In the near-darkness of the overcrowded office space, little could be discerned visually between the stacks of hastily filed paperwork and almost-chaotic boxes stacked and filled with the same. The only thing that could be readily identified from the second-floor entrance to the small firm was the constant staccato of a singular keyboard being constantly worked at a respectable but not overwhelming speed and the occasional interruption of the quiet clicking of a computer mouse.

Considering the hour, one might not have expected to have heard even the whisper of a computer's fan or seen even the harsh edges of paper and cardboard in the barest beams of the moonlight, especially in the second floor of a squat corporate office.

Charles Chateti had expected as much. He suppressed a sigh as the noise paused in response, and he pushed through the darkness to find exactly what he'd been expecting to find.

"Degurechaff," he said, his tone and face exuding a joviality incongruous with the time. He didn't react to the smallest amount of his frustration and anxiety surrounding her that he'd accidentally slipped into the word, and she didn't appear to react either.

"Oh!" she replied in an instant, rubbing the tiredness from her eyes. "Mr. Chateti. My apologies, I didn't know you were-"

He felt one of his eyes involuntarily twitch. Yes, that was what she thought the problem was. Not that she was here, but that she hadn't known he would be coming around.

"I'd be worried if you did," he interrupted, "because I didn't tell anyone, and no one is supposed to be here at this hour."

They didn't say anything for a silent moment.

"Which does include you, I'm afraid."

The small girl, because even though she claimed to be thirteen, she was smaller than his own ten-year-old and only seemed able to wear years-old clothes that worked to make her somehow seem younger, looked briefly guilty and bowed her head. "I just wanted to-"

"Degurena-" He cut himself off at his fumbling of her name and readjusted his hastily made tie. Her last name was an unpleasant mouthful and also unlikely to get through to her. "Tanya. We don't have any upcoming deadlines. We don't have a backlog of work. No one's quit their job."

He shook his head again. "I can't believe one so young as you seems so determined to bring back karoshi! My kids always yell at me and pound into my head about not overworking myself…"

"I… am just showing initiative. I want to do more to benefit the company," she replied dutifully, her head still bowed. Charles really wanted to just sigh in exasperation at her insistence.

"You are already the most efficient worker we have, and that's before we even take into account how much overtime you've put in," he said, her head briefly coming up from its bow. "Are you trying to take my job?" he asked, injecting a hint of feigned suspicion into his voice. A bit of levity would hopefully-

He saw her eyes widen in panic for the briefest fraction of a second before she bowed her head even lower than before. "No! I would never-"

"That was a joke, Tanya, a joke," he repeated as he turned around, looking out of the windows in one of the meeting rooms at the moon. He tuned out her hurried apologies for not getting it and giving him a hollow chuckle in response to her own 'bullheadedness.'

Finally, when she was done, he looked back at her, a frown on his face.

Before he could stare too long and make her nervous, he asked her a question, plainly and unambiguously.

"What pushes you to work so hard?"

He'd been apprehensive about hiring her. You never knew when young hires were going to be struck by wanderlust and hand in their notices, and though she had all the certifications they cared about, he'd been unsure she would be able to do the work for a long while.

The manager of their translators had been proven right that she was the perfect fit for the company, his parents had been right to give her the chance, and he was more than willing to admit to having his apprehensions assuaged.

Initially, anyway. Now, she was putting in too much work! He didn't want to have to fire her, but he really didn't want to have the government come down on them like a Snorlax for making their employees work more than they were supposed to.

He assumed she needed all the money she was earning for something important. He might have been steering the entire company while his parents transitioned into retirement, but their company wasn't large. Two dozen translators, and that number again in other personnel to secure contracts, make connections, and parse through the Byzantine legalese of different regions, countries, and the world, and then a few more people for managing it all.

The company certainly wasn't large enough that he wasn't at least tangentially aware of his employees problems and interests. He knew she was a refugee fleeing a bad region, that she wanted to make money and advance her career despite her age, that she went to the Saffron Gym for exercise and martial arts training, that she was far smarter and wittier than anyone had any right to suspect from her appearance, and, most outstandingly, that she wanted nothing to do with Pokemon, at all.

"I…" she began to respond after he gave her a few moments to collect her thoughts.

She did not respond, so he waited some more. If she was putting in this much time for money, though he somehow doubted that it was so simple, something could be arranged to help her. If it was legal, he'd at least hear her out.

She'd proven herself worthy of at least that much, for how dedicated she'd become to the company in however many weeks it had been since they'd hired her.

If it was less than legal trouble…

He licked his lips at the thought.

Well, they'd help as much as they could without getting tangled up in it.

"I… am pushed to work this hard because I think it would be a waste to do anything other than my absolute best, in whatever work I am engaged in," she finally said.

He stared into her eyes, their earnestness begging him to believe her.

He didn't, but he sighed and turned away all the same. "Alright, Tanya." She was unwilling to talk about whatever was really driving her, or, at the least, what made her believe what she'd told him. "I will be posting reminders about overtime and company policy about employees who insist on putting in extra hours when they aren't needed," he continued. Her affirmative response resounded through the empty office, and then, as he opened the door again, the typing on the computer and clicking of the computer mouse resumed as if he hadn't even been there.

He just shook his head as he closed the door and headed for the elevators, his guilt at accepting her refusal to engage with him already eating through his empty stomach. He didn't like posting stuff on the overcrowded corkboard, but if she wasn't giving him a choice, he'd do it.

The guilt in his stomach grumbled. If she was unwilling to take his metaphorical hand, he'd just have to let her stumble.

-OxOxO-

Jamal couldn't help but sigh as he clocked in for the day. He didn't exactly like this job, but it put bread on the table, or, considering this was Kanto, rice. Any day now, his hobby of commentating over the battle sim leagues in Kanto would lead to something more professional.

A small hand landed on his back, making up for its size by almost knocking him down with its force. "Jamal! Ready to go to the Battle Frontier?" he asked, anticipation for the day's end and tomorrow's beginning unmistakable.

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the pipsqueak. "As I'll ever be. I still can't believe you're dragging us all the way to Hoenn instead of just going to the one in Johto-"

He waved a hand dismissively. "Hoenn's was the first and still is the best in Japan! It's only a couple thousand more Yen, anyway."

"And if I'm no good, we'll have spent that-"

Hideyoshi, as he was wont to do, cut him off. "You'll do fine! And hey, even if you don't, you'll get a chance to watch me work instead!" he replied brightly, patting him on the back again as they waved their keycards at the receiver. Jamal just rolled his eyes and contemplated giving the man a pat on the back of his own.

He'd have to reach down pretty far, but it would piss him the hell off, which was bound to be entertaining.

Before he could decide, they were almost bowled over as someone somehow smaller than Hideyoshi tried to brush past them. They did move out of the way, but Hideyoshi called out. "Hey, Tanya!"

She stopped in her tracks and turned around, a pleasant if distracted smile on her face. "Ah, Hideyoshi, Jamal. Looking forward to your weekend off?"

Jamal simply nodded, but Hideyoshi pumped his hands through the air. "Yeah, like you wouldn't believe! Hey, there's an idea!"

Jamal winced.

Tanya was a wonderful coworker. Her translations were always reliable, if sometimes either stilted or using odd verbiage. There wasn't a person working for CC's who wasn't astounded by just how much she could get done in just a day, to say nothing of the hours of overtime she often put in.

When she wasn't buried in her work, she had an acerbic wit and could run verbal rings around… really anyone there, though he'd never seen her do it to their superiors. Hideyoshi had been rendered reeling from a comeback poking fun at him enough times that he'd had to replace his chair from falling back in it one too many times.

One of the only things he could think of that was even remotely bad was how demanding she was of herself, and the tightness in her eyes whenever he had a question about German that seemed obvious in retrospect.

He saw that same tightness in her eyes now, though her smile didn't fade in the slightest. "What's an idea?" she asked. Jamal looked back down at Hideyoshi.

If Jamal had realized what Hideyoshi was about to ask, Tanya certainly had.

"You should come with us! We're heading over to Hoenn for a weekend at the Battle Frontier!"

The only other real complaint he might voice with her was that she wasn't interested in Pokemon. It wasn't that she hated them, which honestly would have been more understandable considering her… situation. Instead, she was just…

Indifferent.

She raised an eyebrow. "I hope you're not taking the train."

Jamal answered, determined to hopefully end this before she got mad at them again. "It's fast, but not that fast. No, we're taking the Tropius Taxi down there. Certainly not as fast as Pigeot's, but also certainly not as expensive."

She nodded at Jamal, her eyes ever-so-slightly less narrow as she looked at him before looking back down at Hideyoshi. "You know, me, Hideyoshi, I'm not-"

He cut her off, which, if he actually bothered to pay attention to her, he wouldn't have done. "I know, you probably don't even know what the Battle Frontier is, right? It's a place where some of the strongest trainers come together to take part in challenges but," he emphasized, "they've also got a place where you can rent Pokemon to battle with."

Her eyes had narrowed even more. Of course, if Hideyoshi actually bothered to pay attention to her, he wouldn't have even suggested going in the first place. "Hideyoshi. I-"

"And don't worry about not knowing what to do, they haven't been too elitist since the forties. They've even got a juniors section where you can-"

Jamal winced again. Though she was indifferent about Pokemon, which still boggled his mind, and didn't like being asked dumb questions, which he could understand, he knew referring to anything relating to her physical presence or general capabilities was a surefire way to ruin her mood and find yourself smothered in a deluge of perfectly crafted questions that could give anyone a headache.

"Hideyoshi, I already have plans and am not interested," she said, emphasizing the last half of her sentence.

Hideyoshi opened his mouth, inhaling, but Jamal clapped a large hand onto the smaller man's back with force. While he recovered, Jamal smiled at Tanya. "Too bad! We'll see you next week then, Tanya. Have a good day!"

He turned around, slinging an arm around Hideyoshi so he wouldn't put his foot in his mouth as they headed for the elevators.

Hideyoshi, ever the innovator, found a way to do it anyway and ducked forward, peering between Jamal's legs at Tanya's retreating back. "Why don't you like Pokemon?"

Jamal almost kicked Hideyoshi in the shin for that, except he might have hit the idiot's face with how far he was bent down. Instead he looked over his shoulder, about to apologize about the idiot bringing up her past.

Rather than finding her even more angry, or perhaps even upset, she just seemed contemplative. The odd expression gave Jamal pause, during which time she leveled a bored glare at Hideyoshi. "If I tell you, will you finally stop trying to include me in activities or discussions related to Pokemon?"

His scowl morphed into a wide smile. "Yes! For a few weeks."

Ever litigious, she pressed him. "Four."

Ever stubborn, he resisted her. "Two."

"Three and a half."

"Three."

"Three and a half."

"Fine. Now speak!"

She shrugged. "I see no value in personally learning or engaging with Pokemon."

Jamal blinked owlishly, and he was sure Hideyoshi was doing the same. Probably with his mouth hanging open like a Loudred.

"With that in mind, why spend my limited, valuable time doing something that has no value?" she asked rhetorically. Before either could answer, she swept through the glass doors. "Have a good evening, gentlemen!" Somehow, she said the last word in just the right way that it felt like an insult.

Then she was gone, leaving the two of them to silently clamber into the elevator.

"I thought she'd say something about hating them, but…"

Jamal just nodded next to Hideyoshi. He supposed, in a world where you could only do so many things, doing something without value would be pretty silly…

Unbidden, memories rose to the front of his mind. A Pawpy, newly hatched from its egg, licking his prepubescent face. That same Pawpy following his commands to battle the Firijar owned by an old friend. Tending to its wounds from an invasive Silicobra. Having to say goodbye to an elderly Wulfriend as he left Florida for Japan, to pursue his dreams. Promising as he boarded a plane that he'd bring him over once he had the money.

He wiped away a tear. No, he just couldn't ever believe that there wasn't value from having Pokemon around.

-OxOxO-

KABOOM

"Honestly, don't they have anything better to do?"

Kamiko rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's muttered complaint about the battle taking place in the nearby park. "Oh, come on. They're only kids once," she defended the strangers off in the distance.

He turned away from glaring at the fiery explosion and looked down at her. "I just don't want anyone to ruin our date," he said, leaning over her protectively.

She sighed in happiness. "Oh, it's fine, Makito. If I'm okay with it, does it matter?" she asked, warming herself against his towering form.

He mumbled something and then just sighed a response. "I guess n-"

"GROWL! LITHE! LIGROLITHE!"

She looked down in surprise at the harsh tone of her beloved Pokemon. "Growlithe? What is it?"

She followed the gaze of its head and body, pointed and whining and barking, into the alley they were just about to pass. Just out of sight, leaning against a wall painted an array of dazzling colors dimmed by the shadows of the buildings around them. She took a step closer, and her Growlithe followed, still barking incessantly.

They were speaking, though she didn't have the faintest idea what they were saying. She didn't think it was even Japanese!

"Er, hello?"

Their head snapped up, a sharp gaze taking in the gaze before them. Before she could ask anything else, they pushed past her and back into the open street, apologizing as they went.

"Hey!" Makito called out.

Kamiko tried to question them again. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

That gave them pause and her an opportunity to get a good look at them. Their clothes looked very professional, despite their small stature, but what really drew her eyes was the blonde hair that glowed in the afternoon sun and the tears that glittered alongside it.

Then they turned back around and were gone without another word.

"Jackass," Makito said.

Growlithe growled, and Kamiko frowned and lightly punched his broad chest. "Hey! That was rude."

"They were rude," he replied. Kamiko sniffed. "Hey, try to assume the best. We don't know what they're going through."

She looked down at Growlithe, who seemed torn between barking at Makito for what he'd said and because she'd hit him or tearing after the person who'd just run off. "Growlithe was going to be a therapy Pokemon before he flunked out."

He raised an eyebrow, and they continued their walk down the road. "What did he flunk out for?"

"Well, he never knew when to give people room. All the better to cuddle with, though!"

-OxOxO-

There.

He ducked into the door of the cafe. It had taken some work, but he'd managed to finally coax his friend out of her shell and into a chance to hang out. He'd honestly been surprised at how readily she'd agreed to his request after he'd failed to get anything out of her for weeks.

He dodged around a gawking pair of people sitting at one of the many occupied tables at the small, European style cafe and sat in front of the girl he'd been trying so hard to meet. "Tanya! It's been too long."

The girl, delicately dining on a delicious smorgasbord of chocolates and sweets he'd never even seen before, let alone guess at the name of, raised a single eyebrow. "Ichigo. I respond to your texting at least once a week."

He nodded decisively. "Exactly! Not nearly enough."

She shook her head in amusement. Then, reluctant in a way he'd never seen before, she asked, "Would you like some of my sweets?"

A grin bubbled up on his face. "Your desire to have them all for yourself is more than enough to satisfy me for a while."

She blushed, and he chuckled. Then he outright laughed as she pulled her plate closer to herself. "How have you been doing?" he asked.

She took a moment to finish off the sweet she'd snatched before answering. She painted an inspiring story about having achieved a stable place in the company she was working for with decent enough pay for the work she did, during which he ordered the meal she recommended he have.

He waved her words away almost as soon as she was done. "Not that! You've kept me quite up to date, and though I cannot fathom how you're upset about being kept from doing work," he muttered his gripe with her under his breath and elicited an indignant, smiling scoff, "What do you do for fun? You only ever mentioned research and studying languages, which seems like more work without a paycheck."

She glared at him, though the fire of her glare was cooled quite significantly by the fact that she'd managed to finished off the five other sweets on her plate during his question without him noticing. He just raised an eyebrow.

She muttered something in a language he couldn't understand, but before he could call her a cheater, she answered him. "I suppose, if you must know, I've been going to the Fighting Dojo to train in martial arts."

His initial elation that she'd finally gotten herself a Pokemon was quenched quickly. "And before you ask," she continued, "I have not caught any Pokemon. Or caught a desire to get one."

He pressed his luck. "And you're not going to fight any Pokemon either?"

The lack of an immediate response and the twitch of one of her eyebrows sent Ichigo's eyebrows climbing up his face. "Wait, really? I hope you're not trying to become the next Bruce Lee," he joked.

She opened her mouth to respond, her unhappy expression and hunched shoulders displaying all the fondness for the conversation she had, and then she paused. He waited, for a moment, and then she asked, hesitantly, "What do you mean by that?"

"No way," he breathed out as his eyebrows almost reached his hairline. "You- you know who Bruce Lee is, right?" There were a lot of things she'd been confused about that he'd been happy to tell her about, but it was Bruce Lee-

Unless he wasn't as well known in Europe?

She sputtered. "I- well, yes, I know of him. He was an excellent martial artist and was in a bunch of movies-"

He cut her off, even knowing she wouldn't appreciate it. "He fought a Machoke. And won."

She gazed at him blankly. "What's a Machoke?"

He shook his head, amazed, and scooched his chair around the table, ignoring the sound it made as he pulled out his phone and rapidly searched for the video. "And it wasn't just some random Machoke someone found out in the wild, but the Machoke owned by Koichi Takenori."

She raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to the current Gym Leader?"

He nodded. "He's Koichi's son." Without further ado, he played the video.

They watched, though Ichigo was more focused on watching Tanya's reactions. Somehow, she was gaping when the Machoke came out… though, he guessed she'd never seen or heard of it before? They probably just didn't have them in Germany.

Then they started to trade blows, and her eyes widened comically as the far more nimble Lee jumping and dodging around the Machoke's blows, deflecting those that almost landed, all the while targeting the Machoke's weak points and utilizing his greater height and reach to minimize the damage he was taking.

Tanya's fists tightened. Both were being worn down; for every hit the Machoke managed to land, the human would land two or three more. The cheering of the crowd blared through the worn speaker of his phone, reaching a crescendo as the Machoke landed a solid hit to the man's stomach, only for him to pull the Machoke forward and unbalancing the sturdy Pokemon.

It stumbled once, which was all the opening his opponent needed. Lee twisted the Machoke around him, pushed it away, and sent a kick into its back.

It tumbled to the ground and cried out, its trainer called the match, and the crowd went insane, even as the exhausted Lee collapsed to the ground.

Ichigo scooched away, smiling triumphantly at the grin on Tanya's own face. "Well, it's maybe not the most impressive thing I've seen people do, but it is foundational. With that grin on your face, maybe you are trying to emulate him after all?"

She blinked rapidly, briefly touching her own face before schooling her expression as his food was finally delivered. "Of course not. I want to keep in shape and… learn, I suppose. You never know what the future holds," she said.

Ichigo nodded in agreement. "Exactly. So why not try training Pokemon?"

She flinched at his proposition and paused for a few seconds, until shaking her head and gesturing towards him with a fork. "Nice try. How have you been, anyway?"

It was an obvious deflection, but Ichigo didn't mind. She was paying, after all!

They continued their conversation, in between bites of one of the strangest dishes he had ever had that she called something unpronounceable to his tongue. It was good, at least, and while she castigated him for not trying very hard to get a job, he was honestly happier that his attempts to get her to consider getting a Pokemon were wearing her down than with the taste of the food.

He would succeed! He was certain that there wasn't a person alive whose life had been or was being improved from the presence of Pokemon. He'd convince her of the same!

-OxOxO-

Constance Yikty could only smile as the second-to-last hopeful left the room in high spirits. She mirrored their mood as well. How couldn't she?

Business was booming!

Well, for her, anyway. Silph as a whole was struggling under the weight of cosmically-induced economic decline, as were many others at the moment. Swift action was already being taken by the government, and the Psychic Court had probably never received as many customers as now. Obviously, no one wanted a recession to start, but predictions were middling.

And of course, when predictions were middling, those without the ability to see the future or access to someone who could would segregate into the hopeful and the pessimistic. Only time would tell who won out.

But for her?

Constance sipped on the cup of water at her side, helpfully obtained from the nearby watercooler by Yumma. It would be good to take a short break before seeing the last hopeful for the day. For her, business hadn't been better!

Literally. She'd heard from some of the old geezers, passing down stories they'd heard from the old geezers during their time as the young blood, that the Silph Company had once been as busy as it was at this moment on a daily basis. She could scarcely imagine!

She smiled happily, greedily. If she was right about her predictions, then she'd have even more to do soon enough! Where many companies were betting on recession-to-be occurring and downsizing, or others were continuing as if a portent of doom wasn't hurtling towards them, Silph was instead expending cash and writing contracts as fast as it could.

Oh, what exactly was going on was being kept incredibly quiet, but she'd put two and two together. You didn't interview people with as varied jobs as lawyers who specialized in international travel and Pokemon importation to merchandising translators to advertisement designers, all of whom were either having or had just had their previous place of employment bought almost overnight, without noticing a trend.

Silph was expanding. It wouldn't just do so without some kind of plan, and the new boss at the top had talked a lot about ushering in a new era for Silph. The expansion, combined with the very international bent of the expansion seemed to hint that the plan was global in nature.

She looked over at her computer screen where the news proudly displayed that the Kanto regional government had won the bid for hosting the Pokemon World Tournament in Japan after the country had won the bid to become the host country.

She smiled at the headlines.

She was fairly certain that Silph was going to be pushing for major involvement in its organization, and with the budget, design, and rules having been decided or decreed at higher governmental levels, that only left the precise location within Kanto up for debate.

She watched her digital clock tick another minute past, schooled her expression somewhat, and asked if Yumma would open the door to let in the last hopeful from Silph's latest acquisition. With any luck, Silph would become heavily involved in the tournament, resulting in lots of work and even bigger bonuses once it was over!

Though even if Silph didn't win, she'd be getting a bonus for all her hard work this quarter. For at least that long, her life would be smooth sailing.

As the door was pushed open, she looked at the list on her other monitor, looking for the specific name. "Miss… Degurechaff? Please, come on in."

The girl walked in, displaying a level of confidence she could barely expect from a grown man, let alone the slip of a girl that strode in. Her estimation of her grew slightly.

They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. "Water?"

"If it isn't a trouble," she replied, and she waved away her concern. "Yumma, if you would?"

The Espeon, with a bare flick of her tail, the telltale glow of her eyes through her closed eyelids, and a few seconds, brought a paper cup of water floating in from just outside her office. It floated into the girl's outstretched hand. "Thank you, Yumma," she said. Yumma mumbled, "Es," and then drifted back to sleep in her plush bed.

Constance turned her attention back to the girl in front of her. "Now, Miss Degurechaff. The Silph Company would first like to apologize for just how quickly things have changed for you," she rattled off from memory. "If we've caused any distress to you, we'd like to hear it."

Constance well knew that the complaints that had been raised by the girl's coworkers probably wouldn't see the light of day, even if they all had been recorded, but things had been smoothed over admirably with the fussy ones, especially when continued employment at a salary rather than a wage was offered.

The girl deflected the platitude graciously enough and asked a question of her own. "I was wondering, the email was a little hard to parse," she admitted, which Constance had expected, considering the girl's age, "but this meeting is to discuss our continued employment, right?"

Constance grinned widely. Wonderful! No worrying, no conversation she didn't care about, and not even a complaint from the girl. "Of course! I just had a few questions to ask you before we move on to signing your employment contract. How would you characterize the last month of your employment with Cheryl and Chosi's Translation Services?"

The girl nodded, somehow sitting up even straighter than her already ramrod-straight posture. Again, it raised her up in Constance's estimation.

Her personal estimation, anyway. It did not do a thing to change her professional one.

In her professional estimation, although the girl had been labeled 'hopeful' by one of the pencil pushers who worked under her, it came with the note of 'narrowly' that was an understatement in Constance's opinion.

She was undoubtedly a very hard worker who was dedicated to her job and very good at what she did. She'd had very little trouble with her coworkers, supervisors, and employers, and she'd never clocked in late thus far.

Unfortunately, her age was a major hurdle. It wasn't official, but the few meetings she'd sat in on where President Kayano was present, he'd expressed his displeasure with how the company had been run following that incident. She wasn't about to invoke his scrutiny with how well things were going, so she'd made sure to dial back on how the company's practices had changed afterwards, especially the hiring practices involving favoritism towards hiring younger people and especially those who were still legally children.

The other major hurdle for the girl were the notes about her habit of working overtime received chiefly from Mr. Chateti, who was now working as a middle manager, doing much the same as he had outside the company. Her coworkers had corroborated his note that she often worked overtime when she didn't need to. Especially when she didn't need to.

The last thing Constance needed was the government coming down on top of the company because a teenager killed herself via karoshi.

As the interview moved from question to question, Constance found her professional opinion of the girl slowly rising to meet her personal one.

Constance's questions were answered promptly, giving her all the information she expected to get and then some. Over the course of the half hour she'd allotted to the interview and an unprecedented five minutes afterwards, she found herself thoroughly convinced that the girl would probably end up being the prize catch of the company they'd just absorbed.

"Well, although I hate to cut the conversation short, we have gone a bit over our time together," she said. Tanya apologized, accepting the blame, and Constance couldn't help but marvel at just how easy the interview had been.

Of course, it had to get ruined right at the end.

The poor girl, in her rush to get here, had forgotten her paperwork surrounding her stay in Japan as a migrant at home, and didn't even have a digital copy owing to her not having even a phone when she'd arrived.

Her professional opinion had dropped right back down to the baseline from the beginning of the interview.

She paused at the door as she got up to leave. "Constance. If I may be frank with you, it may take me a bit longer than a day to find what I'm looking for. Would it be alright to call you at a later date to arrange for the contract to be signed?"

Constance smiled even as she felt annoyed within her mind. Her personal estimation told her that everything was above board and that it was a simple mistake, but her professional estimation ruthlessly cut away that fig leaf with the fact that the girl might not have been in the country legally, in which case Silph would not be hiring her, no matter her ability to belay the company's fear about her deficiencies or her admittedly excellent proficiency.

"Of course! Although," she cautioned, "if you can't find them within a week, in all probability, the position will close within that time."

She might have been the last hopeful, but there were at least three other people from this company and a dozen more in a handful of other translation services that were just a step below that might prove up to snuff once given the incentive. Perhaps all of them would walk away from their interviews with jobs.

Perhaps none of them would.

Tanya thanked her and left, shooting a fleeting glance through the doorway as she closed it. For a brief moment, Constance wondered what about the neatly organized office of a human resources manager tasked with the final evaluations of dozens of potential hires might make a girl of only thirteen feel wistful, but then she put it out of her mind.

She had a break to get to and then a dozen more interviews today. No matter how aberrant from the mean, the fate of one girl was not worth the effort to think of outside of the time set aside for her.

-OxOxO-

The heights of Tanya's elation, at moving from being a waged worker to a salaried one, were almost enough to pierce through the veil of panic that had descended since she'd been asked for her documentation.

Almost, but not enough.

She kept up a sunny disposition all the way from that office, to the exit, to the train, and even to her apartment, but stepping through the doorway into the apartment was where it dropped, to be replaced by ragged breathing, shaky vision, and panic.

Thankfully, Angela wasn't on duty at the time, so Tanya got to freak out on her own. Yippie!

She slumped against the wall. She remained silent and thoughtless for moments, trying to reign in her panic. This… wasn't the end. It wouldn't be.

Without Being X to curse, she could only blame her own failure to pay attention to the wider economy or the office bulletin for not knowing this was coming. She'd thought she was doing enough, but-

She grit her teeth. Compounding on that was just how much of a cornerstone Pokemon really were to the people of… Kanto? Japan? The world?

She shook her head purposefully, only to realize then that she'd already been shaking her head. It didn't matter. It seemed, from the reaction of her coworkers to how she actually felt about Pokemon, that the people around her likely won't take her dismissiveness of their fucking pets lightly anymore.

Almost as bad as the idea of having to waste her time with the native magical fauna of this world but not nearly as bad as the looming deadline of 'finding' her paperwork or finding herself unemployed again, was that she was fairly sure something was wrong with her head. Or her body. Or… something.

She was at least partially sure of it because the satisfaction with the advancement of her career had not materialized, or not nearly as much as she'd hoped it would.

Her theory was corroborated by the fact that she'd felt more satisfaction with mastering a new kata with her teacher or even fighting that damn bug. She did not require satisfaction to do her job, of course, but the fact that she felt more satisfied doing other things did not bode well.

All of that was compounded by her reaction to that… explosive Pokemon battle. It had been months, but she still had recurring, baseless nightmares about either Being X ruining her third life or being back on the frontlines. Was it simple stress, or had she been knocked around one too many times, or had she caught something…

Was it any wonder she'd been spending so much time working?

Tanya rose from where she'd slumped against the wall, mentally warring with herself. If there was a possibility something was wrong with her, she needed to fix it immediately…

She stalked to the closet to get her broom. Unfortunately, she had to keep her job, which meant getting the right documentation as fast as possible, delaying any trip to a doctor by, at most, a week. Honestly, she probably should have gone earlier, considering the probability of diseases she'd never heard of that she wasn't vaccinated against in the slightest.

Perhaps she could beg for more time, but Tanya was not going to put herself at the mercy of a multi-million dollar company.

She gripped the shaft of her broom, prepared to clean out her room and figure out how to solve her problem as fast as possible. No, putting herself at the mercy of something like that felt altogether too familiar to putting herself at the mercy of that self-proclaimed god.

She'd fix her problems all by herself and come out the other end better for it, with a better job and legal proof of her right to stay in Japan.

She would.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, UNSC_Kawakaze, and Theewizzz for supporting this story and everything else I write. Make sure to vote if you haven't yet!