Good weather, clean roads, and level terrain. Aika continued her journey thankful that it was going well so far, though she couldn't shake the feeling that it wouldn't go this well forever.

It was still the first day of her journey. She watched the sun rise after departing in the middle of the night, and now it was well past noon. She could feel herself already being exhausted, but she figured she'd get used to the constant walking eventually.

She periodically checked her maps, cross referencing it with the way the road turned. Doing so put into perspective just how long the journey would take: even after traveling the better part of a day, she was just a small bit of the way to her goal of Evelyn Forest. At that rate, she'd need to spend a full day traveling through Evelyn Forest to find Yuki once she got there. Her limited progress was frustrating, but she still persisted onwards. Even though her goal of reaching Yuki was far away and her ultimate goal of finding Hunter was even farther than that, the next step to her journey was coming close: the map revealed a location named "Kiritown" that wasn't far from her. She decided that to be where she would end her first stop on this adventure.

AIka put the map back into her backpack and continued walking onwards. As she walked, she thought to herself. "...I really should've taken a watch with me, huh?"

The sun was transitioning from yellow to red. Aika's eyes were getting heavy as it had been so long since she'd gotten sleep, and it was only for a scarce few hours the last time. But as she cleared over another hill, she could see an entire town reveal itself to her. She'd reached Kiritown at last.

The town was aged. Even from a glance Aika could tell that the buildings of the town resembled the oldest buildings of the town she came from, and nothing looked recently made. She stepped closer to get entrenched in the town. Most had seemingly gone into their own homes, and the few pokemon which were out at that hour didn't seem to pay her much mind. The buildings were mostly beige but, not terribly interesting.

What was a bit more intriguing was what was erected in the town's center. There were two large stone statues of a Feraligatr and a Flygon standing side-by-side with each other and in striking positions. The statues were large, probably about twice as large as the actual species were. Aika walked closer to the center of the town. She saw that the statues seemed to be in immaculate condition, not even a speck was on them even when there was dirt and the occasionally overflowing trash bin in nearby streets.

Aika approached them with curiosity. Beneath the statues was a stone tablet, and she had just enough light to make out the letters. After letting her eyes refocus, she read the inscription:

"The immortalization of Kiri the flygon and Ichiro the Feraligatr. The heroes who drove off a hundred invaders back to their own continents, each. Their courage and strength should never be forgotten."

Aika looked around her again, and saw a sign advertising itself saying "Dancing Lights tavern. Visitors welcome at all hours. Full bed and breakfast". Aika was curious about the statues, but her eyes were tired. She walked up to the building's main entrance.

Pushing the door open, she saw an active bar with all sorts of different pokemon sitting around tables, drinking beverages of all sorts of different colors. At the edge of the room was a wooden totem pole which was carved to depict a feraligatr with a flygon above it. For a moment she wondered if she'd entered the wrong building, but decided to go further in when she saw stairs leading upwards and she remembered how large the building was on the outside.

Aika walked between the tables to approach the main counter top. She jumped onto a seat and waved to get the attention of the greedent bartender. "Hey, I'd like to purchase a room for one night, pleace."

The greedent raised an eyebrow as he dried a glass mug with a rag. "How old are you?"

"I'm an adult," Aika lied.

"You don't look or sound like one," the bartender said.

"Minccino typically have soft voices. And they evolve through shiny stones, nothing to do age," Aika retorted.

The bartender seemed to squint. Not quite believing Aika's words, not quite having enough suspicioun to call her out. "That's 300 poke for a night," he said.

Aika flipped her backpack around to her front, and dug into it. She pulled out three coins with the number "100" embedded on them, and placed them on the countertop. The bartender swiped them, leaned below the counter, and grabbed a key to place on the countertop. Aika picked it up. "Thank you."

"Have a good night."

"You too."

Aika hopped down from the counter and began walking towards the staircase she saw. The key she was given had a tiny card with the number "14" attached to it. It didn't take her long to find the correct room, and the key gave her access.

The room inside was mostly empty and quaint, but it was clean, dry and insulated, so Aika was fine. She locked the door behind her and let out a deep breath to calm her nerves. She walked towards the room bed while taking off her backpack, set the bag besides the bed, then hopped onto the bed. Even if the place was unfamiliar to her, her tiredness still made it inviting.

As she tucked herself underneath the blanket, she reflected on what she had done thus far. She was only gone for a day so far, it probably wasn't too late to turn back. She could turn around and head right back to Eastflame, continuing growing up with Pannen and Aika there. Sure it would take time to explain and go back to normal, but it would happen eventually. This journey of hers could just be remembered as "those two scary days" and brought up to occasionally tease her as they continued to play and chat with each other.

But- if Hunter hadn't returned to the town in Aika's entire lifetime, he almost certainly won't come back for the rest of it. She realized that if she were to turn back, she would likely never see Hunter in her life. It troubled her, but AIka rationalized that the town would still be there when she eventually returned, but her chance to find her biological father could very well go away.

Aika closed her eyes and let her body rest. She needed it.

Aika's eyes slowly opened as the room was filled with morning light. Getting out of bed was much faster when it was in a room and bed she wasn't familiar with. While the place didn't make her feel endangered, it was still a foot outside her comfort zone as she was entirely within the realm of strangers after spending years with her family. She knew she'd have to get used to it sooner or later.

She put her bed back in order before leaving the room with her backpack and key. From the hallway, she could hear the building was much more busy. Approaching the stairs and looking down into the bar area, she could see just how much it was. About half the seats were filled with various different pokemon species, almost all of whom larger than her. They were making banter and occasionally taking sips or chugs from their large drinks. This entire community of pokemon had lived and thrived for Aika's entire life, always being just a day's journey away from her.

Part of her felt out of place amid them and that she should leave, but another part of her had an idea. Her goal was to find Hunter, and what better place to gather gossip and rumors than in a busy tavern?

Aika descended down the staircase and began moving between the tables, looking for someone to spark a conversation with. It took a minute, but she found a pangoro that appeared not just old, but aged from a hundred tales. The man was gruff as he looked down at his half-empty mug of beer, focusing on nothing in particular.

"Hello," Aika grabbed his attention.

The pangoro turned to look at her.

"Sorry to be a bother, but I'm a traveler from another place, and I'd like to ask some questions," Aika asked.

He raised an eyebrow, his attention was captured. "Where do you come from?"

"From the east," Aika said. "From Rosiose."

"Well then. Ask away."

"What do you know about Hunter the zoroark?" Aika asked.

"The 'human slayer'?" the pangoro asked.

Aika softly smiled. The man seemed to be knowledgeable. "Yes, that's the one. I've heard he vanished suddenly one day, so I'd like to find out about what exactly happened."

"So why do you ask in a tavern of all places?"

"Rumors are much more up-to-date than books."

"Fair, all fair," he leaned backwards while slightly smiling to himself. "I'm 'fraid you probably came here a few years too late. It's said the zoroark once visited this tavern here, but that was a long time ago."

Aika peaked up. "Really? When?"

"I don't remember the exact day, mate. I wasn't there that day myself. It was a few years back to be sure."

"Anything else you know?"

"I really don't. He became the talk of the town for a bit, people talking about him like he was Ichiro or Kiri. He faded away eventually."

"Just swinging by here?"

"Yeah. If the grapevine's to be believed, he showed up in a few other towns for a day as well."

"Which ones?"

"I don't have a full list, kid," he leaned backwards and took another chug from his drink.

Aika wasn't sure if he was saying "kid" in a demeaning way or if he realized that she really was a kid. Given her voice, she realized it was probably the latter. Aika watched him drink his beverage for a few seconds, realizing he probably said all that he knew. "...Thanks for your time," Aika awkwardly said.

She walked away from it, and began looking around the tavern for anyone else who looked like he knew a thing or two and wasn't already in the middle of a conversation. After a bit, she noticed a unfezantt that fit her criteria.

"...Hello there, do you have a minute?" she asked him.

For sometime longer, Aika went around asking whoever she could about Hunter. Information was scattered and fragmented, but she did her best to piece a cohesive narrative together. He had visited several towns around the continent, but they didn't seem to be in a straight line. Or maybe there was a logical pattern to her movements. Aika couldn't get enough information to figure out the order he'd visited them in. When referring to her map, she did piece something together: he seemed to be generally moving in a north-east direction from the town he once lived in, much like Aika herself was planning to do.

She asked for what Hunter's reasoning or goal was, but couldn't get a concise answer on that. The closest she got was one man who said "I don't think Hunter himself knew what he was going to do." Aika accepted that with reluctance. She realized these bits of information was only painting an even more mysterious picture of her biological father.

People were taking notice of Aika. Such a young pokemon that the town had never seen before asking unusual questions stuck out a fair bit in a rambunctious bar. After she had approached multiple people, things changed once a stumbling hakamo-o approached her instead.

"Hey! You!" the hakamo-o said to Aika, some spittle spewing from his mouth and reaching the ground.

She was slightly taken aback by the man. He was clearly drunken by the drinks of the bar. "Hello?" Aika was still unwilling to back down.

"What have you been doing from around here?"

"Pardon?"

"I can tell you ain't from around here, and you keep asking people stuff about some 'Hunter' person."

"He's a hero that I'm interested in asking about. Apparently he has a mysterious disa-"

"Hunter?! Why aren't you asking about the real heroes like Ichiro n' Kiri?"

Moving his drunken arm, he pointed towards the totem pole at the edge of the tavern.

"I'm just not as interested in them, not much more than that."

"Not interested?!" he took offense to that answer.

"Yeah?" Aika said. "He's the famous 'human slayer', I want to piece together what happened."

"Ichiro and Kiri are LEGENDS!" he got more aggressive.

"I haven't heard of them anywhere else, but the story of Hunter the human slayer is pretty well-known in surrounding towns."

"They stopped an ARMY!"

"Well, did they stop a human?" Aika asked, failing to hide a sly smile. "Seems not, since they weren't the first to get the title of 'human slayer'."

At that comment, the hakamo-o suddenly swung his arm towards Aika. Her smile quickly faded as she jumped backwards to avoid the attacks, backing into the leg of a chair. "Shoot. I shouldn't have ticked him off," Aika thought to herself.

The hakamo-o raised his leg and kicked towards Aika, so she jumped onto a chair to dodge. He attacked again, so Aika jumped onto a table. On top of the table, she was more eye-level with the raging drunk. His anger didn't subside, he continued leaning towards the minccino as Aika backed up.

As Aika backed up, she noticed a glass with an amber colored liquid inside of it. As the hakamo-o continued to getting closer, Aika quickly reached for the glass and hurled it at his face.

"Hey!" the glass' owner shouted at Aika.

It shattered on his face, breaking into glass fragments as the liquid coated his fur. Momentarily it stunned him, but then his anger only returned two-fold.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that either," Aika thought to herself.

The hakamo-o fully lunged towards Aika, forcing her to leap off of the table. The entire attention of the tavern was captured by the scuffle.

Aika sprinted towards the other side of the tavern on all-fours, swiftly navigating through chairs and tables to gain distance from the belligerent hakamo-o. Aika ran towards the totem pole at the edge of the room and quickly climbed up it to gain vertical distance from the drunk. She scaled it fully to look down at him. He seemed to stop for a moment, taking a brief moment of consideration with his intoxicated mind. The entire room had become an audience viewing what was happening.

"I need to get out of here," Aika thought. She turned her head to look at what was around her level. "The windows have a bit of a ledge I can stand on. I could jump towards those and start moving around on those until I can find one to open and get out-"

Suddenly, Aika felt the ground she was on shake, forcing her to grab the pole with a tighter grip. It shook again- and it didn't stabilize again. The totem pole was falling down towards the center of the tavern as Aika still clung on. Aika's heart skipped a beat as she was forced to think fast as momentum increased. In a split second decision, she released her grip and pushed down on wood with her legs to jump off- going towards the building's entrance. After leaping, she heard a large crash of different materials behind her.

Aika landed on her feet and looked back. The bar was never quite "pristine", but in a moment it had been turned into an utter mess. Several tables and chairs were completely crushed beneath the pole, glasses being shattered and liquid being strewn about along with splinters on the stone floor. The base of the totem pole was completely snapped, and the rest of it was visible dented all over. Aika froze as she looked at the destruction.

"What have you done?!" someone shouted.

Aika had no idea if they were shouting at her or the drunken hakamo-o, and she was not intending to find out. With her backpack fastened on, she turned around to sprint out of the tavern on all-fours, and she kept running.

There were a few shouts of "Hey!" and it seemed like a few pokemon chased after her initially, but Aika did not stop to look behind her. She kept running and running and running. Out of the building, out of the town center, out of the streets, and out of the town. Even when her breath was running out and she heard nothing more behind her, she still kept going- weaving through trees and taking extra turns to lose any pursuers.

Eventually, Aika came to a stop. She fell down onto her butt under a tree and breathed heavily. Once she recovered a modicum of energy, she used it to get a canteen out from her backpack and try to chug from it. She drank until only drops were left in it.

"Huff…huff… seems I didn't get a chance to get more water when I was there," Aika said to herself.

While she still waited for her energy to recover, she reflected on how the trip went. Her first foreign town, and it didn't go well by any means. Aika thought about how she could've run straight for the exit instead of getting the high ground on the totem pole, Aika thought about how she could've avoided annoying the drunken hakamo-o more instead of escalating, and Aika thought about how she could've avoided drawing attention to herself in general. A lot she could've done differently, many lessons to learn.

Aika picked herself up and ensured her backpack was tightly on again. She looked to the sun to figure out which direction was west again and figure out the rest of the directions with that. She continued her journey again. This time, she kept her eyes peeled for a clear stream to get more water from.

"I'm not going to get far if I just run away from everything, I also need to fight for myself too," Aika thought. "When I can, I should practice some more fighting moves. And soon."

She carried on her journey to the north-east. There were more towns to stop at, and she still had her map to guide her. Kiritown was a setback she couldn't easily brush off, but she still continued to push onwards.

As Aika walked, she thought about what she knew about Hunter so far. Now she knew he visited various taverns around the continent, but the 'why' still remained a mystery to her, and one she had more than enough time to ponder.

"Maybe he was looking for more humans to put an end to?" Aika thought to herself. "He is 'Hunter' afterall, and he's also the legendary 'human-slayer'. It would make sense that he would be hunting down more humans to put a stop to."

Aika continued onwards, moving through the woods of spring before returning to the network of roads.

End of chapter 6.