Roy dropped Greninja's belongings in his hands and promptly walked past him.

"Dinners in fifteen minutes," he said to the room. "Greg, take our guest to wash up. Everyone else get ready for dinner."

One of Roy's family members opened their mouth to ask a question but was beaten to it when Roy called from down the hall, "And no asking him any questions until dinner."

Greninja looked between his reunited possessions and Roy's family in utter bewilderment. He had been certain Roy was going to get even to him for breaking into his house. Being invited to dinner came as a complete shock.

As Greninja stood by the doorway with a dumbstruck look on his face, a tall orange weasel looking Pokémon approached him. Greg, as Greninja presumed, had two long blue fins, one on the outside of each arm, twin orange and yellow-tipped tails, and a yellow tube-like shawl that clung all the way down to Greg's waist.

"Follow me," Greg said as he slipped past Greninja. Greninja looked towards Lydia hoping for some help as he tried to process what was going on. But Lydia simply shrugged and waved him off after Greg.

Not knowing what else to do Greninja followed Greg out and up a flight of stairs, where they took a brief stroll down a hallway to a small door positioned near the end of the hall. Greg opened the door and gestured for Greninja to enter. When he did he found himself in a quaint little bathroom fully equipped with a tub, sink, and lavatory.

"You can wash up in here," Greg said and pointed towards the sink, "Hot is on the left, cold the right and when you're done grab a towel from the bask and hang it on the bar."

Greninja nodded absentmindedly as Greg gave him instructions, barely registering what he had said.

Greg not seeming to care or notice Greninja's distant state of mind decided to make his leave. "If you're all good here I'll be off," he said as he began to walk away only briefly return to tell Greninja one last thing, "Oh and don't go into the room at the end of the hall when you come back down."

Greninja nodded again and stared at the doorway for a few seconds after Greg had left. He shook his head and walked to the sink turned on the tap and splashed his face with cold water.

"Uhh. What is happening," he mumbled as water ran down his face. Everything was moving too quickly for Greninja to understand. How did he end up in Arkos? What was he doing in their house? Why was Roy acting less manhuntery? All these questions and many more buzzed around in Greninja's head, forcing him to splash more cold water on himself to drown out his thoughts.

When his mind was substantially drowned, Greninja quickly washed his hands and dried himself before hanging his towel next to the only other towel in the room. He read the initials C.F. off of the blue fabric and left wondering who's initials were sown into it. As he walked back towards the stairs he glanced down the hallway towards the room at the far end and was tempted to investigate despite, or perhaps in spite, of Greg's warning. He felt a great compulsion to enter that room and likely would have if Lydia hadn't appeared when she did.

"Hey Mr. no name," she said from above him, "You ready for dinner yet?" She asked as she descended a flight of stairs towards him

"Yeah, what's on the menu?" He asked only half seriously. He felt he was already intruding enough and that he'd simply stomach anything they gave him. Lydia smiled briefly and waved him to follow her.

"You're in luck," she said as they descended the stairs, "Roy promised to cook for us tonight. Whatever he makes is bound to be delicious!"

"So you don't know what he's making, do you?" He asked nervously.

"Well, no," she admitted, "but he's a great chief and has yet to serve a bad meal."

Greninja shrugged, he doubted that Roy had never served a bad meal, but instead of continuing on about Roy's culinary skills he decided to ask about the door Greg had warned him of.

"Oh that. Don't worry about it, that's just Carina's room. She'll come out eventually but its best to steer clear of her until she does."

"Why's that?"

"Because if you disturb her you'll have to deal with Roy and he's not very forgiving when it comes to messing with his wife."

"Noted," Greninja said. He no longer felt any compulsion to investigate that room.

They reached the main floor and walked around a corner to a large room with an almost equally large oval-shaped mahogany table. Twenty-two chairs were positioned along the table. Ten on each side and one at either end.

"Have a seat," Lydia said as she pulled out one of the end chairs for him.

"You sure I shouldn't sit somewhere else?" He asked looking out at all the empty seats.

"Well you are the guest of honor," Lydia said with a mock bow. "And besides Roy prefers to sits over at the other end anyway."

"Oh wonderful," Greninja said thinking of how lovely it will be having Roy glare at him from across the table. He didn't think he'd be able to enjoy a decent meal while receiving cold looks all night and regrettably tried to change his seat one last time.

"But what about your parents, shouldn't one of them-" he stopped talking upon glancing over at Lydia.

"Have. A. Seat," Lydia repeated, all traces of amusement had vanished from her form.

"Okay yup, you got it," Greninja said meekly as he seated himself at the head of the table.

Lydia exhaled then smiled faintly at Greninja, "I'm going to round up the rest of my family, stay here and try not to cause a scene."

"How could I-"

"I wouldn't put it past you," she said as she exited the room.

Greninja simply stared at the door Lydia had left through for a good few seconds, not quite knowing what to do while he waited for her to return. The room he was in was practically barren save the table, chairs and a painting on the wall presumably placed to imitate a view out a window. Greninja had barely glanced at the painting as he had entered the room, first believing it to simply be a window due to the quality of the artwork, but after another look, it dawned on him that the landscape was completely wrong for the building's location.

Greninja felt quite odd after looking at the painting again. There were no colorful flowers, lush green grass, snow-white mountains nor vibrant blue skies here. Yet there was something about the painting that ebbed at the back of his mind, like a memory lost to him. He rose from his seat and walked towards the artwork, hoping that a closer examination might help bring the memory to surface.

He reached out his hand and was about to touch the frame when a raspy voice came to life behind him. "I do hope you aren't planning on taking that the next time you decide to run off."

Greninja dropped his hand and turned towards the voice finding it to belong to a large blue tortoise. He noticed that the tortoise had a dark almost black shell that resembled something of a flak vest on the Pokémon's chest. His front flippers were significantly longer than his back flippers which were short and stocky and acted as his feet. Both sets of flippers had sharp dark rocks near or on their ends and every part of him seemed weather and worn, as if he'd been through countless battles throughout his life.

"I was just admiring the view," Greninja joked.

The tortoise smiled and shuffled towards the nearest chair, resting his left flipper on the back of the seat. "It is a rather lovely scene," he said kindly, "much better than the one you caused this morning," he added with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I kinda panicked for a bit," Greninja said as he slowly walked back to his seat.

The tortoise raised his right flipper and shook his head dismissively, "Think nothing of it. I probably would have done something similar if I had woken up in a strange place with no knowledge of how I'd arrived."

"How did I get here?" Greninja asked as he moved to sit down.

The tortoise was about to answer when Greg entered the room with two similar looking Pokémon following him. "Now Lorence, I thought we agreed to save all questions until dinner," Greg said smartly.

Lorence huffed and watched as Greg took his seat across from him, "I suppose that was what we agreed upon," he turned his head back to Greninja, "Sorry lad, but you'll have to wait a wee bit longer before asking questions."

"Well, I've come this far, what's a few more minutes."

"That's the spirit," Greg said as he helped a smaller weasel Pokémon into a booster seat. The small Pokémon saw Greninja watching it and waved gleefully at him. Greninja smiled and waved back, drawing Greg's attention.

"What's their name?" Greninja asked.

"That's a question," Greg said smugly.

"Dear," the second Pokémon who'd followed him in said sternly.

"Well, it is," Greg grumbled.

The second Pokémon sighed and shook her head at the ceiling. "Never mind him," she said, "I'm Delilah and that's our son Avon."

Avon smiled upon hearing his name and began a small fit of giggles.

"It's nice to meet you two," Greninja said after Avon's giggles had died down a little. Lorence coughed into his flipper drawing Greninja's attention to him. "And you too Lorence, it's nice to meet you too."

"Likewise lad," Lorence beamed, "likewise."

"Well I can't say it's been a pleasure to meet you," Greg mumbled only half attempting to let Greninja hear him. But his mediocre attempt was plenty for Greninja.

"Sorry Greg, have I done something to offend you?" Greninja asked, frost creeping into his words.

"Offend me? No you've-"

"Sweetheart, perhaps this would be best said in front of the rest of the family?" Delilah ordered more than asked.

Greg huffed. "Perhaps we should wait for them," he relented.

"Speak of the devil," Lorence said as several new faces entered the room. One Pokémon appeared to be similar in physique to Lorence yet instead of being sculpted through combat this Pokémon seemed to have only been shaped by time. Lorence addressed her as Vivian and pulled out the chair directly left of him for her to sit in.

The next two Pokémon to enter confused Greninja for a minute as he mistook them for Lydia and Mary at first glance. But upon a second look he realized the Frogadier he thought for Mary was far older than her, and the Greninja he thought was Lydia was slightly taller and had a mischievous glint in her eye that he had not seen in Lydia's.

The two introduced them as Marciel and Elena, Lydia's grandfather and elder sister. Marciel seated himself directly right of Lorence, while Elena purposely placed herself next to Greninja, sitting rather closely at his right. She seemed rather interested in learning about Greninja and how he managed to keep in such great shape until her grandfathers decided to reel her in, to which Greninja was immensely grateful for.

Not long after Elena had been silenced did Mary and Lydia come strolling in with three penguin Pokémon in tow. Two of the penguins appeared to be Empoleons, a species known for their tuxedo-like blue, black, and white bodies and the trident point rising to the top of their heads from their beaks. The third Pokémon was the prevolution to Empoleon, Prinplup. And while its evolution had a trident sprouting from its beak Prinplup had two curved edges growing from beak to head. It also lacked Empoleons tuxedo appearance and instead had a simple four-button light blue coat with royal blue flippers.

Mary and Lydia sat on Greninja's left with Lydia making a point to not sit directly next to him. Once she had made her point she introduced her Aunt Jade, Uncle Dante, and cousin Laura all of whom occupied the far end of the table.

Greninja looked at them and they back at him, neither party sure of what to say to the other. Mary did her best to try and ease the tension in the room, attempting to distract her family by recanting what she had learned in school two days ago, but her efforts were relatively fruitless.

Eventually, when the tension in the room felt like it couldn't get any higher, Roy entered carrying three plates of food on each of his arms. He then wordless slid each plate in front of one of his family members. Once he'd run out of dishes he returned to the kitchen only to come back a moment later with six more plates piled high. After those were gone he stepped into the kitchen one final time and returned with two more plates.

But instead of giving one to Greninja he placed both in front of himself and took his place at the tables head.

"Before we get started," Roy began, "there's something you should know. This family doesn't do much for free, you either pay us or owe us a favor. So...," Roy slid one of the plates forward, "what will it be?"

Greninja looked at the plate and all the colorful food piled on it and felt his stomach betray his nonexistent wallet. "What's the favor?" Greninja asked.

A ghost of a smile reached Roy's eyes, "It's nothing big, you'll just be helping me with my work for a few days. Won't take more than a week."

"A week's worth of work for a single meal? Doesn't seem very fair to me."

Roy shook his head, "No it's not. Which is why I'll offer you a week of lodging, one meal a day,-of your choice-, and any money you make with me you keep. Does that sound fair?"

Greninja looked at the food again, this time with less of an appetite. He didn't have time to spend a week working for Roy, he needed to find his friends and stop whatever it was Shade was doing here. But he also needed Lydia's help if he was going to make any leeway with that and he doubted she'd be able to help him much if he turned Roy down.

Greninja sighed, knowing that he really didn't have much of a choice. "Alright, you've got a deal."

"Excellent," Roy said. A devilish look flashed in his eyes as he slid Greninja's food across the table.

Greninja caught his plate just before it slid off the table and placed it in front of him. As he looked down at his food he realized with growing dread that he hadn't asked Roy what his job was. He could have agreed to do anything.

"Now," Roy said, breaking Greninja away from his thoughts, "let's get to know each other a bit."

"Okay. I like battling, my favorite berries are Sitrus, and I was almost a champion," Greninja said before picking up a slice of bread and digging in.

"Um, that's nice to know," Lydia said with an amused smile, "but we wanted to know where you're from, what you're up to, who you are. That sort of stuff."

"Oh," Greninja said as he put down the rest of his bread. "In that case, I'm from Lumiose City in the Kalos Region-."

Upon this revelation Roy's family began muttering amongst one another and occasionally giving Greninja odd looks. Greninja was perplexed by their behavior and was even further confused when Lorence asked, "Are you sure you're from Kalos?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure, I did spend the first fifteen years of my life there. Why do you ask?"

Lorence smiled blissfully, "It's just that I thought it was gone, I'm glad to hear it's still around."

"Why would you think it was gone?"

"That's a story for another time," Roy interjected, "right now let's focus on you. Mary mentioned that you lost your friends, how did you lose them?"

"We were traveling through the Tempests Cradle when a wave knocked me into the water. By the time I surfaced they were already out of shouting distance and couldn't turn back if they wanted to," Greninja looked at the invested faces of the Pokémon around him and continued his story.

"I tried to swim out of the cradle and to shore in case they decided to circle back after they got out of the storm. But before I could get far something attacked me," he looked directly at Roy, "Then I woke up in your house with no idea how I'd gotten here."

"We can fill that in for you," Lorence said with a nod at Greg and Elena.

With a grunt, Greg began to explain, "Elena and I were helping Lorence with repairs to his boat early this morning when we saw you clinging to the rocks at the docks,"

"Greg, aren't you forgetting the part where something threw him at the harbor and he skipped across the water before landing on the rocks?" Elena interrupted.

"Would you like to tell him what happened, Elena?" Greg shot back.

"Not yet, I'll wait until you forget something else," she said smugly as she played with some peas on her plate.

Greg muttered something unintelligible and after recovering from an under the table kick from his wife he resumed the story. "In any case, we climbed down into the water and took you back home."

"We?" Lorence asked, a smug look on his face.

"Fine! Lorence and Elena climbed down and rescued you while I objected from the ship," Greg looked at Greninja with disgust in his eyes, "This family doesn't need any more trouble and your nothing but-"

"Greg," Roy said sharply before lowering his voice, perhaps you should take a walk."

Greg held Roy's gaze for what felt like minutes but was closer to ten seconds before storming out of the house.

"I'm sorry about Greg, Roy. You know how he can be sometimes," Delilah said quietly.

"It's alright, Delilah, I know he just needs some time to get used to our guest," Roy then turned to his sister, "Elena, would you mind finishing the story?"

"No problem," she said softly, "So after we got you out of the water we dragged you through a bunch of obscure alleys until we got here. Roy told us to bring you inside and a couple of hours later you jumped out the window."

"I have to say I was pretty impressed when you gave me the slip earlier today," Roy said as he cut into some lightly browned chunk of food. "And when I came across the Backstreet Bidoofs I was even more impressed that you managed to run them off. Where did you learn to fight?"

"I learned along my journey with my friends," Greninja said absentmindedly as he stared at Elena, "You said you saw something throw me?"

"Yeah, I didn't get a good look at it because it was still somewhat dark but I definitely saw something throw you."

"It was probably just one of the guardians," Marciel declared.

"Who are the guardians?" Greninja asked.

"Nothing more than a legend," Dante said, speaking for the first time this evening. "They were conjured up centuries ago to keep adventurous children from wandering into the Tempests Cradle."

"If you say so," Marciel said with a chuckle. Dante looked like he was ready to continue this line of discussion but Lydia interjected before he could.

"Oh hush you two," she said, "we don't need a repeat of last Thursday."

Upon that comment, the two looked sheepishly at their plates while many of their family members failed to suppress their laughter.

"Yes, thank you, Lydia," Roy said as the laughter died out around him. "Perhaps we should focus more on our guest and less on our different viewpoints?"

"You're right, Roy," Marciel said, "and I have a question for our guest."

"What would that be?" Greninja asked as he tried to conceal the fact that his mouth was stuffed with the strange light brown mass of food.

"Who's this foxy lady?" Marciel asked, holding up Greninja's picture of Braixen.

Greninja practically choked on his food.

"How'd you get that!?" Greninja demanded upon recovering from his near death experience.

"Found it lying in the hallway, you really should be more careful with your stuff," he said with a mischievous smile. It was obvious to everyone that Marciel had pinched the photo off of Greninja, but no one felt like calling him out on it.

"Could I have it back, please?" Greninja asked as he held out his hand, "It's of an old friend I haven't seen in awhile."

Marciel grinned and held it a bit farther in front of himself, pretending as if he were examining the photo. "Yeah sure, I understand why you want it back right away. Why if I had someone as good looking as her in my life, well a picture wouldn't be the first thing I'd want from her," He said with hungry eyes.

"GRANDFATHER!" Lydia and Elena exclaimed.

"What?" He whined.

"You shouldn't say such things!" Elena said as she and her sister glared down their grandfather.

"But look at her, she's dynamite," He said as he showed Lorence the photo, to which Lorence subtlety nodded in agreement.

"What's wrong with what grandpa said?" Mary asked, looking innocently and cluelessly at her family.

"I'll explain to you when you're older sweetheart," Vivian said to her great-granddaughter.

"And as for you!" She said as she snatched the photo from Marciel's hand, "I'll kindly ask that you keep all of your tomfoolery out of our grandchildren's lives and-, My! She is quite lovely," she declared upon glancing at the photo.

"Really?" Elena asked, her focus shifting from raging at her grandfather to checking out the hottie in the photo. "Oh wow, she is really pretty. Aunt Jade, Uncle Dante you've got to see her," Elena beckoned to her Aunt and Uncle.

"Wow, you weren't joking. Hey Delilah, Laura, come take a look," Jade said after she and Dante had gotten a good look.

"Can I see too?" Mary asked as her family crowded around the photo.

"Here ya go cousin," Laura said as she passed the photo across the table.

"Ooooh," Mary said as she stared down at the photo in her hand. "Lydia look she's really pretty! Do you think she's his girlfriend?"

"I don't know but I think he might want his photo back now," Lydia said, gesturing towards a brightly blushing Greninja.

"If you wouldn't mind," he said, his voice ringing with embarrassment.

"Oh, here you go," Mary said passing the photo to Lydia who took a moment to hand it to Greninja.

"She looks alright, but I doubt she's his girlfriend," she said upon handing Greninja his photo.

"She's not. We're just friends," Greninja said as he hastily hid the photo in his gloves.

"Well in any case," Roy said drawing attention away from Greninja, "it's been a long day and we have much to do tomorrow. So I think it's about time that we and our guest hit the sack."

"About that," Elena began, "where is he going to sleep?"

"And I've got one more question," Vivian declared, "What's his name? I mean we can't keep referring to him as 'our guest' he needs a proper name."

Roy sighed internally, "First, Elena, he can sleep in the study on the sofa until we can make a proper place for him... no, he can't bunk with you until then," Roy said as Elena began to open her mouth.

"Fine," she grumbled.

"And Second, he's made it clear that he wishes to be called Greninja, and yes I know it's ridiculous but that is what he wishes to be called so that's what we'll address him as-"

"Oh, thanks Roy I-," Greninja said.

"-at home," Roy finished, "But outside of our house we need to call him something more... normal. Anyone got any ideas?"

"Terance?" Vivian suggested.

"No thanks," Greninja replied.

"Arthur?" Lorence offered but quickly retracted upon seeing the pain that name caused Greninja.

"How 'bout Aldrich, we could call you Al for short," Dante suggested.

"No, he looks more like a Victor or a Cyrus," Lorence stated.

"Perhaps we should call him Will for his tenacity and ability to survive?" Marciel prompted.

"Lydia, what do you think?" Mary asked, looking curiously at her elder sister.

"I think I got it," she said after a moment of silence.

"Well? What's his name going to be?" Roy said as if Lydia's decision were to be the final say.

"I think his name should be Satoshi," she said finitely. Her name choice caused a bit of murmuring among her family as all but Lorence were puzzled by her decision.

"Ah, I see," Lorence said with a chuckle, "that's most noble and appropriate."

"How's Satoshi, noble and appropriate?" Mary asked.

"My dear the name Satoshi is a name of great honor. It dates back millennia to ancient Kalos, it's the name of a warrior who stood defiant against tyranny fought countless battles to protect his friends. And I imagine our friend here would do the same."

Greninja smiled and looked at Lydia gratefully, "Thanks, you picked a great name."

"You're welcome," she said as she sassily cleared her dishes and left the table. "Besides I thought a strange foreigner deserved a strange foreign name."

"Good night, Lydia," Roy smirked as she exited the room.

"Night everyone," she called as she climbed the stairs.

The rest of her family followed her lead until it was only Greninja and Roy left sitting in the dining room.

"Well, I'd best get some rest," Greninja said as he began to rise.

"Yes, you should. You're in for a hard night tomorrow and you'll need your rest."

"Right... what exactly is it that I agreed to?"

Roy waved a dismissive hand, "I'll explain everything in due time, until then you should head upstairs to the second floor and make yourself comfortable in the second room on the right."

"Alright, thanks, Roy. Night."

"Good night, Satoshi," Roy said with a faint smile.

——————————————————————
It's been awhile since I updated anything, so sorry about that 😅. I've added a bunch of new characters and have a few more on the way, and it takes me a little while to get them sorted out in my head.

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I had fun with the whole photo fiasco and I hope you guys did too. And I know some of you had different names you wanted me to give Greninja but I think this one will work with me best.

I hope to see you all in the next chapter and thanks for reading 😁.