Monday morning.
At home in Jubilife Pokémon Theme Park.
"I'm off to work, then."
"I'd better head to work too."
Li Wei and Cynthia shared a gentle embrace.
Cynthia was heading to work on Lily of the Valley Island.
Li Wei also had to return to teach at the Pokémon School in Alola.
Through Hoopa's ring, Li Wei went straight from his home to the villa on Melemele Island.
Li Wei was humming a tune as he arrived for class.
Suddenly, he noticed something was wrong.
Ash, Kiawe, and the others weren't chatting?
As for the atmosphere in Ash's classroom,
to put it in a homeroom teacher's usual words,
"I can hear your class talking from the other end of the hall. You're the loudest class in the whole year."
Today, however, Ash and the others seemed shrouded in gloom. They hadn't even noticed Li Wei arriving at the door.
Knock, knock-
Li Wei curled his fingers and knocked on the door.
"Mr. Li Wei!"
Returning to the classroom after his short break, Li Wei immediately sensed that something was off.
A heavy mood hung over the usually lively classroom. Even Pikachu lay listlessly on Ash's shoulder.
"What's wrong, everyone?"
The classroom fell silent for a moment.
Finally, Lana spoke softly.
"Mr. Li Wei, that Stoutland we met in the forest... Stoutland passed away."
They hadn't met Stoutland just once.
Ash and the others had later visited the abandoned villa in the forest again, where Litten and Stoutland had been living.
But after Persian's attack, Stoutland and his feline companion had moved out of the abandoned villa.
They had then moved beneath a bridge in Hau'oli City, while Stoutland's condition had worsened day by day.
Li Wei had expected this.
From the beginning, Li Wei and Pokédex Rotom had