“So, where have you taken shelter these days? The attendants at the hostel let slip that you haven’t been staying there since you left over a week ago,” Claire asked, looking at me with that half-teasing, half-curious expression as if she expected that I would tell her some salacious story. Feeling a little mean, I tried to give her a conspiratorial grin and spoke in a quiet whisper.

“Well, I’ve been injured during my task,” I softly admitted, gesturing to the few, faint marks that remained on my face, “A kind local has taken me in and she’s been teaching me a lot of…” I paused, imagining all kinds of embarrassing situations in an attempt to blush, “interesting things,” I let my voice trail of and from the sudden flush of red on Claire’s cheeks, she had taken my words in exactly the wrong way, just as intended.

Things didn’t get much better when Wera called out to me as we were leaving and I introduced her around. Her powerful physique made her intimidating on a primal level, the effect quite visible on my three companions, but knowing her as I did, I just found her quite endearing and adorable. Somewhat like a giant, lifelike teddy bear.

After introducing her, we began to chat as we walked, talking about our experiences during our missions and our future plans. Just after we left the Gym, another voice called out to me. Cynthia had been waiting right outside the Gym and the moment Claire noticed her, I could see a sudden tension grip her. Wera reacted in a similar, though not quite so extreme fashion, she had gotten used to Cynthia’s presence during the last few days.

Everyone’s reaction wasn’t a huge surprise, Cynthia’s presence itself was enough to make a trainer noticing her powerful aura wary and for those knowing her identity, it was only worse.

“That is?” Cliff asked, looking visibly agitated.

“Let me introduce you to Cynthia, my Guardian and dear friend,” I explained, noticing a slightly wide-eyed look from Lucas, who must have recognised the name. It took a second longer for Cliff to make the connection between the name and the Champion, giving him a look of wide-eyed surprise when he asked for confirmation. When I simply nodded, I could see a hard swallow move down his neck, clearly uncertain what was going on.

“Dani, knowing you, you won’t stick around in Celestic Town for long, even if you are supposed to rest for a few more days,” Cynthia grinned, the knowing look on her face making me blush. Given that I had felt perfectly fine the last few days, I had been planning to continue my travels soon, even if the two weeks I was supposed to stay hadn’t been up yet.

“Maybe,” I allowed, trying to act innocent and not as if I was caught ignoring the Nurse’s advice. Cynthia just shook her head, the grin on her face never fading, as she continued to speak.

“It’s okay, I can understand where you are coming from. I’d like to invite your friends and companions to dinner, a small gathering to wish you farewell and good luck for the next part of your journey,” she explained and now it was on me to enthusiastically nod. It was a wonderful idea to invite them.

“Thank you. You cleared it with the Professor?” I asked, just to make sure we wouldn’t intrude on the Professor without warning.

“Grandmother doesn’t mind,” she assured me, before looking at the others and giving them the formal invitation and a description of how to find her Grandmother’s place. All four of them gave me a questioning look as if asking whether they were part of it and I gave nods of assurance that, yes, they were invited. It was a little adorable, they all looked unsure and out of their debt, but then, getting an invitation from the Champion herself was likely a rarity.

“Dani, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have a talk with you beforehand,” Cynthia reminded me and with that, I bid my companions farewell and followed her.

“There are two things, one is that I’m quite proud of you and your partners. I watched your battle just now and you did well,” she explained, and now it was my turn to be surprised. I hadn’t noticed her at all.

“I made sure nobody noticed, simply so I wouldn’t step on Kodra’s shoes. He’s the local Gym-leader and if I show up to an event like that, it might create the impression that I don’t trust him to do his job. In addition, I didn’t want to put extra pressure on you or your companions,” she explained, getting an understanding nod from me. I could see that a Gym-leader might take it the wrong way if the Champion showed up to make sure they were doing their job correctly.

“The other part is that a preliminary report on the complex you discovered is done, I thought you’d be interested in hearing about that,” she added and now, she had my complete attention.

“A group of experienced trainers went there and secured the area. There were quite a few Bronzor and Bronzong, but also multiple Spiritombs and a few other problematic ghost types. They managed to find the actual exit, though the original tunnels have long been destroyed, leaving only a difficult-to-navigate path that led into the Underground and from there, eventually outside. From what we could determine, the battle that led to the weakening, and eventual collapse of the wall you moved in through has about a year ago. That battle weakened the structure, caused cracks to form, and from what we could see, water seeped into those cracks, first freezing in winter, causing them to expand and then, when spring came, the ice was melting, causing the wall to completely break. Without that, it’s unlikely that we’d have found the complex,” she explained, with me listening carefully.

“Even worse, whoever found that complex originally clearly wanted to keep it a secret, leaving almost no traces, other than a few more small pieces of junk and carefully covering all tracks that they had ever been there. We’ve got no idea who it might have been. But what we can assume, from a few pieces of evidence is that they’ve taken some artefacts from the complex and that is a problem. How big a problem, we don’t know because we don’t know what they took, we can only guess from spots where there should be things according to our understanding. Not the most accurate method to determine such things, but the best we’ve got,” she admitted, looking quite annoyed.

“So, what’s next?” I asked, curious how they could solve the issue.

“Next, we will communicate with the surrounding towns, trying to get an idea which trainers might have been in the area at the right time, but with the incredibly wide window, that’s nearly impossible. It doesn’t get easier because more experienced trainers don’t necessarily check in at the Centre or Gym but simply travel privately. There’s little we could do, especially if they were sneaky about it, which they obviously were. We can only investigate more and I’ll have Grandmother ask her contacts if they have heard anything. But it’s unlikely to bear fruit,” she explained and now, she just looked resigned.

“That sucks,” I summarised, getting an amused snort from her.

“That it does. While I doubt that you’ll run into anything, keep an eye out. An eye for what, I can’t even tell you, but anything weird might be related. Just be cautious, will you?” she asked, concern and amusement warring in her eyes. The mention of anything ‘weird’ made me frown, when I remembered something.

“You know, a few months ago, about a month after I started my journey, a swarm of Pokemon moved towards Jubilife City. There’ve been whispers that the swarm was guided or triggered by an outside force, has anyone ever found out what that force was? And would that be ‘something weird’, which I should keep an eye out for?” I asked and now, Cynthia had a distinct frown on her face, obviously thinking.

“I’ve heard of that, but I haven’t seen a report on the eventual result of the investigation. The report might have just been inconclusive, in that case, it wouldn’t be put on my desk, but now that you mention it, such swarms are uncommon enough to be called ‘weird’. I’ll look into that.” she promised, before shaking her head and switching the topic.

“Now, let’s talk about your earlier performance and what you do to train your Riolu. Aura, was it?” she asked, and suddenly, it was time for yet another lesson, as Cynthia did her best to impart some of her vast experience to me. As always when she taught, how much of the lesson I could absorb was completely up to me, making it a little stressful. At least this time, there was no Garchomp chasing after me, making sure that I kept running.