"Yeah, they never did have any good taste," Angeal says with zero hesitation. He never did get on to the city like Genesis did, the kind of guy who could be terribly stubborn when he decide don something. He's always been much too homesick for that sort of thing.

And this isn't home, exactly. But it's enough like home, with the song and the thick forests and Genesis at his arm, that it soothes something that he thinks has been aching for a long time.

It'll probably never stop aching, really. Banora is all ashes. But it's a bit of a balm, and he'll take it.

Taking Genesis in hand, he's already twisting around with him. "Man, remember when we were little kids, and you actually had the night free from your studies for one of the festivals?" All his homework mysteriously went missing, for some reason.