"Good that they received your message. Did the one you spoke to look like they knew about these missions?" Espeon said.

"It's difficult to say. I think they did, but it's entirely possible that they were oblivious to this ordeal. He did deny that they were the owner of the letter and sputtered out excuses of fraud that didn't really make any sense, so that is worth highlighting," Rustin answered. "The house's lords know without a doubt; the motives for the operation and the wealth they promised as a reward make it abundantly clear. Although with how organized they seemed, it makes me suspicious."

"Understood. All of their mission requests have been returned to them, and we've delivered an important warning to Mesa. If House Breach wants our help again, they'll have to be meeting with us in this building to negotiate."

"Sounds good."

Rustin kept looking at Espeon. "It would certainly be quite the surprise for them when they see me as the next guildmaster as I did so boldly called them out," he thought. "That would certainly send a message to them. It would also give me quite the incredible way to start my tenure as guildmaster: busting a noble house at year one."

The meowstic shifted his sitting position while he continued looking at him. "I could tell Espeon of all that I've seen. But then he could get credited for handling the situation instead of me, which would affect how others see me. I might even be seen as the inferior replacement once I take the sail; people could be yearning for Espeon- the one who took down one of the biggest corruption operations this continent has ever seen- while all my accomplishments would seem small in comparison. Plus, he hasn't been perfect at keeping information secure… best I don't give the full details from what I've seen."

"Are you okay, Rustin?"

"Oh, yes yes."

"You just seemed to blank out for a minute there."

"I'm fine," he said. "How has Sylveon's investigation been going? Do we know who freed Olivia and Crystal?"

"Sylveon found claw marks and a few strands of fur in the escape tunnel. He used clay to create mold replicas of the claw marks and brought that (along with the fur) to Mawile for her to search for matches," Espeon said. "It's an incredibly straightforward investigation in comparison to the letter or the soundstone. I think we'll find a culprit by the end of the week."

"Good that something is turning up for us at last."

"Yes. Let's hope that's the start of an upwards turn."

"Well, I'd say we can do more than simply 'hope', wouldn't you say?"

"We're all doing our best right now. I would love it if Eno could suddenly come to me and tell me that she figured everything out, but I cannot influence that."

"True enough. But on that note, I did have a thought when I was returning to the guild."

"Tell me."

"Why do you think they were getting help from a guild member in the first place? Wouldn't it be much easier for them to have someone who is already within the house to be the assassin? It seems awfully inconvenient to deliver secret missions like they have been," Rustin said. "In comparison to the corruption at the house, finding the guild master conspiring with them is of lower stakes. It's probably best that we find him- or her- as soon as possible, even if it's within Espeon's career," Rustin thought.

"They're seeking the skills of our guild members. There likely isn't anyone else who has the techniques to do exactly what they want without risk of failure."

"Let me rephrase my question then: why would someone continue to work in this guild if they can make a living off of the plainly illegal missions that House Breach is commissioning? They reward quite a large amount of money for them and detaching from the guild would ensure it would be much easier to stay low."

"Interesting point… That is quite strange now that you mention that."

"For them to remain a guild member, they would actually have to have a sense of loyalty to this place. They couldn't be a renegade who didn't give a single care about the guild's values and was just in it for the money."

"If you're right about that, then that's the opposite of what I was picturing."

"Here's just my theory that I'd like to throw out there: what if the person we're looking for has the conscience to know that the assassination missions are wrong, and it isn't the right thing to do. However, he has a utilitarian mindset about it, he thinks to himself 'I save twice as many lives as I end, so I'm still a good person. It's okay if I do this' and uses that very mindset to justify his actions? He thinks that he's done so much for the world at large that he deserves to treat himself- even if doing so would harm another."

"That is an interesting theory. I would certainly prefer it if it was the case; it would be much more plausible to reform them if they had a conscience that we could appeal to. "

"I'm not saying it's fact, it's just a theory I had," Rustin said.

"I understand. Call me superstitious, but I don't think I quite have the luck for that to be the truth. I will make sure to pass it onto Eno, though. Let's see how she thinks about it."

"Mawile is much more knowledgeable in the matter of psychology. I can seek out her opinion to check if she thinks this is realistic."

"That would be helpful for us. Certainly seems to check out for me."

"Yes, it would. If I recall correctly, didn't you use a similar utilitarian argument to justify keeping Venasaur in the guild for years?"

"That is not the same thing, let's keep focused."

"Isn't it, though?" Rustin said. "You believed him bullying other members in this guild was excusable because he saved lives on missions. You believed that him being in the guild was for the greater good. Someone using that same logical through-line to justify murder would be more extreme- yes- but isn't the core of it the same?"

"I kicked Venasaur out of the guild last summer. I don't see much of a point to bringing this up."

"The letter was found while Venasaur was still here, so his current whereabouts doesn't matter. Have you considered that you might just have been the inspiration for whoever among us was taking those missions?" Rustin questioned.

Every morning, Tamin would hop down from her hammock at 6:50 AM. She would brush her fur for five minutes while having light chitter-chatter with Locke. After that, she would have breakfast by sitting next to Locke while eating cinnamon bread and listening to Locke talk with Dewott. When breakfast was done, Locke would often stick with Dewott and Tamin would return to her room. She would finish her grooming procedure, and then simply rest until the time reached 7:45.

It took her months to refine that routine down, making it not only relaxing, but fulfilling. Completing it would always take an edge off her and just feel more free, as if the air itself around her became different. It gave her the hop to her step to properly start a new day.

This day was the exception to that. She awoke with an unsettled feeling that riddled her body and kept up. Even with strict adherence to every step down to the minute, she wasn't cleansed of the unnerving sensation. The artwork from Armin's room that she saw yesterday was burned into her mind's eye. It felt wrong; it seemed to be made with too much purpose to be something made purely from imagination, yet whatever it depicted, it wasn't a pokemon.

Tamin couldn't keep it to herself. This knowledge had to be shared with at least one other person, lest she begin doubting her own memory. Tamin beckoned Locke to come into her room for a talk. With the door shut, they began to converse.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Locke asked.

"Okay, first off, I'd like it if you promised not to judge me," Tamin said.

"Well that's one heck of a way to start off a conversation."

"Locke, I'm serious."

"Relax, you're fine. You can tell me."

"Okay, good," Tamin paused. She needed to think of a way to explain what she wanted to without sounding insane. Was she insane? "So two days ago, there was a period where all the higher-ups at the guild were preoccupied, and most of the normal guild members were stuck waiting for their turn to talk with Sylveon. When that happened, I realized that it was probably the best window of time for me to break the rules for the guild. And well, let's just say the fear of missing out got to me."

"Tamin, what did you do?"

"I tried to get to the bottom of what was going on here," she stated. "Not long after Armin's interrogation was over, he left the guildhouse altogether to go on a walk. I realized that I really didn't know much about the guy despite being around him for so long. I realized that I could get information that Espeon wouldn't be willing to get if I went against the rules. So I did…"

Tamin told her full tale to Locke, even keeping her voice down to make absolutely no one overheard. She struggled to describe the drawing she had seen as she had no point of reference to compare it to, but she did her best. Tamin ended up having to describe the skin color as being a "bright white with a slight shade of yellow", which she knew would make Locke imagine something quite different but she really didn't have a better way to describe it. Describing it did make it feel like she was going mad, but once she started she just couldn't stop. After every detail was elaborated on, Tamin wrapped it up saying "I know it's a bit silly to be so unnerved by a drawing after all I've gone through, but I don't know- this just doesn't feel right to me."

"I see… to be honest… I think I might just know what you saw on that."

That was not an answer Tamin had anticipated. "What?"

"Back when I was alone in the wilderness and surviving by myself, I'd often go from small town to small town to buy and sell or just sleep somewhere dry. When there, I'd occasionally hear about the local legends they have," Locke began explaining. "Two- maybe three times I heard them mention somethin' they called 'humans'. It was definitely more than once because I distinctly remember thinking it was odd that I heard that mentioned again from a totally different town.

From what I remember, they were apparently creatures from another world that weren't pokemon, but would somehow come to this one and then take the form of a pokemon. They said they looked like pokemon, but just weren't.

They could never tell me what they were supposed to look like before they started looking like pokemon, apparently none of them knew. But your story reminded me of that."

"Huh… I never heard anything like that myself, but since my parents kept me cooped up, that isn't really a surprise," Tamin replied. "Do you remember what towns you heard that legend in?"

"I really don't. I didn't follow any maps back then, I just wandered around and went to any town I saw."

"Shoot, that makes investigating this trickier. I guess we could check out the guild's library for if there's anything about 'humans' in there, if that is what Armin is," Tamin pondered with a paw on her chin. "I don't really want to ask Armin about it directly since I don't want him knowing I went into his room."

"Don't."

"I won't. Hmm…" This was all going in a direction Tamin didn't expect, but she was certainly intrigued. "Oh wait, I've got an idea."

"What is it?"

"Nidorino is pretty well studied from what I can tell, and has read about local politics. He might've heard about the human legend before and know more about it."

"Sure you want to talk to him about it?" Locke said. "I know you two didn't get off too great."

"Oh, it'll be fine, don't worry. And if he starts to not treat me well, then I'll let you say how you feel."

Locke couldn't deny it: that offer did sound interesting. "Alright. If you insist, then let's give him a talking to."

Meanwhile, Eno poured over the countless papers in her chamber once more. She didn't really want to be doing this anymore, but she felt obligated to. The absol used sleep seeds to get a few more hours of sleep as Hunter had recommended, but that refreshed energy was quickly decimated by negative result after negative result.

"This doesn't make any sense," Eno thought. "House Breach offered a large sum of money as a reward, but none of the guild members have purchased any estate and the only guild member who has been frequently buying food is Mienshao, who already has wealth without it. Where is the money going? No one is living beyond their means here.

The most obvious possibility would be that they're giving it to a family member. That sort of makes sense, but that would require someone to both have enough empathy to care for family like that while also having so little empathy that they're willing to do assassation missions against innocent pokemon. That is a thin and quite possibly non-existent margin. I've double checked now, none of the guild members have family members with medical emergencies, lost property, or were noted to be poor when they joined the guild… what are they doing?"

Eno rubbed her head to figure this out. She wondered if there was any object that was both small enough that a guild member could carry it into their rooms unnoticed, but expensive enough that great wealth would be required to get it. Jeweled eggs and storied antiques were all that could come to her mind; items which did not appeal to Eno specifically but she knew it appealed to some.

She began pondering how she could research when these expensive items were ordered and follow that lead. That was until a different thought crossed her mind: "What if it's not for the money? What if they're wanting to help House Breach for a different reason altogether?"

That was a strange thing to consider, what else could the noble house offer? Power? No, that would be very blatant and traceable. It couldn't be a continuous reward, it would have to be something one-and-done for them to give in exchange. What could that be? Eno gave it some serious thought, but she couldn't think of anything. Then again- with how much power those noble houses possess- surely there is such a wide range of actions they can do that it would include things Eno couldn't think of with her lone mind. That made things tricky.

Eno dipped her claw in ink and began writing this idea down on paper, keeping it from being forgotten. She completed one sentence and started writing a second, when a sudden burst of commotion outside reached her ears, made her flinch, close her eyes, and draw an ugly line of black ink across the paper. Even the desk got a dot of ink on it.

That was it, Eno had to see what was up. She swirled her claw in water to wash away the ink and swiftly wiped it over a towel. She turned to march out of her room. The door was locked. Eno unlocked the door. Now she could continue her march.

Being on the second story, Eno walked over to the guard rails to look down into the mess hall. There, she saw a zoroark standing tall on top of a chair, making some strange motions with his arms and several guild members surrounding. She was baffled for a second, and then the realization flicked her head: "That's Hunter. The madlad actually went through with evolving."

The absol sprinted for the staircase to get down to him. She had to see this closer. Once she stepped into the mess hall, the purpose of the odd arm movements became clear. The room now housed many illusions that came into her vision when she entered: colorful lights danced above her and grasping shadows lined the floor below her. Eno didn't understand the purpose behind every motion or the mechanics behind it, but it was clear enough that Hunter was the one controlling it. He chose the literal epicenter of the building to be the place where he took the center of attention.

She arrived late to the show, and Hunter wrapped it up not long after she came into the room. Hunter looked like he was about to bow, until he noticed the absol. He hopped down from the chair and briefly ran on all-fours to reach her before he stood up again.

"So, you really did evolve," Eno spoke first.

"Sure did," he replied. "I could- like- instantly feel my illusions were stronger, so I decided to give it a test run."

"You seem to have gotten the hang of your new form quite well," Eno complimented.

"Guess that's what happens when you keep suppressing an evolution for years, your body just gets anxious for it, heh," Hunter scratched the back of his neck. It was the first time he was able to do that with his arms.

Hunter turned back to the other pokemon who had come to see the ordeal. "Thanks for watching, I'd like to spend a minute with just Eno if that's fine with you all." Hunter turned back to Eno, and the two walked out of the room together.

"So, what's being bipedal like?" Eno asked.

"More convenient, that's for sure. My balance is still rather wonky but I'm getting used to it a whole lot faster than I thought I would. I kinda want to try eating and walking at the same time now."

"Y'know, you're the first person I've actually asked what it's like to stand on two legs," Eno reflected. "Bit odd that I went around asking everyone about the different types, but it took forever for me to get to that fairly obvious question."

"I wouldn't be too hard on yourself for that, everyone has different interests. It was a few years after I joined this guild before I learned about the geography of other continents. I was completely wrong on which zorua came from."

"Mist continent, right?"

"Yep, that's the one."

"Nice, putting my nose in books wasn't for naught," Eno smiled. " Still, I think you've got to keep me updated on what it's like to be on twos. I'm curious."

"I'm pretty sure absol can train to be bipedal too, actually. In fact, I think I have stuff in my room that could help you out with that."

"Nice try, I'm not falling for that prank."

Hunter clicked his mouth. "Ya got me," he admitted, having both arms in the air.

"Have you ever tried pulling that 'you could be bipedal' trick on someone else?"

"Sure did."

"Who?"

"Yuki."

"You're kidding."

"It was… a year after I joined this guild, I'm pretty sure. We were talking about our evolutions. She pointed out how I'd start standing on two legs one day, so I decided to try to convince her that she could too, using her tails to get another point of contact on the ground."

"Did she actually try it?"

"For a solid week she actually did. I had made it up on the spot but I kept developing the lie and making it believable."

"Oh you are so, so slimy," Eno laughed as she spoke.

"Yes! Been a while since I've gotten a new title."

"Hmm…"

"What is it?"

"Well, I think you can also add scallywag, rapscallion, and grown varmint to that list of titles."

"All great words you've got there! Now, let's see if I can get Locke to call me by one of those. That's the hard goal to meet."

"Good luck on that, you!"

Locke and Tamin met with Nidorino in his own chamber. It was easier for Tamin to recount what she had witnessed the second time around, but the feeling that she was going insane was still present. After she was done explaining, Locke told him what he had heard about humans and his own theory. Nidorino listened with intrigue.

"It's not really a folklore legend, Locke. Humans are fairly well documented."

"Wait, really?" Locke asked.

"Well, I say that with an asterisk. There aren't that many cases of human-turned-pokemon that have been reported and confirmed, but those that are confirmed have extensive history written on them. Though (to the best of my knowledge) there haven't been any reports on the Stone continent."

"What do you know about them?" Tamin asked.

"Most of what Locke said was correct. They're beings from another world that get transformed into pokemon when they're here. Supposedly, they always have different reasons for coming here, and they aren't quite the same thing as a true pokemon. Abilities and mentality are just a bit different, reportedly."

"Well, what do they look like before they come here?"

"I don't have any photographs, but they've apparently all claimed they used to stand on two legs, have no tail, and no fur (but did clarify they used to have hair on the tops of their heads). So the drawing Tamin saw sounds accurate."

"Did they wear clothes?"

"They all said they did."

"So that's really what I did see…"

They all fell silent for a moment as the reality of the situation sunk in.

"...So Armin was a human the whole time and I never knew," Locke said.

"Or he met a human who gave him the information to make an artistic recreation," Nidorino suggested.

"No, he is a human," Tamin stated. "Back before we joined the guild, I lied about my age to him. He replied saying that was 'obscenely young', but when I said how the age I stated was just about middle-aged for my species, he just said 'oh, right' like it was something he wasn't used to.

I found that rather strange but didn't bring it up again since I didn't want any more questions about my age. It doesn't make sense for him to not understand what normal ages are if he was a pokemon his whole life, but if he was a human…"

"Yeah… you know now that you mention that, I remember that too," Locke said. "That was sooo weird. I think I would've asked him if I saw him around more."

"The stories of humans from other continents have all been great heroes and able to do things normal pokemon simply couldn't, come to think of it. So that would match with how Armin has been the strongest explorer here."

"Well shouldn't we tell Espeon about this?" Locke said. "This sounds important."

"No," Tamin said, "I'm not letting him know I snuck into Armin's room. For now, we keep this between us."

"Understandable."

"I can do that. But I also want to read more about humans now, I'm curious what else matches with Armin," Nidorino said.

Hunter and Eno spent much more time than either of them had expected. They took a walk around town where Eno asked Hunter a dozen questions- though never twice in a row. Evolution was just as foreign to her as standing on two legs, so Hunter captivated her.

Eventually, they saw the sun in the sky was closing in on its apex. They realized just how much time they'd wasted, so they wrapped things up amicably. Eno returned to her den, as did Hunter.

There were still new things Hunter had to try out with his new form. He grabbed some papers and a pen to begin writing a flow of consciousness down onto it, then compared it to how his penmanship was before. He tried wearing his new ponytail like a scarf in the mirror, but was disappointed to find he couldn't make that look good like Tamin could. He tried chugging a glass of water down harder than he ever could before, he tried lifting himself up on a metal bar, and he tested to see how high he could now jump.

Hunter excitedly pondered what else he could try out. Despite growing so much taller, he felt like a kid again- able to explore the world and have so many new experiences. Even things he did a hundred times before became interesting again as he could see it from a whole new angle.

Alas, his period of discovery would be interrupted by a spontaneous knocking. By the sound alone, Hunter knew who stood on the other side of his chamber door.

The zoroark walked over and opened the door. He looked down to see Yuki the vulpix, who initially had her head pointed forward as the door opened, and she corrected herself to look up at Hunter's head.

"Hey little bro," Yuki said.

"Hey there, Yuki."

"I hope I didn't intrude at an off time, but there are matters I do need to discuss with you," Yuki said.

"Step in then."

Yuki was invited inside, and took a seat on a cushion. Hunter didn't have a seat that really fit him anymore, so he simply leaned against a wall.

"I know you did this on your own account, but I am still very much thankful that you evolved, putting attention onto you so people won't pay much mind to me."

"It was something I was planning for a while now, you really had nothing to do with it."

"I know, but I still think it worked out lov-al-ly for us," she said.

"Is there something you wanted my help with?"

"Yes," Yuki said. "Took some time, but I managed to get some dirt on Swana. Not enough to attempt a long-term control with her, but I can cer-tainl-ly squeeze one favor out from her. So, if Espeon holds a vote as I'm predicting, I can get Swana's vote.

From you: all I need you to do is distract the guild for just a minute so I can single-out Swana and meet with her, or deliver the message to Swana directly. Understand that people will likely raise an eyebrow if they saw me trying to set up a private conversation with someone aside from you."

"...Hmm."

"...What is it?"

Hunter just couldn't get over it, Yuki was now so small compared to him. He could hold her with one arm, her entire body could fit inside of his fur with room to spare. If she wasn't trained to evade attacks, he could punt her across the room- though he would never do such a thing. Holding her in the air by her tails- on the other hand- was extremely tempting to try.

"...Are you alright?" Yuki asked.

Hunter shook his head around. "Yeah, sorry, just lost in thought."

"So would you be able to help me?"

"I don't know… like this is a really special day for me, I'd really prefer if I could spend it how I want. Distracting pretty much the whole guild sounds like it'd take awhile."

"Fair point, all things con-si-dered. If you'd prefer, I can write all that needs to be said, and you can simply pass it off to Swana. Given your new form, I do not think she'd be too put off by your attempts to approach her given the current circumstance."

"Wouldn't that look like I'm passing some sort of love note to her?"

"Ex-act-ly," Yuki said. "Should be well within the realm of plausible deniability for you to do this. You don't even need to read the note I wrote, and it will look normal if Swana refuses to say what the letter says too. I think it's a wonderful plan. What do you say?"

"Yeah… I can help."

Yuki squinted. "You don't sound too sure."

"I can help," he said, monotone.

Hunter didn't look at the paper as Yuki wrote on it. It took her some time, she must've written two- perhaps three paragraphs down on a comparatively small piece of paper. Once done, she neatly folded it twice and slid it in Hunter's direction. The zoroark reached down to grab it.

"I'm not sure where Swana would be at this second, but she rarely spends time in her room when she isn't sleeping. If you find she's on a mission, then keep this note secure until she comes back."

"Will do," Hunter said as he opened the room door. He let Yuki walk out first before exiting himself.

Hunter began wandering around the guildhouse, looking for the white and blue bird. As he did, a question came to him: "What am I doing right now?"

The answer was fairly obvious, but the follow-up question wasn't: "Why am I doing this?". He had no real answer.

Yuki wasn't going to become the next guildmaster, he knew that. Yuki had done things that were certainly wrong before, he knew that. He'd done things that were certainly wrong before, just the same: he knew that. Why was he humoring her and on the verge of bringing distress to another person? Was it some sense of loyalty he possessed for his half-sibling? Where had that ever gotten him?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw white feathers. He whipped her head around and saw Swana nonchalantly walking around. And now Hunter knew what it was like to feel tense in his new zoroark body. His fingertips quivered and throat turned dry. The crossroads of indecision was a terrible place to be. Swana and Yuki: who to disappoint, who to backstab. Of course, Hunter barely knew Swana, he had no preexisting relationship to destroy, he could walk away after doing the deed and forget about it.

No, that was wrong. Hunter knew it was wrong. Didn't mean he had the will to act, though.

Swana walked out of sight. That made Hunter able to relax somewhat, though his fingers still quivered at his side. He imagined Yuki at his side, speaking words to him which only he could hear, yet his imagination could not conjure any willpower capable of breaking him out of the cursed crossroads of indecision.

Hunter stood there a few seconds longer. Then, a different white pokemon stepped into the side of his gaze by accident. He first thought it was Eno, but after doing a quick examination he realized that it was Sylveon instead. He was reminded of his conundrum, but still couldn't bring himself to proceed.

"Screw it," he thought. Enough of this nonsense of standing around and needing to bolster his motivation. It was faster to get things along by simply ignoring all that and doing it.

Hunter approached Sylveon, causing his attention to be caught as he drew near. "Something you wanted to say, Hunter?"

"Yes," Hunter raised up the folded note. "Yuki has started trying to blackmail some guild members again, and he wanted me to pass this to Swana. You should probably know about that."

Sylveon's expression wasn't one of delightful surprise, it was of suspicion. Hunter wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting. The eeveelution pokemon took the note.

"It has some secrets written down in it, so don't share it around," Hunter warned.

Despite what he said, Sylveon did take a peek at what was written. He could instantly identify the vulpix's penmanship being used. As he read the actual words, the serious intent had struck him. His suspicious expression gradually faded. "...Thank you."

Those words only served to make Hunter feel more conflicted. "Don't mention it."

"We might be too busy to really deal with this now, but I won't forget about it," Sylveon held the paper to his side.

"For when you're able to, then."

Sylveon nodded then walked off. Hunter stood still, trying to figure out how he'd explain this to Yuki. Now he knew what it was like to feel hollow as a zoroark.

"...Never thought you'd actually go through with doing that."

Hunter quickly turned his head around to face the one who said that. Eno stood there, perfectly still and with a delightful smile.

"I did not know you just came here," he said, stunned.

"Well, right place and the right time," she simply said.

Hunter had no quip to make, no response at all.

"...Going to say anything?"

"No, I think you get the picture. Just trying up some loose ends with my half-sister…"

"Can't imagine that was easy to do. Did your evolution help with that?"

Hunter scratched the back of his head. "Can't say for certain… I really just want to take my mind off things now."

"I heard that there is a good ice cream shop. Still want to try out eating and walking at the same time?"

"...Yeah, that does sound nice."

Back into the town they were. Hunter got an ice cream cone with nuts in it from Elley's store. Eno didn't get anything herself, she just walked beside him and talked.

"Shouldn't you be going on a mission today? It seems like you're pushing your time."

"I can get today waived off since it's special for me, Espeon's rather forgiving when it comes to that," Hunter said. "I'm really not feeling up for one right now."

"We all have days like that, I suppose," Eno said. "I haven't done a mission for sometime now since Espeon put me on investigation instead."

"I'm aware. Hey, when this all blows over, want to do one together?"

"You know I would love that," she smiled.

"Aye, that sounds good."

They stepped onto a particularly long brick road, one that went on out of town and for some distance after that. Looking far out, it struck Hunter that he simply had no plans for that day. With his schedule cleared of expedition, he was free to spend or kill his time doing whatever he could. He probably had enough time to go to a neighboring town and get back if he so wanted to. Which he didn't. Hunter would've preferred to keep the guildhouse within reach, but not actually go back into it so he wouldn't have a stressful encounter with Yuki.

"You should probably be getting back to your investigation right now. I think I'll be out here for a while."

Eno looked in the same direction Hunter did. "Nah, I don't think so," she said. "I'm taking my break to mentally unwind so I can focus better when I do work at it. I can spend my time with you."

"Have anything in mind? I sure don't."

"Didn't you take Tamin around a few places around town that one time? Why not show me around? I'm still quite out of the loop when it comes to this town."

"Yeah, I can do that. Come, there are a few places on the obscure side of town that might just suit your fancy."

Neither kept track of how many hours they spent together, but they did keep the memories from every place they visited. They didn't actually buy terribly much, most time was spent discussing the past and future alike. The investigations, Yuki, Hunter's evolution, it all faded out of their minds as they became immersed in the present. First, they focused on their environments. Next, they focused on each other's bodies.

Eventually, they found themselves on an elevated bridge. Both leaned on the guard railings to overlook an array of buildings. At that moment, Hunter could feel truly happy. More than that, he felt pleased with life. Perhaps the moment could have been made better if it were sunset or there was the pale glimmer of street lights, but it wasn't the time to ruminate on the things he didn't have. Glancing over at Eno, he could tell she felt much the same.

"...Since I've joined this guild, there isn't anyone I have spent more time with than you," Eno broke the silence.

"I wouldn't doubt that."

"I don't just mean the guildmember I've spent the most time with. I mean in general, there isn't anyone I've been talking with more. It used to be my sister that I could say that with, but not anymore. Not for right now."

"Yeah. From the training sessions to now… we've actually done quite a lot in a short period, haven't we?"

"We have," she confirmed. "I'm certainly glad you're more trustworthy than others made you out to be."

"Honestly, I think I surprised myself with that too."

Eno watched Hunter carefully as he made that response. There wasn't any trepidation or doubt in his voice, no signs it was anything short of the absolute truth.

"I wonder if this is what my sister feels when she's off on her escapades… probably not, I'm not feeling any of that shaky impermanence that follows all her relationships."

"You've mentioned her before."

"Hard not to think of her at times like this. Funny how I can understand her more after I stopped seeing her every day."

"Life do be like that sometimes," Hunter said. "Things don't often follow the lines of reasoning that you can see. Sometimes, you've just got to roll with the chaos life brings.

Or create it. That works too."

"How are you feeling right now? Is the evolution still feeling good?"

"I am feeling absolutely wonderful. Life is great, feeling like I could conquer the world right now, feeling light in the chest. Last time I felt like this was when…"

"...you were with Tamin?" Eno finished his sentence.

"...Yeah," Hunter was surprised she said that.

Eno placed her paw atop Hunter's on the bridge's railings. She turned to look at Hunter's head. "I think we're both thinking the same thing right now," she said.

Eno was never an easy pokemon to read, not for Hunter and not for anyone else. So it came as all the more of a surprise when she said that. "I think we do."

"Should we cut to the chase then?"

"We'll do things as slow or as fast as you want."

"I think we've waited long enough to say it," Eno smiled further. "Hunter… I love you."

Hunter placed his other paw on top of Eno's. "I love you too, Eno."

Hunter was already up on cloud nine, but was risen even further when he saw Eno lean her head forward. He gladly did the same. Their two lips met each other, and they kissed atop the bridge. Hunter reached his arm around Eno's head and they pulled their bodies closer together. They stopped using the bridge's railings to support their body weight and instead they held only each other, with Hunter keeping Eno from falling down as she stood on only two legs.

Those few seconds felt like an eternity of serene bliss. Even if it wasn't an eternity, that was how long the memory would last for anyways.

Hunter gently let Eno back down onto her four legs. Even after pulling away, smiles- and blushes- were left on their faces.

There were a thousand different things Hunter could say at that moment. "Well, I never thought you would go through with that," was somehow the one who chose to say.

"Me neither!" Eno confidently declared.

"My day is still free, so shall we make this into a proper date?"

"Sounds like a plan!"

End of chapter 50.