Eugene In Wonderland Sequel preview
"Dude, who is he?!"
After about an hour later, Eugene and Emma were now inside Marucho's mansion in Wardington (or in Eugene's case, Tokyo), where the unconscious body was laid in a bed from one of the many spare rooms in the house. Other than them and Marucho, Dan, Shauna, and Tanya were also with them at their side, watching the uneventful activity from the window. They too, were also curious about this unexpected visitor.
"Well, Dan, from what I can remember from the interspace data, he's not from around here…" Marucho noted after adjusting his red-framed glasses.
"Then how did he end up in your house, Emma?" Dan started to question Emma, who was staring at Skylark the longest; she seems to be really suspicious about why he was creeping around in her house. He did looked intimidating at first, kind of hypnotic… but then shook her head; she probably was staring at him way too long and couldn't snap out of it.
"How should I know? Gunz was calling me when Eugene hit him with the frying pan-" She started, but then Dan gave her a weird look before facing Eugene straight in the eye. The frying pan idea made him look quite uneasy.
"You did WHAT?!" He almost screamed at her in the face with shock; why would she do such a thing to that guy over there?
"I hit him with a frying pan." Eugene said, instantly regretting it from earlier. "I didn't mean to though! It just came to me!" She tried to explain, sweatdropping.
"I think you overdone it…" Shauna pointed at the red mark forming on Skylark's forehead, which looked pale red and swollen from the pressure of the cold metal of the frying pan. "You probably hit him too hard."
"At least his clothes aren't stained with blood. But he dresses kinda weird… the clothes look a little worn out, too." Tanya pointed out before taking out a black object in her hand. It appeared to be a top hat, considering the familiar shape. "And I found this lying next to him."
Indeed, it was a hat, the kind you would see in 19th century England during Queen Victoria's reign. It was in shades of black, dark purple, and hints of metallic gold and silver. A pinkish-red band of fabric was tied around the hat, leaving the ends loose by 25 cm. A fluffy white feather, a military badge, thin chain strands, a smaller exotic-looking feather, a red norigae, and ornate hat pins decorated the hat. There was even a tag with burnt edges stuck on it, with the following words handwritten in black ink:
In This Style
10/6
"Hey~ don't you think this hat looks familiar?" Dan noticed after looking at the hat in multiple angles, his neck strained from craning it.
"Yeah, it kinda looks like-" Eugene was about to say the words 'It kinda looks like a Mad Hatter's hat.' when she heard a soft groan from the spare room. That made her still and nervous; did Skylark just wake up?
"Guys, I think he's about to get up!" Dan shushed, crouching down to the floor and pointing at the semi-unconscious figure. Even though he was not fully conscious, he and the others weren't going to take any risks right now.
"But how will we know if he's awake?" Eugene asked quietly.
"Someone should go in there and wake him up!" Tanya whispered and then turned to Dan. "Dan, you do it!"
"What?! Why me?!" Dan wanted to shout with complaint, but obviously, he couldn't. "Why can't Shauna or Marucho do it?"
"Because, Dan," Eugene reminded him with a firm yet gentle voice. "you can handle, um… people not from Earth. I mean, you dealt with Vestals, Neathians, and Gundalians. Why not him?"
"Hm… good point. Maybe he'll realize that I'm the #1 brawler and then he'll tell me why he's here!" He then realized after considering this plan. "I'll do it!" He struck out the best heroic pose he could make before dashing for the door and into the spare room.
He was about to shake the visitor awake and cheerily greet him when he suddenly froze in panic before he could even go a couple steps closer to the bed.
A pair of pale green eyes suddenly opened in a flash…. he was staring at him.