[He doesn't cringe, of course, but that disbelieving stare cuts with a sharper edge than perhaps Niou realizes — particularly when it hits Yagyuu that it's the exact same look he once gave Niou, when the figure was "six months" and his own stay in Johto was still best measured in increments of hours. It was difficult to believe then (nearly impossible, in fact), and the only reason why he had was because...

...because he'd known, innately, that for all of Niou's tricks and lies, he wouldn't have lied about this.

Which is precisely why Yagyuu can't lie about it, either.]

Time works differently here. It's...complicated. The simplest way is to think of it as a detour, I suppose, from our own timeline — one that deposits us back at the moment we left, regardless of how long we spend away, such that there never seems to be any indication that we were gone at all.

[His fingers find their way to his glasses and he pushes at them, the barest hint of a fidget — the only sign he'll allow that this bothers him.]

In June it'll be two years, Niou-kun.