The week after Solgaleo's proposal, commotion flooded the API. Luckily, it had nothing to do with me; the wrestling team was leaving for Hoenn the coming weekend, for their first tournament of the season. Things like that were always rather celebrated (too much so, a few would argue), and it was hard not to feel any kind of joyful, even if you didn't particularly care. I decided I'd wish Passimian good luck at the next jazz rehearsal, though I doubted he'd need it.

Unfortunately the school's carefree air was cut short for me as my first days with the drama club started. I felt unable to decide whether I was filled to the brim with excitement or dread, and as a result I found the easiest thing to do was just not think about my own feelings until I set talon in the auditorium. Easier said than done, of course; in the days leading up to my first rehearsal, I'd looked over the script several times, trying my best to envision appropriate choreography for each scene, but in the end I was left with only the conclusion that it would be much harder than I'd thought. The Kalosian War was a tragedy, heavy and plodding; a far cry from the dreaminess that I'd felt when dancing with Trumbeak or letting my mind wander. Not one character had a happy ending, but they all had their ups and downs, reflected in the music and lyrics. All I had to do was reflect that further, in the visuals...something I wasn't sure I could really do.

Despite all my self-doubts, Thursday's classes came and went, and the second Bulu dismissed me I made straight for the auditorium, only barely remembering to stop at my dorm and grab my copy of the play along the way. Upon reaching the massive hall, I embarrassedly realized that I was one of, if not the, first Pokémon to get there, which was something I kicked myself for until someone else floated up behind me and spoke in an all-too-familiar voice:

"Oh, Decidueye. I wasn't expecting you to show up, but alas, here we are." The Pokémon sighed, and carelessly floated around me to face me, revealing herself to be none other than Tapu Lele. "This'll be your first time with the drama club, then? Your first time giving my students some much-needed choreography pointers?" The sarcasm in her voice was palpable, but worse yet was what she muttered as she turned around and started heading towards the stage: "When I so offhandedly complained to Solgaleo about this darned play, I certainly wasn't expecting him to do all this. But, oh well. I suppose he can't be denied."

It had been quiet and under her breath, but I wholeheartedly believed that Lele had meant for me to hear that. It certainly didn't do anything to bolster my confidence, that was for sure...but a tiny part of me wanted to believe that she was testing me somehow, or trying to ignite some hidden fire within me. Regardless, it only made me gulp and want to turn back even more.

Within the next few minutes, the drama club filtered in, and with their arrival I actually started to feel better about myself, believe it or not. Ribombee and Shiinotic smiled at me as they entered, and Raichu gave me a knowing wink. Kommo-o gave me his usual second-long glance, while Minior went as far as to say "hi" to me. I didn't exactly recognize many of the other Pokémon, but none of them were any sort of rude or hostile. It made me wonder how many of them knew about my new position.

Just then, I felt a tiny tap on my shoulder. Wheeling around in surprise, I came face to face with a formal little Pokémon I had only seen around the academy sparingly over the past few weeks or so. Looking me up and down, she said, "My name is Floette. I assume that you are the new choreographer I have been told about?"

"Y-You'd be right," I affirmed, admittedly doing a poor job at masking my intimidation.

"I would like to say I have faith in you," Floette taunted me with the beginnings of a smile before snapping back to her more grave and serious face. "but you are younger than even I am. You had better know what you're doing; the tale of the war is not one to take lightly, or be misinformed about."

"Well, I, uh..." I looked at the ground, trying to come up with something to say to that. "I happen to know a lot about the war! I'm taking Kalosian history myself."

"You are, now?" Floette's eyes widened for a second, with some of the initial criticality having left them. "Well, then put your knowledge to good use, and we can be on good terms!" She started floating down the aisle to meet up with the other students, leaving me to only stare after her and swear to myself that I'd do as she'd said.

The last few Pokémon were quick to enter the auditorium after that little ordeal; among them were Primarina, Blacephalon, and a big-yet-quiet Pyroar who seemed to wear a perpetual frown. None of them so much as looked at me, but I guessed I could rest assured that at least Primarina was cool with me, if Midnight's words were anything to go off of. While it was impossible to tell for sure whether or not the Soloist Pokémon knew that I had anything to do with the events of reunion-night, I certainly wouldn't attempt to start up a conversation with her about it. Not that it mattered too much at that point, anyway.

"Alright, everyone by the stage!" Lele ordered suddenly. "We've got a lot to get through today—girls! Raichu! That's quite enough...oh, for the love of..."

Surely only in part thanks to her yelling, the drama club slowly started to quiet down and gather round the stage. Apprehensive to join them, I tried to stay in the shadows as much as I could on my own way down; however, this attempt at secrecy would soon prove futile.

"I have big news to share with you all, though from what I've heard, word's gotten out to quite a few of you already," Lele began, putting on her most orderly voice. "The choreography for The Kalosian War has been put in the hands of one of the API's very own students: Decidueye."

Amid the resulting gasps, whispers and nods, the professor waved me forward, and with no other choice, I gingerly entered the meeting circle. After an awkward moment or two, Lele annoyedly motioned for me to say something; so, after a rather embarrassing "Oh!", I announced:

"My name is Decidueye, and as Tapu Lele said, I'm going to be acting as the choreographer for the play this year. I've got knowledge of choreo, and I've got knowledge of the Kalosian War, too, but, er..." I blinked nervously and looked down at my talons for a moment, but pressed on nonetheless. "...redoing the choreography for an entire show is new to me, I'll admit. I'm going to do my best—hopefully better than the show looked before—but any tips, pointers, criticism, anything, it's all welcome. Well, as long as it's—"

"Wait, wait, wait. One moment, please; my apologies, Tapu Lele," a single voice came from the crowd. Blacephalon, the exchange student, stepped out from his place in the circle and stopped only inches short of me, so that I could feel the heat radiating from his bulbous head. "The choreo before was bad, in a word, but you expect a student to do the job on par, if not better?! Whose decision was this? Where has their head gone? I joined this troupe to perform work done by professionals, and this, this is an outrage! A disgrace!"

"...civil," I finished, right before ducking under one of Blacephalon's wildly flailing arms as he continued to rant. I rushed back behind Kommo-o in surprise, gulped, and thought, Arceus! I had a feeling this wouldn't go well, but...

"Would you shut your mouth for one second, you pompous clown?" Raichu snapped, threateningly advancing towards Blacephalon. "We haven't been here five minutes, and you're already—"

"Oh, I apologize that I refuse to stand for willful incompetence!" Blacephalon retorted. In all his rage, his head seemed to grow larger somehow, and looked about ready to burst. "Tell me, why is it that even though you've got such a bright ball of fire hanging in your sky, you Alolans are all so dim?!"

"Come on, you haven't even seen what Decidueye's capable of!" Ribombee joined in the fray.

"The more you complain about things you don't know, the less time we have to get things done," Kommo-o added.

"Decidueye's cool, he really is! Can't we just get to the rehearsal? Please?" Minior piped.

One Pokémon's voice overlapped another's, over and over again until it was impossible to make out what anybody was even saying. Even Tapu Lele tried to make herself heard, to surprisingly no avail. Me, I kept my beak shut like my life depended on it; well, for all I knew, my life did depend on it. Right then I contemplated just turning tail while everyone was distracted; after all, it seemed like all I'd ever be able to do was stir up arguments among the actors just by being there. Just before I made up my mind, though, a single shrill voice cut through all the rest, against all odds, and the next second everyone's eyes were on none other than Floette.

"This is ridiculous!" the Single Bloom Pokémon shrieked, her formal facade having left her. "Oh, les ramures de Xerneas! Les ailes d'Yveltal! Not one of you would last a day at the University of Kalos with how much you run your mouths! I came all the way across the world to act in a story that is incredibly personal to me and my family, but so far it seems as though there has been more useless bickering than rehearsing! Decidueye is to be in charge of the choreography; that is how it is, and arguing about it will not change it—all it does is waste time. If we are to perform this play in the spring, we must double down on practice, not cut it in half with such pettiness!"

"Floette is right," Lele added after a moment to collect herself. "The choreography's got to be rebuilt from the ground up, and you've all got to learn it by spring. So, as much as I hate to say it, if you're unwilling to accomplish such a task, you can feel free to leave now."

Despite all the ensuing exchanged glances and scoffs from the drama club, not one of them excused themselves; in fact, even Blacephalon cleared his throat and quietly replied, "Of course. It really is unlike me to be so unruly, you know. I'll...tolerate our new choreographer, if I must." He folded his spindly arms and looked at me begrudgingly, the colorful dots on his head flashing an angry red. I swallowed and stood a little straighter, not as scared now that I knew I had Pokémon on my side.

"Whatever you say," Lele rolled her eyes, and with little more conversation, rehearsal started.

—————

"Hey, Decidueye! Wait up!" I stopped in my tracks at the mention of my name, and looked around the common to see who had said it. It had turned to late dusk, with only a few rays of sunshine still on the distant horizon; though drama club had long since ended for the day, I was still on my way to the auditorium, this time for jazz band. Turned out Ribombee had the same idea, as she quickly caught up to me with a buzz of her wings. I was a bit surprised at her approach, I'll admit; though we were in the same band (and now acting troupe, I supposed), and had seen each other around the API countless times, I had never particularly cared to talk to her before, nor her to me. It had always been me in my world, and her in hers.

"Hey, Ribombee," I greeted her. Trying to think of something we could talk about on common grounds, I comically asked, "D'you think Koko is actually gonna show up to practice tonight?"

"Let's hope so," the Bee Fly Pokémon shrugged. Then, completely changing the subject, she said, "You were pretty good at rehearsal today; I'll admit, some of your ideas seem genuinely better than what was there before. ...Sorry about what happened at the start, though. It must've left a pretty bad first impression."

"Oh! There's no reason for you to be sorry, really," I replied. "And, uh...thanks. I'm trying."

Ribombee giggled. "No problem. I wouldn't take anything Blacephalon says to heart, anyway—I swear, you should've been there to hear what he said to Primarina some rehearsals back. He hasn't got a clue what he's talking about, really. In fact, two years ago we put on a production called The Legend of Ninetales—you might remember it, actually; we were both freshmen—and that was written entirely by a student at the API from way back when! And if a student can write a play, it really isn't so preposterous that a student can do choreo for one."

"Huh," I said in surprise. "I didn't know that. But that helps, it really does. Thanks, Ribombee!"

The little pianist smiled, undoubtedly satisfied that she was able to help, as we both crossed into the auditorium, which rang with shouts and laughter and the sound of instruments and cases clanging together. Most everybody was already there, including Tapu Koko, to my relief. I didn't at all doubt that it was his work on those machines that had kept him last time; the Solarizer and Lunarizer, or whatever they were called. They were his pride and joy, surely, his greatest accomplishment...but nothing had ever stopped him from attending jazz practice before they came along. It made me worry for his health, both physical and mental, even if it was just nothing at the end of the day.

"We'll be starting with Festival Plaza," Koko announced as the band finished getting the last few things set up. "If there's time, we'll look at the new tune—what is it? Ah, Nimbasa City! That's it, of course. Forgive my forgetfulness."

After scrambling to get my tenor sax out of its case, and scrambling some more to get my music set up, I noticed a strange lethargy to the conductor's tone that made my heart sink. I couldn't dwell on it for long, though, as we wasted no time in kicking off the practice.

For the most part, we sounded the same as we always did; the trumpets and the piano seamlessly passed the melody back and forth, everyone getting their spotlight, but I couldn't help but notice something different whenever the saxes took over. The sound wasn't as full, it sounded imbalanced; Bewear and I tried to back off to let Sandslash's lone alto prevail, but that just made the section as a whole sound weak. I quickly recalled what Salazzle had told me then, on the day of the exchange students' arrival, about Lurantis being gone. The Toxic Lizard Pokémon had even mentioned the band's subsequent loss of a second alto sax, I remembered. I supposed I just hadn't thought much about how such a loss would affect our balance.

Koko must've realized that something was off as well, for he signaled for us to stop not long before my solo. "Sandslash," he sighed. "I know Lurantis isn't here, but you've gotta make up for that! You're being drowned out by darn near everybody. C'mon."

Sandslash gave a sigh of his own, wrote a few things in his music, and looked at the ground, earning sympathetic glances from both Bewear and I. You could be a beginner, you could be a legend; making one instrument sound like two was never an easy feat.

As well-arranged as the other tune, Nimbasa City, was, it unfortunately had the same problem in the hands of our band. When it came down to it, the smaller the band, the more each individual Pokémon mattered; I learned that the hard way that night. Lurantis was off in space somewhere, at some other school, and for that our sound suffered. Yeah, Pokémon were absent from individual rehearsals all the time, but she'd be gone for a year. A year! I missed a few notes just thinking about whether or not the band could survive that long.

We ended up being dismissed with basically everyone in a sour mood. Sandslash cursed Koko and Lurantis under his breath, Salazzle strummed angry nothings on her guitar, and Golisopod didn't even bother to pack up his bass. I was so ready to leave the tense stage that I almost forgot to wish Passimian good luck at his tournament, as I'd promised myself I would. At the very least, he seemed to appreciate my words.

Suddenly, Midnight tapped me on the shoulder. "You hear that, dude?" he asked, pointing his ears skyward curiously. At first, I had no clue what he was on about, but after a moment of listening for myself, I heard what sounded like music coming from upstairs.

"Yeah," I replied quietly. "There aren't any other music classes going on right now, are there? Who could be playing this late at night, you think?"

"Let's go see." Midnight leapt off the stage with no hesitation, walking boldly toward one of the doors at the stage's sides. A second passed, and with no other choice, I exhaled and followed him without anyone noticing, luckily.

Upon braving the last stair and entering the auditorium's second floor, the music became much clearer. It was unmistakably the sound of a violin; slightly crude, admittedly, but overall delicate and beautiful. Immediately I thought of last week, of my last little trip to this hallway. What if...? No, there's no way it could possibly be him.

"It's comin' from this room," Midnight, who was quite a ways ahead of me, whispered as he pointed to a room on the right. I silently ran over to him, and together we peeked through the doorway, only for my heart to skip a beat upon realizing that I'd been right at first.

It was Naganadel.

He was staring intently between his music and the fingerboard of his violin, his back to us as he landed each note of what I recognized to be the Hoennian folk song "The Lorekeeper", supposedly important to the Dragon Pokémon of the region. His wings flapped to the beat with shocking precision, keeping his body airborne and his posture straight. And the music...the music! Although he took it slightly slower than its intended tempo, and now and again a note was a little sharp, my beak fell open at the sheer confidence of it, the sheer strength, the sheer beauty! My hatred for Naganadel melted away, if only for a moment, and all I could do was admire his skill and dedication. I mean, he'd been at it for barely a week! A week!

The beast's playing was so mesmerizing that I forgot that I was there in the doorway, watching him with the stupidest expression on my face, until he suddenly and accidentally smashed a sour note and snapped me out of my trance. Shaking my head, Midnight and I exchanged wide-eyed stares as Naganadel growled at himself in shame, then got prepared to pick up where he had left off. Before he could resume, however, I gulped and stepped into the room, my friend on my heels.

"Y-You're...you're..." I started, stopping abruptly in fear once Naganadel thrust himself around to face me, his glowing blue eyes boring into me. Even Midnight couldn't help but whimper a bit at the sight of him.

"I'm what?" he demanded.

"Er...a fast learner."

At that, Naganadel's eyes widened and his muscles loosened, giving him a slightly less threatening look. He worked his jaw a bit, as if recalling something, then said quietly, "Funny I should run into you. I suppose I should thank you, shouldn't I? This instrument, this violin...it is most interesting. And you're the one who introduced me to it."

Beside me, Midnight mouthed a "What?"; I didn't have the time to say anything, though, as Naganadel kept talking:

"To be honest, most of my time this past week has been dedicated to improving my skills. I have stayed awake longer than the sun most days, I've skipped classes in order to practice. The four...professors have picked up the habit of giving me disapproving looks whenever I pass them in the halls." His mandibles swung outward and he awkwardly bared his fangs—something it took me a few seconds to realize was supposed to be an amused smile. "But, that really is none of your concern."

"Uh-huh," I slowly replied. In the back of my mind, an idea began to form. A stupid idea, a crazy one, one that almost certainly wouldn't work. And even if by some magic it did work, did I really want Naganadel to...?

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" I whispered to Midnight.

"You know I never think at all," he replied with a smile, equally softly.

Stifling a laugh, I crossed the room and carefully grabbed the case of an alto saxophone—the proudest one the API had—and set it down before Naganadel. As I excitedly opened it, he craned his neck to get a good look at what was inside, and flapped his wings with piqued interest once he saw it. It was small, yet shining and silver; relatively new, as well. I couldn't say I completely trusted Naganadel with it, but if my plan was going to work, I had to impress him, and luckily the sax seemed to do the trick.

"And what's that?" the foreigner asked with not a drop of hostility in his voice—a first for him, as far as I knew.

"An alto saxophone," I explained. "It isn't very similar to the violin, but since you're such a quick learner, I think you oughta challenge yourself." Fastening a nearby reed to the mouthpiece, and sticking the mouthpiece onto the sax, I continued, "You blow through here, but your mouth has to be a certain way...like this." I pursed my beak and managed only a crude note, but Naganadel seemed impressed nonetheless. I handed him the instrument, which he went on to examine as lovingly as if it were a newborn Pokémon.

Getting up to leave, I finished, "Give it a try, see how you like it. I've heard the API has a jazz band where you can play it, too, once you get good enough." Even if Naganadel heard me, he pretended not to notice, but at that point it didn't matter. I was convinced he was on board.

"Man, you are crazy," Midnight howled once we made it back downstairs and were headed for the common. Even though I could tell he knew exactly what had happened, he still asked with a cackle, "D'you know what you just did?"

I turned to him and smirked, resisting every urge to burst out laughing myself. "Yep. I've just found our new alto sax."