Private There's No Smoke Without Fire

"Fair, fair. I spent a biiiiig chunk of my life as a shut-in with the internet being my social outlet. Add that with me working two jobs and my regular community service, and now I got years worth of energy built up that needs release." He laughed before taking a drink from his glass.

"What do you do for a living? If you don't mind me asking. I feel bad talking so much about myself."

He nodded along as Adelaida spoke. A small part of him itched to know more about her magic stuff. A big part, actually. The part that was raised to be invested in mythology from "strange worlds" (basically anything far from Japan). He did agree that her being a student was more important, considering it got her free housing and meals.

"I work at Acinaces Arena as a commentator, at the hospital," he learned from experience to be vague with that one unless pushed to explain, "and I run a small organization meant to help adults get acclimated to the island. It doesn't pay, but I'm hoping to invest in it, so it's basically a job. By the way, I don't need to sleep, if you're wondering how I fit so many hours in."

"It's useful when you want to fit a lot of work into a whole day. Otherwise? It's boring. Very very boring." He let out a sigh, then shook his head before taking a long drink. No, he was not going to let himself feel down about this. Plenty of people would kill to never need sleep.

"I'm sorry to hear about your loss of magic," he continued. "I actually came here without any magic. I was... I was weaker than a human. The man who runs this place is the one who gave me power. But not everyone is okay with wish-granting and trades. Are you unable to learn magic too?"

Some of this was flying right over Konpeitō's head. If she couldn't interact with the flow of magic, how she can use a portal and make fire? Okay, he actually understood very little of this, yet he nodded while eating two fries at a time anyway.

"That's a shame to hear. This island can do wonderful things for you though..." He leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh. "A year on the island and I still know... basically nothing about magic. I know it exists and I know there are rules sometimes, but all I know is how my magic works. If you can call it that. It feels too scientific for me. If I ever get enough free time, I'd love to sit in on a class or two researching magic."

"I've heard people call magic science that people don't understand," he replied while deep in thought. Calling his magic more scientific than other types might have been a bit pompous, now that he thought about it.

After taking a long drink, he took a deep breath, then made his response. "Mine is a little complicated. I wished for magic to alter my body with the limit that I understand what I'm altering for the best effects. The idea was so that if I ran into trouble, I wouldn't have 'Oh no, it's random magic so there are no clear rules,' problem. Because I have to, say, study skin to be able to manipulate my own, I can easily parse through any problems I hit. The downside is that it's way easier to fuck me up, and there has been a few times where my magic," every time he said that word he felt weird, "had confusing developments. For example, I can change my species and I'm weirdly drawn to any kind of DNA now. I don't know how I accomplished all of that... Oh! I also wished for immortality, and there is some smaller stuff I was created with, but most of them are gone after I remade myself."