The jet cut cleanly through the cloud layer, its engines humming with a steady, controlled rhythm that should have been comforting.
Cyrus didn't feel comforted.
He sat by the window, seatbelt loose, jacket folded across his lap. Ditto rested against his collarbone in the shape of a soft blue scarf, unusually still. Even Gengar, who normally treated flights like an opportunity to phase through walls and scare staff, had chosen to stay in his ball.
That alone felt wrong.
The cabin lights flickered once.
Just once.
Then stabilized.
Cyrus didn't react — not outwardly — but his eyes lifted from the cloud cover below.
"…Hoopa," he said quietly.
No response.
He waited.
The air near the aisle seat bent, just barely. Not enough to be seen, but enough to feel — like pressure changing before a storm.
"Yes~?" came the sing-song voice, soft and almost polite.
Cyrus didn't turn his head. "Did you cause this assignment?"
A pause.
Not dramatic. Not theatrical.
Just… thoughtful.
"…Nope~!"
Cyrus frowned. "That was fast."
"I didn't pull this string," Hoopa said, voice drifting lazily around the cabin. "Not this one. Cities choose their own problems."
Cyrus absorbed that. "But you knew about it."
A faint giggle. "Hoopa knows lots of things."
"That's not comforting."
"It's not meant to be~"
The jet lurched gently — turbulence, the pilot's voice crackling calmly over the intercom a moment later. Normal. Expected.
Still, Cyrus's fingers curled slightly against the armrest.
"You didn't wake the Titan," he said slowly. "But you wanted it awake."
"Mmm~ yes."
"You didn't crack its shell."
"Mmm~ no."
"But you didn't stop it either."
A longer pause this time.
Hoopa's voice came softer. Almost honest.
"Pain makes old things move again."
Cyrus exhaled through his nose. "That's not an answer."
"It's the best one you get."
The clouds beneath the jet began to thin.
At first it was just vague color — pale glows bleeding upward through white. Then shapes. Light. Structure.
Cyrus leaned forward.
The world below split cleanly in two.
On the left, Divide City bloomed.
Not buildings at first, a forest. Massive glowing trees rose like cathedral pillars, their bark etched with bioluminescent veins of teal and lavender. Mushrooms the size of houses dotted the streets between elegant spires, their caps glowing softly in pinks and blues. Ferns shimmered as if dusted with starlight, and the grass itself was a warm rose hue, rippling as Fairy-type Pokémon flitted between rooftops and terraces.
Sylveon ribboned through the air like living banners. Clefairy gathered on balconies. Light reflected gently, warmly lit, a city that felt welcoming.
Alive.
Then Cyrus's gaze drifted right.
The color died.
The other half of Divide City was swallowed by shadowed growth — tall, skeletal trees with bark like blackened iron. Thick vines coiled around stone towers, glowing faintly in reds and sickly yellows, pulsing like slow heartbeats. The grass below was grey and brittle, bending toward the darkness instead of away from it.
Dark-type Pokémon moved there, Umbreon watching from rooftops, Murkrow perched in rows like judges, Sableye eyes glinting from alley shadows.
The architecture mirrored the other side...same streets, same spires... but twisted, sharpened, grim.
One city.
Two ecosystems.
Two moods.
Cyrus swallowed.
"…This place is wrong," he murmured.
Hoopa hummed cheerfully. "It's balanced~"
"That's not balance," Cyrus said. "That's tension."
"Exactly~!"
The jet descended slowly now, angling toward the brighter half first.
Cyrus pressed his forehead lightly against the window.
"If you didn't cause this," he said quietly, "then why follow me here?"
Hoopa's presence drifted closer — not oppressive, not threatening. Curious.
"Because," it said lightly, "you keep walking where old stories wake up."
Cyrus closed his eyes for a second.
When he opened them, Divide City filled the horizon — light and dark braided together, waiting.
Hoopa giggled, delighted and restrained all at once.
"Don't worry~ Hoopa promised to behave."
Cyrus didn't answer.
The jet broke through the last cloud layer.
And Divide City rose to meet them.