#23 Balaheebou, Of The Lost
23 狸
Balaheebou • Of the Lost
Because he has been with the Parade for the longest time, and is one of the most respected Elder Tanuki of the autumn tribe, Balaheebou (“Bou” to most) kindly serves as one of the guides during the Parade proper. It can’t be helped that new souls who join the Ghost Parade wander off the processional path, given the new sensations that bombard them along the Paths; when that happens, Bou appears to steer them back.
Having teleportation abilities that allow him to move between World Layers easily like Vanyaa », Bou enjoys observing mortals in their fleshly cocoons, and often tries to show them “where they ought to go”; but because mortals only trust the five senses available to them in that state, the few that DO see Bou find themselves ‘lost’ instead, in a most logical sense. A lone traveler for instance, would be coaxed off the path to his logical destination towards a hidden settlement where a potential companion soul could be found; said traveler recognizes only that he is rapidly losing sight of the main road and treks back, cursing tanuki » deception.
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for Twinkle »
His name is actually stylized for “fur” in a language, and I wanted to play with the fact that getting lost is only another situation for being led towards something different and out of one’s plan. Like Vanyaa, he does not need fuda to travel through World Layers, since by their very nature, they are able to teleport and shapeshift.
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