“She’s a cutie,” said Elaine. She had Junior wrapped in her arms, and Junior, incredibly, was placid. She snorted through her pink, wet nose as Elaine stroked her fur, untangling knots with her fingers that had been there who knows how long. I chose not to comment on Elaine completely subduing Junior, as far as she needed to know, Junior was always a perfectly behaved star Pokémon.

  The expedition into the ruins would occur in the morning. In the downtime, I’d ended up alone with Elaine, and as promised, introduced her to Junior. I had been utterly terrified Junior would do something to her, and no matter how much trust we’d built, if Junior harmed Elaine, she would have been very close to being kicked off my team.

  I needn’t have worried. Elaine was able to pacify her before she’d even had the chance to become aggressive.

  “Are your, what did you call them, associates? Are they okay with what we’re doing tomorrow?”

  “I think so, I messaged them and got a thumbs up in response. I don’t really care either way. I wanted to do something, before, I mean. The world’s a mess, and as the champion, I think I should be able to do something, not be stuck at home. So when I’m offered the chance to investigate what could be a hub of criminal activity, I thought, yes, I can put my team and my title to good use. Then they tell me to stay out here because I’ll be recognised if I get too close, and I get it, but it’s not what I was hoping for.”

  “If you’re right about what’s going on there, they can’t continue to ignore things, can they?” I asked.

  “They’re going to try. It’s an open secret powerful trainers have connections with the law to pull a few strings here and there. Even in the league. Mom works there, did you know that? She’s got a decent position as a pretty high-ranking league official. She still complains about some trainers getting preferential treatment from her peers because they’re rich or powerful.

  “But yes, if we manage to make this a big enough story, we can at least get things moving. People are getting fed up with the way things are. If we can put pressure in the right places, we can make things better.”

  The next day, Elaine’s group went first. After some time had passed, and they were hopefully causing enough of a distraction for us to collect data in peace, Kurt led us to the ancient university, or library, or whatever people were saying it was. The paths through the ruins were hard, compact earth covered by a film of fine dust. We marched with our Pokémon out and ready, fearing an attack. Comfey, as always, was around my neck, and Flaaffy walked beside me, her presence a true comfort. Darren had Auri thumping along beside him and, for reasons I didn’t know then, Capsakid on his shoulder. Sunny walked with Hector, the water-type not looking especially at ease with the dryness of the earth, but still trudged along with no problems. Caviar was also flying around the place, keeping a lookout from the sky. Beside Kurt, Crater, his Numel, looked as comfortable with his surroundings as Hector didn’t, and, as with every time I’d seen him, Pixie rode on his shoulder. As we approached the centre of the ruins, we could hear sounds of fighting coming from underground, but we didn’t see anyone, and despite my worries, it didn’t seem like anyone saw us either.

  We made it to our destination intact except for my nerves. The building, as with most of the ones around, was half buried in the ground, only the tip of the doorway being visible. What was visible was a collection of marble arches, ornaments which I’m sure historians have better words for, and a spire rising from the middle, culminating with a statue of Meloetta.

  For obvious reasons, we couldn’t enter as polite guests should; luckily for us, instead of the door, there was a window that happened to be just the right height for us to step through without having to perform any feats of athleticism.

  The inside, while dusty, was surprisingly clear of obstacles. Kurt took out one of his maps and guided us through the corridors. Flaaffy lit the way in the darkness, the bulb on her tail illuminating murals and carvings on the walls. I didn’t know what I was looking at, but Kurt took photographs of everything, so I guessed it must be important. Slowly, we made our way through the passages into a wide-open room, so big even Flaaffy’s light didn’t reach all corners. What was visible were rows upon rows of shelves packed with scrolls and cloth-bound books. It was, by far, the largest library I’d ever been in.

  There was evidence of people having been here before us; there were clearly some gaps in the shelves that seemed to be recent due to the spots clear of dust. Some areas were also collapsed, the wood and books weakened by decay. Overall, however, the place was in remarkably good condition and didn’t seem to have been looted too much. I guess, bounty hunters had little interest in books.

  Kurt seemed to know where he was going, walking right past the closest shelves until he reached a section which looked no different than the rest to me. He double-checked something on his map and nodded to himself.

  “This should be where the Pokémon records were placed. A proper expedition would document every page of every book here. We don’t have the capacity to do that, but if we manage to find the right book or two, that can be enough for the professor to work off of, and maybe make a case for renewed funding to investigate this place,” said Kurt.

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  “Wasn’t there funding available before?” asked Darren.

  “At the beginning there was,” said Kurt. “But it got cut off suddenly, which is why the investigators couldn’t continue hiring protection for the expeditions.”

  “Seems strange, you’d think this would be well worth the investment,” said Darren. Kurt just shrugged.

  “What are we looking for anyway?” asked Sunny. “I mean, what kind of book?”

  “Honestly, anything is probably good. If you can find anything similar to an encyclopedia, it would be perfect, as that would give a broad overview of the Pokémon this civilisation interacted with. Most books here are more specialised, looking solely at types or even species. While these might be useful, there is a high chance they will overlap with information we already have. Still very useful for multiple reasons, but not the breakthrough the professor is looking for.”

  “That’s all well and good,” I said, pointing at the spines on the books. “But I can’t read that language. How are we meant to tell what’s what?”

  “Look at the pictures,” said Kurt. He was completely serious. “Also, the language is Old Linsir, the same one they spoke in the days of the Hero, and while the alphabet is a little different, you should be able to see some similarities, and Pokémon names are one thing that haven’t changed that much. You should be able to recognise a few, and it might give you an idea what the book is about. If you find something you think is interesting, bring it to me. I can read it, more or less.”

  Having talked enough, we started work. Despite Kurt’s directions, I still didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. I did my utmost to handle the books carefully, but they still seemed to dissolve in my hands when I took them down. That may be a small exaggeration, but the covers did break more often than not, and the pages felt far lighter than they should. The first few I flicked through had no pictures, and I couldn’t make out a single word. After that, I did pick up a few with diagrams that looked sort of interesting, but I could still only speculate on what was written there.

  We worked quietly, the air still, interrupted only by loud reverberations indicating that Elaine and the others were still fighting. It was a little worrying. We weren’t trying to underestimate the bounty hunters, but both Elaine and Baltazar were top-tier trainers. It shouldn’t be easy to put up resistance against them.

  Fortune struck when I was feeling most inadequate. I was leafing through a thin volume when I came across a drawing of a Pokémon I was unfamiliar with, but for some reason, it rang some bells. It clicked when I saw a picture of a Scyther on the previous page.

  “Hey, Sunny, does this remind you of anything?” I said. She took a look at what I was pointing at.

  “No, I don’t think so,” she said. “Do you know what species it is?”

  “Not exactly, but doesn’t it remind you of something? Remember the Pokémon Teal and Amethyst described in their story? The one they said looked like a Scyther?”

  She took a closer look, comprehension dawning in her eyes. By this point, Kurt was also looking over my shoulder.

  “That is interesting,” he said. “It says it’s an evolution of Scyther, but it most definitely is not a Scizor. And you saw you know people who have seen it?”

  “Well, sort of,” I said. “They claim to, anyway.”

  I gave him a summarised version of the story the old couple had told us. By the end, he looked sceptical, but not wholly dismissive, and the book in my hands went some way in corroborating their tale. Whether or not they were telling the truth, the book was interesting enough to pass his standard, and he packed it in his backpack, securely wrapping it with lots of cushioning.

  We finished up a little later after having found a few more descriptions of possibly new Pokémon, including a variation of Voltorbs also coinciding with the tale Amethyst told us, and some kind of Braviary with weird eye-patterns on its head.

  Kurt was particularly interested in the last of these when, after doing some further exploring, we found a room containing preserved samples of teeth, claws, feathers, and leaves, among other things. One jar of feathers matched with the Braviary, which he was very excited about. We packed as many samples as we could in our limited space, and he called our investigation a success. I was glad to leave that particular room. Something about so many Pokémon parts sealed in jars creeped me out. And that was just looking at the ones that weren’t broken. The ones that were were far worse. It fascinated my companions, though, particularly Kurt and Darren, and even I had to admit that seeing shelves of jars all neatly stacked and labelled with Pokémon parts was impressive, no matter how creepy.

  All in all, we were feeling good about ourselves right up until the moment Kurt looked at his map for the quickest way out and informed us we were lost. I swear, Comfey snickered at that.

  “Hush, you,” I told her as my companions started to panic. She rolled her eyes at me and hopped down off my shoulder, and started bouncing down the corridor.

  “Comfey wants us to follow her,” I said, interrupting a brewing argument.

  “Does she know the way?” asked Kurt doubtfully.

  “Probably not,” I said. “But you know how fairies are.”

  I started walking before hearing the response, and if they didn’t want to lose the best light source, they were forced to follow. I wasn’t as upset at being lost as I might have been. Part of it was that I was finally feeling like a proper adventurer after the day I’d had, and part of it was because I reasoned that the place couldn’t be all that big. We just had to move forwards and we’d eventually find a stairs going up.

  What I didn’t expect was for Comfey to lead us to a hall with voices coming from the end of it.

  I froze, having forgotten about the unsavoury characters in the area. Unfortunately, it appeared we’d been heard.

  “Who’s there?” called out a voice I wasn’t prepared for. Rounding the corner ahead, the unlikely duo of Ducky and Joey appeared, and before I could even call out a greeting, Auri launched a Rockslide straight at them.