[ You're a good woman, Karen. It's actually making him more interested in you than he had been before - not that he'd been uninterested. One looked at all available avenues of progression when washed up on foreign shores. ]

It's almsot more startling all of us aren't in that position. From what I've been told and discussed with others - [ mainly Inumuta ] - there are times where one person arriving might foretell several they know arriving as time passes, but as frequently, and more so, that hasn't been the case. How long people stay also has little consistency.

I count myself among the fortunate knowing it easily could have been otherwise. Or could be, in the future.

[ For all Inumuta has said he's more worried that Iori, too, will leave, just as suddenly as he's come. ]