I still think that we might get a reference to this tomorrow or maybe next week, re: where Alan was and/or what he did between XY&Z043 and XY&Z044, so list of random speculation that we discussed about in the past month before something is made canon, y/y? /o/
1°) The Obvious: Alan was taken into custody for a while to investigate his involvement with Team Flare, and was released once his name was cleared. (Though I’m still ??? about why they would keep this quiet considering we had characters taken-into-custody-to-then-be-released plenty of times before, and there was even that character in XY&Z-who-I-felt-might-be-foreshadowing-Alan’s-fate a while back…)
2°) Platane did give Alan the ritual phrase, so it could have been about Alan actively doing something: maybe he went with Pachira to track down the other Flare members for a while? (If it were to be the case, or something of the kind, it would make sense to bring that up next week, in Xerosicy’s ep… given how Pachira had announced she would take care of this but Xero managed to get away – for now. No Pachira announced for next week, though T_T I want the roadtrip featuring Alan&Pachira constantly at each other’s throat because dog&cat.)
3°) OKAY, this one is terrible and was initially thrown in as a joke and then, ahaha, it evolved.
They had to surgically remove Alan’s mega ring out of his wrist, because it was encrusted, Alan had agreed for it to be encrusted back in the days. Hence all the shots on his bare wrist in XY&Z044.
4°) That Thing Alan Was Intending To Do Afterwards which he had mentioned during the 10-trainers challenge back in Act IV.
5°) Visiting family?? idk
6°) Helping with repairs somewhere else??
7°) That one was terrible too: Alan was actually on Fleurdelys’s will and he Had To Take Care Of This, not very gladly, even in order to decline.
You think everything has stopped and then bam, Daigo-san comes to see you because he knows someone who knows someone who is working on That, and hey! We’ll have even more trouble clearing you out of this because that fucker had written you in as inheriting his nobility title, enjoy the Problems.
8°) Short soul-searching journey all alone before coming back? If he’s definitely going back to lab life (which is not absolutely sure for now; he’s back to assistant’s life, at least, but it’s not incompatible with journeying, e.g. Shigeru and Alan pre-Fleurdelys), it would make sense that he got one before.
9°) Alan went to Johto for a bit because, HEY, WHERE WOULD AN ANIPOKE CHARACTER GO? To Johto.
10°) Daigo was Very Suspiciously eyeing the Sundial, so they threw Alan at him to make sure that the Hoenn Champ would focus on something else and not try to take the Sundial as replacement for the megalith.