Timeline of Errors

Part 8 - Into The Cave

"Not quite, I've never heard the name," the lady replied from the other line, "well, I told you the list is... very much incomplete. These are names that he was already looking into, but I don't know who was actually missing from it. I did tell you I was very uninvolved with the politics at the time, so Nio and Matias would've a better idea,"

"Wait, now that you mentioned it... where is Matias?" I asked as I continued making my way through the town.

"He quits his job and changed his number so we can't contact him anymore," she scoffed, "the audacity - I'd understand that a previous employer shouldn't contact you for further work under normal circumstances, but this is a huge, huge case that he plays a major role in because he was a 'yes man' and a f*cking coward,"

...ooft. Good for him to finally assert what he doesn't want to be a part of - and to a past employer. But this case is a bit unique that it feels kinda irresponsible, I thought and cringed.

"In any case, please be careful and let me know how it goes," she said, "Giratina's a ghost and dragon type, right? You probably have a good team against it if it comes down to it, so you should be fine,"

If that is the only thing I'm battling... I thought, I'm now missing a water and flying type, so that's not great.

"Will do," I told her, "my team should be plenty strong..."

Even so, I could not help but felt my quickened heartbeat pounding on my chest. Nor how my stomach started churning at the thought of battling.

I... was unbeatable, right? I thought, battling is the one thing I'm good at, right?

But what if... something happens and...

As I tried gulping my worries down, Antonia bid her farewell to attend to another matter. Nervously, I took one step after another towards the other side of the town, passing by faces and figures with undistinguishable features. As the night tucked us in under the blanket of darkness, I continued to trudge along the path with my eyes on the road.

Soon, I found myself in the outskirts of the town standing in front of what appeared to be a path into a small grove. I let my legs took me to a familiar cave hiding amongst the trees. The cave entrance is just a little shorter than me that I had to bend down a little upon entering. Feeling the dark cavern walls on my palms, I slowly fumbled into the darkness with a torch in hand.

"Gista?" I called out.

"Oh, you're here," a familiar voice rang out in the dark.

Soon, my eyes caught a small light coming from a torch that a small figure was holding. As they began to adjust to the darkness, I could make out a small face wearing a pair of round glasses. It was the very same young girl with light brown low twintails.

"I'm very sorry to have called you out like this so suddenly," she said as she hurried towards me, "I'm Gista - I'm a student from the Jubilife trainer school,"

"Oh, you... came quite a long way. Nice meeting you, Gista," I said, "you can call me Valen. So, about earlier..."

"So, that's..." she said, looking down, "...can you promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"Well, Giratina said someone's looking for you. Who's looking for you?" I asked and knelt down, "I need to understand what happened first,"

"I..." she said and gulped, her voice started to tremble, "...I've made a mistake..."

The young girl hugged her arms as she summoned her courage.

"...I was working with a noble to do research on the distortion world. He told me that I have potential, one that no one has ever seen before," she said, "he's a pro-catcher... something that I aspire to be. And to have someone like him say that to me... I agreed to go to the Spear Pillar with him and help him out,"