Koga Gets A Scrubbing (TK, 18+) (Original)

Disclaimer: THIS STORY IS NOT OF MY CREATION. It is a repost, with permission and credit, of a fanfic written under my supervision. The original author is Indigo-Bunny; if you want to see more of their work, check out their DeviantArt website linked above!

Happy Halloween, y'all! This is Indigo's half of an art/story trade we did which we figured would be perfect for this occasion. I'm the artist behind the pic at the very end of the story, but the entire fic is Indigo's work albeit with some edits from me for both the beginning and ending portions, and as such, it has been entirely unchanged for this repost. A big thanks again to Indigo for this amazing fic, and as always, if you want to check out more of their writing, go click or tap the link above to see their dA website!

Original post: https://www.deviantart.com/indigo-bunny/art/Koga-Gets-A-Scrubbing-18-M-F-M-F-M-989775124
Ending illustration source: https://www.deviantart.com/skaeadaimonion/art/Commission-Koga-Gets-A-Scrubbing-776231192

Word Count: 13,280

InuYasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale (c) Rumiko Takahashi

____________________

Happy Halloween, everyone! This 'Inuyasha' story is a story that I did as part of a story/art trade with the talented artist, SkaeaDaimonion, and it was decided that tonight would be the perfect time to post it. This story features Koga being tickled after stopping by what appears to be a haunted bathhouse. Credit for the idea and all of the details goes to SkaeaDaimonion, who also drew the picture at the end of the story.

Contains graphic content

Work Text:

 

"Ugh, I'm beat..." Koga mumbled aloud to himself, letting out a sigh. It had been a long day for the young leader of the Eastern Yokai Wolf Tribe; he'd been on patrol for so long that he'd lost track of time or direction, and now, the dark-haired, muscular young man was unsure of which stretch of the woods he had wound up in.

He knew that it wouldn't be hard to navigate his way home, but the night was full of other kinds of yokai even more dangerous than him, and often more than happy to take apart an outsider. As such, he preferred to find a place where he could spend the night rather than walk around. Trying his hardest not to mind the odd change of scenery, he let out a great yawn, stretching his arms as he continued to trudge his way through the thick and foreboding woods, illuminated only by the bright moonlight above.

"Jeez, this neck of the woods sure is creepy," he muttered, checking his surroundings. "Guess there's nowhere else to set up camp, though. I've slept through worse, at any rate..."

It would certainly appear unsettling to those that weren't familiar with the area, the shadows giving way to thoughts of paranoia and worry. There was no telling what kinds of creatures or demons that could be lurking within the darkness, hiding behind the twisting trees, some of which appeared to be dead. Leaves crunched under Koga's large feet, the yokai doing his best to remain alert despite the fact that he felt a bit fatigued. It was nothing that he couldn't handle, though.

"Seriously, though, where the hell am I?" As he continued, Koga could hear different noises around him, from the wind rustling the leaves, to an owl hooting nearby. He could also hear a bit of scampering, the darkness concealing whatever it was that made those noises... not to mention there was always a chance that it could be home to other, more sinister things. Even with his confidence in his own abilities to protect himself, he wisely decided not to stray from the path he was on.

"Not that I'm worried," he mused aloud as he made his way through the woods at a slower pace than usual, "but you just never know what's gonna jump at you around here. Gotta be on my guard, just in case..."

There seemed to be a heavy fog, making it a little harder for him to see up ahead. Of course, he could rely on his hearing, as well as his nose, to help to guide him, so the lack of visual wasn't particularly concerning for him. If anything, he was merely annoyed that he had yet to find a suitable place to stay for the night.

That was when his nose detected something strange. The out-of-place odor of water that was fresh rather than stagnant, and... laden with soapsuds?

"Huh... What's that weird scent?" Koga sniffed the air, wondering where it was coming from. "It can't be... can it? But what's it doing out here?" Deciding against his better judgement to investigate the scent, he followed it as carefully and silently as he could, trusting his sense of smell to help lead him to the source.

It was a few more minutes of tracking when he found it. The wolf-boy's eyes widened when a tall, wooden structure came into view, surrounded by a high stone wall; every rock comprising it bore a luminous symbol, most of which were clearly meant to keep the demons of the forest from nosing in. The building therein appeared to be a traditional sento, a type of public bathing facility that had been around since before the feudal era. The building itself seemed old enough, but oddly, it didn't look as though it was on the brink of collapse, though he couldn't help but wonder if it was abandoned.

"A bathhouse, huh? Eesh, I don't really like having to wash up." Koga rubbed his chin in thought. "Buuuuuut maybe I can sneak in for a quick rinse, at least..."

It wouldn't hurt to wash off any dirt and grime that he'd accumulated during the day, if nothing else; if there was anyone there, hopefully he would be able to slip in and out without being noticed by anyone. He wasn't sure if he wanted to spend the night at the creepy bathhouse, but he'd worry about that later. For now, he had only one goal in mind.

Angelic Amusement: The Tickling of Some Very High Arches (TK)

And here's the second of two story commissions for Skullgirlsisbased! It was about damn time I got a hold of Palutena after everything I've done to Pit himself, and having him be the one to spearhead the ticklish torment she goes through here was the icing on the cake! I was given the creative freedom to do whatever I wanted with the overall story as long as one particular scenario was included (the one the dialogue of the cover illustration comes from), so I tried something I haven't done much with for most of my stories before: public display tickling! The fundraiser setup has been done before in my art albeit not in a story, but I can't think of any better way for Palutena to connect with the people of the mortal realm. Besides, who wouldn't want to spare some cash to tickle those massive, godly soles of hers? XD

I also had a cover illustration planned to go with this but hadn't gotten the time to finish it due to being very busy IRL. That being said, I've still got an in-progress version of it posted on my DeviantArt, and I will be continuing work on the illustration until it is finished before I add it to this post. I hope you look forward to seeing it both here and on my DeviantArt! In the meantime, thanks so much again to the commissioner for giving me the opportunity to produce this whole commission set, and I look forward to doing business with them again in the future!

All properties mentioned (c) Nintendo

________________________________________

Angelic Amusement: The Tickling of Some Very High Arches

by Skaea

Contains: M+/F tickling, focused on foot tickling but with some upper body tickling as well. SFW.

 

Word Count: 7,168

________________________________________

 

It had been some time since the deity who presided over Skyworld and its people had actually paid the surface world a visit. That being said, however, various events that had transpired until now, mostly involving her being held captive with her people praying for her greatest champion to save her as well as them, had led her to one important realization: the goddess Palutena really did need to get out more.

So it was that, after a ton of bargaining and desperate, puppy-eyed pleading, Pit had managed to cajole her into descending from her temple for a mandatory week off. The irony of her own subordinate being the one to demand that she take a break from the usual administrative business of godhood had not been lost on her.

Despite having a good time shopping, taking sightseeing trips throughout various cities and landmarks, and generally enjoying herself, however… Palutena couldn’t shake a strange feeling that had been tickling at the back of her mind even before she’d been pushed out the door with her freshly packed suitcase and straw-woven hat. But for some reason, it wasn’t a feeling she could identify…

So it was that on the last day of her vacation, she found herself on a bench in the last of the many, elaborate municipal gardens on her itinerary. The hanging garden was one of the true wonders of Skyworld’s human realm, but eleven years ago, she would’ve boasted that its grandeur couldn’t hold a candle to her temple in its prime.

The key words, of course, being “eleven years ago”.

“Where did I go wrong?” Palutena muttered to herself as she took up all the seating space on a park bench, idly reading through a cheap romance novel she’d purchased from a local bookstore. “There’s literally no funding to repair the temple, all the weapons and items are in need of a new polish, and nobody’s really up for donating anything.” She sighed in dismay as she looked up from the book to watch the world go by. “Is it really too much to ask for someone to pay me any mind? I’m the Goddess of Light, but it’s almost like nobody appreciates me…”

No response. It seemed even with her stature and grandeur, no one had the time to give her even the time of day. How disappointing… Oh, well. Being out of action for as long as she had, she should’ve expected something like this.

With a sigh of quiet despair, she returned to her book, hoping to find some manner of escaping. She would have no idea until a smidge too late that she was being watched.

As it turned out, this particular city was near enough to her home temple that it frequently saw visits from some of those attending to her whims, often when there was a need for food or supplies back at said temple. One person in particular was rather beloved by the town, and he had been planning to escort Palutena back to the temple in person since, after all, this was the last stop on her vacation itinerary.

“Greetings, Lady Palutena,” said a familiar voice nearby. She barely looked up, but she’d recognize her captain anywhere.

“Oh, hey, Pit…” She seemed oddly downcast, something which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the angel as he gave her a look-over. “Are you here to come pick me up?”

“Just wanted to check on you, that’s all.” The angel sat on the grass next to the bench, his back to the side. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”

“I certainly did. Thanks for that, Pit. But I couldn’t help but notice something…”

“Huh?” The angel looked confused for only a second, as he could already tell what she was thinking based on a quick observation of their current situation. “Oh… You haven’t been treated as well as you wanted, right?”

“How did you guess?”

He shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. Just this thing I noticed about everyone else pretending not to notice you.”

The goddess flinched. “I guess this is payback for all those times when I made fun of you, huh?”

“Oh no, I’m just making an observation. If I had to be honest, I think everyone does admire and respect you. It’s just that they feel they’re so far beneath you that they can’t associate with you at all out of fear that they’ll mess up and make a bad impression in front of their goddess.”

Palutena turned her head to glance at her captain as best she could, taken aback by his surprisingly astute analysis. “Is that why you got me to go on vacation? To get me closer to the people? I appreciate the sentiment, but it… didn’t work out exactly as you expected, I imagine.” She sighed as she returned to her book again. “I guess it’s just you and me, huh…”

The angel sighed himself, feeling understandably sympathetic towards her situation. Eleven years of nothing important happening really had led to the impression that she’d been all but forgotten, and he was quite sure the Smash Bros. tournaments didn’t exactly count. What could he do to get her out of her malaise? Could he do anything about it? He didn’t know yet, but come to think of it, there’d been a method Palutena had used on him herself previously, when he was feeling down for similar reasons…

Angelic Amusement: The Tickling of Some Truly Divine Toes (TK)

This is a new story commission for a good friend and long-time client, Skullgirlsisbased - and as an exception to their general rule for the time being, this is the only /M work among their commission plans for me thus far, though given that it gave me the opportunity to draw and write something with Pit again, I guess it was only fair to take that chance! On a related note, while the bulk of the fic is based on the pic that I was commissioned to draw as its cover illustration, the ending is also an homage to an illustration I commissioned years ago (which is available on request), although it isn't a one-to-one copy of it given that what Pit is doing in the scene in question is different from the scenario in the pic itself. Still, I figured a nod to that old piece would be an appropriate note to end on.

This story took quite a bit longer to work on than I expected, but it was fun to play with my favorite fictional character of all time once again, all things considered. Given the ton of IRL stuff I've had to deal with lately, including my recent health crisis, I'm probably going to have to take it a bit slower with regards to written works especially, although I'll still try and get at least one story done per month for the remaining three months this year since it wouldn't be right not to after I did that for all the previous months (though knowing how my life is, monthly stories might not be guaranteed from next year onward). Still, there's quite a few more stories I have in the works that I look forward to sharing with the rest of you in the coming months, including a revenge sequel to this one!

All properties mentioned (c) Nintendo

________________________________________

Angelic Amusement: The Tickling of Some Truly Divine Toes

by Skaea

Contains: F/M tickling, focused on foot tickling but with some upper body tickling as well. SFW.

 

Word Count: 5,382

________________________________________

 

 

Eleven years. That was how long it had been since his last true adventure… The last gap between missions had been twenty-five years, and this was a hair’s breadth away from half that time. And yet, despite so much hope of a new update to Skyworld’s history, nothing had come of it at all.

His white-feathered wings drooping so low that their tips nearly touched the floor, a certain angel with a gold laurel wreath over his brown tufted hair, along with a white chiton over his dark blue underclothes, was currently seated on the front steps leading up to the temple of his goddess, watching the world go by. His sandals removed and set aside, the captain of the divine guard simply reclined cross-legged on the steps with a forlorn look on his youthful features, feeling almost as though all of Skyworld was carrying on with its existence without him.

“Pit? Are you alright?”

The angel started a bit and looked up and to the side. The goddess of light herself had joined him, and though she was standing at her full height, her posture was casual at the moment, her long green hair and elegant white robe fluttering slightly in the gentle breeze of late summer. Her equally green eyes had a look of gentle concern as she regarded her most loyal servant, her lips pursed slightly.

“Oh! Oh hey, Lady Palutena! I was just… I was gonna catch a breath of fresh air, that was all!” Pit gave a slightly nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. “What brought you here, anyhow?”

The goddess tutted good-naturedly. “Just wanted to check on you. I noticed you weren’t in the temple for quite a while, and I was wondering what you were doing — especially out here on the front steps, without a weapon in sight…”

“Ack!” The angel flushed, trying to come up with some excuse that didn’t make it obvious that he’d been slacking off on duty. “I-I was… I was meditating, that’s all!” One moment of readjusting his leg position later, and he was seated such that each of his large bare feet was positioned on the opposite thigh, its bottom turned upward, accompanied by him putting his palms together. “Ommm…”

That got a snicker from the green-haired deity, who obviously wasn’t buying it for a second. “You didn’t look like you were doing that a second ago.”

“Ommmmm…” His humming was louder now, as though trying to block out what she was saying.

“Okay, now you’re just being disrespectful,” chided Palutena.

“OMMMMMMMMMM!!” The captain put his hands to his ears as he hummed even louder still, giving away that he was clearly not in the mood to answer her.

The goddess was silent for a few moments, but didn’t budge. Instead, she sat down next to him, remaining silent, anticipating that he’d break the awkward silence. She was proven right after just a few seconds as Pit let out a tired sigh.

“Alright, alright. It’s just… I’M BORED!” He threw his arms up in frustration. “Like, really, really bored! You know how long it was between the first adventure I had to save you, and the one where I beat up Medusa again and then Hades himself?”

“Hmmm, yes, I remember our last escapade very well indeed.” Palutena rubbed her chin in thought. “Medusa did say she had been gone for twenty-five years at the time—”

“And how long do you think it’s been since we whooped her unholy buns, huh?” Pit folded his arms and pouted at her, waiting for her to do the math.

Palutena paused for a few moments, counting in her head. Finally, she replied, “Eleven?”

“Yeah, eleven! And you know what twenty-five divided by two is, right?”

“A bit more than twelve, meaning almost half the amount of time has elapsed since the war against Hades that there was between that time and when we first fought Medusa.”

“Exactly!” Pit glared at nothing in particular. “And you know what’s happened between those times, right? Nothing. Nothing at all! Just like, watching over Skyworld and anticipating threats that never came, and being stuck in the temple of the Goddess of Light forever! You do know what cabin fever is, do you?”

Palutena regarded him with an expression of pity. “Oh, dear. Seems like the lull got to you worse than I expected…”

“Understatement of the millennium,” Pit muttered, shaking his head sourly. “There is literally nothing for me to do! Nothing fun, at any rate.”

The goddess wondered for a moment if there was anything she could say to prove him wrong. The Smash Brothers tournaments were obviously out, because they weren’t exactly canon, but with the lack of a fourth wall, who knew? Before she could come up with an alternative, though, she noticed his lack of footwear and the position of his legs, and an idea came to her. She’d heard the stories of how much of a foot tease her captain was even with sandals on, and a certain rumor about his feet in particular…

Witch With A Capital B (Butt Abuse)

Inazuma finally finds a period of peace long enough for Raiden Shogun to go on vacation, but as usurpers are harder to kill than cockroaches, the throne isn’t left empty long before a familiar face comes back - and she’s bringing hell with her.

This story is being uploaded to my Blogger for archival purposes. It was originally posted to my DeviantArt on September 14, 2023.

First things first, MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING: This story contains extensive and recurrent mentions of the ending of the Inazuman storyline of Genshin Impact. Reader discretion is HEAVILY advised, and it is STRONGLY recommended to have full knowledge of the canon story up to the end of Chapter 2, Act 3 as prerequisite material.

Secondly, and more importantly, THIS STORY IS NOT MINE! Or at least, not entirely. It was actually commissioned this past September from CrookedIsStrange, though I did make some pretty extensive edits to strengthen the narrative and add further exposition, context, and fun little gags in the dialogue on the part of every single character featured in it. Crooked has given me express permission to share it here on ArchiveOfOurOwn, and in accordance with their being the one who wrote the majority of it to start with, it is entirely unchanged from the original DeviantArt upload on their gallery. This fic was very much an odd duck among the stories they prefer to write personally, but if you do find you've enjoyed it upon finishing it, I highly recommend checking out and supporting the rest of their work by clicking or tapping the link above to their dA page! You'll need to have an account there and to of course be of legal age to read almost all of it since it's mature content, of course, but other than that, you'd do well to check out Crooked's work if you enjoy embarrassed nude women, spanking, and wedgies especially!

In no small part thanks to my own contributions, this story came out more or less absolutely perfectly for my own very subjective tastes, and I couldn't be happier with the final commissioned product. The only thing missing is the involvement of my personal favorite Genshin girl, Ganyu, but since she's from Liyue, her absence was sadly unavoidable. If you wanted to see her own gloriously thicc full moons falling victim to tons of slapstick injury, though, worry not - I'm already making plans for a separate hotbuns fic with her as the primary (and only) victim! I still have a lot of prepaid commissions to get through before then, of course, but I can promise here and now that if Teyvat's cutest Cocogoat thought she was safe from my canon-soiling depravity, she'd be VERY sadly mistaken. ;P

Genshin Impact and all characters and properties mentioned (c) Hoyoverse

Original post on DeviantArt:
Genshin Impact: Witch with a Capital B (COMM)

________________________________________

Witch With A Capital B

by Skaea

Contains: */F and F/F butt abuse, including sharp objects, animal bites, insect stinging, burning, electricity, wedgies, freezing, kancho/anal insertion, and spanking, along with mentions of death including implied major character death. NSFW.

 

Word Count: 13,849

________________________________________

 

Eternity was too long to go without a day off. Raiden was skeptical: it’d be the first time Inazuma’s shogun went on vacation… literally. In the history of history, the godly gal woke up thinking about preserving the timeless integrity of her nation and went to bed on that same, dull note. Only once the Traveller had fanned away her dreams of keeping her citizens under permanent obsolescence did she start thinking about kicking her feet up.

Shimmering, blue lagoons, gorgeous views from the mountaintops and reservations for Yun Jin’s ‘dinner and a show,’ ‘send us a postcard from Liyue!’ The Traveler even helped her pack. In all ways that matter, she had her to thank for such a peaceful transition of power.

The days that had followed had been largely uneventful. It was business as usual, and business was booming now that the archipelago had been allowed to open up to the rest of the world once more. If anything, the Traveler’s assistance had enabled it to thrive more than ever! So it was that time flew by as it is wont to do, and before long, it was a mere three days before the shogun’s return. All of Inazuma City had pitched in for a massive welcome-back ceremony, for which the final preparations were currently underway, and excitement was running high. Who knew what gifts and new insights Raiden would bring back from Liyue to share with her people for the first time in over a millennium?

And, for that matter… What, if anything, could possibly go wrong?

 

The Press of a Photographer's Button (TK)

On a fateful trip to Kitakami to try and photograph a certain Pokémon, Perrin finds some unexpected new friends in a pair of visiting students from Paldea - and promptly learns that wearing a crop top can lead to hilarious consequences.

This story is being uploaded to my Blogger for archival purposes. It was originally posted to my DeviantArt on August 22, 2023. 

CONTENT ADVISORY: This story contains SPOILERS for the base game of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Playing through the game proper is preferable, though not required, for enjoyment of the content of the story.

What's this, a fic from SkaeaDaimonion without a single tickled foot in sight? The world is ending! Meowths and Growliths are living together! Just kidding, lol, but also I figured it'd be fun to step out of my comfort zone every so often and challenge myself, especially concerning tickle stuff that isn't related to feet. This may be a more recent development than foot tickles (as well as other more X-rated tickle spots), but I've found myself becoming increasingly enamored with other sensitive body parts and have wanted to try stories with them for a while. I wrote a segment with armpit tickles only as part of a commissioned work at one point but I figured I'd try an entire story focused on a non-foot spot, and I may or may not have developed a slight belly button kink after seeing a couple of delicious clips of navel tickles on Twitter (which I refuse to refer to as anything else whatsoever for various reasons). I'm afraid I'll have to push back the commissioned story I promised this month due to things that have come up IRL, but hopefully this would be a nice little standby, and I wouldn't be opposed to writing another belly-button-centric tickle fic sometime soon!

As for the subject matter proper, the second I saw Perrin's exposed midriff, there was no hope for me, and everyone else and their partner Pokémon thirsting for her in general pretty much forced my hand anyway. With the kind of personality she's stated to have on the Pokémon website I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't mind getting wrecked, though I'd have to wait until the release of The Teal Mask DLC to see how likely it'd be for this story's scenario to play out in canon. Still, I'm happy with what I came up with, all in all!

In case you were wondering, by the way, the presence of both Juliana and Florian in this story, rather than just one of the two, is because I didn't want to have to make a choice between them despite they and their academies being version-exclusive. I split the difference by referring to the promotional artwork for The Teal Mask featuring the two of them together. Their being siblings and both of their schools existing as neighbors/competitors in this continuity was my idea, though, since it's likely that the promo art itself won't go anywhere else due to being only that. It'd be interesting to see where I can take this in the future should I return to writing stuff with the Scarlet/Violet cast, but I'll have to leave it at this for the moment, I'm afraid - there's still a lot I have to do, both art- and writing-wise, before I can get to what I want to do. ^^;

Perrin, Juliana, Florian, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (c) Nintendo and Game Freak

 

________________________________________

The Press of a Photographer's Button

by Skaea

Contains: MF/F tickling, focused on navel tickling. SFW.

 

Word Count: 5,552

________________________________________

 

A great mountain towers over the land of Kitakami, a place of tranquil natural expanses, rice paddies, apple orchards, and other lush and luscious wonders. At the base of the mountain is a civilization that has lived here for a very long time indeed. The Pokémon Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti are revered as heroes, known as the Loyal Three by the people of this land for having protected it in ages past. One particular occasion has been commemorated from then until now in the form of a famous annual festival, one of masks, fireworks, and all kinds of thematically appropriate foodstuffs.

This particular festival, of course, would be a special one, for although it was famous for attracting visitors from all over the world, there was one particular collective that would be attending this year. Already, the festival grounds were seeing quite a lot of activity, courtesy of a massive group of youths from a distant land who had dispersed to check out the sights, sounds, smells, and so on. The students of Naranja Academy and Uva Academy, the two foremost institutes of Paldea, were here.

Of course, as is tradition, the myriad young men and women taking what was essentially a glorified culture-studies field trip were far from the only ones visiting Kitakami as honored guests…

CLICK! The owner of the Dipplin-themed candied apple stand, caught by surprise, turned to see who had just made a surprisingly loud noise right next to their wares. A young woman with rather short, dark blue hair, her locks fading to with a light green hue at the ends, had just taken a photograph of the goods in question. In stark contrast to the sea of yukatas and getas throughout the venue, her ripped light blue jeans and especially her white short-sleeved low-necked crop top with a similarly cropped gray vest over it looked as out of place as one could get, as did her white sneakers with dark blue-gray tongues. The source of the sound just now was the camera she was holding, which she was inspecting with a contented smile before the stall owner spoke up.

“Can I help you?”

“Ah,” the camerawoman replied, smiling with a slightly abashed tone. “Was I not supposed to take a picture? Forgive me, these do look rather cute…”

The stall owner shook their head. “If you wanted a photograph, you’d probably be interested in buying one of them, too.” The stall owner shrugged. “This festival is important for our village’s economy, you see — if people enjoyed it without actually visiting, wouldn’t that leave us with less profit?”

The blue-haired woman looked a little uncomfortable at this. “W-well, I was here during last year’s festival, you see, and the photos I’ve been taking were going to be used as promotional material, just like back then. You know, to draw even more people from outside of Kitakami to the festival?” Then she saw the look on the owner’s face and hastily added, “Buuuuut there’s no point if you can’t get enough money to host it next year, is there? I didn’t think this through, did I…?”

The stall owner looked a little guilty at this. “You don’t have to buy from here if you don’t feel like it, though again, if you want to promote the festival it’s probably best to also contribute to it—”

“Mind if we help with that?” said a voice from nearby. They both turned to see someone in a green yukata and wooden geta approaching the stall, a girl with brown hair in a braid and windows matching the curtains. Close behind was a slightly taller boy with similarly short brown hair and matching eyes, also dressed in the same fashion. They looked like students from the Paldean schools, though without their uniforms it was hard to tell which ones they attended.

It had been the girl who’d spoken up, and as she reached the stall, she pulled out some Pokédollars she’d had in her pocket. “Three Dipplin apples, please. One for each of us and one for her.”

The photographer’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean—?!”

“You’ve been hard at work all day taking photos of the festival,” the boy replied with a smile. “We figured you deserved a treat for it. It’s on us, don’t worry!”

The dark-haired woman looked back at the stall owner, who nodded as they accepted the cash. “Help yourself, miss. Don’t take acts of charity for granted — that’s not what we do here, is it?”

She thought about it for a second, and then nodded. After making her choice and thanking the vendor, she left with the other two customers, who’d also picked their own treats to enjoy.

“I actually hadn’t been planning to spend anything for the festival,” the woman explained between bites of caramel-covered fruity goodness. “I’m a traveler and an artist, see, so I have to save up to afford traveling to the next location. You saved my life, really, so thank you.”

“Not a problem!” the girl replied cheerily before taking another nibble from her own apple. “For the record, you definitely have been doing the world a favor by putting up pictures of all kinds of cultural events for everyone to see, so people are more aware of what things are like beyond their own regions. How do you think we knew of this festival in the first place?”

The photographer started a little at this. “When I took photos of the place last year… Oh! I get it now. Um, you’re welcome, I suppose…”

“Don’t mention it!” said the boy. “It was our teachers who showed us the photos in class, but they said it was you who’d taken them. Didn’t think we’d get to meet the woman who took them in the first place, though!”

“Wait, that’s really her?” The girl blinked in surprise, before turning to look at the adult next to her. “You’re the famous Perrin?”

“Correct,” the blue-haired camera-woman replied in surprise and a bit of satisfaction. “And judging from how you look, you must be from a different region yourselves. Paldea, right?”

“That’s true,” said the girl. “I’m Juliana, and this is my brother, Florian.”

“Charmed,” said the boy. “Though before you ask, no, we don’t go to the same schools. Juliana is from Naranja Academy, and I’m from Uva Academy.”

Perrin stroked her chin in thought as they continued on their way through the festival venue, enjoying the plethora of sights all around them. “Hmm, those two schools, huh? The ones sitting in the same town, and always competing against each other?”

The siblings shared a laugh at this. “Well, they both have the same headmaster,” replied Florian, “so it’s like they’re each trying to get more of his favor! So they too are like siblings, in a way.”

Perrin couldn’t help chuckling as well. “I can imagine. A joint field trip for all the students from both of them is definitely new, though.”

“Yeah, it has,” said Juliana, having polished off the rest of her treat. “Director Clavell suggested it a while back — something about a greater sense of harmony between the two schools. After what we had to deal with while helping out some friends of ours, I can’t help but agree!”

The camerawoman, with her signature tool hanging from her neck by its strap and her half-eaten candy apple still in one hand, took the time to stretch idly with her arms over her head as she responded: “About time that happened, honestly. I heard about what went down there second-hand, and for what it’s worth, I’m glad it was settled before it got any worse.”

“Knock on wood,” Juliana replied, reaching out with a fist and lightly tapping on the first thing within reach.

Perrin squirmed slightly, a very faint yet high-pitched noise coming from her mouth. “Y-yeah… Knock on wood,” she giggled.