Chapter Text
Dawn sputtered for a moment in pure confusion. Did Arceus send her and Ingo through the wrong distortion portal? Did Adaman find a way through his own distortion? Did she have to stop a third guy who wanted to recreate the world?
“I– what– you–”
“I would feel much more comfortable if you respected our space.” Ingo said abruptly, staring down the zoroark that had nearly barreled the pair over.
Dawn immediately stiffened at the reminder that the pokemon was so close to her and cast it a wary glance. Her hand drifted towards her pokeball belt, just in case.
The zoroark blinked before seeming to come to a realization and scrambling back a pace with a yip. Dawn was sure she even saw it dip its head in apology, but it was such a rapid motion that she couldn’t tell if it was simply a purely animal movement.
Adaman walked forward so that he was standing next to the zoroark, body twisted around so he could dig through a backpack he was wearing. In fact, aside from his face and hair being exactly the same as she remembered, Dawn was suddenly aware of the distinctly modern clothes that he was wearing.
“Here,” Adaman pulled out a pair of sneakers and held them out to Dawn, “You’ll want to put these on. You two have terrible footwear that I’m impressed aren’t in shreds yet.”
Refraining from pointing out that her current footwear came from his time, Dawn took the shoes, and Adaman casually turned to Ingo to hand him a similar pair. Dawn glanced down at the sneakers. They were her exact size.
“Ok, I’m sure you two have many questions, but we,” Adaman gestured between himself and the zoroark, “ Also have questions, so how about you guys come with us to our camp before park rangers try to arrest us for trespassing on a historical site?”
Ingo nodded and walked over to sit on a random chunk of rubble (was that from Dawn’s fight with Volo or Cyrus?) so he could swap his footwear.
Dawn squinted at Adaman for having the gall to have everything under control and be so unfazed, but knelt down to switch out her shoes as well. The sooner she got them on the sooner she would hopefully figure out what was happening.
“Do your shoes fit?” Adaman asked Ingo. “We had to guess you and Akari’s sizes.”
Ingo stood up and experimentally kicked a foot before nodding with a hand on his hat brim. “Although perhaps a half size larger than needed, they pass safety checks, thank you.”
“No problem. Ready to go?”
Adaman turned and waited for the zoroark, which was apparently his companion, to walk ahead of him before gesturing for Ingo and Dawn to follow. The group walked down the steps of Spear Pillar before the zoroark abruptly led them off the path. Adaman followed it without complaint, so Dawn figured he’d mapped a path earlier to avoid the tourists.
Eventually, after stumbling (Ingo moved without any difficulty) around foliage and over loose rocks, a cave came into view with camping gear visible from the entrance. The zoroark was pushing some large rocks into place to be used as seats by the time Dawn finally stumbled inside. It laid down next to the furthest rock, allowing Ingo and Dawn to have easy access to their own seats without having to pass it.
Ingo stood in the entrance and looked around the cavern walls with the same expression he’d had back in Hisui when remembering something but not understanding it. As Dawn hesitantly sat down at the zoroark’s welcoming rumble, she saw the faintest part of Ingo’s conductor symbol poking out from beneath some vines on the wall.
“This is Lady Sneasler’s old cave,” Adaman explained absentmindedly as he knelt down to dig through a much larger hiking backpack, “It’s a pretty convenient place to set up camp and stay out of sight, don’t you think? Saves us the time of having to trek all the way down before asking questions.”
“Lady Sneasler?” Ingo asked with his eyes flicking around as he began scouring the cave for familiar areas. “Was she well after my departure?”
Adaman chuckled as he stood up with a can and a medium foldable pot. “Well, she basically told us that nobody would ever be as good as you. Even made sure nobody could surpass her success in lordship by never declaring an heir.”
Ingo turned to look at Adaman. “She was the last?” He hesitated for a moment. “... What became of her in the end?”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about anything bad happening to her, she was strong till the very end, and Gaeric was with her when she passed. He said it was quite peaceful.”
“I see.” Ingo nodded in thanks and fiddled with his warden bracelet.
“Now then,” Adaman finally joined them in the loose stone circle and began to set up a campfire in the middle, “It’s gonna be 5 hours until tourist hours end, and another 2 for the rangers to do a sweep of the area. My plan is to avoid as much attention as possible, so we’d get out of here once everyone else has gone home. Does that work for you two?”
Ingo and Dawn both nodded.
“Great. Do you two think you can handle canned soup?” Adaman asked, holding up the can he’d brought to reveal a generic store brand of tomato soup.
Dawn frowned. “Why would you think we wouldn’t be ok with soup?”
“You’ve been living on Hisuian food for two years– five, in Ingo’s case.” Adaman pointed out, “Love my people’s food, but turns out potato mochi isn’t that nutritious, and I read somewhere that eating processed food too soon after eating poor quality food could make you feel sick.”
“Oh. I think I’ll be ok?” Dawn said.
The zoroark made a rumble, startling Dawn, who had foolishly forgotten it was there. It stood up and padded over to Adaman’s side before sitting down and turning to dig its snout through its mane. After a moment it pulled out a notebook and pencil which had a large foam grip aid attached to it. It took a moment for Dawn to realize that the zoroark was not storing items in its mane, but was wearing a pokemon bag hidden beneath its fur.
Dawn watched in surprise as the zoroark opened its notebook and started to write something inside. She exchanged a look of mild bewilderment with Ingo as the pokemon handed the book to Adaman who casually read whatever message it had written for him.
Adaman raised a brow at the zoroark before turning to Dawn and Ingo. “She offered to go out and hunt if you two would prefer something more familiar to Hisuian food for lunch.”
“No, that's ok!” Dawn balked.
“There is no need! I am sure we will be satisfied by the soup.” Ingo added hurredly.
“Works for me. Saves me having to clean the kill.” Adaman said with a shrug before opening the can and dumping its contents into the pot on the fire. He returned the notebook to the zoroark and added, “You can still go hunt if you want. It’s been a while since we were out in the wilderness.”
The zoroark took the book and shook its head with a rumble, much to Dawn’s relief. She didn’t think that a zoroark who was apparently Adaman’s pokemon companion would do the same things as the zoroarks back in Hisui, but she couldn’t be sure. She still didn’t even know how the man even had a Hisuian zoroark to begin with.
There was a moment of quiet as Adaman got up to dig out some mugs to pour the soup into, handing the spoon he’d been using to stir the soup to the zoroark until he returned. Dawn and Ingo looked between each other and the zoroark as it began to stir the soup in Adaman’s place.
Ingo cleared his throat. “I must admit, your appearance here in the modern day, while not unappreciated, is entirely unexpected.”
“I could say the same! I didn’t even realize you guys were from the future until several years ago.” Adaman said brightly as he set the mugs down and took back the spoon.
“Wh– years ?” Dawn asked incredulously.
“Oh, yeah, that.” Adaman said as if he’d only just remembered that his very existence in the modern world made absolutely no sense. “Dialga cursed me so that time doesn’t work on me.”
The zoroark made a sharp rrrrr and poked Adaman’s foot as if admonishing him. He responded by making an exasperated sigh. “Fine. Dialga blessed me so that time doesn’t work on me. My feelings towards it fluctuate.”
“So you have been unchanged despite the many years difference between now and Hisui.” Ingo nodded in thought. “I suppose it was likely a gift for aiding in the ending of the Red Sky.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”
“Did Irida get blessed too?” Dawn blurted.
The barest hints of a grimace flashed through Adaman’s eyes as his zoroark suddenly snapped to a higher level of attention. Ingo straightened up completely and sat stiff as a board, looking around as if Irida was simply hiding somewhere.
“Yeah she was blessed too,” Adaman said, exchanging a look with the zoroark, “What was it again?”
The zoroark moved its head as if it were rolling its eyes before pulling out another, rather battered and string-bound notebook and opened it to one of the first pages, giving it to Adaman. “ Rrh. ”
“Thanks,” Adaman quickly skimmed the pages before reciting aloud, “She was blessed to never have her space in Hisui taken from her.”
“Pardon, but what exactly would such a blessing entail?” Ingo asked.
“Ah. It basically meant she could go almost anywhere she wanted. One time she actually climbed inside the Firespit volcano to retrieve Palina’s bracelet and was perfectly fine.” Adaman grinned, “She even snuck around without anyone noticing. She could have stolen the bandana off of Beni and he’d have never noticed.”
The zoroark swatted his leg with a grumbling noise and attempted to take the worn out notebook from his hands. Clearly it seemed displeased with certain aspects of his explanation, and Dawn couldn’t help wondering if it had once been a friend of Irida’s as well. It was a ghost type, so its lifespan could explain why Adaman had one despite the 400 some year difference between the modern day and Hisui.
Honestly, given the many warnings and personal mishaps involving the zoroark in Hisui, it was a bit… unnerving seeing Adaman act so casually around this one. Dawn could only imagine that her discomfort with it was something that she and Ingo inflicted on everyone else whenever they interacted with their own pokemon.
“So, my plan is that you two take a few weeks before announcing your return to give yourselves some time to re-adjust to the modern world,” Adaman started explaining, completely unaware of the turmoil in Dawn’s mind. “Ingo, you especially might want to take a bit of extra time. I did some basic research on Unova missing persons laws and I’m pretty sure you’ve been declared dead.”
The zoroark made a sharp bark of admonishment at Adaman’s lack of tact and whacked his knee. Dawn flinched minutely at the attack, but the man just yelped indignantly in response. The two stared at each other for a moment.
“Notebook privileges revoked for that.” Adaman boldly teased the zoroark, holding the book away from it.
It made an affronted noise in response and lunged for the book, getting held back by Adaman’s legs. It was… certainly a sight, seeing the (former?) leader of the Diamond Clan squabble with one of the scariest pokemon Dawn had ever met. How did Adaman even befriend a zoroark in the first place?
Fortunately, Ingo seemed to have a similar question, because he cleared his throat to get the pair’s attention. “Apologies for the interruption, but I don’t believe you ever introduced us to your companion.”
Adaman blinked from where he was beginning a game of keep away with the zoroark, the notebook held partially aloft. It was both charming and disconcerting to Dawn that the man seemed completely unaware of how strange it was to see him play-fight with a pokemon.
“I didn’t?” Adaman asked genuinely, finally returning the notebook to the zoroark.
Dawn shook her head in answer.
“Oh, well, I guess she couldn’t say anything herself.” Adaman mumbled to himself before raising his voice and gesturing to the zoroark, “This is Irida! She’s stuck with me ever since Hisui.”
Dawn couldn’t help the bare wince from crossing her features. If what Adaman had said about his curse was true, then he had around 400 years to come to terms with slowly leaving Hisui behind. To Dawn and Ingo though, who had just been there some ambiguous hours ago, learning that a zoroark had been named after Irida felt in bad taste.
The zoroark– Irida happily waved with a mmrh in greeting.
“... I see.” Ingo said almost curtly, giving the pokemon a stiff nod.
Dawn waved weakly back. She wasn’t so sure she was hungry enough to eat the soup anymore, but she’d have to unless she wanted the zor– Irida to go out and hunt something down instead. The idea made her feel sick and she hadn’t even tried eating anything yet.
Adaman started to fill the mugs and have one-sided banter with the zoroark in a way that was painfully reminiscent of his spats with Irida. The zoroark moved its head in a circle as if rolling its eyes and the action was so much like something Irida would have done when talking to Adaman that Dawn had to look away before she started crying.
Dawn suddenly realized with a pang how similar a Hisuian zoroark’s fur was to the colors of the Pearl Clan.