Chapter Text
“Hey! Me and Lucas were really worried about you! Guess this can definitely explain your long disappearance, ha ha! Wait- did Arceus do this to you too? I’m doubling that legendary fine I got for that Pokémon!”
Dawn didn’t appear amused with Barry grabbing the tree branch he dropped earlier and using it to carve numbers onto the path. But while he was talking about fining Arceus with large numbers, something seemed to hit her train of thought.
“Hold on a minute! You said that I disappeared from our world for a while? How long exactly have I been gone for?”
Barry paused scrapping for a moment. He then put down the tree branch and started counting on his fingers.
“Uh . . . ten, twelve. . . about two weeks?”
“Two weeks. I’ve been gone for two weeks and you two found nothing about my disappearance?”
“We didn’t think you were sent to another timeline! Even getting sent to the distortion world didn’t seem possible after you caught Giratina . . . now thinking about it, I guess we could’ve checked there . . . but for the most part, we searched all of Sinnoh.”
“What about Looker or Officer Jenny? Didn’t you guys report my disappearance to them?”
“We did, but, uh, there was a small problem . . .” Barry just shook his head. “They said that they were already looking for other missing people, I think one of them included one of the battle subway brothers in Unova.”
“Well excuse me. I didn’t think popularity was a thing in dealing with missing people. Well, guess you can’t really do anything about it either. Since you’re stuck here too, might as well take you to Jubilife Village.” Dawn grabbed Barry’s arm with her available hand and dragged him towards the village’s direction.
“Jubilife Village, huh? So this is where Jubilife City was first built?”
“Yeah, guess so. Oh, and if you think you see a familiar face or two, they’re probably not who you think they are, so please do everyone a favor and forget about fining every other person you see.”
◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓
◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓◓
“And we’re here! Took long enough!”
Barry glanced up at the front gates to Jubilife Village, along with the many houses and villagers inside it. For being the past version of Jubilife City, there’s definitely a lot more people than I thought would be here, he thought while walking towards the entrance, suddenly blocked by a guard.
“Halt! You’re not a merchant of the sorts or from this village, what business do you have being here?” The guard inquired with a booming voice.
“H-hey! Watch it! You almost got my shirt, I’d really would’ve had to fine-” He paused, remembering Dawn’s warning. “I mean, I’d really would’ve . . . had to apologize for the trouble, uh, yeah. So, uh . . .”
“Sorry, Ress. This guy’s been through a load of trouble, don’t mind his idiotic behavior. He suffered some minor brain damage from falling through the space-time rift over there.” Dawn pointed towards the huge rift above the mountains. “We need to get him somewhere he could at least rest for the night, would you let us in?”
There was a small moment of silence before the guard shifted his stance.
“Ah, of course, Dawn,” Ress moved towards the side of the gate. “Definitely talk to the commander about this as soon as you can. And as for your friend beside you, hopefully he recovers his head injuries swiftly.”
Gee, thanks for making me look like some dumb idiot who doesn’t know his way around! I swear to Arceus I would’ve given you a big fine for that one if you weren’t trying to help me at the same time! Even though he made a face at Dawn, Barry kept his mouth shut the entire time as they walked through the village’s doors . . .