This is a rather short chapter, but what it lacks in word count, I think it more than makes up for in terms of its emotional weight. You'll see what I mean when you dive into it; there are some revelations here. It was initially going to be much longer, but I truncated it because then it'd be too long, in my view, for this point in the story. Finally, while I have started a new story, Spirit Animals, I am still continuing this one.

Answer from the previous chapter: Probably "I Love Toy Trains: Oh No!" It was one of my favorites as a kid, basically just a compilation of model train derailments. There's even a scene with Pokemon in it.

Question of the chapter: What countries are you guys from/live in?

ROYAL REDMOND, 25

The morning after my visit to the library, I found myself pacing back and forth in my hotel room, not for the first time. Although I'd gained the courage to leave my hotel room yesterday, I almost felt as though I'd pushed my bravery, and luck, as far as it would take me.

Of course, today was going to be different. Today I would need to attend another conference, and, whether I liked it or not, I had to go there in person. There was no option to attend virtually, although I probably would have taken it had said option been offered.

Dakal and I were having a lazy late morning in the Hotel Minamar, just watching cartoons on TV. I'd considered asking him about his life again, but, just like leaving the hotel any more than necessary, I was too scared to. For obvious reasons, being stuck in the same room all day meant that there was little else to talk about, so cartoons it was.

In the middle of our fourth or fifth consecutive episode in a Poké Wars marathon, my mobile phone rang yet again.

"I've got this" I told the Spoink kid as I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Royal, this is Felipe. I'm looking forward to the meeting today, how about you?"

You know how they always say to show, not tell, when writing a story? Well, Felipe told me that he was excited, but his voice showed me that he wasn't. In fact, he seemed to be dreading the event.

"I guess I am too. It'll be nice to leave the hotel, even if it's only for an afternoon."

"About that," Felipe asked, "would you want to meet up for an early lunch before the meeting? There are a lot of good restaurants in Coronet City."

Since I'd be leaving the hotel anyway, I didn't see why not. "Sounds like a plan" I replied. "Are you going to make the reservation, or do they not require that?"

"Eh, I was thinking something casual. Come down to the lobby and we'll figure something out."

After confirming that I would, in fact, be going to lunch with Felipe, I hung up the phone and turned to Dakal.

"Who were you just talking to?" the Spoink kid asked me innocently.

"It was Felipe, the guy who was with me when I met you. He's also attending the conference later this afternoon, and we're going to have lunch together before it."

"Can I come too?" Dakal responded, his eyes pleading with me. Sadly, I knew what I needed to do.

"I'm sorry, but you can't. There's not enough time to go back to the hotel before the conference."

"Oh" the Bounce Pokemon replied, looking more than a little disappointed. But then, he looked happy again as a new idea dawned in his eyes. "I know!"

"What's your idea?"

"Since there's not enough time to bring me back here before the meeting...maybe I can go to the meeting!"

Dakal presented this idea with all the flourish of a student who expected to get an A+ on their science fair assignment. He sure seemed proud of himself.

I shook my head. "That's what I'm saying. You can't come to the meeting. You're not allowed to."

"Why not?"

"Because", I replied, realizing only then that I'd never explicitly been told that Pokemon partners weren't allowed. I had to come up with a good reason, because my gut told me simply that Dakal shouldn't attend the conference.

"Because what?"

"Because only registered diplomats are allowed to attend. And no matter how hard I might try to dress you up so you look the part, I'm not going to fool anybody. So you can just stay here; they'll bring you room service, since I've ordered so much food here that I'm on a first-name basis with them."

Dakal sighed, seemingly accepting his fate.

Speaking of getting dressed, I still had to do just that; I'd been in my pajamas all morning, and now I had to make myself presentable for the conference.

Once I had done this, I gave the Spoink kid one last goodbye and left the room. After taking the stairs down to the lobby, I found Felipe reclining in one of the armchairs next to the fireplace, which had a fire crackling against the coals.

"Sorry I took so long," I told him. "Dakal refused to believe that he wasn't allowed to come."

Felipe lowered his eyebrows and squinted at me. "Who's Dakal?"

I realized then that I would have to spill the beans, but then again, there really weren't that many beans to spell. After all, he knew about the Spoink; I'd just have to explain why I'd given him a name.

"Oh. Uh…" I stammered, knowing I probably looked ridiculous.

"It's fine, I'm not judging you for having imaginary friends. I'm just saying you're a bit old for that."

After giving my friend a dirty look, I continued. "Anyway, do you remember that Spoink we saw near the Team Skyward rally last week?" Has it really only been a week?

"Yes. What about him?" Felipe asked me. "Are you...did you take him in or something?"

This time, I didn't even hesitate. "That's exactly what I did. He needed a home, and if nobody else gave him that, it would have to be me."

Felipe wagged his finger and looked away from me, as though saying, I can't even.

"So you named him Dakal. Very well, I'm not going to object to that. Not that I can, either; I'm not your parent, I'm just giving you advice."

"True" I said blankly. "Anyway, we should head out if we're going to get lunch before the conference. Do you know of any good places?"

"No," Felipe replied. "But that's part of the fun of exploring a new city. You never know what you might find."

We left the hotel and started walking down the sidewalk. Since it was the middle of the day on a Monday, motor vehicle traffic wasn't too bad, and we didn't have to wait very long at the crosswalks. And, while it was only slightly above freezing, we warmed up quickly as long as we kept moving.

Without a destination in mind, Coronet City was a fascinating place to explore. The buildings were mostly made of brick, but some of them had white marble facades not unlike that of the city's library. Besides Statue Circle, there were plenty of small parks (or even traffic islands) with golden statues of Pokemon.

Eventually, we reached the White Gold Bazaar, not to be confused with the much smaller Purple Bazaar that was also in Coronet City. Although there were any number of malls and marketplaces in the city, I knew this one as soon as I saw it.

"I walked past this place yesterday" I said out of nowhere; we'd been more or less silent for a minute or two prior to this.

"Oh?" Felipe asked me. "Did you go inside?"

I shook my head. "I didn't. I was in a hurry, plus I've seen enough adventure movies to know that sketchy characters often wander about crowded, confusing marketplaces."

"Why were you in a hurry? Preparing for the meeting?"

Felipe just won't give me a break. He's sure asking a lot of questions!

"I was walking to the library to do some research. So in a way, yes, but that's not the only reason I was there. I just...wanted to explore the city."

"Huh," my friend replied, in a rather skeptical tone. But then, his eyes lighting up again, he pointed at the entrance to the marketplace. "Let's go inside; maybe they'll have food there!"

"Uh, I thought you were thinking more of a sit-down meal, but okay" I said, following Felipe through the sliding doors and into the White Gold Bazaar.

If the building had looked gargantuan from the outside, it felt even more colossal on the inside. The whole bazaar brought to mind an airport terminal, with shops selling all sorts of goods. Hundreds of people and Pokemon were milling about the bazaar; talking with vendors, bartering with them in order to get a more favorable price, simply conversing with friends...it was quite a sight to behold.

The interior of the bazaar was roughly the temperature of a meat locker. Everyone we passed was dressed in winter clothing, including Felipe, who, it appeared, had taken my advice and bought a much warmer jacket.

Speaking of Felipe, he eventually stopped right in his tracks and began to shiver. I was about to chastise him, to remind him to keep moving, when I saw what he was looking at.

A male Sableye stood behind a small table adorned with a dark red tablecloth, and atop the tablecloth were dozens of bottles of liquid the color of root beer. However, I knew this couldn't be root beer, because A) it wasn't bubbling the way soda does and B) it was labelled as LYCANROC REPELLENT - BEST WAY TO KEEP YOUR FAMILY SAFE!

"Do you care to buy some of my goods?" Sableye asked us, chuckling a bit in between every word. His tone did not sound genuine at all.

"No, I'm good" I said, but then Felipe pushed himself in front of me and faced Sableye with a murderous expression.

"Do you seriously think you can get away with this shit? Pretending to have found a breakthrough in prevention that science hasn't come up with yet? Because if you're caught, you're doing some serious prison time!"

"I'm helping people!" Sableye exclaimed, not quite loudly enough to qualify as a shout. "If you held a cure for cancer, would you withhold it from the world?"

"No, but why are you doing this? You're giving people false hope, and that liquid could be dangerous! I swear, I'm going to have something done about it!"

Sableye "winked" at Felipe, or at least, it looked like he was winking; it's impossible to tell when both diamond eyes are eternally open.

"What are you going to do about it? And for that matter, what's so wrong with experimenting a bit? Again, are you just going to wait for them to find a cure, or are you going to take matters into your own hands?"

"Do you think you know better than the world's scientists? Like, do you honestly believe that?"

There was a staring contest between Felipe and the Sableye for what felt like the longest time. It seemed that at any moment, either of them might snap, the consequences of which would not be pretty.

At that moment, I was somewhat grateful that the marketplace was crowded, because this meant not many others were paying attention to this argument.

"Come on, Felipe" I told my friend eventually, beckoning him to follow me down the row of vendors selling everything from sunglasses to vintage Pokeballs. "It's not worth getting arrested over."

"You don't understand, Royal" he responded, but he did follow me. "Some things are worth risking your freedom for."

"Maybe, but is this one of those things? I don't want to get in unnecessary trouble."

Felipe didn't look happy, but he stopped arguing with me. As we walked through the bazaar's meat market, I became aware of something.

It didn't seem that notable at first, but much like a piece in a mental jigsaw puzzle, this realization led me to more clarity, to a feeling that I had more of the picture.

During the conference last week, Felipe had seemed quite uncomfortable, as though lycanthropy were a very sensitive topic for him. The way he'd been squirming in his seat suggested that he'd been desperate to get out of there.

And now here in the bazaar, just now, when he'd been arguing with Sableye about the supposed Lycanroc repellent...there had been a certain ferocity to his words. A certain passion that I probably wouldn't have possessed.

It was almost as though it were personal.

With those two data points, the picture seemed more clear, but I didn't say anything just yet. I would let Felipe broach the subject, if and when he decided to.

Felipe gestured at a nearby staircase. "That leads to the balcony", he said. "Let's go up there."

"Uh, why?" I asked him. "Aren't we supposed to find a place for lunch?"

"Oh, it's...just to admire the view" my friend responded, in a tone that suggested he didn't believe what he was saying. He probably wasn't even trying to convince me, just to persuade me that it was worth heading up to the balcony.

Nonetheless, I followed him up the staircase and to the balcony. Unlike the ground floor of the bazaar, which was teeming with activity, the balcony was pretty empty, so if we held a personal conversation, we could avoid being heard.

Maybe that's exactly why he wanted to go up here.

Mounted on one of the walls was a small TV set, not unlike the ones you see in sports bars. However, this establishment was no sports bar, and the scene playing out on the television was no sporting event.

Instead, it was a segment on Vulpix News, where the blonde female news anchor was talking about something that was happening in Pastoria City at that very moment. And it wasn't a celebration, to say the very least.

"We've got a live look at the Pastoria City Courthouse complex, which also contains a jail" the news anchor said gravely, her blue eyes practically staring into the souls of her viewers. "As you can tell, it's on fire."

In the image next to the reporter, there was an imposing-looking building; at least, it would have looked imposing were it not being burned to a crisp. There was so much fire, and there were so many emergency vehicles around it, that you could barely see the building.

"That's horrible" I heard Felipe utter quietly behind me. "That's really, really horrible."

I then uttered one of the dumbest, most thoughtless statements of my professional life. I'd had a lot of good ideas; this wasn't one of them.

"I'm not saying I believe this", I responded gingerly, "but some would say that it serves those people right for being criminals. That building is partly a jail, after all."

Felipe glared at me as though I'd just murdered someone. It didn't matter that I wasn't even arguing that these people deserved it; simply the power of suggestion set him off.

"And? Just because they might be criminals, that doesn't mean they deserve to die that way! Have you ever been trapped inside a burning building?"

I felt like an idiot. "Forget I said anything."

"I'm not going to forget, Royal. Perhaps you should have thought about what you were going to say before you actually said it."

My eyes, however, were glued to the screen. The news anchor was still talking about the courthouse fire.

"Although the roughly two hundred people remaining unaccounted for are officially labelled as 'missing' rather than 'dead', Vulpix News wishes to caution you all that rescue efforts are unlikely to turn up many survivors, owing to how quickly the blaze spread."

The Water type Pokemon belonging to the first responders were doing their best to fight the inferno, but it wasn't working. Not quickly enough. The fire was still spreading.

My face flushed as I realized just how moronic my statement had been. Yes, the people inside that jail might have done horrible things, but it still looked like a pretty horrible way to die. Moreover, most of them had families who probably still loved them.

"I'm sorry I said that" I told Felipe, trying to do some damage control, but he wasn't paying attention to me. His attention was completely fixated on the TV.

"At this time, we have not been able to ascertain the cause of this inferno, although the Pastoria Police Department has been investigating as much information as they can possibly come up with. Foul play, however, has not been ruled out."

"Foul play?" Felipe all but shouted. "Who'd do something like that?"

"Sometimes people do terrible things, Felipe. I don't like it any more than you do, but there are far worse criminals than many people held in that jail."

"You don't understand," my friend responded, looking me right between the eyes. "You don't know what it feels like."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do I not know?"

"You don't know what it's like to have a brother who might end up there at any point. You don't know what it's like to live in constant fear like that."

"Wait a minute", I said. "What are you talking about?"

"My kid brother, if he'd gotten unlucky one day, might have ended up in that jail. And had he been there today, he would have met with a terrible fate."

This was the first time Felipe had mentioned having a brother. He tended not to talk about his family or personal life that much; aside from having grown up in Hoenn, not being used to the cold weather, and some of his favorite music, he rarely ever talked about himself. When we talked about one of us, that person was typically me. (Most of our conversations were about our shared occupation as diplomats.)

"Your brother? Is he a…".

"Criminal? No, he's not a criminal, he didn't do anything wrong! Well, other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that's hardly against the law, is it?"
"Then why do you think he'd be in jail? They don't tend to lock up people who are innocent; isn't our justice system better than that?"

Felipe's voice grew noticeably quieter the next time he spoke, after a longer-than-normal silence.

"Not always. Anyway, like I said, my brother was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was in the woods in the middle of the night a few years ago, and…". His voice began to break, as though he were on the verge of tears. I didn't hold it against him; by the sound of it, this was a rather touchy subject for Felipe, and why wouldn't it be?

I was quiet, too, as I asked him the following question: "Was it a full moon?"

Felipe was more or less the same age as me, but when he turned his face towards the floor of the balcony, he looked a lot younger, more vulnerable, and more childlike. It seemed clear what his answer would be even before it came.

Slowly, he nodded.

"Oh my Arceus, that's got to suck...I'm so sorry" I replied, feeling horrible for all the hair-brained things I'd said over the course of this outing.

Suddenly, everything made sense. It was no wonder that Felipe had been so uncomfortable during the last conference; it had been personal to him. It was so difficult for him to talk about lycanthropy precisely because he had firsthand experience with it.

I was an only child, but if I hadn't been, especially if my sibling was younger than me and I'd failed to protect them...to say the very least, I don't know how I would have handled the emotional aspect of failure. I couldn't begin to understand what he was going through.

My friend began sniffling, and his voice became even quieter and weaker.

"I've been terrified almost every day for the last four years. Ever since Marcelo was bitten, I've kept worrying that he's going to pass the disease on when he isn't himself. He's taking wolfsbane, but I always wonder...what if it doesn't work?"

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything at all. Instead, I let Felipe do the talking.

"His social life is non-existent as a result. Students at his high school wanted to be friends with him, but he always pushed them away. Nobody could know, not a single soul, because if they did, news would spread quickly."

"So how did he cope with it?" I asked, hoping I wasn't treading on sacred ground here, so to speak. Fortunately, Felipe didn't seem to mind.

"He didn't. He stayed in his room whenever he transformed, and we'd have to bring meals up to him. Everybody wondered why he basically became an outcast for a few days every month; to this day, I wonder if somebody connected the dots."

"Don't worry about that" I said. "It's not relevant anymore if he's out of high school; he can go off to college and meet new people. He can have a fresh start."

"You don't understand," Felipe told me. "Marcelo isn't going to college. In order to attend, he would have had to disclose his medical history, including his condition, and he wasn't willing to do that. Not that I blame him, but he lives a pretty limited life."

There was more silence; that is, until my friend broke it again.

"Of course, we can hope for a cure, but if Secretary General Sultan was telling us the truth, and there's no reason to think she wouldn't, then progress in finding such a cure has been slow going. There's really nothing else we can do."

I thought about how Felipe must feel, how he must have been feeling for the last four years. To have someone you cared so much about suffer from such a terrible disease, and yet be unable to do anything about it, had to be incredibly frustrating and demoralizing. My fellow diplomat had the world perched on his shoulders, and there was nothing he could do to ease the pain.

"And I still love him with all my heart," Felipe said, wiping tears off his face. "I mean, he's my brother; how could I not?"

Although I probably should have asked before doing this, I patted Felipe on the back. "You're a great brother for sticking by him. I might be an only child, but I know a good sibling when I see one."

Felipe nodded. "What choice do I have? But I feel like a bad sibling for leaving home for so long. I mean, now that I'm in my mid-twenties I don't live at home anymore, but I was always in town to offer moral support to Marcelo. But it's also why I attended graduate school for international relations; nobody else seems to think it's a priority, and some deny it's a problem entirely."

"To help your brother and people like him" I said, knowing as I spoke those words that I was right. "You want to advocate for research into these issues."

"Not just research, Royal. Fuck research! I want to see results! It seems like they're not treating the problem with the gravity it deserves, and I want to do everything in my power to change that."

If feeling helpless was bad enough, what Felipe had just described to me seemed far worse. To know what needed to be done, and yet have the world not take you seriously, had to be completely gut-wrenching.

The worst part was, I didn't know what to tell him. I really didn't, because I didn't want to give Felipe any false hope. I didn't want to tell him anything both of us knew to be false.

"You're a wonderful brother, Felipe. You're doing what you need to do, and what more can anyone ask for?"

"I know" my friend responded, looking down at the ground again. "But is it enough?"

ELIOT LUMINE, 41

As soon as I'd said goodbye to Cody Harvard, I had turned around and begun heading back to the Big House.

While I'm sure Ilia would have been just fine with me visiting for a little longer, I would not have been emotionally able to do so. It was just too difficult, too painful, whenever I saw a happy family together. Ilia definitely understood that too, and would not have taken it personally.

It had nothing to do with the innkeeper's wife, but it had everything to do with my own past.

Along the way, I passed several villagers on the dirt path, as well as some others hanging out of their windows. The people of Lycan Hollow tended to shower me with respect and attention, which honestly felt good much of the time. Sometimes, however, all I wanted was to live my life in this serene mountainous paradise without interference.

Of course, it wasn't a perfect paradise; no place can be. But I was proud to be the mayor. Not only because I liked the work itself, but because it showed just how much my constituents trusted me.

When I arrived back at the Big House, I walked inside the back porch. Nobody else knew this, but I always kept a key to the house taped to the wall behind the grill. I remembered as well that I needed to clean up from breakfast, but that wasn't such a bad job; after all, my official mayoral duties were much more onerous.

Anyway, while I was doing the dishes, I thought, not for the first time, about how nice it would be to have someone else to perform this necessary task with. Unlike the mayoral duties, which the Lycan Hollow Town Council was involved in, this was something I had to do alone, and what a lonely job it was!

Really, everything involving the upkeep of the Big House was a lonely job. I could have hired servants to come help, but that idea wasn't very appealing either. Part of me just wanted to do it by myself, even if I'd be saving a lot of time otherwise.

As I was dusting off one of the countertops, I came across a framed photograph. It was the only image of her I kept in a public part of my home; the others were locked in a chest at the foot of my bed. My bed, which was twice as big as it needed to be. My bed, which I should have been sharing with someone else.

The image was of myself holding hands (or rather, paws) with a female Lycanroc, who had magenta fur where the beige "should" have been. We were smiling, because we loved each other; indeed, we were in love with each other.

Tears formed in my eyes as I lumbered back onto the porch. The crystal blue lake just behind my house was as stunning as ever, with the morning sun casting brilliant pinpricks of blinding light all over it.

Ever since that fateful day, my life had never been the same. However, all the other natural processes in the valley, all of the beauty I associated it with, didn't seem to care about that. They just kept happening, regardless of my personal life.

Can I blame them? After all, life goes on, regardless of what happens to individuals.

When I'd bade goodbye to Cody earlier, I'd barely been able to resist the tears. Seeing Ilia, content in her role as a member of her family, had nearly caused me to break down. The thought of family was something I starved for, something I craved above all else. So when I witnessed other Pokemon with their families, it was almost too much for me to handle.

Because that should have been me.