Author notes: In this story I've added some original settings. Maybe ooc (Hopefully they're not).
Also author notes: Although the series topic is "Daily life in Shin Makoku", this story actually takes place on Earth.
Christine told herself, again and again, everything she remembered about past lives was not real. They were illusions.
Just illusions.
She sat on the bed, looked around the hotel room and tried to think of something. Anything. Not about her dreams nor those so-called past lives. Just anything about NOW.
"Butterflies. Goddamn butterflies," She whispered, and remembered why she was here, waking up in a hotel in Mexico.
When José knew Christine was planning a winter vacation, he suggested a trip to Mexico and volunteered to be her local guide. Christine, of course, wouldn't reject such a great suggestion. However, when José told her they were going to see butterflies, she couldn't help asking, "Are you serious? Those butterflies are the butterflies I know, right?"
Although Hong Kong is famous for being a concrete jungle, there are still lots of country parks where I could see butterflies, Christine thought, Why do I need to take hours of flight to see butterflies? Huh?
She somehow regretted her decision.
And this regret continued, as Christine and José walking uphill almost for an hour. José kept telling her it was almost there, but she was so tried and those words, of course, didn't make her feel any better.
"If what I see later are just ordinary butterflies, I will definitely kill you."
"Well, let's see," Facing Christine's threat, José just smiled and asked her again if she wanted to stop and take a rest.
In fact, at the end of this walking, what Christine saw were just butterflies. But the scenery is extraordinary.
Really extraordinary, and amazing.
There were butterflies everywhere in her vision field. They were up in the bright blue sky, down on the light brown soil, and even along the whole tree trunk. Surrounded by countless butterflies, Christine felt that all her tiredness was blown away. The rain of butterflies, kinda sounded crazy and scary, but it turned out to be so fantastic and overwhelming.
"Kinda worth all the walking, right?" José asked.
"Yes, look at this cutie," Christine looked at the butterfly which landed on her fingertip, and smiled, "but how come here gather so many of them?"
"As you know, they are Monarch Butterfly," José raised his eyebrows, surprised by Christine's question, "and they migrated here from all over North America every year. I thought I've told you that when we were planning the trip."
Maybe. Christine didn't really pay any attention to José's introduction, "I just didn't imagine here would be that many of them."
There was countless of orange butterflies in this forest. At least a million, she even thought.
"By the way, where do you think people would go after they die?"
"Nowhere," Christine answered José without any hesitation, "I don't believe in an afterlife. Why suddenly asking me that?"
"Well, here is something I didn't tell you," José replied, "The local communities have legends about these butterflies, relating them to the souls coming back from the dead. They believe that after people died, their soul would come back to the land of living as butterflies. Sounds beautiful, right?"
After a long pause, Christine replied while looking at the butterfly which was on her fingertip flying away, up to the boundless splendid sky.
"Yes. It's a wonderful story."
ns 18.68.41.175da2
