"We're gonna play with your favorite ball as much as you want… Y'know? Just like we used to."

Arven knelt down to his ill partner, as Mabosstiff finished the last bite of Arven's last herb-packed sandwich, and sat there watching. Hoping. Praying. For a change.

"Please… get better…" he choked. "That's all I want, really…"

Juliana watched all of this with her hands clasped tightly in front of her face. She could feel a tear sliding down her cheek.

"Agia…" Even Miraidon seemed antsy about Mabosstiff's health now, as it let out a sad, anxious-sounding cry.

Arven was very patient. He sat there with his canine friend for several long minutes, waiting for any sign of a change.

Eventually… Mabosstiff's paws began to twitch. Arven watched with bated breath as it tried to stand up on its paws again.

But then, like many times before, it flopped back down, and let out a gruff, tired "Ruff, ruff…"

Juliana gasped louder than she meant to. Arven looked over, saw how wet her eyes were, and gave her a sad, sympathetic smile. He started rubbing Mabosstiff's head.

"Mabosstiff… You did your best, bud…"

Arven turned his face away. Then, slowly, he stood up and faced away from everyone. Juliana was almost positive he was trying to keep himself from crying.

"Arven…" she sniffled. "I'm so sorry."

Arven crossed his arms. Without turning around, he replied, "It's okay Jules. You did your best too. … We both did."

Juliana sat on the rock and heard Arven sniffle a couple of times. She started sniffling as well, knowing it was only a matter of time before the waterworks started.

Miraidon crawled over to try to comfort her, stretching out its long neck up to her face and giving a gentle cry. Juliana stroke its metallic head in appreciation.

"Thanks, Miraidon. You worked really hard for this too. I know," she acknowledged. "Such a long time scouring this lake… We battled so many Tatsugiri looking for the one they said was special…"

Arven turned around slightly. "You really put in your all, huh? Just for me and Mabosstiff? That's comforting to know, at least. How long did it take you to find the actual Titan?"

"I was at this lake all day and all night doing it."

This time, Arven turned sharply all the way around, looking surprised.

"What—what do you mean all night?"

Juliana hunched in, looking a little embarrassed.

"Just… what it sounds like? I've been here since yesterday afternoon."

Arven's jaw dropped. He walked over to Juliana and put his hands on his hips, looking concerned.

"I… I didn't ask you do that."

"I know…" Juliana mumbled. "But I wanted to…"

"You should've called me. We could've knocked this whole thing out together and probably found the Titan—err, Titans I guess—in a matter of hours. Maybe not even that."

"I know," Juliana responded like she was being scolded by her mom. "I just… I didn't want you to be alone anymore, Arven."

Arven reacted in surprise.

Juliana thought back to the day before, her conversation with Penny, remembering Carmine's struggles, and how that all brought her back to Arven… and wanting to fix his situation as soon as possible.

"Nobody deserves to be alone."

Arven looked touched, and like he didn't really know how to respond to that. He looked at his Mabosstiff deeply, gave it a loving pat on the head, and went to sit on the rock next to Juliana.

"Hey… I'm not alone, y'know."

Juliana looked up with glossy eyes. "Hmm?"

Arven put his arm around her shoulder.

"I've got my little buddy with me."

Juliana couldn't help but smile. Arven smiled back too, but was startled as he felt Miraidon's pushy snout from behind him.

He huffed. "Fine. I guess I have you too," he admitted. "I haven't exactly been able to get rid of you, have I?"

Miraidon gave a response that sounded almost like a jolly laugh. Juliana stifled a giggle.

Arven turned back to her. "Everything you've done to help me this far… I appreciate it more than you could ever know. Until you came along, I—I thought all of this was hopeless. And besides, that doesn't mean I'm giving up!" he said with a determined smile. "Mabosstiff is doing better now than he was before, and that's still all because of you, Jules."

Juliana wiped her teary eyes, grinning as Arven's compliment made her feel all fuzzy.

"I'm still going to find a way to make Mabosstiff all better. There's gotta be something out there that'll help better than those Herbs. And if I do find something, and I know I'll need a little help making it work… you know I'll be calling you straight away."

Juliana sniffled happily. "And you know I'll be there."

Arven grinned back.

"Ruff!" he heard Mabosstiff bark loudly.

"Heh! We can play ball in a minute, bud." …Then his eyebrows jumped up. "Wait a minute! Was that…!?"

He and Juliana's gaze darted over.

"Ruff! … Woof!"

Mabosstiff… picked himself up fully from the ground, having noticed a Poké Ball drop from the picnic table.

Juliana gasped.

Throwing his head up, Mabosstiff walked to the Poké Ball, picked it up in his mouth, and eagerly walked over to Arven and bumped against his leg.

He was confidently walking on all four legs and his tail was wagging hard.

Arven's mouth was agape. "Bud!"

The boy started running over, but in his emotive state he dropped to his knees and crawled to his miraculously healed partner.

"Ru-ruff!" Mabosstiff barked happily at his owner and spit out the Poké Ball into his hand.

Arven's eyelids twitched as felt the tears coming on.

"I know, bud! Me too!" he exclaimed.

Juliana cupped her mouth with her hands as she started crying too. Miraidon still sat next to her, and she gave the Pokémon a gentle rub as it acknowledged her and cried softly.

Then Arven made a "c'mere" gesture with his hand.

"Huh?"

"Come on, Juliana," Arven said as he lightly sobbed. "You helped too. Come say hello to the new and improved Mabosstiff with me."

Juliana tepidly crawled to Mabosstiff on her knees. Mabosstiff leaned over to give her a curious sniff, and then gave her a happy bark.

"Ha-ha. Even though he wasn't feeling well the whole time, he's still gotten to know you quite well!"

"Awwww!"

Juliana smiled, and gave Mabosstiff a bug hug along with Arven.

And Mabosstiff barked contently, glad to have two good friends embracing it in its newfound health once more.

The only thing that broke this blissful silence was Juliana's Rotom Phone ringing.

"Gurrah?" her Miraidon sounded, seeming to sense who was probably on the other end.

Sure enough, Juliana snuck a peek at the caller ID and saw Professor Turo's name. She shrugged her shoulders and ignored it.

"You're not going to answer that?" asked Arven.

"Nah, it can wait a minute."

Wanting not to come down from this moment for a little while longer, Juliana buried her head in Mabosstiff's side and let his cozy dark fur dry away her tears.

"Grumble…"

Carmine's head was buried too. Her black-and-red locks pooled over the pages of What Smoochum Taught Me: How We Synchronize with Our Pokémon Partners.

"Carmine…" Amarys said, trying not to convey her annoyance. "I understand you're in a turbulent state currently, but this is not an ideal way to study for your exam."

The two of them sat at a desk in the back of one of Blueberry's library study rooms. As her friend's Pokémon Sociology II tutor, Amarys sat next to Carmine with her own copy of the textbook open.

"I should be allowed to take a leave of absence from classes and exams. On account of emotional damage," Carmine whined, tilting her head up just half. "My brain's like a fried egg. Too much of a gooey mess to memorize the six key tenants of building the perfect bond with your Pokémon or whatever crap." She dove back in and muttered, "Like I need help understanding what my Sinistcha is feeling…"

Amarys, understanding that today's tutoring session was likely out to the bins, calmly closed her book and studied her friend's state.

"Are you… feeling upset because Drayton and Kieran's match is today?"

Carmine's head turned up again, this time looking a little gruff.

"I was trying my hardest not to think about that, yes."

Amarys sighed. "You're not, still blaming yourself for Lacey's loss, are you?"

"…"

It made perfect sense in Carmine's head. Letting herself become a hot mess around her friend the day before a decisive Elite Four match probably lost Lacey valuable amounts of team preparation time, she figured.

Not to mention how much being woken up by Carmine's panic attack in the middle of the night probably left her tired in the pivotal match-up.

"Lacey put her full potential into that battle, and so did your brother by all appearances," Amarys tried to assure her. "Nothing about the result of that match bears any weight on you."

Carmine just sighed, and her head sunk back into the pages.

"…I've failed to read the room again, haven't I?" Amarys said quietly. "My apologies. I was only trying to make you feel better."

"Not your fault, Mar-y," Carmine shook the back of her head. "I just… want to think about literally anything else right now."

"Understood."

Amarys's eyes looked sideways for a minute, as she tried to think of another topic. She sat upright as she decided to converse with what came to her next.

"So Lacey has informed me that you might have feelings for someone."

Carmine sharply lifted her face up from the book, and it was redder than a Magmortar.

"Anything else but THAT!" she seethed loudly, which earned her a shush from the librarian on the other side of the room.

"Oh…" Amarys looked down in shame. "I've done it again."

"Amarys!"

Lacey strutted her way into the room and started scolding Amarys in a low voice.

"I told you that in confidence! You just can't blab it out like that. That's not right!" And she made an X with her arms again.

"…I thought it was one of those 'sisterhood' things you've mentioned before," Amarys admitted. "My apologies. Again."

"Listen, I don't have a crush on anybody, okay? Especially not Juliana!" Carmine firmly stated. "She's just a girl I befriended while I was back home. That's all."

Lacey and Amarys looked at each other, and Lacey decided to take the empty seat next to Carmine. She put both arms on the table as she leaned her head and talked to Carmine.

"I'm not going to argue with you about whether you're in love, because only you know what your heart wants. But… you know that if you are, that there isn't any shame in that, right? It's totally natural!" She giggled. "Although… I don't know that I've ever had that kind of dream about any of the boys I've liked before! Not even Christoph, and you know I used to have a poster of him!"

"Yeah, but you've also said you think you might be asexual, so it's probably different for you," Carmine argued. "Besides, that… dream—" She shuddered again at the thought of it. "—had nothing to do with Juliana. It's those things that poisoned my brain!"

She pointed at the large satchel filled with sapphic romance novels and yuri manga volumes from Carmine's personal trove.

Amarys, glancing at the satchel, asked, "Do you really want to bestow these romantic tomes of yours to me? You don't believe you'll ever be inclined to read any of them again?"

"Uh-uh!" Carmine crossed her hands together like Lacey, which made her giggle. "Never again! I don't ever want to have another weird dream about one of my girlfriends like that again."

"Very well." Amarys grabbed the satchel and pulled it closer to her as she gazed upon the various literature.

"Well you know… even if you don't have a crush on her, it seems to me like you still really miss this Juliana girl," Lacey reasoned.

"…"

Carmine wanted to argue, but deep down she felt she couldn't.

"Remember how you told me that it feels like a part of you never came back from Kitakami?" Lacey asked. Carmine snarled her lip. "And that you've been crying a lot?"

"I didn't say I was doing it a lot," Carmine mumbled.

"Maybe, a piece of your heart is still with Juliana. Maybe that's why you feel so incomplete. Where is she from anyway? I'm guessing you haven't been keeping in touch with her."

Carmine shook her head. "She's from the Paldea region. And… no. I've actually been kicking myself for never getting her phone number. It would've been nice to catch up and hear her voice from time to time…" She slumped her head over her arms on the desk. "It might've cheered up Ogerpon too. She really loved Juliana."

"Hmm." Lacey sighed. "I remember you said something about Ogerpon not being happy. What's been going on there, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I dunno," Carmine shrugged. "It's just… You know I haven't been battling in anything serious like the BB League. Ogerpon's got so much pent-up energy that she needs to let loose, and I think maybe she's getting frustrated because of that. These tight school walls must be such a shift from spending so long on a wide open mountain."

"What about the Terrarium?"

"Oh, she likes the Terrarium. Especially the Canyon Biome. I think it reminds Ogerpon of home, kinda like how it does for me and Kiki. But… You know I can't just hang around the Terrarium all day long. I guess I'm just… so unmotivated right now. Maybe you're right. Maybe that's the piece of me that went with Juliana…"

"Hmmm…" Lacey crossed her own arms on the desk as she contemplated. Her face lit up as she had an idea. "What about writing her a letter?"

Carmine looked at her inquisitively. "A letter?"

"Yeah! Like the ones you wrote to us while you were in Kitakami!" Lacey encouraged. "It was a great way to keep in touch! Maybe writing your friend in Paldea will help rebuild that part of you you're missing, and give you the confidence you need to be a great Trainer for Ogerpon! Don't you agree, Amarys? …Amarys?"

Amarys had taken a perusal through Carmine's bag of books and was now flipping the pages of a graphic novel entitled "Love Knows No Boundaries".

"I'm trying to understand the romantic angle of this particular fable," she mused out loud. "There are plenty of scenes here with a young woman and a Gardevoir partaking in activities together, but no sign yet of a second human lead for the protagonist to pursue. It almost gives the impression that—"

"I—I'll just hold onto that one!" Carmine snapped as she swiped that book from Amarys's hands with a reddened face.

"Oh my!" Lacey giggled.

"I should've—looked through those more thoroughly," Carmine said as she sheepishly held the comic close to her chest. "I—I think I'll give that suggestion of yours some thought, Lace."

And she rushed out of the study room in her embarrassment, making Lacey giggle more and even Amarys cracked a smile.

"Well, that worked out well," Lacey noted, just as her Rotom Phone started ringing, followed by Amarys's.

"Ahh. Impeccable timing," Amarys said, looking at her phone and then her silver pocket watch. "It's time for the match."

"Yeah. Let's go find Crispin…" Lacey said with a tone of uncertainty.

"Should we fetch Carmine as well?"

Lacey shook her head glumly. "She decided not to come…"

Carmine had agonized over whether she wanted to support her brother's match against Drayton. Ordinarily, the person she's supported her whole life versus, well… the "Drayster" as he liked to call himself, would be a no-brainer.

But… Her heart felt too torn to commit. If Kieran won, she couldn't even promise she would be happy for him because of all her grim thoughts. But if he lost, and she couldn't show her support for him upfront… it would probably damage their siblinghood forever.

So she needed something else to distract her and put her mind in a better place for whatever outcome was about to happen.

Perhaps this was the cure she was seeking.

Carmine pulled out a sheet of paper, a pencil, and a piece of Blueberry Academy stationery.

"Dear Juliana…"

She hemmed and hawed on what to write next.

Ogerpon was sitting on her bed, tossing one of Carmine's mini-pillows into the air with a blank expression. Thoughtfully, Carmine leaned on the back of her chair to face the small ogre.

"Hey Ogerpon…"

"Pon?" Ogerpon looked up at her.

"You remember Juliana, right?"

Ogerpon smiled happily. "Po-ponyo-pon!"

Carmine giggled. "If you had the chance to talk to her again, what would you want to tell her about?"

Ogerpon jumped to its legs and started miming a bunch of actions on Carmine's bed, like running in place, all the different moves she'd learned, and imitating some of the model poses Carmine had taught her.

Carmine laughed at the little show, and felt a bit more confident now.

"Thanks Ogerpon! You've given me a lot to work with."

Much more eagerly now, she started putting pencil to paper.

"Dear Juliana,

I've been thinking about you lately, and wanted to write this letter to ask how you're doing. Are you having a lot of adventures in Paldea? How's your Gym Challenge going?

I've been up to a lot of crazy stuff here at Blueberry since we last saw each other! Just wait until I tell you all the things Ogerpon can do now!

…"

Meanwhile, Juliana and Arven had just finished a friendly match outside the Professor's secret lab to test their resolve, and stood in front of the Poco Path Lighthouse as they thought over the strange mission Professor Turo had just given them inside.

"Area Zero… I haven't been down there in so many years," Arven stated.

"Ruff?" His Mabosstiff barked curiously.

"That's where Mabosstiff got hurt, y'know!" he said, shaking his fists.

Juliana giggled for some reason seeing him do that motion, which confused him.

"Uhh—sorry. I don't… know why that made me laugh."

Arven sighed resentfully.

"So what is then, Juliana? Are you planning to go down there?"

"Well…" Juliana considered it for a bit, and then hesitantly nodded. "I think… I think I owe it to the Professor for all the guidance he's been giving me along the way, and—to Miraidon as well. Besides, it—sounds like it could be a lot of fun! Right?"

Arven scoffed.

"Fun's one word for it. Incredibly dangerous is another. But…" He sighed again. "I suppose he did ask. I might have a lot of issues with my dad-namely the whole not being around stuff—but I also know how important his research is to him. And—and I can't just stand by and watch while a friend heads off into danger on her own."

So he turned around and gave Juliana a thumbs up.

"So I'll be going along too!"

Juliana's face lit up.

"Really?"

"Yeah! You may owe it to the Professor, but I owe my pal for helping me out! So who would I be if I refused to help in return?" Arven rolled up his sleeves. "Besides… I'd like to give dad a piece of my mind."

Juliana gulped. Having Professor Turo on her mind directly made her think about her guilt, and she started to look fearful.

"…Hey, Arven?"

"Yeah?"

She anxiously twiddled her thumbs. "You're not… upset with me for not telling you that I was getting calls from your dad the whole time, are you?"

Arven looked surprised. Juliana couldn't bring herself to look up at him, so he assuredly put his arms on her shoulders.

"'Course I'm not mad about that, silly! To me, he's my neglectful dad. But to you, he's one of the most esteemed Professors in the region! Why wouldn't you jump at the chance when he's calling for you?"

He let go and crossed his arms sternly.

"Besides, what do I care? No sooner was I able to finally pawn that brute off on somebody else after years and years of looking after it, that he starts checking up constantly on you instead. Same ol' dad, same ol' story if you ask me! I'm just bitter that's the first time in what must be years I've even heard his voice!"

Juliana frowned sympathetically.

But Arven shrugged. "Whatever. It's no big deal. I'll tell you this, though. Much as I hate to admit it... I do think we're gonna need some more support."

"Support?"

"Yeah. The Pokémon in Area Zero are super strong, and there are all sorts of weird machines there, too. So finding more allies would be super-helpful."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"Well, we'd definitely need someone else who's really a really strong battler and could probably hold their own against all those tough Pokémon."

Juliana thought about who she knew that was super strong. It came to her almost immediately.

"I know! We could ask Nemona to come with us!"

Arven's face twisted a bit. "The student council president? Seriously?"

"What's your problem with Nemona anyway?" Juliana's eyebrows furrowed. "She's super nice to everyone!"

"Tch. She was awfully naggy towards me when we met."

"Well yeah, because you don't attend class."

Arven cracked a smile. "Ouch! Touche, little buddy. But… you're right. I know she cares about what's best for everyone—not that I'll never let her know that… But that girl can take on any Pokémon that comes at her. She's a beast!"

"Yeah she is! And the two of us are basically on the same level now! So with our forces combined, we'd be unstoppable!" Juliana boasted.

"Did you… actually make Champion Rank, Jules?" Juliana nodded proudly. "Wow! Congrats, bud! I always knew you had it in ya! Then yeah, I would definitely feel a lot better with you two teaming up! But all that machinery… You don't happen to also know somebody super tech-savvy who can deal with all that crazy tech, do you?"

Juliana racked her brain again, and once again quickly arrived at an answer.

"Duh, yeah! Of course! Penny!"

"Penny? Why does that name sound familiar?" Arven searched his own memory banks. "Wait… that crazy-smart hacker girl who was the big boss behind Team Star? That Penny!?"

Juliana nodded. Arven was a little taken aback.

"I mean, yeah, she'd be perfect for the job... But when did you go making friends with some shady character like her!?"

"Hey, Penny's not shady!" Juliana said adamantly. "She's just misunderstood. So are all the Team Star bosses everyone calls delinquents! She's even doing work for the Pokémon League right now, y'know!"

"Wow. Alright! Okay, I concede," Arven said with his hands out. "Sounds like you know her a lot better than I do."

"Yeah. She's very shy, but… really chill once you get to know her. And she did tell me I can rely on her any time I need a favor so, guess it's time to cash that in."

"Huh! Well, seems like you've been busy making some pretty useful friends! I really did strike gold nabbing you for my little hunt!" Arven beamed, tussling Juliana's head.

"Awww, thanks, Arven."

"Alright, let's make a plan then. It's starting to get late today, and I don't know what those two's schedules look like, so we should definitely—" He looked off in the distance past Juliana. "Huh? Who's that?"

"Huh?"

Juliana turned around to see a woman running down the road from Cabo Paco, waving and calling her name.

"Juliana! Over here!"

"Is that—your mom?"

"Oh—it is!" Juliana marched towards her excitedly. "Mom! Hi!"

Juliana's mom hustled up the road from the direction of Cabo Paco, and was a little short for breath by the time she caught up to them.

"Hi, sweet pea! Isn't this funny!" Unlike Juliana, she spoke in a light Galarian accent. "I was on my way back from the post office and was just about to call you, but then I swore I heard your voice and what sounded like a battle going on!"

Juliana laughed. "What are the odds, right?"

"And who's this?"

"Oh! This is one of my best friends, Arven."

Best friend? Arven looked a little stunned to be called that, but Juliana smiled at him in return.

He went up and… awkwardly shook her mom's hand.

"Heh! That's right! Best pals, me and her! How do you do, Miss…?"

"Oh, just call me Hazel, sweetie!" she laughed.

Hazel was a beautiful woman with eyes matching her name and the same brunette hair color as her daughter. She wore hers in a ponytail with light bangs, and was dressed in a modest outfit for home, minus the yellow apron Juliana often sees her with.

Arven's Mabosstiff came up to Hazel looking for pets, and she happily obliged.

"What an adorable big boy! And you're… Arven?" She looked contemplative for a second. "…Oh! Wait! I know! You're Professors Sada and Turo's son, aren't you?"

Arven looked at her in surprise. "Y-yeah! You… you knew my mom?"

"Oh, I never met her, no," she chuckled sheepishly. "It's only because I used to read your mother's column back when the two of them were working together."

"…Oh," Arven responded, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I'm sorry if I hit a sore point," Hazel apologized.

Arven wanted to sneer, but instead he found himself chuckling at how much he recognized traits of Juliana's personality in her mom's.

"Oh no, it's okay, ma'am. It's just… rare that people know both of my parents' names, since only my dad ever got his papers published. …That's all." I didn't even know my mother had a column…

"Are you two busy having an adventure right now? Because if not, I'd love to have you over for a cuppa at some point."

"A… cuppa?"

"A cup of tea," Juliana whispered to him with a giggle.

"Well, umm! Yeah, umm—Y'know, a cuppa sounds great and all, it's just—you know, we…"

Juliana was a little surprised. She'd never seen Arven this anxious before.

He's not used to meeting people's parents, is he?

Hazel couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"You can say no if you're not interested, dear! It was just an offer!"

"Arven and I are getting ready to meet with some friends to have an adventure," Juliana explained, deciding to step in for him.

"Ooooh, how exciting! Somewhere fun?"

Somewhere illegal…

"Oh yeah, it's—gonna be a lot of fun!" Juliana put on her best smile.

"But—definitely another time, I would really love to, ma'am!" said Arven rather excitedly. "In fact yeah, any time that you'll have me, that sounds wonderful!"

Juliana couldn't help but snicker at this new side of Arven she was seeing.

"I should probably get going, though. Hey, Jules?" He turned to Juliana. "Can I trust you to search out Penny and ask her, and meanwhile I'll go find Nemona? I know all the right ways to push her buttons and get her motivated, after all."

"Sure!" Juliana nodded. "Leave Penny to me!"

"Great! And uhh… it was really nice to meet you, ma'am!"

He waved goodbye as he ran off. Mabosstiff gave a goodbye ruff too and followed his loyal Trainer.

"What a nice boy he is. It's so wonderful to see you making so many friends during the best years of your life," said Hazel.

She finally took a good look at her daughter, and her eyebrows furrowed hard in that "mother sense" Juliana liked to call it.

"Is… something wrong?" Does she know I left out details?

"Oh, just… checking up on you." She gently rubbed Juliana's face with her fingers, looking a bit concerned. "Are you handling everything okay, darling? Getting lots of sleep?"

"Of course, mom!" Juliana laughed. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. You've just got these lines on your face, and you're not standing straight… makes me worry."

"I'm fine, mom! I know how to take care of myself."

"I know you do! But… I also know that you have a tendency to keep on pushing yourself until you've achieved your goals." Hazel giggled. "You really inherited your father's bullheadedness, y'did! Used to have to all but sedate that man to get him to rest for even a second!" she remembered fondly. "Just promise me that you're remembering it's alright to stop and take a breather now and then, okay?"

"Of course I do, mom, I know that," Juliana answered, trying not to sound annoyed. "Ummm, what did you want to see me about?"

"Oh! Of course! Nearly forgot!"

Hazel reached into her handbag and pulled out a laminated envelope.

"This just came in for you at the post office!"

"Who's it from?"

"No return address, just that it was mailed Express Delivery from the Unova region."

"Unova?" Juliana repeated, trying to remember why that sounded meaningful.

"Let's see here…"

Hazel tore open the laminated envelope to find a smaller envelope inside. She recognized the seal on it.

"Oh! From Blueberry Academy!" She read the name printed on it. "Do you know a… Carmine, sweetheart?"

Juliana's eyes lit up and she jumped.

"C-Carmine!? She sent me a letter? Yeah, yeah! I know her from the Kitakami trip!" she excitedly informed her.

"Ohhhhh! Is she the one you said did that hair for you?"

"Well, no, that was her grandmother!" Juliana reminded her, feeling her ponytail still in the Kitakami-style. "But umm, but she's the one who said it looked good on me, so that's—that's why I kept it!"

Juliana's mom gave her a knowing smile for some reason, and handed the envelope to her to open.

Juliana opened up the letter and read it.

As she read on, her expression became brighter, and she smiled harder and harder. By the end of it, she was holding a hand over her heart, bearing a warm grin as her heels lifted off the ground a couple of times.

She didn't see, but her mother was grinning very hard for her too.

"Great news?"

"Not even news, it's just…" Juliana found herself speechless. "She just wrote me a letter to ask how I'm doing. Telling me all about Ogerpon—The Pokémon I told you we met with the masks! And some funny things her friends did…"

She grasped Carmine's letter with both hands, like it was something she wanted to frame and treasure for herself.

"I'm just… I'm so touched that she's still thinking about me," she told her mother. "And it sounds like things are going really well for her if she's so excited about all these things! I'm so happy for her. Thanks, mom. This—this really made my day."

"I'm so glad, honey!" Hazel said graciously. "You know—if this Carmine friend of yours ever comes to visit, she's welcome at our house any time," she said with a smile and a wink, which perplexed her daughter. "Maybe when you have a moment, and I do hope you're going to have a moment soon, you should write her back. Let her know that you're thinking about her too, because…" she giggled a little. "It's pretty clear you are."

Juliana huffed a little. "I'm not in love with her or anything, mom. She's just a friend."

"Of course, honey. Of course."

Her mom still smiled at her in a way that annoyed her for some reason. But she thought about the letter. Thought about Carmine writing it. And tried to imagine what Carmine's face probably looked like while she was composing it.

She imagined Carmine's black-and-red locks, swaying back and forth. The eager smile she wore on her face whenever she was doing something that made her excited like the Ogre Oustin' game or getting back Ogerpon's masks.

Her yellow eyes, which became striking every time she had her little angry bouts that… somehow made her look really adorable and always made Juliana want to giggle.

Did she throw a fit at least once while writing this letter? Juliana noticed a few thick eraser scrubs prevalent on the paper and concluded that must have happened at least once.

Remembering all these things about her faraway friend did make Juliana smile fondly.

Imagine if… imagine if I sent her a letter and she felt the same way.

Her mom was already walking home, apparently having left Juliana to process her thoughts herself. She decided to run up alongside her.

"Hey, mom, wait up! Actually… do we have any envelopes and paper at home?"

It was a weird feeling sitting at her own desk again, in her own bedroom. Juliana forgot how brightly the sun often shone through the window, the way it seemed to cast an almost heavenly light over her desk.

She had paper out in front of her, where she had already written "Dear Carmine," and an introductory line thanking her for her letter.

She thought about what she wanted to write back.

Carmine's intent with writing seemed to be to try to share some of her experiences at Blueberry Academy with her overseas pen pal. So Juliana figured the logical choice was to do the same thing back and tell Carmine about her adventures in Paldea.

So she wrote to Carmine about the things she'd accomplished, all the adventures she went on. She described her friends Arven, Nemona, and Penny and what they were all like.

Then, for whatever reason, she felt the most excited telling Carmine about the mission she and her friends were about to go on for Professor Turo, down in the depths of the Great Crater of Paldea.

"Imagine if you were here and we went to Area Zero together, Carmine. You're a really strong Trainer and you seemed to really know your way around technology! You'd fit in just fine with our expedition. I don't know what's down there, but I'm really, really excited to find out!"

…

"How's Kieran doing, by the way?"

"You didn't talk about him in your letter. Is he feeling better since everything that happened?"

Carmine stood in the center of the student lounge with the big screen television, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. This reaction echoed in the reactions of the students all around her.

"No way…"

She felt like her own exterior was shattering up around her as she watched the Terastal crystals around Archaludon burst out, and the metal dragon Pokémon took a huge fall.

All seven heads of Kieran's powerful serpent Pokémon raised up and roared in cheer.

"I did it…" Kieran could be heard mouthing on the video feed in as much surprise as everyone else.

…

"He did it."