CHAPTER 294

"Your Togekiss has made a full recovery," the Nurse Joy said. "No harsh battling for another week! She has to take it easy and not strain herself too hard, understood?"

"Yup!"

I'd been staring at Princess' Pokeball the entire time Nurse Joy had talked about limiting her exposure to steel type moves and to take it easy with the training. It wasn't that her words weren't important to me, but I'd been looking forward to this for more than a week, and tomorrow was her birthday. After thanking the Nurse a second time and she told me about how Honey was doing, I grabbed the Pokeball and saw Mira waiting for me outside.

She wasn't fully there, though she did notice my arrival, and it took a few seconds for her attention to return to me. It wasn't the first time she'd done this, and it was pretty easy to understand what was going on. We hadn't talked about it beyond me asking her if she was sure this was how she wanted to live and her saying that not doing this was basically torture for her. On one hand, it felt good to have her confide in me, but on the other… yeah, I worried for her.

"Got your kid back?" Mira grinned.

I beamed. "Yeah! I wanted to bring her back to the apartment before releasing her. I think her not getting swarmed by everybody at first will do her some good, and she'll like the old sights." We started walking toward my apartment complex, and I could see Porygon2 blinking in and out of existence around Mira's head. "After, I'll have Dad drive us to that park for the reunion, though."

I'd do the same thing for Honey, and I knew he would need it. Growing a hand was only the first bit of recovery, he had to learn how to use it again.

"You guys are gonna give me diabetes if I come," she said. "Plus, I don't want to get in between all of you, so I'll head back later."

I shrugged. "If you say so. I don't think you'd do that if you stuck around, Mira. You're great to be around."

"Honestly? We should be expecting the message today."

Ah. The message from Pauline and Emilia after Alakazam and Gardevoir were done telling them about everything. I exhaled, and my pace slowed slightly. This was it. There would be no going back from this.

"How'd you even convince your ACEs of this?" I asked.

Her lips twitched upward. "Getting second thoughts? It's too late to stop this from happening, so…"

To our right, two teams of human and fighting types were playing a round of Basketball with each other, and the Pokemon were on the weaker side of things to allow the people to actually compete, and they were holding back. Still, the Machop, Hitmonchan, Mankey and Combusken were nowhere near out of breath. Beating a fighting type in terms of endurance was an uphill battle.

"I'm just genuinely wondering," I said, watching Hitmonchan score a three-pointer. "We haven't really been appropriate with state secrets, have we?" I ended in a whisper. "I'm guilty of that too."

"I told them Uxie told me to, and they changed their mind real quick. Carlos was nice about it, since they didn't really want two rogue teens to leak everything they've tried to keep under wraps— you like basketball?"

"Huh? I mean, not really. I kind of like throwing the ball around, but the last time I did it was with Denzel in Eterna. Hey, stop changing the subject!"

My friend threw her hands up in a placating motion. "I was genuinely interested, promise. Anyway, not that many people have Xatu or Gothitelle in Sinnoh, I mean, they're both rare as hell, which is why Pauline had to buy hers. Those that have a Xatu don't really know what their Pokemon would have to look at to see that the world's in danger—"

"I remember. You told me back in Pastoria. Gothitelle is like, good at seeing the future of who they've bonded to."

"With all the shit going on, I thought you might have forgotten."

"It's important."

"Right. Basically, since they're close enough to us, they're the only people directly put in danger, and I guess that hasn't changed even with me telling them to stay away. I wish we could have convinced them that future-telling is unreliable anyway. The League has teams of Xatu, but most of their predictions don't even come close to coming true. Abel's was an exception in that regard."

Which was why they hadn't gotten rid of him or his team. Each of his Pokemon presented an excellent opportunity for the League to use. I'd rather they have slit his and his team's throats except for Ditto, personally, but I was under no illusion that I was the one in charge or equipped to make those decisions. Mira and I continued making small talk until we reached my apartment, where Dad was already waiting with a bright look. He had missed Princess as much as I had, having known her just as long. Multiple times, he had asked me if she needed a gift, but I told him to keep it for her birthday.

He'd gotten her one anyway. A weird, multi-colored cube-shaped puzzle toy meant for psychics that made my head hurt the longer I looked at it. The outer layer was transparent, but it was like staring at infinite reflections, or two mirrors perpetually bouncing light between each other. Meltan ended up whining the moment they set their eyes on the puzzle, their eye turning into a confused, wavy line until they retreated behind my neck.

"The goal is to align the mirrors inside until the reflection is completely straight," Dad explained. "I don't really know if it'll pose her a challenge or not, but the people there said it should be a decent distraction for a few days. There was a nice Hypno working there that explained it to me."

"You're used to telepathy, Arthur?" Mira asked. She was intrigued by the toy, probably wondering if she should get one or not.

"No, he could just write it down with a pen on a small whiteboard," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "It sells all kinds of Pokemon-focused toys if you ever want to take a look."

We spoke about that store for a bit, but eventually decided we'd stalled enough. Princess materialized in the middle of the living room, and when the red light left her body, relief filled my very being. Her fur looked so vibrant compared to when we'd been in Lakhutia, her eyes so energetic and full of life. The chirp of pure happiness that followed brought me close to tears, and I dropped to my knees to wrap my daughter in my arms, a sentiment she returned with her wings.

It took her little time to float off to Dad next, nearly knocking over a vase in the process. I had a feeling she wasn't used to the apartment being so small to her, and it was messing with her movements. Mimi climbed on the back of my neck, sending continuous pulses of shyness at the sight of this new traveling companion. That's right, they haven't actually met before, and Princess hadn't met Claydol, either— truly met them beyond battling together in the city. Hopefully she wouldn't hold a grudge like Sunshine… they could be similar, in that regard. Dad wrapped Princess in his usual bear hug, though she nearly knocked him to the ground in the process.

"Gee, all of this wholesomeness makes me feel uncomfortable," Mira said.

I rolled my eyes and let the moment pass. Togekiss hadn't seen Dad in a long while, so the hug lasted a decent amount of time. Mira's eyes widened when she got a hug too, and for a few seconds, she didn't really know how to reciprocate.

"Damn… she's so soft," she growled, almost offended. "Thanks for to warm welcome, Princess."

Togekiss hovered back my way, and I ran a hand through the fur on her head. "How's everything feeling? Good?"

The fairy gave me a hearty nod accompanied by an energetic chirp that made it difficult not to grin. We talked about the nurses and her experience for a bit, or at least until Dad and Mira felt left out. My father even asked how I'd gotten so good at understanding Pokemon without a psychic, and I dodged the truth by saying I must have had a talent for it. An excuse he didn't buy for even a second, but was nice enough to get that it wasn't something I wanted to talk about at all.

The curiosity stayed, though. Back in Hearthome, I'd been good, but not anywhere as quick. The back and forth we'd been having was as if we were two humans speaking.

The next hour or so was spent between us, just hanging out in the living room. When I showed Togekiss the old dent in the counter, her crown flattened against her head and she was desperate to pretend the cause for the damage hadn't been her. After all, she was Princess! Capable of drawing power from the moon to cut this apartment to ribbons, should she wanted, and possibly take the entire apartment down. How could such a small dent be worthy of her?

At least that was her train of thought.

Princess wasn't rude to Mimi or anything. She wasn't like she'd been with Sunshine, threatening to kill them in numerous ways, but she was harsh. Keeping her words short or straight up avoiding them. I tried to mediate, but it hadn't gone very well. I'd need to put Mimi, Princess and Sunshine in a room together soon to hash this out, because they kept treating them as someone they weren't, and they were smart enough to understand exclusion. Letting this fester in hopes of gradual improvement wasn't something I wanted, but forcing things had the potential to make things worse, too… damn it.

Right now, I needed to tell her about my hands. I'd asked her to follow me into my room, leaving Dad and Mira alone and her probably feeling very awkward right about now, and when Mira felt that way, she rambled. With Mimi there with them, I'd hoped that would be distraction enough to let Princess process the news at her own pace, even if we needed to stay here for ten minutes while she caught her breath.

"Been a while since you were in here, huh?" I smirked as I set myself on my bed. "Any memories jostled?"

She hovered close to me, her fur brushing against my arm. Good things, I hope, she answered in a grown-up tone. Like she hated the fact that she'd once been a helpless baby.

"There's no shame in it, I mean, I was helpless too. Still am, in the grand scheme of things." My head turned her way, and I noticed her looking at my desk. "Remember when I'd be studying to barely pass a test and you'd complain about not getting enough attention?"

A pained grunt escaped her throat, and had she been capable of blushing, she would have. I get it now, Dad. I understand why you like embarrassing me so much.

"Come here."

I wrapped my hands around her soft hair and sighed into her skin. My head was buried in the crook between her wing and her body, and it was then that she asked me if everything was okay. Her first worry was Honey— that I'd lied about him being okay to make her feel better like I'd lied about my ankle having been hurt being so damaging to my mental state in Pastoria. Something I'd grown used to, now, and it helped that I could actually tell I was steadily improving in that regard.

"He's fine, I promise. You'll see him in three days… maybe four, depending on how that goes. It's about my hands."

She squinted at them, and a soft psychic hold dragged them both up so she could better look at them.

"This is something I'll need you for. See, I stopped doing this thanks to help from the others and Aliyah, but sometimes I get the urge to just… squeeze them until they start bleeding again. I—"

Something in her shattered before me, though it was more the remains of something she'd been clinging to. A notion. It had first been cracked in Lakhutia, when I'd given up and accepted my death in front of my team, but now it was truly gone. The notion that I was so strong I was nearly invincible. It was like when I'd seen my Dad cry for the first time when I'd been six or seven and the same image of him I'd had had broken down before me and I'd cried too, because seeing a parent so weak made a child realize they were just human like them. Not some permanent fixture that would forever be here, but someone who could have days so bad they were reduced to tears. Oh, Princess had seen me cry before, but the context here was the same. I was just somebody. A person.

I let her sob quietly in my arms for fifteen minutes. She called me names, notably 'stupid', 'awful' and 'reckless'. I let her get it all out and promised her I wouldn't do it again. It wasn't enough, not nearly, but it was a start.

"Let's go see the others at the park, hm? Then we'll go train if you guys are up to it."

—

The wind whipped my hair around as we soared through the skies, and it was then that I'd realized I had missed this. The freedom afforded by flight. We had to steer clear of any skyscraper, which meant we were higher than I wanted to be. I could almost imagine Princess and I twisting and turning within the concrete jungle that was Jubilife, maybe stopping to wave at some office workers through a window to brighten someone's day like I'd done sometimes with seamen when we'd been near the coast. Alas, that would be breaking the law, and you couldn't go two minutes here without seeing a cop on a Staraptor, Fearow or Pidgeot scanning the skies to make sure no one was endangering the city.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It was fun to daydream, though.

Mimi, meanwhile, felt like they were in a dream. They were in their original form between my thighs, but I'd forced them to create a metallic harness around one of my arms. I didn't exactly know if they could survive a fall at this height, but testing that was not in the cards and they'd probably get snatched within the minute. The steel type sent a pulse of gratitude toward Princess with an accompanying screech as they watched the world below pass us by.

"Still embarrassed?" I asked, passing a hand through my daughter's fur. "You're more silent than usual."

She quietly huffed, a sound that was nearly masked by the wind, and I snorted. Knowing her, she'd think about that dent for at least a week. After a moment of silence, she asked me not to show Honey when he came back.

"I think it's cool to look back at how far you've come. He'd definitely tease you about it, though," I giggled.

Togekiss answered that she'd tease him back for his old days practicing Thundershock in Floaroma. It was nice to see her laughing again after what had happened earlier.

"Oh please, you basically banter every day. You have to learn to take what you dish out, Princess." I squinted behind my goggles when I saw a glimpse of darkness hidden behind a cloud above us, and my throat tightened. "Let's speed up to the route. We've got to be back before six if we're showing Dad and you the show I talked to you about."

Route 202 was what we were looking for, mostly because it was the least populated route of the four around Jubilife. I wasn't exactly looking to hide, but it'd be a bonus if we could be on our own. The route was slowly inclined, an endless stretch of green with woods sparsed within. It was in one of these, that I'd spent my first night out on my journey. My arm tingled at the thought of that Ekans trying to bite through my arm. Back then, I hadn't understood how lucky I'd been that they hadn't used poison.

Princess landed us near one of those forests, since trainers knew to avoid them if they wanted to make it through here untroubled. Near the end of Circuits like this, not many people were out on the road anyway. Sure, some spots were popular to train, like the edges of Eterna Forest, but on routes like this? The majority of trainers were still in cities trying to get their last badge of the year, so people here were mostly 14 or just turned 15-year-old kids who already had Pokemon and were trying to get an early start for next year.

Before releasing the entire team, I hopped off Princess, landing on my good foot, and released Claydol. From this close, it was easy to notice the imperfections in their form. Little chips and dents in the brown, solid clay, unevenness in their symmetry, bumps, a hand a little bigger than the other. People back then were masters at what they did, creating life from nothing, but Claydol had not been made with precise measuring tools. Bonds forged through battle, through thick and thin, had apparently been enough, with the way Princess looked at the psychic. It wasn't soft like when she looked at the others; it was too soon for love to have bloomed there and I wasn't sure Claydol was even capable of that quite yet. Still, there was respect in Princess' eyes, respect and gratitude for keeping us alive. She wasn't opposed to them sticking around with us.

That's much better reaction than she had with Mimi, I thought, feeling slightly relieved. I felt bad for the little steel type. They wanted nothing but to explore and connect with others, but didn't understand that Sunshine and Princess would be reluctant to do that for at least a little while.

Claydol hovered a foot off the ground, their eyes flashing pink with ancient glyphs. "Princess, I am pleased to report your recovery and will be delighted to be at your service, along with the rest of the royal court, henceforth."

In her absence, they had called her Princess, which didn't mean her name, but her status as my kid. Togekiss' eyes widened a smidge, and then she grinned, taking to the 'game' in seconds. It was incredible, to see the split second the calculus took to go through in her head. The fairy type puffed up her chest, thanking Claydol for their services.

"This is terrible for her ego, I hope you know that," I said, looking at the psychic. "But! Since Princess is back, she'll be able to take over Slowking's job as your teacher. In terms of barriers, you're already better than her, but your fine control could use some work. What we're focusing on is Ancient Power, though. I want you to be an expert."

There was no way Claydol would get better at it than her in the short time we had left, but I was certain we could get it to be useful.

"At your command," they answered with that same, monotone voice. "Shall we start, Princess?"

"Wait, before you do, work on Mud-Slap, too," I said. "The times you've used it gave me an idea for Byron, I need it to be… uh, I need you to work on the volume. It has nice synergy with Ancient Power if we're going to spread it throughout the arena. Do you think you could do that?"

Claydol froze for a second, a thin light washing over their eyes. "Query: Mud-Slap. Data analysis indicates minimal instances of the described application. Repetitive engagement may lead to enhanced proficiency. Practice imperative for optimal execution."

I grinned. "But it's possible, right?"

"Correct."

"Okay, you guys can set up here, I'll get the entire team up to speed."

While Princess ripped a large sphere from the ground and showcased it to Claydol, rambling about the many applications of Ancient Power, I released the rest of the team to train. We hadn't been slacking, per se, but I wanted to intensify our training to reach the final tools we'd need to win the fight. My Pokemon seemed happy enough to be out of the city. Sweetheart announced her presence with a roar that had my insides vibrate and my bones rattle, and at least a hundred Starly and Staravia left the forest we were near to in panicked shouts.

"Next time, don't?" I sighed. "No need to bother the locals, yeah? If you want to scream, I'll take you to someplace you can vent."

She growled, partly annoyed and partly sorry. After all, was it her fault everything was too scared to be near her? That was the way she thought, at least.

"I'll take you to Sandgem tomorrow so we can work on Surf if you behave." She grinned, flashing her rows of sharp teeth as big as my head. Bribing her usually worked, in cases like these. "Good! We aren't really in a great place to refine your control of Earthquake, so it'll have to be Stone Edge— but with Iron Defense. Can you pull one out right now?"

Instantly, a spike eight feet in length was ripped up from the floor with a rumble. It glimmered as it did, and it was impossibly hard to the touch. I didn't really know the difference in hardness between rock or metal, but I was sure that they were harder than normal and wouldn't break against Byron's steel types. "Good. Now do ten of those at the same time, and we'll call it a day."

Sweetheart touched her two hands together, and I added. "And you'll get meat."

I'd give her some regardless, but it was better for her to have some motivation so she wouldn't get distracted trying to befriend some wild Bidoof and giving the poor thing a heart attack. I turned to Sunshine, who'd been laughing at her request until she swiped him with his tail. His knees buckled, though he didn't fall, instead flames burst to life until Jellicent chimed in and calmed them down with an irritated whistle.

Yeah… they liked playfighting, now. A lot. They were the only two who actually enjoyed fighting together a decent bit, and Sunshine enjoyed the challenge of trying to make his flames burn through her scales. They'd fought countless times at the League, and the temperature within those barriers routinely reached above a thousand degrees.

I was not about to burn the entire route down and ruin countless Pokemon's lives. Plus, I'd be fined by the Rangers for creating an ecological disaster. A few flames, we could put out, but ambient temperature so hot everything within hundreds of feet would catch on fire was an entirely different scale.

"You know what to do," I shrugged. "Work with Buddy on Fire Blast. One at a time so he can clean up, okay?"

Sunshine rolled his eyes, his heavy steps carrying him off in the distance. On the way to the spot he'd designated, he asked Princess for a few boulders large enough not to disintegrate, and she asked him to ask nicely with a please. Instead, he glared at her and asked if she was serious, and it was Buddy that broke the stalemate by saying please. He already knew what to work on— a Rain Dance powerful enough to stick around for a while after he was recalled. There was that Ice Blade thing modeled after Ice Spinner, which he'd used to get me out of that bathroom at Poketch, but that wouldn't be of use against Byron and was more of a side project we'd come up with when brainstorming ways for him to stab things.

I'd been a lot more into it than he had.

"Angel, come with," I said. "We're going into the woods."

The grass type excitedly bobbed up and down, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me up on his head. There was a sad mewl from Mimi, since they seemed interested in sticking by Claydol or Buddy. Those were the two they'd bonded with the most outside of me, and it showed. I ran a finger around the golden rim of their head, and their tail stopped waggling. I'd seen Dad and Mom's Herdier shake his tail when he was excited, but for Mimi, it mostly happened when they were nervous. It could happen, but not very often. Angel waddled into the forest, waving at a couple of Burmy hanging off a branch. Most Pokemon had left the area, retreating deeper into the woods when Sweetheart had roared, so I wasn't expecting to see them. Goes to show that some people are braver than others, I mused, though the leaves on their body were shaking, and not because of the wind.

"Sorry about that noise! You're safe I promise," I said as we passed them. I doubted they'd believe me, but at least I'd have tried. Legendaries, things were going to get so much easier when Claydol learned to Teleport… maybe I'd have Alakazam tutor them if they came back in time before I left, which would be the day after Mira's birthday.

The forest, having seemed so deadly months ago, was now a walk in the park, save for the branches that sometimes got in my face and tangled my hair. They weren't actually off-route and were well-maintained by the Rangers, but they had let a Scyther slip through. Looking back, a predator like them had probably decided to take their chances in the 'human lands' if it meant they could get easy prey. Still, I asked Angel to be on guard with Ancient Power in case an aggressive Pokemon attacked us or we walked near a Dustox colony. As it stood, I wasn't feeling anything nearby with my empathy, though, and that stayed the case even when Angel found a spot he liked.

Two vines popped up from his head in front of my face, and he signed that the soil was good here. High quality.

"Great— for now. We'll have to use bad soil soon just in case our plans don't work out and we'll have you train under Sweetie's Sandstorm, but I guess this is nice for our proof of concept. Down, please?"

The grass type set me on the ground, and I put Mimi on my shoulder before turning back toward Angel. He stared at me curiously through his large eyes, his countless vines writhing so subtly you'd miss it if you didn't stare long enough.

"It's going to be you, Angel. Not Sunshine. Not Buddy. Not Sweetheart. You."

I let the words settle, and their weight draped over the grass type. It was the weight of expectation, of being scared he would fail to battle up to my standards for such an important fight.

I softly clicked my tongue. "We aren't scared of failure." My hands draped over his cheek, and he gently pulled them away so I wouldn't hurt them. Smiling, I continued. "You'll do great. You used to carry the team on your back, when you'd just evolved and during the tournament in Solaceon. And it won't just be you." I turned toward where we'd just come from. "I'll have the arena ready for you, I'll have it just right, or as close as right as possible."

Silence. It was always silence, but the look he gave me in that moment had me grin from ear to ear.

"Now give it a try."

The vines were slow, at first. As Tangrowth closed his eyes, four vines planted themselves into the soil with a slight thud, meeting no resistance beyond the layer of grass and plant-covered dirt. There was a slight glow to each of them as he shivered. The air stood perfectly still, and the entire forest was silent. Suspended in time, with only me and Mimi to bear witness to weeks of work and dedication. Hundreds of minute adjustments to stop the nutrients in the ground from getting used too quickly and killing everything or too slow to sustain what was currently happening.

The four vines left the ground, and then split. Then again, and again until they became a torrent of writhing Ekans crawling across the forest floor. It was like watching water flood the woods. They took the path of least resistance, wrapping around trees, digging under collapsed branches or in some case burying them with only the creaking of the bark to show that they'd ever been there. By the end of it, an entire area was covered in it, far beyond the size of a Gym Arena.

"Perfect."

My voice was a whisper, like I was terrified being too loud would ruin his concentration despite knowing that wouldn't be the case. Each vine was a limb, and he had thousands of them at his command. Only a small circle around my feet was clear of them, and Mimi jumped off my shoulder to touch the… ocean. One of the many vines poked at their side, and they tried to cut it immediately with a needle-like sword. Was I a bad influence on them?

"Give me a Power Whip."

Before I'd even finished talking, vines behind us wrapped together into a braid until they were as thick as a tree and glowed neon green. Good. Then, more popped up, though at the fourth, his focus began to lapse. Still, he could use it at any point on his field.

"Spores."

Around a hundred feet away from us, a puff of yellow, green and purple spores burst out from below the vines with a series of small explosions until they petered out.

"Solar Blade."

It would be with singular vines, this time, partly because of focus and time spent charging the attack, and partly because of lethality concerns. Three vines glowed bright white from the undergrowth and stood straight up. One of them cut across a tree, though Angel held back and only dented the bark. They weren't many, not yet, but that was fine. The advantage was that we could strike from anywhere.

And vines could hold opponents down, trip them up and push them around, too. A fire could always be cut off at the source and isolated, but should push come to shove, Angel would be able to run through the nutrients in the soil to regenerate his vines so long as he still had nutrients. It would be somewhat of a last resort.

"You did great," I exhaled. "So, so good. I'm proud of you."

He blinked slowly, and the entire field shook as one as his vines convulsed with excitement. It was like dropping a pebble into a lake— the emotion rippled like water.

We had our strategy. What we would be building towards.

Now my job was to get Byron's arena there to allow him to do all of this. From a swath of rough steel to…

Well, what we were standing on, minus the trees. Byron would resist, he'd fight and try to drag me onto his idea of what the arena should be shaped like, but I would drag him there kicking and screaming if I had to.

"Give me a Power Whip. Let's try to push to five."

—

"Shut up! You did not come up with that move for Lauren."

It was late in the evening now, and we were both back at my apartment. Princess at at the foot of my bed working on solving her puzzle while Mimi watched it in silence, too shy to get too close or speak up. From what I knew, their words were alien to my team too because they didn't speak. They used body language and felt, but beyond some vocalisations that were gibberish, communicating would be difficult. Princess was an empath, but being as good as I was would be a tall order. Sunshine was snoring besides the bed, and Buddy slowly elongated parts of himself to make his head look like they had spikes all over as a challenge he'd set for himself to work on his fine control. Mira's Porygon2 was her only Pokemon out, but like ninety percent of the time, she was out of view, on her phone.

Mira wriggled her eyebrows with that smug look she had gotten so good at. "What can I say, I was feeling mighty inspired that day."

"You don't come up with moves. That's not something you do! Your idea of battling is whittling Pokemon down while keeping your distance with Teleport or flying or—"

"Hey! I'll have you know that I've progressed beyond that stage," she said, clearly faking her offense at my words. "I'm training too, you know? And Lauren said Gengar was fun to fight!"

"I'm sorry, but calling a Gengar interesting of all things isn't the compliment you think it is."

Mira shrugged. "It is. For her."

She was smiling, so I'd let it go for now. Personally, I really wanted to fight her Gengar, but his idea of a fight was to pop out of nowhere and spook his opponents unless he was in a good mood. He wasn't very well-behaved.

"That move won her the battle," I muttered at my screen. I didn't remember how the conversation of Lauren had come up from her telling me about the drawings on her cast, but we'd segued into her Gym Battle and decided to watch it again. "Damn, who even are you?"

She pushed me on the shoulder. "Stop acting like I'm stupid or something."

"It's fun. Miss Knowledge not knowing how to battle—"

Poketch devices were all linked. Tablets, phones, watches, laptops— everything was connected through a system I didn't really understand. That was the reason why I'd seen Emilia's message pop up in the top right of the screen. Mira and I froze, looking at the text spelling out 'we need to talk'. Simple, but to the point.

"Well," Mira sighed. "Time to face the music."

At the same time, the clock hit midnight.

It was Princess' second birthday.