Celes had sent Knipz out to fetch us dinner from the kitchen. When he returned, we sat in a garden with the view of the evening city below, chewing on chicken legs. A cloud rolled into Boundless Chorus and thousands of ghosts lit up the foggy city streets below us, moving about like fantastic, shimmering, blue lightning traces that flickered all over the place.

"Does a real person cook this?" I mulled over the dinner plates filled with chicken and rice. "Or is it some servitor ghost-chef making perfect meals for hundreds of years without end?"

"Uhm. It's a servitor bound to the kitchen," Celes replied. "Real chefs are expensive."

I briefly wondered what was worse - not being alive, being reborn inside Lord Boundless in some horrid lake of acid or being a ghost-slave. All options seemed equally terrible. I drowned these grimy thoughts with the food before me.

“You know, Qi infused chicken tastes far better than regular chicken. It’s like advanced chicken with twice the flavor!" I commented.

Ash obviously didn’t have the experience of eating non-magical chicken, but with Pharmacist's memories I was able to compare the two and thus found the current food twice as delicious. I felt that I could almost taste the patterns of Qi on my tongue as I bit into a succulent leg.

“I wouldn't know what chicken tastes like without Qi,” Celes added. “I’d probably die in horrid agony if I tried to eat food from the cursed city.”

“You know, it’s funny. I’m probably the only person in the Gold city who knows what regular chicken tastes like,” I said with my mouth full. “Do you think there are cultivators who cultivate their tongues to taste things better?”

“Yes,” Celes responded, making a judging face at my atrocious tableside manners. "They can taste poison before it even touches their tongue."

“I bet they’re really fat, like sumo wrestlers,” I blurted, licked the chicken and pushed Qi into my tongue. The flavor of chicken in my mouth intensified tenfold. I attempted to trace the nerves leading from my tongue into my brain, lighting them up with my Qi. A little-known fact: the tongue is directly connected to the brain stem. I recalled how Wisconsin–Madison university researchers discovered that electrical stimulation of the tongue helped patients with multiple sclerosis improve their gait.

As my body continued to eat dinner, my mind went wild as I scanned myself internally, discovering which parts of the brain were responsible for taste, smell, and touch. At the same time, I continued to refine my Qi scanning technique.

[Primary weapon upgrade - Scanning elevated to - LV 3]

My own voice whisper-sang in my head.

Interesting. It made sense that the more I scanned my brain, the more my scanning power grew. I kept at it.

[Scanning LV 4]

It suddenly got more difficult to do things. I dropped the chicken from my mouth. My head slumped into the table, pulsating madly. Damn it. Went overboard with Qi use again. I decided to stop before I gave myself an aneurysm.

I saw Celes looking at me with concern as I tried to poorly conceal the fact that I had just uncontrollably slammed my face into my plate.

“Just leveling up my scanner-skill, please ignore me.”

“Leveling up?”

“Remember how I can see information about things and people? Everything has a level. I’m trying to bring mine up.”

“Everything has a level? Does the chicken leg you are eating have a level?”

I stared at the chicken leg on my gold-rimmed, black plate.

[Chicken leg - LV 0]

“It does indeed. It’s not a very strong chicken.” I nodded. “There’s no reason to beware this one.”

Celes sighed. She was probably worried about me. I tried to read her expression.

Oh.

She was looking VERY worried, trembling ever so slightly. It was rather unfortunate that both of my lovely personalities were rather inept at handling personal social situations.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“No,” the kitsune shook her head. “I’m… terrified of the Deathstorm Convergence. Ever since you stole the beast core that I was carrying, I’ve been in one dangerous, bewildering or strange situation after another.

"When you used the core on the ancient skull... I had given up on life, simply went along with you, waiting for the High-Administrator's wrath. As a geisha I’ve been taught to keep my emotions concealed, to always remain calm and collected, no matter how angry or frustrated my Masters get with each other. However…” Celes made a deep pause.

“It’s one thing when I’m tasked with providing serenity, encouragement, assistance, and healing to high-cultivators who throw themselves into insanely dangerous situations and another to be fully without their protection. I’m at my limit. I’m afraid I…” She fretted, trying to keep herself together, forcing a crooked smile onto her face. “I haven’t adapted to all of this just yet.”

I froze, trying to process what she was saying. Theft had consequences for the people who were robbed. Ash has been stealing from merchants her entire life, but she had never considered the fact that theft hurt people. Her personality folded inward as it was faced with this simple fact - she had been causing people pain. She hurt Celes - the only person in the Gold city that was nice to her. Ash had no friends before Celes, no companions that she could trust. The Pharmacist-me took control.

“I… I… uh. I’m sorry,” I finally uttered.

Celes raised her eyes at me. I saw fear and worry in them with a gleam of barely held back tears. She had been very tolerant and extraordinarily nice to me - something that I did not deserve. She was worried about me. She actually cared about me?

“Celes. I’ve kinda been... an asshole to you,” I said, rubbing my head. “I’m really sorry. Honestly. By stealing your core, Ash screwed up your original plan, annihilating any hope you had of escaping a fate worse than death. And I… in my eagerness to understand the world, in the excitement of new discoveries… I’ve been rather demanding of you, not fully understanding or taking into account your situation.”

The geisha nodded.

“I’ve been… extremely bossy. I’ve likely been very grating on you and you are my first friend in this world. Ash never had friends before and I am basically a stranger in a strange land. Given the memories of Ash and her knowledge of this culture, I should have done something earlier, said something before, but I’m constantly engrossed in being surprised and bedazzled by everything I see around me.”

“I understand. Ash stole my beast core because she was hungry,” Celes nodded. “The Gold city isn’t a fair place, especially to the misfortunate low-borns.”

“I’m doing my best to adapt to the local… everything. Everything here is different, extraordinary. Gargantuan god-abominations ruling men. Archangels. Servitor spirits. The shattered moon. The ruins of my city. I can’t even remember my real name. It sucks. It’s like a whole bunch of my identity has been erased,” I professed. “I know that one of the main parts of my four-year Bachelor of Pharmacy training was emphasized on patient counseling and learning to empathize with patients' suffering… and yet whole chunks of it are missing as if someone took a knife to my memories.”

“I didn’t realize that,” Celes fluttered.

“Yeah, it’s mostly Ash up in here,” I tapped my head. “I... died a long time ago. I’m just discordant fragments of information, an old book stitched from random pages. I barely understand what I am - how could intelligence, knowledge, self-awareness even be pulled from an old skull?” I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Anyways, now it feels like I’m making up excuses for my shitty behavior. I constantly use words or make references to things you don’t know or understand. Bear with me, okay?”

“Talking to you is highly peculiar, no doubt about that,” the kitsune agreed. “I do get confused a lot by you, especially when your personality switches on me or when you use words from the unimaginably distant past. I sometimes forget that you are two minds in one person. An idiosyncratic combination. I look at you and I see this poor, starved ragamuffin, but you’re not. You’re something different and unique. Half of you truly doesn’t belong here.”

“Yeah,” I affirmed. “My world is long gone, turned to ashes, ruins and bones. I can never return to it, never get back what I lost and you’re the only person here that I can trust with knowing exactly what I am. I’ve lost absolutely everything, everyone I knew is dead and I’ve been dealing with it poorly, hiding behind Ash or making jokes at your expense. I’m an adult and I’ve been behaving like a teenager. Maybe it’s the hormones… err… sorry, you don’t know what those are.”

“Can you remember what you looked like at all?” Celes asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s like almost everything that identified me as an individual is gone. I remember how to use my gun but I have no idea if I was a boy or a girl,” I smiled slightly at the unintentional pokemon reference. It made me feel marginally better about my situation. “I can’t even bloody remember if I had a family or friends! I know that I used to talk to tons of people online on a specific server, but I can’t recall their avatars or usernames.”

“Server? Online? Avatars? Usernames?” She scrutinized words that were alien to her.

“Damn it. I’m doing it again,” I rubbed my head. “We ancients had all sorts of long-distance means of communication in which we didn’t have to use our real names or identities. Sort of like… using a servitor spirit to send letters to each other really quickly. Anyway, I can’t seem to recall the made-up identities of people who were my long-distance friends. This selective amnesia is troubling."

"That does sound distressing," Celes affirmed. "To forget friends and family would be painful."

"I've been using your serenity field to avoid this exact conversation," I confessed. "It's incredibly nice not to feel sad, afraid or worried. I would probably roll up in a ball and cry a lot if you weren't here. It's easy to make plans and execute them into action... with you at my side.”

Celes smiled at that. "At least I'm good for something."

"You are good for a lot of things," I asserted. “Your serenity field is also a booster of confidence. It’s better, stronger than any drugs we ancients created a thousand years ago. I believe that your serenity-aura functions as a focus-aid as well, since it really helps me concentrate on problem-solving. I think of solutions and Ash executes them. We work in tandem and with you at our side we’re an unstoppable trio. We couldn't have done anything we did today without your help, Celes… and for this I’m incredibly grateful to you.”

The smile of the fox-girl grew.

"You are a good person, a rare… kind individual in a god-administered city full of condescending cultivator wingbags, cheats, murderers, thieves and liars. I'm glad that you were the first person I met," I concluded.

“Even though our meeting started with you or your other half… stealing from me?” She quirked an eyebrow at me.

“Ah, well, she and I, were lost, until she and I were found,” I said with a smile.

Celes' ears moved at odd angles as I spoke. I found it fascinating to watch.

“Well, maybe I’m being a bit too morose,” she mulled. “I’m not just good for something, I’m good for many things. Things that have gone unappreciated for centuries by the high-cultivators who treat geishas like commodities they can throw away at their leisure. So, despite the dangers, I’m happy to be of service toward someone as kind and intelligent as you and as curious and stubborn as your other half - Ash Sparks.”

"I'm going to learn how to project the Pharmacist out as a ghost so we can have this conversation as a trio," Ash got back to the forefront of our mind. "Or... project myself out. It would probably be pretty cool being a spooky, scary ghost. Handy for spying on people or stealing stuff."

"Hi Ash," Celes beamed.

"Hiiiiiii," I grinned back. "Did you call me a ragamuffin earlier?"

Celes made a small snort at that.

“This is acceptable. I’m rather raggedy and adorable,” I laughed.

I recalled the exact way I had reacted to Celes telling me that the core belonged to the High-Administrator. My ‘How is this my problem, again?’ comment exposed a flaw in my personality - I failed to show care for people since nobody had shown me how to care for someone. I drew on the Pharmacist’s experience to help me along.

“You… are my friend Celes. Your problems are my problems now,” I finally articulated. “I’m sorry I keep pushing you into… things. I keep executing rapidly concocted plans without letting you in on the full picture. I’m not used to having a companion, not used to having a friend at my side that I can trust. Trusting people is… difficult.”

“Would be nice if you kept me more informed, yes,” she concurred.

“Okki,” I nodded. “Could you come with me to the West gate tonight? Be my backup when I meet up with my Thieves Guild associates? I need your help to convince them that I’m a high-cultivator. You won’t have to do much. All you have to do is be pretty, smile and nod and let me grab you by the waist.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “I’ll put on a nice pair of boots that make me look taller. I didn’t wear them earlier because they’re a pain to run in. We don’t have to do any running away, right?”

“Not if everything goes according to plan,” I gave her a thumbs up and realized that wasn’t a thing that people did nowadays. “Ummm… Also, can I take a look at what you got in terms of old clothes and shoes in this temple? I gotta make myself look like a giant narcissistic peacock!”