Xiaomei froze. "You are...?"
The woman took off the mask on her head, revealing her face. Only then did Xia You see that she was a short-haired woman about Xiaomei's age, both around twenty-four or twenty-five.
"It's me, Xiaomei! It's been so long!"
"Oh my!" Recognizing her, Xiaomei's eyes lit up with delight. "Gloria! Since we graduated from the Mandolin Branch School, it's been five whole years since we last saw each other, hasn't it?"
"Yes." Gloria smiled. "After all this time apart, I never thought we'd meet at a time like this!"
Despite her happiness at seeing her friend, Xiaomei looked over her strange clothes in puzzlement. "What's with that outfit?"
"The festival, of course!" Gloria waved a hand. "Our annual festival starts today. It's a big day for everyone here on Shamouti Island!"
"Oh, is it that time already?" Xiaomei said in realization. "Then are you still dressing up as the festival's priestess and playing the flute like before?"
As she spoke, Xiaomei mimed holding a flute to her lips.
Their conversation made it easy to tell that they were close-at the very least, they were friends who knew each other well.
But the Mandolin Branch School?
Xia You had never heard that name. It was probably some sort of university unrelated to Pokémon.
"I retired ages ago," Gloria said. "I'm not a kid anymore, after all. My little sister is the festival girl now."
With that, she tried to wave her sister over, but when she looked around, she could find no sign of her.
"Huh? Where did she go?"
Just then, a girl appeared atop the seawall, having climbed up there at some point.
"I don't want to be some festival girl!" Looking down at everyone with her hands on her hips, the girl complained, "You