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[Crystal Pool A Timeless Expanse]

"Hey, wait! At least tell me how to get out of here!" Aden cried out, reaching out with his free arm towards his future self. His hand would reach the form just as faded and blew away, signifying the chance encounter had come to a close. The questions left unanswered didn't bother him so much as being left alone in this void, left to stare at the Tera Orb in his right hand. Each pulse of power that came from it felt overwhelming, but familiar in a way he couldn't quite understand. He couldn't discern much beyond that feeling either, and the situation still proved difficult to make sense of. If it wasn't the makings of a time loop, then what would be so important that his future self would relinquish it-

Another voice would be heard by him, looking towards where it came from. He tightened his grip on the Tera Orb in his hand, clutching it with a newly forged guard that he hoped wouldn't falter like last time. "Who're you?" He asked instead of responding to the initial remark, keeping his eyes towards where the voice sounded like it came from and seeing another form come into view. Dressed in blue and gold, his voice was as warm as the smile he gave and the lack of hostility besides saw Aden ease his tense form. Though, calm and friendly as he sounded, he knew of Snagem somehow. Unsure if it was a hallucination or just another of the weird occurrences he'd known in life, the worst to come from this new person was a wave and smile. Only a fool or a villain would react to that by attacking, and his answer was amicable enough...

"Aden, though I'm not sure the wares you have would be the most useful here..." he'd answer, seeing little harm in giving a name to attach to the face before Volo. But he knew of Snagem one way or another, so what good was hiding his identity? He couldn't help glancing at the backpack as Volo continued, no doubt as well-stocked as he was equipped to travel through harsh conditions and empty voids alike. He'd try his best to hide a startled look when the mentions of time and space warping came in, let alone how easily he'd been pegged as someone familiar with the concept. A space like this didn't seem like it'd be terribly conducive to gathering information, and yet it was like Volo already knew him despite this- as far as he was aware- being their first meeting.

By the time Volo paused, Aden's ability to give a poker face had faltered. He certainly wasn't aware of any event involving the team being flung through time or space, apart from the joyride through Ultra Space he had with Crystal and Reno. But the worst of that was a couple of Ultra Beasts and people blacking out for a while, nothing like... this. Whatever caused the events, Volo was probably the only one with a clear memory of it, and he wasn't sure if he wanted there to be a third question. He'd try to get his composure back as Volo finished his story, sympathetic to the matter at hand. After all, he was in the same predicament now and there was no telling how long this lost member of the Ginko Guild's been here. But through all of that were a few suspicions, or maybe curiosities. Volo seemed to know a lot more than he let on, but three of them were paramount compared to the rest.

And as it turned out, Aden was suddenly with mercantile needs that Volo was able to provide. At the very least, he could do with learning how to get out of this in-between space. "And honestly, I didn't. Doubt you'd find anyone that'd remember a lot of it either, though I'm curious about what would've made it happen in the first place. It's probably hollow words, but I am sorry you got crossed up in all that and ended up here... and that I have a couple of questions apart from the information you have and your price for it." Closing his eyes for a moment, he thought how to best word it and not incur an extra cost for what he'd say next.

"How do you know who I'm talking about? Let alone how to get out of here and what I'm familiar with." Feeling the Tera Orb's power still pulsing in his hand, he wondered if it'd be the cost for what he sought, dismissing it just as quick. Powerful as it felt, that power probably meant nothing here.

---
[Kitakami Hall]

Elsewhere in places much more bustling, Cera had found her way to the picnic alongside Leslie, knowing she and Lapras weren't likely to get much done if they were running on empty themselves. She hadn't even had a chance to do much more than wave to the others as Darts spoke, reading off the nearby sign. "If it is," she commented after Leslie's question. "I'd kinda hope it's not anything we run into. But the way that woman described it, it was driven away, so I don't think it's anything to worry about... right?"

"Oh, I think I saw another of those signs?" Amaranth added between bites, scrolling through her SNAG. "Want to say it was near a shrine dedicated to those three and I took a picture of it since it'd be good to have for the assignment... ah! Here, let me reread it."

Long, long ago, there was a fearsome ogre in the land of Kitakami.

The ogre made its home in the mountain behind the village, frightening all who ventured there.

One day, the ogre came down from the mountain in a terrible rage, causing great fear in the village.

By some stroke of luck, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti all happened to be there as well.

The three Pokémon laid down their lives to fend off the ogre and send it back to the mountain.

In admiration, the people of the village bestowed upon this brave trio the title "the Loyal Three."

Their remains were given a proper burial, and statues of the three were erected above the site.

Once she finished, Amaranth would use the SNAG to take a picture of this sign too, zooming in the camera to make sure it'd be legible enough to re-read later. "I'm not too sure what to make of it myself, though. To me, it sounds like the sort of story that's gone around for generations, but with everything we've run into before..."

"Mmmm...." The Ginkgo guildsman considers Aden's request, legitimately looking like the wheels were turning as he puts a hand to his chin again, thinking as he casts his gaze upwards. "That's a legitimate request, and I think you'll find I'm nothing if not a legitimate merchant. However, there's some difficulty in honoring your request. See, if I give you too much of what I know to some degree that would be the same thing as giving you something for free and we don't know each other that well as you already pointed out. So you'll have to forgive me for being obtuse, a little." He lets his hand drop, having made some kind of a decision apparently as he nods.

"Okay, let's try this then. I'll tell you as much as I feel comfortable and we'll call it a free sample of sorts. Try it before you buy it. And if I can't or won't tell you something, give me the benefit of the doubt as to why." With that settled, Volo continues: "Let's start from the top of your list of questions - you do have quite a few asks, but we aim to please even the most pesnickety customer." he jokes, "How do I know who you're talking about? I think this answer should dispel most of your concerns, but of course because I met them. You being... you," The merchant shoots a meaningful look at Aden, his hand half waving up and down to indicate his body. "Should understand the how. I'm from the past, and Celebi hybrids aren't really bound within time like most of us are. Especially when distressed, or dealing with a great deal of grief like she seemed to be. Within my own little purview, I'm known as something of a curiosity seeker. I like unusual finds and unusual people, and nothing could be more curious to me than someone who seemed to be from another time than our own. That's as much as I'm willing to tell you now, for free. I'll just wrap it up by saying I think I know where she went and how to get there."

He pauses, letting the weight of his words sink in a little before continuing. "From there, it should be fairly obvious for the rest of your inquiries, but satisfaction is our top prority so I'll go ahead and answer those too. Obviously, she mentioned you and your... unique position that you would end up occupying in the world. Clearly, as we're standing here talking Neri was right." A hearty, honest laugh comes from the merchant as he smiles, lost a bit in his memories. "But I didn't know you were.... you, until I met your friends in Team Snagem. They had mentioned if only they had a way to contact you that might have been an option to save all of them, but... no dice. I could scarcely believe my ears when your name came up, but there was no real time to get into it with one of your group being accused of being an impostor in dark lord shape and no feasible means of escape." Eyes shining, Volo seemed to be recalling the event with great reverence as he thought back. "I knew it had to be you. As far as how do we get out of here, well, here is where we come to the crux of our bargain." His tone becomes business-like again, squaring up to look Aden eye to eye.

"My price is fairly simple. If you want to find out what happened to your mother after she left your life, all I want in return are two things. Firstly, you agree to come with me the moment we get out of here. Where she is... let's just say getting there is a little complicated. I have an idea of someone who can help us, but we're going to have to go immediately if we want to meet them. The second bit ties to the first, I need your help to get out of here as much as you need mine to get back so you will have to follow my instructions to the letter. Starting with this one," Volo rolls up his sleeve slightly and extends a hand forwards, smiling gently at Aden as he does so. "We'll shake hands on it, a traditional sign of goodwill and commerce in my times and hopefully so in yours. We used to use this gesture to signify accords and bindings of contracts and such. I look forward to working together with you, Aden. Do we have a deal?"

Upon seeing Sub's wave of invitation and hearing him call out to their group, Clare nodded happily and traipsed over with their little Spoink bouncing along beside their ankles.

"Spoi-oi-oink!" The little spring pig exclaimed at the sight of the many sandwich ingredients, hopping around the blanket and grabbing some things to make a small sandwich for herself. She stopped, bouncing in place with a sandwich piled high with an assortment of sliced vegetables and slathered with mayonaise and mustard, looking curiously at a couple of dishes with some sliced meats on them as Clare was grabbing a few pieces for their own sandwich. "You don't want this, Grunty... It's ham. And that one's salami... and that one's prosciutto, I think? You don't want those either... Try this, instead?" They explained, pointing to the meats in question before grabbing a few Klawf Sticks and laying them on the little pig's sandwich before adding a few pieces to their own, deciding against the various pork cuts for themself after the interaction.

With both Clare and Gruntilda armed with a seafood and vegetable sandwich, Clare walked over to Sub, taking a bite of their sandwich as they did. "How long did this take to prepare? I would have been happy to help if you'd told me. "

"Spoi-oink!" Gruntilda agreed, taking a giant bite of her own sandwich beside Clare's feet, taking a giant hop and bouncing faster in joy as she chewed on her mouthful of food. This was good!

"I'm gonoing to have to explain what pork is to Grunty at some point, though... I wish she hadn't seen those dishes but it's a bit late to be worrying about it now." They muttered to themself, quietly thankful the Bounce Pokemon was distracted by her sandwich for now so they wouldn't need to have that conversation just yet.

“I have to agree with that much.” Tristen spoke up. “Ms. Raifort not too long ago had us do an exercise to figure out any truth in old folklores and I ended up trying to do some research on the two heroes in the Galar region and the Darkest Day that happened a long time ago. I ended up figuring out that it had to do with that Dynamaxing stuff back then. I actually kinda found that assignment funny, really. It was like that the assignment was literally made for someone like me. I’m not sure if Ms. Raifort actually comprehended too much just what we deal with a lot.” Tristen explained. “Now that I mention it, I kinda wonder if this assignment that I am doing now might turn out like that other one. Probably all the more reason why I need to talk to those people between now and just before I leave Kitakami back for Paldea.”

“How much have you actually done with that, anyways?” Freth then spoke up, trying to make sure Tristen wasn’t slacking on his assignments.

“Still trying to take notes on it all.” Tristen said. “You told me no half-measures with this sort of stuff.”

“Alright.” She said.

Gruntilda bounced in place as Gimmighoul approached, taking another big bite of her sandwich and while the Coin Collector made it's pitch, she chewed happily, the crunch of her fresh veggie sandwich in her mouth drowning out most of what it was saying. By the time Gimmighoul was done, she was looking at it curiously, wondering why it was talking about her pearl.

"I'm sorry little one but Grunty needs that." Clare told the Gimmighoul as they squatted down, sitting on their heels and pulling a coin from their pocket. "But I do have this if it makes you feel better?" They offered, holding out the coin. It was a bit dingy but definitely Paldean in origin, probably one they found on the ground back in Mesagoza. "Will this be an acceptable find for you?" The hybrid asked as they handed it over, provided the little collector found the dirty old coin acceptable.

"Where in the world did you find a Gimmighoul?" They asked Darts as he approached and reprimanded the tiny treasure hunter. "Especially one without a chest? I've heard they're never seen without one and even with them they aren't the most commonplace Pokemon. Especially outside of Paldea." They told Darts as they stood up again, dusting off their dress. They'd take a bit of their own sandwich at that point, it's crumbs on their lap as they'd sat on their heels while speaking to Gimmighoul the reason they'd needed to dust off in the first place. Sub had to have gone out of his way to find high quality sandwich ingredients. These were on par with the ones they'd gotten accustomed to while staying at the academy!

Crystal would wave back to Sub, picking up the pace to join them. “Alola, Sub!” She would scan the group, face falling for a very split second when she spied Darts, and politely remained quiet as he rattled off all the information on the board. She’d make herself comfortable at the picnic, refraining from eating anything herself, even anything sweet(that might be have been a little odd), but she would hand Demon Wing a sandwich when the old Charizard joined her. The hybrid’s journal would come out again with a pen, and she would continue to write and chronicle the events, noting the lore that was spouted about the ogre and the masks. She’d occasionally look up at the others, feeling something was off, but couldn't put her finger on it. She did note the very small, quite odd Pokémon with Itemfinder antennae pestering someone’s Spoink, Crystal shaking her head at the scene, but not paying it too much mind. That was when it clicked. There were two still missing from their entourage.

“Hey, Sub, this looks like most of us, but didn’t Aden and Aile come with us as well,” she’d ask the leader, noting that they had even sat together on the bus ride. “I feel like they’re now the only two not here?” She left her journal open, not expecting to need to get up to check on things. But it did feel odd that everyone else had managed to meet up, but they hadn’t arrived.

Sub would examine closely, without touching, the strange little creature Monique had captured. Something about the strange Pokemon was very familiar to the man, what was familiar he wasn't immediately sure. It was clearly some kind of Ghost Pokemon by the way it moved, evidentially a spirit that had possessed a jar of loose tea from what he could- "That's it!" He shouted, jumping slightly only to immediately settle down once he realized he had shouted. "Sorry." He chuckled, embarrassed, giving the little Pokemon a nod as if to apologize to it directly, hoping he didn't scare it. "It reminds me of the tea caddies the monks I grew up with used to keep their tea in, even has the little scoop they use. I'm not sure what species of Pokemon it is but I'm certain that's what this ghost is possessing."

With that 'puzzle' partially solved Sub would turn his attention to Clare after the woman had asked him something, the man just chuckling softly and waving the question off. "Oh it was nothing, took me no time at all I promise!" Sub said, trying his best to be humble.

"What he means he had me with STAK and Claydol prepare the food and pack the basket. All he did was ask for the basket to be teleported to his location. In fact, Claydol helped lay it all out while he watch. Do not give him so much credit." GRAY said from Clare's SNAG, dispelling the notion that Sub deserved any credit at all for all of this. Sub would just playfully huff but for the most part ignore GRAY's exposing of him.

"The Darkest Day, huh? Sounds like my kind of day." The Dark One said in response to Tristen with a grin, because of course he like all things 'dark'. Picking up his sandwich he took a big bite, munching on it for a bit until Crystal got his attention, the man swallowing hard due to the lack of chewing before speaking to Crystal. "They did. I think the last time I checked the SNAG's map their location was up on Oni Mountain at the Crystal Pool. Suppose to be fancy pool filled with crystals, a big tourist destination. I do agree, they looked like they are the only ones- no, Tsuki isn't here either." Sub said as he looked around at all the Snagems, noting that Tsuki was missing as well. "Hey GRAY, send them some messages and tell them to meet us at the festival, please." Sub called out to the AI before taking another bite. "I'm sure they're fine." He said to Crystal with a small mouthful.

-----

Tsuki would make it a ways up Oni Mountain, having crossed paths with some skittish Pichu that fled on sight and a group of Timburr too busy carrying logs up the mountain to care about him. There wasn't much of note for the first part of his hike up the mountain. Eventually he'd be coming up to what looked like a massive open air hollow in the side of the mountain, soon coming upon a sign that informed him it was called 'Oni's Maw'. Coupled with the name he was given a warning to turn back, that to go further was to risk his life. A colony of Noibat would flutter by overhead deeper into Oni's Maw, their presence no doubt adding to the 'aura' of this area.

Just as Tsuki finished reading the sign he'd get a message from GRAY informing him that Sub had requested his appearance at Kitakami Hall for the festival that would soon start. Looking off the side of the mountain Tsuki could see the sun was in fact setting, indicating it would be night soon, in less than hour in fact, no doubt the mountain becoming more dangerous at night. What would Tsuki do?

-----

The Snagems would spend about another half an hour chilling out and enjoying their picnic, the sun just about to fully set, the last bits of sunlight casting a beautiful orange light across the land, the sky becoming purple. After throwing back the last of his Soda Pop Sub would stand up and stretch with a groan. "Alright, I guess I'll clean this mess up." He said.

"He means summoning Claydol to do it." GRAY interjected, again Sub just ignoring him.

"The festival should be getting into gear now, why don't you guys head on up the rest of the trail and go check it out? I'll meet you guys up there." He instructed his teammates, it no doubt being almost completely dark by the time they got up to Kitakami Hall.

Clare covered their mouth as GRAY chimed in and exposed Sub's "laziness" in setting up the picnic. "Oh, I see. You should have asked for some help. Grunty could have used some practicing using her psychic abilities and I would have happily taken a day off from classes to help if you'd said anything." They told him, finishing off their sandwich and pulling an unopened can of lemonade from one of their dress pockets, popping the tab and quickly chasing their sandwich with it, blushing slightly as they emptied the can and lowered it. "Sorry... That wasn't exactly polite, was it?"

It was only a moment later, it felt like, that Sub was pushing everyone to head on up the hill to Kitakami Hall. "Goodness... it got late much faster than I expected it would..." Clare announced, looking down to see Gruntilda polishing off the remainder of her own sandwich. "Let's go, Grunty! We don't want to miss the opening festivities, do we?!" They asked the Spoink, waving her after them as they began to run up the hill. "Don't take too long!" They called to Sub as they left.

With Gruntilda on their heels, they crested the hill a few short minutes later and began to walk up the final steps to the Hall, the Spoink bouncing up with little grunts at each bounce. As the pair took the final step, both their eyes widened at the sight they were met with. There were far more people here than they had expected to see in such a small hamlet. Clearly most of the people were tourists, many of them wearing clothes that seemed out of place or appeared to be uncomfortable in clothes they normally wouldn't wear, but all of the locals? They were all wearing the same type of outfit. Traditional yukata and kimono, many with masks on that they learned very quickly were meant to be "the loyal three".

"Oh! I'm supposed to write a report for History Class on them!" The hybrid remembered, realizing they could learn a lot about the group at the festival if they took the time to ask a few people about them. They'd have to watch for anyone that looked willing to talk to them and get some information before the festival was over.

As the hybrid began to walk into the festival grounds, they looked around and spotted a number of stalls selling masks, food and an assortment of other souvenirs, as well as a large sign toward the back, advertising something called "Ogre Oustin'". An extremely popular game at the festival, if they recalled their pamphlet properly. Had it given any more information than the name, though? They couldn't remember anything other than the name being mentioned and made a note to check that out, if they had a chance. If it was as popular as the pamphlet implied, they might not get a chance if they didn't get there fast.

Deciding to check out one of the souvenir stalls first, the hybrid headed to one of the mask vendors, looking at the very sentai-inspired masks, looking at the pink one said to be "Fezandipiti". "It's cute!" They told Gruntilda as they looked at it. "I'll take it!" They decided. "Do you have an Eevee mask that might fit Grunty here?" They asked, pointing down to the Spoink.

"Spoi-oink?" Gruntilda bounced happily in place, arms waving about happily as she got excited over having her own mask. After paying, Clare donned their new mask and headed deeper into the festival grounds in search of more to see. There was supposed to be some kind of "grand finale" to the celebration late in the night but their pamphlet gave no information what that might be so they were growing more excited to see it by the moment, seeing how eventful the festival grounds were already turning out to be.

As they walked, newly acquired mask adorning their face and Gruntilda at their heels, the hybrid couldn't help but to wonder at it all.