"The Kalosian Royal Family is holding a ball, or so Augustine tells me," Grace said. "Apparently, you're the guests of honor."

A month had passed since Silvally attacked Lumiose-3. Everyone was recovering well; Rosa willingly came out of her room even if she was a bit subdued. Quilladin spent as much time with her as he did Blanche, and he felt that was the best way it could have turned out.

Silvally was sleeping along the side of the couch, low enough that he didn't stop anyone from sitting down. It was preferable to him laying on Blanche's feet, especially while he was trying to cook.

Just looking at the crevice where all that sauce went made him cringe. Having to clean up something like that again would probably send him into shock.

He was close enough already, at that very moment.

"You're joking," he said flatly.

"He said he had an informant on the inside. I suppose having connections is a natural part of being a Professor," she sighed.

Blanche tried not to dive into the recurring daydream where Augustine finally got his philandering ass kicked, as he had a feeling that a laughing fit would make him spill everyone's breakfast.

As he plated the stir fry in equal portions, moving his elbows more than his wrists, he asked, "Do we have to RSVP for that?"

"Of course we do, dummy," Shauna called from the table. "That's common courtesy."

The oven beeped before he could reply. "Ariel, that's your bread," he called before Ariel and Audino stood up to put on oven mitts.

"Serena. Shauna. Ariel, here's your plate. Rosa. Miss Grace," he placed his plate in the last empty seat, "And me. Do you think I should go back to the dance studio if it's a ball? Practice a little?"

"Ballroom dancing isn't the same as ballet," Rosa said, arms tight around Quilladin.

"Right." Blanche tapped his fork thoughtfully. His arm could turn far enough to hold utensils before it would lock up, which was a small comfort. "I don't think I have the dexterity for it."

"We're not letting you lean on the wall the entire night," Shauna said. "Just figure it out."

"I could start breakdancing," Blanche offered.

"On second thought, you should probably skip." Shauna snorted. "I think I would die of embarrassment."

"Do you think Tierno knows how it works?"

"Just because he's a dancer doesn't mean he knows how to ballroom dance," Shauna said, rolling her eyes.


"So, the Royal Family is going to hold a ball and they want-" Augustine was quickly cut off.

"I'm not going, Augustine. The press is enamored with the children enough as it is," Lysandre said.

"You could take the heat off of them by presenting yourself as in charge. You'd be a lightning rod for questions about FLARE, and the Rangers won't do anything embarrassing if they think you're watching."

"I trust Amaranth will keep the rest of them in line."

"...Wow, you really are desperate not to go."

"Will you be going?" Lysandre retorted.

"On one hand, Enzirica may attempt to castrate me if I even look at her sister. On the other hand, I heard that the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and even the Champion will be sent invitations."

"This is paraphrased from the other princess, isn't it?" Lysandre said flatly.

Augustine smirked. "...Maybe."

Lysandre pinched the bridge of his nose. "So naturally, you'll be sharing a dance and acting as a supervisor."

"Ah…" Augustine smoothly ran a hand through his hair. "I was hoping for more of the first, but I suppose I can do the second as well."

"Meaning that you'll make a commotion with your antics to distract the other attendees," Lysandre said.

"What else?" Augustine laughed before suddenly looking serious. "The kids have enough to worry about. I'd rather they not get badgered."

"On the contrary, it could make for good fundraising. You deal with the media, they talk with philanthropists," Lysandre said. "We obtain more funding."

"Do we really need it? Blanche has the RKS system and for the rest of them, their AIAM fields have been growing stronger. On top of all of that, the UR is going to be sending their prototype soon-"

"I know this. Any funding we can acquire without oversight goes towards our ultimate purpose," Lysandre said. "Should another Anomaly prove to be as strong as the false Zygarde, they will easily defeat it. Until the true core is located, transported, and awakened, they must persevere. Until then, searching must continue."

"What if… what if they can't make it until then?"

"They'll have to, Augustine. No amount of funding will save us otherwise." Lysandre tilted his head downwards. "We simply can't afford for them not to."


Blanche stood in Jaune Plaza's park, four Pokémon standing before him.

Silvally towered over the other three, being taller than all of them combined. Quilladin was standing at attention with a neutral expression, contrasting with its ball-like proportions. With only a bit of prompting, he'd gotten permission to borrow Plusle and Minun.

The Professor had asked if he wanted Genesect as well, only to say that the UR determined it needed to be studied and rehabilitated.

He wasn't sure if that was a blessing in disguise or not. Ariel might not have reacted well to Genesect joining their ranks after what had happened in Kiloude City.

Because Quilladin wanted to train, Rosa had come with him as well.

A day out certainly couldn't hurt her, he had correctly thought.

"Alright, guys. We need to train."

Silvally made a sound between a warble and a screech, so the nod it gave was more indicative of its mood. Quilladin nodded as well, though it was more of a bow due to its lack of a defined neck. Plusle and Minun stopped fooling around (though the effort was much more pronounced on Plusle's part) to raise their arms in an affirmative.

Blanche stood straight up, arms behind his back as he thought. After a good few seconds of thinking, he sagged and said, "...How do we do that?"

Rosa laughed somewhere behind him, so at least his second objective for the day was going well.

Plusle and Minun began miming out a fight scene, with Minun lazily holding up its arms as Plusle sprung around it, tapping at an invisible defense around it.

"Sparring?" Blanche asked.

Plusle nodded furiously while Minun did the same, albeit with a much more tired expression.

"Alright, let me think." He tapped his chin in thought for a few moments. "You guys aren't going to be fighting directly, but I think dodging and stuff might be important. If there's a way to increase the speed and range of Helping Hand and other support moves, we can practice that too," Blanche said before turning to Quilladin.

The Grass-type nodded again at him, and Blanche got the strangest impression that he was looking at a mirror image.

"Quilladin, that stuff you did when," he remembered that Rosa wasn't too far away, "Uh, you threw us around during that fight, that was cool. I'm thinking that if we tried to make your vines stronger and faster, we could do that a lot better."

Quilladin nodded at him again, so he turned to Silvally.

Because Blanche is Blanche, he didn't notice Quilladin side-eying the chimeric Pokémon beside him.

"Can you still, like, scratch stuff?"

Silvally cawed an affirmative, scraping its front talons against the packed earth.

"Nice. I'm going to practice with the RKS system while we train, is that alright?" Blanche asked, sliding up his sleeve and showing the metal plating.

Silvally nodded again.

After a brief flash of light and the discarding of his helmet, Blanche examined the changes in his morph suit. Even if the new form hadn't technically been new for a few weeks, it took some getting used to. White, rubber-like overlaid the bronze surrounding his arms, exposing the machinery in just the right way to connect it to the SHIELD's wireframe.

"I think Ground-type will be good for now," he said, rubbing the bands.

The microphone in his Battery read his speech easily and put it through to LADY, who computed the request in no time at all.

Immediately, it felt like a wave was running through him, as if lightning was about to strike.

Because he didn't feel like pushing his luck, he looked up and indeed, the sky was as clear as it was minutes before.

"I need some targets," he said, staring at a clear spot in the training field.

Soon after, a wave rippled across his chest and through his arms, and moments after that, a ten foot tall pillar of rocks molded itself from the ground like clay. Two more quickly joined it, equidistant from each other.

"Thank you, LADY," he said to the AI.

"You're welcome," she buzzed back from somewhere in his collar.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do." Blanche clapped his hands. "Plusle and Minun, you two run laps while spamming Helping Hand on Quilladin and Silvally. Quilladin and Silvally, you guys get to knock down the pillars while having Helping Hand spammed on you. Whoever destroys theirs faster wins."

He should have known that the gleam that Quilladin got in his eye was a bad thing. He definitely should have gotten a clue when Silvally got a similar look. And most certainly, he should have noticed the literal spark that lit up between the two Pokémon.

Despite that, they began training with a great start. Blanche supervised for a few minutes before remembering that he had a call to make. Trusting the four Pokémon to make good decisions, he stepped to the side of the field near Rosa, who was reading some kind of magazine, and pulled out his Holo Caster.


"Yeah, I know a little bit about formal ballroom dancing," Tierno said on the other end of the line.

Blanche relaxed and smiled.

"Awesome. Do you think you could stop by Lumiose-3 sometime soon? I could probably use a hand. There's a thing that I have to go to because of FLARE, and everyone's coming as is- You and Trevor could totally come."

"Really?"

"Yeah, man, for sure. Oh, you gotta meet the new guys too, they're great. I don't know when it is yet but I'll let you know."

"I'll mark it on my calendar when you do. So, what else is going on in the city?"

Blanche sighed. "Where should I begin? It starts with-"

He was distracted from the call by the third pillar collapsing in on itself, accompanied by a squawk and a sharp cry.

"Excuse me for a minute, Tio," he said, tapping mute on his Holo Caster. "What the hell are you guys doing over there?"

Silvally and Quilladin stood stock still, the former's claws still raised and the latter's Vine Whip wrapped halfway around Silvally's neck.

He unmuted and said, "Hey, I've got something to deal with, but Rosa's here too, so you can talk to her."

After a pleased reply, he tossed his Holo Caster to Rosa and ran over to the two Pokémon, still frozen with trepidation.

"Are you guys sparring? Do you need a spar? Is target practice too easy for you?"

Silvally nodded while Quilladin at least made a token attempt to be humble.

"Ah. Well, just tell me next time instead of… this. Carry on."

Quilladin flicked the Vine Whip, throwing Silvally into a pile of rubble before he beamed at Blanche.

"...Right. Right, yeah, everyone in this city is insane, including the Pokémon. That should have been obvious." Blanche pinched the bridge of his nose.

In the very same moment, Silvally bounded over, bit down on one of Quilladin's vines, and began rapidly shaking him like a chew toy.

"God damn it," he sighed.


At some point during his second conversation with Tierno, they'd gotten on the topic of formalwear. Blanche realized that he basically owned one outfit and one pair of swim trunks. He had a look and he stuck with it, but he couldn't do that for a gala or whatever they called it.

Because Blanche was Blanche, he invited the worst person possible to help him pick out clothes.

He wanted to just wear red. Really, something simple. Either a red shirt and white tux or the inverse, because it would match his eyes and hair. But no, it couldn't be simple, it had to be fashionable.

"I'm tellin' you, man, it's color theory. You wear a color, two compliments, and a contrasting color. It's that or you wear something boring and neutral."

"Why do you know how fashion works? Don't you have a motorbike to work on or something?"

Gin pushed up his sunglasses and smirked. "Hey, someone has to. Can't have any of my grunts dress like squares."

Blanche sighed. "I forget that you're a gang leader sometimes."

"Gang is a dirty word. I just tell them to round up any rogue Espers in the underground and turn them in. I don't know why people give us money for that, but I usually just donate it to the Pokémon Daycare on Route 7 or buy Whitley whatever expensive parts she needs." Gin paused. "I like to call it an outfit."

"Oh my God."

Blanche ended up calling a second opinion because he didn't trust the greaser to tell him the facts about high-brow fashion.

"Greetings, my friend. I am ready to aid you, should you-"

"Ash, why are you in ninja get-up? It's May. Aren't you hot?"

Blanche had noticed people watching him and Gin bickering beforehand, but a whole lot more were looking when Ash had walked in with a Doublade strapped to his back.

"Yeah, man, heat exhaustion is a real thing," Gin added.

"My shroud allows what you call 'air conditioning' in your culture. By cycling the air that I exhale, I am able to both keep myself well ventilated and practice my skills," Ash explained slowly.

Gin stared at Ash, then at his hands, then at Ash.

"My powers just let me punch things real good…"

"Back to why I gathered you here today," Blanche said, steering them away from the FLARE tier list discussion that would soon restart.

Not that it was accurate. Gin kept putting Whitley in S-tier. Listen, the robot seemed to get larger each time he talked about it, there was no way it was accurate.

"Ash, how much do you know about formal wear?"

A few minutes later, Blanche walked out of a changing room in flowing black robes and a pointed silver chest guard.

"Why the hell does a boutique have this?" he asked, shuffling the cloth around his wrists.

At this point, Blanche was getting desperate and made another call.

Gin slumped in disbelief. "B-man, why would you ask Em for-"

"Heyo!" she called, suddenly behind Gin and yelling in his ear.

Blanche half-waved as Gin fell over, ignoring him entirely. "Em, what do you know about fashion?"

"I wear two colors, Blanca," she said matter-of-factly.

Meowstic, whom she had likely stolen her palette from, nodded their head.

"Well, why'd you do that? I need some of the theory behind it," Blanche explained.

"It's color theory," Gin called from the floor.

Salem kicked him almost reflexively. "White's a neutral color," she said, pointing at her sundress, "And the blue scarf makes it pop."

"What is wrong with all of you?" Blanche asked, exasperated. "Leather jackets, air-conditioned ninja clothes, scarves; it's May. Summer! You're all insane."

All of them looked at his jacket, which he had repeatedly put back on while trying on clothes.

"I have a good reason," he said. "Not a hypocrite."

"I see," Ash said.

"Uhuh," Salem said.

"Totally," Gin said.

Meowstic kicked him with their paw.

"Damn it," Blanche muttered, pinching his nose. "I can't show up looking like a mess."

"Why don't you ask someone else you know?" Gin asked. "Like, you know, the Professor? Or all those girls you hang out with? Hell, maybe Trevor? I'm sure at least one of them knows what looks good on a guy. I just wear cool leather jackets."

"I try to not stand out, as a rule," Ash said, apparently unaware of the contradiction.

"I match with Meowstic. That's about it," Salem said.

"Well, yeah, but the Professor's busy, Trevor's not in town yet, and, well, um, uh-"

"Shauna?" Gin asked.

Salem kicked him again.

Blanche didn't answer, intently focusing on the ceiling tiles.

"...Is there something that I'm not aware of?" Ash asked. "Extenuating circumstances?"

"He's gotta look good for Shauna, I'm betting. Eh? Eh?" Gin prodded, rolling to his feet before anyone could get another lick in.

Blanche was focusing extra hard on a billboard down the street, trying his best to make out what it said. New Mecha-Tyranitar movie? He hadn't seen the first one, but maybe if-

"Oh! Oh, oh, oh! I get it!" Salem exclaimed. "You seriously, totally, absolutely have got to get laid!" She slammed her fist into an open palm. "And you need to wear nice clothes to do that!"

"No!" Blanche shouted, red-faced under the scrutiny she had attracted from the other customers. "One, you can't just say that, two, you can't just yell that, and three, I respect her way too much for that!"

"What is 'that?'" Ash asked. "Does Amaranth wish to become a Pokémon egg? It is a strange request, but I imagine that-"

Gin shook his shoulder, shaking his head limply. "I'll tell you when you're older. Young love," he sniffed, "It's a beautiful thing, man."

"I'm going to kill you, Gin, I swear to God," Blanche said.

"Which one?"

Blanche snapped, "That joke stopped being funny months ago!"

"It's a legitimate question," Ash added.

"They do like it when you're specific," Salem said, nodding along.

"You're- Agh- I'm-" Blanche felt the urge to slam his head into the wall. It was a dangerous prospect for the glass, it likely hadn't been hit with anything so thick before. "Okay, okay, no more stalling. Fine, maybe I want to look nice to surprise Shauna, so what? She's not boring but she's not crazy like you guys."

"I'm not offended by that. Should I be offended by that?" Salem asked.

"Yes," Gin responded.

A pink glow surrounded Gin's legs but they had no effect. A moment later, the air consolidated into a pink sheet below him and was yanked away, flipping him entirely.

"Anyway," Salem said. "Wait, let me guess- How many months did it take for you to notice?"

"You've only met her, what, twice?" Blanche said. "What do you mean?"

Salem tapped her temple in sync with Meowstic. "I'm more of a telekinetic than a mind-reader, but I can pick up when people have thoughts that are strange to them. Nothing useful, just weird things. Like the weirdly colored Pyroar they saw on the street, or however many leaves were on the Ride Gogoat that morning. When it's people around you, it's generally, "I can't believe he still hasn't realized." That's usually Prof- Oh, wait, this is one of those times I'm supposed to stop talking, isn't it?"

Blanche sighed. "Yeah, maybe. Go on, I'm curious now."

"Well, someone whose name I will not be saying thinks that a lot," Salem said. "That applies to Shauna, right?"

Blanche racked his brain for a moment before answering, "I don't think there's much else it could apply to."

"Man, you are dense," Gin said from his spot on the floor.

Meowstic kicked him again.


"Hey, Trevs," Blanche greeted.

Trevor bowed before crossing the threshold and entering the kitchen. He had a belt full of Pokéballs, and likely had many more. "Hello, Blanche." He dropped his backpack. "It's nice to be home. I'm sorry I couldn't get here earlier, but there was this one oddly colored Carbink and I just had to catch it."

"It's fine, you're just in time to get ready," Blanche said, gesturing to the shopping bags filled with make-up and hair care products on the table. "They found out that Ariel's never put on eyeliner before and they're experimenting, which gives us a few hours."

"That makes it sound like you have," Trevor pointed out.

Blanche waved him off. "It was a one-time thing with the ballet section of Tierno's old dance company. Weird day. Better off forgotten."

"I see," Trevor said, clearly trying not to sound too unconvinced.

"Anyway," Blanche said, "You've gotten taller."

"I got new shoes," he said, the same height as always. "I think you have too." Trevor cupped his chin. "No, wait, you're just standing up straight."

Blanche laughed. "I think my suit will still fit. You said you had one, right?"

"I always have to be prepared in the field. I got fit for one as soon as I could," Trevor said, reaching into his travel bag before pulling out a perfectly folded plastic bag.

Blanche felt like he'd been dry on cash after spending way more than he was comfortable with on clothes. That Trevor did so without the same salary was dumbfounding.

"Oh, man, uh, how much do I owe you? I invited you and all, but I shouldn't have expected you to spend so much on-"

"It was only around twenty thousand Pokédollars. I'll get plenty of use out of it," Trevor said, laying it across a chair calmly. "Don't worry about it."

Blanche stopped panicking and coughed. "Ah, well, if you say so. I think we're taking a FLARE MagLev instead of a Ride Pokémon, so it shouldn't get stained."

"Is that how the other guests will be arriving?" Trevor asked.

"Ride Pokémon? Yeah, probably." Blanche shrugged. "They can afford huge, comfortable Pokémon to fly in on without grouping up."

"And FLARE can't?"

That made Blanche pause. On one hand, FLARE basically owned Lumiose-3 and likely had money to spare. On the other hand, spending money on luxury as a governing body would come with some pretty bad press.

"...We've got a lot of people?" Blanche suggested. "Gin's using his, Ash's and Em's plus-ones to bring Whitley, Lenore, and LaRusso along, and Professor Sycamore has got a quantum number of dates, so I'm not sure."

"I suppose so," Trevor said. "What does the itinerary look like?"

Blanche blinked. "Uh… we get there at seven, leave when Lysandre tells us to, and talk good about FLARE to some people in between. I'm just going to avoid talking about work, it'll keep the boss from getting pissed at me. There was something about fireworks too, but I dunno. Tierno gave me some pointers about the rest. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Trevor said, picking up his suit.

Blanche trudged after him to the upper floors. "Quick question, though."

"Yes?"

"How do I tie a tie?"


The road to Parfum Palace was overlaid with red carpet. The MagLev station wasn't so far away that it was impractical, but certainly far enough to seem obnoxious.

They didn't walk as a group as much as they did a clump, because while Rosa had practiced with her combat heels- maybe not so bad a birthday present, after all- and Serena seemingly knew how to do everything, not everyone else did.

Tierno could probably pull it off though.

Ariel tripped again before Salem and Meowstic lifted her and put her back on her feet.

Blanche looked back up to the palace. Lights shined out of every window, and the lower floors were open to the air. The murmur of conversation carried to the entrance.

Blanche offered his arm to Ariel. "So you don't trip," he said.

She stumbled again, before saying, "Thank you," and latching on. Audino followed along, walking beside her.

"Diantha," Augustine said to a lady with a white tailcoat and an impossibly fluffy scarf. "It's a pleasure to see you. How's work?"

While the 'adult' adults had that conversation, Blanche and the 2013 group of FLARE Rangers sat down. Luxurious was an understatement. He could barely read the menu, which was nearly blank, described nothing, and had Kalosian words sprinkled in for flavor.

While he was busy trying to understand how they made escargot- How did one cook a Magcargo?- Serena told the waiter her order with perfect poise.

The speaker for the nobility gave a simple toast. He spoke of the gratitude they held towards themselves and FLARE, but mostly themselves for funding it, and of their hopes for the future.

The food was light and heavy at the same time, with incredibly small portions of salads and much larger glasses of wine.

Blanche did eye that bottle carefully, and even more carefully warned himself away from drinking any.

Gin, dressed in a tuxedo, complete with a pocket watch and, in Blanche's words, a God-damned cane, reached out for it before Blanche swatted his hand away.

"What?" he asked, his hair swept back in a way that probably took both Whitley and Lenore to manage. The latter looked much more proud of the achievement than the former, but that was likely because of her general stoicism.

"It's a long story," Blanche sighed. "Don't drink on the job."

Gin, more subtly than he'd ever done anything before in his life, pointed across the gap at Aveline, who had just poured herself, Augustine, Grace, and Michael a glass each.

"That's different," Blanche said. "They don't have superpowers that could wreck this whole place."

A few moments later, likely because of the wine's bitterness, Aveline had a short coughing fit.

Between their two tables, they'd brought seventeen people. Clemont seemed to have an allergy to leaving his little sister in the city alone for any period of time, and it was perhaps maybe a little sad that sixteen other people was basically everyone Blanche knew in Lumiose-3.

After what felt like an hour of small talk, Tierno and Trevor sharing the stories of their journeying so far, and Lenore catching up with Ariel, the speaker once again rose and tapped his glass.

"The dancing will begin shortly," he said, as a curtain of red satin opened on the other end of the room, revealing an orchestra of Kricketot and Kricketune perched on a platform.

Blanche got that sinking feeling in his stomach again.


Don't step on anyone's feet, Blanche thought repeatedly, which helped him forget that he was supposed to look more than stoic and vaguely pleased to be there.

It was a flurry of faces and names, some of which he recognized, but there was very little of note after he adjusted to the height difference. The music was slow and the notes were drawn out, letting him focus on that rather than being forced to make awkward small talk.

With one of his dance partners, he almost didn't register that they were the same height and quickly corrected his hand placement.

"Oh, Serena. Hey," he said, falling into the same pattern as usual.

"Blanche," she greeted, following his lead at the first step.

"Your dress is nice," he said.

Indeed, it was, even if Blanche didn't have the knowledge to describe any of their clothes properly (What the hell was a cummerbund, anyway?). It was red and tended to billow, and she wore an orange and black scarf over it.

"As is yours."

Blanche blinked. "Thanks?" he offered.

"...Perhaps small talk isn't my strong suit," Serena said.

"Are you… are you embarrassed?" Blanche asked as they rounded the outer edge of the floor. "I didn't think that was possible."

"I can speak fine… it's just that Calem is much better at talking with people than I am," she said.

"Ah." He excused her use of present tense as a slip of the tongue. She wasn't talking like they were the same person. "I can manage as long as I don't think too hard about it."

"If Shauna is correct, you don't do that very often," she said with the hint of a smile.

"Wait, wait, are you being sarcastic now? Since when?"

"You simply haven't caught it before," she said. "And…. oh, speaking of," she said.

"If you don't mind," Shauna said, suddenly appearing next to them.

Blanche raised his hands, gestured to Serena, and tried to sit down.

Shauna then grabbed his arms, miraculously maneuvered around everyone else without pushing them, and pulled him back into the dance.

"You're doing it wrong, stupid," she said, tightening her grip on his shoulder.

Blanche stopped hovering and shook off his confusion, before replacing his hands and trying to start the movements.

Shauna then moved in the opposite direction, making him stumble as aura apparently outweighed muscle by a large margin.

"Idiot," she hissed.

"I thought you wanted to dance with Serena," Blanche said, trying to justify his momentary misstep.

"I already did. She's much better at dancing than you," Shauna said.

"It's been thirty seconds, don't judge a guy too harshly," Blanche said. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" he asked, with maybe a little more sarcasm than necessary.

Shauna flushed with as much anger as usual, swinging him a bit as she stumbled.

"Shut up and dance, Blondie," she muttered.

They managed to get another few steps in before Blanche couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer.

"I like your dress," he said. "You look great. And I'm not making fun of you," he preemptively clarified.

Sky-blue ribbons would seem tacky on anything else, but they went well with the pastel pink of the dress.

"Your suit is… nice, too," she said. "The red matches your eyes."

"I probably would have thought that it was too morbid a year ago, but Gin said I ought to, so, y'know," Blanche said. He shrugged slightly but not enough to throw off the tempo. "I'm glad you think so. That means a lot, coming from you."

By that, he obviously meant that compliments were rare from Shauna. He couldn't possibly have meant anything else, could he?

Shauna flushed again.

"You really know how to make a girl feel…"

"Angry? Annoyed? Another emotion that starts with 'a'?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Amorous, if you're lucky," she murmured.

"Huh?"

The music drowned out her words all too easily.

"Forget about it," she said before changing the subject. "The Professor said there would be fireworks soon."

"Really? Sounds cool. Are you gonna go watch?" Blanche asked.

"Maybe from the balcony," she said off-handedly. "He mentioned that it's a little more private."

"Do you think it's a little more quiet, too?" He knocked his head to the side. "I think I've got a headache coming on. I'll come with you, if you don't mind."

She snorted. "Smooth."

After a few minutes, an opening in the floor appeared and they managed to get down a hallway and up the stairs.

The windows downstairs had been open, but the wind was wilder as they stepped out onto the balcony.

Blanche leaned against the cool stone railing, looking out across the hedge garden.

Hey, there was that fountain Ash nearly pushed him into. Oh, and that other one he'd caught Plusle and Minun near.

"Are you enjoying the party?" Blanche asked, glancing at her.

"It's nice," she answered. "It feels right… but in the wrong way."

"I think a celebration is deserved, but yeah, I feel that." Blanche looked out across the starry night sky. There wasn't much light pollution from Lumiose-3 so far away from the city. "I'd rather retire and not have to do any more of… this. Maybe I could open a restaurant for fun or something. Move out in the middle of nowhere where Anomalies don't destroy anything. I'd ask for a small MagLev station to be built so everyone could visit. I dunno. Just something smaller than all of this."

"Like a little village down south?" Shauna asked.

"Yeah," Blanche agreed. "That would be nice. Ha. I'm still around seventeen and I already want a retirement home."

"That sounds… no." Shauna shook her head. "If this ever stops, if it stays calm, I'm going to finish my journey. I'm going to go as far as I can go. I won't give up before I reach my limit, you got that?"

Blanche laughed. "I didn't expect anything else."

"Well, after that…" Shauna shuffled closer, bumping into his arm, "That does sound pretty nice."

Blanche closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "It's nice to have a calm dream. I'll have something to look forward to while I'm fighting."

"Do you think," Shauna began, looking somewhere far away, "Do you think I could be in-"

"I do hope that I'm not interrupting anything," someone called from behind them, accompanied by the tapping of leather shoes on the marble floor.

Blanche turned around, keeping one hand on the railing.

"My name is Santiago," they said with a smooth voice, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The scream of fireworks shattered the silence of the sky. Bursts of light rippled over them.

Santiago's complexion was Mediterranean by Blanche's guess, though he wasn't incredibly perceptive of such things. He had wild black hair on top of his head, and wore a woolen cloak the color of tree bark that enveloped his body.

"You are interrupting something," Shauna said, glaring. "You're entirely correct."

Santiago swept an arm in front of himself and actually bowed. "My apologies, then. I had thought there would be others here, and I didn't wish to appear a voyeur."

"It wasn't anything like that," Blanche said, only slightly embarrassed. "I should introduce myself too. You can call me Blanche."

Shauna kept glaring.

"Shauna, be polite."

"No."

Blanche inclined his head towards Santiago. "She gets cranky sometimes, I'm sorry about her."

Shauna elbowed his liver.

Santiago chuckled. "It's no problem. I consider this a fortunate coincidence, in fact. I wished to speak to the FLARE Rangers without the constraints of business. People are much easier to understand when they lack constraints, wouldn't you agree?"

"I… guess? You mean without all the formal talk, right?" Blanche asked.

"Of course. Oh, you see that now? You've shown that you prefer definition over ambiguity by asking for clarification. Isn't conversation wonderful?" Santiago asked, voice filled with mirth.

"...I'm just kind of dumb sometimes, it's not that complicated," Blanche said, not really sure how to react.

"And there, you've attempted to appeal to your internal concept of humility!"

"Hey, remember the part where you were interrupting something?" Shauna said dryly. "I remember that. Can you make like the Professor and leaf?"

Santiago clapped his hands and his eyes widened. "Oh, and you'd be the last senior FLARE Ranger! You've made a pun about your organizational superior, implying your displeasure with him and signifying that discord is present within FLARE as a whole, while also referencing the disproportionate amount of Pokémon Professors with names relating to flora." He rubbed his chin with closed eyes. "This conversation has truly been enlightening."

Blanche looked at Shauna. Shauna looked back at him. They both looked at Santiago.

"You don't get out much, do you?" Shauna asked.

"Shauna, don't be rude even if we're both thinking it," Blanche said.

"Not at all!" Santiago cheerily answered. "In fact, this may be the first time I've encountered so many fascinating people at once. I look forward to encountering more once the preparations are complete." He palmed his face mechanically, as if the motion had been practiced a thousand times. "Alas, at the moment, I am limited to control groups such as this one."

Somewhere, the clock struck anywhere between nine and midnight, Blanche couldn't keep track.

"Oh, I must be going. I hope that I'm able to speak to you again, Blanche and Shauna. Goodbye!"

Santiago's heavy cloak wavered behind him as he walked back inside and disappeared from view.

A few moments passed where the air itself seemed to have shuddered and died.

"The moment's gone," Blanche said evenly, again looking over the hedge garden.

"Yeah," Shauna said. "I feel the strange need to punch something."

"Want to hit the gym after this?" Blanche offered.

"Mhm. I think I'd like that. No treadmills though, I don't wear heels very often and my feet hurt."


AN:

Before general chapter stuff, Guest who asked, I actually haven't read any Index fics. I watched some of the show on Hulu before it got too Light-Novel-y for me to stomach. Esper is a catch-all term for people with weird abilities in speculative fiction (I would have gone with Psyker if that wasn't so close to Psychic), but I did get the idea from there.

One comic relief chapter. As a treat. There is some stuff going on in the background though. Hey, remember how awesome everything was in Lumiose-3 before like, three chapters ago? Yeah, haha, that's done for good. Five chapters left.

I realize now that there's a plot-hole with Blanche's helmet. He loses it so often that there's no way that FLARE gets any plot-relevant footage. I'm handwaving that and saying there are extra cameras in his Battery and the other morph suits.

Ariel and Blanche are… odd. They're a very sweet pair, very good friends, but I wouldn't ship them, if that makes sense. It just wouldn't make sense for either of their characters to think about the other like that.

There's a lot of alliteration in this chapter. I dunno what's up with that.

Santiago is based very, very loosely on the protagonist of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which I'm pretty sure I mentioned before but I thought I should mention it, since he's a recurring character and all.

I think I've given everyone a filler segment, now it's time to traumatize them. In some cases, retraumatize. Fun.

Happy Easter, if you celebrate it.