"Huh?"
Gardevoir?
Cynthia blinked, half-convinced she'd imagined it.
She lifted a hand and rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again, the Gardevoir outside was gone.
Cynthia let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Of course—Gardevoir and Elias were staying in Hisui. How could—
Pat.
Before the thought even finished, a soft hand tapped her shoulder.
Cynthia stiffly turned her head.
And sure enough, a shiny Gardevoir stood there, expression blank.
"..."
"..."
[One coffee—no sugar. And a slice of cake. Thank you.]
Under the server's stunned stare, Gardevoir used telepathy and calmly placed her order.
Across from her sat Cynthia, still dazed, and Diantha, whose eyes were practically sparkling.
"How are you here?"
"Did Elias wake up?"
Once Gardevoir sat down, Cynthia leaned in at once, urgency in her voice.
As she spoke, she craned her neck to look out the window again.
Normally, if Gardevoir was here, Elias would be nearby.
After all, Gardevoir almost never acted alone.
But looking around now… that didn't seem to be the case.
Had something gone wrong?
One guess after another leapt up in Cynthia's mind, her brows knitting tighter.
At Cynthia's questions, worry flickered in Gardevoir's eyes.
[Elias woke up. But Palkia wasn't there. Dialga had trouble when it Teleported us, and we got separated.]
Gardevoir gave Cynthia the short version, then curled her fingers into a small fist, looking quietly stricken.
If I hadn't been greedy for that little bit of hand-holding, and I had gone into the Poké Ball first…
Then no matter what happened, they wouldn't have been split up.
"Right now… you can't locate Elias?" Cynthia asked softly, watching her.
It was better than she'd feared. Elias had woken up, and nothing terrible had happened.
But... if he'd been dropped somewhere dangerous, things could still go very wrong.
"It's too far. I can't lock onto him," Gardevoir said, shaking her head.
Her psychic senses had limits, too.
Covering a city was already impressive—never mind a whole region, or the entire world.
"But he should still be in Kalos."
After a moment, Gardevoir added it anyway.
Aside from Elias, many Pokémon had already contacted her.
Without exception, all of them were in Kalos.
So Dialga hadn't been wrong about the general direction—but…
That "direction" was way too broad, and it didn't guarantee everyone landed in the same place.
Gardevoir grit her teeth, suddenly itching to go beat that stupid dragon senseless.
"Cynthia… is this your little boyfriend's Gardevoir?"
While Cynthia and Gardevoir spoke, Diantha—who hadn't said a word until now—leaned forward, curious.
The Gardevoir beside her also started studying this unusual member of her own kind.
It wasn't hard to see: being shiny had a pull on both of them.
Especially Diantha—her burning stare made Gardevoir's back prickle.
"Garde? (Boyfriend?)"
Gardevoir crossed her arms and looked Cynthia up and down, as if appraising her.
She hadn't missed that word.
That blonde woman… what kind of nonsense had she been spreading while Gardevoir wasn't around?
"Ha… haha."
Cynthia went rigid. A bead of cold sweat slid down her temple.
She hadn't considered Gardevoir might show up here at all—she'd forgotten to warn Diantha.
I'm done…
Seeing her friend lock up, Diantha glanced at the laptop on the table.
After confirming there was nothing new, she turned back to Gardevoir and spoke gently.
"Don't be nervous. My name is Diantha—I'm not here to hurt you."
"From what you said, it sounds like you and your Trainer got separated in Kalos. Do you need help? And for what it's worth… I'm the current Kalos Champion, and my ace Pokémon is also a Gardevoir."
Diantha's attitude was warm—she even offered a business card.
And when she mentioned her ace Pokémon…
The Gardevoir at her side lifted her chin too, eyeing the shiny Gardevoir with proud poise.
Hm.
Slender build—so she probably didn't have much physical strength.
Born shiny—shunned by her own kind, which meant she had to be underdeveloped.
Her Trainer was a rookie, so her battle experience was lacking; she probably never even got proper training.
Compared to herself—raised by Diantha from the start, coached for months by Elias, battle-tested—there was no comparison.
From any angle, Diantha's Gardevoir didn't believe the shiny one could outdo her in a single way.
Still, since she was shiny—and since her Trainer was interested—she supposed she could, out of generosity, let the other one call her "Big Sis" once.
Diantha's Gardevoir nodded to herself, satisfied with the plan.
"Garde? (Kalos Champion?)"
After hearing Diantha's introduction, the shiny Gardevoir narrowed her eyes.
She was weighing how feasible it would be to kidnap this human outright and threaten the Pokémon League into finding Elias.
As for Diantha's Gardevoir… she didn't even register her.
Seeing the shiny Gardevoir actually thinking, Diantha smiled patiently.
To any Gardevoir enthusiast, a shiny Gardevoir was a once-in-a-lifetime treasure.
Noticing Cynthia's uneasy expression, Diantha added, almost as an aside:
"Don't worry—I'm not interested in your little boyfriend. This Gardevoir is still his."
Cynthia quietly swallowed the words she'd been about to say.
She'd wanted to warn Diantha that this Gardevoir wasn't nearly as harmless as she looked.
But for some reason, Gardevoir didn't seem inclined to make a move on Diantha either.
Just as a brief silence fell...
Gardevoir pressed a hand lightly to her head, and her gaze snapped toward the front-left.
"Garde. (Elias is that way.)"
This time, she spoke out loud.
"You sensed him?" Cynthia blinked, immediately confirming.
At the same time, a message popped up on Diantha's laptop.
Diantha looked over and found it was from Dianna.
"An intruder has appeared. Lysandre has sent people to deal with it."
"Is it someone from the Pokémon League?"
---
T/N: mean gardevoir is still just the best, why is it like that every simulation the pokemon gets worse :sob: