It was around the base of Mount Chimney where things had started for the two of them. Where they had been paired together on a mercenary trainer job, and Josh had flirted with her incessantly as a young man. And boy, had he been forward. Crazy to think that had been about six or seven years ago. He had flirted, and flirted, and been just so crazy forward. And then they became best friends. Then boyfriend and girlfriend. And then got married. And then had kids. And now they were back here. Who would have thouught?

Izumi was terrified to climb this mountain, but had asked him to come along. He'd brought some Pokemon with him, but the kids were under the care of his mother. He'd brought goggles as asked, and handed them to her when he met with her (why can't they just go somewhere together when travelling for a change? It would be less lonely) before looking up at the mountain.

"Das gonna be a long climb."

“I know it’s going to be a very long climb,” she remarked as she reached for the goggles and snapped them on snugly.

“That, and I also wanted to dwell on what we did here that very first time, long ago. Like… don’t you remember how it ended? It was really… sobering, to say the least,” she added quietly as she approached him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

“No, really…” she continued as she then turned to face the route they were going to tackle. No bikes today, nothing to make this easy. This was going to be hard work from the both of them, and it was incredibly profound.

“Also… sorry if I got here ahead of you,” she added quietly as she waited for him to catch up with her. They weren’t taking the road today, no. Not in the slightest, because that would be too much of a frame advantage now…

Josh nodded his head as he handed a pair of goggles to the Raichu beside him. It made sense to bring Lightning, right? When they had met, the Electric Mouse was just a Pichu. He had been present when they had met, and if they were to tackle something like this together, it was symbolic. Not to mention that Lightning's abilities would be benefitial if they happened to fall. Josh didn't have to worry about the Raichu's climbing ability, he was a better climber than they were.

"Sobering, was it?" he teased as he smiled at her affections, meeting her with a peck on the cheek of his own. "Do tell" he brought up. Perhaps he knew, perhaps he didn't remember. He wanted her to say it either way.

This was going to be tough, though. No bikes, and all. He took a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders as she made comments about getting ahead of him. "Why don't we just leave the house together from here on?" he suggested as he would get to stepping. "Would certainly be easier to meet at home, and make the journey a bit less lonely. And how often do we get quality time together, aye?"

“Look, I never believed I would have to face something like that, you know,” she muttered quietly as she found a handhold and began to pull herself up.

Since her movement style was more parkour-based, it was easier to pick out places to wedge her hands and feet into without missing a beat.

“Death… and ending. It really… made me stop and reconsider quite a lot of things, you know,” she added a few moments later as she was now juggling keeping her balance as well as trying to find the next foot hold. Why did they decide on doing this without taking the easy way up?

It offered them more time to think, that’s what.

“How come it hasn’t affected you?” she inquired of her husband, leaning over to check that he was managing the climb alright. “You know… what we saw in here. Back then. Or do you have nightmares about it?”

The wind of the mountain was... Well, it was quite something. Josh had gone through this road before, many years ago. But that was years ago. It was definitely a new wind now. And perhaps he had repressed those memories from years ago, the ones that had given Izumi pause. The moment she brought up that she didn't think they'd need to fight something like that though, he shivered slightly.

It was starting to come back. But it didn't stop him. Josh had always been a strong climber and a strong athlete. His background on the ranch he had grown up on had made sure he had a head start with this kind of thing. And his years as a Trainer after that only made him even more suitable for the task. He found a handhold quickly, as he climbed while listening to his wife reflect on their past adventure.

She asked if it affected him, and if he had nightmares about it. He shrugged his shoulders, though when he looked to her, it was clear it had been on his mind for at least a bit. "I try not to think about it. I've seen a lot of things" he answered. "But... While I've seen a lot of shit. Including here. I just hope it doesn't come back."

Once she had moved up to the next overhang, she let herself dangle in mid-air for a few moments before swinging her feet up into another comfortable position. Looking down from where she currently hung onto said overhang, she sighed.

“You too, huh? Wait… what day is it today?” she pondered out loud. Honestly, the day that they’d taken that one particular mission was… one for the ages.

She remembered how the old lady had come to them and looked on the verge of collapse, not having heard from her husband in quite a while. The sight that had met them in the very back of the heated cavern made her skin crawl for days on end.

It had taken a while for her to scrub all the damned sulfur out of her skin after they had gotten back and delivered the memento that the old lady was looking for.

“Don’t… don’t you think it was… today? When we agreed to take the job, all those years ago?” she hummed presently, waiting for him to catch up to where she was.

"No clue" he admitted. He hadn't really considered the exact day they had taken that job. I mean, was it really a surprise? If he had been repressing the memory for so long, surely he wasn't keeping track of when it was. He wanted to forget everything about it. He thought for a moment on what it was, as he would leap upwards from his foothold to grab a higher up rung with little issue. His height was an advantage at that. Lightning was a cheat and would climb up Josh's back to get to another rung. He smirked lightly.

"Cheeky mouse."

He still tried not to imagine the sights they had found in that cave. "Not sure" came again, as he looked to Izumi. He took a breath, trying to collect himself. He dared not look down. That was bad, when climbing. Always bad. "I haven't really been keeping track."

“I don’t know why I didn’t listen to my instinct that day,” she muttered as she swung over to another handhold and letting her legs dangle in mid-air again for a few moments. “Why didn’t we choose to cancel… that always bothered me so much…” she added quietly.

It was like, they knew they had to help the old lady at least come to terms or bring the old man back alive, but they had ended up fighting a specter inside the cave. Then… why was the Pokémon all too real? Or was it just there to test them if they were strong enough to handle looking at death in the face?

“I actually have a confession to tell you,” she went on, having shifted her weight once more as she tackled another overhanging ledge as she moved sideways to find a new hand hold.

“I’ve… never gotten the image of that dead skull out of my head.”

Maybe now was not a good time to look down…

"Well, how were we supposed to know what was ahead of us?" he asked softly, stopping when he didn't hear her climbing anymore. She had stopped to let her legs dangle, and he decided to stop for a moment to settle, and listen if it came to it. "We did what we thought was right. And even if we knew that there were spirits involved, we would have probably gone ahead anyway" the blonde pointed out.

They were too stubborn and gentle-hearted not to, no matter what lay ahead of them. It bothered him, what they had seen. But would it have stopped them? He didn't think it would. No matter what.

They had gotten moving again when Izumi had made her confession. He had managed to get to a large surface that would give them a chance to take a real break when she gave it. He climbed up, and Lightning climbed up with him. He reached down and held out a hand to her to help her up.

"I've spent everyday since repressing it."

“It was still scary… for me, at least. You know what I mean,” she remarked, giving the other a knowing look. If he understood that much about her, he would understand what she was implying at that point.

The fact that she grew up without a father, it really hit home with her in this case. She could understand why she saw her mother in the old lady’s case—desperately clinging onto something that they could still hope to use. However, that wouldn’t be the case with her as she had found out so early—so soon, even.

“It actually reminded me of something else, too,” she continued in the same quiet voice, accepting her husband’s help once they’d reached a flat stretch of rock where they could take their first real break.

“It reminded me of the fact that I had no father to look up to, growing up.”

"It was definitely terrifying" he admitted, biting his lip a moment. It was still something he wanted to repress. Something he wanted to forget. I mean, seeing all those bodies... Who wouldn't want to forget? How many bodies had he seen since? He'd tried to repress all of them. This was another. So perhaps he had indeed been a bit nonchalant and apathetic about this whole thing, but... When you were trying to repress something like this, can you blame him?

Then came the reveal.

He helped her up just before, and had sat down to take a break. He paused as her words registered. What did he say to that? He didn't know. He didn't know for sure. He let out a small sigh, trying to find words but just... No words came at first. Instead, he handed her a water canteen as he took a drink from his own, before offering some to the Raichu nearby. Meanwhile, he had wrapped his arm around the shoulder of his wife and pulled her close.

“Now you know why I got thinking about that mission we did all those years ago…” she muttered softly as she took the offered canteen from her husband and took a drink from it. Drat, that was the one thing she forgot to bring along.

She was pretty sure the kids were now having the time of their lives messing around with the water canteen she’d forgotten to bring along in such her haste to get to where they had started at the bottom of this ashy mountain. How… how far had they been climbing? She had no idea anymore.

Either way, she very much welcomed the embrace and threw her own arms around him. If he looked closely, he would notice that she was shaking. There… there really were no words for what she had mentioned earlier after she’d taken a sip of cold water and returned the container to him.

To be fair, the way she had dropped that revelation felt like a hitstun to her the more she dwelled on the thought.

She was shaking. He wasn't sure what to do at first except to tighten his grip and hold her close. Lightning had moved a bit to scout ahead, as the Raichu's instincts were good and seemed to know it was good to leave the couple alone -- as well as make sure that there wasn't anything serious up ahead. Josh meanwhile, just continued to lean into the embrace. As for her canteen... Well, he had figured she'd forget. She always seemed to forget things. So either he'd bring hers along, or it was a spare if he happened to be wrong. Good either way, in this blasted heat.

The kids had probably gotten the one she had left at home. It was probably spilled by now. Adventurous little tykes.

He put the canteens away once they were done with them, and after they had been together for so long that he had nearly fallen asleep, he supposed it was time to get moving again. He got to his feet and helped her up as well.

"Shall we?"