still staring at the huge cannon. Spirelli falls on his knees and begs "Please step in the cannon and please take him with you. Don't let him stay here for too long or we'll all go insane again." But Jin keeps slowly moving backwards.
I try to convince him saying "It won't take long, think about Piece Island, think about your beautiful hat you're going to marry, think about everything you can do there. It'll only take a couple of hours of flying, you can even sleep while in the air." Spirelli looks confused for a second when he hears the part about marrying a hat but yells at the two weight lifters not too far away to come help move Jin in the cannon. When Jin sees two half naked, very muscled men moving towards him he tries to turn around and run but can't move anymore as I used a paralyse on him.
The weight lifters pick him up and carry him up the platform while I paralyse him once in a while and whisper soothing words. Up at the platform Spirelli halts and turns to us to give us some last good advise "If you fly try not to hit birds. Well, you can't avoid them but you can scream and hope you scare them off and if you happen to see the circus' human cannonball tell him to get back here for the next show. Any famous last words before you go?"
Even though he's paralysed Jin manages to produce a very weak scream sounding something like "noooooo" while the weight lifters put him in the cannon. I get in right behind him and see a dog watching us from the other side of the platform.
It's dark down there. At the end we can see a hole in the tent the size of a man. Jin is finally able to move again and is trying to get out but I hold on to him trying to keep him down. Outside we here Spirelli yelling "Fire!" and somewhere between him yelling and the big bang of the cannon we hear the dog barking "Have a good journey!"
The very next moment we're flying through the air, I'm flapping my arms as if I was a giant butterfly and now Jin is the one holding on to me. "Relax!" I say to him "We'll be flying for a couple of hours. Enjoy the view!" Jin looks around and after a deep breath he finally let go one hand but keeps holding on with the other. I yell to him "Let go, you're pulling down my pants and that's not a view you'd like to see!" Jin immediately lets go off my pants and keeps flying at a small distance from me.
It takes a while before Jin enjoys the strange trip but he finally does and is pointing everywhere and yelling "Did you see that? Wow that's beautiful! Have you ever been there?" but once the excitement wears off he starts feeling another feeling he completely forgot about, hunger. We didn't have breakfast before we left and are now getting a little hungry. He looks down and says "I wish we would be flying a little lower, then we could grab something to eat in our flight." After which I respond "Do you want a leg, a wing or a part of the chest?"
Jin turns up and looks at the fried pigeon in my hand and when I see the confusion in his eyes I say "I'll give you the chest and the wings, the chest is the best but there's not much meat on it." Still confused he asks "How the hell did you catch and fry a pigeon up here without a fire?" but nevertheless he accepts the food and takes a bite off it while I answer "We're flying first class, it's part of the service." Jin doesn't ask any further and enjoys the meal. He's learning there's not much logical about me.
Far in the distance, getting closer every minute now an island is approaching. "Fungijl, that's our island but there's a small problem I'm thinking off." Jin's saying. "Like what kind of problem? This trip has an all-in service." I respond but Jin is definitely not reassured and says "Like landing and surviving it?" I take a look ahead and relax again. "That might prove to be a small difficulty but if we were really meant to survive then everything will turn out okay. It's destiny and stuff, you know." And with a wink to him I close my eyes and hum a children's song. Jin on the other hand becomes a little stressed and closes his eyes thinking something like "Will I ever see my beautiful hat again?"
While we both keep our eyes closed we fly lower and lower, the island keeps getting closer. I can now smell the sea below us, the wind blowing through my hair. While I hear Jin mumbling something about a not so very safe landing I hear two seagulls having a conversation, they're laughing with us because we're going to crash every moment now.
I open my eyes a little bit and see the ocean's surface getting very close and take a deep breath. Next moment I'm far below the surface looking to the light and I think "Maybe it wasn't meant to be after all." And can't seem to keep my eyes open or to move in any direction.
I feel something again, a light pressure on my body. Pain, not much but it's there. My other senses are coming back as well. My next sense coming back is smell, a salty smell. Sea, I'm near the water, I can smell it. Would the light pressure be the water? I hear something, which is not normal. You can't hear anything under water. Rinkling, a faint sound, it sounds out of place. Maybe this isn't the water anyway. More rinkling, I can hear it clearly now, rinkling of bells. I try to open my eyes now and my next thought is that I'm not looking at the sky or the water but a ceiling. It's a very beautiful ceiling, a very nice shade of white. Just like the thing that's causing the pressure on my body. It's a blanket, I'm lying in a bed and I can now see where the sound is coming from.
She appears to be an angel, the most pretty eyes I've ever seen. A tear escapes my own eyes. She's the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. Her lips, so soft, her skin, even softer, the cloths she's wearing. Dressed in white, perfectly accentuating her female figure, not very thick but yet not revealing anything. Her ears, exactly the right size, covered by a nice fur and smoothly swinging between her legs, a long white tail. She has small bells on her necklace. They rinkle with every step she takes. I hold my breath while she moves closer until she reaches my bed and when she bows over to look if I'm alright I faint because of lack of breath.
Slowly I regain my senses and wake up again. She's no longer near my bed, she's not even around anymore. There's another catgirl now in my room. She's not as angelic as the previous one but she's still stunning. For the first time I start noticing the interior of the room now. It's very minimalistic. I'm laying in a rather big bed with pillars at all corners which gives me some ideas, if only my angel was here and I had some rope…
I shake the thought of doing naughty stuff and look around again. I look at the new catgirl again. She's wearing the same cloths as my angel and also has bells around her neck. Behind her is a huge wall painting of an island with a harbour city and some ships on the background. While looking at the picture I think about an other island called Peace Island. It sort of rings a bell in the back of my head and suddenly I remember.
I have no idea what happened with Jin so I jump out of the bed which doesn't turn out to be a good idea at first. Still feeling dizzy I try to move across but I'm not really succeeding. The catgirl tries to stop me and points to the bed saying weird things. Apparently she's speaking some kind of strange language so there's no point trying to ask her a question so I point at my me, then my eyes and then I say "Jin".
She nods and pushes me back to bed, then she leaves. While she's out searching Jin I heal myself with some magic. I'm barely finished when she returns with a large bottle of gin and a bottle of tonic and pushes me back towards the bed, gesturing I should lay down. I tell her I appreciate her ideas but I really got to find Jin right now so I cast a paralyse on her and walk away.
On the corridor I see lots of doors everywhere I look. I close my eyes for a second, let my feelings guide me and somehow feel pulled into a direction so I walk that way. I walk down the hallway and open the first door on my left. In there is another catgirl in another bedroom. She's appears to be changing cloths and the moment she sees me she starts screaming. While I turn completely red I quickly close the door and try door number two. There are some more catgirls, this time not changing cloths. They're eating something fishy so I leave them be and continue my search.
Behind me door number one opens again and the catgirl comes storming out. She takes a big swing and simultaneous with her slap in my face I cast a blackout on her. She immediately steps back and apologises for hitting me. I ask her again for "Jin" and she says something in her own language, then enters a door on the right and comes back very fast with a bottle of gin. I shake my head, point in the opposite direction and when she looks that way I cast a terror on her and continue my search.
It's time to try next door but I get a feeling this is not a good door. It's probably the blue sky I can see through it so I decide to name that door "window" and open the door at the other side of the hallway. This time I'm more lucky. I've found him but he doesn't seem to be looking very good. There's a little bit of drool coming out of his mouth and he's covered in bandages. His face seems to be unharmed fortunately. Now the hat can still recognise him.
At the other side of the room are some important looking men. One of them seems to be a little bit older, scars beautifying his face. He probably has a lot more of those on his body but the leather armour covers that. The other one looks younger, he's wearing a black coat and somehow reminds me of Jin. There's also a catgirl, I nearly didn't notice her. She's sitting on the floor next to Jin's bed. Her eyes are watery from crying and she's half covered by his blanket.
The younger guy who reminds me of Jin walks up to me and says "You must be Fungijl, Jin told us of you. Let me present myself. I'm Spike von Lychenstein." I shake my head and say "You must be mistaken, I'm not Fungijl, I'm your mother." Spike makes a weird face and turns around to his friend to ask what's going on but as soon as he turns his back to me I cast blackout and say "Hi, I'm Fungijl and you must be Spike. How's Jin doing lately?"
The guy turns back to me and makes an even funny face as he was making when he turned away and says "How do you know my name? Doesn't matter. Jin's not doing very fine since we found both of you at the beach. He needs some healing." I say "I can do that" and cast a healing spell on Jin and tell him "Stand up my friend and walk." And so it happens. Jin gets up.
The little catgirl who apparently didn't understand any of the things we said is surprised by his sudden movement and falls over but quickly gets back on her feet again and hugs Jin. Next they talk in their strange little language and no matter how much I try to understand their mumbo jumbo, it's completely useless so I interrupt them and point at Jin saying "Gin". The catgirl nods while pointing at Jin saying "Jin" but I make a drinking gesture and say "Gin" again. She seems to understands as only a little bit later she returns with a bottle of gin.
In the mean time I asked Jin where we are and in response he opens the doors to his balcony, makes a huge gesture and says "Welcome to Peace Island." I follow him outside and while I look around the catgirl holds a small glass of gin up to but I take the bottle and take a sip while Jin takes the glass and pets the catgirl. She seems to be enjoying this as her tail curls up and she starts purring.
Looking around I discover we're somewhere in the middle of the city. On the left side I see the sea at the horizon and a lot of city in between. It's a sunny day, there are almost no clouds and birds are tsjirping. In front of us is a beautiful rose garden separated from the city by a big wall. On the other side, more to the right, the rose garden seems to be part of a building. It's a huge building and there seems to be an open spot in the middle and strangely enough there's steam coming out of the open spot so I ask Jin "Is something hot going on there?" Jin answers with a smile on his face "Well yeah, there's something hot down there. It's called a hotspot for a reason."
Jin finally seems to be at ease for the very first time since I saw him. It's like he's home. It seems like a peaceful place indeed, maybe that's why they called it Peace Island, or maybe because of all the very nice catgirls running around which reminds me of a very pretty one I saw earlier today. Before I can ask Jin if he knows her he already asks me if I'm hungry but instead of me my stomach answers with a loud growl and now that I have nothing to do anymore I can feel the hunger.
We leave the balcony and walk downstairs, past the corridor, past the rose garden and through the building till we reach an open space. Today seems to be barbeque day. There's a huge bonfire and a lot of barbeque places where food is being prepared at the moment we arrive. The two people who were standing in Jins room when he was lying in his bed are here as well. They're already eating. I hadn't even seen them leaving. The catgirls seem to be going wild at the sight and smell of all the food.
I throw myself at the food as soon as they give me a plate while Jin keeps up appearances and stays decent. He's choosing his food and one of the catgirls puts it on his plate. We sit down next to each other and while I'm already halfway my plate Jin just sits comfortably and waits for a catgirl to feed him. All he has to do is open his mouth and chew. I stare at him and bring out something like "What the hell is going on? Do they do that for everyone?" and Jin laughs at me and says "Why don't you try?" so I open my own mouth and wait.
From our left a familiar catgirl is approaching. I recognise her immediately and ask Jin for her name. He tells me her name is Sophie but I barely heard her name because I was too distracted. In my mind I tell myself to close my mouth but I my brain is not working on it's own anymore and when she's finally there I feel myself getting light in my head. Apparently I forgot to breath again like when I was in bed and the next moment it's no longer day.
The sun is nearly down. Jin is still sitting next to me, no longer eating but talking to some of his catgirls in that strange language again. I can't see my little angel anywhere anymore so I turn to Jin and ask "Who was that angel catgirl crossbreed thing that appeared out of nowhere and how do I talk to her in that language?" Jin is laughing at these words and tells me her name is Sophie and she'll soon appear out of nowhere again and when she does I'll have to say "Tengo gusto de usted." To get the biggest surprise of my live.
Right after he said this I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around only to stare in Sophie her beautiful eyes. She's been standing behind me the entire time. Next to me Jin is having a lot of trouble not to laugh out loud. His little catgirl says something to him and they both get up. He tells me to have fun while he's going to get a massage.
So I'm left alone with Sophie and I sort of try to say the words but it sounds completely different from what Jin said. She giggles and turns a little bit red and she walks away. After a couple of steps she turns her head and makes a sign telling me to follow her. I get up immediately and go after her. While I'm walking right next to her I try to figure out where she's leading me. When she winks at me I feel my face turning red. She goes through the door where Jin and his little catgirl entered right before us and leads the way to a small room. There's a strange table looking like a bed or a bed like a table in the middle of the room. She makes a gesture which I can only interpret as having to lay on the bed and I feel like the only option I have is to obey.
She helps me out of my upper body cloths and it suddenly strikes me. This is a massage table, so I go lay down on my stomach and wait. It doesn't take long before she starts and it feels like I'm in heaven. Her hands know exactly where to push and knead. She has definitely done this before. Jin knows where to find his girls and it doesn't take too long before I feel it wouldn't be appropriate to turn around anymore. I finally understand why it is exactly why Jin feels so at home here and I relax as well.
Time seems to flow because it feels like it only took a couple of moments before she's finished and she hands me some clean cloths to wear. I'm halfway putting them on when someone knocks on the door. Sophie opens it and Jin's little catgirl enters to tell me with very poor language skills there's a bonfire party outside. I thank her and she gestures me to follow her. Sophie is nowhere around anymore and I have no clue how I got there because I was too interested in something else.
When we finally get outside I hear someone singing in the distance. A very familiar voice but it couldn't be. I never heard him singing before. Could it really be? Yes, it is. Jin is actually singing and a couple of catgirls are dancing to his music. As soon as I notice Sophie is between them I run towards the fire and join them. We dance all night long, partying, drinking and having fun. Somewhere during the night I lost track of Jin. I remember him saying he had work to do the next morning but I don't really care because Sophie is still there. She doesn't seem to understand a word I'm saying but it's fun, we dance. Some of the catgirls lose some cloths but not all of them. The little catgirl has disappeared as well, but her cloths didn't. Those are still there. I don't really care and enjoy the night to its fullest. This is the best welcoming party I've ever had.
The night is almost over. Most catgirls have left to sleep and there are only some of them left. Sophie is getting tired and walks away from the fire. I follow her outside the dancing circle and when she makes clear she's going to sleep I say goodnight and give her a kiss on her hand while bowing down. I keep watching while she goes away but before she closes the door she turns around says without even an accent "It was a pleasant night, I hope we can repeat this someday." I'm completely astonished by the fact she's able to speak my language and with that thought I lay down in the grass and watch the stars till I fall asleep.
Next morning I wake up by strange sounds. I hear metal clashing against metal and an icy cold scream. Not far away Jin, Spike and the little catgirl are fighting some nightmares. Jin is fighting a big one while the other two are fighting off several small ones. I approach them and sit down not far from Jin who is fighting with a very strange style. Around us the other catgirls are yelling "Viva Monte Christo!"
I try to get Jins attention and once he notices me I say "Jin, I think I'm in love. She's the most beautiful creature I've ever seen and I love everything about her but most of all her sadism. She totally left me in the dark when using signs to tell me what to do and when I was trying to talk to her. It's been a while since someone had been able to trick me." Jin yells at me "Can you safe it for later? I'm trying to fight here!" but I ignore him and say "I want to marry her, where is she?" At these words, Jin turns around surprised screaming "What?" and gets stabbed in the back. Behind him his small catgirl and Spike finish off the remaining nightmares, including the big one.
Sophie is approaching behind me but this time I see her coming and I quickly heal Jin and say to him "Quick, get up and gives us your blessing. Tell her we should get married tonight." Jin gets up and rubs his back where the stab wound was and says "We can't marry the two of you tonight because then it's the masked bal. After that we can both get married because my hat will arrive today." We look at each other in complete happiness and then burst out in a happy dance, jumping around making giggling noises and hugging everyone around us. All the catgirls look at us as if we've gone insane that very instant.
Somewhere later that day Jin and I find ourselves on the balcony looking at the horizon, waiting for the hat to arrive. Behind us Spike enters and ask us what we're looking for. "The Hat." Jin answer as if that defines all. "The Hat?" Spikes ask but all he gets from Jin is "Yeah, the Hat." So he asks me what's so special about the Hat and I tell him it's very beautiful. "But how does it look like?" he asks me but I just repeat that it's a very beautiful Hat." so he asks me again "Yeah I know but how does it look like? Size? Colour?" I tell him the Hat is a meter and a half high and the colour depends. "Depends on what?" he asks on which I respond "On what the Hat is wearing, of course."
He stands there for a moment, totally perplexed by my answer and asks "Does a Hat wear anything?" Like it's the most normal case in the world I say "Well yeah, once the Hat arrives it'll probably wear something white." He looks weird and asks me why a hat would wear something white on which I simply respond that it's for the marriage. "Which marriage?" he asks me and I respond for Jins marriage but he seems more confused as before and asks me with who and I kindly respond to him "With the hat of course." He asks me if I'm joking but I assure him I'm not. He doesn't believe me at all so I tell him to go ask Jin what's he going to do with the Hat.
Spike turns towards Jin and asks "Excuse me, your friend said you're going to marry your Hat. Is that true?" Jin says like it's a common thing "Well yes it is." But Spike just asks "Why?" and Jin responds "Because she's very beautiful." Spike just shakes his head and says "You're both nuts." And walks away.