"Tell me more about Shamazon." Kira is currently interrogating Man Forrest over his former mentor.
"Well, he was at some point very devoted to protecting the jungle, and he was also very strong, basically a superhero. But I guess that wasn't the real him." Man Forrest explains.
"How and why was he making use of a Canon Breach."
"I don't really know what that means. I've explained what happened multiple times, and that's really all I can give. If that's not satisfactory for you, then I don't think I can help much."
"You. Arya. What do you know." Kira notices Arya showing up nearby, and immediately directs his attention towards her.
"Shamazon was the sealed form of a much more powerful entity known as Supreme Shazamitas. Shazamitas was the harbinger of calamity, sent on a mission to destroy the Ancient Jungles. Once he was sealed away, though, he was tasked with protecting this jungle, but then his Inhibitor Headband was removed, causing Shazamitas to be unleashed. The ensuing incidents are what caused most of this jungle to be burnt to ash, and for that sun to show up in the sky earlier. He made use of the power of the Breach because of the influence of his father, the source of the energy that makes such Breaches possible to begin with." Arya explains.
"Well, he's dead now." Kira states, and Arya seems somewhat surprised, but knows that Kira wouldn't lie about something like that. "Is there anyone else like him? Anyone else who might try to use a Canon Breach?"
"Supposedly, there exists another heir like him, but if that's true, then I don't know who it is, and whoever it is hasn't caused any problems. For now, I just want to verify that you are for sure confident that Shazamitas is dead. He's not exactly mortal, so killing him wouldn't be an easy feat."
"His head was gone. He's definitely dead. If you find anything about this 'other heir', tell me immediately."
"How? You aren't exactly easy to get in contact with."
"Just tell the Council, they'll decide if it's important enough for me to know." With his investigation essentially concluded, Kira walks away from the Painforest remains, and decides to stick around in the general area until he's called upon for some other task. After all, a place like this is bound to harbor plenty of secrets that Kira could uncover.
Elsewhere, deep in the woods north of Costa Brava, East taps on the shoulder of the shark who is currently sitting in front of Jericho's grave.
"Hey, this might be a bad time, but, one, you left East Virginia so I kinda have to come and see you, and two, I've been avoiding bringing this up for a while, but I seriously need SOMETHING to call you for whenever I mention you in my memoir."
"Fine, just call me Shark Supremo or some shit." The self-proclaimed Shark Supremo states.
"Is that like, a title, or a first name and a last name?"
"Fuck off, first name last name I guess, just go." Shark gives a dismissive hand gesture, and East shrugs, leaving her alone. Shark decides that she's probably paid sufficient respect to Jericho, and that she ought to find a proper place of residence now that she's opted to move out of East Virginia.
Back in the Painforest, Arya has finally deemed Man Forrest as being able to handle his jungle duties on his own for the time being, and as such leaves him and the Painforest behind to go off on her own once more. With his newfound independence, Man Forrest decides to properly call a Painforest meeting to see the status of all the workers. Man Forrest selects a small clearing in one of the few restored portions of the jungle as the meeting point, and calls for all of the researchers and guards who are still around to come to said meeting point. Benny Hills, Dirnum, Flurrie, Gongor, Harrdy, Kelbeo, and Lugiuh show up over the next hour or so, and once Man Forrest has determined that nobody else is coming, he begins to speak.
"As you all are well aware, the Painforest is currently a shadow of its former self, but it is our duty to restore and rejuvenate it to its former beauty and grace. We may have lost a lot during the fire, but we still have ourselves, and we should be doing whatever we can within our power to repair the damage. I think we should start by figuring out what we need going forwards, particularly to make up for what we lost. Right off the bat, I notice that our guard force seems to consist entirely of one person. While the Painforest in its current state certainly doesn't require an entire battalion to defend it, I think it's safe to say that we won't be able to keep it properly guarded with only one person forever."
"Also, since Jyngel is missing, I'd like to request that we find someone who can deal with small parasites, is that okay?" Dirnum asks, raising his hand.
"Sure? I feel like you could just use pesticide or something." Man Forrest replies.
"That's a slippery slope." Dirnum shakes his head. "Forget I said anything, you wouldn't understand."
"I think we should open up applications for Painforest creatures again, to help repopulate the jungle!" Kelbeo declares.
"I don't think we ever closed those, also the jungle isn't exactly inhabitable in its current state, for the most part."
"Well, the old creatures still live here." Kelbeo makes a pouty face. "I don't see why we couldn't let any new ones in."
"Kelbeo, that's not really how ecosystems work, just throwing it out there. I don't want to sound rude, but…" Flurrie begins.
"Well, if you don't want to sound rude, then why are you sounding rude?"
"All I'm saying is that we can't just put animals into the jungle and-"
"Listen, Flurrie, I have a doctorate in this. I know what I'm talking about."
"Oh, do you now? This is news to me! Why don't you-"
"Hey, you two, quit bickering. If you don't have anything you're doing around here, why don't you try to scout someone out to replace Conroy as a guard?" Man Forrest interjects.
"Not it." Flurrie immediately proclaims.
"Oh, fiiiine. I'll do it." Kelbeo sighs.
"Anyone else have anything they want to bring up before we end the meeting? Gongor? Harrdy? Lugiuh?"
"I saw a cool rock that looks exactly like my mom!" Harrdy exclaims.
"Harrdy, how many times are you going to talk about this rock? You have yet to show it to any of us." Gongor rolls his eyes. "If you want to hear something actually noteworthy, the pin tree is completely missing. That might be worth looking into at some point."
"Sure, okay, I guess that's a thing. Um…cool seeing you all, glad to know you're okay, unfortunate that the others aren't, meeting adjourned." Man Forrest waves, and the Shamazon workers awkwardly stand up and walk away one at a time.