Chapter 33 - News

"Did I tell you that my cousin finally learned Bubble Beam?" Kona asked.

Ziggy glanced over at him. "No. I didn't even know you had a cousin."

"Oh yeah, she's about your age. She lives with her parents in Serene Village."

"That's nice," Ziggy said with a smile as he continued to walk alongside his companions. It was a pleasantly warm day in Radiant City. Even the rain-loving Ziggy had to admit that the sunshine felt good on his fur. He was out walking the streets with Kona and Lupe.

"You seem to be in a good mood today," the latter commented.

"Do I?" Ziggy replied pleasantly. Perhaps it was because he was walking with his forepaws resting laxly behind his head. He wasn't sure if he felt as carefree as he looked, but it felt like a comfortable thing to do in the moment.

Kona snickered softly. "C'mon, dude. Focus. We are on the job out here."

"I'm looking!" Ziggy replied playfully. He and the other two were out in Radiant City, just walking the streets and being on the lookout for anyone who needed help. It was something Carmen preferred to assign to guildmembers from time to time, especially to newer recruits. She reasoned that not everyone who needs help has the time or the ability to travel over to the guild and post a note on the board.

Ziggy had done this before with Sparks as a practice exercise. Today, though, things felt pretty lax and there wasn't much going on that required their attention.

"Still no sign of Nihilego-related trouble," Lupe remarked, "It's been weeks since something happened on that front. I'm definitely glad for that."

"It almost feels weird to say that things are kind of…normal right now."

"A big city like this forgets things easily… There's always something new going around here or there to keep everyone's mind occupied…"

"We've had enough excitement this year," Kona said, "Time to focus on more important things, like Ziggy getting his new badge soon."

Ziggy looked at Kona in surprise, then glanced away in mild embarrassment. "It's not for like another week…" he murmured.

"It might as well be today. You look like perfectly good bronze-badge material right now."

"Heh…"

Ziggy shook his head and glanced off to the side. They were passing by a row of very tall skyscrapers, and it still boggled Ziggy's mind a little to think of just how many Pokémon were living in each of them. Some of them had pretty little restaurants or other businesses on the ground floor, with flashy signs and colourful awnings. There always seemed to be something new and interesting to see in the city.

He then belatedly noticed all the Pokémon staring at him from across the street. He almost hadn't even noticed at all. By this point, he had gotten so used to it that he had to try to notice everyone's rude, invasive staring.

He often wondered what he had ever been afraid of. This was his third day out in the city in a row, and not a single Pokémon had done anything besides stare at him. Ziggy glanced down, again taking note of the grey badge that he proudly wore clipped to his fur. He then sighed softly.

"What's up?" Lupe asked, having heard him sigh.

"Oh, nothing," he said dismissively. When he caught the Vulpix looking at him in concern, he relented and said, "I just miss Dante a lot already…and I wish he could be here to see me get the bronze badge…"

"Aw, c'mon," Kona said, "You already know how proud he'd be of you."

"Yeah," Lupe agreed, "You've been doing really well lately. You're really coming out of your shell and being a lot braver."

"Thanks, guys," Ziggy said, giving them both a smile and a nod. It was the truth, after all. He had been making an effort to be more outgoing and active, he'd been taking his guild training even more seriously than before and, even though he loved the Raichu to bits, trying to do more and more without Sparks hovering near him all the time.

Honestly, he just felt like he was full of vigour lately. He was always thinking about the promise he had made to Dante. He thought about it on a daily basis from the moment he woke up and first opened his eyes. Ziggy actually felt like he was carrying that sword on his back, even though it wasn't actually there. Everywhere he went, everything he did, Ziggy could feel the spirit of Dante's sword resting on his back and pushing him forward.

And even though he couldn't actually use the sword to defend himself, Ziggy did know Aqua Jet now.

Ziggy brought his forelimbs down to his sides and walked normally. They were approaching the part of the city where the marketplace was. The one place Ziggy still didn't feel comfortable even setting paw in. Kona was already leading the group down a different street, though. His companions were thankfully understanding.

"I still do wish he could see me get the badge," Ziggy said, "I like seeing his smile."

"Don't worry, Zig," Lupe said sweetly, "Sparks is going to write to him the day you get it, and he said he's gonna pay extra for express delivery."

"Danika can take a picture for you, too," Kona added.

"Mhm…" Ziggy said, nodding in agreement.

"Speaking of Sparks," Lupe then brought up, "Carmen put him on mail duty this morning, didn't she?"

Ziggy chuckled. "She sure did. She must be mad at him for some reason." The trio all laughed at this, and then Ziggy shrugged. "I dunno, I always liked mail duty when Carmen gave it to me as a chore. I woulda liked to help if I wasn't doing this…"

"I bet Sparks showed the pictures to someone and she found out," Kona said with a snicker.

"Sparks wouldn't be on mail duty, he'd be dead if he did that," Lupe said, giggling softly.

"What pictures?" Ziggy asked.

"Don't tell him, Kona!" Lupe exclaimed, though with a smile on her muzzle, "Leave him in blissful ignorance!"

The two continued to playfully squabble while Ziggy just looked on in confusion. Eventually he stopped paying attention and simply let his mind wander. He wondered what Sparks was doing, back at the guild and waiting for the mail to be delivered.


Sparks heard the tapping on the front doors and immediately got to his paws. He made his way over and opened the door.

"Mail call!"

Sparks gazed up at the large Corviknight standing outside the front door, wearing an official mail carrier's hat and slinging a large satchel across his back. Radiant City employed mostly avian Pokémon like Talonflame or Pidgeotto to deliver the mail, but this Corviknight was specifically assigned to deliver mail to the guild.

"I'll never stop being impressed that you're able to fly with all of that," Sparks remarked as the Corviknight lowered the satchel to the ground with a loud thump.

"It means I don't have to do any exercise ever in my life," the Corviknight quipped right back.

Sparks let out a hearty laugh as he dragged the satchel into the guild's entry hall. The Corviknight watched from the doorway as Sparks methodically took out the stacks upon stacks of letters from inside of it, carefully arranged them on one of the benches against the wall, and then did the same with the packages and parcels.

It took him at least two and a half minutes, but finally Sparks returned to the door with the empty satchel. He returned it to the mail carrier, who then gave him a pleasant farewell and flew off back to the city. Sparks watched the magnificent Pokémon fly, despite the heavy metal plating on his body, before turning back inside and closing the door behind him.

He looked at the pile of mail sitting on the bench. Mail duty. It was something that some poor sap working at the guild had to do every day, and nobody liked doing it. Carmen knew how disliked of a chore it was, so she made sure to have somebody different do it every single day. Today, it was Sparks' turn.

Sparks picked up one of the stacks of letters and got to work sorting through it. The fact of the matter was that the Rescue Society was a large organization, and the headquarters in Radiant City employed a ton of Pokémon. That, inevitably, meant there was a lot of mail, especially since plenty of Pokémon here received many letters each and every day. Additionally, there was even more mail than usual because Family Day was coming up soon.

The Raichu got to work, though, and started making a couple specific piles. Sparks didn't like running mail duty any more than anyone else working here, but he had learned how to do it efficiently. Sort by department, arrange the letters into sections of the building they would be going to, and make multiple trips. It always seemed daunting at first, but with a little bit of brainpower it usually ended up not being so bad.

Thankfully nobody came through the entry hall during the 10 minutes he spent sorting. Before long, he had picked up his first stack of letters and was on his way. Sparks always took care of Pokémon working on the upper floors first.

For the next half hour, Sparks made his way around the building delivering mail. It was a slog of a chore, but Sparks always tried to look at the silver linings. Doing this often allowed him to briefly meet with alumni whom he usually didn't get a chance to see very often. Not to mention, it was good exercise. The letters were delivered to a Pokémon's office if they had one, or to the office of their department head or team leader if they didn't.

Eventually, Sparks was down to his last batch of mail that was bound for the upper floor. He picked up the stack, and then grabbed the one parcel belonging to this batch with his tail. Then he was off, up the stairs once again, and chose to make his way to a familiar spot first.

Once he was there, Sparks knocked on the door with his free paw. "Dani!" he called out, "You got mail!"

A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal the wide-eyed bespectacled Sneasel. Thanks to the fancy new computer in her office, Danika didn't often receive mail. So, it wasn't out of the blue to see her looking so surprised to be getting a letter.

Sparks gave her the letter in question and she immediately snatched it up with her claws. She flipped it over and read the front of the envelope, her eyes growing even wider. She then gasped in delight and exclaimed, "It's him! It's him! He wrote! He answered!"

"Uh…" Sparks muttered, tilting his head in confusion. Seeing Danika this excited over the letter was not what he had expected, and he wondered who 'he' was. It almost sounded like she was getting mail from a boyfriend or something, and Danika hadn't had a significant other in all the time he had known her.

By this point, Danika had already torn open the envelope and was reading the letter within. Sparks was briefly jealous of the fact that she had functional letter cutters at the end of each forelimb. He couldn't help but watch her bemusedly for a moment as she sped through reading the letter.

Danika then gasped again, louder this time. "Yes!" she exclaimed, "He said yes! Oh gosh, this is great!"

Now it was Sparks' turn to go wide-eyed. He had no idea what was happening before him, even though it sounded like Danika had just received a letter from someone more than a boyfriend. "Uh, Dani?" he spoke up, "Context?"

The Sneasel looked up at him, as if she'd briefly forgotten he was there. "Sparks, c'mere! C'mere!" she said, and then grabbed onto one of his limbs and pulled him through the door into her office. Sparks tried to protest, considering he still had his paws full of letters, but eventually relented.

"Dani, what's gotten into you?" Sparks asked once she closed the door and happily hopped back into the room.

"Sorry," she said in a calmer voice, "That probably looked weird. I've just been waiting for this letter on the edge of my seat. I wasn't even sure if my letter would be able to reach him, much less if he could answer me…"

Sparks, still utterly confused, just stood there and looked at her. "Who?" he finally blurted, "Who are you talking about?"

Danika held up the letter and waved it about excitedly as she said, "I found someone who might be able to fix Rico!"

There was a moment of silence as Sparks struggled to process what Danika had said. "…What…?"

"Well," Danika explained, "I've been looking around still, trying to find a way to get Rico's memory back. In my spare time, at least, which I admittedly don't have much of. But since I've got this computer with databases and stuff, I figured there had to be something out there that could help that we just haven't heard of.

"And I found this Psychic Pokémon. He's an expert on memories. Dedicated his whole life to studying how memories work and stuff. He's apparently been able to cure amnesia in some Pokémon when conventional treatments didn't work."

Sparks just stared at Danika, bug-eyed. "Are…Are you serious?" he asked, unsure which emotion to feel.

Danika grinned. "I wrote to him, asking if he could help." She held up the letter again. "He said yes, and he's gonna come here to help Rico!"

"Dani, I didn't know you were…" Sparks said, but trailed off as once again words were failing him.

"I didn't tell anybody," Danika said in a more subdued voice, "because I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, especially not Rico's or Terry's. I really didn't think I would find anything, and I wasn't sure if I could even reach this guy in the first place. I didn't want to tell anyone until it was more of a sure thing…"

"Ah…" Sparks responded, "I guess that makes sense…But, who is this guy?"

"His name is Jin," Danika explained, "and, like I said, he's a Psychic-Type who's a super-duper expert on all things memories and the parts of the mind that deal with memories. You know, obviously, that most Psychic-Types can read minds. Well he specializes in that particular part of a Pokémon's mind."

Sparks just tilted his head and gave her a befuddled look. "Well…Why haven't we heard of this guy before? The guild tried everything. We sent Rico to every neurologist, psychologist, espologist and any other 'ologist's we could find."

"He's old fashioned," Danika explained, "He doesn't have a business or anything, and it's not like he has a team of experts following him around. He's just one 'mon, and he apparently just wanders the world seeing if he can find anybody who needs his help."

"Uhhh…" Sparks muttered, "I don't know about this. How do we even know if that's really what he does?"

"Because, Pokémon write about him. Y'know, in memoirs and autobiographies, and even just in some newspapers. If I'd just found one random schmuck's autobiography talking about Jin, I wouldn't have cared, but he kept popping up. He's legit, Sparks."

Sparks skewed his lips as he considered the matter. On paper it sounded like a good thing. Everything else had failed to help Rico even a little bit. It just sounded weird, though. Almost too good to be true.

"Sparks, some Pokémon just aren't a fan of the modern world and don't want their name up in lights," Danika remarked, "You gotta remember, not everybody lives in the big city like us. Not everybody has a directory of names and businesses that's thick enough to use as a bludgeoning weapon."

"I guess…" Sparks said slowly.

Danika rolled her eyes and said, "Look, if you're concerned then I'll just write a letter to one of his previous clients. I'll even write to two if it'll make you happy."

Sparks took a moment and looked over at Danika. "You…really think he can help?" he asked with just a hint of optimism in his voice.

"I certainly hope so!" Danika replied, brimming with excitement, "Pokémon keep talking about how he was able to help when doctors and neurologists couldn't. Some Pokémon say he's a miracle worker." She then held up the letter again. "I even described Rico's problem, and he says in his reply that he thinks he'll be able to help."

"Gosh…" Sparks murmured softly. He then realized, belatedly, that he was still holding a stack of letters as well as a parcel in his tail. Shaking his head, he quickly deposited these items onto Danika's desk. "This sounds…amazing. I want to be optimistic, but it's just hard to believe after even the top doctors of Radiant City couldn't do anything."

"Just think how happy Rico would be if we could finally get his memories back!" Danika said excitedly, "Think of how happy Terry would be!"

"Terry…" Sparks whispered, and then his eyes went wide. "Terry's leaving tomorrow."

Danika gasped. "Oh crap, you're right!"

"When is he coming?" Sparks asked.

"Ten days from now…" Danika said with a frown, "He has a long way to travel."

"Terry said he was leaving the city tomorrow as well, right? Moving out immediately…"

"C'mon!" Danika then shouted, "We gotta go tell them! Right now!"

"Wh-" Sparks faltered, "I still have mail to deliver!"

"Forget the mail! This is way more important!"


"Ten days…?" Terry whimpered softly.

Danika nodded. She and Sparks were sitting in the Eevee's room, and had just told him the news. Rico was already out for the day so they would have to tell him later, but thankfully Terry was still around.

"It's the soonest he can come," Danika said.

Terry glanced down at the floor, a troubled expression on his face. He looked like he wanted to say something, but ultimately he said no words.

"You…don't look very optimistic," Sparks observed.

"I'm not…" Terry said, looking up and giving Sparks a flat look, "Nothing else has worked. I guess I…gave up on this a while ago…"

Danika shook her head resolutely and said, "Well, I didn't. There's never a reason to give up completely. From what I've read about this guy, I really do believe he's going to be able to help. I'm sure that even if he can't get Rico's memories back, he'll still be able to help at least somehow."

Terry sighed despondently. There was a tiny little quiver in his lips. "I…I would be really, really happy if it worked, obviously… It's all I could ever hope for…but we've tried so hard with this already and nothing worked."

"This'll work!" Danika proclaimed, "I just know it! I can feel it in my gut!"

Still, Terry didn't look very excited. Sparks felt a bad pang in his heart seeing the Eevee so forlorn. Terry looked like he really had given up. While Sparks did share some of Terry's skepticism, he knew that wasn't what was needed right now.

"Hope…" Sparks spoke up, "Hope is what's important. You have to hope. You have to try." He paused for a moment and then continued in a softer voice. "That's one of the things we had to teach Ziggy. You have to try, even if it hurts or it's scary, because if you don't try then nothing good will ever happen."

Something seemed to click in Terry's head, causing his ears to twitch just slightly. He looked up at Sparks with a contemplative look in his eyes. "Rico taught him that…" Terry said softly, "I remember. He told me he taught Ziggy about it right after he p-proposed…"

"That's right…" Sparks said. He hadn't been thinking about that connection, but he realized that it was the Riolu who had first brought it up with Ziggy.

Terry bit his lip and looked away. He seemed to be holding back tears. "I…I really don't want to be here anymore…" he said, "These last two weeks have been so hard. Every day, I thought to myself I couldn't do the rest and I'd have to tell Carmen I couldn't take it…Ten more days is a lot."

Sparks nodded with a sympathetic frown. He knew that if Terry were to stay here for longer, he would have to keep working on the active team. He couldn't just freeload in his room the whole time, and Terry had said that he had nowhere else in Radiant City to stay.

Terry remained silent for a bit longer, and then finally let out a long, shuddering breath. "Okay…" he said lowly, "I'll stay. I'll wait."

"That's good," Danika replied, "You can do it, Terry. You're strong."

"Lately it just feels like I'll never be happy ever again…" Terry lamented, "And…i-if this works, then…I could be happy again…"

"You just gotta think positive," Sparks said with a nod, "Keep the hope alive."

Terry looked up at him and asked, "D…Do you really think it'll work?"

Sparks froze on the spot for a moment, his honesty wrestling with his aversion to upsetting the fragile Eevee. Thankfully, Danika came to his rescue. "He'll be able to help!" she said, "This is exactly what he's an expert in! He'll at least be able to figure it out!"

"Okay…" Terry said with a nod. Sparks wasn't sure, but he thought he'd caught just the briefest glimpse of a little smile.

The two Pokémon then both gave Terry a hug and politely excused themselves. Terry told them he would get right back to preparing for the day's mission and would be heading out soon, so they bid him good luck and stepped out of his room.

"Poor kid…" Sparks said softly.

"I'm just glad he's staying. It wouldn't feel right to tell him we fixed Rico's brain through a boring old letter."

Sparks shook his head softly. "You've been reading too many drama novels."

"Well, can ya blame me when I have access to so many of them on the computer?"

"That thing's gonna melt your brain," Sparks said, lightly elbowing her. The two made their way out and through the common room, heading back up to Danika's office so Sparks could finally finish his letter deliveries. They were just heading up the grand staircase when something occurred to Sparks.

"What about Lupe?"

Danika paused, halfway up one of the steps. She let out a quick sigh and simply said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."


Ziggy returned to the guild in the late afternoon, about an hour before dinner, and Sparks was in the common room happy to greet him. Sparks'd had a pretty boring day after his mail delivery was done, so he was glad to have somebody else to talk to.

He told the Buizel about what had happened earlier. He and Danika had agreed not to spread the news around yet, mostly to respect the privacy of Rico and Terry, but Sparks figured Ziggy would find out from Terry anyway since the two talked to each other so often these days.

"Well gosh, I hope it works," Ziggy said, sipping from his cup of Pinap juice.

"We can only wait and see…" Sparks said with a shrug.

"To tell you the truth…I'm kind of relieved," Ziggy admitted, "I really didn't want Terry to go. I was really sad that he was leaving tomorrow."

"We were all going to be sad to see him go," Sparks said.

"But this is good…" Ziggy continued, "Danika sounds like she's really confident. And when she's confident, she's usually right."

"Well, you're right about that…" Sparks took a sip of his own drink, though his was coffee. "How was your day out?" he then asked.

"Fine," Ziggy said with a shrug, "The streets are a little emptier than usual, but not by too much. Kind of a boring day, though, to be honest."

"You felt okay out there?" Sparks asked, gently pressing the Buizel, "You sure?"

Ziggy took a few seconds before answering. "Well…To be honest, I was thinking a lot about, like…'What if a portal opens up in the sky right now and drops a massive creature covered with drills right on top of us?' I guess a couple of times there was a weird noise I heard and I thought it was the sound of a portal…"

"Oh dear."

"But it wasn't too bad," Ziggy said, shaking his head, "Just kinda, like, background worry." He took another sip of juice and then added, "Y'know, with everything going on, I've kinda been more worried about the portal Pokémon than strangers looking at me…"

Sparks regarded the Buizel with surprise. "Really?"

"Who cares about some golden fur when there's monsters raining from the sky?" Ziggy replied dryly.

"I…" Sparks stammered, "I don't know whether to say that's a good thing or that's a bad thing…"

Ziggy just shrugged and drank down the last of his Pinap juice. He then said, "I still need to get some solo experience before my bronze badge, so I think I might do that tomorrow."

"Huh? Really? You sure?"

"Yeah! I mean, Carmen said it was fine to make sure that there's another guildmember at least close by, so I can get quick backup if anything goes bad. I'm still gonna try to find an easy job, y'know maybe with a nice Pokémon or something. Hopefully it'll be fun!"

Sparks was silent for a moment as he just regarded the Buizel. "You're growing up…" he said softly, mostly to himself.

"Hm?" Ziggy asked.

"Nothing. Anyway, is that all you need for your bronze badge prerequisites? Or are you missing something else?"

"Uhhh… I still have to do an out-of-city mission too, but that one I can do with an active team member so I'm gonna ask Kona."

"Oh. Well, that shouldn't be much of a big deal," Sparks said. If anything, it would probably be a relieving mission for the shiny Buizel, because Chromaphoba wasn't quite as prevalent in less populated places.

"Yeah. As long as I don't have to go back to Sunshine Village…Might be a while before I can go there…"

Sparks gave him a sympathetic frown. "I guess you don't wanna go back to where you were hatched, hm?"

Ziggy arched an eyebrow back at him. "What? No," he said, shaking his head, "No, I wasn't born in Sunshine Village. That's where I lived when I was a cub. It's where I stayed before I basically got chased out and ended up in Radiant City, remember?"

"Oh…! Oh, right…" Sparks said, "Sorry, I got mixed up."

"I was born in that 'Dewdrop' place, remember?"

"Right, right. I remember now."

Ziggy then shrugged. "That's kinda all I remember, the name 'Dewdrop'. It must have been so long ago that I can't even remember it."

"Makes sense, if you were just a hatchling there," Sparks said, "But yeah, don't worry, no-one's gonna force you to go to Sunshine Village. You can practically write that one right off of your map forever if you want."

"Probably a good idea…" Ziggy said, discomfort evident in his voice.

Sparks spent a moment just looking over at the Buizel, his mind wandering. He realized that he really didn't know very much about Ziggy's past from before the two of them met. All he really knew was that Ziggy had spent his time in Sunshine Village as a thief and had to leave once the populace had gotten too familiar with him. Aside from that and Ziggy's story about the restaurant, he hadn't told anyone much about his life from before Radiant City.

There wasn't anything wrong with that, though. Sparks had to admit that sometimes he was really curious, but he knew it didn't really matter and he was in no position to pry. Ziggy had left that village behind and would probably never go back. It was no longer important to who he was now.

Ziggy had once mentioned very briefly going to school when he was young, to the point that he couldn't even remember if it was a normal school or just being taught in an orphanage of some kind. Whatever institution it was, Ziggy hadn't spent much time there. The only thing he had gotten out of it was his name. Sparks wondered if it was in Dewdrop or Sunshine Village.

For more than ten years of his life, Ziggy had been out on the streets. Probably closer to twelve or thirteen years he'd been without a home. Sparks couldn't imagine what a life like that would be, especially for a cub. From what Ziggy had explained, he must have already been out on the streets at the age of four, or maybe even three. What a terrible way to grow up.

And yet, here he was. Sparks was amazed at how far Ziggy had come in less than a year. It helped that Ziggy had been so eager to throw his old life away, albeit after a bit of hesitation, and Sparks shuddered to think what would have happened to him if he'd been forced to continue that lifestyle.

"Hey, bud?" he spoke up.

"Hm?" Ziggy asked, turning to look at him.

"…I'm proud of you."

Ziggy looked confused for a moment. "For what?"

"Just…everything."

"Oh…" Ziggy's cheeks reddened ever so slightly in embarrassment. "Th-thanks…"

Ziggy had spent his whole life growing up without a friend in the world. And Sparks was more than happy to call Ziggy one of his very best friends.


"Ahhhh…" Sparks let out a long, tired sigh. He leaned back onto the rug upon the floor, reclining onto his back and just staring up at the ceiling. "What the hell is goin' on in this crazy world?"

Danika looked over at him from her chair. The two were in her 'dungeon'. It was the end of the day, though that fact wasn't visible at all in a small room like this. It had been about five days since he had told Terry and Rico the news about the Psychic-type they had found. Rico had been surprised and in disbelief at first, but he had been very quick to say yes. Such should have been obvious, after all. Any Pokémon would want to regain memories that were stolen away from them.

"The waiting is the worst part…" Sparks muttered.

"Yup…"

Sparks idly glanced over at the Sneasel, only to find her fiddling away on the computer once again. "I'm glad we convinced Terry to stick around, at least."

"He's the reason I really want this to work," Danika said without taking her eyes off the screen, "We spent so long trying to get Ziggy to smile, now we need to see Terry smile again."

"Mmm…" Sparks murmured in agreement. He was lost in his thoughts for a moment before saying, "It's good to see Ziggy's got his smiles back again."

"Heh… I'm jealous he got to keep Dante's sword."

"Oh," Sparks scoffed, "I think everyone here is."

Danika chuckled softly. She then finally took her gaze off of the screen and looked down at Sparks again. "How much you wanna bet there's gonna be a book about that Buizel's life sometime in the future? I mean, it practically writes itself, and I mean that in both a good and a bad way."

"You're not wrong…" Sparks said, "I do think he's destined for something great, or at least I'm hopelessly optimistic about it. We just need reality to stop tearing holes in itself so he can get a chance to do it…"

"Poor kid…"

Sparks sat up a little straighter. "Do you ever wonder about what his life was like before us?" he asked, adopting a more serious tone, "He hardly ever talks about it, though I don't blame him."

"Of course I do," Danika replied, "I worry that Ziggy still has some demons bottled up that he hasn't talked to anyone about."

"I still can't imagine it sometimes…" Sparks said softly, "At least a decade, probably more, out on the streets and as a young cub no less…"

"Well, he's a tough kid when he needs to be," Danika mused, "You gotta be strong to live on the streets for that long and not...y'know, get addicted to drugs or booze or something. Besides being a bit of a ragamuffin, he turned out just fine."

Sparks gazed up at the ceiling for a moment in thought. "I just wish I knew more, if for no other reason than it fascinates me. I'd never ask him, of course, but still." He looked back over at Danika again before continuing. "He wouldn't have much to tell about the place where he was born, but he spent so many years on the streets of Sunshine Village. I wonder if anyone from there even remembers him…"

Danika looked at him in surprise. "You know where he was born? I don't think I ever learned where that was."

"Oh no? Haven't I told you?"

The Sneasel simply shook her head. "Where's he from?"

"He's from Dewdrop Town."

Danika didn't reply right away, for a strange look had appeared on her face. Her eyes briefly went wide, before she furrowed her brow and tilted her head slightly in confusion. "Dewdrop…?" she murmured softly.

Sparks wasn't sure why this garnered such a reaction from the Sneasel. "Yeah, Dewdrop Town. He told me when I first brought him in."

Danika narrowed an intense look at him, leaning out of her chair and towards him slightly. "Sparks…" she said slowly.

"What?"

"Do you mean…Dewdrop Island?"

"I…" Sparks said, but then trailed off. He realized he wasn't sure if he had actually heard Ziggy say 'Town' before or not. He thought back to the conversation from a few days ago and recalled that Ziggy had only said 'Dewdrop'. "I guess?" he said, though he felt a little unsure. Ziggy hadn't mentioned an island at any point, nor did he mention crossing the ocean to get to Sunshine Village. "Why?"

"Well because, I can tell you there is no such place as 'Dewdrop Town'," Danika answered, "The only place with 'Dewdrop' in its name is Dewdrop Island…"

"Oh…" Sparks murmured, and then he shrugged and said, "Okay, I guess it's Dewdrop Island and I remembered wrong. I guess it makes sense a Water-Type might've been born on an island." However, Danika's expression didn't change. The Sneasel just kept looking at him with that same intense look. "What?" Sparks blurted.

"Sparks, are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he retorted, "We were talking about this just a few days ago, me and him."

Danika's eyes opened even wider, much to Sparks' confusion. She looked shocked by this revelation. "Sparks…!" she said insistently.

"What?" he shot back, "What's wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like that?"

The Sneasel was silent for a moment, and then gestured wildly in the air with her claws. It looked like she was exasperated. Rather, it looked like what she was trying to say was so obvious that she couldn't even find the right words for it. "Sparks!" she eventually blurted out again, "Dewdrop Island?"

Sparks set his jaw firmly, starting to feel like a joke was being played on him. "Yes, Dewdrop Island. What about it?"

"Are you being serious right now?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You're talking about Dewdrop Island! You know? The island that burned down?"

Sparks was struck silent for a moment as he looked at the Sneasel in confusion. 'The island that burned down'? Sparks pondered what she might have meant by that, but then recognition slowly overcame him and his eyes went wide as well. "Wait…" he said, "Dewdrop was the island that burned down?"

"Yes!" Danika exclaimed.

"I thought that was Raindrop Island…"

"What? No! That island's way on the other side of the ocean."

Sparks held a paw to his forehead. "Oh, Arceus…" he groaned, "I always get those two names mixed up…"

Danika didn't say anything else and immediately spun around in her chair. Her claws started to fly across the keyboard dizzyingly fast, as programs and images started flashing up on the computer's screen. It took a few moments, but Danika had soon pulled up a digital copy of a very familiar newspaper front page.

"Dani…" Sparks said, "I know what happened. I just got the names mixed up-"

"Shush."

Sparks grumbled softly and solemnly looked up at the newspaper on the screen. 'Tragedy strikes as entire island village is engulfed in flames' was the large, bold title that took up most of the page. Underneath was a chilling image of the charred wreckage of buildings.

It was a horrible event that had happened years ago. Dewdrop Island was a fairly small island not far off the coast and just a quick hop from Radiant City by boat. It was so named because the shape of the island vaguely resembled a drop of water. During the middle of one fateful night, the village inexplicably caught fire and everything on the island, from the buildings to the very trees themselves, burned to the ground completely. Because it was the middle of the night, and because of the relative remoteness of the island, firefighting crews had not arrived in time.

Every single inhabitant of the island had perished. There were no survivors.

Sparks sighed heavily and tore his gaze away from the morbid headline. It was an event that was also referred to as the 'Family Day Tragedy', as the fire had occurred on the night of that year's Family Day. That was the reason that everyone on the island had perished, because they were all home together for Family Day.

Sparks hadn't personally known anyone from the island, but it was still a horrible event that tugged at his heartstrings and made him sick to his stomach when he thought about it. He tried to avoid thinking about it as much as he could. The only other thing he knew after the fact was that a new village had eventually been constructed on the island to honour their memory.

When Sparks looked over at Danika again, he found she was no longer looking up at the computer screen. Instead, she had one of the drawers on her desk pulled open and was rummaging loudly through its contents. After a moment of Sparks staring at her in confusion, she eventually pulled out two manila-coloured folders and practically slammed them onto the desk.

Curious, Sparks stood up and walked over as Danika opened the files up. His eyes went wide when he saw the contents of the folders. "You kept those?!" he exclaimed.

Danika didn't look up at him, and continued to study the two citizenship records for a particular pair of Floatzel. "No, of course not," she said dismissively, "These are copies."

"Why did you make copies of Ziggy's parents' records?"

"Why not? They're relevant." She then placed her claw down, and Sparks saw she was pointing at a blue circular design stamped on the records. She then looked up at the screen again, tapped a few keys, and the image zoomed in closer to the newspaper. It was now focused on the same symbol, which was right next to the opening paragraphs of the short front-page news blurb.

"That's it!" Danika proclaimed, "That's the town symbol for Dewdrop Island. It's always been tradition to put a little version of the symbol next to the story when there's news in the newspaper from another town. And it's the same symbol on his parents' records."

Sparks glanced down at the records and compared it to the one on the screen. They did indeed match. "You didn't figure that out when you were entering the records into the database?" he questioned.

"No, I just had a dropdown menu with all of the symbols. They weren't labelled, and it was just easier to match the symbols so I could work faster."

The Sneasel then shot her gaze right back down to the two records. Sparks looked at her warily, not liking the way she was behaving in an almost obsessed way.

"Yes!" she then proclaimed, "The year they both died!"

"Huh…?" Sparks asked softly in confusion.

Danika turned to look at him. "Remember how his parents both died the same year, seven years after Ziggy was born? It was the same year that the island burned down! I don't know how I missed that! My brain was just all muddled from doing all the data entry work."

Sparks again looked down at the two records quietly. "…Ziggy's parents died in the Family Day Tragedy?"

"They were citizens of Dewdrop Island when they died," Danika affirmed, "and Ziggy said he was born in Dewdrop. Ziggy and his family were from Dewdrop Island."

"Wow…" Sparks breathed softly, and before long the ramifications of this hit him. "Oh gosh… So if Ziggy hadn't been abandoned and ran away to Sunshine Village…"

"He probably would have died right along with them…" Danika said somberly.

Sparks' ear twitched as something occurred to him. "But…his parents were Floatzel. Water-Types. I never thought about it before, but how could there have been no Water-Types to escape, considering it's an island?"

"Dewdrop Island was discovered and settled by seafaring Pokémon," Danika explained, "They've had a long history of being populated mostly by Grass, Normal and Ground-Types. It's possible Ziggy's was the only family of Water-Types there. And anyway, analysis of the island afterward suggested that the villagers were trapped within the village by the flames, so they couldn't even reach the water if they wanted to."

"Oh, heavens…" Sparks muttered, feeling a sinking sensation in his chest. Danika clearly knew more about the incident than he did, since he had avoided reading and hearing about it as much as he could, and this was why. He hated the mere thought of being trapped in a burning village, watching everybody he knew die around him.

Danika finally stopped paying attention to her computer, and turned to look at Sparks. She had calmed down a little, and the intense look was gone from her eyes. "I can't believe we never knew about this until now…" she remarked.

"Well, it's my fault for goofing up the names," Sparks said with a shrug.

"I guess it doesn't really make a difference in things, but it's still wild to think about," the Sneasel said.

"It's like a cruel twist of fate," Sparks grumbled, "Ziggy's parents tossed him to the curb, and I guess it ended up saving his life…"

"We…probably shouldn't tell him about this," Danika asked, "…right?"

"Oh, no. No way. I don't want him getting saddled with survivor's guilt or anything. He barely remembers his life from the island anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

"I guess so…"

Sparks then let out a sigh and rubbed one of his cheeks idly with his paw. "That is kind of unfortunate, though…"

"What do you mean?" Danika asked.

"Well, we know for sure where he came from now, and where his parents lived before they died. If the old Dewdrop Island was still around, then there might have been someone living there who knew his parents. Maybe someone who could answer some of the burning questions we still have."

"Hmm…"

Sparks' gaze drifted off into space for a moment as he thought about the island. About a year after the tragedy, a new village was built on the island and Pokémon moved back in. Apparently it was a much nicer village than before, thanks to donations from Pokémon who wanted to contribute to the recovery effort. It was also a village designed to try and avoid a similar type of fire from occurring, though Sparks didn't know in what way exactly. There was supposedly a monument in the new village dedicated to those who had perished in the tragedy.

When Sparks looked over at Danika, he found she was idly browsing on the computer again. Thankfully, the morbid front page of that old newspaper was no longer on screen. "You think Ziggy could swim from the island to shore at such a young age? I guess Water-Types are born with instincts and know how to swim practically before they can walk. It's probably not too crazy of an ide-"

"There is!"

Sparks nearly fell right over from the shock of Danika's sudden outburst. "Arceus be damned, Dani! What the hell?"

Danika looked over at him excitedly, and pointed one of her claws at the screen. "There is someone we can ask!"

"Eh…?" Sparks looked over to see that Danika had a different digital copy of a newspaper on screen. This wasn't a front-page story like the previous one, but simply a smaller column on one of the inner pages. Its title proclaimed, 'Sole Survivor of Dewdrop Speaks'. He stood up and walked closer. "Someone did survive the fire?" he asked, slightly mystified.

As Sparks read the passage, he quickly learned that this wasn't exactly the case. The Pokémon being interviewed, apparently named Jasper, was in fact the only resident of the island to have survived the incident. However, that was because he had been the only resident that hadn't been on the island at the time. As it had been Family Day at the time and the village was relatively small, everyone who lived on the island had come home to be with their family even if they had jobs that took them off the island usually. Jasper was the only one who didn't have any family living on the island, so he had spent that fateful day ashore in Radiant City visiting his son instead.

"I didn't know about this…" Sparks remarked. He had always heard that the village's entire population was wiped out that day, and that's how Pokémon tended to refer to the event.

"Me either," Danika agreed, "but I'll admit that after hearing the news of the fire, I wasn't exactly keen to keep looking into it…"

"I guess that's true…" Sparks said, "I think I remember not even being able to pick up a newspaper for a week straight because I didn't want to read anything else about that horrible event."

"From this interview, he sounds like a rather private Pokémon who didn't want the spotlight on him, so I guess we both just missed it entirely."

"Oh dear heavens, I couldn't even imagine…" Sparks muttered, "Imagine waking up one morning to find that your entire town and everyone in it was just gone…"

"That really would be just awful…" Danika agreed solemnly.

Sparks just let out a huff of breath and reflected on the morbid story for a moment, feeling a powerful empathy for this Pokémon that he didn't often feel. He had always been extremely close with his family when they had been around, and had always kept others closest to him as part of a grander extended family. To lose so many loved ones at once was unthinkable.

The Raichu then noticed that Danika was on the move again, metaphorically speaking. She had opened up some other program on her computer and was typing away at the keyboard again. It took Sparks a moment to realize that she was looking at the citizenship database, the one she had been spending months before to fill. Sparks was confused for a moment, but then she clicked on an entry.

Jasper's citizenship record popped up on screen. Danika looked at it for a moment and then proclaimed in surprise, "He still lives on Dewdrop Island! He lives in the new village now!"

Sparks sputtered for a moment. "Danika! What're you doing?"

"Looking him up!"

"I know you were working with this stuff for months, but is that something you should be doing?"

"Why not? These are all public information. They're just easier to access now…"

Sparks was struck silent for a moment. "They are…?" he murmured. He then briefly shook his head and asked, "What're you looking at his file for anyway?"

Danika turned around to look at him. "Sparks," she said, plainly but intensely, "This is someone who quite possibly, and most likely, knew Ziggy's parents. The village wasn't that big. He probably saw them all the time, and might've even been friends with them. And also, it's a long shot, but he might even have known Ziggy when he was tiny."

"Uh…" Sparks stammered, unsure of where Danika was going with all of this.

"Sparks," Danika continued, repeating his name, "Ever since Ziggy's arrived here, we've had nothing but questions about where he came from. The most burning of those questions is why the hell his parents abandoned him like they did. It's a question that still makes me mad whenever I think about it…"

Sparks' eyes went wide as he finally caught on to where the Sneasel was going with all of this. "Danika…" he said warily.

"We might finally have answers to some of those questions."