Kotetsu had raised an eyebrow at Barnaby, a little confused on what he meant by recently. He actually hadn't seen Kaede in about a month or so, seeing as that had been the last time he had gotten a chance to head over to Oriental Town to visit. He had promised her he'd try to take more of his time to seei her and the rest of his family even as he continued being a hero, so while she had sort of been with him a while ago, Barnaby had been away for almost a year... unless a year counted as 'recently' by his standards.

But they had more important matters to handle for the time being, and so Kotetsu let the whole unasked question fade into nothing as he sighed heavily, turning toward the direction of the large forest-like route stretched out ahead of them. "Let's get going then. Considering how empty that town was where we started, there's got to be another one nearby that's a little bigger. That's just how these places work out."

Someplace to head to for food and such, which was exactly how his own hometown was made. "Maybe they'll give us better directions," Kotetsu continued distractedly, catching sight of his Pokemon still running around in the grass, and he shook his head as he called out to get its attention.

"Hey, you! Get back here! Don't make me leave you behind!"