kyle was in the process of tying a sash on the sleeves of his kimono when mateo notices it. it was sloppy, but practicality goes before aesthetic this time. as soon as he's done, he takes out his phone and barks an order at the local security in charge for the festival on the other end.

"put a halt on the festival. send people soon. i'm taking preliminary action." he lets go of his phone afterwards, which floats beside him thanks to the rotom inhabiting it, before turning to mateo. "let's go then!"

he starts to weave through the crowds in the festival forcibly, with most of the people enjoying their time and unable to comprehend the situation they would be facing. he'd rather have it that way, as interference from hoenn's rather heroically inclined people tend to clash their nonexistent plans with the protocol.

the pain of walking with wooden sandals starts to be apparent as he forces himself to walk faster with it. he starts to wonder how mateo got used to wearing these kinds of apparel before.

"did you bring any water-types?" kyle asks as he goes, expecting mateo to be near him. "cause i definitely did not."

as they approach, kyle sees that no other people are nearby the temple. he figures that the perpetrators must have tried to run away. he'd still want to check inside to be safe, however.

"i have a houndoom right now," he tells mateo. "that's close enough, right?"

he fully expected ghost-types to be the one causing trouble than a fire, but at least his houndoom was applicable for both scenarios. he takes his pokemon out of its ball as soon as they reach the lesser crowded area

"i'm going in." he tells mateo as he lets his houndoom lead the way inside. he stops just before he enters the temple, turning to mateo with a quick reminder. "you better follow after you've put out the flames from outside."

he's going to regret wearing his kimono for the day, with how much it costed him. he grumbles as he laments on his life choices that led him to the path of public service.

"let's go." with his houndoom, he enters the burning building.

he pulls the collar of his kimono over his nose to protect him from inhaling smoke. he goes through a spiraling staircase of the three-story tall temple with his houndoom leading the way. as they reach the top, kyle finds no person. a bark form his houndoom confirms so.

"we're clear!" he yells mateo behind him. "no person in here."

he stops though, and takes a look at the topmost floor. he wonders what was the point of a temple having an empty room, until he sees an altar of sorts on one corner. an artifact lies on a cushion on top of it, wherein kyle notes similarities with the bells he'd use on johto's brass tower.

"im taking that. it looks important." for a moment, he ignores the flames and goes for it, grabbing it.

as kyle exits the temple, voices of people muttering to one another from the outside start to mingle between the cackling of the flames inside. backup had arrived, although the preliminary check of the building has already been carried out by both kyle and mateo. he makes a mental note to talk to the one in charge to make it clear.

"i'm just wearing a shirt next time," he grumbled as he stares at this soot blackened kimono. "i wanna head back home now."

he stares ahead and watches the rest of the festival die down after the chaos. a lot of people crowd the burning temple as curiosity gets the most of them, while he sees other vendors close down for the day too early.

"wait, are they closing the stalls?" his voice was laced with disappointment, before he shrugs and returns to his usual deadpan tone. "guess that means we head back home."

they'd still need to brief the security in charge of what had happened though.