𝒯 𝒽 𝑒 𝒲 𝒶 𝓎 𝒲 𝑒 𝒲 𝒾 𝓁 𝓁 𝐵 𝑒

Chapter 11: Futures To Look Forward To

The Beauté Hotel

Yancy Ketchum sat at the edge of her bed, twiddling her fair-skinned fingers nervously. She proceeded to stare at the sleeping form of her new friend Blanche, who was occupying the bed next to her. Then, the pink-haired girl began to reminisce about recent events.

It had only been a week ago when she first realized that she had traveled back in time as an indirect result of Celebi's attempt to protect her. The time-traveling aspect was confirmed to her when she awoke in a smaller Santalune City and met her Aunts Alexa and Viola. The two sisters mistook her for a present-day Pokémon Performer, which she decided to go along with out of caution towards the dangers of tampering with the original timeline. As a result, Alexa and Viola redirected her to Kiloude City, where an Exhibition Showcase was conveniently taking place.

She then arrived at what she assumed was Vaniville City, which was nothing more than a medium-sized town at that point. She wasn't sure if the Kalos Monorail system was in service during this time, so she merely continued onward to Kiloude on foot. On her way there, she met and befriended Blanche, Kazalie, and Shulin, who were also Performers. Together, the quartet spent a couple of days reaching Kiloude, upon which they (or more like Blanche, Kazalie, and Shulin) began exploring its streets and locales for the first time.

And now, they were staying the night in the Beauté Hotel, a nice, quaint hotel located in the so-called "Old Town", which was the northeastern region of the city. It was a good thing Shulin elected to pay for their stay, because Yancy knew she lost her Poké Dollars during the time-traveling incident.

Now that she was here, Yancy started to become nervous. After all, she remembered her parents telling her, time and time again, about how they first fell in love in Kiloude City, during this very Exhibition Showcase. This meant her parents (or at least their teenage selves) were here as well. There was a chance she would encounter them. Though she wanted nothing more than to seek their help, Yancy feared that such an interaction would have disastrous consequences for the future. And she didn't want to do anything that would erase her own existence.

"Yancy?"

The pink-haired girl turned her head towards her longtime friend and first Pokémon, Florges; the Garden Pokémon was looking at her with concern.

"I'm alright, Flo," Yancy replied. "Don't worry about me."

But Florges was unconvinced. "You can't fool me, Yancy. Not with that aura of yours. ...You're worried, aren't you?"

Knowing that she was caught in a lie, Yancy sighed heavily. "That's the understatement of the century, Flo. I mean...do you know where we are?"

"Kiloude City, some years ago."

"I know that. But...this is just like the bedtime stories Mom and Dad used to tell us. The stories of their adventures. This has to be the one where they realized their feelings for one another...during this Exhibition Showcase."

"And you're worried about meeting them here and having to ask them for help."

Yancy sighed again. "Yeah, pretty much..."

"Well..." Flo started thinking. "You can't tell them you're their daughter...but..." She looked at her Trainer with a knowing expression. "That still doesn't mean you can't seek their help."

"Huh?" Yancy looked at her Garden Pokémon with confusion. "What do you mean, Flo?"

"Just don't tell them you're their daughter from the future. Make up something, anything! Just have them help us look for Selene, Nate, Evelyn, and Celebi. And once we find all of them, we get your parents to look away and that's when we travel back to our timeline!"