There's one thing all harmonixers have in common, quite apart from most of us being blood relations.
It's fear. The feeling of losing control. Of looking over the abyss and jumping in, and perhaps never being able to crawl back out again.
My brother, Jinpachiro. He faced his fear, gained control over his fusions. He was so powerful.
He's dead now.
His son, my nephew, Yuri. He could fuse with so many different creatures, and bring himself back, whole and intact, each time. As he conquered his fear, he conquered them, bending them to his will.
He's dead now too.
They both saved Shanghai from being destroyed by fusing with a creature far more powerful than they were, by risking the complete loss of themselves on a single roll of the dice.
All I have ever done is stayed, hidden, in this tiny village. My son is away now, and I don't know when, or if, he will ever return. Perhaps he won't come back until I am dead, and long forgotten. Even if he returns in a timely manner, perhaps he will move to Russia, the country Yuri always believed was part of his heritage.
Perhaps he too will conquer his fears and die young and alone, far from me, while I stay here, in this village, with the one fusion monster I rarely use, and outlive them all.