Realization

Mint had quite the bad experience with a customer and although it ruined his spirits and made him quite upset, he still wanted to keep working. Tony said that he didn't have to keep working, but Mint insisted that he'd be fine. He started the job and he wants to finish it. With only a couple hours left anyway, it was better to simply work the shift rather than cower down due to just one bad customer. The only issue with this is the fact that he smelt like coffee, and some of the customers even teased him about it.

The teasing wasn't nice, and while it would make him frown and tear up a little, he did his best to push past it and as the last customer of the day left the shop, they were getting ready to close up. Unlike other cafes in Castelia, this one only stays open to 2 PM Unova time. A good thing for him as it means Mint and Fai can get out early and have the rest of the day to themselves. With only one thing left, they hop to it and that one thing is cleaning up the floor and tables.

Mint stares the entire room down with a big, confident smirk on his face. "This is nothing! I've seen dirtier places before and this won't be difficult at all!" he thinks to himself as the natural instinct to deep clean everything around him begins to take control. He claps his paws together twice and breathes in deeply. "I'm gonna make this place so clean, you'll be able to eat off the floor!" he says to himself quietly.

He runs over to the nearest table, jumps onto it, and using his tail, he begins to wipe away anything that he can see with his tail. Compared to when he was a Minccino, his tail is significantly better at cleaning than before. The longer, fluffier fur enables him to scrub off stuff like sauce and stuck on food with ease, it also brushes away dust, crumbs, and small leftover bits of food with no effort too. He jumps down and goes to the next table and repeats the process until every table in the room is clear.

He jumps off the last table and looks at the floor. Everything that he brushed off is now here and all he has to do is simply brush it together and put it into a dustpan or something. He begins to push all the garbage and food crumbs together in one big pile and then pushes it all the way over to where the counter is. He jumps up on the raised platform, grabs the dust pan that he put up there, then brushes everything into it. He takes this dust pan and goes behind the counter, then deposits all the garbage into a special trash chute.

He claps his paws together a few times to get rid of any dust that might've gotten on them and then hops up onto the counter. He takes a look at the room and everything is super clean and spotless. It even shines a little in the soft light as well. Mint nods, pleased with his own work. The door behind him opens up and Fai comes out with cleaning supplies. "Alright! Let's clean!" she says excitedly.

He turns his head to look at her. She walks over to him. "You should be an expert at this, right? You ARE a Cinccino after all, and I hear they have a big rep for being super clean." She then looks past him and notices that everything is sparkling clean. "...wait… did you already clean up?" she asks, a bit confused since whenever she cleans up, it usually takes around 20 minutes but Mint managed to do it in about a quarter of that time. He nods and she frowns a little. "No fair… I wanted to clean with you…"

She takes the cleaning supplies and goes into the back. There's no need for them since he pretty much did everything that needed to be done. Since the job is done, he hops down from the counter and enters the back room. Internally, he's starting to jump for joy because he'll finally be able to get out of the waitress outfit and once he gets home with Fai, he'll be able to wash himself off and get rid of the coffee smell, which is starting to become a bit nauseating to him. He enters the backroom and takes the outfit off and hangs it back on the rack. He goes to leave but then realizes that the coffee that was spilt on him not only got on his fur, but also the outfit as well.

He decides to take it off the rack and bring it to Tony. He walks down the small hallway and stops in front of the door leading to Tony's office. He knocks on it a couple times with his right paw and he comes out. He looks down and sees him holding the outfit. "We're all done here I see. Ah yes, I'll take the outfit and get that cleaned up." he then growls something under his breath. "I still wish I caught that bastard for what he did…" he goes back to him. "Anyway, I'll be seeing you and Fai tomorrow then, okay? Same time as earlier today."

Mint nods and then goes to leave. On the way back, he encounters Fai. She just finished up getting out of her waitress outfit and was just gonna look for him. "Oh, there you are. I was about to look for you because I couldn't find you after I put the cleaning stuff away."

"I'm done here… I-I wanna go home now…" he says, while itching behind his right ear.

"That's why I was looking for you. Now let's go."

The two leave the backroom and head out from behind the counter and out the front door. The little bell on it ringing as they push it open and walk out into Cast square. There isn't anything really said between the two of them and on the way back, Mint thinks about what happened earlier. That customer was very rude and nasty to him for no reason, and on his first day too. He knows that nasty people and Pokemon exist, but he never expected it to be so soon that he would deal with one while working. He can only hope that as he continues to work at the cafe, nobody else treats him like that.

Back in Pinwheel Forest. Emilia and Ross have ended what was almost a full 24 hour search for Mint at the eastern end of the forest by the beach. Everyone helped pitch in to look for him and while a few of them gave Emilia and Ross a couple of problems, they managed to deal with them accordingly.

The search turned up with nothing. They looked all over the place in every possible location they could think of that would be good enough for Mint to hide in. No luck, not even a clue as to where he went. The result of this search has not only tired out the entire colony, but has also caused Emilia and Ross to lose a small amount of hope. They knew that they probably wouldn't find him that same day, but the thought was a nice one. They still have much hope luckily, and as they move onto the next section of the forest, they hope their son is somewhere out there and well.

For now, everyone has returned home. They'll be resting up for a little while until Emilia gives out the call for everyone to gather at the fountain plaza to start the next search. Some of the Minccino whose dens and homes were damaged by Mint's "Hyper Voice" have started to repair what was damaged. The fountain in the plaza might've taken the brunt of the attack, but it still holds strong and while the pool had cracked, they were able to make a temporary seal to stop water from leaking out. They don't know how long it will hold though. Despite all of this, those that aren't out and about are at home resting. At the den where Ross and Emilia live, they're not having a good time. While they helped search, they've also had time to think about what they could've done in the past to further prevent something like this from happening.

"You know, I wish we could've foreseen something like this happening. If we knew ahead of time, I would've jumped out of that hospital bed and ran my way back here to help him." Says Ross.

"It's not your fault, nor is it mine that he ran away. Emilia responds.

"Are you kidding? If I didn't pick a fight with Brian, You, me, and Mint would all still be here and we'd be a happy family again…" he says, quite frustrated with himself. "Why'd I have to act on instinct rather than logic…"

Emilia walks over to him and sits next to him. "Don't be so hard on yourself… I know how much you hate it when someone hurts the family."

He growls lowly. "But that's not the point! The reason he ran away was because he didn't have anyone to help him. He was self-conscious of what he turned into and the fact that he couldn't turn back didn't help either. If he had someone he trusted by his side when of all that happened, I guarantee he'd be here right now."

She shakes her head. "Can you really be sure of that?"

He looks at her, a sharp look and strong frown. "I'm 1000% positive about that. I know my son just as well as you and I know for a fact that you know that if he had someone he could trust by his side the entire time, he would've dealt with it in a much calmer and more rational way." He breaks his gaze and looks down, twiddling his paws together. "If you were to suddenly evolve against your will, how would you react? What would you do knowing that everyone in the colony hates you?"

She scratches her head for a moment. "I'd probably wanna go home, hide, and never come out."

He shakes his head. "But that's not what he did. He was here for one day at the minimum. Where he went after that day, we have no clue on."

Emilia remembers what Mint had told her in Nacrene City before running back home the day Ross got beat up.

"...I-It's my fault! How come you can't see that!? Dad attacked Brian because he was trying to protect me! If I never hurt Patricia to begin with, none of this would've happened! Brian wouldn't have been knocked out by me, Dad wouldn't be in the hospital, I wouldn't have gotten my ass kicked, and we'd all be at home dealing with the usual problems we always deal with! IT'S MY FAULT!"

"I'm going home. I don't know what you're gonna do, but I'm a disgrace to you and dad. If he asks where I am, don't tell him anything. I don't need him trying to get out in an attempt to save me from threats that don't exist. I caused him enough pain for one day."

A feeling of guilt begins to form in her gut, she realizes that he was already quite hurt from everything that happened that day, and her ignorance of not seeing Mint's perspective of those events only added to the problem. Her eyes close a little and she sighs silently. "I wish I saw what he was talking about sooner." she thinks about it all, and while she didn't understand back then, she understands it now. She sees how he saw it and in her eyes, she did nothing to help him. "It's our fault."

Ross looks up at her, confused as to how she came to this conclusion. "Our fault? But didn't you just say it wasn't?"

She explains. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want to make you worry more than you should've, but not saying anything was probably more harmful in the long run. Mint told me that he was gonna go home, but before all of that, I tried to tell him that what happened to you wasn't his fault. He didn't let me finish, insisting that because of his terrible decision to attack Patricia almost a week ago, it lead to all the events that happened. He got beat and you tried to beat up Brian in response, landing you in the hospital. He thought all of that was his fault, and looking back on it, I can now see why he thought that way. In a sense, it is partially his fault."

Ross understands it all too, but he still doesn't understand why he'd run away. "I see… but this doesn't really help us-" she cuts him off.

"No, it does. I didn't help him. I didn't see what he saw. I only saw what I believed to be the Mint that could do no wrong. He wanted to take responsibility for what happened, and I couldn't see that. In turn, he told me not to tell you that he ran home. You already know because it doesn't take a genius to figure it out, but what he said before he left hurt the most…"

"What did he say?"

She looks away for a moment before responding with a slightly saddened tone. "He said he was a disgrace to both of us and that he didn't want to cause more pain and problems."

Ross shakes his head, not believing that Mint would ever say something like that. Emilia can't believe it either, but he physically said it to her and she can't pretend he didn't say it. The worst part is that she did nothing to help him. "I didn't even do anything to help him… I bet he thought that we were upset with him or possibly even disowned him."

Ross continues to look at the ground for a few moments, but after hearing all of this, his heart shakes and hardens itself. He clenches both of his paws into fists and he stands up, his voice quite loud and stronger than before. "We have to find him. He's out there hurting pretty bad somewhere and each day that passes only makes things worse for him."

She nods, but he knows that she doesn't quite understand what he actually means. "I don't mean that he's only hurt with wounds or something like that, I'm talking about emotional and mental pain. He's lost, doesn't have anyone to turn to, and sooner or later, he's gonna take himself out, or someone else will. He could be hurt physically and walking around with wounds, but I'm more worried that his current emotional and mental state is about to reach a point of no return, driving him to a decision he won't be able to undo."

He looks towards the draped entrance of the den. Our son, Mint, no matter where you are, we will find you. We won't rest until you're found and brought back home alive and safe. Mark my words, we haven't disowned you, we're still your parents even if you've evolved into a Cinccino, our blood flows through you along with our DNA and nobody can tell you different. We WILL find you."

PD: So sorry for the 4 day period of silence with this story... I lost all motivation to write randomly and just couldn't kick the bucket for that long. Hopefully that doesn't happen again because we're getting VERY close to the end of this story. ANYWAY, Mint's parents realize just how dire the situation is and that Mint isn't just possibly hurt in one way, but as many as 3 ways. They're determined to find him, but remember those vicious Pokemon rumored to live in the forest? Hmmmmmm... find out in the future, Seeya in the next chapter!