As they waved goodbye to the citizens of Taviki, Inari, Tamoa, and Ayla relaxed ready for the long ride ahead of them. 

“So, how was your time in Taviki? I see you have a new addition to your team.” Maggie asked as she walked at a steady pace.

“It was pretty good all things considered,” Tamao responded as Ayla sat beside him.

“You can say that again.” Inari piped up as well laying on the floor and stretching.

“Well, I’m gonna take a nap,” Tamao informed them as he closed his eyes and let sleep embrace him.

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Tamao was in a dark room, well… dark was actually an understatement, it was more like a void kind of darkness. Though as he looked around he saw a few specks of light, the only problem is he couldn’t move… or feel his body.

This was already an uncomfortable experience, but was amplified tenfold as a sharp pain shot through his head and he was overwhelmed with more feeling than he ever thought was imaginable to experience at the same time. He couldn’t even move his head or paws to help with the pain.

Guilt and terror were the strongest emotions he was feeling at that current moment but there was also sadness overwhelming him as tears were inexplicably running down his cheeks.

Trying to compose himself he noticed one of the lights coming ever so slightly closer and his terror amplified and seemed to drown out all the other emotions to the point his brain even felt numb.

“Memory loading…”

“W-what? Ahhh!”

With a blinding white light, the small light that had slowly been getting closer suddenly exploded in Tamao’s face and he was suddenly in a completely different place… A place he hoped to never see again.

Tamao had been transported back to Zocarive in the office of one of the second in command of the largest crime boss in all of Zocarive, back to one of the worst days of his life. He remembered this day vividly. He had failed to make enough Poke to meet his quota… and that came with a punishment.

As Tamao looked around the terribly familiar room he mentally shuddered as he saw the second in command, an Umbreon with a large scar over their left eye

“So, you’re short on your quota Tamao… Care to explain?”

“W-well… an Eevee isn’t all that intimidating are they?”

“No, but I expect better from my… employees. My boss expects everyone I overlook to be perfect! Do you understand what that entails for me? My life is on the line fro your mistake!”

“I-I-I can g-get y-y-you t-t-the money b-b-by the e-e-end o-of the week! I-I swear!”

“Now that just won’t do. Meago, why don’t you remind Tamao here of what happens to those that are late in getting their quota completed.”  The Umbreon then signaled to an Incineroar waiting in the corner of the room.

Memory Tamao began to Visibly shake violently as the Incineroar got closer. “C-come on! W-we c-can talk about this!”

“I’m afraid there is no talking yourself out of this Tamao. Face the punishment and things will be for the better.”

As the Incineroar readied a flamethrower the memoried faded away in the light slowly only fully fading as the flamethrower reached Tamao…

Tamao was now shaking as another light slowly came towards him making him feel overwhelmed with guilt. As he struggled to move Tamao saw the light explode again as he was transported to a field with gravestones, next to him sat Olly and Neko looking directly at him and ignoring the graves. This was different from the last memory… Because this wasn’t a memory at all, it was like they could see him and there was not past version of him here.

“It’s your fault all of us are dead, you didn’t try hard enough,” Neko said with a growl.

“If only you were stronger, then maybe all of us could’ve made it and saved our friends. Maybe they’d still be here too.”

“Your parents fought till the end for you, and you turned your back on them They believed you could save those who needed help. But they were wrong weren’t they! You could only save yourself because you’re selfish! You only care about yourself! You never loved your parents! Did you?”

“Tamao could barely hold it together, he couldn’t speak in his defense, he could hardly bare to look into the eyes of his best friends who were now dead… All because he wasn’t strong enough.

“Maybe it would’ve been better if you died too,” Olly said in Tamao’s ear which was the last straw for Tamao.

He felt the world shatter around him as he was thrust back into the void. The tears were flowing freely now as he was once again the the darkness, unable to do anything… Except he had some feeling in his paws now. But that didn’t help stop the next speck from getting closer, this one made him feel happy. 

This time when the light exploded it was calmer and didn’t hurt his eyes as much. When it finally revealed the scene around him it showed him and Inari lying with Ayla cuddled between them.

This brought a smile to his face and helped him calm down.

“We did it Tamao… The world is saved.” Inari said happily as he nuzzled him

This scene was the shortest he had seen but instead of being returned to the void he was now in a field with a large ball of light speaking to him.

“Though it may seem hopeless at times, there is always a way to see the light to carry on.”

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Waking with a start Tamao looked around to see he was still on the couch in the carriage with Inari and Ayla. Sighing quietly he sat up and rubbed his eyes as Inari noticed him.

“Morning sleepyhead.”

“How long was I asleep?”

“Long enough to miss the whole journey. So me and Ayla have been bonding while you slept.”

“Sorry, guess I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“You don’t have to apolagize Tamao, I’m just giving you a hard time.”

“Right… sorry…”

At this point Inari was beginning to worry about Tamao, he had been distant since they solved the issue in Taviki.

“Is something wrong Tamao? You know you can talk to me about things, right?”

“Sorry, I’ve just been thinking about things. I just need to get some things straightened out in my mind.”

“Well, if you ever need to talk I’m here, or you can visit the local therapist. I hear he’s pretty good.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I can ask for.”

As the conversation drew to a close Inari walked over to Tamao and nuzzled him while Ayla looked out the window and up at the mountain that the guild was built on.

“Woah! Do you guys really live here?”

“Yup, we’ve been living here for a month or two now. It’s pretty nice.”

“Yes it is, I can’t wait to get back into the kitchen and get cooking again.”

“You work in the kitchen?”

“Yup, you could say it’s my happy place. It let’s me think gives me something to do.”

“Wow, I would’ve never guessed you were the cooking type.”

“Yeah, it surprised Inari too. Though back then she had to communicate for me.”

“What do you mean.”

“Well, when we first met she found me injured by a lake and my vocal cords got damaged for a while I couldn’t speak so she would translate everything for me. Her and her Mother anyway.”

Finally the carriage came to a halt and they exited in front of the guild where Ignis was waiting for them alongside Neesha.

“I’ve heard good things about your mission!” The Arcanine’s voice boomed while Neesha looked at the three curiously.

“Yup, everythings been solved and Taviki can sleep peacefully at night knowing no roofs will cave in on them,” Inari responded as Tamao watched Ayla take in her surroundings with a look of awe.

“I see you have a new teammate as well.”

“Yeah, we need to talk to you about that when you get have time.”

“Well we can talk about it now. Come along to my office.”

“I’d like to tag along as well,” Neesha said making Inari and Tamao slightly nervous.

“Alright, well let’s get to it.”

As they made their way to Ignis’s office Tamao and Inari locked eyes and nodded to each other as they entered the guild.

When they sat down in the office Ignis grabbed some files from his desk and set them in front of Inari and Tamao. One was a teammember form, the other was an adoption form.” This shocked Tamao that he already knew what they were going to ask.

Tamao and Inari looked at each other, nodded, and signed both forms as Ayla hugged them. Tamao looked back at Neesha who was smiling at the sight and walked up to them.

“My little girl’s all grown up!” Neesha shouted fighting back tears while giving Inari a hug.

“I’ve been grown up for a while Mom.”

“I know, but you’ll always be my little girl.”

Chuckling at Inari’s predicament, tamao handed Ignis the forms and he gave a stamp of approval. “I think you’re just back in time to help with dinner Tamao. Jester’s been missing your help greatly.” 

Nodding Tamao, Inari, Ayla, and Neesha all walked to the cafeteria while Tamao entered the kitchen where he saw Jester hard at work getting things prepared for the salad bar they had. When he glanced up and noticed Tamao a wave of relief washed over him as he ran over to Tamao.

“Good to have you back Tamao! All the restaurants and diners are closed in the village so every guild member is gonna be eating here tonight! You’re in charge of making the custom-order sandwiches, I have everything else covered already. 

“Sounds good, we got this Jester!”

“I like the optimism Tamao. Why don’t you open up the sandwich shop and start serving some folks so they aren’t starving anymore since they’d lead ya to believe they were starving to death.”

Nodding Tamao made his way over to the small sandwich shop nestled in the corner of the cafeteria ready to accept orders… and boy were there a lot of them.

The biggest problem with letting customers make their own recipe up is that they can get quite weird at times, like the ‘sandwich’ ordered by a very tired looking Fletchling. Can’t really call it a sandwich seeing as they ordered two pieces of bread soaked in sitrus berry juice… Tamao asked multiple times out of confusion and eventually caved and made the weird sandwich. Safe to say nothing topped that throughout the rest of dinner and he was happy about that.

Once he finished cleaning everything he went back to his room and saw Inari and Ayla reading a book with a sword on the cover.

“What are you guys reading?” Tamao asked the pair.

“Hi Tamao! we’re just reading about some old legends.”

“Really? What legends?”

“Just about the first king. He was a pretty famous merchant before becoming king apparently.

“Huh, that’s not a normal backstory for a king is it?”

“Nope, and he was apparently pretty well-liked by everyone under his rule. Except for a small group that assassinated him by using a catapult and lighting a boulder on fire, then they launched it through his window.”

“What a way to go. Well, what do you guys want to do tomorrow?”

“I think I just want to go down to the market and browse. That sounds good with you two?”

Ayla and Tamao both nodded before yawning. Seeing the two yawn also made Inari yawn and lay down with the other two mons’ in the room curling up with her. The size difference between her and Tamao allowed her to curl around him, which made Tamao slightly embarrassed if he was being honest. But he also wasn’t about to complain about the warmth being provided to him.

But as he started to drift off to sleep he got a sense of foreboding as he felt his mind begin to drift.

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Tamao gained consciousness while in a graveyard by the looks of it. As he sat up he saw some Murkrow flying above while cawing. Deciding to see where they were going he began to follow them from the ground.

While he was running he passed by several graves but paid them no mind focusing fully on the Murkrow that were guiding him to Arceus knows where. Soon they exited the graveyard but the world still felt gloomy. 

Tamao soon realized why when he arrived at the edge of a cliff. What he saw shook him to his core, he recognized where he was, the graveyard his parents had been buried in. But even worse that meant he was seeing Zocarive in its current state, torn apart with large chunks of the planet floating through the endless void of time, Tamao connected the dots and realized that the Murkrow was not real at all. They were just figments of his imagination and his mind was playing tricks on him.

His mental state had already been struggling after the dream he had earlier today but now it was even worse. Seeing his home destroyed and torn apart broke him more than any words could, more than any flamethrower. More than the dissappointment of a parent. His home was gone, he had thought he had come to terms with that long ago. But now it was sinking in fully.

Marinating in his sorrow Tamao realized a key fact he hadn’t really thought about… He would never see any of his friends ever again, none of his family. None of the merchants he often spoke to on his way through the market, families were destroyed and he couldn’t do anything to save them.

Taking a deep breath, Tamao let his pain manifest in a scream that could’ve been heard from worlds away.