September 24th, First Year

He'd heard the noise: the sound of ice shattering. A noise that usually meant one thing: a quick and terrible death. Ingo moved without hesitation toward the source, chills racing up his spine as nausea began to build in his gut. He knew the bone-chilling shock of hitting the water. The fear of being twisted around beneath the ice. The piercing darkness and the abstract horror of attempting to surface only to beat one's fist against thick, unbreakable ice.

Snow crunched under his shoes as he sprinted toward the sound, his pace slowing dramatically as his eyes landed on the culprit. He paused and stared almost as if being frozen by the lights of an oncoming train in the night.

A figure hunched over and twisted loomed at the river's opposite edge, their skin pale and frostbitten. At their feet, a large, gaping hole in the ice. In their hands, a sharpened branch, the subsidiary twigs having been snapped off in the snow around them. The figure turned and stared back at him, their face hidden in shadows, their hands and fingers twisted. Twisted like claws. Pale like a ghost. Like the ice. Like the snow.

"Ingo?"

A warm hand clapped down on his shoulder, removing the man from his paralyzed thoughts. Emmet, his brother, had moved himself carefully in front of him, his eyes glinting dangerously before they softened with confusion and concern. He turned to Ingo. "Is all well on your tracks?"

A fuzz hissed at Ingo from the recesses of his mind. He stared again at the opposite side of the river. There had been no ghost. Why had he thought it was a ghost? In the place of his ghost was just a person. A frostbitten person. A human. A living, breathing human, their breath turning to clouds of steam as they reflected his confused stare. Ingo spoke first.

"Ah. Miss Jaku, is that you?"

The person across the river muttered something in response and before Ingo could speak again, they had pushed themselves across the ice, seamlessly gliding across the slippery surface until Ingo could see them clearly. It was just Jaku. Only Jaku. Frostbitten and covered in ice and snow. White, white snow. No red. No yellow. "Hey Ingo. Long time no see."

"You are. Insane." Emmet had met the ranger as they came to a sliding stop on the pebbly bank, grabbing them roughly by the hem of their fur cloak as he dragged them to shore. "You could have fallen. Through the ice."

"No. Really? You think so?" the ranger immediately snarked back.

Emmet pulled harder on the fabric to where he and ranger were glaring at each other nose-to-nose. "Do not talk down to me."

"Get taller then, twink."

Emmet's expression morphed from anger to confusion to grief to fury and then to dismay in the fraction of a moment. He momentarily released the grip on the ranger's sleeve, his mouth losing its signature smile before a new kind appeared, a smile full of sharp teeth and creased eyes. "How dare you- "

"You're not denying it. Case closed. Oh, and where are my pokémon? Where are my children? My babies? My boys? Hand 'em over."

Ingo felt goosebumps break out over his arms and legs as the black Zoroark released itself from its confinements and launched itself bodily at its trainer. Where he expected the sounds of tearing flesh and gaudy snarling came instead… gentle coos and ecstatic whimpering. Jaku had immediately bundled the Zoroark in their arms in a tight hug, ruffling the reddish fur atop the fox's head before picking them up out of the snow. The Zoroark continued to struggle excitedly, hopping, skipping and draping itself over its trainer. If Ingo didn't know any better, he'd think it was the friendliest he'd ever seen a Zoroark.

One by one, each of the ranger's pokémon launched themselves out of their pokéballs and onto their trainer, smothering them with fur and scales and teeth. I don't understand. If they're meant to be an antagonist, why do all of their pokémon partners adore them? Especially the Zoroark. They are not friendly creatures. And yet Ingo read what was before him; a trainer loved dearly by their pokémon who loved in return. There were no deceptive grins or malicious stares; only excitement, happiness, and sheer adoration.

"What is going on over here?" Irida had appeared over the crest with Akari close in tow. Upon sighting the great big huddle pile nearly toppling onto the ice, Ingo's clan leader smiled and padded closer. "Well, doesn't that look fun? Excuse me."

"Yeah?" Jaku's head made a brief appearance from the pile alongside the swaddled face of the Zoroark who had stuffed its trainer into its long mane like some kind of prison. "What's up?" she had drawled, her voice muffled by the thick mane.

Irida made a choking noise, hurriedly stepping away as the ranger struggled to pull herself free. "You… is that a Zoroark?"

"Yeah. He don't bite." She held up one arm to the side of the Zoroark's face, maintaining eye contact with Irida as the fox in question playfully chomped down hard on its trainer's hand and wrist. "I lied. He does bite. A lot. He does that. Emmet, where are their pokéballs? I'm gonna need those; they're getting a bit too rowdy."

Irida balked at the term and the friendliness on her face evaporated like dew under a hot sun. "Who are you and why are you so close to the Pearl Settlement with a Zoroark?"

"Uh… I am Jaku and I don't have an answer to your second question. I have no idea where I am, frankly." Ingo assisted in sorting out which pokéball was which and in no time at all, the ranger now stood, a length of cut rope around their waist heavy with eight twitching pokéballs before the Pearl Clan leader. "Jester is friendly. He wouldn't hurt a fly. And where are we? I know we're in the icelands somewhere."

Irida blinked, shooting a furtive gaze at Ingo, then to Emmet. The leader adjusted her long kimono and crossed her arms. "We are within the Alabaster Icelands at the northernmost point of Hisui. You are wearing Diamond Clan robes? And my warden recognizes you? I feel like I should recognize you from somewhere, but I simply can't remember. How do you know that beast?"

Jaku scowled. "Jester isn't a beast. He's my buddy and I know him from the past. We go way back, but I don't remember the details."

Emmet took the chance to butt in, his gaze never leaving the ranger. "Introductions will come. Later. You. I want a word with you." He then turned to Ingo. "You too, brother. Privately. Leader Irida. May we continue on our tracks to the Pearl Settlement? There is much my brother and I have to discuss with our passengers here."

Irida's eyes narrowed. "Hmm. Very well. I will temporarily allow you- Diamond Clan ranger- into the Pearl Settlement but under no circumstances can you set that Zoroark free. You will keep it in that horrible contraption of yours. After your business with Ingo has ended, you must return back to the Diamond Clan. I will not permit your staying in the clan after nightfall."

Most likely because of her hazardous passenger, Ingo guessed. He had had issues sleeping when the Zoroark had first arrived and had immediately acquaintanced itself with his brother. But now it has a chance to relay what has happened as of late. Ingo's eyes widened. It can commune with its trainer. It can inform them what I've done to it.

Ingo would admit that he was at fault for allowing his past traumas to forge his judgement into nearly charring the fox pokémon alive without so much as a chance to fight back. It wasn't the act that had scarred him into feeling remorseful about his actions but rather the lack thereof. He only remembered giving his Chandelure the order to attack. To burn. To scorch. He did not remember what came after. Had the fox howled in agony? Had it retaliated against him? And yet, he remembered returning to his hut after the incident and Chandelure had looked none worse for wear except for a horrified gleam in her luminescent eyes.

For all the time that it had followed around after his brother, the Zoroark ignored him. Pointedly avoided him wherever it could. If it was called upon, it would only listen to Emmet's orders and it would quickly retreat back to its ball. Seeing it acting so impetuous and silly around its original trainer formed a thorn that stabbed at his throat. Would that be grounds for retaliation? If it were one of his own beloved pokémon- Gliscor, Chandelure… Lady Sneasler? He swallowed those thoughts, reining in his mind as he focused back on the conversation.

"That's fine," Jaku muttered. "Thank you."

They had reached the Pearl Settlement shortly after sun high, Ingo leading the way alongside Irida to the leader's tent. On the way, Ingo had expressed the need for somewhere private to speak where their possible blasphemous talk wouldn't be interrupted or overheard. Irida had asked what the topic was and after figuring it out, insisted on being present in the matter. A listener in the back car, Ingo supposed. I can only hope that this gathering remains between those in this room. The less who become involved, the better.

He pushed open the tent flap and waited until the hearth was lit and his fellow fallers were seated before seating himself at the forefront of the fire with Emmet on his left, Jaku on his right, and Akari directly opposite him. Irida sat on her own cushion at the far side of the room, poised to listen but to remain quiet as she reclined on her cushion. Ingo cleared his throat. "Well then. All of our cars are now parked and settled, and we are well out of earshot of other villagers. I suppose now is the time that we must 'catch up', so to speak."

"But how can we do that when we've all been all over the place," Akari queried. "How much stuff do we have to talk about?" She then turned to Jaku who was sitting patiently on her left. "It feels like it's been forever since we last talked, Jaku. How have you been? I've hardly seen you in the mirelands. Adaman asks about you sometimes, but I can't really tell him anything."

Jaku blinked, carefully blowing on her tea. "Oh. I thought he forgot about me, what with the thing with Lady Lilligant and being confined in the mountains. Oh well. Guess I ought to pay him a visit when I have time available. I've been better, thanks for asking. How's it going with you?"

"Well, I've been banished from Jubilife." Akari noted sarcastically.

Jaku scowled. "Kamado?" the ranger immediately growled.

"Kamado."

"That rat bastard- what happened?"

"Language. That is what we will cover," Ingo parted through. "Where to begin?"

"I think that's more of my expertise," Jaku retorted. "Hello? Champion of time here. I'll configure the timeline and you guys add in what I haven't seen. We'll start after when Lord Wyrdeer was frenzied since that was the last time we were all on the same page. Sounds good?"

Ingo nodded. "That will do. You may begin."

Told by Jaku, the timeline came much smoother than Ingo had been expecting, almost as if the ranger had been reading from a hidden script. Lord Kleavor had been frenzied around the same time that Emmet had arrived into Hisui, Ingo had returned to the icelands, and Akari had been stationed in Jubilife. "Here's where things start to get messy. I don't mean that in a good way. Emmet, I'm going to need your help with this part since you can resist you-know-who's ability."

Ingo twitched up an eyebrow. Now that he was privy to the main secret concerning him, Ingo wasn't about to let others talk over him. "Are you referring to Uxie?"

"…!" Jaku immediately whipped her head around to stare at him, immediate relief shining in her eyes as she leaned forward in her seat. "You know about Uxie! That means- finally! Unlimited power! Hold on, hold on! I wanna try something."

"Such as?"

"Whenever I try to tell you something very important, Uxie censors it because you're not supposed to know at that given time. If you know about Uxie, then I can say whatever I want, granted, it all depends on what I'm trying to say. Okay, Ingo. You are aware that Uxie is the pokémon that's wiping your memories, yes?"

Ingo nodded. "I am aware. I recovered that information using the Lustrous Orb quite some time ago."

Jaku excitedly clapped her hands, her eyes shining. "Fucking finally. There's so much I have to tell you before you're up next, quest-wise. You had questions. Ask them now before Uxie intervenes or something. Go, go, go."

Ingo immediately jumped on her offer. "How does memory wiping work? Emmet told me that you have the ability to trigger it but that it doesn't work on him. And also, would you happen to know whether Uxie was responsible for my main state of amnesia?"

"Wait!" Akari interjected. "Jaku, you can wipe memories?" she asked incredulously.

"I can but I prefer not to unless absolutely necessary. Uxie does whatever it pleases- and Ingo, it wasn't Uxie that stole your memories. It was probably Arceus who did it. I have yet to ask Uxie personally, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there As for Uxie, it will show up if I talk about something that you shouldn't know such as when I was telling you- Ingo- about what it was doing or what our task was being here."

"To fix the flow of space and time in order for something else to happen?"

"Bingo! I'm so happy I don't have to re-explain that section. Very good! Uxie will pick and choose what it wants you to know; most of the time, I have no idea what the trigger is. However, like the time by the lake when you two caught on to what I was doing there, I can do something else. It's a lot more drastic and dangerous, but I can essentially rewind time back to before it happened and by doing something different, rewrite your guys' memories."

"Have you used it on me before?" Akari asked.

"Numerous times," Jaku responded nonchalantly. "Remember when we ran into that giant Parasect and you were out of commission for a month? I kept trying to go back and prevent it, but to no avail. There are some things I can't change, no matter what I do. You remember when you came in and asked Adaman why I looked kind of sick?"

"Yeah?"

"What Adaman told you was a lie that I made up. I didn't swallow any nasty flood water. Whenever I use my Time Pendant to travel back in time, there are side effects usually in the form of muscle pain, nausea, migraines, yadda, yadda, yadda. You get my point. It's something I do sparingly unless absolutely necessary."

Ingo hummed carefully. "By the lake- was that also necessary?"

"Absolutely. Uxie is wiping your memories for a reason. Remember, I have to do my job first. Then it's your turn, Ingo. As you know, my job isn't pleasant nor is it… safe. It's dangerous and not just for me. For everybody. I don't think I have to explain why opening time rifts are dangerous but if I were to have let you go that day, Ingo, what would you have done?"

"I would have relayed the information to the clans in order to have you stopped." Ingo suddenly understood. "By reversing time, you prevent crucial unfortunate events from happening and if I or my other fallers were to know too much and misconstrue your intentions, we would stand in the way of our own goal, thus the need for memory erasure to keep us complacent in these roles of ours."

"Oh, I'm so proud," Jaku fake shed a tear. "Of course, I can't do so right now since I'm currently being grounded by my deity for being too efficient at my job. That's where I have to ask you for a favor, Ingo. I've got a side quest and you're on my escort list. But before I ask that, Akari. You've been awfully quiet. Spill the beans."

Akari tensed up at the prospect of speaking, fidgeting with her hands as she sat up straighter. "Me? I haven't been doing much aside from quelling nobles. I only have one thing and it's that I accidentally killed Lord Ursaluna a few days ago."

The room was silent for all of a moment before Jaku began to snicker.

"I'm gone for one month and you've already murdered a noble. In self-defense?"

"…Yes."

"Not bad, kid. Not bad. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Nobles tend to have rituals to select the new ones. I'm not sure how the Ursaluna line does it, though. Wait, is that why you were banished from Jubilife? Man, what the fuck did Kamado do?"

"Language!" Ingo interrupted. "Please, mind your words! I understand the need to express yourself but there is no need to do so quite crudely. And mind Lady Irida. We are still recovering from the loss of the noble and of Warden's Calaba's potential recovery from the ordeal."

Upon further questioning, Akari took over the recap of Lord Ursaluna's frenzy from start to finish, ending with her perilous battle underground where she had accidentally sent the noble to a watery grave. Akari blinked towards the end. "Wait, Jaku. If you could travel back in time, could you prevent Lord Ursaluna from dying? Could you potentially save Warden Calaba?"

Jaku shook her head. "Probably not. Once I gain a Time Gear, I can't go back and alter anything before I get it afterwards. Once I took the Time Gear from Lake Valor, I wasn't able to go back and prevent that thing with the Parasect but I could reverse time and mess with Ingo and Emmet. Considering the fact that I'm also on a temporary hiatus? Yeah, no. I'm pretty much out of power for the time being."

"You can't time travel?" Emmet interjected.

"Nope. My Time Pendant doesn't work anymore. It's a story all on its own."

"Elaborate," Emmet demanded. "You still have to tell us how you became a human again. And I have a question I need to ask you."

"Fine. Pushy. To be honest, I have no fucking idea."

"Language." Ingo and Emmet chided together.

Jaku sighed loudly. "I don't know. Celebi and I were travelling through the icelands when they pointed me toward Snowpoint Temple in the north."

"Snowpoint Temple?" Ingo echoed confusedly. Snowpoint Temple was an abandoned place of worship by the Ancient Celesticans, that much Ingo had been taught during his first days at the Pearl Settlement. Apparently, some kind of pagan worship had been occurring in the bowels of the temple. Something that had to do with forsaking Almighty Sinnoh. According to Pearl Clan mythology, some kind of ancient pokémon lurked in the temple and would cause intruders to vanish or go mad.

Ingo had seen it for himself. A scout by the name of Nous had gone up to the temple with a group of newly graduated scouts as part of an initiation dare. They had gone up on the morning of the first day and had come back the evening of the fourth day, unspeakably altered. Out of five scouts, only Nous returned, covered in blood, sod, and frostbitten down to the point of his skin looking waxy and blue. His eyes had been sunken. His fingers had been gnarled. His clothes tattered and torn. When he spoke, it was nonsense and he never made eye contact. The scout became more and more unhinged by the month until finally, during a patrol Ingo had been tailing behind, the man had deliberately thrown himself into the path of Lesser Lord Garchomp. It was a series of memories Ingo was not keen on dwelling on.

"What were you doing in Snowpoint Temple?" Ingo asked quietly.

"A pokémon that I met led me there. He looked just like Jester did when he was a Zorua but he had white fur."

White fur. Looks like a Zoroark. Ingo held up his hands and motioned for Jaku to be quiet. "My apologies. Did you just imply that you met and followed a Hisuian Zorua to an abandoned temple far away from civilization?"

Jaku paused, her eyebrows furrowing. "Yes…? His name was Glacier. He and his buddy, some Riolu, were tailing Celebi and I until I confronted them. Tibal had to go home early so it was just Glacier and I for a long while. Yeah, it probably was a Hisuian Zorua."

"Those pokémon are known for deceiving people with illusions-"

Jaku only waved away his concerns. "Yeah, I know. I let him practice one on me; it was pretty good, to say the least. Jester can do the same things, I think."

"Were there others?"

"Zoruas? Apart from Glacier? No. As a matter of fact, I was about to teach him how to fish out of the river when you guys showed up. I wonder where we went off to. I would've loved to introduce him to Jester; they would've gotten along like a house on fire, the scoundrels. Anywho, Glacier and I went into the temple where we met this old lady. I think she was praying there or something."

"…What happened next?"

"She seemed to know who I was and that I was a human. She gave me some seeds- Gracidea Seeds- to help clear up that nasty confusion I was inflicted with and then she used a mirror to turn me back into a human. Again, I have no clue how she did it, but she just kind of handed me a side quest and told me to come bother you about it, Ingo."

"For Ingo specifically? That sounds verrry suspicious," Emmet chimed in.

"Tell me about it. It's an escort quest. I need Ingo to go somewhere with me so that he can get something relevant to his quest. It only shows up in time distortions, but it's located in a spacial tear, thus, you have to be with me to find it. Also, I can't do my job until you help me with the quest so I'll put it bluntly; either you help me get this side quest done and over with or we're all going to be stuck here until you do."

"That is not so much as a favor as it is an obligatory demand, isn't it?"

Jaku shrugged. "I don't make the rules and I don't really care since it's not an item I need. Remember, it's for you. It's some kind of thing to contain your Old Verses. If you don't want to, I'm not going to force your hand. I'll probably just fuck off back to my mountain cave in the meantime."

"Going by that logic. There is a time limit," Emmet proposed. "There are two trains running toward the same destination. One is quelling the nobles. Akari is driving that train. The second is enabling the conditions for space-time to be properly maintained. Jaku- you are driving that car, but Ingo is supposed to take over after you… pass away. How does that work?"

"That's easy. I get all the Time Gears, take them to the spot where I'll be turned into slime, beat up Dialga, put the gears right, and then presumably be taken off the census afterwards. Then, Ingo will gain custody of the gears and do his thing. I don't how his god wants to do things. That's none of my business."

"Why is it that I'm just now finding out about all of this wacky nonsense!" Akari burst out. "You're all telling me that all kinds of mystical, theatrical encounters and fights have been going on while I've been playing catch-up with the nobles? And you're supposed to die? Why are you so calm about that! Don't you want to go home? What about your pokémon? Are we going to die too?"

Jaku took another lip sip of her tea. "One; I am just about ready to throw myself off a cliff. Time travelling is both physically and mentally straining and I am absolutely reading to kick Dialga's ass and then die randomly. It's not like I'll have time to ponder my mortality when my nervous system is rendered back to dust. Second; I don't remember home so I don't care. Third; after I die, it's almost guaranteed that all signs of my existence or memories of me will be irreversibly wiped, meaning that once I kick the bucket, you guys won't even remember that I existed. Neither will my pokémon. As far as I'm concerned, my past pokémon are going back and my new pokémon are staying here. They won't remember me." Jaku took another pause to sip from her tea before continuing. "Fourth; from what I know, you guys are going back to wherever you came from so you guys are fine."

"Doesn't that make you… sad?" Akari murmured. "What if there are people waiting for you at home?"

Jaku reached over and gently set her hand down on the girl's shoulder, a gesture Ingo hadn't expected from the brash and over-confident ranger. "Akari. Let me reiterate what I just said: fixing time means that that the time in which you existed will cease to exist. I will not exist. I will never have existed. People can't be figuratively sad about me if they don't even know who I am. What's there to be sad about? It's a mutually assured amnesia but it's going to a good cause."

"You don't want to be remembered?"

"Hell no. I'm going to fistfight god and win and once I do, I will die happy knowing that Dialga will never forget when I beat his ass. That'll be my legacy. Hah! What's death compared to being able to humiliate a god? From what Celebi told me, this isn't the first time I've had to do these kinds of shenanigans. Okay, let's stop talking about death. You guys are making it incredibly morbid in here."

"Last question," Emmet piped up. He turned so that he was directly facing the ranger, his eyes narrowed. "You have a scar on your neck. Where did it come from?"

Ingo nodded. "We are investigating what may or may not be an individual that is targeting us fallers." Ingo succinctly summarized the events of when Jaku had been unconscious, Emmet chiming in here and there to fill in the gaps Ingo wasn't certain of, that being what had led to Jaku being incapacitated in the first place. "When you first turned into a pokémon, do you remember why?"

Jaku shook her head. "No. I woke up confused and covered in my own blood in a body I didn't remember. I was zonked out. I had no idea what was going on and with Fake-Mespirit yapping around in the back of my head, I just kind of listened to my intrusive thoughts. Why?"

"My brother and I have a theory," Ingo put forward. "Apparently, some kind of fight happened in the ward shortly before you awakened. Emmet happened to notice that something had been trailing you after the incident via bloody handprints and footprints. I myself was attacked not too long ago on the beach in the same fashion that you were. Do you remember being assaulted by any individual?"

Jaku shook her head. "No. When I came to, Fake-Mespirit told me that you- Emmet- had attacked me while I was unconscious. They didn't explain how I became a pokémon, but I always had the suspicion that I was being followed."

Emmet leaned forward, tenting his fingers. "By the river where I captured you. There was another person there- with a Gible. Do you remember what they looked like?"

"Sorry, Emmet. I was hyped up on confusion and aggression. I think I get incredibly near-sighted when I become a pokémon so all I know is that the guy was tall. Freakishly tall, or maybe that was just my perception as a pokémon. Dunno."

Emmet tapped at his chin with a finger. "How did you become a pokémon? Celebi said it had something to do with distortions."

"Not quite. Only pokémon can handle active Time Gears without tearing themselves apart by messing around with what are essentially god-like items. Thus, in order to steal a Time Gear, I need to be a pokémon. Plain and simple."

"What pokémon did I turn into?"

Jaku hummed for a moment. "I think you were some kind of grass snake." After another moment, she paused and glared at the man. "And you were supposed to wait for me to finish, you idiot! Why do you think I tied you in that tree? You have no idea how mystery dungeons work. You realize you could've gotten seriously injured in there, right?"

"Says the person who got disemboweled."

"Eh, I've suffered worse," Jaku shrugged. "You don't want to enter mystery dungeons if you don't understand them. Thankfully, Ingo- you'll never need to encounter one since I'm going through all of them and shutting them down one-by-one."

"Are they supposed to be that empty?" Emmet questioned.

"Empty? What are you talking about- oh. That's right, you entered after I had already cleared through most of the dungeon." Jaku laughed. "I would've killed to show you what a monster house is. Hehe."

The conversation carried on bit-by-bit until Ingo was uncertain as to how much he would remember by that evening. There was much that had been revealed; the connection to his purpose, the revelation of possibly having to take over control of the Time Gears. Ingo sighed and stood, leaving his three other fallers as he exited the tent and breathed in the crisp air.

"Too much freight is tethered to this old cab." He seated himself roughly on a boulder not too far away from Irida's tent, momentarily taking his hat off to run his fingers through his hair. A headache was quietly building up behind his eyes. "But at least, I now have answers for the questions that have plagued me since I have arrived here." Uxie. Ingo turned the name over on his tongue. It was not Uxie that he had to turn his ire onto, but instead upon Arceus, the creator of all. Ingo swallowed. He would not admit it aloud, but he wished he had his own conviction and willpower to seek out both of the divine legendaries and make them answer for what they had done.

Years he had spent wondering if some undefeatable illness was going to take both his memories and his mind. Years in a silent war fighting to keep every single scrap of previous memories he could only to now realize that what had essentially been a joyous life had been robbed from him without his consent. Had he consented to that? Had he agreed to be sent to Hisui? He took his head in his hands, appreciating the biting chill of the snow. He would have to figure out that answer for himself.

Soft silk rubbed up against his side, a gentle hand settling on his shoulder. "Ingo? Are you quite alright?"

Ingo relaxed. It is only Irida. But he let himself remain vulnerable, staring wearily at the landscape of muddled greens and grays before meeting her gaze. "I am… sorting through the cargo. Performing some much-needed maintenance."

"I can see that." Irida gently leaned onto his side, her hand not leaving his shoulder. "I take it that there is much of that conversation you could not explain to me." Before Ingo could talk, Irida resumed her monologue. "You are busier now. Busier than you have ever been before. There is a time for it, I'm sure but I want to talk to you leader-to-warden. Official business."

Ingo immediately straightened up. "Of course. What can I do for you?"

Beside him, Irida clasped her hands together, adjusting the long hem of her lavender kimono. In the cold chill of the oncoming blizzard, her voice was harsh and reprimanding, a tone that held no warmth or mercy but only that of finality and of an expectation to listen. "I have noticed that your current activities are keeping you out of the Coronet Highlands and essentially away from Lady Sneasler."

Ingo's blood immediately turned to ice in his veins. He stumbled when he realized Irida had been waiting for him to acknowledge her statement.

"My apologies. Yes, I am aware."

"Then if you are aware, you must also know that I cannot tolerate your absence any longer. Warden Melli of the Diamond Clan has been keeping an eye on your usual territory, but things have changed. Now that your role here in Hisui has been… called into question, I must terminate your role as a warden and demote you back to a Pearl Clan scout."

Many, many things were quickly speeding through Ingo's mind, colliding together in one terrible pileup as Ingo rushed to find the words for the senseless terror that made his hands shake. "I can still perform my duties!" he protested.

"I am aware that you were specifically called upon to act then," Irida responded curtly. "However, it has not escaped my notice that if your quest here is to end, there must be another warden to resume your position. As the leader of the Pearl Clan, I must take Lady Sneasler and the clan's welfare into consideration and ensure that her reign continues well into a future I will not be present for. I do not do this personally."

How long had Ingo known his noble for? Months? Years? And a tiny chastising voice pushed its way forward. You are only acting out of fear of being decommissioned from the only clan you know, it whispered smartly. That without your title, you have nothing to contribute. Nothing to your worth. Nothing to gain from. And Ingo did nothing to fight that voice because it was true. What was he in Hisui if not a warden? A title that demanded respect? A title that had guaranteed him a social rank in the Pearl Clan so that he was not completely and utterly isolated.

His memories flickered back to those two unspeakable weeks lost in the icelands. Wandering. Shivering. Confused. Mournful. Sighting light from afar but never being able to reach it. Feeling stalked but never being able to see who was following him. The sheer cold of the snow and the energy it often sapped from him. Ingo had always been sure that he was strong… physically. His mind on the other hand? He predicted that he had thought so too before the cold had whittled him away. He could hardly remember who he was after the first blizzard. Who he had become after the first blizzard. What his mind had become after the first blizzard.

"Ingo?" Irida's hand tightened on his shoulder, shaking him forcefully out of his stupor. Her eyes met his own and she cowered away. "I… good. I will give you some time to think about what lies before you. This process will be gradual. Slow. You will have plenty of time to get your situations in order before I initiate any kind of apprenticeship. I am telling you this now so that it does not come as a surprise later. Am I understood?"

"…Understood."

Irida faltered, removing her hand from Ingo's shoulder and instead letting them lay in her lap. "I'm sorry. I know how much the position means to you, but I have to think of my clan and I also have to think of you."

"Think of me?" Ingo had regretted his harsh tone the moment the words spilled from his lips. He opened his mouth to apologize but Irida had already beaten him to the punch.

"I know that you're angry and you probably feel like I'm betraying you or abandoning you, but I'm not. I want you to go home, Ingo; to the place that you belong. You don't belong here in Hisui. You want so badly for me to tell you otherwise- that there will always be a place for you here. That one day, you might find another purpose for yourself other than working for others if you were to remain here. And that would be cruel of me to perpetuate that. Ingo, out of all of my wardens, I trust you the most so I hope you can understand where I'm coming from." Irida tapped her sandals on the boulder's edge. "I want you to step down from being a warden and really take care of yourself. You work for others and take enjoyment when they're satisfied with your work. Do you ever work for yourself? Is there anything you've done or accomplished here in HIsui that wasn't at somebody else's whim or for your own survival?"

Ingo tried in vain to come up with something- anything he had done that was both worthwhile and for his enjoyment only. And as he scratched around blindly in the recesses of his mind, he found none. "And if there is no way home?" Ingo whispered. 'If there are no tracks leading to the past or future? If it is all a lie and I am being led around in circles? What then?" In a much smaller voice, he asked, "Where will I go then?"

Beside him, Irida shivered. She carefully looped her arm around Ingo's and leaned against him like she used to do before she was the leader and he was one of her wardens. When times were more hectic. "To me," she murmured lowly. "You will go to me. I will always be here for you, Ingo."

Night fell. The two removed themselves from their perch, shaking off snow and frost and early autumn chills. It was time to make his decision. Ingo already knew what he was going to do. What he needed to do. He had a side quest to assist with.

"Twink."

"Not a twink."

"Twink."

"Not. A twink."

"Hairless. Thin like a green bean," There was a pause. "No maidens-"

"I am going. To strangle you."

"Do it then, coward."

Ingo pinched the bridge of his nose, arriving just as his brother and Jaku were beginning to throw giant wads of snow and pieces of ice at one another. Emmet deftly avoided getting struck by a bulky piece of ice, sending a wave of snow over Jaku who had immediately taken shelter behind a fallen tree.

"Take it back," Emmet demanded, scooping up a handful of snow before pouring water from his canteen onto it.

"Make me."

Ingo sighed. "Can you two please behave yourselves for even one hour? Emmet, do not throw that ice ball. I saw what you did. Miss Jaku, please stop antagonizing Emmet. We should be working together."

"I can still clown on him even if we are working together," Jaku chimed in immediately before getting pegged with a snowball. "Worth it."

Irida only chuckled. "Alright. Miss Jaku. I have already sent word to Adaman about your whereabouts. He should be expecting you in a week or so. I may not be your clan leader but understand that you do still have an obligation to your own clan to be present. That is, after you finish up your task with Warden Ingo."

Jaku immediately nodded, hands clasped behind her back. "Of course. I've been meaning to check back in. And I suppose it's time for me to leave since it's nearly sundown. Thank you again for your hospitality, Leader Irida." She turned to Ingo, a wary expression in her eyes. "You. If you feel like doing the task, meet me by the ice lake come tomorrow or the next day. I've got things I need to track in the meantime."

"It is much too dark and cold to send our passenger off into the icelands," Ingo protested. "Surely we can't send her off into the wilderness."

Irida crossed her arms. "No Zoroark is allowed to stay in the Pearl Settlement."

"Don't worry, Ingo," Jaku cut in. "I'll be fine. I actually have to go and retrieve something from Snowpoint Temple that I left behind."

"Very well. Then we shall rendezvous at the river tomorrow. Sunrise?"

"Sunrise it shall be. I'll be waiting. C'mon guys. Off we go." Jaku tightened the fur coat around their frame as they set off into the snow. Ingo watched as gradually, the ranger set out further and further and further before they disappeared in the snow.

"I am coming with you." Emmet came to stand beside him, staring at the footprints left behind in the snow. "I think. I think something else will happen. And I want to be there with you when it does."


September 25th, First Year

Illusions in the snow. Ingo had been trained to ignore them but his brother? Not so much. Tricks of the light. Of sunlight bouncing off of the ice. Emmet had remarked that he had sighted a shiny pokémon. Rare. One in a few thousand. Ingo had left his brother to it. They weren't far from the Pearl Settlement; well within shouting range for a member of the guards to hear him.

"Ingo! Over here!"

At the sound of the ranger's voice. Ingo turned toward the frozen river. There, just shy of the shore seated on a fallen log, was Jaku. At his arrival, a familiar face popped up from beside her: Jester. On her other side was a face Ingo did not recognize. White fur, red markings, golden eyes. First one, and then two, and then the largest of them all made three. A Zoroark. A Hisuian Zoroark. And then, Ingo fainted.