Chapter 32

Bede, Marnie, and Hop are on the train to the Crown Tundra when they’re approached by Peonia, who begs for their help because someone is chasing after her. The rivals each give her a piece of clothing for her to use to disguise herself just in time for Peony to walk into their train car. He asks them if they’ve seen Nia and Hop says she’s in the next car, so he moves on. After he leaves, Nia explains that she wanted to go explore the Max Lair, but her dad invited himself along. He put together his own plan for an adventure that they could do together, but she’s not interested in it. Bede wishes he could go on an adventure with Chairman Rose like that, so when Peony returns to the car looking for Nia, Bede rips off her disguise, earning him an intense side-eye from Hop. Peony leaves with his daughter, and Marnie muses that she feels bad for her.

Upon arriving in the Crown Tundra, the rivals run into Peony and Nia again, and Marnie makes a request of Peony: if one of them beats him in a battle, he has to let Nia explore the tundra freely. He accepts the challenge, and Bede volunteers to fight, but Marnie says he’ll just lose on purpose. So, she sends out her Morgrem to face his Copperajah, and they start to battle.

Meanwhile, over at the Master Dojo, the residents of the dojo are shocked to discover that Schilly and Marvin aren’t new students. They apologize for jumping to conclusions, and Schilly explains what they’re looking for. Mustard recognizes the name Soudo, but Sou – who’s peeking on the conversation – gestures for Mustard not to reveal him. Honey invites them to treat the dojo like their second home, while Mustard asks Schilly to take care of Kubfu. She declines, however, since she already has six Pokémon. So, Mustard calls out to Sou and tells him to take care of Kubfu instead. Sou reluctantly reveals himself, side-eying Mustard, who grins and throws up peace signs.

Schilly and Marvin are delighted to have found Sou already, and Schilly starts planning for their next steps – finding the rusted weapons and an antidote for the Gym Leaders’ poison. However, Sou is still reluctant to come with her. He apologizes for preventing them from protecting the region, and Schilly dismisses his behavior as an effect of the poison. However, Sou reminds her that he gets hyperfocused when it comes to gear, being unable to see anything beyond what he wants to do, so he probably would’ve done the same thing even without the poison. Schilly says that she knows that he gets tunnel vision when it comes to gear, she’s seen him do it, but she never said anything about his behavior – even if it was something she didn’t like him doing – because she didn’t want to make him unhappy. So, as his friend, she apologizes for not speaking up when she thought he was doing something bad. Sou starts to argue with her, but Mustard interrupts, reminding them that their goal is to calm Eternatus and restore peace to Galar, and they can save the self-reflection for afterwards.

Checking her tablet, Schilly notices that she has a message from Oleana – one of the ingredients they need for the antidote to Eternatus’s poison is “sap harvested on a foggy morning” from the Isle of Armor, so she’d like them to acquire some. Hyde comments that there was nectar in the antidote they gave to Sou, but Marvin says that’s different from sap. Klara suggests that they can find the sap in the Forest of Focus, and Avery volunteers to use his psychic powers to search for where to find the sap.

Chapter 33

The chapter begins with Avery showing off his telekinesis to throw a Poké Ball. However, Klara, Schilly, and Marvin aren’t impressed, wounding Avery’s pride. Sou thinks the power has its applications, though, and demonstrates this by having everyone try to catch an Abra sitting in the grass a long way away. Only Avery’s telekinetically thrown Poké Ball travels far enough to catch the Abra. Sou points out that being able to catch or battle a Pokémon from any distance is a useful skill, which makes Avery incredibly happy. With that demonstration of his abilities over, Avery says they should rest for the night, and pray there’s fog in the morning.

Upon returning to the dojo, Sou’s long hair gets caught in the front door, leading Schilly to decide they need to do something about it. Since there’s no salon on the island, Klara volunteers to style Sou’s hair for him. Klara styles his hair into a bun, which Schilly is so impressed with that she asks Klara to do it for her, too. While Schilly is getting her hair done, Mustard offers them outfits to suit their new hairstyles – dojo uniforms to wear while they’re on the island. He offers a uniform to Marvin, too, but Marvin declines.

Meanwhile, in the Crown Tundra, Marnie is getting flattened by Peony because of the type disadvantage, which Nia and Bede are lowkey judging her for. However, she reveals that she was waiting for Morgrem to gain enough experience to evolve into Grimmsnarl, allowing it to throw off Copperajah’s attack and defeat it with Hammer Arm. Peony accepts his defeat and allows Nia to head off to the Max Lair, and she promises to come back and hang with him once she’s done. Peony comments that after seeing how happy she is, he’s glad he lost, but he laments that the exploration tour he planned for the two of them is gonna go to waste. Bede volunteers to do the tour with him in her place, and Hop reminds him that they have an important mission to do. However, Marnie says that it’d be a good idea to go with him on the tour, since they don’t know anything about the tundra or where to start searching, and this tour gives them an excuse to explore the whole tundra. Bede claims that that was his thinking all along, and Hop is skeptical but agrees to join them. Peony says that they can join him until Nia returns, and they head to Freezington, along the way receiving a message from Schilly that she found Sou.