Chapter 6: Friends and Rivals

I stared at my sister while she walked straight home, not even pausing to wave at us or acknowledge us. I don’t know what it was, but I could tell she was frustrated at something or someone by that attitude. I sure hoped it wasn’t the latter or else that would be the start of some bad words about us spreading around town. 

“Wasn’t thwat Awexa?” Dad asked muffled, trying to maintain the paper bag between his teeth as he spoke. From my angle, it looked a bit goofy. “Dwidn’t she see us?”

“Pwretty swure she dwid.” I respond with my voice a bit muffled as well by my own bag. “She mwust be win thwat state again…”

The pyroar sighed before walking towards our house as I followed him. While we walked to our home, I couldn’t stop thinking about my sister, specifically what had gotten her to be frustrated to the point of ignoring us. If she was outside the house, that meant something happened outside, rather with herself only or involving another Pokémon. If it was the latter, I could hazard a guess on who could they be judging from yesterday…

We both entered our home and dropped the bags next to the wall. Dad and I decided that those pieces of meat would be for both lunch and dinner since food is scarce and there would be no food left for breakfast until the next day (judging by the portion on how lions eat normally). It might’ve been a good thing that a lot of the previous villagers left, or else having a family of four hungry lions suddenly entering the village and not working for the sake of it in less than two weeks would’ve taken a toll on their food storage while also making it seem to them that we were freeloaders. 

“Oh, you two are back…!” 

I looked at the source of the voice, seeing my mom approaching while her tail slowly swung behind her. She looked at us with a nervous look plastered on her face, it seemed like she saw something too embarrassing to tell or something very worrisome. “So… how was job hunting?”

“Dad messed up, and now he has to train up real hard in less than two weeks, or else he’ll expose our true identities because of a single job offering he accepted.” I immediately stated monotonously, knowing it was better to let the cat out of the bag rather than hide the truth completely so it completely backfires on our asses later.

Mom’s eyes widened as a bit of static electricity ran through her mane. “WHAT!?”

Dad growled at me with a low voice. “Nathan!” He immediately sighed before facing Mom. “Look dear, I’m sorry, it was a decision made out of desperation. I just thought that becoming an officer would make this place for us and the kids…”

“Yeah, sure, but like, do you KNOW how to fend off literal animals with magic at their disposal!? Do you?” My mom asked, the second time a bit more calm.

Before the fire lion could respond I stepped between them and answered for Dad. “Don’t worry Mom, I know of a way we can get out of this situation.” I sat on the ground and motioned with a paw. “So, remember we have less than two weeks until we find a job or get evicted from this place and forced to live in the wilds.”

The luxray gulped and looked away, her tail swishing from one side to another. “You don’t have to tell me that twice…”

I sighed before continuing my explanation. “So here’s what I’ll do. After figuring out all I can on how to use our magic completely, I’m going to teach Dad the strongest moves I remember that a pyroar can learn. So, when he’s fully capable of joining the police, it’ll be long enough before our deadline ends.”

Mom stared at me for a solid second before grimacing, concern flashing on her face. “Nate… I know… you’ve been helping us A LOT getting used to this life and everything else about this insane world, but… are you sure you can handle this?”

“Yeah, pretty sure I can.” I close my eyes and focus a bit of intent around my forepaw. A tingling feeling made itself present around that area, and when I opened my eyes, I saw electricity surrounding my paw. I could tell that my parents were a bit shocked judging from their reactions.

… Sometimes I hate myself a lot.

I raised my paw and swung it a little bit in the air, intending for the electricity to move along with it. “All he needs to do is learn how to control his intent to get a hold of his moves. And like…” I put my paw on the ground again, my electricity dissipating into the air as I lose the focus of my intent. “It’s really easy, honestly, I managed to figure it out in less than a minute.”

“Well, what if it isn’t easy for us?” Dad asked with a worried scowl on his face, his tail swaying behind him. “Sure, fire accidentally appears around my mane so I can probably learn how to use it like an attack… but what if it takes more than two weeks to figure out how to use my powers consistently?”

“If that’s the case, expect us to be evicted from the village or we become pestered and used by some Pokémon because we are humans and they are famous in this world.” I said while looking at Dad with a serious look. “Worst-case scenario is that we get kidnapped by some evil Pokémon who wants human knowledge or something like that.”

The pyroar stared at me unamused. “You’ve been using the internet a little too much…”

I sighed and motioned with a paw to the ceiling. “Did you forget that we’re in a world filled with creatures thought to be fictional? Literally, a situation like that could happen and I sure hope it doesn’t.” 

Dad groaned softly and brushed his face with a paw. “Sometimes I hate that in this situation my son is more right than me…” He murmured to himself, but because of my sharp feline hearing, I caught wind of what he said. I said nothing, only smirking subtly. “So anyways, we’ll start our training tomorrow, we still need to adjust to our new schedule. I hope you know how to teach me…”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. I’ll also use that opportunity to teach myself a bit more on how to control my own intent.” I replied while nodding slowly. 

Dad nodded back and looked at Mom. “Love, I’d like to speak to you a bit…”

The luxray tilted her head. “Huh? About what?”

“About a few things I’ve decided about this new life of ours and for our future.” Mom nodded as the pyroar started to walk to their room, a thoughtful look in Dad’s eyes. 

Mom started to follow him before she perked up and looked at me. “Hey, Nate, could you check on Alexa for me? She just… walked past me without saying anything. Could you talk to her to see what’s wrong?”

I was going to do that anyway so that wasn’t a problem. 

“I will, Mom.” With that, we both walked to our respective rooms. I expected Alexa to be in our room, but when I arrived, I saw no one there. I then looked at the other door in the corridor and approached it, but when I got close to it, I could hear some sounds akin to sobbing on the side. “Hm…?” I leaned my head close to the door and pressed one of my large ears against it.

“Why…?” I heard a sniffle. “I can’t fit in… why I can’t fit in?”

And with that, more sobbing could be heard afterwards. I tilted my head before calling out. “Alexa? Are you in there?” I tried my best to not make her realize that I heard her crying.

The sobbing then stopped and a single sniffle came out a bit afterwards. I distanced my head a bit from the door and waited a bit to open. After ten seconds or so, the door opened as the litleo dropped on all fours simultaneously. Even if the fury obscured the tears’ trail, I could tell a bit by her eyes that she was crying a lot in there. “Hey, Nathan… you’re here to use the bathroom?”

“No, I came here looking for you.” I leaned to her a bit, looking a little worried. “You were crying, weren’t you?”

She scoffed and looked aside. “Why do you suddenly care? That’s not like you…”

Suddenly, an alien urge took over my body, my next actions being purely out of instinct and I didn’t even realize it. I leaned close to my sister’s face and gave her a lick on her cheek. I then leaned back and smiled. “I may seem like an ass most of the time, but I do care about you. You’re my lil’ sis after all.”

Alexa stared blankly at me for a moment, blinking a bit shocked. I tilted my head before she suddenly spoke. “Did you… did you just fucking lick me?”

I blinked before finally realizing what I had done. My eyes widened as my ears flattened in embarrassment, and my tail started to sway slightly. I looked away. “I-I didn’t, what are you talking about…?”

The silence was all that was left for a small moment before a snicker came out of Alexa’s mouth. She tried holding the laughter in, but more snickers kept escaping her mouth before she finally erupted into a big laugh, even falling on her side as she kept laughing. I blushed behind my fur as I said in response. “This ain’t funny…!”

Her laughter died down a bit, saying between guffaws. “What’s wrong little kitty? Hahaha! Want a small tuna can or something, know your kind love those! Hihihi! Or do you want some chin scratches?” She then continued laughing even more.

I growled a bit in annoyance as I looked at Alexa, baring my fangs unintentionally. “I didn’t mean to lick you, it just came out of nowhere! Seriously, I try to help you and this is how you react!?” Seriously, I tried my best to talk with her about what was bothering her and she just laughed at my face? Even transformed, she was still a pain…

I groaned before beginning to turn away. However, before I could, I felt a paw tug at my tail, a bizarre sensation going through my spine. I looked back and saw my sister smile at me, the laughter fully absent from her body. I could tell that it wasn’t a smug and sarcastic smile, it was genuine.

“Honestly bro… thanks. I… really needed that laugh.” She said as she let go of my tail. I turned to her and tilted my head in confusion. She sighed and looked aside. “Right, you came because you were worried. I’ll give you an explanation.” She flicked her head, throwing her red fringe to the side. “So… you remember the trio we met yesterday? The rodent, the cat, and the cat badger guy?”

I nodded. I don’t really remember their names correctly, just that one of them was called Yugu or something close to that. Or… was it Yugi? Like I said, I barely remember their names correctly. “Yeah, I remember them. Are they the reason why Dad and I saw you enter home without even wanting to wave at us?”

Alexa rubbed the back of her head with a paw. “Um… not really. It was more like… a realization that I had while playing with them.” I tilted my head at that, the litleo noticing my confusion. “So… they kinda invited me to play a game with them, and I accepted it.” She started frowning. “But… the more I played with them, the more I realized that I was just not good enough at the game and not good enough at pretending to be a Pokémon to have friends like them. And then there was that weird…” She trailed off, suddenly pausing to think about her words. “N-nevermind.” She then buried her mouth in her paws. “I was just overwhelmed with frustration that I kinda just… ran away from them without giving them a proper explanation…” Alexa’s eyes darted back to me. “I just really wished I could’ve told them the truth…”

I paused to analyze her words for a moment, humming in thought. It seemed she really wasn’t taking her new life well… I should’ve realized sooner because of that outburst she had earlier this morning. I would’ve stuck with her if Dad wasn’t so adamant about making him help me find a job around this village. 

I sighed and approached Alexa, putting a paw on her back as I sat on the ground. “Look sis, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I would let you tell them, but we really can’t trust anyone with our secret, or at least… not right now.” I started to brush her fur a little. “We need to wait a little bit to see if we can trust them or not, alright?”

My sister sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I get it…”

I took my paw off her back and walked a bit away from her. “Anyways, I’ve decided what we should do after lunch.” I looked back at her with a smile. “Let’s go to those three so you can properly apologize and we can talk things out, together, alright?”

Alexa perked up as she got up. “Really? You’re gonna be with me so we can talk to them?”

I nodded. “Yeah, like I have anything better to do in the afternoon. Besides, better have some friends rather than none, right?”

Suddenly, Alexa wrapped her forelegs around my neck, trying her best to hug me. “Thank you, ya big kitty bro!”

I smirked a bit as I replied. “Don’t forget you’re a small kitten too.”

“At least I don’t have the urge to lick others like you do, heh!” The litleo replied back, releasing me from the hug and grinning.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get that instinct sometime too.” I said before starting to walk to the living room. “Let’s go eat now, shall we? I’m starting to get hungry.”

Alexa deflated instantly, a grimace flashing on her face as she started walking. “Ugh, I don’t wanna eat raw fucking meat again…” 

I looked back at her and asked. “Is it the taste of it that you don’t like or…”

“It’s the concept! Like, we’re eating raw meat freshly skinned from some kind of Pokémon we don’t know of and we don’t get sick? And then there’s blood all over it and like… ugh, it’s so disgusting!” Alexa complained cringing just by speaking about the meat.

As we got to the living room, I said trying to gather a bit more info on her thoughts. “Describe the taste and then tell me if it’s good or not.”

As I went to grab the bags, the litleo began. “Well, it’s obviously… um…” She looked down and thought about it more. “It’s… soft and tender like I’m biting down into a more sugary bread with a… tasty juice inside of it…” She groaned. “I don’t get it! I’m supposed to be absolutely disgusted by just thinking about it, this body is influencing my brain even more!” As grabbed one of the bags, she asked me. “Are you really sure we aren’t changing slowly over time and turning even more feral? You did just lick me after all…”

I dropped the bags in front of her and sighed. “No Alexa, we aren’t.” I sat on the ground and a certain itch appeared on one of my ears, prompting one of my forepaws to brush it. “I told you, different bodies, different instincts, urges, and small thoughts. We’re not gonna turn into feral savage beasts. If that was the case, every Pokémon here would be one and there’d be no village or a town.”

“It honestly feels like you’re sugarcoating things just to not scare me…” Alexa said with an annoyed frown.

“Please, you know that between the four of us, I’m the one that’s always honest, no matter how dark shit gets.” I said before tearing the bag and letting the pieces of meat fall onto each other, their attractive and delicious smell prompting me to lunge forward and devour them. However, I resisted the temptation. “One piece is big enough to satisfy the both of us for lunch.”

The litleo nodded slowly, a bit of drool being seen coming out of her mouth as she inhaled the smell. “Mhm…” 

We then chowed down on our pieces, just letting instinct control our bodies as we ate flesh and blood like actual lions would, not even chewing with our mouths closed. I got what Alexa was trying to say and why it was concerning to her, it would’ve concerned me as well if I didn’t know the nature of intelligent Pokémon with the PMD games’ knowledge. 

After finishing our meal, I licked my own lips, feeling the taste of blood along with my fur. I could see that Alexa was also doing the same with her bloodied lips. At this point, I could feel that the blood didn’t disgust her as much as it did yesterday, but I could still see a small grimace and cringe after eating the meat. 

“Blergh, I’m never gonna get used to this shit…” Alexa said after she got out of her trance, wiping the remains of blood off her face. 

“You will at some point after you get used to it.” I said before getting my attention diverted to the sound of a door opening and seeing Mom and Dad step out of their room. I turned to them and spoke, wanting to get out of the house as soon as possible so we could solve Alexa’s friend issue ASAP. “We already ate our fill, we’re going out now.”

Mom tilted her head inquisitively and bit confused. “What? Why?”

“Um… we’re just gonna fix some stuff with our new acquaintances, it won’t take too long.” Alexa responded, a little nervous about our parents not letting us go. 

The pyroar sighed as he approached the two remaining pieces of meat on the floor. “Alright, just don’t stay out until night or stray out of the village. You know how your mother worries a lot for you kids, even a bit too much at times.”

Mom turned to Dad annoyedly. “What!? No, I don’t! After all, I let Nate hang out with his friends every day!”

Alexa smirked. “Mom, remember the cake incident on my tenth birthday?”

The luxray looked away a bit in embarrassment. Ah, the cake incident, the day that Mom drove all the way to the bakery to grab Alexa’s surprise birthday cake herself because she thought that the bakery had forgotten to deliver it since the pastry was taking a bit too long to arrive. But of course, when Mom got there, the baker said that the cake had already been delivered. What actually happened was that the guy delivering the cake got caught in a traffic jam caused by an accident on the streets.

The reason why I knew all of that was because she forced me to come with her to hold the cake when we took it. So basically, all of that trip happened because she worried too much.

“You’re never letting that go, aren’t you?” Mom asked Alexa.

“Why should I? It was really funny when Nathan told me!” She responded with a grin.

I rolled my eyes. “It was more of a hassle for me, but whatever.” I said before starting to walk towards the door. “Let’s go, Alexa, we can’t keep them waiting forever.”

“Coming!” I heard her say as I opened the door and walked past it, hearing my sister’s footsteps behind me and Dad munching loudly on his food.

---

My tongue smacked against my lips, hydrating them a little since I felt them get a bit dry. The heat wasn’t really helping…

Alexa and I were on the search for the trio composed of a hamster, a cat, and a badger cat… thing? Honestly, to this day I still don’t know what animal the cyndaquill line is based on. I just know that cyndaquill is an echidna of sorts, but everything else is just a bust.

It has been a hot minute since we started looking for them, but even if Alexa pointed out places she thought they could be after their play session, we weren’t able to spot them in the residential area. I then suggested looking in the commercial area since we couldn’t find them in the residential area.

This was then that I realized that this was either going to be a long search or a useless one because they might’ve gone to their home just to eat lunch or something. After all, from what I could’ve seen, the sun just moved slightly from its peak, meaning that it was still midday.

The commercial area was still full of Pokémon in terms of a small village. Sure, they say that they lost a lot of citizens because most of them moved out to live in the city, but still, there was still a lot of Pokémon, from gumshoos to a metagross even. That got a slight reaction out of me.

I’ve decided to make a stop in the search to drink some water from the river, my sister following me in my steps. Once she gulped down her fill, Alexa asked with a sigh, her tail moving a little out of annoyance. “Where could they have gone to? I didn’t take that long to come back for them, did I?”

I gulped down the last sip I’d taken and responded. “Not really. Judging from when I saw you go back home for us to be leaving, that was probably in under an hour. If they stopped to eat lunch or a snack, they would’ve eaten lunch and gone back to playing, unless they eat at a different time.”

“Still, something just doesn’t feel right to me… I can’t explain but it’s like… I dunno, feline-related feeling maybe?” Alexa asked with a tilt of her head.

“That could be it-” As I glanced to the side, I saw a familiar purple-furred figure along with two other familiar figures beside them, all of them standing on the other side of the river next to the bridge. As I squinted my eyes, I noticed the purple figure was a purrloin and the two other figures beside them were a quilava and a pawmi. I tilted my head and asked out loud. “Isn’t that them?”

Alexa looked in the same direction, her eyes widening a little bit. “It is!” 

The litleo then ran off to the bridge, apparently already having full control over her new legs. “Hey! Wait up!” I shouted as I followed her, trying to keep the same pace as her. We both crossed the bridge and stopped right behind the trio. I panted a bit, looking at Alexa a bit annoyedly. “Don’t go… running off like that, okay!?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sorry.” She then looked back at the trio in front of us, all three Pokémon having their attention turned to us. For some reason, they had a frown on their faces, the purrloin having his arms crossed as his tail wagged. “Hey guys, sorry I ran off like that!” Alexa said apologetically.

Yugu, if I’m remembering correctly, looked aside a bit awkwardly. “Uh… if you came here to apologize for that, you kinda came at a not-so-great time…”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Why…?”

The pawmi glanced away. “Well…”

“What unexpected guests we have here…” 

A sudden female voice made all of us turn to the source of it. Past Yugu and the others, another trio was standing there, looking at us like they owned the place from how sassy their vibes and looks were. Their group was composed of a floragato, a snivy, and a nidorina, all of them being female. The reason I could tell the floragato and the snivy’s gender was because I realized that my mom and Alexa had this sort of smell in them, that distinguishes them from male Pokémon.

I just hoped that smell wasn’t what I was thinking of…

The floragato took a step forward, giving a scanning glance at me and Alexa. From the color of their eyes, fur, and natural weapon, I could tell that she was a shiny. “And who might you two be?”

I was already having bad vibes coming from her, from her sassy disposition and tone of voice. Yeah, she felt like those kinds of people. “The name’s Nathan and this is Alexa, my sister.”

Alexa tilted her head. “Uh… hi?”

She looked at us both up and down again before huffing. “Hmph, can tell from the smell alone you’re outsiders. Weak outsiders.”

The nidorina chuckled a little. “You guys have the look of wild ‘mons but probably deep inside you both can’t do any moves.”

The snivy smirked smugly as she put both grassy hands on her side. “Your parents must be sooo disappointed in both of you, just like these three dumb weaklings.”

Tami and Mikama looked aside in shame while Yugu just kept his arm crossed, his frown not leaving his face. Yep, not even a minute had passed since I saw them and I already hated all three of them. “If you excuse me, can I ask why the hell being weak is an insult to you three?”

“Hmph.” The grass cat crossed her arms and spoke. “If you haven’t understood now, you’re far too naive. This is a world where the strong thrive and crush the weak Pokémon beneath them. If you’re weak, the strong will eat you alive and you have no chance of fighting back.” Her ears suddenly flickered and she looked aside at a rustling bush. I looked at it too, seeing something move between the leaves. The floragato sniffed a bit and grabbed her flower yoyo. “For example…”

Suddenly, she launched her yoyo towards the bush, startling my sis a little and making her jump back a bit from the sudden movement. After the string from the yoyo suddenly stopped enlarging, she pulled the string and her natural weapon came back with a Pokémon wrapped around the wire. It was a pachirisu, however, from its disheveled fur and the empty look in its eyes just like the mankey from before, I could tell that this Pokémon was a wild one. “That’s a…”

The floragato continued as she held the struggling electric squirrel in her paw. The pachirisu tried shocking her, but all his electricity did was just make her fur stand up a little, not even making her flinch. “As you can see, this pachirisu here is trying his best to get out of my claw. Clawing, shocking, anything to keep itself out of danger and alive. However… there’s one thing holding it back… it’s weak.” She leaned her head closer to the pachirisu. “And what does nature do to weaklings?”

My eyes widened a bit at the scene. ‘Don’t tell me she’s about to-’

Before I could even finish my thoughts, the floragato bit down on the pachirisu’s torso and ripped out its guts, killing the electric squirrel almost instantly. I could hear my sister gasp beside me and noticed a bit of reaction from Yugu and his friends, hell even my stomach clenched a little from that scene. I was a bit disgusted, only a bit because I knew this was how things worked back in my world as well. A cat eating a rodent was nothing new to me, but a sentient cat doing that? Yeah, that was pushing it a little, even for me as well. 

The floragato distanced her head from the pachirisu, her mouth occupied holding the bloodied entrails of the rodent, her muzzle now stained red. Instead of eating it, she spat it to the side, still holding the bleeding Pokémon on her paw. That wasn’t even her meal… it was just a demonstration. “Now you know why weak Pokémon are only used as tools and food for strong Pokémon.” 

Before I could say anything in response, I heard my sister gagging on something. I turned to her before I saw her literally vomit in disgust, throwing up all of her lunch mixed with water. Great, now I had to endure a greater stench because of my improved nose…

After she was done, she muttered, looking a little light-headed. “Urgh, fuck me…”

“Alexa!” Tami shouted in concern while I went I started to check on her, and the pawmi doing the same. It seemed that he cared a bit about her…

Yugu tilted his head in confusion. “Did she-”

“Did she really just vomit just because you ripped the guts of a pachirisu off?” I turn to the other trio and see the snivy talking with a smirk on her face. “Wow, for a litleo, she might be the weakest out there.”

The floragato sighed as she threw the corpse of the pachirisu away. “Another one that’ll succumb to be a tool for the strong to toy with.”

Mikama crossed his arms and glared at the floragato, his head fire quills flaring up a little. “Okay Zamia, you’re going a little too far now.”

The floragato, now named Zamia, looked at the quilava and put her paw on her side. “What? Are you feeling pity for ferals now? Tsk, typical weakling behavior… but anyways, down to business.” She then looked at the purrloin. “So, have you and your team trained for the Mystery Dungeon, Mr. Slacker?”

Yugu smiled a bit nervously, his tail swaying a little. “Yep… we’ve been training alright, we’re gonna prove to you that we’re not the weaklings you and your friends claim us to be, alright?”

Zamia crossed her arms. “Hmph, good. Remember, you have until next week to prepare for the day. If you fail and the dungeon teleports you out of it with all of you three defeated, you will be considered weak in our eyes and will be our new tools.” She motioned for the snivy and the nidorina to follow her, saying their names respectively. “Hermas, Sidra, let’s go.” As they walked past me, I glared at them while the floragato glared back at me. And just for one last fuck you, she said. “Keep your sister under control next time. I don’t want her vomiting all over me.”

They sassily walked away, leaving all five of us staring at them. ‘Welp, now I know on who to discount my anger if they mess with me or Alexa.’

Suddenly, the purrloin sighed. “Not even two weeks of being in this village and of course you meet her of all ‘mons…” 

Tami fiddled with his paws. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, we didn’t want to drag you to this mess…” He then grimaced. “Now they see you as new targets…”

Alexa coughed a bit before wiping her mouth with a paw, responding afterwards. “It’s fine… we’re used to pieces of shit like that in our wor- I mean, from our old town. We’ll survive her, not like we’re in the same school as her.”

Mikama put a paw on his chin, stroking it a bit. “By the way… why did you vomit out of nowhere? It was almost like you were disgusted by the way Zamia killed that pachirisu.”

The pawmi looked at the puddle of puke. tilted his head. “I thought you’d be used to seeing organs and raw meat by now.”

I tensed up a little, realizing they could potentially discover our identities by that moment. Before my sister could respond, I spoke for her. “Sorry about that. She’s, um, sick. Yeah, she’s sick.” I looked at her. “And I fear that’s only getting worse if she keeps going out…”

Alexa, thankfully, got the hint and continued our lie. “Y-yeah! I need to get better soon so maybe I should stay home for a bit…!” I could hear some leftover bitterness in her voice.

Yugu crossed his arms. “If you got poisoned on the way here… don’t you have pecha berries at home?”

I shook my head. “Nope, we… we ran out of them.” It was getting a bit more difficult to lie this consistently so I decided to change the subject. “A-anyways… what was that about that Zamia girl saying about a Mystery Dungeon?”

The purrloin sighed and started explaining. “So, we and Zamia go a bit back. She wasn’t usually like this, she was mostly pretty chill, although a bit quiet. But… after she evolved… she suddenly changed for the worst.”

Mikama put a paw on his side and looked away. “Yeah. She suddenly became obsessed with being strong. It got to a point where most of her free time was just training, and because of that, she became the strongest in our school.”

A bit of static was released from Tami’s cheeks. “Not only that but she got surrounded by those other two, training with her to become even more strong!”

“And the way that ties back into us three is that she recently decided to put us through a test to decide if we are weak or not. And that challenge was to beat one of the nearest Mystery Dungeons.” Yugu finished with a sigh.

“So basically, she wants to test you, and if she decides you three are weak, you become bully targets for her?” I asked and received a nod in confirmation. “Yeah, heard about similar shit back where we come from.”

The pawmi turned to the purple cat and asked. “Yugu, should we actually train instead of playing all day? I don’t feel ready to tackle a mystery dungeon yet…”

The purrloin waved it off with a paw. “Don’t worry, we should be able to do it. The dungeon is known for having mostly bug and grass types so Mikama can take out most of them.”

“I dunno if just having a fire type is enough, what if they overwhelm us in numbers?” Tami asked a bit concerned. 

I started thinking for a moment… should I help them out or not? Well, I knew that when they wandered into the dungeon, I’d either be training with Dad or be bored with nothing else to do. However, something clicked in my head. First: now it’s confirmed that Mystery Dungeons exist in this world. Second: I’d be entering one for the first time to help them out.

However, if I don’t go, a bad possible timeline could happen that they fail and become Zamia’s new targets. And since they are acquainted with Alexa, she could also become her target and she wouldn’t be able to fight back…

With a heavy sigh, I took a step forward and spoke. “I’ll help you in the dungeon.”