After a few minutes, the man returned with what he assumed was the manager and another plump man who wore some very old-looking glasses.

They asked him to perform the same ritual as he had a few minutes before but with the same outcome.

"Somethin's supposed to happen when I put my hand on the plate right?"

"You are quite right, sir."

"Why isn't something happening?"

"This man is here to help us find out." Sir Zephyr pointed and motioned for the man in glasses to step forward.

"To make the long story short young man, something is blocking your arclight flow. I can search your body to discover that blockage if it is alright with you."

-Ah. I get it. It's one of those ‘can’t get a reading because his numbers are off-the-charts situations.

"Please sir, let me take your hand."

"Little bit of a strange gesture, but not super uncomfortable. Just letting you know, I for one do not swing that way."

"No one said you did."

"I know, I just thought I'd let you know."

The man took his hand, mumbled some words that Touji failed to catch, and then closed his eyes.

"Sir, is it normal to do these magic tests on people my age?"

"No. We start a lot younger. The younger you know your attributes, the more time you have to study and perfect them." Zephyr replied.

"Huh, interesting." Touji sat back in thought.

"What on earth?' The man with glasses exclaimed.

-Here it comes!

"This man is dead!"

Touji’s growing sense of pride had abruptly been cut short.

"Eh?! Excuse me." He was just a little bit confused by this unfortunate diagnosis.

"Sir, what do you mean?" Zephyr inquired.

"This boy doesn't have a blockage. He doesn't have arclight, to begin with. Absolutely none. He's a walking corpse."

"Now listen here, manager. I don’t mean to be a Karen. I know I look like a nut job, but please explain to me in layman's terms how I can be sitting here talking to you and you have concluded that I'm dead. It’s not like it’s my life force or anything."

"Sir, arclight is your life force. It’s about as crucial as your blood running through your veins. But you have none. Which means you’re dead. You can't live without arclight flow."

"Oh! Hence it's called life force. Well, maybe you should change it to life insurance because I am still very much alive and kicking as you might have noticed."

"There must be a mistake," Zephyr interjected. "Try again."

"I will. I don't believe it myself."

The doctor took him by the hand once more and prepared to cast another spell. They all waited in silence anxiously waiting for a response.

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"Yes, sir." The man said with his eyes still closed. "He lacks all traces of arclight. Also, his body couldn't even let it flow through him, to begin with. It's structured in a way that prevents any passage of arclight through his system."

"Can you find any other clues?" The manager asked.

"I'll try. Let me dig deeper." The man's eyebrows twitched together in concentration.

There was a loud bang. The doctor lay on the floor with a look of utter terror.

"What the hell are you?"

"Human. You've got a problem?" Touji quickly responded, a little shocked.

"Boy, please leave. You've got something inside you I will never cross. Get out! Inspector, escort him out and make a report."

The doctor fell over and coughed violently. He tried to stand up but his legs wouldn't hold his weight. Touji was quickly removed from the room and was hurriedly checked out of the building's entrance.

"That was scary. Don't know what those people’s problems were but man, they were kinda rude."

He put his hands into his hoodie pockets. The money was still there.

-I guess it's a little late to give it to them. Besides, they didn’t do anything but tell me I was dead. Classic healthcare system. Some things don’t change even in a different world. What should I do?

The candy shop he had passed on the way there caught his eye. He decided that he would stop in for something sweet. As he stepped in, a girl standing at the counter beckoned him in. Her hair was a dark purple and was quite long, reaching down, passed her waist. She wore the customary sleeveless maid dress and her hair was clipped with two red hairpins above each ear.

"Welcome master-I mean-sir. How many I help you?"

"Do you guys sell any-you probably don't, but is there. . .?” His eyes searched the stalls of sweats.

-Wow, those look like Wagashi. Damn. Imma get me some of those.

"Please, my beautiful maid. May I get some of those handsome treats over there?"

"Um-sure. What Flavor would you prefer.”

He lowered his head to below the counter where the sweets were on display and checked out the many different colored delectables.

“Excuse me sir," The waitress asked in a curious manner, "Why are you wearing those strange clothes?”

“Hoh. You noticed, huh? Aren’t you curious about me?” He pointed to one particular stack of the otherworldly Wagashi. He was met with a slight glare of disappointment as the girl perceived the colors he had chosen.

“You don't have any shame for buying pink sweets. You are a boy am I correct?"

"Why missus gorgeous. You don't want me to taste thy sweetness- I mean sweats? I'll take purple if you want."

"Are you hitting on me?" She said in a distasteful tone.

"Hate to break it to you, but I've got a redhead- actually pink head back home. Don't have room for a purple head. But thanks for the offer though."

"I haven't offered you any such thing." She retorted, visibly riled up at the suggestion.

"But you said I could pick one."

"Okay, shut up and take your stupid pink sweats." And with that, she marched off into the back of the store, out of site from the till.

-Maybe I went a liiiiiittle too far. Just a little. Sweet talking was never my specialty. Anyway, there’s no way she couldn't have known I was BSing.

Another maid approached the counter, except this time with yellow hair. The diversity in the human race of this world was quite the spectacle, a trait that could, at least to some, be considered the ultimate cosplay, although this was more of an anomaly.

"I'm sorry sir," the replacement waitress apologized in her co-workers stead. "She can be like that sometimes. She's a new recruit here and doesn't really take to the idea of being cordial. Don't think too much of it."

"You don't have to worry. I said some pretty out of character things and she thought I looked stupid, so she stomped off. And rightly so."

He handed the girl the money and she placed it in a drawer under the counter.

"By the way sir, she made those items. They're her creations. You’re the first person to have bought them."

Touji paused at this slip of information as it felt important for some reason, but as nothing particularly came to mind he focused more on keeping good ties with the company as future trade was now on the to-do list. "Well, tell her I'm sorry for being an ass. And purple isn't that bad of a color."

"Thank you for visiting and please come again." The waitress waved back after handing him the bag of goods he had requested.

Touji returned the gesture and left the store. As he proceeded down the open road he slipped his hand into the paper bag and began helping himself to the days spoils. They were delicious. Not too sweet and not too bland. The flavors weren't anything extravagant and he had tasted better wagashi in Japan of course, but this was quite good taking into account the fantasy style.

-I wonder. If I insulted someone’s hair color, how badly would they take it? I should probably be careful in case it's something similar to insulting their mother.

He popped another wagashi into his mouth.

"The thing that I find strange is the similarities of my world and this. For instance, language and writing are the same. And some of the food items seem oddly similar." He stuffed three more wagashi into his mouth. "I should probably have ordered tea with this." As he said this some kids and a dog ran by, knocking the bag of sweats from his hands and leaving them to sprawl over the muddy ground.

“The tea god must be angry.”