Watching with a silent start, Crow found himself in luxurious surroundings. A vast sea of bedsheets and pillows kept him entombed in the lap of luxury. Rolling from the thick mattress, he tried to make sense of where he was. After such a deep sleep, he had almost found himself rested had it not been for the returning nightmares. Two stretches of six hours sleep was more than Yusei got in a week and Crow would prove he was able to get at least as much done. Murky skies outside rumbled and grumbled under a brewing storm. Draping a monogrammed robe about himself, he set about finding coffee and breakfast as events from the previous night began to seep back into his mind.
It had been almost pitch dark when Crow finally reached the road his hotel was on. Taking public transport was the best way to get around unnoticed when he could hide the day crowds but it was a literal spotlight to search at night. It was part of the reason he was late getting back. That and taking several diversion on a circular route to drop any tails. Paris mostly operated on a standard nine-to-five work day and most of the offices had been closed for about four hours. Unless – like the myriad of bulky government vans and lone police car park outside his temporary residence – they had been on a job all that time.
"What's going on?" Skipping through of the doorway to avoid a sprinting figure, the sound of vomit splattering onto the street behind Crow ruined any hint of professionalism to the persons thronging through the hotel in various levels of protective gear. One blobby mess examining the lift was even wearing a full bio-hazard suit.
"Ministry of Health and Solidarity." Screams were actually sounding somewhere else in the building as the swarm of investigators found yet another horrendous health risk. "Something about pipes." Undaunted by the ongoing investigation, the youth at reception continued to tap away at their phone. It would later be recommended that the hotel be not only demolished but burnt to the ground. An attempt to preserve the site as a historical building fell through after the appraisal committee were unwilling to set foot inside the premises. Seeing a team literally run out of what was only a kitchen in the legal sense, Crow carefully backed outside as he tried not to touch anything.
"Monsieur, are you a guest here?" Having managed to wipe most of the vomit from their mouth, the unidentifiable person beneath the overalls still looked pale from whatever they had endured inside the condemned building. "I advise you only take what cannot be replaced and throw away the rest."
"It can't be that bad." A deadpan look trumped Crow's disbelief. Growing up in the Satellite had lowered his standards but not enough to accept what was actually inside the building.
"Have you ever heard of a rat king?" It was a disgusting mess that resulted when several rats became stuck to one another in some way. Either their tails became entangled or they were fused together with some form of adhesive. The resulting organism was a hideous bundle of pain that acted as one and frequently attacked other parts of the mess. "We found three on the first floor alone." That was all Crow needed to hear. Staying at the Hipotel had allowed him to stay under Yliaster's radar but even trying to remain anonymous had limits. Limits such as the rare form of fungus somehow growing in the basement that was known to induce asphyxiation and seizures. Still, there was one question that Crow would never forgive himself for not asking.
"Just out of curiosity, what's the fourth floor like?" Then, there was a question that Crow would never forgive himself for asking.
Walking through the building was like watching a low-budget horror film. That same surly youth was comfortably seated in the only habitable chair in the entire building and skimming through their phone with a complete detachment from the battalion of suited figures. Warning tape had been futilely put up on almost every surface until the tape had run out and and things were still being found. Those squishy stairs that had left Crow lurching against bouncy walls had been temporarily replaced with planks to reliably walk between the levels.
Reaching his own floor provided an amusing if not alarming spectacle. Screaming in their panic, three suits seemed trying to tear themselves free from a room at the end of the hall. Dragging them back was several tendrils from inside the doomed area. It appeared that somebody had left a window open some years ago and ivy had not only crept into the room but also managed to coat the walls and ceiling in a thick mesh that had collapsed as soon as the examiners had actually stepped inside. Amusement aside, it was a deadly mess that only tangled the more they struggled. As an effort to streamline their report to only the most disturbing of threats to public health, Crow's room had been opened, seen as unthreatening and then left alone. Gathering his few belongings, it was almost anti-climatic when a flailing body crashed through the ceiling and smashed into his mouldy bed. There was just enough time for a frightened look before rotten floorboards gave way and the journey continued to the room below. "Don't worry too much!" Careful not to get too close to the hole himself, Crow peered through as ominous sounded from below. "There's only a couple more floors!" Then another hole opened and swallowed the yellow suit whole. Deciding not to risk staying in the building any longer, Crow hurried down to the front desk and tried to ignore team rushing past him with a pair of axes.
"Is there another hotel nearby that would still be open?" Many hotels remained open long into the night but not as late as it was then.
"Probably not. We are very late." It was unfair of him for Crow to expect a random government worker to know if there was a random hotel in the area but the faceless, genderless blob of protective suit was clearly glad for the excuse to not have to immediately go back inside. "Follow me." Leading him over to one of the many vehicles, an official looking pad was found and some notes carefully written down. Every careful action delayed going back into the hellhouse by a few seconds. "If you cannot find anywhere to go, take this to a police station." Thrusting the official document into his hand, it gave a detailed account of why the hotel had been shut. "Somebody will probably let you sleep in a corner for the night." Without much other recourse, the disgusted suit was contractually obligated to either quit or go back into the building. A tough choice but they made it as Crow silently walked off into the night, unnoticed by the swarm of officials trying to battle a building that had been preparing for the fight since before they were born.
Slouching in a nearby bench overlooking the Qui de Valmy river, Crow tried to adjust to the new reality. Even with his fame, there wasn't anywhere in Paris he could rely upon to set him up for the night. If Crow took advantage of his popularity – which would then be tarnished forever – any place he would be willing to stay would be unable to take him at such short notice. And with half a million homeless on the streets, sleeping in a park could easily result in emptied pockets and a bloody attack. For the first time since he had heard the final words of the Agent in America, Crow took a moment to think about what his decision. With nothing but a gasped message and a half-baked plan, he had booked the cheapest room he could find before his plane boarded and taken the first cab after he landed. Now he was stuck looking over the water in a foreign country without a single idea for his next move. For barely an instant, he considered calling his family. Musume would always find a way – legal or not – to further the goal. Yusei had influence. Akiza had contacts. Even Jack could probably wrangle a miracle from afar. But that would mean revealing his reason for being in Paris and they would all be quick to take action. After some careful consideration, Crow came to the inevitable conclusion that his safest option was to spend an uncomfortable night awake and alert. Then his phone rang.
"Bonjour, je cherche Monsieur Hogan?" Just before the question was repeated, Crow managed to shift his thoughts into French. "I'm looking for Mr Hogan, is he there?"
"Who's this?" It was a polite voice, refined and upper-class. There was some noise in the background that reminded him of an office but it was too quiet to be one of the newspapers that so frequently found his public phones.
"La Réserve Paris, calling to confirm your booking for this evening. We are nearing our evening cut-off for checking in and noticed you had not yet collected your keys." Listening with one ear, Crow used his phone to check on the hotel name and choked slightly. Not only was it exclusive but the prices were astronomical. Whoever the mysterious leader of the Yliaster faction was, they were rolling out carpets of solid gold.
"I forget, how long did I book a room for?" At the cheapest prices available, he could last maybe three days before his every penny was taken.
"Your booking is for one month, Mr Hogan, in the Premier Junior Suite." Love lets hearts skip beats but Crow was sure his shut down for several minutes at the expense. "With the first three days paid in advance." In the grimy thoughts of his subconscious, two miniature versions of Crow fought for dominance. Maybe it would be wrong to take such an obvious bribe but the room was paid for in advance. One little voice gained an edge as the chill evening wind shredded most of his body warmth. Spending one night in the hotel wouldn't hurt anybody. It fell under the equally harmless category of 'reading a book' or 'opening a chest'. No harm ever came from such events.
"I'm a little way away. Can you wait for another hour?" From a brief look at the online map, he knew it was somewhere south-west of his position, slightly north of the Seine.
"Of course." With the prices he had just seen, Crow doubted they would object if he turned up riding an elephant. Money had a funny way of removing most problems. "Would you like us to send a car to pick you up?" Leaning forward with a sour frown, Crow found himself grudgingly appreciating the bribe from the Yliaster faction. Feeling in his toes had been slowly fading for the last few minutes.
"That would be great." Under the law of time = money and balanced equations being interchangable, money=time. So throwing enough money at the problem would cut down the journey of an hour to a few minutes. "I'm somewhere along the Qui de Valmy. Send the car to the Saint-Louis General Hospital, I'll meet it there." Yliaster had tracked down where he was staying, closed the hotel and was now setting him up in the most expensive hotel he had ever heard of. For some reason he couldn't figure out, it seemed they were keen to get on his good side.
"We look forward to seeing you soon. Is there anything you would like for your arrival?" Hoisting his bags over one shoulder, Crow took in a deep breath of the night air.
"Can I get a sandwich sent to my room? I didn't have time for dinner." By the time he arrived, it had been almost twenty hours since his last opportunity to sleep. A keycard was placed in his hand, somebody showed him to a room and there was just enough time to strip off his clothes and collapse into the bed before exhaustion caught up with him.
Having found and brewed a cup of coffee, Crow was able to focus more on the throbbing feeling in his skull. In a constant but distinct beat, it was coming from a beeping tablet set in the expensive main room. Judging from how the item had been placed in a perfect arrangement with the fruit basket and stationary on the table, it was clearly part of the hotel's items. A flashing light at the top told him a message was still waiting and he turned the device on to an unpleasant surprise.
Good morning, little bird. Dropping the tablet like it was electrified, Crow backed away as he scanned for any obvious cameras. Being called 'little bird' was far from a novel experience but it was a family joke. Only a few close friends knew the reference. Snatching a phone from it's cradle on the same table as the tablet, Crow spammed the button for the reception desk until somebody picked up. "This is the Premier Suite," In his hurry, he didn't even wait for them to answer. "A message just came up on my room's tablet, can you tell me who sent it?"
"One moment, please." Dealing with rich and rude customers all days of the year gifted La Réserve with the patience of saints. "Sir, are you calling from the Premier Suite or the Premier Junior Suite?" A snarky tone stressed the word enough to irritate but not enough to lodge a complaint. "Our records indicate you are in the Premier Suite Junior," Crow was too angry right then to spare any for the French national at the front desk for the jibe at his height. "It is linked to the Imperial Suite besides your own. Would you like the manager to come up?"
"No. No, there's no need for that. Just a joke from an old friend. I'll talk with them about it." Breaking through the front door would be far too dangerous. Crow was impatient and angry but not suicidal. As a trained thief, he knew there was more than one way into a hotel room. Dropping the robe, he threw back on his clothes from the night before. They were already dirty and his idea of entry wasn't going to be an easy entry. Going outside, he checked to make sure his plan based on a picture from the web search the night before would work.
In another life, Crow could have easily competed at national levels and taken medals. Years of acrobatic evasions in the Satellite and careful maintenance of his muscles left him with a body most men would kill for instead of working towards. Slamming a chair into the corner of the balcony, he measured his steps back to the other side. Left foot, right foot, left foot on chair, right foot on rail, duck slightly under the canopy, grab pole just before the jump to swing around the pillar, realise mid-jump that the balcony on the side is further away than on this side, plummet several stories to inevitable death on the rainy pavement far below. Solid plan, flawless execution but a really dumb ending.
One of his flailing hands managed to grab part of the railing as he fell and lodged awkwardly between two struts with a pained grunt. Between blood pouring down his arm and the feel his shoulder had actually popped from the socket, Crow was fairly pleased the result. Swinging one foot into a gap further down the railings, he managed to negotiate the tricky act of clambering over the railings. Being designed to avoid falling over unintentionally, a minor height difficulty presented itself. How minor he would not disclose but a generous bet would have been made to about a foot higher than comfortable. Careful to avoid disturbing the furniture on this side or making even the slightest noise, he dropped down to the floor in a slight crouch. Taking off his shirt, he wrapped it tightly about the deep cuts and clenched it into a fist to staunch the flow of blood.
A balcony ran outside several rooms and provided the perfect view to peer inside. His unorthodox intrusion had landed him outside a dining room of some sort with a set for six arranged on the table. From what Crow could see, nothing had been used and the drinking cabinet hadn't been touched. Silent as before, he moved on.
Next was a comfortable lounge that was as empty as before. Hackles rose as he crept past. If the tablet had been hacked from afar, the message could have come from anywhere on the planet. It also meant that he would have to duplicate the extraordinary feat of jumping around the pillar. Blood already staining his shirt made it clear that another attempt would not be taken well.
After the comfort lounge came a business one and Crow struck metaphorical gold. Sitting plain on the table was a sleek laptop. Unlike the skilled Yusei, hacking a computer in under three minutes was not his expertise. Luckily, he came a close second and could probably crack it open inside seven.
Trying for the handle, he eased open the door. It was clear that somebody had to be using the room for the door to be unlocked and Crow was careful not to make a noise as he stepped inside. Somewhere further down the suite, running water could be heard. If he was quick, he could be in the computer and copying files before the shower stopped. Of course, that was assuming the owner of the laptop was actually in the shower.
Almost before his fingertips had made contact with the keys, a sturdy blow landed at the base of his skull. In the instant between his head hitting the floor and the world going hazy, Crow was able to dimly spot the thick folds of curtains beside the door he had just entered through. It was such an obvious hiding spot that a child would have hidden there and he hadn't thought to look there. With double-vision letting him see everything twice, he was unable to clearly see exactly who carried him into the room and dropped him on a low couch.
Sharp stings from his hand indicated it was being patched up and Crow drew the drew the marginally logical conclusion that whoever he had disturbed was either not going to hurt him or had already called hotel security to come and take him away. Then his vision cleared and one of those facts stopped being true.
"Before we begin with the torture," Lifting a chair over, one of the most dangerous people in the world somehow managed to lower it in a threatening manner. "Can I have my shirt back?" It was slightly too cold for his liking and the former bandage was nowhere to be seen.
"What are you doing in my city?" Emerald eyes bored a hole straight through his cranium and risked the structural safety of the wall behind.
"Well, somebody's doing well for themselves. Here I was thinking the Mayor of Paris was Marie Hidalgo." It was a tiny yet specific fact that threw his interrogator slightly. "It was a long flight and there was a leaflet to read." He was only half lying but there was no to recognise about what.
"What are you doing in my city, little bird?" Leaning forward, the burning stare started to singe his eyebrows.
"What's it to you?" In reply, one earlobe was savagely yanked to the side. "Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow, I'll tell, I'll tell." Slapping the hand away, he was briefly amazed at the powerful grip it had. "Seriously, 'little bird'? Do you know how many times I've heard that one growing up?"
"Stop detracting from the question." A hearty slap to his ringing head made it clear now was a bad time to play around as he risked more head trauma.
"Two years without being in the same room and that's how you treat a friend?" A threatening pinch hovered just before his nose.
"Talk." It was strangely effective as psychological interrogation went. In a futile effort to protect himself, Crow crossed his arms slightly higher than usual.
"Sherry, you really need to work on your people skills." It had been five years since they had been in the same room together but there was still that angry furrow between her eyebrows every time she looked at him. "Let's just say I'm here for a friend." Leaning back in the chair, she continued to scowl at him.
"Which friend?" There was a pointed glance to indicate that
"One of many." It was a tongue-in-cheek joke but she picked up on it somehow and scowled even harder as she raised her fingers threateningly. "What's it matter to you anyway?"
"Crow Hogan comes to Paris and stays in the cheapest hotel available? It is enough to pique my interest." A flicker sparked between them as she realised the mistake.
"Who told you were I was staying?" Burning stares seemed a lot less forceful when the power swung in his favour. "Did you call the health board?"
"Are you here for Yliaster?" What small possibility for banter had existed went down the drain. Suddenly there was a blanket, boiling kettle and more seriousness than a funeral.
"Something happened in America. Something... not good." Sherry recognised that look behind his eyes. Harrowed from something few people would ever understand. What had happened to him across the pond was far beyond the experiences of most humans and he was coping so far by virtue of crushing the memories down into the back of his mind. It was deeply unhealthy and would only bring him additional pain in the days ahead but it allowed him to function normally for a short time. Even with the extra stress, Crow could see the unasked question hovering in her gaze. "A friend of mine died in a Shadow Duel. His soul is stuck in the Underworld." Though she had operated at the other end of the Yliaster timeline, a brief history had covered the early days and how her predecessors had used less mechanical methods. "Yliaster targetted us in the Pegasus Cup and I almost lost. They sent me down there," Darkness reflected in his gaze. "I want to get him out. They told me to meet them here." Something finally broke through his memories and lodged into his mind. "How did you know I was in Paris? I tried to keep myself under the radar."
"Musume called me." Of course she had. Any time events went sideways, Musume was right in the middle of the mess in her attempts to make them better. "She knew you were in Paris and tracked you down almost as soon as she landed." Crow might have learned the hard way how to be invisible but Musume had grown up learning how to find him. She knew ways to find Crow with signs that even he didn't know he left behind. "She said she would come meet me after following up on some leads but has not yet returned." An ominous rumble of thunder marked her words. "A contact has agreed to meet with us this evening. It is not a meeting we can rearrange."
"Why are you so eager to help us?" Not that it needed much explanation, considering her past relationship with the sinister organisation. "Yliaster left you alone. There's no reason to jeopardise that."
"Shut up and put a shirt on." Not exactly inspiring words but ones to take to heart. "If it means taking them down, I will even partner up with the fourth place Duellist of a small tournament." Cutting remarks that were underscored by more thunder and the first waves of rain against the glass of the windows.
In a far away city on the other side of the world, night was setting under that a storm that seemed set to cover the entire world. Yusei was sitting on the far corner of his bed. Various open books were strewn about atop the duvet for reference as he continued flicking through a thick wedge of paper on his lap. "What's up?" It took a second for Akiza to recognise that their were a pair of reading glasses perched in the messy reaches of his hair.
"Glasses?" Dragging over the chair, she watched him pull the spectacles down and examine them for a few seconds.
"Mmm, I need them for small print after a couple of days without sleep." It still amazed her how he could speak so easily of his condition. Even advanced terminal patients had a hint of pity or sadness to their voice. Yet Yusei seemed to speak with the same dispassion that came with talking about the weather.
"What are you working on?" Clearing the floor side of his bed, he patted the pillow purchase invitingly, continuing to read the wedge of paper as he did so.
"It's a medical text a friend wrote. Quite interesting." Taking an offered medical textbook as she sat down, Akiza was mildly surprised to see cross-sections of the human brain. "But I'm fairly sure there are a few mistakes. Can you read from," Peering over the plastic frames of his glasses, a roving finger slowly homed in on a mid-paragraph sentence near the beginning of the page. "Here." Another crack of thunder closed the book with a snap.
"Sorry." Though the books managed to absorb almost an entire decibel of sound, the next bolt of lightning crashed close enough for shattering tiles to reach ringing ears and she jumped again.
"Not a fan of storms?" Gathering up the cluttered books, Yusei dumped the texts onto his windowsill and draped the thick blanket from the foot of his bed about his friend. Another bout of unstoppable thunder had his friend clutching at the book in her hands.
"Because all brain areas are bidirectionally coupled, these connections between brain areas form feedback loops. Positive feedback loops tends to cause oscillatory activity where frequency is inversely related" She practically shouted over the next burst of thunder, "to the delay time. An example of such a feedback loop is the connections between the thalamus and cortex. This thalamocor," Her dictation broke off mid-flow as Yusei stole the book from out of her hands to check himself.
"That can't be right." Checking against the file still balanced on one knee, he continued to blast through the textbook and report with one hand each. "I think my friend may have skipped a few bits." Turning the page changed his grin of triumph to a frown of discontent. "Surprised once again." Shivering from another blast of thunder, Akiza finally broke past what society deemed ignorable and Yusei finally merged the stack of paper with the book to keep his place in both works. "Tell me what's wrong."
Drawing her knees to her chest, Akiza wrapped her arms around them into an upright foetal position. "I don't like loud noises." Even to her ears, the lie sounded fake.
"So Duelling, Runners and working the graveyard shifts are suddenly silent activities?" Once again, flawless Fudo logic put an end to an argument. It took another two minutes of heavy lightning and Yusei pulling out the paper again before she finally felt comfortable enough to start talking.
"It was after my Psychic Powers showed up for the first time." A hand wrapped around where her Mark had once been burnt. "My parents were terrified of me – eating separately, leaving me with television for hours on end." At the time, she had assumed they were just caught up in their normal busy lives. But the endless weeks of avoidance had eventually sept through. "After about three months, there was this huge storm." Playing the part to perfection, fate sent another sheet of lightning around the city. "I cried and went to my parents room. Their faces," She could still recall it in perfect detail. "They were more scared of me than I was of the storm. And do you know what they said? 'Go back to your room'." A strong arm wrapped itself around her shoulders and she was pulled against something warm and solid, thumping in a perfect rhythm.
For several minutes, she just lay there and listened to the sound of his heartbeat. Even as the lightning came increasingly closer, it continued to pump away with a reassuring regularity. It took a while for her own heartrate to slow back down to normal standards but the sound of his being made the process possible. "Better?" Nodding from where she was nestled against his chest, Akiza managed to worm her arm behind her back, preventing the blocked bloodflow from escalating to the inevitable pins and needles sensation.
"What exactly are you reading?" As he leant forward to reach the paper and book it was trapped in, the momentary shift in weight caused Akiza's arm to fall between the pillows he had been resting against. This would normally have been fine as soon as she retracted her arm had he had not moved back before she could do so. At that point, her muddled and tired brain was unable to think of a good way to explain how her arm was semi-wrapped around his back.
"It's an obscure dissertation that's not yet been appreciated by the academic community." From what little her blurred vision could make out, it was written in a tiny hand and Yusei had scribbled a series of notes on the sides.
"What's it about?" She closed her eyes. It would just be for a minute. Just until the thunder stopped.
"Some wacky student wrote several pages," Another inconsequential page pointed out just how much had been written. "Several dozen pages on the unexplored effects of brainwaves that fluctuate between point-five-seven to four and upwards of sixty hertz." Through the tired fuzz currently settling across her mind, Akiza was able to recognise the numbers.
"Delta and gamma brainwaves." Something about it seemed familiar to her.
"Exactly." Another page turned and the sound of gentle scratching managed to make its way past the pouring rain as Yusei inscribed another note in the margin. "But what this upstart claims is that these particular patterns seem to bounce between delta and gamma without passing through theta, alpha and the rest." More notes were scrawling across the pages and into Akiza's mind. "The really strange thing is that the gamma durations are significantly higher and longer than most others on record."
At long last, Akiza managed to crack an eye open by her own will. "Hang on," She dragged her free arm over to pull the paper into her vision. "That's my paper." Eight years of political tutoring by her father and several more with competing brothers and the watchful Martha had taught Yusei perfect acting skills which he never let go without practice.
"Is it?" Keeping a thumb between pages, he flipped back to the front cover. Although it was written mainly in German, two words had been written in both German and Japanese: Akiza Izinski. "That explains the German." A light smack on his muscled chest indicated her disapproval of mockery. Flicking back to his current page, Yusei continued his patient reading.
"How do you like it so far?" Closing her eyes again, she waited for the inevitable constructive criticism. There was a stubborn reputation in the academic world that Yusei found the smallest of loopholes and mistakes in any new advancement and patched them up for the creator. Everybody both loved and hated it.
"Most of it goes over my head." That comment usually foreshadowed a crippling blow to the work at hand. "And either my German is rusty or there are a few spelling mistakes." Giving a tired sigh, Akiza nestled slightly closer to his heartbeat as the rain continued to pound against the window. Without her noticing, the lightning seemed to have finally died down.
"I know the bits you mean. It'll all make sense when you finish reading." Rapid flicking betrayed his impatience as Yusei skipped to the end. "Told you." There had been a computer issue after her paper had been handed in and digitised. Her references and indexing had been spliced throughout the paper and scrambled in the back. It had all been sorted and released in a separate file but Yusei seemed to have stumbled across an older copy by mistake.
"Still, there are a few people at the SRC who might be interested in doing some research on this." Another page turned, another part of the incredibly complex theory lay before him. "If you think it could take Dr Kovacs down a peg or two, I will personally fund it and give you all the staff and equipment you ask for." She managed to reach across and give him a tired hug at the words as he continued his reading. Although there was no clear way to decide from where he was, the rain outside seemed to be slacking from a torrential downpour. By the turn of the hour, Yusei was nearing the final pages – without skipping ahead this time – and the rain had slackened to a series of steady sheets which crashed against the window like waves on a beach.
"Well," Dropping his glasses on the windowsill, Yusei rubbed tired eyes. German was one of the first dozen languages he had studied but it still gave him headaches after reading for several hours. "That was certainly a page-turner." Realising that an arm was still loosely draped across his chest, he jostled Akiza slightly and received a light snore in response. Without either person noticing, she had somehow fallen into a deep sleep. Careful not to wake her, Yusei gently pushed the dissertation atop the pile of books on the windowsill and let his head fall back, leaning ever so slightly atop Akiza as he did so. Dawn was still a few hours off and he would spend the time thinking about the almost outlandish theories that Akiza had conceived some years ago that he still had not even thought of the most basic principles of.
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