The battle of the Super Djinn was fought that afternoon.
Will returned at night.
Before leaving, he did quite a few things.
Firstly, he had to arrange the subsequent plans, telling N and Baraz to keep an eye on things concerning Hoopa.
Secondly, he had to buy Dahara City's specialty donuts to bring back as an apology to the Blonde Princess.
Lastly, he went to the Pokémon Center for so treatnt.
To avoid returning covered in injuries and making Cynthia sad and upset when she saw them.
Having done quite a few things.
So Will was delayed for quite so ti.
It wasn't until nightfall that he had the ti to rush back.
Spear Pillar.
A ring appeared out of thin air before his eyes.
Will, holding an exquisitely packaged gift box, grabbed N like picking up a little chick:
"Hoopa, bring N back in ten minutes. I'm borrowing him for a bit."
Coaxing Blonde-kun is a big job.
Without bringing N along, he had no confidence.
"Hoopa~"
Little Hoopa's cute voice ca over, and Will waved goodbye to everyone on the other side of the ring.
The ring closed.
Will sighed heavily.
Before coming back.
He had pulled little Hoopa to a corner alone.
Wanting it to try if it could pull the big cat (Litten/Incineroar) over for him.
After all...
Hoopa's rings are reputed to 'be able to scoop everything in the world before it'.
Even souls from the Spirit World, Giratina from the Distortion World, or the space-ti gods living in dinsional rifts...
Without exception.
Like the hands of Arceus, they can grab everything hidden and bring it to the front.
But ultimately, it failed.
Hoopa opened the ring, but couldn't scoop anything from the other side.
The little guy was very anxious.
Seeming distressed about not being able to help Will, and also angry at its own failure.
But Will suddenly cald down.
There was nothing on the other side of Hoopa's ring.
This ans the big cat is simply not in this world.
It seems.
To find the big cat.
He still has to pin his hopes on the little star Jirachi.
"Will?"
N's voice ca from the side, calling back his consciousness.
The summit of Mt. Coronet is really cold.
He was shivering from the cold; it was not a place to stay for long.
"Hm? Right, let's go find Cynthia. It's been more than half a day; she should have gone ho first."
Will looked up and forced a smile.
"Uh..."
N was stunned for a mont, glanced at Will, and then pointed behind him.
"?"
Will turned around in confusion.
Only to see a slightly bleak figure sitting by the cliff edge of the Spear Pillar.
Long blonde hair fluttered wantonly in the evening breeze, like dandelions detached from their roots, soaring with the wind, not knowing where they would land.
That back was straight, yet revealed an aura of abandoned loneliness.
Gulp...
N swallowed his saliva, his pupils trembling.
Not good!
His psychic powers told him the current situation was super not good.
This was not a minor awkwardness that could be easily glossed over.
Sothing serious was really going to happen.
Will's expression gradually beca serious.
The rhetoric and plans he had originally prepared were completely shattered when he sensed Cynthia's Aura.
There was anger.
There was disappointnt.
But mostly, there was sadness.
The sorrow of happily coming to an appointnt, only to be abandoned alone, filled Cynthia's entire heart.
"I will explain everything clearly to older sister."
N said solemnly.
It was him acting willfully and dragging Will to such a dangerous place.
If Cynthia is angry.
It's all his fault.
"You go down, wait for Hoopa to pick you up."
Will said quietly.
"Eh?"
N froze.
"The reason Cynthia is sad has nothing to do with you."
After leaving this sentence behind.
Will walked alone towards the edge of the cliff.
Cynthia seed to have sat here alone for a long ti, so long that the night dew seed to soak through her clothes.
Sitting in such a cold place for several hours, even a person with a strong body would probably not be able to stand it.
Will approached.
Wanting to reach out and hug Cynthia to warm her body.
But the Aura in Cynthia's heart was incomparably cold.
So cold that it made him afraid to act rashly at this mont.
Thus.
Will just sat silently beside her.
Cynthia turned her head, swept a glance at Will, and murmured softly:
"It's good that you ca back safely."
Will's heart felt like it was gently pricked by this sentence.
He lowered his head and handed the exquisite gift box to Cynthia:
"I brought you donuts from Dahara City."
The pretty ribbon on the box swayed slightly in the wind.
If it were the past.
Cynthia would have definitely accepted it with full joy.
Even if what Will gave was just a little red flower seen everywhere by the roadside.
But now.
She didn't reach out to take it.
Cynthia looked at Will quietly in a daze, and only after a long while did she slowly say a sentence:
"You really haven't changed at all."
"?"
Will couldn't understand the aning in Cynthia's words.
He hadn't had this feeling for a long ti—being unable to understand what Cynthia ant.
Even though he could feel Cynthia's mood at this mont, it was still the sa.
This unfamiliar sense of distance made Will's heart tighten.
"You were like this when you were still a Riolu. Giving gifts looking innocent and cute, and then self-righteously leaving behind."
Cynthia pursed her lips, wearing a not-so-pretty smile on her face.
That smile was pale and powerless, without the slightest warmth.
She herself didn't know.
Whether she was laughing at Will.
Or laughing at herself.
And Will knew Cynthia was talking about those things when they first started traveling.
Cynthia was too strong-minded, stubbornly wanting to face all dangers shoulder to shoulder with him, regardless of consequences and cost.
And Will also had his own assertions, accustod to taking on the storm alone, wanting to place the most important person in the safest place to protect her well.
Over these years.
Cynthia, out of her love for Will, restrained her strong-minded side, putting all her own opinions after Will's decisions.
She beca docile, beca dependent.
And this.
Gradually made Will ignore Cynthia's thoughts, returning to his style from the past when he was still with the big cat and Lorelei.
This matter was indeed Will's fault.
He ignored her feelings and made decisions on his own.
But he didn't think his decision today was wrong.
If.
When Will was fighting the gods of space and ti.
The one Giratina sneak attacked wasn't Will, but Cynthia?
An attack even Will couldn't dodge.
How could Cynthia dodge it?
Could Garchomp and the others defend against it?
Even he was almost bitten in half by Giratina, so what if it were Cynthia and the others?
Just imagining that scene was enough to make Will's hands involuntarily tighten.
He rejoiced that he didn't bring her along at that ti.
This rejoicing.
Even overpowered his guilt.
So.
Will didn't feel there was any problem with his decision.
"You don't feel you are wrong at all, do you?"
Cynthia looked at Will's eyes.
Even though his face was expressionless.
How could Cynthia not guess Lucario's thoughts?
Over these eighteen years.
The two hadn't left each other's side; they even ate and slept together. The ti they spent apart, added together, wasn't even a hundred days.
How could she not understand him?
"The situation there was extrely dangerous..."
Will tried to explain.
"Have we faced few dangers together?"
Cynthia's voice raised slightly, the suppressed emotions in her heart finally expressed in her gray-golden pupils.
"This ti is different."
"They are all fatal dangers, what's different?"
The two went back and forth.
The air by the cliff seed to solidify, only to be torn apart by their intense words.
From an originally harmonious and calm exchange, it gradually lost control later on. Both their voices were getting louder, and their tones beca more anxious and irritable.
Their voices echoed in the empty sky above the Spear Pillar.
They were both anxious to prove to each other—to prove that they were acting out of love and protection.
"You've been like this since you were little, can't you see the situation clearly!"
"No matter the situation, we can face it together, but you won't even give the choice to face it! You always arbitrarily decide for where I should stand, what I should endure..."
"An ordinary person intervening in that battle would be practically certain death. Even if you went..."
"Even if I went, I would only hold you back, right?"
Cynthia pursed her lips, cutting off his words.
Her voice was no longer high-pitched, but instead lowered.
In her voice.
There was a trembling of being thoroughly hurt.
Will froze for a mont, slowly looking up.
Only then did he notice.
Cynthia's eyes were red, her eye sockets filled with aggrieved tears. It was as if she had used all her strength to keep those tears on the verge of breaking the dam from falling imdiately.
The bow on her head was blown away by the increasingly restless wind. Her long golden hair was incredibly ssy, like a small boat in rolling mountains and rivers.
Will subconsciously reached out to grab it.
He failed to grab the bow.
His fingertips brushed past the edge of the ribbon, but only caught a handful of cold air.
The beautiful bow was blown by the night wind into the pitch-black depths of Mt. Coronet. It tumbled and spun in the turbulent air currents, ultimately swallowed by the night, disappearing into the boundless darkness.
By the ti Will snapped back to reality.
He saw Cynthia brush past him.
Her footsteps unsteady, completely crestfallen.
Will reached out and grabbed her hand, hurriedly saying:
"I didn't an that. I ant to say, even if you went, it would be hard to survive that disaster."
"...When we traveled in the Unova region back then, we argued many tis over this kind of issue. Your rhetoric is the sa every ti."
Cynthia raised her other hand, seemingly wanting to pull Will's hand away.
But she hesitated for a long while, and still lowered her hand.
"..."
Will had nothing to say.
"You promised . You promised back then, no matter what kind of danger we encountered in the future, you would let be by your side."
Cynthia's tears finally slid down her face. The crystalline teardrops were blindingly bright in the moonlight in Will's eyes.
"A promise you can't keep, what difference is it from a lie?"
After leaving this sentence behind.
Cynthia shook off Will's hand, turning around alone and heading down the mountain.
She restrained her sharpness and smoothed her edges.
Not because she wanted to comfortably parasitize under his wings.
But because she wanted him to feel more at ease bringing her by his side.
Today, Cynthia sat on the Spear Pillar for a very, very long ti.
Watching the gradually setting sun, her mind was full of 'What if he doesn't co back?'. So much so that she couldn't catch her breath.
If he really didn't co back, what would she do?
His protection...
Was so heavy it suffocated her.
Making her completely clueless about the safety of the person she loved at that mont.
Watching Cynthia's disappearing back, Will froze in place.
He lowered his head aggrievedly, staring blankly at the ground, his furry ears and tail all drooping down.
At that mont.
It seed like sothing had broken.
~~~
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