It didn’t take long for the Professor to join us. The moment he entered, Lucas moved to the door, excusing himself. After preparing himself a cup of his own, he sat down across from me, his eyes studying me.

“Cynthia’s letter only told me that you’ve got an interesting story and I should listen to it, regardless how outlandish it might be. Colour me intrigued.” he opened, skipping any sort of small-talk. But then, I wasn’t here for polite conversation, I was here because he was one of the foremost scholars in the region.

“There are two problems I face and they are interconnected, stemming from the same event.” I began, getting a nod in reply.

“The troublesome part is, one of the two problems is that my mind was affected, turning a lot of my memories, especially the personal ones with emotional significance, blurry and indistinct. Most general knowledge remains, but the experiences that made me into who I am are blurred or missing. That includes my original circumstances leading up to the earlier mentioned event and even the event itself.” as I explained, a frown started to form on his face.

“My first memory after the event was standing on the slopes of Mount Coronet, dressed for summer, with vague memories of having gone to sleep during summer time, on a very different clearing. Before me,” I paused myself, my throat constricting as the memory of red, floating eyes assaulted my mind. Taking another sip of the spicy tea, I forcibly took a breath, allowing me to continue.

“Before me, there was a Pokémon, later identified by Cynthia as Giratina. I believe that I tried resisting its influence, but there is so much confusion in my mind that I cannot be certain. When I turned, there were two more Pokémon, Palkia and Dialga. There was something, a contact I think, but I might have passed out due to their presence.” Shaking my head, I looked at the Professor, who was now outright staring at me.

“Cynthia’s idea, taking a variety of information into account, is that I have been taken from the past and spent multiple hundred years within the Distortion Realm, my mind being muddled by that place. If that’s the case, I cannot say, but I would like to know where, or whence, I came from, even if I doubt there is a way to go back.” I finished, admitting that truth for the first time even in the privacy of my own mind. This was my life now, and I had to make the best of it.

Without replying, the Professor stood, walking to the coffee-bar and pouring himself a new cup of tea. Then, without comment, he took out a flask from the lower part, pouring a generous helping of a sharp-smelling liquid into the cup.

“Do you want a fresh cup of tea?” he asked, completely ignoring my earlier words.

“Certainly, thank you.” I replied, standing and walking next to him, pouring myself a new cup, using the same pungent tea. Somehow, it had started to grow on me.

Wordless, the Professor downed his cup of tea, before pouring himself another one, again with that little extra.

“That is quite the story.” he admitted, once we were sitting back down.

“Pretty sure I can count the people who I wouldn’t laugh at, for such a story, on the fingers of my hands. You, coming with the recommendation of one of them, I can’t laugh at either.” he took another sip of his tea, apparently still trying to wrap his head around my story.

“Frankly, your story, and Cynthia’s idea, is insane. Not impossible, but just unbelievable. Yet, if she believes it, and has some evidence to back her hypothesis, I’d either have to come up with a better hypothesis, or disprove her almost impossible to falsify hypothesis.” he shook his head, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“Now, I’ll simply assume that the story is correct. I simply don’t have the information to even try to come up with my own conclusion, but I can try to give you some advice.” he explained, to which I nodded.

“Regarding the troubles of your mind, I doubt that any human psychic has even close to the power to help you. Otherwise, Cynthia would have asked Renata to help you, the two of them work together after all. Hell, maybe she even did, and Renata was unable to help.” There was a short pause, before he carried on. It gave me a short moment to try bringing his words into context. There had been a small, tiny, section in my training regarding what some called psychics, those who gained extraordinary, almost magical, Powers from the p-Energy in their body, but it had been mostly glossed over due to time-constraint. It was deemed non-essential as I didn’t possess any of those powers.

“Either way, if a human psychic cannot help you, you obviously need a non-human psychic, in other words, a Pokémon. And one powerful enough to help you, in other words, one with powers right out of legend and myth.” Now, it was my turn to frown. His words made sense, but didn’t fill me with too much hope.

“Locally, your best bet is the Lake Guardians. The legends speaking of them describe them as benevolent, protecting both the humans and Pokémon living around their lakes, but who knows how much of their legend is true.” he shrugged, before continuing.

“There are other legends, from other Regions, such as the tale of Latios and Latias in Hoenn, that speak of powerful Pokémon who have the ability to commune and communicate with humans, but really, I’m no expert,” he admitted.

“Either way, I believe the first step to finding out where you came from, is understanding who you are. To do that, you need to recover or understand your memories and unless you manage to achieve enlightenment or something, your best bet would be receiving outside help.” Again, I could only nod, as so far, trying to glean any meaningful information from my scrambled, sometimes even contradictory, memories was a headache. Literally.

“Problem is, any being powerful enough to undo the damage done by Giratina is at a similar power-level, with a vastly different specialisation. To gain the assistance of such a being, you need to be strong, with a strong team at your side.” His explanation sounded somewhat logical. After all, just the memory of Giratina was enough to constrict my throat.

“Sadly, I cannot help you there, though I will take a look at some of the legends, just in case there’s something there. It’ll be interesting and your case is rather unique.” The Professor’s grin wasn’t filling me with too much confidence, it appeared he saw me as a curiosity, nothing more.

“I see. Thank you for your time.” I accepted his words, realising why Cynthia had wanted me to talk to him. If I wanted to figure out who I was, I would have to train my partners, to gather a team. I would have to become powerful, to continue on my path forward..

“I apologise that I can’t really help you.” he replied and with a few more pleasantries, the conversation came to an end.

“If you don’t want to travel alone, Lucas is starting his own journey these days. If you are interested, I’m sure he would be willing to travel with you, I don’t think he wants to travel alone.” the Professor suggested, the earlier smile returning to my face, as I imagined to spend more time with that person.

“I appreciate your concern, but I already have a travelling companion. She’s looking at the sights right now and we’ll meet up for dinner later.” I told him, getting an understanding nod in reply.

“Most people travel in pairs after all…” He muttered, before returning my smile. “I’m sure Lucas will find a suitable companion on his own.”

At the door of the laboratory, he shook my hand in farewell.

“Miss Dani, it was a pleasure to meet you. If you are ever in the area, don’t hesitate to visit, regardless of progress on those troubles you told me about. Though, if you do make progress, I’d be quite interested to hear about it.” he told me, and with a word of farewell, I walked away, back to town.

I would be a little late to my meeting with Claire, but there was nothing I could do about that.

When I got to The Sand Bar, Claire was already there, as I had expected, waiting at the bar.

“There you are.” she grinned, giving me a quick hug when I entered.

“Was your meeting fruitful?” she asked, once we had been guided to a table.

“Eh, somewhat. I learned a few things, but sadly, it will require a lot of time and effort for them to become relevant.” I replied, studying the menu. There were some things that sounded incredibly interesting on it and given that we didn’t plan to remain in town for long, I could even splurge on a far-too-expensive meal.