Early 2023

The nap turned out to be a mistake. Akari sort of forgot about timezones. It'd been morning when she'd left Hisui and night when she'd arrived in Unova. As tired as she was, she wasn't tired enough to sleep all the way until morning. So, done listening to the weird pink Pokémon's snores, Akari decided to leave the room and explore a bit. No better time than the dead of night when everyone was asleep.

Or at least she thought everyone was asleep. The moment she stepped into the common area downstairs, she spotted Volo sitting at the kitchen table, headphones covering his ears and fingers tapping away at a laptop. There was a yellow Pokémon standing on the table in front of him, clearly trying to get attention, and a Weavile trying to climb into his lap, one of Volo's hands half-heartedly keeping her from doing so. It was a cute sight but it made Akari want to sigh and roll her eyes. Why did it have to be Volo of all people? Akari really didn't want to talk to him right now. But, when she took a step back to leave, the motion caught the yellow Pokémon's attention.

"Bolt! Bolt!" the Pokémon barked, turning to face her. It crouched, growling slightly with all the territoriality of a guard Growlithe. "Boltuuuuund!"

Volo's gaze snapped in Akari's direction before refocusing on the Pokémon. "Easy, Boltund. That's just Akari. She's going to be staying with us a bit. You probably smelled her on Ingo earlier, didn't you?"

Boltund's growls quieted but he still didn't look happy. He looked at Volo, getting a slight nod, and he hopped off the table. He moved in Akari's direction but she'd dealt with enough Growlithe to know not to flinch away from these sorts of Pokémon. He just needed to get a good sniff and then he'd settle down. As predicted, he snuffled around Akari for a bit before deciding she was alright and padding away to lie down at Volo's feet.

"Sorry about that," Volo said, hitting a couple buttons on his laptop before rotating in his chair to face Akari. "You know how dog Pokémon are."

She did. "You called him Boltund. Is he yours?"

Volo shook his head. "Elesa's. Sometimes she trades him for my Galvantula though. I already have a Bug-type and Boltund's personality fits my team better than hers. We all kind of swap Pokémon around whenever it makes sense."

Akari nodded and let her gaze roam. There were a good number of other Pokémon around the living room but she didn't recognize any of them, save a few members of Ingo's Hisui team that decided to stay out of their Pokéballs for the night. Most of them were Unova natives, probably, or at least species that were more common in the Western regions. She really should've stuck around when Ingo was reintroduced to everyone.

"Boltund and Stunfisk are Elesa's. Conkeldurr and Orthworm are Emmet's. The rest of Emmet's Pokémon are upstairs. Ingo's too. They didn't want to leave him," Volo explained. Akari committed each name to memory but Volo wasn't pointing at anyone so she couldn't tell who was who. "Mr. Rime, Leavanny, Obstagoon, Galvantula, and Weavile are mine. And you've met Spiritomb. They disappear at night sometimes so you might not see them for a bit."

"And the pink Pokémon in my- er, your room?"

Volo blinked a couple times. "Oh, Slowking. Sorry. I should've grabbed him but I lost track of time."

"It's fine. Really. I don't mind him." She actually sort of did but the Pokémon seemed old and he hadn't gotten up from his bed once since she'd arrived so she didn't exactly want to disturb him. "What are you doing up anyway? It's, like, super late."

"I was- I figured none of us were going into work tomorrow so I was just sending out some email blasts to whoever needed to know. Then I started looking at all our calendars and tried to gauge how much time we'd need off and if Elesa and I could cover Emmet anywhere but then I got caught up in rescheduling everything…"

"You control Elesa and Emmet's schedules."

"Uh-huh. Originally I just scheduled Elesa's gigs but then it kind of turned into everything and Emmet really doesn't care about anything that isn't trains so I just kind of started doing it at some point. They do most of it but I figured calling into work isn't exactly the first thing on their minds right now."

"Controlling them so they don't get in the way of your plans or so they can help them without knowing?"

"What?" Volo looked confused. "I don't have any evil plans, Akari."

"Tauros shit," she snapped back, crossing her arms. "You were manipulating me from day one."

"I really wasn't." Volo sounded very tired. Weavile put a paw on his lap and Volo laid a hand over it, looking down at her. "I know you think I'm some evil mastermind or whatever but I'm really not. I won't sit here and tell you I'm a good person. I'm not and I won't pretend to be. I don't really remember what I did with Giratina or what you saw but I had a good reason. I was misguided but I don't regret what I was trying to do. Everything I did after I left Hisui, yes. I did some pretty bad stuff for a long time before Interpol stopped me."

"You just said you don't remember what you did."

"But I also said I remember why I did it," Volo argued back, tone light and lacking the hostility Akari was hoping it would have. This would be a lot easier if this wasn't so one-sided. "Look, Akari, we're friends in all the memories I have of you. If we're not anymore, that's fine but I don't hate you or anything. You're a kid and I'm one of the few adults you know in this part of time so I want to make sure you're alright."

Akari abruptly became aware of the change in their power dynamic. In Hisui, Volo had been her peer. There was some kind of mentorial aspect since he was native to Hisui and she wasn't but she grew quickly in strength and skill and soon had him outpaced. They'd almost always been equals. Then, Volo had only been a couple years older than her. Now, Akari knew he was far older than that but for all other means and purposes, he was Ingo's age. Granted, Ingo turned out to be a lot younger than she thought but technically he was still old enough to legally adopt her if he wanted and that meant Volo was too. He wouldn't, and Akari wasn't even sure if what was going to happen with Ingo, but the point was still there.

"You're right that I don't remember everything. I don't know what I did to you personally but I can tell you don't really feel safe around me anymore," Volo went on. "Modern ethics are pretty big on feelings, and respect, and consent and all that and I like it that way. If you don't want me here, say the word and I'll leave."

Akari tried not to frown. "This is your place though."

"It's a rental. Not a big deal if I go stay with AZ until the lease expires." Volo shrugged. Akari wanted to ask who AZ was but bit the question back. That wasn't relevant and Volo wasn't finished. "I would like to be friends again though. I want to hear what I did but I don't really want to listen to you accuse me of things I know I didn't do. You know I don't know the full story but you don't understand that you don't know the full story either so I'm not just going to sit here and get yelled at. I want to respect you but you gotta respect me too."

Akari crossed her arms and grumbled, "That's surprisingly mature of you."

"I know." Volo's lip stretched back into a lopsided smirk. "I'm a teacher. I had to take a bunch of trainings on conflict mediation."

Akari's expression soured. "Don't treat me like a kid!"

"I'm a professor," Volo amended like that meant anything. Akari didn't know the difference. Did the words mean something different in Galarian? Laveton and Rowan were professors and that was different from being a teacher but Akari didn't understand how. "I teach college kids. Adults."

That was better, Akari supposed. "This version of you is weird."

Volo shrugged. "It's been three hundred years. Had a lot of new life experiences, got my memories scrambled a few times. That sort of thing changes someone. I'm still the same guy though. You just didn't know me as well as you thought you did."

"And it sounds like you don't want to tell me what kind of guy you were."

Volo shrugged again. "Again, don't really want you to yell at me. I say we drop it for now. I'll leave you alone, you leave me alone. We'll be civil for Ingo's sake. I know you're adjusting to having a new home but it's going to be a lot harder for him and we don't need to make it even harder by fighting all the time."

"Deal. I'm not shaking your hand though."

"I wasn't going to ask," Volo said, getting to his feet. He closed his laptop and reached as if he were going to pick it up but decided to leave it. "Don't bribe any of my Pokémon for the password to go through my shit. If you guess it, it's fair game but it's too late for them to have any snacks. I know you're jet lagged so go Primeape-shit in the kitchen if you need to but try to keep it down. Ingo and Emmet were pretty exhausted when they turned in and they're going to need all the rest they can get. If Spiritomb comes back and starts bothering you, feel free to come get me. All the Pokémon down here are friendly but they don't know you so be careful."

Akari nodded even though it felt like Volo was a parent laying out rules for… She didn't even know. A sleepover? A night alone at the house? Their new dynamic was weird. Akari was going to fight against it every chance she got, even if Volo had a point about not making things harder for Ingo. "Fine. I don't know when I'm going to go back to bed but you can come get Slowking and your clothes or whatever if you need to. Just knock first."

"Reasonable request," Volo responded, sounding amused. He scooped Weavile up in his arms and headed for the stairs, Boltund trailing after him. "Have a good night, Akari."

Akari didn't say it back but she did open up Volo's laptop to try to crack the password before he was even out of sight. She never guessed it.

Mid 2023

Akari knew she and Volo agreed to leave each other alone but she still expected there to be some underlying tension. She was certainly still glaring at him but Volo actually wasn't paying her any attention most of the time. It wasn't exactly new information that the world didn't revolve around her but in Hisui, it kind of had. It was kind of odd for Volo, Emmet, and Elesa to be so focused on Ingo instead of her.

They showed Ingo his old life and reintroduced him to every part of the modern world. They showed him running water, grocery stores, and online streaming. They looked at photos together and talked about old friends. Akari felt kind of left out and when they started leaving the house to bring Ingo places, she thought maybe it'd be different but it wasn't.

They took him to the Battle Subway. Ingo challenged the Multi Line but he did it alongside Volo and not her. They said it was like old times, whatever that meant. Akari still got to challenge the Singles Line but Volo was still filling in for Ingo and beating him wasn't nearly as satisfying as she thought it'd be. It was cool to see how his new team battled though.

They visited Ingo and Emmet's old university, the one where they'd met Volo. Volo worked there now, apparently, and the students seemed to recognize Elesa and the Subway Bosses. A few approached to say how happy they were to see Ingo back, ask Volo about his classes, or inquire about people Akari didn't know. She spent most of the time looking at Pokémon around campus and trying to imagine Ingo going here as a younger man.

Elesa was a gym leader and that was a bit more up Akari's alley. She was also a model though and Akari had no idea what to do with that information. She told Ingo her gym had been remodeled while he was away to better incorporate that side of her career into the facility. The League thought she'd been a gym leader long enough that she should focus on her brand more. She said Volo helped a lot, which Akari wasn't expecting. Apparently he was some kind of a business genius. Elesa and Emmet said he was the reason they were each able to maintain more than one career, and be so successful at it.

This was Ingo's life. It was Emmet and Elesa's too and it was intertwined with Volo's. That sparked a lot of unwelcome feelings. In Hisui, it'd been so easy for Akari to integrate herself into whatever space she pleased. The Diamond Clan, the Pearl Clan, the Galaxy Team, the Ginkgo Guild, and the Wardens' circle all welcomed her as one of their own. Yet here, she felt like an outsider, like she was watching a life she didn't belong in.

When Elesa offered to go to lunch with just the two of them, Akari jumped at the opportunity.

"I wanted to ask what happened with you and Volo," Elesa asked once their food came. They'd gone to a classic Unovan place. Elesa said she wanted to introduce Akari to Unovan food but she'd gotten a salad and Akari had just gotten pizza, both things they had in Sinnoh, so Akari wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to be introduced to here. The food was good though and Elesa was paying so she didn't really care.

"Nothing happened," Akari responded as she took a bite. "We agreed to just ignore each other."

"Not what I meant and you're not really doing that," Elesa responded easily. "Look, Volo's my friend and you're practically Ingo's kid. Volo's a good guy. I feel like-"

"That's just it! Volo's not a good guy. He said so himself." Akari couldn't keep her frustration from bleeding into her voice. "He sucks! And- and he's dangerous! Like, Cyrus-level dangerous."

"Who's Cyrus?"

"Team Galactic leader. You know, Sinnoh's evil team? He wanted to destroy the world and make a new one."

"That's what you accused Volo of doing."

"They had very similar goals. And monologues. I would know. I stopped both of them."

"I feel like you might be projecting some of your feelings about Cyrus onto Volo," Elesa told her. Akari opened her mouth to argue but Elesa cut herself off before she could. "I'm not going to say I know better than you. Obviously I wasn't there for any of it. I know Volo though. You knew him for a year but I knew him for ten, and Nanu knew him for four times that. I know Volo's not perfect. He's a complicated person. He's been around a long time and people change over time but deep down I know he's a good guy. He has his bad moments though and it sounds like you met him during one."

Akari was honestly impressed she didn't stand up and start yelling right then and there. "I don't see it that way."

"How come?" Elesa asked and it sounded like she meant it.

Akari dug her fingers into the table, food forgotten. "Do you know what he did in Hisui?"

"Summoned Giratina and tried to take on Arceus," Elesa said easily as if it were nothing. Seeing Akari's reaction, she explained, "Volo told you it wasn't the first time he did something like that. I mean, not when I knew him but AZ had me sit in on a Ransei history class at Volo's university and they spent, like, a whole week on him. I know that trying to defeat Arceus is pretty bad and I'd understand if you couldn't forgive him for it but this feels more personal."

Akari still didn't know who AZ was but that wasn't important right now. "Because it is! He tricked me. I saw the good Volo you see him as. We were friends but he tricked me into getting all of Arceus's plates for him and for what? Because he's got this dumb goal of meeting Arceus? Maybe you're right and he didn't actually want to destroy the world but he still betrayed me!

"When I knew him, he was just a merchant that was really bad at selling things and liked to battle sometimes. Now I know that really wasn't who he was at all. Being a merchant was just a blip for him. He had this whole thing with the Celestica and he didn't tell me about Cogita until months after we met and he was secretly hunting Arceus the whole time and I didn't even know he had a kid until I met him in the future! That's kind of a lot to keep from me. When he took me to Cogita's house, it was like I saw this whole new side of him and then all the other stuff happened, it was like I never knew him at all! And after the Giratina thing I thought that was everything but now I have to learn about the Unova thing and I'm finding out there's even more in Hisui I didn't know about. Like, if he had a kid I would've thought I'd see them running around Cogita's house but-"

Elesa made a choking noise, interrupting Akari's rant. "Sorry, what was that last part?"

"I know I shouldn't be mad about Volo being a dad but it's just kind of the last part about Hisui I didn't know," Akari told her, trying her hardest not to look away. Yeah, it was none of her business probably but she couldn't help it. "Volo didn't say anything when I was staying with- I don't even know what Cogita is to him!"

"Cogita is Volo's daughter," Elesa said, voice a bit strained.

"What?"

"I think you're missing a lot of information about Volo's motives and what he was trying to do with Arceus." Elesa looked like she wanted to sink into the ground and honestly Akari kind of wanted to too. Cogita was Volo's kid? She wildly misread that relationship. Whoops. "Right before- Actually, that's something you should talk to Volo about. Not to mix metaphors but I think that's the missing page you need to get on the same track."

As much as she hated to admit it, Akari sensed Elesa was right about that. She really didn't want to talk to Volo though and wished she could just ask Elesa about the rest but Elesa didn't seem super receptive to questions anymore. Totally fair at this point, Akari figured. Akari had kind of been yelling and also pretty wrong about a number of things, it seemed. She didn't really want to keep embarrassing herself. And so, they finished their meal in silence, Akari resolving to talk to Volo when they returned.