There was a silence in the room for some time after Simon finished. "I
might be wrong. We might all die from investigating this. But I know she
existed. I know I was a different person. I want to find out who she was,
and how I was like.

Even if it means apologizing to Mrs. Limone. The next step is convincing her
of this. "

Thomas opened his mouth to protest but Tiriel spoke first, "I understand. If
it is important to you that you do this, go ahead. Though, you shouldn't
need a reason to apologize to Mrs. Limone. You should have done that from
the start. It's these things that make you irritating to others. "

Floe smiled, "Whoever thought Simon would make a noble speech? Keep
improving and you might even get some friends. "

Simon looked at them with a little wonder. "Don't look like that," Floe said,
"Just go ahead and do your investigation. "

He nodded wordlessly.

As they left, Thomas frowned to himself. He could be wrong. He wasn't
certain. There is a risk...


Simon rang the bell to Mrs. Limone's house, not without some trepidation.

"Why did you come back?" She asked when she opened the door and saw
the four of them again.

"I wanted to apologize for my inexcusable behaviour yesterday. Perhaps
you would accept a gift in apology and an explanation?" He asked smoothly,
having made up a short speech on the way.

Mrs. Limone narrowed her eyes and held the door open for them.

Floe nudged him, "Can't you look a little more apologetic? You don't sound
like you're really apologizing. "


Simon unfolded the envelope of 'evidence' and began explaining. It took a
long while and she wasn't convinced. He did give her the chocolate as a
gift though.

"That can't be, I don't have a daughter. "

"But don't you see that this is the only explanation?" Floe pleaded with her.

Simon shook his head, "Never mind, I'm sorry to have bothered you again.
But just to make sure to yourself, can you go check the place where you
keep your family's passports personal documents? I'm sure you'll find
three. "

Mrs. Limone frowned even deeper, "Don't kid me around with games like
that. I don't have the time to play these things. "

"Please?" Simon pushed a little, "It won't take five minutes. And if I am
wrong, I'll drop the whole idea. "

There was a pregnant pause, if Mrs. Limone said no… Simon didn't want to
get caught for stealing; it would make explaining difficult.

She nodded and they breathed a collective sigh of relief. "I'll look, but you
don't touch anything. "


Mrs. Limone opened the cupboard and immediately, Simon saw it. There, on
the bottom shelf, was three slim red books. There, that's it. Three passports.

There was a stunned silence as he bent down to examine them. Mrs.
Limone's and Mr. Hayet's he gave back, but the last one was completely
blank. No photo, no name. Even the travel stamps were gone.

"It's not possible to get one of these you know? And I'm fairly sure you
don't have any memory of forging passport, Mrs. Limone. There should be
more blank documents, like birth certificates. "

Mrs. Limone nodded, still recovering from her shock. They dug around a bit
more and it rapidly became clear there would be no more clues to her
identity.

"So close! Yet so far!" Floe complained as they gathered all the documents,
"We have her birth certificate, no name, no parent's signature, but the
hospital stamp is embossed on it. School application confirmation, no name,
no class, no teacher's signature. Immunization records, no name, no
doctor's signature. What good is knowing she had hepatitis vaccination?
I want to know her name!"

Simon shook his head, "It is good. With this, we can ask the police to
release government documents by tracing these. Most of these have dates
and the issuer. We can chase the paper trail down. It is the first solid,
unshakeable proof that she existed. "

Mrs. Limone looked at them, "You already knew. I… I'm sorry for doubting
you. This is…"

Tiriel nodded, "We understand. I hope Simon does too. It was expected
that you would doubt us. "

Simon watched with mild interest as a tear trickled down Mrs. Limone's
cheek, not picking up the hint even with his friends surreptitiously looking
away.

"I... I'm sorry. It's just that I've always wanted a daughter. For more than
ten years. And now she appears in front of me, with these… papers. And I
don't even remember…" Tiriel touched her on the arm, trying to offer
comfort as she broke down completely.

"Why don't we go to the living room? You could do with a drink," Tiriel said,
shooting a look at Simon that said stay out of this.


What would you do if you suddenly discovered your kid had disappeared just like that?

I chose to interpret her name as "direct evidence". As with fingerprints and DNA samples.

Note:

Simon gets more evidence. And this time, it's rock solid. Can't argue with a passport. It's only because it would break continuity that I'm having to steer the story so they don't report it.

That was a problem I had with Shakugan no Shana. Hirai should have a passport at the minimum. Even if her picture disappears from that, a passport, genuine in all ways except that it's blank, turns up out of nowhere. Add in the rest of the stuff a normal person has, like competition certificates, doctor's letters, bank accounts (now it has no name stuck to it... I wonder what happens?) and well... it's weird in the extreme.

Especially when the stuff start adding up. If Thomas wouldn't prevent the "Secret" from leaking next chapter, they would have found quite a disturbing net. More than enough to convince a Court Of Law, I'm sure.

Things like:

1) The blank passport's serial number is registered as used in the government directory.

2) The passport matches the scan the bank took when the no-name account was opened.

3) Blank birth certificate was used to register the passport.

4) Hospital has a copy of the blank birth certificate and Mrs. Limone's mother was registered in the maternity ward on the birth date given.

5) Child support exemption in tax forms for her father's income? He would have paid more tax if he didn't have a child. And he used to register 1. Now she's gone...

Lots more, eventually they uncover things like handphone subscription fees being paid out of the no-name account and school fees paid from her father's account and...

Gah, watching Detective Conan has been getting to me lately. XD One wonders what would have happened if Yuji managed to convince Hirai's mother and find her passport. Reporting missing people would get the authorities into an uproar. Especially when they find the extreme number of "holes" in the government database.

It's not going to happen in this story, I'm just going off on a hypothetical rant.

--- Come to think of it, this might be exactly the "disturbing the fabric of reality" thing that Shana comes up with to explain the existence of Torches. Unexplained stuff is caused by a Torch's disappearance, and on the surface, it looks all right. But when you look at it closely, it's only a flawed sewing of the 'hole' caused by the loss of Existence.

--- Perhaps Tuners get rid of these "evidence", but then what about the case of the child, as shown below?

I shudder to think what might happen if they lost in the 1st arc. The WHOLE CITY vanishing into thin air? I very much doubt that would go unnoticed for very long, even if everyone's memories were wiped.

A hypothetical question: What happens if a mother is eaten but the child isn't? No mother = no child. So her husband is going to be asking where this kid came from and why he keeps thinking it's his kid. Major contradiction error. Does the child disappear too?