"I'm late!"
Watching Dawn run off in a fluster, Volo asked curiously, "Why are you in such a hurry?"
"If I'm late, the starter Pokémon I want might get taken by someone else!"
"You don't need to worry about that. It seems something went wrong with the starter Pokémon Professor Rowan prepared for you. We came here because we accepted his commission."
"Eh?"
Dawn stopped in her tracks and turned back to look at the two of them, her puzzled gaze clearly asking whether this was really true or not.
But just then, a blond boy came rushing out of the Pokémon Research Lab as well, moving in such a hurry that he wasn't watching where he was going and nearly crashed into Dawn.
When Dawn recognized who it was, her expression turned annoyed as she shouted, "Ashen! Didn't we agree to come together yesterday?!"
Hearing the familiar voice, the boy named Ashen replied with a grin, "Because if you're late, you get fined!"
As he spoke, he suddenly pulled a Poké Ball from his pocket and deliberately showed it off. "Ta-da! I already got my starter Pokémon! It's a Chimchar, hehe."
"Eh! I don't have mine yet!"
"Then that's not my problem. Guess I'll see you around, Dawn. My journey as a trainer is finally about to begin."
With that, Ashen passed by Lumiere and the others, running off excitedly into the distance.
"Young people really are full of energy," Volo remarked.
"True," Lumiere agreed.
After that, they learned from Dawn that Ashen, like her, had grown up in Twinleaf Town. Their relationship wasn't particularly good or bad—barely enough to be considered friends.
"Didn't you say the starter Pokémon couldn't be claimed? Then what's with his Chimchar?" Dawn demanded angrily, taking a couple of steps toward them.
"Well, about that…"
Volo paused. Faced with her expression, he instinctively shifted his gaze away, then suddenly patted Lumiere on the shoulder and said, "I'll let him explain it to you."
With that, he turned around and left without stopping.
"Hey, you're just running away like that?!"
"The ship's about to depart. I'm heading to Iron Island, so I'll be leaving first. You can explain things to Professor Rowan for me. Bye-bye."
"Damn it!"
Lumiere cursed under his breath, but there was nothing he could do. Hugging Rowlet, he turned back around.
He then explained to Dawn, "The starter Pokémon Professor Rowan prepared for beginners seem to have run into some trouble. One of them went missing, so he commissioned us to help search for it…"
"But I remember there were three, right? That means there's still one that hasn't been taken!"
After saying that, a smile returned to Dawn's face as she ran into the research lab. With a sigh, Lumiere could only follow after her.
As soon as they entered, they spotted an elderly man not far away, wearing a white lab coat, with a stern expression and a rather peculiar mustache.
At a glance, it was obvious—this was Professor Rowan, the authority on Pokémon evolution.
Although he looked unapproachable on the outside, those who knew him said he was actually very kind-hearted and extremely patient when teaching others.
"Professor!"
Hearing the voice, Professor Rowan put down what he was doing and walked over, greeting her. "Dawn, you're here."
Dawn looked at him with anticipation and asked, "Um… what about my Pokémon?"
"Well… regarding that, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."
"???" Dawn suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Professor Rowan said regretfully, "Chimchar was taken by your friend Ashen. Turtwig was taken by my assistant, Lucas. As for Piplup's whereabouts, we're still searching for it."
"..."
"But don't worry. Volo, a gold-rank member of the Mutual Aid Association, has already accepted my commission and rushed over from Jubilife City.
He should be arriving any moment now."
However, upon hearing this, Dawn turned her head to glance at Lumiere. Noticing this, Professor Rowan also looked toward him.
Before, he had barely had any presence, but now that all eyes were on him, he felt inexplicably nervous.
Even so, he could only step forward and explain, "Well, the situation is like this…"
Lumiere explained everything from start to finish.
"I see. So Volo sent you over instead. Since you were recommended by a gold-rank member, your capabilities shouldn't be lacking. I'll leave this commission to you."
Professor Rowan still had confidence in him after hearing the explanation—though Lumiere himself didn't really share that confidence.
With no other choice, Lumiere took out his phone's notes app and began asking, "May I ask when Piplup went missing?"
This action made Professor Rowan, who had been observing him, feel quite satisfied—it was obvious he was professional.
So he explained somewhat awkwardly, "Last night, when I returned from Lake Verity after investigating the ecosystem, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to retrieve my briefcase by the lakeside."
"Since starter Pokémon are extremely important, I usually keep them in a briefcase and carry them with me at all times to prevent loss."
"But I didn't expect that when Lucas and I went back to look for it, a flock of Starly had opened the briefcase. They were probably looking for food, but ended up fighting with the three Pokémon inside their Poké Balls."
"After the battle ended, we found Turtwig and Chimchar nearby, but Piplup had vanished. We searched for quite a while but couldn't find any trace of it."
"Because we still had research to do, and it had gotten dark, we really couldn't continue searching. Left with no choice, I issued a commission and asked you to help."
Hearing this, although Lumiere really wanted to complain about why carrying them with him would be considered safer, he was still able to roughly narrow down the search area—to Lake Verity.
Piplup was a Water-type Pokémon. There was a good chance that during its fight with the Starly, it had fled into the lake. Combined with the poor visibility at night, it wouldn't have been easy to find.
At this point, Dawn asked excitedly, "Professor, if we find Piplup, does that mean I can catch it as my starter Pokémon?"
"Of course. That was the intention from the beginning."
"Then I'm going to look for it right now!"
With that, Dawn quickly turned around and ran off, disappearing from sight in no time.
"That child…" Professor Rowan shook his head helplessly.
"Professor, then I won't trouble you any further," Lumiere said, preparing to set off as well. He couldn't afford to waste too much time—if Piplup ran somewhere else, things would get troublesome.
"Mm. If you find Piplup, I'll give you some extra compensation. After all, you came all the way from Jubilife City early in the morning for this."
"That's far too generous," Lumiere said in surprise.
"Consider it a bit of help from me to you young people. Be careful on your way to Lake Verity. We'll also arrange for people to search around Sandgem Town."
As he spoke, the professor took out a Poké Ball and handed it over. "This is Piplup's Poké Ball. If you happen to run into Dawn on the way, give it to her."
"Alright."
Lumiere nodded, slipped the Poké Ball into his pocket, and left without lingering. But once outside, he realized that Dawn had already ridden off on her bike and was nowhere to be seen.
To catch up, he had no choice but to borrow a bicycle from the research lab and ride west along the road.
However, not long after they left, near the gate of the research lab courtyard, a shimmer of optical camouflage passed by, and the figure of a Kecleon suddenly appeared.
Behind it, a man wearing sunglasses slowly stood up, muttering to himself, "Piplup? That's a pretty rare Pokémon, isn't it?"
"Which means it could fetch a very high price. Didn't expect this trip to come with an extra bonus…"