"Sorry for the trouble, Professor."
"Leave it to me. This much I can still help you with. Once you get back, get ready to leave for Sinnoh. If you get delayed again this time, you really will have to wait until next year.
"I'll arrange leave for your classes and everything else."
For any Pokémon Trainer, taking part in a Regional Conference was an entirely legitimate reason to request leave. Unless someone held a personal grudge, there was no reason to refuse.
Under normal circumstances, nobody would put obstacles in their way over this. You never knew what kind of results someone might achieve at a Regional Conference.
If they did well enough, there would be a reckoning afterward.
Lü Ming still had plenty to deal with. He had no idea how they had been swept into a space-time passage, but having vanished for two months with several students, he would have to give the administration a proper report.
No matter how you looked at it, this had been a serious blunder. They had simply managed to salvage the situation in time.
Thankfully, Sylveon hadn't come along this time. Otherwise, the two Umbreon would have started wondering just what Xin Mu had been doing with their child.
Although two months really had passed here, for Xin Mu and the others, it had only been two days. They hadn't experienced any particularly long journey.
Back home, Squirtle wanted to slack off as usual, but Meownei dragged him into the Backyard. Then he watched as Meownei planted a beach umbrella in the ground and pulled Xin Mu beneath it to look at him.
"Squirtle? (What? It's been so long that there's nothing but frozen food left in the fridge. Shouldn't you be going out to restock?)"
"Meow. (That can wait. Make some