"Oh. Yes, I suppose that would be uncomfortable to think about. ...though I'm sure they'd be disqualified in pretty short order."

"Oh yeah for sure," says Jassu.

        "Just—imagine usin' a knife to cut bread all your life and then noticin' one day that you can also use it to stab people," says Botta.

    Datto nods. "'S not that people would, it's just a different way to look at it."

"...yeah."

Silent remainder of breakfast?

Well, the blitzballers will eventually pick up some conversation amongst themselves, but they were raised around Lulu and know well enough how to include an introvert without actually expecting them to join socialisation if they don't want to.

That's probably for the best. Edmund can participate to the very limited extent he wants, and mostly eat breakfast.

When they're almost done with breakfast, Wakka shows up at the door of the mess hall. "Hey. We're back."

    "Cap'n!" respond the others in unison, cheerfully.

"No rush, we can go whenever."

"How was Ifrit?"

"You'll have to ask Zei. The trials were fine, but we must not talk about them. It's the rules."

"Well, alright."

Edmund looks around for Zei.

Zei's in the main hall of the temple with Lulu and Kimahri, chatting about nothing at all. When he spots Edmund he waves at him.

Wave! Edmund approaches. "How was Ifrit? Since your crew is bound to silence on the matter."

"I'm also bound to silence on the matter," he says, apologetically. "—also the trials are at least somewhat personalised to the group, Lulu's been to Valefor's and Ifrit's before and she said they were different then."

To the extent Lulu shows emotions, she looks... not very comfortable with this conversation.

"Now I'm tempted to swear Guardianship just to know, you realize. Dangling secrets in front of me is rude and fewer people should do it - not that it's your fault, you're just the latest in a long history of such."

"—it's, ah, kind of a serious thing. Being a Guardian."

"I do realize that, sorry. I had a conversation with one of the priests about it. Just - I do get curious and I am actually considering becoming your Guardian and I don't actually know how to stop being flippant about important things, it's carried me through at least one apocalypse."

"Oh. No, being flippant is fine, I was just preparing to give you The Speech, but if a priest has already told you how it works it's alright."

And Wakka walks towards the rest of the group, followed by the blitzballers.

"Ready to go? Long walk down and then we need to catch the boat to Luca."

"Ah, yes, walking. My favorite -" yawn "- activity..."

Oni-Goroshi flares impatiently.

Edmund stifles a yelp, then blinks a couple of times. "- right! Walking, excellent. Ready when you all are."

    "We could race—" one of the players starts but Wakka immediately grabs him in a headlock and covers his mouth with a hand.

"No gettin' more tired than we need. I just said, long trip, ya?"

    "Yes, cap'n..." says the player once he's released.

Onwards!

Onwards! Edmund suspects that whatever Oni-Goroshi did to him will not actually last long enough to sustain him through a long trip, but he's almost certainly endured worse.

They make their way out through the main doors. The morning sun greets the main external plaza dead-on, its light scattered by the fire-containing crystals in pretty rainbows. The effect was probably engineered on purpose.