Today feels like it’s going by in a blur compared to yesterday.

One minute, she’s up and awake. The next, she’s on her way to the school with Nuzleaf- A school that consists of one “classroom” out in the open, nine desks, a crooked tree used to hang a chalkboard and three tent-like huts up a flight of stairs. What, do the staff live here?

She may not remember much about her human life, but Neesha is fairly certain that human schools are much bigger than this.

Everything blazes by so quickly, so fast, she doesn’t really process it, perhaps still catching up with the whirlwind of emotions that was yesterday, and before she knows it, Nuzleaf has just finished up explaining the abridged situation with her to the school’s principal, Simipour, and the vice principal, Watchog, who seems to be eyeing her rather suspiciously, skeptically.

Well, of course, he left out the whole ‘actually a human turned into a Pokemon and being chased by Beheeyem for reasons they don’t understand yet’ thing. Nobody’s quite ready for that conversation.

“…Aaaaaand that bout sums up the lot of it. I’ll be leavin’ the kid here in yer hands.” He smiles down at Neesha, the Fennekin suddenly being brought back to full lucidity and awareness, the dreamlike feeling of everything leading up to this suddenly breaking down, as she’s presented with her greatest dilemma yet.

Being social.

“Ya wanna say hello?

Well… How hard can it be, right?

_“Uh.” A lot harder than you’d think. _“Hello?”

Simipour muffles a quiet laugh to himself as he smiles as her, hunching himself over to get a better look at her. “Don’t worry yourself too much! I can see you’re still getting accustomed to thing. I’m quite delighted to have another fun addition to our class, really.~”

Nuzleaf chuckles, slowly starting to back up. “I’ll be seein’ myself out, then. Ya take care, kay, Neesha?”

The Fennekin gives a silent nod as she glances back at Nuzleaf, watching as he exits the hut, leaving her only by herself.

“Hhrrrrmmm…” She hears the Watchog vocalize for the first time since she’d walked in here, head spinning around to face him, to see him squinting at her more skeptically. Does he see through her? Can he tell she’s more than just a Pokemon? Is he suspicious of her? Or- “As long as you don’t cause any trouble here, you should be fine.” Oh. That’s a relief, she supposes? “I can’t handle another troublemaker, we’ve already got enough of those already.” Maybe not.

“Vice principaaaalll.~” Simipour says in a singsong-y tone, his body weight shifting slightly closer to Watchog as he tilts his head a tad. “I would argue that’s highly unnecessary. Do we truly have any troublemakers at our school?”

“Yes, we do.” Watchog’s gaze narrows slightly as his voice drops, trying to whisper. Even though Neesha is right there, hearing everything and watching everything. “We’ve already got those two little runts always trying to start things with the other students, and then… Her.” He visibly shudders. Neesha’s ears droop uncomfortably and awkwardly. Wow, good to know the vice principal has sooooo much faith in his students. That’s very nice, makes Neesha feel very welcome and comfortable here.

“My dear vice principal, surely you don’t mean that, truly.” Simipour speaks up, still smiling. Is he just, always smiling? “I’m sure you were quite the little troublemaker yourself when you were just a little Patrat, hmm? Were you not exactly like these children you claim to be bothersome?”

That does a good job of shutting Watchog up. He grumble and turns away, muttering something Neesha can’t make out. Probably something she shouldn’t hear anyway. That’s when Neesha’s attention is drawn to a familiar voice coming from outside.

“Good morning, Mr. Farfetch’d!” Goomy? Goomy comes to this school?

“Hello, Mr. Farfetch’d, good morning!” And Saline?

“Good morning to the both of you, too, Goomy, Saline!”

“Yo, Teach!” Aaaaaaand Shiloh’s here too… Which means if he’s here, then Shelmet’s probably here, too. Well, guess she can’t exactly fault him for saying the school has some problematic students. “Hey, been meaning to ask, why’re you always carrying that leek around? Don’tcha ever get tired of bringing it everywhere?”

The Farfecth’d chuckles. “Oh, you truly have no idea how valuable these things are to a Farfetch’d, perhaps I’ll host a lesson on it some time! And one correction, this isn’t a leek, it’s actually a stalk!”

“Well, it seems like the students have begun to roll in.” SImipour walks up beside Neesha, staring down at her with a smile. “Let’s go ahead and introduce you to everyone, shall we?~”

It’s time to head out.

Neesha follows Simipour out from the little hut, able to get a peek at the classroom as she walks out, see all the students. All of them- Correction, almost all of them, are Pokemon she recognizes from just yesterday. Saline, Goomy, Shiloh, Shelmet, the only Pokemon she doesn’t recognize is the Espurr sitting at the middle desk.

“Everyone!~” Simipour exlcaims as Neesha follow him down the steps. I’m happy to announce that today, we’ll have a new friend joining us for class!~ Her name is-“

“Neesha?!” Goomy exlcaims, his blorby body wobbling as he jerks his head over in surprise.

“What are YOU doing here?!” Shiloh speaks up, Shelmet speechless beside him. She has to admit, it’s at the very least worth it for the looks on their faces.

Neesha glances up at Simipour as she walks to the side of the itty bitty tree wall that Farfetch’d stands behind, whispering _{“Long story.”} To him quickly and briefly, which he nods and smiles at.

“Mmmnh, seems a lot of you are already acquainted with her. Makes matters much easier.~ As you all may have heard Goomy say, this is Neesha.~ She just moved here, so Mr. Nuzleaf is taking-“

Rumble rumble rumble!

An… Earthquake? The ground is certainly shaking with the intensity of one. But why does she hear a panicked voice coming from the entrance?

The closer that voice gets, the more familiar it becomes.

“I’M LATE! I’m late I’m late I’m laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!“

Oh no.

A certain Chespin comes rushing through the school entrance practically at the speed of light, and she tries to stop, but the grassy ground screeches as she tries to grind herself to halt, making a beeline straight for Neesha and crashing right into her.

“River-?!”

Crunk!

Aaaaaand slams her right into the edge of the stumpy wall behind her too. Ow, ow, VERY much ow. That hurt a lot, like, REALLY a lot, so much that she’s seeing stars. And her vision is going all fuzzy around the edges.

“Oh- Shoot! Sorry! I’m so so sorry, I tried to stop as best as I could and I-” The Chespin stops, interrupting herself, her eyes widening when she realizing just who she bumped into. “Oh my gosh- Neesha?! I didn’t think I’d see you here! Are you attending here? How long have you been going here and I just didn’t notice?”

The more River speaks, the more muffled she sounds. Is that her? Or is that just Neesha starting to pass out because her body is in so much pain from crashing back into the wall?

Hmm, probably the latter.

Oh she’s blanking, she’s really blanking. She thinks she hears Watchog say something about ‘that scoundrel’ but it’s too muffled to be sure.

She’s only able to let out a quiet groan before her body goes limp and her vision goes black.

---

_{“Uuunnnnghhh…”} Where is she?

She just remembers River, and then crashing back into a wall, and-

“Oh, you’re awake! Thank goodness, you woke up faster than I thought!”

There’s another voice to memorize.

She’s laying on a bed, one made out of strands of hay and cushion, not too unlike the one Nuzleaf had set up for her back at his house.

The interior layout feels just like a home- Well, as homey as a home in a small hut could probably get, at least. Plenty of decorative plants to go around, a fuzzy yellow carpet, very nice.

Not to discount the Audino leaning down closer towards her to check on her.

“Whaaaa…?” Neesha blinks a few times, still clearing the blurriness and fuzziness from her mind, shaking her head to try and wake herself back up properly. It does little more than make herself more dizzy. “What happened? I-I think River ran into me? Must’ve passed out, and…”

“You did get rammed pretty hard back there, yeeeaahhhh, but thankfully it was nothing too major. Just a little bit of minor bruising. Should be feeling better in no time!~” The Audino smiles warmly at her. “Oh- I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself! I’m Joy, the school nurse. Oooooorrrr, to be more accurate, I’m the village doctor.” She chuckles awkwardly, smiling a bit sheepishly at Neesha. “It just so happens that most of my patients happen to be students, so I guess you could say school nurse is an unofficial role of mine.”

She groans a little bit as she sits up, shaking herself off. Her body’s still a bit sore and achy, but other than that, she seems to be fine. “Thank you, Nurse Joy.” She holds her head with a paw, it pounding a little, but still mostly fine… Oh, right, she’s here to actually, y’know, attend school, isn’t she? “I didn’t miss anything, did I?”

“I can’t quite say for sure how much you’ve missed, but class certainly has started without you. If you’re feeling up to it, though, you can rejoin them and try to catch up.”

Neesha nods, keeping herself steady as she walks. One paw in front of the other. I’ll do that. Thanks again, Nurse Joy.”

---

One poke of her head out of the tent later-

“Neesha! You’re awake!” Out comes River practically bolting away from her desk to check on Neesha, rushing up the stairs, the Fennekin instinctively and uncomfortably taking a step back, as if to brace herself. “Are you okay? I’m so, so sorry I ran into you back there! I couldn’t stop myself in time and I-“

“Uh- Don’t worry about it River, really.” She smiles awkwardly. “I’m fine, nurse said it was just a little bruising.”

“OI!” Farfetch’d speaks up loudly, clearly a bit ticked at the mid-class interruption. “River! Get back in your seat and allow Neesha to return to class in peace, please!”

“Sorrryyyyyyyy!” River calls out, glancing back at Neesha and smiling as she rushes over back to her seat. Now, if she could have some space to herself for five minutes…

“Neesha, you are feeling well enough to return to class, right?” Farfetch’d’s voice quickly quiets back down as he turns to face Neesha, who is still walking down the steps.

“Wouldn’t have some back out here if I wasn’t, sir.” Neesha chuckles, smiling to herself. Well enough to crack a joke or two. She seems to be recovering just fine.

Farfetch’d smiles, hid stalk held against his shoulder. “Very well, in that case, you can take a seat. There’s an open one next to River.” Ooooooonnn second thought, maybe she isn’t feeling too well after all.

No, no, River did apologize. It’s fine, right? Sure. The Chespin eagerly waves over towards her as she joins her.

“Now then, where were we… Ah, yes!” Farfetch’d clears his throat and stands up straight, eyes sweeping over the class. “Now, for the past six months, the world has been going through a lot of changes. A lot of it good, and also a lot of it scary, especially to all of you. So, just to make sure you all understand as clear as possible what’s happening, and how to best handle it, we’ll be going over a brief recap of everything that’d led up till now.”

Farfetch’d pulls out a fairly large pamphlet of paper, sideways, big enough to cover the entire chalkboard, with is exactly what he does as he hangs it from the top, using his stalk to lift it up to the first page, showing a sketch depicting some sort of cog or gear, arrow-like markings etched all across its surface pointing outward. “Now then, can anyone who recognizes this tell me what this is?”

“That’s a Time Gear, Mr. Farfetch’d.” The Espurr in the middle of the class finally speaks up, those big, blank, almost expressionless eyes staring far ahead. “For years, it was believed that they were responsible for keeping time flowing, and that removing them would cause a disaster. In reality, they were not responsible for the flow of time, but keeping time flowing seamlessly in confined areas.”

“Very good, Espurr!” Farfetch’d exclaims with a smile. “Almost word for word, too. I can tell you’ve been studying hard on this, haven’t you?”

“Yes, sir. And my brain constantly overflowing with information it’s almost impossible to keep myself in check, sir.” Espurr responds, Neesha’s ears drooping. At least she’s honest?

“Err… I see. Ahem, well then, yes, Espurr is correct. While we may have believed we needed these Time Gears in the past, they no longer exist, and time flows perfectly fine without them. Something, err… Let’s just say something unplesant happened to Dialga and the Time Gears, which caused the structural integrity of the timeline to collapse in on itself in an event that we now call, The Singularity.”

Neesha, trying to process all that, rubs at her head, glancing and seeing the rest of the class taking down notes- Oh, so Goomy does write with his mouth. Huh. Back on topic. “If time collapsed completely, how’re we still here?” She hears Shiloh speak up in the back, hints of disbelief in his voice. “I’m still here, Shelmet’s still here, all of us are still here.I might’a lived through it, but I still don’t get it.”

“Well, that’s the thing… We’re not really sure, none of us are. No matter how dig we deep, there seems to be no feasible explanation as to how we’re all still here. As soon as it seemed everything ended, in just a few moments later, it all came back. And not only did we come back, three major time periods, the present, the ancient past and the distant future, all seemed to converge together all at once.”

What? “You mean like…” Neesha speaks up, rubbing at her head as she still tries to process this. “So- We’re here,” She places a paw on her desk, a claw indicating her spot. “And then, some miles away, the ancient past would be here,” Another tap, another claw on the desk. “And the distant future is also here?” A third claw. “All together at once, at the same time?”

“Correct! Very excellent work, Neesha. You understood that very quickly.” Farfetch’d nods his head. “That also explains why the sky is the way it is now.” They all look up at the gradient sky, a blend of orange, blue and green. “The sky is indicative of all the time periods, so rather than it just being one color, it’s three! We’re still working on figuring out what causes it to blend together rather than it being a solid color, of course.”

“But, back on track.” Farfetch’d flips another page, this one depicting a bunch of quadrupedal stick figures being sucked into some sort of vortex. “Prior to The Singularity, time was still falling apart for a multitude of reasons, and this caused a number of things to happen. The most common being rifts in time and space that would appear and suck in any nearby Pokemon, trapping them in this strange, otherworldly dimension where Pokemon without faces roamed.”

Pokemon without faces? Wait… “Anomalies?” Neesha speaks, ears perking up.

“Hrmm, you’re getting a little ahead of yourself, but you’re correct.” He flips another page, this one depicting simplistic drawings of Pokemon like Bulbasaur and Pikachu, but without faces, wandering through mazelike series of rooms with crummy wallpapers. “Officially, they’re called Temporal Displacements. They still exist after The Singularity, but they have integrated themselves into Mystery Dungeons, with no pattern or warning of when they appear.”

“They’re believed to be made up of bits and pieces of places that exist, or used to exist throughout time, causing for very labyrinthine, complex, and most importantly, dangerous dungeons, thanks to the faceless Pokemon that wander around aimlessly within them. Should things ever start to look ‘off’ in a mystery dungeon, or you see things that most definitely don’t belong there, find another way around. If you can’t find another way around, then leave the dungeon immediately if you can. If you absolutely, positively have to persevere through the Anomaly, though, which I really hope you don’t, there’s a number of ways to help keep yourself safe once you’re inside one.”

Another page flipped, a list of bulletpoints and tips for surviving through Anomalies.

• Avoid faceless Pokemon whenever possible!
• Stay quiet when around faceless Pokemon, they’re drawn to loud noises.
• There are a number of different ways to escape from Anomalies, search for any exits you can find!
• Some walls might not be solid. If a wall looks fuzzy or blurry, and you can’t find any other way out, try jumping through it.
• For your own safety, do not attempt to eat or drink anything you may find while traversing an Anomaly.
• Mark your tracks to ensure you’re not going in circles!

Farfetch’d allows the rest of the papers to drop back down over each other. “And that just about covers it! I’m sure there are plenty more questions and concerns you may have, so feel free to-“

Cue Farfetch’d being interrupted by an obnoxiously loud snoring noise. That just so happens to be coming from the sleeping Chespin sitting next to Neesha. She almost feels embarrassed. Almost.

Farfetch’d sighs as an annoyed expression comes across his face, reaching over to River’s desk and tapping on it with his stalk, clearing his throat.

“WABUGGHH- WHA?! HUH?!” River is suddenly startled awake, quickly realizing the error of her ways as she sees Farfetch’d staring her dead in the eyes, slinking back in her seat a little. “Y-Yes, Mr. Farfetch’d?”

“I’d like you to see me after class, River. Understood?”

“Oh…” She slinks back into her chair some more, until her desk is basically covering the lower half of her face. _{“Yes, sir.”}

Well, it could always be worse.

At least she’s not being chased by a pack of Beheeyem.