"Good evening, sir," Officer Daidouji greeted the frail man.

"Good evening, Officer… I'm sorry to bother you so late, but my brother hasn't returned with my sons, and I'm getting worried. He said he was going to look after them while I recovered and yesterday, he said he would be taking them from a walk to get them some fresh air and I haven't heard from any of them since then."

"Understood. What do your boys look like?"

"They're twins, blond hair and blue eyes and the last time I saw them, they were wearing their white fur coats."

"Alright, I'll organize a search party. Do you have any idea where your brother said he was taking your sons?"

"No, but Fai loves trees and plants, so he might have gone into the forest."

"Right...We'll start there. It looks like you're not feeling well, so if you want, you can stay here, and I'll let you know as soon as we have any real news."

"Thank you, Officer."

Shiftry's large fans generate awesome gusts of wind at a speed close to 100 feet per second. The whipped-up wind blows anything away. This Pokémon chooses to live quietly deep in forests.

Yuui couldn't protect Fai from their uncle - all he managed to do was pound on his leg with tiny fists telling him to stop hurting his brother. He wasn't sure when the Shiftry showed up but he was glad that it used its fans and knocked their uncle away from choking Fai and telling him they were better off dead.

It had gone away now and he was just thankful it didn't want to hurt him as he grabbed his brother's battered body. He held him close to him as he waddled over to an old stump, leaning Fai against it.

"I'm so sorry Brother...if I was stronger maybe I could have stopped Uncle before he hurt you."

Yuui clung to him, even as his body went limp, even as the Shiftry returned much later with some berries, and he was so grateful and he ate some and tried to get Fai to eat, but Fai wasn't there anymore.

He cried into Fai as he realized and begged him not to leave him, and cried and begged until he fell asleep, holding onto him.

According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.

"Madam; bad news," one of the searchers reported.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A Phantump has just been sighted."

"Only one?" she asked for clarification.

"Yes madam," the searcher nodded.

"Follow the Phantump," she directed to her search Pokemon. She wasn't sure if this was one of the same children she was looking for but she now knew she was also looking for a child's body. "In the meantime, keep looking for Skitty holes … know too many kids that get lost chasing after them."

Mightyena travel and act as a pack in the wild. The memory of its life in the wild compels the Pokémon to obey only those Trainers that it recognizes to possess superior skill.

Yuui was asleep so he didn't hear when a Mightyena stepped into the same area until he heard a low noise and saw a giant dog and he didn't know if he should be worried for his or his dead brother's sake.

He knew it was probably hopeless but he spoke up anyway, "D-don't hurt us."

The Mightyena came over to them and as he got close, he laid down next to him and let out a soft bark. Yuui was confused by the Mightyena behavior until he heard noise in the bushes nearby. He was afraid it might be someone bad but when he looked up to see Officer Daidouji appear, there was some relief. He recognized her as a good person.

"Are you boys okay?"

Yuui shook his head. "I am. Shify saved me."

"Let's get you to the station, okay? Your father is very worried."

"What about Brother?"

"He can return too. His body should still be able to tell a story of what happened."

"Brother...Brother won't be coming back… will he?"

Officer Daidouji kneeled next to Yuui, fresh tears staining the young boy's cheeks. "No, he won't...he was too badly injured to stay in the same form as you."

Yuui sniffled hearing the news, and used his oversized sleeve to rub at his eyes and nose.

"Just because he doesn't have blond hair anymore, doesn't mean he isn't around anymore…" she said to reassure him.

"Huh?" he moved his sleeve away and looked at her confused.

There was a sad but gentle smile on her face. "I'm pretty sure he became a Pokemon."

"How does Brother do that?"

"I don't think your Brother wanted you to be alone out here."

Yuui looked over at Fai's lifeless body, "uh-uh… we promise .. always look out for each other.. Always together."

"I'm sure your brother knew he was close to death and just found a different way to be with you. In fact, he helped us find you."

"He did? Where… where's Brother?"

There was a low cry in the trees before a shiny Phantump appeared out of the canopy. With icy blue eyes and blood red leaves and ghastly pale wood, it stood out among even Phantumps.

"Fai?" Yuui asked, just to be sure.

The Phantump made a tiny noise before holding out one paw. Yuui remembered they'd walk holding hands, and that would have been the hand he would have held. "It is you. Oh, Fai. Are you cold? Are you hungwy? Shify gave me food for you but you were already gone."

"Would you like me to hang onto your brother's previous body?" She offered. "So you can hang onto his new hand…"

Yuui thought about that, "You promise to take care of him?"

"I promise," she smiled softly at Yuui. "Let's get back to town."

"And then - and then …" Yuui was doing his best to explain everything that happened since his uncle took him and Fai in, but it was a lot more talking than he was used to and his throat now hurt from using it so much. "And then Brother sounded like this as he cried for Uncle to stop. But Uncle didn't until Shify come and wave him away. Shify leaved but came back with berries and I tried feeding Brother some but he wasn't there anymore."

Fai made low wailing noises, trying to communicate.

Yuui stopped to ask if he could have something to drink.

"Of course." Heading to the door, she called out, "Youou, would you be a Deerling and get us something to drink in here?"

There was a low grunt and a few minutes later, a small boy walked inside with his arms full of drinks.

"I didn't know what they like so I got em a selection. Is that okay?"

"Of course. Thank you."

Youou set the bottles of water, soda and lemonade down on the table before looking at the other boy, "hello. Hopefully these will taste good and make you feel better," Kurogane said to Yuui.

"Th-thank you," Yuui said sheepishly.

"Sure thing." He then looked up at Officer Daidouji. "Anything else, Tomoyo?"

"Not yet. You can go read your comic book for now."

."Okay then." He waved bye to both Yuui and to his Phantump brother before going over and giving Tomoyo a brief hug before heading out of the room.

Yuui was quiet for a bit as Youou walked out before looking up at Tomoyo, "is he yours?"

"A friend of mine's actually. His mother and I went to school together. They live two towns away now but I still sometimes see them, especially him. He's a little climber, and knows most of the nearby forestry area like his own playground. When they heard there were missing kids, he and his father immediately came over to help look."

Yuui let out a tiny little hiccup. "H-he seems nice."

"He does, doesn't he?" Tomoyo smiled gently.

She let him drink as much as he wanted before she continued asking him about what happened.

"Did you see your Uncle afterwards?"

"Uh-uh," Yuui said as he shook his head, and Fai made wailing noises as he waved his little arms.

Tomoyo let him say everything he wanted to before writing down a note on her pad to ask Sakura to listen to the recording of what Fai had said. She could understand the voices of Pokemon after all.

"Alright. I've got that all down. Now… would you mind telling me what you remember next?"

"Shify was nearby… and … and I was telling Brother not to leave me, and then suddenly your big doggy was there and he came over and lay down beside me. And then you showed up and I felt better because it wasn't Uncle coming to finish me off."

Fai had his own story to tell, and of course, Tomoyo listened, even if she couldn't understand him currently herself.

When the interview ended, Yuui floated over and rode tucked next to his brother's head. As they we're going out to meet with their own father, Fai spotted the boy from before and used his little paw to poke at Yuui to look and it looked like the kid from before was reading a book and eating from a bag of Poffins. They were yellow with green sprinkles. Seeing the food, Yuui's stomach grumbled and he shyly held it.

Tomoyo heard and smiled at it before squatting a little to be closer to Yuui's level, "Would you like to talk to Youou more while I go get your father?" Fai nodded, and tried to drag his brother along. So Yuui quietly went along with Fai, and Tomoyo smiled as Fai floated up and Yuui climbed onto the seat next to Youou. Tomoyo left the three together as she went to meet up with the twins' father, a familiar face talking with him.

"Good morning," she greeted the two men.

"Ah, morning, Miss,"

"Good morning, Officer."

"So you two know each other?" Tomoyo asked.

"Just getting acquainted, actually."

"That's exactly what your sons are doing right now," Tomoyo said with a soft yet sad smile.

Yuui looked at the book Youou was reading and saw it was full of pictures and words and he just reached into the the bag of Poffins and ate one.

"What're you eating?" Yuui piped up after a little bit.

Youou looked over and saw he had an attentive audience. "Sour Poffins. Do you guys want some?"

Fai reached out, trying to say yes please but it came out a tiny little cry.

"Here you go," Kurogane said as he slowly fed Fai the Poffin. "Help you grow stronger and smarter."

Yuui watched, interested as Fai ate the Poffin, before the other boy looked at him, "you want one too?"

"Um...they're… really sour aren't they?"

"Ah."

"Do… you have any that'll make me cuter?"

"A Sweet tooth, eh?" The boy dug in his pockets for one of his other bags of Poffins and pulled out a Red Poffin with blue sprinkles. "Try this."

Yuui slowly nibbled on the Poffin. He thought it might taste like what Pokemon kibble looked like it would taste, but it was actually rather sweet and just a little dry.

"You like?" Youou asked.

Yuui nodded a little, "did you get somewhere?" Yuui quietly asked.

"Only the berries to make em...My Mama runs a Poffin shop when she's feeling okay, and I get to be her helper sometimes. So she doesn't have to, I gather lots of berries for Mama so she just has to worry about being healthy."

Yuui nodded a little, "Our Papa is usually sick but he normally gets better after a while.."

"Yeah? My Dad's rarely sick… He's a policeman so even when he is, I bet he would try and hide it from Mama."

Yuui sniffled a little and rubbed his face with his sleeve, "you a nice family."

Youou reached over and patted the other boy on the head, "you too, you're nice, too."

Yuui looked up and saw the smile aimed at him. "Th-thanks…"

Youou nodded before he noticed Fai had grabbed the bag of Poffins he'd been snacking from.

"Hey, who said you could have all of those?"

Fai looked a bit sad but set the bag back down and Youou feeling a little bad, took out a couple of them and put them in his other Poffin bag and found some more Sweet ones and stuck them in before holding it out to the Phantump.

"Okay now you can have the bag back… don't forget to share some with your human."

Yuui blinked a little. "You… don't know?"

"Hm?" Youou looked curious and like he really didn't know.

"This is my Brother. He got turned into a Pokemon so he could stay with me."

"Eh?" Youou exclaimed in surprise. He then used the back of his hand as though to test for fever, "well your head feels normal so you must be telling the truth."

Yuui pouted a little, "why don't you want to believe me?"

"It has nothing to do with you…" Youou told him immediately, because it didn't and he didn't want the other kid to feel bad, "I've just never heard of a human soul becoming a Pokemon, that's all." He then paused "maybe grown ups only say something about it if they think you are ready to hear it. See… your, ah… your Brother here … the town I'm from, everyone knows you clip Phantump green leaves off, like getting a haircut but for leaves, and boil them up to make a Cure-All medicine. There's not a word said about them having kid souls or however it works."

"Wai- so you mean… you live in a town where.. People… people would really like … Brother?"

"Well, yeah...I mean, he obviously has some different coloration than most, but that just makes him extra special. Don't you think so?"

Yuui nodded. "Of course Brother is extra special. He's my twin after all."

"Well… you two should be a little easier to tell apart now… I mean he's been eating the Sour Poffins and you ate the Sweet ones."

Yuui and Fai were both surprised by what Youou used to tell them apart. Instead of one of them was still in a human body and the other now in a Pokemon body, it was what they ate. It was a kind gesture. Yuui blushed as he tried looking down to hide his pink face. Fai meanwhile floated over and did his best to give Youou's head a hug, still clinging to the bag of Poffins he had been given permission to keep.

Youou reached up and gently rubbed Fai's forehead, getting an affectionate noise out of him and surprised eyes from Yuui who looked up at the scene.

Youou noticed. "You want pets too?" Youou asked although didn't wait fully for an answer before he reached for Yuui's forehead to give him a gentle ruffle.

Yuui began to say something but paused as he felt the hand that had first touched him as though to make sure he was not delusional was now touching him in a comforting way.

"You like?" Youou asked.

Yuui nodded a little and grabbed for the hand as though that would keep it there. Youou smiled at him, as he continued to gently ruffle the area, and do something similar to Fai as well. They barely noticed when their fathers were standing there, looking on as Youou ignored his book in favor of making the boys happy, and both of them were absorbed in watching as Youou would imitate different Pokemon he'd seen and give them hints and Yuui would quietly speak up when he thought he had the answer. Fai would chime in as well but of course it didn't sound like human speak anymore. That didn't stop Youou from responding to him, as though there was no difference.

It was Fai that saw first as he was on top of Yuui's head and perked up which caused the other two to look at what Fai was looking at, and noticed that their fathers and Officer Daidouji were there now.

"Yuui, Fai. Are you ready to head home?"

Fai looked down at Yuui who looked up to meet his gaze. Fai floated down enough that he could hang onto Yuui's hand as he slowly climbed off the bench, and moved towards his Father with his brother in hand.

Youou watched them go to their father before heading to his own father's side with a leap so his father would catch him and seat him on his shoulder and he could hug his father's head. Youou smiled at the twin brothers from his spot, "Let's play again, okay?"

The twins nodded they liked that idea, and so soon Youou and his father left, however their father needed a little extra moment, growing unsteady on his feet. So with his cane and the twins' help they led him to the bench where Yuui quietly gasped as he grabbed Youou's book off the bench and held it up toward Tomoyo while their father sat down.

"Why don't you keep it for now? I'm sure he'll be back for it soon enough."

Yuui lowered it as he held it towards his chest and looked towards his father, checking on him, before looking at the friendly officer, "we give back to him and we get to play with him then."

Tomoyo nodded. "If you have that book, I'm sure you will meet him again."