"The reason I think Sin is a god – or close enough – is that I got the distinct impression of it as something I could eat. I've killed gods before, about a dozen of them. Then I consumed their essence, made it a part of myself. And they don't come back from that."

"I'm sorry, with knife and fork or..."

"I'm a hell of a knife," Oni-Goroshi deadpans.

"For... complicated reasons... my soul is mostly empty. That means I can suck gods' essence in there, and what's left of my soul will... digest them, in a way. Process out what's them and make it into power for me."

"That... is not how souls work. ...uh, here. You seem to be from sufficiently far away that I'm not sure what to think. Your magic is... not pyreflies?"

"I've never heard of them, so if they're part of my magic I know less about myself than I thought. My magic is –"

He points to a thumbnail-sized gemstone stitched into his right glove, then traces along a thread to another, then another, then finally a fourth. "Virtue Gems. Each one lets me do something impossible, or enhances another one in the same chain. I've got thirty-six of them, in five circuits. Add that to the ambient magic I've absorbed to enhance my body and mind, plus my enchanted gear, plus all of those god-sparks, and that's me."

"You'd probably know it if you used pyreflies for magic. Those wisps of light that faded from dying fiends earlier?"

"No, not familiar. I saw them but assumed it was something about Sinspawn."

"So if you can eat gods how come you didn't eat Sin?"

"They have to be dead first, or close enough. It only keeps them from coming back. And I didn't get Sin, this time. But I'm also probably the most experienced god-killer in the room."

"Ahem."

"Oni-Goroshi excepted."

"Do you have a way to find Sin and, uh, make sure it stays still?"

"No, not yet. This is all just... noting that the problem might have a solution, so far."

"No, no, I'm with you. It's just that, and this is an entirely selfless proposition that has nothing to do with my wanting to stick around the two greatest mysteries of the century, then you sticking with me for the time being might be our best idea."

"Two?"

He hikes a thumb in Azym's direction.

"Him?"

"Oh yes you don't know the half of it."

"That was already the plan! Also I'm deathly curious now but probably don't have enough context to even understand why Azym would be so mysterious."

"You do, actually! Remember how Zanarkand was destroyed by a monster a thousand years ago? Well, this guy showed up back in Besaid, the place we're coming from, claiming that he is from a country called Zanarkand."

"...Sin's toxin—"

"Does not have any recorded cases of entirely made up life memories as exposure symptoms! And they definitely don't have any recorded cases of mysterious unknown technology as exposure symptoms."

—oh, that's his cue, okay. He reaches into a bottomless bag attached to his waist to grab a little pocket doodad with a flat screen made of some glass-like material.

"...he does look Al Bhed..."