"Somehow I think you're not telling the truth."

"—wow I've never seen her jump into humour so fast."

"Hm."

And presently they are in one of the rooms, a little bit cramped due to the number of people, but Kimahri stays outside standing guard.

And they have food. Travel food, nothing luxurious, but food: some nuts and dried fruit, hard bread, juice. "Thank you for the help in the fight earlier," Zei says. "It would've gone... a lot worse without it."

Emil takes some bread and some juice. "...you're welcome, I guess. I still wish I could've done more."

"You think you coulda killed it? Killed Sin? On your own?"

"It's... what I am. I was made to destroy things like that. But it had me on the back foot most of the time, and it didn't seem like I exhausted its supply of cheap tricks. So maybe I couldn't. Yet."

He shakes his head. "That ain't gonna work. It'll come back. Not until we atone for our sins and live the right way. It's the teachings."

At least one person looks very uncomfortable with that assertion.

If anyone else is, they're better at hiding this discomfort. "Even if we stop it only for a while, that'd still be worth it. It's why we're here. And frankly, Wakka, if Emil of no titles kills Sin even for a year I don't actually give a shit that the teachings say only summoners are meant to be able to do it."

"...I s'pose."

This is not by any means the most inconvenient reaction someone has had to the idea of Emil eating a major figure of their religion! He is not going to push it!

...hey.

"It's called Sin?" he clarifies. "I think you said before, but..."

"Yeah?"

"Second god I've met by the name. The other one is... a friend, I guess. Weird coincidence."

"Your... translation magic is interesting. Sin is not a 'god', I think. It's a monster, and according to the teachings it's a punishment."

"Mm. It's close enough to the gods I know that I could... use the same techniques against it, that I've used against them. But I understand if no one's inclined to worship it."

"What would that even do?"

"There do exist people who believe that praying to Sin, rather than Yevon, is what will protect them."

"Crazy stuff. Worse'n Al Bhed."

"...you know what I mean."

Not touching whatever that was.

"That's a familiar story," he says instead.

"People will do anything to make sure the tiger gets their neighbor instead of them," Oni-Goroshi says flatly. "What is to be done about this Sin? You were fighting it when we arrived; did you have a plan?"

"How... much background should I assume you have about everything?"