"I messed up. I messed up big time. And now I'm filled with guilt and regret. On top of that, ever since she pointed out all my flaws… now I'm second-guessing everything about myself. So I'm a terrible lover, terrible at self-reflecting, and, more than ever before, I can't concentrate on anything, so I'm also being a terrible worker."

"Mm-hm… Right…" Rika said, fidgeting her pen in her mouth. "Y'know I might just have to start billing you for this session if we go over an hour."

Larry lifted his head up with a raised eyebrow. Rika blushed.

"Sorry. I uh… Humor helps me cope when I'm dealing with self-reflection stuff, so I… guess I was projecting that onto you."

Larry sat up from laying down on the bench. He felt very dubious now about Katy's claim that Rika worries about him.

"Have you actually been listening to anything I've said?"

"Yeah, of course. You and Katy had a very nasty argument, she hit a lot of your sore points, you made her cry, now you're both lost. I get it." Her gaze was mostly fixated on her laptop, which made Larry look even more doubtful. Rika looked at him and realized as such, so she hastily closed it. "I'm sorry. I'm paying attention, really. Just… in my own way."

Larry took a long sigh as he looked around the empty Elite Four battling room. He wasn't sure what kind of vibe it was giving him today, but… something about this room felt different than the last time he was in it talking to Rika. He couldn't place his finger on it.

"Just a week ago, I walked into this building so sure of what I wanted to do," he lamented. "But now? I'm just feeling insecure and overanalytical about… everything that Katy brought up. I can't even refute any of what she said, that's the worst point. And now, I feel like I have no avenues. I don't know how to fix… this?" he gestured wildly. "How to pull myself up, how to fix things with Katy. I feel more aimless now than I ever did before."

"That's rough, man." Larry saw Rika looking at her screen again and rolled his eyes. He was about to say something when she continued, "It gets really tough when you're feeling like there aren't any good directions forward."

She turned to Larry and sincerely said, "Believe me, I know. It's like being in the middle of a minefield. Do you know what options you've been considering?"

Larry sat there humbly, feeling guilty now for assuming she didn't care.

Maybe I rely too much on things like people making eye contact with me…

Just then, the doors opened. Larry could hear the familiar sounds of girly giggling from their fellow Elite Four member, along with a pleasant humming from their other other colleague.

"Hi, Rika! Hi, Mr. Larry!"

Poppy waved cheerfully at them from atop Hassel's shoulders as he gently hoisted her up, humming a tune to himself all the while.

"Hey, kiddo," Rika waved. "Is Geeta done watching you draw?"

Larry cocked an eyebrow. Even Geeta babysits that tyke? I never took her for having the patience for that.

"Yeah! She said she had to go somewhere extra-super important!"

"Didn't say where, just that she might be a while and doesn't want to be disturbed," Hassel explained. "Do you want me to call the Academy?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Poppy piped up. "Rika, could I go to Hassel's room and play with his awesome dragon toys?"

"I wouldn't mind it," Hassel chuckled. "It's a slow day, I'm just reviewing art pieces from my students. She could even help."

"I'm really good at telling kids they have great art!"

Rika giggled. "Well I won't be that much longer. I only have a bit more work to go through, and then I can take a long break. But you can totally hang out with Hassel until then as long as he's okay with it."

"Yaaaay!" Poppy thew up her hands in excitement.

"Okay, come on then!" As Hassel turned to leave, he looked Larry's way and raised his chin to him. "Good afternoon, Larry."

"Hassel."

Larry had observed that Hassel always made a point to greet him if the two ever crossed paths while they were both in the building. He wasn't quite sure why, or if this same courtesy extended to everyone else Hassel works with.

But then of course, everyone here is always nice to Larry. He had always dismissed it as just politeness on their part and acknowledging his somewhat privileged status in the League.

But… it seems like the biggest thing I'm learning about myself right now is that I make bad assumptions. I underestimated Rika's ability to listen and care…

Maybe I need to probe that further.

"Rika…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember last week when I was in here, and I told you I was thinking about things, and I… asked you if you felt like you belonged here, with the Elite Four?"

Rika nodded. "Yeah. I remember all that."

"And… you asked me if I felt like I belonged here?"

"…Mm-hm." Rika responded in a concerned tone.

"I should be honest with you. I don't know the answer to that question. I think it's one of the things I've been trying to figure out this whole time. So… I think maybe the best way to go about is to, well… to ask you."

Rika blinked curiously. "Ask me what?"

"Do you think that I belong here?"

Rika looked at him silently. She pushed her fingers together and back, evidently trying to formulate a response to that question, which didn't help Larry's nerves.

"If the answer's no, I won't be offended by it," he clarified. "Just be honest."

Rika scoffed at him. "Hey, the answer's not no! Okay? I'm just… I guess I'm just trying to understand what led you to ask that. You know everyone here likes you, right?"

Larry shrugged indecisively. "I never really got the sense that I was any more or less liked than anyone else in our division, especially you or Hassel."

"Then you need to open your eyes more, man!" Rika giggled. "Of course so many people like you! You wouldn't have gotten picked to be an Elite Four member if we didn't all look up to you!"

Larry snarled a bit, and looked down. "You say that. Personally? Sometimes I wish I'd at least gotten to know Charla and Diego before they left, so I could know which one of them it was, and what they even saw in me."

Rika didn't answer. Larry looked back up at her, and she had a baffled look on her face.

"Charla and… Diego?"

"The… Elite Four members that were here before me? That Poppy and I replaced?" Larry said, himself confused.

"Yeah, Yeah I—I know who they are. Trust me, once you know people as… eccentric as them, you don't ever forget them. I just—What in Arceus's name do they have to do with anything?" Then, she had a realization and had to hold herself from bursting out laughing. "Wait. Wait. Do you—do you think they were the ones who nominated you to the Elite Four?"

"I—I thought that was the reasonable assumption," Larry croaked. "Nobody told me anything. Just that my name was thrown in, and Geeta wanted me. I guess I thought it would be their job as the outgoing members to suggest their own replacements."

"I mean, that's…" Rika felt a bit uneasy, having not expected to be digging up these memories. "You're not wrong, they absolutely should have been the ones to do it. But… both of them left so quickly and abruptly. Said nothing to nobody."

"What… caused them to drop out and leave like that, anyway?"

"Well, Charla and Diego were both schoolteachers at Uva."

"Ohhhh," Larry replied in understanding. "I didn't know that. So if they left almost two years ago then… wait, were they caught up in that incident that caused most of the faculty there to quit?"

"Bingo! We never found out what happened for sure. Just that it was… something to do with that Team Star group. I don't know if it was blackmail, or exposing something but… yeah, something made all the teachers there resign. Charla and Diego included."

"Not Hassel?"

"Oh, he wasn't even teaching at Uva at the time! He only volunteered to take up the vacant art position after the fact. I think on Brassius's encouragement. As for Diego and Charla, apparently they gave word to Geeta and then were gone from the region the very next day. People said even Geeta was shocked by it, that's why she could only tell everybody by sending out a memo."

"So they left without even naming a successor. How irresponsible of them." Larry dwelled on this for a few seconds, then his eyebrows furrowed. "So wait a minute. If they didn't nominate me, then… who did? Geeta?"

"No. In fact, she was the one who had to be convinced, if you can believe it," Rika said semi-sarcastically.

"Don't tell me… … you?"

Rika shook her head. Then she pointed in the direction of the doorway.

Larry looked on in utter disbelief.

"…Hassel?"

Rika finally nodded. "Geeta felt so stung about Charla and Diego that she suggested we hire from the inside, people already in our division that she could trust. Hassel threw your name in."

"Really."

"In fact, he was the one to nominate both you and Poppy, after he met her. I'll be honest… Geeta and I weren't sure about either of you at the time. I was worried something like this would be too much for Poppy, but Hassel saw the potential in her to go further and believed it was the natural evolution to all the training she'd been doing in the League."

"What did he say about me?" Larry asked, very anxious to know now.

"He had seen you in battle before and felt very impressed by you. He believed that of all the Gym Leaders, you were one of the most dedicated at your craft, and that you would make the best fit." She giggled awkwardly as she continued, "I had… I had only ever met you a few times in the hallway. I just knew that you were already working for us in two ways! But, Hass was very adamant about it and the way he described your battling style to us, he managed to convince me! I'm sure he must've done similar bolstering up to Geeta to make her agree."

Larry stood up in shock, looking the way Hassel had left again. "I… I had absolutely no idea."

Rika awkwardly played with her thumbs. "Y'know, he… he might not like me telling this, but Hass actually… feels kind of disappointed sometimes that he and you don't get the chance to talk more."

"Well there's never been enough time and… I always thought he was just as busy as me." Larry scratched his head as he thought back to his various interactions with Hassel in the past.

Hassel did make an effort to greet him every day, as Larry had noted previously. But… as he dwelled on it, he realized it was deeper than that. Every time they were in the same room, it was like Hassel always tried to strike a conversation with him eventually.

"Remember that last League party we did? Hassel and I were sitting together, and he said something about how we wished you would sit with us more often. He even got up from the table just to walk over when he saw you and Brassius talking over the tray of cupcakes."

"I thought he just wanted to see his boyfriend." Rika's eyebrows shot up. "What? Have… I been reading that wrong? Between the two of them?"

"Uhhh, no. Just… wow, if even you can see it," she muttered to herself. She then said quietly, "Hey, just so you know, don't let Hassel know that you know. He thinks it's a secret they've been keeping really well."

"They really haven't."

"I know, but watching him act like he's doing something very scandalous is really cute. I've even shared a laugh with Geeta about it before."

Larry thought back to that League party. He and Brassius were chatting about Katy's Terastallized Cupcakes, and then Hassel joined in. Larry felt he had been pushed out of the conversation, and then…

…That's right.

"Now that you mention it, those antennae look awfully familiar… Have you ever seen them before, Larry?"

He was trying to include me in the conversation. Asking for my opinion.

Larry further reminisced and realized that wasn't a one-time thing. Hassel was always trying to get him to socialize more…

…And I was the one who always rebuffed him.

"Katy was right about me," Larry groaned, dropping back onto the bench and slumping in like a deflating balloon. "I'm so caught up in thinking nobody cares about me because I'm just… so thick in my own head that I never notice any small gestures like that."

"Well… I don't know about that." Is that really how Katy put it? "But I'll tell you what Katy is right about. There are a lot of people around here who care about you, dude. I mean, I remember I was very unsure about you the first couple of weeks we were working together. But you have a such a… matter-of-fact way of saying things that you make me laugh a lot without trying to. In a good way of course!"

Larry scoffed with a smile. "I've gotten that one before. I never try to be funny, but people say it comes naturally to me."

"And y'know, it's not just Hassel and I who look up to you. So does Poppy."

"Really?"

"Yeah! Every time you're not in the building, she asks about you, almost first thing. She always wants to know what you're up to, what you do when you're not battling here or doing paperwork."

Larry felt awestruck. "I never thought she saw me as anything but an occasional babysitter. I'm not even the fun babysitter, like you. But… I do keep catching her trying to call me 'Uncle' Larry."

"That's right, she does do that!" Rika laughed. "I guess she really considers you family at this point. I guess… we all do, in a sense." She snickered to herself. "You're way more like a brother to me than lousy old Diego ever was, that hothead."

Larry rolled his eyes, but playfully rather than disdainfully. With a hint of a smile, he replied, "I guess if I had ever had an annoying little sister… that's what you would've been like to me."

Rika laughed so hard she almost coughed. "See! That's what I'm talking about! A classic Larry compliment, they're like a badge of honor!"

Larry felt oddly charmed by her fit of laughter, and he found himself chuckling a bit too. It was the first time he ever felt so loose around Rika. It reminded him of his first few visits to Patisserie Soapberry… when he found that he could let loose and laugh with Katy as well.

Those memories quickly made him feel dour again.

"If only I could still make Katy laugh like that now…" he muttered, his head drooping.

Rika closed her laptop all the way and nudged alongside Larry, putting a hand on his shoulder as she looked at him sympathetically. Larry flinched at the gesture, and wanted to say something, but instead decided to accept it.

"Katy… still cares a lot about you too. More than you know," Rika tried to assure him. "Almost certainly more than a silly little fight could ever extinguish."

"You really weren't there," Larry countered. "It was so visceral. We both said plenty of nasty things. I just… I just wouldn't be shocked if I've broken that bridge for good now."

Rika sighed. "Just because I wasn't there for your fight, doesn't mean I didn't see the way she fought for you."

"Hmm?"

"Hassel and I were on the roof watching the whole thing go down. You should've seen the way she was holding herself up. I don't know that… anyone else who's ever battled Geeta did it believing there was so much riding on that victory as she did."

Larry's head slowly rose up. "Hold on a minute. Katy… battled Geeta?" Rika nodded. His eyes bugged out…. ever so slightly. "She challenged Geeta, the Top Champion of the League, to a Pokémon Battle… …and she WON?!"

Rika furiously nodded again. "You should've seen it! it was one of the most intense battles I think I've ever witnessed on these grounds!" Her hands became very animated as she described the exciting scene. "It went all the way down to the wire, and Katy just kept pulling out surprise after surprise! That last showing right at the end with her Scizor bursting out and trouncing that nasty Glimmora into dust… I've never seen her so determined before. She really went… all the way. Just for you."

Larry looked at her in awe. He knew Katy had been struggling to regain confidence in her battling prowess.

So… to suddenly find her old spirit again? And beat one of the strongest Trainers in the region? Just to reclaim some sense of "justice" for me?

Larry's head fell again.

"I am the world's biggest idiot."

"O-okay, now hang on," said Rika, flustered. "I know you were just cracking wise before about how everything I say sounds like an insult, but… why is it that everything I'm saying to try to make you feel better is just making things worse?"

"No, no. It's not you, I just—" He shook his head as he buried it in his hands. "I wish I'd had the foresight to realize all this so much sooner. How much she cares for me. How much… all of you do."

He looked up at Rika, who gave him a light smile. He did his best to send her back a smirk as he sat up again. He closed his eyes for a bit, trying to get a hold on his wild-running thoughts.

"I'm not… I'm not used to this feeling," he admitted. "Being thought of so deeply by people."

"You've never experienced that before of… feeling appreciated? Despite all the things you've done?"

"My whole life, I was never the popular kid. Not in school, not in the workplace… not even at home, with my parents always so busy," Larry explained. "Friends came and went, and so have what few relationships I've held down. I've just been… living my life. Day to day. I've never really strived for anything. No big goals or dreams. Everything I have has always more or less just… been handed to me. That's why I always call myself the most normal guy around. I've never had a good reason to believe that there's anything special to me. And until now, I just… thought that nobody else considered me special either."

"That's where you're wrong!"

Larry and Rika both jumped, and cocked their heads to see Hassel standing in the doorway.

"I'm so sorry. I couldn't help but overhear, so I told Poppy to just wait for me in my office."

He slowly walked over to them. Larry was about to ask just how much he had overheard, but Hassel started talking before he could squeak it out.

"But you're very wrong about nobody thinking you're special, Larry. You have a very unique… very blunt insight into the world that's so different from the rest of us. Perspectives no one else can provide, so much so that it's often illuminating. I know my dear friend Brassisus thinks so—" Rika and Larry side-eyed each other. "—that's why he told me he wanted to chat with you about the desserts at our last get-together. He says that few can appreciate the finer details in small things as much as you do."

He… really said that?

"And Kofu! I spoke to him not too long ago, and he couldn't stop raving about your last visit to his restaurant! He told me, and I'm not exaggerating this one bit, that the review you gave to his hot pot the day you and Katy visited were nicer words, that you showed more care for his craft, than any professional critic has ever given him."

"I-I mean, I know he's probably embellishing, you know how much Kofu just really likes to—"

"Larry," Hassel stopped him. "That man likes his tall tales as much as anyone, but… I've seen Kofu's wide grin many times before. That day, he was beaming from ear to ear harder than I'd ever seen him before. I think you really underestimate just how happy you made him feel."

"…Huh." Larry was still, he really didn't know how to take that.

"See? It's like I said, all you need to do is look around more, dude!" Rika chimed in. "You're only as plain as you make yourself. But a lot of people love you for that. The Trainers challenging the Gyms certainly do! I still can't believe you're one of the most popular Gym Leaders in the region right now."

Larry shook his head. "Alright, now I know you two are definitely making things up. I'm willing to accept that I light up people with my company. Katy once said that my bluntness is one of my best qualities, I guess everyone just agrees with that. But the most popular Gym Leader? Over such attention magnets as Tulip or Brassius? Or the freaking streamer girl? That doesn't track at all."

"It's true! I can prove it to you!" Rika enthusiastically opened her laptop again and began typing. "Uhhhhh… Hey, Hass. How do you get to last quarter's poll?"

"Oh!" Hassel sat down next to her and pointed at the screen. "You just follow this link here, type in the admin's password… there you go, and the poll numbers are in this section there. Search in the year of—"

"Right, right, I think I got it now, thanks."

Larry waited with admittedly a small hint of curiosity as Rika continued. Until finally, she went "A-ha!" and shifted her computer onto his lap.

"Take a look for yourself. These are the numbers from the last popularity poll we ran."

Larry looked at the screen, where he and the other seven Gym Leaders were stacked on a horizontal bar graph, designated by their official profile shots.

Wait. Is that seriously mine…? I was joking when I told that photographer that she might as well just take a shot of the back of my head! How did she get that kind of shot behind me without me noticing?

Rika and Hassel looked at each other, not sure why they could hear him faintly grumbling to himself.

Finally, Larry looked at the actual numbers. And his eyebrows began to furrow.

Iono was the #1 most popular Leader on the poll, which was no huge surprise. What was quite a shock though was to see… himself, in second place.

Not only that, but Larry was only trailing the notorious influencer by… a little more than 200 points.

Well, this is finally adding some context to why that little twerp was so persistent on featuring me in her show. But…

After Larry was Tulip in third place, and then a considerable margin down to Kofu, then Brassius, and cascading down to Ryme, and Grusha…

…and Katy. In dead last.

Behind Grusha by almost 1000 points.

"And bear in mind, this was right at the tail end of last quarter," said Hassel. "With how much time has passed since then, and especially with… well, you having been so popular online lately, there's a legitimate chance that in the next poll, you could even beat Iono for first."

"What sort of pool does this draw from?"

"Actually, that's the really interesting part!" said Rika. "In the past, we did these little popularity polls through mail-in flyers. But Geeta really wanted to experiment last quarter and evolve our reach, so this one we did by having the voting done entirely online, with extensive social media promotion. So it's probably mostly the younger crowds and Pokémon Trainers that are really wired into the net!"

Larry had a hand over his mouth, truly at a loss for words. The only thing that could take his eyes from his incredibly high score was the slight glances down at Katy's poor performance. Even still, he looked totally gobsmacked.

"This is… truly unbelievable."

"Come on!" Rika prodded. "If that doesn't cinch it for you, I don't know what will! People everywhere, young and old, think you're an extremely interesting person!"

He closed Rika's laptop and looked at them both for pleading.

"But why? I still don't get it. What is it about me that makes me so interesting?"

Neither Rika nor Hassel seemed to have an immediate answer for him. In fact, Hassel got up and started pacing to try to think of a way to sum it up.

Rika smiled softly as she thought up a response.

"You know… I think it really just comes down to the fact that you're, well… you."

"Meaning?"

"A lot of people in this League, including the other Gym Leaders, have these gimmicks to them, or we try really hard to present a version of ourselves to the public in order to stand out. Heh! Even I told you that I'm always wearing a mask, remember? I like to try to be this really cool, chill person around the challengers. But you wear your heart out on your sleeve. There's no extra gimmicks or flash to you. You're just… Larry. You're the best at being yourself."

She smiled to herself even more. "And… and I think by doing that, you inspire other people around you to want to be themselves more too. I think… I think maybe that's what Katy saw in you. Maybe it's what all of us see in you."

"Rika…"

Larry felt himself choking up a bit, to his own surprise. It felt like his eyes were even starting to well up.

"Awww, are you crying?"

"Huh? N-no. I'm not cryi—"

"I GAN'T HELP IT! BWUUUH huh huh hoi hoi!"

Larry and Rika both turned in shock to see Hassel, standing a ways away from them, with a hand to his face as he bawled his eyes out.

"TLAT WAS—TLAT WAS JUSS SUCH A BEAUDIFUL SPEE-HEE-HEEEECH!"

Rika giggled. And, surprising himself, so did Larry.

"Easy… easy… a little more to the right… Good, good…"

A large wooden sign was slowly being raised up by a thin thread over the blue awning of a large food stall.

"There! Perfect! Now hook it into place!"

Pelipper swooped down from the awning to pick the bottom of the sign up in its large mouth and gently placed it over two sets of hooks.

"Alright, little engineer, you know what to do next!" Katy commanded.

"Spi!"

Spidops let its silky thread loose from the sign and spun itself down from the roof to weave some web between the signboard and some wooden fasteners jutting out from the wall. It used its webs like a fine glue holding the planks together.

"Okay, Crabominable! Finish 'er up!" Kofu ordered.

Kofu's Crabominable, who had been waiting patiently from the ground, jumped up to cling to the left wall. It sprayed an Icy Wind over Spidops' web to harden and solidify the silky material into a true unbreakable glue.

"CRAAABOMINABLE!"

The huge snow crab Pokémon leapt effortlessly onto the other wall side as it did the same trick on the sticky web holding together the right plank.

"That's it! We're done!" Katy cheered. "It's all finished!"

Spidops jumped down from the roof and celebrated along with Crabominable, Pelipper, and Lizzy on the ground and the various human helpers standing nearby.

"Scizor scizz!" Lizzy cried happily.

"Great hustle, lads!" said Kofu, giving a mighty thumbs-up to all the helper Pokémon.

Katy looked in awe at the finished project: a large food stall installed at the base of the wooden structure housing Cortondo's Battle Court on the center edge of town.

The stall was lined with dessert samples and tiny menu stands. The big sign that had just been installed bore the signature colorful spiderweb logo and name of Patisserie Soapberry.

"We got it done so fast, I can hardly believe it," Katy admired.

"That's the masterpiece of a hard week's work, seabiscuit," said Kofu. "Ya oughta be proud of yerself."

"Well don't put it all on me!" said Katy. "I would've never done it without the help of everyone here! Thank you for the wood and materials, Catherine!"

"Always glad to help, Katy!"

"And Stefan, your crane was such a big help, thank you!"

"Anything for you, Ms. Katy."

"And Master…"

Katy ran to Kofu and gave him a big hug.

"Thank you most of all." She whispered quietly, "For everything. Really. You don't know how much having your big brawny shoulder to cry on all week helped."

"Ohhh, Katy, my brave sailor. You don't have to call me 'Master' anymore, ya know," Kofu said tenderly. "We're ripe and rowdy equals in this business now, you and me. Today just proved it more than anything. I couldn't be more proud o' ya. And don't sweat the rest of that, ya hear? I'll always be a Captain, and a Captain looks out for his crew's needs, no matter the torrent."

He leaned in to whisper very softly to her, "And don't be forgettin' what I said before. A broken ship can always be mended with care and passion."

He gave Katy a pat on her shoulders as she struggled not to tear up.

"Now… I don't wanna break up this here christening, but I ain't got no bottle to toss and asides, the customers at the Lounge will sure have something to toss at me if I don't get back to Cascarrafa in time for the big dinner haul! Take care o' yourself, Katy! And all the rest of you fine folk too!"

"Goodbye, Maste—I mean, Kofu!"

Kofu started to take off in his usual rushed Kofu sprint. Katy spotted something on the ground and called out.

"WAIT! Your wallet!"

"Oh shingles, not again!"

Kofu rushed back to pick up his uniquely designed Venonat wallet.

"You'd better stop acting like this wallet wasn't a one-of-a-kind hand-broidered gift from my sister, or she'll have a lot of things to toss at you too!"

"Ohhh, now there's a fright bigger than any ocean!" Kofu shuddered. "Thanks a million, my dear!"

Once Kofu and his Pokémon had properly taken off, Katy saw off the rest of the helpers and returned her team, leaving just her and her loyal assistant chef Krista.

"I can't believe it's really done!" Krista beamed. "You've been talking about this for so long, and now it's finally a reality!"

"It's really magical, isn't it?" said Katy, admiring the new stall with her. She gazed up as she looked up at the looming Battle Court. "I figure… if another person doesn't take the call to lead a Gym here, that would make some great space for extra seating areas. Add in some extra brush, and a fountain… Maybe even space for special shows, and this could become a real proper tourist spot."

"Right. Well that's… all in the prospective future, right?" Kristy replied. She tried to hide how uneasy she felt about Katy's announcement of quitting from her prestigious post as Gym Leader, a decision she still didn't entirely fathom. "I'm just so glad we saw this to fruition together, Chef."

"Me too, Krista. Me too. It made for a really fun week and… heaven knows I really needed something to distract myself from… everything," she solemnly sighed.

Krista just stood with her arms crossed, watching her boss sympathetically, hoping this would be what finally lifted the dark cloud hanging over Katy's head.

"When do you think it'll be ready to open?"

Katy glanced around at the stall's display.

"Oh… to be honest. Everything's all set up. We even have offerings out already for display purposes. Do you… think you'd be comfortable starting tomorrow?"

"T-tomorrow!" Krista exclaimed. She swooped up Katy in a big excited hug of her own. "Starting my own stand tomorrow! Oh, that would be a dream come true, Chef! I'd love to!"

"Then it's settled! Be here bright and early, and I do mean extremely bright and early," she instructed, putting on her bossly voice. "And we'll be officially opening the Patisserie Soapberry Express for business!"

"Yes! Yes! Yaaaay!"

Krista ran up to the stall and basked in its glory, absolutely riveted at the sight of a pastry stand that would be all hers.

This is it. The big first step to Krista owning her own business someday. She's come so far…

Kofu's right. I have no right to call him 'Master' anymore, now that I'm becoming someone else's master. The student has become the teacher. The big circle of life. My father always hyped up this moment for me.

This is… a very good feeling. I really needed something like this.

Their sereneness was broken by the sound of haggard panting coming from the distance. Katy and Krista both turned down the road to see a familiar colleague of theirs sprinting towards them at full speed.

"What the-? Damian? What are you doing here?" Krista reacted.

Damian, one of Katy's junior chefs and Krista's beau, ran up to the pair, staggering to his knees as he breathed heavily from exhaustion.

"I'm… sorry… I'm sorry to interrupt," he panted. "But, uh… somebody… somebody really important came by the shop just now… looking for you… so I had to come find you…"

"Huh? Who'd come all the way out here just to see—"

Katy fell silent.

Krista gasped. "Is that… La Primera!?"

"You have a very lovely store, Katy," Geeta complimented as she briskly walked down the road to greet them. "I'd never seen it in person before. You've given it a great atmosphere of coziness."

"I—Well, well, thank you!" Katy tried to articulate. "I appreciate it very much Geeta, but… what are you doing out here?"

Geeta calmly looked around between her, Katy, the two chefs, and the people nearby catching the spectacle.

"Forgive me for not calling ahead, it's just that I have some very pertinent matters to discuss with you. Do you know of someplace private where we can talk?"