Riolu's stomach firmly protested the dimensional shift as she entered the dungeon, but significantly less so than the first time. She, Lann, and Dante found themselves in a forest mystery dungeon, nearly indistinguishable from the one Riolu had first woken up in. Based on the sun, it was midday in the dungeon despite the fact that the group had entered in the early morning. Riolu wondered if all dungeons were permanently stuck at midday.

Lann and Dante unceremoniously set off into one of the plant-matter hallways, so Riolu followed close behind. The only instruction she was given was to stay close and follow orders. This frustrated her: she wanted to fight and see what this athletic body was capable of, but Dante was planning on letting Lann take care of any and all necessary combat. Still—assuming they didn't find the berries today, the plan was to camp out and delve into the dungeon each day until their supplies ran dry—or until they found success. Maybe she could convince them to let her fight during the possible future excursions.

Although she was set to experience less of an adventure and more of a tour, Riolu still felt a spike of excitement when she heard Lann say "Two ferals ahead. Wait here," as they approached a room.

Dante and Riolu both moved to peek around the corner as Lann lumbered out of the hallway. A small bird-like Pokémon spread its wings and shrieked, apparently trying to intimidate the unwelcome guest. The second Pokémon, a larger purple-haired monkey sporting two tails tipped with large hand-like appendages, appeared to be significantly more powerful just based on size and body-type. Without hesitation, it used its tails to launch itself through the air towards Lann.

Lann seemed indifferent to the hostility, staying relaxed as the purple monkey soared through the air preparing to strike with its powerful tails. Suddenly, however, he took an aggressive quickstep forward. The monkey clearly expected him to either stay still or move back, and it shrieked with shock as the Sceptile slammed a forearm into the side of its head.

The bird-like Pokémon went silent, fear and confusion appearing to override aggression as its eyes followed the purple blur flying across the room. The monkey landed hard, skidding to a stop along the forest floor. It was obvious to anyone that it was out cold.

Seeing this, the small bird turned and rose its wings in preparation to flee—but Lann was already upon it. In an instant, he had closed the distance and slammed it with the same forearm, this time crushing the Pokémon into the dirt.

Lann turned to Dante and Riolu, still perfectly relaxed. "OK, let's go. But hmmm," he hummed with a mocking face. "What's with the expressions? I didn't scare you two, did I?"

"That was an Ambipom…" Dante said incredulously. "And you knocked it out that easily?"

"Careful there," Lann said with an amused smirk. "You might give me a big head. Besides, in the grand scheme of things, an Ambipom isn't that scary at all."

"But with just your forearm…" Dante said mostly to himself, as if trying to figure out how it was possible. "That wasn't even a leaf blade…"

Riolu was similarly shocked, but for a slightly different reason. Lann had moved fast, and his strikes were terrifyingly powerful—Riolu could still hear the deep cracks of impact. And now, Dante was saying that Lann was capable of more? Admittedly, that feat of combat seemed to be a casual thing for the Sceptile. Pokémon were truly terrifying.

"I'm Absol's enforcer for a reason," Lann said, a rare serious tone entering his voice. "Now are we going or not?"

"Yeah," Dante said, stepping around the bird Pokémon's unconscious body.

Riolu silently followed, briefly shaking her head to dispel her thoughts. At least Lann was on her side.

Continuing through the dungeon was relatively uneventful. Occasionally, Lann would have to dispatch ferals, but it was always the same: he would effortlessly knock them out with a single strike of his forearm. Once, he even warned Dante and Riolu of a trap's location so they could avoid it—though no matter how much she tried, Riolu couldn't see anything different about that particular stretch of forest floor. Even if exploring the dungeon was becoming monotonous, Riolu was pleasantly surprised to find that the nausea from changing floors was quickly becoming more and more tolerable. The key was to not fight it which, despite being more difficult than it sounds, was still working for her.

When the group turned a particular corner on the sixth floor, however, the monotony immediately ceased: directly ahead, down a long hallway and in the next room, a small tree blooming dozens and dozens of small, beautiful flowers stood. Although they were apparently surrounded by trees, this was the first occurrence of a tree actually being inside the impenetrable boundary of the dungeon walls.

"That has to be it," Riolu said. "Right…?"

"Maybe. It could be anything," Dante said, though the excitement in his voice was evident. "Let's go check it out."

Lann led the group closer, and Riolu noticed that his pace was a bit faster than it was a moment ago. I guess Lann is just as excited as us.

After a short walk down the hallway, the group entered the room. It was perfectly empty save for the tree. The tree itself was only marginally taller than Lann, and scattered among its flowers were large clusters of tiny orange-red berries.

Dante frowned. "Pala said the berries were blue."

"From his story, it also seemed like they found the berries earlier than the sixth floor," Lann said. "Not that that means much when the layout changes every day. Still, perhaps this dungeon has multiple berries to offer."

"I guess we'll need to take these back and figure out a way to test them without risk," Dante said, sounding a bit put out. "And I guess we'll need to come back tomorrow since we didn't find the blue ones."

Lann picked a single berry and crushed it between two fingers. "There's seeds inside, so we can probably cultivate these if they end up being useful."

"Alright. Could you get twenty or so, then?"

"Mhm."

While Lann collected the berries and placed them into a pouch of his satchel, Riolu knelt down to look at the crushed berry he had just discarded. The outside was reminiscent of a cherry, but the inside was unfamiliar: strikingly yellow, stringy flesh seeped juice onto the forest floor. Riolu was surprised that Lann had been able to crush it without juice spraying everywhere.

"OK, thanks Lann," Dante said once Lann had finished. "Let's search the rest of this floor."

As it turned out, the rest of the sixth floor was empty, save for ferals. By the time they cleared the final floor, exited the dungeon, and made their way back to camp, it was about noon in the real world.

"Well, here we are," Dante said. "Let's rest up for tomorrow. Riolu, you're welcome to read now if you'd like."

Riolu found a tree to sit up against and eagerly opened Dante's satchel in search of the black book he had mentioned—she wanted to learn about evolution. Lann, however, stood still and kept his satchel shouldered.

"Would you mind if I went to fetch Nineteen?" Lann asked. "They may be able to analyze these berries, and we may be finding more unknown plant-life. I can be back just before tomorrow morning."

Dante looked at him. "Are you sure you'll be able to do the dungeon without sleep?"

Lann answered him a scathing, patronizing look. Riolu had to stifle a laugh as she watched Dante stammer with embarrassment: "I-I didn't mean to say… I mean I didn't mean to imply that—y-you wouldn't have offered if you weren't sure, and…" Dante must have realized how he was acting, because he screwed his own mouth shut as his tail-flame flared with embarrassment. Riolu immediately regretted finding amusement in the situation, as it was obviously bothering Dante to a large degree.

Lann relented, adopting his usual relaxed smile. "Yes, I'll be fine," he said. "It's not an issue."

Although Dante's tail-flame still pulsed with intensity, his response came calm and measured: "I think getting Nineteen is a good idea, yeah. Go for it."

Lann nodded and finally placed his satchel at one of the log benches before walking out into the forest. Dante watched him go until he was out of sight, then lowered himself to the ground. He adopted a relaxed sitting position, grasped his hands together above his lap, closed his eyes, and began taking slow deliberate breaths. Riolu watched with interest—Dante was meditating, forcing himself to calm down. Sure enough, as she watched, Dante's tail flame slowly settled, turning from a spark-spitting mini-inferno to the default, gentle flame that Riolu was familiar with.

"Was that your core?" Riolu quietly asked once the flame seemed normal. In the fire-type section of the types book, fire-types were described as having an emotional core tied to their 'inner fire'. Each core had a particularly strong connection to a single emotion which varied from Pokémon to Pokémon—and amplified it. Riolu figured that she must have witnessed Dante's core at work.

Dante, continuing to meditate, initially ignored the question. Then, after taking a deep breath, he answered: "Yes. My core has latched onto pride, so I don't deal well with shame."

Though Dante had yet to open his eyes, Riolu nodded in response. "Can I help, or… do you want to be left alone?"

"Go ahead and read. I'll be fine in a few minutes."

Riolu went quiet, but she kept an eye on Dante rather than reading. After a few more minutes of meditation, his eyes finally opened before he stretched and stood up.

"Nineteen is the head of us analysts, if you were wondering." Dante said, as he settled by the campfire. "So, you're going to meet my boss. Your own boss now, even."

"Wait, you're my boss, right? If I'm your assistant?"

Dante smiled. "Fine, you're meeting your grand-boss."

"Does that mean Absol is my great grand-boss?"

Dante laughed in response. He had a unique laugh, resembling uncontrolled snickering, which caused Riolu to realize she had never heard Dante laugh before now. She felt a well of satisfaction that she was able to make Dante laugh so soon after a core episode.

"OK, OK, I'm fine," Dante said, still smiling. "Stop worrying about me and go ahead and read."

Riolu nodded and looked down to begin reading in earnest.

It seemed that the introduction launched directly into an explanation of evolution, while the vast majority of the black book was a comprehensive list of Pokémon, organized into things called evolution families. While the introduction did explain evolution in detail, conspicuously missing was what evolution actually felt like to go through.

Once she was finished with the introduction, Riolu looked over to Dante. He had relit the campfire and was sitting right up against it, almost leaning into the flames with his eyes closed.

"Is sitting that close to the fire nice for you?" Riolu asked.

"Hmmm?" Dante hummed as he leaned back a bit and opened his eyes to look towards Riolu. "Oh. Yeah, it feels great. Feels like I can't get close enough."

"It'd still burn you if you actually touched it, right?"

"If I stayed in it for a while, it would eventually hurt me," he said, leaning over to put an arm directly into the fire to emphasize his point. "The fire still wouldn't be burning me directly, though. My core temperature would get too hot and I would start melting from the inside."

"Huh… well, can I ask you about evolution some? Do you mind?"

"Go for it," Dante said, scootching a bit further from the campfire and turning his whole body towards Riolu to give her his full attention.

"So… evolution is sort of like spontaneous growth, but that growth generally does crazy things like entirely changing something's form?"

"Someone's form," Dante corrected. "But yes, basically."

"Right, sorry," Riolu said. So many Pokémon had similarities to animals that she sometimes had trouble remembering that they were all still people, in a sense. "The description of evolution, though… is this literal? That it's almost instantaneous, and the Pokémon in question expels a bright light while it transforms?"

"Yup."

"This world is insane," she said, smiling to herself. "I really hope I can witness evolution sometime soon. How does it feel, by the way? Evolution? The book doesn't say."

"I don't know," Dante admitted. "For whatever reason, it's taboo to talk about it. Everyone always tells me something like 'you'll have to wait until you evolve!'"

"But it also said that some Pokémon can never evolve."

"Yeah," Dante shrugged. "Maybe it's meant to be polite to non-evolving Pokémon. Can't imagine it would feel good to be left out."

"Hm. Well, thanks for answering."

Dante nodded before closing his eyes and leaning back towards the fire.

Riolu started in on reading through the expansive list of Pokémon. As she read, Riolu realized that she wasn't sure how much she would actually be able to retain. Regardless, she was finding immense enjoyment in learning about all the different types of Pokémon—it seemed wholly unbelievable that everything she was reading was part of the world around her.

Riolu would occasionally look up to check on Dante. He spent the majority of his time warming by the fire, but he would occasionally take breaks that generally consisted of spacing out and staring into the forest.

As a whole, the day passed quickly for Riolu. It was only when she was beginning to have trouble reading the text in the darkening forest that Riolu fully realized how much time had passed. She was halfway through reading about an interesting phenomenon where a bug-type Pokémon shed its outer shell during evolution and the husk became its own Pokémon—a ghost-type with mysterious and unique characteristics—so she figured that she would remember her place. She closed the book and returned it to Dante's satchel, then carried the satchel to place it next Lann's discarded pack near the fire.

Dante looked up at Riolu. "Done reading, then?"

"For now," Riolu said, taking a seat across the fire from Dante. "I ended up reading what I was most interested in already anyways."

"Oh? And what were you most interested in?"

"I wanted to read about the Pokémon I've already met, like you and Lann. Also, I wanted to read about my own species."

"Makes sense. What'd you think?"

"Um…" Riolu began, trying to think back to some of her earlier questions. "I didn't know that Absol went by her species name, like me. Is that pretty normal?"

"Not especially? I mean, some Pokémon are nameless for various reasons. I have no idea why Absol chooses to be, but she's a very rare Pokémon—it's not often that another Absol is around, so her being just 'Absol' is unlikely to be an issue." Dante paused to think for a moment before continuing. "It hasn't occurred to me until now. Do you want a name? Other than Riolu, I mean."

"Oh, I hadn't thought about it either, actually," Riolu said. "Yeah, I definitely want a name. No idea what it should be, though."

"Let's both try to think of a good name for you. Maybe we could look up names of historical Riolu and Lucario back at the archives whenever we return, too."

"Speaking of Riolu and Lucario, it said they can use Aura to read emotions. How do I do that?"

"You can't?" Dante asked, shock apparent on his face. "And you haven't been able to?"

"Uhh, no," Riolu said, concern sneaking into her mind. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't actually know. My impression of Riolu and Lucario was that their connection to Aura was intrinsic, but that's just an assumption. We could ask Lann and Nineteen when they arrive."

Riolu shook her head to clear her thoughts. No sense in worrying about something that wasn't confirmed. Besides, even if she was a Riolu that couldn't do what Riolu were known for, it was hardly the strangest thing about her. "Well, that's all I wanted to ask for now."

Dante nodded. "We'll get the Aura thing figured out tomorrow."

"OK," Riolu said, allowing her body to relax against the log. Tomorrow, Lann would be back, and they would return to the dungeon. Maybe Riolu would ask if she could just stay at the camp and read. Even if turning pages with her paws was growing more and more frustrating, going into the dungeon would be worse when she couldn't actually do anything—and she wanted to learn more.


Dante woke with the sunrise, as he always did. As he stretched, he looked across the cold fire pit at Riolu. She was still asleep, leaning there against the log. Dante had been a bit surprised when she had fallen asleep so close to him last night. When camping she had always slept nearly outside of camp, and while at the archives she had opted for the uncomfortable storage platform over the comfortable bedding in Dante's room. Since he had found her, she seemed to always make a point to sleep away from everyone else. Dante had assumed it was a human culture thing, but now he wasn't sure what to think.

Now present at the camp was Lann. He sat on top of the second log and, as Dante's eyes passed over him, he gave a nod of acknowledgement. He was, however, alone.

"No Nineteen?" Dante asked quietly.

"I don't want to have to explain it twice. Let's wait for Riolu."

"I'm awake," Riolu mumbled as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Oh, did we wake you?" Lann asked.

Riolu simply shrugged in response. She was still waking up.

Lann's smirk grew. "You can go back to sleep, you know," he teased. "We'll wait for you."

Riolu began to respond, but paused to let out a huge, adorable yawn. "Continue," she said afterwards. "I'm fine."

"If you say so. Nineteen will be here sometime later today—apparently, they needed to finish something up. Also, I spoke with Absol: depending on availability, she may be sending more teams our way to help explore and figure out this dungeon."

"Huh," Dante frowned. "After we found one extra type of berry that's not even confirmed to be special? That seems a bit excessive."

Lann shrugged. "She might not send anyone. It's just a possibility we should be aware of."

"Well, good to know. Before we do today's dungeon run, though, we wanted to ask you more about Aura. Riolu? Do you want to…?" Dante prompted. He wasn't sure if Riolu would prefer to reveal her inability to use Aura herself, so he figured that he'd give her an opportunity. If she wanted him to take the reins, she could just ham up her drowsiness.

"I read about Riolu and Lucario yesterday," Riolu said, not missing a beat. "I don't experience anything like the emotion-reading that Riolu are apparently capable of, and I want to know if that's something to worry about."

"Nope," Lann said matter-of-factly. "Riolu may be naturally open to Aura compared to other Pokémon, but you still need to initially connect to it."

"Oh…" Riolu said, her brow furrowed. "How do I connect to it?"

"You'd have to ask your own kind for specifics since I've never experienced it. All I know is it involves looking deep inside yourself, at your own Aura. Apparently when a Riolu or Lucario read others' emotions, and therefore their Aura, it's always through the lens of their own. So, the first step is becoming familiar with your own Aura. I can't imagine it's especially difficult, though: most Riolu do it within a day of their hatching."

"Can I try right now, then?"

"That's up to Dante since this is his expedition, but you should also be aware of the risks. Auras can be deeply personal, and seeing something unexpected in yours can range from pleasant to traumatizing. Also, from what I understand, once you do this you'll be able to sense waves of strong emotion from other Pokémon around you—and you won't be able to turn that off."

"It's part of being a Riolu, though, right?" Riolu pointed out. "So I should do it. Dante? Can I?"

Dante took a moment to think. Worst possible case, Riolu would be traumatized and unable to come into the dungeon with them. However, this was unlikely, and connecting to her Aura was something she had to do at some point regardless. As the leader, it didn't make sense for him to tell her no when she wasn't critical to the dungeon-diving anyways. "Sure, go ahead and try," Dante said, gesturing to say by all means.

Riolu gave a quick nod, then settled into meditation. Dante watched her intently—particularly her expression, as he assumed the process would be mostly mental. Not long after Riolu had closed her eyes and began taking measured breaths, the teardrop appendages on the side of her head began slowly lifting, as if floating on invisible, rising water.

Once the appendages settled to be perfectly horizontal, however, Riolu's expression abruptly changed: originally neutral and relaxed, her face had suddenly adopted a confused frown. A creeping doubt occurred to Dante—was something going wrong? Had he made the wrong decision in allowing Riolu to do this?

Dante watched with horror as his fears were swiftly confirmed. Though her eyes stayed shut, her expression quickly changed to disbelief, then fear, then finally despair—pure despair—the type of soul-crushing despair that Dante had never witnessed up to this point, or had even imagined existing. All the while, Riolu's breathing was growing more and more uncontrolled and desperate.

Finally, Riolu's eyes opened. They were unfocused and panicked, blindly darting to look at her surroundings. Her hyperventilating continued to grow in intensity, until she was open-mouthed gasping for air, as if she was unable to get enough.

Instinctively, Dante began rushing towards her only to be held back by Lann's forearm. "Stay back," Lann hissed, leaning down to be next to Dante's ear. "If you touch her now, she'll be forced to feel your Aura. It may make it exponentially worse for her."

Dante couldn't even comprehend how it could be worse—every part of him burned with sympathy, grief, and worry watching her. Despite this, he allowed himself to be stopped—he had to trust the more experienced Lann.

For what felt like an eternity, Dante stood there watching as Riolu fought for breath. Lann kept his forearm across Dante's chest, but Dante had long since given up on approaching. Eventually and slowly, Riolu seemed to settle down. Though it seemed to be more exhaustion than anything, she eventually was reduced to simply slouching against the log with dull eyes.

Lann removed the forearm from his chest, but Dante didn't move. He had initially began moving to her instinctively, but what was he actually planning to do? He had no idea how he could help. He simply stood in place, frozen by indecision.

"Riolu," Lann's voice came from behind. His voice sounded leagues gentler and kinder than Dante had ever heard it. "Are you with us?"

Riolu didn't respond. With what looked like a monumental amount of effort, she gave a single, subtle nod, her dull eyes looking blankly ahead.

"You just had a panic attack," Lann continued, his voice still soft. "A particularly bad one. But you made it through. Your only job now is to rest and recover. I'm going to leave now to go to the dungeon, but Dante will be staying here. He will give you any help you need, and I'll be back soon. Is that OK? You can say no, it's about what you need."

Riolu remained silent and still.

"Riolu, I need you to respond," Lann said. "Just one more time."

She gave the same weak nod as before.

"OK. Thank you, Riolu. I'm going to leave plenty of food and water here for you two," Lann said as Dante heard the clunk of a canteen being placed on the log. "Again, I'll be back soon."

As Lann lumbered off into the forest, Dante considered the underlying meaning of his words. He might as well have said 'Since you're doing absolutely nothing, Dante, I'll be taking charge.' And he was right—Dante had been worse than worthless, and Lann knew it. Arceus, why had he let Riolu go through with it? Why did he try to touch her like an idiot? Why had he then stood there like he was braindead? Dante clenched his fists so tightly that they hurt—he was so unbelievably mad at himself. Why wasn't he getting any better? He'd tried so Arceus-damned hard to improve himself.

No. he thought, concentrating on the words. This was his flame talking. This was not him. Dante sat down to meditate, much the same as Riolu had only recently, and started his routine. He thought of it as a routine, but it was really more of a single practice. He emptied his mind—of bad thoughts, but of good thoughts as well, and simply existed. He focused on nothing more than his breathing. Within minutes, he was fine.

Dante opened his eyes and looked over towards Riolu. She was watching him, though her eyes were still dull. One of Riolu's identifying features, Dante felt, was her eyes. When Riolu was actively speaking or interacting with someone, her eyes reflected what was going on like any other Pokémon. What made her unique, however, was when she was idle her red eyes were strikingly watchful and sharp as they observed her surroundings. That piercing gaze was why Dante had simply assumed that Riolu was already able to read his emotions—every time she looked at him, it felt like she was reading him like a book. That gaze was completely gone now—replaced by dull, apathetic eyes.

"Sorry," Dante said. "I don't know if you feel my emotions during that now, but… it was bad timing regardless."

"I felt it, yeah," Riolu croaked, her voice hoarse. "Sorry you have to deal with that so much."

Dante was relieved to hear Riolu speak, even if she sounded terrible. "Well, it can't exactly be worse than what happened to you," Dante said, giving a weak smile.

Riolu shivered. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned her panic attack. "Yeah," Riolu admitted simply.

"Do you want to eat?"

"…Yeah."

Dante picked out two of the packages from the small pile Lann had left and brought them and the canteen over to Riolu. He left the canteen and a package with her, then brought his own package across the fire. As he sat down and began eating, he considered what had happened. Lann had warned Riolu that looking at her own Aura could be traumatizing, but… that was disastrous. What could she possibly have seen within herself…?