Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Free N' Forth

by Darkestccino

A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story. On the Stone Continent east of the other continents, a young minccino named Tamin runs away from her abusive family into the wilderness. She soon meets with a shinx named Locke and they join an exploration guild together. But it doesn't take long for both to learn that evil can be found not just in criminals, but within the guild itself.

60. Complete story summary

Warning: This document spoils the entirety of the story Pokemon Free N' Forth.

This document exists to provide a summary of every chapter of the story, so people can get the gist of the story without needing to read through the entirety of the 400k word long fic.

Chapter 1: Fateful Meeting

In the midst of autumn, Tamin the minccino runs through a mystery dungeon, totally lost. After a few encounters with wild pokemon, she meets a shinx named Locke who was exploring the dungeon alone. After the two introduce themselves to each other, the shinx starts guiding Tamin on the way out.

Along the way, Tamin triggers a trap that gets her leg stuck and sets off a makeshift alarm, causing several dungeon pokemon to rush towards the room. Tamin struggles to free her leg as Locke fights off the pokemon, getting incredibly ferocious as he does so, to the point of becoming beserk.

In the fight, three pokemon show up to help save them: a lucario, an arcanine, and a meowstic. They dispatch the dungeon pokemon, but Locke doesn't recognize them as helpers and fires a thunderbolt at the arcanine. The meowstic gets ready to use psychic to hold down the shinx, but Tamin calls out to all of them to make them stop fighting.

Afterwards, the five pokemon all head out of the dungeon together. The pokemon introduce themselves as Armin the lucario, Max the arcanine, and Rustin the meowstic, with them all being explorers from the region's exploration guild and were doing a mission when they heard the commotion. Hearing this, Locke says he would like to join as he's been going through dungeons alone for quite some time and would like a place to stay for the winter. Tamin quickly says she would like to join as well.

Chapter 2: Testing Day

The five pokemon talk while they get back to the guild. Armin criticizes Locke and Tamin as acting juvenile, and asks them how old they are. He shows confusion as Locke answers he's "four" and Tamin says "five since last week", and Tamin needs to clarify that that's over a quarter of a minccino's lifespan.

They get back to the guild, where Armin, Max, and Rustin drop the two main characters off to meet the guildmaster as they get their mission registered as complete. The guildmaster is an espeon, who has a chatot named Niot as his assistant.

After making sure the two are serious about wanting to join the guild, Espeon has both of them fill out some paper forms with information. They then move into the guild's yard where Niot puts them through some tests to gauge their performance. Niot ultimately concludes that Locke is "above average, but appears notably unruly" and that Tamin is unremarkable.

Espeon lets them sleep in the guildhouse for the night as they prepare a proper test mission tomorrow.

Chapter 3: In The Field

Niot and Espeon take Locke and Tamin out to a nearby mystery dungeon, along with a froslass from the guild. It is explained that this is the test mission, where Froslass is a trained explorer who will head into the mystery dungeon and wait, serving as a lost pokemon for them to find. Afterwards, Locke and Tamin are to head in and find her.

The two ask a few questions. It's explained that static teams aren't really something this guild does, and people find partners to accompany them for every mission they decide to do. Niot also explains the guild's equipment more, showing that every explorer is equipped with a one-time use flare that produces a loud sound and a contrail of luminescent smoke (colored based on the explorer's type) when activated, and the base of the flare will continue to produce light after it has been activated. Niot explains they're used primarily to call for a regroup, as the sound they make reaches farther than shouting can.

Locke and Tamin wait for Froslass to get in position, and talk with each other. Locke explains that he has just been going in and out of mystery dungeons to gather supplies for himself for his whole life, and he has zero idea who his parents are (assuming they abandoned him). Though he did used to have a sneasel companion he explored mystery dungeons with before they got separated. When Locke asks Tamin for her story, she simply says she'd rather not talk about it.

Locke and Tamin head into the mystery dungeon, with Niot following them and taking notes on performance. As the two fight several of the dungeon's inhabitants, Locke doesn't communicate very much with the others and solves almost every problem that comes up himself. This ultimately leads to them getting separated as Locke wanders off to collect some coins while Tamin and Niot were in the middle of a conversation.

Locke finds Froslass himself, and activates his flare to help Tamin find his location. On the way out of the dungeon, they are stopped by a wild aggron. Niot and Froslass stand back to let Locke and Tamin deal with the situation. The fight ultimately resolves once Tamin activates her own flare at point-blank range with the aggron's head, causing them to both be stunned by the noise and flash, allowing for Locke to finish it off.

Chapter 4: A New Life

After Espeon looks over Niot's performance reports on Locke and Tamin as the two wait in anticipation. While he does criticize Tamin's low performance and Locke's lack of teamwork, the two are ultimately accepted into the guild. Tamin takes a light red scarf while Locke takes a purple one.

Espeon gives the tour around the guildhouse where they will be staying, explaining the structure (two floors plus a very large basement), what times they will be having meals, and how missions are done. He explains that while all pokemon do have a real name, many simply prefer to go by their species' name instead.

During lunch, Locke meets with a friendly dewott and the two immediately hit it off together, starting a competition to see who can eat more food.

The guild has both a diurnal side and nocturnal side to it, with Espeon's sister Umbreon operating the guild during nighttime hours. They are also introduced to Sylveon, who is the guild's rule enforcer but isn't blood related to Espeon and Umbreon.

When dusk comes and the nocturnal side of the guild wakes up, Locke recognizes a weavile at the guild as being Crystal, who was the sneasel he used to travel with. The two have a kindhearted reunion with each other.

Chapter 5: Friends and Enemies

The next day, Locke and Tamin wake up for their first official day at the guild. After having breakfast, Locke leaves the building for a bit to go on a jog while Tamin stays around to eavesdrop on the other members of the guild (something she enjoys).

On his jog, a zorua from the guild catches up to Locke and begins talking with him. He introduces himself as "Hunter" and the two talk with one another. Hunter reveals his nature without remorse when he mentions that he has a beef with Sylveon, due to him often interfering when he tries pulling pranks on other guild members. He also mentions he has a half-sister vulpix named Yuki who helps him make the pranks. Hunter begins asking rather invasive questions to Locke about Tamin, like whether she's just his friend or also his girlfriend, and where their relationship is heading. Those questions push Locke far enough that he breaks away from the conversation.

While Tamin eavesdrops on other guild members, she is approached by an excited rockruff who immediately talks with her. The rockruff reveals her name is Scampi and she was the newest member of the guild before Locke and Tamin joined. After they talk for a bit, Scampi ends up taking Tamin's hand and taking her around, quickly showing her to different guild members and mentioning what they're like to introduce Tamin to them. Tamin eventually raises her voice and explains she doesn't want to get shown around like that. Scampi tells her that "the guild is like a family, you've got to know everyone" but Tamin apologizes and says "I'd rather be passive then treated like family," before stepping away.

Locke starts running back to the guildhouse. Before he can get back, he's stopped by a strange emolga who lands in front of him and excitedly introduces herself as "Olivia". She explains she used to be the only electric type in the guild, and shows an unusual affection towards Locke. She immediately starts proposing plans of them going out to a restaurant together and telling Locke she can forget about "the minccino". As she starts getting into his personal space, he quickly runs back inside the guildhouse. He runs up to what he thinks is Tamin, who begins affectionately hugging him in front of Olivia and to make their relationship look much different than it actually is, making the emolga pout and storm off. It's then revealed to not be Tamin, but Hunter the zorua disguising himself as Tamin.

The zorua giggles to himself, but Locke retaliates by pressing his paw against Hunter and extending his claws to stab him. It is then that Locke realizes there's an entire group of guild members who witnessed what just happened, and Sylveon steps in to defuse the situation.

Locke meets up with the real Tamin, and asks what the time is. Tamin still plans to spend time with just herself, mentioning that she enjoys folding cloth repeatedly. Locke remembers Dewott who he met yesterday, and decides to meet with him again. He finds him just before Dewott heads off on a mission, and they talk. Dewott says how he has two brothers, he would often have many different competitions with them. He ended up being the "champion of the family", and now he aims to be the "champion of the guild."

Chapter 6: Expedition

Later that same day, Locke and Tamin get ready for their first real mission at the guild. They choose an item retrieval mission in a nearby cave system, and start getting ready for it.

Joining them on the mission is Sebastien the meowstic- the sister of Rustin the meowstic- as well as Venasaur. On the journey there, Sebastien talks about how she's Espeon's girlfriend and how well they get along, whereas Venusaur is short with Locke and Tamin and declines to speak with them. Sebastien scolds Venasaur, implying this behavior of his is a continuous problem.

They enter the dungeon and begin exploring around. Locke continues to display a lack of teamwork, breaking away from the team and rejoining on his own accord. Sebastien shows professionalism in leading the team the correct way, while Venasaur insults Locke and Tamin for their decisions and ability.

The team reaches a horde room guarded by an onix, containing the item they were looking for. The onix ends up waking up, and immediately manages to knock out Tamin. During the chaos, Sebastien feels the back of her neck being scratched by Locke, which breaks her scarf. After the fight, Sebastien asks Locke if he has memory of doing that and the fight, which Locke confirms and sheepishly apologizes for. Outside the dungeon, Tamin feels bad for herself due to getting knocked out and Venasaur makes fun of her for it, but Sebastien scolds Venasaur and makes him stop.

While the mission didn't go perfectly, Locke and Tamin still want to celebrate their first mission and the money they've earned. Locke decides to eat out at a restaurant and also take Crystal the weavile along. Olivia the emolga shows up and insists she comes along as well, which Locke allows because he isn't up for an argument.

Sebastien meets with Espeon to tell him about what happens. She shows the scarf that Locke tore, which saddens Espeon because it was "one of the scarves that Issac made himself" and hopes he can repair it.

Sebastien meets up with Sylveon as well as a mawile at the guild to discuss Locke's behavior. It's noted how Locke has now hurt guild members on three occasions: first when firing a thunderbolt at Max during his first meeting with him, second when stabbing Hunter with his claws, and third when slashing Sebastien's neck. With this now repeated behavior, Sylveon says he'll keep an eye on him. Mawile exercises some psychological knowledge, theorizing that its ferocity he has built up from spending years fighting in mystery dungeons alone, and says she wants to make a psychological profile on Locke.

Chapter 7: Dine Out

Locke, Tamin, Crystal, and Olivia head into the town the guild is located in to go to a restaurant (at Crystal's guidance).

Locke and Crystal continue to happily banter with each other, enjoying being able to reunite after so long. Olivia continues to be creepy towards Locke, insinuating that electric types are better than other types and insinuating that she is either currently Locke's lover or will be. Tamin largely remains as a passive observer, only interjecting with her own comments here and there.

They get to a restaurant and order food together, where the discussions continue. It eventually gets to the point where Locke has to take Olivia out behind the restaurant to explain to her in no uncertain terms that he does not love her and doesn't really like her either. Olivia seems to take this well at first, but then says that it isn't always love at first sight and that she'll have to "make you love me". She doesn't elaborate on this, only leaving money behind to pay for her food and heading off. Locke explains to the group what happened.

Once they are done with the restaurant, Crystal leads Locke and Tamin to an antique shop in town. At the shop, Locke and Crystal browse around until they find a really nice looking desk, which Crystal offers to buy for Locke so he can finish his room. Tamin stays close to the front of the shop and browses the magazines on sale. She manages to find a magazine which contains a group photo of a family of cinccino and minccino- one of which being herself. She buys all copies of the magazines and throws them into a dumpster outside, thus preventing anyone else from getting them and seeing her in them.

As Locke and Crystal head out, Locke admits to having more feelings for Crystal than just friendship. Through stuttering, he asks if they could be boyfriend and girlfriend together. Crystal accepts this.

Chapter 8: An Even Investigation

Tamin eavesdrops on the other members of the guild to pass the time again, using her large minccino ears. During this, she hears a strange conversation between a man and a woman, where the woman was seeming to be blackmailing and controlling the man- telling him to not be passing notes to others and such- with the man nervous and stuttering. Tamin attempts to pinpoint exactly which room the conversation was happening in.

She hears noises from one specific bedroom and presses her ear against it, only to hear Sebastien making out with Espeon on the other side. Rustin notices she's pressing her ear against the door to her sister's room, and questions Tamin. She lies her way out of the situation, deceiving Rustin into thinking she just tripped onto the door, with Tamin using quick responses and body language to make the deception more convincing. Rustin still talks with her for a bit longer (as he still feels something doesn't add up), and he takes notice of how Tamin has an odd attachment to folding cloth.

Later, Tamin meets up with Locke and tells him about the strange conversation she heard earlier. But once the real Locke turns around the corner to see them, she realizes that she was actually speaking to Hunter disguising herself as Locke. This angers the real Locke enough for him to start yelling at Hunter, the zorua asks "What are you going to do, hurt me?", Locke replies saying "I dang might!" before Niot arrives and de-escalates the situation.

While he is there, Niot tells Locke to stop attacking other guild members or threatening them. He then requests both Locke and Tamin come to the guild's infirmary for a health checkup. They follow the chatot down there.

Tamin has her check up first, which goes straightforward without too much happening, aside from some oddly specific questions she's given to answer by the nurse Audino. Audino does notice that the webbing between the fingers on Tamin's paws appear to be severed down and that Tamin has thin, pale marks beneath her fur, but Tamin passes those off as being from a tree climbing accident and just birthmarks. Locke's checkup is far more extensive. Audino has a note from Niot that she can use restraints on the shinx, but she chooses to ignore it. She also notices that Locke seems to have some frostbitten flesh, but Locke plays it off as nothing. Audino applies skin treatment to him, sterilizes Locke's claws, and baths him.

After both the appointments are done and Locke and Tamin return to where they were, Mawile steps into the infirmary to ask Mawile some questions and get reports on the two pokemon from her. Mawile says how she's making some psychological profiles on them. Audino asks why she's gathering information on Tamin as well as Locke, and Mawile replies saying that Rustin told her about odd behavior from Rustin form earlier that day.

Chapter 9: Chore Day

The chapter starts with Tamin having a nightmare, where she dreams of the guild finding out she lied about her age and taking her away for being too young. She wakes up in a panic before realizing it was only a dream.

After leaving her room, Locke and Tamin are told by Niot that today is a chore day for the guild. Held once every two weeks, they're supposed to help tidy up the building instead of doing a mission on the day. Dewott challenges Locke to see who can clean more that day, while Tamin calmly decides to start dusting surfaces off with her tail in peace.

Tamin gets a chance to speak with Espeon. Remembering her dream, she tries to ask about the guild's rules regarding age and taking pokemon back to their parents in the most inconspicuous way possible. She gets nervous that her questions are getting too suspicious, so she jumps to an unrelated question of asking how the guild is going to prepare for the winter.

Over lunch, Locke and Dewott discuss all that they have accomplished to figure out who was more productive. Despite Tamin pointing out how there's not really an objective way to measure this competition, they both decide to get immediately back into the competition and leave the table again. Them leaving gives a chance for Tamin to speak with Mienfoo at the table, who is Dewott's girlfriend. Tamin finds Mienfoo to be similar to herself, and much more relatable. Mienfoo is actually from a noble background, but chose to work at the guild instead.

As Locke is cleaning an office room down in the basement, he stumbles over a strange lump underneath the carpet. Pulling up the room's carpet from the corner, he is able to find a trapdoor beneath it. This confuses him as he's already in the basement, and as he peers inside he notices a staircase leading downwards into darkness. He hears footsteps outside the room, so he quietly puts everything back where he found it. Locke meets with Sylveon right outside the room, where he learns that it was Sylveon's office as Sylveon asks what he was doing there. Afterwards, Sylveon tells him how the administration has noticed Locke's aggressive behavior and asks him to cool it down before attacking anyone else. Locke boldly argues for himself on every occasion brought up, and Sylveon (with growing frustration) tells him he's hurting himself by continuing to excuse his own behavior and avoid improving.

Tamin loses track of time and continues cleaning room after room, and finds herself in a laboratory room. Mawile meets her there, and the two talk. She learns that this room is where the guild makes the flares they use, with Mawile doing the measurements of powders while Olivia does the final assembly. Mawile gets carried away discussing it, ranting about one time she was asked by Sylveon to create a "payload flare" which has ten times the power of a regular flare stored in it and would be incredibly harmful to use. While they are together, Mawile asks various questions to Tamin, such as on her unusual habit of folding cloth extremely often (which Tamin defends by saying it's just something she likes and relieves stress to). Mawile finds this interesting while Tamin is simply confused.

Chapter 10: Electrifying Charm

Olivia sets up circumstances to force Locke to go on a date with him. While Locke resists her (but doesn't attack her, as he remembers what Sylveon told him), Olivia's plans get gradually more elaborate until Locke eventually concedes just to make it stop.

The date eventually brings them to a restaurant. While Locke is none too happy with the situation, he still talks. He learns that Olivia was the only electric type at the guild for some time due to the last electric type being Valence the Luxray, who died during a mission. Locke asks more about Valance, finding the name to sound strangely familiar.

The meal is interrupted when Sylveon walks into the restaurant, who is out to catch Olivia after she caused someone to get injured in her antics to make Locke go out with her. He grabs the emolga and takes her back to the guild, while Locke smiles and does nothing to intervene.

That night, Locke decides to sleep with Tamin in her room, due to the feeling of his own room being compromised. Before getting to sleep, the two have a heart-to-heart to talk about their pasts. Tamin confesses that she was abused by her parents, and ran away from their home to get away, with Locke finding him while she was running away. She also admits that she lied about how old she was, as she worried that the guild might return her to her parents if they discovered she was still a kid.

Locke also opens up about his past. He confesses he knows very little about his past and doesn't even know what his birthday is, he only remembers going through mystery dungeons for his whole life. But before he falls asleep, it's revealed that the oldest memory Locke has is a vivid memory of being caught in a burning building.

Chapter 11: Weaving Through the Whispers

Tamin wanders around the guild while eavesdropping on the conversation between other guild members. She heard Armin lamenting to Max about being homesick, and she hears Locke asking Espeon about Valence (learning she wasn't at the guild for very long as she died in a mission with her body being returned to the guild charred), causing Espeon to get emotional as he recalls.

However, Tamin stumbles upon hearing a conversation between Hunter and his half-sister Yuki the vulpix. During this, she realizes that Yuki's voice and speech pattern perfectly matches the one from the strange conversation she heard back in chapter 8. Tamin concludes Yuki must be blackmailing someone else in the guild, and she follows them to continue listening in. Their conversation covers a few subjects, but ultimately turns to Hunter beginning to discuss plans for a big prank on Locke. But before Tamin can hear anything more, she accidentally creates a noise which gets the attention of Hunter and Yuki, forcing Tamin to bail.

Getting to another place in the guild's basement, Tamin is able to catch a conversation between Sylveon and Mawile. Mawile discusses Locke's extreme ferocity and how he is prone to attacking others, giving her opinion on his psychology and a warning to Sylveon. Mawile also discusses Tamin, and says she believes Tamin has O.C.D. based on certain behaviors she has, namely or ritualistic tendency to fold cloth a lot. Hearing this causes Tamin to have a small existential crisis and really think about herself and her life.

After lunch, she gets approached by Scampi the rockruff again, who excitedly begins talking with her. Tamin asks her why Scampi is so interested in her, and Scampi replies it's because she wants to help Tamin, since she sees her being such a closed off person and quiet. Tamin is touched by Scampi being well meaning, so she decides to spend time with her. Though everything Tamin heard from that day remains in her mind.

Chapter 12: Magnum Opus

Dewott and Mienfoo offer to take Tamin on a mission, which she agrees to. Meanwhile, Locke is beginning to deal with sleep deprivation due to spending hours at night spending time with Crystal in lieu of sleeping.

Tamin talks with Mienfoo and Dewott about various subjects, until she has a realization: she never had a chance to give Locke a warning about what Hunter seemed to be planning. At this, Tamin demands the team quickly turn around and heads back to the guild so she can warn Locke.

Back at the guildhouse, Locke is baited out to an obscure room at the corner of the guild's massive basement floor. There, Hunter disguised as excadrill (who is another member of the guild, but one who hasn't interacted with Locke before) begins interacting with Locke. He intimidates Locke and makes threats towards him, goading Locke into having another ferocious episode without touching him. Hunter succeeds, getting Locke to begin attacking him as his eyes turn red. At this, Hunter runs to a lounge in the basement to be in-view of other guild members.

At the lounge, chaos ensues as Hunter runs to the middle of the room and Locke charges after him and attacks him. After Hunter manages to dodge multiple times, Locke connects an attack against him, and causes his illusion to break. Rather than deterring Locke, this only enrages him more as he keeps attacking. Multiple guild members try to intervene, but Locke attacks them as well.

The situation only ends once Sylveon and Esepon charge into the room, with Sylveon grabbing Locke with his ribbons and Espeon using Hypnosis to force him to fall asleep. The last thing Locke sees before fading out is Tamin running down the stairs to look towards him.

Sometime later, Locke wakes up in a room with only Hunter and Sylveon. Hunter is wearing a muzzle while Locke notices he is now wearing a harness that covers his upper body. Sylveon begins telling them their punishments. For Hunter, he's being put through solitary confinement for two days for his actions. But for Locke, Sylveon explains the harness he is now in. Locke is not allowed to take it off for the foreseeable future, and during a mission his teammate will be allowed to hook him onto a leash, and he is not allowed to fight against it. This both serves as a punishment for how he has attacked other guild members, as well as a way to control him for being unruly and stop him from breaking away from the team during missions. Locke tries arguing against this, but it is to no avail as Sylveon doubles down.

At the end of the chapter, Locke is taken out of the room and back into the view of the other guild members, much to his dismay.

Chapter 13: Led

Locke is allowed to return to his room as Sylveon meets with people one-by-one to explain the situation with Locke. Tamin eavesdrops on the meetings by standing in the next room with her ear on the wall. Some argue against the treatment, others do not.

Later that day, Locke departs on a mission with Nidorino, Dewott, and Rustin the meowstic. Rustin is very unkind to Locke due to him scratching Sebastien's neck in chapter 6. While Locke is able to have some fun banter with his friend Dewott, the first mission in the harness is still miserable for him.

He ends the day on the guild's porch, looking out into the night. Dewott joins him again for a heart-to-heart where Dewott talks about some of his own embarrassing experiences to make Locke feel better. During their conversation, Locke asks Dewott "Who is the dominant one in your relationship?" when they talk about Mienfoo. Dewott shows some concern about this, but ultimately backs off and doesn't push too deep about the matter.

Chapter 14: End of the Line

Tamin finds that Yuki the vulpix is talking with Hunter as he's still being kept in the same room. She uses this as a chance to chase Yuki into a corner of the basement and finally interrogate her about the conversations she's eavesdropped on.

Yuki doesn't panic, and actually admits to many of the things that Tamin accuses her of when she asks. But before Tamin leaves, Yuki reveals that she knows that Tamin has been lying about her age and has run away from her parents. Her bedroom is directly above Tamin's room, and she was able to eavesdrop on the conversation between Locke and Tamin which happened at the end of chapter 10. Yuki threatens to tell the truth to the guildmasters and uses this to blackmail Tamin in the same way she has been blackmailing the braixen in the guild.

Rather than succumbing to despair, Tamin regains control of the conversation as she points out that she could tell the guildmasters of what Yuki has been doing, thus making it mutually assured destruction. Yuki accepts this, but questions Tamin if she's willing to risk getting sent back to her parents just to take her down.

Tamin leaves the room on her own terms and begins devising plans to deal with this new situation. She figures out she can minimize the amount of time both her and Yuki are simultaneously at the guildhouse, so she immediately gets a team together with the guild members Scampi, Nidorina, and Ludicolo to head off onto a mission.

Chapter 15: The Coming Storm

Later the same day, An absol named Eno arrives at the guild to warn them of a snowstorm that is coming very soon. After delivering the message, she leaves shortly after.

The guild quickly rushes to ready the guildhouse for winter, protecting the windows to keep as much heat inside of the building. After a head count is done, it is discovered that Tamin, Scampi, Nidorina, and Ludicolo are gone and that they had left for a mission in the same direction the snowstorm is coming in.

To save them, Locke prepares to head out to get them back. Joining him is Froslass, as well as Yuki (who Locke is skeptical of, but doesn't exactly know her connection to Tamin).

Chapter 16: Diamond Dust

A massive snow storm starts over Tamin, Scampi, Nidorina, and Lucicolo, but Locke, Froslass, and Yuki are able to find them and give them more supplies to survive (though Tamin is not happy to see Yuki again).

After spending time surviving by taking shelter in a small cave and lighting a fire, the group of seven is eventually found by an absol search party consisting of Eno, her sister Sesha, and Sesha's boyfriend Saber. They take the group back to the region's absol colony to spend the night until the storm subsides. They get to learn that there is a society of absol living in the mountains close to the guild and they get to see some of its workings.

After spending the night there, Yuki notices that Locke and Tamin were hugging each other as they slept, which embarrasses them. They are still all able to depart from the colony to return to the guildhouse, which is now covered in a blanket of snow.

Chapter 17: Snowed In

With winter now in, the guild has reduced the number of missions being done and everyone is stuck inside more. Scampi tries to break the boredom by organizing a hide and seek match, which Tamin wins.

Dewott and Mienfoo have a conversation, where Mienfoo talks about her potentially having to return to her noble family for the winter. Dewott isn't controlling of her, but is worried about not being able to see her evolution.

Tamin eavesdrops on a conversation between Hunter and Yuki again, this time hearing Hunter telling Yuki to be kinder towards Tamin and even offering himself in her place. Hunter admits that there's something he likes about Tamin.

Locke spends more time with Crystal. This time, Crystal is shown to be abusive towards Locke when she gets angry at him for hugging Tamin at the absol colony, threatens him, and cuts him with her claws. However, Locke still refuses to admit anything is amiss and tells Tamin things are okay.

Chapter 18: Roundabout

Venasaur bullies Tamin, getting even more aggressive about it. Leading to him eventually chasing her downstairs, where she meets Locke. Due to the other staircase to the basement being destroyed, they are now stuck down there with Venasaur guarding the other staircase.

Hunter reveals that he's downstairs as well, and points out there's another way out of the basement: a secret spiral staircase connecting Espeon's bedroom to his office. The three of them decide to take it, as quietly as they can. Locke and Hunter exchange some dark humor jokes along the way, each trying to make a joke more clever than the other.

While in Espeon's bedroom, Hunter manages to snoop around and finds that Espeon had bought a pair of wedding rings. They take the spiral staircase up to end up in Espeon's office through a trapdoor he has behind the desk, but Sylveon reveals himself there and catches all three of them.

Locke, Tamin, and Hunter all end up being stuck together and forced to wait as punishment for their trespassing. Hunter apologizes to them, telling that he genuinely wanted to help them and wasn't intending to get them all caught.

Chapter 19: Port Rosiose

Armin the lucrio, Max the arcanine, Nidorino, and Braixen head to a massive port city to pick up supplies for the guild. At the city, they decide to split up to get different things done and for each to do their own thing.

Braixen grew up in the city and revists the locations of his childhood with melancholy. He goes to a graveyard, where he weeps over the grave of his sister while a mismagius cleric consoles him. It's mentioned that he hated his sister when she was alive, but now can't move on.

Armin goes to the docks to gaze out into the distance, Nidorino visits a library and looks into the history of the city and the continent (though is skeptical of the writing, believing it to be deeply biased), and Max does most of the shopping as he finds a kindly Swana who helps him find all he needs.

The four meet together with all the supplies acquired, they get an inn room together to sleep for the night. At the end, it is revealed that Braixen himself actually murdered his sister and staged it as a suicide, which he lives in deep regret of and works at the guild to make up for his actions (with it being implied that this is the secret which Yuki knows and blackmails him with).

Chapter 20: The Long Haul

As Armin, Max, Nidorino, and Braixen return to the guild with the supplies, getting into fights with some highwaymen along the way. The fight is particularly easy as Armin is able to outmaneuver and overpower them.

After getting back to the guild, Armin leaves on a walk to clear his head. He goes a long distance away from the guildhouse to visit a very secluded site of ruins where he can meditate at (a place that essentially no one knows about).

Chapter 21: Deep Dark

The majority of the guild is still stuck inside due to snow, and have been for sometime.

Locke remembers the strange trapdoor he found in Sylveon's office and the staircase beneath it back in chapter 9. He tells Tamin about what he saw, which gets her interested. The two of them prepare to check it out.

Under the trap door, they find a dungeon filled with kennels of different sizes and supplies for keeping a prisoner alive for sometime. While they are exploring and disturbed, they hear someone approaching from behind. Tamin hides while Locke reveals himself, seeing it was Sylveon coming into the room (who assumes Locke was alone).

Sylveon takes Locke back to Espeon's office, where he explains that Locke didn't technically break a rule in the guild due to Espeon not wanting people to know about the place's existence. Sylveon does ask for Locke to pay for an object he broke in chapter 18, but Locke says he cannot since he gives all his money to Crystal (claiming she's more responsible with it).

Tamin is stuck in the dungeon due to Sylveon moving a wooden board above the trapdoor. Locke tries to get back to her, but is stopped by Olivia the Emolga, who this time uses the move Attract on Locke and gets him into her room.

Locke is able to eventually get out and gets Tamin out of the dungeon as well.

Chapter 22: A Cryptic Message

Locke and Tamin are finally able to do a mission in the winter. Working with Dewott and Froslass, they retrieve a wagon that was intended to make several stops to drop off supplies but got off-road.

After Locke and Dewott have more fun banter with each other, they find the wagon with its contents scattered everywhere. While getting the items back onto it, Tamin finds an unusual letter that is written in cryptography rather than any language. Curious, she smuggles the letter in her coat and takes it back into her room, only telling Locke about it.

Tamin finds out the wagon was originally intending to make a stop at the guildhouse, and the letter is formatted in the same way mission requests are. She spends hours attempting to crack the letter and decipher what it says, but has no luck. She spends so long on it that it turns to be well after midnight.

Coming out of her room, Tamin has a chance to meet with the nocturnal members of the guild, including Espeon's sister Umbreon. Tamin finds Umbreon to be kind, and finds her nice to talk with.

Tamin is ultimately unable to solve what the letter means, and falls asleep in the middle of working on it. After talking with Locke about it again, she decides to put it to rest and not work on it anymore for the time being.

Chapter 23: The Good Ol' Days

This chapter is mostly a flashback chapter, showing Locke's memories of when he explored the world alone.

It details the first time Locke met Crystal (back when she was still a sneasel), where he found her having a heatstroke in a mystery dungeon during the summer, and he carried her to a pond for her to cool off at. The two then made a campfire and spent the night together.

Crystal explains her own past, saying how her parents died of disease and left her orphaned, and she traveled northward to get to colder climates in an attempt to escape the summer heat. She laments about how much this has made her own life harder.

The next day, Locke and Crystal go into another mystery dungeon together. In it, Locke finds a green hairpin which she gives to Crystal, and she wears.

The chapter jumps to the present day, where it is revealed that Locke was having these flashbacks as he looked into a drawer in Crystal's room and finds the same green hairpin he'd given to her all those years ago. She is keeping it in the middle of a junk drawer, and doesn't have very much sentimental attachment to it (even asking Locke if he wants it back).

Chapter 24: Meltdown

At long last, the guild wakes up to see the snow has melted, and they come outside to enjoy it.

Tamin takes Locke to a private place to talk with him. Tamin heavily suspects Crystal is abusing him, and asks him deeply about it. Her plan is to both get Locke out of the relationship, and to get dirt on Crystal that she can give to Yuki so Yuki will start blackmailing Crystal and focus on her instead of Tamin.

Tamin tells Locke more about her own past, going more deeply into how her parents would abuse her. This frightens Locke and gets to him, he still refuses to admit what Crystal does is abuse and leave the relationship but he leaves more cautious.

Tamin meets with Umbreon again as the two discuss how winter has ended. Feeling that Umbreon is kind, Tamin decides to finally open up and admit the fact that she lied about her age and how her parents abused her. Umbreon reassures her that they aren't going to kick her out of the guild or force her to go back. Now with that burden off of her, Tamin tells Umbreon everything that Yuki has been doing, as Yuki no longer has anything to hold over her.

Days later, Sylveon discusses with Espeon what he had found when searching Yuki's bedroom, after Yuki has already been put down into the dungeon. Sylveon asks what he plans to do with Venasaur as he's been unkind to the other guild members, Espeon makes a utilitarian argument that Venasaur has saved lives while working at the guild so it's for the best that he is kept in and not kicked.

Chapter 25: What's Old and What's New

Taking place after a timeskip from chapter 24, Locke attends on a mission with Rustin, Mawile, and the guild's excadrill. The mission explores a laboratory that was buried by an earthquake.

Rustin leads the mission, and attaches Locke to a leash during it. The team mentions that Braixen has left the guild after what happened with Yuki.

Locke is taken to a generator room where Mawile grabs a cable with a sharpened end, cleans and sterilizes the end, and stabs it into Locke so they can power the facility's lights again using his electricity. This completely exhausts him, and it's revealed that was the sole reason Rustin brought Locke to the mission. Excadrill is left to guard him while Rustin and Mawile do the rest of the exploration themselves.

Locke is able to find the glimmer of a Shiny stone, which he takes and pockets for himself.

Chapter 26: The New and the Familiar

Locke and Tamin are at the town's ice cream shop as they meet two people who recently joined the guild: Snivy and Swana. Snivy talks about how his grandmother Ssareth was a legendary explorer that he wants to be like, while Swana talks about how he got the idea to join the guild after speaking to an Arcanine in Port Rosiose (referring to the events of chapter 19).

Elley the shinx arrives again to give them their ice cream. Locke talks to her more, asking her about her mother Valence who worked at the guild before she died. The two of them continue talking as Tamin, Snivy, and Swana leave.

Elley gets emotional as she talks more about her backstory- explaining that she used to have four other siblings, but they all died when their old house caught on fire and the rest of them were downstairs. The remaining family (Valance, her husband, and Elley) moved to the town afterwards, where Valance would later die as well. Locke shares how he has a very old memory of being inside of a burning building to her. After asking for his name again, Elley asks for Locke to come into her house.

She retrieves a box from her closet containing mementos (which she started trying to forget to not be burdened by grief) and pulls out an old newspaper on the house fire. After reading the report, they find that Locke's name is on the list of people who supposedly died.

Locke and Elley discover that they're siblings, and they happily have a reunion with each other as Elley is shocked he had survived the whole time and Locke is shocked to have any family at all. They spend the day catching up with one another and playing games. Elley also gives Locke a pendant which has a photo of the full family together in it, which he keeps and cherishes.

Chapter 27: An Awkward Start

After noticing how lonely Tamin seems to be, Scampi sets her up on a mission along with Nidorino and gets them to talk with each other. Nidorino and Tamin hit it off, quickly finding how similar they are to one another and how many mutual interests they have. They end up forming a love relationship with one another.

Afterwards Tamin asks Scampi about the situation, and finds out that this was all what Scampi planned out. She wanted to give Tamin a new friend by getting two quiet people in the guild together.

Chapter 28: An Unclean Mirror

Dewott does a spar with Mienfoo (who has now evolved into a mienshao) after she returned from her family. Mienshao wins, and Dewott congratulates her. They have some discussion over who has now won more competitions between them, and try other competitions to pass the time.

Later, Mienshao goes to a bar to go drinking with Max and another member in the guild (both friends of hers). There she ends up getting herself severely drunk and puking outside. She begins going through an existential crisis as she realizes that how she behaves with her family and how she behaves with her friends are completely opposite to one another, and she can't figure out which is her true self and which is a persona she puts on for those around her.

Dewott arrives at the bar, helps her get back, and she sobers up. But those existential questions linger in her mind as she has no immediate answer.

Chapter 29: Behind the Mask

Tamin and Nidorino continue their relationship, going camping in the woods for a night.

While in their tents, Tamin opens up about her inner feelings some more. She says that not only does she hate her abusive parents, but she describes fantasies she has about torturing them. Hearing these fantasies dirturbs Nidorino, causing him to struggle to sleep that night.

The next day, Nidorino breaks up with Tamin for vague reasons, but Tamin quickly figures out that it's because of the fantasies she described. This saddens her, as she feels he is getting punished for being honest and open for a change. Locke meets with her in her room, and successfully cheers her up after giving her encouragement.

It is then revealed that it wasn't Locke who cheered Tamin up, but rather Hunter who was disguising himself. He laments over the fact that he cannot be honest with his form and needs to disguise himself.

Chapter 30: Off the Fence

This chapter shows the perspective of Espeon, as he works as the guildmaster doing paperwork, discussing matters with Niot and Sylveon, and relaxes by spending time with his girlfriend Sebastien.

Throughout the chapter, Espeon heavily mulls over several important matters, unable to push himself to make a definitive decision. The main three issues are what to do with Locke and his harness, what to do with Venusaur as he bullies others in the guild but is a very effective explorer, and what to do with Yuki as she remains in the dungeon. No decision is reached on Locke and Venasaur, but Sebastien manages to persuade him into letting Yuki out and giving her another chance as it has been some time.

Yuki is finally released out of the dungeon, but is now in a harness herself and is being kept under more surveillance. At the end, Sebastien uses telepathy to speak with Yuki and it is revealed the two of them are secretly friends.

Chapter 31: A Darker Me

Hunter disguises himself as Tamin once again and takes her out to several locations in town (taking her on a date, but not saying it). At the same time, Yuki works to slow the real Locke down to prevent him from intervening.

Hunter makes a genuine effort to make Tamin happy and give her good experiences, but she starts to feel that things are wrong throughout it. Hunter having much better grammar and sophisticated speaking compared to Locke gets more noticeable the longer they are together.

Locke is eventually able to reach them, and he fires a thunderbolt at Hunter to knock him against a wall and break his illusion. Tamin apologizes to Locke for not realizing the trick sooner. Before she leaves, Hunter calls out to Tamin to ask her to not forget about the experiences he gave her.

Chapter 32: Turning Point

Crystal makes Locke spend another full night with her, this time taking him out to a theater play. However, Locke is exceptionally tired and is only barely able to remain conscious throughout it.

Crystal takes Locke to her bedroom, and gets into an argument with him as she's incredibly angry at him nodding off during the show she payed for. During this, she finds the pendant that Elley gave him and breaks it in front of him. Seeing it be broken causes Locke to begin crying for the first time in the story, which only makes Crystal more angry as she starts kicking him.

Chapter 33: Broken

Locke is at his lowest emotional point in the story after what happened in the last chapter, only barely able to keep himself together. He tries attending the guild breakfast, but others can see what is wrong.

He eventually goes to Espeon's office, where he explains everything Crystal has been doing to him to Sylveon while in hysterics.

Hours later, Crystal is cuffed in a room in the basement. Espeon and Sylveon enter with some items and they interrogate her about the accusations Locke made. Crystal initially handles the interrogation well, but her excuses and justifications get gradually less believable and less consistent.

Espeon intentionally does not reveal all the information he has access to so he can see what Crystal says. Afterwards, he begins pulling out fliers and mission logs with information that contradict the claims that Cyrstal is making. She starts to get increasingly angry in the interrogation, and her excuses become belligerent. Espeon and Sylveon come to the conclusion that she was guilty of all the abuse Locke described.

After leaving the room, Espeon laments over how much stuff has happened within the guild which he failed to notice. Crystal ends up being put into the guild dungeon for all she has done.

Chapter 34: Aftermath

Now that Locke has broken up with Crystal and Crystal is no longer in the guild, Olivia sees this as the perfect time for her to finally appeal to Locke and start a relationship with him.

She prepares a bouquet of flowers and comes to Locke's room with them. However, Tamin opens the door and refuses to let her come in to greet Locke (as he's still going through serious emotions). Tamin shuts the door on her.

This experience causes Olivia to become enraged at Tamin as she views her as the one keeping her from the one she's destined for. Because of this, she begins plotting against Tamin.

On a later day, she finds a time when Tamin is on the outside of the guildhouse at night while Locke himself is away from her. Olivia confronts Tamin and approaches her while talking. Tamin tries to run away, but Olivia manages to grab her, pin her down, and starts choking her with a wire. Tamin is unable to struggle for safety as Olivia continues shouting and choking her.

Scampi the rockruff see's what is happening and attacks Olivia without hesitation to save Tamin. Olivia realizes she missed her chance to kill Tamin and can't work at the guild anymore, so she runs away from the town and finds a place in the woods to sleep.

Sylveon manages to track Olivia down, and successfully captures her. The chapter ends with Olivia being taken down to the guild's dungeon for attempted murder, where she meets Crystal again. Sylveon says how she'll be taking care of them and that they will have plenty of time to get to know each other.

Chapter 35: Make it Better

Shaken from her near-death experience at the hands of Olivia, Tamin decides she needs to train to become stronger. She tries training with a few different members of the guild, but doesn't get much for it as they are different types and have different means of fighting.

Hunter meets with Tamin to give her a pep talk, encouraging her to train herself and develop her own techniques. Tamin tries this advice out and learns to fight using her tail more, as well as using throwing knives.

Locke shows Tamin the Shiny Stone he found in chapter 25 to Tamin. She decides to use it, allowing her to evolve into a cinccino.

Chapter 36: Standing Fears

Locke, Tamin, and Dewott hang out some more, with Locke mostly recovering after what happened with Crystal. Locke mentions he's been taking some medication given to him to help him, which causes a disagreement as Tamin is scared of that (as per parents used to give her medication to make her more submissive) while Dewott thinks it is perfectly fine.

Tamin finds out the medication is Mawile's idea, so she tries getting her to come along on a mission so Tamin can get her alone and question her about it. She goes on a mission with Mawile, Dewott, and Nidorina (Nidorino's sister).

But as they go towards the destination, they are ambushed by Tamin's parents and a mercenary group of houndour and houndoom. Tamin ends up getting kidnapped by them as Mawile, Dewott, and Nidorina are injured but not killed.

Chapter 37: Back in Hell

Tamin is back at her parent's home, which is now actively being patrolled by the mercenary group her parents hired. She gets abused by her parents but doesn't fight back.

Tamin has a reunion with her three siblings: Deater the minccino, Stark the cinccino, and Vin the cinccino, with Deater being the only one that really likes her. She also gets to meet with the leader of the mercenary group: Rook the houndoom. The house is incredibly massive and she gets brought through multiple rooms.

Tamin is sent back to her original bedroom without getting food, and it is locked on the outside.

Dewott has to carry Mawile back to the guild due to her leg being badly injured. Him and Nidorina have to tell the guild what happened.

Hearing the news, Locke immediately starts preparing himself to go and rescue Tamin. Scampi joins Locke and begins preparing as well. Hunter also approaches them, asking to help as well and assuring this is no trick, with him finally admitting that he actually loves Tamin. Locke lets Hunter join him and Scampi, under the condition that he gets to put Hunter on a leash.

Chapter 38: Breakout

Locke, Scampi, and Hunter are able to track the way Tamin went and was taken. They reach the house of Tamin's parents, finding it to be a massive treehouse mansion built within the woods, and is still being patrolled by houndour and houndoom.

They figure out a plan where Hunter will sneak in while disguised to find Tamin and try to sneak her out safely, but will have a flare on him to activate if things go awry. Scampi will hide on ground level in the woods while Locke will climb up the trees to get onto the roof of the treehouse, both of them waiting to hear the sound of Hunter's flare. With the plan agreed on, they begin executing it.

While Hunter is able to sneak into the building and get Tamin out of her room by disguising himself as her mother, things go wrong when Tamin's actual mother sees them. Hunter activates his flare and holds off some mercenaries as Tamin runs out.

Tamin gets into a physical fight with her father and bloodies him mercilessly. Deater sees this and runs off, horrified of Tamin. Tamin gets stunned for a moment as she contemplates what she's become, a houndoom attacks her in this time but Scampi is able to intervene and knock it off course.

Locke breaks into the building and gets into a fight with the captain Rook. The fight doesn't go well for him at first, but he doesn't give up and continues fighting. Locke evolves into a luxrio and his harness breaks off, and he defeats Rook shortly after. Tamin, Scampi, Locke, and Hunter all unite together again, and they escape the house.

Chapter 39: Blood is Thicker

Locke, Tamin, Hunter, and Scampi walk back to the guildhouse after escaping. Locke still doesn't like Hunter, but he keeps his aggression passive. The group overall has fun banter on the way back as Tamin realizes the guildhouse now feels like her true home.

Back at the guildhouse, Locke gets to meet with Espeon, where Espeon says that Locke will no longer have to wear a harness. Tamin meets with Hunter privately, where she hugs him and thanks him for helping get her out of her parents' house (even though she is still aware of the bad things Hunter has done, and makes her displeasure of those things known). While Locke still doesn't like him, Tamin and Hunter agree to having a secret friendship.

Locke and Tamin meet together on the guild's porch to watch the sunset and they talk about what each of them has done for the other. As the sun dips below the horizon, Locke and Tamin kiss each other.

Chapter 40: Not One to Forget

Another time skip happened after chapter 39, making this take place in the autumn again. Espeon finally kicks Venusaur out of the guild during this timeskip.

Eno the absol (the same character from chapter 15) comes to the guild to request to join it. She also meets with Sebastien, who reveals that she is now officially married to Espeon.

Locke and Tamin spend more time with Elley at the ice cream shop, discussing their relationship. Locke says how he has now been investigating into what happened to his family, as the night the original house burned down happened during a clear day, suggesting it was arson and not natural.

Chapter 41: Grand Spectrum

After becoming an official guild member, Eno talks with Espeon about some specific guild rules that are tailored to different types of pokemon (coming from a home of only dark types, the concept of different types of pokemon is somewhat foreign to her). This inspires Eno to go around the guild to ask different guild members about their experiences with their own types. One of these interactions is with Snivy and Mawile, where it is shown that Snivy has become Mawile's new assistant after Olivia's detainment.

At the end of the day, a buizel from the guild visits Eno in her room to talk with her. Buizel's real name is stated to be "Lilac", but she just goes by the name "Buizel". They both talk about their times growing up, and Buizel also gives a recap of what happened at the guild after chapter 15.

Chapter 42: Finding a Place

Eno returns to the guild after her first true mission, but is quite injured as she has no combat skills. She feels humiliated and reflects on how poorly the mission went.

Espeon has a meeting with Niot the chatot and Umbreon, where they criticize him for recruiting too many pokemon into the guild (as in addition to Eno, there were several others he recruited in the timeskip after chapter 39). Espeon confesses he hasn't been a very good guildmaster, so he says that he will soon pick a new person to promote to being guildmaster and retire himself.

Espeon has a flashback, where he remembers two conversations he had with Issac the Whimsicott- the founder of the guild and previous guildmaster, who is now dead. Back then, Espeon and Umbreon were just regular guild members who were later promoted.

In the present, Espeon finds an object called a Sound stone in his room, which is an item that can be used to remotely listen in on places. He puts it under mufflers and asks Sebastien if it's hers, but finds it isn't. With this, Espeon realizes that someone has been listening in on conversations in the room with it. He concludes it couldn't have been Eno who placed it there as there wasn't any possible time she could've gotten down there without Espeon seeing, but otherwise he doesn't know who did it.

Hunter meets with Eno, and asks to help train Eno in using dark type techniques and fighting style. She agrees.

Chapter 43: Perfect for the Job

Eno does a full training session with Hunter at night. Afterwards, the two spend time staring up at the sky together and talk about past experiences.

The next day, Espeon makes a full announcement to the full guild that he will be stepping down as guildmaster and choosing a new person to take his position within the next few weeks. Most are shocked by this, while Eno finds this announcement to be quite bizarre as there was no indication of it yesterday. Locke and Tamin agree that they don't want to be the next guildmaster.

Mawile studies the Sound stone Espeon found in her laboratory, and it's mentioned that she is aiming to become the next guildmaster herself. All Sound stones come in a set of two, and the sister of the stone Espeon found got shattered shortly after he found it. Due to range limitations, Mawile virtually guarantees it belonged to someone within the same building. She also found no DNA evidence on the stone.

Mawile recounts these findings to Sylveon. Sylveon concludes it couldn't be Hunter's, because Hunter always lets people know it was him when he did a prank while whoever owned that Sound stone did well to cover their tracks. They then find out that Eno had stepped beside the room and listened in on the conversation. Sylveon takes Eno in for questioning due to the sensitive nature of the information.

Espeon questions Eno. After he hears a story of how Eno solved a mystery to bust a crime back in her absol colony and after seeing just how intelligent she is, Eno makes a deal with her that Eno will help investigate to figure out who owned the Sound stone. In the meantime, she is not required to do missions. Eno accepts and is greatly pleased by this deal.

Hunter meets with Yuki in her room, where Yuki discusses her plans to evolve and worm her way into becoming the next guildmaster. Hunter is working to gather information for her, and Yuki tells her to keep an eye on Eno specifically. But at the end of the chapter, it's revealed that Hunter actually believes Yuki has zero chance at becoming the next guildmaster and he just doesn't have the heart to tell her that.

Chapter 44: Shadowplay

Eno and Hunter do another combat training session. Right afterwards, Eno returns to the investigation, losing much sleep as she uses every clue possible to narrow down the list of suspects.

Meanwhile, Locke is continuing his own investigation into how his original house first burned down. The day it happened, a frantic lopunny came to their doorstep and requested sanctuary, so his parents took him inside. Afterwards, the fire started from the outside on a clear day. Several days later, a lopunny who matches the same description was found dead elsewhere. Locke believes that the lopunny was being hunted down by one or more pursuers, and the fire was lit to force him out of the building. Based on how quickly the fire began, Locke is sure a fire type pokemon did it. Locke and Tamin visit Braixen (who now works at a cafe in the same town) but he doesn't know anything about it either, and Tamin deduces he's innocent of this crime.

Tamin learns that Rustin is confident that he will become the next guildmaster, and he is quite smug about it to Tamin. Later, Nidorino tells Tamin that he's wanting to become the next guildmaster and would like her help. While she still isn't happy about the way they broke up, she agrees to help him.

Chapter 45: Signed in Ink

Locke, Tamin, Snivy, and Froslass have another mission where they explore new lands. During the mission, Snivy and Froslass talk with another. Snivy comes to the realization that working for the guild isn't really a job he is enjoying and it isn't right for him, as he's just desperately trying to be like his ancestor Ssareth.

Later, Sylveon meets with Eno at the guild to see her progress. She has managed to narrow the group of possible candidates greatly and has divided them into both primary and secondary suspects, but still hasn't figured out exactly who is responsible.

Eno's sister Sesha comes to the guild so she can meet with Eno. The two siblings catch up to each other and have a happy conversation. Tamin hears this conversation, which makes her sad that her own relationship with her siblings isn't as good.

To resolve this, Tamin goes to meet her younger brother Deater again (who is now living in a very small house in town which Tamin is paying for). They spend time hanging out, and Tamin learns to not be jealous of Eno in the way she was. Tamin also arranges a meeting between Scampi and Deater, so they can hang out together and have fun.

Tamin retrieves the cryptic letter she found back in chapter 22 and gives it to Eno, along with an explanation of where she found it and all the notes Tamin had written in her own research. Eno thanks her for this, and begins taking her own crack at solving what it says.

Chapter 46: The Scion and the Explorer

Mienshao (whose real name is Scarlet) is with her family, at the castle they own. She is the oldest child of her family, with her having a younger sister named Aurora and a younger brother named Ferdinand. Scarlet's mother is a shiny mienshao named Mariabell and Scarlet's father is a typhlosion named Uther.

They have a political meeting with another noble house: House Breach. During the meeting, Scarlet excuses herself to think. She is still struggling with the identity crisis that she was in chapter 28.

She ends up going into her own bedroom where she puts muffs on her ears and blindfolds herself while staying in the closet: putting herself under sensory deprivation to try to figure out what she is like when she isn't trying to please anyone around her. She finds herself thinking about Dewott and the guild more than her own family when she does this, so she accepts that as being her true self.

Later, she receives a letter from Dewott and reads it off. She then departs to return to the guild.

Chapter 47: Yin and Yin

Espeon and Niot discuss Eno's progress, and give their own speculation on who was the owner of the Sound stone. In the midst of the discussion, Sylveon comes into the room with urgency, telling them that Crystal and Olivia have vanished from the dungeon. They go down to investigate it, and they confirm what Sylveon said and they have indeed escaped. It would be impossible for them to escape on their own, so someone must have let them out. Espeon tasks Sylveon to investigate that matter.

Yuki continues to privately encourage Hunter to spend time with Eno and get information out of her, as she is suspicious of her. Hunter does just as much, and is able to convince Eno to go to a restaurant with him.

Even if Yuki told Hunter to spend time with her, Hunter finds himself genuinely connecting with her and enjoying their time together. The two share a heart-to-heart, with Hunter admitting to much of the bad stuff he has done and explaining why he was in love with Tamin, and Eno also talking about antics her sister Sesha has gotten up to (confessing that Hunter reminded her of her sister in some ways). The scene is quite long with them sharing a lot.

After a long time together, Eno invites Hunter to her room and reveals all the mysteries she's been working on to him (both the Sound stone and the letter Tamin gave her). Before he leaves, Hunter says some things that give Eno a new idea for decoding the letter.

After spending more time on it, Eno is able to finish what Tamin had failed to do and successfully de-encodes the letter. She finds it is a mission request to assassinate a land baron for political reasons, and it promises a very large amount of money.

Chapter 48: One on One

After getting the decoded letter from Eno, Espeon discusses the matters with Niot, Sylveon, and Umbreon. While the letter doesn't have a sender written down, Niot deduces it was House Breach who wrote and sent the letter due to the nature of the request and the very specific vocabulary (as Niot is often tasked with accepting or rejecting mission requests sent to the guild, he is familiar with it).

As they now have three separate mysteries afoot (who placed the Sound stone, who freed Crystal and Olivia, and who the letter was sent to) Espeon decides it is now time for drastic measures. He arranges for the entire guild to be interrogated one-by-one by Sylveon to ask them about these matters.

Many different interrogations are shown. Notable moments are Max saying how he originally found Armin as a riolu passed out on a beach and that Armin didn't have past memories, Buizel providing a logical alibi for herself, Froslass saying that- while she can move through walls as a ghost type- the ability is very limited so she couldn't have done what was described easier than other guild members, and Armin saying how he used to live on an island of just riolu and lucario before he was taken by high tides and washed onto the continent; he also says that he's been searching for the island again but unable to find it.

Hunter meets with Eno again today. In front of her, he removes an everstone necklace that he has always worn under his scarf.

After Armin's interrogation, he leaves the guild for a walk. Tamin realizes that she has a rare opportunity as the entire guild's administration is occupied, Armin is gone, and most of the guild members are in the basement. Also realizing that she knows very little about Armin despite meeting him a long time ago, Tamin uses this opportunity to quickly get into Armin's room to investigate it for information about him.

After lockpicking her way inside (as Armin bought his own lock for the door), she finds that Armin's room is an art studio with many things he has drawn. Most of it is innocuous, until she checks his nightstand and finds a drawing which depicts a human man, a human woman, and a human boy, with the boy wearing the same black baseball cap which Armin often wears.

Chapter 49: The One Percent

Rustin the meowstic is sent to the House Breach castle to ask them about the letter.

Rustin doesn't immediately bring up the letter, he takes time to ask about other questions and explore the building. He finds ventilation shafts which give him peaks into the basement, and can see strange things down there which resemble glyphs. He also finds the house to be big into doing mining operations, and finds glass cases containing many kinds of special stones (including Sound stones). Rustin isn't able to speak to the house's lords (which there are three of), but he speaks to others there who claim to represent them.

Rustin speaks with them for sometime. Reading between their words, he believes that the lower members there know much more than they are letting on. Eventually, Rustin brings out the letter and shows it to them. They attempt to argue it is fraud, but Rustin points out the problems in that argument and how it is certainly legitimate. He states that the guild will not accept anymore missions from them at all until the full situation is resolved and everything is clarified. He then leaves to return to the guild.

Chapter 50: Escalation

Rustin speaks with Espeon about his experience with House Breach. He intentionally withholds certain pieces of information, as he wants to be able to fully bust the house himself after he becomes the guildmaster rather than allowing Espeon to do it himself.

Eno continues to work on the mysteries at hand, confused over what the motivation for the person taking the illegal missions could have been as no one at the guild has been spending large sums of money beyond their means. She then hears ruckus happening outside of her room, which she goes to check out. She finds that Hunter has now evolved into a zoroark, which is showing off to everyone. He spends time mainly with Eno after seeing her, they continue to share fun stories from their pasts.

Tamin meets with Locke and Nidorino to discuss the drawing she found. Nidorino believes her and says what he knows about humans. They keep the matter private without brining it up to anyone else.

Hunter meets with Yuki again. Yuki has gathered some meterial to blackmail Swana with, which she wants Hunter to deliver to her as it would be suspicious for her to do it. Hunter takes this- but after some hesitation- decides not to help Yuki and instead report what is happening to Sylveon instead. Eno sees this, and spends time with Hunter again.

The two have another heart-to-heart in town, spending hours together. At the end they finally confess their love for each other and kiss on a bridge.

Chapter 51: Unforgettable

Nidorino spends time researching into the subject of humans. At the same time, Mawile continues making flares in her lab while talking with Snivy, and Niot delves into the archives to look at every last mission received from House Breach.

Later, Niot meets with Espeon. They become confused as apparently Eno had received a note telling her to investigate the treehouse building, which Espeon had assumed Niot wrote but Niot confirms it wasn't him.

Locke, Tamin, Dewott, and Mienshao return from a mission. They get a very weird feeling from the guild's treehouse building, so they check it out. It's strangely locked, so Tamin needs to pick the lock for them to get inside. After climbing the floors and reaching the top, they find Eno's dead body with a spear stabbed through her throat.

Chapter 52: Wake

The guild hosts Eno's funeral, with Eno's family also being invited there.

They realize that whoever killed her must have certainly been a guildmember, and was trying to cover something up by killing the investigator. They put together the things Rustin saw at House Breach, Eno's notes from her room, and what Tamin saw in Armin's room. Meanwhile, Espeon meets with the absol family to tell them something in private.

The characters are able to deduce that Armin the human turned lucario must have been responsible for killing Eno and working with House Breach. He is confronted, but he escapes from the guild and Max goes with him.

With Armin as the next target, the entire guild starts preparing.

Chapter 53: Wolves at the Door

Working with House Breach, Armin leads an attack against the guildhouse. The same mercenary band that Tamin's parents hired are hired by them for this attack.

The entire guild needs to act to defend the building. Rook forces Locke into a one-versus-one rematch fight, and Venasaur also shows up as someone now helping Armin as he wants to get revenge for being kicked out of the guild.

Mienshao engages with Armin. While she lasts for some time, she ultimately loses the fight to him. Dewott quickly engages with Armin next, but gets defeated as well. Then Espeon himself engages with Armin, with them being quite equally matched. But once Locke defeats Rook, Armin lights a flare to call a retreat.

While the guild was victorious, the guildhouse took substantial damage from the flames. Espeon organizes a group consisting of himself, Sylveon, Locke, Tamin, Hunter, Dewott, Mienshao, Nidorino, Nidorina, Froslass, Buizel, Rustin, Snivy, and Swana to march to the House Breach castle and stop Armin.

Chapter 54: Westbound

The group of pokemon marches to the castle at night. Along the way, Espeon explains his plans for the next guildmaster, saying that many potential candidates are within the group and he will use this mission to decide one among them to promote to being the next guildmaster, or that he will choose Mawile if he finds none of them to be worthy.

The group runs parallel to the site of ruins which Armin visits. Hunter brings this up and proposes they should go there and meet Armin there. Espeon rejects the idea, believing it could waste too much time. Hunter definitely breaks away from the group to go to the ruins himself.

The guild members are attacked by forces hired by House Breach from multiple directions, who were hiding in the trees. Locke is able to reduce the forces by baiting some of them to pursue him and running down a path (which he saw Max go down earlier), which Dewott follows Locke down to keep him safe. Tamin does the same, reminding the houndour and houndoom there that she was the person who beat them at the treehouse and provoking them to herself as she runs off through the trees.

Even with Locke, Dewott, and Tamin baiting some of them away, the forces House Breach hired are still numerous. At a bad position, Espeon orders for them to sprint to a field close ahead. Buizel gets the idea and willingly sacrifices herself to hold off the forces and buy the guild some time to recover.

Chapter 55: Brutality

Locke outruns the ones chasing after him and ascends a tall hill, getting to Max. By coincidence, Crystal is also on the top of the hill as she has been camping up there to keep herself alive. Dewott also arrives at the scene.

Locke confronts Max, pointing out that the assassination mission Eno decoded was similar to how the lopunny which came to his house was being hunted. Max confesses that he was the one who set the house on fire, but pleads he only did so because Armin ordered him to. Locke also points out that his mother died on a mission and came back as a "charred corpse", forcing Max to confirm he did that as well. Crystal offers to temporarily help Max out if he gets her away from there.

Locke and Dewott fight Max and Crystal. During the fight, Olivia also shows up on scene with a new makeshift crossbow she made to fire at Max.

Max and Crystal are defeated. Locke gets ready to kill Max, but Dewott pushes Locke away and talks him out of murdering Max. Max and Crystal walk off in another direction, never to be seen again.

Olivia gives a sincere apology to Locke, which surprises him as she shows she actually has matured and sees the error of her ways. Knowing the guild is fighting somewhere in the forests below, Locke gives Olivia his flare so she can scout out the forests and activate the flare where the guild is to allow Locke and Dewott to find and rejoin them.

Tamin runs into Venasaur as she hops from tree to tree, and the two end up getting into a fight. Tamin is able to win by running into an abandoned mineshaft, getting an old lantern full of oil to fall on him, and lighting him on fire. Venasaur narrowly survives this, and Tamin leaves him to find the guild again.

At the ruins, Armin meditates to visit it one last time as Hunter arrives there as well. Hunter sets up traps and hides healing items in various places before engaging in a fight with Armin. The fight between Armin and Hunter is intense, and Hunter makes use of the traps to severely damage Armin's leg. The fight ends with Hunter using a blade to chop off Armin's aura sensors and Armin using a force palm to greatly damage Hunter's chest. Hunter then leaves, explaining that he was only there to destroy Armin's aura sensors since he knew his aura sense could allow him to see through the zoroark illusions.

Chapter 56: Bloodsoaked

The guild fights the army of mercenaries that House Breach hired in an open clearing.

A group manages to surround Espeon and Sylveon, but Espeon turns the tides by pulling out the Payload flare (first mentioned in chapter 9), and activating it to create a massive pillar of smoke upwards and an extremely loud sound. Espeon's eardrums are blown out and he collapses, but the attackers around them are stunned long enough for Sylveon to take out.

Shortly afterwards, a group of absol arrive to the scene to aid the guild in the fight. Espeon gave them a message in private back in chapter 52 to ask for help, and they saw the smoke created by Espeon's flare to get them to the battlefield. Olivia also arrives, and gives the signal for Locke and Dewott.

Just as things are turning up for the guild, two of the three lords of House Breach arrive (a tropius and a hydreigon) and attack the guild. Olivia is able to kill the tropius by putting all of her electricity into a single crossbow bolt and shooting it at him, which causes herself to faint afterwards. Sylveon is able to kill the hydreigon.

With the fighting done, Espeon using telepathy to speak with Sylveon, explaining that he has been deafened and isn't fit to be leading the group anymore. The group agrees to take a rest before continuing.

Chapter 57: Glimpse of Respite

The guild camps on the battlefield, discussing various matters. Locke, Dewott, and Tamin are able to re-unite with the main group, though Hunter is nowhere to be seen. Esepon continues to have to telepathically communicate with Sylveon and speak through him due to being deafened.

Froslass talks with Snivy, mourning over Buizel's death and talking about how they grew up together in a town called Harrenburg. Nidorino discusses what he knows about humans, and they all discuss plans for what to do next.

After Nidorino and Nidorina speak privately, it is revealed that Nidorina was the one who freed Crystal and Olivia from the dungeon. Which she doesn't regret doing, as Olivia helped them.

The group eventually gathers together again and continues the journey. Nidorino gives a speech to help bolster their morale.

Chapter 58: Ticking Clock

The guild arrives at the House Breach castle, finding the place has changed significantly. A massive occultic ritual is being performed at it (to get Armin back to the human world, as well as give House Breach more power), and a massive staircase is now behind the building which leads up into the sky. They discuss how to approach the situation and disrupt the ritual.

Tamin sees Hunter going into the building through a window, so she chases after him and Locke follows. Froslass gets the idea to enter through a specific side door (though is unsure how she got that idea) and the rest of the guild goes with her. Hunter, Locke, and Tamin are on the second floor while the rest are on the first.

The ones on the first floor do everything they can to defeat the guards and disrupt the ritual in whatever way they can.

Hunter gets into another fight with Armin, which leads to Armin trapping Hunter into a room full of explosives and detonating them. The room is destroyed, while Locke and Tamin watch. Later, Locke and Tamin get caught in a room with the final lord of House Breach: William the Corviknight.

The ones on the first floor split up with some going to the second floor, Rustin checking out the staircase behind the building, and the rest searching for the building's basement.

Chapter 59: Homeward

Armin scales the massive staircase with a furfrou from House Breach, reflecting on how close he now is to getting back home. Then, the furfrou beside him reveals themselves to actually be Hunter in disguise, who is wearing a Focus Sash. As Armin is shocked, Rustin is able to sneak behind and uses psychic to throw Armin off of the staircase. Hunter tells Armin "that was for Eno" right before he plummets to his death.

The guild members on the first floor struggle to find an entrance to the basement. But then, a glass bottle falling out from a shelf hits the floor, and they are able to find the floor is thin where it landed. Froslass moves through the floor to reach the basement, and is then able to find the real entrance to let the others in. They descend down there to stop the ritual.

Locke and Tamin fight William. While they are able to kill him, William shatters a stained glass window on them to cause them to bleed severely, making them both faint from blood loss after the fight.

Hours later, Locke and Tamin wake up in a wagon while covered in bandages. They are shocked to discover Hunter is still alive, who explains that he used a Focus Sash to survive a lethal situation and fake his death, as that was the only way he could get Armin to lower his guard. Espeon and the others were able to stop the ritual fully and defeat all the remaining guards while Locke and Tamin were unconscious.

Espeon announces that Nidorino will become the next Guildmaster, much to Rustin's dismay.

Over the next few weeks, the guildhouse is fully repaired after the attack, Espeon regains some of his hearing, and Nidorino is officially promoted to guildmaster so Espeon can start a family with Sebastien. Locke saves up his money to buy a wedding ring, which he uses to propose to Tamin on the anniversary of when they met. She agrees.