Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 136 - What Time Has Done

The Trio of Mind didn't have the best track record when it came to asking to erase someone.

Please be very careful, Cipher Owen urged. Okay?

Um... right. Okay.

Cipher Owen squinted. Was... he skeptical of himself? Was that possible?

I'll try to keep you updated. Light crystals, right? I'll try those more.

You don't have to hold them, either, Cipher Owen added. Be careful, alright? Tell me if anything's going wrong.

Sure. And good to hear from, um, me-you!

Yeah. Good to hear from you-me, too...

He decided not to go over the details of his game with Qitlan. It wouldn't help morale. He could let him know later, when he didn't need all of his resolve to deal with the Trio of Mind.

Owen grabbed the next dish but only reached empty air. He blinked and looked at the pile of cleaned dishes, and then the empty pile before. "Oh. Where are the rest?" he asked.

"That was all of 'em."

"Oh."

"Heh, don't worry. Now you get to relax a little. Look busy and they won't give you a new task."

"But can't I spend that time doing something else?" Owen asked, which earned a look back at him like he was an idiot. He shrank back, murmured, "I'll go ask..." and skittered off.

He walked out of the kitchen and spotted the person working the front. But before he could, someone headed into the office and Owen realized that was probably the actual manager.

"Um, excuse me," Owen said, catching the Floatzel just as he entered the office.

"Eh?" He looked back.

"Are you the manager? I, um, I'm doing a one-day employment."

"Oh, yeah, told me 'bout that." Floatzel nodded. "Want your pay?"

"Oh, the shift isn't over yet," Owen replied politely. "I was wondering if there was something else I could do. I finished the dishes."

Floatzel tilted his head, as if surprised and curious. "...Sure. Clean under the tables." He gestured to a closet that had cleaning supplies inside. "What's your name?"

"Smallflame," Owen replied.

"Heh. Name doesn't fit anymore, does it?" He gave a polite nod and headed into the office.

It had been a spur of the moment decision, but he figured 'Owen' may have been a name to watch out for in public.

Cleaning the tables turned out to be a lot grosser than Owen thought it would be. The things he'd found stuck under the table made him wonder what kinds of horrible acts could have led to them being stuck there in the first place, let alone what species had been responsible. He tried to distract himself from a bit of gunk he had to soften and scrape off. The light fixture above him was another crystal, so he took the time to channel his thoughts to someone else.

Hello? Necrozma? Are you there?

No reply for a while, so Owen sighed and kept cleaning the tables. The tops were much more tolerable.

...Owen...

He kept calm, taking only a breath through his nose. At least this part of the table didn't smell.

You still have to recover a lot of energy, don't you? That's okay. I'm just saying... I'm sorry I snapped at you. It was a lot for me. A-and I'm still mad about it! But... we can talk about it later. Okay?