Chapter 15: Crystal

Much for Crystal's disappointment, Eusine easily dodged the Hard Stone she had thrown at him. She growled, and reached for another item in her bag. Handily, it was an Everstone, so it was pretty hard as well. Crystal lobbed it at Eusine with all her strength. This time it hit, but just his arm. Crystal didn't have time to feel satisfied though, since Eusine started laughing. Obviously, there was no other way to make him take her rage seriously but to yell at him.

" Oh, stop laughing you idiot! It's not the least bit funny!" she screamed, and was about to throw a Super Potion at him. However, Eusine was quick, and before she managed to throw the time, he had run across the room and grabbed her hand. Crystal struggled, but couldn't move it. She hissed at Eusine, but he just smiled meanly. Crystal felt her rage grow by every moment.

" Calm it, milady. You're going to wake up the whole building", Eusine chuckled, as Crystal stared into his eyes feeling pure anger.

" Who cares? You're the one to blame, after all!" she hissed at him. Eusine laughed, and Crystal felt the urge to roar at him.

" Oh, please. You can't seriously mean you got angry because I gave you my cape? I just didn't want you to get cold, lady!" Eusine chuckled, as he made sure Crystal didn't escape his grip. She was struggling, though. It'd be just a matter of time before she'd free herself, she was sure.

" That's exactly why I'm angry! Do you realize how annoying it is when you do something like that?! I bet you'll ask me to repay you, or if not, you'll at least make sure to bother me with it for the rest of my life!" Crystal hissed angrily.

Eusine blinked his eyes in surprise, but then took on a dramatic tone of voice.

" My goodness, lady Crystal! How lowly you think of me! Of course I wouldn't do something like that!" he whined, with his eyes closed. However, he didn't loosen his grip one bit, much to Crystal's frustration.

" Oh, really?" Crystal hissed, and didn't bother to hold down the sarcasm in her voice.

" Why, of course! I only wanted to assure you a secure sleep, so that you wouldn't catch a cold. Well, of course, since I did such a noble thing, I obviously earn the right to remind you of it a few times in the future, but that's just…" Eusine then continued. Whatever part of Crystal had calmed down was now lit to the flames of rage once again.

" I knew it! I knew it! You're so going to get it!" she screamed, and started struggling with all her might. And just when she was about to free herself (she had already decided to throw her Full Restore at him), Eusine successfully changed the subject.

" But this is astonishing, milady. Now that you've let out such noise, one would think that lady Tamao would already have come to see what is going on. It seems that she can sleep rather deeply. I'm actually rather surprised…" he chatted peacefully, while using his whole strength to keep Crystal from attacking him.

It worked. The rage in Crystal's eyes vanished, and her wrists relaxed. She looked towards the door of her room, the one Eusine had entered a few minutes earlier just to nearly get hit by a Hard Stone. It was true; Tamao wasn't around. Somehow, Crystal had expected her to be there even before Eusine. It was extremely unlikely for her still to be sleeping after Crystal screaming so loudly.

" I hate to say it, but you're right. I thought for sure she'd be an early bird… Somehow, sleeping long just doesn't fit her personality", Crystal unintentionally loosened her grip completely, and didn't manage to attack Eusine before he had already gathered every single object from the floor, and even taken Crystal's bag.

Eusine, while trying to keep his hold on all the things he had acquired to assure his own safety, looked at the door too.

" I agree. This is slightly mysterious. I hope it is natural though; it's be very unpleasant if she would have caught a fever or alike. It was quite cold at night…" Eusine stopped himself from speaking anymore, probably because Crystal gave him a really nasty look. She meant it too; she did not want to hear one word about last night.

After glaring at Eusine for a while, Crystal relaxed her eyes and sighed.

" Well, let's go check on h- I mean, wake her up", she stated peacefully, Eusine made a bow (apparently to express his approval), much to Crystal's annoyement. However, she quickly came up with a good revenge.

" Okay then. Since you were as kind as to collect my things, you might as well carry them for me!" she laughed, and marched out of the room before Eusine managed to do anything.

Crystal walked quickly, so that Eusine couldn't catch up with her. She knew which room Tamao had taken, so it was no problem at all to her. The problem arose when the familiar door appeared ahead of her; should she knock, or was it okay for her to go in? Now she was unsure. However, she didn't want Eusine to notice her hesitating, so she just marched into the room before he managed to catch up on her.

" Tamao! Wake up!" she chirped happily, only to notice that no-one was listening to her. The room was empty; there was nothing that hinted towards Tamao there. Not even her bag.

" Eh… huh?" Crystal gasped in surprise. This was not what she had expected.

Eusine appeared from behind her. He made a tiny gasp too, and Crystal could imagine the melodramatic, surprised expression that had most likely just risen to his face.

" Where could she have gone…?" Eusine asked after a moment of stunned silence.

Crystal just stared at the empty room in surprise. She had no idea what to think. This was just wrong; it couldn't be. Tamao wasn't, well, she was sure she wasn't, the type to disappear all of a sudden. Had she been kidnapped or something? No, highly unlikely. But Crystal still doubted she had just grown bored to them and left. Sure, it wasn't impossible for her to grow bored to them, but to just leave…. No. Didn't sound right.

" Maybe… She's taking a walk?" Crystal voiced the only possible explanation. Eusine didn't say anything, but Crystal knew he agreed.

Though Eusine and Tamao were not exactly the best of friends, he did know Tamao better than Crystal did. And since Crystal knew that the impression she had of the girl went together with how Eusine had described her to be, she knew there was no other possible explanation. Tamao had probably just gone for a walk, the early bid she was, and lost the track of time (though something as careless as that didn't quite seem right for her either…).

Crystal didn't realize it now, but when she later thought about it, she understood that her face was very worried at the moment, even more worried than she actually felt. At least, felt consciously. Even she couldn't know what was going on under the surface of her knowledge. A human mind is a mysterious thing, and Crystal never wished to dive too deeply in to it. She let her feelings come to her as they pleased. In the end, it didn't really matter to her. As long as she felt something, it was well enough for her.

Even so, it was probably a reaction to this worried expression when Eusine suddenly started speaking in a voice slightly more annoying than usual.

" Well, let's go find her, then! I refuse to eat breakfast without her, that would be plain rude, and she could even be lost! No, hurry, milady! Let's go, let's go!" he blabbered off. He started pulling Crystal away from the room, leading her out of the house.

" I can walk by myself, thank you!" Crystal snapped at him faintly, and pulled herself free from his grasp. She was pretty sure Eusine sighed dramatically back then, but she wasn't really paying attention. She was lost in her thoughts, so she just settled to following Eusine silently.

Crystal was not sure what this odd feeling crawling inside her was, but it was spreading. It made her feel uneasy, but she couldn't quite put her finger to it. She could not even feel it clearly. It was like the ominous mist that had appeared back in the forest that day, whatever it was. It swirled around her as a great enigma, not revealing anything about itself. Anything other than that it was very unpleasant. Though it did not make her faint, like the mist had done, it made her feel sick. Not physically ill though; mentally sick.

Therefore, she was hardly paying attention when they said their thanks to the owner of the house and left. The air outside was slightly cool, maybe even a little cold. The ground was wet, so it was clear that it had rained.

" Or snowed…" Crystal suddenly thought, for no apparent reason. However, she felt like laughing at herself after thinking that. Snow? During this season? No way. What was she even thinking? If she remembered correctly, the chance of it snowing around these times was around five percent or so.

For some reason, the thought of snow had caused this mysterious feeling to grip even harder to Crystal's chest. She could feel it clearly, but she didn't understand it any more. It worried her, but she didn't give too much thought to it, as that only seemed to make it worse. Either it was that she was merely worried of Tamao, or then this was some feeling pushing through her consciousness. You never knew of those things.

Even though she was trying to force herself to think of other things, Crystal still realized she just barely snapped out of he deep thought when Eusine suddenly turned towards her.

" Nothing."

" Huh?" Crystal exclaimed in surprise, staring at Eusine's extremely serious face.

" Nothing", Eusine repeated, maybe a tad too slowly. It really annoyed Crystal.

" We've been walking all morning for nothing. Lady Tamao is nowhere to be found. I'm quite sure I've asked everyone in Mahogany, but not one pair of eyes has seen her. Where on earth could she have gone?" Eusine continued, apparently ignorant of Crystal's annoyance.

" We've been walking all morning?" Crystal asked in great surprise. For her, it had felt like a mere few minutes, definitely not like all morning. Maybe Eusine was just being impatient?

Eusine stared at her weirdly for a moment before replying.

" We headed off the house at 8 o'clock. It is now…" Eusine checked a golden pocket watch before continuing his sentence.

" A quarter past twelve."

Crystal could only stare at Eusine. No way! They had been walking for four hours? Impossible! How come her feet weren't sorer than this? How come her thoughts had gone on without repeating so long? What was this, some kind of a joke? Was Eusine trying to trick her?

But no. Crystal could now clearly see that Eusine was speaking the truth. The light was much clearer than it had been when they left, since the sun was shining from the top of the round-looking sky. The ground was already dried out, and Crystal could feel a tiny hint of hunger. She hadn't eaten breakfast, after all.

Ignoring that, Crystal quickly shifted her attention to Tamao. Or rather, the fact that there was no Tamao around.

" Oh, that's odd… Where on earth has she gone? Err… Maybe… She's gone back to the house?" Crystal suggested quickly, a little too desperately, even.

In normal situations, Eusine would have sighed now. However, this time, his face was covered in a serious, worried expression. Crystal felt weird when looking at him.

" Haven't you been paying any attention at all? We've already gone back to the house twice, just to hear she hasn't been there", he said slowly, staring Crystal into the eyes.

" O-oh…" Crystal muttered, not even sure what to think, let alone what to say.

" Well… I… Uh…" she stumbled with her words, with a voice so quiet she doubted Eusine even heard her words.

" Really, what is wrong with you, milady? Surely this can't be exhaustion, as you were so full of energy this morning", Eusine said slowly, with his serious tone sounding off with his slightly goofy choice of words.

Crystal felt a small burst of anger.

" Well, thanks for deciding that for me! Didn't it occur to you that I maybe exhausted myself in the morning, thanks to you! Now, I might have been half asleep for this whole time, but that doesn't mean I want to waste my time standing around here when Tamao is still nowhere ot be seen! So get your lazy feet moving!" she hissed at Eusine, and passed him in great anger.

For a while, she wasn't sure if Eusine was following her, but upon hearing his usual soap-opera-sigh, she knew he was back to his normal, not-serious-annoying self. Just how it should be.

Crystal was strictly denying herself from falling into her thoughts again, as she marched through the town, towards Route 44. She didn't want to fall into this weird zombie-state again for four hours. It was apparent that Tamao had probably gotten lost. Though it seemed to be the most unlikely thing to happen to anyone like her, Crystal was sure about it. And she wanted to find her; she was really getting hungry, now that she wasn't concentrating on this weird feeling still spreading in her mind.

Route 44, if possible, was even colder than Mahogany had been. Even though the sun had already made Crystal feel almost warm, the moment she stepped into the route she felt cold again. This was not very surprising to her, though; after all, it was the route where the Ice Path began. It was natural for it to be slightly colder there than in the surrounding areas.

Time had completely changed pace now. It had just rocketed by when in town, but now every minute felt like the four hours that had been left completely unnoticed by Crystal.

" Making me feel bad for dozing out like that, I guess…" Crystal though bitterly, as she looked around hopelessly. No Tamao around.

" I refuse to stand this much longer. Has she really ditched us?" Crystal muttered. To her surprise, Eusine did not ask her more, even though he had probably heard that she was muttering something.

Feeling suspicious, Crystal turned to look at Eusine. To her surprise, he was holding her PokeNav in his hands, and the little machine was beeping as he went through the options.

" Hey!" she shrieked in surprise, Eusine looked up quickly, in surprise too.

" When did you get that?!"

Eusine looked at her with those annoying serious eyes again, but this time they had some pity in them too.

" Although this clothing might make me look like a butler of some sort…" she started bitterly.

" I'm surprised that you admit it…" Crystal thought, but kept her moody expression on, as she really wanted her PokeNav back.

" …I have to say I am quite insulted that you use me as a servant without even realizing it."

" And what on earth could you mean by…" Crystal started furiously, but that was when she spotted her bag on Eusine's left shoulder. She thought after, and realized she had never taken it back from him after he had seized it to prevent her from throwing the items in it at him.

Crystal stared at Eusine, moving her mouth without getting any words out.

" You carried it this whole time?" she finally managed to ask.

" I'm glad that you finally realized that. Maybe I'll even get some appreciation, hnn? Or is that too much to ask?" Eusine sounded and looked like a sulking little kid. However, that wasn't what annoyed Crystal this time.

" Well, why didn't you just throw the thing at me?! I never asked you to sacrifice yourself!" she shouted angrily.

Eusine looked away, so Crystal had no chance to read his expression.

" I didn't think it'd be polite of me to throw a heavy bag at a girl who was clearly dozing out… whether it was out of exhaustion or something else, I don't know", he answered faintly.

Before she managed to stop herself, Crystal sighed. Very melodramatically.

" I just don't get you sometimes… Well, most of the time, actually", she mumbled, and walked up to Eusine. She tugged gently at her bag, pulling it off his shoulder, and then lifted it to her back.

" Even so…" she then said.

" That doesn't give you the right to play around with my things! What are you even doing?"

Eusine showed her the screen of the PokeNav. Crystal didn't have to look closely to realize it was the list of the phone numbers she had gathered. She was surprised actually; for Eusine to get such a normal and rational idea.

" What? You're going to call her? Didn't you think of it before this? Also, I don't think I have her number…" she said slowly, cursing herself for not asking Tamao's number. She was pretty sure she had a PokeGear, at the very least.

Eusine shook his head.

" I'm well aware that we are unable to contact lady Tamao this way. However, I'm not trying to call her, to be honest", he answered as slowly, probably just out of the habit of annoying Crystal.

" Then who are you calling?"

Eusine stopped going through the list. Crystal took a look at the name above the number. Somehow, it caught her completely dumbstruck.

" Silver?" she asked in disbelief.

The thought " Why do I even have his number…?" quickly appeared to her head, but Crystal shook it off rather quickly, and concentrated on trying to make Eusine see her utter confusion.

" Yes. Silver", Eusine answered dramatically.

" Silver?"

" Silver indeed, milady."

Crystal just shook her head, took a step backwards and stared. Eusine, however, did not look like he was joking. He looked rather serious.

" Why?" Crystal finally managed to ask.

Eusine definitely had pity in his eyes now.

" Do you not se, milady? He was with us yesterday, in that cave. And when we got separated from lady Tamao, it is clear that he was with her for quite some time. The unsociable lad that he is, I find it a likely sing that he has taken some kind of an interest to lady Tamao", he spoke, as if Crystal was a five-year-old. However, she was too surprised to actually care about it.

" So what? You think he marched into the house at night and kidnapped her or something?" she asked sceptically.

Eusine shook his head, looking desperate.

" Oh, lady Crystal! You're being way too dramatic!"

" Look who's talking…" Crystal thought bitterly, feeling the urge to punch Eusine raising its head once again.

Eusine started talking again, in his simple-explanation-voice.

" All I am saying is that there is a chance of him knowing of lady Tamao's whereabouts. I know it's rather slim, but it's better than running around out here in the cold."

" We could just fly, and search in the air, you know", Crystal said, even though she had considered it as her last resort.

Eusine shook his head again.

" That is much more difficult than just making a simple phone call", he said peacefully.

" Simple?! You know what that guy is like! He probably thinks I'm going to challenge him or something if he sees me calling!"

" Well, that misunderstanding can be easily sorted, can it not?"

It took Eusine another while to convince Crystal. Usually, she would have refused, no matter how he tried. However, she was rather tired and cold now. And hungry. Also, the strange emotion inside her was getting so wide it was trying to steal her attention away again. And Crystal didn't want to lose her focus to it. So basically, she had no other choice but to agree to do it. Obviously, Eusine refused to talk to the boy himself, since he considered Silver hardly worth his time. So all the hard work was left to Crystal.

The PokeNav beeped a few times, before Crystal heard the wind blowing on the other end of the call. It seemed that Silver was somewhere high up, probably on a mountain or something.

The boy sounded as stunned to answer this call as Crystal was to make it.

" What the…?" were his glorious opening words.

Crystal sighed harshly, and started speaking quickly.

" Yes, Silver, it's me. And no, I'm not going to battle you. Not now, most likely not ever. I'm only calling you because I was persuaded to."

" By who?" Silver sounded extremely suspicious, and Crystal got the feeling that he was questioning the fact that he was awake.

" By Eusine. Yes, by Eusine. No jokes, please. Look, I don't like talking to you any more than you like talking to me, so let's just get this over with", she answered dryly.

" Hey, you're the one calling me! So if you don't like it, I won't mind if you just…" Silver started to sound so angry Crystal realized she had to get this over wit before he'd barge to where she was and start attacking her.

" Listen. Have you seen Tamao?" she asked shortly.

Silver fell silent for a short moment, but then spoke again with his usual angry voice. A tad too quickly.

" Tamao? Who the heck-? Ah, that black-haired girl who was with you?"

Crystal didn't know if it was just the speed of his voice or something else too, but she was certain that Silver was hiding something.

" Quit messing around. You spent a long time with her in Mt. Mortar, surely she told you her name", she spoke even more dryly than before.

Silver made a small gasp, but got himself together quite quickly.

" Look, how am I supposed to remember the names of your little friends?!" He nearly screamed at the other end of the line.

" Well, I just expected you do, taking how much you like her", Crystal hated going along Eusine's theory, but currently. Her own observations supported the theory that Silver was indeed interested in Tamao somehow. How, well, what did she care?

Silver snorted again, this time loudly.

" And what exactly do you mean by that?" his voice sounded surprisingly calm, yet Crystal could feel fury radiating through the coolness.

" I mean to ask you, have you seen her after yesterday?" Crystal, instead, actually remained cool when asking this once again.

It was clear that crystal was winning this little argument, and Silver too apparently had ot admit it. He sighed, not in an Eusine way, but in a sincere, angry way. Then, he started talking in a defeated voice.

" Yeah, I kinda saw her this morning…" he sounded almost ashamed.

" Oh?" Crystal asked. She was a little surprised actually.

" Don't 'oh' me! She was taking a walk or something, and when I tried to talk to her, she just decided to get back to you guys. Must be out of her mind, that girl… Who'd want to see you, especially that annoying…" Silver hissed, clearly though his teeth, but Crystal interrupted him purposely with a cough. Although she had to agree in the Eusine being annoying part, she didn't want to blabber any more with Silver than absolutely necessary.

" So she was going to return to where we were?" she asked coolly.

" She hasn't? Well, can't blame her. I'd ditch you if I were her. Listen, you got your answer, and I'm not in the mood of being told off by you." And with those words, Silver ended the call, leaving Crystal listening to the slightly irritating beeping of the PokeNav.

" That guy really has no manners…" Crystal sighed, as she closed the PokeNav. However, that was when she started to figure out what she had just heard.

Tamao had apparently gone on a walk. So they had been right about that. And annoyingly, Eusine had been right in the fact that Silver had seen her. However, there was still one thing that didn't match: Silver said she had been about to return to the house. Then where on Earth was she? Yes, it was possible that she had gotten lost, but Crystal still couldn't help but to find that unlikely. So why hadn't she returned? Had she really just decided to run off doing something more important? Had Johto just ended up being too full of painful memories for her, forcing her to suddenly depart to Sinnoh? No, still too unlikely.

Then… Could it be… That someone had prevented her from returning? Someone or something…? Had something happened to her on her way back?

" No. No way. Tamao can take care of herself", Crystal convinced herself in her mind, and turned to look at Eusine.

Only to notice that Eusine was not there.

" He-hey! What?!" Crystal gasped, and nearly stumbled in shock.

What was this? People just kept disappearing at random! First Tamao had wandered off somewhere, and now Eusine?!

At first, Crystal could almost feel annoyed panic rising in her, but that was when she noticed a little piece of paper attached to her shoulder. She ripped it off quickly, and read it even quicker.

Milady,

As you spoke, I noticed that you looked extremely pale.

Therefore, I have gone off to buy us some breakfast.

Aren't I just charmingly generous?

You just keep on searching for lady Tamao, and I'll

Catch up with you later. Don't worry, I will find you.

Love, Eusine

Said that annoying piece if paper.

" Oh jeez, Eusine!" Crystal hissed to the air, feeling more annoyed than in a while. Eusine really knew how to make others do the hard things. Going to buy food, on a time like this?! Oh, he was so going to regret this later!

This newfound anger gave Crystal a whole bunch of energy. Cursing Eusine in her mind in all possible ways, Crystal stomped along the cold route. She passed the Ice Path twice, and at one point she even resorted to shouting Tamao's name. She was too angry to ask the people who passed by (she didn't want to scare them, as they had nothing to do with her anger, yet she found it impossible to calm down). However, that didn't mean she didn't attract attention. After all, Crystal would regret her attitude later, when Eusine would constantly tease her about the rumours of an enraged girl stomping around Route 44. However, she didn't know it at this time, so she could not prevent this.

After a while of stomping, Crystal decided it was appropriate of her to kick a rock. So she did too; she put a lot of force into that kick, and would probably have been proud of the strength in her, if the rock wouldn't have caught her attention. Actually, the fact that it wasn't a rock was what caught her attention.

The object had flown pretty far, but it didn't take long for Crystal to retrieve it. For her surprise, the item she had thought to be a rock was a pokeball. And not just any, accidentally dropped pokeball either; it was a used pokeball. With a pokemon inside.

" How can anyone be so careless they'll drop something like this?" Crystal mumbled, as she started searching for an object that had not been used for a long time.

It took her a while, but eventually she found it on the bottom of her bag. Her old Pokedex. She had not used it in five years, but she had not had the heart to throw it away. After all, there were so many good memories that were closely related to this pokedex… and it was a bit too valuable to just toss aside carelessly.

Slowly, Crystal picked the function she had always used when checking the stats of the pokemon in her team. She rarely battled these days, so she didn't need it either, but now it really came in handy when finding out what had happened to this poor pokemon.

To her surprise, the picture of a Leafeon appeared to the screen of the Pokedex. A rather powerful Leafeon. And nicknamed too.

" Oh my…" Crystal gasped.

" This pokemon has definitely no been abandoned purposely. This strong, and nicknamed… No, the trainer must be missing him by now. Let's see…" she thought, and pushed onwards on the pokedex. A screen indicating the status of the pokemon appeared to the screen of the pokedex.

Upon seeing that the pokemon was in full health, Crystal shifted her focus to the part that read "OT", the original, and probably current, trainer of this pokemon.

Crystal felt a wave of shock, exactly as powerful as electricity run through her body when she read the name. She had to read it again, and again, and again, and every time the shock was just as bad. She couldn't believe her eyes. No… It was more. She rejected the thought with her whole existence.

Tamao.

The trainer of this pokemon was Tamao.

" Wh-wha-? Wh… Why…?" Crystal barely managed to get out of her mouth.

Crystal looked around furiously, only, to her horror, notice two more pokeballs close to the place she had kicked this one from. With her head empty as void, she rushed back to them, and checked both of them with her pokedex.

Inside those two pokeballs resided Glaceon, called Clacia, and Murkrow. Both owned by Tamao.

This made it clear for her. She might not have known Tamao, but she knew this; Tamao would not just wander off and abandon her pokemon. She was too close to them to do that. Crystal had seen it back at the pond. She had not just dropped them off here and left; something had happened to her. Crystal was certain of it. Something had happened to Tamao.

Something… But what? What would cause a trainer disappear like this, leaving only her pokemno behind? It didn't make any sense… No sense at all…!

Crystal felt her knees fail, and found herself on the ground, shaking. This was weird, it was scary, and it definitely gave her the creeps. Why did this happen to her? Why did this happen to Tamao? What was even going on? Why…?

Suddenly, Crystal could hear the sound of the cold grass around her rustling. She looked up from the pokeballs she had been staring desperately, as if hoping them to tell her where their owner was, just to see a slender pokemon walking towards her.

It took her a while to recognize it. Not only had she not expected to see an Espeon walking around in the wild, but this was no normal Espeon either. The fur of this pokemon was bright green, not purple as it usually was. Crystal was utterly speechless when she stared at the pokemon, as its green fur shone in the sunlight.

She had only seen one pokemon like this before. Long ago, in the Lake of Rage…

The Espeon stopped in front of her, and sat down. It gazed Crystal with its deep eyes, not giving her a chance to think anything. It seemed like the moment lasted forever; the Espeon just stared deep into Crystal's eyes, and she couldn't do anything but to stare back… In despair…

Then, all of a sudden, the Espeon raised its head. It made a sound that sounded oddly satisfied, and got up. The Espeon waved its double-peaked hand at Crystal, and made a strange expression. And expression that reminded her of a smile… or a leer.

Then, the mysterious pokemon just started walking off. Crystal was too surprised, too shocked, too overwhelmed and too confused to do anything about it. She just looked after the green Espeon, and then looked at the pokeballs in her hand. That was when she realized something.

The feeling that had been spreading through her mind all day, and still did. She recognized it. It was completely clear to her now, and she couldn't understand how she hadn't seen it earlier.

Unhappiness. Completely and utterly unexplained unhappiness.