When Riolu woke, she was annoyed to find it was a particularly strong Aura pulse from somewhere in camp that had interrupted her rest. It was a pulse of love. Good for them, but by her estimation, Riolu had spent most of the night unable to fall asleep. It felt like every time she got close, the stimulation of an Aura pulse—amplified by the lack of stimulation otherwise—would shock her out of her drowsiness. Although she didn't remember falling asleep, at some point she must have been so exhausted that the Aura pulses at near-regular intervals didn't matter.

Despite her pounding headache and bone-tiredness, Riolu rolled over to the edge of her loft and peered down into the archives. Below her, Dante stood at the table just inside the main entrance—he was reading one of the many, many folders stuffed with papers stacked there. Riolu could remember that when she had first visited the archives, the table had held a much smaller collection. Perhaps the table held items meant to be filed into the archives, and since Dante had been gone for a few days quite the pile had accumulated.

Riolu stayed quiet and watched Dante work. It was enjoyable—he was very clearly interested in what he was reading, and Riolu felt that she was watching him in his element. He was unaware he was being watched, and thus Dante was the most relaxed and genuine Riolu had ever seen him. Unfortunately, her observation was destined to be short-lived: Dante, having finished the folder, moved to take it to the shelves. As he walked, he cast a wayward glance up at Riolu's loft.

"Oh!" Dante jumped, clearly not expecting to be met with eye contact. "You're awake. Was the bedding fine?"

"Yeah. It was a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be," Riolu said. When Dante had mentioned bedding, she had been expecting something like the bed in Pala's room at the infirmary—with proper sheets. Somehow, she had avoided seeing how Pokémon typically slept right up until Dante helped her move a large mass of straw up to her storage platform. Still—she had been surprised to find that she had no complaints about her comfort, at least. "But as it turns out, dreaming Pokémon can give off some pretty strong emotions."

Dante frowned. "What do you mean? Did you not sleep?"

"I slept some. Not a lot."

Dante had been stationary since seeing Riolu, but now continued moving to the shelves beneath her, exiting her field of view. "If you want, you can try to get more now," he called up.

"I'm only awake due to someone's Aura just now, and I can't imagine everyone in camp will stop feeling things. I might as well get up for now."

"How does it feel, sensing Aura, by the way?" Dante's voice came from below her. "Is it something you can describe?"

Riolu rolled onto her back and stared up at the 'ceiling' of the tent. "Well, it seems like I can only feel strong, acute emotions. I guess that'll change if I evolve to be a Lucario, or if I was actually willing to look at my own Aura. But yeah, my best attempt at describing what it's like is feeling a ping between my brain and my skull, from the direction I'm receiving it. I feel the emotion, but it's localized to that ping. Differentiating it from my own emotions is trivial."

"…So you're feeling these pings basically constantly from around camp, then?"

"It varies. I haven't felt any since the one that woke me, so maybe during the day there will just be less? Last night, though, I'd say there was one every five minutes on average."

"No wonder Riolu and Lucario tend to isolate themselves. We may need to rethink the plan to keep you in camp all the time."

"I think I can at least handle it until Lann takes care of things. I mean, we're talking about life and death here."

"Really? You think you can handle getting almost no sleep for weeks?" Dante said, his voice returning to the table. Riolu rolled off of her back and once again settled into a position where she could watch the floor below. Given that Dante's hands were now empty, Riolu's filing theory was likely correct. "Well, we'll talk about this later. If you're going to be awake, I have a few gifts for you," Dante continued.

"Oh, come on. You're just bribing me to get out of bed so I'll help you with what you're doing."

"You're my assistant! I shouldn't need to bribe you! Anyways, I guess technically one of them isn't a present at all, and another barely counts, but the last definitely is."

"Stop being vague. What are you talking about?"

"First, while you were gone, Mini dropped off his report on your memories," Dante said, gesturing to a thick folder sitting on the corner of his desk. "You'll need to review it. Second, he gave us the bulletin that was sent out about you if you're interested."

"…What's the third thing?"

Dante held a single sheet of paper above his head, showing it to Riolu. "Before you woke up, I compiled a list of possible names for you to choose from. All taken from historical Riolu and Lucario."

"I can choose a name?"

"Yup. Whenever you're ready."

Riolu finally sat up and scootched to the ladder before proceeding to slide down to the ground floor. Once her feet hit the ground she gave a massive stretch, clenching her teeth as her body was forced to wake up. "Oh-kay. Let me see what my options are."

Dante didn't move, opting to simply stand in place and offer the paper with a free hand. "You don't have to pick one now," he reminded her. "In fact, you don't have to choose from the list at all. You could think of it as inspiration."

Riolu accepted the paper, clutching it between her paw's fingers. As Dante cracked open a new folder to file, she padded to the satchel which had been discarded against one of the shelves last night. She retrieved the translation guide and carried it between her hands, returning to sit on the floor next to Dante. She then eagerly dove into translating the sheet of prospective names.

Each of the dozen or so names on the list was accompanied by a short summary of their significance—generally, that just meant listing famous users of the name. The first name listed, Aura, was by far the lengthiest entry—apparently, it was a stereotypically common name for Lucario, to the point that there was a large number of famous Lucario named Aura alone. The most legendary Aura by far, however, was a warrior active thousands of years ago who, despite having a long life full of heroic deeds, was most known for a single feat: defeating a Darkrai in single combat. Riolu could still remember the intense gaze of the illustrated Darkrai—even if a Lucario technically had the type advantage, defeating a mythical Pokémon was a once-in-a-generation achievement at best—let alone a feat to be performed alone.

The second name on the list was a less popular name: Cobalt. Riolu liked the name, and it fit the color of her blue and black fur, but she wasn't sure the description Dante left really fit with her. The only significant Cobalt he knew of was the extremely elderly acting leader of a city the continent away. It was a famously prosperous city, mainly known for always supporting the side in conflicts that eventually won. Riolu didn't really see herself as a wise old leader-type, and despite Cobalt being a cool name, it didn't really feel like her name. Riolu kept reading.

The next name was a bit of a strange one, as it belonged to a Riolu that never evolved as long as he lived. Kaulu started off as a petty thief in one of the few existing metropolises of the continent. In time, he grew more and more skilled and formidable until eventually, he pulled off an impossible heist. Even after it was studied, it was concluded to be impossible even for a ghost-type—let alone a tiny, unevolved fighting-type. Kaulu ended up achieving untold power in the city's underground, dominating the city right up to his death from old age. Kaulu wasn't exactly a namesake that Riolu wanted, and Dante had noted most Riolu steer clear from using it anyways, so it was onto the next name.

Even if Kaulu was a rarely used name, the next name, Amadeus, was rarer still: as far as Dante knew, it had only ever been used by a single exceptionally unique Lucario. Amadeus was shiny which, as Dante wrote as an aside, was an exceedingly rare phenomenon resulting in abnormal coloration. In Amadeus's case, this meant that where his coat should be blue, it was a yellow-gold. This special coat, accompanied by the name Amadeus, pops up occasionally in history. However, the sightings span nearly 500 years—significantly more than the maximum lifespan of Lucario—and every time, Amadeus appears to be the same young adult age. So, Amadeus is speculated to be either an immortal with unknown motives, or the strangest, most complex, most pointless conspiracy. While reading about him was interesting, Riolu had no desire to adopt Amadeus's name: besides the fact that it felt decidedly masculine, Riolu wasn't quite deluded enough to think she was important enough to be the very first non-shiny Amadeus.

The next name was a bit of a departure from the others: while all of the previous significant Riolu and Lucario were known to be real Pokémon, the next name, Luca, was mainly associated with a Riolu in an old fairy-tale of sorts. As it went, Luca chose their own name as a young Riolu and based it on the word 'Lucario', assuming they would evolve and grow into it. However, for as long as they lived, and as much as they tried, Luca simply never evolved—dying a Riolu named after their unattained dream.

Riolu finally looked up from the list—reading about Luca's story reminded her of a question she had been meaning to ask. "Hey Dante, is there any more information about what causes Riolu to evolve? The evolution book was actually really vague."

Dante looked up from his reading. "There's more information, but none of it is concrete—it's just a bunch of theories. The most substantial thing I'm aware of is that nearly all Lucario willing to give their opinion on their own evolution say some variation of 'it was the right time.'"

"Poor Luca."

"Poor Luca indeed," Dante agreed.

Riolu returned to her paper and skimmed the remaining names without bothering to read their descriptions. Riley, Loyalty, Osiris… none of the remaining names resonated with her.

"I think I might actually go with Luca," Riolu said, again breaking the silence.

"Oh, really?" Dante said, again looking up from his reading. "You don't think you'll be cursed to never evolve?"

"I refuse to believe it works like that. Besides, it's win/win, right? If I'm never able to evolve, I'll have a really appropriate name. If I do evolve, it'll be like I'm breaking the curse."

"Please tell me you're not picking your name just for that."

"Well, I mean… I do just like the name. Plus, I'm pretty sure Luca happens to be a human name as well, so it sorta represents me, y'know? Both human and Pokémon."

"Admittedly, that's better. Should I start calling you Luca, then?"

"Yeah, actually," the newly christened Luca said as she held up the list of names to return it to Dante. "I think I'm Luca now."

"Well, nice to meet you again, then, Luca."

Luca nodded in acknowledgement. "Can I read that bulletin now?"

"Mhm," Dante said, passing her another slip of paper.

Luca sat back down and got to translating.

Attention all: an important discovery has been made. A Riolu was found in a mystery dungeon by one of our teams—disoriented, but perfectly friendly and intelligent. Our preliminary investigation has revealed that she has come from another dimension. This is, of course, an important milestone in our investigation of the dungeons. Within a week, a full report will be available at the Admin tent for those interested.

In the meantime, however, we request that you are respectful to our new guest. Do not crowd or harass her. Furthermore, her dimension has some significant differences to our own: be patient with her questions, as she may be unfamiliar with normally commonplace concepts. Thank you.

It was about what Luca expected from the bulletin—short and to the point. For the first time since returning to camp, Luca remembered she would have to deal with meeting the camp's population as a whole. She wondered when exactly that would happen.

As if on cue, a voice spoke from the door: "May I interrupt?" Absol asked politely as she pushed her way through the archive's entrance flaps.

"Oh!" Dante exclaimed. "Of course. How can I help you?"

"I did some thinking last night, and I have a proposition for Riolu," Absol said, padding into the room with her usual graceful gait. It was strange seeing Absol outside of her tent—somehow, her seemingly unassailable authority was no longer present, and Luca fully realized just how elderly Absol was.

"If I recall correctly from Mini's report, fighting and strength have a much smaller place in human society compared to ours," Absol continued as she settled on the floor in front of them, sitting like a sphinx. "Is this correct?"

"Yes, that's right," Luca answered. "Some humans fight for fun, but it's far from commonplace. Also, I chose a name. I'm Luca now, so if you don't mind…"

"Of course," Absol said, dipping her head. "It's good to hear that. And I must say, you've made an interesting choice."

"You were saying?" Dante asked. "You have a proposition?"

"Yes," Absol confirmed. "If you wish to find a place in this world, Luca, becoming more familiar with fighting is likely required. Besides, given that there is an assassin after you, becoming more proficient with self-defense couldn't go amiss. So—would you be interested in spending some time each day learning to fight?"

"Oh yes," Luca answered, not bothering to hide her excitement. "Absolutely."

"Excellent. Now, normally I would have Lann handle training you, but he's already gone in search of our Weavile assassin. So, you get me."

"You're going to teach her?" Dante asked. "Are you not too busy running the camp?"

"No, I'm not," Absol said, turning her attention back to Dante. "Truly, Mini runs the camp more than I do day-to-day, and I have more than enough time since we began running a bit more smoothly. By the way, Dante, would you mind coming along? I think you'd be the ideal sparring partner for Luca."

"Oh, uhh. Sure," Dante said. "When?"

"Why don't you come by my tent after lunch today?"

"Sure," Dante said, giving a curt nod.

"Good," Absol smiled, turning her attention back to Luca. "In the meantime, have you began looking through Mini's report about your memories yet, Luca?"

"Oh… no, not yet. Sorry."

"Oh, don't apologize. Take your time," Absol said as she pushed herself to her feet. "I simply wanted to know your opinion on the drawings he attached to the back. Perhaps you can tell me when we meet to train. See you then." With that, Absol walked out of the archives and into the camp.

Suddenly alone again, Luca and Dante shared a glance. Dante's expression was confused, and he shrugged before speaking. "Maybe Lann and Absol just want to keep you close? And that's why they're acting like this?"

"So, you'd say this is really out of character for them?"

"Yeah, I mean… you remember how Light was scared of them? I'd say a significant portion of the camp feels the same way just because they have so much authority and are typically very distant and serious."

"Lann? Distant and serious?"

"Yeah. Every interaction with him I've had with him before you showed up he's been silent and passive, allowing Absol to do all of the talking. Absol herself has also been uncharacteristically warm around you."

"You don't think they're trying to manipulate me or anything, do you?"

"Oh, no, they're not evil or anything," Dante reassured her. "Regardless of any fear they inspire in camp, it's only because of their authority—they're thoroughly good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. At worst, they're just overly excited about you coming from another dimension."

"Jeez," Luca sighed. "You scared me."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to imply anything like that."

Luca shrugged, reaching her arm up to show Dante an empty palm. "Pass me Mini's report?"

Dante obliged, hefting the folder down onto Luca's waiting paw. It was a lot heavier than she was expecting, so Luca less held it and more guided it down to her lap while controlling its fall.

"This is a hundred pages, at least," Luca observed. "There's no way I have a hundred pages worth of memory."

"Didn't you say you remembered your world? I'm surprised it's not more. But I guess you're right: it's only fifty pages worth. Mini took the time to make a translation, so the first half is in your language."

Luca opened up the folder and skimmed the first page to confirm. Sure enough, the eloquent ink writing was English. "This had to be so much extra work."

"Mhm. Be sure to thank Mini."

Luca flipped to the back of the folder. As Absol said, a dozen separate sheets were tucked into the back of the folder. Across them, many drawings of humans and the human world were sketched with what looked like a pencil. The human's expressions were shockingly expressive and well done, and each drawing was accompanied by a description. "Portrait of male human", "Full-body sketch of human female wearing typical casual clothing", "Massive human building, known as a 'skyscraper'—human included alongside for scale": Mini had immortalized many different aspects of human culture, to the point that Luca was surprised his only knowledge came from her memory.

As she perused the drawings, Luca sensed Dante leaning down to look over her shoulder. "Are you curious about these drawings as well?" she asked, turning her head to him.

"Ah, yeah. Are they accurate?"

"Shockingly so... Did Mini really do all this from memory? He spent thirty seconds at most looking."

Luca turned to look up to Dante. He was staring at the drawings, eyes focused, apparently unresponsive. "…Dante?" Luca asked, waving her paw in front of the drawings. "You there?"

Dante shook his head. "Sorry, I was just… trying to imagine your world. What was the question?"

"…I asked if Mini really did all this after looking at my memory for such a short time."

"Oh, yeah. Mini has an insanely good memory, among other things. It's part of the reason he's so invaluable to the Explorer Coalition."

"That's absurdly impressive," Luca said as she looked back down at the drawings. The quality was probably far beyond what she could manage, even if she was drawing with a reference.

"Yeah. Lunch isn't for a while, by the way, so you have plenty of time to read. I'll let you know when we can go."

"OK, great." Luca paged back to the beginning of the folder and prepared to read. Admittedly, even though she was growing more and more comfortable with reading the footprint runes, Luca was relieved that Mini had made it so she could read her own language. Now she could fly through the report, thinking more about the content than the language itself.

Overall, it seemed that his writing was no exception for Mini's prodigious memory. Rather than describing the human world from scratch, he had focused on drawing comparisons to the Pokémon world—he described both humans and animals as 'typeless' and dedicated what was probably a disproportionate amount of the report describing different types of animals. Also heavily featured, more so than human culture itself, was human technology and advancement. Mini's descriptions could only be as detailed as Luca's own limited understanding, but there was still quite a lot of content. Based on the comparisons Mini drew, Pokémon weren't very technologically advanced—perhaps medieval technology at best in certain points of the world. They didn't necessarily need technology as much as humans since they were capable of so much more naturally, but Luca wondered if her memories might spur on invention regardless. It would be incredible if she could bring about such stark change.

Luca ended up reading the entirety of the report in a single sitting. Originally, she had thought that 100 pages was a lot for her memories, but she had grossly underestimated just how much there was to say about the human world when it was completely foreign. Really, the report ended up being more of a summary, supplemented with notable differences between their worlds. Regardless, it was all correct, so Luca could bring it with her and drop it off when they met Absol.

Dante was still dutifully making his way through the stack on the table, and had made significant progress. "Is it about time?" Luca asked.

"Hold on, I'll check," Dante said. He placed what he was reading back on the table and walked over to the entrance of the archives. He then pushed the flaps aside and briefly poked his head outside, apparently looking up at the sky. "I'd estimate we have an hour left before lunch, though we should probably arrive a little bit late. If you want to check yourself, lunch starts once the sun is directly above us in the sky."

"Oh, OK. That reminds me, do you have clocks here?"

"Mhm. They're rarely used because it's so expensive and difficult to make them. For everyday purposes, most Pokémon just estimate."

"And I suppose you all just happen to use precisely the same time as humans? 12-hour clocks for a 24-hour day? Hours, minutes, and seconds?"

Dante snorted. "Yes, actually. What are the chances?"

Luca sighed. "I guess I really was sent here on purpose. Well, whatever. Do you want help with what you're doing, now?"

"This'll be your job soon, but not quite yet. I'm filing reports from exploration teams, so you'll have to learn the filing system before you can help. I have to get some things ready to teach you, so why don't we wait until after training today?"

"OK, if you say so," Luca said, stretching in her seated position. If all she had to do was wait until lunchtime, this was the first true bit of downtime she had gotten since arriving in the Pokémon world: thus far, she had been reading, traveling, or sleeping nearly all hours of the day. Even if it wasn't long stretch of time, Luca would enjoy it—especially because she could finally focus on the waves of Aura surrounding her.

The pulses came much less frequently now that it was daytime, and given that they lacked the strange quality of dream feelings, they were overall easier to ignore. Still—Luca found immense enjoyment in briefly tasting the emotions of Pokémon she'd likely never properly meet. She meditated and waited for Aura pulses, feeling them wash over her as they came in. Although none of them were boring, a particular emotion Luca sensed was the most interesting. It was complex—a sort of mix between satisfaction and guilt. Luca liked to imagine that some Pokémon had found their squad-mate's treat hidden away and eaten it. It would only be a matter of time before their treachery was discovered, and Luca wondered what feeling would result. Annoyance, because their treats had been stolen before? Exasperation at their teammate? Outright betrayal? Regardless, Luca enjoyed speculating.

Right about when Luca was thinking about getting up to check the sun's angle, the entrance flaps were pushed aside. A Shiinotic waddled into the archives, an empty smile on its face and a collection of folders in its strange, stringy hands.

"Oh...You are... the Riolu-yes...?" the Shiinotic asked, his voice stilted and alien. "...the one found-in... the dungeon-yes...?"

"Uh," Luca stuttered, thrown off by the strange Pokémon's behavior. No surprise—or even any emotion whatsoever—was discernable in his blank smile. "That's right. I'm Luca, nice to meet you."

"Will not... stay-long," the Shiinotic stuttered as he approached Dante. "Just... to drop-off... reports. Bu-ut can I... ask? When... will your-report be availa-able?"

"It should be available tomorrow," Dante spoke as he accepted the report. "Assuming you're talking about the report on her memories."

"Ahh... yes. Thank-you... I will be going-now. Good to-meet you Lu-uca." With that, the Shiinotic pushed the flaps aside and plodded out into the camp.

"That wasn't too bad, right?" Dante asked once he had left. "He was respectful, at least."

"Yeah. I was expecting more questions."

"It seems like making the report publicly available was a good idea."

"Mhm," Luca agreed as she finally got to her feet. She padded to the entrance and poked her head through the flaps. In looking up, she could see that the sun was more or less directly above her in the cloudy sky.

"We can get going soon, right?" Luca asked, turning back to Dante.

"Let me see," Dante said, leaving his work on the low table. He joined her at the entrance, similarly peeking his head out to look at the sun. "Yeah, lunch started a while ago, I think. The line should be short if we go now. You ready?"

"Yeah, let me just grab the report. I can turn it in when we meet Absol." Luca returned to where she had discarded it on the floor. It was a struggle for her to pick up: after a few moments, she managed to slide both paws underneath the heavy folder and heft it up—carrying it like a waiter would a large platter.

"Oh, come on, let me get that," Dante said, appearing at her side.

As much as Luca didn't want to admit it, he was right: it didn't make sense for her to perform a balancing act to carry the report when he was right there with functioning thumbs and flexible wrists. She relented and relinquished the report to Dante, who slung it under his arm.

"OK. Let's go," Dante said, pushing his way out into the camp. Luca followed close behind—though she had walked through camp before, that was before everyone knew who she was. Luckily, the camp seemed deserted—the only indication Luca had that they were not alone was the regular Aura pulses, always from the direction Dante was leading her.

As they moved through the tent maze, the Aura pulses were supplemented with the low roar of dozens upon dozens of Pokémon. It was a warm noise consisting of camaraderie and mirth, but to Luca it represented a mass of Pokémon that would gape at her upon her entrance. She could picture it now: it would be a moment before they saw her, and the warm sound would be slowly erased. Luca envisioned it happening in a wave: the Pokémon near the door would notice, causing those near them to notice, creating a ripple throughout the crowd. Overall, Luca was very much not looking forward to it—it would truly be a relief when she was old news. As it turned out, however, Luca had nothing to worry about: when they entered the massive white tent that was the dining hall, and Dante paused at the entrance for only a brief moment before leading her to the right, there was absolutely no acknowledgement from the crowd at large.

The inside was essentially one big cafeteria, with long, low tables stretching across its full length. Similarly to the table in the archives, there was no seating: it seemed one was meant to sit on the ground (or on the table itself, if one was sufficiently small). Dante was headed towards some familiar faces; in the close right corner, the squad consisting of Violet, Darly, and Light sat together. Light, who was sitting on the table between his two squad mates, was waving like mad to flag Dante down.

"Hey guys," Dante said as he set down Mini's report on the table with a thunk. "Do you mind watching Luca for a bit while I get our food?"

"Of course not," Violet smiled, taking the news of Luca's new name in stride. "Take a seat, Luca." The deerling slid to her right, giving Luca a space to sit where Dante set the report.

"OK, I'll be back soon," Dante said as Luca sat down. If he had purposefully implied that Luca should sit where she had, he had thought ahead: as it was, the triangle of Violet, Light, and Darly created an informal barrier between her and the crowd of Pokémon. It was thoughtful—if he actually meant to do it.

"So, how have you been, Luca?" Violet asked. "We haven't seen you since we brought you to camp. We were worried that something happened to you, especially because Dante wasn't around either."

"Oh, Absol sent us on a mission. We were gone for a few days."

"A mission? A proper dungeon mission?"

"I guess? We went to a dungeon."

"That seems very early, even if she hired you," Violet said, confused. "I mean, you only just arrived in our world, did you not?"

Luca shrugged. "Lann was there, so it's not like I was in any danger."

"Lann went with you himself? That's even stranger."

"Never mind that," Light interjected with an excited grin. "Is this the report? Can we sneak a peek?"

"Oh, sure," Luca said, pushing it to the center of the group. "If you want to skip straight to the drawings, they're the loose sheets in the back."

Light hungrily paged through the report, headed straight towards the back. Violet and Darly both leaned in, similarly eager to see Luca's previous form. As they did, Luca took the opportunity to stand in her seat and look in the direction that Dante had walked off in. Regardless of how much she tried, she was much too short compared to the sea of Pokémon before her to be able to see him. As she searched, however, she noticed that a not insignificant portion of Pokémon were staring back at her—some of them trying to hide it, and some of them shameless. It didn't feel nearly as bad as she imagined, but she still hoped Dante would hurry back.

Luca had expected questions, but the three of them seemed content to whisper excitedly among themselves as they perused the drawings. It suited Luca: she was happy to sit in silence and feel the Aura surrounding her. It behaved a bit different from what she was familiar with: rather than almost all of the feelings being isolated events, during lunch they were apparently almost always shared by a group—clusters, rather than pulses. The clusters came frequently and were generally positive emotions so they, along with the blanket of noise, created a very cozy feeling for Luca.

When Dante returned a few minutes later, he placed a package of food in front of Luca before sitting on the opposite side of Violet.

"Pretty interesting, huh?" Dante said.

"Yeah, it's crazy to think about," Violet agreed. "And it's hard to believe it's a real place. It must—hm?" Darly had tapped her on the shoulder with the tip of her wing. Once she had Violet's attention, she pointed at the entrance of the dining hall. "...Oh, you're off, then? Good luck, Darly!"

"Show 'em your stuff!" Light chimed in.

Darly nodded gratefully before hopping away, out of the dining hall and into camp.

"What's going on?" Dante asked.

"Darly was chosen for a special mission," Violet began. "Apparently, they're rounding up Pokémon with surveillance or stealth expertise and having them watch the camp for would-be intruders—especially Weavile. No idea why we're suddenly heightening security, or why Weavile are involved, but it means Darly gets a chance to impress the higher-ups."

"Plus, Violet and I get to loaf around camp for as long as she works!" Light added.

Luca had to physically stop herself from laughing. They were talking about the 'special mission' as if it were some big secret, but they were telling it to the only two Pokémon in camp that knew what was going on more than they did. Still, it was reassuring to know that Absol was taking security seriously.

"Oh, so it's only a temporary thing?" Dante asked, feigning ignorance. He gave no discernable indication of what he knew—it seemed Dante was a skilled liar.

"Yeah, the letter estimated a few weeks," Violet shrugged. "It kinda makes you wonder what's going on."

"Yeah..." Dante said thoughtfully, as if he were pondering the possible causes for the increase in security. "We've got a meeting with Absol after lunch, so I might ask about it."

"Really? What's the meeting about?"

"We're teaching Luca to fight. It's training."

As Violet and Light expressed their surprise that Absol herself was taking on Luca's training, Luca fixated on another aspect of Dante's sentence. He had said 'We're teaching'—up until now, it hadn't occurred to Luca who precisely she was about to fight. She had heard that Dante would be her sparring partner, of course, but she had somehow forgotten that Dante was a fire-breathing lizard with sharp claws. Somehow, even considering that, Luca struggled to imagine him fighting seriously—he acted too much like a human.