Skull cooed in her sleep and rolled on the blanket-covered section of the floor with her tails wrapped around her body like a sleeping bag. Temperance exhaled heavily and placed the side of his foot on his opposing leg before he rhythmically tapped the base of his geta.

"Aren't you going to head on into the boss room?" Nakamai's disembodied voice asked. Temperance groaned and picked up the pace of his geta tapping.

"She requested to put the race on hold, so I'll wait," Temperance stated.

"But you've been sitting here for three hours. What if she sleeps so long that Kannachi and the others wake up and leave Crystal's pocket home?!" Nakamai asked worriedly. Temperance sighed and rubbed one of his knuckles against his forehead.

"I sent a drone. So, if anything were to happen, I'll know and can teleport back," Temperance muttered as felt something fuzzy press up against his leg. Temperance glanced down and emotionlessly stared at the sleeping Skull as she rubbed her pudgy cheeks against his leg. Temperance sighed and itched his head.

"Heads up the babysitters are here," the voice of Nakamai said, causing Temperance to shoot his eyes open and swung his head up to see a dark reflective being approaching without making a decibel of noise nor the sound of any small debris being disturbed.

"Oh... see, Xero, she just fell asleep... again, nothing to worry about," Hika-01 said as Neo Xero walked into the lit section of the tunnel while Hika-01 sat on his shoulder.

"So, it would seem...," Neo Xero uttered as he stopped nearby Temperance. The two stared at each other and were in a staring deadlock. Hika-01 floated between the two and cut off the staring deadlock.

"Woah-woah-woah! No need for hostility here," Hika-01 said while pleading with Xero to cool his thrusters. Neo Xero's visor large-dot eye flickered before he glanced to the boss door and marched over to it. Hika-01 sighed, making a neon-sign style exhale energy emoji puff out her mouth, and she swerved around towards Temperance.

"Sorry about him. He tends to stare like a hawk at things or people when he scans them, you know, robot stuff," Hika-01 explained nervously while rubbing the back of her head and repeatedly bowing in the air.

"Yeah... if you say so," Temperance muttered as the sleeping Skull clambered up his body and flopped onto Temperance's tails. Temperance rose to his feet as a bone-shattering shriek erupted inside the boss room. Temperance and Hika-01 glanced over at the open boss room door and watched as dark green sludge slowly seeped out from the boss room. Xero exited the boss room while hovering over the sludge using the dark blue plasma thrusters in his feet.

"So, it was a slime-type monster... gland neither of you went in," Hika-01 uttered, with Temperance reluctantly nodding at Hika-01's comment.

"I guess you'll want to take Skullnaia back now?" Temperance asked. Temperance turned his upper body and reached over to grab Skull, but Hika-01 landed on the back of his hand.

"Nah... we're more like onlookers than... um, escorts, so we can't force Naia to go anywhere unless her parents give us orders to," Hika-01 said while lightly patting Temperance's hand. Hika-01 hopped off Temperance's hand and floated in front of him.

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"So... would you, by chance, be heading towards Lumios City?" Hika-01 asked while placing her hands behind her back and doing a shy posture.

"Yeah...? What do you want me to take Skull there for you?" Temperance asked, causing Hika-01 to nod enthusiastically.

"Most definitely... if you would please, although she's been heading there on her own... she gets easily sidetracked by... mostly food, and it takes ages to get her anywhere. So, I beg you... you seem to be able to peak her attention and divert it from distractions....".

"So, you want me to help speed up Skull's pace by being a moving distraction to distractions?" Temperance asked to gain confirmation. Hika-01 nodded while meekly poking the tips of her index fingers together.

"Would you?". Temperance sighed softly and rubbed his cheek.

"I'll have to see what the others say, but I guess I can do that," Temperance murmured. Hika-01 happily clapped her hands before she shook one of Temperacne's fingers with both of her hands.

"Thank you so much. I was getting worried we wouldn't be able to get her to Lumiheart Academy before the school year started... but I wonder why they changed the light to heart," Hika-01 said while continuing to mutter about why the king decided to change the academy's name.

"Academy, huh?". Hika-01 raised an eyebrow at Temperance's remark, and neon sign-style question marks appeared around her air space.

"Oh, are you planning on attending too?".

"Not me myself, but my companions are," Temperance stated, causing Hika to loudly huh, which caught Neo Xero's attention while he plasma beamed the escaping sludge.

"Wait, really? But your spiritual energies are like bam. You'd have no issues graduating, especially given how evenly paced you were with Naia earlier," Hika-01 said whilst she had a puzzled look plastered on her face while more question marks formed around her. Temperance lightly itched his human ears while remaining silent.

"Is it a money issue?" Hika-01 asked.

"Yeah....". Hika-01's question marks warped into exclamation marks before they dispersed into particles.

"I see....". Hika placed her hand on her chin before she waved at Temperance to get his attention.

"Well, I think I know a way you could get in even without money," Hika-01 said. Temperance tilted his head and crossed his arms.

"Which is?".

"Every year on the first day of term, there are public tournament-style events where the winners of each mini-tournament get given a scholarship, although you'd only be interested in the Hunter ones... right?" Hika-01 asked. Temperance moved his hand to his cheek and mulled over Hika-01's words.

"How do you even have a tournament for Explorers and Gatherers? Not... practically but functionally?" Temperance asked with an intrigued tone.

"Parkour courses and mapping them as detailedly as possible within a time limit for Explorers, and collecting certain hidden objects within a time limit for Gatherers," Hika-01 explained. Temperance nodded his head and lowered his arms.

"I'll think about it," Temperance remarked. Hika-01 happily spun in the air before she floated onto Neo Xero's shoulder as he walked past her.

"Cya around. We'll be close by if you ever need us?!" Hika-01 proclaimed as she and Neo Xero disappeared into the dark corridor. Temperance sighed and raised his left arm as a void black tattoo formed all over it except for a circular gap on the entirety of his hand.

Pale pink qi funnel through the magic tattoo, gathering into the circular gap and forming into a glowing pale pink circle with a glowing white galaxy-shaped insignia within the circle. Temperance snapped his right hand's fingers, and a pale pink qi bubble formed around Temperance before it, Temperance, and Skull teleported away.