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As far as Nova was concerned, the matter of Lune Town was finally finished.
Under the cover of night, Team Origin completed their withdrawal within a few hours. The Security Officers, for their part, chose to hold their positions and rest where they were.
When the sun came up over the ruins, Lune Town looked different. The explosions had done serious damage to whatever had remained of the place, but the criminal organizations that had made it their home for over a decade were gone. Team Origin had used them as leverage and left nothing behind. From this point on, Lune Town was just a pile of broken buildings in the middle of the desert.
The Security Officers from the various regions packed up and began making their way out of the Tamar Desert under the direction of their respective squad leaders. Some of them had spent the entire night in such a state of tension and confusion that they still had not fully pieced together what had actually happened.
The command center of the Public Security General Bureau eventually broke its silence, announcing that the four senior leaders who had overseen the operation would face a formal investigation, and that all dispatchers at the command center were being replaced immediately.
Those who understood how these things worked knew the investigation would most likely lead nowhere. The General Bureau needed to be seen doing something, to give the officers who had bled for this operation some kind of acknowledgment that the failures at the top had consequences. Whether or not anything real would come of it was a separate question.
As for the losses on the front line, they were not light. But measured against the possibility of a complete wipeout, the outcome that Nova and Jenny had worked toward had held. Thirty-seven Security Officers lost their lives during the operation. Half of them died in the initial explosions. The other half were caught in Team Origin's encirclement afterward.
None of that was Nova's concern anymore.
Early the following morning, under Jenny's cover, he mounted Corviknight and left Lune Town behind.
To avoid crossing paths with Security Officer teams from other cities who were also heading out, Nova took a slight detour on the way back. He also bypassed a checkpoint entirely, cutting directly across the boundary where the Tamar Desert met the outskirts of Harmony City through the Northern Mountains, and made his way home.
He did not get much rest after arriving.
By evening, Nova had spent most of the day organizing everything he had come back with from the desert. When Aresdra walked through the door after school and found him sitting beside a coffee table covered end to end in jewelry, she stopped and stared.
"Did you rob a bank?"
"Not exactly," Nova said, with a slightly too-casual expression. "Think of it as an inheritance. From an old friend."
The way he said it made clear that the old friend had not had much say in the matter. Nova thought of Taylor and decided that Taylor, all things considered, probably did not have any complaints.
"Take a look. Pick out anything you like."
Aresdra looked at the table. The jewelry caught the light from every angle. She was tempted, clearly, but she shook her head.
"I am already beautiful enough. Any more and it becomes a problem for everyone else." She smiled. "Better to have you resell all of this. We are not short on money right now, but you are going to be traveling soon and your team is going to keep growing. Having more in reserve would make me feel better."
Nova did not push back. She was not wrong, and honestly, looking at the table, he had been thinking the same thing. Ordinary gemstones, however expensive, were not going to add much to someone who already drew every eye in a room on her own.
He still pulled one piece aside before letting handling the rest. A diamond necklace, simple and well-cut, that seemed to suit her in a way the others did not. He put it around her neck himself.
Aresdra looked down at it for a moment.
"I said I did not need jewelry," she said. "But if you are going to give me something, the next one should be a ring. The kind that means something."
Nova found somewhere else to look very suddenly, announced that dinner needed to be started, and retreated to the kitchen.
Aresdra assumed he was embarrassed. This was a generous interpretation. Nova's mind had immediately gone several steps further than embarrassment, which was precisely why he needed the kitchen. He had to keep reminding himself: she is fifteen. She is fifteen. Wait at least two more years.
He repeated this several times while preparing dinner and still managed to mix up almost every meal.
Corviknight received the cat food. It looked at the bowl, looked at Nova, and made its displeasure known in a way that shook the cabinet above it.
Growlithe received Nidoking's portion. The quantity was more than enough, but there were supplements in it designed specifically for Poison-type Pokemon. Growlithe discovered this about thirty seconds after finishing the bowl.
Sprigatito received the food that had been set aside for Purrloin. Since both of them ate the same kind, this did not bother Sprigatito in the slightest. It ate happily, and somewhere in its small chest formed the firm conclusion that it was clearly Nova's favorite.
Nidoking received Corviknight's dinner. It ate without complaint, which said a great deal about its character. The hard mineral supplements included to support Corviknight's Steel-type needs were not pleasant to chew and were slightly too small a portion, but Nidoking worked through it with its usual patience.
Purrloin received Growlithe's food. It did not enjoy it and knew perfectly well that Nova had simply gotten everything mixed up. It ate every bite anyway.
It had understood, somewhere during the quiet of the evening, that the days here were running short. Nova was home, which meant the time before they would have to part was getting smaller. This kind of life, ordinary and warm and safe, was something that a Pokemon who had spent its years inside a glass enclosure had no real claim to. It was the sort of thing you appreciated precisely because you knew it was not going to last.
What Purrloin did not know was that Nova had been thinking about it too.
After everything they had been through together, the idea of sending Purrloin back to its enclosure sat badly with him. He knew its limitations. In terms of raw battle potential, Purrloin was not going to be a central part of his team. It was not built for that kind of role. He had been honest with himself about that from the beginning.
But there was a difference between knowing something and being able to act on it. Nova had set strict standards for himself when it came to forming bonds with Pokemon precisely because he knew what happened when both sides let themselves get attached. It became impossible to walk back. He was already there with Purrloin, and he knew it.
Returning a Pokemon that had given everything it had to him, back to a life with no sunlight and no freedom, was not something he could talk himself into.
After the chaotic dinner, Nova dropped onto the sofa and did not move. He was exhausted in ways that went past the physical.
Aresdra, rather than settling in with her Torchic as she usually did, draped herself across him instead, arms loosely around him, face turned into the side of his neck.
Nova went very still.
He thought: Please. This is not fair. I cannot be held responsible for what I am currently thinking. Do not do this to a person who is already this tired.
Aresdra did not stop. She rubbed her nose against his neck in a slow, unhurried way, very much like the way Sprigatito used Charm on him when it wanted attention.
Something was different. Nova could feel it.
Something was definitely off.