Sienna broke into a smile immediately.
"Great! I already know the perfect name."
Jay closed his eyes, already anticipating disaster.
"Go on…"
Sienna raised a finger, brimming with confidence.
"His name is going to be… Hikaru!"
The group blinked.
Marcus tilted his head slightly.
Ethan waited for an explanation.
"Hikaru?" Jay repeated. "You're… serious?"
Sienna crossed her arms, proud.
"Of course I am. 'Hikaru' means to shine, light. And just look at him. We found him spotless, glowing, like he just stepped out of a book cover. He practically reflects light on his own."
Jay sighed.
"Sienna… he wasn't glowing."
"Oh, Jay, for the love of God," she shot back. "Let me be poetic, okay? The name fits. End of story."
Taiga laughed loudly behind the counter.
"I like her argument! Hikaru totally works!"
Marcus raised a hand, serious as ever.
"I suggest Haruto."
"Haruto?" Ethan echoed.
"It means 'rising sun' or 'dawn.' He just woke up to this world… so it makes sense."
Sienna rolled her eyes.
"Oh great. Now Marcus is a poet too."
Jay cast his vote next.
"I vote for Ren."
"Why?" Elenya asked, interested.
"Short, direct, easy to remember. And 'Ren' can mean lotus or connection. He feels like someone who… I don't know… connects easily. Even while lost."
Sienna made a face.
"At least Jay didn't make that one up on the spot."
Ethan crossed his arms.
"I would suggest Itsuki."
"What does that mean?" the "nameless" man asked.
"'Tree.' Something stable. You… don't seem unstable. Even without memory."
Sienna scoffed.
"A tree name? Seriously?"
Ethan replied flatly.
"Better than Hikaru. He doesn't shine."
"Yet," Sienna muttered. "Let me dream."
He watched it all in silence, trying to absorb that rain of identities he didn't recognize.
That was when Elenya stepped forward.
She looked at him as if seeing beyond the obvious.
"Emanueru. I think that name suits you."
Silence fell immediately.
Everyone looked at her.
"I can't really explain it," Elenya continued. "It has a sound… firm and gentle at the same time. It feels like a name someone would carry even without memories. Something you'd recognize… without knowing why."
The man repeated it slowly:
"Ema… nu… eru…"
His expression changed. His shoulders relaxed. A faint light appeared in his eyes.
A name that didn't feel strange.
"I… like it," he said. "Yes. I want that name."
Sienna crossed her arms, defeated.
"Fine, fine. 'Emanueru' is better than Hikaru. But Hikaru was still a cool name."
Taiga raised her hammer as if approving a newly forged blade.
"Emanueru! Official name! Now this man truly exists!"
And the newly named man smiled for the first time.
Ethan stood in front of Emanueru, opened the grimoire, and said with confidence:
"Alright, let's begin. To cast any spell, you need to align your internal mana flow with your conduction points."
Emanueru blinked.
"Flow… what?"
Ethan continued, thinking he was helping:
"Each person has three main points: the central core, the projection channel, and the output point. If those three aren't synchronized, mana simply won't respond."
Emanueru looked at his own hands as if they had just been given new names.
"I… don't know what any of that is."
Ethan tried again:
"Okay, think of it this way: your mana needs to leave the core, pass through the channel, and reach the projection point. If the channel is unstable, the flow gets blocked."
Emanueru looked even more lost.
Elenya tried to help, gently:
"Maybe… try feeling it first?"
Emanueru tried. He closed his eyes. Breathed.
Nothing.
Ethan scratched his head.
"Strange… this explanation usually works."
Behind them, Sienna muttered quietly:
"It works for people who were born studying system manuals…"
Ethan tried once more, pointing at Emanueru's chest:
"Look, you just need to activate the core, release the current, and direct it to the grimoire. It's simple."
Emanueru opened his eyes slowly.
"Ethan… none of this makes sense to me."
That was when Sienna finally snapped.
She took two steps forward and raised her hand.
"STOP. STOP. STOP. For the love of all floors, stop."
Ethan froze.
"What?"
Sienna took a deep breath, clenched her eyes shut, and said:
"You're trying to teach someone who woke up yesterday using words even I don't understand. Move. Let me teach him before he opens a hole in the ground trying to 'synchronize core and channel' and blows himself up."
She gently pushed Ethan and Elenya aside, opened her own grimoire, and spoke with her usual impatient practicality:
"Alright, enough of 'core, channel, projection.' That doesn't work for someone who doesn't even remember his own name. We're doing this the simple way. Really simple. Like… 'explaining to someone who was just born' simple."
Emanueru swallowed, a little embarrassed.
Sienna opened the grimoire, showing a blank page.
"First thing: stop holding your grimoire like it's about to explode. It's a book. Just a book. It only reacts to your mana. Nothing else."
Emanueru held it more carefully.
"Okay… a book."
"That's it. Now," she pointed at his chest, "mana starts here. Don't imagine anything complicated. Just take a deep breath and focus on this spot. If you feel any warmth, pressure, or tingling… that's already mana."
He closed his eyes. Breathed.
"I think… I felt it. A very faint warmth."
Sienna raised an eyebrow.
"Good. Then you're not completely useless. Now try moving that warmth to your hands. No arcane flow, no channels. Just imagine pushing that warmth from your chest to here."
She held his wrist.
"Slowly."
Emanueru breathed again. His arm trembled slightly… but the warmth followed.
He opened his eyes, surprised.
"I… did it? I felt it!"
Sienna almost smiled, but hid it.
"Don't celebrate over nothing. Now take that warmth and push it into the grimoire. It'll react if you're doing it right."
Emanueru placed his hand on the grimoire.
For a moment, nothing happened.
"Easy," Sienna said. "No mystery. Bring the warmth to your hand, like it's going to leave through your fingers."
And then, a small pale spark lit up the center of the page.
Ethan's eyes widened.
"He did it?"
Sienna crossed her arms.
"Because I explained it properly. See how you don't need to throw around three hundred complicated terms?"
Elenya let out a short laugh.
"Sienna, you should be a teacher."
"If I were," Sienna replied, "half the students would die, or I'd kill them."
The small light faded, but Emanueru stared at the grimoire as if it had opened an entire world.
"I… did that?"
"You did," Ethan said. "Congratulations."
Sienna sighed, as if admitting someone else's victory.
"Well… he's got potential. Now train a bit until you can activate it naturally. We still need to test it in a real situation."
Jay spun his shield.
"Nothing like a fight to see if he can actually use magic when it really matters."