Arc 1, Chapter 15: Ballad of the Cats

Today’s morning routine was the same as usual for Amadeus. Get up. Brush teeth. Have breakfast. Converse lightly with Fudo and Haruhi, and head out with the latter. It was getting a little monotonous, but he didn’t particularly mind. It was a welcome monotony, even. But last night was still weighing on him. Despite the fact that he’d essentially told them that he was an alien from the future, Akihiro and Ryo didn’t seem to be treating him all that differently. It was almost refreshing how much they simply accepted it, but it still felt a little wrong to have them not seem to care all that much. Not that it didn’t feel good to get it all off of his chest, but…

 

“They’ve accepted the truth too easily,” Amadeus muttered to Haruhi as they walked out of the door. He looked back to see Akihiro waving at them as they left. “Shouldn’t they care more?”

 

“I mean, save for Teru, they probably knew most of it already…” Haruhi muttered back.

 

“True…” Amadeus yawned, still a little sleepy. He’d gotten a less-than-perfect rest. “Still, how can they believe me so easily?”

 

“Do you want to not be believed?”

 

“W-what? No, of course not! I just… It went too well. It’s not supposed to be that easy…”

 

“You’re overthinking this. They don’t really have a reason to not believe you.”

 

“You’re probably right about that…” Amadeus sighed. “It just feels… wrong.”

 

“I—” Haruhi started, before pausing, and looking around a little. “I don’t know what to say to that…”

 

“Yeah…” Amadeus sighed. A change in subject was starting to feel appropriate. “I wonder where Teru lives?”

 

“I don’t know, did you ask him?”

 

“Well, no, but…” Amadeus fiddled with his pin. The new scarf was feeling better and better by the hour. “Man, where was I going with this?”

 

“Were you going to suggest we hang out at his place?”

 

“I… no, actually.”

 

“Then why…?”

 

“I have no idea.”

 

“…We should try to get to know him more, though.”

 

“We can do that at the Guild and on missions and stuff.”

 

“You’re not wrong, but we should probably make a more active effort than that…”

 

After getting teleported to the guild by a Cloyster of all things, they were back in the training room. Teru was standing right by where Haruhi normally practiced, tapping his foot impatiently. He perked up when he saw them.

 

“Hey guys!”

 

“Hi Teru,” Haruhi said, giving a decent bit of energy to match. Amadeus said nothing.

 

“So, uh, I was thinking maybe we could try sparring?” Teru asked expectantly, scratching his chin. “I wanted to see how we stacked up. I mean, Haruhi’s clearly the strongest, but…”

 

“I’d rather not…” Amadeus said dismissively.

 

“I’m down,” Haruhi said. “First to knock the other down sound good?”

 

Teru made a weird clicking noise for some reason and pointed finger-guns at Haruhi. “Sounds good.”

 

“Uh, Haruhi, are you sure…?” Amadeus asked.

 

“It’ll be fine, I’ll be gentle this time,” Haruhi said, a not-insignificant amount of nervousness in her voice. “I won’t blowtorch him. It’ll be fine. Actually, you can be the ref.”

 

“If you say so…”

 

Haruhi and Teru stood a fair distance apart from each other. Amadeus cleared his throat. “Winner to the first knockdown. Three, two, one, go!”

 

Immediately, Haruhi sharply inhaled, seemingly preparing to shoot out a stream of fire. Teru also sprung into action… creating two copies of himself. Huh, that’s a new one… Amadeus watched as the Teru clones desended on Haruhi, and she quickly threw up a protect to defend herself. The clones disappeared on contact with the protect barrier, and the real one seemed to stop right in front of it.

 

“Bad move,” Teru quickly said, clapping four times in quick succession as Haruhi began to glow strangely. He then surrounded himself with an ominous pink glow. “You just lost.”

 

“If you think you can just buff up in my face, than you’ve got another thing coming,” She seemed to inhale, readying for another stream of fire… only for the protect barrier to remain. She was still surrounded by the weird glow. “…What?”

 

“Like I said, you just lost,” Teru said, manifesting five rocks in his hands, and chucking them at the barrier. It cracked.

 

“S-shit…” Haruhi darted out to the left, causing the barrier to break, which of course meant that Teru shot another volley of rocks her way, and chased right after her. Evidently, he was a bit faster than her. She tried protecting again, and it cracked much worse this time. One more round of this later…

 

CRASH!!

 

The barrier shattered, allowing Teru to get right up in her face and basically punch her to the floor with rocks. Amadeus sighed, in disbelief of how one-sided what he just watched was.

 

“Game! Victory to Teru Minccino!”

 

“H-how did you do that?” Haruhi immediately asked, seemingly unphased the fresh bruises on her face and the fact that she was on the floor. Admittedly, Amadeus wanted to know that pretty badly, too.

 

“Encore,” Teru said triumphantly. “Forces the victim to keep using the last move they used.”

 

“What a powerful move…” Amadeus commented. “One use, and she was totally helpless…”

 

“Well, obviously, she’d be less helpless if she’d just attacked right away,” Teru said, dismissively. “But yeah, under the right circumstances, it can be devastating.”

 

Haruhi defeatedly threw up another protect. It looked positively battered. “…How long does this last?”

 

“Probably another few minutes.”

 

True to his word, a few minutes later, the weird glow around Haruhi faded. Slowly, she got up, looked around for a second, and took in a deep breath. She then looked skyward.

 

“Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggg!” As she yelled, a massive column of flames burst through the air. “Dude, do you have any idea how frustrating that was?!? That’s got to be the worst thing I’ve ever gone through! Damnit!” Haruhi seemed genuinely upset.

 

“C-calm down…” Amadeus quickly said.

 

Haruhi shook her head. “I’m calmer now that I’ve let it out, but… That was awful.” Haruhi grumbled something about cheap tricks. “…I want a rematch. I easily could’ve won if you didn’t cripple me like that.”

 

“You’re probably right about that, but I’ve already won…”

 

“Let’s move on for now…” Amadeus said, a little frazzled himself.

 

“Why don’t you try him, Amadeus?” Haruhi asked.

 

“I’d rather not…” Amadeus said. “He’d probably handle me pretty easily.”

 

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Teru said encouragingly.

 

Amadeus took a deep breath. “Maybe you should get those bruises looked at before we keep going…”

 

Haruhi rubbed her face sheepishly. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense…”

 

Haruhi trotted off to go find a healer, and then Amadeus turned to Teru. “Man, I don’t wanna fight you. It’s gonna be a total blowout…”

 

“Please?” Teru asked, a little pleadingly.

 

Amadeus stared at him for several seconds. “…Fine.”

 

“Great.” Teru cracked his neck and hopped in place twice. “You think we should start closer, or…?”

 

“How close?” Amadeus asked.

 

Teru walked an admittedly arbitrary distance away from Amadeus. “This close seem good?”

 

“Yeah, sure…” Amadeus was more concerned with figuring out what the hell he was going to do against Teru. First off, Protect is out. If I try that, I’m just going to lose the same way Haruhi did. Best to stick to attacking moves to keep myself from becoming defenseless. That also probably excludes Charge, so my electric moves are going to be weaker too… Bite over Spark then, I suppose. I don’t really know what he could possibly do to make Façade worth it, and I don’t think he will anyway since he knows I have Guts. To deal with the weird clone move… since they’re so weak, and they’re all spread out, would it make more sense to use Thundershock? It’s been a while, but it doesn’t need to be all that strong if they dissipate in front of a Protect. I don’t know what he’s going to do on offense, but I’d imagine either the rock move to maintain distance or some type of close-range normal move. So, in general, he’s going to want to play evasively with the clone move and hit me hard in return. So I’ll use Thundershock to pin him down and attack with Bite. That seems like it could work, right? “Ready when you are.”

 

“Same rules as before?” Teru asked.

 

“Yeah.” Amadeus got in what little charge he could without making it too noticeable. “Let’s go.”

 

Immediately, Teru split into three with the clone move again. Amadeus did his best to fire off a Thundershock which, after the strength training, was now a decent bit stronger than it used to be, albeit still much weaker than his other moves. It managed to dissipate one of the clones, before colliding with the real Teru, staggering him briefly. Amadeus quickly went in for a Bite. Remember your jaw hurting… Amadeus felt the dark energy surround his mouth as he lunged closer.

 

“Oh, good stuff,” Teru commented. “Clearly not as good as me, though.”

 

Alright, buddy, I— Stop, keep your eye on the prize. Amadeus got just a little bit closer, and went in for the bite, but Teru managed to dodge out of the way. Dammit! Amadeus tried again, but Teru cloned himself again and Amadeus bit into nothing. Asshole! I’m gonna bite you so damn hard… He lunged at another Teru, found it to be a fake… And there were three more Teru now, as he felt several small pellets hit him on his side repeatedly. He looked down and saw seeds? There are seeds here. We are inside. I swear to Arceus. Can I stay strong? Can I go on? This wonderful all good very bad day, shit.

 

Amadeus didn’t realize it, but his thoughts were getting increasingly erratic as he abandoned the strategy he thought up at the beginning of the fight and mindlessly lunged at another Teru. By now, there were at least seven of them. By the time he snapped back to lucidity a few seconds later, it was looking pretty bad. W-what was I thinking? Uh, crap, clear them with Thundersh— Amadeus felt a hard smack to the back of his head, followed up by four more, ultimately sending him to the ground.

 

“Ow…”

 

Teru stretched. “I did not expect that to work nearly as well as it did, but here we are.”

 

Amadeus got up, his neck now sore. “What, me screwing up and playing into your weird clone move?”

 

“The name of the move is double team, but anyway, no. I used Swagger on you. It makes the target stronger at the cost of confusing them.”

 

“You used a move like that knowing I had Guts and was wearing a heal scarf?”

 

“That’s a heal scarf?” Teru scratched his chin. “…Alright, maybe that would’ve affected my decision. But a well-timed Swagger is still one of the best things I can do.”

 

“Where was all of this utility when we were clawing our way through a mystery dungeon?”

 

“It seemed, uh, unnecessary. Haruhi had things under control back then…”

 

“Fair enough…” Amadeus grumbled. “I was right, you’ve got me beat handily.”

 

“It was closer than it looked, you almost managed to get a hold of me back there.”

 

“So you’re saying the entire fight came down to one interaction?”

 

“When you put it that way…”

 

“Hey guys!” Haruhi came bounding back, with her bruises patched up. “I’m ready to ref for—” She seemed to take notice of the scrapes and bruises now dotting Amadeus’ body. “Oh. Is it already over?”

 

“Yeah, he had me checkmated…” Amadeus said dryly.

 

“Aw, I wanted to do the ref thing like you did. You made it look so fun!”

 

“Thank you?” Amadeus said, not entirely sure how to take a comment like that.

 

“You seemed like you had a good idea, though.” Teru admitted. “If the Swagger wore off sooner, then you easily could’ve taken the upper hand back with a little luck…”

 

“I don’t know, it looked pretty bad to me…”

 

“Just take the compliment, Amadeus,” Haruhi said, annoyed. “You tried your best, and you definitely could’ve won. It’s not like you’re super weak or anything.”

 

Amadeus sighed. That’s probably true… I suppose I have come pretty far since I first arrived. I more or less had to, didn’t I? That’s what she expected of me. “I have to get stronger if I want to save the world, right?” Amadeus joked.

 

“Oh, can it, future man,” Haruhi said back.

 

Amadeus smiled. “I wonder what we’d be doing right now if Dumas didn’t come to Nōgyō No Machi back then.”

 

“I bet you would’ve never admitted the truth to me,” Haruhi said, teasingly.

 

“You might be right about that,” Amadeus said, a little nervous. “I doubt Mayumi would’ve tolerated that, though.”

 

“Teacher’s a softie. She’d take her sweet time getting you to talk.”

 

“Maybe your Mom would be a part of that conversation, too…” Amadeus stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. “She’d definitely have some kind of strong reaction, for sure. Maybe she’d kick me out for it.”

 

“Mom’s not that harsh,” Haruhi countered. “Besides, I bet Teacher would’ve been willing to give you a place to stay. You’d still see me a ton anyway, given how often I was in her dojo.”

 

“Hard to say what living with Mayumi and Sakura would be like, given… everything,” Amadeus observed.

 

“Uh, guys?” Teru asked. “I’m feeling a little bit left out of this conversation right now.”

 

“Ah,” Amadeus and Haruhi said in unison. “Uh, sorry,” Amadeus quickly added.

 

“It’s fine, I just thought that maybe we could talk as a group more, y’know?”

 

“Eh…” Amadeus started, “We’ll probably get to talking more often eventually.”

 

Teru’s expression seemed a bit puzzled. “I sure hope so…”

 

 

---

 

 

Hakken no Machi was, among other things, a port city. That meant it had a large system of docks along the coastline, where visitors most frequently arrived. It was by no means the hub of trading on Teardrop Island—It didn’t sit at the mouth of a major river like Bōeki no Machi did, after all—but being the home to the most influential Guild on the entirety of the Daylight Continent as well as the third largest city on said continent was bound to attract important visitors.

 

Hence why Dumas was at the docks of all places when he already had such a critically busy schedule.

 

Dumas watched that ever-so gaudy ship pull into the Harbor with quiet anticipation. The crowd he was in front of also looked at the massive ship with curiosity. The Trường Sa was certainly a very impressive vessel by the standards of the daylight continent, with it’s red and yellow colorings signifying it’s allegiance to the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic, a group of cities on the southeast of the mainland which were important to everyone else mostly because of their massive production of both food and oil, which was especially important to Hakken no Machi in particular. It couldn’t easily power itself with dams like the settlements along the river could, after all. Best to be nice when they pay a visit.

 

A confident Luxio wearing red and gold body armor, as well as a golden Medallion depicting a paw of some kind holding what Dumas could only assume was money. She was guarded by her entourage of muscle-bound Loppuny, who were all dressed similarly, and, knowing the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic, were probably female as well. The Luxio addressed him with a practiced mix of charm and formality.

 

“Greetings, Dumas Luxray. The arrangements are prepared for the discussion, I presume?”

 

“Indeed. You will meet with Guildmaster Tokugawa in a few hours.”

 

“Very well. Has there been a place prepared for me to stay for the night?”

 

“Of course. We shall meet there later to have a private discussion.”

 

“Is it nearby to the Guild? I would prefer to speak to you in private now.”

 

“Yes, but by the time you would reach the guild with your guards in tow, it would already be time for your meeting.” Dumas handed her a slip of paper with the address written on it, which she immediately had passed to the back.

 

The Luxio chuckled. “I suppose you would assume that I would walk. But I prefer not to wait. I will fly.” As she said this, a massive Honchkrow emerged from the ship. “We shall fly there.”

 

No sense in arguing with her. “Very well. I will meet you there in a short while.”

 

The Luxio and her entourage flew off with the Honchkrow, and Dumas went to a nearby station to get himself to the place as well. The place itself was a hotel of the highest luxury located on the same tall hill as the Guild itself, just a street away. The Luxio’s hotel room in particular was something to behold: a massive living space with an attached full kitchen, enough beds for her entire entourage plus a handful of extras, a massive private bath, as well as complimentary, tailor-made Yukatas for all guests. It was the kind of thing reserved for the guests of the highest honor.

 

“It’s always such a joy to stay here…” The Luxio commented. “Guards, stay around the doors and windows to watch for interlopers until it is time for my meeting with the Guildmaster. I would like a word with this one in private…”

 

“As you wish, madam,” The group of Lopunny and Honchkrow said in unison, before giving Dumas and the Luxio the room. They all sounded female.

 

“Well?” Dumas asked. “I know you’re not here just so you can be a tourist, after all. What did you want to talk to me about?”

 

The Luxio laughed. “You know, Amadeus, I do have a name. Is addressing me as ‘Miss Audrey’ too much to ask?”

 

“I think it is, yes.” For some reason, Amadeus’ other older sister had also tried coming looking for him, before apparently deciding that she would much rather live in the woman-dominated culture of the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic, and even managed to rise to the top. “I did ask you to refer to me as Dumas, however. Now what did you want?”

 

“Am I not allowed to visit my younger brother?” She asked. “Ask how he’s doing? Say, ‘What’s up, bro?’ Ha!”

 

“I barely knew you back then, and I know you only marginally better now. I don’t think it’s fair to say that we’re siblings.”

 

Audrey seemed to ignore this statement by Dumas. “And I still don’t understand what’s up with this whole ‘Dumas’ thing, you know. You’re worse than Sam, for crying out loud. At least he tried to get everyone to switch to a similar-sounding name! Not that he was justified in doing so.”

 

That can of Wurmple had better remain unopened. “Are you going to bring anything remotely productive up, or are we just saying random things right now?”

 

“I just wanted to know what you were up to, brother…” Audrey said, somewhat disappointed.

 

Dumas sighed. “If you truly must know, I do have something in the works. The results of that should come to fruition in the next month or two.”

 

“Really? Do tell.”

 

Dumas shared a rough outline of Project Light with Audrey, only pausing to let her ask the odd question. By the end, she seemed somewhat engaged.

 

“You know, it sounds like you’d have to sacrifice quite a lot if this actually goes though. Would you really be willing to stop being such a powerful person?”

 

“We’ll all have to give it all up eventually for his dream, Audrey.”

 

“I know that. Just making sure you’re ready for such a commitment.”

 

“I have always been ready. What about you? With all of that extravagance you indulge in?”

 

“I’ll make do.”

 

“Hah, I sure hope so.”

 

Eventually, it came time for the meeting with the Guildmaster, which went off without a hitch. He, in fact, seemed eager to get a deal worked out quickly, which meant some lopsided terms. Best not to tell him about my relation to her. That would probably complicate matters. Afterwards, he joined Audrey in the lobby.

 

“Are you heading back to the hotel soon?” He asked.

 

Audrey seemed to be looking around the foyer curiously. “I think I’ll do a little bit of ‘tourism’. I’m in need of a new manservant…”

 

Dumas could only wonder if she was always like this. There was no way to know for sure, though. He never really knew her growing up. “You do that, then. I have my own things that need to be taken care of.”

 

 

---

 

 

Teru watched as his two teammates left the training area for the day. He’d gotten to chat with them a while longer, practice with them, and even talk strategy with how he might be able to contribute to the team more directly. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little left out. They’d denied him another opportunity to hang out, and despite letting him in on Amadeus’ secret, it still felt like they didn’t really trust him. I’m starting to think they’ve only told me out of necessity…

 

He did mostly believe Amadeus’ story, although he was still fuzzy on some of the details. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing large portions of it. Or maybe that’s just because I got a cliff notes version. He felt that maybe they were hesitant to befriend him because they knew about the arranged marriage. They know I’m just going to leave them behind…

 

Eventually, Teru found the strength to stop feeling sorry for himself and made the hike home. It was a nearly hour-long walk, but Teru didn’t usually care. He knew the streets well, and besides, it wasn’t like he normally got home before his dad did, anyway. Something about watching the hustle and bustle of the city was therapeutic to him.

 

To the left, a group of northerners were having a chat.

 

The baker on this street seemed to be having a bad day. That poor Seviper was always finding setbacks…

 

Another group was gossiping about the visit from the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic today.

 

“Did you hear about the visit from the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic today? I’m pretty sure that ——— leader!”

 

I must’ve missed it this morning… That ship always looks crazy. Not that Teru was particularly eager to move to the Nữ Tu Sĩ Republic. Or that it was even remotely in the cards for him. He didn’t make decisions like that, after all.

 

Teru found himself struggling to remember the name of that Morpeko. Obviously, it would be something western, but it was escaping him pretty badly. Jessica? Jessa? Jemima? What was it…

 

He sighed, unable to remember the name of the woman for the life of him. The woman he was supposed to marry. Oh well. I’ll remember it eventually. Most of the trip home was a blur at this point, despite how well he could remember every building he passed by. It was all lost to thoughts of his future, his role. He opened the door to his house.

 

“Mom, I’m home!”

 

A larger Emolga poked her head out from around a corner. “Good evening, sweetie. How was the Guild today?”

 

“It was fine, Mom.”

 

“Good, good. How are your new teammates?”

 

“They’re nice.”

 

“Good to hear. Maybe you’d want to invite them over sometime?”

 

“Not for now, probably,” Teru responded. “I don’t know them all that well yet.”

 

“Let me know if that changes, alright? I’d love company.” She paused for a moment. “Speaking of, where were you last night? Dinner was nearly cold by the time you got home.”

 

“They, uh, invited me to hang out at the library?” Teru said quickly, not wanting to admit he was at their place right after saying he probably wouldn’t have them over.

 

“You don’t sound so sure about that, kiddo,” Emiyo said with a chuckle. “They’re the type to hang out at the library?”

 

“Just wanted to look up some kind of move they were interested in.”

 

“Really? Which one?”

 

Please don’t hate me for this, guys. I think I just gave you homework… “Uh, wish, I think?”

 

“Did they manage to learn it?”

 

“Not last night, no. I don’t think they figured it out today, either.” Maybe that will prevent them from having to actually learn it. Assuming they can even learn it…

 

“Oh well. Tell them practice makes perfect.”

 

“Yes, Mom.” In the very least, Emiyo respected his boundaries. So did Avignon, but less so.

 

But speaking of his father…

 

“Teru! Sweetie! Good evening!” Avignon said to them with a smile. “How was your day?”

 

“Nothing much happened, dear,” Emiyo responded. “Teru says he was spending time with his new friends at the library yesterday.”

 

“Really?” Avignon gave Teru a strange glance. “I’ve heard they’re country bumpkins, but they read at the library?”

 

“They just needed to look up moves…” Teru replied calmly, sticking to his lie.

 

“Y’know, son…” Avignon began. “You want to be a good teammate. I get it, I really do. But, you have to realize that you’re going to leave them behind, right?”

 

“Yes?” When you say it like that…

 

“Look, I want you to make connections, I do. But you really need to consider the bigger picture here. You’re moving westwards in what? Two years? And you’re spending time with a bunch of nobodies. Listen, you gotta try and find some western connections. If it was me, I would’ve paired you with a good fit, but it was out of my hands. You understand?”

 

“…Yes, Dad.” I wish I could stay, but it does make my life easier, right?

 

Right?

 

“Good.” Avignon stretched. “Now then, who wants dinner? I know I’m starving!”

 

Emiyo chuckled. “You say that every night, dear…”

 

Dinner went by like a blur, as usual. Teru mostly watched as his Mother and Father filled the air with conversation, and he chimed in whenever he felt like it. He then headed up to his own room.

 

It was a fairly cluttered mess. Clothes on the floor, used water canisters, a handful of board games on the desk alongside a notebook, and other things strewn about. He hastily clicked on a desk lamp and started flipping through a textbook on recent historical events, until he reached the section on The Light That Burned The Sky, and was promptly met with a flurry of sticky notes. Hah. Probably shouldn’t show my face around the library, this thing’s probably months overdue by now. Well, not probably. Definitely. He chuckled to himself. Alright, maybe tonight’s the night I crack the case.

 

Alongside a notebook and stack of papers, he pulled a strange, medium-sized beige crystal from his desk. Something he’d scavenged from a monster house when his dad took him into a mystery dungeon one time, and he’d kept as a souvenir for years. Until he’d made a recent discovery.

 

He’d always had a morbid fascination with The Light That Burned the Sky. Some city randomly blew up in the most violent explosion the world had ever seen? Fat chance, as he saw it. Someone was behind it.

 

The discovery he’d made was just a few months ago. If you made an electric coil just right, you could touch two ends of it to the weird beige crystal he had and make the entire circuit it was attached to explode.

 

The explosion seemed to scale in ferocity with the size of the circuit to some degree.

 

Háo de Xiǎo was a city with a mine mystery dungeon nearby and had the largest electrical grid at the time.

 

It was an easy enough connection to make.

 

With that in mind, Teru began his search for answers with the guild that used to own a monopoly on the mining activities there. The Jīnxīng Guild, apparently. Nearly all of their members tragically perished in the blast, but a handful survived. If only I could meet any of them. Maybe then I could find the truth. Get famous, maybe.

 

Teru glanced over the document detailing the former members, looking for one name in particular. Here. Mayumi Eevee. She was apparently part of the Guild at the time, and is alive today. Could she be the same one Amadeus and Haruhi mentioned? I’ll have to ask them about her more… The records say she survived because she wasn’t in town, but… Teru only cared because it finally meant he had a proper lead he could talk to. Assuming he could convince Haruhi and Amadeus to convince Mayumi to come, that is.

 

Come to think of it, didn’t they say that Dumas was dating this person at the time? And that Dumas was secretly Amadeus? Could he have been in the city at the time? Judging by the records, Mayumi was with a Luxio named Amadeus at the time, and that same Luxio was presumed dead in the wake of the blast.

 

Uh, let’s see. If I’ve got this right, Amadeus and Dumas are the same person, and this Eevee was his ex, and there’s a Luxio presumed dead named Amadeus. So that’s got to be Dumas, right? I’ll have to check with Amadeus and Haruhi to be sure, but I’m pretty sure that’s correct. That makes Dumas a suspect, right? The real question was what Amadeus knew about the crystals, but it was a frightening possibility.

 

Teru couldn’t see why he’d do it in the first place, though.