The moment Iono casually dropped that line, her entire livestream exploded. Not a single viewer was paying attention to the fact that Haru had just used a Pokémon move with his human body anymore.
"???"
"What's the deal between this guy and Lady Iono? Why the hell… is she demanding her underwear back from him?! Is this dude some kind of perv? That's messed up!"
"So this guy who came out to 'save the day' actually did something unforgivable?! Damn it, I, 'The Verdant Pokémon Breeder,' swear I'll blast him off the face of the earth!"
"Wait—has Lady Iono already… done that with him? Nooo, don't say that!"
For Iono's fans, the focus had shifted entirely to figuring out the real relationship between the two.
God forbid their beloved Lady Iono had already been secretly defiled by some shady guy while they were left completely in the dark.
Everyone loves gossip—until they become the ones being gossiped about. Then it's not so fun anymore.
But for Haru, he was even more confused than the stream chat.
Bro… when did I ever take Iono's underwear?
He, Haru, was not the kind of guy to do something that low. He wasn't into that kind of thing.
The only item he had that might remotely count as "underwear" belonging to Iono was that pendant he wore—one that could conceal his presence.
But… wasn't that a side effect of time travel?
Haru had always thought it was a gift from Arceus. How could it possibly be Iono's underwear? Arceus couldn't have that kind of twisted taste, right?
No way. Absolutely no way.
He pressed his lips together, silent for a long moment, before finally speaking:
"I didn't take your underwear. I left in a rush back then—I didn't have the thought or the time to do something like that."
"Then why did you leave me?" Iono's voice quivered slightly. "Was it because you saw me as dead weight? We could've gone on that journey together…"
"Whether you wanted to challenge the Gyms, or pursue something else—I would've followed you. But instead… you chose to leave without a word."
She wasn't letting this go. The usually chipper, even bratty streamer girl—known for her chaotic energy—was now dead serious.
She really wanted an answer. The one she'd been waiting on for five years.
Time has that kind of power. It can shrink something down to nothing, like the move Minimize—until it fades into the background entirely.
But it can also blow something up larger and larger… until it becomes too heavy to carry.
That was true for Iono.
And it was true for Haru, too.
"..."
"Turn off the stream," Haru finally said. "There are some things I need to tell you."
As he spoke, the man disabled his "Levitate" ability and landed silently on the smooth, crystalline floor.
---
At the same time, halfway across the world from Paldea—in the Alola region—a beautiful blonde woman quietly closed her stream window.
All around her, researchers in lab coats bustled with excitement, frantically scribbling notes. It seemed they'd just made a major discovery.
The woman's name was Lusamine—the head of Aether Foundation, one of Alola's most powerful organizations.
Though she was already the mother of two children, her beauty had not faded with age.
On the contrary, her "essence" had only matured, aging like a fine vintage sealed deep in a wine cellar.
Unfortunately, that exquisite vintage had no one to taste it...
Moments later, a man with oversized green goggles handed her a thick folder.
"We've received intel from Exploration Team One. There really are mysterious and powerful Pokémon hidden in Area Zero of Paldea."
"Some of them bear a resemblance to existing species—but only superficially. It's almost like… they're those Pokémon from the distant past, or far-flung future?"
"That said, we still lack detailed data on them. Capturing one will be… extremely difficult."
"And what's the situation with Team One?"
Lusamine flipped through the folder, her expression calm—but in her eyes burned an intense flame called ambition.
You might not see it on the surface, but Miss Lusamine's heart harbored an all-consuming "love"—a love for Pokémon.
And the way she expressed that love… was by collecting everything she adored and preserving it as a specimen. That way, they could remain by her side forever.
The Aether Foundation was originally established to study creatures known as Ultra Beasts, and Lusamine had been tracking them for years.
But recently, her attention had shifted.
To those strange Pokémon from Paldea.
To that end, she'd personally dispatched an exploration team to Paldea's Area Zero—with the ultimate goal of capturing "samples" of those Pokémon.
"Exploration Team One… is currently being pursued by that man who appeared in the broadcast. He seems to be targeting us."
The man in the lab coat spoke again, concern in his voice.
"That man can use Pokémon moves himself. He might not even be human."
"No," Lusamine said, shaking her head, "he's human. There's just a Pokémon hiding inside him."
She sounded utterly certain.
---
Meanwhile, deep within the Great Crater of Paldea, another conversation was taking place.
A man and a woman were standing face to face.
"There's always been a Pokémon hidden inside me," the man said. "That's why I'm able to do things no ordinary person can."
"Come on out, Flutter Mane… and Mew."