Arc 1, Chapter 12: Fire Within Fight

Amadeus still felt like crap the following morning, if a little less so. He really didn’t want to wake up for another day at the Guild after what happened yesterday. He squinted at the little beams of sunlight sneaking in through the window shades.

Come on Amadeus, you can’t just mope around in bed forever…

Groggily, Amadeus threw off the covers and hopped out of bed, and hazily made his way to the upstairs bathroom, where he resumed his old routine of brushing his teeth and fur to look more presentable for the day. When he exited, he was greeted by Fudo, who was apparently waiting for him.

“Hey, can we talk?” He asked Amadeus.

Amadeus paused, processing this for far longer than he should’ve. “…Yeah, sure.”

Fudo crouched down to his level. It was a little weird being less than half of the height of someone who might’ve been a year younger than him, but Amadeus figured he’d get used to it eventually. To think I’ll still be shorter after evolving…

“Amadeus… just so you know, I really was eavesdropping in that night. You know the door in the back of the office?”

“…There’s a whole room back there?”

“Yeah, there is. Don’t tell anyone, but Dumas actually made me his personal spy. I could get in trouble for telling you this, so don’t share it around, okay? I was in the private part of his office because I had to meet with him to help wrap up matters regarding a certain project of his.”

That sounds reasonable enough, I guess… He did say he was training under Dumas directly… “Why did you tell your Dad, then?”

“…You looked like you needed someone to talk to?”

“But I don’t want to talk about it…”

“You can’t just not talk about—”

“I’ll move on on my own. Besides, I barely know you guys,” Amadeus said, rejecting the offer. He couldn’t help but feel a bit bad about it, despite it all.

“…Are you sure?”

“I’ll be fine.”

Fudo paused thoughtfully. “You know, you really are reminding me of Dumas right now.”

“How much did he tell you, anyway?”

“The night he first heard about you, he actually came to me to ask if I could look into it in his stead. Said a bunch of stuff about him being from the future, and that you might be him, and gave me a whole list of questions he wanted me to ask you. I ultimately turned him down because I actually had plans already, which I felt a bit bad about, but…”

“…So you know everything.”

Fudo shrugged. “Eh… I wouldn’t say everything. More like… seventy percent, I think?”

“That’s more than I would’ve expected.”

“Those are the perks of having him trust me with practically everything.”

Amadeus couldn’t silence the lingering skeptic in his mind, however. “How do I know you aren’t just lying to me, though?”

“You really are like him, aren’t you? Extra slow to trust!” Fudo said with a chuckle. “Alright, think of it like this. You remember the night you first came here with Haruhi and that Umbreon lady, and you let me into your mind willingly?”

“Yeah.”

“You remember how I accidentally triggered a memory to play in your head when I did that?”

I think I see where this is going… “Go on.”

“Yeah, things like that can happen for all kinds of functions your brain normally performs when an inexperienced Psychic type does these types of things. The point being, with your brain being so different to what most would be used to, and my Dad being worse at it than me to some degree, if I made a mistake, then he’d make a mistake, and you would notice. So, did you notice?”

“…No.”

“So then my Dad was never in your head, and I probably wouldn’t have be able to do anything like reading a memory without you noticing, either. Therefore, the only way either of us could know is if I really was eavesdropping in on your conversation with Dumas.”

Amadeus sighed. “Alright, I believe you. I’m guessing you want me to apologize for my outburst yesterday?”

“I— No, really, you’re fine. It’s just that I wanted to know that you can trust us with these things. If you need to talk about it, then please, talk to us. I know you must be going through a lot after yesterday.”

Amadeus sighed. “I still don’t know you guys that well…”

“That’s… fair. But we can help you with this.”

“Okay…” Amadeus said, walking away from Fudo, and downstairs. Haruhi was already downstairs, as was Akihiro. Sipping a coffee on the couch, listening to the radio. Breakfast would probably start right after Kohana and Ryo got up, as it did the previous two days.

Amadeus didn’t pay Akihiro any mind, and instead got up on the couch next to Haruhi. She was reading a book on learning supportive moves, and seemed particularly focused on the fire section, which had two lone moves: Sunny Day, and Will-o-Wisp. Apparently, this was it as far as fire-type status moves went.

“Are you considering learning one of those?”

“Honestly, they’re probably really useful to have. Especially Will-o-Wisp, since it makes burning easier.”

“You could probably use that to burn me, and let me use my ability more effectively…”

“What? No. I’m not making you carry around a burn everywhere, that’s nuts.”

“…Okay, fair enough.”

“What do you mean, ‘fair enough’? You weren’t seriously considering nursing a burn to get a slight edge in combat, were you? Are you okay?”

“Let’s just move on from that…”

“Amadeus, I’m serious. Are you feeling alright after yesterday?”

“We’ll talk later, okay?”

“I’m right here, you know,” Akihiro said, interrupting the conversation.

“I… know,” Amadeus replied.

“You can talk to me.”

“I barely know you,” Amadeus responded. “I am sorry for yelling at you yesterday, though,” He quickly added.

“I’ll happily talk you should you change your mind,” Akihiro replied. “Take your time.”

I’ll probably be over it by then. Hopefully. Amadeus returned his attention to the book. “…Can I read through this on my own for a second?”

“It’s only focused on supportive moves,” Haruhi pointed out. “Maybe something more focused on offense would be more helpful for you?”

“…Good point. Where did you get this book?”

“Bookshelf,” Haruhi replied, gesturing to a bookshelf next to the fireplace Amadeus had somehow failed to notice up until now. The fireplace had a gentle blaze in it. Amadeus walked up to the bookshelf, and scanned it until he saw a similar book that seemed to be about offensive moves. He pulled it out, flipped through it until he found a section on electric-type moves. That’s the problem point right now, right? I have Bite, at least. A vague memory from weeks prior played in his mind, something Mayumi said about Shinx being more physically inclined. I should probably focus on physical moves… To his disappointment, he discovered that the list of physical electric-type moves was quite short, at least among commonly known moves. Just Spark, Thunder Fang, Thunder Punch, Wild Charge, and Volt Tackle. And Wild Charge was apparently a more tame version of Volt Tackle. That’s it? I guess I’ll start with Spark, and I’ll probably not be learning Thunder Punch, but that’s really small.

Eventually, breakfast was had, and Amadeus and Haruhi were back inside of the training area a while later. Amadeus stood in front of a dummy idly. He attempted to recall what little he’d read on using Spark. He charged up, and felt the electricity flowing all over his body. Instead of redirecting it to his ears, he instead moved it to his front paws, and lunged in to strike, swatting at the dummy with his paws. The left arm of the dummy came clean off.

That was… significantly easier than I thought it would be.

Amadeus inspected the upper body of the dummy, which was now crackling with residual electricity. Apparently, this was evidence it had inflicted some kind of paralysis. He reattached the arm to the main body and prepared to strike it again, and again. At some point, he started to get a decent rhythm going. Learning Spark had come pretty easy, all things considered.

“Hup!”

He slammed the head off of the stand for what felt like the millionth time. Surely I have a good grip on it by now, right? He looked over to Haruhi, and saw her trying to project a flame into the air, only for it to fizzle out. She seemed a little frustrated. Presumably, this was an attempt to use Sunny Day.

“Not getting it to work properly?”

“Nope,” Haruhi confirmed. “I think I have the projection part down, but I can’t seem to maintain it…”

“What did the book say about it?”

“Something about holding on to the flame as it’s overhead, and then drawing it back out. It was really abstract…”

Haruhi attempted it again, sending another ball of fire overhead. She supplied it a steady, controlled stream of flames, and then, stopped. The ball of fire lasted a short while before eventually fizzling out.

“What I don’t get is how I’m supposed to ‘draw it out’. What does that mean?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Ugh…” Haruhi groaned as she tried again. For a while, Amadeus just watched her attempt Sunny Day over and over, each attempt fizzling out the same way the last one did. From Amadeus’ perspective, It was getting a little dull, and the heat of it all wasn’t really helping.

“Hey, Haruhi?” Amadeus asked, wanting to not look like he was just being lazy, “Remind me again how fire type moves work?”

“You have to inhale to fuel it, and then exhale to release it. It’s all about managing your breathing.”

Breathing, huh… What does that have to do with ‘drawing out’ some vague form of energy? I suppose maybe the energy is in the breath, but how does that translate to a ball of already-released fire? You have to draw a breath… Wait. “What if you suddenly inhaled as you were fueling it?”

Haruhi looked at Amadeus, confused. “That sounds like a weird idea, but sure. Let’s go with that.”

Haruhi sent up yet another ball of fire up, feeding the flames as she had been doing. Then, suddenly took in a deep breath as she was releasing them. This time, something different happened. The ball of fire twisted, and took a more compact form, and started shining brightly to the point that it became a little difficult to look directly at. The heat around them went up noticeably, but it didn’t feel any harder to breathe for some reason.

“Oh, shit! That actually worked!” She turned to Amadeus. “Dude, you’re a genius!”

“I didn’t do that much…”

“Man, that seems so obvious in hindsight…” Haurhi stared directly at her ‘Sun’. “Uh, how long is this thing going to last?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m not the one who was reading about fire-type support moves this morning.”

“Maybe we should head somewhere else while we wait for this thing to fizzle out?”

As they attempted to find another place to practice without it, the sun lazily drifted after them. More specifically, it seemed to be following Haruhi.

“Uh… Haruhi, is this thing sentient?”

“I would hope not…” Haruhi said nervously. “That would be annoying.”

Amadeus glanced at the clock on the wall, making a note of the time. “Let’s see how long this thing lasts and just… practice in the meantime.”

Haruhi’s sunny day lasted a grand total of forty minutes before finally fizzling out. For most of that time, Amadeus found that he could breathe almost remarkably easier than without it, despite the heat. Of course, it made Haruhi into something of a powerhouse. Amadeus watched as her flames nearly eviscerated helpless dummies that she just happened to set her devious eyes upon.

“Whew! That felt great!” She exclaimed. “I wanna do it again…”

“Maybe not, I think we’re causing a bit of a disturbance…” Amadeus glanced around. More than a few others had shot them passing glances. “Especially if we end up needing to leave soon.”

“Fair enough…” Haruhi stretched. “Hey, this is a little out of the blue, but do you wanna spar?”

“Oh! Uh…” Amadeus didn’t know how to respond to that. On one hand, he could probably use something along those lines. On the other hand… “I’m not sure you’re a match for me?”

Haruhi snorted. “You mean you’re not a match for me?” She asked. “Relax, I’ll go easy on you.”

Amadeus was hesitant to respond. This is gonna end with me getting burned, isn’t it? Probably better to get it over with… “Okay then.”

“Okay!” Haruhi glanced around, seemingly making sure that the two of them had some space. “How does first to knock the other to the ground sound, no shooting fire or electricity continuously? Maybe…” She backed up from Amadeus for several seconds. “This far away to start?”

Amadeus stared at the distance between them for a bit. It was a little far, but not so far that they couldn’t hear each other clearly. He’d have to close the distance.

“…That seems fair, yeah.”

“Alright!” Haruhi said. “Three, two, one…” She shot a slightly weaker Flamethrower than normal.

Shit Shit Shit, A little warning, Haruhi? Damnit! Amadeus thought to himself as he barely dodged in time. His mind started to race to figure out what he was even going to do here. Win, obviously, but how? I need to close the gap somehow, since she’s so much stronger than me at long range, but… He ducked to the side as another stream of fire grazed his tail. Ow ow ow ow… He inhaled sharply, the pain getting to him just a little. I… You have protect, remember that… Another stream of fire, and this time, he tried to use protect as he dodged. It proved to be difficult, and he stumbled and tripped over, but he managed to avoid it just barely. Haruhi seemed to pause.

“You fell! I win!” She smirked.

“I— Screw off, you said we had to knock down the other person!” Amadeus’ tail throbbed with pain.

“Okay, jeez.” She nonchalantly shot another stream of fire, and Amadeus dodged as he had been doing. He wasn’t able to get any closer, though, and despite using protect, he still managed to get another graze on his ear this time. His mind started racing again. I have to get closer somehow… Maybe with protect? The next stream of fire came. This time, he threw up the protect, standing his ground instead of dodging, and waited for the flames to dissipate a little, then lunged forwards out of the protect at Haruhi. He got another round of light burns for the trouble, but he’d managed to get closer. Haruhi, apparently unamused, responded by turning up the heat a little. This time Amadeus’ protect shimmered a little, but didn’t break. He got closer. Haruhi tried again. He got close enough to—

He’d forgotten Haruhi also knew protect. His failed attempt to lunge at her with a spark ended in him bonking on her protect barrier, causing him to reel back just long enough to leave him vulnerable. He briefly heard her say “You’re wide open,” before pain. He immediately tumbled to the ground, failing to notice anything else but the pain. He briefly tried to roll around to put out the fire before he heard Haruhi panicking and trying to pat him down to put out the flames herself.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, oh Arceus I’m sorry, Amadeus please—”

Amadeus felt something foamy and wet smother him, and heard another voice, noticeably less panicked.

“Easy now, easy now…”

“I-Is he alright?”

Amadeus felt something wet go over his body, and the pain slowly eased. “Doesn’t seem like he got burned too badly… Hey. Can you open your eyes?”

Amadeus groaned and opened his eyes. The pain was gradually receding. “Y-yes…”

“Good, good…” The voice revealed itself to be a Milotic. “Is the pain easing a little?”

Amadeus got up on his paws and shuffled in place a little. “Yeah…”

“That’s a relief.” The Milotic looked him over. “It seems the only badly hurt part is your ear here… Hah, ‘ear here’. Anyway, I would hold off on sparring with each other for the time being.” The Milotic wrapped some gauze around Amadeus’ ear. “My safeguard and aqua ring should take care of most of the burns within the hour. The ear will probably take a few days to properly heal. Eat a few rawsts in the meantime.”

“…Um, who are you?” Amadeus asked.

“Oh, me?” The Milotic asked. “I am Nagisa, one of many healers here in the Guild of Honor. Pleased to meet you. I assume you’re Dumas’ son?”

“I’m not his kid…”

“Come on. Of course you are! It’s obvious.”

“It’s really—”

“Um, excuse me?” Haruhi started. She sounded uncharacteristically weak and small. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll be okay.”

“That’s… nice.”

“Listen, don’t blame yourself for this too much, alright kid?” Nagisa sighed. “Happens all the time.”

“I… okay.”

“Well, if you have no further questions, I’ll take my leave. Don’t do anything too reckless for the next few days, and it should heal without a problem.”

Milotic slithered off without another word, leaving Haruhi and Amadeus to themselves. Amadeus was still in pain, but it was slowly easing. There was a stiff and uneasy silence between them.

“Hey, Amadeus?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“…I’m really sorry, okay?”

“…Did you mean to hit me so hard?” He asked.

“I didn’t want to hurt you, I just… got really into it… and then you got hit, and it looked like…” She fell silent.

“…Looked like what?”

“It’s not important.”

This subject is off-limits, Amadeus heard. “Okay.” He looked over his now-singed fur. It would probably grow back. He couldn’t get the smell of burning out of his nose, though. He suddenly heard a cracking sound, and looked down. He’d managed to crack the stone floor beneath him. I didn’t even notice… Is this because of Guts? “It seems useful…” He muttered under his breath. Not quietly enough, apparently.

“Amadeus, don’t say that.”

“If I have it, I should use it, right?”

“Amadeus, please. I don’t want to hurt you, I just—” She breathed in hard and looked him in the eye. “Let’s not worry about that, okay? You don’t have an ability. For now. Okay?”

“Why are you so aggressive about—” He paused and shook his head. “Nevermind. You wanna go somewhere after this?”

Haruhi seemed a little flustered by the sudden change in subject. “I don’t know, I’ve been in the city as long as you have. You didn’t spot anywhere interesting on the fly over, did you? And we aren’t exactly being paid either.” She seemed to be back to her usual self as a result, however.

Amadeus pondered on the question for a moment. “…The library?” He suggested, somewhat passively.

Haruhi stretched. “Yeah, sure. Sounds like a plan…”

A while later, they were done for the day and trying to get to the local library. It was only three blocks down from the guild, so it wasn’t particularly hard to find.

“It should be around here…”

“The sign says Grand Street, we’re looking for Mid Street!”

“This should be Mid street!”

“Then where the hell is the sign saying this is Mid street?”

“I don’t know!”

No trouble at all.

“Oh my Arceus, we walked past it three times!” Haruhi exclaimed, exasperated.

“Let’s just go in…” Amadeus sighed, defeated. For some reason, they’d been given bad directions multiple times. Yes, that was why it took this long to find. Totally.

In Amadeus’ mind, the interior of the library resembled the library one might find at a university. Massive, with shelves and shelves of books, and lots of desks strewn about, all divided into various floors. It apparently belonged to the nearby university, which was reason enough to be on good behavior. He could see the number of what was, most likely, mostly students.

“This place is huge…” Haruhi commented.

“You could say that about most things in this city,” Amadeus muttered.

“Did you have anything in mind?” Haruhi asked, wisely deciding to keep her voice down.

Amadeus wondered for a moment, before he recovered what little non-tragic information he’d gotten from Dumas the last time they’d spoken. “…The dropeye trade case?”

“Didn’t we hear about that from—”

“Don’t,” Amadeus quickly responded. “We don’t have to talk about where that conversation went. It doesn’t matter.”

“Amadeus…” Haruhi seemed almost sad for him. Amadeus couldn’t help but find it a little weird. She’s been awfully nice to me as of late…

“Let’s just ask the receptionist before I drag down the mood any more.”

The ‘mon at the desk seemed particularly straight-laced. And highly organized for a Dodrio. “Crime is under three hundred and sixty four. That way.” He looked directly at the section with all three of his heads, almost as if he was trying to use his beaks to triangulate the location.

“Thank you sir…” Amadeus said in response.

Eventually, they found the section the receptionist was referring to. Several books referring to all kinds of crimes were listed, and eventually, they found one on the Dropeye trade case. Or at least, one approximating what they were looking for. ‘The Dropeye trade: How the most famous case in organized crime was cracked’ with the subheader ‘Featuring commentary from Dumas Luxray and other key players!’ Amadeus got the sense that Dumas had a hand in the book’s publication. With no better way to spend their evening, they skimmed through the book for a while. The Dropeye Trade case, according to the book, referred to several efforts by Dumas to help alleviate the drug problem plaguing most of the Trader’s Territory on the southern coast of the continent.

“Beginning with a series of political maneuvers,” Amadeus said, reading out loud just barely loud enough for Haruhi to hear, “Dumas succeeded in severing political ties linking the final key leader of the Rabih Gang that was one of two rival gangs controlling most of the dropeye trade, allowing him to move in on and arrest the four leaders of the organization, leading to it quickly collapsing.”

“Crazy how he just managed to cut them all off from everything like that.”

“I agree,” Amadeus said.

It was a mildly interesting read for the most part. Then things got… strange. “Dumas was unable, however, to remove the political ties the second leader of Karitha, who to this day has remained hidden. He eventually came to a negotiation where the other leader of the gang, Ahmet Scizor, was arrested, and the dropeye trade ceased, in exchange for no further meddling. Karitha remains active to this day, although the dropeye trade has all but ceased.”

“…What the hell?” Haruhi nearly exclaimed. “That’s not a victory.”

“I guess the case was considered solved because he managed to stop the dropeye trade?” Amadeus suggested.

“Okay, we’re looking into these Karitha guys now…” Haruhi got up from the desk they were reading at and returned minutes later with another book. This one only made the story look worse.

“Wait a minute, the Ahmet guy’s still with the gang? Isn’t he in prison?” Haruhi wondered out loud, barely keeping her voice down. “And they’ve moved on to another drug, too. And now they’re all out in the open! They’re better off now!”

Amadeus flipped back through the other book. “It does say here that Dumas considers this a bit of a failure in hindsight.”

“…Why the hell did Dumas say this was one of the cases that made him the seer?”

“Maybe it looked better at the time?”

Haruhi sighed in frustration. “Crazy to call it a win, though…” She flipped through the book some more. “Apparently nobody is doing anything because they have most of the leaders of major cities in their pocket? Are you kidding me, Dumas?”

“I don’t think it’s entirely fair to pin all of the blame for this on him, he was trying to help…”

“And it seems to have lead to most of the southern coast of the continent being ruled by a criminal organization. That he created a power vacuum for. He should’ve tried harder to remove this Lulu bitch…”

“Maybe we should just move on from the subject…” Amadeus suggested.

Haruhi started prancing in place. “Well, now I wanna ask him about it the next time we get a chance…”

The duo ultimately decided to check out both books, planning on asking Dumas about it later. It was a little cumbersome fitting both books into the bag they had, despite how large it was on the inside. Both of them being quadrupeds didn’t help. They’d probably find a space for them back at house. They really only had to keep them around long enough to ask Dumas about it, anyway.

The lounge for the members of the more bureaucratic side of the guild was, to put it mildly, pretty nice. It had the usual amenities you’d expect from a break room, like a couch, water fountain, bathroom, table, the works. But it also had a full-on bar, board games, and a direct window to the local theater. It wasn’t uncommon to see members come in just for a Guild party or to watch a play on their free time. To the members of the Guild, it was yet another perk of joining in it’s own right. Which made it the perfect place to discuss something over drinks.

Akihiro glanced around the lounge. It was pretty empty this time of night, since very few worked at the Guild overnight, especially not trainees or teams. Dumas was sitting alone at the bar, intensely staring at his drink. There was a second right by it, and the Shuckle bartender was on the far side of the bar, polishing a cup. For some reason, Dumas had wanted to speak with him one-on-one. The purpose of doing it here was obvious: he wanted to improve their relationship. Akihiro sat down next to Dumas.

“How was your evening, Akihiro?” Dumas began, with a soft tone.

“Not terrible,” Akihiro replied. “I would much rather be home with my family right now, though. It’s quite late.”

“I am aware,” Dumas said, never taking his gaze off of his drink.

Akihiro took a sip of his own drink, a Pinap Daiquiri. How does Dumas always know what everyone’s favorite drink is? “Well? What did you want to talk about?”

“I feel like we got off on the wrong paw the other day,” Dumas explained, confirming Akihiro’s suspicions. He took a sip of what looked like a Martini. “I lost my temper, and for that, I apologize. You must understand that this is a sensitive matter.”

“…Are you going to tell me?” Akihiro asked. “The boy is in my care now. As his guardian, I feel I deserve to know the truth.”

Dumas gave him a side-eye. “…Well, for starters, he isn’t even supposed to be anywhere near the continent right now.”

“What?”

Dumas sighed. “His mother gave birth to him far, far beyond the boundaries of the Daylight Continent. Practically the other side of the universe from here. Realistically, he should’ve never been able to get here. It’s a miracle I did so alive.”

Akihiro slowly chewed on Dumas’ vague description for a while. Where are you going with this? “From where, exactly?”

“The exact location isn’t really important. The important part is that making that journey had very slim survival odds, and I believed that it could only happen exactly once. But I was wrong.” He fiddled with his medallion for a moment. “And I knew that he could only be me.”

“Excuse me?” Akihiro asked. “You aren’t insinuating—”

“I’m not ‘insinuating’ anything. I have confirmation. And keep your voice down.”

“You and Amadeus,” Akihiro started, scarcely above a whisper. “You’re the same person?”

“Listen,” Dumas said. “I need you to keep this under the tightest wraps you can. The implications of all of this are massive, and I don’t need to cause a panic right now. I have bigger things on my plate, and for all I know, this could be nothing. Can you keep a tight lid on this?”

Akihiro’s mind immediately thought back to his conversation with Mayumi. Now that I think of it, doesn’t that explain what happened far more neatly? It’s absurd, but… “Did you travel though time itself?”

“You’re getting ahead of me,” Dumas said with a trace of annoyance. He then took out a Galton Board, and flipped it, making all of the balls fall into the little pockets, forming a rough bell curve. “I’ll be honest and tell you that my understanding of the phenomenon that brought me to the Daylight continent is no better than a layperson. Regardless, this is what I think happened.” He pointed to the leftmost pocket. “The worst case scenario is that my and Amadeus’ journey were just two of potentially many. There could be hundreds of me just waiting to make their way across the cosmos, and all of them are coming here, at a rapidly increasing rate over the next few decades. In that instance, I don’t think very much will actually happen, just a handful of scared, confused young Shinx in a society of millions. Not much happens in the grand scheme of things. But, it could cause unrest as people start to notice. I’ll have you know I know who I was when I first came here pretty damn well. I know for a fact that these Shinx will be two things: pathological liars, and doormats. They’re all very likely to lie and say they have no memories in the interest of keeping their own privacy, and try to be helpful and friendly, if a bit reserved.” He took out a children’s book about the Natural Disaster incident for some reason. “Now then, a helpful young individual who makes a sudden, mysterious appearance and claims to have no memories… What does that sound like to you?”

Akihiro scoffed, understanding exactly what he was implying. “Come on, that’s ridiculous.”

“Want to hazard a guess as to what Mayumi and Haruhi both believed their respective Amadeus was upon first meeting him?”

“I… Come on, not everyone is going to believe that. Humans aren’t exactly well-established as truth.”

“But others, looking for an opportunity at stardom, or just being particularly well-versed in legends and mythology, will. And it wasn’t that long ago that something that has defied explanation for a while now destroyed a major city. Some think that a disaster like that is bound to strike again.”

The seriousness of this started to dawn on Akihiro. “And if a ton of so-called ‘humans’ start showing up at an increasingly rapid pace…”

“Now you’re getting it. This could be anarchy if it actually happens.” He took another sip of his drink. “Fortunately, there is a distinct possibility that I’m wildly wrong about all of this. My only justification for this theory is quantum magic.”

“What is quantum magic?”

“I have no clue.”

“I—” Akihiro felt strangely angry. “Then what the hell are you basing any of this off of?”

“The fact that I made the trip twice at all. Do keep in mind that everything I just described was a worst-case scenario. The odds of enough Amadeuses surviving their first night, or even arriving at all, are probably very, very, slim. I’m just being careful. I’ve decided we should only start worrying if more reports of mysterious Shinx come in.”

Akihiro took in a deep breath. “So your only interest is keeping things quiet about all of this?”

“Better to avoid starting unnecessary rumors. People have been on edge for a long time now, with recent historical events and all.”

“Would anyone else have come after you after you made this… journey?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I know for a fact that my sister also tried to follow me, because I found her corpse in a scourged town up north.”

“That’s dreadful, I’m sorry to hear it…”

“Don’t be. It’s an old wound.” Dumas shook his head. “But regardless, it’s possible that people from my past who came looking for me could compound the issue. Not likely, but possible. Just keep this under wraps, okay? I don’t want a panic. If we’re lucky, I’m overestimating the issue and nothing else happens within our lifetimes, with the few Shinx that do come leading unremarkable lives.”

“I understand…” Akihiro was left feeling conflicted. On one hand, he’d gotten some semi-satisfying, if a little unbelievable, answers. On the other hand, he’d received a small dose of lingering dread for his troubles. It was a little frustrating to know that all he could do was head home, maybe share this with Ryo, and then twiddle his thumbs for a disaster that may or may not happen.