Flareon Light's footsteps solidified boarding the cruise ship from the white ramp this time. For countless miles around, it held the most familiarity for him. The wind pushed his body towards falling off, but he tried to keep his composure.

He continued to follow Sky Shaymin Ariel to the large double doors leading back below deck. The ramp seemed brighter than before, prompting him to glance up. The chandelier had been turned on, and almost hurt to look at. He couldn't even trace out the shape of it before he had to turn back down.

A mob of six or so pokemon filled the circular area at the bottom. He managed to pick out the Slowking Chad and Manaphy Jewel. They were both smiling.

"We're back!" Ariel shouted.

Jewel darted up the ramp as Light took nervous, slow steps down. He froze while blue, blurry afterimages swirled around him, until she stopped. Her gaze went up and down with her hand on her chin.

"Not bad, captain," Jewel said. "Buffed out those scratches pretty good."

Manaphy Jewel looked at Sky Shaymin Ariel and darted up in front of her. She jumped up and down in place. Light gazed as Ariel picked her up and gave her a hug. They were both Mythical class species. Jewel seemed excited to see another pokemon like her.

Light turned his attention back down. He curled his tail around himself to block out his vision of the horde of eyes staring at him.

"Wait, I thought the White Star was a dude," a voice said.

"He is a dude," another voice said.

"Uhm. That is one beautiful dude."

"Dude, everyone can hear you."

"Come on down here, Light," Chad called.

"His name's Light…?"

Light came down the ramp. A Zangoose and Dewgong were the first to move out of his path walking to Chad. He kept his head down stalking through the path, just lifting it to see the bottom half of Chad's face.

"The people here are bounty hunters," Chad said. "They want to organize into a Guild to team up, given the nature of the target. And they were wondering if you wanted to be the Guildmaster."

A leader of a Guild, a group of explorers. A dream come true.

"Yah!" Light said. "I mean... sure. But, this is rather sudden..."

"Ariel told you about the bounty, right?" Chad asked. "Well, we've been officially sponsored as a Guild by the World Peace Organization, and they offered that you lead it, specifically. Guilds may have been out of style for a while, but… You want to see this through, don't you?

Light nodded stiffly. He looked up to see how they'd react. A Galarian Ponyta and Mienfoo smiled from his sides. No one seemed to have complaints.

"I thought so," he said, "but we figured we'd let you choose where to wait in Kaigan while we do them, in case Reshiram appears again."

"Okay… Could I see a map…?"

"Right over here."

Light followed Chad as he walked to the right in the room. A Talonflame stepped out of their way.

Wooden boards were set up on the side of the wall. Two of them were empty on metal stands, but the third was covered by a map of Kaigan's multiple islands. Light scanned over the island marked with a tack, looking at the highways.

Light's eyes scanned over Kaigan, looking at the pattern of cities and towns that were along their highways. Being on the edge of the continent wouldn't help if Reshiram appeared on the other side, and he wanted to be in a good position to react.

"We already picked a spot," Chad said, pointing to a point on the map. "Here. It's on the coast, so it's easier to react to other islands. There are also highways in case it comes back here."

"Okay," Light said. "Well…. That sounds good."

"Yah, I think that's best for now... right?"

Light turned to Chad. He nodded back, smiling.

"I already did some looking into it," Chad said. "We can leave tonight by carriage, and get to a hotel there tomorrow night. The ship will come around sometime later."

"Okay. uhm… is there any food here?"

"I'm sure if you ask, they'll bring plenty."

Light turned his head. A wall of expectant eyes slammed down their backsides. His fur puffed up from the extra heat coming from his body.

"I trust them," Chad whispered, leaning down his head. "I ran background checks, and they're all good. Go say hello."

"Okay… Thanks."

Light forced himself to turn around. He passed a last glance to Chad before walking forward. His gray tail covered most of his body, puffing up more from the heat his nervous energy created.

A Talonflame flapped her wings and cleared the distance as they all moved up. She stopped just short of being in Light's personal space.

"Hey, you," Talonflame greeted. "It's nice to meet you, White Star. My name's Roxanne."

"You too…" Light mumbled.

Light ran his eyes over the whole group at once. They all seemed younger, except for a Roserade with a strong air around him. There was a Ponyta with the Galarian gene, an Emolga, a Zangoose, Talonflame Roxanne, a Dewgong, and the Roserade all in front of him. Sky Shaymin Ariel watched from off to the side.

"Can I just say," Galarian Ponyta said, "you are sooooo precious. Ooooh my gosh."

Light's fur heated up and covered the bottom half of his face with his tail, but the gray fluff on his head was waving like a candle flame.

"Oh!" she said. "You just evolved. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. My name's Nadia. I'm a Valkyrie, friends with Ariel. Along with Robin."

A yellow hand with three fingers rose from behind the Roserade. He noticed and stepped to the side, bringing a Mienfoo into view.

"I'm Robin," Mienfoo greeted, "nice to meet you."

An Emolga walked close to the Talonflame from behind. Other than Jewel, she was the only pokemon smaller than him. Light's arms and legs tightened together.

"I'm Alisha," the Emolga said with a perfect, straight face, "and this Talonflame is Roxanne. We're top arena competitors in Kaigan for teams."

Light nodded, then his eyes faded away back to the crowd. They fell and stayed on a Dewgong.

"I'm Nathan," Dewgong said, "and this is my friend Fernand."

The Dewgong's fin gestured to a Zangoose. He nodded in reply to it.

Light looked around again. Roserade was the last one in the crowd to introduce himself, and he seemed to know. He took two steps forward with both of his arms folded behind his back.

"Greetings, White Star," Roserade said. "My name is Storm. I used to hunt bounties with Chad all the time, and we often go on fishing trips together as we're retired in Kaigan. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi," he responded. "My name is Light."

"I'll set up a table with food," Nadia said. "Jewel, could you fish something up?"

Manaphy Jewel raced in front of her with a hand over her forehead. "Yup."

"Okay, and Fernand?"

Zangoose Fernand looked towards the Galarian Ponyta.

"Could you get the cooking supplies ready?" Nadia asked.

"Yeah. Got it."

Sky Shaymin Ariel walked forward as the group started to disperse with more balance. Flareon Light found himself gravitating back in her direction.

"Hey Light," Ariel said, "want me in Nadia to help out with your fur and bandages after lunch?"

"Oh, uhm…. I can handle it," Light said.

"There's plenty of time later if you want."

Light forgot what he was about to say.

Something smelled all of a sudden. He looked around to try to find where from.

Jewel stood next to him with a harpoon. Dozens of silvery fish were still flailing, impaled. A small portion of his brain glitched out from logic being broken.

"How…" Ariel mumbled, "did you already have….?"

"Nadia told me to, right?" Jewel asked.

"Uhm… yeah."

Jewel shot off again. Ariel yelped and jumped a little in place, hovering above the ground before setting back down on the tips of her feet.

"It was… like, twenty seconds, right?" Light asked.

"Uhm… Yeah..."

Emolga Alisha walked in his direction, away from Roxanne and Robin. Light flinched from her gaze.

"So," Alisha said, "how'd you last against something like Reshiram for so long?"

"What do you mean?" Light asked, his voice getting hoarse.

"Your fight lasted three minutes. That's pretty long. Do you compete?"

"No…"

"That's okay. So, what experience do you have?"

"I don't have any."

Emolga Alisha's face twisted. She looked behind herself, then back at him with a look asking if he was serious.

"Seriously?" Alisha asked. "But how do you expect to lead us if you don't have any battle-"

"Light's hurt," Ariel said, "so, we can talk about these things later. He's been through a lot."

"You don't know how to battle at all, do you!?"

Alisha raising her voice cut into the small conversations, bringing them to a sudden stop. Light brought his tail in front of him, taking a step back under the cover of gray fur to retreat.

"Like I said before," Ariel said, "Light is injured. There are abnormalities, so this can wait."

Light's attention was stolen away from their stare-off, by the word "abnormality".

Maybe he should check his bandages himself.

"I'm not following a leader who can't fight," Alisha said.

"No one asked you to follow at all," Ariel hissed. "This is Chad's ship, and he's the one who said he'd let Light use it. So if you don't want to have him lead, you can get off."

Light screamed. He pulled his arm away, along with the rest of the white bandage wrapped around his leg.

He regretted the scream as soon as it came out of his mouth. Everyone glanced his way, no doubt wondering what he was covering up with his tail. His leg was missing fur, and skin.

Glass covered pulsing red movement underneath, taking the place of his skin.

Light glared at Ariel. Her green eyes didn't break away.

"Ariel?" Light asked.

"We didn't want to worry you," Ariel said. "You're okay, alright? You're not in any pain."

Light's heartbeat pounded in his head like a drum. He took in more air to try and calm it down, but it didn't work.

"Ariel," he breathed. "Why is my skin made out of glass!?"

"Your arms are made out of glass too right now. It's, uh, probably fine."

"W-what?"

"It happened by itself. That means it's natural… ish."

Light held up his arms and rotated them. The dull pain he felt on the beach in his arms had left. With nowhere else to look he glanced up.

No one reacted with enough surprise. They must have known beforehand. Ariel probably went with him to make sure he didn't find it and freak out. Too late now.

"Light," Slowking Chad said, "join me for lunch. Let's talk. Ariel too."

He looked down. "Okay…"

"Good. Jewel, bring the food when it's ready if you would."

"Yup," she muttered.

The pokemon were left in silence. Light followed Chad with Ariel close behind. They didn't start talking again, at least until Light was out of earshot.


The silent walk down to Slowking Chad's room weighed on Flareon Light's shoulders. He guided them on a different path to a door with his name on the nameplate.

The room had a baby blue carpet and bookshelves along the walls. A bed with a single white sheet on it was by the window, along with two cushions facing the TV. Chad used Psychic, turning them around to face the bed as he walked by. He sat on the edge of the bed, prompting Light and Sky Shaymin Ariel to sit across from him with his hand.

Light's blood had settled down. He cooled down being alone with two pokemon that helped him out of good will. He felt safe.

"I have only a question or two to ask from you," Chad said. "You evolved without a Fire Stone on Reshiram's body, yes?"

"Yah…" Light said.

"Alright. When we get to the city, we'll be taking you to a few doctors just to confirm what's happened."

"What else did you want to ask?"

"Oh, right," Chad said. His voice was taking a higher tone. "This is just more personal… Could you watch the cursing around my daughter? I know it's silly, but she's only eleven, and I'm trying to spare her a sailor mouth."

A cold pin in his voice made Light shiver in place.

"She looks up to you both, especially for such a short period of time. So please, don't introduce anything worse if you can."

"Okay..." Light muttered.

"Yeah, sorry," Ariel echoed.

Light glanced around the room. There were a lot of pictures along with books on the bookshelves, some of them looking much older with the quality.

One picture caught his eye. It was a larger picture than the rest, with more on it. Dozens of pokemon laid out on the ground in a grassy plain. A Furret stood over them with a wicked smile, hazel eyes, and her paws knit together as she held one of her fists.

"So," Light said, "you have a lot of pictures in here. What did you do?"

Chad let out a chuckle. He put a grin on his face with a little brighter eyes.

"I was a Guildmaster, of course," Chad said.

Light would've guessed that by himself. He seemed to have the knowledge and atmosphere of someone who traveled a lot. It only made sense.

"You were looking at that picture over there?" he asked, pointing up.

"Yah," Light said.

"That was my partner, and my fellow Guildmaster. Her name was Jessie Frisk. We were a bounty hunting Guild. I took that picture after her most famous accomplishment: the one-hundred to one battle."

Ariel leaped and flew up towards the picture. Her wide eyes stayed latched on, but her mouth hung open without her saying a word.

"It's ironic you mention that picture," Chad said.

"Ironic?" Light asked.

"Her daughter's nickname inspired your new nickname. The Lodestar."

"Her daughter? Who is she?"

"Oh, you have been rather busy…. You should look up about her on the internet. Let's just say pretty major events happened in Valor after you left."

"Can you show us?"

Light and Chad turned back to Ariel. She was still floating in front of the picture, only looking back at them when they didn't reply.

"You're a psychic type," Ariel said. "Could you, like, show us your memories of it?"

"Well," Chad said, "I do know how to. I could, but I'd prefer to wait till our trip. I could show you in the carriage ride."

"Yes please."

Light stared at the picture too. He couldn't even imagine what staring down a hundred pokemon would look like. Beating that many in a battle, even if they weren't capable, sounded like insanity.

He needed to get stronger. Alisha had a point. If he wasn't helping in some tangible way, he'd just be stealing the spotlight from others who deserve it, and he wasn't a thief anymore.