By The Book

“What’s the matter, mad that I’m right?” Now it was Budoshi’s turn to be the smug one. “Mmm. No, not really.” Fortunately for the both of them, this was more along the lines of fun banter than actually insulting each other. “Exactly, and why would you be? It’s not a bad thing to feel that way about someone.” Sometimes the most complex of things were in fact simple— and shockingly so.

The two continued their investigation and wandering up until Prophos decided to just randomly step off to the side before turning a corner, at which point Budoshi turned to look at the Shinjin with mild confusion. This caused Budoshi to walk into someone! “Oh, shit-” Budoshi immediately moved to see if the person was okay, and even tried to pick up some of their things. “Hey don’t worry about it. I also got distracted. You good?”

Prophos stepped forward and also began helping, looking specifically for anything that was missed by the other two. Budoshi had a moment where he was able to comment on Prophos’ movements earlier. “Don’t tell me you predicted that or something..?” The Shinjin shook his head. “Not this time. It’s mostly that swiftly moving around corners causes something like this.” Budoshi raised an eyebrow. “Uh, sure, in cities maybe.” Prophos shrugged. “Doesn’t it make more sense to be a bit more careful around calmer areas then, where people don’t expect to bump into each other?” Budoshi paused for a moment, considering the logic. It was sound. Damn this Shinjin and his sensible assessments, damn him!

Carefully picking up the various things that were dropped, neither Budoshi nor Prophos even bothered to closely examine any of it for their own reasons. For the most part they understood that it wasn’t their business. Budoshi flexed an arm in a silly exaggerated way when he was asked if he was ok. “But of course, because I’m cool and tough.” He chuckled. “For real though, it’s fine.” The other guy however looked a bit off. Tired even? Budoshi noticed but chose not to comment so as to not be rude.

When prompted, Budoshi and Prophos both handed over what they had retrieved from the ground. Wanting to make sure they got everything, the two of them looked around a bit more until they were pretty sure that only the ground itself and the foliage remained. “Is that everything?” Prophos curiously asked Pankaa, just to be absolutely certain.

As for any sort of predictive capability, Budoshi put his hands on his hips and lazily gestured to Prophos. “Yeah it’s one of his gimmicks. Well, that and faith which is so strong it can make a tangible impact on the universe.” Prophos frowned slightly at the watered down explanation. “An oversimplification of the details, though correct all the same.” Budoshi snorted. “Come on man, he already looks like he’s about to fall asleep as is and if you explained any of it in great detail he absolutely would have.”

Prophos sighed. “A pretty meat-headed conclusion, but fine, that’s your conclusion.” The Shinjin turned to face the other young man instead. “I’d prefer to leave any inquiries of that nature to you, young man, if you should have any.” If Prophos had to guess, the young Avali may indeed have some questions.

Budoshi figured this fella might be really tired if he was this confused, but still chose not to comment on it in a negative manner as again he saw it to be rude to do so.

“I can’t see anything out of the ordinary on the ground.” Prophos glanced over to Budoshi who blinked a few times before looking like he had an idea. He activated his vision enhancing ki technique that formed ethereal condensed aura goggles around his eyes which he used to look around. “Yeah, nah, just ground. Lovely blue grass as far as the eye can see. Some cool bugs too, but that’s off topic...” He dispelled the technique soon after making sure everything was collected.

It seemed that even the vague idea of Prophos’ gimmicks and such were enough to interest the young Avali to a point that he became noticeably more alert. “You were saying?” Prophos gave Budoshi a bit of a smug smile as a result. The Tuffle narrowed his eyes at his Shinjin friend slightly. “... Whatever man. You’re lucky I think your magic powers are rad.”

Shortly afterward, introductions were in order. “I’m Budoshi—” The Tuffle said, giving a short greeting salute. “— and I am Prophos.” The Shinjin gave a respectful bow, the Potara that he wore around his neck giving a light clink as he did so. “Proving something of such a scale is no doubt a difficult task, but as Budoshi implied, my faith does not waver where it matters. We can make wider predictions that take longer for the results to play out, or see about making more immediately relevant ones. What do you believe to be a suitable test of our claims, Pankaa?”

“Yeah man! Who doesn’t like a good bug?” Budoshi gave Pankaa a nod. “Got any faves?” He asked conversationally, curious to know— if it didn’t catch Pankaa off guard as a question in the first place given it wasn’t exactly commonplace to ask someone what their favourite bug is.

“Likewise, young man, it is a pleasure.” Prophos responded in kind to Pankaa’s politeness, and Budoshi gave an energetic thumbs up to show he thought much the same.

Noticing the slight frown, Prophos raised a brow. It wasn’t strange at all for anyone to be skeptical, in fact, Prophos would be worried if people weren’t when being told about what he could do. “Obviously it is easier said than done. I can tell that you are of a methodical mind, proof over faith as it were. I’ll see what I can do.”

Prophos stood silently for a moment, listening to Pankaa’s suggestions regarding scale of prediction, it looked as though he was preparing some sort of magic at this time.

Budoshi chose to stand closer to Pankaa, watching Prophos do his thing. “D’you reckon you can predict his prediction?” Maybe the Avali could, maybe he couldn’t, it was just something to pass the time.

In a few short moments thereafter, Prophos made a graceful movement in which a strange book seemingly appeared both out of nowhere and yet it was as if it had always been there to begin with. A soft otherworldly chime rang out as the tome opened to what looked like a completely blank page. Prophos evidently saw something there, and began to speak with a somewhat flat and serious tone. “In seeking that which is sealed away, teleportation leads to bread, and the solution comes ever closer.” With that, the book suddenly shut itself. Prophos looked confused. “What the..?” He blinked a few times, looking to Budoshi and Pankaa. “Well, um. I know that sounds absurd, but I can assure you that it’s important.” Budoshi shrugged. “It’s not the weirdest one you’ve ever had, not by a long shot.”

Clearing his throat, Prophos once again raised his mysterious tome. “I’ll try another one, just a moment...”

“If we want to be strict or whatever, heteroptera and hemiptera, but I honestly don’t super care to the point of ‘um akschully’-ing anyone about it— I’m not an entomologist.” Budoshi shrugged, he wasn’t a fan of being unnecessarily particular. Listening to Pankaa talk about the insects and such that he considered his favorite. Very fine choices indeed, many spiders were effectively artists in their own right, moths and bees were cool too; especially when they came in such wild colours. “Dryocampa rubicunda? Hell yeah man, hell yeah. I’m more of a Trithemis annulata man myself, but I see the vision.”

Pankaa had a few hopes as to what the prediction could entail that took precedence over guesses— Budoshi supposed that made sense, anyone would want to hear what they wanted to hear. “Oh, you got a brother? That’s pretty cool, I’m an only child.” With quite a lot of immediate cousins though so it was almost no different to having a sibling.

Budoshi didn’t really think Prophos’ prediction was all too strange, and barely reacted to the mention of bread, but Pankaa seemed to latch onto the general idea. Budoshi doubted it had anything to do with bread though.

Prophos looked somewhat confused, though he too registered Pankaa’s interest. He figured that he may as well check. “Um, sure, just give me a moment to see if I can figure something out.” Opening the book once more, the same ‘page’ would appear to the Shinjin. After a few moments of examining it without blinking even once. “Hmm. There’s something here about a ‘future brother bound in law’ being witness to the... Bread event. One portion says ‘watch the distant blue star’. Another portion says... ‘In the moments without the sun, the hidden moons light a path’. Nothing much else, I’m afraid.” Without being personally involved, Prophos didn’t have many guesses to offer, plus, he felt that it was better if Pankaa sorted this of his own volition as a free being. “Not even I have all the answers, and honestly I prefer it that way. I appreciate being able to strive for something.”

“Right? It absolutely kicks ass of the highest degree in my humble opinion.” Budoshi gave a solid nod. Pankaa’s brother was apparently Guru too, which was the biggest of the bigshots here on Namek. The Tuffle supposed that was pretty neat, and it made sense that any prediction from Prophos could involve someone like that. “Makes sense, it’s solid logic.” Budoshi had no intention of judging someone based on if they were adopted or with any biological family, it made no sense. Besides, Flambréra herself was adopted by Nutmeg— and even beyond that, Nervan, Prophos and Illuma also felt like family to Budoshi in their own way.. “Family is family so long as it feels right. Simple.”

Prophos gazed at his tome thoughtfully, but nothing further came to light. He could make a few guesses as to what each clue meant, but didn’t think any of them would be helpful— if only because he didn’t yet know exactly what Pankaa needed help with. However, the feeling that Prophos felt when speaking the prediction at first, it certainly held weight. “No trouble at all, young man.” Prophos gave Pankaa a short and polite bow as he dispelled the mystical tome’s presence. “I think that one will suffice for now. It had a certain... Vibe, you might say. I can say that whatever it involves must be of great importance to you.”

Pankaa seemed doubly interested as to where Prophos even got such a potentially powerful artefact now. The Shinjin couldn’t blame him. The Avali, for as young as he was, had the obvious presence of a scholar. “Ah, it’s ‘classified’, unfortunately. I am under oath to not divulge such sensitive information.” Though he didn’t seem so fond of that fact. “If we’re lucky, however... There is a chance you will know one day.” There was always a chance.

“Mm. That’s rough.” Budoshi frowned, noting Pankaa’s obvious frustration. “Understatement of the century, no doubt.”