Miller, Bert wrote:
Well, I take back my suspicions that we might be short-changed
at the temple. This more than lives up to everything I
might have hoped for.
This one had me laughing the hardest yet.
Takashi had survived so many of these little jaunts. It
never occured to me that anything other than sheer dumb
luck, with emphasis on the dumb, might be involved.
Looking back, I have cause to doubt.
So Genma's even dimmer than we suspected...
And then a screaming, flaming, bouncing devil zoomed
past in a shower of churning water, hollering such devil-words
as "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIYEEEEETURNITOFFTURNITOFF
DAMNYOUTAKASHIIIIIII!"
It occurred to me some time after I responded to Part 2 that
Takashi's mode of leaving the ship, twin rockets attached
to the sides of a rowboat, somehow suits the Principal we
know precisely. This is EXACTLY the kind of overdesign
he comes up with in the manga.
I don't think Takashi is the Principal, is he? Totally different
obsessions.
"Or the Rodents of Unusual Size?" Soun added darkly.
Heh. What about the Flame Spurts or the Lightning Sands?
They probably ran into the RUS in Sumatra. After all, their vague
references to Sumatra have always reminded me of the untold Sherlock
Holmes case, "The Giant Rat of Sumatra".
Heh. Nice, very effective. One sees this in movies, but
my first thought, reading the first paragraph, was: how can
the results of this be effectively described in prose? You
answered that question superbly.
I've always been impressed by all these intricate mechanical devices
in Relic Hunter and Indiana Jones which remain perfectly functional
despite hundreds of years without maintenance.
"No, I suppose not. You're trying to use this as a weapon
against me, aren't you? Because if I-"
"Got it in one, Inji-kun."
Intriguing!
It's simple enough. She's in love with Genma, of course.
One thought does occur to me. Is this Nodoka really up for a life of
celibacy?