In which we have a Captain Obvious Reveal.

Juliana had challenged Eri in the morning. This left a long time before dark, meaning that she had a whole day to waste.

She decided to spend it sketching the wild Pokémon around Ortega's former base. It was a beautiful area with adorable creatures, and she'd wanted to do this from the first moment she arrived.

She did stop at the school first, though. Gathering all her Pokémon in the currently empty schoolyard, she asked them a very important question.

"Who wants to come with me to face the Elite Four and Champion?"

To everyone's surprise, Zweilous was the first to agree, both heads cheering in agreement as she hopped in place. Webby was second, to no one's surprise, and Talonflame and Tinkaton followed.

The last two spots were fought over, but Farigiraf and Lurantis managed to get to their trainer first. With her team selected, Juliana gave the rest of them sandwiches and took a taxi back to Ortega's base.

There was a mass outbreak of Chansey, but that was all the better.

"We are on fire!" Juliana cheered as Zweilous took out the fifth one. She hadn't used the others yet, as one Body Slam attack worked on most of them, and if the Chansey was still standing after that, a Crunch finished the job. She turned to Zweilous. "We'll be able to sketch more than Chansey soon enough! Let's keep going, Zwei..."

And then she finally processed the evolution taking place.

"Hydreigon," she corrected herself when it finished.

Hydreigon laughed. "This is so cool! Let's keep going, Juliana!"

For some reason, a bunch of the Chansey ran away from them. This suited Juliana just fine, as she curled up with both her dragons and proceeded to sketch the Sunflora wandering around the real flowers.

She met with Florian at the stairs to the school. Without the need for conversation, they walked up together, collapsing in front of the door.

When Clive walked out of the doors and saw two students collapsed and panting for breath, he almost reconsidered.

"Hey, Clive," the two said together, pushing themselves up.

"This is what happens when you rely on ride Pokémon to get you where you need to go," he told them. "You lose the ability to climb stairs."

Florian facepalmed. "That's right!"

"See?" said Clive. "It's simply a matter of thinking things through..."

"We should've ridden Koraidon up here!"

"We should've!" Juliana joined her friend in the facepalm. "Sorry!"

"This is not what I..." Clive shook his head in shame. "Never mind. I'm here to see you two."

"So why are you blocking the doors?" Juliana asked. "Cassiopeia said to meet in the schoolyard, remember?"

"I grew bored with waiting for you there." Clive took a step back. "We need to get a few things out in the open, before we continue. May I?"

Without waiting for their permission, he whipped off his clothes. Juliana screamed and covered her eyes. Florian took a step back and nearly fell back down the stairs.

"Not cool, Clavell!" he said, even as he processed that the director did have his regular pants on underneath.

Clavell paused as he swapped his glasses from Clive's. "How did you know?"

"It wasn't hard to guess. Even Juliana noticed."

Juliana nodded, not removing her hands from her eyes. Florian gently pulled them down.

She blinked slowly, eyes readjusting to the light. "How did you hide your longer pants under shorts, though?" she asked, and Clavell shook his head.

"There will be time for questions after our battle. For I am not only Clive, I am Cassiopeia!"

That one caught her off guard. "For real?"

"The voice was disguised with one of those...you know...high-tech gizmos," he said. "By placing it somewhere between masculine and feminine, I was able to hide my true identity even more flawlessly than I did as Clive."

"Thats the truth," Juliana muttered.

Florian didn't believe it, but he figured it would be better to just let them battle it out. "You can do it, Juliana," he said instead.

She hoped so.

Clavell released his first Pokémon, an Oranguru. Juliana was quick to send out Hydreigon.

"Take it out quick! Use Crunch!"

"Open with Yawn!" Clavell ordered.

All three mouths chomped down on Oranguru, but that just meant that Hydreigon was too close to avoid the Yawn. Juliana quickly swapped her for Talonflame, who took a Foul Play before finishing the match with Acrobatics.

"A Fire-type, eh?" Clavell selected his next teammate carefully. "Then I'll use my Gyarados!"

"A Gyarados? Then I'll take advantage of the free swap!" She called Talonflame back. "Let's go, Tinkaton! Gigaton Hammer!"

"Gyarados, use Earthquake!'

Juliana yelped as Tinkaton took super-effective damage, dealing weakened damage with her own attack. "Bad idea," she said, but shook it off. "Use Draining Kiss to get some health back!"

"Another Earthquake, Gyarados!"

Tinkaton lost her grip on her hammer, and was panting by the time she took it back. But she wasn't down yet, and neither was Juliana. "Use Play Rough!"

This time, Tinkaton scored a critical hit, taking down Gyarados. Juliana called her back and brought in Webby to face the Houndoom. When Aqua Step took Houndoom down in one hit, Clavell sent in Abomasnow, but Webby quickly took care of that with Low Sweep. Then, switching for Hydreigon to deal with the Polteageist, Juliana's team got their third one-hit KO in a row.

"Maybe Paldea should reconsider letting both trainers switch whenever a Pokémon is defeated," Juliana said, but Clavell merely smiled.

"You're doing a great job, Miss Juliana," he told her. "However, I have one Pokémon left."

He tossed his last Pokeball. Hydreigon looked back at Juliana, who nodded. They could take on whatever it was.

The Meowscarada didn't look different than Lloyd. Juliana watched in horror as Clavell Terastallized his Meowscarada and called the first attack.

"It may not be a Grass-type move, but I don't need the Tera boost to win this! Meowscarada, use Play Rough!"

"Use Dragon Pulse!"

Was that a squeak in her voice? If it was, Hydreigon ignored it and faced the super-effective move head on, launching her own attack. Somehow, Hydreigon was still standing, but Juliana had come up with a new plan.

She called Hydreigon back as Clavell ordered another Play Rough. Lurantis took the hit, and then Juliana put her plan into action.

She pulled out her own Tera Orb. As the balloons appeared above Lurantis's head, she called for her own attack.

"Lurantis! Use Tera Blast!"

With that, her victory was sealed.

"You've grown quite a bit on your Treasure Hunt, Miss Juliana," Clavell said, and Juliana smiled at the compliment. "And I must confess something else. I am not actually Cassiopeia."

"No kidding."

Clive ignored her. "Cassiopeia...their sorrows should not be yours to bear. But they have settled on a course of action, and are determined to see it through. You do have the potential, after all."

"Thanks, Director."

Juliana took a step forward, but Clavell seemed to process something. "Where is Master Florian?"

"Um..." Juliana laughed nervously. "He kind of went inside during our battle."

"Alone?"

"He's gotten stronger, too," Juliana pointed out, but her explanation died at the loud female voice coming from behind the director.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tyme shouted, storming up to her boss with fury in her eyes.

Clavell faked innocence. It went about as well as faking Clive had. "Ms. Tyme! What a pleasure to see you!"

"Cut the crap, Clavell! I come here to investigate reports of an illicit battle on school grounds, and what do I find? The director of the Academy himself! Facing off against one of our students, no less!"

"Well, you see...it's a rather sad tale..."

As Clavell attempted to explain, and Tyme shot down all of his attempts, Juliana took Florian's lead and slipped past them.

She might not have been as naturally invisible as her friend, but Tyme was too angry to notice.