Deans and meetings. That had been my life ever since summer started to close. Apparently I was some special case to Solgaleo and Lunala that they had to fret over and figure out. Tch. Like no other Pokémon have faced loss before. Yeah, they wanted to help me and everything. I got that. But as much as I hated to admit it, I didn't need their help. My emotional wounds simply didn't hurt anymore.

I was growing more numb and distant by the day, and I hated myself for it. I had told Primarina that I didn't want to go to that dumb old reunion because of those Gumshoos threatening to kill me, but deep down I knew the real reason, and I feared she knew it too. I didn't go because I just didn't want to go. I wanted to avoid interaction and drama, not have to face it, and Hau'oli City was the epitome of drama, believe me. With sad realization I knew that it wouldn't take Primarina long to catch on to that fact. Gumshoos slept at night, anyway.

Let's talk about before that, though, back when summer still had a sliver of its miserable life left. Primarina had been out on the Hau'oli Beachfront with her friends, leaving me to entertain myself in her loft. I read over the wrinkly exchange program paper probably hundreds of times at her desk, with nothing else to do, trying to find any sort of answers within its words. It was an unsurprisingly futile attempt, but hey, I'll bet anyone would try to look deeper into something vague as that document.

So there I was, on the verge of just giving up and napping, when I heard a knock on the door. At first I thought Primarina had returned, so my ears pricked and I stood from my seat near the desk expectantly. However, when Primarina's father opened the door, the figure that ducked in dwarfed even him with her giant wings and straight posture. What in the Reverse World is Lunala doing here? was the first thought that came to my mind.

The Dragonite bowed slightly as Lunala entered the house, who to my dismay eyed me and started for the loft. I didn't move; there was no way I could've. She was a dean, after all, and if she wanted to talk to a student about something then that would be that. But the question was, did she know about what happened? And if so, what would she do about it?

Lunala flew up to the loft, coming to rest gently next to the bed, though her footless form still levitated. Since I didn't dare address her first, she broke the ice with a simple, "Hello, Incineroar. How has your summer been?"

A shadow of bitterness stirred inside me, but I quickly forced it back down and replied with a rather monotone, "Fine. Summer's been fine." She looked at me oddly, and not wanting to elongate the awkwardness of the situation, I added, "You...need me for something, ma'am?"

"I heard of what happened from Primarina's parents. It was right of them to alert Solgaleo and I as soon as possible. Incineroar, I...I cannot imagine how it must feel to be..." Her voice dwindled off in my mind as if she didn't know what next to say, and it kind of sobered me up a bit, brought me back to reality. I'd almost never seen either of the deans give more emotion than a faint smile or a knowing nod, and I'd certainly never seen either falter before. Suddenly I was paying a lot more attention to what Lunala had to say.

The Moone Pokémon collected herself and regained her regal posture before continuing, "Solgaleo and I would like to do anything we can to help your situation, but I'd also like to have you know that you're still expected at the API this fall."

I nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I was planning on it." I waited for Lunala to start up with her telepathy again, but when no sound came, a new, frightening idea crept into my own mind. One that could potentially jeopardize everything the dean before me was planning. "But ma'am, the Gumshoos of Hau'oli want me dead. There's no way around the city on the way to Verdant Cavern so long as that bridge is busted, and I can't go back there. Even going across the rooftops would probably get me caught. I'll bet their eyes are sharper now, looking for any stragglers of my pack that might've gotten away. And I'm one of 'em! How're you gonna—"

"That's the main reason I came to talk to you," Lunala cut me off with one of her rather aggravating smiles. So it was back to the all-knowing machine of a Pokémon, I saw. Great. "Solgaleo and I have developed a plan that ensures you'll reach the API with no trouble from them." She told me, then, of something I didn't agree to at first. In fact, I found the idea embarrassing, ludicrous, suicidal. I refused to partake in such a plan, for both my dignity and my safety, but Lunala simply stared me down, unblinking, and answered adamantly, "There is no other way."

I sighed and sat once again on the chair of Primarina's desk in thought. Lunala let me turn the idea over and over in my mind, silently floating there and watching me reach dead end after dead end trying to figure out another way. It grew frustrating after a while, so eventually I just gave up and answered with a barely audible, "Alright. I'll do it."

Thus confirmed my walk of shame through Hau'oli City that undoubtedly a ton of my peers saw on their own carefree treks to the API at the term's beginning. To put things briefly (though I felt every long, suspenseful second of the walk itself), pumping myself up, I left Primarina's house and made for Hau'oli. Solgaleo had been nowhere in sight at the time, so I began to grow wary as I got closer and closer to the pavement's edge. Up ahead, other students had already crossed up into Route 2, and a handful of them looked back at me oddly. They appeared...scared, almost, and I didn't know why until I had a look around the city for myself, and I noticed potential hundreds of angry faces glowering at me from all angles. My heart dropped into my tail then. Reverse World, that would be it. They'd all be on me in seconds, tearing me limb from limb until I was unrecognizable. Each one of them itched to, I could see it in their eyes. Where in Alola was Solgaleo when you needed him?

Not far, apparently, as right then he seemed to appear out of absolutely nowhere in front of me just as planned, then began some angry speech that I was too shaken to listen much to. Then, he gestured toward me to start walking, and that I did, if absently. The city was oddly silent, as if time had stopped, and I would've too had my legs not seemingly been on autopilot until Solgaleo and I were well out of the city. A group of peer Pokémon gave me awkward looks as I passed them, which I returned with my own glare. Only one of the Lycanroc twins was among the group, which made me skeptical as to where the other one was. I shrugged it off, though, as I didn't care to interact with or get involved in either of their lives beyond the occasional "hello".

If that was where the trouble ended for me, I'd be fine with it. I'd just meet up with Primarina, get my schedule for the term, settle into my dorm, and start another year at my refuge, with the only friends I still had. That'd be that. Instead, to my dismay, Solgaleo invited (though demanded would likely be a more accurate word) me to his office the second we passed into the API. So, while other groups of students conversed and caught up with each other, I followed the big white Sunne Pokémon up a spiraling flight of stairs all the way to an old, rusted door that normally no one cared to address. Solgaleo pushed it open and ducked through it, myself following slowly.

I found myself on the API's roof, a flat wooden platform in an octagonal shape. Little more than an old, complicated telescope and the door back to the stairwell decorated it, but the simplicity of it never seemed to bother the deans. Some nights they'd let us students climb up to it and look through the telescope at the stars and whatnot, and Tapu Koko's astronomy class used it all the time, so it couldn't even really be called an office, actually. But so long as Lunala and Solgaleo dwelled there, that's what it was, I supposed. And as long as it was an office, I would have nothing but resentment for it.

Solgaleo took a seat on his haunches at the edge of the roof, overlooking all of Verdant Cavern and even a bit of Route 2 beyond, and I followed, though I didn't sit. He dwarfed even my straightest posture at his lowered height, so when he warmly gestured for me to sit next to him, he couldn't help but still intimidate me a little. I did as I was told, however, and threw my legs over the edge as casually as I could muster. I didn't want to show fear, much less emotion in general, in front of all-knowing Solgaleo.

"The sun is shining brightly this morning, no?" the Sunne Pokémon began, swishing his tail back and forth lazily as if to make himself look less threatening. "Lunala and I are cosmically grateful you are able to attend the API this year, Incineroar. We value your presence more than you may think. Yet...the Tapu did not see you at the reunion days ago, so I've heard."

I ran my paws over my face and sighed. I'd just have to tell him what I had told Primarina. "Yeah, I'm...uncomfortable going into Hau'oli City, given what's happened. I'd've made it if I could, but I just didn't want to—"

"I understand, and I don't blame you," Solgaleo's voice rang true in my mind and made my own voice dwindle into nothingness. "Yet your choice made a few problems arise, mainly regarding your electives this year. Signup was held in the city reunion-night, and since you were absent, I would like to get things in order now. It will not take long."

Of course, I thought miserably. At least it would be over with soon, if Solgaleo kept his word. But sometimes even the deans had their moments of unpredictability to break from their usual monotone.

He spoke with me, then, of the classes I was to take. I didn't bother to take what I didn't have to, so long as I could make room for as much time to wrestle as I could. It irked me still how one couldn't major in playing such sports, but Solgaleo was luckily forgiving. He suggested to me a career in athletic training, and supposing it was the next best thing to actually playing, I accepted. The Sunne Pokémon gave a careful nod, as if storing my thoughts within the secure recesses of his expansive mind, then dismissed me as he stared straight at the still-rising sun with unfazed blue eyes. I got up to leave, but as my paw reached the door at the other side of the roof, his voice washed over me once more:

"I'm glad you've decided to stay with us, Incineroar. You've likely already heard this more times over than there are stars in our night sky, yet...there's nothing Lunala and I enjoy more than to help Pokémon that need us, so if you find yourself ever struggling, simply come to either of us. Just always know that you're appreciated, you're wanted, and..." He turned with a twinkle in his eye, smiled, and concluded with, "we can't afford to lose to the Kalos region's wrestling team another year."

I couldn't help but give the tiniest of an embarrassed smile at that, and I whispered, "Sir, I won't let you down. Hawlucha won't know what hit him!" Solgaleo's smile widened and he nodded, and not feeling as if I had to say anything else, I slipped through the door and descended the stairs, down to the dorms and down to Primarina...if I could find her.