Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was as humid of a day as it could ever be in the coastal biome as Kieran fumbled endlessly with the device in his hands, not able to get it running. He should have expected this, it was a rickety prototype after all, or at least according to that lady in the central plaza. A Synchro Machine, she had called it. The initial test had been a wonderful experience that made him much closer to his Pokémon (literally) and much easier to train them, but so far it had not worked again outside of that instance once it was handed over to him. He was never the best with intricate technology such as this, groaning frustratedly as it threw another error code that he couldn’t understand up on the screen.

“Sorry, Furret. I’m not havin’ any luck with this thing."

Kieran stumbled with the buttons a few more times as he said this, noticing a small spark erupting from underneath the left shoulder button. He must have thoroughly broken it now. Maybe paying another visit to that lady wouldn’t be such a bad idea as he couldn’t make heads or tails of what was causing it to malfunction. His partner looked at him with a slightly sullen expression, having been the one it was used on the first time and enjoying the experience. It was bummed out, for sure, as he could tell the disappointment was palpable from both of them.

Giving up, Kieran placed the device into his bag with the plan to forget about it until later. Training would just have to be done the old-fashioned way, he supposed, if he wanted to eventually shed his title as ex-champion. That whole experience still weighed heavy on his mind, the ways in which he had so terribly treated his best friend. They made amends after their trek down to Area Zero in Paldea, sure, but it was one of those things that he just looks back to and cringes at. Vowing to make his comeback much more of a playful rivalry in order to defeat Julianna, the girl had smiled in a way that made his heart flutter with joy.

Commanding his Furret effortlessly as it attacked a group of Exeggutor, their long necks writing at the brutal attacks, he could see the Pokémon’s strength steadily increasing. After a long while, the artificial sun of the terrarium dipped lower and lower into the sky, the shadows stretching to engulf the ground in its abyss. Training would conclude for the night, with Kieran electing to set up camp instead of heading back to his dorm room to continue bright and early in the morning.

As he opened up the tent, however, he could feel a strange vibration from within his bag, like the Synchro Machine was lurching to escape through any means necessary. As he retrieved it, he could feel the heat radiating from it, like it was on the verge of exploding with how bloated the rear panel was and overheating. He began to panic, startling his partner Pokémon from its comfortable spot on the picnic blanket when he unceremoniously threw it to the ground between the two of them.

This action would set off a terrible storm.

Electricity rumbled through the ground, surging quickly enough towards the trainer and his Pokémon that neither had time to react properly. It started in their feet, then crawled up their legs, torso, and neck, culminating in a whirlwind of confusion as it rattled their brains and stunned any movement or thought. In one moment the world had made sense, then in the next it switched off into darkness as fast as the light could travel.
His existence was plagued into silence.

—

The pain in his head was the first thing that he could focus on as his awareness came to on the beach. Or, at least he assumed it was the beach based on the sounds of the waves crashing on the shoreline and the smell of salt water clearing his senses. He hadn’t actually decided to open his eyes yet, letting the warm sand envelop his fur.

Wait.

Fur?

His eyes swung open wildly, trying to get his bearings as he moved unsteadily in this new form. When he tried to look at his hands, all that greeted him were a fluffy pair of paws with tan hair. This wasn’t right and he knew that, causing the fear to rise in him even further. He was supposed to be a human, right?
…He was having some trouble recalling any specific memory that would lead him to the answer. In fact, he couldn’t recall any memories. All he knew was that, deep down, this wasn’t who he was supposed to be. No name, no recollection, no idea of any friends or even family.

Who was he?

Slowly getting acclimated, he was able to successfully crawl around on all fours, the stance extremely foreign to him. It was doable, though, and he glanced cautiously at the wild Pokémon around him. Was he in danger here? Should he try to find humans? Somehow, he could tell that he was more-than-averagely strong, so that first question worried him progressively less. He could hear the joyful cheers of people, too, so at least he wouldn’t have to hobble too far as he still figured out how quadrupedal walking worked.

So he trekked on, shaking the sand fully from his fur as he started to become uncomfortable with how it rubbed against the skin underneath. One set of feet at a time, he moved closer and closer to where the sound was coming from. He hoped that it was just one person instead of a whole group, but he might take anything at this point. There was also this delicious smell, and he couldn’t ignore how his stomach growled, considering that he most likely hadn’t eaten for a bit.

Over a small hill, he spotted a female trainer and her Pokémon gathered around a small fire and a beautiful picnic setup. He was a little confused why there would be a fire in such a humid place as this, until he saw her place a pot over it to toast the undersides of some bread. His mouth watered, motivating him to push through this awkward walking to reach her. He felt drawn to her somehow, though he couldn’t recall the reason. Finally, within her sight, he could see her eyebrows raise in curiosity.

“Hm? The terrarium isn’t supposed to have any Furrets.”

She moved closer to him and squatted down to his level as he wasn’t sure of his ability to stand on his hind legs just yet. Her eyes were captivating, he had never seen so many different colors being expressed in brown before. They were like dark honey with a pound of glitter dumped into them, and sparkled with such deep kindness that it made him shiver.

“Did you lose your trainer? I could help you look for them.”

All he could do was shake his head. He didn’t have a trainer, he thinks. He was supposed to be a person. Humans don’t have trainers. Maybe he was just reassuring himself with that train of thought, but he felt a tinge of embarrassment as the girl’s eyebrows furrowed into a look of confusion.

“No? You don’t have a trainer? Well, how did you get here, then? It’s not like you could have hopped on a plane yourself.”

That slight snappiness to her tone startled him, and he started to back away slowly. She threw out her hands and shook them rapidly as an apology.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just confused as to how…”

Her statement trailed off as she looked deep in thought for a moment. He tried to look anywhere else but those compelling eyes, but his gaze kept shifting back. As she formed her thoughts, he could see her come to a conclusion by her face dropping to a concerned frown.

“Were you… left behind?”

He decided to nod. That was as good of a story as he could get, he thought. Maybe it would make her stop asking. Well, that was rude, but he really wasn’t sure how else to express that he just couldn’t remember. He could see a solitary tear form in the corner of her eye with her head hanging low, and he almost regretted agreeing to her question. As an attempt to comfort her, he shuffled a bit closer and placed one of his paws on her knee. She startled, at first, and he drew his paw back cautiously. But that smile of hers returned, and he felt safe putting it back.

“Would you like to come with me?”

The question seemingly came out of nowhere, but those eyes of hers were making him consider it closely. In all likelihood, it would be statistically impossible for this girl to know who he was, right? He wasn’t quite sure where they were located, but he could deduce some kind of school based on the uniforms that everyone was wearing. He was sure that the two of them would probably run in different circles anyways, assuming that he was a student, and not someone just passing through. How old was he? He wasn’t sure.

Oh, he was thinking for too long. She kept staring at him expectantly, the awkwardness and anxiety rising with every passing second. He nodded, not knowing what else to do. It was his best shot so far to figuring out who he was, and he wasn’t going to pass this by. He could feel her happiness emanating from his answer, reaching into her bag and pulling out a Pokéball decorated with luxurious colors of gold and white surrounding a black base. He was nervous, actually. What would the inside of a Pokéball even feel like? Would he be squished? Have plenty of space? His thoughts couldn’t race for much longer though, as she touched the ball to the top of his head.

All at once, it was like being spaghettified through a black hole, yet not as painful as he assumed. His biometrics were implemented into a single line of code, nothing more than ones and zeros as he was converted for the first time. He couldn’t see anything at first, but slowly the world formed back around him. What he saw was a comfortable-looking luxury apartment, outfitted with furniture and entertainment that would be appropriate for a Pokémon of his species. Was this a simulation, running based on his inferred likes as he still existed in the current moment as a compilation of data? The interesting part was that he could still hear outside, the girl’s sugary sweet voice seeping in through the walls.

“Just a second, okay, Furret? You stay while I go ask some questions.”

He sighed, relaxing on the extra-long couch made with Furret height in mind. Maybe this is just his life now.

Chapter Text

The League Club room had a much calmer atmosphere to it than it did in the past. With Kieran’s previous tyrannical reign now long forgotten, and with Juliana as the leader, things took a turn for the better. She hates thinking about it in that way, as she never wants to think about her friend in such a negative light, but she couldn’t deny that there was some truth in the statement. They now had a much more amicable relationship with the other clubs due to her generous donations, and even gained brand new decor for the club room. When planning it out initially, she and the head of the art club had decided on a more Unovan theme, modeling its look after some notable cities in the region, the monochrome looking quite sophisticated in her opinion. The rest of the league had agreed, too, seeing it as a welcome change to the status quo with the turn of power.

Juliana glanced down at the luxury ball in her hand before tucking it safely into her bag and pushing the doors open. It was already past time for classes to be dismissed, so she didn’t want anyone asking her about the new addition yet as she first walked in. Just as she suspected, the vast majority were already there, which would make it much easier for her to call a meeting. The only one missing that she could tell was Crispin, but he shouldn’t be too difficult to get a hold of. Drayton was face-down on his arms and taking a nap where he sat at the table, probably stuffed from all of the half-eaten boxes of snacks that littered the top. She’d talk to him again about housekeeping rules, but she suspected that might just be wasted breath. Lacey and Amarys were in deep conversation, broken only as they spotted Juliana walking in with a stern look on her face.

“Emergency meeting. I need everyone here, now.”

Lacey startled for a moment at the Champion's tone, mouth opening like she was about to ask something before Amarys put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. The fairy trainer gave a curt nod.

“Got it. Amarys, you go get Crispin. I’ll wake this one up.”

She gestured towards Drayton, still fast asleep, and now snoring quite loudly. All she could do was roll her eyes as she slammed her hand down on the table as hard as she could, alarming Drayton so badly that he fell backwards out of his chair and onto the floor. Juliana caught Amarys’ arm before she could walk out fully.

“Oh, grab Carmine and Kieran, as well. I want their opinions about this.”

Another curt nod from the steel trainer this time, and she was gone. Drayton and Lacey argued for a moment as he gathered himself up from the floor until she pointed over to the Champion as if to explain her sudden wake-up call. His lazy persona slipped back on like a mask, hands now stretched up over the back of his head. Lacey could be seen now with a large garbage bag, sweeping her arm across the table to throw away all of the gross (and probably past their sell-by dates) food boxes that she would no doubt give him an ear full over later.

A few long moments passed, with the ever-punctual trainer returning with Crispin and Carmine in tow. She looked down to her pocket watch, seemingly satisfied with the time it took for her to complete the task. Juliana always wondered what she was timing herself based on. Did she just like setting personal records for how fast she could do something? Nah, that doesn't seem like her. That train of thought couldn’t last for long, though, as Carmine spoke up with a frustrated groan.

“We couldn’t find Kiki anywhere. I thought he might be in his dorm sulking or something, but he wasn’t.”

Crispin erupted with fiery energy, swinging his frying pan wildly with each exaggerated gesture and speaking way too loudly.

“Yeah! And I had Blaziken look all over the terrarium. I found his stuff out in the coastal biome, but no luck!”

That was… concerning to say the least. Juliana had noticed that he was avoiding her for a little while, but he hadn’t been doing that to the rest of the club. Just her. So the fact that they couldn’t find him anywhere, and all of his items were left behind meant that something might be deeply wrong. Carmine at the very least would have known if he went to visit their grandparents or left the school grounds at all, as he would need her phone to buy the plane or ferry ticket. Even then, it would make no sense to not have his things. It was sort of funny how it almost made her original topic for the meeting seem silly in comparison. Drayton interrupted the silence.

“Well, y’know all the stuff the school gives us looks the same, right? How’d you know it was the ex-champion’s?”

Drayton gave a half-smile, ignoring Lacey’s pointed look at the title and her whisper of “that’s just not right!” under her breath. Crispin retrieved something, placing it down on the table with a wet plop. It was one of the bright yellow cross-body bags that the school issued, which Kieran famously wore around his waist instead after he became the champion. Unzipping the front pocket, he used his thumbs to push out the name label that was sewn onto the inside lining that displayed Kieran’s name, loud and clear. Some of the fire had disappeared from his tone now.

“It was in the water just off shore. I couldn’t find any Pokeballs in it that weren’t empty.”

They all knew what that meant. It’s against the school rules to not have at least one partner with you at all times, which meant that if Kieran disappeared, so did his Pokemon. There were a lot of greedy students here, some that would even go so far as to try and steal his Pokemon if they envied him enough. It happened before not too long ago, where a girl towards the bottom of the rankings in the club had tried to take the easy way out. It was simple enough for him or Carmine to identify his own Pokemon, though, so she was expelled very quickly. They would have to search around, then, as finding his Pokemon might be the key to finding him.

“Well, I assume that probably wasn’t what this meeting was called about. What’s up, Champ?”

Drayton’s whole nonchalance with this angered Juliana to no end, but she figured that blowing up on him now might be counter-productive. She needed to get her bearings in order first, which she supposed couldn’t be done until she addressed a certain Pokemon that was still in her bag. After that, though, they needed to start discussing search-and-rescue.

“Right– um, I found an abandoned Pokemon in the terrarium. It obviously belongs to a student because the species isn’t found here. My original plan was to ask you all to find its trainer so we could discipline them properly, but…”

The rest of her sentence went without being said, there were far more pressing matters at hand now. They would have to notify Director Cyrano of a missing student, and use the league club as a search party to find him. The Champion’s thoughts raced as she thought about all of the logistics, but most importantly, where the hell her best friend was. Drayton shrugged and vaguely gestured to the floor next to her.

“Well, bring it out. Maybe it could help.”

The thought wasn't totally crazy. Maybe this Pokemon wasn’t abandoned, but also had a missing trainer that hadn’t been reported yet, which would mean an even bigger problem on their hands. Juliana carefully reached down into her bag and retrieved the luxury ball, turning it around in her hands for a moment before gingerly tossing it towards an empty spot on the ground.

—

It was almost tiring listening to them talk on and on without any kind of visual to understand what was happening. The environment inside of a pokeball was extremely relaxing, sure, but he didn’t like the conversation that was going on outside. A missing person? There seemed to be a lot of different voices, too, so whoever this person was seemed to be quite popular. He’s surprised that he didn’t see anything that the loud-voiced person was talking about, considering that he woke up around that area if the word “coastal” was any indication. Hm, maybe just a weird coincidence.

At the very least, some time alone in this place has allowed him some opportunity to think, and more importantly, get used to walking. He’s pretty confident about not stumbling anymore on four legs, and is even standing on his hind legs with greater efficiency. There was also this strange nagging feeling at the back of his mind, though. Even if he was still pretty confident that he was a person, there was a weird wealth of knowledge on the behaviors he was supposed to exhibit that kept seeping through his subconscious. An innate agile-ness found its way to his movements that he noticed rather quickly. He also really wanted to dig, for some reason. There was a small patch of dirt in the corner of the apartment that he took to after getting bored of the couch, creating a small hole and laying down. It was warm, and reminded him of the beach. He had a craving for Rattata.

Does that mean this Furret he was currently inhabiting had a life before this, too? All of these instincts made him think that, if it was still here, it was shoved somewhere deep into the back of his brain. He couldn’t hear any of its thoughts, but it definitely exhibited itself through natural actions that he found himself doing without realizing. Maybe a nap would be in order, as he found himself becoming more and more comfortable in this little burrow that he made for himself.

…

Why is it so bright?

He unceremoniously rose from the now-cold floor, eyes taking a moment to adjust. Looking around, there were a lot of unfamiliar faces that were also familiar at the same time? Obviously he recognized the girl that he found earlier, but there was also this strange connection that he felt to another girl in this crowd. She had bright red highlights under her hair, extremely tall, looking directly at him with a hand over her mouth in shock. His nose twitched and pointed upwards, sniffing the air to catch the smell of lavender wafting around. Standing to his full height after taking in the scenery, he suddenly became very aware of the tense atmosphere.

“Juli– Oh Arceus, that’s Kiki’s Furret.”

A small gasp made its way through the crowd. The tall girl drew closer, poking at a spot on his stomach that made him cry out in surprise. His small paws swatted at her hand, though were too short to actually make any contact. He retreated slowly, ears pinned back far enough to express his disdain.

“Huh? Furret always loves when I tickle its belly.”

I don’t know you, get away!

She moved closer to try again, shocked when the pokemon let out a warning hiss. Not only that, but he started to subtly glow like he was preparing to attack with a double-edge. She held her hands up to placate him, stepping backwards without turning her eyes away. Lacey commented behind her from a safe distance.

“Are you sure that’s his? It seems… awfully aggressive.”

“I know it is. That spot I poked, it’s a special dark fur mark that only his has. Something’s wrong, though.”

He didn’t know these people, and they’re trying to get him. Instinct took over his mind, and he aimlessly ran around the club room as fast as he could, damaging everything in his path. Everyone began to panic (well, almost everyone), trying to grab at anything to keep him still enough for Juliana to return him to the ball. No matter where they grabbed him from, he would slip through their arms like butter, frustrated yelling coming to a peak. He couldn’t hear what they were trying to say, all he could think was run.

Run.

I need to get out.

They can’t catch me.

“Can I borrow this?”

In the midst of the panic, Drayton was as calm as ever with a hand extended, asking for the luxury ball that Juliana was still holding onto. Speechless, she handed it over without a second thought. It only took a second for him to adjust his aim, where he chucked it as hard as he could, striking the pokemon directly in the center of the forehead and returning it to the ball. The crisis ended, for now.

—

It was becoming a less strange experience, turning into code. At least now that he had done it once before. Fading into existence was the apartment, dirt hole and everything. He breathed heavy, chest heaving as his lungs felt like they were starved for air.

They’re gone.

He thought to himself. Slowly but surely, his breaths returned to a normal rate. He was back in the safety of the ball. Their voices could still be heard from outside, but he became better at tuning them out completely. He didn’t want to listen to what they had to say right now, at least to still his heart.

—

“What the hell was that?”

Carmine yelled at the top of her lungs after everything calmed down, fists clenched and white-knuckled so tightly that they shook in her rage. She couldn’t believe it. She was not forgettable. She had helped take care of it as a Sentret, for Arceus’ sake!

“That’s just not possible! I know that’s his! Something has to be wrong with it!”

Juliana placed a hand on Carmine’s, allowing her to slowly release the tension from her fingernails digging into her palm. Her expression quickly melted from anger to something much more melancholic, glancing around to the expression on her clubmates’ faces. Most of them possessed a look anywhere from unsure (Amarys) to full panic (Crispin), allowing her to let out a sigh. It held no relief to it, instead being a culmination of all the frustration about this situation. She paused as she got to Juliana’s face, noticing that there was a certain determination to it. They nodded simultaneously, knowing exactly what they needed to do next, even though Juliana decided to speak it out loud.

“We need to find Kieran. Something’s going on, and we need to figure out what happened.”

A simple order, but effective. Each of the club members replied with some form of affirmation, all filing out to search for their dear friend.

Chapter Text

The preparations for the search party were almost complete. Most of the teachers were well aware of the situation by this point, leading all the way up to the Director himself. He may have also completely forgotten about it an hour later, much to Lacey’s chagrin, but at least Ms. Briar was doing something about it. She took care of all the actions required through the faculty side, leaving the members of the League Club free to plan their search-and-rescue mission on their own.

Most had been baffled to hear of someone disappearing into thin air on school grounds once the information had spread to the rest of the student body, especially someone as well-known (and slightly infamous) as Kieran. Theories ran rampant, some making up terrible stories of his enemies finally getting the better of him. The current champion did her best to shoot those down as soon as they started.

The first area they searched was where Crispin’s Blaziken had found Kieran’s belongings. Sure enough, as much as Juliana tried to deny the reality, everything except for his team were accounted for. Penny was too busy with work for the Paldean League– something about a data breach, and everyone was panicking– so the option of hacking into his PC to check for any deposited Pokemon was out of the question. If the knocked-over tent was any indication, whatever happened was without warning. Even more concerningly, there were some strange marks in the sand, almost like glass that had formed under extreme heat. Perhaps he was attacked by a fire-type Pokemon? There were also divots like something large was dragged across the beach, making everyone think the worst. With Kieran’s bag having been found in the water, it definitely didn’t help anyone’s worry.

Carmine’s Milotic swam with increased fervor as she commanded it to search the bottom of the ocean. The entire section of the terrarium that contains the coastal biome was blocked off to the rest of the students, which apparently didn’t sate their curiosity as those without the proper clearance tended to hang right off the barriers, disturbing the investigation with their noise. Lacey then had to be put on guard duty to prevent anyone from jumping it, while the rest of the club members released their Pokemon to aid them. Juliana’s Meowscarada was especially unhelpful, though, as it took to constantly and violently sniffing the luxury ball by sticking its nose in her bag.

“Yes, Meows, we already know that’s his. How about you sniff over there?”

She tried to be as kind as she could, as yelling underneath this tension would definitely not be helpful, but it still stared at her like she was an idiot. It sulked off to a bush just up a hill that she had pointed to, joining Amarys’ Metagross.

“Guys, look!”

Carmine’s call attracted everyone’s attention as her Milotic re-emerged from the depths with a school-issued jacket in its mouth. Just like the bag, it was identified as the missing boy’s by the name sewn onto a label at the neck. It was significantly damaged, cuts and scratches littering the outside, as well as scorch marks. Their current theory of a fire-type Pokemon attack had begun to appear more likely. Milotic supposedly hadn’t found anything else of note, besides some useless metal scraps that were disregarded for the time being. Despite more of his items being found, there was still no sign of Kieran.

As the artificial sun dipped lower into the sky, the search was called off for the night. Juliana hoped that, wherever he was, he wouldn’t be too cold as the night approached.

—

The inside of a Pokeball stayed at a remarkably warm temperature, which would make sense considering that everything he was experiencing from within wasn’t exactly real. Regardless, he found himself curled into the coziest ball possible inside of his make-shift dirt den. He had taken to digging his previously small hole even deeper, his innate thoughts once more taking over to make him a little burrow.

It was that subconscious, though, that was currently causing him the most trouble. Notably, he had made a very bad impression on the people that may have actually been able to help him. He cringed at the thought of having upset such a big crowd. Even in this situation, he recognized that it probably would have gone a lot differently if he had just been himself. Maybe then he would have been a lot calmer and assessed the situation properly. At the very least, those people seemed to recognize the Pokemon that he currently inhabited, especially the one with red highlights who was able to tell just off of fur color.

He pondered about the girl that he first interacted with, too. Was it Juli that they said she was called? That name seemed correct in his head. It was a very pretty name, fitting for someone with eyes like hers. Why was he still thinking about her eyes?

He kind of wished he had the capacity to apologize, but he doubted that Furret biology would even allow him to talk. The most sound that he was able to emit was a hiss when threatened, and some small squeaks. He’s heard rumors of a Pokemon called Meowth that was able to teach itself to speak, but that was probably just a myth or a fairytale that mothers would tell their children. Actually, would he be able to speak to other Pokemon? That would have to be something he tests whenever he gets the opportunity.

Speaking of which, he wonders how long it will take for him to be released again. It would be no surprise if it were quite a long while, considering that he acted like a wild animal tearing up that weird-looking room he showed up in. Juli seemed like a girl that was quick to forgive, though, so maybe he could get a second chance to ask for forgiveness. There were some justifications that he made to himself, mostly blaming the Furret. He’s almost certain now that it's still here somewhere, just squished back as far as it could go into the reaches of his mind. He almost felt bad for it, especially since he was the intruder to begin with. Until he could figure out how to get out, he supposed it was going to be like a bad roommate situation.

He didn’t really feel tired anymore. His thoughts were racing too much.

—

The luxury ball sat by itself on the nightstand, Juliana taking great care to keep it separated from the rest of her team. She didn’t want to accidentally pick up the wrong ball and send it out, since she had used the same type to capture her eevee-turned-espeon. That freak-out in the club room had really startled her. Without Drayton’s aiming skills, she wasn’t sure if they would ever catch it. It was almost hilarious in the moment, watching it slip out so effortlessly from Carmine’s strong grip like it was made of butter. She hoped, deep down, that it would forgive her.

If Carmine was right, and this was, in fact, Kieran’s Furret… why did it have no memory of her? Did Kieran have this memory loss too, and he was hiding from everyone? She would have to add that to her list of theories, but it seemed unlikely. The more she thought about it, the more her eyes kept flicking back and forth from the ball. Maybe, if it were just her, then it would have a better reaction, and she could become friends with it and better figure out its situation. The crowd of people all around it in the club room probably didn’t help, and is probably what set it off into such a panic. Even if her dorm room was admittedly a smaller area (and not exactly the cleanest at the moment), she couldn’t stop thinking about getting into the little guy’s good graces, especially if it might hold the key to finding Kieran.

Sucking in a deep breath, she grabs the luxury ball and pauses. Is this really what she wanted to do? It had to have calmed down by now, right? It had been at least a couple of hours since the freak-out.

…

Screw it.

She threw the ball onto the soft plush carpet.

—

Hm. The texture of the floor changed.

He could kind of infer what this meant by now. The lights weren’t as bright this time, and were actually quite dim. As his vision came back into focus, the first thing his eyes landed on was a small lamp on a nightstand lending itself as the only light in the room. After that, it was a line of photos tacked up onto the wall just to the right, organized into small groups and decorated with butterfree-shaped string lights that were currently set to off. The smell of lavender invaded his senses again, mixed with the smell of… noodles? The desk was the next thing he looked at which, sure enough, had a small stack of empty cup noodles surrounded by even more junk food wrappers. Turning for the last time, he finally met the gaze of the girl, almost feeling himself shrink back at the weight of it. He had to remind himself to stay strong.

Don’t panic. She’s not going to harm you.

It felt weird talking to himself like this, but he technically wasn’t. How else were you supposed to calm something that couldn’t be controlled? The silence ran a bit thicker now, the both of them still staring at one another while the girl was most likely waiting on his first move. After giving himself a bit more of a pep talk, he chose to slowly approach her on all fours to where she stood. There was a nervousness to her stance, shifting most of the weight onto one foot as well as running her right hand across her left forearm. Reaching up carefully and positioning himself on his hind legs– just like he practiced– he placed a paw onto her knee like he had done to her the first time as a show of good faith. Thankfully, he could tell that she took it as such, as the grin on her face was almost contagious. Curse his mouth not having the appropriate musculature to smile back.

“Um– hello. My name is Juliana. I don’t think I properly introduced myself.”

Oh, and he thought Juli was a pretty name. Hearing it in its entirety was much nicer, like classical music dancing its way through his ears. Backing up a bit more to look at her fully, he took the time to realize he was actually getting quite flustered in her presence. This was quite the contrast to the primal fear that he was feeling before. Waving a little paw to say hello back, she giggled a sound that almost made him dizzy before squatting down back to his level.

“What should I call you? Hm, I don’t think Kieran ever had nicknames for you guys.”

Well, he couldn’t exactly answer her, given the situation. However, he tried to communicate as well as he possibly could, pointing to her, then pointing to himself. Maybe she would get the message.

“Oh! You want me to name you?”

Yes! She understood him! This was progress. Nodding enthusiastically, he couldn’t help but notice the way that she deflated a little at the proposition. He tilted his head worriedly, probably looking quite adorable to her as she let out another one of those musical giggles at the sight.

“I mean– I wouldn’t mind doing that, it's just… Y’know, you belong to a dear friend of mine. It’s kind of not my place.”

Was it weird that he was getting jealous of this Kieran guy? He didn’t care if he “belonged” to someone else. Heck, he didn’t want to belong to anybody!

Except her, maybe.

…

He pushed that thought back down as quickly as it formed. Motioning his paws to indicate that he wanted her to continue, she blinked her eyes in surprise.

“Oh, well, if you insist. I’m kind of bad at nicknames. Most of what I call my Pokemon are kinda obvious and uninspired.”

Tapping on her chin for a moment to think, she puffed out her cheeks every few seconds. He tried to look away as much as he could in order to not embarrass himself. He didn’t care what she called him, really, just that she had something besides just “Furret.” Her eyes drifted over to her desk. Oh no. Was she really going to pick–

“How about Noodle?”

He did the closest equivalent to laughing that he could, squeaking with happiness so much he ended up losing his balance and flopping over onto his back. He wished he could tell her how cute he thought that was. He paused when he saw some pink creep its way up to her cheeks, quickly realizing how inappropriate his reaction was, and how she probably thought that he was making fun of her.

Wait! No! I love it!

He crawled back up onto his hind legs and placed his paws to either side of her face. If he was still human, he was sure that he would probably be mimicking the facial expression she was making right now. Her eyes– those damn eyes– looked back to his in confusion before she started to break into a full laugh herself, and oh, Arceus, her laugh was even more beautiful than her giggle was. She gently took his paws into her hands, thumbs pressing into the pads of his fingers, and grinned in a way that truly made him want to break out into song.

“Alright, then. Nice to meet you, Noodle.”

He let out another squeak to assure her that he was happy with the choice, only to then be hit by a wave of exhaustion. He hadn’t realized how tired he was, at least now that he was feeling truly at ease. The girl apparently noticed the way that his eyes were starting to flutter, as she decided to walk to her bed and pat a spot on top of it to invite him to jump up. Was she wanting him to stay in the same bed as her? That thought, too, was quickly brushed away when he rationalized to himself that she only saw him for the form he was right now. It was innocent, and she meant nothing by it. That didn't stop his heart from skipping a beat, of course.

“I’ve still gotta get ready for bed, but you get comfortable, okay?”

There were no protests as she took the duvet and some extra blankets, wrapping them around him after he got himself into an acceptable position curled up on the bed. This was almost as nice as his burrow. He allowed for one eye to poke out along with his nose in order to not suffocate, but he found himself mindlessly watching the girl. Not in any messed up way, but instead just enjoying the mundane-ness of it all. She had disappeared briefly into the bathroom to change, reappearing in a very comfy-looking pajama set adorned with little applins all over it in a repeating pattern. She brushed her teeth over the kitchen sink– That’s a little weird. Why doesn’t she just use the bathroom sink? – and then running a comb through her hair. It looked very nice when it was down, compared to the braid that she had it in earlier. Not to say that it was bad, of course, as he actually thought that the braid was quite cute, and probably practical too. Regardless, he wondered if it would be soft to the touch. He wouldn’t dare to try.

After she was done with her nightly routine, she decided to carefully climb over him to the side of the bed that was closest to the wall, leaving him to be all curled up in his blanket burrow on the other. He couldn't deny that his breath caught a little as she did so, they were literally in the same bed! She took notice of the nervousness that he was radiating, though she must have interpreted it in a different way than he did.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right here for you. Goodnight.”

Creeping a hand under the blanket, he felt her hand grab his paw, moving her thumb back and forth across the top in a soothing motion. He felt like he could die right here and be perfectly content with that. It wasn’t long until his consciousness started to drift, allowing the warmth of both the duvet and her kindness to overtake him.

Chapter Text

Juliana thought the expression Noodle had was kind of hilarious, absolutely guilty with its tail between its legs as they walked to the club room together. It reminded her of a time when Arven’s Mabostiff had been caught nose-deep in a fresh stack of ingredients, with that same look of adorable regret. She’s glad that her efforts of befriending the Furret had paid off, as it seemingly gained the confidence to face the rest of the league club again over just a few days. Carmine always said that Juliana had a “calming aura” about her, so maybe that was the reason for the Pokemon making such a quick turn-around. As they reached the door, Noodle looked up at her and she could sense the worry it had emanating into the air.

“Don’t be scared. I’ve already talked to them about this, and they agreed to be calm this time. Do your best, ok?”

It gave her a nod in response, but she could still tell there was an unsureness to it. Carefully placing one hand onto the door, she pushed it open slowly. She’s sure that Noodle wasn’t jumpy enough to startle at any sudden movement, but she didn’t want to risk stressing the poor creature out more than they already had. She caught Carmine’s gaze first as she walked in, who then suddenly made her way in front of Juliana faster than she could manage to process. Her fists clenched and shaking like normal, she spoke in a voice that was much louder than expected.

“There you are! Geez, you sure took your sweet time! You made me wait forever!”

Juliana stuck out a finger in Carmine’s direction, literally reprimanding her like a child. For the rest of the league club members, this was not an unusual sight to see, so they continued to their own devices until things were ready to begin. A giant rolling cork-board was placed just off to the side of the computer, decorated in red string that connected each of the clues that they currently had. There weren’t many lines.

“Hey! What did I tell you about volume? We have a guest, and you need to chill out.”

She sort of vaguely gestured to the Pokemon standing beside her, who then stared at Carmine with the biggest eyes she had ever seen on a Furret. Grumbling something akin to an apology (though Juliana could tell that she was genuinely remorseful about forgetting. She was fluent in Carmine-Speak by this point), everyone took their places at the table, minus Noodle who was still somewhat cowering behind the Champion. The tension was still palpable in the air, however all of the members– under Juliana’s orders– put on various performances of calm demeanors in order to not put unnecessary pressure on their visitor. Crispin decided to speak up first and ease into the conversation.

“Hey, Noodle! Juliana’s told us a lot about you.”

With his contagious smile, she was glad that he decided to speak directly to it. She was worried at first that they might just treat the Furret like an object to squeeze information out of, but it seems that her fears were misplaced. Noodle peeked out from behind her chair, still obviously unsure as it looked to the rest of the BB League. Drayton was easily looking the most natural out of all of them, still in his usual position of resting his head on his arms, leaning forward on the table. Lacey was a bit less convincing even with her smile, her eyes shifting back-and-forth every now and then like she wasn’t exactly sure of what to do with herself. Amarys was the stiffest, somehow even more rigid than her usual military-like stance, with her arms straight down at her sides. Carmine looked like she cared the least, instead choosing to stand next to the last empty seat. Juliana was sure that she actually cared the most, considering that chair was where Kieran usually sat.

Turning slightly to allow Noodle to be seen fully by everyone, she gave him a reassuring pat on the head before speaking in a low whisper.

“Remember what I told you? They just want to ask a couple of questions. If you can’t remember something, we can move on. Are you ready?”

The nod that it gave was almost imperceptible, but Juliana took that as her cue to motion towards the rest of the members to start. Lacey took out a small list written on a loose sheet of paper and handed it to Carmine, who cleared her throat as she met the gaze of the mysterious Pokemon.

“Do you remember anything about your time with Kiki?”

Noodle seemed to look up towards the ceiling, like it was trying to recall. The klink were visibly turning in its head as silence engulfed the room. It definitively shook its head, and Juliana watched as Carmine drew her lips together in a thin line like she always did before she would start crying. Instinctively, Juliana then decided to hold her hand out for the list of questions, to which the other girl quickly obliged. Perhaps it was better for her to ask, anyways, at least for comfort’s sake.

Her eyes scanned the paper for just a moment, before placing it down beside her on the table. It would be better to get down on its level. Scooting out her chair, she kneeled down in front of the Pokemon to get face-to-face. It seemed surprised, but luckily not uncomfortable. Speaking in a soft tone, she points to the cork board on the other side of the room.

“Could you go over there and point to anything you recognize? Even the tiniest bit would help.”

Noodle’s eyes flicked between hers and the cork board, only beginning to move after some gentle encouragement from the girl. Once it stood in front and gazed across the photographs, it first paused over an image of the coastal biome and pointed. Lacey approached from the side and carefully placed a blue tack onto the photo. Another pat landed itself on Noodle’s head, as Juliana elected to stand beside it.

“Good! Anything else?”

A few more seconds of scanning, and it paused once again. This time, at images of Pokemon, all of them currently marked as the missing members of Kieran’s team. It seemed to remember something, and tentatively placed a paw on a photo of Hydrapple. Some grumbles of confusion came from the rest of the league members as Lacey placed another blue tack.

“Keep going. You’re doing great.”

Next, it came across the images of the club members themselves, to which it touched both Juliana and Carmine’s. It had looked at the image of Kieran quite deeply for a moment before moving on, seemingly completely unfamiliar with him. Carmine definitely looked like she might cry as Lacey placed more tacks, attempting to muffle the sniffles into the crease of her elbow but failing quite spectacularly as her heaves for breath sounded like she was sucking in 5 lungs worth of air.

Noodle didn’t seem to find anything else of note out of the plethora of other images there, much to everyone’s disappointment. It was a start, though. Another head pat later, and Juliana squatted back down to the Pokemon’s level with a reassuring smile.

“Do you want to stick around for the rest of this? I could take you back to my room if you want.”

Noodle shook its head, making a circle motion with its paws. It took her a second to understand what it meant, but she mentally applauded its ability to communicate so cleverly.

“You want back in the ball?”

It nodded enthusiastically. She’d like to think that she was getting better at understanding it, wishing she could fist-pump in happiness. This wasn’t the time for that, though, and she simply took the luxury ball out to fulfill the little guy’s request. Tapping it squarely on its forehead and returning it, she could hear Drayton let out an over-dramatic sigh behind her.

“Well, I dunno if that really helped us all that much. We already know about the coastal biome.”

Amarys, ever the silent type who had apparently been stewing over the evidence in her mind, offered a suggestion that might lead them to the right direction.

“We must look at this from an outside perspective. The answer is here, but one more thing must be missing.”

Juliana nodded at this, agreeing wholeheartedly with her point. It was right in front of their noses, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. The beach, Hydrapple, herself, and Carmine. What was the significance of it all? It made her endlessly frustrated. Something they missed, huh? Maybe they would just have to look again, but the thought of that made her face visibly drop with the dread of it all.

Oh, Kieran. Where are you?

–

Ah, right– I do have a favor I wanna ask you…

If it’s alright, do you wanna, um…

Do you wanna trade Pokemon with me?

This was the memory that invaded his mind when he was looking at those photographs, and why that apple-looking Pokemon rang a bell. It clung to his mind so fervently that he couldn’t stop thinking about it. A small inkling of who he was before, maybe? The voice was unfamiliar, yet so close at the same time. It was almost annoyingly shy, like the type of kid that probably had some weird, obscure obsession that they would never shut up about. The image of this scene was blurry as it faded from black, both figures’ faces covered in a dark haze. Some details were easier to glean, but didn’t provide much help as they both dressed the same as everyone else. He saw one figure nod their head, the other’s excitement visible in their movements.

Woo-Hoo! I’ll trade my Applin! What about you, #######?

What he assumed to be a name was instead replaced by a second of deafening white noise. It was coming back to him, but in the most maddeningly useless way possible. One of the figures fiddled through their bag for a moment, pulling out a pristinely polished love ball. The other figure startled, barely able to contain their composure as the scene continued on.

Okay, so you wanna trade your Applin for my Applin?

That’s stupid. Why would they trade each other the same Pokemon? There was nothing advantageous to that. Unless they had different skill spreads or abilities but they would be useless and weak in a battle on their own and–

Why did he know that information? Competitive battling… was that something important to who he was before?

As the figures handed their Pokemon off to one another, he noted the strange reaction that one of them had afterwards. Their hand was seemingly locked in a singular tuft of hair that fell off of their head, twisting it so furiously in a show of nervousness, but also… excitement? He couldn’t wrap his head around it.

I’ll take good care of your Applin, #######, don’t you worry! Thanks for trading with me!

The scene slowly faded away, and he woke up in his burrow with a noticeable amount of sweat sticking to his fur.

Today had been a whirlwind of confusion already with that pseudo-interrogation he found himself being subjected to from those weird people. He had barely been able to make it through with the encouragement from Juliana, but wracking his brain for any semblance of familiarity proved to be rather difficult. There were no solid memories, just… feelings. There was some irritation towards the girl with red highlights and the toothpaste-haired guy, the latter more so than the former. There was introverted anxiety towards the pink one and the stiff one, and curiosity towards the loud one. But, most infuriatingly, there was a sickening sense of adoration and envy towards Juliana in a way that he couldn’t tell the alignment of. He hated that he couldn’t remember these people, as they were obviously so close to this Furret. Only a couple were familiar to him in a way that he wasn’t able to actually pinpoint, but the rest of them remained in some nebulous void of emotion inside the confines of his mind. Maybe that was just the Furret interfering again with what he actually knew.

Arceus, couldn’t they just find this Kieran guy already? None of these people even knew of his situation yet because all of their time has been taken up with this damn investigation! Even he had started to forget a little about figuring out how to become human again. These small tidbits of memories were slightly comforting, but he wanted this nightmare to be over. He wanted to trust in these people so desperately, but it was hard when he could tell that this was obviously so much more important to them. He could try his hardest to communicate with Juliana, as she had seemed quite intuitive at his attempts of getting his messages across so far, but it was too complicated for the limited vocabulary of gestures he’d gained so far. If only he could talk to one of her Pokemon, but she hadn’t so much as let him meet them yet. Perhaps that was due to his first freak-out. Great.

…

Another flash of light, and he found himself in Juliana’s room again. He was really getting used to the whole Pokeball thing, which almost made him even angrier at how long it was all taking. It’s obvious that they had a general area for his location, so why the hell were they so stuck that they had to ask for his help?

He only noticed Juliana was present after a few moments of stewing in his anger, peering at him with a concerned expression from her bed. There was a pillow closely tucked to her chest. They must not have made much more progress past his questioning, because he suddenly became very aware of the tears peeking through at the corners of her eyes.

Oh– uh… what should I…?

As if she could read his mind, she patted the spot next to her like she did before. Of course he would push his own emotions aside, if just for a little while. He could tell now how much it all meant to her, somewhat mentally punching himself at all those jealous thoughts of his earlier pervading his mind. Climbing up next to her, she gently tossed the pillow that she was clutching aside, instead moving to wrap her arms around his soft fur in a slightly-too-tight hug. He could feel himself gasp, but made no move to wiggle out, even if it would be extremely easy for him to. She obviously needed this, as he could feel the way that her chest shook with each inhale wrapped in a sob. He couldn’t really hug back too well with how short his arms were, instead giving reassuring pats on her shoulders. He was trying to ignore the butterfree currently making a ruckus in his stomach, as this was certainly not the time for those sorts of feelings to arise.

They stayed in that position for far longer than he was actually comfortable with as Juliana continued to cry, but he could tell from the soft smile she gave as they pulled away that it was all worth it.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have– I should have asked if that was okay.”

He gave his best squeak in reply, hopefully expressing enough that she had nothing to be sorry about. It worked well enough as her smile grew slightly wider, but there was still a deep sadness to her expression that made his heart break. He wished he could ask her what was wrong, even if he had a good inkling as to what it might be. He wanted to be a good friend to her. Placing another paw gently on her knee, he urged her to continue with a reassuring expression. She let out a chuckle, but there was no actual humor in it.

“Okay, so– Arceus, this is really embarrassing, but I don’t think I can tell anyone else yet.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest, no longer looking him directly in the eye as she spoke.

“I’m just… really worried. Everything we’ve found so far is really pointing in a bad direction.”

He knew what she meant. He saw those photos up on the cork board, the bag and the jacket both soaked with water. In all likelihood, just based on his own assumptions, the kid had probably drowned. It was just weird that they hadn’t found the body yet.

“I really– I care about him a lot. And I mean a lot. The thought that he might be… y’know, it’s killing me.”

Ah, so that’s what it was. He couldn’t deny the way his chest tightened at her admitting this to him, but this was not the time to stew in his jealousy any more, especially over a potentially dead guy. He made a decision, hating the hopelessness in her expression.

I’ll find him for you. Don’t worry.

She continued to talk with him late into the night, mostly about mundane things she enjoyed about this Kieran guy. Apparently, he had this habit of twisting the hair that fell in front of his face.

Huh. Does he, now?

She drifted off soon enough, especially after he feigned his own sleep. She didn’t even change into those cute pajamas, so it must have taken a lot out of her. Well, she wouldn’t need to worry for much longer. Without disturbing her, he carefully slinked from underneath the covers. Giving one last glance to Juliana, he opened the door to her room and silently closed it behind himself.

Chapter Text

He, uh… didn’t quite think this through too well. Firstly, he had no idea how to get back to the Terrarium from the dorms. The rest of the times he’d made the journey, it was by being carried in the Pokeball, which doesn’t bode too well for navigation. The layout of this place was weird, too. The hallways had strange twists and turns, like the architects had no idea what they were doing. Or maybe he just had no sense of direction. Luckily with it being the middle of the night, there weren’t too many students out and about to ask him where he was going. The times that he did encounter someone, he managed to sneak past by staying out of their line of vision since the lighting of the halls wasn’t the best.

Ugh, he wished he could just ask someone for directions without any fanfare.

Hm.

Maybe it was time for him to test out a hypothesis. His luck apparently knew no bounds, as there was a lone ghost Pokemon wading through an empty common area. It was staring quite intently at a vending machine, so he wondered if it was hungry. Could ghosts get hungry? He decided not to question it. Trying to play it as cool as he could, he approached it from behind and tried his best to use his squeaks to speak.

“Hey– um, need some help?”

He startled the poor thing, and it let out a shrill cry, the type that could fit in well for a horror movie. He screamed back, of course, as it scared the living daylights out of him. Its face suddenly contorted back to one of calm, giving him a once-over glace and turning back to the glass of the machine. Its voice was like that of a young girl, soft yet with a slight echo.

“Yes. I want a Lemonade, but I can’t push the buttons. There’s always some spare change left in the coin return, but I can’t pick it up.”

It took him some time to process what just happened. He… spoke to it! He really spoke to it, and it understood him! He couldn’t stew in his excitement for very long, as what it just said finally finished loading.

“Oh! Here, I’ll– I’ll get it for you!”

Sure enough, there were four coins in the return worth 100 Pokedollars each, exactly enough for a lemonade. He had to use both of his paws in tandem on account of the whole “no opposable thumbs” thing, but it worked out well enough as he inserted each into the slot and pressed the appropriate button. A single can dropped down, and he held it out to the other Pokemon. It moved slowly and somewhat uncomfortably as the entire can absorbed into the inky abyss of its body. He couldn’t contain a shudder.

“Thanks. I’m Misdreavus. My trainer is just down the hall, but I was awfully thirsty. I owe you one.”

It started to float away, but he held up one paw to stop it. This would be his best chance at getting some directions.

“Wait! Uh– could you tell me which way the Terrarium is? I’m all turned around.”

The way it twisted its body so unnaturally was deeply disturbing. Its head did an entire 180 degree turn, without so much as an inch of movement from the lower half.

“Sure, if that’ll count as your favor. Walk down this hall, then it's left, right, then another left. Got that?”

He nodded his head and gave an enthusiastic goodbye. He was glad for a few things in that interaction. Now he knew that he could talk with other Pokemon, for starters. He also knew which way to go, too, but most importantly… he was sort of glad to get away from that creepy thing. Following those few turns, he was faced with a ramp leading down to the entrance. It was quite daunting, actually. Walking on his own into the vastness of the wilderness, that is.

Now he just had to figure out his way to the coastal biome…

Oh, probably where all that bright yellow caution tape is in the distance. The path to get there seemed not too busy, but there would still be some trainers that he would need to get by. Of course, there were a lot more hiding spots than the dorm hallways, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Keyword there was shouldn’t, not won’t.

As he cautiously made his way there, he suddenly became aware of a very loud sound cascading from the distance. It sounded like a wave of stomps all melding together, almost like a stampede.

A large group of Tauros quickly came into view, and they didn’t look like they would be stopping any time soon. Their tails whipped their own bodies with extreme fervor, and all of their eyes were locked onto him with an expression of malice. The one at the front of the herd was especially volatile, its thick horns no doubt scarred heavily from many battles.

Letting out a yelp of surprise, he ran for his life towards what would hopefully be his salvation. If he could just pull himself up on top of those rainbow cubes, he surely would be up high enough to be out of their range. It was thinking about how he would accomplish that which caused him the most problems. The bellows of the Tauros grew louder and louder behind him. He wasn’t fast enough to outrun them for much longer.

He would have to be a bit craftier, then. Searching through the knowledge that still found itself in his brain, he had an idea. The herd itself was quite large and spread across a wide margin. He would just need to move side-to-side for a bit, which would hopefully disturb the formation enough to cause some collisions. He first flanked left, then right, then left again. The Tauros let out some kind of frustrated snorts as he could hear some of their bodies slamming into one another as they tried to keep on target. A few more zig-zags later, and he found himself right in front of the divider. It was too tall for him to crawl up himself, but he found some of the caution tape hanging down from the edge. He swung himself up in a pendulum-like motion, now safely out of the Tauros’ grasps. He couldn’t stop himself from bragging a bit, of course, looking the leader right in the eyes before firing off a sucker punch right to its forehead. Maybe he would just try to avoid their territory whenever possible next time.

The coastal biome stood just ahead, and it wasn’t too difficult to make his way over the other barriers. He was definitely exhausted by the end of it, but at least he wouldn’t have to worry about any trainers seeing him while he looked around.

It looked mostly the same as when he had woken up the first time. Even with the wild pokemon still wandering around, it looked like there was great care taken to preserving everything that they could. As he made his way back to the beach, he found a lot of the spots that he recognized from the photo board. His first stop was the abandoned camp, where he decided to get a good look for himself.

There really wasn’t much that wasn’t already noted, except for some hairs left behind on the inside of the tent. They looked like his own fur. He supposed that it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary if this Furret belonged to that Kieran guy, but he wondered if he could figure out the path it took before everything happened. The footprints were pretty difficult to track, as sand tended to move with the slightest disturbance and all of the people and Pokemon trekking through here probably didn’t pay it much thought. Using his own back paws as reference, and the fact that he hadn’t seen a single other Pokemon of his species, it was actually quite possible to pick out Furret prints from everything else.

Following them down the beach, he also came to notice another pair walking alongside them. They were definitely human footprints, but he probably wouldn’t be able to pick out whose they were just based off of shoe pattern. He could assume, though, that they still belonged to the missing boy. Perhaps they were having a stroll together, or maybe training? There did seem to be some deep divots in the Furret prints like it was standing in an offensive pose. Then, he saw the next destination from the photos, a large depression in the sand covered in small shards of glass. He noticed that the two sets of footprints led to it, then disappeared. There was a long cleft leading to the shoreline, like something had been trying to drag itself out of the way. He suddenly realized that he recognized the location, but not from any images this time.

Huh. That’s… where he woke up.

He could tell that he was close to piecing it all together, but there was something else still missing.

He supposed his next stop would be to look underwater. He could remember hearing someone sending their Pokemon in to search from inside the Pokeball, but he just had to take a look for himself in case something was missed. He wasn’t crazy about the idea of getting his fur wet, but he supposed the warm climate of this biome might help him to dry back out pretty quickly anyways.

He knew how to swim, right?

…

Well, here goes nothing.

Diving in, the first problem made itself abundantly clear. He couldn’t see too well underwater. He wasn’t a water type, so his eyes wouldn’t be well adapted to handle all of that salt without burning. Coming back up for air, he took a minute to consider his options.

Just within his vision on the right side, he turned to see that he was being approached by a small Pokemon. It had the cutest nose, pointed with what looked like a round ball stuck on the end of it. It had a frilly neck piece that reminded him somewhat of clowns, and two flippers wading just on the water’s surface. It spoke with the bubbliest voice imaginable, which fit the happy grin that looked permanently etched on its face.

“Hello, friend! Goin’ for a swim?”

Hm, he’s not sure if he’s ever seen a Pokemon like this before, and he surely couldn’t remember what it’s called. For some reason, though, he felt like he could trust this little guy immediately. Maybe it was just how darn excited this thing looked.

“Ah– Not exactly. I’m lookin’ for… something important. Have you heard what’s been going on?”

Somehow, the Pokemon beamed even more. Surely it must hurt to have a smile that wide, right? It just looked so excited to talk, he wouldn’t dare shut it out of conversation, even if he’s starting to realize how awkward he is when talking to others.

“Well, sure! It’s been awful quiet lately, so I did some askin’ around. Terrible thing, really.”

He suddenly had an idea. This must be a water type, right? Maybe it had seen something down at the seafloor. It would have to be quick, though, because he was getting much colder every second that he stayed floating in this water. Even if it was warm outside, the ocean must be at least 20 degrees cooler.

“Have you–Uh, is there anything interesting underwater? I’m trying to help out, but I’m no fish.”

He let out an awkward chuckle at the attempt of a joke, becoming slightly embarrassed when the Pokemon did not even pity laugh. Geez, he needed some better social skills. He found himself nervously reaching up to fidget with his ear. Huh, where did that habit come from?

“There’s some funky lookin’ boulders that weren’t there before. I know this area like the back of my tail fin, so some newly fallen rocks were bound to catch my eye. Can’t move ‘em though, I don’t have the strength for it.”

Newly fallen rocks? It could be covering up something else, and normal people wouldn’t even spare a second glance at some rubble. It was worth a shot.

“That’s– That’s cool. Wish I could see it. Could you take me there? I could probably… feel around, I guess?”

The other Pokemon shrugged its shoulders, like it was considering the idea. Once he got there, he could possibly use a double-edge to break them apart. He remembered about having that move when he almost used it against that girl with red highlights, so he could probably try it again, right? It was worth a shot.

“Shoot, why not? Here, hold onto my flipper, and I’ll swim us down there.”

The journey itself wasn’t too long, only about 6 feet under the surface. The pressure was still quite intense, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold his air. As he swam beside the little Pokemon, he was surprised that he could still hear it talk just as clearly underwater. Was that a water-type thing?

“My name’s Popplio, by the way! This is so cool, I don’t usually have friends to swim with!”

That’s… a little sad. Well, if he could make Popplio’s day a little bit better while also making progress on his goal at the same time, it seemed like a win-win situation. He obviously couldn’t reply at the moment, so the two continued to swim further and further until finally reaching the destination. Even with his eyes closed, he could definitely still feel the craggy rock beneath his paws. With Popplio’s guidance to make sure that he wasn’t just touching the wall, he felt the move powering up.

Ready… and… GO!

His head slammed directly into the rock, sending a cascade of shards scattering about all around. Popplio made a noise of awe behind him, and he could only imagine that it was trying to applaud with its flippers (even if the sound wouldn’t travel well underwater.) Reaching another paw forward, he realized that all he could feel was empty space. So there was something hiding behind those rocks. Popplio continued to guide him forward until the two of them swam straight into open air. Thank Arceus, because he had definitely just run out of breath and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. He took a few moments to level out his breathing before opening his eyes to look around.

It was a very large cave. So large, in fact, that He didn’t even see the group of Pokemon towards the back all gathered around something.

“Oh, I thought that somethin’ was missing! I knew this place was around here somewhere, but I thought it disappeared like a mirage or somethin’.”

At Popplio’s voice, the large group of Pokemon turned around to face them. He could see each of their eyes widen in recognition, some of them taking a few steps closer. The most notable one was a Pokemon with many dragon-like heads, which he immediately recognized yet again from the memory.

A Hydrapple. Glancing at the others, he remembered those photos too. They were all strange looking creatures, yet so… recognizable. He suddenly became aware of many scattered Pokeballs on the ground around them, all broken open and left discarded. They continued to stare at him, only one of them choosing to speak. It was an intimidating cat-like creature, decorated in stripes of red and black, with claws sharper than a knife’s edge.

“...You’re alive?”

Huh?

It became much clearer to him as the group finally parted, revealing the body of a young boy lying limp on the cavern floor.

–

Juliana woke up slowly, the emotional weight of yesterday still heavy on her mind. As she came to, she tried to feel the bed beside her, only to find it empty. Well, that’s nothing to immediately worry about. Noodle probably just got up before she did.

It wasn’t too late in the morning, only about 9:30am based on what her Rotom Phone said. It was also the start of the weekend, meaning that she wouldn’t have any classes scheduled for today. Well, she had been dismissed from her classes anyways while the search was going on, but she still needed a bit to recuperate. She didn’t open her eyes again for another 30 minutes after checking the time, but started to get suspicious of the lack of noise in the room.

Her eyes stayed somewhat squinted as she sat up, a small tinge of a headache prodding right between her eyebrows. Man, crying really took a lot out of her. She’d have to remember to grab something to drink from the vending machine to get some hydration back. Looking around, she suddenly became very confused.

“Noodle?”

There was no response. She was now very awake, and immediately starting to panic. It wasn’t in the bathroom, under the bed, or in the cabinets, and those were all of the hiding places in this small room. Perhaps she was being irrational, but it’s not a great feeling for two of your friends to disappear in such a short amount of time.

Grabbing her phone, she tapped Carmine’s contact and felt the weight of suspense as the little call jingle played for a seemingly long amount of time. On the last ring before it would go to voicemail, her face finally popped up on the screen. From what Juliana could tell, she was also in her own dorm room, having just woken up herself if the absolute mess of hair she had was any indication.

“Some nerve you have waking me up like– wait, what’s wrong?”

Juliana’s devastation must have been showing clearly on her face, as Carmine immediately dropped the outwardly mean demeanor she usually had in favor of genuine concern.

“Noodle’s gone! I can’t find it anywhere!”

“WHAT?”

The call suddenly dropped, or maybe Carmine did that purposefully. Either way, it wasn’t long until the other girl nearly ripped the door to Juliana’s dorm off its hinges as she stumbled inside. The two immediately embraced in a hug, which was nice but definitely did not help the tears that were starting to form in her eyes again. Pulling apart, Carmine sat to her right on the bed, trying to figure out how to start.

“Okay, when was the last time you saw Noodle?”

Juliana remembered her sudden sleepiness last night after she had emotionally worn herself out. She was even still wearing her uniform, minus the shoes.

“Yesterday. It was right here, but it was gone when I woke up this morning.”

If it snuck out during the night, there’s no telling how far away it could be. They could probably ask around to see if anyone had seen a Furret, especially since it’s not a common sight among the Pokemon at this school. Endless options flew through Juliana’s head as her anxiety about the whole situation was coming to a head very quickly.

“Okay. There’s only so many places it could go, right?”

That’s true. Pokemon weren’t allowed to fly out or use the ferry here without a trainer present. Just like Kieran, it had to still be within school grounds. Arceus, everything was falling apart very quickly. It comforted her a little to think that the two had found one another or something like that, but that was probably just her own head trying to rationalize everything.

Juliana nodded her head sort of absentmindedly as the other spoke, not necessarily listening all that much and instead just choosing to dissociate. It was actually kind of funny how Carmine was being the rational one in this situation, both of them the total opposites of how you would normally think this would play out. Juliana could tell that the other girl was still torn up about everything– with it being her brother and all, it was perfectly reasonable– but she actually seemed to step up and be much more mature since this all began. It was sort of comforting in the way that she spoke.

“Hey– how about we go for a walk? Maybe we’ll happen across it in the meantime. Just go clean up first, you’re gross.”

Juliana chuckled at the comment. A little blunt, but still with a deep amount of caring behind it. That was Carmine, alright.

Taking her advice, Juliana got ready with a fresh uniform and a quick run through the shower while Carmine tried to comb through her own ratatta’s nest of hair. Once the two were sufficiently dressed and presentable, they headed out towards the terrarium.

Yeah, a nice walk into nature sounds good.

Chapter Text

The first thing he felt was a wave of dissonance. It was like his eyes and his brain were experiencing two different versions of the same thing that were clashing into one another. He couldn’t comprehend why he felt this way, he didn’t even know the kid. But there was something about seeing someone like this that triggered a kind of silent alarm. All he could do was glance at the others without an ounce of recognition, yet again surrounded by a crowd that he couldn’t seem to recall but so obviously knew of this body.

He couldn’t stop staring at this scene, all of them surrounding this boy with protective concern. It was admirable, at least, like the old stories of Pokemon that would sit by the gravesite of their trainers for years until succumbing to old age. Sadly, it didn’t seem like this one made it for too long–

And then he saw it. Ever so slightly, the boy’s chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

He snapped back to reality rather quickly after realizing the urgency of the situation. Even if the kid was still alive, he surely wouldn’t be for much longer. Who knows how long they had been down here, or more importantly, if they had eaten. He would never forgive himself if he left them all here to starve. He struggled to speak, stumbling endlessly over his own words.

“How– how did this happen?”

The frog-like Pokemon with a single, curled hair on top of its head stepped up to stand next to the one with terrifying claws. He’s sure that this one, too, would have a cheerful and bubbly voice, if not for the current events transpiring before them. It sounded more like a leaky faucet heaving droplets of chilled water.

“We don’t know. There was this noise, like a thunderbolt strike. Then something happened and we all broke out to save him, but… he hasn’t woken up since then.”

They all broke out? Well, that would explain the discarded Pokeballs everywhere. Outside of the two before, there was still that Hydrapple, a monstrous creature with artificial-looking muscles made of its own hair, and a floating Pokemon that glitched erratically. He had counted five of them, so…

“Is there one more? Isn’t– there’s six to a team, right?”

Their eyes flicked back and forth to one another in confusion. A little bit of embarrassment bubbled up in him, as he worried that he made a strange comment by not reading the conversation correctly. The monstrous creature spoke up, much higher pitched than he would have assumed.

“Uh… you? He put Dragonite in the box so he could train you, remember?”

He did not. This amnesia was really becoming something of a great annoyance to him. Even if the human part of him wouldn’t have that memory, surely he had some access to what Furret knew, right? That possibility was becoming much less likely, it seemed. He wished he could get more than just the flashback of that trade, if just to add more context to his past life.

He did recall one thing though, which was made abundantly clear by another glimpse at the kid. Without a jacket, the bright red sleeveless top was the most noticeable thing about his appearance, barring the weird hairstyle. In that memory– didn’t one of the figures have something like that on? He’s sure that was still school issued, too, as he had seen many other trainers with a white version of it on his journey to the coastal biome, but nothing in that color. Did he have more of a connection to this boy than just this body? Were they friends, maybe?

Perhaps he could get more out of this than just ridding himself of a hurdle to returning back to himself, even if that sounded selfish. That couldn’t happen if they didn’t get out of here, though.

“No, I… don’t. Something's– something’s going on, I don’t know any of you.”

The worry was palpable, and he could see them all shifting uncomfortably. A few whispers erupted between those towards the back of the pack, but were unintelligible enough that he couldn’t understand what they were saying. His anxiety was reaching a peak, hating the idea that they were talking about him without being included in the conversation. Were they negative comments, making fun of him for his lack of confidence? He could feel something dark stewing within his gut. Before that could develop any more, Hydrapple finally spoke up. Its voice was disjointed, one head primarily speaking but the rest providing it with a slight echo as they repeated some of the words while muffled beneath the syrupy skin of the apple.

“Show us how you came in. We need to get him out.”

The rest of the heads kept speaking in their own cacophony in a chorus of Get him out! Get him out! He supposed this one was the leader of the team, then, with the way it took on a commanding and matter-of-fact tone. It wasn’t wrong, though, as he realized that the previous urgency had disappeared without any warning as he was caught up yet again in his coffin of personal distress.

“Oh! Sorry, you’re right. Do, uh.. any of you know how to swim?”

Only the frog-like Pokemon raised its hand. Figures. They probably couldn’t get back into their own Pokeballs without a trainer, meaning that they might just have to go searching for one to help. He knew just who to look for, but hoped that he could find her in time and that she wouldn’t be too mad about his rescue attempts. He motioned towards the water Pokemon with a shake of his paw.

Oh well, here goes nothing.

“Uh– Okay, that’s fine. We can– come with me, we’ll figure something out.”

He cringed internally at how unconfident that sounded. It seemed to understand, though, and nodded to the others before following him to the hole where Popplio still waited. Smiley as ever even in this terrible situation, he took hold of its flipper once more as they all resurfaced after exiting the cave.

If he could just find Juliana…

—

She wasn’t really doing all that well. Carmine still clutched their hands together as they traversed around the other biomes of the terrarium, not yet wanting to make their way to the place that caused them both so much pain. It was somewhat therapeutic, watching all of the wild Pokemon living their daily lives. The canyon biome was surprisingly calm, the usual sound of tumbling Graveler muted to a gentle rumble in the background. They were mostly silent as they walked, only broken by a few dejected sighs from Carmine. Juliana had hoped that it would take her mind off of Noodle for a bit, but she still found her eyes searching every movement for those tan and brown stripes.

“I– uh, really appreciate how supportive you’ve been through this whole thing. I’m sure it’s been hard for you, too.”

Attempting to start up a conversation, Juliana gave a soft smile to her companion. She truly did cherish her, though she did worry some about how Carmine’s been affected by it all. It was still her brother that was the one missing, after all. Just because she hadn’t yet seen her break down doesn’t mean she wasn’t just doing it behind closed doors.

“Yeah, it is. I worried about him a lot even before this, too, with that stuff in Area Zero. He just… beats himself up over the smallest things and gets obsessive. Even with Ogerpon, he still just calls it ‘The Ogre’ like when he was younger.”

She remembers it all much more vividly than she wished. Meeting him for the first time in Kitakami, just a nervous boy barely peeking at her from behind his sister’s back with hair slumped all over his face like he was trying to retreat further into the background. The first time they battled, the power disparity between the two of them was clear from the very beginning. She was already a Paldean Champion, after all. Even with a type disadvantage, it was no issue for Meowscarada to Flower Trick its way through his Yanma and Sentret. Then they met Ogrepon at the festival, and… that’s when things started to change. That obsessiveness, it overtook him like a plague, focusing on nothing more than strength. His team evolved much quicker than it should have, surely being subjected to some unsavory conditions as they tirelessly worked on that nebulous goal, all to defeat her. Her own journey had easily been triple the amount of time it took for him to match her level, not even considering the monstrous titans she took on for Arven and difficult Gym Leaders that trainers could challenge at a steady pace.

When she finally made her way to Blueberry, she saw the culmination of what her actions had caused. Peering over the partition with Carmine to the lower level of the central plaza, the person standing around barking orders as Champion was no longer recognizable as the Kieran she knew from his hometown. The next time they finally saw each other in the cafeteria, she would never forget the pure hatred etched in every facet of the look they shared, nor the insanity dripping front the corners of his crooked smile. Despite reassurances from Carmine that she, too, should share the blame for this shift, it still permeated Juliana’s mind every second of the day that she was still the primary motivator behind his cruel actions.

When she still managed to defeat him at his full strength and the confident facade finally crumbled, he still wasn’t the same as before. While he had been simply obsessive and unhealthily determined previously, it yet again changed to something more outwardly spiteful and bitter. He went to Area Zero, only so that he could catch Terapagos in a last ditch attempt to prove that he was better than her. When that failed, she could tell that this caused him to break. Not in a further break of sanity, but rather a break of identity. He had built himself up over the time they were apart on the foundation of this burning jealousy of Juliana. Finally having the proof that he would never be better than her caused that foundation to crack and fall apart. At least now, he could see the error of his ways.

Finally seeing the boy she knew apologizing to her on the bridge back to the academy, it made her heart swell with all sorts of emotions, some of which dug themselves back up from where she had buried them. She knew, without any doubt in her mind, that she loved him. The pain from their journey and the guilt that she felt would never really fully subside, but she hoped that they would now finally have the time to communicate properly.

It seems now like that was a misplaced hope. After all, if he was no longer alive, she wouldn’t ever get the opportunity to tell him how she truly felt, how she had cared so much for him ever since their shared Caramel apples at the festival of masks and how the fireworks illuminated his face in such a way that she couldn’t help but memorize every detail of his features.

Carmine noticed her introspection, giving Juliana’s shoulder a gentle nudge with her own to snap her out of her thoughts. She gave back a grateful smile, the two still walking hand-in-hand and heading towards the direction of the place they dreaded the most.

“You ready? Don’t go backing out now or I’ll send out my Pokemon to give you a good smack!”

The two laughed at Carmine’s obvious joke as they stepped under the caution tape. A small group of Pikipek flew around overhead, tweeting their social calls with a chipper tune. Tiny glimmers of hope still resided in Juliana, heightened by her companionship in Carmine. She’s glad that she’s not trying to tackle this alone, who knows what she would do to get him back.

Everything seemed as normal as it could possibly be. The lack of trainers would always be unsettling, but the wild Pokemon trekked on like nothing was wrong. She supposed that it wasn’t really in their best interest to care, as they would probably be most interested in their own survival over anything else. By now the two girl’s fingers had split apart, both instead using them to block out the artificial sun’s rays to get a better view of their surroundings. There was a lot of ground to cover, and such little time. How in the world would the two of them search the whole area themselves?

Well, it seems like they wouldn’t need to anymore, as Carmine suddenly called out. Pointing to a general direction, Juliana caught sight of exactly what she had been looking for. Those fluffy stripes were moving with purpose, though it didn’t seem to spot the two of them yet. It had a partner, too…

“Juli, Noodle found Kiki’s Politoed!”

She was still impressed that Carmine could identify her brother’s Pokemon with such efficiency, especially from that distance. Juliana took off like a rocket, not waiting for the other girl to join her as she had her sights set on the Furret. Now, they both locked eyes, running towards one another like a scene in a cheesy rom-com. She nearly tackled the poor thing, wrapping it in a hug so tight that Noodle let out a sound similar to a squeaky-toy. Pulling away slightly, she put on her best scolding face.

“Never do that again, you hear me? I thought you were gone forever!”

She wasn’t being entirely serious, but hoped that hyperbole would still get her worry across without truly expressing how stressing the ordeal had been. Noodle rubbed the top of its head against the underside of her chin, the soft fur tickling her in a way that caused her to giggle uncontrollably.

With the heartfelt reunion over, Noodle removed itself from Juliana and motioned their attention to Politoed. Carmine still couldn’t believe her eyes, giving the Pokemon a gentle pat, to which it blew out a happy bubble in response. It wasn’t long until the two started to pull on the fabric of the trainer’s shirts with fervor, trying to tell them something. Juliana was the first to understand.

“Huh? You want us to follow you? Did you find something?”

They both nodded with such intensity that they couldn’t say no. Maybe it was related to more clues? This Politoed had been previously missing along with the rest of the team, so perhaps that’s where they were taking them. It wasn’t too long until they reached that dreaded spot on the beach, but it did confuse the girls when the two creatures hopped into the water and beckoned them to join. They were pointing their limbs downwards, like something was… under the water?

Carmine released her Milotic, both her and Juliana climbing onto its back after getting permission from the creature. Noodle grabbed onto Politoed, and the whole group descended into the warm embrace of the waves. It was quiet, just for a moment, until they all emerged into a cave. Has this always been here? The maps that the school provided always seemed to omit any natural interiors like caverns, so there would have been no possible way for them to have known.

Then, they saw it.

Carmine screamed.

—

Honestly, even with everything that was happening, that hug kept playing on loop in his mind. She had been so happy to see him that he couldn’t stop the noise of surprise he made as a result of the contact. It was like heaven, those few moments he found himself in her arms. He wished they could have stayed like that forever.

He’s not quite come to terms with what it all meant. There was obviously some kind of development going on, but he couldn’t make himself admit to its existence. Arceus knows that he couldn’t do anything about it in this current form at least, and she already told him that she liked that Kieran guy anyways. Oh well, it seems like a burial of these feelings is what’s necessary.

That would be the most productive thing to do at this time anyways, as him and the frog-like Pokemon had a mission to complete. He brought the girls to the cave, where he found himself covering his ears from the scream that erupted from the one with red highlights.

Both ran to the boy immediately, calling out his name in a futile attempt to wake him. He didn’t so much as stir, lying there with closed eyes and the same gentle rhythm of breaths, like he was simply sleeping.

He wondered what this guy was like to have so many people that cared about him this much, especially someone as cool as Juliana. Must be really lucky.

Lugging the unconscious Kieran on her back, the taller girl called out to the rest of the Pokemon present to explain what was going to happen. Her long snake-like creature kept its head poking out from the entrance, ready to retrieve them all from this damp mess of a cavern.

“Juli, help them all back into their Pokeballs!”

Juliana obliged immediately, scooping up the capsules with such efficiency that it was like watching a master performing their craft. He couldn’t help but admire it. One by one, each of the members returned to their places, where she deposited each into her own bag.

What he did not expect, though, was for Juliana to forgo returning him to his own Pokeball.

“Noodle, we need you to run ahead and warn the school nurse that we’re coming. Go find her Chansey, and get them to make up a bed.”

He could do that. He’s sure that he passed by the office on his way to the terrarium anyway, so he knew the way this time. All of them hopping back onto the water snake and making their way back to the surface, he ran as fast as he could through the biomes. He honestly had a bit of tunnel vision, taking this task more seriously than anything else that had come before. The girls were very far behind him at this point, especially with one burdened by the limp weight on her back.

Eventually, he saw the exit back to the rest of the school. Okay, now which way was the nurse’s office? He decided to just follow his footsteps backwards, towards where he had come from in the dorms. A few turns later, and he was greeted by the door decorated in cute stickers of Pokemon holding eggs. Is that what a Chansey was? He sure hoped so.

Knock, knock.

Silence was all that greeted him at first, and he worried that no one was there. Surely Juliana and the other girl were catching up at this point, so he knocked again, much harder and with more purpose.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

Finally, the door swung open suddenly with a Pokemon appearing from behind it. It looked the same as the stickers, so he assumed he was in the right place. He could tell that this one was perhaps a bit older, as there was plenty of wisdom behind those eyes and it spoke with a slight creak.

“Yes, dear, what is it? I thought you were going to break the door down. The nurse is out at the moment, what can I do for you?”

It seemed very sweet yet caring, like a mother who prided herself on doting for her children. It was a bit inconvenient that the nurse wasn’t here, but he decided that he could put his trust in the Pokemon standing before him. It seemed like it would know what it's doing.

“We– We have an emergency coming in a few minutes! They’re on their way– he needs help!”

Chansey jumped into action right away, pulling him into the room after propping it open with a small wedge. From the lower cabinets, it started throwing sheets and pillows at him that he only barely managed to make sure didn’t hit the floor. All of the cots were empty at the moment, so it just grabbed the nearest one and brought it closer. It worked with lighting fast efficiency, putting everything together so effectively that it was ready in a matter of seconds. It had a few things already prepared on stand-by, like an oxygen mask and pre-packaged sterile items presumably for an IV.

“Alright, dear, everything’s ready. Stand by that supply closet over there in case I need you to bring me anything.”

He did so, heart beating out of his chest with nervousness as he waited with bated breath for Juliana and the other one to arrive. A minute passed, then two, then five. He hadn’t been that far ahead of them, was he? Did something happen?

Just as he was about to get sucked into his own thoughts, they bursted into the Nurse’s office with the boy still hanging from the girl’s back. Chansey pushed the bed even closer, allowing for her to lay him down gently as she began to assess the unconscious trainer while returning him to the proper spot.

He felt kind of awkward, to be honest, Just standing and waiting for Chansey to give him orders. The Pokemon worked tirelessly as it hooked the kid up to countless machines and monitors, it was truly impressive. Once all was said and done, he noticed how the girl with the red highlights was slumped over tiredly on one of the waiting chairs. He didn’t blame her, he would be too if he had to carry an unconscious person who knows how far. Juliana was sitting next to her, comfortingly massaging her shoulders and giving reassurances with a hushed voice.

He snuck another glance over to the bed where Kieran laid. He hadn’t had the time to get a very good look when he discovered the cave. There was something about him that was causing some wires to cross in his brain, like sparks discharging from an old device.

Sparks? Device?

He was right on the edge of something, like a revelation. Another memory, maybe? He closed his eyes tightly and focused on that feeling while Chansey wasn’t needing him.

What was it about Kieran that made him start being so familiar, after he had no recollection previously?

The euphoria of synchronization!

A woman’s voice, and a faint image of a lab coat.

...Oh! Hello there. I know you, but let me introduce myself. My name is Synclaire. I’m quite the outstanding researcher, you know!

Weird, the names weren’t being omitted anymore. That would explain the lab coat, though, if she was a researcher. He could hear some conversation happening around him, but he chose to not pay attention while he was finally remembering something else.

Would you like to help me out by participating in an amazing experiment I’m working on?

The scene was a bit more clear around him now. Bright cubed lights and strange technologies were all around, and a woman with thick, textured hair smiled ominously in front of him with a small device outstretched in her hands. He could remember himself nodding, though thoroughly not trusting of the person in front of him.

That’s the spirit! Let’s head over to the test area, then!

The scene shifted to a valley of craggy rocks, with a single tree standing in front of him. There was this strange sensation in his mind, realizing that he was no longer looking through his own eyes, but Furret’s. He could still feel the device in his hands, but they were undoubtedly connected in a way not dissimilar to their current situation. What did it all mean?

Your mind and feelings are not synchronized with those of your Pokemon! Now that you’re all synched up, your Pokemon will move as directed by your thoughts!

He was starting to understand. This device– it caused their minds to connect. When he wanted to move, the body of Furret moved. When he attacked, Furret attacked. This machine was the cause of this, he was now sure of it. But what happened, then? He could remember them de-synchronizing, becoming two separate entities once more.

I’m sure someone with your talent could put this amazing invention to good use!

The researcher handed it over to him, with the words “Synchro Machine” etched into the metal just above the screen. It was a fickle-looking thing, obviously a prototype with sparks of electricity flying all about in a way that definitely did not seem safe. Was this the answer?

Use it a few more times and let me know how you like it, so I can make it even better! Bye for now, Kieran!

Huh? Kieran?

…

Oh no.

He thinks he remembers what might have happened, now.

Chapter Text

Juliana hadn’t really left Kieran’s side since he was placed into the nurse’s office. Carmine had come and gone most frequently out of all the approved visitors, mostly to bring her friend actual meals so she wouldn’t try to survive by eating the mints the nurse kept in a jar on the counter. News spread that the ex-champion had been found just as quickly as it had about his disappearance, ending in a wave of relief– mostly because the Coastal Biome could be opened back up to the rest of the student population, not so much about the recovery. Many still had a bitter taste in their mouths towards the former champion.

The rest of the league club members visited often, as well. Mostly Lacey and Crispin, but Amarys and Drayton still stopped by every now and then. Kieran’s team was nursed back to health successfully, the best cure simply being a hot meal or two. They had been alone for quite a few days without proper access to food, so it was no wonder that most of them scarfed the first thing placed in front of them. The nurse and her Pokemon had insisted they slow down, but that didn’t stop Incineroar from becoming sopping wet by plunging its face directly into the warm tomato berry soup it was served.

Kieran’s left hand was between both of Juliana’s, as she kept repeatedly checking if there was any movement. She would speak to him softly, asking over and over if he could squeeze it. So far, she’d had no luck. Noodle had been acting really strange lately, too, like it kept trying to tell her something. It would pull on her jacket to get attention, squeaking away and making gestures that she couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“I’m sorry, buddy. I don’t understand.”

She could tell it was frustrated that it couldn’t articulate what it needed to say to her. Maybe next time Amarys came to visit, she would ask to borrow her Pokemon. She would ask Lacey to use Slowbro instead since she came by more, but that Pokemon tended to be rather oblivious and march to the beat of its own tempo. Regardless, she’s pretty sure she heard from a class that Psychic types had the ability to translate between the minds of people and Pokemon. She’s honestly a little embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of it before, but also had pretty much been able to understand Noodle just based off of it’s gestures anyways.

Noodle kept pointing to itself, and then to Kieran. She already knew that Noodle belonged to him, so what was it trying to express? She hoped that Amarys would come sooner rather than later, because it was actually starting to annoy her a little. Kieran was the main focus of her attention, regardless, as she kept watching him to remind herself that he was still alive. It was a bit intimidating, seeming him hooked up to all of these machines and wires monitoring his vitals. It made her want to cry, but she had to stay strong. She wouldn’t want to embarrass herself if he could hear her.

The nurse’s Chansey was the sweetest thing and probably the best part about this entire situation. It was also surprisingly well-versed in the knowledge of healthcare. It kept everything up and running, and even wrote down whatever numbers it read on a chart just like an actual nurse (even if they were mostly illegible and only understandable by the Pokemon itself). She watched intently as Chansey would hang bags of saline or IV nutrients, keeping the unconscious boy beside her well nourished while he wasn’t able to eat or drink for himself. Arceus, she felt so pitiful watching each slow, drawn out breath he took from under the oxygen mask. The nurse hadn’t given much indication of his prognosis, but she held on hope that he would wake up eventually.

Carmine walked back into the room, having just returned from doing some make-up work from the classes they missed while the investigation was going on. She dropped a sizable stack of papers in front of Juliana, a few of them flying off in different directions and onto the floor. The taller girl had been so kind as to ask the teachers about printing assignments on the champion's behalf to turn in at a later date, so she could complete them on her own time. According to Carmine, they were “weirdly understanding”.

“Nothing yet. Still the same as– Noodle, not now!”

Juliana interrupted herself in the middle of trying to update Carmine as the Furret started pulling on her jacket again. It jumped back slightly, started by how she raised her voice before going off to sulk in a corner. She felt a little bad, but it was seriously starting to get on her nerves. She’s not sure if she could deal with the added stress of trying to decipher its movements anymore on top of school assignments and the boy she liked literally in a coma beside her.

“That was mean, Juli! Aw, poor thing.”

Carmine crouched down beside the Pokemon. There was a joking tone to her voice, which Noodle seemed to pick up on immediately and gave Juliana the biggest, saddest expression she’d ever seen. Those two would be a menace of a duo if they hung around each other more, she’s sure of it. She couldn’t deny that those eyes were making her heart melt with how cute it was, so she gave a big sigh and held her hands up defeatedly.

“Alright, I’m sorry Noodle. I’m just a bit worried is all. C’mere.”

She patted a spot on her lap for it to jump on which it took to immediately, curling up in a ball and giving a small squeak of approval.

“I know that you’re trying to tell me something that’s very important, and I get that. How about I call Amarys and see when she plans to stop by next? Her Pokemon could help me understand you better.”

It seemed absolutely ecstatic, rolling around and leaving her uniform completely covered in fur. She took that as an obvious yes, pulling out her Rotom Phone and tapping the steel trainer’s contact photo. Noodle situated itself sitting up with its back against her stomach, swinging its little feet in a happy manner. The phone rang exactly three times before the other girl appeared on the screen.

“Hey! What time are you gonna be here today? I’ve got a favor I want to ask.”

She could see Amarys pull her pocket watch out to check the time before returning it to its proper place.

“Exactly one hour past dinner time. What do you require?”

Noodle poked its head up enough so its ears could barely be seen by the camera, which caught the other girl’s attention. She didn’t laugh– which would have been unusual for her anyways– but more so made an expression of quiet interest.

“Bring along your Reuniclus, Noodle’s been trying to tell me something for the past day that I can’t figure out. If– you want to, of course.”

The cold outward demeanor of the other girl always intimidated her some, so she came into a habit of leaving her requests open-ended when it wasn’t an emergency.

“Understood. I will be there right on time.”

The call ended abruptly, as it usually would with her. Amarys wasn’t much for goodbyes, she supposed, or maybe she just wasn’t up on the courtesies of phone calls. Either way, she could hear Carmine giggling from the other side of the room, taking a photo of the way Noodle was sitting on her. She had to admit, it was actually really adorable. She guided her Rotom Phone down a little lower, and the Furret immediately grabbed and started to play with it. The screen didn’t register its inputs too well, but it was having fun with the camera, changing around filters and stickers while looking at its face in the reflection.

She wondered what it was trying to tell her that was so important.

—

He was actually having a lot of fun with this thing. He can’t remember ever having one of these for himself, so he would relish every moment he got messing around with the functions. Currently, he had taken a somewhat unflattering photo of Juliana from a low angle and was placing various little images of flowers all around it.

“Oh– Noodle, c’mon. I look so bad in that one!”

Juliana chuckled as she caught sight of the completed photograph and went to try and grab her phone back, but he tucked it in closer to himself in an effort to keep it away. He thought she looked cute in it, so he would do his best to protect his work. He made sure to hit the save button, but it took a few tries with how the screen struggled to register the taps from his paws and Juliana still trying to grab it from him. Sure, she could just go in and delete it later, but it was a win in his book for the time being.

He glanced over at the other girl in the room, still kind of curious as to what her deal was. Did he know her name? Juliana had probably said it before, but he must have unconsciously ignored it. There was, after all, a very strong familial resemblance between his body and her, so maybe he knew her so well in the past that his brain forgot to register what would have been such readily available information. That would really need to be told to him soon, though, as it was becoming a bit of a mouthful every time he referred to her as “the girl with the red highlights”. Wait– would those even be considered highlights if they’re all underneath her hair?

Regardless, he finally decided to relinquish the phone back to Juliana and hopped down off her lap. Approaching the other girl cautiously, he gave a little wave of his paw as a hello. Had he ever given any kind of apology since the whole completely-freaking-out-and-destroying-stuff situation? Well, it seemed alright for now as she gave a small smile and a wave of her own. Juliana clicked her tongue.

“Aw, Carmine, I think it’s warming up to you.”

Oh, so it was Carmine. That sounded correct. At least he got an answer to his question pretty quickly. She was much taller than most of the other people he’d seen, so he could safely assume she was older than him. A big sister, maybe? They looked too similar to be cousins, and it made sense why she was sticking around so much– only slightly less than Juliana.

That made his head spin, too, that the girl he admired so much was stuck by his side. She’d left once to talk to someone outside– a teacher, possibly– but otherwise had been here the entire time since they’d come to the nurse’s office. He could see the way she was holding his hand, too, and had even interlocked their fingers at one point. Oh, how he desperately wished he could get back into his body so he could know what that felt like.

Carmine outstretched her arm in front of her to get his attention, a small berry in her palm as a peace offering. It wasn’t his favorite flavor– he actually found himself rather disliking bitter tastes– but he still accepted it regardless as a show of good faith. He took a few small bites but he must have had a funny look on his face with the way it caused her to laugh.

“You didn’t have to eat it if you don’t like it!”

He shot her an annoyed look as he waddled over and placed the berry in the trash. Yep, definitely siblings. She gave him a small pat on the head, to which he playfully tried to swat it away. It continued on like that for a while, with Juliana sitting across the room typing away on her phone and the two of them messing with each other. At one point he could feel his stomach start to rumble, which meant that it was probably getting closer to dinnertime. Carmine took that distraction as a signal to lightly jab him in the belly, which surprised him so much that he fell straight onto his back.

Right on cue, the clock on the wall began to chime a tune, probably signaling that it had just passed over into meal time. Juliana looked up and then over to the two of them, still shaking her head in fake disappointment.

“Wanna go grab something, Juli? It’d probably be a good idea to eat before Amarys gets here.”

The champion simply shook her head at Carmine's suggestion and turned back to the unconscious boy.

“Well, that figures. I’ll bring you whatever I end up getting. You should really be grateful– I bet you’d die if I wasn’t here!”

Carmine’s fists shook in fake rage before the two of them laughed it off. It was kind of admirable how much those girls obviously valued each other as friends and took care of one another. He turned to look towards the taller girl, who returned it with a slight tilt of her head.

“You wanna go with me? I think they’ve got a sweet sandwich on special today.”

Dear Arceus, now she was speaking his language. He had a sweet tooth the size of a Rhyperior, so it was no question when he enthusiastically nodded his head. The two of them waved goodbye to Juliana, who still sat quietly beside his body. He thinks he might have heard her speaking to him softly again through the door once they exited.

He doesn’t quite know the way to the cafeteria, but that was no longer an issue when Carmine was primarily leading the way for him. Walking a bit faster than he could keep up with, she ended up having to stop several times to let him catch up while giving him more fake insults that he could tell were wrapped over a sweeter interior. She was a lot nicer than he originally assumed once you got past the facade and realized that most of the ruder things she says aren’t genuine. It was like she was an ice cream sundae with some of that hardening chocolate glaze on top. Once you broke through the shell, you could see that the inside was a lot softer and saccharine than what was visible from the outside.

They arrived at the cafeteria in no time, bustling with students all over sitting at tables with their friend groups gossiping over the latest drama. He never really understood why people this age are like that, but he supposed that it was probably the most entertaining thing to do at a place like this. Carmine grabbed two take-out trays with one arm filled with pre-prepared meals by the kitchen staff, and a wrapped-up sandwich in the other. Some whispers came from around him.

“Did you hear that they found the ex-champion?”

“Yeah, but I kinda wish they didn’t, y’know? That guy was always a stick-in-the-mud.”

“You shouldn’t say that so loud! But yeah, I totally agree. What a jerk.”

He kind of wished he didn’t hear that. What could he have possibly done that would have so many people against him? He didn’t think he was a bad guy, all things considered, even if he couldn’t remember it just yet. Once he got back to his body, maybe he would have to put in some better efforts towards becoming friendly with everyone he could. Yeah, that would work!

“Hey, quit being so slow! You won’t get any food if you don’t start moving!”

A few heads turned at Carmine’s volume but continued on once they realized where the sound had been coming from. Huh, seems like she doesn’t have as bad of a reputation, or maybe they’re just used to her shenanigans. Either way, it snapped him out of his thoughts and he followed after her for fear that he wouldn’t get that delicious-smelling sandwich.

The walk back wasn’t as eventful, minus Carmine handing him one of the take-out boxes to hold. He had to be extra careful not to trip, or else he would spill Juliana’s meal. It was an unfounded worry, though, as they made it back to the nurse’s office without any fanfare. He handed the box to Juliana, who gave him a quick thank-you before digging in. Huh, she must have also been hungry. Carmine had been bringing her meals, but it still seemed like she wasn’t eating properly. It made more sense now why some of the boxes in the trash were heavier, as she probably wasn’t finishing all of the food.

Carmine handed him the sandwich, to which he simply had to stop and admire it for a moment. This thing was covered in strawberries and whipped cream, topped with some chocolate-y drizzle and mixed nuts on the bun. This wouldn’t be a very nutritious meal, but it would surely be a good one. Once it had been thoroughly devoured, it became very clear that he had not been too careful about keeping his fur clean based on the chocolate sauce somehow having gotten on both of his paws, all over his mouth, and somehow his forehead. Carmine ended up having to take a damp towel and wipe it off of him, with much resistance.

Juliana watched on with glee as this occurred, like this was the funniest thing to happen all day. He’s happy that he could make her laugh so hard, as she literally had to clutch her stomach and wheezed an ugly sound harder than he’d ever heard anyone do before. Well, to him it wasn’t ugly. It was actually the most adorable thing he’d ever heard.

He decided to hide behind Juliana from Carmine, but then noticed that she hadn’t yet finished half her meal and stopped eating entirely. There was a sense of determination that rose within him as he snaked around the chair and stole the spoon out of her right hand. With much surprise from her, he held the utensil in both hands (curse still not having thumbs), and gave her a hearty scoop of rice from the box.

“No thank you Noodle, I’m full.”

Yet he insisted, nudging the spoon closer to her mouth. With a groan, she begrudgingly took a bite and swallowed.

“Happy?”

No, he was not. He kept insisting on feeding her spoonfuls of rice until he could genuinely tell that she was getting stuffed. The box went from half-full to a little less than a quarter-full, and he decided to take that as a win. He’d be damned to the Distortion World if he let his crush starve while looking after his comatose body.

… That was a weird sentence.

He gave a satisfied nod as he took the box to the trash can for her, much happier in the safety of knowing she finally had a proper meal. Carmine was making a weird face, like she had been entertained by the circumstance.

“Aw, Juli, Noodle just cares about you! I gotta admit, you sure weren’t eating a lot.”

Juliana rolled her eyes, crossing her arms to feign ignorance.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was eating plenty. I just… don’t have much of an appetite!”

“And yet you let it feed you way more than you said you wanted? Yeah, right! Like I would believe that!”

The two girls laughed, though there was a bit of concern laced into the taller one’s voice. He’s sure that they both had the same amount of worry for her, but they were doing the best that they could to keep the mood up. Wouldn’t want this to get too depressing and retrospective, after all.

Not too long later, a small chime came from Juliana’s phone. It was slightly different from the call jingle, so it must have been a text message instead. She took a second to read it before nonchalantly swerving her arm off to the side.

“Amarys says she’ll be here in 10. Well– in much fancier words than that but you get the point.”

Carmine nodded her head, and turned towards him. Being as tall as she is, she crouched down to get on his eye-level. In her hands were a pair of ear-plugs, one’s specifically designed to be extremely malleable for the different anatomies that came with various Pokemon’s ear canals. They were bright orange, and the weirdest shape he’d ever seen. He was sort of confused as to what these would be used for. She went over and handed some to Juliana, as well, though they were the regular long gumdrop-shaped ones for human ears.

“Do you both know what’s gonna happen going into this?”

They both shook their heads simultaneously and Carmine gave a big fake sigh like this was going to be an inconvenience, which left Juliana with a small smile. He was honestly starting to get a little nervous about the whole actually-getting-to-talk-with-Juliana thing. Would she recognize his voice at all? He hoped he wouldn’t stutter too much, especially since he tended to do that, even in his own thoughts all the time. Arceus, he was so awkward and Juliana was so pretty that it made his mind short-circuit and he hoped he wouldn’t think anything too weird while it was happening–

Okay, calm down. Surely it wasn’t going to be too bad.

“So– Alright, when Amarys comes in and sends out Reuniclus, it’s gonna do this, like… mind-meld thing I guess? It’ll connect your thoughts with one another. I did it once for Mightyena, it was cool but super strange-feeling. Apparently it has a Kitakami accent, too.”

Huh, that’s not so bad. It made him feel a little better that someone else had done it before, and gave him some confidence going into this. He looked down at the ear plugs, and Juliana must have read his mind when she decided to ask exactly what he was thinking.

“So, what are the ear plugs for?”

“Oh– it’ll block out the noise so you can hear each other better. They’re not necessary, but they help.”

Made sense. Amarys marched into the room with Pokeball in hand. It was only then that the clock moved to on the hour, so apparently she had been earlier than expected. Without saying a word, she tossed the ball onto the ground, releasing a Pokemon that he couldn’t even describe the appearance of. It looked like a weird… baby… thing, floating in a loosely held together goo that formed the appearance of arms. Carmine clapped her hands together excitedly.

“Good, you’re here! They’re ready to start.”

They both took that as a cue to put their ear plugs in, which he ended up having some difficulty with but eventually got working. Reuniclus approached slowly, reaching its gelatinous hands out in front of it and placing the palms on both of their faces. It was just as cold and gross as he expected it to be. He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for what he assumed would be some kind of indication that they were connected. It felt like a full bucket of ooze was being poured onto his brain.

And then…

”Hello? Can you hear me?”

Her voice echoed through his head. It wasn’t too loud, and felt like she was speaking directly into his ears with nothing else dampening the sound. He felt closer to her than ever before, but he guessed that would technically be true now that their minds were linked with one another.

”Hi– um, hello. Juliana?”

It was hard to explain, but he could feel her smile. Well, happiness would technically be a psychological thing, so maybe that was it. He was feeling her happiness. He wished he could bask in it like laying in a field of sunflowers on a beautiful, sunny day forever.

”Woah– that’s so funny, you sound just like Kieran. I wonder if that’s normal– like adopting the accent of your trainer. That’s so cool.”

As charming as that admiration was, she would probably start feeling the nervousness radiating off of him soon. How would she even react to him telling her this? Would she believe him, or think he’s trying to pull off some kind of sick prank? He could feel her reciprocate, the anxiety from her only heighting his own.

”Are you okay, Noodle? Why are you so tense?”

”Ah, well– y’know that thing I wanted to tell you? It’s… well, it’s about that. My name isn’t Noodle. I’ve… remembered some things.”

Some excitement started bubbling its way up from her. Figures that she would take this the wrong way. He wasn’t saying that he regained his memories– not fully, anyways.

”Wow, really? That’s amazing! What’s your name, then? I wouldn’t want to call you something you’re not.”

Here it goes, time to drop the bombshell. He sincerely hopes that she wouldn’t make fun of him for this. Maybe she would help him.

”It’s… Kieran.”

She went deathly quiet for what seemed like forever. She flashed several different emotions all at once, like she was going through the 5 stages of grief. Denial, then anger, then sadness, then confusion.

”Are… you’re serious? How– What caused this?”

He’s never felt more relief, and she must have felt it from him too. He was so nervous that she was going to laugh, or say that he was lying or–

Okay, wait. Focus. She just asked a question.

”It’s a.. very long story. I used this… machine thing, and I got stuck in Furret’s head. Go find– Oh, Arceus, what was her name? Uh– Synclair. She’s a researcher in the central plaza. That’s why I can’t wake up, I’m not in there.”

She went quiet again. It was a lot of information to take in, for sure, so he couldn’t blame her. At least he finally made himself known. When she finally came back to her senses, all she said were two simple words.

”Got it.”

With that, she gently took Reuniclus’ hand off of her face and severed the connection. It honestly felt a little lonely now, but he could think about that later. Juliana stood up with purpose and grabbed Carmine’s hand, pulling her out of the room suddenly, and leaving just him and Amarys behind. After a few awkward seconds had passed, she simply excused herself from the room. Well, he guessed that he’d be the one in charge of looking after his body now. It was kind of a sick irony.

—

“Juli– slow down! What in the world's gotten into you?”

Carmine called out with surprise, which made sense considering this was the first time she’d stepped out of the room in a while, and she was going somewhere based on instructions that no-one heard but Noodle– no, Kieran– and herself.

Yeah, that was a weird feeling. This little Furret that she’d been getting attached to was, in fact, the guy she liked trapped in a Pokemon’s body. Oh no, she’d admitted so many embarrassing things!

She’d worry about that later. For now, she was heading to the terrarium to search for that researcher lady. He had said something about a machine… that sounded somewhat familiar, like something had been said to her about it in passing. If this lady was just hanging out and about in the terrarium, surely she had talked to many other students besides only Kieran, and the information just happened to spread around. She must have been one sketchy researcher, though, because she’d never heard of anyone actually taking part in her research– except for him, she supposed.

“Just follow me. I was told how to wake Kieran up.”

“What– Noodle told you that? How in the world would it even know?”

She held up a finger towards Carmine to pause her speaking before she went off on some kind of rant like she usually would.

“Just trust me. You’re my best friend. Would I lie to you?”

Carmine paused, but ultimately shook her head.

“Right. Now, c’mon. We don’t have much time.”

Well, they did, but she didn’t tell Carmine that. She just desperately wanted to get him back and give this Synclair lady a piece of her mind. What did she do to be the cause of the current situation? Juliana wasn’t afraid of using her Pokemon to get answers.

It wasn’t long until the two of them caught sight of the central plaza after coming to the terrarium, and also finding the only person there visibly wearing a lab coat. The two of them ran right in front of her, visibly sweating from the exercise of moving as fast as they could to find her.

“Hello ladies! Want to take part in some research?”

Her coarse hair was pulled back in a ponytail, an unnaturally happy smile on her face. Juliana wasted no time, grabbing onto the sleeve of her coat in a somewhat intimidating manner.

“Our friend said one of your machines messed him up. Know anything about that?”

She could tell that Carmine was surprised by her assertiveness but mimicked her expression to encourage her and better help make her point. The researcher didn’t so much as flinch.

“Oh, yes, the Synchro Machine? It’s got all kinds of side-effects! It's just a prototype after all. Mind explaining a bit more?”

This was making her legitimately angry now, letting go of the researcher’s sleeve to instead grab her by the collar of her shirt. The lady’s smile was unwavering, and slightly upsetting.

“He’s stuck in his Pokemon’s head, and lost his memory! I need you to tell me how to fix it, now.”

She could see the fake expression melting off of Carmine’s face in the corner of her eye into a puzzled one as she said that, but not interrupting the confrontation. She’d fill her in afterwards.

“Are you talking about ex-champion Kieran? Oh, I gave him the extra-unstable prototype. Fascinating! I’ll have to write down these findings.”

Juliana could have punched her with the way she pulled out a damn note-pad and started writing. Her friend was not some kind of lab-Rattata to perform experiments on! Instead, she only tightened her grip on the collar to make her point, which caused Synclair to pause.

“Ah– right, you want a reversal. No worries! I have the solution here.”

She produced another small device, this one literally just labeled “Synchro Machine Remote Reboot”. Yeah, right, like she would trust anything this wacko would hand her. Just as she was about to throw that to the ground, Carmine grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“Juli– I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Her friend was right, she was starting to become blind with rage and make irrational decisions. Slowly, and without letting go of eye contact, she released the shirt collar of the researcher and backed away. She didn’t even want to spare another word towards this terrible person, instead choosing to walk the other way and back to the nurse’s office with Carmine trailing behind her. She could feel Synclair’s eyes on her the whole way.

Carmine ran around to her front, looking utterly frazzled at everything that just occurred.

“Okay, you need to do some explaining, because what the hell was that?”

Honestly, she’s a little shocked herself. What she just did was way out of character, even for her. Perhaps it was just because she cared so damn much for Kieran, but she was literally willing to let the world burn if it meant getting him back. Perhaps Carmine was owed a bit of an explanation, too. She did just drag her out here without warning, after all.

“The Furret you know as Noodle? Yeah– uh, that’s Kieran. From what I gather, he got stuck in Furret’s head on account of that woman we just confronted and her weird gadgets. He can’t wake up until he’s back in his own body.”

Yeah, that seemed concise enough. Carmine’s eyes moved around like she was searching for cameras for some kind of prank show, before giving Juliana a bigger look of disbelief than she’s ever seen her give, and she’s said some real stupid things before.

“You– Huh? WHAT?”

Juliana picked up speed in her quest to get back to Kieran, and Carmine eventually matched her tempo. The reboot device was nested securely in her left hand, making various beeps and boops idly. In their sprint, it wasn’t all that long until they reached the nurse’s office yet again to an expectant Furret looking up at them with wide eyes that turned to slight fear as it spotted the machine in Juliana’s hand.

—

Oh hell no. He would not be trying out another one of these devices for as long as he still lived. The panic must have been clear on his face as Juliana sat the contraption down on the floor in front of him. It was kind of sweet, the fact that she was probably trying to let him explore it for himself. He had one eye closed as he reached for it, expecting it to explode or zap him or something, but he picked it up with no issue. “Synchro Machine Remote Reboot”, huh?

“She said this was supposed to help. I don’t know how we’re supposed to use it, but I assume it’ll work like a reset button? I won’t do it if you don’t want me to.”

Juliana was so kind to him, not even wanting to use it without his explicit consent, even though it would be so much easier to just hit him with it and move on. He thought about the possibilities for a moment, and tried to rack his brain for any more ideas of how to undo this, but drawing a blank. He rationalized it to himself, wondering about all the wonderful memories they had shared that he had completely forgotten about, lost to the void of amnesia. This really was their best shot. He walked over to her, and placed a paw on her knee, just like he had all that time ago when they first found each other in the terrarium.

Carmine stood quietly behind the two of them as Juliana raised the device and pointed it to his head. It spoke in a robotic voice that sounded like an artificial synthesis of that horrid researcher.

Please make your first selection to export, option one of two.

She fiddled with it for a moment, but managed to press something to make it work. He felt this weird pressure just between his eyebrows (well, where eyebrows would be on a Furret), like a dull headache that wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t necessarily painful, just slightly aggravating. He hoped this would all be over soon.

Please select the target of import.

Another few seconds of messing with the buttons, and everything suddenly went black.

He found himself floating in an endless abyss, with a small electrical hum being the only thing he could hear. It was relaxing, all things considered, as it felt like his whole body was encased in a river flowing down through the waters of time. As he did, small flickers of something started to fill his vision.

He saw Juliana, much different than she looked now, in a purple uniform with a round hat placed on her head. Something was obscuring his vision, which he realized was his own hair. Carmine spoke in front of him, while he hid behind her in a timid manner.

So… you’re one of those students who came from the Paldea region, huh?

Another flash, and Juliana was here once again. She had on the festival Jinbei, with her hair done up in such a way that he couldn’t help but admire how beautiful she looked in his culture’s attire. There was a bitterness to his voice that was wrapped in a veil of melancholy as she walked away just out of earshot that he wasn’t expecting.

Why… Why’d you lie to me?

Now, he saw himself facing her in a battle. The loyal three monument to his back, he gave it all he had, yet still found himself on the side of defeat. He let out a frustrated scream, turning around and punching the monument as hard as he could and hurting his knuckles in the process.

Kiki, are you alright?

He could see Carmine standing beside her, both worriedly looking at him in a way that made his skin crawl.

Here. I promised.

A glittering mask, more brilliant than even the shiniest of gemstones. It held much significance to him, and he could remember the anger in his heart as he handed it over to Juliana. Everything was slowly coming back to him, little by little.

It shifted yet again, this time to the academy. His body was tired, but his mind was determined. The bags under his eyes felt heavy with the weight of anticipation as he yet again stood across from Juliana on the battlefield, flipping his Pokeball around in his hands. The battle was intense, the most effort he’d ever given in his life. Yet, one by one, his own team fell at the expert tactics of the girl across from him. All sorts of emotions rattled around– He was enraged, exhausted, hurt, spiteful, but most importantly, deeply in love. It had been there the entire time, slowly growing over the course of all of these memories of her. It was tiny and underdeveloped back in Kitakami, more an infatuation than anything. Even burning with jealousy and hatred, it was always at least in the background, strengthening evermore in the kindness that she continued to show him, despite his actions. He regretted every mean thing he said to her, knowing it wasn’t how he truly felt in those times of desperation and ego death. He was envious of her strength, and once that goal was completely out of his reach, there was nothing else standing in the way of just how madly in love with her he was.

Then, in Area Zero, he thought he was a goner. Terapagos’ light shooting faster towards him than he could register as he saw his life flashing before his eyes. She’d been so quick with her reaction, Miraidon absorbing the blast in his stead and saving his life. That warm feeling in his chest had never left since their return from the crater, and it was killing him. Before all of this happened with the Synchro Machine, he’d just been waiting for the right moment to let her know, but it never felt right. He was so distraught over his treatment of her, that he’d rationalized to himself that she was only being polite out of courtesy. Now knowing what he does during his time as Furret, he’s giddy over the idea of finally finding that time.

His senses suddenly shifted back into reality, a small murmur of voices catching his attention, as well as the strange pressure of something on his face. His eyes fluttered open, only catching the sight of ceiling tiles. The murmurs stopped, and he saw a face slowly focusing in front of him, littered with tears.

Those eyes… they glittered like a million stars swirled into the sweetest pot of honey. Then, he recognized her. It was Juliana looking down on him.

He couldn’t quite sit up on his own, as he felt two pairs of arms on his back allowing him to move without too much pain. He was extremely stiff, like all of his joints hadn’t been moved in ages. He took the mask off of his face and allowed a few more strong blinks to settle his vision. Tufts of hair fell in front of his eyes, to which Carmine helpfully removed her own bright yellow hair band and pulled it over his head to keep it out of his face.

The two girls stood in front of him, as well as a Pokemon between them. It seems like Furret wasn’t holding a grudge as it made the first move to jump on his lap. He made a sharp sound inhaling through his teeth as the creature caught on the lines going into his arm, but gave it a reassuring scratch under the chin. It was Carmine who decided to speak first.

“Hey, Kiki. How do you feel?”

He let out a wet laugh as phlegm caught in his throat, coughing to dispel it as he turned his gaze to his dear sister.

“Like… crap. It’s– It’s good to see you.”

Both of the girls launched forward to drown him in a hug, poor Furret getting stuck underneath them as it squeaked in protest. There was a cacophony of “what were you thinking” and “never do that again”s coming from the two as he returned the embrace. It was good to be back.

Carmine was the first one to break, running to the door excitedly.

“I’m gonna go tell everyone you’re up! Be right back!”

She left, leaving just the two of them on their own in the nurse’s office. He couldn’t deny that he probably looked the worst he ever has, hair greasy and unkempt while he smelled like he definitely needed a shower. Yet, he found himself uncharacteristically not caring about that too much as he had the undivided attention of the girl across from him. She spoke softly with a slight shake in her voice from all the emotion.

“So– um, do you remember anything? Both before and… uh… during?”

He knew what she was getting at, but tried to approach the topic as carefully and generally as possible. That made him realize that he did have all of his memories back, like a dam had been lifted and the remembrances flowed through him like an electrical current. Even trying his best, he couldn’t stop the heat that rose to his cheeks as he totally and skillfully avoided the topic while also continuously thinking about how his feelings were definitely requited.

“I… do. I remember everything. Even– even the stuff as Furret.”

Nailed it. Totally didn’t just admit that you remembered her giving you an indirect love confession. His gaze had drifted away while he said that, but eventually caught hers again and realized that she had the most unbelievable expression. Her whole face was absolutely tamato berry red, and visible droplets of sweat were forming just under her hairline. He felt rather bold in this position, grabbing both of her hands with his and intertwining their fingers. It was just as nice as he’d hoped. They were close, staring into one another’s eyes as they were just about to–

Carmine suddenly bursts through the door again, causing the two of them to quickly repel from one another as the entire league club rushes into the room (except for Drayton, who seemed to be taking his sweet time.) None of them noticed what they had just interrupted, much to his relief.

Chansey returned after a little while, letting out a startled cry at how many people were in the room. Registering that he was awake, it quickly detached the IV lines that were still in his arm.

The rest of the day was filled with celebration, as (most of) the league club celebrated Kieran’s recovery from inside the nurse’s office. Him and Juliana kept sparing glances at one another throughout the night.

Chapter Text

He’s been really nervous since everything had started to calm back down. For the most part, everyone’s routines had gone back to normal. They still had regular meetings in the club room, went to class on time, and did their homework every night with added study sessions for all the stuff they had missed. Despite all of this, he and Juliana hadn’t had the chance to talk in private again since the nurse’s office. It wasn’t like they had been avoiding each other, he actually saw her quite frequently. It was the added workload of missed quizzes and exams that kept them from being able to meet up and address what happened more in depth, plus Juliana’s duties as Champion.

On the other hand, he’d been talking to Carmine quite regularly about what he was thinking. Their dorms were relatively close by, so he tended to find himself popping in all the time. As much as she would like to insist that it was a hindrance, she never made him leave and would listen pretty intently to what he had to say.

“So– you’ve got confirmation that she likes you, right? Why not just go for it?”

Carmine was making food for the both of them in her dorm’s kitchen while he sat with legs crossed on her desk chair across the room. It was actually pretty embarrassing to be talking about these things with her. Not because she was his sister, but because she was Juliana’s best friend. He didn’t take her as someone who would go blabbing her mouth about it, but it still felt weird letting someone else in on those grosser, mushy sort of feelings.

“I– uh, want to. But I can’t find a time where it’s just… us.”

He could see his sister stop mid-flip on the frying pan and give herself a face palm. Well, at least she realized that she had been part of the problem. It’s true, however, as Carmine somehow found herself hanging out with the two of them and then not leaving. She probably didn’t realize what was happening in the moment and just wanted to keep an eye on her little brother. Plus, he wouldn’t want to block access to her best friend. That would be a total jerk move, and he’s trying to be better about that.

“Aw, man! You have to tell me these things, Kiki! I don’t wanna be the buzzkill here!”

He laughed at her realization, but cut himself off with a cough. He still hadn’t totally recovered from the whole being-in-a-coma thing, finding his windpipe still lined with thick mucus that sometimes made him struggle to breathe, but not enough to cause immediate worry. Carmine brought the pan she had been using to cook over to the desk, pouring the contents out onto the plate sitting in front of him. She wasn’t the best cook by any means, but it felt nice to have a home-cooked meal with family after all this time. The food definitely had a sludge-like consistency to it, but the taste itself wasn’t all that bad. He’s not totally sure what it’s supposed to be, but it was warm enough to give some relief to the rawness in his throat.

“Next time it’s just the three of us, I’ll make up some excuse to leave. How about that?”

It was honestly really sweet how encouraging she was about the idea of telling Juliana how he felt. He thought she’d be more opposed on account of how she was regarding that in the past. Well, actually, those were much different situations. Being the champion and all, there were plenty of students who knew of her strength and tried “confessing” to her in the most fabricated ways. It happened to him as well, and also Drayton. Apparently there’s something about the power a person has as champion that others see fit to capitalize on. It wasn’t right, and Carmine was Juliana’s most avid defender against those types, even though the champion could have definitely held her own against those creeps.

“That's, uh… real nice of you, sis. Thanks.”

She gave a wide smile, trying to dig into her own plate but obviously not digging the texture. He could take it or leave it to be honest, so he managed to finish off the whole thing pretty quickly (or maybe just to get it over with). Scraping off the rest of her own plate and placing both of theirs in the sink to wash later, she decided to sit across from him on her bed. This ended up with him having to assume the somewhat uncomfortable position of sitting backwards on the desk chair so that he could see her.

“So, what is it you like about her?”

The question caught him off guard, he didn’t realize she would want details. It did make some sense that she would find herself vetting him, though, even if it was her own brother. To be completely frank, there were too many things for him to list, he couldn’t tell where to start. He couldn’t say that he still admired her battle prowess out loud, especially in front of someone who saw how his obsessions could get out of hand.

“Ah, well… I like– I like how passionate she is. Once she says she wants to do something… she just goes and does it!”

He could feel himself drifting away a bit at the thought of it. That was the one thing that made him fall so hard even in his deep state of delusion, her conviction towards getting things done. Of course, that also included her wanting to be his friend. Despite how hard he pushed to be away from her, he always found himself right by her side again, even after he had treated her so poorly. That joyful face of hers could see straight through his harsh words and preoccupations.

“Okay, that’s something. Keep going.”

She wanted him to say more?

“She’s– uh… I think that she’s really… um…”

Carmine was giving him a teasing, smug smile as he stumbled over his words. He knew what he wanted to say, but it was so embarrassing to be saying out loud to someone else. How do you articulate into words that she was the most beautiful person that has ever and will ever exist? That he thinks Juliana hung the moon and stars, and that every little detail about her made him crazy red in the face and wishing that they would never have to be apart?

“Go on. She’s what?”

“Really… pretty.”

Nailed it. Carmine laughed over his blunder, but not in an insulting way. Even if he couldn’t say it explicitly, his body language probably told her all that she needed to know. He kept his hand locked in a tuft of hair that fell in front of his face, squeezing it between his fingers in an effort to calm himself down while shielding her view of just how flustered he was just thinking about Juliana.

“So she’s passionate and pretty? Is that it?”

Of course it wasn’t, but his sister had thoroughly embarrassed him to the point where he felt like shutting down. All he could do was shake his head and even more vehemently wind that cluster of hair around in his hands. Carmine let out a sigh, tilting her head to give him a look that he didn’t get to see that often. She was proud of him.

“Well, you’ve got my blessing. Now you just have to tell her.”

Right. He felt somewhat confident about the idea considering he didn’t have the worries of Juliana not liking him back, but he’s not sure if he would even be able to get the words out if he couldn’t even do that in front of Carmine.

Why did she have to be so perfect?

—

Juliana was reeling in embarrassment even long after the fact. She’d literally admitted to liking him to his face multiple times without realizing it, and now it was making things extra awkward. Did he even like her back? It seemed like something was about to happen back in the nurse’s office before Carmine came in…

Was she imagining things, or were his cheeks dusted with a rosy color every time they saw one another in the club room? Did she also imagine those passing glances and endearing toothy smiles he gave her? Or that time during a meeting where she swore he tried to lock their pinkies together underneath the table? She didn’t know how to handle all of these emotions tackling her at once or every time it felt like there was a Copperajah in the room that neither of them started to address. It was killing her, not knowing if she was simply making something out of nothing.

Well, she was just really happy to have him back. That stretch of time where he was absent was some of the worst days of her life, and it made her realize that she didn’t want to live in a world without him in it. Their time with him as Furret was fun, but there was no replacing the Kieran-shaped hole in her heart.

That was also a weird thought on top of the more embarrassing stuff, the idea that Kieran had been that cute fluffy Pokemon the entire time. All of the hugs they shared, that time he sat on her lap, the fact that he had let her call him Noodle of all things? As silly as it was, she wouldn’t deny that it actually made her want to go back to Kitakami and catch a Sentret for herself. That Pokemon was just too darn appealing, like it was specifically made to be the highlight of adorable companions.

But, it also made her think about what it would be like to hug the real thing…

Nope! This is treading back into embarrassing territory again. Arceus, how would she hold it together at the meeting today? She would have to see that stupidly adorable face of his right next to her and just do nothing? Maybe afterwards she could invite him to her dorm to finally talk about it.

Even the thought of that made her tremble in nervousness, so that idea would be thrown out. She just hates that they haven’t been on their own since then. It would be one thing if she was avoiding the topic on purpose, but she wasn’t! At this point, even if he didn’t like her, it was absolutely torture to keep it in for much longer.

Maybe the opportunity would present itself soon. Anyways, she had to prepare for that meeting. Being the champion had its perks, but leading business stuff was not one of them. What was the topic going to be about, again? Redecorating the League plazas, or something? Sucks that it wouldn’t even pertain to her, since all of the champion battles were held on the court at the school entrance. Maybe she could convince Director Cyrano to let her take over the central plaza, but she doubted that he’d remember she even asked.

Most of Juliana’s note cards were ready, littered with her scribblings of suggestions from various lower ranked trainers of the club mixed with some from the Elite four. A lot of these were really dumb or unattainable. “Add a spicy gumball machine”, like who even– oh wait, Crispin said that one. Still probably not coming to pass.

As she went over the cards again and again, it eventually bored her so much that her thoughts started to wander again. She could see Kieran in front of her, the warmth of their hands clasped together. His eyes had always been interesting, the yellow reminding her of citrus fruits and Sunflora. There was this agile-ness to his stare that looked scary when the light left his eyes, but so wonderful when his gaze would soften–

Okay, it seems like she wouldn’t be getting much work done. No matter, nobody would care if she used the note cards in the meeting, it wasn’t like it was necessary for her to memorize it. Gathering up all of her materials into a drawstring bag, she hoisted it up over her shoulders and headed to the club room. She’d probably be the first one there at this rate, unless Drayton was taking a nap.

Sure enough, Juliana found the dragon trainer face-down on the table, snoring away. At least they didn’t have to go searching for him again, but Lacey would have to just give him another wake-up call, she supposed. The art club had finished adding some more decor she requested, a few more potted plants and a small mural of Zebstrika painted onto the wall that matched the monochrome color scheme she chose quite nicely. She took this down time to set up the projector screen, as she actually had the time to make a few (admittedly crude) mock-ups of some of the better suggestions from the club members. The ladder screeched across the floor from where she dragged it to better reach the power button, the remote long lost to wherever it had been misplaced. The projector slowly whirred to life from where it hung on the ceiling, displaying a plain white title slide for a presentation with black default text that simply said “redesign ideas”.

Yeah, maybe graphic design wasn’t exactly her passion. Some slight commotion came from outside the doors, which opened to reveal Kieran and Carmine talking about something that sounded secretive. They stopped talking immediately when they saw Juliana, which caused her to narrow her eyes in suspicion before immediately dropping it when the boy gave her the cutest, least confident wave ever. He had his hair tied back, but not in the same way as when he was champion. It was more of a half-up-half-down style, having all the benefits of how it looked back in Kitakami while also allowing you to see every expression on his face clearly. It was a blessing in disguise.

“Oh! I-I didn’t expect you to be so early. Do… you need any help?”

How kind of Kieran to offer! Sadly, though, she had just put the ladder away in the corner.

“Nah, I just finished up. But– But I appreciate it!”

She let out an awkward laugh like she had just told a joke, but she didn't. Luckily, he seemed to take it in stride and gave her a pity chuckle of his own. Carmine nudged him with her elbow, whispering something into his ear, ending up with a furious blush spreading across his face. Juliana couldn’t make out everything they were saying, but they were whisper-yelling in such a way that it was hardly even secretive anymore. Most of what she managed to catch were stuff along the lines of “Shut up!” and “No, you shut up!”

Soon after, the other League club members piled in one-by-one. Once everyone was there, they all took their seats, with Juliana still standing towards the front to start the meeting. Cue cards in hand, she cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. Drayton was awake now and staring daggers at Lacey, who apparently decided to wake him this time by jabbing his ribs repeatedly with her hand.

“Alright, is everyone good to go?”

There were multiple sounds of agreement from them, and Juliana flipped over to the first slide of the presentation. It was a crude drawing of a Blaziken pasted onto a photo of Crispin’s plaza in the savanna biome.

“So, I went through every single proposition for the redecoration projects and threw together some images of the best ones. I thought that the idea of statues representing the aces of everyone’s teams was a cool idea, as shown here…”

The rest of the meeting went rather uneventfully, getting through every image and accepting a few questions here and there. It was actually pretty easy to keep up the champion persona during these sorts of events, as she realized her own leadership skills upon taking the title were not too bad. The only thing that kept distracting her was Kieran intently watching her the entire time, like she swears he didn’t even blink once through the whole thing. Despite that slight setback, she doesn’t think anyone noticed and most plans had been put in place for construction to begin within the week.

As everything winded back down and everybody began gathering their things to leave, she saw the two siblings approach her while she had climbed back up onto the ladder to turn the projector off. Carmine was standing weirdly far behind, Kieran regarding Juliana and gaping like he was struggling to say something. His mouth was hanging open like a Magikarp, turning around to his sister, who gave him a gesture of encouragement. She’d fully climbed down by now, right hand still perched on one of the steps as she waited for what he had to say.

“Uh– would you, um… c-could you come with me to my dorm? I wanted to- to talk, if that’s okay.”

She would think the way that he continued to trip up over his words was adorable if not for the fact the implications made her suddenly extremely anxious. She tried to give herself a few seconds to calm down by putting the ladder away.

“Sure, that’s cool. I’ve got– there’s a class I have to get to in a few minutes. I guess I can… meet you there after?”

Playing it real cool there Juliana. He probably would have bought it if she didn’t literally shoot finger guns at him like a total dork. At least he gave her another pity laugh– one of those types where it's just an exhale of air. She could feel herself start to flounder as he simply gave her a nod before returning to his sister. She swears she could hear Carmine celebrating once the doors closed back behind them.

There wasn’t much attention given during that class, her mind too preoccupied. It was embarrassing when Ms. Briar cold-called her after asking a question, where she had no idea what was even asked in the first place and made a fool of herself. At one point, she had started idly doodling on her paper, not noticing until it was too late that she’d literally made a drawing of Kieran, which she immediately tried to erase and accidentally ripped the paper in two. She was no artist, for sure, but there would have definitely been a resemblance that people noticed if they had seen it. That hair of his was rather unique to him, after all.

Okay, as nervous as it made her, she just had to tell him, or else this would just continue on ad infinitum. The class bell startled her out of her thoughts, and left her with the terrible realization that it would happen sooner rather than later. She took her time gathering all of her things from the desk and trudging her way towards the dorms. A million thoughts ran through her head at once, most of them internally practicing what would and wouldn’t be an acceptable thing to say.

”Hey, I’m completely and totally in love with you.”

Nope, she would probably be mortified if she said it that way.

”You’re cute, we should date!”

No way! That sounded like something she would have said when she was 7.

Ugh, why did this have to be so difficult?

—

He was shaking like a leaf, a fact which Carmine brought up several times while the two of them were in his room waiting for Juliana’s class to be over. She’d taken the liberty to find something that made him look “nicer”, which to her just meant anything besides the regular uniforms. He didn’t have much besides that in the closet, though, so she ended up just throwing him the school’s dark blue collared shirt minus the tie, and some solid-color slacks that he’d been saving for a special occasion. His sister argued with him that this was, in fact, a special occasion and didn’t take no for an answer when she continued pressuring him to change outfits. He kept the shoes on as a subtle rebellion.

He spared a glance at the clock, seeing that they probably had about 10 minutes until she made it here from the classroom. The bell had already rung, muted through the door but easily identifiable enough. Beads of sweat had started to drip down his forehead in anticipation.

“C’mon, don’t look so scared. Take this before you start getting stains.”

Carmine tossed a hand towel at him kind of hard, which smacked him right in the face. Giving her an annoyed look, he was actually kind of appreciative of it as he used it to wipe away some of the moisture that accumulated on his brows. He couldn’t look like a drowned Rattata when she showed up, after all.

A few more minutes passed, and they heard a quiet knock on the door. He immediately felt his shoulders tense as Carmine stood up to answer it. She told him to “calm down” under her breath,, before turning the knob to reveal Juliana on the other side. She looked a little surprised to see her friend answer the door, and also a little… disappointed?

“Well, I’ve got somewhere to be. Don’t have too much fun, you two!”

Carmine called out with a happy tone and immediately ignored the sputtering mess of words her brother was reduced to as a result. Also, she definitely didn’t have somewhere else to be, and was just delivering on the promise she made to him earlier. She gently nudged Juliana inside as she left, leaving just the two of them alone in his dorm room.

He could see the way she looked him up and down, the smallest bit of pink appearing on her face as she did so.

“Hey, you look… really good. Wait, no, I meant– your outfit is nice!”

Damn you Carmine, being right about something. It totally had been worth it to put something “fancier” on if it made Juliana react like that. He almost didn’t know what to say, and fully did not expect that sort of compliment. Juliana must not have been expecting it either with the way she visibly cringed at what she said. He tried to laugh it off in order to dispel the awkwardness.

“Ah– thanks. I-I think you look nice too. Is that a new hair clip?”

The crinkle of her brows dispelled slightly at the question. He’d seen that the usual Pokeball-looking one she used to keep her braid from falling apart was instead replaced by a little yellow lightning bolt.

“Huh? Oh, yeah! I’m surprised you noticed. It reminded me of Zebstrika's Thunderbolt, so I thought it was cool!”

There she was, that passionate girl he adored so much. She’s had a fixation on that Pokemon lately, so it was no wonder why she bought something that reminded her of it. Between that clip and the new mural in the club room, he might just start associating her with it.

“Here, can– can I get a better look?”

He patted the spot next to him as an invitation. There was a fleeting moment of hesitation in her movements, but she eventually obliged. The bed dipped as she threw herself on it, nearly making him lose his balance and stumbling slightly. The two of them chuckled about it before he reached out to hold the small charm in his hand. He couldn’t miss how her eyes darted back and forth nervously as he examined it, on account of how close it was to her right cheek. It contained some chunky glitter baked into the resin, shining brilliantly in the light as he moved it around. Finally letting go to spare Juliana before she could explode, he caught her gaze and gave a deep breath.

“So, we should– we need to talk about it. You really meant what you said, r-right?”

He didn’t need to specify any more than that, especially with how her eyes widened in recognition. All she could do was nod in response, not saying anything else as the words seemed to catch in her throat. He wasn’t quite sure how to proceed from here, other than tentatively placing his hand next to hers, intentionally bumping their pinkies into one another as an invitation. Swallowing hard before she took that offer, she looped them around each other while choosing to completely look in the other direction.

“Y-Y’know, when I was still Furret… I would give people nicknames in my head so– so I knew how to tell everyone apart before I knew their names.”

Making a confused noise at the topic change, he couldn’t ignore how her grip on his finger tightened slightly. Admittedly, this was a weird way to go about approaching what he needed to say, but the point would make itself clear eventually after easing some of this tension.

“Like… sis, for example. I kept calling her ‘girl with red highlights’, which– she doesn’t even have highlights! I don’t know why I chose that.”

It seemed to be working as Juliana produced a giggle and finally rotated around to meet him again. Her voice wobbled, but still managed to have a sweetness to it like liquid honey.

“That's– wait, yeah. Wouldn’t it be called like, underdye or something?”

“I have no idea, Juliana… I’m not a hairdresser.”

Both of them ended up in a full belly laugh, having to let go of one another briefly in order to not fall over. When their hands finally returned, he decided to take the leap and fully interlock their fingers. That caused her to pause, just staring at it for a moment before trying to play it off. She wasn’t doing all that great of a job, as she turned the same color as Incineroar’s fur. He couldn’t say he was much different, though.

“So, what did you call me, then?”

To be completely true to himself, he couldn’t remember all that well. All he could recall was that he thought she was divine even then, so he could probably infer what it was subconsciously even if it wasn’t exact.

“I mean– I learned what you were called pretty quickly. But, when I heard sis call you ‘Juli’, I thought that was the prettiest name I’d ever heard.”

She seemed to shut down at that, her palms suddenly becoming much more clammy than they were before. He worried that he’d said something wrong until she looked straight at him with a strange twinkle in her eye. Her voice was almost a whisper, and he might have missed what was uttered if he hadn’t been paying attention.

“Say that again, please.”

Now was his turn to be embarrassed. Just then, he caught her gaze flicking dowards ever so slightly in a very blink-and-you’ll-miss it sort of moment.

“W-What? Me calling you Juli?”

He didn’t realize that it would have so much of an effect on her. Carmine called her that all the time, was it just because it was him saying it? Her hand was trembling where it connected with his own. It seemed like she wanted to say something, opening and closing her mouth several times in an attempt to start a sentence. He waited quietly, not wishing to interrupt what she had to say.

“Screw it, I’m just gonna do it.”

“Huh? do wha–”

She cut him off suddenly, squeezing her eyes completely shut as she unleashed a cascade of words he had been hoping she would say to him since they met.

“Everything I said about liking you, it’s all true. Actually– no, I love you. Every second you weren’t here, I felt like I was dying a bit more. If you don’t feel the same way, that’s– that’s fine. But I couldn’t keep lying to myself anymore.”

Truly and honestly, he was speechless. It was everything he’d dreamed of, dating all the way back to the first time they met in Kitakami. There’d been many nights that he slept at home, wishing he could have said something, anything to express how etherial he thought she was. He was too shy back then, and let the opportunity pass him by. Never thinking he would see her again, it was a blessing when she showed up at Blueberry Academy. It was like Arceus itself was pushing their fates together again. By then, though, he was too jaded to ever think about anything but the jealousy he harbored. But now, that was all in the past. This was the right time.

Apparently he was silent for a bit too long, as Juliana started to appear more and more anxious that he hadn’t said anything. He started to move his thumb back-and-forth across the hand that was still intertwined with his. Though he had intended to quell her fears, he couldn’t stop the chuckles that had budded up from his chest, catching her completely off guard.

“Aw, man. I wanted to say it first.”

He faked the most devastated look he could muster, his head limply falling in front of him and successfully causing an eruption of giggles from Juliana that relaxed the previous rigidity in her shoulders.

“You mean it? You feel the same?”

He nodded definitively, moving to grab her other hand and peppering a small kiss on her knuckle. In the past, he would never have been close to having the amount of confidence it would take to do that. Perhaps it was his own time as champion that gave him this ability, or maybe it was the appearance of pure and unbridled joy mixed with extreme bashfulness on Juliana’s face as he did it.

“I do… and I always have. It’s just– I never thought until recently it was possible. That you would… even think of me like that, after everything I’ve done.”

Her gaze softened, with a small grin conveying her understanding.

“You know that I don’t blame you for that anymore. Or– well, I never did. Circumstances happen, and it’s hard to see how someone’s actions can affect others in the moment.”

Slowly placing her hand back down, he instead moved his own to the side of her face. He’d imagined this many times before, and it still seemed unreal. Her face was softer than he was expecting, and she leaned into the touch earnestly. Just as he was about to ask the question he’d been waiting for this whole time–

“Can I kiss you?”

He laughed again, but this time he could tell that it didn’t bother her at all with the way that smile stayed on her face like nothing could dampen it ever again.

“Oh, c’mon! You– can I not be the one to ask?”

She snickered in a mischievous way, like she’d planned that all along. Sighing dramatically, he gave her a jokingly pointed look that had no real venom to it.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

Feeling successful, he cleared his throat for dramatic effect.

“Juliana, may I kiss you?”

“Of course.”

They leaned in, and finally their lips joined together. It was a little awkward, and very obvious that neither of them knew what they were doing, but it was just like he always wished it was. The girl that he admired so much and never wished to live without ever again, had the softest lips ever and he was relishing every moment of the short kiss. He wished they never had to pull apart, but alas, they needed to breathe. He had to struggle a bit for his lungs to work properly as he stared deep into those ever-enchanting eyes of hers, neither of them beginning to say anything until she suddenly threw herself forward on him in the warmest hug he’d ever felt.

And so they stayed like that for much longer than what would normally be considered socially acceptable, just enjoying being in each other’s arms. At one point, Juliana had even begun to hum what sounded like a lullaby, the vibrations emanating from her chest in a way that caused him to completely relax against her. When they finally came apart, he couldn’t stop himself from asking the obvious question.

“So– would you… wanna be my girlfriend?”

He could see the way her breath caught when he asked, but she pretty quickly nodded her head in agreement. That was a wild concept. If you’d told him half a year ago that he’d be dating Juliana of all people, he would have looked like you were crazy. This was the reality for him now, though, and he couldn’t ask for it any other way.

—

Yet again, word had spread pretty quickly that the current and former Champion were dating. Nothing really changed that much in the grand scheme of things, but there were definitely a lot less people trying to bother her now that someone else was standing in the way. That wasn’t even the best benefit, though, as Juliana was perfectly content just with the fact that she was with Kieran. They weren’t necessarily the lovey-dovey type of couple in public, but they could pretty frequently be seen walking down the halls holding hands. Carmine had been the biggest supporter once they had told her, congratulating Kieran while crediting her “amazing wingman skills”. As for the rest of the league club, they, too, were either supportive or indifferent to it.

Synclair had finally been removed from school grounds, but only after several more students had fallen victim to her “experiments”. Lacey made it her duty to visit Director Cyrano’s office every day to remind him, until he finally got the Unovan police force involved. Apparently, the researcher didn’t know that “child endangerment” was a crime. Either way, it meant that nobody else would have to endure what Kieran had to go through ever again within the walls of this academy.

Furret actually thrived after everything was said and done, still excited about training with Kieran as long as no weird devices would be involved. He’d apologized profusely to the Pokemon and given it plenty of treats, and it seemed to hold no hard feelings. It probably helped that it had no recollection of the memories that occurred while he occupied its mind, since it was delegated to the back the entire time. Either way, he was glad that his dear Furret was alright and completely unharmed.

While he would never have wished that fate upon anyone, Kieran was glad that everything had occurred the way it did, or else he might not have gotten together with Juliana. Time went on in the academy, and he couldn’t have wished for a better person to spend the rest of his life with.