Aika, Dylan, and Shawn were together in one of the houses of Prenarch, itching a home cooked meal of stew. For Aika, it was the best thing she had eaten in awhile. For Dylan, it was the only warm meal he had had in that world yet.

"Thank you for this," Dylan said.

"It was made by Noah," the spinarak said. "He's a nice fellow and regularly makes food for the townsfolk. Good that he was able to make portions for you two as well."

"How many people still live in this town?" Aika asked.

"About a hundred," Shawn answered. "Most were tending to the fields by the time you arrived."

"I'm surprised there are so many people still living here after what happened," Aika said. "You seem like a stubborn lot for still living here."

"It's loyalty," Shawn corrected. "If we leave, then it'll just become ruins and the weather will undo every last thing done by those who were killed. We have a duty to keep their things intact.

Besides, If we left, then you wouldn't have been able to meet me, and I wouldn't have been able to tell you the truth. You pro'ly still would be believing whatever lies the P.P.F.F. was spouting."

"That… might be true," Aika confessed.

"I'm sorry again," Dylan said.

"It wasn't your fault," Shawn reassured.

"I know but… going here was more heavy than I realized," Dylan said. "I didn't think I'd get affected so much."

"Was it easier to think about the massacre when you thought of it as just a number instead of people?" Shawn asked.

"Well… yeah," Dylan said, realizing that was a perfect description of his emotions.

"I never got the luxury of seeing the Burning of Prenarch that way," Shawn said. "During that night, I was hiding in a basement and watching the carnage from a small window. I saw death right in front of me, and I was too small n' young to make a single difference. I couldn't forget about that even if I wanted to.

I do what I can to make sure that never happens again. Ever since then, I've been trying my best to train myself for if they ever return… practicing movies, working out different strategies, and playing it all in my head over and over again to figure out if I could've done anythin' differently."

"I'm terribly sorry for what happened. You didn't deserve any of that," Aika said.

"I was one of the lucky ones that day. And I can't let that go to waste," Shawn said. "So that's what I'm trying to do: avenge those who died. So now I'm wonderin', what are you two trying to get done?"

"For me? Well to be honest, I'm just trying to stay alive for now," Dylan admitted. "I'd like to get back to my own world, but Aika's told me about Armin and the terrible stuff he did. I don't want to repeat his mistakes."

"You can forget about Armin," Shawn said, his voice getting sharp. "The P.P.F.F. killed more pokemon in one night than he did in his entire life. They're the monsters here, and Armin's just become the excuse they use."

"I don't want to become the monster they want me to be," Dylan said.

The spinarak turned to Aika. "How about you?"

That wasn't an easy question for Aika to answer. Her journey had begun with such determination and a clear goal in mind. But on the journey, her view of the world had been rocked by Dylan, Yuki, learning about the P.P.F.F., and by seeing the site of the carnage with her own eyes. Once again, the thought of returning to her hometown crossed her mind. But eventually, she spoke. "...I still want to see my biological father," Aika admitted.

"Really?" Dylan questioned. "You still want to meet the 'human slayer?' Even after learning about all of this?"

"That's all I want," Aika defended herself. "I just don't want to go my entire life without ever having the chance to meet him."

"I say it's worth a shot," Shawn said.

Eyes turned to the spinarak.

"People's minds are swayed by family much more easily than completely random strangers. If Aika can talk to Hunter, then that will be a double advantage to us- getting Hunter off of the P.P.F.F.'s side (if we assume he's still working with them) and getting Hunter onto our side. The reputation alone would be a hit to the foundation, but his skills would make it all the better," Shawn argued.

"You're saying that like he's a weapon," Aika said.

"Sorry then. But I think you do have a good idea here. If there's anyone in this world who could redeem him, then it would be you," he said.

"Thanks," Aika said."I'm still not exactly know where Hunter is, though."

"I've effectively been in this town for my entire life, we're in no real rush to leave it," Shawn said. "Let's take our time to plan things out and train."

"Makes sense," Aika said.

"I suppose it's out of the question for me to just spend the rest of my life here?" Dylan asked.

"There's some here who won't be comfortable with you here after what happened the last time some humans were in our town. Not because of what you are, but who might come after you."

"I… understand," Dylan lowered his head.

"How long can we stay in this town, then?" AIka asked.

"One or two weeks I'd say, I think people might start getting antsy at that point," the spinarak said.

"That should be plenty of time," Aika said.

"Right. But first off I need to ask, what's with the black fur on your body?"

"It's a type awakening," Aika answered.

"I have no idea what that is," Shawn said.

"Oh right, it's not too well known about," Aika said.

For the next few minutes, Aika recounted her journey between Tinkatown and when she first heard about the Burning of Prenarch. She detailed her interaction with the ninetales Yuki to the best of her recollection, and explained the process as much as she knew. Shawn's face indicated he found the tale to be strange, but he kept his mind open.

Shawn waited until she concluded to start speaking again. "I wasn't aware such a thing existed. Must say, I'm interested."

"I didn't' know about it either before meeting Yuki," Aika responded.

"So are you able to use dark type moves now?" Shawn asked.

"I should be able to, but I haven't gotten a chance to try it," Aika admitted.

The spinarak turned to Dylan. "What moves do you know?"

"I don't know any," Dylan said.

"That's not possible. You have to know at least somethin'."

"Well I've never tried."

"Now would be a good time then. Come, I know a good spot we can practice."

They met again in a small field, located between the main town and a farm. A few wooden posts still stood in the ground as part of some fence that fell long ago.

Shawn created a line of silk to strung between two of the wooden posts, and then created a second line of silk to double back around and put alongside the first line to strengthen it. He repeated this full process between two other posts. One line was in front of Aika, the other was in front of Dylan.

"I want to see you snap this string," Shawn said to Aika as he stood beside the first line.

"Is that all I need to do?" Aika asked.

"I can promise it's stronger than you think."

The minccino approached the line and plucked at it with her paw. As Shawn had said, the line felt very strong and tense. It produced a sound similar to an out of tune guitar when she plucked at it.

"Be careful about striking it. If you don't snap it, it'll sting like a paper cut 'cept a whole lot worse," Shawn warned.

"I think I could cut this with a tail strike if I gained some height," Aika said.

"Perhaps. But I wanna see you try a dark move for this."

"I don't know how to use one of those."

"Just start with visualizing, and feel out where to go from there."

The minccino looked back at the string, and then closed her eyes. She took Shawn's advice to try and visualize things within her mind.

At first she envisioned a zoroark- what she imagined Hunter looking like. She visualized a dark aura around him. But then, she thought about her own body. She remembered every spot of her body that had been turned black after her interactions with Yuki and focused on each of them; concentrating until the rest of her body became a hazy blur within her mind. Aika imagined those black spots spreading to encroach over the rest of her body and up her arms. As she did so, she felt a tingling sensation begin in her paws.

Out of her mind, Aika lifted her paws up high and lifted one leg too. In a swift motion, she brought her paw down as fast as she could.

By one millimeter, her paw fell short of hitting the string. Even still, the string was severed in half.

Aika opened her eyes again to see what she had done, being able to catch a sight of the severed strings turning limp and slowly descending. She looked at her paws, and saw a faint black aura on them that was fading.

"Interestin'," Shawn the spinarak said. "Alright, Dylan. You're up. I wanna see you burn that string I set for you."

"I don't know how to do that," Dylan said.

"C'mon, we just went through this song and dance with Aika. I'm sure you can figure it out too."

Dylan looked at the string. First he considered trying to cough on it, but he dismissed that idea out of worry it would look stupid to Aika and Shawn. Like Aika had done, Dylan closed his eyes and began trying to visualize. He thought about campfires, he thought about entire infernos, and he imagined them inside of him. In his mind, he continued to imagine it blazing and roaring with great heat, until he felt a searing warmth climbing up his throat. He realized it wasn't merely within his mind.

Dylan spat out flames from his mouth at the silk. The string quickly caught on fire and burned away, making it snap. Dylan took a step back with wide eyes, amazed that he succeeded in the task and even more amazed that he had just spewed flames from his mouth.

"Good job on your first step," Shawn said.

"I'm honestly surprised I did that," Dylan said.

"Well, you shouldn't be," Shawn said. "It's a good start for both of you. But we'll be fighting things a whole lot harder than strings tied between pieces of wood. So we'll have to keep training from here."

Aika nodded her head, but Dylan felt uncomfortable. "I can… but I don't want to be killing anyone."

Shawn looked annoyed at that response. "You don't always have a choice," he retorted.

"I am NOT going to be killing anyone," Dylan said.

"You don't have to," Aika said. "You can just be inflicting non-lethal attacks. But you really should be learning to defend yourself if worse comes to be."

The human turned litten looked down. "I don't know if that will be easy if fire is the only thing I can use…"

"Pokemon are tough creatures, I'm sure it will be fine," Aika reassured. "But this world clearly isn't kind to humans like you, and I might not be able to defend you myself. This isn't a want, it's a need."

Dylan let those words sink in. "...Alright, understand," he said.

Shawn looked annoyed at them. "For as long as the foundation claims their acts of violence are justified, then acts of violence against the foundation will be justified," he muttered quietly.

Aika and Dylan stayed in Prenarch with Shawn for several days longer. They got to meet some of the other residents of the town and see the different buildings.

There were some who were moving on from the events of the massacre, others who were trying to move on the best they could, and others who weren't trying to move on. The family members of those who died still remained. There was a hole in their lives, and that hole could be felt when spending time with them.

The longer they spent there, the more they could notice the buildings. Buildings they once saw as undamaged they began to see signs of damage and repair on. The town might not have been razed, but it was scarred. The somber atmosphere made the blue sky feel fake.

They continued training practices with Shawn. Dylan practiced by lighting objects on fire which were placed away from other flammable materials to keep it controlled, and Aika practiced with channeling dark type moves. Shawn got gradually more aggressive with his training demands, constantly making greater and greater requests with them.

Dylan was still reluctant to light anything on fire. Between every exercise, he checked twice to ensure no runaway fire could be started, and even still did those practices scarcely. Although in his case, he needed plenty of practice for just moving in a quadruped body, so he did plenty of movement exercises on his own accord.

Shawn focused much more on Aika, and was much more insistent on the need to get stronger for her.

"Hold this here small apple, and do everything you can to keep me from damaging it," was a command he gave Aika on her third day at the town. She only took it half seriously and tried to hold it away from him, but became surprised by how quickly Shawn could move his body and snap the apple with his horn. They repeated the exercise once or twice every day as Aika trained more. Aika kept trying out different strategies of guarding it with her body, pushing Shawn away with her paw, or tossing the apple in the air. While she was able to keep the apple protected for longer each time, Shawn was able to damage it each and every time. Aika started running off with it, but Shawn knew how to navigate the area better and could preserve his energy better, so even still he could keep catching up with her. Eventually, Shawn started predicting Aika's movements and placing trip wires of his silk for her to get caught in.

Aika was starting to get frustrated by the repeated failures, and that frustration led to the point where she began doing worse on every subsequent attempt. Going against Shawn felt like she was fighting a marionette, while Shawn didn't have a dexterous body he had perfect control over every last movement he made, down to the muscle. He never applied too much force into a movement, he could seemingly instantaneously bring his motions to a halt and try for another, and he was scarily precise with each one. All so he could land a clean hit against the apple with his horn or legs whilst leaving Aika's body unscathed.

Aika felt like the type awakening she got should've given her immediate power, she felt she deserved victory, yet she was only met with defeat. To that, Shawn reminded her that he had been training himself for years- ever since the Burning of Prenarch happened.

Aika kept training, and she kept trying Shawn's challenge. Every attempt she was a little bit faster, had a little bit more stamina, more control over her body, and more planning. Shawn was more relentless than he seemed, so she was relentless in return. It took over a week, but she finally had an attempt where she was outmaneuvering the spinarak and kept the apple away from him for a long time- to the point where she started seeing signs he was tired. She kept going- to the point where she started seeing signs he was exhausted. Once she saw that- she still kept going to make sure he wasn't feigning exhaustion to make her lower her guard. They lost track of time, but there eventually came the time when Shawn's muscles were aching and his eyes were unfocused, unable to keep up with the swift minccino. As she saw Shawn's condition and ensured it wasn't a ruse, Aika finally took a bite out of the apple she was protecting as a smile formed on her face.

Aika and Dylan were getting acquainted with the town. Dylan was getting used to his quadruped body and having a tail while Aika was getting better at using her dark type moves. But they knew they couldn't remain there forever.

Shawn showed them what supplies he had to give them. Coins he had been saving for most of his life, durable bags, and locally grown foods that were dried. It wasn't much, but it was meaningful. Aika and Dylan emptied their bags to pool what they had and discuss what was worth bringing along. Shawn left the room as they discussed. A few minutes later, Shawn returned to them.

"Aika, there's somethin' I want to show you," he said as carried an object wrapped in a burlap cloth.

"What is it?" Aika asked.

"Take a gander."

Shawn set the object down and took the cloth off. It shined in the light, taking another short second before it could be properly discerned. It was a partly transparent greenish-yellow stone with a vague yellow core.

"Is this?-"

"It's a shiny stone," Shawn said. "It's been lying around this town for years now, nobody really having a use for it. But you could sure make use of it.

If that type awakening didn't give you the power you were hopin' for, then this sure could give that."

Aika continued looking at the stone, the room fell quiet. Aika needed time to think, Shawn waited for a response, and Dylan did not interrupt.

"...I'm sorry, but this is too soon," Aika said. "I do want to become a cinccino one day, but that's a big deal. I'd want at least some of my family to be there for it."

Shawn nodded. "Fair enough," he took the stone back. "But I'll keep this with me just in case."

"I appreciate the offer but… it's too soon," Aika said.

"I get you," Shawn said as he collected the stone again.

As Shawn opened his bag to set the stone in it, Aika got a glance inside of the bag. She saw something in it that seemed odd: a book for young children that had a colorful cover and thick cardboard pages. Shawn closed the bag before Aika could get a clear look at the label.

"...Speaking of which, I think I'd like to walk around this town one more time before we depart," Shawn said.

"Go ahead," Aika said. "Take all the time you need."

"Thanks a lot."

Shawn went through the town as Aika and Dylan trailed behind. He would occasionally stop to silently gaze at different buildings and reflect. The buildings were farm houses, storage places, community centers, small stores, and nondescript structures. They seemed unremarkable to Aika and Dylan, but they could tell that they were meaningful for the spinarak.

For each of the stops, Shawn only took a few seconds to gaze at it before he began walking again to get to the next part. But once he reached a large rock, it felt like the whole world stopped. Shawn seemed frozen as he stared at the boulder, his mind being sent back in time.

Aika gave Ahawn a minute to reflect. She spoke up once things began feeling awkward. "...did something happen here?" she asked.

"There was a carracosta named Joshua, and he used to read stories to children right here," Shawn began explaining, his gaze not breaking away from the boulder. "I went to him almost every night to hear him. There were more kids than just me, but I was the one who went to him the most. He might've been the nicest person in this town, and that is saying something."

"You looked up to him?" Dylan asked.

"I never met my biological father, and I looked up to Joshua like he was a father. No matter if I was having a good day or a bad day, I could find him there. But that… didn't last forever."

Both Aika and Dylan had a feeling they knew where the story was going, they let Shawn continue speaking.

"When the Burning of Prenarch was happening, I was hiding in a basement, but there was a small window I was looking outside of. Through that, I got to watch as Joshua spent his last moments doing his everything he could to fight back against them. He didn't run, and he kept fighting even when he was hurt. He ended up fighting three different pokemon at the same time, before it was a serperior who killed him… And I couldn't do a single thing."

"I am so sorry," Dylan said. "Joshua did not deserve that, you didn't either."

"Thank you," Shawn said, not breaking line of sight with the large rock. "In his last fight, Joshua didn't manage to kill any of the foundation members… but he did make them bleed. I saw it with my own eyes. And above all else, I want to be like him."

Shawn continued to silently gaze at the stone for a minute longer, Aika and Dylan standing behind. Eventually, Shawn nodded his head and turned back to then. "Alright. Sorry for keepin' you waiting. Let's be goin' now."

After days of training, deliberation, and repeatedly double-checking their supplies, the three finally departed from the town of Prenarch. What was left of Prenarch, at least.

Aika couldn't shake a sense of deja vu as she walked. It reminded her of how she originally departed from her home town on a journey to find Hunter alone. But this time around, she traveled alongside Shawn the spinarak and Dylan the human-turned-litten.

After they got a short distance away from the town, a question crossed Aika's mind. "Shawn, can I ask you something?" she said.

"What would that be?" Shawn asked.

"Why have you taken such an interest in us?" she asked. "I mean, you've lived your whole life in this town. But now that we came along, now is when you've started giving us training and are finally departing. So why us?"

Shawn nodded his head. "Another human, and someone who has a connection with Hunter and ambition. I would be insane if I tried asking for any better people to come," he said. "Ever since the day they attacked, I have had one dream. One dream that I've thought about with every single last day that past, and only became more defined as time went on. A dream that's pushed me to do constant training and studying to improve myself, but always felt like it stayed out of reach.

But with you two. You give me the biggest hope that I will be able to finally fulfill that dream of mine."

"And what would that dream be?" Dylan asked.

Shawn looked at them both directly. "I want to kill Sesha Gabrielson."

End of chapter 20.