❝ you're not here for a loan. ❞
she'd been carefully working when she got the call. five. five was calling her, panic-stricken and wracked with complete fear as she answered the phone. unable to articulate what it was that made him so scared despite her best efforts to calm him, a hand grabs her jacket and slips it on while he's on the phone, and she finds herself rushing out the door, down through the tower of memories and into the streets of honaru city, rushing off onto the back of blazer once more and speeding towards port sparrow as she continues to attempt to calm him over the phone. nothing she's doing is working, and she feels his true fear through the phone, hears the tears rolling down his cheeks. it'd been a long time since she'd seen him like this. long ago since she'd pulled him nearly dead from the cave of spirits. it made her heart race, it made the world shake and tremble around her.
in time, she reaches him, she consoles and speaks to him, holds his face in her hands gently as she hears his plight in that little hotel room she rented for him all these years. he tells a story, a story full of worry and doubt. the story of a boy who felt indebted to help. who just wanted to take over the payments of the hotel and show six how much it meant to him. that he was a big kid and could do this on his own. her heart aches for him as she listens to his plight, listens to how he found someone who would loan him the money to get started, how he didn't realize how deep in it he'd gotten. how he couldn't pay it back fast enough. how the man who loaned him the money was going to come looking, and he was afraid he'd made a terrible mistake. and so she listened, she listened and held him close to her, letting him shed his tears. no anger or hatred towards him. just pure feelings of comfort. she would take care of this, she'd told him, she would make it all better.
all those memories and feelings rush to her head as she approaches the building before her, it's black brick and zen gardens a deep contrast to the city of lumiose around her. she wasn't expected, and yet she was allowed to proceed forward after telling the grunts and the others that she was here about a debt. and so she pushed forward, wearing different garb than usual. after all, she didn't want to walk anywhere near this building blatantly looking like a champion. and so further she wandered, her shoes clicking against the beautiful flooring of the lobby as she headed to the elevator to see the man responsible for this loan. dressed in a cream colored suit with a black undershirt and a soft pink tie, she covered her face with as much of a mask as possible, an attempt to hide her identity.
finally, she finds herself before the man, standing before his desk. the sight of the room striking her. from gold statues to priceless items that lay as a display, and a giant indoor zen garden that lay just beyond him. she eyes him up and down, standing before him and letting him make his statement before replying with her own. a squint forms as her brow furrows, as if she's studying the leader of the place. ❝ i'm here for a debt. ❞ a folder in her hand tosses a printed out version of the loan agreement five had signed onto his desk with all the intention in the world, allowing it to spin and land squarely in front of him. ❝ clear it. ❞
