Chapter 5: Jammerjab

It was another pleasant day in Dreamland. The weather was perfect, and everywhere was peaceful and quiet. A perfect setting for the Jambastion follower, Jammerjab, who was taking the opportunity to lay down on the grass while listening to his favorite music. Then he started to feel the ground shake a little.

"That's weird. Didn't know an earthquake was scheduled for today. They aren't doing that Megaton thing today, are they?"

The rumbling started to pick up in speed until finally Jammerjab could see what was causing this disturbance. It was none other than Kirby dashing straight at him.

"Hey! HEY! SLOW DOWN!"

But he was too late, of course, and he was tackled in a hug by Kirby.

"Ow…ow…ow…ow…hey, watch it will you?!" he grumbled.

"Hi, Jammerjab! Whacha doing?" The puff seemed to have his usual limitless levels of energy.

"I was relaxing here until you came in and tackled me…" he seemed to grumble.

"Oh…sorry…" For a moment, the child seemed a bit downtrodden before resuming his normal energy levels. "Hey, so that means you're not busy, right?"

Jammerjab looked a bit puzzled. "Well…yeah, I wouldn't be laying out here if I wasn't busy..."

"Great! I was hoping you could teach me some things today!"

Now, that was strange. While Jammerjab was a recent addition to Kirby's large circle of friends, he knew enough that Kirby isn't the type to actively want to learn something.

"Well…ok then, what exactly do you want to learn?"

"About your Jamba-station group!"

The follower was slightly surprised by this. "You want to learn about the Jambastion religion?"

"Yup!" Kirby exclaimed in his usual happy tone.

"Well…why not go ask Lord Hyness about it? He's the leader of our religion."

"He's a bit weird at times…"

Jammerjab wanted to question that, but he was quick to remember why he said that.

"Then, what about Zan Par?"

"I might fall asleep if she goes on one of her lectures…"

He knew that all too well.

"Flamberge?"

"Too scary."

Understandable.

"Francisca?"

"I want it to be you!"

At this point, Jammerjab knew that he couldn't say no. "So, what exactly about the Jambastion religion do you want to know?" he asked.

"Um…a lot of things!"

"But what exactly? That's not very specific."

"I don't know!" That was a response typical of Kirby.

"Can't you think of something?"

"Hm…ah! How about the language?"

With that response, Jammerjab gave a nod. "Alright, then follow me."

The duo headed off, where to, the pink puff didn't know.

When the duo arrived, it was at a place with a lot of other Jambastion religion followers.

"Are these guys going to help teach me?" Kirby questioned.

"Eh...yes and no. Just pay close attention to what I say."

After saying that, Jammerjab walked up to a group and greeted them with a casual "Bonjam.". Kirby attempted to follow their conversation as it went on from there, but it only became harder and harder after the initial "bonjam". Though the main reason he knew that word was because the Mage Sisters and Hyness said it to him so many times that he just knew it. Eventually, it came to a point in the conversation where Jammerjab gave a casual "Jambuhbye" before turning and walking back to where Kirby was standing.

"Did you understand any of the words that we were saying?"

The pink puff scratched his head. "Um... a bit of it. I know that "bonjam" means hello and "jambuhbye" means goodbye..."

His friend nodded. "Alright, anything else?"

"Um... I know that "majilious" means delicious... and "jes" means yes...and I think that's about it..."

His friend gave an understanding nod. "Well, that's not a bad start. Oh, wait right here. I'll be right back."

Jammerjab jumped onto the top of his staff and proceeded to pogo stick away leaving a partially confused and amused Kirby by himself. A few minutes Jammerjab came pogoing back with a notebook in hand. "Here, Kirby, this might help you. It's a list of words in our language."

"Thanks! Ah…but… um, why didn't you just give this to me from the start?" There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Jaway." He responded a bit bashfully.

Confused, Kirby looked to see the first word was "jaway", which meant "I forgot".

It was later while walking when the puff asked his next question.

"Who is in charge?"

Jammerjab gave a confused look. "You already know that Hyness is in charge."

"Yeah… oh… um… then I guess, why is Hyness in charge?"

His friend cleared his throat. "He's the founder of the religion, of course. He had a vision where a god invited him to a new, peaceful land. He formed his religion based on this vision to seek paradise."

"And Void?"

"Lord Hyness at one point read about some of the legends about Void and noticed that a lot of the lore matched up with what he saw. Because of that, he thought that Void was the god who spoke to him and that's why he created this religion based around worshiping him."

There was a moment of silence again.

"Where do you stand in the Jambastion religion?" The puff finally asked.

Jammerjab pulled out a pyramid diagram and laid it out before Kirby. "Being the leader, Hyness is at the top of the chain of command. Below him are Zan Par, Flamberge, and Francisca. They are the generals and priestesses of the religion. I would be below them, as the Jammerjabs are their subordinates. Then below us are the Jambelievers, who are non-combatants. Do you understand?"

After receiving a nod, he took back the pyramid diagram. "Oh, why do you always listen to all that music you listen to?"

The follower gave a confused look. "What does that have to do with the Jambastion religion?"

"Um…well, I never really heard that kind of music before, so I thought it was related to the religion!"

Jammerjab gave a slight laugh. "Oh, right. I guess you're a rock kind of guy, aren't you?"

The puff tilted his head in confusion. "No, that's Rocky."

His friend shook his head. "Well… anyway. I tend to listen to a lot of music genres. This one that's playing now is called blues, and it's one of my favorites."

There was a pause, as if Jammerjab wanted Kirby to listen for a bit. Honestly, the pink puff was slightly puzzled why someone would want to listen to songs with such sad lyrics.

"It helps me relax, always has to be honest. Even before I joined the religion, I could always rely on my radio to get me through each day." He said with a nostalgic tone.

"Then, you weren't always a member?"

"Nope, before then I was nothing more than a street punk."

"So, why did you join? If you don't mind me asking."

With a nod, the follower took a seat under a nearby tree with his friend. "As I told you, I used to be a street punk before I joined the Jambastion religion. That was until I met Elena, another one of the followers and she was the one who changed my life. It's not much, but it meant a lot to me. You could say that I see everyone here as family."

"Um…then why did you fight alongside me when the incident happened with Void?" The puff asked.

"That's simple. I didn't understand why Hyness wanted to destroy the universe. Like if the universe was destroyed, what would he do next? What would any of us do next? We wouldn't exist if that were the case, don't you think?"

"Uh-huh." Kirby didn't really expect such a deep thought to come from him. He then sat in silence for a moment.

"…hey, Kirby, are you ok?" Jammerjab finally asked.

"Yeah…um…" the puff hesitated again before speaking. "Can…can you tell me why that Void thing looked like me?"

The follower scratched his head. "What are you talking about- oh. Well, that's weird." He uttered just suddenly remembering exactly what Kirby was talking about. "I dunno. Maybe he's your uncle?"

"SO I KILLED MY UNCLE!?"

"I said maybe."

"Maybe? MAYBE?! That doesn't help at all!"

Jammerjab was taken aback by the sudden uncharacteristic outburst from his friend.

"What if I am related!? What if…" the puff's expression changed from anger to sorrow.

"What if…I become like Void…? What if I end up destroying the universe like Void was going to…?" The expression on his face was one that the follower had never expected to see on his face before: one of pure despair.

That was when Jammerjab realized how much Kirby was visibly shaken and scared by the thought of having any connection with the destructive being known as Void. Despite the genuine curiosity that the puff had earlier when asking all the questions he did about the Jambastion religion, the follower got the vague feeling that this was his true reasoning for asking him about it. Seeing no other option, Jammerjab lifted his staff and gave Kirby a light bonk on the head, snapping out of his trance.

"Hey! What was that for?!" Kirby said with an irritated pout on his face.

"To get you to stop and to pay attention." Jammerjab cleared his throat and continued. "I don't know if you're related to Void or not, but if there's one thing I can tell you about, it's this. If you are related to Void, who cares? That doesn't change who you are."

The puff fell quiet.

"And who you are right now is Kirby. That's all that matters."

There was a moment of pause before the puff gave a smile in response. "…jamanke."

Jammerjab gave a silent nod in response. However, he was still slightly bothered by the expression on his friend's face a few minutes ago, so he felt that he should stick around Kirby for just a little bit longer. Not only that, but he seemed to still have a ting of the previous horror in his face. "Hey, do you want to go on a walk or something?"

The puff's face seemed to light up upon hearing that. "Sure! I'd love to!" the child exclaimed.

With a nod, the two were off.

For the remainder of the day, the duo went on a walk throughout the fields of Dreamland. It was as peaceful as always. At one point in their walk, Kirby turned back to Jammerjab.

"Hey, can I sing along to your music?" he suddenly asked.

His friend froze for a moment, sweating a bit upon hearing that.

He cleared his throat. "Nah…it doesn't fit you much. Besides, there's not much singing going on in blues anyway."

This took a bit longer than I hoped.

Again, uploads will slow down even more thanks to classes. Japanese is a difficult language to learn especially when combined with math classes.

Sorry if you've been waiting for the next chapter for a while.

I might start posting updates on this and my other stories on Twitter, so follow me at KachiKirby. Or if you just want to see me talk about mecha anime and Kirby, that's also fine.