The world carried on like absolutely nothing was wrong. The sun still set and rose every day, the wind still blew, everyone still walked to their jobs everyday, they each got to have three meals a day, and they could all still play games. And that's what bothered Aika so deeply. Her world had been shattered after learning her father wasn't who she thought it was, how could she be asked to continue as if nothing happened?
Things weren't entirely the same as before, Locke and Tamin were off on their grand mission and Elley was now taking care of her along with her husband. But in the ways that were important, it was still the same. The people around her still referred to Locke as being her father, no one spoke of Hunter, and Pannen and Elijah still referred to her as being their sister. Even Pannen was in on it, even when Aika had specifically told the truth to her, she still continued treating Aika no differently. "Everything is okay," Pannen told Aika. And so Aika persisted in silent frustration.
At one point, Aika met with Elijah in private to tell him about the truth. His reaction to it was different from Pannen's, much closer to what Aika really wanted as he did seem more disturbed by it. But Elijah's demeanor seemed only temporary and he went back to treating Aika the same way after a few days. Aika's feelings were not temporary in the same way.
That was how it continued for days, weeks even. Rather than living at Elley's small house, she was given permission by Locke and Tamin to use their house. Their child Mill came with them, using a spare bed in Elijah's room. Aika did not dislike the shinx, he was perfectly nice and it was good to have another person she could talk with. But through all the time they spent together, there was one thought Aika could not escape from.
"I am not related to Mill in any way," she thought. "I'm not related to Elley in any way."
Elley was Locke's sister, not Tamin's. The shinx might've been the cousin of Pannen and Elijah, but not to Aika. Mill was only her friend, she was no more related to him than she was to the mienfoo.
Aika was so caught up in reflection on Hunter and Locke that she wasn't keeping much track of what was happening in the immediate present. She jerked her mind away from Hunter and looked around her again: she was currently helping make a one-thousand piece jigsaw puzzle with Pannen, Elijah, and Mill. They got the edge finished, but not much else beyond that.
"So… about how much longer do you estimate this'll take?" Aika asked.
Elijah shrugged. "At this pace, it will be a couple hours at least."
"I've gotten fairly good at these, I'm sure we'll get it done sooner," Mill the shinx said.
"How many have you done?" Pannen asked, her tone of voice and expression looked strangely concerned.
"About two-dozen, I think."
"That's certainly quite a lot," Pannen observed.
"Well, they're cheap and can be done alone."
"Yeah… want to get your parents? I'm sure it can be faster with them," Pannen said.
"No," Mill said, quite seriously. "Sorry, it's just… even though she's looking after you now, I still feel my mom is just laser focused on me. I'm taking what chance I can get away from her."
"Sorry about that. I can keep working on this with you," Elijah said.
"Yeah, I think I've noticed that as well. She's not looking at me all that often," Pannen said. "I've been feeling a lot more free, in all honestly."
"Thanks for letting me know that…" Mill said.
"Sorry- sorry sorry," Pannen said.
"It's okay," Mill looked to the side. "My mom is just super worried about losing me is all. Not like she's evil or anything."
"Maybe we could go down to the creek again and do some more of that," Aika chimed in.
"I'd love that, if you can arrange that again."
"I'll start thinking about it. Little Eli could join us next time," Pannen said.
"Uh, I'm not sure I want that."
"Oh, it's fine. I'm sure you'll have fun," Pannen told her.
"Well… okay," Elijah relented. "Let's just focus on this puzzle for now."
"Right, right," Pannen said.
Aika leaned backwards as she looked down on the barely finished image. She tapped her fingers on the wooden floor in impatience.
After awhile, Aika eventually left the room to walk around the house. The puzzle was not stimulating enough to keep her attention for the hours they suggested it would take. She didn't have much of an alternative plan, only pacing around.
Aika tried to figure out what it was that she wanted. Whenever she opened up about her crisis, she was only told that 'everything is okay'. But she didn't want that. All that she wanted was one little bit of vindication for her feelings, one person to tell her that they could understand why she was feeling so off. But she never got that. She didn't want to try and force her emotions to match what people told her was okay.
As she walked through one hallway in the household, she began to hear a conversation- one between Elley and her husband. Aika stopped in place and began listening.
"I'm obviously not going to take any of it, but I just want to comment that I'm shocked how much money my brother has," Elley commented.
"Are you able to view his bank account?" Albert the Liepard asked.
Aika shifted closer to the wall and pressed her ear against it, getting a closer listen.
"No, I can't access his bank account. But he has plenty of money in his room as well, I didn't count but it was certainly a couple hundred coins. Pretty much stored carelessly."
"That's rather odd. Does he not value it that much?"
"I suppose he has it there for convenience, or maybe he just never got around to putting it into the bank. But I'm just surprised how much he has. I had just assumed he would've spent his wealth on buying this house."
"Well I have heard that explorers is a well paying job, and he is a particularly good one."
"That is true."
"I'm sure his wife has also earned plenty of money for the family as well."
"That is true too. I guess I'm more confused why they haven't spent more of it," Elley said. "Well, I suppose he's probably content living off of very little, considering how he grew up."
"There's probably something to be said there," he replied.
The conversation seemed to meander off from there, so Aika stopped eavesdropping so intently. She put her paw on her chin and began thinking.
Aika got an idea.
She turned around and began walking to another part of the household. For the first time in a long time, she went to the room where the books were kept. For the longest time she had avoided the room, not wishing to return to the place where her world was flipped upside down. But now, she had the purpose and determination to return.
Pushing open the door, she walked over to the books and tilted her head to the side to begin reading the covers. "Encyclopedia of Moves; 6th edition" was one of the books on the shelf. Even just a quick glance over it caused the back of her head to be filled with a horrible fuzzy sensation, but that wasn't her target this time. She kept looking through the books until her eyes rested upon one with the title "Maps of the Stone Continent".
Aika pulled the book out of its place and set it upon a small table. She began flipping through its pages with the many different maps it offered. The book depicted countless dozens of locations and regions- most of which Aika had never been to before, most of which Aika had never even heard of before, but ones that she could go to. Many different rivers, lakes, mystery dungeons, forests, plains, mountains, towns, cities, deserts, cave entries and more were all listed on those detailed maps. She kept scanning through them until she found what she sought for: on one page there was a tiny green speck with the small label "Evelyn Forest".
She looked in the regions surrounding it. She spotted "Eastflame Town" quickly- the town where she currently sat. She then played a mental game of connect the dots to find a chain of towns and stops between the two locations. With it committed to memory, she nodded her head and closed the book. Rather than putting it back, she took it with her as she exited the room.
When she left, the first thing she heard was Albert beginning to clean the dishes, and the first thing she saw was Elley going to the room where the jigsaw puzzle was being assembled. Once the luxio completely left her line of sight, Aika began walking again. Even though it was her own house, she still felt the compulsory need to sneak and to skulk.
She walked towards her own bedroom and creaked the door open to slip inside. She quickly found her own backpack and emptied it of its contents. She put the map book inside of it and slipped the bag onto her back. On her way out, she didn't even pull the door closed so that she could minimize the noise made.
Sneaking once more, she went to the master bedroom of the house. It was thankfully left unlocked, so she quietly opened the door and stepped inside.
The bed fit for a luxrio was massive, and everything else in the room was similarly portioned. The scale of things was almost enough to make Aika feel feeble. Almost.
The carpeted floor helped muffle the minccino's footsteps. She scanned around the room for a few minutes in a thorough search, long enough that she began becoming nervous and feared that someone would stumble upon her. But before her worry took hold of her, she found what she needed: Locke's spare coins. It was held in a spare exploration bag that didn't seem to be touched for ages. Aika took off her own backpack and began taking the coins to place inside her own bag as if she was running a heist. Deeper in the bag, she found several more items, including a sleep seed. AIka nabbed that as well before putting her backpack on again.
Leaving the rest of the room as it was, AIka left to return to her own bedroom. To her relief, she remained unnoticed on her way there. This time, she closed the door and let out a sigh to ease her nerves. "If I eat the sleep seed, I can get a few hours of sleep and wake up when it's the middle of the night," she thought.
She gave a once-over to her room. She saw a small pile of unused paper with a pen resting beside it, typically homework supplies. Aika walked to the desk which had them, sat down, grabbed the pen- and then froze. She looked at the plain white papers as she stood there motionless, as if time had frozen.
This was all going by so quickly, even for her. She questioned if she should go through with this or back down. What was stopping her from just putting the pen down? Nothing. What was stopping her from simply continuing to live life as she had been? Absolutely nothing. But what was stopping her from forgetting about Hunter and once again acting as though Locke was her biological father? Her conscience.
To her, it felt as though days had passed as she stood still right there- neither able to put the pen back down or put it to the paper. Her paws eventually went from being still to trembling. So many choices she had made throughout her life were completely automated or were utterly insignificant. Never before had the weight of choice weighed down on her with such crushing force.
Eventually, she was able to move her muscles and make voluntary movement. She brought the pen's tip to the top-left of the paper, and she began writing.
The morning sun shone through the house's windows. Pannen slowly returned to consciousness, got up, and stretched as she let out a yawn.
Pannen hopped down from her bed to the floor of her bedroom. She wasn't entirely sure why Aika had said she wanted to go to bed early last night, and woke up curious. "Maybe she was wanting to wake up early so she could make breakfast for us all?" she wondered.
She continued her morning routine: brushing her fur and getting every speck of dust out of her tail. But as she continued, she got the nagging feeling that something was 'off'. Some deep instinct within her told that things were not right and she needed to act. She questioned where those strange feelings were coming from and what was the reason, but she could tell she wasn't in any immediate danger. So she carried on.
Stepping out of the room only caused the feeling to amplify, enough that she couldn't ignore it any longer. A simple everyday routine turned into an investigation as Pannen searched around, trying to figure out what was different. She woke up earlier than he normally did, but that wasn't too out of the ordinary. She's woken up early before, and last night she went to sleep early because Aika had already gone to bed.
Pannen peeked at the kitchen. No breakfast was prepared there like she originally thought. Nothing was out of the ordinary there as well.
It was then that the feelings inside her did more than just alert her- it guided her. She turned her head towards Aika's bedroom as if something was calling her there. She began walking towards the room.
Once she reached the door, she lifted her paw upwards to knock on it, but then changed her mind and went straight to opening the door. Therein, she looked towards the bed and saw it was empty.
Pannen walked forward, her nerves amplifying. She did a once-over of the entire room, and her eyes were caught on something: the desk of the room had a piece of paper in the center of it weighed down by a paperweight, and multiple other pieces of papers with arrows drawn on them which pointed to the center paper.
Pannen walked to the center paper and picked it up, then began reading what it read.
"Hello Pannen. I have a strong hunch that you'll be the first to find this note of mine, so I might as well write to you directly.
It's been sometime since I've told you who my true father is. When I told you that I was the child of Hunter, you reacted rather nonchalantly. But I did not. It seems you might've even forgotten about it, but I never did. If I could have forgotten about it, I would have.
Once I figured out that Hunter was my father, I wanted to meet him. Every day I spent being raised by Locke just made me desire that more. And now, everyday I spent being raised by two people I wasn't even related to made me want it all that much more. So I prepared for that.
Like myself, Hunter also has a half-sister. Her name is Yuki, and I learned she lives in a place called Evelyn Forest. I intend to go there, ask her for more information, and find Hunter through her. I would love to have done this journey with you, but I knew you wouldn't allow me to do that. You would do everything in your power to stop me from leaving.
So, I took after our mother and I went off in the middle of the night. I filled a backpack of supplies and I departed when you all were asleep. Because if I didn't, I knew you'd stop me.
Please understand that this won't be our last time meeting. Once I meet with Hunter and we get caught up, I will come back (hopefully taking Hunter with me) and we'll see each other again. I'm sorry I had to go so abruptly, but you know why I did.
See you again, Pannen."
Pannen stared down at the page in disbelief. "Aika?!" she called out as she lifted her head. "Aika, where are you?! This isn't funny!"
Silence was all Pannen got in return.
"Aika?! Aika?! Aika where are you?!" Pannen continued to call out, getting more frantic with each call. Even still, no voice responded. Pannen's heart sank.
She heard the shuffling of feet much larger than hers, coming towards the room. Elley the luxio pushed open the room door. "What's going on?!" Elley asked.
Pannen stood in the center of the room, holding the piece of paper and with her legs shaking. "I have so much I need to explain," she said.
Elley couldn't begin to wrap her mind around the newfound revelations. What was bigger: the fact that Aika wasn't even her biological nephew, or the fact that Aika was just gone. It felt like the world was spinning around in her head. She couldn't do much besides mutter to herself "This is bad, this is bad." The feelings were much the same for her husband and her son. They knew she was something of a mischief maker, but none of them had expected this.
Elijah sat by himself as well, silently contemplating the new information. He didn't believe she was gone forever and he doubted she'd get herself killed, but the fact that she was just gone all of a sudden was something that was hard to internalize.
Pannen's head was down as well. She gave everyone a minute to take in the information, and then she walked over to Elijah.
"We need to get Aika back," Pannen said to him solemnly.
He lifted his head to look at her. "Yeah… let's make a mission request for it-"
"No, we should do this ourselves. This is a family thing," Pannen said. "She doesn't consider us to be fully family, so we need to show her that we care for her. If some random explorers find her, she might refuse to come back, so I need to talk with her directly."
"Wait. But… I don't want to go," Elijah said. "I don't want to leave-"
Pannen placed her paw on Elijah's paw. "Come, Eli. We need to get going as fast as we can to catch up with her, let's go," she pulled on Elijah's arm to force him to stand up. "There's no time to waste!" Pannen emphasized.
Elley was incredulous to the idea of Pannen and Elijah heading out as well, but Pannen was determined. She took pride in the fact that she was the child of two explorers, and she took pride in saying that Aika was her sister. But when Pannen asked for Mill's help, Elley immediately shot that down and positioned her body between Pannen and the shinx.
Pannen's mind didn't waste any time before she started forming plans to get Aika back. From all the times when her parents recounted the tales of their adventures to her, she got a good understanding of what needed to be brought along. She ran to her room to get her backpack. Now she needed nonperishable food to pack, some water canteens, maps, healing supplies, some money, and something small that can keep her entertained. She quickly figured out where in the house or in nearby stores she might find those things.
But as Pannen began packing, she realized something important she was missing: companions. Even in their most glorious tales, Locke and Tamin never completed missions just by themselves, they always had at least one other person with them. "Even with Eli with me, I'll still be undermanned. The missions my parents did were almost always with four people," Pannen thought to herself. She put a paw on her chin as she thought. "Oh! I could ask the mienfoo for help!"
The minccino all but sprinted across town to get to Dewott's house. At the front door she took a few deep pants to catch her breath, and then she knocked on the door. She collected herself again as she waited for a response.
The door began being opened up. She wasn't sure who exactly would be on the other side of the door. To her relief, it was the oldest of Dewott's children.
"Hello?" Argus the mienfoo asked.
"Hey! I need your help!" Pannen said.
"What's going on?"
"Aika is gone!"
"Wait, what?"
Pannen quickly recapped what had happened. She went over just the key points in a very fast manner to get him caught up, just because she'd already had to say it all to Elley and her family. The other kids Ishmael and Dandelion came there as well to see what all the commotion was about. Pannen envisioned herself as an poetic hero delivering an epic speech to rouse people to victory. "So that's why I need your help. We should get going as soon as physically possible," she concluded.
"Oh, that's really bad. I hope you can get Aika back soon, but I don't really have time to be heading out right now," Argus replied.
Pannen was taken aback. "Why? We've got to get Aika back! I promise it won't take long."
"I'm sorry, but I'm just not able to drop everything on a dime to go on an adventure right now," Argus said, giving a shy and awkward smile.
"We've got studies to do, it's bad timing," Dandelion clarified.
"This is more important than that, I need your help," Pannen once again pleaded.
"I'll go with you!"
They turned to the person who said it. Ishmael the mienfoo stood behind the other two mienfoo, having an excited smile on his face.
"You would?" Pannen asked Ishmael.
"Yeah! I'd love to go on an adventure! And we've got someone to save!"
"Ishmael, are you absolutely sure? This could be very dangerous," Dandelion said.
"Yeah!" he confidently confirmed.
Pannen stepped forward past Argus and Dandelion to place her paw on Ishmael's. "Thank you so much," she said, worry melting off of her.
"No problem! I'll just grab my flute real quick, then I'll be ready to go."
"Well, you'll need a whole lot more than just your flute. You'll also need a backpack, some money, some food, and all that stuff… but do be quick."
"No problem!"
Pannen spent a minute helping Ishmael get his own pack ready. She needed to explain how candies weren't a good thing to bring along, and how things like cheese and yogurt were even worse. Ishmael didn't have much money he could take along with himself, but they got what they had.
As they were working, Pannen thought to herself again. "Mill isn't being allowed to join us. So with Ishmael and Eli, that just makes three. When my parents went on journeys, it was almost always with teams of four, so we're still short a member. Hmm…
I wonder if the espurr sisters will be willing to help us?"
Acting on that thought, she ran across town with Ishmael to Espeon's mansion. She rang the doorbell to get the attention of those inside. After a few seconds with no response, she rang the doorbell twice more.
"I'm coming!" an annoyed female voice from within responded.
After a few more seconds, the door was opened with Leah the espurr on the other side. "Yes?" she asked.
"Leah! We need some help!" Pannen pleaded.
"What's going on?"
"Aika is gone!"
"What?"
Once more, Pannen quickly recapped the situation, with Ishmael interjecting in an occasional "yeah". Leah face showed confusion initially, which shifted to concern for a moment, and then to one of intrigue. She waited for Pannen to finally finish before she said anything.
"Alright… I'll help you out," Leah said.
"You will?!" Pannen asked.
"Of course~ Don't forget that I am an official member of the guild now, and you're going to need some supervision from a real explorer," Leah said. "I'll just need… an hour or two to explain this to my sister and get some paperwork done. My parents aren't home right now so I'll have to make sure sister can explain everything."
"Two hours? Are you sure you can't do it any faster than that? We really need to catch up with Aika."
"I'm doing what I need to do. I'll be quick with it, but don't expect me to rush it and be messy," Leah said.
"Well… okay. Just please be as fast as you can."
"Don't worry, Pannen. I'm on board," Leah said. Her mouth couldn't help but form a quick, sly smile before she turned around. Pannen caught sight of it, but didn't make a comment on it.
Leah blessed them all with resources straight from the guild's stocks. Some proper imperishable rations, clean water canteens, and truly effective healing items. Pretty much all that Pannen could've asked for.
Seeing the bags be stuffed so thoroughly made Elijah nervous. It did not look like supplies for a simple hike, it looked like supplies for a war. "I don't want to go, I want to say home," Elijah said. "We never finished that puzzle," he said.
Pannen quickly sighed to herself, she want to go through rousing Elijah's motivation up again, but she knew she had to. "And leave Aika behind? Where she could be in danger?" Pannen asked Elijah.
"Well, no-"
"Then don't just stay behind. You need to do this, Elijah. We need to do this, we can't just let this family fall apart."
"It's just-"
"It's what it is," Pannen placed her paw on Elijah's shoulder. "We don't have time to waste, come now. We're going to be heroes, like our parents."
"...Okay," he conceded with great hesitation.
Elley did try to talk them out of going, but knew she couldn't keep them back. They weren't her kids, and there is no way she could have explained to Locke and Tamin if they came back with Aika gone. Ishmael's siblings tried as well, but he really wanted to go on an adventure.
After all that, the four gathered at the edge of town, checking their bags one more time to ensure everything was accounted for.
"So, you're sure this is the way Aika would've gone?" Pannen asked Leah.
"It's the way Evelyn Forest is and where Yuki should be. I can't imagine any other direction she would've gone in," Leah confirmed.
"That's good… is everyone ready?"
"I got my flute!" Ishmael held up the object in question, not drawing any attention to the backpack he had on. "I"m good!"
"I've got plenty of stuff, yeah," Elijah said.
"I've triple checked, we're good," Leah said. "We've even got stuff to setup camp."
"Perfect… we should head off right now, Aika is probably still going away from us and it will be nightfall eventually.
C'mon everyone, let's go. This journey should only be like one week long, maybe two weeks tops."
"Right," Leah said.
"I wanna have a great big adventure!" Ishmael said.
"If all goes well, we shouldn't have too long of a trip… but we'll have to see," Pannen said.
With those final words spoken, the four young pokemon departed on their journey to the east to get Aika back. Pannen the minccino, Ishmael the mienfoo, Leah the espurr, and Eijah the minccino.
Aika looked down at her map again, then looked around at her surroundings again. The world seemed unfathomably boundless, new sights in every single direction.
"At this pace, it's going to be awhile before I get to Yuki… but I have to keep at it," she said to herself. "I'm going to meet my father, and no one can stop that."
She kept walking down the road. She had never been so far away from home before, every last tree and rock she saw was new to her. Aika clenched her paw in determination, she refused to back down.
End of chapter 5.