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This was kind of reassuring, as far as things went, because he was pretty sure Tomoe didn't have anyone else's best interests in mind, except maybe Acheron's.

As for how close Acheron was with Lupin... Nico wasn't really sure how exactly that had happened. Acheron had such a stoic demeanor, and Lupin had enough bravado for five whole Pokemon, let alone one little guy who was the size of a chew toy compared to a lot of the other Pokemon they fought against.

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But they were both Dark types, and now that his parents weren't around, Lupin had maybe been looking for a different adult to attach himself to. As far as role models went, he could do a lot worse than Acheron, Nico supposed.

But the three of them had never actually worked together, and Tomoe's ego wasn't any smaller than Lupin's either. If it had just been the two of them on their own, Nico suspected they would have been at loggerheads immediately, and nothing would even get done.

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But if Acheron was there, there was some hope in something being accomplished. Nico wasn't hoping for much, especially since it was Tomoe's first mission, but he wanted to see if she could be worked with.

... And, okay, he maybe also wanted to subject them to each other, so it wasn't just himself who was suffering. But seeing how they dealt with others who also had difficult personalities was an important thing to find out, so he let himself off the hook for being a little petty.

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They were both someone else's headache for the day -- namely, each other's. Well, and Acheron's too, but Nico would just treat the guy to some Gummies from his stash when that group got back. They were out of Nico's own proverbial hair, and that was something to be thankful for, even if he wasn't super proud of how he managed to make it happen this time.

Speaking of Gummies though, they really did need as many as they could get.

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He hope the Kecleons would have them in stock when the two of them arrived. Now that he had the money for them, he rather hoped to see more rather than less. They would find out soon enough; in the course of their chat, Nico and Joli had managed to walk almost all the way up to the market square, even at the slower pace that Nico's smaller size necessitated. He could already make out the distinct shape of the Kecleons' store.

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It was pretty hard to miss the Kecleons' shop. It wasn't the biggest shop in the square, but it was very colorful, and more to the point, it was shaped like a Kecleon's head. Not that this was terribly unusual. A lot of the shops were shaped like their owners, actually. But this meant that Kangaskhan's place was brown and pretty drab, whereas the Kecleons' store was brightly painted. And the Kecleons themselves were always hard at work, trying to solicit customers.

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They didn't miss a beat as they clocked Nico and Joli's approach. "Ah, Team Effort," said the green Kecleon, raising a hand to greet them. "Come to shop for supplies? We couldn't interest you in some Reviver Seeds, could we?"

Nico didn't wince when he heard the team name, though it was a close thing. After all this time, he would have thought he could make his peace with it, but apparently that wasn't the case. It still felt pretty weird to hear it.

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It had been him who picked it, which made everything worse, because he had no one but himself to blame for his own suffering in that case. At the time, Joli had asked him for ideas for something to call the team they were registering. They needed one to register, and the Taillow at the registration desk hadn't been in the mood to listen to them hem and haw for fifteen minutes about it, especially since they were holding up the line.

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Apparently other teams didn't have this problem, having come up with a name before they had gotten there... But he hadn't known, and Joli had forgotten to tell him. So Nico had blurted the first stupid little pun that popped into his head.

And now they were stuck with that cheesy name. Team Effort. People really did call them by it. He had thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad because people wouldn't really use it, but he wasn't so lucky.

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He knew he ought to just get over it. Not all names had to be cool. In fact, he ran into a lot of teams whose names were at least as lame as his own, and they didn't seem to bat an eyelash over it. That was probably why no one had remarked on it either when they heard Team Effort's name. To give what little credit was due to his naming attempt, at least it fit right in, even if he hadn't expected it to at the time.

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He greeted the Kecleons with a wan smile, though of course they couldn't see the expression with his skull on. Maybe the vibe would get across anyway. "You know we do," he said. "How many can you give us?"

"For you? Two," said the purple Kecleon.

"Deal." Nico knew better than to haggle. He very strongly suspected they had more than two Reviver Seeds available, but he also knew that he was hardly the only team that relied on them for supplies.

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He could probably count on one hand -- not that he had the five fingered hands of a human anymore -- the number of times he had actually managed to find a Reviver Seed on his own in a dungeon, rather than getting it from here.

"I don't need to tell you the price, do I?" said the purple Kecleon. Nico shook his head, already counting out exact change from his pouch of coins. Once he was sure he had the right amount, he handed it over.

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The purple Kecleon counted up the coins, then said, "Wonderful. Everything is in order, brother."

"We appreciate your patronage," said the green Kecleon, handing over the two Reviver Seeds that they had promised. Nico inspected them carefully before putting them away. It wasn't that he didn't trust the quality of the wares, but one time he had found a Reviser Seed in a mystery dungeon and hadn't realized the difference, and that had come back to bite him later in a very unpleasant way.

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If the Kecleons made a mistake like that and sold a defective product to a customer, that would hurt their reputation. And he knew they cared a great deal about that, so they probably checked and double checked their merchandise. But Nico couldn't help but be a little wary of Reviver Seeds all the same after that incident. And if the Kecleons didn't like the fact that he examined it, they didn't show it. But then their customer service face was impeccable too.

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Nico could never tell what they were really thinking, except that they loved making money, and that if you tried to steal their wares, they would end you.

He had never experienced the latter scenario first hand, but he had heard stories. He had seen their in dungeon shops a few times, and it was always pretty pricey, but if he took something then he paid for it, no questions asked. After all, he had to maintain a good business relationship with the Kecleon Trading Union.