Sinnoh.
The birthplace of all things, the only land with a path to where the Creator God slept.
If he hadn't come to resolve an incident,
Baimu would have loved to take his time exploring it.
"So you called Ash too?"
"Yeah."
Dawn nodded hesitantly, then managed a faint smile. "I just couldn't find Piplup. Officer Jenny didn't have any leads either."
They were in Twinleaf Town, a small town in western Sinnoh and Dawn's hometown.
Nearly ten hours had passed since someone had inexplicably taken Piplup. Her worry was entirely understandable.
If someone had taken Aggron or the others, Baimu would probably have reacted even more strongly.
"Don't worry. I know where Piplup is."
Baimu's calm, assured expression gave Dawn, whose eyes brimmed with tears, a powerful sense of relief.
When his words sank in, Dawn sprang to her feet and asked in delighted disbelief, "You found Piplup? Thank you so much!"
Dawn had reached out to Baimu from so far away because she trusted how mature, dependable, and resourceful he had always been.
And he really did have an answer!
"Hold on. I only know where Piplup is."
Baimu put a hand on Dawn's shoulder to steady her. Without keeping her in suspense, he said, "If I'm right, your counterpart from a Parallel World took Piplup."
A Parallel... World?
Dawn froze, bewilderment and disbelief written all over her face, like a cat with a rainbow blooming behind it.
Strange new knowledge acquired.jpg!
She suddenly remembered what Officer Jenny had said when she went to her for help: similar incidents had been happening frequently lately.
"Holes" opened out of nowhere, and people who emerged from them took residents' Pokémon. Those people looked remarkably like the ones who reported the thefts.
Putting it all together, Dawn, who had seen plenty