diff --git a/arborist/wallet/sidecar.py b/arborist/wallet/sidecar.py
index f991218..21cc776 100644
--- a/arborist/wallet/sidecar.py
+++ b/arborist/wallet/sidecar.py
@@ -108,14 +108,68 @@ def fold_accents(text: str) -> str:
     )
 
 
+# Roman numeral <-> Arabic digit equivalence table for 1..20.
+# A user typing 'final fantasy 7' should overlap a title 'Final
+# Fantasy VII'. This is the same gap local query.py closes with its
+# numeral-fold step. We only need 1..20 — beyond that, titles use
+# Arabic digits in practice.
+_NUMERAL_PAIRS: dict[str, str] = {
+    "1": "i",   "i": "1",
+    "2": "ii",  "ii": "2",
+    "3": "iii", "iii": "3",
+    "4": "iv",  "iv": "4",
+    "5": "v",   "v": "5",
+    "6": "vi",  "vi": "6",
+    "7": "vii", "vii": "7",
+    "8": "viii","viii": "8",
+    "9": "ix",  "ix": "9",
+    "10": "x",  "x": "10",
+    "11": "xi", "xi": "11",
+    "12": "xii","xii": "12",
+    "13": "xiii","xiii": "13",
+    "14": "xiv","xiv": "14",
+    "15": "xv", "xv": "15",
+    "16": "xvi","xvi": "16",
+    "17": "xvii","xvii": "17",
+    "18": "xviii","xviii": "18",
+    "19": "xix","xix": "19",
+    "20": "xx", "xx": "20",
+}
+
+
+def numeral_expand(tokens) -> set:
+    """Return a set with each token's numeral-equivalent form added.
+
+    'final fantasy 7' tokens → {final, fantasy, 7, vii}
+    'Final Fantasy VII' tokens → {final, fantasy, vii, 7}
+    Overlap of the two sets is 4 (or 3 if the duplicate folds), vs 2
+    without the fold — enough to lift the right title above siblings
+    that share only 'final' + 'fantasy'.
+    """
+    out = set(tokens)
+    for t in tokens:
+        alt = _NUMERAL_PAIRS.get(t)
+        if alt is not None:
+            out.add(alt)
+    return out
+
+
 def tokenize_text(text: str) -> list[str]:
-    """Lowercase word tokens, drop stopwords + 1-char tokens.
-    Accent-fold first so 'pokémon' indexes/queries as 'pokemon'."""
+    """Lowercase word tokens, drop stopwords + 1-char tokens (except
+    numeric singletons like '7' which carry meaning — 'Final Fantasy 7'
+    needs '7' to survive sanitization so the numeral-fold can later
+    pair it with 'VII'). Accent-fold first so 'pokémon' indexes/queries
+    as 'pokemon'."""
     folded = fold_accents(text)
-    return [
-        t.lower() for t in _WORD_RE.findall(folded)
-        if t.lower() not in STOPWORDS and len(t) > 1
-    ]
+    out: list[str] = []
+    for raw in _WORD_RE.findall(folded):
+        t = raw.lower()
+        if t in STOPWORDS:
+            continue
+        if len(t) <= 1 and not t.isdigit():
+            continue
+        out.append(t)
+    return out
 
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -458,6 +512,12 @@ class SidecarReader:
         terms = tokenize_text(query)
         if not terms:
             return []
+        # Numeral expand so 'final fantasy 7' query also looks up 'vii'
+        # in the dict (built from chunk text where 'Final Fantasy VII'
+        # tokenizes to ['final', 'fantasy', 'vii']). The expansion is
+        # additive — original tokens stay, equivalents joined as OR
+        # so docs matching either form contribute to BM25.
+        terms = sorted(numeral_expand(terms))
         N = self.docs_count
         if not hasattr(self, "_avg_doc_len"):
             # Compute once + cache; needs the full doc_lens. Lazy because
@@ -519,12 +579,15 @@ class SidecarReader:
                 if len(t) > 4 and t.endswith("s") and not t.endswith("ss"):
                     return t[:-1]
                 return t
-            query_stems = {_t_stem(t) for t in terms}
+            query_stems = numeral_expand({_t_stem(t) for t in terms})
             for did in scores:
-                # Same accent-fold + tokenize on the title side so
-                # 'pokemon' (query) overlaps 'Pokémon' (title).
+                # Same accent-fold + tokenize + numeral-expand on the
+                # title side so 'pokemon'/'pokémon' AND '7'/'VII' both
+                # overlap correctly.
                 title = fold_accents(self._doc_title(did).lower())
-                title_tokens = {_t_stem(t) for t in _WORD_RE.findall(title)}
+                title_tokens = numeral_expand(
+                    {_t_stem(t) for t in _WORD_RE.findall(title)}
+                )
                 overlap = len(query_stems & title_tokens)
                 if overlap:
                     scores[did] += title_boost * overlap