Nuzleaf poked his head into the space he'd set aside for Quilava. "Hey, uh, how was school?"

Quilava, sitting quietly in his room looked up. "It was fine, I guess."

Nuzleaf nodded. "Good to hear, I done told you it wouldn't be too bad. Learn anything?"

Quilava shrugged.

Nuzleaf avoided a sigh. He opened the door a bit more and said, "You wanna come out here? I reckon I gotta talk to ya about something important."

Quilava didn't move immediately but shortly stood and clambered up onto two feet and wandered out. Nuzleaf stared awkwardly at him for a moment, closing the door and following him to the kitchenette area.

"So, uh, words been going 'round town 'bout something," Nuzleaf said, pulling milk out of an ice box and pouring them both a glass. "I done heard Riolu telling everyone who would listen that she's got herself a human buddy."

Quilava nodded.

Nuzleaf waited. "Uh, so that you?"

He nodded again.

Nuzleaf waited again. When no explanation came he took a swig of milk and sighed, "Can I ask why ya think that?" he asked carefully.

"I just know," Quilava answered. "When I woke up I knew two things. I'm human and my name is Kenji."

Nuzleaf immediately winced. "Ah, gosh, don't go telling people your name just like that, please."

"Why not?"

"That's, uh." He went a little red. "That's something that let the special people in your life know, not just… anyone 'cause if everyone's special to ya then no one is."

Kenji didn't really agree with that but he nodded. "Alright. Am I not supposed to say I'm human too?"

Nuzleaf took another sip and fixed a serious expression on his face. "No offence, kiddo, but ya got no proof and since the hassle on the Grass Continent leaked out, everyone and their momma's like to claim they're the new human."

"The Grass Continent?"

"Aye." Nuzleaf nodded. "We're on the Water Continent, smack dab in the middle of everywhere else. Four big other landmasses we call Air, Grass, Mist, and Sand Continents."

"Air and Mist are a little similar."

Nuzleaf smirked. "Heh, don't go saying that around anyone from those places, bit of a sore spot I think I've heard in a few bar fights before."

Kenji frowned curiously at him as Nuzleaf reminisced about a few funny fights he'd seen before clearing his throat. "Anyway. I done reckon you oughta keep your head down, don't go saying you're human. People will either not believe you or… will."

That seemed to be a problem. Kenji waited.

"Well, you see, the last times humans have popped up it's been right before some massive disaster. Team Go-Getters, Paradise, and all the hoo-ha on the Grass Continent." He winced. "I got front row seats to two of the disasters over there and decided I better move. Just in time too, avoided everything with all those Shadow Pokemon," he trailed off, grimacing a little.

He turned back to Kenji whose expression hadn't budged an inch. "So, if people start believin ya it could cause people to freak out!"

Kenji opened his mouth. "But what if something is happening?"

Nuzleaf hesitated. "I… kid, I don't… uh." He frowned, looking down. "Well. Let's just take it easy for now, you hear? There was always something going on that 'implied' something was going down in those earlier times I've heard and I ain't heard nothin bad going on lately!"

Kenji didn't seem too convinced but he gave a nod. "Okay, I guess that makes sense." He didn't want to freak people out. "What about Riolu? She knows."

"Well… she ain't exactly the most reliable source if I've heard anythin'," Nuzleaf replied. "Okay, that's about it. I'll rustle us up some grub and get to bed, I should be back earlier tomorrow so you ain't sitting in the house all alone. You can wander about too y'know? I'm sure you and Riolu could get into some trouble together."

He chuckled and then looked stern. "But not too much trouble, y'hear?"

Kenji smiled just a little and nodded.

Riolu skipped up to Mr Nuzleaf's house and began to pound relentlessly on the wooden door, sending cacophanous bangs through the little house until the wood almost began to splinter.

"WHAT IS it?" Nuzleaf snapped, shouting at first but softening as he realised it was Riolu. She blinked innocently up at him as he stepped aside and called. "Kiddo, the other kiddo's here."

Kenji finished eating some toast before hopping off the stool. Nuzleaf gave him a bottle of water and a snack for school and waved them off sheepishly.

Riolu grinned bouncing on her feet as she waited for him. "I can't believe we're walking to school together!" she chirped, delighted in the morning light. "No one walks with me except for pops before I told him I was old enough to walk myself! It's so cool, can we play I spy I've never played that before! I spy with my little eye."

He played along, guessing softly at a few things. She didn't say letters, she gave vague descriptions that he had to work out from. Apparently green and wavy didn't stand for grass. He eventually spotted a flag on the top of the town cafe's roof that was green and waving in the wind.

And it wasn't that either.

Riolu wasn't content to just be silent as he thought and guessed, oh no not at all.

She talked.

Quite a lot.

"You know I think you're super cool," she said as they entered the town. "You appeared like WOAH and you're like, super old but not old like pops is haha. People used to call me cute but I think being cool is so much cooler! Can you imagine being a Fire-type? I guess you can now. What was it like being human before, was it cool? I bet it was cool."

He didn't really have an answer. There was little besides static in his head when trying to hold onto memories. A few people were looking and so he muttered out. "Nuzleaf said we shouldn't talk about that," he said.

She glanced at him in surprise. "Aww, why not?"

"Said it might scare people or something."

"Hmmm." She thought hard for a moment before calling out. "LOMBRE? ARE YOU SCARED OF QUILAVA?"

Lombre looked over in confusion. "What?"

"See," she said as if that was a winning argument. Kenji wasn't even sure what the argument was.

As they passed the cafe, Kenji considered explaining it a little more when he had the chance between her chatterboxing.

Before he could even begin to formulate it, however, they caught wind of some of their classmates.

"-AND YOU'LL BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!"

That was Deerling and she was storming through the town with an expression of nearly-violent fury on her face. Gritting her teeth, nostrils flaring and stomping hard enough to leave craters in the ground.

Even adult pokemon didn't dare linger in her way.

Pancham and Shelmet were racing after her in a panic. "Nonononono!" Pancham cried, trying to catch up to her.

"Please don't," Shelmet whined, struggling to even keep pace with Pancham. "Please please pleeease!"

Deerling didn't respond, storming ahead until Pancham was able to get in front of her, bravely standing his ground as she looked to be considering trampling him. "Please, just, let us explain," he said urgently.

"Explain!?" Deerling shouted. "You can explain to AUDINO what your excuses are! You're not getting out of it this time, I am TELLING HER AND YOU'LL BE IN MORE TROUBLE THAN YOU'VE EVER BEEN BEFORE!"

Pancham looked almost ready to cry.

Shelmet caught up. "Please, Deerling, we'll do anything."

Hearing all this, Riolu came racing over with her arms waving. "What happened, what happened?"

"What happened?" Deerling shouted, causing Riolu to freeze in their tracks. "These knuckleheads tricked Goomy into entering a Mystery Dungeon! Foreboding Forest even! He hasn't come back yet and so I'm telling Audino so she can go help him and put these two." She gave a withering glare at the two. "Into so much trouble they'll never do anything again."

"Goomy is in Foreboding Forest?" Riolu gasped, not really hearing the rest. "We gotta go help him!"

Deerling blinked at her, stunned for a moment at everything else just being ignored. "Wha? No! You're not going anywhere near there! We're not wasting time rescuing you too!"

"Come on, Quilava!" Riolu insisted, turning to him and raising a fist. "We can help Goomy!"

"Are you even listening to me?"

Riolu turned back. "Yup! You said Goomy is in trouble. So, the sooner we save him the better! It might take you half an hour to get Audino and get back there with those two slowing you down and in a dungeon, every minute counts! We gotta go save him now!"

Seeing his out, Pancham nodded immediately. "Y-yeah, Riolu's right. For once," he muttered softly. "You gotta help Goomy right away, and no one's stronger than you, Deerling."

"Right," Shelmet added on. "He needs to be helped right away, you can't waste any time."

"That is," Deerling began, but then noticed Riolu and Quilava were already leaving. "H-Hey! Wait up, dammit you don't even know the way!" She raced after them as Shelmet and Pancham breathed a sigh of relief.

Deerling would still be mad but if Goomy was alright then no one could get in trouble, right? They skulked off to school, agreeing to try and try and distract the teachers to give them a chance to back to school on time with Goomy.

"And if you slow me down or get in my way!" Deerling continued to rant as they ran up to the entrance of Foreboding Forest.

The trees certainly lived up to the name, being ancient gnarled things heavy with vines and moss. The overbearing sweetness of rotting plants hung thick in the air and Kenji immediately began to grimace.

"Sure!" Riolu said cheerfully, barely seeming to listen to even a part of the rant. "Oooh, are we here!"

"Yes!" Deerling snapped. "Can't you see the distortion?"

Riolu shrugged as Kenji looked forwards curiously. Right between two trees that had grown like an arch, meeting each other in the middle hung a certain… mirage was the closest word he could think to describe it.

Like a panel of water laying suspended in the air, flat and facing them like a distorted mirror. "That is it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Deerling snorted. "Once you touch it you'll go in and once you go a bit in you can't leave without getting to the end, or an escape orb which none of us have. This is a bad idea, I can't believe I've done this."

"Nooo!" Riolu waved her off. "With all three of us, this'll be easy and we'll get Goomy in no time! We're like an exploration team together we are!"

Deerling scowled at her, she scraped the earth with a hoof, looking very angry but making no step towards the dungeon.

It was Kenji who walked forwards first. He'd gone through them with Nuzleaf, so he wasn't overly concerned.

"Woah, wait up!" Riolu called, racing after him and Deerling joined them right after, not wanting to be the one to back down.

"Get out of the way," Deerling said, pushing Kenji back a foot as she took the lead. "I've been in here before so I know what to do, stay close to me and let's try and avoid any fights we can."

"Aww, but how are we supposed to get stronger?" Riolu whined.

"We're looking for Goomy!"

"Oh yeah."

Deerling tossed her head in annoyance, pushing onwards without looking back to see if they were following. The three pokemon stepped through the dungeon entrance, Kenji curious at the feeling of nothingness as they stepped into the blur.

The area before them cleared up as they stepped through, forming ordered rows of trees making a passageway of sorts. Glancing behind him revealed the same distortion.

"Once we turn a corner," Riolu said cheerfully, undaunted by being in a dangerous location. "The entrance will be gone!"

"Why do you sound so happy about that?" Deerling growled.

"Because this is cool! We're gonna be heroes!"

Deerling didn't respond to that. To respond to everything was to invite madness upon her. Or, at the very least, Riolu.

"No difference," she thought frowning at the leaves around them.

There was no inner feeling when one transitioned from normal space to a dungeon. One simply was and then it was too late to turn back.

They learned through many history classes how ancient pokemon from before Lucario that this was among the greatest risks to their lives. Not knowing they had wandered in before it was too late.

The only way to get out now was to go all the way through. Or an escape orb but none of them had one and the chances of finding one was… unlikely.

Kenji frowned as he and Riolu hurried to keep pace with Deerling. With four legs, she could move pretty fast. Riolu zoomed after Deerling, arms behind her. "Wait up!"

While Kenji found himself awkwardly trying to keep pace. Two legs couldn't really go fast enough and four legs smushed his face into the grass more than once.

Neither glanced back to see if he was keeping up and he held his tongue, scampering after them as best as he could.

"So?" Riolu asked brightly, managing to keep up with Deerling as she did everything but outright run off to leave them in her dust. "What have you been up to?"

Deerling turned to her briefly, a twisting of her expression in confusion rather than contempt. "Are you seriously that right now?"

"Yep!"

Deerling shook her head. "Just keep your eyes on the path ahead."

"Ooh! I can try and sense forwards!" Riolu said excitedly. She squeezed her eyes closed and focused really hard and Deerling wordlessly scoffed, not wanting to wait around.

Riolu's tassels rose and they tried to feel like the great lucario before her. She got nothing besides a vague sense of irritation around her. "Oh, where's Kenji?"

Deerling grimaced as the name slipped out of a thoughtless mouth. "Don't say his-" She paused. "Wait, where is he?"

"Oh no!" Riolu gasped. "Did a feral get him? KENJI!?"

"D-Damn." Deerling's ears tilted down before she shouted, "QUILAVA? DON'T MAKE ME RESCUE YOU TOO!"

"KENNNJI!?"

The bushes rustled and Riolu gasped in excitement.

A stantler exited and immediately its horns began to buzz. Deerling, aware of the risk, clamped her eyes shut. "Don't look, don't look, don't look," she repeated.

Riolu, however, did not listen. "Closing your eyes is silly!" she declared and charged. "HAAA!"

The feral stantler snarled a torn sound. A sound like windpipes tearing, shrieking from drool-foamed lips. Its eyes were wide and bulging, crazed but not lacking its ability to command its arcane powers.

Riolu ran straight into the field of odd buzzing energy. A weight swiftly began to settle around her limbs, starting from her shoulders and dripping down as if freezing water begun dousing her limbs.

Limbs began to slow as they froze in chilling pressure, a fog entering her brain and the vision of the stantler began to blur out, replacing itself with-

Riolu screamed at what she saw, automatically still moving forwards, her palm still raised as the forceful energy built.

A ball of flame struck the stantler and it howled as fire licked its fur, staggering it and snapping its focus. The buzzing, the chilling weight, the thing Riolu saw suddenly snapped out and she was inches from it.

Reacting immediately, her palm bashed into the beast's nose and a shockwave of force blasted out, knocking it flying back. It groaned a wild and offended sound as it toppled, crashing over its own limbs into a pile.

It recovered swiftly but instead of fighting further, it turned tail and ran away.

Riolu sighed in relief, falling onto their bottom as Kenji came back into view.

"I heard you screaming," he said quietly as Deerling began to blink and shake her head.

Riolu looked up, blinking noctowlishly before leaping onto him with a tight hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she said excitedly. "That thing was like grrr and I was like hyaaah and then it turned into a nightmare and I totally scared out of my wits but then we beat it in the face haha!"

He patted her awkwardly on the back until she pulled back, grinning eagerly. "Hey, Deering, I found him!"

"He found you," Deerling said, turning her nose up. "Whatever, we're wasting too much time as it is. Don't get lost again."

"Don't go walking off without me," Kenji returned softly. Maybe too softly as Deerling didn't respond.

This time, Riolu stuck by Kenji and Deerling didn't charge off, the three keeping pace with each other.

It wasn't much longer before Deerling sighed, "I feel like we've come pretty far." She slowed to a near stop, shaking each leg individually to work out some tension. "...okay, Riolu can you like… do your thing?"

"My thing?" she asked.

Deerling bobbed her head back and forth. "The thing. With those." She pointed a hoof at Riolu who cocked her head.

"My nose?"

"The appendages!" Deerling snapped. "On the side of your head. Do the riolu sense thing."

"I can't really do that," Riolu chirped. "You can feel what I feel sometimes but I can't really do the opposite. I gotta evolve first!" Then she began doing air kicks. "And I'll be tall and so cool and just like Sean from Team Sunrise!"

Without hesitation, Riolu began to do what could only be described as fangirl as Deerling groaned. "Enough about Team Sunrise!"

Kenji looked between them. "We should remain focused," he suggested. "How much further is there to look?"

Deerling grit her teeth. "We might need to backtrack," she forced out. "Once we get to the end of this dungeon we can't turn back, only leave so if we don't find him we'll have to go all this way again."

"Oh! Dungeons don't usually shift if there's an outsider! Studies suggest that-"

"That the dungeon knows we're here," Deerling finished for her, taking the wind out of Riolu's sails. "We know that."

"I don't," Kenji pointed out. Deerling's expression flipped like a book being thrown down a ravine as Riolu beamed at him.

"See!" she said as if it was some grand victory.

Deerling closed her eyes. "Okay, whatever. Come on. Just… let's keep looking."

Thankfully, the dungeon was not a very large one and without needing to split up, the three ran into a dead end. One that had what they were looking for.

Goomy huddled in fear in the corner of a room, gnarled roots twisting all around building the idea of walls as branches and leaves sprung out of every surface that wasn't the ground.

Even the air above them was choked by twisting trees, consuming most of the light in their dungeon-twisted gluttony.

Goomy shivered where he sat, a damp piece of paper right by him as he gave off soft whimpers. Trying to remain quiet, unseen, unhurt as his body heaved. The slimy film on his body had begun to dry, some caked dirt mixed with small scratches from wounds he took getting this far.

Riolu, of course, ran in first, arms swinging as she shouted. "GOOMY!"

In Goomy's state, huddled, terrified, and hurt, he responded as well as anyone else might have guessed. He shrieked and let loose a stream of pressurised bubbles in self-defence. Riolu ran right into them and they popped with impressive force, knocking them onto their bottom.

"Ow," she grumbled, rubbing her hip as she stood up. "That was pretty strong! That was cool, Goomy! I was gonna ask how you even got this far on your own but that must be why! Why didn't you tell me you were this strong?"

"Goomy!" Deerling was the next to enter. She shoved Riolu aside and trotted up to him. Her arrival was less loud and sudden, but the tilt of her voice still had him flinching, quaking back for a moment before he recognised her.

"DEERLING!" Goomy cried, launching himself forwards and splatting into her. She was knocked a few steps back as he burst into tears. "I WAS SO SCARED! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY I CAME HERE, THANK YOU FOR COMING TO SAVE MEEEE!"

He was allowed to cry for about two seconds before Deerling exploded on him.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" she bellowed, stamping a hoof and causing Goomy to flinch back. "LISTENING TO THEM? COMING IN HERE ALONE?"

"I know right!" Riolu interjected, not even twitching when Deerling shot her a thunderous glare. "You got this far all on your own, Goomy! We had to come in together, haha." She nudged Kenji. "Well, I would have come in alone but these two wanted to come with. Still, all three of us and you got here all by yourself!"

Kenji walked over to where the paper lay and picked it up, observing it curiously. "I don't really understand the lettering," he admitted. "Or, I do but I don't get why. It says Goomy. I think."

Riolu raced to his side. "It does! Hey, good job." She nudged him again. "Your writing is messy, Goomy!"

"W-well, I, i-it's not like I have paws like…." He trailed off.

Deerling looked between them, wordlessly mouthing things that weren't leaving her mouth. The blase reaction to her outrage was visibly staggering her. "I-He-It." She gave a frustrated growl. "UGH! Whatever. Just, okay we have Goomy let's just go."

Rolling up the paper, Kenji was the closest to the exit of the room and found himself in front of the pack. Deerling refused to carry Goomy, but also was unwilling to take her eyes off him and Riolu found herself delighted at Kenji taking lead.

"Just keep going!" Riolu chirped. "It won't be much farther and then we'll be out of here!"

She was right. There was a lack of more ferals and Kenji walked without hesitation from room to room until they reached another darker cove.

"This is the end of the forest," Deerling said, speaking up again after a period of silence. "There's nothing here anymore. Once we turn and leave this room, we'll be out."

Kenji nodded and the four of them walked out of the Foreboding Forest.

When they reached the village, Pancham and Shelmet were hovering anxiously near the entrance they had left from and both almost sagged when they saw the four of them.

"Heeey!"

"What are you two doing here?" Deerling snarled.

"Well, we pulled a prank at school to distract the teachers," Shelmet quickly explained. "To try and give you guys some more time, no one's come looking for us yet so we'll probably get away with it!"

"Yeah!" Pancham beamed, swiftly sliding up next to Goomy. "Look at you, big guy. You even brought the paper back! Damn, we knew you had it in you!" He grinned with a lot of teeth.

"You look scary," Riolu said bluntly, poking one of his teeth. "You're being weird, you're never this nice."

"They," Deerling began, a level of pressure in his voice that caused Shelmet and Pancham to immediately flinch and Goomy look ready to start crying again. "Are. Trying. To. Suck up. To him. Thinking. It'll get them. Out of. Trouble."

Pancham opened his mouth to defend himself, but just a soft wheeze left him.

"Is it working?" Shelmet asked hopefully. He saw Deerling's expression and sighed, "It's not working."

Deerling took a breath in.

Fifteen minutes later, Pancham and Shelmet were in tears as Deerling continued to shout at them.

"-AND I'M STILL GOING TO TELL MISS AUDINO AND YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A DAY OFF AGAIN!"

"Pleeaase Deerling," Shelmet pleaded as Pancham got on his hands and knees. "Don't tell her! Please, she'll be so mad and we feel so bad we didn't think he'd actually do it!"

"We'll do anything!" Pancham swore, bowing several times, grovelling before her. "Anything at all! You can't tell Miss Audino, pleaaaase!"

Deerling looked ready to bite their heads off and she gave a long huff.

"I'm surprised there's not smoke coming out her nose," Riolu said at almost a whisper.

"I've never seen Deerling this mad," Goomy muttered, more in awe of the fury than afraid. Probably because it wasn't directed at him anymore.

Pancham and Shelmet continued pleading and eventually they convinced Deerling to drop it. At a very high price that had both of them grimacing as she sent them off ahead of them.

"Let's go, Goomy," she growled. "We're totally late for school."

"Because you were screaming for so long!" Riolu explained, failing to even blink when Deerling glared at her. "Is your voice okay?"

"Ugh." Deerling stomped off with Goomy in tow.

"Th-thank you for coming to help me," he whispered before slithering after her.

"It was a fun adventure!" Riolu assured him. He gave a doubtful look but didn't argue, racing after Deerling. "That was fun, wasn't it?" she asked Kenji.

He gave a half-shrug. "I guess. It was interesting."

"It was! We were so cool and Deerling really is cool when she isn't yelling at everyone… although I guess it was pretty cool seeing how long she talked without taking a breath I know I can't go that long!"

"We should get going," he replied.

"What? Oh, school. Ugh."

Watchog chewed them out for being 'Excessively late'.

/Any signs yet? ~ Dashing Ampharos/

Soothe had been staring at the message for longer than she'd like to admit. It had come just before the evening meal and she couldn't find an answer she was willing to give.

Putting it off for Future Soothe made her curse Past Soothe because now it had been hours and she hadn't responded. She was usually quite prompt, and she couldn't explain away an absence for much longer.

She knew what he was asking about because the preceding message was much of the same. She'd worked closely with the Expedition Society since she came to the Water Continent.

While Soothe was content to remain in the quiet Serene Village rather than utilise her skills for mapping the world or anything else she could help them with, the Expedition Society had slowly spread over the continent like a small wave in a pond.

Signs of their feet were all over the continent, spreading a great deal of technology to the rest of the continent. Partnered with Paradise through Jessica of course.

She had even seen the Pokémon Nexus which was an absolute marvel to see in this world. It almost reminded her of her faint human life, something so complex and almost magical that helped to link much of the continent.

If only they'd stop breaking it, but she couldn't judge that too harshly.

They knew everything she knew, she made sure not to repeat Scout's errors. They were the ones ready for Dark Matter and the teachers to hone the human and Mew into saviours.

"..."

She stared blankly at the gadget.

/Yes. ~ Audino/

The response came almost immediately.

/Ahhh, splendid! Splendid! Well, not too splendid unfortunately considering that must mean things are about to get complex, but at least we know now that they made it here despite the issues with time. I shall be along as soon as I can ~ Dashing Ampharos/

And there it was.

Her gut clenching, falling. Ampharos was a map-fearing clutz and could take anywhere from a week to a month to go from one place to another, but… he would be here sooner or later.

And she couldn't help but think about how young Riolu was.

/About that. I think you need to hold off for a bit. ~ Audino/

/Well, well, well? Why? ~ Dashing Ampharos/

/Nothing else has happened yet, I need to see if aspects of the 'story' will go as I remember them. It'll help us predict what's coming next and how to act. ~ Audino/

/A splendid idea! I may take the scenic route and give them more time to bond. Is Riolu still eager to join the Expedition Society? ~ Dashing Ampharos/

Thinking of how much Riolu talked about it, she replied with some reluctance.

/Yeah, she seems quite eager. Too eager, too young. ~ Audino/

/Too… Miss Audino, you seem troubled. ~ Dashing Ampharos/

She grimaced. Curse that quirky behaviour personality that was painfully good at reading people.

/I don't like the idea of them joining the Expedition Society. She's barely older than the kids I look after, and they're kids. ~ Audino/

His response took longer this time.

/Yes, I understand and agree on that. But, we both know there isn't much of a choice here. She's the only one that can actually destroy Dark Matter. It won't wait until she's older, and… can you really say she would ever be truly ready? ~ Dashing Ampharos/

That one stung a bit. She didn't agree. She never had. And they'd discussed the issue for years.

/Just take your time getting here. Goodnight. ~ Audino/

/Goodnight, Audino. ~ Dashing Ampharos/

She set the gadget down and fell into her bed with a groan. Troublesome thoughts played around her mind relentlessly and she would not sleep well that night.

She decided she had to go for a walk. Stepping out of her little house, she took a breath of the midnight air, fresh and cool in her lungs.

The dark didn't bother her but cramped quarters did. Everything in her house was open and as wide as she could have it. Even the nurses house attached to the school buildings was mostly just one room.

Soft lavender light glimmered at the tips of her fingers as she walked the dark path. It let off little light, but rather it looked like she was holding a few of the stars plucked from the night sky. She let the little ones believe that was the case, for as long as they would at least.

Her ears twitched frequently, instinctively swivelling around, taking in all the sound around her at an unmeasured pace. She was almost as aware of what was behind her as she was in front of her, those ears were powerful.

She knew that the kids had gone off into the Foreboding Forest. Dusk and Brisk still wouldn't stop messing with Nimbus. Part of her was curious at that, how the inherent cheekiness of the pancham just wouldn't be curbed. Perhaps she was too soft on him, she appreciated the attitude if she was being honest.

Better that he was unabashedly himself than forcing himself to be something else to fit in. If only that wouldn't manifest as almost-a-bully. He wasn't malicious, she would never believe that, but he was thoughtless of others.

And Brisk liked following him.

The part of her that was curious about it. That part that knew them as pixels on a game screen, not as the children she had watched grow for the past few years. She wondered if she guided them to this, that it was just inherent to who they were, or if the laws of the narrative were in effect.

Scout, after all, had visited many of the stations of canon on his journey despite how her influence could, or should, have affected things. He had spoken about what he learned from the Legendary Lucario, but Soothe herself only knew second-hand ideas.

Well. Regardless of what she believed, she knew Ampharos did. He was on his way. The serenity of Serene Village was reaching a swift and likely violent end. Part of her wanted to tell everyone to leave, to run, but the rest of her knew that wouldn't help.

She was prepared. She was ready. For the best outcome as well as backup plans for if things went awry.

She was ready.

She was ready.

She was ready.

She came to a stop at another door. Her feet had carried her here as her mind was distracted elsewhere. She hesitated, then cracked the door open a few inches.

She could hear them. The soft breathing of the kids she looked after.

She was ready.

But were they?

Soothe wasn't sure how long she stood there, watching and listening to them. Dreading what was coming. Hoping for the best, bracing for the worst. They were still kids. She was afraid.

Because she wasn't ready.