The day was at the peak of Summer, way back then. Even in the depths of a mystery dungeon, the scorching sun could be felt. Such places were no sanctuary from the reasonating heat wave.

Locke brushed off the heat as he finished off another two of the dungeon's residents. Aside from his fur giving off the odor of sweat, he was near unaffected by the heat. He was glad that the only fabrics he had on him were his bags.

Despite that, his guard was raised. On previous dungeon incursions he would have defeated a dozen pokemon by that point, possibly even more. Yet this time, he had trouble finding a single soul. It was an anomaly beyond what could just be passed off as them all laying down from the heat wave. It was off, he knew something was up, and he had himself mentally prepared for anything.

He walked around the two pokemon he defeated to reach a berry bush, and proceeded to pluck it clean. Locke knew those berries lasted for a while and were full of juice, so they would be perfect for the dry throat the summer had inflicted onto him. After rounding them up and harvesting what he could store, Locke turned and walked off back to the dungeon's entrance.

It was when he was on the way out that he noticed something new in there. In one of the thinner passages there was a sneasel who was wearing a backpack and collapsed onto the ground. It was a confusing enough sight as the sneasel was certainly not native to the meadow-like mystery, but the backpack made it odder, and it wasn't any place one would choose to sleep in. Locke silently checked around him to ensure this wasn't any trap or ambush, and then approached the collapsed sneasel.

As he got closer, he realized she was still conscious. Her head was low and she was barely panting, and every part of her was drooping down. At that state, she couldn't have even been any threat to him, and Locke could tell she was far more like him then the dungeon residents.

"Hello?" Locke asked the sneasel. It wasn't much, but he felt he had to say something.

"H-help me," the sneasel responded.

The shinx was caught off guard by this. He hadn't seen a pokemon ask for his assistance like that before. Yet at the same time, empathy compelled him to take action.

"H-how help?" he asked.

"P-please," the sneasel responded, incapable of giving a proper response.

Locke did not hesitate at that point in trying to find what was wrong. He set one of his paws on her, and felt her fur was exceptionally hot. She had already passed into heat stroke and was so far in she could barely even sweat anymore. It didn't have the low body temperature that typically accompanied ice types, her fur felt like a blanket that had been left by a radiator.

Understanding the problem, Locke worked to get his body under her and lift her up. He got the sneasel on his back, and began walking off to where he entered the area from. As he walked, he felt the sneasel's warm claws cling to his fur.

Mercifully, he encountered no wild pokemon on the way back, nor traps or natural hazards to hinder him. It was a relief beyond measure as Locke wasn't sure he could even fight without hurting the sneasel he carried. It was more than just the bodyweight and grip that was being put onto him, Locke could feel her putting her hope into him as well. For the first time in his life, Locke had something more than just his own life and meager inventory to protect, he was entrusted to protect her life as well.

It took a few minutes for the shinx to retrace his steps. He saw the exit back into the open land and sky, of which he swiftly went through. The heat intensified even further when they were directly exposed to the sun's rays.

Locke spotted a pond right outside the natural passageway, which he had remembered seeing when he first entered the dungeon. That was the next objective of his, and he carefully walked down the hill to the sparkling blue water. Arriving, he set the sneasel down so that she was waist-deep in it. Locke then removed his bags and entered the water with her.

The water was still cool, and the sneasel felt herself being rejuvenated immediately. The first thing she did when she regained control of her muscles was to scoop some of the water in her claws and drink it. Feeling much better, she shifted herself to be submerged up to her shoulders. Locke observed her as she did this, stepping his paws into the pond as well.

"Thank you," the sneasel said as she had her head upwards and had her eyes closed, feeling the water cascade down her fur. "Thank you so much."

"No problem, then," Locke said. Still not sure how to deal with the social conversation.

"I'll admit, I'm pretty sure you saved my life back there," she continued to talk. "I couldn't even move back there."

"Um, right. I seed that," Locke said with erroneous grammar. "Do you have a name?"

"My name is 'Crystal'," the sneasel told him. "Do you have a name I could call you by?"

"I be Locke," he said to her.

"Aye, I see," Crystal said. Slightly put off by the shinx's poor grammar but still able to understand.

Crystal relaxed in the for a few minutes longer, occasionally exchanging words with the shinx, to which he gave more barely legible responses. She turned her gaze to the sky to observe her surroundings. The sun was descending towards the horizon, now partially orange instead of pure yellow. The hue of the land reflected that change, seeing the colors of dusk loom between the trees. They both gazed into their reflections, a roughed up shinx and a down on her luck sneasel. At least, those were the images that were remembered.

"It's going to be night soon. I can help you camp out the night, if you'd like," Crystal said to Locke. "It can be how I make it up to you for saving me."

Locke looked at her, and then the soon to be setting sun. "Sure?" was the only thing he could ask. These types of conversations weren't his forte; nor were any conversations at that point yet.

"Of course, it'd be the least I could do, and I know most pokemon aren't nocturnal," she explained.

"Hmm… would you gather firewood now? Like the larger branches? I always sometimes have a lot of a hard time getting that done."

"Of course, I can collect for you."

"Let's start now then."

Locke got out of the pond and shook the water off of himself. He then got his bags back on while Crystal followed after. The shinx and the sneasel went down into the normal woods.

Treading through those woods weren't as memorable, it took another two hours for things worth romanticizing to begin again.

The sun had made it's full descent below the horizon, leaving a thin crescent moon in the sky with countless stars around. Locke was in a tight forest clearing, small enough that many pokemon wouldn't call it by those words. There, they had made a flat fire that gave warmth and light. Above that was a shabby and makeshift grill made from the more forest's more fire resistant wood. In turn, above that was the still body of a rattata.

Locke was gazing at the fire, alone and in a trance as he recalled vague memories involving fire. Just then, he heard rustling from the surrounding bushes. The shinx quickly jumped up and turned to face them- anticipating a fight- only to see the same sneasel from before emerge. He lowered his stance to a relaxed pose with his forelegs upright, not something he would do had it been any other pokemon coming out.

"Back?" the shinx asked.

"Yeah. I managed to scavenge some extra bark for the fire. Even got some berries harvested as well."

The sneasel's claws had become dirty, brown with bark and wood shards; the stuff that would get under your fingernails. She skinned a few trees to harvest the best bark she could identify at that time, leaving the ends brown.

She got on the side of the fire opposite to Locke, staying an extra half meter away from it then he was. She tossed in the bark like how one throws a frisbee to get it below the makeshift grill, then got into a relaxed position.

"So, how are you?" Crystal asked.

"Fair," Locke said, looking at her instead of the flames.

"Mmm… How long have you been doing mystery dungeons?" she asked. "I noticed you seem to have some skills."

"Dunno."

"Any partners you have?"

"Hmm?"

"Like, friends, family, fellow rogues?"

"Rogues?"

"Like… forget it," Crystal said.

"Where do you from?" Locke took his turn to ask a question.

"Oh. From the south. A fair way away, actually. Made the long trek this far up."

"Why?"

"My…" Crystal's attitude suddenly dropped. "My parents died a few months ago. I'm an orphan living on my own now. I knew it would be cooler up in the north, so I started migrating up here for the summer.

I wish I could have made it up farther, but I got caught in a heat wave anyways. Thanks again, by the way."

"Oh," Locke said flatly. He couldn't relate at all to what she was saying, he didn't know what it was like to have parents and by extension what it was like to lose them. The only thing he could make out is the behavior of this pokemon whom he had saved. She wasn't at all like the feral dungeon pokemon or the fully civilized ones he saw when passing through towns. He could tell she was like him. Different gender, body, type, and past, but similar in so many other ways.

"Hey, what's your last name? Mine is Diana, but I don't think mine matters anymore. I never asked for yours.

"I'm don't know," Locke replied.

"You don't? Or do you just not remember?"

"I don't remember any parents. I just an Locke," he clarified.

"Well, okay then. Hmm…"

"Yes, no to parents."

Crystal turned her head away from this shinx and muttered some phrase under her breath that Locke couldn't quite catch. He could vaguely make out the tone, though. He remembered it possessing a tone of remorse. Remembered, that is.

Right afterwards she returned her head to the position it was previously, reconnecting eye contact with Locke.

"I've heard it said before that if you could choose your family, it'd look a lot different. Neither of us have one of those, but I think that applies to companions as well right now. We're together for now, so let's just try and make this work.

Have any goals?"

"Live," Locke replied.

"I get that, but anything more? Like once you get safe?" Crystal asked. "Life goals, y'know?"

"Hmm..." Locke had to think. For all this time he had been focused on just survival, what was he to do after he survived? He pondered while gazing into the orange flames. "...Make buddies."

"Make buddies?"

"Yee," Locke replied. "I want friends, I don't want alone forever."

"Ah, that makes sense," Crystal said. She then muttered something quietly under her breath. He couldn't quite discern it, but he thought it was "I suppose I came at the perfect time then."

"And you?" Locke asked. "What you want?"

Crystal's eyes widened just a little bit when Locke said that. Nothing was wrong with the question itself, but that was what made her curious. It proved the shinx wasn't just bubbling around cluelessly and with no intelligence on what she was saying, he did understand the question and how it was applicable to her as well.

After that moment, she leaned her body back to lay down on the ground. She gazed upwards to the countless stars above in clear view, looking at the constellations of legendaries, the only things that had been with her across her whole life.

"I just want to have some control over my life," she admitted. "I couldn't stop my parents from getting infected, I couldn't stop them dying from disease, I couldn't stop from running out of supplies, I couldn't stop Summer from coming, and I couldn't stop from overheating. Life has just been out to get me, it feels. Giving me crap whenever it could and forcing me around. I just want to have some control, do what I want to do, have some… power- I guess- to me and myself."

"...I see," Locke replied, looking at the sneasel as she stargazed.

The two fell silent for a few seconds, too unused to conversations at the time to know how to continue the talk. Locke just went back to gazing at the flames, but kept his ears perched to stay vigilant for any attackers. Crystal wasn't very different, though she was looking above at the roasting rattata.

"It's been a little bit, could you turn that rattata over so it gets nice and smoothly cooked?" Crystal asked. "Sorry, I just don't want to get close to anything hot again right now."

"It's alright," the shinx said.

He walked over to the flame, and used his paw to flip the corpse over. He hardly reacted to getting close to the fire. When he walked away, he flicked his tail to be beside his body so it didn't touch the flames. He then returned to the exact spot he was at.

"Say, you built that campfire up pretty well," Crystal complimented.

"Thanks."

"Do you know some fire type move, or did you do something else?"

"Just sparks," Locke replied.

"Do you know any other electric moves?"

"Just sparks."

"I'm pretty sure you can learn thunderbolt. That move's a lot- that move's significantly better than just sparks. If you get a TM book from a town you could learn it from that."

"I can't," Locke said.

"Oh, that's not a move shinx can learn?"

"I don't know how to read," Locke explained.

"Huh. I guess I should have expected that, given how you talk."

"Hey, can you isn't?"

"What?"

"What?"

The two stared at each other confused for a moment, and then shook it off.

"Well… I can try to teach you if you want," Crystal said to Locke.

"You can?" he asked.

"Yes. We're pretty smart like that, so I was able to pick up reading pretty young. I could try showing you what I know when it's dawn."

"Like… payback for me saving you?"

"Sure."

"Alright… yeah, that sounds nice…" Locke had said, a smile formed on his face for a moment.

"Great. Glad we've got a plan now for the day ahead," Crystal said, exhaling a sigh of relief.

"I wonder how well I won't not be working as two in a dungeon," Locke spoke as he ambitiously looked up towards the stars.

"Umm.. Yes," Crystal said in absence of a proper response, completely perplexed by what the shinx meant.

They continued small chatter for a few more minutes, the fire beginning to slowly dim out. Nothing else came to interact with them, it was just the two of them in the small radius of campfire light. When the ratata finished cooking, they split it up to eat it together.

After consuming his share, Locke went to a bush to go to sleep in while staying hidden. Crystal had the choice of moving on, continuing her journey to the north, but she decided to stay- to keep watch of her new companion.

Locke then got woken up by feeling a pressure on his neck. He suddenly sprang up and got ready to defend himself. But once he realized it was just Crystal there that was waking him up, he could relax himself.

The dawn broke and the sun was halfway above the horizon. From it came sparse orange rays that pierced through the dappled leaves to reach the shadowed forest, reaching Locke and warming his mane.

"Morning, Locke," the sneasel said to him.

"Arg… Morning- uh- Crystal," Locke said, forcing himself awake.

"I did some scouting around when you were asleep. There's another mystery dungeon not far from here. A cavern, this time. No fruit or juicy berries, but there ought to be some old treasures to collect. Go in, get the items, pawn them in the nearest town, you get the deal.

I want to head off and get it done before it's the heat of the day. And I'd like you to help me out with that."

"Mmm… got it," Locke said.

"Your bags seem to have a good amount of space in them, and you look reasonably strong with your build. So I figured you'd be a perfect match for this sort of heist."

"Right. I can help you out with that," Locke affirmed.

"Wonderful. I'll lead the way, the entrance is just a klick away," Crystal said.

"Mhm. Now I just wonder how good I won't not be if helping you,"

"What?- Well, nevermind. L-let's just get there. Get there when it's still cool."

The two walked forward through the wilds, walking around a tree and scaling up a hill. Mystery dungeon residents rarely strayed from their dungeon, so they felt safe. When they spotted a berry bush or low fruit tree that was ready to be harvested, they took a momentary pause to focus on harvesting the produce from that instead. It filled the parts of their belly that the meat from last night left. Even though Crystal was mostly awake in the night and had night vision, it was still much easier to search out food under daylight.

Even with the stops to satisfy other survival purposes, it wasn't long before Crystal guided them to the cavern she found. Before them stood a dirt tunnel at the side of a hill with the occasional root jotting out from the roof. The mud was still present, as with the dirty smell one would associate with it. It mostly blocked out the scent of grass and pollen, but bits of that still came through, just enough to keep them from feeling like they were entering an abrasive cavern.

"Here we go. Shouldn't be too deep or dangerous," Crystal said as the two stood side-by-side in front of the entrance.

"It's not. I believe I've been there here before," Locke said. "It'll all be alright."

"Good to know. I figured it would just be a hole that those pokemon who love shiny things would hoard in. Didn't really look like a sprawling nest," Crystal stated.

"Have you ever like been far enough to hard dungeon try do?" Locke said, flawlessly nonchalant without so much as a stutter.

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said whatsoever."

"Forget that."

Crystal did as commanded and tried her best to ignore that comment.

The sneasel then kneeled down and began to take her backpack off to put it in front of her and scrounge through it.

"Give me a second, I'm pretty sure I have some dry cloth to fashion a torch out of…" Crystal said while looking through it.

"Not need," Locke replied.

The shinx sat down and began moving his body in strange ways. Stretching his and slowly rotating his neck until it was as pulled as far as he could. After a few seconds, like a glowstick being cracked, his body began glowing. The sneasel had turned her head to see the shinx doing that.

"Oh… well sweet, that's useful," Crystal said, "Well, let's head in."

The shinx and the sneasel walked into the dungeon. Their feet almost immediately made contact with the puddles of mud beneath them and got dirty, but neither of them strongly reacted to that. Locke's biological light was purely yellow in hue, not orange like a firelight or with a blue tinge like daylight or moonlight. As a result, the tunnel looked more like it was illuminated by a building's fluorescent light.

Eyes locked to search for objects, hears readied to listen for threats. Side-by-side they marched down the cavern, Locke worked with someone instead of alone for the first time.

Some time into the dungeon, and Locke noticed the glimmer of shining his light back at him. After a quick double check to ensure there were no traps or enemies, he went up to investigate. Pulling it out of mud with his two front paws and shaking the mud off of it, he found it to be a green hairpin. It looked jade, but was exceptionally light.

"I found something!" Locke enthusiastically declared as he turned to the sneasel.

"Oh? Let me see," Crystal replied.

She walked up to Locke and took the hairpin he was holding up towards her. Crystal inspected it, and tapped it a few times.

"Oh, it's just plastic. Nothing valuable at all," she said.

"Wait!" Locke said right before she could toss it away.

"What is it?"

"Do you think you could… wear it?" Locke asked. "I think matches your eyes pretty well. So it could be something worth keeping of or that reason."

"Ah, I see where you're coming from," Crystal said, shaking the mud off of it to make it clearer.

The sneasel grabbed a tuft of fur on her head and pulled it together. She then stuck the hairpin into it, and it clipped it on. The pin was left on the top right of her head, pointing diagonally.

"I think you're right, it's good," she said.

"Mhm."

"Right. Let's keep looking for valuable things, though," Crystal said as she turned to continue going deeper into the tunnel.

Suddenly, Locke's view of reality suddenly started changing. The image of the sneasel started getting blurry and her sounds muffled, as other stimuli began taking hold again. His mind's eye was getting unclear, his true senses being forcefully pulled back.

"Hey, Locke? Are you okay there?" Crystal the weavile said whilst tapping on the shinx. "Locke?"

The shinx's eyes refocused and he shook his head around, waking himself up to what was happening. He stood in front of a drawer in Crystal's room, he'd been doing so for several minutes.

"Y-yeah," Locke stuttered out.

"You looked like you were completely spacing out right there. Just standing there and looking down," Crystal said. "What was going on with you?"

"Oh, I was just reminiscing a bit," the shinx explained.

"About what? You were out for like five minutes."

"This."

Locke stepped aside so he was no longer between the drawer and Crystal. In the pulled out drawer, atop a pile of various small items, laid a green hairpin. The weavile looked down at it, and Locke looked up at her.

"Wasn't that the hairpin I found and gave you when we first met?" Locke asked.

"Hmm… oh now that you mention it, yeah. It is," Crystal said. "I'd totally forgotten about that. Surprised you found that and remembered."

"Forgotten? But, it's when we first met each other," Locke asked.

"Eh, it's just a piece of plastic. Nothing valuable," the weavile said. "Want it back?"

"I- umm- no. I gave it to you, you should be keeping it," Locke said, too confused to articulate his emotions.

"Well yeah, that's what I have been doing," Crystal said, her face mirroring Locke's confusion, not understanding what was the deal over the plastic hairpin. "It's been in there for years now."

"I- well- I'd just like if you kept it somewhere special-" Locke tried to explain through his confusion. "It's- it's special to me."

"It's special to you and you don't want to have it?"

"I-..."

"...Well anyways, I'm planning on talking to some others I know, so I'd like it if you left my room while I did that," Crystal said.

"Okay, but I was just-"

"Now."

"Okay, okay," Locke hurriedly said.

The shinx stepped out of the door, and began his way to his own room. The weavile stepped out shortly after, and shut the room door behind her. The two split to go different paths.

From the second floor to the main floor, from the main floor to the basement and its lounge, Crystal made her way downwards. The lounge was mostly empty at the time, most had been going to their own rooms early out of lack of things to do during the winter. As a result, it didn't take much time for the weavile to scan over the area and find who she sought out: a fraxure.

Crystal approached the dragon type pokemon, and the pokemon saw her back. The weavile closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side and raised her claw to wave at her, greeting her with a smile as the distance was closed.

"Heya Frax," Crystal said.

"Hey Crystal," the fraxure replied.

"I just wanted to check up on you before you went to bed, that's all," Crystal said.

"Glad you did. Here, let's walk-n-talk a bit," Fraxure said as she rose from her seat.

"Sounds perfect," Crystal the weavile replied while she began following Fraxure down one of the pathways in the basement.

"Have things been going good for you?" Fraxure asked.

"Of course, I'm loving the cold nights," Crystal replied. "How about you? I think I remember you talking about wanting to get a new hobby to get through winter."

"I've been playing some tabletop games recently. It's been wonderful. Do you think you might want to join me for a game?"

"That sounds wonderful. Would it be okay if I invite Locke for that as well?" Crystal asked.

"Oh right, that reminds me. How has your relationship with him been going?"

"Splendorous!" Crystal said enthusiastically.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," Crystal confirmed again." I will admit, I've heard a lot of scary stories with just how abusive boys can be towards their girlfriends, wives, and even kids. But I made sure to get control of the relationship early on so I could prevent that. And that let me tell you, that just worked."

"That's great to hear. And yeah, men really are abusive pricks when they're allowed to be," Fraxure gave confirmation. "To hell with 'boys will be boys'."

"To hell with that indeed, I'm not going to be a lightning rod. Especially when he's as violent as he is."

The two laughed for a very short period, and then continued making small talk with each other whilst walking deeper into the basement.

Meanwhile, one floor above, Tamin was within the bounds of her room. She just lied down in her hammock with a book in her paws, scanning over the rows of words. Black text being the only thing to relieve her eyes from the endless white pages.

Tamin was immersed in reading stories of pokemon far stronger and far freer than she was. But that immerserion was frustratingly broken when her large ears and keen senses picked up some sounds by her room door.

She lowered the book and leaned up on her hammock to look towards the entrance, and saw a piece of paper that was slid under the door.

The minccino hopped down from her hammock, and set her book down on the floor, keeping it at the same page with the papers facing the floor. Tamin then walked over to the piece of paper by the door.

The top side of it was blank, so Tamin grabbed it and flipped it over to check the bottom. That side did contain words, reading:

"Hello my friend, Tamin. This is Yuki.

While I have decided to delay this for multiple reasons for sometime, I've reached the end of how long I am willing to push this back. I request you come to my room, effective immediately, where I will get to doing to you what I have spent months planning. I know you were alone in your room when I gave this message, and I can promise consequences will come if you choose to ignore this for more than two hours. Don't worry, you will live of course, but that does not automatically mean you will get to tell the tale. All that will happen is you will come out with more humility.

I am fully aware of your ability to report me for what I've done if you see fit, and have taken that into full consideration. But I believe you will find it wiser to obey what I say. Because regardless of what happens to me, I will be able to tell the guildmasters of your lies and how you're still in the legal custody of your parents. And if what happens to me is irrelevant, then it is purely a choice between me or your parents.

Lastly- and this is of high importance- when you come to my room you are to bring this exact note and no other eyes are to see it. This is important, as I must burn this message after you read through it. Under no circumstance can I leave you with this extra evidence to share to others.

I'm sure you will make the right decision, Tamin. I expect to see you soon."

Tamin lowered the letter and looked up at nothing. She let out a deep exhale, and closed her eyes as she thought over her decisions.

"Well, I probably was lucky to stall it out for this long anyways," Tamin thought to herself. "Really wish something else would have come up to give me an opportunity out of this, like what Hunter did, but looks like I was testing my luck as is to get this far. Hmm…

Well, if I do see what's inside of the room I'll get some more eye witness testimonies of what she's doing and can probably get Braixen saved and Yuki punished harder with that. Much graver accusations than simply 'she blackmailed and threatened me', so there's that going for both me and him…

Ah, screw it."

Tamin spent a minute longer in her room, mentally steeling herself as much as she could. When doubt set into her mind, she was alone in needing to push that out of her mind. The minccino then folded up the message three times, put the book she was reading back to the place they were, and grabbed the handle of her door to head out.

There wasn't anything noble she was walking towards fulfilling. Nothing that took bravery to conquer. No evil she was capable of slaying. Just an inevitability she needed to face in obligation.

End of chapter 23.