Epilogue.

Akari had not left Galaxy Hall for at least a week. She would have preferred the comforting familiarity of her own lodgings, but all of her superiors had insisted she stay with the Medical Corps.

Now, for the first time, she stepped out into the sun and walked onto the town's main street. She was much slower than usual. Her side was still sore; it put a limp in her step, but the healers said it would go eventually. Blissey's egg had done a lot to speed things up.

Akari had no way of knowing for sure - there were no scanning machines here - but she suspected that Blissey had saved her from a deadly head injury, by bringing the swelling down faster than any of Hisui's medicine could have.

But time had to do the rest.

As she passed the village's noticeboard, Akari saw a familiar face on a poster. A drawing, probably copied from that photograph that hung outside the studio, but it was a good likeness.

Better to see him looking like that, she thought, than how he'd been at the Temple.

"Banished," she read aloud in a low whisper.

I hate that word.

As she looked down the street, she saw the same notice on the outside walls of shops and wrapped around lampposts. She wondered if they'd hung up her picture like that, too, while she'd been suffering the same fate. If they had, they must have taken them all down before they'd allowed her back into the village.

She hadn't meant for this to happen, but she wouldn't allow herself to believe it was her fault.

When the Noble Braviary had left her near the village gates, and her friends had rushed out to meet her, the more temporary effects of Blissey's egg had been wearing off. She hadn't had the spare strength to lie. She'd tried to hold back and say nothing, but something about the floral tea they'd been giving her for the pain had made the truth come spilling out of her mouth, little by little. Cyllene and Laventon seemed to have figured that out. They would come and ask her things when she had just drunk some, when she was about to drift off into sleep.

That was probably opium. It was good, whatever it was.

Does that make me as bad as him?

She continued the short walk to her cabin. It would take her past the Ginkgo Guild wagon and its two resident merchants. Even though the bright blue and yellow made her stop in her tracks, Akari told herself it didn't mean anything. After all, when the worst of it had happened, he had already thrown off his merchant's uniform. And Cogita always said he was skipping out on his work.

Akari must have stared at the wagon for too long.

"Hello. He won't be trading anymore. Not one of us." That was all Ginter said.

So, not only barred from the village, but from his own guild. From his means of making a living. From the group he was supposed to belong to, whether he wanted to or not.

Well, maybe he'd disowned them, long before they'd disowned him.

At last, Akari stepped through her door. There was some dust in the air. She breathed in the familiar scent of wood and earth, but all the other smells had gone for now. The herbs she'd left hanging up had been thrown out. Nobody had used the fire or cooked anything here for a couple of weeks.

She would have to make it a home again. Or as close as she could get to home, anyway.

For now, she took off her shoes in the genkan and stepped up into her bedroom area. The floorboards creaked loudly under her feet, breaking the silence, making her tense up and gasp. It reminded her that, even though she was up and walking again, she probably wouldn't be on survey duty for a while yet.

Imagine running into an Alpha while I'm such a nervous wreck.

Akari walked through the room aimlessly, just trying to ground herself, to reacquaint herself with being here.

She paused in front of the mirror. It was the first time she had seen herself in a while. All things considered, she thought she didn't look too bad. Of course, the worst of the bruising would be hidden under her clothes and under her hair.

Her white headscarf had been washed, but there was still a faint patch of rust, a bloodstain that hadn't been soaked quickly enough. The size of it made Akari take a sharp breath. No, she'd have to get a new one; she didn't need that as a reminder.

The tear at the shoulder of her uniform had been mended very well; she could barely tell where it had been.

What's missing…?

Akari's fingers trailed to her bare neck, where her red scarf should have been. As soon as she felt her own touch, she shivered and turned away from the mirror.

Guess I need a new scarf, too. Cyllene's gonna love me.

She continued her pacing.

As she passed the windowsill, her gaze fell on its sole decoration: a Pokeshi doll.

Something seemed to burst in her chest, like all of her pain had been a river and the dam had just given way. But she wasn't shocked. Somehow, she knew it had to happen, when she felt safe enough. She placed her elbows on the windowsill, and her face in her hands, and cried until her throat hurt.

He's gone.

First, she told herself as a comfort, wrapping her arms around herself.

He's gone.

The more she told herself, the less comforting it felt.

No matter what happened now, she'd lost him. A presence would be missing from her life. There'd be no more chance meetings. Not at the village gates, not in Galaxy Hall, not in the unlikeliest of places. No more flowery compliments that she'd never known how to accept. No more eager questions about her achievements, or the Pokédex, or anything else.

Maybe none of it had been real. Maybe it was all real, until something had dragged his mind into darkness. Either way, she'd bought it. Either way, she would never get to find out, because even if their paths crossed again and she asked him all of these questions, how could she ever believe another word he said? How could she ever feel safe enough?

He'll never get his answers from Arceus. And I'll never get my answers from him.

With an angry cry, Akari reached out and smacked the Pokeshi doll onto the floor. Thanks to its shape, it only rolled around in circles at her feet, going nowhere. She stared down at it, bleary-eyed, and it stared back, its long-lashed eyes and serene smile offering nothing but peace in response to her violence. She knew that she could have kicked it, too, or thrown it out to be burned. But, instead, she picked it up and placed it back on the windowsill.

It's not your fault, Pokeshi doll.

Akari took out her phone. She still hadn't looked at it, after it had sounded in response to her flute-playing. But she figured it was time.

"Please tell me," she whispered. "Tell me what we missed. Tell me how to find you."

'Seek out all Pokémon.'

Notes:

If you've made it all this way, all I can say is thank you so much for reading this.

I don't really have any goals to become a better writer, this isn't really a hobby that I engage in very often anymore, but I do welcome constructive feedback anyway.

Just to lighten the mood, here's some random thoughts that I had to endure while writing this:
- imagining Volo walking away from the explosion at Cloudcap Pass like the Joker in The Dark Knight
- the entire Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack, just because Volo says "tradition!" once
- the 2020 "Woah! Yankee with no brim!" meme, just because I wrote "brim" once
- "what if YOU...wanted to go to HEAVEN...but G-d said...seek out all Pokemon"

Soundtrack notes:
Eliza Rickman - Wax Nostalgic
Eliza Rickman - All Our Angels
Eliza Rickman - Maker Of My Sorrow
Auri - I Hope Your World Is Kind
Auri - Night 13
Leonard Cohen - Story of Isaac (big inspo)

He said, "I've had a vision,
And you know I'm strong and holy.
I must do what I've been told."
So we started up the mountain -
I was running, he was walking -
And his axe was made of gold.