"You can talk as much as you want." Chu-e replies to Eris Halla easily. As many memes and jokes might be made, he really didn't mind children as much as some other Rockets might. They could be useful and very creative in their approach to problem solving. Plus, rarely did people expect them to participate in some of the more gruesome acts that their ilk usually relished in. They were good for surprises if you could shape them how you wanted them.

"You can still get arrested for assisting in the cover up of a murder if you help hide a body, even if you didn't kill them yourselves. You can still identify them with bones. And," He pauses, for dramatic effect, because Chu-e was just kind of like that. "I usually feed them to my own pokemon. Strong acid also works well since it will dissolve bones if you leave them in long enough. But that's only if you don't want evidence to be found." He said, almost sagely.

His own pokemon was carrying him as well. A steadfast Galarian Rapidash. Chu-e was sadly a weak and sickly man. That meant he often had trouble doing even simple tasks around his house on his own, risking getting winded and tired. There was no way in hell he would be able to hike up Mt. Pyre on his own.

"Pop quiz." He starts again, glancing at Eris. "We're up here looking for a body. Why is it up here and why is it important we find it?" Eris was impressionable and young. If she was going to fit in with Rocket, she needed to be made into something great. The first step of that was making sure she paid attention to context clues in mission reports.

"You're right in why we're here." He hums, the picture of patience; Chu-e might have been known in Rocket for many things but it was never for harming children. Even a cold blooded killer needed to have some lines they wouldn't cross. If Eris Halla ever feared being around anyone, it didn't need to be him. He would kill to make sure a hair wasn't bothered, would do what was needed to be a gentle hand. He had been trying to be a father at one point in his life, after all; may as well put all those parenting books and sleepless nights to good use.

"We are but we aren't. Rocket doesn't work for free; we can't afford to always do charity. But, that man's family turned to us because the League couldn't do their jobs and find him. Even if we only find a body, we're giving that family closure." He wondered what she thought of that; Chu-e had read her file and knew a few very bare basics. An orphan of Kanto. Did she ever get closure like that?

"That's a pain you'll have to carry for a long time." Because even if Chu-e was kinder to children, he saw no reason to lie to Eris Halla. To baby her too much to the realities of the world. She was young and had already been through so much- lying to her just to spare her feelings would be a disservice to everything she had been through. "What matters more than the pain itself is what you do with it in the end." This he spoke from experience, a different kind of ache. His own reaction had been to rage and hurt and make those around him feel as bad as he did. Chu-e was a different person now. He knew there wasn't a point in that. It would all be up to Eris in the end, and how she processed it.

The girl seemed to want to change the subject, though, and he would allow it. No use in forcing the subject right now.

"Those are good places to start. Do you have any pokemon that can fly? Or are very small? I can send my Swellow out to check the cliffs for us. No reason to risk falling off ourselves." Already, he plucked a pokeball from his pocket and called the blue bird pokemon out. "The lava might be harder... if he fell in, then there wouldn't be anything left for us to find."

Since it was going to be an electric rat party, Chu-e plucked another pokeball from his pocket and called out a Dedenne. She sniffed at the other two mouse pokemon before rushing to chase after them, more than willing to help dig or search or do whatever was needed. Swellow, meanwhile, also flew off to go and search the cliffs.

"A few people, yeah." Again, he saw no sense in lying to Eris Halla. "My family, in a way, and then my husband when he passed away. It hurt a lot. Just thinking of his favorite pokemon made me cry. Do you ever feel like that?" His own prodding. Chu-e didn't want to particularly treat Eris like glass but he couldn't talk to her the same way he might an adult. How he might try and talk to, say, Cillian Quinn if he found him crying or upset. She needed a different kind of hand.

"Yeah, that makes it worse. You feel like you lack that closure." Chu-e also knew this from experience. Sometimes you didn't get to say goodbye. Sometimes you didn't even know that the last time you smiled at them or gave them a kiss on the cheek would be the last time you saw them forever. It wasn't fair and it sucked. It felt horrible.

"In Unova, there's the area where it gets really hot and causes wildfires. So there are places that burn down every year or so. But, after it's all over, those areas thrive. They build up on everything left behind in the ashes of it." His Dedenne ran over, tugging at his pants leg and dropping a gaudy, golden ring at his feet.

"That's kind of where you're at now. You've been burned down to nothing. It shouldn't have happened that way, but you have a choice now. You can come back from this stronger than you ever could have been before. You can thrive."

He leans over and picks up the ring, turns it over in his hands. It's charred, so he clicks his tongue before putting it in his pocket.

"We got a hit. I'll call in the Grunts to collect what's left." He offered his hand to her, if Eris Halla was inclined to take it. "I can get you the good shit. Let's go build something your parents would have been proud of."