In the room.
Gardevoir stared expressionlessly at the crowd of Pokémon blocking the doorway, her gaze sweeping from left to right.
Latias, Zoroark, Milotic, Mewtwo, Gengar…
"Gardevoir?! (Why are you here stirring things up?)"
The moment she spotted the big purple lummox, Gardevoir bared her teeth and demanded an answer.
"Ge… ge…"
Gengar let out an awkward, sheepish chuckle. Under Gardevoir's stare, he immediately sank into the floor and vanished.
Gardevoir didn't look like someone you wanted to mess with right now…
After chasing off the irrelevant party, Gardevoir folded her arms again and stood on the bed, looking down at the remaining Pokémon.
Today was the tenth day since Elias had fallen asleep.
No one knew what had happened, but this time he was taking unusually long.
Fortunately, after checking him over again and again, she'd confirmed that Elias was perfectly fine—physically and mentally. He just… wouldn't wake up.
Something similar had happened before in the Distortion World. With that experience, Gardevoir wasn't worried.
What bothered her now was this bunch of Pokémon practically vibrating with anticipation.
That's right—because that idiotic cat Mew couldn't be trusted, the secret had still leaked.
Her original plan had been to strike a deal with Mew: she'd allow Mew to sleep beside Elias with her at night.
She'd even…
To make that idiotic cat behave, she'd been willing to give up the left-hand spot for a few days.
Sometimes you had to give to get—Gardevoir had recently learned that bit of human wisdom.
And Mew's task was to pretend to be Elias during the day.
With Mew's abilities, that wasn't difficult at all.
With Gardevoir covering from the side, even Zoroark wouldn't be able to spot a single flaw.
But…
A stupid cat was still a stupid cat.
To this day, Gardevoir still couldn't understand why Mew thought Elias would eat pastries the way it did—legs sprawled out, sitting on the table.
"Haa…"
Thinking back to the moment it all got exposed, Gardevoir's fists clenched even tighter.
Now there was no hiding it. The other Pokémon all knew she'd been living here the whole time.
"Gardevoir! (I'll take care of Elias.)"
"Gardevoir… (Just go back already…)"
Gardevoir turned her head away, face blank, and flicked a small hand like she was shooing them out.
But she also knew the chances of them listening were basically zero…
"Lati!"
Sure enough, even Latias had no intention of backing down.
Gardevoir's expression darkened.
If it were any other day, to keep things from boiling over, she could've compromised a little.
But… not today. Absolutely not.
Because the moment any of them got close enough to Elias—
All it would take was a small tug at his collar to see the marks on his neck. Marks that looked an awful lot like they'd been left by a certain humanoid Pokémon's bite.
And then things would spiral completely out of control.
That was also why, even now, she still allowed Mew to sit safely on Elias's shoulder.
She needed Mew to guard that secret.
For a moment, the air stiffened; the room fell into a strange, unnatural silence.
...
Because his consciousness had only just been released by the system, Elias hadn't fully settled back into his body yet.
So he didn't open his eyes right away.
But faintly, he seemed to hear a noisy argument nearby.
He couldn't make out the words, but he could just barely tell it was Gardevoir and the others…
Thinking about how long this Simulation had taken, Elias couldn't help but worry.
Don't tell me they're fighting…?
It felt entirely possible.
Before the Simulation, he hadn't expected it to take this long.
If he kept failing to wake up, the Pokémon really might start snapping at each other over some tiny bit of friction.
With that worry in mind, as he gradually regained control of his body, he tried to open his eyes at once.
It was daytime outside, and the light was harsh.
Not yet adjusted, he saw nothing but a wash of white.
Elias narrowed his eyes, and his vision slowly returned.
The outlines of the room came into focus bit by bit—and he finally saw what that warm thing leaning against him was.
—Mew.
The first thing Elias saw, the moment his gaze steadied, was Mew perched on his shoulder, staring at him with big blue eyes.
It looked like it had been watching the scene ahead with great interest.
In its paws was a black-and-purple Berry, and it was munching away happily.
But as Elias slowly opened his eyes, Mew caught the movement out of the corner of its eye.
It turned in confusion—and met Elias's freshly opened eyes.
Plop—
Mew froze. It didn't even notice the Berry slipping from its paws and dropping.
Elias clearly saw those watery, round eyes visibly shrink.
Like it hadn't expected him to wake up all of a sudden.
Mew's reaction was so funny it only made Elias more certain: he'd been asleep too long, and that was why it was chaos out there.
And then—just as the thought surfaced—
Smack—
Mew suddenly slapped a tiny paw over his mouth, like it was stopping him from making a sound.
Right after that, Elias felt a subtle wave of psychokinesis replace the paw—covering his mouth while also pinning down his entire body.
And Mew even reached out to close his eyes again—eyes he'd only just managed to open.
Elias: ?
After doing all that, Mew finally seemed to relax. It pulled its paw back, looking a little guilty.
Picking up the Berry again, it began to watch the situation with grave seriousness.
Elias was awake!
Mew's heart pounded wildly. It knew it was the only one who'd noticed.
Neither Gardevoir, standing at the foot of the bed like a lone gatekeeper, nor the other Pokémon itching to pounce—
None of them had realized.
The instant Elias woke up, Mew had stumbled into it by sheer, unbelievable luck!
Mew swallowed, feeling like its fortunes had finally turned.
With that thought, it immediately stood up.
It stuffed the Berry into its mouth in one go, then floated over—wobbling a little—to Gardevoir's side.
"Mew~"
Mew crooked a little paw at Gardevoir.
Seeing Mew suddenly drift over, Gardevoir's fist tightened, and the anger in her chest flared up another notch.
But remembering their current "partnership," she forced herself to keep her hands still.
"Gardevoir? (What are you doing now?)"
She frowned, certain Mew was up to no good.
---
T/N: SORRY I TOOK A SMALL WEEK BREAK!!!!!!!! I ANNOUNCED IT ON THE P WEBSITE AND DISCORD
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