...okay Jaeha supposes it's time to look into this Sparkler guy.

He's 20, power is listed as some kind of flashbang situation, no public backlash, actually using the secret identity thing and masking to enough of an extent that his name doesn't come up in a casual inspection. Curly brown hair, million-watt smile, has appeared in a beer commercial. Has a primary partner, "Arctic"; Haru's a part-time secondary.

Oh Jaeha is not being casual about this inspection. He's gonna find out everything there is to know about this dude, he has money and contacts and a mission. ...he maybe won't get everything today if there's anything he'll need to hire an actual investigator for but short of that, he can find people who work at this guy's agency and discover where and with whom he's worked and when he awakened and what his family situation is like and other partners than just the two if there are any and...

The Wayback Machine says Sparkler activated at 19, almost two years ago, and used to partner with an older lady named Harvest Moon; she's since retired and he took up with Arctic then and added Traceless later. Arctic is a 27 year old sensory-power esper who also has another partner, a "Pyramid", but the chain stops there, Pyramid doesn't have anyone else and never has. If he wants to acquire Harvest Moon's self published memoir and follow up on leads about her half-dozen younger male partners over the years he can determine Sparkler's first name, but it's John (Harvest Moon actually refers to him as Johnny), so that won't get him very far.

He can probably find the guy's full name if he pulls some strings and contacts someone who's worked with someone who's owed a favour by the guy's agent or something. That might take a day or two to pan out, depending, but he's casting his net wide for any more info he can get. 

The number one most important thing to learn, though, is why he's occasionally partnering with Haru, if he has a primary partner already. Can he find that out? If there's some problem that means Johnny's primary partner isn't enough Jaeha is interested in finding out what that problem is and how to solve it.

Sparkler works with Maple, same as Haru, but the agent is some other guy (whose name, like Paula's, is not hard to find). Arctic is working sans agent at the moment but used to have somebody in Mead & Neveux till last year. There is an unfinished documentary about espers in the advertising industry which features an interview with Sparkler about the beer commercial, in which -

"Tadaima!"

Away goes his holographic commscreen. "Okaeri!"

"I think I tweaked my shoulder, I want a backrub about it." Flop.

Jaeha is so down to give Haru a massage. Approximately anything Haru asks for, really, and this isn't even hard to do. Plus of course the guiding means that it's good for Jaeha, too.

The massage soothes the tweaked shoulder and can morph into sex after that.

Jaeha has the best partner~

Yes he does. The best partner who will kiss him goodbye and pop out for dungeon #4 when his timer goes off.

And now it's back to figuring out what's up with Sparkler and how he can make sure Sparkler isn't available for future Haru guiding.

(It might be nothing. Maybe just having Jaeha around will be enough. But it doesn't hurt to be sure.)

If he socially engineers himself the script of the French dub of the unfinished documentary he can learn what high school Sparkler attended and narrow it down to 23 Johns/Johnathans/Jons/Jonathans/one Jonah just to be sure, some of whom he can tentatively rule out by hair color and the rest of whom mostly precipitate out by having alibis for times at which Sparkler was accounted for. Sparkler's legal name is John Parker Halliwell and he has a house in Belcarra and posts on Facebook about his dog all the time. Two brothers who are still in high school, parents in downtown Eastside in Vancouver, cover occupation as a bartender.

Why do these people even have secret identities, this isn't a comic book story. 

Can he find anything at all on why this guy would have a secondary partner? Is it just the kindness of his heart towards Haru plus wanting a piece of Haru's perfect ass? He's not even sure how he'd find this out, honestly, he probably needs to start looking into Arctic...

This will consume most of his time until Haru is done with his last dungeon for the day.

Arctic explained in a magazine article once that she chose her codename because her power is long range enough that she can perceive the Arctic Circle. She commented on Sparkler getting a secondary partner: "No one can be everything to anyone; of course I don't mind." Her backlash is sorta findable, if Jaeha wants to try to figure out Sparkler's based on it having to be compatible both with Haru's loneliness and with Arctic's description of hers as "a great excuse to wear sunglasses indoors". Here's a picture of Haru and Sparkler cheek to cheek smiling for the camera just to ruin Jaeha's day.

Wow you're right that is ruining Jaeha's day!

This seems like a longer-term project after all. What he can do from this end is make sure Haru is so guided he'll literally never have any need for dear Johnny. And if Haru feels like visiting Johnny just for some friendly sex between buddies Jaeha will need to deal with it then.

"I'm home! Is there dinner, if there's not I was at the point of asking dungeon victims for restaurant recommendations and have some of those."

...fuck, he forgot about food.

"I was about to start cooking," as of literally this second, "but if you'd rather go to a restaurant I would love to go out with you."

"Well, how much of an impairment is it if I'm draping myself all over you and incapable of shutting up while you make food?"

"We can find out!" This is nice and correct, Haru draping himself all over him and being incapable of shutting up. This is how things ought to be. No Johns anywhere.

Jaeha is a little taller than Haru but Haru can still hug him around the middle from behind and still get his chin over Jaeha's shoulder. "Were you dreadfully bored all day long?"

"Less than I thought I would be," which is true because he had not expected to go down the rabbit hole he did. "I spent some time digging around for other people who've looked into dungeons from the same kinds of angles you did and I ran into your blog."