At Hapu's house,
Kiawe, Lana, and Sophocles were waiting.
"Where's Hapu?"
Hapu had already ridden off on Mudsdale.
Lana shook her head. "She said she was going to find Ash and the others and told us to stay here and not leave."
Li Wei guessed she had gone to find Tapu Fini. "Then I think I know where she is."
Since Li Wei had already told them not to worry too much about Ash and the others, Kiawe and his friends weren't particularly worried.
Meanwhile,
in Tapu Fini's mist, a blurry yet familiar figure gradually appeared before Torracat...
Torracat stopped and stared ahead. Emerging from the thick mist was the Stoutland Torracat missed so dearly...
"That's Stoutland..."
Watching Torracat affectionately rub cheeks with Stoutland, Ash and Pikachu exchanged startled looks.
Ash and Pikachu had witnessed Stoutland's passing. Ash had even helped bury Stoutland there.
But a Stoutland who was so affectionate with Torracat could only be the one who had raised Torracat.
Had Ash thought back carefully, he would have remembered what Li Wei had said about Tapu Fini's mist.
But that never even crossed Ash's mind.
"Oh well, why overthink it?"
Not wanting to interrupt Torracat and Stoutland's tender reunion, Ash couldn't be bothered to puzzle it out.
Meanwhile,
"Mallow."
Mallow had been calling for Ash and the others, but she stopped in her tracks upon hearing the voice that had haunted her dreams.
The woman emerging from the mist was Mallow's mother. She wore the very same clothes she had worn when taking Mallow on walks, looking exactly as Mallow remembered her.
"Mom!"
At the sight of her mother, Mallow couldn't help rushing forward to embrace her, with Tsareena following close behind.
"You've grown up, Mallow."
"You too, Tsareena."
It had been Mallow's mother who caught Bounsweet.
Seeing