Friendship

Zhongli confessed everything. He revealed all of his thoughts about his role as the Geo Archon, and his plans for the future. Finally, he spoke of a solemn request, as well as a test, for Loki and pokemon.

"The Seal of Osial is weakening. I plan to hasten this process before the Rite of Descension next month. I hope you will give me a good reason to place my trust in you and pokemon."

Loki understood the hidden meaning behind his words. He nodded his head with a solemn expression and spoke.

"Leave it to me."

Zhongli also nodded. There was no need to exchange much words. The contract was quitely established.

Both of them then turned to look at Ganyu. She had remained silent for a very long time, surely having a lot of thoughts in her mind.

Loki smiled fondly. He decided to wait for Ganyu to come to terms with the information she just received. Then he can talk with her.

After a long time of silence, Ganyu finally had a clarity in her eyes. She looked at Zhongli and a silent conversation passed between the God and her loyal follower.

A while later, she turned to Loki and he gently addressed her.

"Do you understand now? Even an archon like Zhongli has decided to retire. He wants to put an end to his role and live the rest of his life as an ordinary mortal, enjoying everything Liyue and Tevyat have to offer."

"I am not exactly pressuring you to retire. I just want to remind you that there is no need for you to shoulder all the burden by yourself. You have already worked diligently for 3000 years now. You should also relax and enjoy your life some more."

Ganyu had a complicated expression on her face as she listened to Loki. All of his words hit her like a train and she realized in her heart that he was completely right.

"What should I do then?"

"I have already told you this before. Don't try to fit in with the human society. Instead, you should change the world to fit you. You should create a place where others will accept you for who you are."

Ganyu was still confused. But unlike before, she was wholeheartedly listening to his advice.

"I am sure you will find your own calling. You already have Lia to help you. You also have others like Zhongli and Cloud Retainer."

Lia and Zhongli quitely nodded their head. Receiving their support, Ganyu unknowingly smiled.

"If you are still not confident, you can visit the Pokemon Studio. We are a gathering of misfits so you don't have to worry about us judging you. You will fit right in."

Loki turned to Lia and patted her small head. "Besides, Lia can also spend more time with her mother if you visit us."

After the conversation was over, Loki waved his hand and dispelled the illusions covering the room.

"Should we finally have dinner now?"

He called over the owner and asked for him to bring all the vegetarian dishes they had. He wanted to cater to the needs of his special guest (Ganyu).

Tens of minutes passed in relative silence. Loki and Zhongli had an idle conversation. Lia and Meowth listened to them and occasionally joined in.

Ganyu remained silent, surely having a lot of thoughts in her mind. The others didn't disturb her out of consideration.

When the food finally arrived, the rich aroma finally seemed to suddenly bring Ganyu out of her thoughts. She looked at the food with some longing.

"Let's dig in then." Loki spoke.

Looking at the tens of luxurious dishes on the table, Ganyu made a troubled expression. She was really tempted to eat the delicious looking food but she also had to think about her weight and figure.

Seeing her hesitation, Loki was speechless. He directly pushed more than half of the dishes in front of her.

"Eat to your heart's content. After all, you are the main character today."

Due to his insistence, Ganyu had no choice but to 'reluctantly' eat a lot of food until she was full, something she had not experienced in a long time.

She then patted her stomach in satisfaction before realizing where she was. She hurriedly moved her hands away and looked at Loki and Zhongli cautiously. Fortunately, they didn't notice her embarassing action.

'Why did I do that? I could not stop eating because everything was so delicious. I might become fat again.' Ganyu lamented about her problem.

On the other side of the table, Loki and Zhongli quitely shared a glance. How could the two of them not notice the small movement of Ganyu? They had simply chosen to hide this fact because they didn't want to embarass her.

Sometime later, after Ganyu and Lia had left for their residence, Zhongli finally chose to ask Loki about his intention.

"Why were you so intent on helping Ganyu? From my knowledge, this should be your first meeting."

Loki didn't say anything for a while. He looked at the stars shining outside the window with some melancholy as he thought about his reason.

"Ganyu reminds me of the old me. I was just like her, trying desperately to find a place to belong but there was no one to steer me to the correct direction. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who cares for Ganyu. They can help her find/create a place where she truly belongs."

_____

The next few days were full of surprises for the Liyue Qixing. The hardworking and diligent secretary, who had served them for thousands of years, suddenly asked for an assistant.

Ningguang happily compiled a list of highly experienced people perfect for the role and Ganyu chose 2 of them and shared her duties with them. She also had Lia to help her with her work.

Due to all of this, Ganyu had recently got a lot of free time. She began to spend this time travelling to many places around Liyue in search for her 'calling'. The most frequent places she visited were the Pokemon Studio and Wansheng Funeral Parlor.

Ganyu had quickly become friends with the residents of the Pokemon Studio. Just like Loki said, all of them easily accepted her as if she was one of their own.

She got along the most with Voir, Frost and Magica. These three pokemon were always happy to spend time with their new friend.

_____

(One normal day)

"Paradis?"

Ganyu had heard this name mentioned several times whenever Lia talked about her home so she was really curious. She asked Lia for some explanation and her little partner happily shared everything with her.

[Paradis is the name of our nation. It is a large island inhabited by several hundreds of different pokemon tribes.]

To sum it up, Paradis was a nation of pokemon. It was created hundreds of years ago. Just like the name suggest, Paradis was meant to be a haven, a peaceful paradise.

But a true paradise is but an ideal.

As a race, pokemon were born strong from birth. Some might desire peace but the majority of them desired the thrill of battle, to grow stronger. It was in their instinct to fight for more power. This was a major source of problem.

To solve this problem, four Overseer were chosen. Conflicts between Pokemon were inevitable but before these conflicts threaten the stability of the nation, these Overseer would step in and stop them.

Frost was one of the Overseer. She was in charge of the northern snow mountains before she came to Liyue with Loki. Then there was Shaymin who took care of the forest and meadows.

The third was Manaphy, living in the ocean surrounding the island. The last one was Heatran, who usually slept inside an active volcano on the southern region. He only appeared whenever disputes occured in his territory.

[Loki is the one who leads all of us. If I was to compare Paradis with Liyue, he is our Archon.] Lia finished with a twirl.

Ganyu had been listening to her explanation with deep interest. After hearing her compare Loki with an Archon, her interest was immediately aroused.

"Can you tell me about Loki?"

[I don't know much about the Lord. I only know that he was the one who brought the scattered pokemon together to create our nation. Everyone looks upto him.]

Hearing her answer, Ganyu could only shake her head in disappointment. It was then that Lia offered a solution.

[We can ask my mom about this.]

_____

The very same evening, Ganyu invited Voir to her house to have dinner together and raised the topic about Loki. Unfortunately, Voir also didn't know much more than her daughter.

[From what I have heard, Loki was once a Ghost Type pokemon specialist and most of the pokemon in the Studio were once a part of his pokemon team.]

[This is the only thing I can add.]

"Is that it?"

Ganyu felt a bit underwhelmed. The same went for Lia. The two of them looked at Voir with a disappointed expression. The young mother met their gaze and pouted.

[How do you expect me to know of anything from hundreds and thousands of years ago? Most of the things I know are from legends and stories passed down through generations.]

Ganyu and Lia were only filled with more questions after this conversation. In the end, they decided to seek out someone more knowledgeable for answers.

_____

(Sometime later)

Ganyu and Lia eventually invited Voir, Magica, Frost and Rene for a small tea party at their residence. A conversation naturally followed.

"Hmm. So you want to know more about us."

Magica hummed with a pleased smile as she looked at Ganyu and Lia. Frost also showed a rare smile.

"Well, you already know that we were a part of his pokemon team once. That was around a thousand year ago. The 8 of us travelled through the deepest valleys, climbed the tallest mountain, fought powerful enemies and came out on top each time. We even fought a god."

"We had the grandest adventure the world has ever seen. After our adventure ended, we chose to write a new chapter of our life, one that no longer involved strife and conflict. And that is why we created Paradis."

[God?] Lia focused on this word.

Magica was filled with melancholy as she answered.

"Giratina, the God of Antimatter. We fought against this god and defeated it but our victory was not without loss. One of our close friend died during that fight."

The mood suddenly became gloomy due to her words. A few seconds passed in an awkward silence before Magica suddenly began to laugh loudly.

"Haha. Why did all of you become so quiet? Cheer up. I just said our friend died. I never said that he left this world. Have you forgotten who we are? We are ghosts, death has never been the end of our journey."

Her teasing remark instantly dispelled the gloominess.

"So do you have any more question?"

Magica asked lightly. Ganyu nodded her head and spoke with an unsure tone.

"Do we also know this 'friend'?"

Magica nodded her head with a mysterious smile. "Of course. All of you know him."

[Who is it?] Lia couldn't hold back her curiosity.

"That is something you should figure out yourself, little Lia."

Magica giggled. Lia immediately pouted and showed her dissatisfaction but her cute gesture didn't move Magica.

"Is it Loki?" Ganyu guessed.

"Why do you think that?" Magica asked lightly.

"From your words, Loki has already lived for thousands of years so he cannot be a human. The only possibility is, if he is a ghost like you."

Magica was amazed by her response and nodded in praise. However, she was not going to give the answer so easily so she shrugged her shoulders with a small smirk.

"Who knows?" She whistled.

Her attitude just made the suspense even greater than before. Knowing Magica won't answer, they turned to Frost but the stalwart princess simply shook her head to show her refusal.