“Bo, I go by Bo.”

Bo finished introducing himself to Gramps’ student with his arm still outstretched. He felt his smile become slightly stiff at seeing the young girl’s face. Alice looked to be maybe fifteen or sixteen with a lanky build and wearing baggy sweats. More concerning, what appeared to be typically dark skin was alarmingly pale and her breath was coming out in short rapid bursts. Her smile appeared completely frozen while her eyes had never stopped darting around.

Bo suppressed a sigh. He really wished Gramps had warned him that she had social anxiety. It was just like the oblivious old man not to think of something so important. Thinking quickly, Bo searched his mind for a way to put her at ease before landing on the perfect idea. Reaching out behind him with his spirit, Bo leaned forward slightly to make room behind him. Right on time, Princess appeared over his shoulder and looked down on the teenager with her three toothy, smiling faces.

“This is my good friend, Princess. She’s not big on touching but I’d bet my left leg that you’ll never see another Hydreigon with a smile as bright as hers.”

Bo felt himself relax as the girl let out an appropriately appreciative squeak while her Alolan Persian’s fur rose up in awe. Perfect! No one could stay tense when faced with a pokemon as adorable as Princess around. His smile dropped when Dani started cursing though.

“Arceus’ hairy-balled vagina Skittles, what the fuck are you doing to that poor girl? And Princess, stop scaring the kid.”

“Drei!!”

“Yeah, yeah, same to you,” Dani responded while shoving Bo out of the way. “Sorry about that. Alice right? I’m Dani. I’ll introduce you to my team when we have a little more time. You can relax a little by the way, I promise no one here’s going to try and eat you or anything. The big fella’s a giant Teddiursa on the inside and even the skinny bugger is sorta harmless. In fact, Angel, come work your magic.”

Bo rolled his eyes as the big pink himbo started moonwalking over to them with a smile, but at least the teen seemed calmer now. He tried smiling at her protective Persian as well, only to have the classy cat sniff and look away. Ah, nothing like meeting a new dark type. His relief died out slightly as two high pitched voices spoke up.

“Arceus has hairy balls?”

“What’s a vagina?”

Looking down, he spotted two tiny, chubby humans with identical expressions of curiosity on their faces. The squat forms and features of the two boys were near impossible to tell apart. Dani also looked down with a slightly panicked face at the two children’s questions. Peering over at him, she jerkily raised one eyebrow while dipping her head slightly. Despite the situation, Bo felt a slight spark of joy that she still remembered their various silent signals that they’d honed over the years. Responding in kind, he minutely twitched his mouth and blinked twice. A sense of satisfaction filled him as with that alone they could still plan out a response as a team.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why are there children here?’

‘No idea. I just got here.’

‘Do something.’

‘Do what? Hitting kids is still illegal!’

‘You’re killing me Skittles. You’re killing me.’

‘Wait, I got it.’

‘Ooh, I think I got it too.’

““Carter!””

The big man in question resisted the temptation to roll his eyes in exasperation at his two friends’ panicked plea. He’d have thought after all the hours they spent babysitting Reese and Maddie, they’d be able to handle at least this much. At the same time though, he did remember they were the reason why his kids knew most of their curse words. Kneeling down to look the two boys in the eye, he gently extended his hand for a shake.

“Hey there, you two. Don’t worry about Dani, she was just joking around. I’m Carter by the way. You two wouldn’t mind telling me what two big dudes like you are doing up here, would you?”

Seemingly forgetting their questions in favor of explaining something to an adult, both boys puffed up proudly.

“We’re Master Moon’s senior disciples.”

“We’re here to show you newbies the ropes.”

“I’m Flap Pancake.”

“I’m Jack Pancake.”

“You better prepare yourself mister.”

“Cause we ain’t holding anything back,” the second brother finished their intro with a sharp popping sound.

“Phew,” Carter whistled in an impressed tone. “I look forward to it. Now…”

As Carter continued to engage with the two boys, Bo felt something fragile breaking in his head as he processed their words. Weirdly enough, he could swear it was accompanied by a sound not unlike the time Jumbo had cursed up a storm after stubbing his toe on Gramps’ Tyranitar, Goliath. Shaking his head slightly, Bo tried to focus on what was important. On one hand, he finally knew what Pancake Brothers were. On the other hand…

“Gramps,” he whispered quietly out of the twins’ earshot after sidling up next to the Old Man. Dani too leaned in to hear them while Alice tilted her head more subtly. “Were you planning on having these two fight in the tournament? How old are they anyway?”

“Relax boy, I said they could stand there and look intimidating. And they’re already eight years old for your information.”

“Uhh, Gramps,” Dani queried gently. “The legal age to get a trainer’s license is fourteen.”

“What?” he questioned in outrage. “The legal age is ten for a youngster license!”

“The League got rid of the youngster license years ago Old Man,” Bo said in exasperation. “Besides, you just said they were eight!”

“Yeah, well I figured we’d just do the same thing we did with you and nudge their birth certificates a bit. Carmine uses our own paper stock so the League’s fancy scanners don’t know how to check them accurately.”

“Wait, what? I started my journey when I was ten Gramps,” Bo protested in a confused voice. Looking slightly to the left, Bo checked to make sure that Jumbo was alright before working his jaw back and forth to pop his ears. The high altitude must have been messing with them, because he kept hearing a Morpeko shouting. Whilst he was sorting out his ears, the Old Man started nodding his head slowly.

“Right,” he responded in a bizarrely flat intonation. “You did start your journey at ten. I am so old. Ho-ho-ho.”

‘Morp-morp-morp, morpeko-morpeko-morpeko, morp-morp-morp!’

“Gramps, I am twenty-six years old, right?”

“Suuuuuure,” Both Dani and Alice winced at the horribly faked innocent tone while Bo’s own face started twitching.

‘Morp-morp-morp, morpeko-morpeko-morpeko, morp-morp-morp!’

“The hell, how old am I?”

“Bah, you’re only as old as you feel, boy. I’m still thirty most days,” The Old Man stated with a forcibly sage finality.

Bo felt his mouth open and close uselessly as he tried to respond reasonably to the man who had been complaining about his ‘withered bones’ not ten minutes earlier. It didn’t help that his spirit was filled with snickering from his none too subtly eavesdropping pokemon. Judging by their, Carter’s, and Dani’s teams shaking shoulders, none of them had any trouble listening in even from a distance. Before he could choke out a response though, Dani beat him to the punch in a worried tone.

“Hey, Gramps, normally I’m totally down for that idea, but uh, I kind of need to know how old the idiot is, for, you know, legal reasons.”

“Oh that, it was fine,” the Old Man assured her in a suddenly casual voice.

“It was fine?”

“Yeah, fine.”

‘Morp-morp-morp, morpeko-morpeko-morpeko, morp-morp-morp!’

“Why do you know if it was fine?” Bo asked.

“Emma called to tell me,” he responded, causing Dani to sigh with relief while nodding in understanding. Comparatively, Bo’s own face became increasingly more alarmed.

“Why does Emma know it was fine!?” he asked, whipping his head back and forth between the Old Man and Dani. Meanwhile Alice’s face had briefly flashed with understanding before turning red.

“Oh yeah, I might have told her,” Dani said sheepishly. “Don’t worry, turns out you were fine.”

“Can we please stop using the word, fine?”

“Not criminally bad?”

“Go back to fine.”

“So you are criminally bad?” queried an innocent voice.

“No, it was fine, remember. What was it?” asked another equally innocent voice.

Realizing how loud their voices had become, all four of them creakily turned their heads to see that the two brothers had stopped talking with Carter to look at them questioningly. Carter himself was left staring up at his friends with a dead look in his eyes. The ground shook beneath them as Dhalia the Tyranitar and Riley the Golurk fell down wheezing for air from their laughter. Only Princess was quiet as she floated silently towards Dani with her heads tilted curiously. Hurrying to cut off the conversation, Dani quickly waved her arms back and forth while shaking her head.

“Nothing, nothing was fine. So the Old Man’s thirty now? Let’s go get some cake to celebrate!”

“Oh, come on!”

‘Morp-morpeko-morp, morp-morp, morp-morpeko-morpeko-morp.’

*

‘Thank Arceus for bribing children with sweets,’ Dani thought to herself.

It came through when she and Bo were left alone with Reese or Maddie and it came through with the Pancake Brothers. Just like how Emma had never learned how that shed got blown up, the twins seemed content to not ask any more questions after the Old Man’s promise of fried donuts. Now they just needed to usher their meandering swarm over to Murderville without any more incidents. A task none to aided by Skittles trying to chase his Porygon-Z away from his phone. He kept muttering something about the last time they’d messed with it and sausages.

Old Man Moon had already handed over sealed cases containing Dani and Carter’s pokeballs, along with the code provided by the League to override the carry limit functions, much to Carter’s obvious delight. Typically, each pokeball was registered to a trainer’s ID. The carry limit function then served to lock the balls into their miniaturized form when in the same vicinity as six other occupied balls. There were exceptions of course, typically for house pokemon that didn’t battle, but also to prepare for certain League sanctioned like the one they’d signed up for. In Bo’s case, the Old Man just bitched at him for apparently having already had IO illegally override his balls’ protocols.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

The group slowly drifted away from the admittedly beautiful lake, several of the pokemon and humans stopping at random to play with the fairies that bopped around their heads. Even though it wasn’t a full moon, the various pink puffballs seemed excited at the sight of so many humans and pokemon gathered at the summit. Angel in particular looked to be having the time of his life as his old friends swirled around him. Bo explained that the majority of these pokemon typically avoided humans by hiding out within the deeper parts of Mt. Moon. The ones that trainers encountered normally were just the rare few that actually wanted to be caught.

Despite some apprehension about relocating to another civilization in the middle of nowhere, Dani still held a warm feeling in her chest at the sight around her. Echoes of laughter and joy bubbled up unbidden as all of her pokemon gathered together along with their old friends. Bo’s Sableye, Gizmo, was rolling around with two other Sableyes Dani recognized as her pair of twins. Outside of that trio, Wrath, Rooster in particular seemed happy to see their old teammates and King looked like he was still happy with Carter. Looking around a bit further though, she did flash a slight frown.

“Hey Old Man! Where’s Huntress & Astra?”

“Eh, the dark missus said somethin’ bout the futility of preempting the lines of fate made by mystical star Bunearies.”

“Skittles?”

“Astra didn’t feel like coming all the way up here to say hi because she figured we’d come to see them eventually. Huntress probably would have come to see us but her wife’s prettier than we are.”

“Sounds about right,” she huffed while rolling her eyes. She had caught Huntress as a Teddiursa during her first year of training and the pokemon had come through for Dani on more than one occasion. Despite their bond though, Huntress’ style of battling had never really meshed well with Dani’s and when the Ursaring fell for Astra, she was content to stick with Bo’s team. For all the devastation she could reap, the Ursaring was sickeningly adorable when it came to her partner. Likewise, Bo’s Primeape, Wrath, jumped at the idea of joining up with Dani. Bo had tried for years to teach her how to calm down and use strategy, but the walking anger bomb just loved punching it out until she dropped. Her Obstagoon, King had switched with Carter’s Scrafty, Rooster, for similar reasons.

She was eventually broken out of her thoughts by nearly running into a frozen Bo ahead of her with Baron perched atop his shoulder. Swerving around him to get a look at what was wrong, Dani was taken aback by the crooked smile stretched across his face. Turning to see what he was looking at, she finally got her first look at Carmine Village within the valley splayed out below them. For several seconds, only one thought could cross her mind.

‘That is a whole lot of Murkrow,’ Witch whispered into her head.

‘Yup,’

Honestly, the village reminded her a bit of Ballonlea with all the old-fashioned, wooden homes dotted throughout the valley alongside sprawling plots of land, only interspersed by a few more modern buildings and fixtures. The path they were on now seemed to continue on to cut straight through the center of the village. Most of the homes were wide and squat with patched, sloped roofs. Like Ballonlea, the homes seemed to be spaced haphazardly across the valley, though Dani did notice that they seemed to be loosely gathered around a large, enclosed compound high on the valley to the right. Expanding away towards her left, Dani spotted wide patches of farmland. Tucked away next to the farms was a small patch of more modern buildings made of dull metal. Lastly, along the center stretch of the village there seemed to be a large collection of wooden buildings that she pegged as commercial rather than residential. Dani thought she could just make out a stretch of open fields at the far end of the town.

Instead of being swarmed by towering trees like her hometown, the mountain village was ringed by the surrounding foliage and broken up by twisting hills and bluffs. Further twists in the valley walls and surrounding forests seemed to tuck away even further parts of the little village. The main difference though, were the lack of glowing mushrooms and foliage spread throughout the village. In their place, dozens of Murkrow seemed to cover the entire village, their night flight shrouding much of the village in shadow despite the glowing moon above them. The sight was certainly stunning, but there was an eeriness to it all that Dani couldn’t quite pin down until Witch whispered again, this time to all those gathered.

‘They aren’t making any sounds?’

“Oh that,” Bo laughed happily when Dani voiced the question. “This murder has been a part of Carmine Village for generations now. They’re usually pretty chill about not interrupting people’s sleep.”

Dani and Carter both made an appreciative sound in their throats but a quick side glance told her they were thinking the same thing. To just about anyone else, the lack of sound would make the whole scene creepy as fuck. The valley, even the mountain itself, was lit up in a soft but constant glow coming from its namesake. The village on the other hand was a mass of swirling darkness broken only by flickering patches of moonlight. It was like every step taken closer to the otherwise scenic village was another away from the light and into the dark.

“Arceus,” Skittles sighed with a dreamy look in his eyes. “It’s good to be home.”

*

Bo couldn’t help but smile like a fool as he skipped, in a very manly way of course, down the main street through the village. The Pancake brothers had split off towards their house after reminding the Old Man of his promise of baked goods. Most of the group’s pokemon had forgone going into town in lieu of letting Zuzu show them around the nature reserve kept behind the Moon clan compound for their pokemon to roam. A few like Princess and Gizmo had gone to check out the little slices of the territory they’d carved out for themselves while, judging by their swiftly moving spirits, Storm had taken up herding Saber away from anything too breakable. Currently, only Baron, Angel, Witch, Brute, Apollo, Tama, and Jumbo walked alongside the group, Angel and Jumbo happy to point out some of the sights.

“Oi, brat,” Old Man called out, breaking Bo from his drifting. “Time to get your head on. We got to make a quick stop before heading home.”

Turning to find his grandfather nodding towards one of the larger and more modern buildings within the village, Bo tilted his head in confusion. The community center had been built around twenty years ago and was now used as the primary place for conducting official village business, but he couldn’t imagine what they’d need from it at this time of night. Seeing Bo’s unasked question, the Old Man grunted towards the building.

“I told the village council you were draggin your scrawny butt in tonight. They wanted to have a quick meeting about the Gym.”

“Wait, you actually have a council?” Carter interjected before Bo could say anything. “I was under the impression it was pretty much your word of law around here.”

“Technically, the Moon clan holds authority over all the land rights in the area, making me everyone’s landlord and the ultimate judge when it comes to any village-wide decisions. That be’in said, it’s not like I got a clue about village planning, farming, or the businesses everyone’s got. I mean,” he paused while running a hand through his beard as if in ponderous thought. “I am a fair hand at fishing but it ain’t like I know how to make money off of it. On top of all that, my oldest, Armand, went to work for the League for a few years and came back with all these weird ideas about paying taxes and whatnot. Fuck it if Jumbo ‘n I are the ones handling that.”

“How is Uncle A, anyways?”

“Bah, uptight and fidgety but could be worse. That damned Darkrai he divorced is still trying to suck the life out of him from whatever new sucker’s place she’s haunting. At the very least, she ain’t willing to come up here to do it. Not that I had Goliath pretend to try an eat her the last time she was here, mind you. Might be too late for your cousins though. They act more n’ more like city-slickers every summer they come up here. Maybe you lot can whip a little Moon blood back into them when you see ‘em.”

“As funny as watching Bo talk to children I’m not responsible for might be,” Carter interjected. “Could we circle back to this council we’re going to see? I don’t imagine they wanted to have a meeting this late at night just to say hi.”

“Prolly not,” The Old Man nodded agreeably as Bo pulled the door to the community center open and waved everyone through. “The council is basically made up of various people who were elected to represent portions of the community alongside the current heads of the Moon clan. Right now, that means twelve people, including me. Armand works as the village administrator and handles most of our day to day business with the League. Yuzu’s representing the Kahale’s. Then there’s the police chief, the Clefable & Shiftry elders, the people’s representative; and the representatives for the industrial, trade, agriculture, engineering, and fishing business sectors.

Technically, the rest of the heads of the Moon clan families are all supposed to be on it, but that’s not really saying much these days. The Summers are all wandering who knows where, Nuna’s the last of Na’u around and she’s already the sheriff. And of course, the Honua are all dead, may Arceus bless their souls, or will be dead if they ever set foot here again, may Arceus rip them apart starting from their taints.”

““Amen,”” Carter and Bo both agreed in unison though Alice jerked back in slight surprise. Bo supposed that Old Man Moon probably hadn’t told her that story yet. Honestly, he was surprised the Old Man mentioned that part of their remaining family even if only to pray for taint splitting.

“Anyways,” his gramps continued as he started to head up through the building. “Starting up a Gym here will be a big change for everyone. More trainers wondering through the wild pokemons’ homes, more need for business, more crime, etc. They just want to eyeball you lot an make sure we’re not backing a lame Rapidash.”

“Didn’t you say you had already handled that, Gramps?” Bo asked nervously.

“Bah, it’s an ongoing process. Just be yourselves and leave the rest to me, kid.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dani agreed happily. “Just tag me in when it comes to the to-be-dead people. That sounds like a party worth showing up for.”

Bo shook his head in amusement before Baron chirped happily. Looking up, he laughed with a grin upon his when he spotted the figure leaning against the wall. Her eyes were tired as always and she was wearing the same old dusty jacket he always saw her in. Her keen-eyed Honchkrow perched imperiously atop a cabinet nearby. Racing up to greet her, Bo shouted in cheer.

“Nuna! Honchkrow! How’ve you been?”

“Hey little cousin,” Nuna sighed wearily as she put up with his attempted bear hug while the squat bird tipped his head in greeting. Unfortunately, Nuna was several inches taller than him, making Bo’s efforts to lift her awkward for all of them. Nevertheless, she patted him on the back in fondness before nodding towards Baron, Angel, and the newcomers she hadn’t met yet. “Littler cousin, big cousin, and I’m assuming the rest of you are my future pain in the asses?”

“Yup. Tag, you’re it,” Carter chuckled good-naturedly even as he struggled with an odd sense of de ja vu upon seeing her face. Carter could have sworn he had seen her somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place her even when he thought back to when he’d last been in Carmine Village. Stepping up to shake her hand, he only paused slightly when he noticed that Dani had frozen, staring bug-eyed at the woman before them. Seeing Carter’s questioning look and Dani’s gob smacked expression, Bo’s eyes eventually lit up in understanding as he took in his cousin’s tired gaze, pale complexion, and matte, gray hair.

“Oh right, yeah. Guys, this is Nuna Na’u and her partner, Honchkrow. She’s Carmine Village’s sheriff, my distant cousin, and Nanu’s twin sister. Don’t worry though, she’s nowhere near a big a hard-ass as him though.” Seeing her minutely quirked eyebrow, he shrugged lightly at Nuna’s unasked question. “Dani and I just came from Alola. Would you believe your little brother actually banned us from the entire region and forced us onto a plane barely a few minutes after we came to from blacking out? We weren’t even all that in the wrong this time.”

“Ah,” she sighed in acknowledgment before meeting Carter’s handshake and twitching her lips upwards while looking at Dani.

“Sounds like Nanu. I’d blame it on InterPol brainwashing, but the little dude’s always had a hard-on for the rules. No matter how often I try to tell him he needs to chill every once in a while, the guy is just too wound up,” Nuna drawled sleepily while slipping a metal flask out of her jacket and raising it to her lips. Noticing several raised eyebrows, she eventually held the flask out towards them. “You want a pull? Armand won’t let us drink inside the conference room for some reason.”

“Sure,” Dani said while stepping forward, happily putting any hesitance over the resemblance to Nanu aside.

“Nope!” Old Man Moon interjected while unfairly slapping both Dani and Bo upside the head (Bo could have been reaching out to scratch his nose for all he knew, after all). “I’ll handle the actual details but you four still need to convince the council you’re not complete morons, remember? Nuna… You go ahead’n drink as much as you want. Just remember, Gym. Is. Good.”

“Fuck, is that what we’re here about? I love you Old Man, but you know that shit’s going to mean more paperwork for me. Gyms mean more trainers. More trainers mean more people. More people mean more idiots. More idiots mean more work. Remember, Work. Is. Bad.”

“KROW!” Nuna’s partner finally cried loudly in agreement.

“Just get inside.”

Bo laughed lightly before popping open the doors to the conference room. Arranged around a long wooden table were several figures he hadn’t seen in a while.

“Hey all! Long time no see,” he called with a wave before holding the door open for the rest of the group to come in. “I’m coming around to hug each and every one of you, that is going to happen, but I’ll just do some introductions first. These are my friends, two of the best trainers you will ever find and their partners, Carter & Apollo from Icirrus and Dani, Brute & Witch from Ballonlea. They’ve agreed to join us in creating a Gym here.”

“Dani, Carter,” he said gesturing towards the closest figure to him that was smiling drolly back at them, he went on to introduce the council. “This is Aisha. She serves as the people’s representative, advocating for general issues, and is the owner of a truly amazing skincare routine which she will not tell me about no matter how much I beg. She is also the founder and owner of the Chansey House, currently the largest breeder and retirement home for medical Chansies in Kanto, as well as a bang-up massage parlor.”

“Glad to see you’re still a flatterer, Bo. And Angel, welcome home. The girls will certainly be happy to hear you’re back,” she chuckled, causing Angel to whistle innocently while blushing. The woman who Bo knew to be nearing her fifties, but refused to show it outside a few laugh lines, chuckled indulgently at Angel’s antics before leaning towards them to offer them her familiar smile.

Carter nodded slightly awkwardly in return. Dani on the other hand, was uncharacteristically quite as she stared at Aisha. Looking over at her, Bo rolled his eyes before nudging her and murmuring out the side of his mouth. “Up Dani, up.” Thankfully, Aisha was amused enough to simply wink as Dani’s gaze snapped a foot up to meet the woman’s eyes.

“Then we have Mr. Gastron,” Bo moved on while pointing towards the man across from Aisha. Well-groomed and wearing a suit that probably cost more than all the rests’ clothes combined, the man glowered imperiously back at them. “He’s the representative for the industrial sector which basically composes of his own construction company and the waste disposal business he runs throughout Kanto as well as the loggers and miners in the area. He and the Old Man put together a really amazing breeding program for Alolan Grimers and other pokemon that have done wonders for eliminating pollution in Kanto. And is there any chance he likes me any more than he did when we last spoke?”

“No. Can we get on with this?”

“Cool and no,” Bo cheerfully moved down the line toward a thin man adorned with several notable scars stretched across his skin. “Isaac is the representative for the agricultural sector. Carmine Village actually does pretty well with growing crops and berries of several types, alongside raising pokemon that provide valuable resources. Isaac though, happens to run a rather diverse farm, raising edible crickets as well as breeding Caterpie and Spinarak for silk, and Cottonee for cotton. Fun fact, he is also the best tailor around and no, Dani, he did not make what I am currently wearing.”

“Damn straight,” the man rasped out. “By the way, you are getting your ass over to my place at some point. If we’re going through with this stunt, you’re not wearing a bathrobe on live television.”

“Hardy-har. Now,” he gestured towards an older man with an impressive mustache perched under sharp eyes who responded with a sedate nod. “This is Conrad, the trade sector representative and owner of the best tavern in the village. To my knowledge, it is also the only bar in the village without broken glass routinely on the floor. He represents the various private businesses and tradesman.”

Bo turned towards a grizzled man who already looked bored. “Hughes is the representative for the fishing industry. Most of the fishermen live a few miles north of here where the mountain leads out into a small sea inlet. They keep a pretty impressive aqua farm of regular fish. They also work with Kingler, Claunchers, & Crabrawlers to benignly extract claw meat. Oh, by the way, how are the Veluza I sent over working out?”

“Pheh,” the man spat irritably. “Like you lot give a damn.”

“Yes? That’s why I asked.”

“…Hahhh. They’re alright. Meat’s good. Still get a little too whipped up after fileting though. One of them got into one of the aqua farms and nearly slaughtered the stock. We’ve been trying to work up a few more Crawdaunts to keep’em in line.”

“Fair enough. Let me know if you ever need a hand.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Love you too,” Bo responded blandly before smiling wider at the diminutive and bespectacled figure that had been fiddling with some circuitry throughout the introductions. “This lovely lady is Minty. She’s the representative for our engineers and is the genius responsible for implementing and maintaining the geothermal pumps and solar panels we use for energy. She also works with IO to keep our internet up and running.”

“Clefairy! Clef. Fair. Fairy.” the short, pink pokemon cheerfully cried out towards them before returning to her tinkering. Beaming at her warm response, Bo turned towards the other fairy within the room, this one a Clefable shorter than Angel but with an impressively large hair curl.

“And of course, Twinkle here is the current representative and leader of the Clefables. He actually traveled with Old Man for a couple decades. He is also the son of the first ever Clefable chief the Moon clan worked with upon settling here and Angel’s uncle. If any situation ever impacts the fairy population here, he’s the first person we go to.”

“Similarly,” he said while bowing slightly toward a worn looking Shiftry. The grass type’s beard was long enough to wrap around himself several times over and multiple old scars traced his wooden body. “Grandfather is the elder of the Shiftry population within the surrounding forests. The Shiftry grove have been instrumental to the village for generations, helping patrol the forests and raise crops. Grandfather, in particular, did me the great honor of entrusting his daughter’s egg to me when I was still starting out.”

“Shifty,” the elderly pokemon snarled pointedly.

“Oh come on. Wicked is very responsible sir… Most of the time… Some of the time… When she has to be… It’s not entirely my fault sir… I blame Gizmo.”

“Shif.”

“Fair enough,” Bo sighed.

“Lastly,” he said while inclining his head towards the last two people at the table; an elegant woman with vulpine features and red hair, wearing a kimono; and a stressed looking man with graying hair, wearing a suit and glasses. “As Old Man mentioned, we have my Aunt Yuzu as the head of the Kahale family and my Uncle Armand as the village administrator. Knowing the Old Man, Uncle A is probably the only reason we haven’t all been arrested by the tax department. Similarly, we have all accepted long ago that the Kahales are the ones who actually run everything thing in the village and just pray that we never anger them.”

“Ahh,” Yuzu cooed in delight. “I’ve missed you too, Rainbow. And just for that, I promise I definitely won’t kill you this year.”

“Wonderful!” Bo declared before turning back to his two friends. “Sentencing and executing members of the Moon clan main family actually is a legal right granted to the Kahales in the village bylaws, by the way. We all sign a contract agreeing to it before we leave for our journey… I’m not really sure why we all keep signing it.”

“Ninja maids. I get it now,” Dani commented wryly.

“Nonsense, Miss Maven,” Yuzu chuckled calmly. “Little Rainbow likes to exaggerate. It’s really more of a ceremonial law by this point. The Kahale family has served the clan since its founder and we simply take great pride in ensuring that the clan is heading in the right direction.”

“Skittles never said my last name.”

“Ho-ho-ho-ho. Anyways,” Yuzu continued while rising from her chair to stride over and hug Bo. “It’s so wonderful to see you home, Rainbow. And Dani, Carter, I’ve been dying to meet you both for years now. Don’t worry though, we’ve already prepared rooms for you within the family home so we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”

“In the meantime, though,” she continued while flicking short looks towards the various other people within the room. “You all must be exhausted. You too Alice. Please go head on over to the house. I expect you four to work to the bone for this tournament. You’re representing all of us, you know.”

Bo exchanged confused looks with Dani and Carter while the Old Man rolled his eyes and Nuna snorted into her flask. Old Man and Nuna seemed to get what was going on but the rest of them were clearly in the dark. Even Baron seemed confused to Bo’s senses at the sudden dismissal without any real discussion. They weren’t the only ones though.

“Hold on,” Gastron burst out in an annoyed tone. “They’re not leaving until-”

“Oh, of course,” Aisha interjected while shifting distractingly in her seat and opened her arms invitingly. “We haven’t gotten our hugs yet. You too Mr. Rosen. Come give me a good squeeze with those arms. Bo you can go ahead and start with Gastron.”

The room froze in a mix of amused and awkward silence except for an odd thumping sound coming from one of Gastron’s pulsing veins. Bo ultimately decided to make it easier on him. He only got a few steps with his arms outstretched before the businessman turned to glare at him, though.

“No! Get the fuck out.”