As it turned out, Dante was indeed extremely injured. After a few hours of babysitting (consisting mostly of convincing Dante to stay in bed) Luca finally rushed to find Tabunne when Dante began moaning with pain, his tail-flame having returned to normal. After a brief core episode where Dante bemoaned his foolish behavior, Tabunne began her examination. Based on his description of the pain, she ended up confirming that he had managed to tear muscles in his neck and back. Dante was in for a long and painful recovery.
Or, at least, he would have been if Denver and Nineteen hadn't had exceptional luck in the berry dungeon. In the three days since they were left alone, the two of them had managed to find the same blue berries with healing properties that had saved Pala. However, there was a significant difference: the healing berries found by Nineteen only healed over the course of a few days rather than near-instantly. Soon, however, the Explorer Coalition would find through experimentation that the healing berries did heal near-instantly—but only when eaten inside a dungeon. In fact, the paralysis-healing berries that Luca had helped find as well as the handful of other medicinal berries that would be found going forward all worked in precisely the same way.
Dungeons causing Pokémon to grow hungry much quicker was a known fact. The berries' strange behavior was also attributed to this apparent time dilation, though there was a significant disparity: if a few days were truly equivalent to a moment within a dungeon, nearly every Pokémon would starve to death immediately upon their entrance. Beyond that, time spent within the dungeon and time spent outside were equivalent—so really, the dungeons were impossible anomalies, ripe with contradictions. During Luca and Dante's regular sparring sessions, Absol explained that the Explorer Coalition was sending letters, hoping to borrow a clock in order to see how dungeons affected it—though since clocks were typically owned by communities and seen as very precious, their hopes weren't high.
Not every berry discovered in that special dungeon was a medical miracle—the majority of them ended up being perfectly normal, if never-before-seen berries. Absol had gotten a Simisage from the kitchen to cultivate the wide range of new berries, and within only a week, meals were beginning to incorporate them. Not long after, the medicinal variety became a staple of supplying explorations—even Dante began keeping a store of them in his satchel for emergencies. As they were propagated and Luca learned what the berries were being named, she couldn't help but feel her memory was being used for a lot of them: the small, red, paralysis-healing berries were not-so-subtly named after cherries to be cheri berries while the poison cures that resembled small, pink peaches were called pecha berries.
Regardless of what would happen later on, Dante was an early test for the blue healing berries, now called oran berries. As a result, in only a few days he was able to fully heal from an injury that could have taken months—though realistically his healing would have been outsourced to a nearby town's healer Pokémon.
Even if his recovery was relatively short, a few days without Dante was not insignificant for Luca. She was left without both a chaperone and a training partner, but luckily Violet was able to fill in for the latter. As for the former, Luca simply made her own way through the camp as well as retrieved her own food—meaning she was able to get her first glimpse of the kitchen. It was just outside the back of the dining hall, out in the open air. Pokémon would come to a small window to receive whatever was available that day from whichever chef was in the window at the time—the only chefs being a Simisear, a Simipour, and of course, a Simisage.
Most striking about Luca's few days alone was that the population of the Explorer Coalition, previously content to leave her alone, was abruptly willing to interact with her. Even though she initially sat only with Violet's squad, every lunch had her at the center of a crowd, conversing with everyone at once about her origins. It was surprisingly enjoyable, but how quickly it occurred after Dante disappeared was confusing as well as worrying.
One day, Luca went to Violet's squad's tent so she could ask why the population of the camp was suddenly willing to interact with her. As it turned out, all three of them shared the same opinion: everyone was scared of pissing off Dante. Apparently, for the first two weeks or so of the Explorer Coalition's existence, Dante had tormented nearly all of the squads in camp. Nineteen had given him full authority towards ensuring report quality, so he pulled out all the stops to force even the least well-read Pokémon to learn how to write a proper, professional report—up to and including threatening their jobs. So, with the notice essentially warning them to not make Luca uncomfortable and with Dante acting as her escort, as far as most of the squads were concerned that was a clear warning to stay away. Violet's squad was the exception: although they had gone through the same report-based struggles as everyone else, they had the courage to volunteer to take him on their explorations—and so they alone had realized Dante wasn't someone to be scared of.
Regardless, Dante was soon back—though now that it was known that Luca could handle it, she maintained quite a few regular visitors. Barring that, things felt normal and Luca fell into what would end up being her schedule for the next month or so. Every morning, Dante and Luca would file reports until lunch. Then, they would sit with Violet's squad to eat until they met Absol for Luca's training. Training would last until exhaustion since as long as Luca was exhausted, sleeping was easy. Finally, Luca and Dante would simply relax in the archives until it was time to sleep. Typically they would talk about interesting reports they filed or moments during their spars, but some days they would simply sit in comfortable silence. Strangely, Luca relished these moments—perhaps more than any other. They made her feel like she was really part of the strange world she found herself in—and, as she slowly became less known as "the human" and more known as "the assistant at the archives", this feeling of belonging only increased.
Still, all good things must come to an end. When Luca woke up one unremarkable morning about five weeks after Lann had left, she had no idea that it would be her very last day with the Explorer Coalition.
Luca stretched in her straw bed. She really was growing more powerful from the daily training—her body felt strong, even when simply stretching in bed. Still, even with her body as it was and with daily practice, she realistically hadn't come close to properly besting Dante. A week or two in she had though she was close, but then Dante switched up his fighting style entirely and began using fire—and she had thought fighting Dante's new Charmeleon form was difficult before.
Luca peeked over her platform. Down in the archives, Dante sat at his table, absentmindedly tapping his claws together. It baffled Luca how quickly she had gotten used to Dante being a Charmeleon: he was the same Dante personality-wise of course, but thinking back to when Dante could only stand at the table because he was as short as Luca was beginning to feel more like a dream than a memory.
Regardless of her musings, it was time to work. Luca announced her presence by audibly climbing down the ladder.
"Morning," Dante said from his seat, not bothering to look in Luca's direction. "Do you want three normal reports or one r-e-ally long one?"
"Give me the long one. They're always more interesting."
"If you say so," Dante shrugged. He placed a thick folder on the ground next to his desk—Luca's preferred location to work—so she sat down and dove into the report as Dante did the same with his own above her.
Luca's report was written by a small team of elites consisting of only a Pidgeot and a Raichu. A not insignificant portion of their report consisted of travel, as their destination was on the other side of the continent: even with a Pidgeot's exceptional flight speed, their mission took a total of nine weeks. They were given an initial store of food as well as a fairly sizable budget for buying further food, lodging, and emergency medical treatment if needed along the way.
The description of travel was actually Luca's favorite part by far. Although it had nothing to do with the Explorer Coalition's purpose, each day of travel was detailed in the report—to the point of including travel decisions such as avoiding a mountain range or taking a break for the day due to weather. Even precisely where they chose to find shelter was included, as well as all expenses. Luca was surprised to read that while the Raichu and Pidgeot did frequently stay at inns and the like, most of the time they simply walked into town and asked for anyone willing to house them for a night. They paid them a comparable amount to the price for an inn, but still—Luca felt as if it wouldn't fly in the human world, though she couldn't quite remember why. Regardless, the longer reports always gave Luca a surprisingly good idea of the outside world—a world currently unavailable to her.
After a month of travel, the team finally arrived at their destination. Because the dungeon was within comfortable flight range of a large village, the two of them, for the next week, spent their nights resting in town and their days traveling to and documenting the dungeon. Luca was impressed with their work—nearly all reports involving dungeons had injuries of some kind, but this team managed seven back-to-back days with no injuries whatsoever. Even more than that, they seemed to have utmost confidence that the Pidgeot would be in good enough shape to fly back every day. Impressive—however one looked at it. Their competence must be why they were entrusted with such a lengthy mission.
Even if the report was incident free, it was still lengthy. It took Luca the entire morning to successfully file and catalogue it—in fact, Dante had managed to finish all three of his well before her and ended up reading something from the shelves while he waited for her to finish. He had likely picked out something academic to pass the time, as he often did.
Regardless, as a result, Luca and Dante found themselves heading to lunch much later than they normally would. This wasn't an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for them—the report density varied, and while Dante often set some aside to be filed the next day, finishing whatever they committed to sometimes had them running late. This was why, upon her entrance to the dining hall, Luca was surprised to see that Violet, Darly, and Light were still in their usual spot. Each day the three of them arrived at the very beginning of lunch—they typically stayed for Luca and Dante if they came on time but had always left when they were late. Or… Violet and Light did, at least. Thanks to her sentry duty, Darly always left within minutes of their arrival. Luca had originally felt a bit bad, but Violet explained that Darly wasn't a fan of extended social interaction anyway, and that her having an out was ideal.
As Dante moved to the very back of the dining hall to get their food, Luca approached the three of them to sit in her usual seat. "Hey guys," she greeted them as she sat. "Is Darly off today?"
"Nope!" Light chirped. "She was called off duty this morning."
"It seems that whatever was happening is over," Violet added. "We've already been assigned an exploration."
"Oh," Luca couldn't help but let out. The watch for Isle hadn't been mentioned since the first day she joined them for lunch. Luca hadn't even really thought about it since then: Lann was gone, she couldn't leave the camp, and Darly left to do some duty during lunch—that was just how it was. And now, the re-realization of the situation she found herself in flooded into her mind. Although she felt she was being painfully obvious—a far cry from the effortless lying Dante had demonstrated in a similar situation—she committed to feigning ignorance: "Did you never learn what it was about?"
Violet shook her head, apparently oblivious of Luca's strange behavior—or, if she was aware, she was much better at acting. "Not a bit. Our best guess is that there was some Weavile outlaw spotted near the camp, and now either he's been caught or we received news that he was spotted elsewhere."
"I still think that's wrong," Light said. "Halting missions just to have a watch is excessive for one outlaw."
"It could be a really dangerous one, or a group," Violet pointed out. "We've talked about this."
"We've talked about it, but that doesn't mean I agree. Hey," Light said, turning to Luca. "You must have at least heard something, working in the archives and training so much with Absol, right? Do you have an idea of what was going on?"
Luca took a moment to think. Light was right—it wouldn't be unthinkable that she knew simply via her position and not because she was directly involved. Besides that, was she even meant to keep her situation a secret? Dante had pretended to not know anything, but they had never even been told to hide the truth.
"Yeah, I know what was going on," Luca finally said. "But I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share. I could ask if you want."
"Oh, that's alri—"
"Yes, please," Light said, interrupting Violet entirely. "We're very curious."
"Uh, sure. I'll get back to you on that," Luca promised. "Now if you won't be offended, I might bring my food to Absol's tent and ask her what's going on. The watch being called off is concerning."
"Oh," Luca continued—she had just seen Dante returning with food. He held two tubs of soup—leppa or tamato berry, based on the red color. "Good timing. Want to come with me to see Absol?"
"What, right now? Why?"
"Absol called off the sentries."
"Oh… oh!" he repeated once he fully realized the implications. "OK, yeah, let's go. Sorry, guys."
"No worries," Violet said as Darly politely waved her wing. "Good luck!"
"We're leaving on the exploration tonight," Light added. "Come tell us all about why Darly's been on watch if you have time!"
Luca nodded before turning away. Dante was already carrying their food, so she led the way out into camp. The dirt streets were utterly vacant, as nearly every Pokémon that was intending to get lunch had already arrived.
"…So we're telling them about Isle?" Dante asked from behind as they walked.
"Oh, yeah. I thought I'd ask if we can."
"I always figured it was your choice to share or not. I mean, you are the target, and it's not like you were told to not talk about it."
"Huh. Then, let's find out if I can," Luca said as she approached Absol's tent. When she pushed her way into the tent, Luca found that waiting for her was not Absol as she expected nor Lann as she hoped, but Mini.
"Hello," Mini said simply as they entered. Luca hadn't seen him in weeks as he was always busy with one thing or another, but here he was: standing adjacent to Absol's desk as if it were Luca's very first day at the Explorer Coalition.
"Um, hi," Luca said. "Is Absol not here at the moment?"
"She is not," Mini answered as Dante filed in behind Luca. "I was asked to wait here for you, and to then notify Absol of your arrival. Please stay here—Absol will be with you within a few minutes."
"OK," Luca said as Mini walked past them and out into the camp. Once he was gone, she turned to Dante. "Or, let's find out in a few minutes. Can I have my soup?"
"Mhm." Dante placed his own, larger tub on the ground before handing over Luca's. She opened it and tipped it into her mouth, wasting no time. She was pleasantly surprised that it was tamato—her favorite berry by far—and within only a few seconds she had chugged the entire tub.
Dante on the other hand only took reserved mouthfuls, apparently savoring each one. His portions were always considerably larger since he evolved (assumedly due to his increased body mass), so while Luca sat and waited for Absol, he only managed to half-empty the tub by the time Luca heard dull footsteps approach the entrance from outside.
"Oh, Lann!" Luca found herself exclaiming as the large Sceptile pushed his way in.
"Hey, you two," Lann grinned as Absol entered behind him. "It's certainly been a while. So long, in fact, that it seems you've grown a bit taller, Dante."
"Ahh, a… bit, yes," Dante agreed awkwardly. "If you're back, though, does that mean you've captured Isle?"
"It does," Absol said, having finally settled in her usual position behind the desk. "Isle is currently restrained in an otherwise unused tent near the center of the camp."
"Have you gotten anything from her?" Luca asked. "Do you know why she's after me?"
"I'm afraid not. When it comes to information we need to know, she's perfectly uncooperative—and since she is a dark-type, Mini cannot read her mind. So, we find ourselves in a position where we must ask for your help, Luca."
"I hope you don't mind, but Absol filled me in about your Aura," Lann chimed in. "It's worth mentioning that you did, in fact, nearly die trying to split your Aura. A healthy Aura spreads to one's entire body, so concentrating a portion of it doesn't normally require splitting it."
"But," Lann continued, "that's not why we brought up your Aura. We hope to use your ability to see others' Aura while touching them, something I'm told you have yet to try. For good reason, really: seeing a healthy Aura while yours is so small could exacerbate your anxiety about it. Still, it seems that you're our only hope for extracting information from Isle, so we want to ask if you're willing to try."
"Yes, I'm willing," Luca answered without hesitation. "My Aura has actually been steadily growing, so I'm feeling a lot better about it. I can handle looking at Isle's if we need it."
"What?" Dante blurted out. "It's been growing? I didn't know that."
"I didn't mention it. I was going to once it was normal, but at this point it's still only about a tenth the size it should be, up from a hundredth."
Absol sighed with relief. "That's great news. Are you ready now?"
"I guess so."
"Good. A few things to touch on: first, when we're in Isle's presence, use species names only. In our world, maintaining relative anonymity around Pokémon you don't trust is key. Furthermore, do not ever enter the tent unless Mini is present—while Lann and I are powerful, protecting one's self and protecting another Pokémon are two very different things. Mini has trained extensively in protecting others, so he is really what's going to be keeping you safe."
Lann spoke up again: "When it comes to Aura, just look at your own and touch Isle. You won't be able to read thoughts or memories like Mini, but if you're observant you'll be able to learn a lot regardless. Cool?"
"Cool," Luca nodded. "Can Dante come?" She was going to tell him all about it afterwards anyways, so it'd be much easier if he could just be there.
"If he wants to, I don't see why not," Absol said as she rose to her feet. "Lead the way, Lann."
Dante wasn't quite sure what to expect 'restrained' to mean, but as the four of them filed into the regal purple tent that held Isle he was surprised to see that Absol had found what looked like a Weavile-specific restraining device for her. Isle sat in the center of the tent with her back against a thick stake buried deep in the earth. Attached to the stake was a long chain linking it to a sturdy metal apparatus engulfing and binding both of Isle's arms. This meant that she could only move within a certain radius and her claws were essentially disabled. For some reason, this sight made it occur to Dante: what was being done here was not especially civil. In society, the correct response to the threat of an assassin would be contacting those with the proper authority. Not only tracking them down but jailing them yourself wasn't remotely acceptable—and taking matters into one's own hands was precisely what was always done in the wild.
"Mmm," Isle hummed as they entered, her voice hoarse with exhaustion. She still wore her mask, so only her eyes were visible. "Bringing my target to me? What an excellent peace offering—I accept."
"Is Riolu up to speed?" Mini asked from the close right of the tent, fully ignoring Isle.
"She's all set," Absol confirmed before turning her attention to Isle. "And you—I suppose you're still not cooperating?"
"I am cooperating," Isle pointed out. "I'm being perfectly pleasant—there are simply things I cannot share."
"Cannot? Or will not?"
"Both."
"Well, then I am sorry for this," Absol said as she turned to give Luca a nod. "We'll be having Riolu read your Aura as we ask questions."
Isle smirked underneath her mask as Luca slowly approached her. "Why bother? You can't read my mind, only my feelings."
"You and I both know that's not quite true. We dark-types may be adept at hiding our feelings, but we feel them perhaps the strongest among all Pokémon. From what I understand, many dark-types go out of their way to track Lucario—making sure to avoid the one Pokémon that can read them like a book with only a glance. Riolu needs only to touch you to gain the same insight."
Luca hesitated on her way to Isle. "Um. Are you sure we need to do this? She's terrified, and I don't even need to be touching her to feel that."
"It's the only remaining option she's given us, Riolu. We must."
"…OK." Luca continued forward, finally breaching Isle's radius. She approached her respectfully, raising a hand towards Isle's forehead.
Dante was carefully watching the proceedings, but still struggled to fully track the rapid movement that ensued. In an instant, sharp shards of ice tore through Isle's mask on their way towards Luca's head. Luca screamed with fear, but the direction of the sound abruptly switched to somewhere off to Dante's right. In Luca's place, Mini held up a shield of psychic energy that shattered the icy projectiles—his eyes glowing and his ears up, exposing the psychic glands underneath.
Wasting no time, Isle let out a cry of desperation as she swung her restrained arms like a large metal club as she leapt towards Mini. He disappeared as she grew near and was instantly replaced by Lann. Lann used his left hand to catch the heavy restraint with a dull thud before placing his right on Isle's forehead.
"Well, we tried," Lann sighed. Before she could react, he forced Isle to the ground via her head. Vines rapidly sprouted from the earth and tightened around her, almost entirely covering her body as she lay on her back.
Only then did Dante's mind fully track what had happened in what only amounted to a few seconds at most. Mini had rapidly made use of a technique called ally switch, effortlessly swapping the Pokémon in the tent to their advantage. He had a terrifying mastery of it—Dante couldn't even imagine anyone fighting Mini and Lann at the same time, let alone when Absol was commanding them.
"Sorry for the scare, Riolu," Lann continued as he looked over to Dante's right. "I really didn't think she would lash out like that."
Luca was sat where Mini was originally standing. She appeared out of breath, and her eyes were still wide with the fear of death. Still, she seemed to have calmed herself down enough to respond: "T-that's OK… thanks for saving me."
"Thank Meowstic," Absol said. "Are you able to continue, Riolu? We can do this another time if necessary, but it's perfectly safe."
"No, let's, uh," Luca stuttered as she finally stood. "Let's get this over with."
"OK," Absol nodded. "Let me know when you're ready for questions."
As Luca again approached Isle, Dante couldn't help but revisit his earlier thoughts. Really, he understood why they needed to do this—like Absol said, they weren't left with any other option to learn about Luca. But still—seeing Isle completely bound and knowing she was terrified while Luca stood over her felt deeply wrong. The feeling was only worsened when Isle finally spoke.
"Please don't," Isle begged pathetically, all pretense gone. "I can't tell you, but you don't have to do this to me."
Dante watched Luca's hand shake with indecision for a moment, but in the end she gently placed it on Isle's shoulder. Then, as always, the teardrop appendages slowly rose as Luca closed her eyes and opened herself to Aura.
When the teardrop appendages were level with her head, Luca scrunched her eyes as if she was staring into the sun despite her eyes already being closed. She must have been blinded by seeing a full-sized Aura for the very first time, and very quickly, it seemed that she grew used to it. Replacing this blinded expression, however, was one of confusion and interest. This kept up, so Dante figured that she must be getting lost in the intricacies of Isle's Aura.
After a few quiet minutes, Absol spoke: "Riolu?" she called quietly.
"…Huh?" Luca said in the subdued voice she had whenever she tried to speak while looking at Aura. "Oh, sorry, I'm ready."
"We'll start simple, then. Is your mission to kill this Riolu?"
"Yes," Isle begrudgingly said.
"Um," Luca began. "She felt something like 'Of course it is, you stupid Absol', so it's probably the truth. Oh, and now she's shocked how accurate I was… aaaand now she's filled with rage."
"I see," Absol said, impassively. "Riolu, you don't need to give me the play-by-play. You can just share your judgement."
"Oh, OK."
"Good. Next question: do you want her dead or does someone else?"
"Someone else."
"That's the truth," Luca added.
"And do you know why she's wanted dead?"
"Yes," Isle hissed through clenched teeth.
"Truth."
"Do you know who wants her dead?"
"Yes. Are all of these questions really necessary? You're not going to learn anything."
"We'll see," Absol said. "Riolu?"
"Truth."
"OK. Were you hired by a Pokémon currently employed by the Explorer Coalition?"
"…No."
The tent was silent. "Riolu?" Absol asked.
"Sorry, this one doesn't make much sense to me. I don't think she knows."
"She knows who hired her but doesn't know if they're working here?" Absol asked, confused. "How is that possible?"
"She said she knew who wanted Riolu dead," Lann pointed out. "Which is technically different. Hey Isle, are they two different Pokémon?"
This time, Luca had to break the silence since Isle stayed silent under the tight vines: "Yes, they are. And Isle is quite upset that we figured that out."
"Hmm…" Absol hummed thoughtfully. "So, what are the possibilities? Someone hired her on behalf of someone else or she works for an assassin organization or some such? I'm not familiar with how assassins typically operate."
"Neither am I, actually," Lann admitted. "We could ask our head analyst, maybe, as well as if there are any known rings."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Absol said as she turned her attention back to Isle. "Are you employed by a group, and was this assassination an assignment from it?"
Dante could see Isle flexing against the vines furiously, but to no avail.
"Yes to both," Luca reported.
Absol sighed. "That's a significant piece of information. We're done for today, then. I think it's best if we educate ourselves on assassin rings before we continue. Go ahead and step away, Riolu."
Luca finally opened her eyes, blinking twice before padding out of Isle's range.
"OK, let her go, Sceptile," Absol instructed once Luca was clear. "We'll be back tomorrow. I advise you reevaluate your willingness to cooperate so we don't need to do this again."
As all five of them filed out, Dante, who was last in line, turned back. Behind him, Isle was released from the vines. She sat up and returned to sitting against the stake. While she was moving perfectly naturally—casually, even—she was specifically avoiding looking in their direction. Dante didn't need Aura reading to know that within Isle was a cacophony of complex emotions. Rage, fear, hurt, shame, disgust—all of them must be swirling around in her, and as Absol said, she would be feeling them to an extreme degree. Dante felt sure: if Isle was ever given the opportunity, she would gut every Pokémon currently leaving the tent.
Regardless, there was nothing for him to do. Dante was already present for the interrogation, so he had to trust that the Explorer Coalition was capable of keeping her long enough to get what they needed and hand her over to a more proper authority.
"OK, we're far enough," Absol said as she stopped the group in a clearing in the camp—one apparently devoid of any eavesdroppers. "Listen close, all of you—I have new orders. First, Mini, you'll be coming with me. We need to select someone from the teams currently in camp that we can trust to make a quick run to Nineteen. Lann, you're on security duty—make sure Isle doesn't escape, that no one comes for her, and that no one comes for Luca. Dante, just so we cover our bases I'll have you search the archive for anything on assassin rings. Finally, Luca, you may do as you please. If you feel up to it, help Dante search. Otherwise, prepare yourself for more Aura reading tomorrow. Is everyone clear on their orders?"
After five affirmations, Absol nodded. "Good. Dismissed."
As the clearing emptied and the camp leaders split off towards their respective tasks, Dante shared a glance with Luca. She looked at him meaningfully with her piercing red eyes. Then, she turned away to walk towards the archives and motioned for him to follow. It was time for their daily review, and it was certainly going to be an interesting one.
