Concealment

"Concealment" (stylized as ConceΔlment) is the 31st episode of Tears of the Fallen.

Synopsis
Quote shown again: "For when great immorality grimly begins dominating, fallen people shall rise from darkness forever; good prevails eternally."

It's still Monday, August 27th. In Hau'oli City in the Alola region, the Mokusetsu (Division A) just left from Professor Kukui's academy and walk through the city with the 4 new people from the academy. Ash welcomes the new people. Alain tells them they'll just hide while he and Ash fight the enemy, but Kiawe insists that since he's skiled in martial arts, that he'll fight, too. Alain continues calling Lana a mermaid.

Alain informs them that this time, to switch things up, they'll go to a place to just talk and get to know each other, since there are so many new people traveling at once. He believes this can help build up an organization, even though he personally doesn't want to do this. While walking, Alain asks if he's seen Lillie around before, saying she looks familiar. Lillie nervously says she doesn't think so.

Alain and Ash tell them about themselves, including where Ash tells them about his mom being killed by the Tekiyoku a year ago. Alain asks him if he knows who killed his mom, which Ash responds to by saying no, since he was at work when it happened. Neighbors overheard the noise of the incident and arrived after the killer left. When Ash, they showed him a note left for Ash on official Tekiyoku stationery, persumably telling him they did the deed. Ash never knew who the killer was.

They then cautiously tell them that Ash is a Dark Manipulator. There's some shock as Lillie indicates that this shouldn't be possible, due to the Dark Plate, Kowamote, being a harsh judge of whoever tries to meditate to become one. True evil is not present these days, according to her. Ash and Alain ease their worries by saying Ash is not evil and that this suddenly happened during their fight for the last Plate. Ash and Dawn both say they have no idea how it happened, either.

Meanwhile in Celestic Town in the Tekiyoku Headquarters, Lysandre is gathered with Giovanni, Annie, and Matori as they discuss recent changes after the news of there being a Dark Manipulator in present times. Annie informs him that Kodai and Lawrence III were sent to Alola to track Alain for the Psychic Division. Lysandre excuses himself to the basement.

In the basement, Lysandre finds Arceus asleep. Once it wakes, Lysandre asks it why there's a Dark Manipulator (he says "again" when asking this, indicating he's asked this before to no avail). Arceus refuses to answer, while smugly saying that Lysandre can't kill Arceus, since Supreme Manipulation wouldn't be possible at that point. Lysandre then tries to inform Arceus about why it dying would still be bad, but Arceus now first informs him that if it dies, all Manipulation will be abolished, allowing for the Tekiyoku to be killed by firepower, since all police and military forces in the world would kill them. Arceus remains sarcastic and confident during this, even jokingly asking for "lukewarm jasmine tea". Lysandre ends up leaving, frustrated.

Back in Hau'oli City, Kiawe goes next to tell about himself. He tells them about how his family was poor when growing up, with there even being nights when he didn't eat. When his little sister, Mimo, was born, his mother and father started a farm. Kiawe worked on the farm after homeschooling. It helped a lot with income. However, people would sometimes rob the farm, mainly Team Skull when they were still in operation. Kiawe hated it and even saw his mom and Mimo cry. He vowed to make sure that those who torment the weak and innocent get what they deserve.

Mallow talked about how her mother died from heart failure when Mallow was young. Her father did well after this with raising her and her older brother, 'Ulu. Lana was hesitant with telling about herself. Mallow then informed them that Lana lives with her. This is because when Lana was young, her parents were shocked at the announcement of twins. They didn't think they could afford 3 children as opposed to 2. Because of this, they gave up the twins to a foster home, against Lana's wishes. Alola doesn't have a foster home, so they were sent to a different region, but Lana doesn't know where. She was angry at her parents for this. She ended up agreeing to live with Mallow and her brother, who had just gotten his own apartment. She lived there for 7 years so far and hardly visits her parents.

After this, back in Ecruteak City in Johto, Barry continues cleaning with Division B. A flashback starts in his mind. 3 years before at Sinnoh Academy in Jubilife City, Barry and Zoey were trying to get Paul to come study with them for their math exam tomorrow. Paul refused, saying he'll likely fail anyway. They ended up convincing him to at least come to Hailey's, a neighborhood grocery store, for snacks, with Paul saying he had something he wanted from there anyway. Upon getting there, they saw a sign indicating the store had closed down yesterday. Paul said he was going to get a Hailey's brand lemon-flavored ice cream bar that he usually picked up when walking home alone. Frustrated, he leaves and tells them not to follow him.

45 minutes later, Barry and Zoey come to PokéLife Apartments to Paul's room, which he shares with Barry. Zoey brought over one of the lemon-flavored ice cream bars Paul was talking about. Reacting to Paul's confusion, they said they had found out where the store owner lived. They went there and discovered he had some of the ice cream bars stored away. He gave a whole box of them to Barry and Zoey. Barry then asked him again to come study with them and help plan their hangout for Barry's upcoming 16th birthday in 3 days. Paul smiled and agreed to come with them.

The flashback ends as Barry is smiling to himself. Zoey saw him, and then smiled to herself as well.

Back in Hau'oli City, Dawn tells everyone about herself before Alain interrupts and says it's Lillie's turn. Lillie hesitates and then suddenly runs away. Ash and Alain run after her. Mallow, Lana, and Kiawe then tell Dawn they need to tell her something about Lillie...

Ash and Alain catch up to Lillie. Alain, confirming Lillie's name, says he likely already knows who Lillie might actually be and that Lillie better not lie to him. Ash remains confused at what's going on. Lillie then hesitatingly starts to tell about herself...

Debuts

 * None

Trivia

 * Before this episode, the Locations category, along with pages for each city and town, PokéLife Apartments, Academies, Tekiyoku Headquarters, and also pages for the Gem, Zenryoku Crystal, and Plate were all added, along with each old page getting new links to these new ones. The process took Jay about a month and a half after the release of Episode 30.
 * More interaction was originally planned between Zoey and Barry before the flashback, but it had to be scrapped for time.
 * This is the first episode that shows Barry and Zoey, but doesn't feature Kenny ever since he joined the Mokusetsu.

Music

 * Tears of the Fallen Theme Song -- composed by Nocturnal Jay

Other Music By:

 * Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com)
 * Bensound
 * Purple Planet