The afternoon sun shone down upon the three trainers, passing clouds occasionally granting cool relief and shade. To Astra, the walk back to Rustboro felt twice as long as the trek to Rusturf Tunnel, and though they were getting close it still felt like the city was hours away. The mad sprint earlier in the day, the endless jog that followed, and the utter mayhem in the tunnel itself had exhausted her meager endurance. It was only by grace of the group's frequent breaks that she could still stand at all.

Despite the difficulty their group had imposed upon the miners, they had graciously allowed them to access their supply of water, and Astra had even managed to scrounge up a few Oran berries from clean-picked bushes along the way. That had kept her from collapsing on the spot, but every step she took was harder than the last. Astra wanted nothing more than to go back to the hotel, take the longest, hottest shower she could, and go to bed.

May, walking to Astra’s left, looked haggard and worn. Her hair stood out every which way, her clothes had scratches and bits torn off on the edges, and she occasionally winced and rubbed at the spot Exploud had punched her.

Brendan was walking on May’s other side, pulling his bike along and notably less exhausted than either of them. Astra eyed his bike sullenly, a little resentful that he hadn’t had to deal with all the running she’d done today. Stupid, lousy, helpful Brendan. Now on the way back, no one was using the bike at all. Brendan refused to ride ahead—the bike couldn’t hold all of them without crashing, and leaving just one person behind was unfair, he said. But Astra thought he just didn’t want to leave them on their own right now. So, he’d chosen to slowly trod the path back alongside them, bike handle and briefcase in either hand.

It was a decent chance to catch up, though. And if it distracted them from the fatigue, all the better.

“—and then I had Treecko fire one last Bullet Seed right before the rocks fell on him,” Astra said, smacking her fist into her palm. “The seed ricocheted off three other rocks and flew straight into Nosepass’s ear! That was the last straw, and Nosepass fell over, completely unconscious! Treecko fainted too, because he got buried under a giant pile of rocks.”

“Really?” Brendan asked, eyes wide. “Three times? That’s insane.”

“Wouldn’t’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.” May added. “It was crazy.”

“Heh.” Astra grinned tiredly. Her victory over Roxanne yesterday was still fresh in her mind, the Stone Badge a shining proof that her goal was possible. “Roxanne almost declared it a tie, and I would’ve lost if it was. But luckily, I still had Slakoth! That meant I was still in the fight, and since Roxanne was out of pokemon that meant I won! Got the Stone Badge and everything,” she said, grinning proudly.

“Well done,” Brendan said, giving Astra a congratulatory smile and thumbs-up. “I’ll have to ask Roxanne if I can see the tapes next time I see her. And you did all this while playing your violin?”

Astra nodded. “Yeah. It’s kind of my thing, now.”

“It’s kinda nice,” May said. “I haven’t had a single fight without background music since Petalburg. Except for my gym fight, I guess.” May side eyed Astra and gave her a light shove. “Dirty rat cheated me out of boss music.”

“Not my fault!” Astra protested. “I was indisposed!”

“So how did your fight go, May?” Brendan asked. “I imagine you did well, ‘boss music’ aside.”

“Amazing is more like it!” May boasted, puffing up. “I knocked out her first Geodude with Lotad, then beat up her electric one with my Poochyena, finishing it off with Lotad again. Then I basically blasted Nosepass back into its pokeball, finishing it off with an awesome aerial water gun!”

“Which you totally stole from me,” Astra accused.

May sniffed. “You’re just mad I did it better.”

“You still had to copy me, so I win!” Astra blew a raspberry. “Nyeh.”

“Believe whatever you want,” May said, waving her off. “I’m still the one who made it look good. So Brendan!” she continued, abruptly switching tracks. “How’d your fight go?”

Brendan blinked, caught off guard. “My fight?”

“Yeah, with Roxanne. You were at the gym too, right?” May asked, looking at Brendan curiously.

“Ah, right. Hm.” Brendan pondered the question, looking at the sky as he walked. “When I fought her... it went smoothly, I suppose. Unlike you guys, I fought a bunch of trainers at the gym beforehand, so I had a bit of practice fighting rock types. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to plan around her moves and take her pokemon down without any unexpected results.”

“... is that it?” Astra asked after a moment of silence. That wasn’t a fun explanation at all! “I mean, I’m glad you won, but that’s pretty vague.”

“Yeah, c’mon,” May goaded, “You tellin’ me nothing exciting happened?”

“Nothing like you two,” Brendan admitted. “It was mostly just, you know. Dodge until there was an opening, Mud Slap so they couldn’t see, then Water Gun until they fell over. It was about as routine as a fight can get.”

“Hm. I dunno. It is pretty impressive that you managed to turn a fight against her into something so totally planned out.” Astra observed. She had been on the back foot several times during her encounter, and May hadn’t gotten out unscathed either.

“Heh.” Brendan scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. “Well, if you say so. Thanks. You guys sounded pretty amazing too. We’ll have to spar sometime. Maybe I can see this fabled music of yours, Astra. Or, hear it, as it were.” He chuckled. May rolled her eyes.

Astra nodded determinedly. “Of course! I’m a lot stronger now, so you better prepare yourself!” she declared, pointing at him dramatically.

“I will. And I’m glad you finally learned how to actually give your pokemon commands, too,” Brendan added, giving Astra a wry grin.

...eh? Astra looked at Brendan, confused. What was he talking about? “But I’ve always given my pokemon commands?” she asked, questioningly.

Brendan frowned. “No you haven’t. Remember when we fought in Petalburg? You just let your pokemon fight without saying anything.”

Oh right, Astra remembered that. The fight outside the Petalburg Gym. She hadn’t started using her violin to ‘order’ her pokemon around yet. And Brendan had stayed behind, so he didn’t know about the cover story Astra had told May either.

May snapped her fingers, lighting up like she’d just found a whole bush of Leppa berries. “Oh man, I totally forgot! He doesn’t know!” she said, echoing Astra’s thoughts. May whirled on the smaller girl, grinning madly. “Astra, do the thing!”

“What, now?” Astra asked, blinking again. She’d thought May would’ve wanted to wait for a more opportune moment.

May just grinned wider. “Yes, now! C’mon, it’ll be hilarious!”

“What thing?” Brendan cut in, cautiously glancing between the two. “What’s going on?”

Astra glanced at Brendan, considering. Well, he had gotten off pretty lightly... “Hey, Brendan!”

Brendan looked at Astra, thoroughly lost. “...yes?” he asked, warily.

Astra grinned. “BOO!”

The ‘sound’ rang out from behind Brendan’s head. He yelped, swivelling around and jumping back, briefcase interposed between him and his assailant like a shield. Silence followed, broken only by Brendan’s bike falling to the earth.

His head turned, frantically scanning the area. Spotting nothing, he slowly lowered the briefcase, confused. “Who... what?”

Laughter was his only answer. Astra held a hand over her mouth, hiding a wicked grin and giggling incessantly. The way he had jumped, priceless, but the way he had screamed, oh it was the best thing she’d heard all day.

Next to her, May was openly cackling at Brendan. Cackling which abruptly transitioned into pained wheezing. “Augh, ugh, laughing hurts, ah fuck,” May gasped, clutching her sides. “Still, your fa~ace! Gahaha—ow!”

Brendan, for his part, seemed torn between worrying over May’s pained heaving and his irritation. He watched May for a moment, then shook his head and stared at Astra, scowling. “What was that!?” he demanded.

“Oh not much,” Astra said, grinning, her voice still coming from behind Brendan’s head. The boy flinched, and Astra had to stifle herself. “I’m just throwing my voice, is all.”

Brendan looked confused, then his eyes widened in astonishment. “Wait, that—you were—but...” he sputtered, looking back again, astonished. “That came from behind me!”

“Yep,” Astra said, smirking. “Pretty great, huh?” she continued, every word coming from a different direction. Brendan twitched with every one, and Astra had to fight down a snicker. Ah, messing with him was as fun as ever~ May really had the right idea.

“Knock it off!” Brendan said, glaring at her for a moment. Then his eyes widened in realization. “Wait, that’s how you were doing it...” he breathed. “You weren’t letting Treecko fight on his own, I just couldn’t hear you. Oh man,” Brendan exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “Is that how you made the Aqua grunt drop Treecko?” He paused, frowning. “Wait, no.”

“You mean Peeko?” Astra asked, her ‘voice’ returning to the proper source. She turned back to the road, the group setting out once more.

“They sound so similar!” Brendan complained as he picked up his bike. “Anyway, yeah. Is that how you made the Aqua guy drop Peeko?”

“We really should have gotten the bastard's name,” May groused. “I never know what to call him.”

“I know, right!?” Astra said, gesturing at May emphatically. “I keep calling him stuff in my head and it’s all so messy! And yeah,” she continued, turning back to Brendan. “It was. All I had to do was wait for an opening—”, she formed an L with her thumb and finger and ‘fired’ it, imitating the lady from the berry shop, “—and pew pew! Peeko was free!”

“Fantastic work, I’d say.” Brendan said. “He really had us in a rough spot. If it weren’t for you, well, I don’t want to know what would’ve happened. Mr. Briney would’ve been devastated if anything had happened to Peeko, not to mention whatever the costs of losing this briefcase was. I’m glad it all worked out, even if he got away.”

May hummed, nodding along. “It was pretty lucky he sort of spazzed out right then, too. What was the deal with that, anyway? Did a bug crawl up his pants or something?”

Astra eyed May. Sometimes she wished the taller girl would stop being so observant. Did she know how hard Astra was working to keep up this facade? “I dunno,” Astra said, shrugging. “I just saw an opportunity and took it.”

“Hm. Maybe he was about to sneeze...? I doubt we’ll ever find out.” Brendan sighed. “A bunch of weird stuff went down back there. All the Whismur, the Aqua guy, the Exploud; it’s been one heck of a day.” He hefted up the briefcase, looking it over with a weary frown. “Honestly, I’m still worried about this thing. What’s so important that Team Aqua would resort to theft?”

“Who are those jerks anyway?” May asked. “You know them?”

“Not personally, but in passing, yeah,” Brendan said, lowering the case. “Team Aqua is an oceanic wildlife preservation group. They do things like advocate against overfishing, build artificial coral reefs, and protect endangered sea pokemon. They’re actually fairly popular; the news loves to talk about them.”

Astra frowned. That didn’t sound bad at all. “So if they’re such good guys, why did that guy do all that?”

“That’s what I can’t figure out.” Brendan pinched the bridge of his nose, frustrated. “As far as I can remember, they’ve never done anything so blatantly illegal. This is way out of character for them. All I can think of is that ‘plan’ the guy said ‘Archie’ made. If I recall, Archie is the name of the man who runs Team Aqua, but I’ve no idea what sort of plan would need to do all this. Heck, for all I know that guy just stole a uniform and tried to frame them.”

“Well, he certainly said their name often enough,” May muttered.

“We could look inside the briefcase,” Astra offered, partially because it could be a clue, and partially because she just really wanted to know. “Maybe seeing what’s inside would help?”

Brendan considered it for a moment, looking down at the shiny silver case. He shook his head. “No, this is still Devon property. We shouldn’t snoop on private property just to maybe find a motive. That’s... I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”

“Aw.” “Lame.”

“Mmm.” Brendan sighed again. “I guess it’s just another thing that’ll go unanswered today.” He shook his head, exasperated. “Heck, nevermind the spasms and Team Aqua, I still can’t figure out how Exploud got his head stuck in the wall!”

A moment of silence. May blinked. “Wait, he did what? When was that?”

“When Exploud was screaming.” Brendan clarified. “Or more precisely, when he stopped. His head was stuck in the wall.” He grimaced. “I didn’t see how it happened, but I saw the aftermath. It was bizarre. One moment, screaming, the next, embedded.”

Astra and May looked at each other, confused. Well, May was confused. Astra’s mind raced. Had she done something back there? Her memories of the scream were fuzzy and painful. She had really wanted Exploud to stop, and then...

Had she thrown Exploud hard enough to lodge him in solid stone? Wow. Uh. Hm. Probably best not to confirm that. “I think I saw that?” she ventured. “I was pretty out of it, though.”

“Must have missed it,” May muttered, pausing to take a swig of water. “Mmm. Only thing I remember was Torchic getting bitchslapped into evolution.”

“So nobody saw anything?” Brendan asked, crestfallen. “Dang, that was eating at me. I just can’t figure it out. Our pokemon were mostly down, we were incapacitated, and...” Brendan paused, floundering. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” he finished, drooping.

“Eh.” May shrugged. “Can’t say I care too much. Bastard punched me; I’d have shoved his head into the wall myself if I could.”

“Sorry we couldn’t help,” Astra apologized. It wasn't like she could actually tell him what really happened.

Brendan sighed, then gave Astra and May a tired grin. “It’s fine, I guess it isn’t important now anyway.”

“Mmm.” “Hn.”

SIlence fell, the conversation petering out. They continued to walk, aches and pains making themselves known with nothing else to focus on. The road stretched on endlessly, the city still tens of minutes away.

Astra’s feet hurt.

“So!” she eventually chirped, turning back to Brendan. “Find anything interesting back on 102?”

Brendan perked back up, and started to ramble about odd things like ‘Population Metrics’, ‘Berry Replenishment Rates’, ‘A Disappointing Lack of Ralts Sightings’—much to Astra’s relief—and ‘This Cool Rock I Found.’

They looked at the rock. It was a usual sort of greyish oval, but it had a smooth hole in the middle. Astra, comparing it to her own collection of cool rocks back home, thought it was rather nice. No points for coloring, but the shape was rare enough. Incomparable to her shiny green one, of course.

May, unconcerned with the deeper lore of rock collecting, tried to see if her finger would fit through the hole. It did. It also refused to come off again.

Distractions, but much needed ones. Astra giggled, watching Brendan frantically try to pry the rock off May’s finger over a litany of expletives. It was good to have everyone in one place again.

----------------------------------------

Rustboro came into view fifteen minutes later, the tall, gleaming spires a beacon of hope to the beleaguered trio. They passed the city limits shortly thereafter, signified by the road abruptly transitioning from packed dirt to pavement and an actual sign reading ‘Welcome to Rustboro!’

And across the city, the Devon buildings stood near the docks. The trainers stared at the distant buildings for a moment, and the several long, long roads between them. Then they looked at a much closer building, a hotel that Astra and May happened to book a room in a few days ago.

Ten minutes after that, May was manhandling the lock to her and Astra’s room. The door slammed open and the three trainers trudged through, collapsing upon any surface within reach.

"Uuugh,” May groaned, spread-eagle upon the bed. “Someone buy me a casket, I’m never moving again for the rest of my life.”

“I think I’ve got sores on my sores,” Astra said from the floor, poking at her nubby feet (Subtly, of course). She grimaced at the raw, red tips. Her robe was caked in sweat and dirt too, the grimy cloth leaving a swath of minor abrasions as it more-or-less sandpapered her coat. Astra was starting to understand why May had been so upset back in Petalburg. “I feel disgusting.”

Brendan slumped into the armchair in the corner, the briefcase thunking onto the end table. He stared at the ceiling, eyes lidded. After a moment, he sighed despondently. “...We still gotta take this thing back.”

May and Astra groaned in unison. “It’s been hours already!” Astra complained. “Can’t he wait one more?”

Brendan seemed conflicted on the matter, biting his lip in thought. After a moment he rose from the armchair with a grunt and reached for his pack. “I should at least call—” Brendan started, then stopped when May reached back and clamped her hand around his leg in an iron grip.

“If I have to walk again in the next twenty minutes,” May warned, staring at the ceiling placidly, “my legs will literally fall off. If that happens, I will pick them up and pummel you with them.”

“Alright, hour break it is!” Brendan yelped, snatching his leg back. He sat back down, grumbling. “I suppose I could do with a breather myself.” He frowned. “But I want you to see a doctor about that punch Exploud hit you with. You were wincing the whole way home, and you’ve been breathing weird.”

“Fine, whatever! Just lemme lay do~wn,” May groaned again. She turned over, burying her face into the sheets. “Ugh.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.” Astra agreed. It wouldn’t do to leave an injury unchecked, and those second-hand throbs of pain she could feel were starting to worry her. May, it seemed, was able to tolerate such things a lot better than Astra would have.

In the meantime, Astra dearly wanted to take a nap. But she wasn’t doing it coated in grime. Laboriously, she got to her feet and shambled toward the bathroom. “Hey Brendan, I’m gonna take a shower. Could you put my clothes in the washing machine down the hall?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, sure.”

“Thanks!” Astra said, slipping inside. Sighing in relief, she slowly began to peel her filthy robe off.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

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Brendan blinked as the door opened and a pile of black cloth shoved its way onto the floor, a sunhat placed neatly on top. The door quickly shut, clicking as the lock was set. Soon after, the sound of falling water filled the air.

“Guess I’d better take care of that,” he mused, grunting as he stood.

“Mmm. Take a good look before you put it in.” May said, voice muffled by the sheets.

Brendan furrowed his brow, confused. “At what? Her clothes?” he asked, gathering the bundle in his arms. “Why?”

“You’ll see.”

“Uh. Okay?” Brendan said, raising an eyebrow. Shrugging, he left the room, pausing to set the hat on the table.

He came back a few minutes later, looking thoroughly poleaxed. May, now sitting upright, raised a single eyebrow.

“You saw?” she asked.

“Her cloak? Yeah,” Brendan said, baffled. “What was that? Is she really just wearing an entire roll of plain fabric?”

“Yep. It’s all she brought with her, apparently,” May said, idly swinging her legs. “Held us up for a good hour yesterday because she ran it through the wash once we checked in. Weird, right?”

“Right...” Brendan looked at Astra’s bag, as if seeing it for the first time. “Is that... grass?” he muttered, frowning. He eyed Astra’s hat as well, before shaking his head. “She really doesn’t have anything else? Not even underwear?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I want to hear: you, asking about girls underwear.” May snickered at his pained expression, then paused, grimacing. “Well, now that you mention it, I guess not. I didn’t think to ask. I only found out myself back in Petalburg; she didn’t have a place to stay, so I let her share my room.”

“Well that's... certainly peculiar,” Brendan tried, looking uncertain. “Did she say why?”

“Yeah, but you should ask her yourself. Not something she wanted me sharing.” May snorted. “And just peculiar? Try flat out bizarre. I had to make her wear towels to bed instead of her nasty robe. Did you know she had no idea what toilets were? She asked me why there was a chair full of water in the bathroom.”

Brendan stared at her, eyes wide. “She didn’t know what a toilet was!?” he exclaimed, incredulous.

May rolled her eyes. “Plumbing, you dork. Of course she knows what a toilet is. They probably have like, outhouses out there, or something.”

“Oh. That... makes more sense, I guess.” Brendan paused, thinking. Slowly, he rounded the bed and sat back down in the chair, leaning back into the plush with a sigh. He glanced at the bathroom door, brows furrowed.

With a grunt, May twisted around and snagged a pillow, falling stomach-first onto the bed with the cushion under her chin. “So,” she said from the foot of the bed, “What’s eatin’ you?”

Brendan blinked, looking at May .“What makes you think something’s bothering me?”

“Your forehead’s all creased up and you’re biting your lip,” May said. “You do that when you’re thinking. See? You’re doing it now!” she grinned, poking him in the leg. “Hah, score one for May!”

Brendan stared at the ceiling. “Ah,” he said, a light dust of red coating his cheeks. He coughed, then sat up straight. “Well, uh. I was just thinking,” he said, averting his gaze, “Astra doesn’t seem very... knowledgeable, does she?”

“What tipped you off?” May said, dryly. “The bikes, the lights, or the toilet?”

“The books, actually,” Brendan corrected. “Back in the tunnel, Astra said she didn’t know what a textbook was. Doesn’t that seem... strange, to you?”

May hummed. “Yeah, kinda. Honestly I’ve just started ignoring all the weird questions. Again, toilet. Hell, she asked about concrete earlier and yesterday she, uh...” May grimaced and shook her head. “Nevermind. I swear, I’ve never appreciated the expression ‘Living under a rock’ as much as I have this week.”

“That’s another thing.” Brendan sat up frowning. “Apparently she lives in a cave with her grandpa, right? Which is, you know, not unheard of. People use pokemon to build secret bases all the time. But doesn’t the whole thing seem off? I mean, she only has one piece of clothing, she doesn’t know a bunch of really basic stuff, at this point I’m doubting she ever went to school—heck, you’ve stayed with Astra these past few days. I’m sure you’ve noticed more than a few things.”

May looked away for a moment, grip on the pillow tightening. “...She didn’t see a problem with wearing dirty clothes to bed,” she said, quietly. “Or eating soup with clumps of fur in it.”

Brendan made a face. “She ate what!?”

“Well she picked it out first, but it was still nasty.” May sat up, stretching her arms out. She sighed. “So, what, do you think something shady’s going on back home? Haven’t you heard her gush about her grandpa? She loves the guy.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s certainly strange. Perhaps her community is part of a fringe belief group,” Brendan mused. “Like that isolationist Pokemaniac group over in Orre. If she was homeschooled by her Grandpa, and their whole community shunned modern life, then I could see where the lack of general knowledge and strange habits came from.” He frowned. “Only problem with that is I don’t recall any prominent groups like that existing around here. So they’re either very small, remarkably secretive, or it’s something else.”

May bolted upright. “Maybe she’s in a cult!” she exclaimed, eyes wide.

Brendan stared at her. “... A cult?” he asked, squinting.

May blinked, then coughed and looked away, hands fidgeting with the corner of the pillowcase. “She dresses in a black robe, carries a swirly knife around, and can whisper in your ear from a room away.” Brendan kept staring. Her face turned red. “W—well it makes sense!”

“That’s not—” Brendan started. He stopped. Hesitated. “Cults don’t really...” he paused again, thinking. “Well... maybe? I guess those groups can qualify as cults, but the robe-and-dagger thing is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be kinda cool?” May countered, eyes sparkling. “Hell, her name even fits. ‘I am Astra,” she intoned, pulling her bandanna over her face and wiggling her fingers about. “‘Mistress of voice and verve! Now that I’ve gained your trust, I can carve out your hearts with my star-metal knife! OooOOooOOoo~’”

Brentan snorted, covering his mouth with a fist. He took a moment to recover, then shot her an annoyed glare, though the smile didn’t quite leave his face. “Alright, now that I sincerely doubt.”

“Heh.” May grinned, pulling her bandanna back up. “Had to liven this chat up somehow. It’s kinda depressing.”

“Well it’s not exactly the best material for jokes,” Brendan said dryly. “Still, it’s the best theory we have so far. Cult aside, a niche primitivist group makes the most sense, though without confirmation it’s still just a theory. It might explain that weird time limit Astra mentioned back in Petalburg, maybe they don’t want her to get too ‘attached’ to civilization,” he muttered, stroking his chin in thought.

Mays brows furrowed. “Time limit? What time limit?”

Brendan blinked. “Wait, you don’t know? Uh, Astra told me she has some sort of... deadline, back when we first met. She told me herself she didn’t know how much time she had, only that she wouldn’t be able to be a pokemon trainer at the end.”

“The hell? She never said anything about—wait,” May’s eyes widened in recognition. “Is that why she got mad at me for booking the room for a week? She never did get around to explaining why; what with the huge explosion and all.”

May sighed, rubbing at her eyes. “Shit. So, what, Astra’s trying to speed run the entire gym challenge before... what? She has to stop? Fuck that.” May punched her pillow, scowling. “If she thinks she can just leave for no reason she’s got another thing coming.”

“She may not have a choice, though I can’t say for certain. She was awfully vague about it.” Brendan drummed his fingers on the table, considering the matter. “She didn’t seem to want to explain it either, but it might be worth another ask.”

“Mmm,” May grunted, shooting a glance at the bathroom door. The shower was still running, its constant, surprisingly loud drone filling the background. “So what now? Do we gotta interrogate her about it all? ‘Hey Astra, are you in a cult?’” May snorted. “I’m sure that would go down well.”

Brendan hesitated, then shook his head. “Nothing that extreme. We still don’t know if things are bad. All we know is that Astra lacks clothes and a... traditional education, plus some strange habits. For now we just need to... probe a bit. Ask her about her home life, figure out what that time limit is, and, well, just get to know her better. Be her friend.” He frowned. “Get her some more clothes while we’re at it. I still can’t believe she only has one set.”

“I was planning on taking her to a store at some point, yeah.” May agreed. She flopped back onto the mattress, letting out a deep sigh. “So just, be her friend? Tch, as if I’m not doing that enough already. Nothing else?”

Brendan shrugged. “It’s the least volatile thing I can think of. Unless you can think of anything else?” May grunted a negative. Brendan nodded. “Then that’s the plan.”

“Mmm.”

A moment passed, silent aside from the sound of the shower. Brendan hesitated. “Now that we’re talking about her, there was this strange thing I saw in the cave...”

“Hm?” May said, sitting up. “What?”

“It’s... probably nothing. It’s just... for a moment, after Exploud screamed, I saw Astra laid out on the floor. Her face was...” He paused again.

May stared at him, suddenly extremely focused. “What about her face?” she asked, cautiously.

Brendan shook his head. “It’s... I was probably hallucinating from the shock or something. For a moment, it looked like her eyes took up half of her face.”

“Ah.” May said, frowning lightly. “Yeah that... it’s nothing, I think.” she shook her head, glancing off to the side. “I mean, it happens to everyone, right? Sometimes things just look weird for a moment. Eyes are too big, mouth is too wide, sometimes their nose looks higher than yesterday. Crazy, right?”

May grinned weakly. Brendan looked at her, perplexed. “May, what—”

The shower turned off. The two trainers jumped apart, as if shocked. Glancing toward the bathroom door, Brendan and May looked at each other and nodded. Settling back, she nonchalantly grabbed the TV remote, the screen on the wall opposite the bed flickering to life.

Eventually, the door opened.

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Astra tugged at the interwoven towels atop her head one last time, then smiled at her reflection in the mirror. It had been much easier to clean herself this time; her skirt didn’t get in the way as much as her dress had done, and there was much less underside to wash. Her hair had been a small malus to that calculation, being nearly twice as long as it was before. It had required a much larger volume of shampoo, but it was worth it to feel this refreshed and, dare she say, shiny?

That said, the number of towels she had needed to finagle together had also increased, not helped in the least by the ones here being a bit smaller than the ones in Petalburg. Still, she’d adequately managed to cover up, and a little psychic power would do the rest. Maybe she should acquire a more permanent solution that didn’t involve completely depleting the hamper.

Letting out a contented sigh, she walked to the door—gingerly, because her feet were still quite raw—and pushed it open. A loud noise immediately assaulted her ears, and she walked out to see May sprawled on the bed, lazily watching the TV. A quick glance showed a cartoon involving some sort of ship on an ocean, a man with tentacles for hair shouting orders from its prow. Was this a sailor?

Brendan was on the same chair he had been before, head resting on his palm and yawning. The boy did a double take when he saw her covered head-to-toe in towels, but other than a curious squint and raise of the eyebrow said nothing.

“Hey guys,” Astra said, hopping on the bed and scooting over to her half. “I miss anything?”

May and Brendan glanced at each other. May shrugged. “Not much. Bit of talking, I guess.”

“Your clothes are still in the washer,” Brendan added, taking a moment to raise his arms and stretch. Astra heard a faint pop-pop-pop, and the boy let out a relieved groan, limbs loosely falling to the armrests. “Should still be another few minutes before they’re ready for the dryer.”

“Oh, thank you!” Astra said, smiling. “I really appreciate it.”

Brendan hummed in agreement. “No problem, but speaking of,” he leaned forward, frowning slightly. “Is there any reason you only have one piece of, uh, clothing?”

Right. That. “Oh, heh.” Astra laughed weakly, averting her gaze. She had been half-expecting this, but held a slim hope that he wouldn’t notice. “Um, May didn’t tell you...?” she asked, looking at the laid-back girl.

May shrugged. “Meh, not worth the breath I'd spend on it. Figured I’d let you deal with it.”

Astra stared at her for a moment, then shook her head, smiling. She didn’t really want to have this conversation either, but she couldn’t begrudge May for not spilling her ‘secret’. “Thanks, I think,” Astra said, before turning back to Brendan. “I didn’t really have anything else back home that would cover me as much as that does,” she explained. “So it’s just...what I have.”

“Cover?” Brendan asked, leaning forward, examining the fabrics Astra had wrapped herself in intently. “You need to completely wrap yourself up? Is that why you look like a walking towel rack?”

“Ah, yeah.” Astra shifted around, anxiously crossing her legs together. Once again, she had to hide herself behind a blatant lie. She sighed, nothing else to do but to get it over with. “I have albinism,” she said, biting the words out. “Sunlight doesn’t agree with me, and it’s a larger problem out here than back home, which is why I don’t have anything else.”

“Oh,” Brendan said. His widened eyes darted about, closely examining Astra’s face and eyes. He sat back, visibly stunned. “Oh,” he repeated, looking as though he’d come upon a revelation. “I—well! That makes sense, I suppose. I always thought you were pale, but I... I guess I never really put it together.”

“Mhmm,” May chimed in, eyes on the TV. “Seems real obvious in retrospect.”

“Yeah.” Brendan shot an irritated look at May. “It kind of does.” May smirked.

Astra looked between them, somewhat confused. Had something happened?

“Well, that aside,” Brendan said, turning back to Astra. “Thank you for telling me. I can’t imagine what living with that is like. Though, do you have to cover your whole head indoors? This room doesn’t even have a window—”

He cut off as Astra shook her head. “I’d rather not take it off. Being exposed...” Made it much harder to maintain the illusion. But people seeing her true form was also a nerve wracking concept, so the grimace on her face wasn’t faked in the least. “I don’t really like it,” she finished, hugging her legs to her chest.

Brendan’s face briefly cycled through panic and regret before settling on concern. “Hey, it’s fine.” he said, voice soft. “If you don’t want to, I’m not going to make you.”

Astra gave him a small smile. “Thanks. And, don’t worry about it. May asked me the same thing. I just... back home, how I look wasn’t a big deal. But out here it’s unusual. People would stare, or ask me questions, and... I don’t like that sort of attention.”

Brendan still looked a bit uncomfortable, but he nodded, returning the grin. “I can understand that. Maybe one day, then.”

“Maybe,” Astra replied, relaxing back into the pillows. It would be nice, not to worry about all of this. But not today, nor anytime soon.

“We are going to visit a clothing store after we return the briefcase, though,” he said, giving Astra a flat look.

“Heheh...” Astra scratched her head awkwardly. It still wasn’t her fault she had such a limited wardrobe! Still, that’d probably be for the best. Silently, she gave him a nod. Brendan nodded back, smiling.

“Y’all done?” May asked, fiddling with the remote. “The good part is coming up.” With that said, the volume on the TV, having been turned down at some point, abruptly returned to full blast.

Astra’s attention was dragged to the screen, and she let out a gasp when she saw the squid-person from earlier turn into... a squid made of ink? “What is this?” she asked, watching the squid-man jump out of an inky puddle, turn human and slam into a different, non-squid human.

“It’s a spinoff of one of the most popular shows on the air,” May answered. “About a dude who can do a bunch of squid stuff, like turn into them, grow tentacles, cover things in ink—which is like, acidic sometimes?—and even travel through that ink really fast. Travels a world-spanning ocean with his crew, getting up to all sorts of stuff.”

“Oh,” Astra said, watching intently as the squid-man pulled out a barreled device that let him spray ink across an entire crowd of people. “That sounds cool!”

“I’ve never been into these sorts of shows myself,” Brendan said, eyeing the screen curiously. “I suppose you haven’t seen a lot of these either, Astra?”

Atra shook her head, eyes glued to the screen. “We had something similar using shadows and fire, but this is... something else.”

“Shadow puppets...?” Brendan wondered.

“We watched Treasure Galaxy last night,” May offered. “She’s never seen King of the Amulet either.”

“Huh. That’s interesting,” Brendan murmured, sharing a glance with May. “I haven't seen the former either, but my dad loves to put the latter on for movie night.” Shaking his head, he leaned back into the seat. “So, do you watch a lot of these, May?” he asked, motioning to the screen

“Eh.” May shrugged. “A few. This one isn’t as good as the original, so I’ve skipped a few here and there. Now that one is the best; same basic concept with the ocean but it’s just so good! There’s this guy with a talking snail—wait, I should start at the beginning. So, it all started with this pirate—”

Astra sat back, a sense of contentment filling the air as May started to chatter about her show, most of the finer details flying right over her head. To her side, Brendan split his attention between the screen and May’s ramblings, interrupting every now and then to ask a question or two.

On the table, the Devon Suitcase waited. They’d have to deal with that sooner or later. But for now, a little relaxation was all she needed.

...

Also her robe. The towels here were even itchier than the ones in Petalburg!