weaving -

Arceus does not speak often of his near-crime. Because none can read his mind, some have doubted that such an incident even occurred. But Lady Miu insists on it: the Alpha came inches within committing a murder.

To avenge his daughter's broken wings, Arceus flew straightway to Regigigas's domain. The great golem had just awoke, only to find himself face-to-face with the king of all nature. Regigigas's three underlings - Regice, Regirock, and Registeel - had recently learned of their master's predicament and come to his aid. Thus, Arceus faced four giants of ice and earth, all launching their mightiest forces in his direction. He summoned the elements in a furious display of wrath, dispatching each golem in turn until he had their king pinned against the cliffside, a plume of volcanic fire aimed for his head. The great living rock was wholly unconscious. Arceus had never seen a Legendary die, but suddenly found the urge within himself to kill the golem in his sleep, to end him as simply as crushing an insect.

At that moment, something changed within Arceus - something which I am not privy to, as I have never heard his mind. But he once vaguely described it as a shock in the heart, a puncturing in the gut. He knew at once that if he completed his attack, he would lose his own soul and every good thing he had ever enjoyed, or would hope to enjoy.

The Alpha thus retreated, and never saw the four golems again.

Although Arceus did not follow through with the murder, he had unwittingy reduced Regigigas to a coma, paralyzing his body completely but not killing it. The three lesser golems entered a vigil of the earth, resting beside him deep underground, concentrating all of their power on keeping him alive. To this day, the four golems have not returned, but I am persuaded that the day will come.

The Alpha returned home, hardly able to breathe. It was a sickness of the spirit, not of the body.

With a triumphant sigh, Dawn neatly stacked the last pile of pokeball sales reports and set them on the corner of Ms. White's silvery desk. Another week done! she thought excitedly. She twirled around and pulled the curtains closed, darkening the warm sunset light, and locked the office on her way out.

I can't wait to go home, she sighed, absentmindedly reaching into her pocket on her way to the front lobby. The last three weekends have been so busy… I haven't even had time to call my friends in months. I wonder how Ash is doing, all the way over in New York…

Out of nowhere, a tall man appeared before her, and before she could react, she crashed into him, tripped over his foot, and lost her balance.

"My deepest apologies." A hand came under her arm and pulled her back to center, strong and steady.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so, so sorry!" Dawn cried, and looked up, feeling heat rush to her face. The man had odd blue-grey hair and a strong chin. Despite his hair, he looked to be perhaps in his thirties. His eyes were slightly crinkled in concern, but he seemed largely unfazed.

"Do excuse me, miss." The man nodded and smoothly walked around her, toward the executive offices.

"I… um… the offices are actually closing up, sir," she stammered, stepping after him. "Er… do you… need help with anything?"

But the man simply continued and disappeared around the corner.

Dawn attempted to follow after him, but failed when Ms. White's thick hand clasped her shoulder. Suddenly the woman's face was before her, annoyance etched into her russet eyes.

"Are you daff?" Ms. White growled, her eyes flicking toward the executive wing.

Dawn attempted a smile. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I should have paid more attention where I was going…"

The woman inhaled and squeezed her eyes shut. "That was Dr. Charles Kouros, the president of Silph Company," she hissed.

Dawn blanched. "But I thought you were the pr -"

"I am the president of the Norwich branch. That is the co-founder and overseer of Silph itself. Have you utterly lost your senses?" She straightened up, adjusting her suit jacket. "Thank the stars that he doesn't know you are my assistant," she muttered under her breath. She then continued briskly after the man, black heels clacking against the tile floor.

Dawn's eyes widened. Her chest stung at those words. She's just embarrassed, that's all, she thought, though she couldn't help but cringe at the few lingering workers that gave her a mixture of sympathetic and amused glances.

"Well, lucky me; I got to meet the president," Dawn giggled nervously, and rushed out the door.

The downtown Norwich streets bustled with people and pokemon. Bicycles flew down the cobblestone roads, dog pokemon barked in the distance, and musicians sang at the streetcorners, heralding the approaching night.

Well, Catherine, thanks for ruining my Friday mood, Dawn mused. She pulled out a red-chrome pokeball and pressed the expand button, feeling it burst out to the size of a baseball. Maybe Aurora can cheer me up. She tossed the ball out onto the street before her. With a flash of reddish light, her quilava emerged, yellow and navy-hued fur reflecting the shine of the streetlamps. Aurora shook out her pelt, releasing a few loose sparks of heat into the air, and chirped softly.

"Hey, girl," Dawn sighed, reaching again into her pocket and pulling out a razzberry. The little ferret leapt up, plucked the berry from Dawn's hand, and downed it in a swift gulp. Aurora's cherry-red eyes glinted with pleasure, and Dawn laughed. "I bet you were hungry. It's been hours!"

She reached down and gathered the soft quilava into her arms as she approached the bus stop, packed with people. "Well, Aurora, I might get fired from my job, knowing how Ms. White is, and then we'll have to move again…" She unrolled her sleeve to peek at her Poketch. "Six-thirty-two," she muttered. "Bus is running late…"

Aurora sniffed around at Dawn's jacket pockets, and Dawn squeezed her front paw. "I'll make you a real dinner when we get home," she chided. "You'll get a tummyache if you just fill up on berries."

While waiting for the bus, she watched the city folk, with their colorful pokemon and loud voices. Herdier seemed to be the fashionable pet of the city, but there were also plenty of liepard, and a few more exotic species that were more in the domain of serious trainers - a blaziken, a skarmory, and even a few gardevoir, kept under watchful eye by their human companions. Certainly not average domestic pets…

Wait, is that Pip?

Despite herself, she leapt out of the crowd and ran toward the streetcorner. Desperately, she looked around, feeling her heart sink. Something small and blue had sat in the distance… but now it was gone.

Aurora squeaked in confusion, and Dawn frowned. "Sorry, I could have sworn I saw him out of the corner of my eye…" She looked down at Aurora. "I know, I know, it's been five years. Grief can play tricks on your mind, I guess…"

The bus rolled in behind her and people began filing in. She turned back around to get on, but then stopped. There it was again. A little blue creature stood at the far end of the street, its little arms wrapped around an iron-wrought lamppost. If she squinted, it looked like a piplup, but it was quite far away. It was a bit darker in color, though - possibly dirt-stained from the street, as if it had been wandering for a while…

"That… can't be a piplup," she breathed, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the little creature. "Penguin pokemon don't live in England." Seconds passed, and she shifted her weight nervously. "But if that is a piplup," she whispered, "it's very far away from home, and no one's coming to claim it…."

"Are you getting on or not?" a man called hoarsely from behind her.

Dawn looked back over her shoulder. The bus driver was leaning out the window, eyebrows raised. "I'm leaving in ten seconds!" he shouted.

Aurora squeaked again, staring up into Dawn's eyes. Pip and Aurora hadn't exactly been the closest of friends, as was often the case between water-types and fire-types, but Dawn could tell that the quilava still missed him. It just wasn't the same without his stubborn outbursts, his unending excitement for contests, his little, beautiful eyes…

I'll never forgive myself if I don't go and see.

"No, sorry!" Dawn called back, and ran headlong toward the blue pokemon.

Kia stepped into the entrance of the testing chambers. Bright fluorescent lights coated the ceiling, and rows upon rows of pokeballs filled the meticulously-marked shelves. Charles stood before a column of brightly colored prototypes, with one pink-chrome ball cradled in his hand.

"I spoke with Interpol about the security breaches," he spoke in a low voice. He turned the Heal Ball prototype around in his hands curiously, and then flipped it open, investigating the intricate fiberglass and magnetic panels that made up its interior. "I have reason to believe that it was Capsure, and that they deleted the files soon after we caught wind."

Kia latched the door behind her. "Excellent," she muttered as she approached him. "If the Master Balls return to the public sphere, the pokemon will suffer for it…" Her fingers twitched as she sensed the tightly woven strands of spacial fabric within the ball in Charles's hands.

Charles met her eyes. This human's face was so calm, so measured. It always had been, ever since she'd met him ten years ago at Cambridge University. She'd been pursuing her second doctorate while he'd been on his first, at the tender age of eighteen. He was an odd man, to be sure, but frightfully intelligent, and a useful asset in the founding of Silph Company.

"I will ensure that they will not," Charles replied. "Our lawyers are monitoring Capsure's productions very closely." He approached the room's back door and pressed his finger into a tiny panel in the wall, which lit up. A great metal door slid open before them, revealing a long hallway. "If they develop anything remotely resembling the Master Ball within the next ten years, we will be well within our rights to litigate them, and they know it."

Kia nodded, following him slowly through the blue-lit testing chambers. "Good. And what of Team Galactic?"

Charles paused to investigate a large earthen chamber housing two large typhlosion with claws the size of knives. "We are confident that they are not in pursuit of the Master Ball," he said quietly.

Kia lifted her chin and met Charles' eyes. "Can we be quite certain?"

"Besides the lack of evidence in any of Interpol's searches, that organization does, in fact, condemn the pokeball itself." Charles snapped the ball shut in his hands. "According to a statement released by one of their commanders, they seek to separate pokemon from humans, as they believe that pokemon are used too heavily for human ends." A tiny smirk lifted his mouth as he watched the two great badgers. One of them stared back at him intently with one eye, as his other eye was closed shut and scarred by a red clawmark. "Such as these specimens, I see."

Kia nodded. "They were rescued from an underground battling network. Trained for combat to the death. We've had them in rehabilitation for four months, but their wounds are far from healed."

Charles raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps this could be of help." He reached out and touched another panel in the wall, which silently opened the chamber before them. The typhlosion growled and rose to his hind legs, batting at the air threateningly.

"Are you mad?" Kia gasped, reaching toward the panel. "It could kill y-"

Charles pushed her arm aside and tossed the Heal Ball at the red-eyed badger in a smooth arc. It hit the creature squarely on its forehead, and within seconds, enveloped it in a blinding bluish light. Within the same moment, the creature was gone, and the ball dropped to the ground, quaking violently.

As Kia watched the ball shake, she felt an odd sort of gravity in her chest, almost like a pulse of antimatter. What is it truly like inside a pokeball? she wondered for the thousandth time. I invented the infernal thing, and yet I can't truly fathom its effect on these creatures…

Before her, the ball exploded again into light, and the typhlosion emerged on four legs. It seemed dazed for a moment, panting and looking around slowly, until it focused on Charles and lunged, snarling with a deep voice. Sparks of fire erupted into the air around it.

Without flinching, Charles simply pressed the button again and the glass pane slid back into place. The typhlosion stopped in its tracks, just inches beyond the glass. It stared unmovingly at Charles, hairs raised.

"The prototype is incomplete," Charles noted. "You told me it boasts unmatched healing capabilities upon capture, but how useful is this feature if it cannot capture a thing?"

Kia wrung her hands in frustration. "Yes, of course, it is still in the preliminary stages of design. But confound it, Charlie, that badger is three-quarters your size and would have easily dismembered you! What possessed you to risk your own life?"

"The same reason that you remain in this company, Catherine," Charles replied, turning and continuing on down the hallway. "It is for the pokemon's sake. Without what you and I do for them, their lives would be full of suffering. We are their heroes."

Kia did not follow him, but stood staring down at the fire badger. Its gaze had turned to her, its small eye full of anger and fear.

She smiled tightly at it. "On the contrary," she murmured, quietly enough so that Charles wouldn't hear, "I am far from heroic."

Months prior to these disasters, Dialga had foreseen his sister's injury and fled to Japan to fetch Miu, the kind and timid feline. She was only a few centuries younger than the golems, and already proficient in the psychic and healing arts. Among the Legendaries, she had always been highly respected for her genius and generosity. Within the next millennium, she would change each of our lives, profoundly and irrevocably.

Awaiting Dialga's return, Giratina attended to Palkia and her trembling father. The white horse was reduced to an incoherent, feverish sleep. To this day, he will not tell me what he dreamt of in those haunted days, though I have ventured a few theories.

Miu arrived within three days. She set Palkia's bones back in place (although it would take her years to regain full flight), and declared Arceus mentally disturbed but otherwise healthy. She attempted to wake the golems but could not stir them, as if they were locked in a deep commune with Earth herself.

When Giratina beheld the unresponsive golems, he gained a heightened respect for the Alpha. He had not known Arceus to be capable of such fury, but now understood the depth of the Alpha's love for his daughter and the dire consequences of hurting her. He determined then that he would never endanger her, never cause her pain.

Arceus woke after seven days of slumber, weak-bodied but clear-minded. He flew immediately toward his homeland and ascended Mount Everest, the peak of the planet. He spent the next several weeks there, meditating in the death-thin air, focusing every inch of his mind on the expanse of space above him. According to what he has told me, he communed with heaven, repented of his sins, and vowed never again to attack any living being out of anger.

His diligent concentration opened a mental door which had been locked for millennia. He found the subtle muscle within his mind, that which was almost intangible, but very real. He flexed it and felt the fabric of space wafting through him, inside his skin, between his atoms. He sensed that strange plane on which all things, living or not, exist. And with a deep, slow, focused breath, he touched the spacial plane and, ever so slightly, bent it.

Arceus opened his eyes.

The fabric of space mended itself around him, and he crouched, watching Giratina limp his way out of the farmhouse and hold up an arm against the morning sun. Only a few days ago, the poor man had injured himself battling a wild scizor, unable to access any of his true powers, and discovered what it truly was to be human and fragile.

A blond-haired nurse approached Giratina with a heaping armful of straw. It seemed that he longed to walk again, but the nurse had cruelly banished him to six weeks of seatwork. He obediently sat and wove the straw, but had to restart multiple times before he discerned the pattern.

Arceus smirked, stood up, and carefully hid behind the oak trees. The Prince of the Horizon, who can weave antimatter as easily as thinking, must now learn to weave baskets. He chuckled to himself as he continued through the forest. Once he has mastered the art, perhaps he could teach it to his brother. Dialga insists on only making swords, when he could put his crafting skills to such diverse use…

He took in a sharp breath and extended his fingers, feeling at the fabric of space. He had visited this place for countless days and nights, keeping watch for ghosts, but had found none. Ao Zhi seems to have a penchant for the undead, he mused, bringing his hands together. Would that I could detect minds from a distance, and find ghosts as easily as she can…

He gathered gravity between his fingers, then ripped them apart. A mess of dark-purple light, the confusion of ripped space, erupted between his hands. There is just one more task at hand, and then I shall swiftly return to my Naka. He smiled as the distortion transported him northward. If I am late for supper again, that lovely woman will surely invoke her wrath upon me…

His mind frayed slightly as he felt his body fly through space, and just as quickly, space reorgnized itself anew.

He blinked back the sun as he emerged from a shadowed glade of trees. He walked between rolling hills and small suburban homes, counting the numbers as he went. Yuu Xi had not returned any of his letters for months, so he'd had to ascertain her address from outside sources. According to Mey She, her home was not far from here.

He rounded the corner to Xi's sun-bathed street, nodding to passersby and smiling at their little children. He hoped that Xi would be home, although on such a beautiful day as this, she may have gone out to explore and study her new town.

At length, he found Xi's home, yellow-painted and shaded by red-fruited rowan trees. He approached it carefully and knocked thrice on the walnut-wood door, waiting as a light breeze wafted at him and taillow twittered about in the rowans above him.

There was no response, however. She is out and about, he mused. I am glad for it; perhaps she has recovered somewhat from her depression. He turned back toward the street, then stopped. However, she could be simply avoiding visitors…

He glanced over at the street. From behind the thick trees, he could see no passersby, and if there were any, they could not see him. But to be sure, he walked around toward the back wall of the house, between a tree and a thick brick wall dividing her home from the next house behind it. Attempting to be as quick as possible, he ripped the spacial fabric just outside his body.

The air reconstructed itself around him, and he was in Yuu Xi's home, warm and dark. The furnishings were minimal, but it had the spirit of Xi nonetheless: pristinely organized, everything tucked away on shelves. His brow lifted as he found a pile of old brown photographs stacked on an end table. They were the only pictures the family had taken of themselves, from a full century ago. At first, Arceus had forbidden the prospect, but Mey She had insisted on it with ferocity. When we don't gather with each other for decades at a time, I feel unbearably lonely! she had cried. I need my family's faces with me every day…

He brought the photograph of the two dragons up to his face, and could not keep himself from chuckling. Dialga stood with his large arm flung around Palkia's shoulders, grinning smugly down at the camera, while Palkia stood straight-backed, attempting to look dignified, but unable to help but crack a smile of amusement. In the next image, Ao Zhi stood proudly with folded arms, Mey She wore the largest smile ever witnessed, and Yuu Xi sat gracefully in a chair, hands folded politely, with only the ghost of a smile lifting her lips.

"Father," Xi moaned.

Arceus startled and looked up, dropping the photograph. She was not there, however. Sighing, he reached down and restored the picture to its pile on the table, and made his way to Xi's room.

She was sprawled across the bed, with her golden-haired head buried in her small arms. Her foot twitched once. "Father…" she sighed again, then shifted. "Hmm…"

Arceus inhaled and exited the room slowly. Sleep, little one, he thought, and bowed to her in apology. Thank the skies that she cannot read my mind…

He approached the center of her living room, intending to kneel and briefly invoke a blessing upon Xi and her house, but stopped.

Before him was the photograph of himself, standing next to Palkia, with one hand resting protectively upon her shoulder. The photograph floated in the air, bent slightly, as if an unseen hand held it there.

Arceus steeled himself. A ghost! If I attack, I may damage this house, he thought, but silently raised his hands in anticipation. But if I do not, Yuu Xi may be hurt…

The photograph suddenly returned to its place on the table. A human man melted into view before Arceus, his back to him, shrouded in a black trenchcoat and a deep red scarf. Slowly, the man turned around.

Arceus gasped. There was nothing inhuman about this ghost whatsoever. His skin was a dark brown, his eyes milky blue, tight with apprehension. If one looked closely enough, one might have noticed the infinitessimal blurring about the edges of his skin, but any casual observer would have considered him human.

"So you are him," said the man in a deep bass voice, raising his brow. "You are the all-powerful Alpha, he who can rip space with his fingers… just as the Prince of the Horizon could…"

Arceus inhaled. He saw me enter Xi's house, he realized, and inwardly cursed himself. He said carefully, "You should not enter a house uninvited. Leave at once, spirit."

The man regarded him for a moment. "My kind are always uninvited. Do you think this fazes us, after hundreds of years? We come and go as we please. We are unseen and unfelt." The man then looked down at the photographs, his brow furrowing. "Where is the Prince?"

Arceus approached him, conjuring a bit of spacial distortion in his fingers. "I command you to leave. You are not welcome here."

The ghost's eyes met him then, cold and icy like the moon. "You have not answered my question, Alpha," said the man, his voice rising in pitch. "Where is Lord Giratina?"

Behind him, Arceus heard Yuu Xi stirring slightly in her sleep. The ghost's eyes widened and flicked toward the bedroom.

Arceus lifted his hands and summoned a wall of spacial distortion parallel to his body, filling the room with it. "I do not wish to fight you, spirit. Leave now and you will not be harmed."

The ghost's gaze returned to Arceus, and his mouth tightened into an odd, grimacing smile. "It is indeed as my subordinate informed me," he breathed, his voice fading into the blowing of wind. "Lady Yuu Xi dwells in this place…"

And the ghost disappeared from view.

Arceus reached inside himself and summoned his ghost plate: the source of knowledge he had amassed from studying Giratina, but preferred not to use unless direly necessary. Ghosts could fade almost completely out of physicality, but were still vulnerable to the sting of antimatter. Only Giratina had ever achieved true nothingness.

He clasped the plate in his hand, a small stone tablet covered in inscriptions, and closed his eyes. Antimatter erupted around his hand - black-lit, hungry and swirling - and he flicked his hand toward the ghost, sending the antimatter spinning in his direction.

The ghost gasped and appeared again, falling to his knees just outside Xi's bedroom. The antimatter fizzed out at once, destroying the oxygen molecules in the air and leaving a visible scar on the wall nearby. Arceus ran to the ghost, lifting him up by the shoulders.

"Tell me your name, demon," Arceus commanded, unable to keep the frustration from his voice.

"Demon…" the ghost coughed, and then chuckled slightly, leering into the Alpha's eyes. "You believe that I came from Hell?"

"Your kind do nothing but haunt humans and their dreams," Arceus replied, and drew the man closer to his face. "You, who seek to harm my youngest daughter, what is your name?"

The ghost attempted to loosen himself from Arceus's grip, but shuddered when Arceus summoned another spark of antimatter near his neck.

"I am not from Hell," the ghost whispered, "though I may indeed be a demon. I am one of the few fortunate souls who can remember." He laughed bitterly. "Death has taken little from me. The only escape is… sleep…"

Arceus's eyes tightened. "You should not remain in this world. You have died, so you should continue your journey. Go to the next life, where there is peace and rest."

At that, the ghost's eyes widened with anger. "Do you think I wish to remain here, in this deaf and blind world?" A pulse of hot energy suddenly stabbed into Arceus's eyes. "Because you have banished Giratina, you have banished all of us!"

In the bedroom, Xi inhaled. "Nnn…?"

From nowhere, an impossible force pulsed into Arceus's chest and stopped his heart, something that tasted like hatred in its purest form. For a brief moment, Arceus was forced to relent. The ghost fled from his arms and reached toward Xi, and before Arceus could regain his breath, the ghost planted a dark, thick hand on Xi's forehead.

"What are you dreaming of, little Being of Knowledge?" the ghost whispered, leaning down. "Dream of Giratina. Show me where he is…"

Arceus reached out and shot a thick mass of antimatter in the ghost's direction. Sighing in exasperation, the ghost lifted his hand just before the antimatter reached him, and vanished.

Silence hung in the air for what felt like an eternity. The ghost did not return, and Xi remained asleep, as still as a stone.

Then, suddenly, her breathing sped up and her hand clawed at the blankets. "No… no, no, no!" she began to gasp.

Arceus ran to her side and rubbed her shoulders. "Wake up," he commanded. He reached inside and found his psychic plate, then concentrated on sending as much energy as he could into her mind. Wake up, Yuu Xi!

With a heavy gasp, Xi opened her eyes and ceased her shaking. Her breathing took a moment to regulate, then she looked up at Arceus. Her eyes widened. "Oh… L-Lord Arceus?"

Arceus sighed in relief. "You were having a nightmare. Are you all right, Yuu Xi?"

Xi slowly drew herself up to her knees, blushing furiously as she attempted to straighten up her hair and clothes. "I don't think I heard you knock…"

Arceus studied her face carefully. "My apologies, little one," he said. "Did you…" He cleared his throat. "Are you aware of what just occurred… moments ago?"

Xi cocked her head. "How do you mean, sir?"

Unable to help himself, Arceus chuckled tiredly. "Perhaps I could explain it over a bit of tea."

.

..

…

Giratina?

…

A great dragon stood before her, thirty times her size. His muscles pulsed under platinum-colored scales, and his eyes shone with the color of blood. He lowered his head to meet her eyes. His mind was full of the sky, the wind, the stars… and questions.

My name is Yuu Xi, she said as she bowed politely. It means breath of joy. Your name means mountain of gold. I know because I can read memories...

The dragon's eyes bored into hers. His mind awoke, frantic with questions. You can read my memories? he realized, and his breathing quickened. You know my name! And his mind exploded with questions, like shattered glass, stabbing into her head. Who am I? he begged. Where do I come from? Why am I here?

She backed away and held her hands to her head. wait, slow down, she said. too much confusion… too much…

But the dragon sent her countless images, like a waterfall. Waking up and being alive one day, flying over mountains, hunting and scavenging, witnessing thousands of deaths over thousands of years. And he thought, in the farthest, deepest corner of his mind, that he could also remember dying...

…dying before this life.

Am I truly a ghost? he pleaded. Who was I before this life? Look into my memories and tell me, Yuu Xi.

Tell me…

…

..

.

Azi grunted as she threw a young thief into a cell and locked the bars shut. Her shoulders ached, but she smiled through the pain. It had been a successful week of training, and she could feel herself getting stronger. Only a few more weeks of honing her reflexes, and she would be ready to beat an infernape bare-handed.

"I'm innocent!" the young woman shrieked behind her as she walked away. "I swear!"

"Feel free to tell that to the chief of police tomorrow morning," Azi chuckled, hanging the key on her holster. "He'd love to hear all the details."

She met Ryo outside the prison, who was relaxing against the brick wall and sharing a packet of blukberries with Jade, his young sceptile. He met her eyes and cocked an eyebrow. "Give you any trouble?"

"Nah," said Azi, reaching over and stealing a berry from his bag. She popped it into her mouth and stretched her sore arms. "She kept saying the theft was an accident, but all eyewitnesses have claimed otherwise."

Ryo chuckled. "Typical." He tossed another berry high into the air, which his sceptile caught with a vigorous leap. "By the way, Amanda, I've got some good news for you."

Azi paused and focused her mind on his. When she found her answer, she burst out despite herself, "Chief approved the search?"

"I convinced him," said Ryo with a grin. "A bunch of other guys in the troop and I gathered enough evidence that Galactic is a public threat to Hokkaido, and he got us a warrant. We're breaking into their Hakutai building tomorrow."

"Perfect," Azi breathed, folding her arms. "I thought he'd never cave."

"He surprises us every once in a while," said Ryo, shrugging. He continued to toss berries at various angles into the air, watching his sceptile catch each one with successively larger jumps. "Jade here is getting good. Maybe I should run off and join the circus…"

Azi snorted. She watched the sceptile for a while, letting her mind relax and wander aimlessly. That strange girl she'd met the day before, Mizuki, had all but disappeared. Azi wondered if there were others like her - everyday trainers, just going about their day, who happened to be part of Team Galactic. She wondered if her mind unintentionally tuned them out, not realizing that they were criminals, simply because they looked so normal.

I wonder if Ryo's older brother is just like Mizuki, Azi mused, staring at Ryo's young, pure face. Just your average guy, who likes pokemon and wanted to make some extra cash…

Ryo looked in her direction then and raised his thin brows questioningly. "What's that?" he said.

Azi blinked. "Huh?" Did I say something accidentally?

Ryo nodded briefly at something behind her. "Someone's approaching you."

Azi turned around to see who it was, and then her heart stopped. Arceus was walking toward her, tall and straight like a tree, hands clasped behind his back. Trailing behind him was none other than Yuu Xi. She'd grown out her hair, and looked a fair amount more composed than she had the last time Azi had seen her. But her face wore an expression of profound, uncharacteristic embarrassment, to the point that Azi almost laughed out loud.

"Good evening," Azi said, stepping forward and bowing deeply to both of them. Good to see you looking healthier, Xi-xi.

"Officer Jackson," Arceus said smoothly, returning the bow and nodding curtly to Ryo. "There is a rather pressing matter at hand. Come with me, please."