After locking the front door with his key, he places the item back inside his bag and smiles down at the Nickit. "Ready to go?"
She smiles at him. "Yep! Let's go, let's go!"
He chuckles, and the two then walk towards the busy road under the early afternoon sun. Pokemon of differing species move along the traffic while others busy themselves with taking down the decorations and stalls from yesterday's festival. As they're passing by the large gates of the large school, the Eevee frowns as he recalls the things he has learned about his sister's and her friend's school life. His ears droop as he can't do anything about it after he leaves, but...
He pushes the thought aside for now as they continue on. Best not to put a damper on the young Nickit's happy mood as she talks up a storm about how she's looking forward to the next festival.
"You better visit next year for the festival, okay?"
The Eevee chuckles. "I'll try, Plu."
She glares up at him. "You better!"
They continue on until they reach the wide steps of the guild building. Walking insire the large structure, the Eevee allows the Nickit to look around in awe.
"This place really looks cool!" she says with a big smile.
He smiles and pats her head as they stand by the entrance, his ears twitching to two Pokemon approaching.
"Barely any wilds this year, huh?"
"Most didn't even manage to get past the teams waiting outside the nearby dungeons."
"Serves those bastards right."
The Eevee looks over his shoulder with a frown, watching the duo walk out the guild.
"Oh, hi, you two!"
The Eevee blinks and turns to the owner of the familiar voice, and sees the smiling white Vulpix approaching them.
"Oh, hi!" the Nickit greets her back. "You're Vixie, right?"
"That's right, Plu," she says as her smile turns warmer. "Is your brother giving you a tour of the guild?"
The Eevee frowns and cuts the Nickit off. "You know you can just ask me directly, no?"
She blinks at him. "Oh, sorry." She grins at him. "I kinda already knew you'll just tell me to mind my own business."
He rolls his eyes, while the Nickit blinks blankly at them both as the yellow Shinx and the Cyndaquil approaches them.
"Getting friendly with mister grumpy, I see," the Cyndaquil says with a smirk.
"Heya, bud," the Shinx greets him, and then looks down at the Nickit. "And hey, bud's little sister."
The Nickit looks up at the frowning Eevee with a look of confusion. "Big bro, why do you have so many names?"
The Eevee closes his eyes and sighs as the other team chuckle.
"We really should hang out some time," the Shinx says with a smile.
"We'll see," the Eevee quickly answers.
The Shinx nods. "Looking forward to it!"
The Cyndaquil looks at the electric-type. "Do you really?"
The Shinx blinks at her. "Well, yeah?" He smiles at her. "The more friends the merrier, you know?"
She shrugs. "If you say so." She then turns to the Eevee. "Well, I guess you can be my friend as well if you're friends with my pervert of a boyfriend."
The Shinx frowns. "You really need to stop calling me that."
"I will when it stops being true."
The Shinx rolls his eyes. "Well anyway, let's get going."
The Cyndaquil nods. "Right." She then turns to the siblings. "Be seeing ya, I guess?"
The couple then walk out of the guild, leaving behind their ice-type friend who's smiling apologetically at the siblings.
"I'd like to apologize for calling you by your name back at the restaurant," she says.
The Eevee closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Water under the bridge."
The Nickit then smiles up at the white Vulpix. "You and your friends are rescuers, right?"
The Vulpix smiles down at her and nods. "Yep."
"Cool! So are you guys doing a mission?"
"Sort of," she tells her. "We're escorting a few Pokemon back to their homes."
The Eevee blinks. "Outside the city?"
She nods. "Yep. The festival's a very big deal, and a lot of merchants from other towns have made a profit, I think." She frowns. "And they're perfect targets for bandits."
"Bandits?" That's a thing in this world?
"Yeah," the Vulpix says with a nod. "Well, I better catch up to my friends." She smiles. "Have fun, you two!"
The Nickit nods and waves a paw at the Vulpix walking out of the guild. "Bye, and good luck with your mission!"
The police probably only has jurisdiction inside the city, and not outside, from what he can guess, but it's not really his business anyway. He looks down at the Nickit. "Let's head to the library."
She nods, and they walk up the stairs and head towards the library.
"I wonder how many floors this place has," the Nickit asks as she looks around the hallway they're in.
The Eevee blinks. "Huh... I actually don't know." It's such a huge and tall structure, plus the fact that the height of the floors he's been in is way taller than the ones back home.
The duo enter the library.
"You can look around, Plu," he tells the excited Nickit. "But remember to keep your voice down, okay?"
"I know, I know," she says, smiling up at him. "This is a library, after all." She then scampers off, looking up at the many books on the shelves.
Smiling, he shakes his head and heads toward the desk, where the Mew and the blue-ringed Umbreon are busy working on many forms.
Noticing his approach, the Mew looks up and smiles at the Eevee. "Oh, you're here!" She grins. "So how was the roller coaster?"
He blinks, and frowns. "It was horrible."
She chuckles as she places the forms she's holding down on the desk. "Heheh... I was in line and wanted to help, but there were already some helping you." She chuckles once again. "So anyway..." She frowns. "You're here for that dungeone exploration, huh?"
The Eevee nods, blinking. "Yeah. Something wrong?"
"There is, unfortunately," the Mew confirms with a nod. "Your ranking."
"What about it?"
Her frown stretches further down. "I checked and found out it's in the negative. It was agreed that rescuers joining an expedition should at least have a positive ranking."
He blinks, and frowns. "I...see."
"I'm gonna try and persuade them to reconsider but..." The Mew closes her eyes, sighs and shakes her head. "I doubt I can convince them any further though. After all, they originally wanted the minimum requirement to be silver ranks."
He blinks once again. He's quite impressed that the Mew manages to convince whoever high-ranking snobs running this place to lower the requirement.
It is still problematic for him however.
Even so, he manages to smile. "Thanks, Mew." He shrugs. "So all I have to do now is to bring my rank above zero, right?"
She nods. "Yeah, so just pick an easy mission that you think you can handle." She smiles at him. "A lot of rescue teams are doing escort missions at the moment, so there should be a lot of easy missions for you to take in the bulletin board."
He tilts his head with a confused frown. "Escort missions?" Oh wait, that Vulpix did mention something about that. Come to think of it, he did notice the main lobby having less Pokemon today.
She nods as she levitates a few forms from the desk and starts studying them. "A lot of Pokemon from all over the region visited our city for the festival, and many of them are merchants—"
"They need protection from bandits as they go back home," the Eevee suddenly says. "Why not just teleport them back to their homes?"
She blinks at him. "With what?"
He shrugs. "I dunno. Badges can do it, so maybe there's another non-rescuer sort of magical item thingie for fast-travel purposes?"
The Umbreon suddenly chuckles. "You have a fascinating way with words," he says as he adjust his glasses.
He rolls his eyes.
Smiling in amusement, the Mew shakes her head. "Sorry, but while the idea is impressive, we don't have that here."
"But it is a fascinating idea," the dark-type suddenly adds, looking at him. "It warrants a research, at the very least."
The Mew turns to him in amusement. "Oh no... He is interested in something!"
The Umbreon frowns at her, making her chuckle.
"What about taxis?" the Eevee asks, ignoring their little moment.
She turns back to him and blinks. "What are taxis?"
He blinks back. "Er, nevermind." He shakes his head. "So anyway... I guess I'll be taking a few missions that I'm sure I can handle." He smiles as he looks to the many shelves in the room. "Plu's gonna have a blast."
"Who's Plu?"
He turns to her, but then catches a glimpse of the frowning Umbreon. "She's my...uh..." His ears droop. "My sister. Sort of."
She nods. "I see. It's great to know that you've made a few good friends here."
He closes his eyes and sighs. "I guess so, yeah..." He shakes his head. "Anyway, I guess I'll be going now."
"Before you do," the Mew says, stopping him from turning around. "The expedition is going to be an official thing soon. We're just going to iron out a few more details while the teams are busy helping visitors return to their homes." She smiles. "Thanks for the name suggestion by the way."
"No problem, I guess." He frowns. "So when can we get to explore the dungeon?"
"Probably in two or three days," she tells him. "The escort missions should be over around that time frame, and we'll then announce it a day after, so make sure your ranking is in the positive before then."
He nods. "Thanks. I'll do my best."
"And while you're doing missions," she adds, "maybe you should also think about who you want to bring along with your expedition."
He blinks. "Huh, yeah, I guess I should." He looks up at the ceiling. "Hm... I have a few individuals in mind."
She blinks, and frowns. "I don't think we'll allow non-rescuers to join."
"I'm just picking one member from a team to join me."
"Ah," she says. "I guess that's okay, as long as their team agrees to it." She scratches her head. "I'm not sure how to reward the points to their team though if only one of their members join." She shrugs. "But I'm sure we can work it out later during the meeting." She blinks at him. "So who do you have in mind?"
"Some that I had in mind are," the Eevee says, "you and your husband."
The duo look at him.
"Uh..." the Mew uh's. "I think I already told you that I've already retired."
"And I am quite busy already as it is," the Umbreon says with a frown. "Between the guild and the upcoming opening of classes next week, I simply cannot afford to do exploration missions."
The Eevee smiles at the Mew. "Palkia though. I'm sure you want to see with your own eyes of its existence."
"I prefer to know about it from the safety and comfort of home or in this library, thank you very much."
He sighs. "It was worth a shot."
"Anyway," the Mew says, catching the normal-type's attention. "I'm sorry, but Obie and I will not be joining you with your expedition." She smiles. "But, you've been here in our world for quite a while, so I'm certain you can enlist someone to help you."
The Kecleon merchant suddenly comes to his mind, and wonders if he's as overpowered as he think he is, but something tells him that he can't pull the salesman out of his stall even if his life depends on it.
"If not," the Mew adds, "I can get a few teams to form the expedition with you."
"I see," the Eevee says. "Thanks. I guess I'll be back in two days."
The Mew nods, and waves a hand goodbye as the Eevee calls the Nickit and the siblings then leave the library.
"So what did you guys talk about?"
The Eevee shrugs. "Just some boring adult stuff."
She frowns at him. "Is it about you leaving soon?"
He blinks at her. "...Yeah, it's about that." He frowns. "...kinda."
She frowns as they walk down the stairs. "I heard a few of what you were talking about, and it sounded like you need their help. Is your home dangerous?"
"Huh... Good hearing." Well, with ears like hers, he can't blame her. "Well, kinda, yeah." Not as dangerous as a city full of magical creatures that can summon lightning or breathe out fire in a blink anyway.
Which is weird now that he thinks about it. He hasn't heard nor felt any attacks within the city. He supposes that the Pokemon living here are more civil and don't resort to violence.
Or maybe the city is sturdier than he gives it credit for.
They reach the main lobby and approach a few bulletin boards, the Eevee trying to make the Nickit participate in picking a mission for him to no avail. She tries to, but with her brother leaving her soon in her mind, she can't really focus.
The Eevee eventually picks a mission and after the Kirlia registers it to him, the siblings exit the guild building.
The Nickit quietly sighs, trying her best not to let her ears droop. Nothing she can do about it, it seems. She just has to accept it, and hope her brother visits her from time to time.
Something glinting catches her attention, and she looks down to the pearl dangling around her neck. She didn't even notice she is wearing it until now. She then looks up at her brother walking beside her.
Noticing her looking at him, the Eevee blinks down at her. "Hm?"
She smiles, closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Nothing."
He frowns a worried frown. "Are you sure?"
She pouts at him. "I said nothing!" She looks away, but stops and blinks as she realizes they're in front of the large open gates of the school. The dusty afternoon air brushes against her fur as she stares at the school buildings up ahead.
She'll be attending school soon. She wasn't really looking forward to it, but she understands why she should.
If only the school isn't full of meanies.
She touches the pearl with a paw, looking at the school with a glare. He will be leaving soon, but he will still be her brother. He'll be facing hardships soon, and so will she, but she will stay strong, for him, and with the promise of his visits, well...
...there's something to look forward to in the future.
She smiles up at him.
He blinks down at her in confusion. "What?"
She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Mmm." Reopening her eyes, she then runs through the traffic heading back to the restaurant, her confused brother calling her as he gives chase.