The day after Graham and Annette's confrontation, Kanan headed to their home one final time. He was greeted at the door by Annette, who invited him to sit down and brought out a cup of tea.
"Thank you for what you did yesterday," Annette began. "I didn't realize how much Graham had been suffering this whole time. I thought I was doing the right thing, providing a better life for my family, but what we talked about yesterday gave me a lot to think about."
"I'm going to ask them to reduce my hours at work for now," she continued. "It's a lot to ask, considering that it's a new job, but hopefully they'll be able to understand that my relationship with my family comes first. And if not, well, we'll figure something out."
"As for Graham's friends… I can't very well bring them here, now can I? But I've started looking for some nearby children to set up playdates with. Hopefully he'll be able to make some new friends that can take the edge off of his loneliness. It was foolish of me to expect that he'd be fine by himself until his enrollment in the Academy. A year is an extremely long time for a child like him."
Kanan listened to her sort through her thoughts, nodding along patiently as he sipped on his tea. He had already done what he could, it wasn't his place to intervene in the matter any further.
"Sorry for making you listen to all this," Annette added. "I just had to get it off my chest, and you're the only other one who really knows what's going on. It's not like I can air out my family's dirty laundry for the world to see."
"But anyway, the mission. It might not have been exactly what I expected, but of course I'll count this as you having completed the mission successfully. I've increased the reward as well. Consider it compensation for having you wait an extra day."
Hearing that not only would he be getting the mission reward but would even be getting extra, Kanan's eyes lit up. His gamble had paid off! Now he would be able to afford to send Twilight to get tutoring to learn Shadow Sphere.
"Thank you very much for your understanding," answered Kanan.
He had been slightly worried that the other party wouldn't be willing to acknowledge the mission completion, considering that he hadn't actually cured Gar. He did solve the issue, so the Association would probably recognize it if he appealed, but it would be a lengthy, time-consuming process that was more effort than it was worth.
Just then, Graham came around the corner, Gar following closely at his heels. The boy looked worn out but the spirit beast entered with an upbeat stride, clearly happy to be free of the acting role it had been stuck in all this time.
The Toygar walked up to Kanan and gave his leg a friendly headbutt, expressing its gratitude.
Graham, on the other hand, looked embarrassed and ashamed. He floundered for a moment before coming to a decision, deeply bowing his head.
"Mr. Kanan! Um, I'm very sorry! Sorry for deceiving you, lying about Gar and making you come out all this way."
Kanan gave the boy a comforting smile. "It's alright Graham. It all worked out in the end, right? Look, mission complete!" He said, holding up the terminal that was now displaying a message saying that he had successfully completed the mission.
"But, um, I lied and tried to keep you from finishing the mission… Then you wouldn't have even gotten paid."
Kanan put his hand on the boy's head, ruffling his hair. "Yup, that would've sucked!" he said, laughing. "But it's only a mission, and it's only a little bit of money. It's not as important as your relationship with your mother, OK? What you should be really sorry about it making your mother worry all this time."
Annette put her hands on her hips, putting on a fake stern expression. "That's right! How could you make your sweet and gentle mother worry like that! You're going to be giving me 1000 hugs as punishment!"
"Mom…" Graham groaned, embarrassed.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are doing alright." Kanan said, smiling. "You know who to ask if you ever need another mission done, right?"
Annette gave a gentle laugh. "Don't worry, you're the first one we'll call. Good luck with everything!"
And with that, Kanan departed, bidding the family one final farewell. It was time to put his newly earned credits to use.
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Kanan summoned Twilight to tell him the good news.
"Alright, Twilight! We got our mission reward, and we're going to find a trainer for you now. You better work hard, OK?"
Twilight put on a serious expression, saluting.
"Squee!"
"Good! Let's find one right away."
Kanan posted a mission for Shadow Sphere tutoring, which was accepted right away. As an introductory move of its type, there were plenty of trainers who knew it even if it was a dark type move.
He looked at the information of the tamer who accepted it. Lehan, 2nd Circle tamer, possesses a Cutlerghoul. Looks good.
Ghost type beasts were independent from the dark type, but the two were closely related. Many ghosts possessed some amount of dark type energy and could learn the dark skills accordingly. Finding a Cutlerghoul that knew Shadow Sphere was far from unusual.
Heading to the agreed meetup location, Kanan spotted a young man with aquamarine hair and sharp eyes. Making eye contact, he waved to him and approached.
"Hello, are you Lehan, by any chance?"
The man nodded. "I am. You're Kanan? You look a lot younger than I expected."
Kanan was on the younger side for a beast taming student, and outside of those looking to make taming their professional career, basically nobody at his age would pay for an expensive service like skill tutoring. It wasn't surprising that the man found it unusual.
"I get that a lot," said Kanan, brushing it off. "This is Twilight, a Duskwood Squirrel. He's the beast I intend to have learn the Shadow Sphere skill."
Saying so, he pushed Twilight forward, who nodded politely to Lehan.
"Well well. I suppose I should introduce Cutlerghoul as well, huh? Come on out."
Following his command, the Cutlerghoul appeared out of thin air, shocking the squirrel and human duo. As a mid-tier beast its ability to hide itself was extraordinary, even during the day. Poppy or Twilight might have been able to sense it if they had been on guard, but in a relaxed situation like this it was impossible.
The Cutlerghoul, true to its name, took the form of a mass of animated cutlery, held together by a pale blue mist. The mist was the true body, and a pair of eyes with a mouth briefly appeared within it and gave Kanan a smile before melting back into the swirling haze.
"I would like to have Twilight to train for one hour a day, five days a week," Kanan began to explain. "Is this time alright with you?"
Together, the two went over the details before coming to a solid agreement. Kanan would pay the man 200 credits a day, to a total of 1000 credits a week, until he stopped or Twilight successfully learned the skill. In return, the man would have his Cutlerghoul teach Twilight for one hour.
As for why Kanan only scheduled it for five days a week, it was simply a matter of convenience. School didn't run on the weekends and so Kanan wouldn't be in the area, otherwise he'd have to make an extra trip. Plus, that freed up time for Kanan to take on missions and do other things he might need Twilight to be present for.
"Sounds like a deal," said Lehan. "I look forward to working with you. Did you want to start immediately?"
Kanan shook his head. "No, we just got back from a mission, actually. Stayed up all night scouting out a house. We're going to get some rest today. We'll start tomorrow, if that's OK with you."
"It's a plan, then. Thanks for the commission!"
The two went their separate ways, and Kanan made sure to get plenty of rest. Now that Twilight's training was added on, on top of everything else, he'd be even busier starting tomorrow.