"Yeah, I mean, there's some weird stuff still. Why Orzo got attacked, who knows? Mistaken identity? Aiming for someone else?" Nate shrugged. "That seemed to be what Clink thought happened to them, at least. Whether the hoopa was going out just that night for some reason, or he'd been doing it a while and the klefki just didn't notice because it was the middle of the fucking night, I don't know. But ain't no point guessing now. We oughta get some more answers later today."
For some reason, Kimiko wasn't terribly surprised at the idea of this guy being so willing to clobber someone with a bat. She supposed at least it wasn't just some random target he wanted to take out some anger on, or something to that effect, but still... then again, the one thing that might cause her to snap had already happened to him, along with his partner. She decided to let that matter drop, more from the discomfort of the realization that if she were in his shoes, she'd have less hesitation about beating the guy who did it, too.
Her former kidnapper's face had already drifted into her mind, and suddenly she realized she wasn't very hungry anymore.
No. Stop it. Don't think about him. Focus on the stupid mystery. "Aiming for someone else..." she murmured, as though she were thinking to herself again rather than Mitch. But this time she wasn't going to let her mind wander again. "So Clink thinks he and Orzo were
both victims of friendly fire, and Irene was attacking someone else? You'd think Clink would have seen something, then. Some hint of who it was. Why wouldn't he have shared that?" That, combined with how Mitch himself had just reminded her that they hadn't found any dye flakes at Irene's disappearance site, still told her that something was missing from this equation, and she had to fight back the growing dread that maybe the four of them
had simply missed the flakes that day. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was beginning to regret not taking Celebi's offer. Just like three seconds, that might be all they'd need to identify the threat... Ugh. Mitch was right. They should get answers tonight. Let some pieces fall into place, and she could work from there.
He leaned back and considered the girl a moment. "You're the one who found that whole Golden King myth in the first place, right? You into all that mythology shit? I mean, you know anything about, like... regular hoopa?"
Technically, Odette had heard the myth from Jirachi first, and Kimiko simply went looking for proof to support it, but she supposed that wasn't relevant right now. "Well, like... kind of? It's interesting, but it's not usually something I look up for fun in my spare time, either. My boyfriend might..." she trailed off, considering that. She'd already asked him to look into Cresselia so far... would his inevitable questions be worth it to rope him into researching hoopa, too?
She shook her head, poking one of her fries into a ketchup pile. "I've actually met another hoopa once... or, I assume it was a different one. Some other mutliverse bullshit, but that one was... more of a game. That hoopa had just been interested in playing with people, so it got a bunch of people together and we played some twisted version of a drinking game. That was a wild experience. I actually met Odette there, and I'm positive it was the same Odette and not a different version because she recognized me when we got
here, too."
But now she was off on a tangent. "Um, anyway... we didn't interact with that hoopa much at all after the initial encounter, he just watched us all playing. So most of what I know about hoopa is stuff I learned while here. It's a psychic- and ghost-type, which tracks with the energies we've been finding at the attack sites, but supposedly can also transform into a different form that supposedly is part dark-type rather than ghost. The only dark-type energy we've found so far was at your attack site though, so we've just been assuming this whole time that it was from your mightyena fighting back.
"Oh, and last night at the meeting, Coleane mentioned that hoopa needs an item called a Prison Bottle in order to transform, though, which... well, is
fitting, but doesn't sound good. I was half hoping the party tonight might end up finding one. Y'know, like, maybe it's
actually a prison, too, so we could use it to lock up this Golden King. So that, plus the obvious fact that it's rings can apparently multiverse travel... that's about the extent of my knowledge. "
"Cresselia was a little mean?" Mightyena said. "I suppose Keldeo was, too. It was strange. He seemed unsure of himself, somehow. But he tried really hard to scare the humans." And the pokémon, too, she supposed. The bird-pikachu couldn't have liked watching his trainer nearly get impaled. "He did agree to help us in the end, though. Which is good." Mightyena averted her gaze from the espeon. "Because I won't be able to fight again for a while, after what happened when my trainer and I got taken."
"Yeah, she was," Olivia whined.
"She tried to make my human choose between staying here and putting herself and me at risk, or going home, but she's too nice to just leave everyone here and run away, even if she's really scared and unsure of herself. But then Cresselia also asked the other human to choose between some people she cared about and which one she'd save or which one she'd sacrifice. It was only a test though. It didn't actually happen. It sounds like Keldeo did something like that, too, and so did Celebi, so maybe the pokemon here just really like testing people."
Olivia looked at the ground now, ears flat and tail still. That had been a situation where she had been powerless to help her own human. She'd felt bad afterwards, too. It occurred to her that maybe that's why Mightyena was so sad now, and thought she wouldn't be able to help in the upcoming battle.
"But it was a mean question. My human didn't like it. She... almost had to make that choice, too, but not a test. Like really choosing. I don't know if she would have chosen me. I don't like it either. I don't want to think about it. So... so let's talk about something else!"
"Yes, I wouldn't mind staying longer if we could go somewhere safe. Have an actual vacation. Where we come from, it seems like it's similar to the world the charizard trainer comes from. The trainer with the aggron, too, and with the milotic. I don't think they come from the same world as me and Nate, but they sound very similar." She looked back at the espeon, curiosity piqued. "You must be from Orre, though! All the other espeon are."
"Oh, I remember Orre! That's where Neo is from!" Olivia trilled, trying to push some enthusiasm back into her voice. It wasn't that difficult, when Neo was involved. Or bacon. But the plate was almost empty now...
"But no, I'm not from Orre. I've never been there. The place I'm from is called Vidiva. It's full of ghosts. They're mean, too. But we're trying to stop them!" she said proudly.
"...But that's why I'd rather to to a different island instead. Going home wouldn't be a vacation."
