Payapa and Anana steadily made their way toward the shanty housing on the far edge of the city. They were going to see if any of the kids had any interest in a game of hide-and-seek. Payapa suggested early on in their conversation that Rionna not be allowed to play with them, and Anana hastily agreed. Even though they could both hide extraordinarily well thanks to their abilities, Payapa reasoned that using auras to track Pokemon was definitely cheating and absolutely not allowed in their game.

Despite it being a natural ability.

Anana wanted to point out the hypocrisy, but she let it slide. It was just important that she and her sister have fun together. She didn’t want to worry about a fight over something she didn’t care that much about, anyway. Maybe one of the other kids would point this out to Payapa instead, and that would be fine. Anana really didn’t want to be the object of her sister’s agitation. No one ever did. It tended to last days...

Anana quickly changed the subject, feeling uneasy at the mere prospect of correcting her sister. “Quiz time! Name all the purple Pokemon on the list!”

Payapa groaned. “I’m so freakin tired of that! It’s been like... two weeks, and I still can’t even name like half of em.”

“Come on... give it a shot? Just try!”

“Ugggh... Okay, let’s see...Ekans, Arbok... Boy Nidoran and those ones... That stupid cat whose name I forget, and it has like purple--well, yeah, okay, don’t look at me like that! I know you said purple, but it’s not like there aren’t other cats too! There’s Meowth, and that was definitely on the list. I know it’s not purple! I’m just saying! It was Purrloin. That was the purple cat.”

“Yeah, keep going!”

Payapa squished her head between her claws. “I don’t know! I’m not some sort of color indexer! Gimme a list of all the Pokemon, or show me one, and I can say “yes” or “no” but I can’t freakin name like 100 out of nowhere!”

Anana sensed she was pressing too close to the point where the rest of the day would be a downhill ride, so she eased up. “Okay. Maybe later I can make a big list and we can do it like that.”

“Oh geez, I wasn’t being serious. Well, I mean, I could definitely pick them off a list, but I don’t really wanna study that bad. Besides, what if this list isn’t all totally right? Then it’s like we’re doing it for no reason.”

Apparently, that their father could be wrong about hadn’t really dawned on Anana yet. “What... but he wouldn’t make us memorize all these for nothing! Daddy just wouldn’t do that!”

They crossed through back alleys and over heaps of rubbish, nearing their destination. They would probably be able to find Chulo, Gail, and the others out here if they looked around a bit. Those particular kids never strayed too far from their home base, a tiny underground hole serving as a house. Payapa let the silence unnerve Anana, though in reality she herself was pretty convinced that their dad had given them a complete and thorough list. He had later explained that these were all heavily documented fertile pairs. Whether or not he was lying or correct or whatever, that meant nothing to Payapa. She just liked to be contrary about doing things she found no immediate reason to do, and Anana suffering an insecurity about the world and her place in it was just sometimes part of the consequences.

Before much longer, the Kecleon pair arrived at the approximate spot of the other kids’ hideout.

=======

Part 12 of "Complementaries:

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