Like No One Ever Was (Pokemon SI)

[AshKing]

Nice chapter. I am almost surprised that her dad hasn't offered to get a roto mecha appliance or something ridiculous like that

 

[Skyfyre]

"Use Arm Thrust, Osu!" Dendra called out for her Hariyama, a slight sheen of sweat covering them both. Her, for the workout we had done before in martial arts class, and him in trying to hit my slippery snake.

"Slither around it and Hyper Drill!" It was my counter and one that Dun followed perfectly. With his new body segments, he was able to twist himself around the repeated palm strikes before placing the tip of his tail on Hariyama's belly and spinning fast.

The Fighting Type recoiled backward, clutching at his gut. Dendra's eyes flashed towards it, doing some quick calculations. "Looks like we need to kick it up a notch. Bulk Up!" Not Belly Drum, smart, I would have taken out Hariyama if she committed to such a Move here.

While not literally bulking up, Hariyama took a lower sumo stance, making him appear bulkier.

Dun wasn't stopping just because his opponent did, quickly firing off a few slashes of air at Hariyama of his own accord. The Flying attack caused Dendra's Pokemon to wince, and I knew that this was my opening. We're gonna win!

"Gigaaaa…" I began, raising my hand high.

"Detect!" Dendra called out in a panic, trying to avoid Dun's strongest Move

"Hyper Drill!" I shouted, dropping the hand down. Dun had caught on to my signal, knowing not to use Giga Impact, so the Hyper Drill was already charged and spiraling towards Hariyama.

Even still, an unexpected Move wouldn't usually be enough to connect with the precognitive insight granted by Detect, but Hyper Drill was different. Dun's long body could twist as Hariyama tried to lean out of the way, redirecting the hit into him and sending him flying back.

Hariyama gave a loud groan, stumbling back two more steps before collapsing into the hedge on the property's edge. Meditite at the side raised their arm, announcing us as the winner. "We did it!" I ran up to hug Dudunsparce while Dendra recalled Hariyama.

"Osuuuuuu!" She cried out. "What a passionate battle! You did excellent, my pupil." She declared proudly. She really likes this whole Sensei thing, huh? Makes sense, she'll be a great teacher someday.

"Thank you, sensei Dendra. I appreciate all the training you've given me and my Pokemon." Dun warbled out an agreement too. It's the first time he fought Hariyama since he's evolved, and the first time he's won.

On the whole, I tended to win more than I lost against Dendra (Pokemon wise at least - in terms of sparring, while I was approaching her level of technical proficiency there was little I could do to make up for the gap in our sizes), but our Pokemon teams were often at uneven power levels. My strongest beating her strongest is a tipping point training-wise.

"Perhaps you need to consider other training partners?" A new voice suddenly came into my mind. Blinking I turned to face the Meditite who was staring at me.

"Oh, I didn't realize I said that out loud. Ahh," I gave a slight gasp as I shook off the pain. It felt like my head had been in a vice, but only for a second, the pain swiftly fading.

"Sorry about that, Meditite is trying to practice his control when speaking Psychically to others," Dendra said. "What did he say?"

"No problem. Honestly, that's the first time anyone has spoken to me Psychically at all, so his control is impressive." From what I've read, everyone feels a bit of pain when first communicating that way, but after that very skilled Psychic Types can communicate as easily as talking. "Meditite was just saying I might want to look into other people to battle. Again, I really like training with you, but-"

"You need to face other foes, otherwise you get complacent," Dendra finished for me.

"Exactly, don't want to grind in the same patterns that won't help with other battles. That Detect you've been using was new, when did you learn it?"

"We practiced it for my sixth Gym Badge, osu! That new leader Iono, can pack a powerful punch. I was surprised that a streamer was so tough!" Looks like we're inching ever closer to canon. Iono being a big celebrity was making quite the news in Paldea as our newest Gym Leader.

"Are you going to enter the tournament again?" Dendra's words snapped me out of my thoughts and left me confused.

"What?"

"The Junior Tournament! It'll be happening in two months again. You got ripped off last time, but this time you'll win for sure!" The League was showing more transparency and had a greater deal of protections in place to ensure an embarrassment like last time wouldn't crop up again.

"... No, I won't."

"Os- whuh!?" Dendra spasmed, as she cut herself off mid-cheer recognizing what I said. "Why not???"

"Wobuffet," I said with a straight face, causing Dendra to put her hands on her hips and glare down at me. Laughing I said "Okay, okay. But seriously? Because of what you said: 'I'd win this for sure.' And I would. There's no challenge involved." She frowned and I added "That might sound arrogant, but it's just the truth. I have a badge won from the equivalent of a five-Gym battle, and beat you who won your sixth Gym badge. I might not have any official badges, but is there realistically any chance I face a challenge from people who are at their second Gym badge or below?"

Slowly, Dendra nodded, sighing. "Guess that's fair. Oh! But you should enter a martial arts junior tournament!"

Smiling, I nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. And I think I have an idea for a challenger to face again. I battled against them once while training for the Junior tournament last year, and they were one of the most skilled foes I ever faced…"

***

Once again I found myself face-to-face with the Terastalized Leafeon, atop the cliffs slightly to the north of my house. There was a difference in the energy of this meeting this time. While not making any hostile moves or the like, I could see something in his eyes as he registered me as a… potential threat, at least. Is it because my team is that much stronger? Because I've unlocked my Flying Aura, marking me as a danger to him as a Grass Type, even if he still vastly outclasses me by being a Pokemon? Or something else, like just being older, and no longer some random, dumb child that wandered into his territory.

In any case, I decided to lightly press on. "Hello again," I said with a slight bow of my head. "I'm looking to challenge Riolu again." He cocked his head to the side and I clarified "Any of them that are willing to fight, but in particular, the one that Dun fought in the final round last time."

The silence stretched on between us, the guardian of this land simply staring at me with inscrutable amber eyes. Eventually, I blurted out "I brought some berries as well!" Slowly, I lifted out a few Sitrus and Lum berries from my pouch causing Leafeon's eyes to widen.

In a flash, they were directly in front of me, causing Miles floating beside me to startle for a second. Before either of us could respond, he had grabbed the berries out of my hands with his tail, eagerly holding onto his prize. Turning around, he strutted back to his territory, a glance of his head as if to say 'You coming?'

Following, I jumped down the first hill I was on to the meadow below, the other Pokemon gave me odd looks, but most quickly returned to their own business after seeing that Leafeon was fine with my presence. There was a small pack of Rockruffs playing about, a Clodsire surrounded by Woopers, and I thought I even saw the brief flash of yellow of a Dunsparce head before it tunneled beneath the earth. I wonder if Dun knows that Dunsparce are living here?

The pack of Riolu was my main objective, and the one I was looking for was the first one I saw after rounding the corner of a hill. She was standing up, arms in a ready but loose battle stance.

The empathic abilities they have are strong, she must have sensed my coming. Given how the other Riolu behind her looked surprised at my appearance, I guessed that it was a talent she in particular had honed.

"Greetings. Dun and I were hoping for a rematch, to see how far we've grown." I said respectfully to Riolu.

She barked out "Rio."

With a chuckle, I responded. "I'm sure you've grown too. But I think Dun might surprise you." With a flash of red light, I released Dun from his ball, eliciting a series of gasps from the rest of the Riolu. Dun, like the drama queen he was, reared up his top two segments and head, giving a loud roar as he flapped his wings furiously to create a 'dramatic breeze effect,' as he called it.

Our opponent stood stock still for a second before shaking her head. "Olu, ri." She scoffed, but I could tell she was surprised by his evolution. We moved over to a larger clearing, this time gathering the attention of many other surrounding Pokemon. I even spotted an Altaria and Scyther watching from nearby clifftops.

"Same rules as last time? Battle until the first one is out or a surrender?" She nodded, taking a flexible stance twenty meters away from Dun. "On the count of three, we'll begin. "Three, two, one… begin!"

The canine-like Pokemon sent forth a Vacuum Wave immediately, trying to set the pace of the fight. Unfortunately for her, Dun and I had gone over plans, and for any battle where I would do a count in, his first Move was Protect. He was easily able to conjure the barrier well before the Fighting Type attack could hit, letting it harmlessly wash over him.

She made the bold strategy of trying to get in close, to which I responded with "Air Cutter!"

Dun's six pairs of wings beat in unison, creating scything gusts of wind that cut across the battlefield. Riolu proved to be no slouch, ducking, weaving, and sliding under most of the attack. One blade still managed to clip her shoulder, eliciting a screech of pain, one that rattled my head.

No, that wasn't pain, or maybe it was, but that was a Move! I realized as Dun gave an uncomfortable shudder. Riolu had also, even through being attacked and dodging most of it, greatly closed the distance between them.

"Body Slam," I called out, hoping to let Dun use his weight to roll over on her. He tried to do so, but she once again surprised me with her speed, landing a palm heel with her left palm into Dun's side before jumping away. He grunted in pain, but with his long body, was able to stretch out and swing around, impacting her.

"Hmm, less damage than I thought…" I wondered out loud as I eyed the impact on Dun's side. Her Force Palm had broken scales and would likely leave a nasty bruise, but considering the Type Weakness and the Screech beforehand, was less impactful than I thought. Did she use some sort of pseudo-Agile-style attack? It would explain the speed and decreased power.

I didn't have time to waste wondering about that, as Riolu had gotten back up from where she had fallen, growling as she did so. She's standing gingerly on her right side, and those twitches her body is going through means Dun likely Paralyzed her as well.

"Hyper Voice, no more dodging." The horrendous cacophony from Dun brought Riolu to the ground, clutching at her floppy ears for a second before she gave up on that and just began throwing out wild Vacuum Waves. Dun would dodge two out of three before being hit by the third. Maybe not as wild as I thought, those waves are inaccurately apart, but together form kill boxes where Dun has to be hit by at least one. Impressive, while disoriented and Paralyzed. Of course, that only works on a 2D battlefield.

"Earthquake." Dun shifted immediately at my order, slamming all three segments into the ground once. The earth wildly shifted, rising and falling all around the field, and while my vision shook a bit, I thought that even some of the nearby cliffs were shaking too.

Riolu was tossed violently into the air, giving out a cry of pain. "Riolu!!" She called out, and for a split second, I thought she was defeated, until I saw a red flash from her eyes as she began spinning around in the air, her momentum shifting and increasing as she rocketed towards Dun, leading with her good leg.

"Protect," I called out, not wanting Dun to get hit by her High Jump Kick. She impacted the barrier, but even that powerful Move couldn't defeat Dun's ultimate defense, and she eventually rebounded, flipping off of it to land on that same good leg. I followed up with "Hyper Drill!" Not wanting to give her the chance to make another strike.

She tried to dodge, but there was no avoiding Hyper Drill as Dun proved, whipping around even as she tried to Detect around it. Riolu had one last desperation Move, aiming a Karate Chop at Dun's big soft head, even as his drill tail twisted towards her… only for her strike to fail to connect. My starter was just faster, and the strength of his blow was strong enough to knock her out.

After a glance to make sure my Pokemon was fine, I ran over to apply some medicines to Riolu, getting a pained groan from her as she woke up. "Hey, you doing okay?" I asked.

"...Lu," she mumbled out after a moment, gingerly sitting up. Dun slithered over, preening in his victory, which just caused our foe to pout harder.

"Thank you for the match," I said, giving her a small bow, and clasping my fist in my other hand. "We learned a lot from it." I'm used to using Dun's bulk and taking hits to dish them out if need be, but we haven't had much practice dealing with someone else doing that. "Dun, Roost, and heal up." He nodded, curling around and settling his wings, the Flying Type energy seeming to course through and out of him, healing his wounds. Riolu watched from where she was seated with wide eyes, emotions rapidly flying by her face that I was too unfamiliar with to place.

"Anyone else up for a fight?" I asked, but rather than eager, all the Pokemon of the valley stepped back. Even the powerful Scyther and Altaria turned away, not seeing themselves as a match for Dun. Huh. That's… a little disappointing, honestly. I'm going to have to look for new places to get challenges.

Riolu suddenly stood up, barking at me. "Riolu! Ri ri!" She said, holding up one claw and circling a hand around it.

"One circle? One sphere?" I guessed, trying to figure out what she was pantomiming, not getting it until she pointed at the sun. "Oh, one year! You want to do this again in a year?" She nodded, fixing me with a serious gaze. "Alright, let's do this again next year."

Riolu let out a satisfied breath and began marching off, sitting on her favorite moss-colored rock that I had spotted her on last year, and began meditating. "Alright Dun, let's go home." She's likely already planning out for our next battle, and we'd best do the same.

***

"Welcome, to the Rotom Phone Company!" My father declared proudly to the three of us. "This is the place where I work and I'm so eager to show it to you," my father practically squealed with joy.

I'd like to think it's just me he's so eager to show this off to, but Billy is a pretty exuberant guy. Amethio and Arven at my sides looked pretty impressed. Arven because he was a bit younger, and Amethio… Hard to say but I think he just doesn't get out enough.

"Impressive, isn't it? Dad had it shaped like a giant Rotom phone after being inspired by Uva Academy." Honestly, can't say that it looks that bad here. Admittedly, there is a vast difference between a Pokeball being shoved atop a historical monument and a company adding a neat paint design.

Entering through the large doors at the front of the red building we were presented with a fairly normal reception area. Some plush seats and a desk at the front, beige painted walls, and a small TV in the corner playing Rotom Phone advertisements. As we carried on through the 'employees only door' (with special lanyards given out to us three kids) the space transformed into a factory. Fluorescent lighting above our heads, gray concrete floors, and walls, with many doors branching off from the hallways.

Dad took us through a few of them, showing us first some of the office rooms and staff lounges and then the factory itself. It was fascinating to see all the machines and conveyor belts functioning together to make the final product of a Rotom Phone. From the catwalk above we saw dozens of them being made and placed in red cases. There were also hundreds more cases of a multitude of colors and patterns made here, placed off for sale separately.

"Why are there so many Ghosts patrolling around here?" I asked, glancing over at the Haunters, Houndstones, and a Mismagius. To be fair, five isn't a huge number, but they're all evolved and are keeping an eye on the perimeter only. There were plenty of people and a few other Pokemon in the factory, but they were all working on things, not guarding it. "Is this because of the incident?"

"The incident?" Amethio asked, and I explained what had happened.

"Some employees tried to steal stuff from here, chased my Dad around a bit, then got beaten by the Rotoms."

"Gah! Not bombastic, how very un-Glitterati of you!" My father winced and I rolled my eyes.

"We don't have time for all the details, we still have a tour to go through."

"Being prudent with your time, that's Glitterati brilliance for you." This time, all three of us rolled our eyes at my father's antics. Arven was the first one to giggle, and soon me and Amethio joined him, though the eldest boy tried to pass his laughter off as coughing after Billy answered my original question. "Not exactly. While we have upped our internal security, they were always here. They make sure that none of the Rotoms try stealing a phone. Only the Rotoms on their best behavior get chosen from the farms to be a Rotom Phone."

"What happens to the others?" Amethio asked cautiously.

Billy blinked. "Well, they stay here until they can be proper Rotom Phones. Or they decide to leave on their own, without a phone. That's fairly rare, however." Is it rare because they were raised here their whole lives and have little idea of what the rest of the world is like, or because they're just naturally inclined to behave that way?

The boys didn't comment on it, happy to continue the tour. We entered another factory room, this one a bit different than the one before. For starters, the machinery here was far heavier duty, giant presses exerting tons of force on thick sheets of metal. The assembly lines were each far more unique, with more direct human and Pokemon involvement, checking each finished product carefully.

"This is our Rotom Catalog factory. Our best minds have created some of the finest designs for the wonderful people looking to battle with their Rotoms." Dad beamed at me and I couldn't help but blush. Their best minds, huh? I had some ideas on alternative forms and upgrades, but will they be any good? These people have been designing these things for years.

Amethio noticed my worry and said, "Hey, snap out of it." I whipped my head up to face him and he followed up saying "I want to battle you after this, so make sure you're at your best."

A smile broke out on my face. Pretty sure that's Amethio for 'Are you doing alright? Please feel better!' I don't think the Explorer's secret headquarters are a great place for him, but there's nothing I can say to convince him to leave. A fact likely compounded by the fact that I didn't think he had anywhere but the Explorers to turn to. While my family could have supported him easily, like we were starting to do more and more with Arven, Amethio's pride likely wouldn't let him accept, even if he wanted to leave.

"We make other accessories and tools here," My father continued, oblivious to any of my self-doubts. "Including…" Dad led us by a table covered in a cloth, tearing the covering off.

"Tada!" He exclaimed proudly, revealing…

"A stick?" I asked, looking at the red and white pole sitting on the table. It looked like it was made of metal with segments that could extend out. Like a collapsible baton, but too thin and the wrong shape for that. Plus there's a weird attachment at the end.

"Not just any stick, but the Roto Stick! With this, you can take a selfie from farther away. Watch," he said eagerly, taking the stick and using the four-pronged attachment on the end to connect to his phone. He gathered us all together, then flipped his phone around so it faced us while extending out to get all of us in the frame. "Say Chansey!" He told us (Arven was the only one who said it) as he pressed a small button on the end of the Roto Stick and his Rotom flashed, taking a picture.

"Selfies are becoming very popular, so I came up with this idea to capitalize on that. What do you think?" My Dad asked, beaming proudly and I felt my throat constrict.

"Uhh, I think people will buy it," I eventually said. My feelings were too obvious as Billy's smile faded away, replaced with a frown.

"You don't like it," he stated and both of the boys beside me winced. I shook my head.

"It's not that, it's just… I don't get it. Like, here: Miles?"

"Yes, bzzt?" They said, floating out of my pocket.

"Could you take a photo of all of us? Try to get a landscape shot with all of us in the frame without much extra space." I asked them.

"Bzzt, of course," They hovered out a few meters away, asked us to reposition slightly a few times, then began clicking rapidly then floated back. "Here are the photos, Young Miss," they said, showing me a quick slideshow of them. "I particularly like how number three came out, bzzt."

"Yeah, I think that one's my favorite too." Mostly because it's the one where no one is looking dumb in it. For god sake Arven, don't pick your nose while your photo is being taken! Ahh, calm down, he's just a kid. "Did you do something to make the background fuzzy and us in focus?" I know there's a word for that in photography, my mom- first-life mom - used to love it, even if people weren't her main photography focus.

"Yes, bzzt. I fiddled with the aperture until I got the right field of focus. What do you think?"

"I think they're great." Then, turning to my dad, I said "So, yeah. That's why I'm not sure about it. I think the Roto Stick is a fine product, it's just… the Rotom Phone is too good already. They can do so much." Back to Miles, I added, "And thank you again for being so awesome."

I felt a small buzz in the air as Miles swelled with pride. "My pleasure, Nemona." They then returned to my pocket. Never hurts to thank the people close to you, and Miles does just so much for me. From all the regular uses of a phone, managed way easier, to help remind me of and plan my schedule… Dun is my first partner and so strong, but I'd be lost without Miles.

"Oh, what a terrible error I nearly made! Thank you, my dear, for helping me avoid such a costly blunder," he nearly cried.

"Uhh, I don't think it was that bad an idea?" Arven tentatively spoke up. "It's just, that I've been liking my Rotom Phone, but they aren't…" He struggled with the words for a moment. "Creative? They'll help me when I ask, but only what I ask, and might not do stuff like take a selfie as well as I would."

"They aren't as capable of independent action," I muttered. Or maybe just not as skilled at it. Speaking up I said, "Sorry Dad, I guess I'm just too used to Miles being so great at everything that I didn't realize my situation might not be the same for everyone."

"I want a Rotom like Miles," Amethio blurted out, before blushing.

"Looking to get another battler on your team already?" I teased.

"No," he pouted, crossing his arms. "Well, maybe. Just- saw how much you talked to Miles before and after our battles, thought that'd be nice." My smile grew brittle. He's still gonna be alone out there. I mean, he has the Explorers, but they aren't his peers.

Billy laughed heartily. "I see you have excellent taste, young man." His praise only caused the boy to blush harder. "Fret not, you'll have your pick of whichever Rotom you like at the end of the tour." To Arven, he said: "Thank you for your insight as well, we'll run some more focus tests on the Roto Stick."

We carried on, from the machinery to the minds behind them. Each engineer got their own office which was well-furnished and led to a central meeting room. This is where they met us, the dozen or so designers sitting around a circular table.

"Greetings, we're pleased to meet you," one balding man with a bushy brown beard said, standing up to shake my father's hand. "I'm Emil Paramount, but you can just call me Emil. This is where we dream up what gets shipped out."

"Is it usual for the designers to work in the same building as the factory?" I asked, prompting a small chuckle from him.

"Not exactly, no. But your father had a vision when building this branch in Paldea, where all the pieces that made the Rotom Phones would be interconnected, so we'd all have a better understanding of how everything worked together. Building this place wasn't easy-"

"Which is when Dad got Mom's help, and how they met," I finished, having heard the story (in very sappy, over-the-top terms) many times by now.

"Indeed," Billy said, thankfully electing to move on from that topic. "Emil here is our head designer and the whole team has been eager to hear about your designs." They all smiled politely and nodded their heads at me, but that was to be expected - you don't call the boss' young daughter an idiot or complain she's wasting your time if you want to keep your job.

"Alright, here are some of my designs and notes," I said, nerves taking over as I walked up and pulled them out of my bag. Stumbling forward, I accidentally grabbed a few extra pages from it, stabilizing myself against the table with the papers scattering across it.

"Shoot! So sorry about that- let me just take those back, I only meant the stuff in the folder- hey!" I shouted as one young woman with bright green hair grabbed one of the blueprints.

"Is this a Rotom helicopter? Neat design but Rotoms can only possess objects so large and…" She trailed off scrutinizing it closer.

"Yes, I'm aware. This kind of personal helicopter uses a very small, lightweight design, only designed to hold a single person. It's thicker from head to tail than the regular Rotom models, but only wider and taller with the top blades and lighter than most of the current catalog." Seeing Emil about to speak I quickly shook my head and waved my arms.

"Of course, I know that this won't work. Rotoms can possess any electronic but to make a truly battle-ready form they need to possess an electronic that's a common household appliance. I read your thesis Mr. Paramount, I mean Emil, and it makes perfect sense that the Rotoms gain more strengths from the idea of the device than the actual mechanics. Not that those aren't important too!" I was starting to breathe heavily, all the eyes watching me intently making me panic a bit. Damn it, why am I acting like this? I'm fine with being in public when I battle but this- ugh. Just focus, Nemona.

Taking a calming deep breath I slowly started over. "Apologies, I'm off my original plan a bit." I took a few more deep breaths and nodded my head as I shuffled the papers into my folder and collected up the errant loose-leaf ones I had grabbed. The psychic design of the bag to help you grasp the items within it is very handy but might be a little oversensitive. I'll have to look up the user's manual and see if I can adjust that later. Pulling out one of the proper blueprints and attached note pages I placed them neatly on the desk.

"Amending my original design, I decided to go for a Drone based build. I'm aware they aren't a common household appliance yet. But in Hisui, there are records of Rotoms being able to possess devices that weren't commonly used at the time. It's possible that it was just a relic of the distortion fields, but given how there was no noted change in their use even after the crisis was ended by the Hero of Hisui, I suspect that there's some temporal wiggle room for what devices can be effectively utilized. Drones are becoming increasingly popular, so I thought you might be able to create a prototype and we could test how well it works."

There was a silence over the table, broken by Emil saying to my father in a serious tone: "You really weren't overstating how smart she was." From there the table broke out into a free-for-all buzz of wild discussion.

One of the men, about my father's age, asked: "Interesting ideas and the design looks solid, but what are you hoping to achieve with this? It will likely be part Flying Type, like our current Fan Rotom?"

"If you'll see the notes attached, I believe the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a drone will give any Rotom possessing it a different Move." Hurricane is a fine Move, but rather wild and hard to aim by its nature. But if it gives Roost… I had to resist drooling at the thought of being able to give a decently bulky Rotom a recovery Move and pure Electric Typing with Levitate, all without using up my Tera Orb.

"Hey wait, I hadn't properly revealed those yet!" I squawked as the fear of losing their jobs had apparently been eclipsed by the excitement of what I had to offer because the designers had grabbed my notes, and were frantically passing them around to inspect. That, or my dad laughing happily at all this means they aren't too worried about the job front. Still, it's nice to see that they're interested in what I came up with. I knew the designs weren't perfect, and that they'd likely have tweaks for them, but just the base concepts being intriguing was enough for me. I hadn't just calmed down but was even starting to feel giddy at the possibilities.

"Additional Moves for existing Forms?" Another designer asked.

"Yeah. So I was thinking, a lot of appliances have more than one thing they can do. Slight tweaks to the designs might open up new Moves available in those forms. Like an ice cube dispenser on the refrigerator might let the Rotoms use Snowscape-"

"Or a heat tank connected to the tube to let the Washing Machine use… war crimes? No that's crossed out. Ok, Scald makes more sense." Before I could address that another designer was calling my attention.

"The other new Form you sketched out, why do you think a Radio Rotom might be part Fairy Type? Is it just the sound angle? You've listed Normal as another possibility, but it has far more sound-based Moves than Fairy."

Rather than answer normally, I decided to sing out my answer.

"Music holds the secret, to know it can make you whole,

It's not just a game oh no, it's the song inside your soul,

Magic of a melody, runs through you like a stream,

Thoughts that play flow through your head like a dream…"

Dad had the widest grin I'd ever seen on his face, which might have looked creepier if his eyes weren't shining with pride and happiness as well. "That's my girl, going to be top of the RoTunes chart any day now!"

"Daaaaad," I groaned. "I don't have any songs I feel comfortable publishing yet, and I'm not that good." Clearing my throat I turned back to the team. "So, as you know, I've been practicing a lot of singing and music lately, which made me think about this. Radios connect people to the world around them. From music to comedy to general worldly discussion, radios make people feel things. That's why I thought it might lean into that Typing."

One woman on the opposite end of the table said in a monotone "If you break into the non-elemental Typings first, I'll kill you." This did not stop her from voraciously reading the documents she had in front of her.

"Hah!" Another guy said, explaining "Janine is just upset that she didn't manage to get the Bug Typing with her 'electric bug swatter' idea."

"Fuuuuuu-dge off, Frank," Janine awkwardly adjusted upon realizing there were three children in the room.

Scratching the back of my head I gestured at the papers and said "I guess you get a lot of ideas like these, then?"

Emil turned his head up to look at me. "From each other? Professional engineers one and all? Yes, we occasionally get ideas of this caliber," he lightly commented and I looked away, chagrined. Okay, okay, these are decent, I don't need to worry.

My dad clapped his hands together. "It sounds like you all have a lot to discuss, but I should probably continue the tour." There was a pained sound from the design team, but I quickly reassured them.

"We can talk more later. I can give them my email address, right Dad?" I should probably ask my parent about stuff like this, given my age, even though I don't think there'd be any harm, given my mental age, knowledge, and the fact that I truly hope that all of these employees have been thoroughly vetted, especially since the attempted theft.

"Yes, that should be fine dear. Make sure to forward me any ideas that bear fruit so we can begin production."

"Of course sir," Emil said, waving us off after we exchanged contact info, leaving my papers behind with them, as well as Miles' Washing Machine, to get it fixed up.

Continuing down through the building, we took an elevator to the underground section which was where the farms were. It also held storage for all the necessary bits for the company to have but wasn't used every day. Spare parts, old designs, recalled items, and boxes and boxes of folders for paper copies of all the important documents.

The tour didn't touch much on that stuff, but Billy did show us all of it briefly before opening a large set of double doors to reveal the grand farm. It's… dark.

Size-wise, it was huge, miles across, and quite wide, but the lights above were constantly flickering or burnt out. The ground was solid cement with a few structures here and there made up like miniature houses. Broken machines also littered the ground, used up by the Rotoms, many of which were just sort of hovering about aimlessly (I suspected some of them were Dittos as well, but even my eyes couldn't tell). A few looked over curiously at us, but many just seemed aimless. Like aboveground, many Ghost Types were guarding them here as well.

"Go ahead and talk to the Rotoms," my Dad told Amethio. "You can talk with the overseer later about which one you want."

"Ok," the little boy said seriously, marching off, eyes darting about as he scouted the field, looking for the perfect Rotom to join him.

Arven ran off quickly after, releasing Maschiff. "Let's see if we can make some friends!" Uhh, not sure they'll be too eager to play with a Dark Type. Then again, given how this place is…

"What's wrong Nemona? Don't you want to spend some time with your friends?" My Dad asked, and I released a heavy sigh.

"Maybe later. Dad… what is this?"

He looked at me curiously. "Why it's the farm of course! Where we get all the Rotoms we need for the Rotom Phon-"

"Okay, bad question. Why is this? Why is this place like this? So… bleak and dark."

He paused for a moment, taking in the field again. "Hmm, I suppose it is lacking in color. Do you think a bright gold paint job would spruce it up?"

"I don't think anything is going to spruce it up while it's barely lit like this." Crossing my arms I shook my head, watching Amethio tentatively greet different Rotoms, and met like that in turn. This reminds me so much of his situation. Technically, all of their basic needs are met, but they don't get much more than that.

My father gave a small frown. "Unfortunately some of the Rotom can be a bit mischievous and tend to drain or break the lights. We try to fix them often, but there's only so much we can do."

I nodded, thinking for a moment before calling a Rotom over. This one was separate from any large groups and just drifting on its own, happening to be nearby us. They approached, tilted to the side as they hovered towards us, a curious but somewhat blank look on their face, a light buzz emanating from them. "Hey, do you want to leave this place?"

They brightened up at the idea, cheerfully pointing at my father's own phone with one of their little lightning bolt-shaped plasmic limbs.

"No, not like that, just… in general. Do you want to leave this place and explore on your own? See the world?" The general buzzing stopped as they just looked at me, complete incomprehension on their face. Slowly, they drifted back, still trying to puzzle out the concept.

Turning to my father I said "That's what I mean. Sure, they can leave, and I guess a few must-have asked to do so in the past. But the general population here, they don't see anything out of this dark, cold place that is their entire world."

Billy was silent for a moment, his smile replaced completely by a frown as he gazed over his work. "I never saw it as that bad… What can we do to fix this?" He asked, clearly torn between seeing it as unfit for the Rotoms as it stood, but also worried about the future of his company.

I thought about it for a minute, and an idea slowly came to me. "You made this place to have all the parts interconnected, but how often do the people come down here?"

"Oh, our overseer and guard check on the Rotoms at least twice a day," My father answered quickly and I hid a frown. Not as much as I would like, and I think explains why the other Rotom Phones don't interact as well with other people.

"And the other workers? All the people up there, how often do they come down here?" My experience in my past life helped with knowing how very small that number would be. If you gave people a job, most of them would just stick to that role. Even looking for ways to improve or climb the ranks, it would often be just in that small area.

"I-I know it's a big ask," I said, turning to stare my father straight in the eye. "But what if the position of the factories above and the farms were reversed? The workers up there will then pass by the farms every day in and out on their way to do their jobs, you can have windows to let more natural light come in, maybe even arrange some field trips outside and the like."

My father gazed off, lost in thought, probably trying to put the logistics together. "It might take a bit more work, more travel up and down for some office space that can't be moved, but this could work. I'll have to ask the Rotoms themselves about what they feel about all this as well, but this sounds like an excellent idea to me. An excellent Glitter- no. An excellent Nemona idea." His smile was soft, but full of pride and wonder as he stared down at me.

Miles gave a small buzz, rising out of my pocket "I agree, bzzt. I think I would have liked something like that when I was here. Though perhaps not… if it meant I didn't get to meet you, bzzt," they added cheekily.

"Gah, don't go teasing me like that!" I admonished Miles, to which they just rolled their eyes, my father chuckling in the background. "Well, I guess that means you're ready to start learning Foul Play if you can make up Nasty Plots so casually."

"Bzzt, I have made a terrible mistake."

We all ignored that as Amethio returned, accompanied so closely by a Rotom that they were practically in his hands. "I've decided. I'd like this one to be my Rotom Phone." The Rotom in question was trying to look calm and controlled when faced with the owner of the whole company, but also visibly vibrating with excitement.

"That sounds wonderful, let's get you two set up," my father said, leading us out once Arven came back from playing with all the Rotoms (they had been afraid of the dog-like Pokemon at first, but soon became friends once they realized what a softie he was). Amethio's new Rotom got their first phone and we left, all of us quite happily.

As we exited and returned home, the young Explorer had something to say to me before Hamber took him back. "Nemona, I… want to battle you. Not right now, but someday, I want to show you how strong I've become."

"Looking forward to it," I replied with an eager grin. "You're already strong, so don't let anyone else tell you otherwise." Anyone like Spinel. "I'm looking forward to seeing how strong your Charcadet and Dreepy become though. And hey, even before our destined showdown, you can always message me or Arven just to talk and stuff too."

"... I will, thank you, Nemona."

With that, our Majordomo took the young boy away from my home. As they left, Miles alerted me to a new message. "Well, well, well, looks like that won't be the only battle I'm preparing for…" I muttered to myself, new strategies and ideas flying through my mind at this latest development.

Spoiler: A/N:

A lot going on here, from rematches to promised future matches. Also wanted to take a bit of a closer look at the Rotom company and all of its stuff. I don't feel its the worst, but it does seem like there must have been some sketchy practices for so many people to have easy access to a Rotom Phone and have them be so characterless, especially given what Rotom's Pokedex entries are like. Still, I like to think that's it's more ignorance than intentional, and Billy does want to make things work better. Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Just caught up on the Pokemon Horizons anime and I think that Amethio 100% for sure needs more pokemon and friends. Him having a pseudo-legendary will help him be more independent and powerful.

 

[cazador]

Wonder if she put electric toy car down as a form

 

[Skyfyre]

Hearing the shuffling of feet just outside I got ready. Stepping out of the darkness of the cave I'd been hiding in, I declared. "You've come far, but if you want to take a step further, you'll have to face-"

"Nemona Glitterati?" Rika asked, the older girl looking utterly bewildered at my appearance. "Are you a part of the Gym Challenge?"

"You recognized me," I muttered before shaking my head. "Well, no, not actually here for that, just thought it would be a cool way to introduce myself. So I suppose that means you don't have to battle me, but I'd appreciate it-" The sudden clacking of my teeth cut off my words and I shivered, feeling the bitter cold of the snowy mountain.

Rika and I had forgone our regular outfits to deal with the harsh weather of the mountain. She was wearing a waterproof jacket over the standard Uva Academy winter uniform, which already included a jacket and vest over the school shirt.

I had a puffy orange hooded jacket over a long-sleeved shirt with a pair of black ski pants over my usual cargo pants. Even with all that, it was still incredibly cold up here, and I could tell that Rika wasn't dealing with it much better, hugging her arms close.

"So what's this all about? The Junior tournament?"

"Something like that. I got the message passed along saying you were happy to battle, but wanted to focus on your gym challenge, so I thought I'd come here."

"How'd ya know I was comin' here?" She asked, a bit of her rural accent slipping into her voice in the chilly weather.

"You posted a Poke about being at the base of the mountain, and you've been making waves online, so it wasn't hard to figure out which Gym you were headed to. You made good time, to make it here so fast." The Poke (this world's version of a Tweet) was yesterday around noon, and I flew to Montenevera, hiking down to Martha's Gym and only had to wait a few hours by the entrance, so that is quite a quick climb. Though given her Type specialization I can see why she didn't want to spend any longer than necessary here.

"Yer one to talk, people are going crazy about you online as well, 'specially after that stunt against that Unovan Gym Leader. Are you thinking about taking on the Gym challenge too?"

I shook my head, inadvertently sending a bunch of snow flying off the top of it. "Not yet, not even in school. I'm not too concerned about the trophy or whatever from the Junior Tournament - we were both different trainers from where we were then. What I want is to fight you as you are now, and see how well the famed Rika can match up."

"Ha!" She barked out, a smile caught between eager and vicious lighting up her pale face. "If that's what you want, we can do that. Make for a nice warm-up before my Gym match," she said, rolling up her sleeves… and then immediately hissing at the errant instinct and rolling them back down.

Trekking a bit further through the snow, I stood a good thirty meters away from her, holding out a Pokeball. "Might be in the middle of a snowstorm, but I can keep you toasty. I've only got the two Pokemon, so let's have a two-on-two battle, should give you plenty left on your team to still face Martha after I beat you." I had to shout to be heard from that far away in the cold and didn't hear any response back, but I did see her smirk and raise a Pokeball in turn.

We both released our Pokemon without a count - this was hardly an official match or anything and no rewards other than bragging rights. Dun gave an eager cry, followed by a shiver as he landed in the white powdery snow. Opposite us, a large elephantine Pokemon gave a loud cry of "Donphan!" Flipping up its armored trunk and shaking its head, large white tusks flashing in the pale light of the cloud-covered day, it stared down at Dun.

I didn't see a Tera Orb at her side, nor in any of her matches that I watched online. I won't use mine here, not for a friendly match like this. While it's a useful tool, I want to see how well I stand up compared to her on an even level.

Looking around I grabbed a small rock in my gloved hands, holding it up for Rika to see, the older girl nodding. I tossed it up in the air, the two of us watching as it soared up then sunk through the snow, signaling the beginning of our battle.

""Earthquake!!"" The two of us called in unison, Donphan stomping through the snow while Dun smashed his body through. The combined force of their attacks sent the buried earth flying up violently all around. It was hard to keep track through all the snow drifting about like a miniature blizzard, but I thought Dun might have gotten the worse end of the stick there, though Donphan looked a bit bruised too.

"Lift off!" Dun surged through the air, using the last of the aftershocks for extra height to his jump, then set all six wings fluttering hard. The additional wings, strength, and better control over Flying Type energy had improved Dun's aerial maneuverability, even with the additional weight his evolution granted him. As such, he could begin to truly fly through the air, not just drift now.

Rika wasn't idle, immediately ordering her Pokemon to give chase. "Rollout!" Her Donphan curled into a ball, the armored trunk and plating on her back giving her a natural shape fit for the Move. She spun through the freshly churned snow before hitting a slight bump in the now uneven earth and rocketing up.

"Protect!" I shouted at the last moment, and Dun stopped mid-air, completely encircled by a transparent blue-ish-green honeycomb barrier. The spinning Pokemon slammed into it, whirring helplessly against it for a moment before unfolding her body as gravity took hold once more.

Dun didn't need to be told the command to hit Donphan with a Glare right there, the full force of his fury hitting the off-guard opponent head-on. She spasmed and awkwardly fell, landing on her side.

Rather than maintain the aerial advantage, I ordered Dun "Hex, as quick as you can!" Gathering the ghostly energies, he landed with a heavy thump beside Donphan, in a patch of mountainside mostly devoid of snow from our prior Moves. Point blank, the dark purple energies enveloped the tusked Pokemon, causing it to alternate between thrashing about and freezing in Paralysis.

"Nahahaha! That was a clever trick, but we've got some of our own don't we? Poison Jab!" Rika yelled, and despite being debilitated, Donphan managed to lash out with her tusk, slightly stabbing into Dun. My starter rapidly slid away, but from the purple discoloration spreading throughout his scales, the damage had been done.

"Iron Head!"

"Hyper Drill!"

Donphan half got back up on her feet, shoving her body at Dun, gleaming forehead first. Her Move was met by Dun's own, flipping around and spinning his tail towards her rapidly. The two met, and a large number of sparks flew off from the point of contact as the two Pokemon tried to outmuscle each other, before breaking off simultaneously. Dun was holding his tail gingerly, while Donphan was wincing at the mark left on its tough head.

Hyper Drill is a crazy powerful Move, to pierce through the toughest part of a Donphan while channeling Steel Type energy. As I was thinking that, I heard Dun let out a small hiss, the poison taking its toll on him. But it won't be enough to win the fight, especially not if I'm trading like this.

"Rock Slide!" Rika called out, and Donphan moved to follow through with the Move, slamming her trunk against the mountainside, but at the last second, twitched violently, Paralysis taking its toll and drastically cutting down on the effectiveness of the Move. A few rocks broke off from the mountain and tumbled down, but Dun easily slithered around them.

"Hyper Voice, keep your distance," I told Dun and then immediately clamped my hands over my ears as he began screeching. Rika and her Pokemon grit their teeth at the annoying Move.

"Think ya can run? Not on my watch, Rapid Spin!" Donphan ripped across the battlefield once more, but Dun was able to easily squirm out of the way and continue his attack. Her Pokemon is picking up speed with each pass… No, it's fine. Dun was slightly faster even without the Paralysis, it'll take her a while to build up speed to the point that it's a threat to me.

Something Rika realized as well, as she called off her attack, switching tactics. "Stomp your feet!" Donphan did just that, stomping all four feet into the earth repeatedly, leaving holes so large that for a moment I thought they were going for Fissure. Thankfully, it was just an Earthquake, and while it hurt Dun, he didn't let up in his assault.

Jumping up, he began drifting high above the ground, continuing to blast Donphan with his Hyper Voice. While I'm sure there were other Ground Moves that our foe could use to hit him, with Earthquake out of the picture, she just started hurling rocks at him. Most of the throws hurled past Dun, and a few even came close to me and I had to dodge to the side.

"Hey!" I shouted, only to realize that Rika couldn't hear me over all the noise Dun's Hyper Voice was making, the teenage girl gritting her teeth and wincing in pain. Guess the lack of a professional battlefield or barrier cuts both ways here. That's something I'll need to be cognizant of in the future.

After chucking a large chunk of rocks at Dun, Donphan stomped her feet against the ground, causing a large spike of rocks to strike up into my Pokemon. The blow knocked him off balance and clipped some of the wings on his left side, sending him spiraling through the air for half a second before the Rock Slide she had used just prior smashed him down.

"Earthquake as you hit!" I shouted desperately, hoping he would turn it around. As always, my dear snake didn't fail to live up to my hopes. Channeling the force of the rocks pushing him down straight into the earth he hit, the ground rippled out rapidly from the point of impact. The earth smashed through Donphan, knocking her to the side, and reaching out far enough that even Rika was jostled around a bit from the earth and displaced snow sweeping out. For myself, without even thinking to use it, my Aura lifted me just above the earth to drift gracefully back down as it passed.

I took a moment to catch my breath, surprised at Dun's power there. A 'critical hit', perhaps? Or maybe just a sign of how far he has come. I was also giving Rika the chance to regain her bearings, but there was no need to worry about a quick reversal here; Donphan was out cold. Literally, I thought, holding back a small snicker as I saw her lying ungainly on her back, feet twitching as snow drifted down on them.

"Beating me with my own Type of Move, oof." She muttered, quietly enough that I wasn't sure if I had been supposed to hear it or not. Then a vicious yet playful grin danced on her face and she spoke up. "Well, well, well, looks like you really are as good as everyone says," Rika commented as she returned her Pokemon. "But let's see if you can beat my starter!"

Throwing out a Pokeball, it burst open over the battlefield, a flash of red light revealing the deceptively goofy-looking Clodsire. "Clod Cloooood," They yawned out, sleepily taking in the battle around them.

Do I charge in- no, the horns on his back will hurt if we just rush in. Let's get back into fighting shape. "Roost," I shouted, and Dun began settling down, his wounds healing even as the Poison within him sapped his health a little bit further.

Rather than move to engage, Rika ordered a ranged attack. "Acid Spray." Opening his large mouth, a gout of purple liquid sprayed out of it and onto Dun, the acid sizzling against his scales. Crud. And there's no way for me to undo the drain to his defenses this time like Amethio did with Clear Smog.

Time seemed to slow down for me as I watched Rika open her mouth to give another command. Acid Spray and the Poison combined might have done less damage than Roost healed, but because of the weakening of Dun's defenses, this next shot will take him out, or just put him in a bad trading game with Clodsire until he is taken out if we use Roost. I could dish out some damage- no, Dun's gotta set the stage.

"Tailwind!" I shouted out as Rika called for her own Move.

"Venoshock!" Rather than the white 'horns' sticking out of the dots on Clodsire's back, a vast number of small purple spikes shot out in a circle all over the battlefield.

Tailwind was one of a few new Technical Machine Moves I'd given following our victory against Clay, but the only one I felt ready for him to use against an opponent of Rika's caliber. Using a Move just in the open while training is one thing, but using it in the middle of a tight battle is another.

Even with the wings on one side damaged and Poison running through his veins, Dun beat all six pairs of wings vigorously, intuitively spinning around to make sure each side got an even airflow. Of course, such a motion left him a sitting duck for Clodsire's Move, the purple darts piercing into him and reacting violently with the Poison within my Pokemon.

With a cry of "Duuuuuuuunsparce…" Dun writhed for a second, then fainted. Recalling him quickly, I whispered to his Pokeball. "You did great, pal."

He had indeed. The wind was moving swiftly at my back, the snow drifting down gently before now being blown straight at Clodsire's and Rika's faces. "Let's put this battle on ice, go, Miles!" I shouted, launching their Pokeball much further out than I'd intended with the wind.

As such, Miles materialized in a red flash almost directly above Clodsire, their red refrigerator body glowing with lavender energy, manifesting odd plasmic flaps for hands. In the dim light, I almost thought I saw their body gleam slightly in the snow. Thank you natural weather conditions.

Wasting no time, Rika immediately cried "Megahorn!" Her starter tensed his legs and horns, ready to jump ahead and shoot them up.

"Dodge and Blizzard!" Miles responded to my command immediately, opening their refrigerator doors and shooting ahead, the wind on their side. Despite my instructions coming second, Miles still easily avoided our opponent's attack and unleashed their own, a massive outpouring of ice slamming into Clodsire.

The spiny Pokemon flipped around, recovering fast, and at Rika's command tried to jump at Miles again, this time with the wind on their side. Unfortunately, that gambit was doomed to fail. In an instant, the winds shifted, and with my newfound sense of Aura, I could feel how the Move was connected to Miles's energy. They pushed back against Clodsire and helped Miles along in avoiding the slower Pokemon.

Two more Blizzards hit, one of which almost seemed like it was going to freeze our foe in place, but a rapid Earthquake broke up the ice gathering on his small feet and continued the battle.

"Am- amnesia!" Rika's teeth chattered, the chill getting to her as Miles' Blizzards and Dun's Tailwind turned the battlefield into a frigid storm. Clodsire cocked his head and gave her a confused look, which I could only assume was the Move working as intended. How odd to learn a Move that causes you to temporarily forget. I wonder what inherent traits make it so you don't forget other Moves or even itself- gah no time for that! Theorize later!

"Nasty P-plot," my command was as stuttered as hers, but it was enough to put a wicked smile on Miles' face as they loomed over the shivering Ground Type. I don't have a way to stop her buffs, but I can counteract them with one of my own.

"Sludge Wave into-

I interrupted her. "Blizzard!" With the last of the Tailwind behind them, Miles unleashed another burst of ice over the battlefield.

Clodsire was pushed back, but still able to spit out a wave of toxic goop. Even without the Tailwind, Miles would have been agile enough to dodge the Poison attack were it not for Rika's follow-up command. "Hydro Pump!"

Swiftly changing Type energies, Clodsire opened his large mouth and released a high-power stream of pure water from it, like a firehose. The stream of water shot through the previous sludge, slamming into Miles and blasting them meters through the air before they stopped, reasserting their control over their possessed body.

"Nice try, but the water diluted your poison," I crowed, seeing through the snow that my Pokemon appeared fine, with no lingering traces of the Poison attack on their body or glowing plasmic energy. Clodsire opened his mouth, but no other attack came out. Too tired or cold? Best not to let this chance go to waste in any case.

"One last time, Blizzard!"

"Protect!" A barrier rose to shield her weakened and battered Pokemon, and I felt the chill of Miles' attack. Our Pokemon's positions had switched so they were now on the opposite sides of the impromptu battlefield.

"Kee-keee-keep at-at-at it!" I called out through the cold. We're so close, just a bit more… Blinking apart frozen eyelashes, I saw Miles frowning at that, but they continued the assault. Ice and harsh winds poured out of the refrigerator's internal components, seemingly without end. Rika's Clodsire valiantly tried to hold out, but the greenish force field started to crack after half a minute and shattered shortly thereafter.

Before the ice could pour over her Pokemon, Rika recalled him, shaking her head. "Yer crazy, kid."

"No-not crazy," I stuttered back, though as she didn't have my hearing she likely didn't catch my witty retort, or even expect I had heard her in the first place.

Trudging over, she asked me louder "You okay Nemona?"

"Just… pe-peachy," I called back, forcing my sluggish muscles to move forward and meet her. Miles drifted over as well and I gave them a big hug. "That- awesome," I panted out. Impressive Auric control, to not let me feel any colder even while being an Ice Type.

To my shock, Miles' plasmic eyes drooped and then closed, crashing into the slush in front of me. "What?" I questioned while Rika gave a small chuckle. Then a bunch of stony debris scattered about in our fight rose and smacked into Miles from all around. "What!?!"

"I'll explain, but let's head inside." Giving a sharp jerk of my head in agreement, I recalled Miles and we huddled up inside the cave. It was still cold there, but far less bone-chillingly so than it was outside. I could barely make out Rika in the nearly pitch-black cave - as befitting the entrance of a Dark Type Gym. Once we warmed up a bit, I released Miles to give them the time they needed to wake up.

"You copied me," I said first, having put the pieces together. Clodsire used an invisible Yawn. Damn, I'm glad that we managed to push through, it would have been embarrassing to lose to my own technique.

"You catch on fast. Yeah, I saw that Move you used on that asshole's- Sorry." I waved off her apology at the swearing. I've heard worse, even in this life. Mostly just from staff that would have no reason to think I could hear them, however. "Freddrick's Corviknight dodged around or blew away all the regular Yawns we tried to use in our battle," she said, lightly patting Clodsire's Pokeball.

"Ahh. And you're running-" I paused for a second, my teeth chattering again for a moment before I got my body back under control "Running into the same problem I had. It's not that accurate, and a bit slower acting in its 'invisible' version." From the frown I was wearing, she was probably able to tell that I didn't have an answer to that problem.

The same with a bunch of my experiments. Screech doesn't pair well with Hyper Voice anyway, but it slows the Move usage and the efficiency of both when trying to combine their effects. And on that topic…

"How did you combine Earthquake with Stealth Rock?" I asked, and she chuckled.

"I didn't. Ground and Rock might seem similar in a lot of ways but… it ain't enough. Ya gotta use a Rock Type Move first-"

"Which leaves the splintered shards, then use Earthquake as the method to spread them across the field. Wow, that's really smart of you."

"Hey, I can be plenty smart," she countered, before laughing to show she was just messing around, and I joined in too, the post-battle high filling me with joy.

"Bzzt, what did I miss?" Miles asked, groggily waking up.

"Not much pal, just talking over Moves. And speaking of that, could you heat things up for us?"

"Wait wha-" Rika began before having to shield her eyes from the glow coming off of Miles.

Controlling the ball of fire and light very carefully, they condensed it and pushed it up into the very top of the not-so-tall cave and a fair bit away from us. Immediately the Sunny Day began warming us up, the heat just shy of scorching.

"Thanks, that's good." Miles smiled at me but otherwise didn't respond, their eyes screwed up in concentration. Well, it should be good training for them to use the Move even in tight environments.

"Sunny Day, interesting Move for an Ice Type to learn," Rika commented, basking in the sun and opening up her jacket a tad to let it melt any of the ice that had gone down in our wild battle.

"Miles has a whole bunch of Types they can use."

"Talk about unfair, an Ice Type with Levitate in the snow? No way I was gonna win that one." I frowned, feeling guilty for a second. I thought my planning was clever, but maybe that was unfair to Rika.

She snapped me out of that guilt with her next statement. "Thanks for the match, that was a great battle. Can't believe someone so young is so far ahead of me," the older girl shook her head wistfully, long ponytail swaying back and forth.

"I wouldn't say that. You still had three Pokemon left, right?" I asked, pointing at the five Pokeballs on her belt and she nodded. "Even a single extra Pokemon would have beat us."

"Maybe, though don't think I didn't notice you hadn't used your Tera Orb," Rika pointed a finger at me accusingly. "Anyway, I'm sure you'll do great in your Gym Challenge once you pick up a few more Pokemon. When are you gonna start that? Cause not to toot my own horn, but if you're taking on me, you're more than ready."

That was a question I didn't want to focus on, for a lot of reasons, some of them intersecting with future knowledge and canon events that I couldn't possibly explain to her, so instead I focused on the Tera Orbs. "Don't worry, I don't think you're bragging by saying you lost."

"Oi!"

Snickering, I added "Are you ready for the Gym Battle? Anna is no joke, being an Elite Four as well as a Gym Leader. Plus, she's likely to use her Tera Orb at a battle of this level."

She sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah, that'll be rough, no two ways about it. But I think we got a good shot. I believe in my team." I nodded, smiling back at the unwavering confidence I saw on her face.

"Alright, I wish you luck. I'll watch the video of your match once it drops, but I should probably head back home. Oh, but before I go," rifling through my bag, I pulled out a few Hyper Potions and dumped them into her arms. "To make sure your team is back in fighting shape."

"Whoa, that's a lot of potions," she said, looking at the half-dozen I'd given her and I shrugged. Not really, that's only a tenth of my regular supply. "Thanks. We should do this again sometime."

"I'll face you at the Elite Four," I said without thinking to which she barked out a laugh.

"Ha! Think that might be a ways away, if ever. But maybe…" She stared out into the distance, clearly imagining it, and from the upward curve of her lips, I'd say she liked the idea.

Whoops, might have been a bit early to say that, but I don't think I caused too much harm. Giving my farewell, Miles and I left the cave, heading back out to the bitter icy outside of the mountain while she descended. It wasn't readily known how deep down Martha's Gym went, but the consensus was the journey would usually be a long one. I think that's why there's no trainers to challenge you early on, to build up the anticipation as you have to silently trek down dark tunnels.

I was tired from the battle and the cold, so slogging up the mountain was an unappealing prospect. Enough that I was tempted to just call down a Flying Taxi to where I was, but not enough that I followed through with the idea. Just like any old workout, a pain to start, but I'll be glad with the results. Plus, I do kinda like being able to do this.

My burning desire to explore the land had been suppressed for a while so I could learn the basics with the Explorers, but now I could go places. There's so much to see, even in harsh environments like this!

Most Pokemon avoided the Gym entrance itself, but just a few hundred meters away and I could see several Ice Types wandering around. Packs of Snom crawling nearly invisibly against the white snow on the ground, and Glalie floating around. There was even a Cetoddle waddling about and a pair of Sneasels eyeing me suspiciously.

None of the Pokemon appeared too worried about my presence, however. The mountain was a hard climb in some spots, but had a whole city on top of it and several well-trod paths formed by Paldeans over the years, so the Pokemon were used to people. Quite a peaceful place. I've got to get back home soon, but maybe I should explore again sometime-

As if Arceus themselves decided to spite me for my thoughts, a piercing cry rang out from down and to the west of me. It was distant, but I could hear the human shrieking in pain. "Someone's hurt!" I told Miles, not sure if they would have picked up on that, and began sprinting down towards them. There might be some other people heading that way too, hard to tell, but I should at least check it out.

Leaping lightly over the snowbanks, I crossed over the wilder terrain, running past a few trees and down several slopes until I rounded a corner and got to the source of the screams, though they had stopped by the time I'd gotten there. There was a young person with long blue hair, slightly matted by blood, lying on the snow groaning, a snowboard lying off to the side. For a second I thought two people had fallen as their legs couldn't be at that angle… until I realized that they shouldn't be at that angle.

Two other people were being flown down by Pokemon and I could see more rushing down as well. A distant part of me noted that was good as I had no skills beyond barely remembered first aid classes in my first life on what I could have done to help there. The larger part of me was struck by realizing just who this was. "Grusha."

Despite the distance between us, for a second I thought he locked his gaze with mine, before being rushed off by the first responders.

Spoiler: A/N:

Nemona has her first taste at what the future Elite Four will be like, as well as seeing the first real future tragedy (that she knew about) occurring.

 

[Valthorix]

I didn't play S&V so I don't know the significance of the last scene, but it felt suitably dramatic lol.

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Using Earthquake near the base of a snowy mountain is asking for a tragedy.

 

[AshKing]

I didn't play S&V so I don't know the significance of the last scene, but it felt suitably dramatic lol.

Click to shrink...

The 8th gym leader; former pro snowboarder who's career was cut short by a crippling accident

 

[Skyfyre]

Using Earthquake near the base of a snowy mountain is asking for a tragedy.

Click to shrink...

One thing I realized this chapter didn't make clear is that the Earthquake didn't have anything to do with Grusha's accident. It's a really large mountain, and they weren't near enough to cause something to go bad a few kilometers away.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

One thing I realized this chapter didn't make clear is that the Earthquake didn't have anything to do with Grusha's accident. It's a really large mountain, and they weren't near enough to cause something to go bad a few kilometers away.

Click to shrink...

If something as subtle as an echo in the mountains can cause an avalanche, an actual tectonic event can certainly cause an effect. To mediate such things, my headcanon is that there are dedicated ranger teams that cause multiple smaller more manageable avalanches on the regular to prevent snow from piling up make a big avalanche.

 

[Skyfyre]

If something as subtle as an echo in the mountains can cause an avalanche, an actual tectonic event can certainly cause an effect. To mediate such things, my headcanon is that there are dedicated ranger teams that cause multiple smaller more manageable avalanches on the regular to prevent snow from piling up make a big avalanche.

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah, there's probably rangers that specialize in dealing with such things and keeping the mountain safe, though again, despite the Move name, Earthquake doesn't usually shift the tectonic plates

 

[Skyfyre]

"You don't need to feel guilty about this, bzzt," Miles pointed out for what felt like the fortieth time. Blowing out a soft sigh I pressed the buttons on the elevator to close the door, not sure if it helped the doors close faster.

"I know that. Logically, I get it. Telling him 'at some point in the future, you'll have an accident of some kind while snowboarding' probably wouldn't get him to quit doing what he loved." Even if he believed me and didn't think I was crazy. "But still."

"Dun dun," Dunsparce noted beside me, carefully coiled around to fit in the enclosed space.

"Ok, that's fair. 'But still' isn't much of an argument. I guess I just mean… it feels different, having seen it play out almost in front of me. I'll try not to let it get to me."

"Bzzt, and you're coming to visit him, I'm sure he'll appreciate that." I gave Miles a wan smile at that, clutching the 'Get well soon' card I held a little tighter. Feels lame to give to someone after that bad accident, but what else am I supposed to do? Show up with nothing?

The elevator reached the floor that the man at the front desk had told me Grusha was on. Walking down the hallways I noticed just how similar hospitals were here as they were in my world. While I knew we had some more advanced treatments here due to Pokemon, even a lot of the machines I caught glimpses of in rooms looked similar. A bit smaller overall than I would expect from my world though. I guess it's because most people here heal up fast.

Pokemon could help with that, and I saw a Kirlia doing just that as I passed by one room. The Pokemon in question sent out a stream of glowing pink energy to an elderly man. He let out a sigh of relief as the pulses hit and rejuvenated him. Everything I've seen online shows that people don't get as much benefit out of Moves like Heal Pulse as Pokemon, but it does still help somewhat. I wonder if that's because everyone has some degree of Aura, no matter how faint or untrained. But without the body of a Pokemon, it can't just instantly heal wounds, only soothe pain and re-energize.

Glancing down at Dun slithering beside me, my mind flashed to him using Roost. Moves aren't a thing even Aura users can copy, but I wonder if I can mold my Flying Type energy into a revitalizing technique. Sure would be handy to be able to rest for a minute or two and get the equivalent of a few hours rest. That was a trick that I wouldn't be showing off to Cyan if I did manage such a feat; she'd been getting more on my case recently about how much I was doing again as I settled back into my routines after Unova.

When we reached Grusha's room, I saw that it was filled with flowers, balloons, and gift baskets. So crowded was it I had to return Dun to comfortably enter the room. He stared at me, his blue bangs draped over his face and wearing a thin white gown. "Um, hello. You might not know me, but I-"

"I remember you. That child who saw me fall." He spoke softly, icy blue eyes glaring at me.

"I didn't actually see you fall, just… the aftermath. I was battling nearby, at the Gym, I hope I didn't-"

He scoffed, the sound morphing into a harsh, hacking cough partway through. Standing up I looked around as if to offer him something but had no idea what to do. Do I call someone? Offer him water?

His coughing stopped on his own and he spat out "Don't be an idiot. There are staff to make sure wild Pokemon don't disrupt anyone on the course, and the Gym is kilometers away. You're not to blame." He said the words so coldly as if to demand why I was here. I guess I already knew that it was too far away, that it was already destined to happen, but I felt so guilty over the fact that I didn't warn him.

"Umm, I wanted to give you a card and uh, see how you were doing." His eyes glanced over to the stack of cards that were much the same, piled up on his bedside table and I placed it there.

Silence reigned for a minute as I tried to think of something else to say and wondered what he was thinking. God, why did I try and do this? It's so awkward. Eventually, I said "Looks like you've got a lot of well-wishers. I hope-" He snorted, the harsh sound cutting me off and jarring with how softly he spoke.

"So many well-wishers, but not a single one of them showed up to see me." I mean, I did, but I guess I don't count here. "All these?" He gestured at all the gifts. "They all came before the news broke that I wouldn't be able to compete again."

"There's no chance? Not even with umm, Ditto Cell Therapy?" I ventured. Medical knowledge wasn't something I had studied overly much yet, but my various online info dives had told me about that as one of the more recent revolutions for humans.

"I'll walk again, eventually," the young man hissed like it was the bitterest consolation prize he had ever received. "Once you stop growing, the cells don't work as well, or so the doctors say." Considering just how badly his legs had been screwed up, walking around again is a miracle by itself. But I don't think he wants to hear that. Unfortunately, I didn't know what he wanted to hear.

"Well?" He demanded after a minute. "Aren't you going to tell me it gets better? That I'll somehow manage to snowboard again someday?"

I shook my head. "I certainly wouldn't declare myself to know better than the doctors. And I'm guessing that even if you could get on a board, it'd never be quite as good as you were before the accident." I could only imagine how much trying and failing to live up to your old standards would be. Grusha was good; good enough that he had many fans, as indicated by all the support that had been sent his way even before he'd been allowed to receive non-family visitors. From what I'd seen though, he wouldn't be able to competitively board again, not without intervention from a Legendary or the like. In this world, it feels like anything is possible, but some are still far less probably than others.

"I can say that you'll find new things to do. New dreams. They might not be what you wanted first, and they won't replace your old loves, but they'll be magical in their own way."

He brushed his bangs aside, his gaze softening for a moment. "How can you know that?" In a way, I'm lucky. A lot of my dreams, like being a writer can still be done here. But others… others are gone.

"I guess I can't be certain, but I found Pokemon training and it's been incredible."

He snorted, before coughing violently and looking away. "You're just a kid," he said dismissively before sighing. "The only one who's shown up. Look, I get that you like battling, but dreams come and go easier for little kids. I'm sure in the future that you'll want to do something else, but I've put in time and effort into this-"

"I train my Pokemon four hours a day," I interrupted the bedridden man. "At least four hours a day, on average. My parents make sure I take a day off from training at least once a week, but we usually use that time to watch old battle videos to get a better feel for how trainers at different levels compete."

He stopped, looking at me as if I had grown an extra head, and revealed I was actually a Doduo. I'll take that as a sign I'm on the right track for getting Grusha out of his funk, then. Continuing, I said "Most days, me and my team practice in the morning, honing the Moves they know. After a break for lunch and any lessons I need to take for non-Trainer activities, we're back at it in the afternoon. We run generalized endurance and movement drills, practicing battlefield maneuvering. After they get tired, my team takes a small break and I run over simulations with them of mock battles. Commands I can give for fake strategies based on their prompts. Using the real-life battles I've reviewed, I then try and estimate how effective those would be and better strategies for the future. Finally, we finish off with training new Moves and bringing those up to the level their current repertoire is at. And we haven't even started our Journey yet!"

Obviously, there's more to it than just that. We'll have variations depending on when Arven comes over or when my tutor schedules align. I make sure to mix drills up too, but this should give him a general idea of how I might train on a given day.

A long moment of silence hung between us, interrupted only by my breathing slightly harder than normal from the sudden diatribe I'd launched into. After a moment he said, "You get way too heated, chill out." Oof. Seriously with the puns? You aren't even the Ice Type Gym Leader yet!

I noticed that despite his words, his gaze had moved over from me to the Pokeball that I could see, buried under the gifts and balloons on his bedside table. He has a Cetoddle, doesn't he? Wait, it's his Altaria that he Terastalizes in the games, and I think I remember seeing some videos here of his Altaria cheering him on in competitions.

"As for not getting other visitors, I think that's just because you were only just cleared for non-family visitation. I'm sure you'll see tons of fans soon!" My cheery optimism was admittedly slightly influenced by the fact that I could hear someone walking quickly down the hallway toward us.

"We'll see-" he began before he heard the footsteps too and the new guest burst in. At first, the view between us was obscured by the massive gift baskets and balloons they were carrying in front of them.

"Mr. Grusha sir! I'm your biggest fan and I wanted to… see how… you were… doing." A familiar voice trailed off as the young man who had entered stopped to stare at me, dark eyes burning with hatred as he recognized me. A mutual feeling, prick.

He dropped the gift basket unceremoniously to the side and I heard a clanging that made me wince and hope that nothing in there had broken."What are you doing here? Come to ruin my life again?!" Frederick van Grough demanded hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"Hardly, you do that so well yourself. Besides, why would I have any idea you would be here?"

"Because I'm Grusha's greatest fan, of course!" He shouted. Is that really how you want to behave in front of the injured guy? Then again, I'm probably not helping by being here.

Shaking my head I turned to Grusha. "Sorry for being so disruptive. I hope- hopefully, my words were of some help. I'll be leaving now."

Sneering, Freddrick just had to throw in another jab. "Yeah, you better run. I've got a Tera Orb too now, so you won't be able to cheat your way to victory again if we battled." I should go, I should really go... but I'm not just going to take his slander lying down.

Turning back slowly at the edge of the doorway, I shot back "From what I remember, I wasn't the one who got their badges stripped and barred from official League Matches for cheating. Or got kicked out of school, apparently," I said, gesturing at his black and red uniform. It looked fairly fancy (his parents were still wealthy, after all), but it wasn't the purple and gray Uva Academy uniform he'd been wearing at the tournament.

Uva Academy still probably has its issues with small acts getting swept under the rug, but something as public as Freddrick's cheating scandal meant they must have had no choice but to get rid of him. I didn't feel any sympathy for the young man in this situation, honestly believing that he'd likely have had too permissive a life if he felt he could act the way he had in the first place.

My taunts must have hit closer to home than I expected, as the boy stepped forward aggressively, raising his hands. "That investigation was rigged! Your parents have always been jealous of my family's success-" He ranted, spittle flying off his face. As he approached, my own hands snapped up into a guard stance, ready to fight.

Before we could come to blows, however, the third occupant of the room cleared his throat. "Are you going to be fighting here?" He asked, more than a little incredulous. Ok, yeah, this isn't cool.

"No, I'll be heading out-"

"Cause you know your Pokemon can't beat mine!"

"Is this really what you want to be doing as 'Grusha's greatest fan?'" I pointed out. That reminder seemed like it would have mollified him, at least to the point of letting me leave in peace until the man in question cut in.

"I want to see it," he said in a low tone.

"Huh?" I asked, cocking my head at him.

"You said battling can be 'amazing', right?" He asked with air quotes. "I want to see that then."

"This is… really not the usual part of being a trainer; me and Freddrick have history." He narrowed his icy-blue eyes at me. "Fine, fine. Guess you should see all sides of battling if you want to get an idea of what being a Trainer will be like," I muttered, loudly enough that he could still hear me. Then, in a louder voice, I faced Freddrick and declared: "I challenge you to a one-on-one battle."

"You're on!" He snarled, whipping out a Pokeball from his belt.

"Uhh, whoa whoa. We aren't going to battle in the hospital, right?" I asked, and my question was answered by one of the nurses who had come over to investigate the ruckus and now glared at the two of us.

***

With a bit of quick talking from Grusha and throwing his celebrity status around, we managed to arrange for our battle to take place outside, with Grusha escorted out to watch.

We had to wait for a bit as the staff got him a wheelchair and placed him down very gently in it, which led to an awkward and tense silence between myself and Freddrick. At one point, I muttered to him "Not sure what problem you have with me or my family, but none of that justifies your cheating."

"The League was rigged-"

"Shut up. Lie to anyone else as much as you like, but don't waste your breath on me. I heard you whispering to the head judge about how you got me disqualified." And I don't doubt that they cheated in the other ways the report mentioned as well.

The nurse started moving Grusha down, giving us a very pointed look to stop our bickering, which cut off any further 'conversation' between us until we reached the field out behind the hospital.

Given the mountainous terrain and the mobility of Pokemon, most patients came in through the front or were air-lifted in above. As such, we had a decently clear snowy field to battle in. The terrain gets a little hilly and bumpy past twenty meters out. Shouldn't be too much problem for Dun to navigate in, but Freddrick will have the advantage in the air, assuming he decides to use-

"Go, Corvi!" He threw his Pokeball out immediately, and the gigantic metal bird took her place in front of him.

"Corviknight!" She crowed, flapping her wings and sending a flurry of snow into my face.

"Lovely," I drawled, releasing Dun. "Let's take our places and establish the rules."

"What do we need to talk about? Just a one-on-one fight till the other side loses." He said dismissively, but nonetheless started walking opposite me until we were far enough that with the chill wind we had to just barely push our voices above regular conversation levels.

"Don't want any sudden curve balls thrown my way again," I said with a mocking smile, as if I wasn't still slightly bitter over how the Junior Tournament ended. "We just have one Pokemon each, so no switches. Fight til one side faints or surrenders, without needless malice. No battle items. Oh, and there's a hospital nearby, so let's try to control our attacks away from there - anything that hits the building or people and could cause serious harm is an instant loss."

Despite directing my words at my foe, my gaze wandered over to where Grusha sat in his wheelchair off on the side of our makeshift battlefield. The nurse who had helped wheel him out had quickly thrown a blanket over his lap, but he hadn't seemed too affected by the cold. Jeez is that Auric potential, or just him being used to it from all his professional snowboarding?

Dun, clearly not trusting Freddrick, started drawing a line in the snow with his tail, well away from our 'audience'. The older boy took a second glance at my starter and blinked before laughing out loud.

"You evolved your Pokemon, but it only got a bit longer? How lame!" His Pokemon didn't share his amusement at the situation, her beady red eyes glaring down at Dun as he set up the field. As he finished laughing, he added "Though it is fitting, I suppose, that a lame Pokemon has a lame evolution."

My Pokemon glared at him for a second before shrugging it off, turning around, and slithering back to me. He's gotten a lot better control of his temper, I wonder if he's getting close to unlocking the Serene Grace Ability?

Miles zipped out of my pocket and hovered at the side of the field, recording the match and I picked up a twig fallen from a nearby tree. "We'll begin when this stick hits the ground, sound good?"

"Fine, just hurry it up," Freddrick said, not having any meaningful objections. I tossed it up, and a split second before it hit the snow, my foe gave an order.

"Sky Attack!" Like the end of our last match, Corviknight began glowing brightly, such a harsh light surrounded her that even I felt the instinctual need to avert my gaze.

"Ancient Power, then block it!" I called out. Dun whipped his tail up and sharp rocks shot out of the ground, flying like spears that clanged against Corviknight's heavily armored wings. Dun had improved at wielding this attack, but he barely had time to launch three of his rocks at his foe before we both felt the bird approach, swooping down.

As fast as her attack was, my large land snake was even quicker to defend, aborting his attack and surrounding himself with the translucent green barrier. A small shockwave boomed out from the point of impact, and while there were a few small cracks that formed in his shield, Dun held out against the attack, the light dying down as the bird lifted off, back into the air.

"Ancient Power," I tried again, hoping for that omni-boost that would make winning this fight a breeze. Unfortunately, we had barely as much time as we did for the first volley before she began glowing harshly again, literally flying into the attack almost as fast as last time.

She bashed once again against Dun's Protect, forcing his attack off but once more failing to pierce the nigh-invincible barrier. I see, it looks like that first attack wasn't a fluke, or a 'fluke'. Was the report about him using Power Herb false- no, that's not it. He probably was training to make up for it ever since, so he can pretend to anyone who would care to listen to him that it was faked.

Unfortunately for him, that seemed to be the only area they improved, as when the attack failed again, he tried for the same Move once more. It's fast, but Dun can still use his faster Moves in between Protecting against the powerful Sky Attack. We're whittling him down slowly but surely, but… Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grusha frowning at the fight. My goal here is to get Grusha interested in being a trainer, and then hopefully a Gym Leader, not just on winning at any cost. Not, that I'm going to lose, in any case.

"Glare," I gave the order before Corviknight could get too bright for him to look at, eliciting a frightened squawk as his foe beheld his near-demonic visage.

She pushed through, having enough control over her body to avoid falling down this time and even striking Dun's shield. Less force this time, though. Guess fighting against your muscles freezing up can cost you power on some Moves.

This time Corviknight had to land down after the attack, talons sinking into the snow beside Dun. Freddrick, seeing this, finally decided to give up on his old strategy. "Fury Attack!"

"Parry!" With his longer body, Dun could twist around to follow the furious pecking on his own, rather than having to rely on my hand gestures to block the attacks with his tail. This time though, there was an unexpected pause in the attacks as her Paralysis stopped Corviknight, throwing off Dun's rhythm and letting her land a few hits against his softer body.

The next time she froze though, I was ready. "Hyper Drill!" Point blank, he burst backward into Corviknight, his tail spinning incredibly fast. On impact, there was a horrendous screeching sound, as even her metal armor couldn't fully stop the power of one of his strongest Moves.

With a cry of pain, she backed away, forgoing offense in favor of distance. Dun spun around to face her and I decided to try out a new Move we'd been working on.

"Triple Yawn!" Taking in a massive breath, inflating all three segments of his body, Dun exhaled, letting out a large beige cloud that slowly drifted up to Corviknight.

"Blow that shit away!" Freddrick cussed, grinning as his Pokemon easily dispersed the cloud with one sweep of her wings. Before they had time to cheer, Dun let out another cloud, another segment deflating as he did so. She repeated the action, but one final instance of the Move was ready to be released the moment after the winds she had kicked up had stopped.

Corviknight's muscles were seizing, having a hard time working through the Paralysis. Personally, I don't feel shouting at your Pokemon 'just do it!' and 'hurry up!' help here.

Nonetheless, Frederick's Pokemon followed his frantic 'commands' and managed to blast away the cloud at the last second before it could envelop her.

Dun and I hadn't been idle while she was struggling with that, however. Drawing my fist down to not give away the game, my starter began gathering electrical energy high above and released it just as Corviknight finished blocking our previous attack.

The Thunder hit with a flash and loud boom, the electricity piercing her and causing real damage. She fell to the ground, but rather than follow it up with Earthquake or any form of attack, I focused on our own speed. "Agility!"

Dun glowed bright blue, zipping around the battlefield as Corviknight got back to her feet. Freddrick stomped the ground, hissing as he stepped a bit too deeply in the snow and sunk past his fashionable yet not very tall boots.

"Gah! Enough of this, let's show them your true power!" He shouted, drawing forth his Tera Orb from his pocket. The orb shook in his hands as he activated it, tossing it over his Pokemon's head where it burst into light, encasing her in crystals for a brief moment before they shattered. She emerged, glowing and with a set of crystalline balloons resting atop her head.

"Wing Attack!" He ordered, and she caught us off guard, flying forward faster than before, Terastalization, or perhaps the desperation of the moment, allowed her to shake off the Paralysis that had hampered her prior. The surprise let her slam one wing into Dun, knocking him back a bit, but he soon adjusted, rolling with the blow and quickly avoiding any follow-up, dancing out of the way.

"Ancient Power." Dun sped around the battlefield, rocks hurtling out at irregular intervals from wherever he passed by - and occasionally striking into his foe from behind as he telekinetically controlled the few that missed hitting again.

"Night!" The bird Pokemon cried out in pain as the attacks racked up against her.

"What's the problem? You're Terastalized, just push through!" Freddrick complained, a nervousness in his eyes as even the arrogant young man started to realize he was going to lose.

"That's exactly the problem," I pointed out, before seeing Dun glow with a mysterious power.

"Ok, that's one of two problems. The first is that by turning Corviknight into a pure Flying Type, you may have strengthened some of her Moves, but you left her weak to others."

"What's the other?!" Well, technically the other issue is the omni-boost Dun just got from Ancient Power, but I'd rather just have a dramatic, 'cool' line.

"This. Thunder," I declared, letting them watch in awe as Dun unleashed a powerful series of lightning strikes falling like rain down upon Corvknight. With his speed and power increased, there was no contest, and try though she might to get close to him, she fell short, collapsing into the snow in front of Dun and not getting up. "It's over."

Freddrick was stunned, just staring out into space as if he couldn't understand how this happened. I pushed that and any worries about what he might do to the side, returning Dun to his Pokeball. I'm sure he could heal the injuries with a Roost pretty quickly, but he's looking pretty tired from all the Moves he did and I can just use a Potion later.

Walking over to Grusha, I saw the man was shivering a little, which was to be expected given the weather. He barely seemed to care, however, holding a Pokeball in his hand and glancing down at it and back at the battlefield repeatedly. "So, you find that… fun?" He asked awkwardly.

Not like he didn't believe me but more that he was just having trouble with something…

Having trouble hoping. That there could be something in his future. Which, a little melodramatic, but I'll give it to him, given the circumstances. "Yeah," I said, nodding vigorously.

"Freddrick and I aren't even the best examples of that - like I said, we don't get along. But even so, I was having a blast. Pokemon battles have elegance, skill, quick thinking and big picture decisions, power, speed… they're just the best. What Pokemon can do is magical and leading and training them, helping them reach the highest heights, it feels incredible."

Internally, I cursed myself for not having a better description on hand. I felt like I could have spoken about battling for days on end, but in the moment the words wouldn't come out right.

Not that it seemed to matter, Grusha looked at me with wide eyes before grabbing my hand and shaking it. "Thank you," he breathed out, and I thought I saw water gathering in his eyes before he turned to the nurse, asking her to take him back.

Wow, glad I made a good impression. He was a cool Gym Leader and I would have been upset with myself if I inadvertently drove him away from that. Turning away, I started marching away from the hospital, deciding I had done enough and it would be best to leave. Unfortunately, Freddrick didn't feel the same way, running forward and grabbing me.

Yelping, I twisted, his bigger body and sudden force causing me to fall into the snowy ground. My instincts kicked in on the way down and I managed to pull him with me, turning and trying to get his body under mine. The person on the top of a grapple had a huge advantage. Of course, since he was older than me, his size played a role too, and even managing to use his strength against him and get the top position, it was still a struggle as he flailed about.

"What is your problem?" I screeched, trying to pin his thrashing arms down and avoid getting thrown off.

"YOU! Everyone is always talking about how you're so smart and Ma and Pa keep on telling me I need to show up the Glitterati's and then you somehow beat me and it's not fair-" The rich boy screamed as he struggled beneath me.

For a moment I was tempted to punch his face, but pulled back. Ironically, I was brought back by the sound of Miles hovering over him and buzzing very dangerously, reminding me of just how much damage I could truly do to Freddrick if I wanted to fuck him up… and how he wasn't worth it.

"Oh, shove off!" Despite telling him to do that, I was the one who pushed off of his face with my hand, standing back up. I kept an eye on him in case he was going to start fighting me again, but all I saw was a snot-nosed brat crying in the snow. Jeez, this is embarrassing. Not on his behalf, but just from how sloppy my fight was. I know we're in the snow and wearing heavy clothing, but I felt so sloppy here. Hmm, better add this kind of practice to my routines with Dendra.

"Quit complaining about your parents, you were a jerk to me before you even knew who I was. Your cheating is your own damn problem. Do you want to get better? Maybe treat your Pokemon better and stop cheating." Flinging a hand out to point at the Corviknight still lying down in the cold (something we were all feeling after his little fit).

Frederick blinked, slowly getting up and returning his Pokemon. "This was supposed to be my chance to visit Grusha," he muttered. "But you got to be the one who helped him-"

"Newsflash!" I interrupted him, causing the taller boy to flinch back. "We both helped him!"

"What?" The van Grough boy looked at me like I just said the sky was green.

"I couldn't have shown him how great being a trainer was without you, so if you're worried about that, then you did help. Maybe take that and stop being such a dick to everyone else," I muttered the last part as I turned away. Whatever, I'm not his keeper. Whether he's a better person or not is his own choice.

Without any further words, I turned and walked away, trudging through the snow to the town square. Miles, ever faithful, had already begun sending out a request for a Flying Taxi to pick me up.

"Thanks."

"Bzzt, no problems, Young- Nemona," They caught themselves, knowing I didn't care to stand on station when it was just the two of us. "I think you handled that quite well, bzzt."

Blowing out a hot breath and shaking a bit of snow off I responded. "Definitely think I could have handled it better too, but whatever. It's done now." Looking down the street I could already see the Flying Taxi landing down. Dang that's fast, must have been in the area.

"Let's look forward to better things. Next stop, vacation!"

"But your family vacation isn't for another two weeks, bzzt. So actually the next stop is home, then over to Dendra's dojo for practice tomorrow…" Letting out a small sigh and a side-eye, not entirely certain if Miles was being overly literal or messing with me, I climbed into the basket. I could barely think about that however as my imagination turned to my next great adventure, waiting beyond the horizon. Kitakami.

Spoiler: A/N:

Grusha's had a fire lit within him and we got to see best boy, Freddrick, haha (I am joking). The fight and discussion afterward come from what I'd been feeling in real life, how you can feel in the right and argue all the points logically, and still have no idea if you've convinced anyone else.

Hopefully it wasn't too frustrating to see him again and I don't have any further plans for that storyline for the time being, I consider that all wrapped up as we move on to bigger and better things. Like Kitakami, there's gonna be a ton there, those chapters have been something I've been working on for a while and I really hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your support.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dudunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact, Roost, Ancient Power, Drill Run, Hyper Drill, Triple Yawn

- 'Miles' (Rotom)
- Tera Type: Electric
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot, Hex, Sunny Day

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Kitakami! Get a Hydrapple! Also Nemona needs a flying mount. Just makes traveling that much easier.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

"Woohoo!" I shouted for the umpteenth time, my voice hoarse as we landed down, descending on rich verdant land beneath.

Over my ride's top fin, I could see the mountain that dominated the center of Kitakami, the stones on the side jutting up and down like a set of fanged teeth. Off to the sides were rolling hills with trees all about, and a large river that cut through the land. Kitakami Hall stood off from the town, in the shadow of the mountain beside it, and I could just barely make out the apple orchard and Loyalty Plaza. It's magnificent. The games can't do this world justice; and they did a pretty job, in my opinion.

Slowing down, we stopped well before Mosui village proper, which was not even close to their famed rice fields. Kitakami was technically its own region, so we needed to check in at the airport, even though we had taken… different means to get here.

As I got off my ride's back, I looked back at my parents and sister, off in the distance. They were all on Dragonites, which, while incredibly fast, had paled in comparison to the Garchomp I had chosen as my ride. It's incredible how she can fly, seemingly just shooting around like a jet plane.

"Thanks," I said to her, patting her hide. I had been given gloves and thick gear, both for the wind chill and to help me keep my grip on her as we rode. She doesn't have Rough Skin ability, but her scales are still fairly tough and sharp, at least by human standards.

"That was incredible, so glad I picked the fastest Dragon." She gave a low growl of pride and from the way she puffed up, I knew she'd be bragging about this to her fellows.

It didn't take much time before my family joined me, my parents dropping down a little wobbly but looking delighted. My sister, however, took a minute to gingerly disentangle herself from the Dragonite she'd been gripping onto with four limbs for dear life.

She dropped to her knees when she finally touched the ground, and with a queasy look on her face, she stared dead into my eyes and uttered two words: "Never. Again."

"Aww, c'mon, we were totally safe-" I tried only to be cut off by another glare, as well as the landing of the 'captain' of this trip.

Vance Hawthorn got off his Salamance, feeding the Pokemon a quick berry as the former Ace

Trainer checked us over. "Everyone doing good?" The mild-aged man asked, more out of politeness than anything, I imagined, since he'd been watching our flight over the past couple of hours with eyes almost as keen as mine. It was only in this final stretch that Garchomp (and myself) had been permitted to fly a bit ahead, something she had eagerly done.

"Oh don't worry about Cyan, she'll live."

"Hate you…" She groaned, now clutching at the ground.

"Take it easy, takes a while to get used to being on the ground again. At least for most people," he said, giving me an odd look. "Have you ever gone on a long-distance flight on a Pokemon before?"

"Uh nope, just take to it naturally, I guess." In the sense that my Aura is naturally Flying aligned, yeah. I wasn't actively using my Aura there, but it felt so natural gliding through the sky like that I was tempted to jump off and just start flying myself!

Which would have been fun, but while Tulip had given me the ok to use my Aura and play around with it a bit on the trip, she also advised me not to try full-on flying yet, just sticking to levitating and trying to conjure gusts of wind. Also, I doubt I'd be able to fly anywhere near as fast as Garchomp was going.

O'Nare, having regained herself a bit strode forward on unsteady legs and thanked Vance. "Thank you for taking us here, this was quite the experience. I think we'll be taking a plane back home, however, so no need to wait for us."

"Not a problem, you were quite generous with your payment," Vance said. "I'll probably stick around here for the plane ride though. When not flying VIPs like yourself I actually tend to fly protection duty for air travel."

"Planes need protection?" I asked before realizing that it was probably protection from wild airborne Pokemon. "Wait, but don't they have Rangers clearing the routes ahead of time?" A major part of why the International Pokemon League is so big as a political group is because of the cooperation it fosters for things like this. Big international tournaments are fun and get a lot of publicity, but having a central body to help facilitate travel, law enforcement, et. cetera is huge.

He gave a small guffaw. "They do, of course, but not everything goes according to plan. A lot of things can change up there and we help make sure a plane can steer clear of any unexpected dangers. Plus," He said leaning down as if whispering some big trade secret to me "have you ever wondered why flights go so smoothly?"

"Actually, yeah, I have. There's never any turbulence- oh! Because of Pokemon like yours! Is it just a general application of Flying Type energy, or do you use Moves like Tailwind consistently?"

"Haha wow, didn't expect you to be such a little scholar." Why is everyone so surprised at that? Aren't kids supposed to be curious? "The Moves depend on the situation, and we only use them to get rid of inclement weather, not constantly."

"I see. Oh, here, I should probably give you these gloves and gear back," I said, taking off the thick pleather gloves, before he waved me off.

"Keep 'em. Your folks paid more than enough for you to keep them, and who knows? Maybe they'll come in handy someday. Does my old heart good to see a youngster that loves the sky almost as much as I do."

Nodding, I thanked him again and then ran after my family who had begun trudging their way towards the customs station. This is going to be so much fun, I can't wait to begin adventuring in Kitakami!

***

It turned out not only could I wait, I had to. Getting cleared by customs was easy enough, but then we had to sit patiently for the bus, which only came in and out from Mossui Town twice a day. I was tempted to just start walking over, but Billy pointed out 'It's a family vacation, we should stick together.'

To pass the time before the bus got there we played cards, something that both my parents informed me was 'charming' and 'delightfully commoner'. Once we got on the bus, the driver proved to be quite an amicable fellow who acted almost like a tour guide. He chatted about the richness of the land and what sites we might want to see while we were there.

Already know about most of those, and have a few places in mind not on that list, but still interesting to hear about it from a local's perspective. I wonder if I'll run into Kieran and Carmine while I'm here?

Meeting them and possibly making things smoother for the future plot would be ideal, but I vowed not to let that consume me. This trip is about relaxation and enjoyment, first and foremost. This was technically 'my' birthday treat, getting to choose the destination for our vacation. I was already loving it, though I did still feel a little guilty about the fact that my big sister had been so discombobulated by the method of travel.

Luckily, she seemed to bounce back fairly quickly after our dragon ride over and was looking interested in the scenery as we passed by. "Oh! Check it out, those are the rice paddies," I pointed out to her as we turned around a bend in the road and could now see the town and attached fields past the cliffs that surrounded this 'pocket region.'

"Neat. Wow, there's a lot of Pokemon here, huh?" Cyan commented as we took in the sights. In addition to the old-timey buildings (and the more modern Inn at the top of the hill) in the town, there was all manner of Pokemon wandering about. In the rice fields, atop the tiled roofs in the town, and even crossing freely through the road leading up to town. Maybe that's part of why the bus stop is so far away from the town itself - no one wants to wait ten minutes for a slow Pokemon to choose to cross the road to move five meters ahead only to be halted by another one.

We reached the said stop shortly thereafter, getting off the bus and stretching our legs. Then we began a scenic walk up towards Mossui town, getting our first real experience of Kitakami. It was wonderful to take in the sights, sounds, and even scents; my sense of smell had been terrible in my first life but it was amazing here (possibly boosted by my Aura, though I had no real comparison). I can smell the candy apples from here. Applin isn't my favorite Pokemon, but Dipplin is pretty cool, and I heard it gets an evolution beyond that.

"Whoa, what's up with those Pokemon?" My sister's exclamation drew me out of my thoughts. She was pointing out the river and down at the water. Is there something rare there? No?

"Uhh, the Woopers? Those aren't that special. I mean any Pokemon can be special, but we see them all the time in Paldea-"

"Not Woopers like those!" She countered, and I remembered that Johtoan Woopers actually would be strange to her.

"Many Pokemon have regional variants, having different Types and slightly different bodies and even entirely different evolutions in different environments. Those Woopers will evolve into Quagsires, not Clodsires like we have back home. Kitakami is home to a bunch of different Pokemon than we have back in Paldea."

She nodded slowly, gazing out at the Yanma flying above and Sewaddles crawling about on the ground and everything in between. "I can see why a Pokemaniac like you would like this place then," she said as we walked by the rice paddies.

"That's not why I wanted to go here," I replied with a sigh. "Any region would have its own rich ecosystem of Pokemon. No, I'm interested in the history of Kitakami. There are some folktales here-"

"What would an outsider know about our history?" A new voice interrupted me as we stepped off the road and into the town proper. Glancing up, I saw the owner of that voice, a young girl almost as tall as Cyan pointing a finger straight out at me. She was standing in the middle of the main street, and out of the corners of my eyes I could catch a few adults shaking their heads.

"Huh? I mean, I've heard stories and read articles…" I mumbled on instinct, trying to think of a plausible cover for my knowledge before pausing as I caught sight of her bright yellow eyes.

"Carmine."

"Wha-? How do you know my name!?" The young girl asked angrily, hands clenched in fists.

"Oh, that's your name? I was just noticing the lovely shade of red your hair is." Please let that excuse work, I really don't want to explain I saw you in a video game in a past life.

It did something, as Carmine turned away, shaking her head slightly, inadvertently giving me a better look at her two-tone hair. I know this is an 'anime world' but it still feels weird that she can have hair that's black in the front and red on the underside. What even is the biological explanation for that?

After a moment of mumbling something incoherent to herself, she whipped back to face me.

"Wh-whatever! I still don't want to hear that some foreigner knows more about this land than we do!"

"That's not what I said-"

"If you keep this up… I'll have to Pokemon battle you!" She declared triumphantly, proudly showing off the Pokeball attached to the belt over her blue jinbei.

"C'mon sis, you don't need to do this," a small boy muttered, stepping out from behind her and tugging at her sleeve. Like his sibling, he was wearing a jinbei, though his was gray. His hair was also black on one side, but lilac underneath, and he had the same yellow eyes she had.

In terms of personality, however, they couldn't be more different, the taller girl turning on him.

"Shut up Kiki!" She shouted, literally trembling with rage. "Don't you see I have to defend our home?!"

There was a small chuckle, something even I only barely caught from an older teenager standing off behind the inn. He was wearing a casual black shirt and baseball cap with a gold chain around his neck, just seeming amused at the scene playing out in front of him. Several townsfolk are, so I wonder why from him I get a slight sense of… danger?

Turning back to the girl glaring at me, I attempted to defuse the situation. "I would never presume to know more about your culture than you. In fact, I'd love it if-"

"Oh, we're going to get to see our little girl battle up close!" O'Nare clapped happily.

"Yes! You can do it Nemona, show us true Gliteratti pride!" Billy 'helpfully' added. Ugh, I forgot how 'supportive' they can be. Welp, no helping it now.

With that, it was pretty much settled and we took our places on the road, any wandering townsfolk giving us a wide berth and a few of them sticking around to watch. The guy in black introduced himself as Muramasa and stepped up to referee the match as well. Not sure what Pokemon Carmine will use, but she's got a Sinistcha, right? Dun should be good against that, especially with his new Moves.

We both held up our Pokeballs and on the signal released them. As I expected, Carmine released what looked like a small clay jar with floating 'hands' of a green goopy liquid, one of which held a stirring stick. They had white eyes and a smile painted on the outside of the beige portion of the jar, but through the cracks in the container, I could see the green liquid and a yellow orb staring out from it.

Carmine's smirk turned grim as she beheld my Pokemon. "A Dudunsparce? How'd you get an evolved Pokemon?!"

"Not many people recognize Dunsparce's evolution, are they common here?" I asked, surprised by that. Even in regions like Paldea and Johto where Dunsparce is fairly plentiful (compared to others), Dudunsparce is practically unheard of, just because there are so few trainers or conditions to push them to evolve in the wild.

"I saw some up in the caves by the Crystal Pool- Ah! Stop trying to trick me into giving you our secrets!" Before I could respond to that she changed tracks. "We'll beat you anyway. Welcome to Kitakami. For your first experience, get ready to eat dirt!"

Muramasa gave the countdown, and on the word 'begin', Carmine launched into her order.

"Poltchageist, use your special Move! Shadow Ball!" Poltchageist? I thought that was- oh right, Sinistcha is the evolved version.

The ghostly goop poked their head up, pushing the jar lid up as they gathered a small ball of dark purple energy between their hands. We weren't about to let that go unpunished, however, as I called "Glare!"

Dun gave them a malicious stare and Carmine's Pokemon winced, still managing to shoot out the Shadow Ball and even keep it on target. The ball grew, distorting and rippling as its size increased the farther it got until it collided with Dun, enveloping him… and doing nothing whatsoever because he was a Normal Type.

"Hex," was the simple follow-up command I gave, but it was enough. Dark purple energies of Dun's own surrounded the small Ghost Type, causing it to thrash around in pain for a moment before collapsing down to the ground. Carmine was fast enough on the draw to return her Pokemon instinctually before they could contact the concrete, but still seemed to be in shock, gaping at how fast the match ended.

That's fair, I was kinda thinking this would go on longer too. This was gonna be our chance to see how Lunge and Ice Spinner worked in battle. Guess it was a bit unfair to expect a grueling contest from a kid though. The girl in question let out a question. "Who are you?"

Recalling Dun I replied, "Nemona Glitterati. It's nice to meet you." I held out a hand for her to shake, Carmine's yellow eyes were full of water and I wasn't sure if she would take my offer, yell, or start bawling.

As it turned out, none of those things happened, as a balding man with glasses in purple robes stepped out of the inn we had been battling in front of. "What's going on here?" He asked before locking his gaze on Carmine. "Have you been bothering our guests? They're very rich- they're looking for rich experiences in our wonderful land. Please try not to disturb them."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Carmine just invited me to a friendly battle!" I said, throwing an arm up and around her shoulder. It was awkward due to the height difference, but also because she was glaring daggers at me.

She quickly adjusted to an incredibly saccharine smile as she turned to the innkeeper. "Yuuuup. Just love greeting outside- visitors." The man quirked an eyebrow, but seeing no imminent disasters, turned to greet my parents, eagerly buttering them up.

"Alright, fine. I guess you can stay here, but only if you do everything I say and respect our land." Carmine said, pushing off from me.

My big sister started marching toward us, clearly frustrated with how this girl was acting, but I waved her down. She stopped but was still frowning at Carmine until I spoke up. "I'd love to, but oh, how will I know how to properly respect your land if I don't see it or know its history?"

The tall girl seemed confused by this, scrunching up her brow cutely as she thought about it before brightening up with a laugh. "We'll just have to show you! Kiki and I will take you all over Kitakami!"

"Aw man, why am I getting roped into this?" Her younger brother questioned aloud and was promptly ignored by Carmine, the girl striding off back to their home.

Cyan shook her head beside me. "I know you can be stingy, but is it worth having them as tour guides, even if you tricked them into doing it for free?"

Flashing her a smile that said butter wouldn't melt in my mouth I replied "No idea what you're talking about. But I think this'll be fun."

***

We got situated in our rooms, which my parents referred to as 'charmingly rustic', something which the innkeeper twitched at, and I suspected was actually some of the most modern facilities here. The inn is quite comfortable, honestly, but I can see how it doesn't compare to the five-star hotels we regularly stay at.

The next morning Billy asked me at breakfast "What do you want to do?"

"Well, there's a lot of the land to see and explore, but I thought we might try fitting in with the locals and seeing about getting some of their clothes first. There's a store right beside-"

"Who are you and what have you done with my sister?" Cyan accused me suspiciously.

With a heavy sigh, I said "I'm not against all clothing shopping, I just don't feel like doing so every week." Or month. Look, clothing shopping can probably be done like twice a year, excluding emergencies. "The outfits here look neat and they'll make for fun souvenirs." Getting keepsakes from a vacation was fine, but I didn't see the point in buying stuff that would sit on a shelf for years, barely get looked at, and then thrown out.

"Mmhmm. Still not convinced you aren't an alien who replaced my sister. But then again, you're an alien who likes to shop, so I guess you can keep her."

"Hey! I just said that this isn't going to be a regular thing!!" My sister ignored my words as we headed off to Peachy's, the main store just down from the inn.

I wonder if that has anything to do with Pecharunt, the legendary in the other half of the DLC, who was supposed to be the big bad behind the 'Loyalty Trio'? Meh, probably not, this is just a small store run by a kindly old lady.

We all got jinbeis and were shown how best to wear them. While the store had a multitude of styles and colors, ultimately I ended up going for the golden one with white and blue highlights, much to my parents' delight. It was the most expensive of the bunch, but also the most durable while still being lightweight and airy. Cyan got a bunch of outfits as well as one jinbei, remarking on the unique nature of the Spinarak silk clothes.

Still having a few hours to kill before Carmine and Kieran would show us around, Cyan and I went down to check out the river that wound around town (Mom and Dad took the time to quickly check work emails and deal with any urgent situations that cropped up at their jobs). Popplio loved splashing around there, and even practicing his singing, which drew quite a crowd.

The Woopers in particular loved the song, jumping up and down on the river bank and splashing around to his tunes. Cyan snapped dozens of photos. I even joined in, pulling my guitar out of my Sliph bag and playing 'Unova' alongside her starter.

"Slow down you crazy child, you're so ambitious for a juvenile,

But then if you're so smart, why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire? What's the hurry about?

You gotta cool it off before you burn it out.

You got so much to do and only so many hours in the day.

But you know when the truth gets told,

You can get what you want or you can just get old.

You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through.

When will you realize that Unova waits for you?"

Something happened as we played, the notes Popplio was singing started bubbling out of his mouth forming musical symbols forged of water to float through the air. When they drifted down to the river, they'd erupt in an explosion of water, to even more cheers from our fans.

"What Move was that?" My sister asked, hugging Popplio tightly. "Was that Sparkling Aria? I heard his evolution can learn that but I never thought he'd master it so fast!"

"Ehh, I don't think it was that Move, more an Ability," I pointed out. At the sudden pout on both their faces, I added: "The Popplio line has a hidden ability called Liquid Voice which can turn all their sound-based Moves into Water Type. That's super impressive, and even rarer and harder to train than a Move he'll definitely learn when he evolves."

Both of them brightened up at that and she twirled him in the air. "Awesome! I can't wait to show him off to all my classmates."

"Right, you're heading to Uva Academy not long after this."

"What about you?" She asked me after she finished playing with Popplio, setting him down and letting him sing to his heart's content, conjuring more watery music.

"What about me? I'm still too young to go to school-"

"Uva's minimum acceptance age is five, and I bet you already know that. We both know you're smart enough to attend. Or maybe you're thinking about Blueberry Academy, given your song? Is that one going on the album?"

Our parents had been pushing for me to take all my song ideas and turn them into an album, and I was slowly coming around to the idea, at least as a tool to get music from my past life out there. "That wasn't what the song was about. I thought about it on our trip to Unova, where you told me I should chill out on training and studying a bit."

She sat beside me on a large rock as we looked over at the river, where Popplio had been invited to a game of… tag? It was hard to tell what exactly the game was, but he and the other Pokemon were having a blast, splashing and swimming over each other.

A glance to the side showed me that my deflection hadn't worked as she was still staring at me. "Ok, ok, I know. I know I could go, I just… don't like rushing into things." Can't exactly say I'm waiting till I'm twelve or thirteen to avoid screwing up meta-knowledge of the games.

My big sister didn't condemn me, nodding her head. "I get it. I had to go and check out a bunch of different schools recently before feeling settled on Uva." She paused for a moment, frowning before turning to face me and saying "You work hard on trying to be 'perfect.' Honestly, it's kinda frustrating, because I was supposed to be the big sis setting the example. Not sure if you remember, but I got kinda upset at you for that before."

"Water under the bridge." Then, as if conjured by my words (or more accurately, conjured by the Quagsire cannonballing into the river), a large wave swept up and we had to hurry to pull our legs up to avoid getting drenched.

"Just- I'm trying to say you can afford to take some risks. You're my brilliant little sis, and I don't want to see you hide that away from the world forever. You don't know what you'll find either.

Like, at first I thought I wanted a Sprigatito as my next Pokemon, but now…" her gaze wandered over to the Pokemon in the river. Her Popplio and a half dozen other Woopers had clambered onto the back of the Quagsire and were now proudly 'sailing' across the river.

"How touching," a familiar voice said in a sarcastic tone. Carmine revealed herself standing atop the edge of the small cliff before the river, her brother looking nervously by her side. She jumped down with a small thud, bending her knees as she hit the loose stony river bank. "C'mon, we can't wait forever for you guys, we have to get a move on if we're exploring Kitakami."

A quick glance at Miles showed me we were still half an hour early for the meet-up time. You were just too excited to wait, weren't you? Someone who was not too excited was Kieran, standing nervously by the edge.

"C'mon Kiki, jump down! It's only a dozen feet, you'll be fine." His sister 'encouraged' him.

"If he's not comfortable, then leave him be, we can walk back up and around," Cyan tried to point out, but Carmine was having none of it.

"No way! Like I said, we don't want to waste time. So just stop being a baby and come down here!" She shouted back up to her brother.

Sighing softly, I asked Miles "Mind helping him down?"

"Not a problem, bzzt!" They said, zipping up through the air to hover before the boy. They exchanged a few words and Kieran grabbed onto Miles' phone case before lowering his legs off the cliff. They dangled in the air for a moment before my Pokemon drifted down, letting the boy touch down easily.

"Wowzers! That was so cool!" Kieran exclaimed as he let go of Miles, rushing up to me. "I- do you think you can- no, I'm sorry, that's dumb." He started and stopped several times before Carmine marched forward.

"What Kiki is trying to say is that he wants your help. Today is the day my little brother is going to catch his first Pokemon!"

"Oh. Alright then, what Pokemon do you like?" I asked.

Taking a deep breath, the young boy answered as clearly as I had ever seen him, a fire burning in his bright yellow eyes. "Ogerpon!"

Cyan looked confused, while Carmine face-palmed. "Oh boy," I muttered, and it was loud enough for my sister to hear it.

"Why 'oh boy'? You love all Pokemon right? So what's the deal with this 'Ogre pom?'"

The poor boy looked on the verge of tears at our reactions, so I quickly swooped in. "Ogerpon is, from what I know," I added, careful not to upset Carmine further. "A creature of near myth.

They clashed with the Loyalty Trio, the legendary guardians of this town many years ago, and haven't ever been seen since."

"You might think it's dumb, wanting to catch a 'monster' like that, but I think Ogerpon is really-"

My sister cut off Kieran's impassioned plea with surprising bluntness. "Nah, it's fine. There's always some kid who wants to own Darkrai or something."

"Darkrai gets a bad rap," I reflexively pointed out. My sister rolled her eyes but didn't see the point in arguing.

"So… so you don't think it's wrong to want to be friends with Ogerpon?" Kieran asked, looking up as if we were All Might and had just told him 'he too, could be a hero'.

"No, not at all. Honestly, that's my method of catching Pokemon. To be friends with them well before throwing any Pokeballs. That being said, I don't think you need to be fixated on catching Ogerpon first, or even at all. If you manage to find a Pokemon as rare as Ogerpon, you should just focus on being their friend, first and foremost."

Carmine scoffed. "If you really knew the tales of this town, you wouldn't be so quick to say that. That ogre… is a monster!" At my unimpressed face, she said "Seeing is believing though, so let's go to the three sign boards that tell the tale of the ogre!

With a goal in mind, we marched off, joining back with my parents at the inn before going up the hill to the west that curved around to the Loyalty Plaza. Our guide muttered something about 'nice clothes' before she led us up the dirt road.

It was clear to see that the innkeeper was not the only one focused on the tourism part of Kitakami, with there being a cardboard cutout of a pile of apples and an Applin for photo opportunities and a stand to sell very overpriced apples to visitors. I'll bet my bottom dollar we could buy them for half the price in town. Not that we need to pay less for them, but still.

"These apples look just delicious, don't they, dear?" Dad asked Mom as we passed by the apple orchards that stood on either side of the road.

"Indeed, they look ripe and large. What a fantastic showing of Glitterati discernment!" My mother responded. "We should grab some to take home with us."

"You can't just take our precious apples!" Carmine declared defensively, throwing her hands out wide as if she could somehow block off access to the open orchards.

"Pretty sure we can," I countered. "We could just take seeds and plant them at home - or heck, I think I saw some small trees ready for sale down in town."

"Well- they won't taste the same if you don't get them from here. Because of the… soil and stuff…" More reasonable than I expected from an eight-year-old. Still, an easy argument to turn around.

"So, if they aren't going to be the same, there should be no problem with us planting some trees back home then, right?" My taunts had the desired effect of causing Carmine's face to flush scarlet as she tried to stammer out a counterargument. Looking at that in turn had the unintended effect of causing me to glance up and see a dark shape whistling in from the sky.

"Look out!"

My cry of warning came just as it swooped down, and that was almost too late. Everyone in our group just stood there, squinting against the sun in their eyes, but it did startle the Applin on a branch beside us off, causing the winged beast to swish by, missing its target.

"Gliiii-gar!" The pink Pokemon cried as she pivoted in the air, turning to stare balefully at us. She looked very much like a scorpion crossed with a bat, having large webbing in between her arms which ended in pincer-like claws. One of her claws was holding a small glass sphere with a purple liquid sloshing about inside. Most distinctive was her long tail with a stinger on the end.

She made another pass at the Applin who was cowering on the ground, but this time, Kieran had regained himself enough to dive over top of Applin, shielding them with his body. While he was doing that, Carmine and I released our Pokemon. Dun appeared in a burst of red light alongside a new Pokemon, a hound with gray fur and a black face. Poochyena.

Carmine's Pokemon gave a deeply unnerving growl, trying to intimidate Gligar, but the wild Pokemon cared not, rushing at the Applin, but finding herself stymied by Kieran. The small boy couldn't protect the apple forever, though, especially with Gligar being quite large for their species. She was bigger than he was, picking Kieran up with her free claw and tossing him aside.

His efforts had bought us time, so before she could fly off with her meal, Dun landed a Hyper Drill at my command, slamming the Flying Type into a tree nearby. This had the unintended side effect of knocking down a bunch more apples, and likely a few Applins given the way some of them 'bounced' away.

The flying scorpion Pokemon was in no position to take advantage of that, however, dazed and confused by the blow. Not unconscious, though. That's surprisingly resilient for most Pokemon around here.

"Pooch, Crunch!" Carmine shouted, and her Pokemon sprinted forward, latching his teeth into one of the segments of Gligar's tail, trying to drag it around. Unfortunately, Gligar had teeth of her own, and when she bit the dog in turn, he yelped and let his quarry go. With a whack of her tail, she knocked Poochyena aside, sending him tumbling down beside Kieran.

"Ice Spinner," I cooly called out. Dun executed it immediately, rising horizontally on his tail, stretching up nearly five meters tall. Spinning around like the world's tallest, thinnest top, ice began swirling in the air around him. Since Gligar was right beside him, she was assaulted by a barrage of cold that had her howling out in pain.

Still not out of it however and recognizing that I was the real threat, she ran on her small legs and jumped onto my face. Latching on, I found myself blinded, her iced-over wings and body blocking my sight. I knew that wasn't the most dangerous part of the situation, so lashing out on instinct, I grabbed a hold of her tail, stopping her from stabbing into me.

Tugging at her hard, I just barely managed to rip her off, earning a few scratches on one side of my head where her claw scraped by. I had no time to worry about that, however, and keeping the initiative, I whirled her around my head and onto the ground.

"Dun," I panted, my starter waiting eagerly by my side for the chance I'd given him to hurt her, not that my own life wasn't at risk. "Giga Impact." Gligar was not aware of the danger headed her way, but must have sensed something and tried to dig underground, to no avail.

Surrounded by greenish energy, Dun smashed into our foe, ripping her out of the dirt and sending her flying down the hill. The blow knocked the odd orb she had been holding onto as well, falling on the path.

"What a surprising battle!" Billy exclaimed. Alright Captain Obvious, say something I don't know. "And it's not even done yet, the flying Pokemon is getting back up!" Wait what?

Turning back around, I saw the Gligar struggling back to her feet. She was clearly in worse shape than Dun, but for the moment, my Pokemon was too tired to stop her. But this isn't an official battle.

Quickly pulling out the refrigerator form, I tossed it up and Miles flew into it, not even needing a command to know what to do. The Gligar that had been desperately racing towards me paused at this new icy foe, and despite the hatred in his triangular eyes, fear won out. She flew away, racing through the air and then gliding down far out of sight.

Once she was gone I called out "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah."

"That was incredible, bravo!"

"Oh, how marvelous!"

"Ha! As if something like that could take me down."

"Aw man, that was rough."

Dun slid back to me as I took stock of everyone. Poochyena was a little bruised but otherwise trying to stand proud by his trainer's side. My family was just looking a bit shocked at all that had gone down, and Kieran had the Applin held up in the palm of his hands, telling them that it was going to be fine.

"Gligar only hang around the Barren Wastelands, I wonder why that one would have attacked us so suddenly?" Carmine asked aloud.

"Maybe it had something to do with this?" Cyan asked reaching for the orb it had dropped.

"STOP!!!" My voice had her instantly freeze up, hand hovering an inch above the orb.

"What- what's wrong?" She asked.

"Take your hand away and look at the ground around it," I said, running over. There was already a small purple stain on the dirt around it. "That's a Toxic Orb, highly poisonous. It can leave Pokemon badly poisoned even just by holding it, and I think the glass cracked." Indeed, a few fractures were spider-webbing their way through the orb.

My sister gulped, looking a bit paler than usual as she wondered what would have happened if she touched it. Well, that's an auspicious start to our trip. Can't wait to see what happens next.

***

The toxic orb was dealt with fairly quickly by the farmers and some Spinnaraks and Sewaddles that put up some sticks and a small web barricade with leaves attached spelling 'DANGER'. With any travelers or wandering Pokemon warded off, we were free to carry on our way.

"Hey, you can go back, you're safe now," Kieran tried telling the Applin, pointing back down at the orchard. The small Grass Type blinked, turning and hopping down a few steps. Out of my periphery, I saw as Kieran turned away, the Applin turned right back, hopping back and quickly being right behind him.

"You've got a tail," I told him and he turned around to see the Pokemon looking up at him again.

"Aw man, he got freaked out by that attack, huh?"

"Yes, but I think more than that, he was impressed by you and your bravery."

"Huh?! Me? But you're the one that fought the Pokemon off." The Kitakamai boy pointed out. "I wish I could be as brave as you, maybe then the Ogre would like me. You know I've searched the mountain a dozen times, but I've never found them?"

Ok, need to nip that in the bud. For now though, maybe get him focused on the Pokemon already following him. "Bravery isn't not being afraid, it's facing your fears. Your willingness to protect him, even when you had no Pokemon of your own… I bet that's pretty impressive to a Dragon like Applin." Then, I added: "I am assuming here, uhhh, you can just close your eyes hard if I'm off base?"

Applin's eyes bulged a little, trying to stay as wide open as possible for a good quarter of a minute. "Haha, ok, I think I'm good then."

"Wowzers, really?" Kieran asked and the Applin wobbled his whole body in the approximation of a nod.

"Do you want to catch him? I know it's a big choice, but sometimes life happens in-" Before I could finish selling him on it, he had already taken out a Pokeball and pressed the button, absorbing the small red spherical Pokemon into the small red spherical container. It clicked almost immediately, showing the capture as successful.

"I did it!" He shouted, holding his Pokeball high above him. "Thanks, Nemona. I couldn't have done it without you."

I shook my head. "This was all on you. I'm really glad you were able to bond so fast, reminds me of how I met Dun."

"Good job bro, now hurry up!" Carmine called to us, as we had lagged behind the rest of the group, now standing at the entrance to the plaza. A small wooden fence surrounded the large flat top of the hill, providing a barrier between it and the cliffs that led down to the orchard and town below. There were large trees interspersed between bright flower beds. Nearby the entrance was a very old sign, and then further back I could make out a stone monument.

"Behold, the Loyalty Trio Plaza! We used to call it the Loyalty Trio Park but then… we didn't," Carmine said, just as boisterously as ever. Ah, and there are the downsides of having an eight-year-old tour guide. "C'mon, you gotta see the sign."

She led us over to it and began reading the tale of the Ogre and the Loyalty Trio, stopping and starting several times to read over it again. I tried to put on a good face, but it was hard to be super invested in it, knowing that the tale written on it was false. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to correct history here. The only people who know the truth are Kieran and Carmine's grandparents, and they didn't even tell their grandkids without Ogerpon around.

A lot of photos were taken there, and at the monument, keepsakes for when we looked back on this trip later. It's funny how… normal, this all feels. Even with Pokemon all around and fantastic tales with hidden secrets, this moment, just standing here in the breeze as we look out at the wonders of a foreign land. It feels just like the vacations of my past life.

"Are- are you crying?" Carmine asked and I blinked any water out of my eyes.

"Just a bit of dust. Thanks for showing us this, it's quite an interesting tale."

"Of course it is, this is the story everyone here grows up with. Be careful with your eyes though, it gets pretty dusty in the Paradise Barrens."

"Umm, excuse me," Billy spoke up. "Aren't the Paradise Barrens fairly far away?" I was confused for a second before I realized how much he was sweating. My mother and sister were also looking fairly tired.

"Yeah? There's another sign out there, we gotta show you the next one too," Carmine said stubbornly. "Then we go back to Kitakami Hall for the third sign." She pointed out, at the other side of the mountain where the festival of masks took place annually.

At my family's thousand-yard stare, I decided to cut in. "Maybe my parents and sister can go back to the inn and we'll meet them there in a few hours to go to the Hall. The Barrens are where Pokemon like that Gligar came from? Might be a bit dangerous for them there." To pre-empt any arguments from Carmine I assured her: "I'll have Miles take a photo of the sign so they get the full experience."

"That sounds wonderful, sis. We'll see you later." Cyan waved us off, far too relieved in not having to go on a much longer hike than anticipated to argue about having a Pokemon herself.

***

Before reaching the Paradise Barrens, we first had to cross the Wistful Fields, and looking at the splendor of greenery and the almost magical feeling in the air, I couldn't argue with the name. It was a wide field of grass dotted with a few trees and boulders here and there. The towering mountain to one side and the cliffs to the other let it feel like its own private world.

There were also tons of interesting Pokemon running about and frolicking here. Kirlias were dancing around with Cutieflys while a Riolu sparred with a Mienfoo. Off in the distance, I saw Rockruff and Shinxes playing under the watchful eyes of Luxray pack leaders.

"This place is incredible!" I cheered as we ran across the sea of grass with only the kind of energy little kids have.

"It is! Grandpa said I couldn't go here by myself without a Pokemon, but I don't get why-" Kieran was saying before I turned suddenly and grabbed him, leaping and carrying us through the air, just a touch longer and landing more gently than would be naturally possible.

"Sorry about that!" I called out to the Charjabug Kieran had almost stepped on.

"Oh! Oh gosh."

"You gotta keep an eye on those things!" Carmine turned her head back and said immediately before tripping on a rock. She tumbled head over heels before landing in a lump.

We stopped our run to stare at her for a good half minute as she lay there, a trembling ball of rage. "Not. A. Word." Kieran started snickering uncontrollably and she yelled "Not a word, Kiki!"

"I- ahaha- didn't- snerk - say anything!" He said as he took off, ostensibly just running towards the Paradise Barrens, but in actuality running away from his sister's wrath. I ran after them, trying to guide them away from any troubles (which was fairly easy, because despite the Pokemon all having their own little lives here, none of them were particularly territorial or aggressive, to us at least).

***

Crossing the field wiped out a lot of the energy my 'travel guides' had, but I had a feeling they would be entering at a slower pace regardless. Something about this place just has a more somber feel to it. Not sure why though.

Feeling there was no harm, I asked. "Why is this place so, well, Barren? Everywhere else in Kitakami is lush and full of life." Not that this place is exactly devoid of it, however. There are still a few spots of grass and a tree here or there, just, way less than anywhere else.

There were still plenty of Pokemon wandering around the spikey ridges and dusty valleys here. More Rock and Ground Types in general, and a little more standoffish around us, but otherwise fairly similar.

"Grandma said we tried to build something here, a long time ago. But then, something happened, some invader from beyond our shores. The people there had to leave and all the stuff they built got torn down over time. But not the sign! The Pokemon have always been respectful of it."

Huh. Okay, a lot to unpack there. Don't think everyone just 'left'. Must have been quite a powerful Pokemon to destroy all this. Interesting that 'the Ogre' isn't blamed for this one. Then again, I know Ogerpon is a Grass Type, and even if they don't know enough about her to know her Type, the tales would probably let them know that this isn't her style, not even when (rightfully) enraged. No, this would probably be the work of a Ground Type…

"Bloodmoon," I whispered aloud as the pieces clicked into place. Carmine whipped around to face me.

"What did you say?"

"Bloodmoon. It's- another of the legends I heard. Of a beast of tremendous might and strange origins," Kieran had turned to face me as well, both the kid's eyes growing wide. So glad these kids can't call me out on all my random knowledge.

"Back in ancient Sinnoh, when the land was called Hisui, they had 'Noble Pokemon', powerful guardians who worked alongside the tribes of those times. The tribes had discovered alternative evolutions, methods we've lost in modern times. One of those was how to evolve an Ursaring into an Ursaluna, using the power of the Moon."

"The moon? What can the moon do?" Carmine scoffed.

"Plenty. Just ask yourself why some Pokemon can evolve with stones that are only found naturally on the moon? Why is the strongest Fairy Type Move called 'Moonblast?' The moon may be distant but it has a great influence on the world below."

"Ohh, so they used a Moonstone to evolve the Ursaring, like old lady Ingrid's Clefable at the inn." Kieran chimed in.

"No, they could only evolve them during the full moon, but through a different process lost to time. Now, without interruptions, I'll continue." Taking a deep breath, I began again.

"These Ursalunas were strong, gaining mastery over the earth beneath them as they evolved. Most stayed in Hisui and passed as time turned on and the land became known as Sinnoh. Over three centuries ago, however, one of them left. Was he abandoned as the tribes moved on and modernized? Was he exiled, for deeds too terrible to accept? Or was it just a sense of wanderlust that drove him onward?"

"Whatever his reason, he left, and swam across the ocean. Everyone knows the oceans are treacherous, and even more so for one of his Type. But Ursaluna are strong, their strength as great as any mountain, and so he felt he could face the perils of the ocean."

"For all his might though, the waters were more than dangerous, they were vast. As the waves slowly chip away at the cliffs day by day, so too did the ocean sap at his strength. But the oceans move by force of the moon, and the moon was his ally. More than an ally, on one strange and fell night, it became his teacher. The crimson light of the blood moon gave him the power he needed to arrive on the shores of a distant land known as… Kitakami."

That got a gasp from both of them and I knew they were hooked. Indeed, I saw even a few Pokemon coming around to listen. A Timburr carrying a boulder that just 'happened' to be walking back and forth nearby us, a Vullaby that landed some meters behind me, thinking I hadn't noticed, and an Orthworm poking its red head out of the dirt nearby.

"These lessons left him with strange gifts, but also a transformation to his body. His fur had faded to a lighter brown than his kin, and the clay armor that grew over parts of their bodies expanded to cover half of his face. His battles had cost him an eye, but out of that empty socket would occasionally glow an eldritch green light that could peer through the world of Distortion and pierce any illusion or trickery. Finally, atop his brow, the yellow disk of a full moon had been dyed completely red. Blood red, like that of the ominous moon whose power he could now draw on. Fear the monster that even the ground trembles before. Fear, Bloodmoon Ursaluna!"

There was silence as I finished my tale, Kieran looked pale as a sheet and Carmine was trembling. "Is- is that story true?" She asked trepidatiously.

With a deep breath, I answered. "I… have no idea." My anticlimactic statement was met with a moment of silence and then a chorus of 'boos' from humans and Pokemon alike, one of the Pokemon in the back even hucking a small stone very lightly at me, which I dodged while laughing.

"I'm sorry, but c'mon. I couldn't have actually been there for all of that. And that doesn't mean it can't be true. It's just that the only things I know for sure are that there were Ursalunas in ancient Hisui and that there have supposedly been sightings of one here that doesn't look quite right compared to the scrolls and murals of those times. As for the rest?" I shrugged. "Only Arceus knows. But I think it makes for a good tale."

"It was alright, I guess," Carmine begrudgingly said. I can tell she liked it because she's not even getting mad at me for telling a tale about her home. "C'mon, let's get going to the second sign."

As we wandered over to the sign, Kieran asked me "Do you know how to make an Ursaring into a Bloodmoon Ursaluna?"

Chuckling, I answered, "Don't know how to make a 'Bloodmoon Ursaluna', but I have some ideas about regular Ursaluna from the notes and studies I've read." And more from playing a video game in another universe, but I probably won't be putting that on my research paper when/if I unveil my discovery to the world.

"Huh. The Bloodmoon sounds sooo cool." I could practically see the stars in Kieran's eyes and sighed, trying to divert him from that path.

"He is, but maybe a bit dangerous. You probably shouldn't go looking for it unless you're a bit stronger." Honestly Bloodmoon doesn't seem that angry in the games, but he does get easily startled by Perrin's camera. Given the level of power the Ursaluna has, best if he doesn't get hounded by an excitable kid.

He frowned at what I said. "How do you know he wants to hurt me? Maybe he just wants a friend," the younger boy pointed out.

"Maybe. But what about all of this?" I said, gesturing a hand out to the Barrens. "If this was purposeful, or even worse, accidental, then think of the damage it might cause if surprised."

"C-could a Pokemon really do all of this, by accident?"

"A legendary? Yeah, they could. That's why we tell legends of them." Ogerpon isn't quite as focused on large-scale destruction, but her power is at least as great as Ursaluna's. "That's why I want to get stronger. So I can travel anywhere, explore any legend without fear because I'll be just as strong as them."

Kieran's jaw dropped and I wasn't sure if it was from my ideal or the confidence I expressed behind it.

"Wowzers." He pulled up his Pokeball containing Applin. "Do- do you think I could be that strong one day too? That I could meet the Ogre and be their friend."

I nodded and clasped my hand over his holding the Pokeball. "I think so, I truly do. Just, try not to fixate on the Ogre. Being her friend would be great, but you gotta focus on being this guy's friend too. I'm sure he'll be incredibly strong someday, with you by his side."

"Aw-awesome," he said quietly, his face a bit flush as he grinned from ear to ear. "He's gonna be the strongest umm, what do Applins evolve into again?"

Laughing (mostly at Carmine stomping her feet for us to hurry up), I said "They have three different evolutions based on the special apples you give them. Appletun, Flapple, or Dipplin, the latter of which only come from the candy apples made here."

"Which clearly makes Dipplin the best evolution, right?" Carmine more demanded than asked as we approached her standing by the sign.

"Sis…" Kiki groaned.

"Well, I don't want to say any Pokemon is 'better' than any other Pokemon, but yes. Dipplin is probably the strongest."

"What? I mean, of course they are," Carmine huffed.

"Why?" Kieran asked more pertinently.

"Dipplin are theorized to have another evolution, though no one has discovered it yet."

"How can you know it has an evolution if it hasn't been discovered?" Carmine demanded.

"There are ways. Things like Eviolite. It's a special stone that when held by a Pokemon can give them massive boosts to their defenses, making them waaaaay tougher. It only works though, if held by a Pokemon capable of evolving. So some people have noticed that Dipplin gets tougher when it holds Eviolite, while Flapple and Appletun don't. That all being said, pick whichever evolution suits them best - any Pokemon can be strong with enough time and training."

Kieran nodded while Carmine impatiently cleared her throat. "Okay, enough of that now, we're on to the next sign!"

She explained how this one told a tale of why the villagers wore masks, the story of strangers passing at night. How if the Ogre saw you with a mask, then it would pass you by alone, but your 'soul would be forfeit' if the Ogre saw you without it. So even strangers would wear masks out of fear.

"Do people carry masks here any time they go out at night?" I asked after Carmine was finished and she stumbled a bit.

"Well, no, not everyone. But that's the reason why we have the big festival of Masks! It's the biggest event in Kitakami and will be happening next month."

"So the Ogre fights the Loyal Three, then just hangs around checking if people are wearing masks at night?

"Yeah. They say the Ogre's den is supposed to be up on Oni Mountain, but I've checked a dozen times and found nothing." Kieran chimed in, sounding a little subdued before continuing brightly. "Wasn't the Ogre so strong? To take on all of the Loyal Three at once and win… What do you think of them?"

"Honestly? I think she's kinda sad."

"Sad?" Carmine looked befuddled at me.

"What else are you supposed to say about someone so strong that's so alone? The Ogre is all by herself in the stories, right?" Both of the Kitakami kids nodded. "So, she has to know that there aren't any other Ogres about. Especially after this long. Seeing the masks the humans wear is just a form of pretending, acting like there's somebody like her."

Not quite right, but I can't come out right with the truth here. It's pretty close though; why else would Ogerpon show up at the festival in the games? Because as much as people had hurt her and her friend, she wanted to experience the idea of being around people, and with everyone wearing masks at the festival, it gave her that excuse.

"Whoa, I never thought of it like that. That settles it, I'm definitely going to be her friend!" Kieran declared, hand clenched in a fist and an adorably serious look on his face.

"What? No, not settled at all! Stop chasing after her!" Then Carmine turned to me. "Why do you call the Ogre a 'she'?"

Whoops. "Well, I dunno, she just feels like a girl to me. I'll be happy to rescind that view if any evidence shows up to the contrary." Except I know it won't because in the games she's always female.

"Ugh, why do you have to talk so weird? Now it's making Kiki act weird too." The tall girl complained. Pretty sure that weirdness had nothing to do with me. "We should head back to town now and get some food before we go up to the Hall."

***

We walked back (thankfully Miles remembered to take a photo of the sign before we left) but our plans to quickly reach Mossui Town were derailed as I spotted a familiar form lying in the dirt in a shadowy corner of the Barrens.

"Nemona! Wait up!" Carmine called after me worriedly as I started to run away. Kieran and her couldn't see it, but my eyes made out the form of a Gligar and a very familiar one at that.

At least I assume it's the same one, it looks a bit too big to be your average Gligar.

My suspicions were proven correct when I reached the fallen Pokemon, panting hard as I stood over her body. She was lying down right in front of the entrance to a small cave set on the edge of the cliff. I could see the bite marks on her tail and other injuries from our battle earlier today. Most worrying though was that she was on her back and wasn't moving.

Immediately I dropped to the ground, kneeling beside her while also releasing Dun (just in case this was some sort of trap). Turning her over, I felt pretty confident it wasn't as she just lay there, deathly pale. I had to feel for her pulse to determine she was still alive, and I could barely feel it under my fingertips. Or is that natural for Gligar? I don't know, but she does look Poisoned, probably from that damn orb she had. Why was she carrying that thing? Why did she attack Applin?

Kieran and Carmine ran up behind me, out of breath as well. I could hear that they had both their Pokemon out too, especially Applin from his panicked cries as he saw the Pokemon I was attending to.

"What are you doing?" Carmine asked as I sprayed some Antidote directly into her mouth, and followed up with Hyper Potions on her wounds.

"Trying to save her life, what does it look like I'm doing?" I snapped before calming back down as I noticed the tall girl wince at my words.

"...Why?" Kieran eventually asked, eyes blazing as he glared down at the scorpion-esque Pokemon.

"What? Because she's hurt-"

"And she tried to hurt Applin! Why should you help her-"

"Because we won't know why she did that unless we save her life! No one knows why the Ogre rampaged one day because nobody asked!" That line seemed to work as Kieran snapped back, looking like he was on the verge of tears.

Shit. These two are just kids right now, gotta remember that. I'll deal with that later. Turning back to the fallen Gligar, I could hear her breathing now and see a small rise and fall of her chest. That should help for the time being, but she needs proper care. We've got to take her back to the town, but will she be okay carried back? Can I even lift her all the way? No matter, I'll have to try.

With a grunt, I slid my hands under her and began to hoist the Pokemon up. "Uhh, Nemona?" Carmine tentatively asked, and I had to remind myself not to take out my frustration with the situation out on her. I took a deep breath, nodding my head up and down as I tried to center myself before responding to the taller girl.

"Yes?"

"Why are you carrying her?"

"I need to get her to a Pokemon Center, or that little stand you have beside the inn and-"

"No, I mean why don't you just catch her?"

There was a moment of silence before I gently put the Gligar back on the ground before I pulled out a spare Pokeball and caught her in it. "...Thanks," I mumbled sheepishly, while Carmine laughed her head off at me, and even Kieran chuckled a little at me.

With her in stasis and safe for the moment, we could afford to take a moment and think about our next move. "Miles, call up the Flying Taxi service for Kitakami." Another thing I should have thought of sooner. I panicked and nearly made some dumb choices there. I've gotta keep a cooler head in a crisis.

"Sure thing, bzzt. It might take a bit longer here than Paldea, the network isn't as large, but they'll be here soon," my stalwart Rotom assured me.

"That's fine, we've got time now." Hopefully, enough time to get to the bottom of whatever this situation is.

Spoiler: A/N:

This is probably my largest update yet, and there's still tons to explore in Kitakami. I loved the DLC, it was one of the major factors that pushed me to writing this fanfic and was actually where I originally wrote about before settling on the Nemona SI idea. While this arc is going to be quite different than that would have been, I can't wait to show you more about it, and I really hope you enjoy this arc. Thank you for all your support.

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Is this a foreshadowing of Nemona getting a Bloodmoon Ursaluna? Also Wooper is adorable no matter what variant.

 

[Spearow]

this chap was super long, had to pause in the middle to keep going

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Valthorix]

Beeg update, nice

"Ice Spinner," I cooly called out. Dun executed it immediately, rising horizontally on his tail, stretching up nearly five meters tall.

Click to shrink...

Dundunsparce is fifteen feet long? That's mildly horrifying.

 

[cazador]

Poison heal gliscor in the future maybe gliscor is cool

 

[Skyfyre]

Dundunsparce is fifteen feet long? That's mildly horrifying.

Click to shrink...

Yup, haha. Dudunsparce are fairly long, and Dun is a three segment version (average of 14 feet 9 inches) and he's a bit longer than the norm.

 

[Skyfyre]

The Gligar incident threw off our plans for the afternoon. While we had just as much if not more time after getting a ride on their Flying Taxi (which used Noctowls, not Squawkabillys) that time was taken up fretting beside the Pokemon… stand? It had most of the basic machines needed to heal a Pokemon and a Chansey standing by the Nurse Joy, but it was a small mobile setup, not a proper building.

No one is in the mood to continue with the sign tour today, anyway. Kieran has barely said a word since. As we dispersed I quickly said "We'll see you guys tomorrow," to which I got a non-committal but vaguely agreeing sound from the two kids.

"This was an exciting start to our trip!" Billy chirped, but I could see that the big smile on his face was a little forced at the corners of his lips. My family had gathered back at the inn, deciding where to go for dinner.

He's trying for me though, so I can try to look a little less glum too. "Definitely wasn't what I expected. Hope Carmine and Kieran are ok with what I did. We got into a small argument over Gligar."

Cyan cut in, holding three menus in her hands. "Carmine seems to have a problem with everything. Also, we narrowed it down to these three places, where do you want to go?"

Skimming over the menus I pointed to the middle one. "Kitakami Kuisine. It's not Carmine I'm worried about. She's not a bad girl, just bad at expressing herself." Expressing herself politely, that is.

My sister made a disbelieving sound, but I ignored it, forging ahead. "No, it's Kieran. I helped push him to catch the Applin, but then I helped the Pokemon that attacked him."

Our dad looked over at the menus "Fantastic choice my dears! What drew your eye to this restaurant?" He just sounded curious, not judging my choice.

"It served a bunch of food you guys will like and fries and nuggets for me." My answer elicited a groan from my sister.

"You're so plain. How can someone so adventurous be so timid when it comes to food? You don't even like sandwiches." She uttered the last word like it was blasphemy.

"All the rest of me is adventurous, my taste buds are not. Besides, sandwiches are just fine, I eat most of the same ingredients you guys do."

"Eating a loaf of bread, then a separate pile of meat does not count as eating a sandwich." My sister deadpanned before our mother cleared her throat and we stopped arguing.

"Well, I think it's lovely that you're so concerned for the well-being of all Pokemon. Even ones as… scary as that one," Mom mentioned and my sister looked at my face and sighed.

"You aren't going to catch it, are you?" Cyan asked nervously. "Like, you had to use a Pokeball to get it to the center, that's fine and noble and all, but… it tried to attack you."

"Hmm, it depends. I don't know enough about her or her situation yet, or even if she'd want to join my team."

That's the issue, isn't it? Gligar are generally viewed as a pretty aggressive species, and the Pokedex tends to agree with that. 'It flies straight at its target's face, then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison.' 'It sails on the winds with its limbs extended to strike from the sky. It aims for the prey's face.', etc. But I feel there's more to the story here than that. That Gligar had traveled a fair distance from home, which could have just been it searching for weak prey, but then there was the Toxic Orb it was holding…

"Seriously? Poison Types are pretty vicious. If you want to keep her, I trust you but…" My big sister trailed off. Poison is an odd type for trainers. Most only catch a Pokemon with a secondary Typing of Poison, the kinds that don't tend to be as naturally hazardous to one's health. Or they go the opposite way, being full-on specialists in the Type. Knowing how to deal with a Muk might not be the same as knowing how to deal with a Weezing, but there's a lot of overlap that makes it easier. Not that any of this is an issue here.

"Actually, Gligar isn't a Poison Type, though they can learn a bunch of Poison Moves. They're Flying and Ground Type."

"Huh, weird. I get the Flying, but they look kinda bug-like." My sister commented as we headed out for dinner.

"They're in the bug egg group, one of the few to not be that Type, and in that group, like Flygon and… hmm. Miles, take a note for me." They dutifully floated up, opening a Note document on the phone. "Both Drapion and Gligar reside in the bug egg group while not having the Bug Typing. Skorupi has it but loses it upon evolving, and both lines have scorpion-like traits. While scorpions are part of the arachnida animal family, other arachnids tend to have the Bug Type. Perhaps there's a connection between scorpion Pokemon and the bug egg group and Bug Typing."

"Trying to be a champion, musician, and a Professor too?" Cyan teased as I put Miles away.

"I'm aiming to be a Champion, maybe a Pokemon Professor later." Trying to hold both positions at once is technically possible, but even in a land like Paldea where they have multiple Champion rank trainers, it's incredibly difficult. "Music is just a hobby, probably wouldn't even be making that album if you guys weren't pressuring me into doing so."

"Oh, but we just want your lovely voice heard around the world!" Mom exclaimed.

"Yes, I don't doubt that you'll be at the top of the RoTunes charts when your first album comes out," Dad declared.

"That better not be because you messed with the algorithm," I muttered and he pretended not to hear me. Whatever, I'm not even halfway done with the album, still have a lot of kinks to work out in some songs, and a few are still undecided. Those are problems for later. For now, I have to focus on Gligar.

***

The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon when I got up in the morning. Yawning, I slipped out of my hotel room and down to the Pokemon stall. There was a different nurse on duty for the night, playing some games on her phone beside her Chansey who was doing the same.

"Oh hey, you're the kid that dropped off that Gligar before. My sister mentioned you," she said as I flashed her my Trainer ID card. "You can take her back, but you've got to be careful, she was Poisoned pretty badly. No battling with her for the next day or two if you can help it." She pulled the Pokeball out of the machine, handing it to me.

"I'm not looking to do that, I only just caught her. I might even be releasing her back into the wild." She didn't seem interested anymore in the conversation, going back to her phone, so I marched off.

Some of the Pokemon in the early morning were a bit more disturbed by my passing than they had been the day before, but even the den of Ekans that hissed angrily backed off upon seeing Dun slithering beside me. One Mienfoo challenged us to a proper fight in the Wistful Fields, but we were prepared from all our training with Dendra. A Glare slowed him down and a flurry of Air Cutters took him out and had the Fighting Type surrendering.

The den that I assumed Gligar had been aiming for before crashing down was fairly close to the entrance of the Barrens, so it didn't take long after leaving the fields to get there. Then, I released her from the Pokeball.

She immediately whipped around, looking confused at her situation, before realizing where she was and then locking on to me. Any relief on her face melted away when she saw me, backing away unsteadily on her one-clawed legs, hissing in warning.

"Yo," I said, giving a slow wave to the Gligar to not spook her further. She narrowed her triangular eyes at me but stopped backing up (though that might have been because the cliff wall was only a meter behind her now).

Something interesting I noted was how several of the other Pokemon nearby turned away, looking upset at Gligar's appearance. Guess she doesn't have many friends here. But they don't seem worried either.

"Hey, I want you to know that you're safe now. You were hurt pretty bad- no, not by Dun!" She had started angrily jabbing her tail out at Dun, who just narrowed his eyes. "I was impressed by how well you weathered the blows he gave you, but what really hurt was the poison. Why were you carrying that Toxic orb?"

My words did not have the intended effect, as instead of getting any answer, it caused her to realize she no longer had the orb. Scrambling around, she began looking all over for it before scuttling rapidly up the cliff face to her den.

Dun looked eager to give chase, but I held out a hand, holding him back for a minute. She's confused and scared, best to give her a minute. While we waited, I glanced around at the Pokemon nearby.

Many had left, uninterested in the spectacle, and of those that stayed, I noticed something odd. A Nosepass gathered some berries from the dirt and carried them as swiftly away as they could. Sentret gathering with a Furret in front, up on the lush clifftop, ready to defend themselves if need be.

Gligar left the cave gliding back down. "Gligar! Gli gli!" She shrieked, tail swishing about in the dusty ground.

"Hold on, you're upset. Is this about me catching you?" She shook her head before the question was even out of my mouth, so fast that I can't even rule it out as something that would upset her. Just not what she's agitated about right now. "Is this about the Toxic orb?"

She looked confused, so I mime the shape of the orb with my hands causing her eyes to light up.

The flying scorpion nodded her head so rapidly that she needed to throw her arms out to the sides for a second to stop herself from unbalancing. "You dropped it over by Apple Hills. The place where you attacked us?" That gets recognition but not a hint of shame. "But it broke in the battle-"

Shrieking, I saw the instant denial on her face. More than that, I saw the worry behind it. That orb is important to her, even though it was killing her. Why?

I don't have time to wonder any longer as she's launching herself up into the air, propelling towards the site of our battle. "No, it's broken!" My words are nothing more than a breeze on the wind as she ignores me, determined to see the truth with her own eyes. Which I could accept if she wasn't likely to cause a disturbance flying back to a place where she already made a ruckus.

Pulling out her Pokeball, I pressed the button to call her back, only for her to notice the red beam and swoop down, agilely avoiding it. My next two attempts were avoided just as deftly as she twisted and turned through the air, and then she was out of range.

"Shit! We have to go after her!" I called out and Dun and I began racing up the Barrens and across the Wistful Fields. While the two of us could, theoretically fly, neither of us was faster in the air than we were on the ground, and she was much faster than even that, soon zipping out of sight.

"Dammit, Miles, can you go after her and keep her out of trouble? I know it's a big ask-"

"Not a problem, bzzt," they responded, leaving their phone and taking on their regular lightbulb-esque base form. It was the least defensive of their forms, but also the fastest, letting them zip through the air like a lightning bolt following Gligar.

"Hopefully that buys us a bit of time, but we still gotta hurry. Dun, can you give us a Tailwind?" My starter called his name out proudly and began flapping his wings hard, whipping up a stream of air behind us.

The Move wasn't designed to work on humans, but with my Aura, I was able to use it to keep up with Dun's rapid speed. I'd make a massive leap in the air, calling on my Aura to help me glide, and then with the Tailwind, get pushed far ahead, then repeat that every time I landed.

With that, and Dun having to stop every half a minute or so to create a new Tailwind, I was able to keep pace with him and both of us made record times across the fields. We also disturbed quite a few Pokemon that I had to call out apologies to as we whipped by, but thankfully none of them seemed willing to make something of our wild passage. This feels great, so free to soar across the ground. I have to try this again when things aren't so tense in the future.

Winding up the paths that led down to the field, we found ourselves at the top of Apple Hills, looking down at the scene below. Gligar was just sitting beside the makeshift cordon, mournfully poking at it while Miles hovered nearby. The Pokemon in the orchards nearby were looking on warily, but it looked like no fights had been instigated.

Relieved, we hurried down at a brisk, but no longer breakneck pace until we stood over Gligar, who was cradling the cracked orb. Only a few dredges of vile poison remained in the leaking orb, so it looked like she hadn't been too badly poisoned yet, but I still pulled out an antidote and sprayed it on her, eliciting an immediate sigh of relief from the Pokemon.

"Can't you see how that thing is hurting you? And it's broken now, so just… put it down." My words hammered in the truth of the situation and caused her to start wailing, tears falling down her large eyes. At least she put it down and I don't need to use up more Antidote.

I gave her a few pats, which she didn't seem opposed to but didn't seem overly comforted by either, and I waited for her tears to die down. When they did, I asked again "So, this was obviously very important to you. Why were you keeping it if it was hurting you?"

She hissed lightly, disagreeing with that. From there she began to hop around, puffing herself up, and then mimed getting hit and holding the orb but being happy. It was confusing but I tried to break it down.

"So you're saying the orb made you happy?"

"Gar."

"No, not that it made you happy, that it was helping you take hits? No, helping you get better when hit? But you don't even have the Immunity ability." My research on the Pokedex did reveal that Gligar could have the Hidden Ability of Immunity and thus not be hurt by a Toxic Orb, but she didn't have that one. Probably Hyper Cutter, the way Poochyena's Growl didn't diminish her fighting strength one bit.

She was shaking her head again, pointing to herself then crossing her arms in front of her then pulling them aside. "Cross Poison!" She gave me the most deadpan look and I corrected myself.

"Uhh, not you?" That got a nod from her. "It wasn't you holding the Toxic Orb, it was someone bigger. One of your parents?"

"Gli gli!" She eagerly affirmed. A bigger Gligar, when she's already pretty big… or a Gliscor…

The pieces were clicking into place, but I drew out my Pokedex to confirm, flipping through to her evolution's page. "Gliscor… Fang Scorp Pokemon, learns some fang Moves naturally and others through TMs, abilities… there we go." I muttered out loud.

Gliscor has the same regular Abilities as Gligar, but its Hidden Ability upgrades Immunity to Poison Heal! She must have had a Gliscor for a parent that had that Ability and used the Toxic Orb they somehow got to be pretty much invincible! Poison will eventually leave a Pokemon's system, but the orb would keep on reapplying it, and a really strong Poison at that, which kept on being flipped to very strong regeneration. But… there were no signs of any parents at the den we were at and Gligar had the orb.

"Did one of your parents give you this orb? Are they still around?" My direct questions elicited a whole new round of tears, and as I tried to console her, I spotted a couple of familiar people walking up the hill toward us. Best hurry this up before they make a scene. I can probably assume that there's no family she has left, and it looked like most of the Barren weren't fans of her sticky fingers? Sticky pincers? In any case, I've got a good enough picture now.

"I'm sorry that things are rough for you, but that doesn't justify trying to attack or steal from others." She whipped her head around, gnashing her teeth away. I pulled my hand back quickly, giving her an unimpressed look. "Stuff like that." Not sure if she was 'out of her mind' from the pain of Poison, or she was just irritable and looking for a snack, but I can't have her trying to eat Applin again.

Continuing, I said "I could help you. Train you to become strong- stronger," I amended at her glare, which seemed to mollify her a little. "You took those hits pretty well, but there's more to battling than that. Using Moves, positioning and maneuverability, strategy… I teach Dun and Miles all that and more, and I'd like to teach you too. It's even possible for me to get you another Toxic Orb." That got her undivided attention and she froze as still as a statue, staring at me with wide eyes.

"It might not have the same sentimental value as your first one, but I can also provide all the antidotes you need to train up that Ability." Even a Razor Fang too, when she's ready. I didn't want to mention that as she already seemed excited enough, leaping into the air and swooping around my head.

"Alright, alright, I'm glad you're happy. However, there will be some stipulations for this. If I give you a Toxic Orb, I expect you to listen to me. Especially in battles and when it comes to how much you're Poisoning yourself."

"Gligar, ar!" She said, pivoting on a dime and dropping down in front of me. Shaking her head, she held a pincer out and then flapped her wings without rising.

"You… you want me to just give you a Toxic Orb then let you leave?! No, absolutely not!" I shouted, moving closer to her. She shoved her head forward, butting her hard exoskeleton against my head. Oww.

Backing off a step (out of a desire not to be overly confrontational and not just because that hurt a lot), I said: "Do you know how reckless it would be to give you a Toxic Orb after what happened last time? You'd die." She made a disbelieving sound, so I pressed on. "You'd piss off the wrong Pokemon, probably hurt a lot of them, and still have no way to deal with constantly Poisoning yourself, so you'd perish."

Gligar didn't look happy about it, but she had stopped arguing with me. "If you want to go, then I'll let you go. I won't give you a Toxic Orb if you're on your own, but I'm not going to keep you with me if you don't want to." I heard her scuffing her feet against the dirt ground, not moving away, still waiting.

Keeping my eyes fixed on her, I finished my spiel. "I know it'll be an adjustment working with a Trainer, and I'll do my best to understand and work with you. And I hope you'll understand that what I say will just be to make you the best you can be, and can work with me. But it's your choice, either way." I held a hand out to her.

She gingerly shook it with her sharp pincers. Physically, it hurt just a little, her claws sharp. In her eyes, however, I saw the same tentative hope mirrored in my own.

The sound of someone clearing their throat had us both turn our attention to Kieran and Carmine, who were standing patiently just down the hill from us. "Thanks for waiting for us. I know you didn't have a good first impression with Gligar here and-"

"We want to battle you!" Kieran suddenly said, face screwed up in effort. It must have taken a lot of courage for a shy guy like him to say that.

Not to be outdone, his Applin also popped out of the ball at his side, saying their name in support of this plan. "Applin!" Gligar looked a little confused at first before recognizing the Applin and puffing herself up.

"Hold on," I said to my Pokemon before turning to Kieran and his. "What's this all about?"

Carmine answered on her brother's behalf. "Kiki was talking it up with Applin all night and they said they wanted to 'prove themselves,' or whatever."

He bobbed his head up and down in agreement. "Yeah. Applin wants to show off his courage too, so… let's battle!" Gligar eagerly grinned, causing Applin to flinch, but move defensively in front of his trainer.

"Let's… not," I countered, getting a crestfallen look from the young boy and an angry one from Gligar. "The Nurse Joy said you're in no shape to battle," I told her.

It was our first real test of her listening to me, and while she grumbled out parts of her name, she stood down. "At least, not right now." That got all of them to perk up. "Why don't we have a battle in a few days from now, before I leave? Gives you time to train up Applin and Gligar time to rest up."

"Wowzers!" Kieran said, the kid jumping up and punching his fist in the air. Cute kid. Nice to see him smiling like this, not like he was at the end of the DLC. Hopefully, things worked out in the second half of that. The thought had my mind drifting back to Blueberry Academy, wondering what it would have been like in the games - and what it was actually like here.

"You better win Kiki!"

"Ye-yeah, you got it, sis." He stammered out, looking slightly more nervous as he saw Gligar clacking her pincers and cackling menacingly. Alright, think this is a good place to wrap that chapter up.

"You better rest up for your battle," I threw out a semi-convincing reason for her to stop tormenting Kieran and Applin before returning my newest Pokemon to her Pokeball. "Since we've got some time, would you mind finishing up that tour?"

Carmine smiled brightly before wiping it away with a superior smirk. A shame, she has a nice smile. "Of course we can! I could hardly leave your education of Kitakami half done, could I? Let's go!" She turned and started marching back.

"Wait, we need to get my family first!"

***

After finding my parents and sister we had a quick brunch before beginning our trek up the hill to Kitakami Hall. While much closer in distance than the Barrens, most of the walk was uphill and I was getting pretty tired from racing around in the morning.

There were a ton of Pokemon crisscrossing on our path from the grassy hills around. Most seemed wary of bothering a large group like ourselves, but one Heracross flew over, ready for a battle.

"Mind if I take this one?" I asked the group but mostly directed toward Kieran since he was the one who needed to train Applin the most. Luckily, he eagerly agreed, likely happy to try and see how I would train my Pokemon. They're pretty smart, so it's easy to forget how young they are, but Carmine and Kieran are only eight and seven years old. They both get nervous easily, Carmine just hides it more with her bluster.

I released Dun and Gligar at the same time. "Gligar, hang back, I just want you to watch right now. Dun, get ready." He nodded, taking his place in front of me.

The Heracross began the fight, not waiting for a countdown or the like, eager to battle. She charged forward, lowering her horn (and the rest of her body by default), low to the ground, looking to impale or scoop up my starter.

"Leap over it and pick up the pace!" With a massive jump, he soared well above Heracross' seeking horn, landing on the other side of her. She looked around in confusion, having missed the dodge with her eyes pointed at the ground. Heracross is a strong Pokemon, but there's only so much a wild one can do to make up for not having a trainer.

The time she spent searching for Dun was put to good use, he covered himself in psychic energy and sped up, zipping along the ground as he slithered from side to side. She whirled around, running at him and raising an arm that grew bright as Fighting Type energy infused it.

"Air Slash and retreat, don't let her hit you." The second half of the command didn't need to be given out, as he rapidly backed up all while firing scythes of sharp air with every beat of his wings as he propelled backward. The Move hit Heracross, stunning her for a few seconds which Dun used to slice her with even more blades of air.

Collapsing to one knee, she held her thin chitinous arms up in surrender and I called Dun off.

Gligar looked at the battle from the side, seeming unimpressed. "I know it might not be the most riveting battle, but it demonstrates the importance of avoiding hits you don't need to take. Heracross is quite strong, so if she had managed to connect with Dun, that would have hurt a lot. Dun was weak to her Moves, but she was affected even worse by his."

Before I could finish up my chat with Gligar, Heracross had already taken off and begun flying away. Ah darn, should have offered her some Potions. Oh well, if she's good to fly, she's probably good enough that she doesn't need the Potions.

The others got in a few battles as well against some of the wild Pokemon, my parents cheering especially hard as Cyan & Popplio managed to defeat a Sentret. By the time we made it to the foot of the stairs, we were all feeling pretty tired but accomplished.

"Welcome to Kitakami Hall!" Carmine proudly declared, throwing her hands up as if to frame a picture. The 'hall' was mostly a set of large tiled flat sections connected by stairs constructed onto the mountainside. There were a few stalls set up on the flat sections, and we eagerly availed ourselves of the overpriced drinks and snacks they sold.

"This is where we have our Festival of Masks every year, and it gets packed then," Carmine commented as we walked up, waving at some of the other townsfolk. Indeed, it does feel kinda empty compared to the games, at least at the moment. "Too bad you guys are going to miss it though, Kiki has his favorite mask that he thinks makes him look like the Ogre!" She laughed, and her brother's face grew crimson.

"Sissssss," He groaned. "What are you telling her that for, dummy!"

"Oh come on, it's ridiculous you think someone as cute and small as you could be mistaken for the Ogre." She shot back, and I had to bite my tongue not to say 'You bet?' They can't realize just how adorable Ogerpon is without seeing her.

As we made our way to the only proper building in this structure, I noticed another sign and monument on the other side of it, away from the final signpost. Reading it from afar, I saw that it was the 'Mossened Boulder' and how people thought it had been 'the Ogre' raining down vengeance on them before they realized it was just a fragment of Fallen Horn.

I wonder how many tales are told about the Ogre here? And what do the townsfolk actually think of her? With so few sightings and how she hides herself, I wouldn't be surprised if many didn't believe the legends were real, just using her as a scary bedtime story for kids. Perhaps people running off for adventure or romance get euphemized as 'being taken by the Ogre'. In any case, the townsfolk certainly changed their tune quickly after getting the truth.

"Why is the Hall built here and not, y'know, part of the town?" I asked as we stood in front of the large red triangular building.

"Uhmm, uhh," the taller girl thought on it for a minute before brightening up. "Oh right! It's because this is the easiest path up the mountain. We gotta look after it, and if we're doing that anyway…"

"...might as well use the space for festivals too," I finished for her. And tourist traps and the like. I almost wonder why the town hasn't expanded out this way, but it probably has to do with the Pokemon in the area and the understanding they and the townsfolk have.

"Within this hall are the three masks the Loyal Trio took from the Ogre," Carmine declared, swinging open the red doors of the hall to reveal the inside, which looked halfway between a museum and a shrine. Muramasa was inside helping tidy and idly setting up some of the decorations of the various cultural artifacts and exhibits that needed to be ready a month from now for the festival. At the end of the hall, we could see the three glittering masks, sitting in a glass case.

"What masks are you talking about?" Cyan asked. Carmine turned to look at her silently for a moment. The Kitakami girl was silent for a minute, her expression never changing even as her face grew redder until she slammed the door to the hall closed and began marching to the last sign nearby.

I did my best to hold in my chuckles as Carmine read out the sign for us, which meant I missed most of it, but I remembered the general gist anyway. Cornerstone Mask gives Ogerpon the Rock Typing, Wellspring gives Water, and Hearthflame gives Fire. The sign told the tale of how 'before being defeated, the Loyal Trio had taken those masks from Ogerpon.'

The story was suitably impressive for Cyan and my parents, especially after being shown (once again) the beautiful masks in the hall. I'd seen them a thousand times in the games, but there was something more to them here. The way the crystals shine, perhaps, or just the precision and elegance of the carvings… I can see how the Trio coveted the masks. Or maybe it was just Pecharunt who did and was manipulating them? I don't know, I never got to the second half of the DLC where it would be revealed, but it's a shame that Ogerpon got robbed and lost her friend.

Part of me was tempted to steal them, or at least suggest it to Kieran, but two things held me back. The first was that as sad as he looked, teaching him 'stealing is ok', probably wasn't the best lesson. The other was… Why hasn't Ogerpon ever taken them back herself? She goes down to the festival, and I don't think that the game happened to have been the first time she'd ever done that. So she must know they're here. Is it still too painful to see the reminders of her dear friend and she just acted because she didn't want to see them in the hands of the Trio before? Or is it that she doesn't want to create a stir?

Even though I hadn't said anything, hadn't made any move towards the masks, I noticed Muramasa stop to face me, a hand subconsciously drifting down to the Pokeballs on his belt. Shivering, I averted my gaze. Looks like the town has its protectors too. I wonder how strong this guy is? It's not like I have a scouter that can tell me someone's power level, but he feels almost more frightening than Hassel when he's mad, somehow.

Whatever the case, I decided to leave well enough alone there, and so we finished up our tour without incident. Carmine seemed to be floundering, not sure of what to do next, so I suggested "Why don't we go up to the top of the mountain?"

Kieran latched onto this idea. "We can check out the Ogre's Den!"

"Kiki! You're not supposed to be exploring up there on your own."

"What? It's not like we'll be on our own. Probably scare the Ogre away, not that she's usually there anyway." He mumbled the last part to himself, which could barely be heard over the sounds of Billy and O'Nare clapping their hands together eagerly at the idea of exploring such a mysterious, 'dangerous,' place.

"Don't blame me if we all get eaten by the Ogre," Carmine muttered, and I laughed.

"I don't think we'll be able to blame you if we're dead," I pointed out, to which she crossed her arms and pouted.

"Maybe we'll all come back as Ghost Types!" Her words caused Poltchageist to pop out of his ball, giving a big yawn, and looking around, wondering what was up. Wonder how much and how precisely they can hear things inside the balls. Miles and Dun have trained to pay attention to their names and if I use our emergency codeword 'Kumquat' if I need them out but can't release them, but otherwise they mention that it's just kinda 'fuzzier' in there, but I don't know to what degree.

We began the climb up the mountain, finding oodles more Pokemon in this section of the land unclaimed by humans. While there was a bit of greenery on the hill directly preceding Kitakami, it quickly became barren and stony. Colonies of Noibats fluttered around between the rocky 'teeth' of the mountain, with Geodudes rolling about the ground floor, Salandits scampering out of the rocky Pokemon's paths. Young Growlithe tumbled across a small wooden bridge, their puppy-like paws still a little too big for them as they looked for adventure, and I even saw the rare Pichu and Clefairy lingering on the edges of the trails, nervous of our passing, but not enough so to completely overwhelm their curiosity.

Part of me was tempted to catch more Pokemon again, to catch them all! However, that part of me was tempered by the knowledge that I probably shouldn't look to be adding more Pokemon to my team at the moment… and the fact that none of them seemed too interested in joining us, despite how cool they were.

When we reached a sign, Kieran directed us to almost double back, going up a narrow, steep incline that led above from the way we came. Water fell from the top of the mountain, the spray lightly misting us as we crossed the rugged terrain.

Nearing the final easily scalable portion, we saw the cave, set into the side of the mountain and across a very narrow rocky passway. The cave was pitch-black from this angle, with moss and vines surrounding the entrance and dotting the rocks nearby.

"Is it… safe to cross here?" My sister asked. I guess that's a reasonable concern - the walkway is wide enough to go single file with ease, but there are no railings and it's a long way down. Still, I would kinda like to make it to the cave proper.

"Well, we have Rotoms, just keep your phone on hand as we cross and we should be fine," I pointed out.

"Uh, what about us?" Carmine stopped giving her brother the stink eye (likely from him having been here dozens of times before on his own) to ask.

"... Stick close to me?" I offered. "Miles will help you if anything happens, and we'll take it slow. Or you can stick back if you want." The idea of staying behind while we, 'outsiders' forged ahead, was all the convincing she needed and she immediately started marching ahead. "Wait up!" Kieran and I ran after her.

Despite the potential danger, we made it to the other side without incident. Standing there we saw the cave, potential danger and adventure lurking inside, paralyzing everyone else as they stared at it as if it was the Oni's Maw itself and would snap tight on anyone foolish enough to enter.

Not holding any such worries, I poked my head in, knocking on the side of the wall. "Hello? Oh, no one's here." The light played weird tricks on the cave, so it was hard to see the inside from outside, but what I said was more for my companion's benefit than my own - I could already tell there was no one there. Don't think many people could sneak up on Ogerpon after living here so long, and she's insanely fast. Must have dozens of hidey holes in this mountain.

I could see why the legend persisted that this was the Ogre's den, despite likely having been visited by countless youth over the generations. The hole in the wall made a small circular space, with a flat raised slab jutting out of one side, like a crude facsimile of a bed or couch. On the ground in the center was a blackened spot on the ground, sticking out against the gray stones, as if they had been burnt or something else had eaten away at the floor.

"Huh, is this all there is?" Cyan asked, even as Mom and Dad were snapping photos of themselves beside the cave, any trepidation forgotten. "Like no offense, this just doesn't look like an Ogre's den."

Kieran spoke up "I- I don't know. I've never seen her but… I swear I heard something once or twice. Maybe…"

"I think this is where she lives. Or maybe where she lived once, can't say for certain," I tossed in my two cents. Carmine narrowed her eyes at me, wondering where I was pulling this from, but she didn't say anything to counter me, so I continued. "Look at the rocks outside?"

"And?"

"Look at the moss and vines growing around. It was said that the Teal Mask had the power to bring plants to life, and in the hall-"

"We only saw a gray, blue, and red mask!" Dad said, finally drawing together the same pieces I had.

Mother was more critical. "That's a good idea, but how do you know it's not just from the waterfall? Moss grows everywhere near damp surfaces." She had experience with that in covering some property deals, where nearby water was both a boon and a curse in how it made selling different plots of land and possibly water-damaged buildings.

"But we didn't see any down below when we crossed the bridge." I pointed out, causing her to smile with pride. Nowhere near as wide a smile as Kieran was sporting when he found 'proof' that the Ogre lived here.

"Yes! I knew it!"

"Shut up Kiki! It still doesn't mean anything. The Ogre could have helped these plants grow ages ago. It's not like anyone has seen her here." His big sister pointed out, only slightly tempering his joy.

"It's true that no one's seen her here, so if she was around, she doesn't want to get found. And I get it, everyone in town seems afraid of her."

"How can I help her know I'm not afraid of her?" The young boy asked, and I had just the answer ready.

"Well, why don't we make her a mask?" Kieran perked up at my suggestion and even Carmine looked intrigued. I have a feeling this is gonna be good.

Spoiler: A/N:

And so Gligar joins Nemona's team! This was a bit of an experiment, having a more aggressive Pokemon who didn't met under great circumstances joining her team and I hope she's received well. I also hope the backstory Gligar has was explained clearly enough to get a general picture while still highlighting the missing details from the language and mentality barriers. And we've still got plenty more of Kitakami to explore here on the kids self-appointed mask making quest, which should be fun.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dudunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact, Tailwind, Roost, Ancient Power, Drill Run, Hyper Drill, Triple Yawn, Ice Spinner, Solar Beam, Lunge

- 'Miles' (Rotom)
- Tera Type: Electric
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot, Hex, Sunny Day

- 'Gligar' (Gligar)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Hyper Cutter
- Moves Known: Poison Sting, Sand Attack, Harden, Knock Off, Fury Cutter, Acrobatics

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Poison Heal is great on Physical Attackers because it prevents other statuses like sleep, paralysis, or burn. Gligar's gonna be an amazing yet annoying little shit.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Skyfyre]

It turned out that crafting a mask was a harder job than I had first envisioned. Kieran and Carmine's grandfather was a mask maker, and one I knew to be a descendant of the crafter who had made Ogerpon's masks in the first place, so I thought it would be good to start with him. And it is, in a way…

"Oww," I hissed out. I nicked my thumb lightly, and the knife slipped a little on the wood I was carving. It's not deep at least, I should be able to bandage this up and keep on working. There were similar grumblings of discontent from Carmine and Kieran, in the shed with me as we worked on their grandfather's orders.

The only person who was having fun with it was Cyan, whose artistic skills (and possibly greater fine motor skills from being a few years older than the rest of us) showed themselves once again as she deftly carved the hard blocks of wood. Happily humming along to a tune Popplio was singing for us, she turned them into works of art.

Admittedly, most of this is just copying the designs we were given, but still. She's finishing faster than us and leaving better masks than the rest of us. The Kitakami siblings were going at about the same rate as me, but I thought they might have absorbed a few of their grandfather's skills via osmosis because their finished pieces were much less rough than mine. I'm guessing that he'll have to go over mine at least quickly to fix up any imperfections before selling them, but I'm worried that any attempt to correct things on my part would just end up ruining the whole thing.

My sister glanced over at the mask I was struggling with and (badly) held back a snicker. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I grumbled as I tried to make the nose a little sharper.

"I'm sorry," she said, sounding very unapologetic. "It's just, you're so good at everything, seeing you fai- not do as well here is kinda funny." Sighing, I didn't respond to her words.

Cyan has been pretty good about me getting more and more advanced homework and tutors and all the whispers at parties. I hear them occasionally, her name only getting mentioned in comparison to me, and always unfavorably. I let out a deep sigh at the unfairness of all of this. She's got plenty of strengths, and I was, well, an adult.

I felt Kieran's eyes burning a hole into my back and wondered what the boy thought of me. We had our big battle coming up, but more than that, I wondered how he felt about the subtle nudges I had been trying to give him. No guarantee any of this works, but he seemed pretty upset about the Player Character getting Ogerpon in the DLC, hopefully, this might curb some of his possessiveness and anger before then. Assuming it wasn't due to Pecharunt or whatever that storyline was. I think it was mentioned that they were the true mastermind behind the Loyal Trio?

The door to the shed opened up, revealing my friend's grandfather. He had spiky gray hair, not looking much different than he did in the games. In his hands, he held a mask, one carved with intricate curved lines, denoting a number of feathers. The mask stretched out on either side, giving the impression of wings, and the beak jutted out. An upward curve to it gave the impression of joy in the animalistic mask. There were empty eye-holes, but also a socket atop the brow, where something might be inlaid.

""Grandpa!"" The Kitakami kids cheered, laying down their tools and half-finished projects to hug him. "Look at what we've done," Carmine demanded, dragging him forward.

"Ah yes, I came by to check on how you were doing." He smiled kindly at his grandchildren's works, made true appreciative sounds of Cyan's, then got to mine and…

"Well, I think I might be able to finish up this mask faster than I thought," He said, his smile only slightly strained.

"Sorry," I mumbled, realizing he was at least in part taking over because of me.

"It's not matter, I'd need to paint it soon anyway. However, we need something more if you want this mask to truly stand on the same level as the ones the Loyal Trio too- rescued." I bit back a frown, and my tongue, resisting the urge to call him out on this. You say that the people aren't ready to hear the truth, but of course, they won't be if you never tell anyone! The fake story gets ground in for generations which is why it's so hard to overturn. Then again, maybe not? Kieran does tell the truth fairly easily, but it also happens offscreen, hard to tell if it was a herculean effort on his part or just very easy to change their minds.

The old man continued. "I need a small piece of crystal, from the Crystal Lake atop the mountain, to make this mask truly shine. I…" his eyes slid over to our pile of masks. "... Still have some work to do, so if you could just get me that I'll finish up here."

We headed out, towards the mountain, with only light grumbling on my part. Before we reached the edge of the town, however, my sister said to me: "So, that was fun and all, but I don't feel like getting all sweaty hiking up the mountain again."

Fair enough, this is going to be an even tougher climb than last time. "Are you going to join Mom and Dad sightseeing?" I asked. Cyan thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.

"No, we'll get plenty of that done in the afternoon when we meet up for the aerial tour over Kitakami. I'm looking to catch another Pokemon." She was gazing out at the water as she said that.

"Another Water Type?" I inquired, and she pulled her sparkling gaze away and huffed a little.

"Maybe. Seeing Pop and the others splash around was fun… We'll see. I was planning on taking a page out of your book and just seeing what happens - though hopefully, I'll find someone a little less aggressive than your new friend."

"She's not that bad, she's just… a tsundere."

My sister quirked an eyebrow, replying "I meant your latest Pokemon, not Carmine."

Gligar's been snappier these past few days (at times literally, though so far cautious to not put her teeth too close to my hands). Likely agitated by the new circumstances. She's chaffing from the restrictions of being unable to fly wherever or battle whenever she pleases. Admittedly, it's quite the adjustment.

I couldn't deny my sister's point, that we had a long way to go in terms of our partnership. A fact reinforced by Gligar planting her feet and refusing to move when Kieran, Carmine, and I began to leave to climb the hills/mountain.

"Gar, ligar."

Kieran tensed up a bit at my Pokemon's anger, but I pushed that aside for a minute to focus on the Flying Scorpion Pokemon. "Look, I get it, it's been frustrating. I need you to trust me on this-" She snapped her teeth loudly.

"Do you have everything under control?" Carmine demanded, stepping forward and placing herself between her brother and Gligar. Cute, but entirely unnecessary as my Pokemon's frustration is with me.

"This is just a bumpy part of the path on our journey," I rebutted.

Kieran looked down at the dirt road. "Seems pretty smooth to me."

Face-palming, I responded. "Not literally, I meant metaphorically. No trainer gets along perfectly all the time with their Pokemon. There are bumps in every relationship, and sometimes… you have to accept when something won't work out." Glancing around Carmine I locked eyes with Kieran, for just half a second. Ogerpon might not choose you, and that's ok.

Then I turned back to Gligar who had stiffened up. "But I don't think this is anything like that." She relaxed, her shoulders slumping a tad. "You just want to say that you're upset with how things are, and I get that. Waiting patiently to heal is good, and I think you've waited long enough for some light battling."

With a vicious smile, she whipped around, gazing out all over the rolling hills for a Pokemon to test her might against. "Whoa whoa, wait a minute. First things first, light battling, so let's just have two or three today, and I might veto your battle choice." Gligar nodded, impatiently. "And two-" I paused for a split-second, before pushing my hesitation aside. "I've got a new Move for you to learn."

My momentary hesitation came from whether I should use 'that' TM. I had never gotten around to using it on Dun, too busy training him up in other Moves trying to give him more coverage.

Clay gave it to me, my first Gym victory reward. Sure, I have the badge as well, but the Technical Machine is special in its own way too. And I'm still not sure how this partnership with Gligar will work out. Will she leave me high and dry once she's mastered her Hidden Ability? Or after I help her evolve into Gliscor? Or none of those things, and we just get into some argument beforehand and she ditches me?

As many worries as I had, as realistic or outlandish as they were, there was one defining fact I couldn't run from. The reason why I chose to do this is: No bond between a Pokemon and Trainer can work without trust. So I've gotta trust that this is the right thing. That I'll help her, and trust that she'll help me.

Pulling a Technical Machine out of my bag, I presented it to her. "This is the Move Bulldoze. It'll shake the earth and cause your foe's footing to slip." Her triangular eyes grew wide at that, and she made grabby motions with her claw hands.

Chuckling, I added "No, you go back in your Pokeball and I place the disc on it. You should learn the Move in a matter of seconds. It's actually quite interesting; your line doesn't tend to learn damaging Ground Moves naturally, so this should give you a nice advantage in using your Typing offensive- and you're back in the ball." Amidst my ramblings, she had gone up and pressed the button to recall herself.

"So eager," I muttered. Kieran and Carmine caught my words, looking incredulously at me as I put the disc on the Pokeball and it started spinning. "What? I- I know how to temper myself," I spluttered at their unspoken accusations.

The disc finished spinning, popping off and saving me the trouble of defending myself further. Releasing Gligar, she stumbled forward as she hit the ground, somewhat dazed. "Yeah, TMs can be a bit much to handle at first. Don't worry though, you'll get used to it soon enough."

Her long tail slapped against the ground excitedly, causing the ground to shake. "That's it! Hmm, the Move usually uses stomping against the ground, but your legs aren't as strong as your tail. Let's try both out."

She practiced the Move as we traveled, getting a good grasp of it quite quickly. Having the STAB Typing helps a ton with mastering TM Moves, I'm finding. She got enough of a handle on it to direct the ground shaking away from us as we traveled, but that pushed it into the path of other Pokemon, soon bringing up a disgruntled challenger.

Flanked by several Sewaddles, a Swadloon shuffled up. Its yellow body was covered in leafy appendages, and it had a slight red mark on its head like it had recently taken a bump there. The leader of the pack gave some angry cries at Gligar, tossing a seeds and sticks at my Pokemon who artfully dodged around them.

My Gligar looked unrepentant, of course, but also eager. Sure, this seems like a fine battle for her to start out with. I don't try to coddle my Pokemon, but giving them a confidence booster in their first battle is fine. "Go for it. We'll have a battle between you and Swadloon, sound good?" The question was directed at the pack of upset Pokemon, who reluctantly nodded at seeing the Pokeballs on our belts.

Swadloon shuffled forward and unfolded their leafy arms, flapping them and whipping up a field of razor-sharp grass through the air.

"Dodge around and go for Acrobatics!" My command was only partially followed by Gligar, as she maneuvered around the Razor Leaf attack, but then dropped to the ground, slamming it with her tail. The ground shook a little but the tremors carried across the battlefield almost straight to the Swadloon, kicking up the ground and knocking into her from below… to very little effect.

Gligar looked shocked and her foe used that opportunity to their advantage, shooting out a string of silk from her mouth that wrapped around Gligar's body. Dammit! At least she's not fully tied up around the wings yet.

"Poison Tail the string, cut yourself loose!" With her tail dripping with potent poison, it was able to slice through the string restraining her without getting her tail caught too in the sticky trap. I saw Swadloon puffing up their cheeks, getting ready for another attack. "Quick attack, drift right!"

Thankfully, Gligar continued to follow my commands, shooting ahead and curving to the right. She just narrowly avoided the web that Swadloon spat out, slamming her body into the Grass Types. Swadloon was knocked on her back by the force of the blow, struggling to get up from both the awkward shape of her body, but also the churned-up ground from before.

"Finish this, Acrobatics!" Swooping around, Gligar battered the Swadloon, knocking them across the hill until she stood triumphant over the downed Grass Type. Her fangs glistened in the light and I saw the Sewaddles trembling off to the side.

"Alright, that's enough!" I called sharply, clapping my hands. Jogging over I patted Gligar's head.

"Good job, you fought well." Then to the defeated Swadloon, I offered them some berries from my bag.

This got an upset glare from my Pokemon as the Swadloon swallowed the offered berry and scurried out of the way. "What's wrong? I can offer you berries too, ya know. Are you hungry or tired?"

She averted her face, shaking her head, still pouting. "Don't get mad if you don't actually want anything!" Hearing her panting slightly, I realized she was a little tired, even from that match. She's still not 100% even after resting these past few days.

Sighing, I let go of the annoyance at her behavior. "It helps, or at the very least doesn't hurt to give offerings to training partners. If you ever need anything, I'm always there to help." She nodded tersely, kicking some sand around. Feels like the berry thing isn't what's bugging her.

"Is this about your Move not working well?" I ventured and she turned, nodding furiously. "Don't worry about that. It wasn't that the Move or you were weak, some Pokemon are just better at resisting attacks than others. Basically, that Move was only a quarter as effective on Swadloon as it would be against a Pokemon that wasn't resitant to it. That's why I want you to listen to my commands in a battle."

"Wowzers, you know a bunch about battling, dontcha?" Kieran commented, looking both in awe and a tad worried about me.

"I've practiced a lot, so I'd like to think I know a bit. Type match-ups aren't everything, but they are one of the basics that you should learn when starting as a trainer."

"Of course, I know everything about Type match-ups," Carmine boasted.

Giving the tall girl a sinister smile, I said "Well why don't you find a good Pokemon for Gligar to have her next match against? One that will let them use Bulldoze well." I offered, glancing over at my Pokemon to see if she was fine with it, which she was.

"O-oh. I mean of course I will, follow me!" With Carmine's longer legs, she strode up, looking all around the hills.

She didn't find a 'suitable challenge' until we had passed by Kitakami Hall and were beginning to reach the rocky part of the mountain. "Aha! There!" She declared, pointing to a yellow Pokemon that looked very similar to Pikachu, but with a patch of light brown and light black fur on each side of its head and down its body, leading to small pouches.

"Morpeko? Interesting choice." Gligar looked in askance about my comment, but I shook my head. "I'll explain later, should be a good battle." Without waiting for anything else, Gligar took off, diving down towards the unsuspecting electric mouse.

"Gah! We should have introduced ourselves first- ah screw it, Bulldoze!" I cried as Gligar neared the Morpeko. I can explain and give them a Sitrus Berry after the battle.

Gligar's tail smacked the ground, sending it shifting and shaking all about. It wasn't as strong as Earthquake, but it churned up the dirt way more. It hit about as wide, however, which drew the ire of some Growlithe that had been playing nearby, the pair of canine Pokemon turning and spitting Embers at Gligar, forcing her away from the caught off-guard Morpeko.

"Bulldoze again!" Gligar tried, shaking up the ground once more, but this time was attacked by one of the Growlithes and Morpeko. The injured electric type grew dark, its fur going purple and black as it slammed into Gligar while covered in electricity, which did nothing to my Ground Type. Growlithe's Bite, however, did more, latching onto Gligar's leg and dragging her down.

She can't fly properly like that, and getting stuck on the ground will leave her too open.

"Knock Off! Brush that Growlithe aside and take evasive maneuvers." She followed the first part of my command, imbuing a claw with pitch-black energy as she brushed Growlithe off harshly, the Dark Type attack forcing him to release his jaws.

Then, however, Gligar turned to stare at me, only a few feet above the ground. Why isn't she- she doesn't understand?! "I meant DODGE! Fly you fool!" At that, she narrowly twirled around another set of Embers the other Growlithe sent her way.

Three Pokemon attacking her at once was a bit much, and I was tempted to release Dun. Seeing the joy on her face as she zipped around, taunting the wild Pokemon, I held back on that instinct. It was tough, and she was exhausted by the end, lying down on the ground and panting heavily after her final Bulldoze, but the Growlithes and Morpeko had all been defeated.

Using an Ether and Potion on her, I got her back to her feet and offered some lesser healing for the wild Pokemon, who was a bit confused before scampering off. "That was a good learning experience. Bulldoze had Type advantage against all of them and hit in a wide area, which made it possible to beat the three of them at once."

"Ar, Gligar, gar." She boasted. Not entirely sure what she's boasting about, however. Is it that she could have beaten all of them without the Type advantage or just saying they were no match for her? The nuance is tricky to decipher so far.

To Carmine, I said "I was thinking of going for a Salandit, but Morpeko was a great choice too. Shows off the Immunity Gligar has against Electric Moves as well as the weakness they have to Bulldoze."

"That's what I was thinking, thanks," Carmine said, unexpectedly bashful for a second, brushing a lock of hair past her head. "Salandits can be a bit of a problem, sometimes if they get disturbed you come across a Salazzle."

"Good point." I released Dun, confident he could handle any evolved Pokemon or anything big groups that came our way. "You did great today, Gligar. Rest up for now and just watch what Dun does. Learning from your teammates will help a bunch too. It's how I got Dun and Miles to learn Hex; Dun learned it from a TM, and then Miles copied it from seeing him use the Move."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kieran furiously scribbling notes on what I'd just said.

Aww, that's cute. I don't think I'm the best trainer or anything, not by a long shot, but I guess most kids our age don't get taught stuff like this yet.

My prediction about Dun being able to clear the way for us was well-founded. As the trail became more barren, with more dangerous Pokemon like Houndours, Ekans, Timburrs, and even a Houndoom running free and keenly aware of humans trespassing in their territory, we relied on him to clear the path. After he beat the Houndoom with ease, most Pokemon avoided us entirely, 'word' spreading of Dun's strength.

Without any danger on that front, the biggest trial we faced on our path to the Crystal Pool was fatigue and overheating. We had plenty of water packed, but I was still feeling tired as we made it to the foot of the stairs that led up and up and up… to the peak of the mountain, where the Pool lay.

"Oh wow. I thought the stairs in Mesagoza were bad!"

"Huh?" Kieran inquired. The boy was drenched in sweat, much like his sister and myself, but his eyes were still fixated upwards on the prize. He really wants to give Ogerpon this gift. I do too. It's always nice to get a present and she more than deserves to know someone(s) cares about her.

"Oh, I was just saying how we have a bunch of stairs up to the biggest school in Paldea, but they aren't nearly as tall as this bunch." Nor as uneven as these ones. They aren't bad, pretty solid stairs, but these were cut with more primitive tools and methods, without the expectation of a great deal of foot traffic.

"I don't think if you included all the stairs up from the base of Mesagoza itself up to the entrance to school it would be this long." Feeling playful, I added "Race you to the top! Last one up is a rotten egg!"

I was not the first one to make it to the peak, despite my instigation, though that was only because Gligar possessed wings, and I did not. Kieran pushed himself hard but still ended up behind me, and then even Carmine, with her longer legs making up for her lack of energy and drive. The sun beat down hard on us, but it still felt like such a sweet victory as we offered Kieran a hand up the final steps and together reached the peak of Kitakami.

Our reward (beyond the crystal we hoped to obtain) was a gorgeous sight. The true peak, a thin rim around the top, sloped down to this almost valley-like place, dominated first and foremost by the vast, glittering water in the center. The water and blue-green color to it, with a massive chunk of Tera Crystal glittering and sparkling within its depths. The water trailed out, cutting a path through the rocky path and out an opening, down the side of the mountain where it made the waterfalls that cascaded down the face of the mountain.

The rest of the scenery was a bit more barren. Rocky, with steam vents, and hot pockets where Slugmas and Koffings gathered around. There was a Glimmora with a glittering Rock Tera 'Hat' sparkling above their head, the strongest Pokemon in the area by far. They didn't seem concerned with us, or much of anything actually. A few Arrokewdas snapped from the water, but otherwise, we were left alone to view this untamed paradise in peace. The only signs of human development were a small wooden bridge that covered the water that ran out of the pool and a sign beside it, claiming this to be one of the natural wonders of Kitakakmi.

We took a minute to catch our breaths and then I said "We should probably go over to the water if we're going to get the crystal." Walking over to the water's edge, we peered within its depths. It was hard to make out, but the crystal was dozens of meters down and must have weighed hundreds of tonnes. Way more than the small piece we need. But how-

"How are we going to get the piece of crystal?" Carmine demanded, looking unsure at the water. Good question.

The clear waters atop the massive crystal suddenly became choppy, some great force moving up from the depths. Beside me, Carmine clutched her Pokeball tightly, ready for whatever threat was coming our way. After a moment, out from the water burst out… a Feebas.

"Feeeeee!" It cried angrily as it jumped out of the water, and flipped through the air for a moment before landing back down with a heavy splash. Then it rose halfway out of the water to balefully glare at us.

Carmine started laughing out loud, much to the Pokemon's chagrin. "Can't believe we were worried about that. Uh, not that I was worried, can't believe you and Kiki were worried."

To avoid upsetting the Pokemon, I stepped forward a bit and apologized. "Sorry about that, we're just looking for the second most beautiful thing in this pool." The Feebas squinted at me, anger slowly fading to confusion.

"We want to get some small pieces of crystal from within the pool."

"Bas?"

"If those are the second most beautiful thing, what's the most beautiful thing here?" I repeated my interpretation of their question for my companions' benefit. "Why, you of course."

I swore the Feebas blushed for a moment, slapping the water with a fin bashfully. Suspicion soon grew, however, and they asked: "Feeb?"

"We aren't looking to take you because we want to use the crystals on a mask we're helping make. We can't attach you to the end of a mask."

"Ee, bas. Ba feeba." They argued back, and I was sure if I was an anime character a large sweat drop would be rolling down the side of my face.

"Uhh no, we really can't. You wouldn't be able to breathe while attached to the mask." Not the brightest bulb, I see.

Feebas' eyes darted back nervously before shakily responding. "Fe-feebas, fee."

"Of course, just a joke." Carmine and Kieran looked at me disbelievingly. Before the older (angrier and louder), of the two could interject, I asked for assistance. "Hey, Feebas. Would you mind grabbing some crystals from down there for us? Not too large, just if there's anything loose about this size," I held up my small hand in a fist.

They gave a small gurgle of agreement and dived back down into the water. As they disappeared beneath the waves, I turned to look at my friends who were just staring, shocked at me. "What?"

"How did you understand that Pokemon so well? Can you talk to them?!" Kieran asked excitedly.

"Whoa whoa, it's nothing that special. Anyone can talk to Pokemon, and most of them can understand us quite well. It's our understanding that's important… and honestly, I only got about 60% of what Feebas was getting at in that short exchange." At Carmine's quizzical look, I elaborated.

"A lot of communication, even for humans, is in body language. We learn how to understand humans pretty well growing up with them. But I bet if someone were raised entirely by Pokemon, there's a chance they'd be able to understand them much better." N proved that pretty well. "Feebas was quite expressive there, which helped me get a general vibe of what they were saying."

Carmine had quite the contemplative look on her face, as she glanced around at the Pokemon wandering around the basin. Her brother just nodded and glanced back every few seconds to the pool, eager for the final piece in the mask he'd give to Ogerpon. I, meanwhile, was interested in a certain cave I knew to be right around these parts…

"Where are you going?" Carmine asked me sharply. Waving her off I replied, "Just looking around. You guys keep an eye out for Feebas." With that, I began walking around the long rim of the ground to a small hill in the basin on the opposite side of us.

The most aggressive Pokemon were the ones in the water and it seemed most of the flying or land-bound ones had already learned not to try and mess with us (though I still had to steer clear of a Koffing that was obliviously floating along and spewing toxic gas).

Making my way around to the back of the hill, and there I found the opening that led to a long shaft going straight down. A few small outcroppings jutted out, and I thought I could see further openings on the sides, but it was hard to tell with how dark it was.

Releasing Gligar I said "Hey, this is a cave I found, thought we might check it out. Would you mind flying down and seeing if there are any other paths on those ledges?" She weighed the request for a moment, likely balancing the non-battle nature of it against the general approval of stretching her wings, and eventually agreed. Diving down the hole, she swooped around disappearing out of sight.

"Anything there?" I called down, getting no response for a minute. Just before I was thinking of calling again or going down, I felt a small tremor through the earth. Is that- damn it, she's using Bulldoze! The Move I had just taught her wasn't a risk of collapsing a solid structure like Earthquake might, but it was still a bad sign if a battle was going on.

Jumping down, I drew on my Aura as I pulled out Miles. Gliding down, I held Miles up with the flashlight on, looking around for my wayward Pokemon. It wasn't hard to spot her and the signs of battle taking place in a small side cave sticking out from the wall. Drifting over I landed down and dropped my Aura, feeling the rush of excitement it brought fade away, and became acutely aware of the drain it had on my energy. I was hardly fatigued, but it was noticeable how quickly using it could tire me out.

All of those were concerns for another time as I saw my Pokemon surrounded by a bunch of floating, crystal-covered rocks. Each of the rocks had a small fluffy white strip around the tops of their bodies, just below their blue eyes, their heads topped with long ears, giving them a very rabbit-like appearance, despite being made of stone and having no limbs.

"Stop!" I shouted out, both at the wild Pokemon and at Gligar. My Pokemon hissed, on the brink of attacking them anew, but surprisingly the wild ones did halt, just looking curiously at us. A den of Carbinks? I didn't read or remember anything about this, but I suppose it makes sense given the large Tera Crystal stuck in the pool nearby.

"Gligar, calm down. They're not attacking us." She looked on edge but didn't make any more aggressive moves towards them, which I considered a win. To the group of Carbinks, I apologized.

"Sorry for intruding, we were just looking to explore. I didn't realize that any Carbinks lived in this region. Do you have a Diancie or leader?" I think I remember most groups of Carbinks are led by a Diancie as their 'queen'. Or maybe just monarch? All of them are genderless, after all.

A cascade of chiming crystal sounds washed over me as the group made a bunch of noise. "Uh, sorry, I don't understand." One of them, in the back of the two dozen or so Carbinks floating around, had a small notch in their left ear. That one tipped their head forward, as if in a nod.

"You… don't understand either?" More chiming sounds, but that sounded slightly more melodious and less dissonant. I think that means they're agreeing with what I said, but it's difficult to tell with how different their bodies are than other Pokemon.

"Hmm, ok. Gligar, please use Sand Attack- not on them!" I quickly added, seeing the malicious gleam in her eyes. "Just kick up some sand over there," pointing to a clear space in the circular cave. "I want to draw them a picture." She looked disappointed, but agreed, slapping the ground with her tail and kicking up a thin layer of sand from the rocky ground.

Using the sand, I began drawing an image of Diancie in the sand with my hands. The Carbinks began crowding around me, which made me feel a bit nervous, but none of them were aggressive, just overly curious. Speaking of curious people, I think I hear my friends calling out my name above. I guess it looks like I kinda ditched them, whoops.

"Miles, can you tell Carmine and Kieran where I am and that I'm fine?"

"Bzzt, not a problem," They replied, a blink-and-you-miss-it glance they gave to Gligar before floating out. Yeah, she would be faster and a good choice to let them know I'm fine, but she can't communicate as well with humans, and she's still too aggressive. I've got to keep a close eye on her. I didn't want to instantly think ill of my own Pokemon, it's technically possible that one of the Carbinks had started the fight, but given how everyone was behaving now, I felt it was likely that Gligar had jumped the gun, at least.

My drawing wasn't great, without colors and limited details based on what I could recall of the mythical Pokemon. When I finished, however, my crude sketch still elicited several interested chiming sounds from the group.

"That's a Diancie. Sometimes, a Carbink will become one of those." The notch-eared one chimed insistently at that. "How does it happen? Well, I don't know. It has something to do with a mutation and being able to turn the empty air into diamonds, but beyond that, I have no idea how it works." As far as I'm aware, no one knows exactly why that mutation occurs. I haven't even done enough research to know why it's called a 'mutation' and not just an unknown evolution, but there's probably some scientific reason for that distinction.

The Carbink I was talking to pointed with their ears at the picture I had drawn again. "Hmm?

Sorry, I don't understand. Yes, that's Diancie. They look a lot like you guys but their gems are more pink in color than the light blue you h-" more crystal chiming sounds. "Oh, do you mean they have arms and a mouth?"

They shifted their head up a bit to show a small dull set of teeth, usually hidden beneath the white fur. "Ok, it's the arms then." That seemed to get that Carbink super excited, wobbling back and forth as they shifted, and the others seemed interesting too. "Have you guys never heard of a Diancie before? Did your colony not have one before you came here?"

There was another round of chatter that I couldn't begin to understand, beyond that idea that at some point it switched to talking amongst themselves. During that time, Miles returned, telling me how they had informed them and the kids were 'mostly calm' now.

Before I could inquire further, the Carbinks began moving together, floating in a synchronized fashion as they formed a floating triangular wall in front of us. The notch-eared one raised a rock up to the ceiling before it landed 'down' on the top of the wall (constrained mostly by the height of the cave. The wall shifted the peak Carbink making room for the rock that now hovered in their spot. Then they and several other Carbinks moved to touch the rock before spreading out and looking around the cave curiously.

It took me a minute to realize what they were doing, but eventually, I put the pieces together.

"You… you were all on the crystal when it… landed here?" There was a very agreeable sound from the group, which I took as my blind guess being correct. "How long ago was that?" My question was met by a bunch of curious stares.

Depending on how little they go out to explore, they might not have a proper idea of days or years. No matter what though, it must have been a long time ago. There are legends of Ogerpon hundreds of years ago, and tales of Bloodmoon Ursaluna arriving at least three centuries ago, but I've never heard anything about this. As far as all my research into Kitakami had gone, the crystals and Terastal phenomenon had simply always been a part of the land.

"Heeeeeey! Are you okay?" Kieran's voice echoed down.

Moving to the edge of the alcove I found myself in, I shouted back "I'm fine, yeah. It looks like there's a whole tunnel system down here." Ok, technically I can't see that yet, but I know there are a bunch of paths down that big opening at the bottom. Huh, must be like thirty meters down.

"I've heard about these," Carmine replied, sounding nervous but like she was trying to remain outwardly calm (which is probably as best as could be expected for an eight-year-old). "Keep on going down and try to find your way out, we'll meet you down the outside of the mountain."

Why would I need to go down? I can use my Aura and fly, possibly with aid from Dun or Miles, and… they don't know I can do that, do they? "Hey, I think I can get back up. Guys? You there?"

No response probably meant that they had started running off down the mountain. Probably will be better to go down then and meet them there. Not that I need a huge excuse to explore this cool tunnel system, admittedly.

Turning back to the Carbinks I said "I should probably go down to meet my friends, but it was cool to see you all. I would have never guessed there was a place like this here…" The latter part I mostly said to myself, gazing around at this hidden wonder for a second before snapping back. "Ok, gotta go, bye now!" I said before hopping down.

There was a slightly alarmed chiming sound as the notch-eared one peered over the edge, to see me floating gently down. Ah, must be pretty weird for them to see someone that doesn't naturally float able to drift down like that. I gave them a wave back as Gligar and Miles descended by my side, Miles just shooting straight down while Gligar dived and spun around acrobatically in the tight tunnel.

We came down to the opening to a far larger chamber below. There was a small pile of rocks at the center of the hemispherical expanse that we drifted into, wide and tall enough to fit a two-story house comfortably without touching the ceiling or shaft above. Two tunnels led out of the space horizontally, each of them wide enough for three to four people to walk abreast.

Pokemon scurried about the wide space below, looking up with some interest, however, it was the person standing by the corner that seemed most surprised by my entrance.

Seemed, because it was hard to tell for certain what she was feeling behind that ornate mask she wore. The mask was green and teal, likely modeled after Ogerpon's mask, but with the snarling visage of an oni painted on it. She had a black silk jacket hanging open over top a red tank top, with black sweatpants hanging off her waist.

"Uh, hi there," I tried, waving at her as I touched down on the ground. She continued to stare at me for a minute, not saying a word. I was starting to feel more than a little awkward before she barked out a harsh laugh.

"You're an odd one, aren't you?" She asked rhetorically. "It's dangerous to be down here." As if to accentuate her words, a large jet of steam burst out from a crack in the ground beside her, not that she seemed disturbed by it.

"I can handle myself," I responded, releasing Dun. The Bronzors, Ekans, and even one Dunsparce all backed off just a tad at seeing the evolved Pokemon. I didn't know Dunsparce was native here either. I wonder if, in some of the more dangerous parts of Kitakami, they have Dudunsparce. Could explain Carmine's knowledge of them.

The masked woman snorted. "You think that's strong? I'll be the judge of that." She stepped forward, pulling out a Pokeball from a jacket pocket. Given the bulges there, I'd say she has at least three more Pokemon.

"Oh yeah? And who are you to be the judge of that?" I asked, more curious than anything, down for a battle no matter what.

The wild Pokemon who had been wary now immediately scattered, slipping away to the tunnels to get out of the way, or watch from a safe distance. It was clear that the worry was not from me taking a battle stance on the opposite end of the cavern from her, but her actions. Their fear made a lot more sense at her next words. "I'm Kotetsu, of the Kitakami Ogre Clan! My martial prowess will lay you low!"

Oh. Right, the Ogre Clan. Those super bosses that are hanging out in the DLC. There wasn't much I could recall about them, but I remembered them being very high-level and having good teams. No backing out now, though.

To Gligar, who was hovering by my side, looking on eagerly at the prospect of a fight, I said: "Stand down. Or well, you can keep on flying, but you aren't battling."

"Gar!" She pouted angrily, dropping onto my shoulders. My knees buckled a bit at all her weight, but with a bit of Aura I managed to lighten the load and remain standing.

"No, I'm serious. Watch this battle, and analyze it for the future. In time, you'll be ready to battle like this, but you're still too injured for a battle of this caliber." Honestly, you wouldn't be ready for this kind of battle yet even if you were in peak health, but best not to say that.

She got off of me with some grumbling but still looked suspicious. Those suspicions faded when Kotetsu released her Pokemon, a Heracross.

This Heracross was similar in shape to the one I had fought a few days ago, but a male, with a sharper horn instead of the more spade-like one the females had. The other differences were night and day, however. He had a pale blue chitinous exoskeleton, battle-worn with many scars adorning his carapace. His yellow-ringed eyes burned with confidence, and there was a palpable feeling of power coming off of him that let me instantly tell how he was in an entirely different league than the wild one we had faced before.

I could tell Dun felt it too, a shiver passing through his scales. Nonetheless, he defiantly slithered forward, ready to fight. "Dudun!"

"Let the battle begin! Brick Break!" Kotetsu called out. By the time she had finished saying 'begin' I was already giving out my own order.

"Yawn then Glare!" Dun rapidly expanded as he took in air, releasing it in multiple clouds as the bug rushed towards him. Heracross dodged between the clouds easily, sidestepping and skittering low to close with my starter, and hit him with a quick chop. The blow sent Dun flying into the wall of the expanse we battled in, cracking it where he impacted.

"Dun!" I cried out, worried for a second, but despite the massive pain he must have been feeling, he managed to pull through, turning his prone body up from where he fell to Glare at his foe.

Heracross' body seized up, right as the three clouds turned and closed in on him. Yes! Once he's asleep we should be able to win, and Dun can hold out with Protect until it takes effect-

"Blow those away," Kotetsu called out, shattering my dreams as her Pokemon, despite being Paralyzed, managed to slam his claws together. The shockwave from the impact blew away all three clouds before they could reach him with their soporific effect.

"How-" I bit my tongue, forcing down any disbelief at the maneuver to focus on the battle at hand. "Air Slash, widespread." Dun narrowed his eyes but did as I said, even as I offered him an apologetic smile. With a few flaps of his wings, a wide screen of nigh-invisible blades of wind began cutting through the air.

He knows that I'm sacrificing his chance of winning this battle to focus on doing enough chip damage to make a victory possible with Miles. And even with that… Not needing a command from his trainer, Heracross once again began dodging and weaving around. From his, at times, awkward movements and footwork, I could tell it wasn't that he was so skilled or naturally evasive to dodge Dun's assault, but just a testament to the difference in speed and power between them.

Some of that speed had been curtailed by the Paralysis, however, which caught his forward progress at the right spot to let an Air Slash cut into his shoulder. Heracross hissed at the pain, but continued, dropping to all fours and Pouncing forward, his horn catching Dun and flipping him up in the air.

"Keep aloft and launch an all-out assault!" I cried out, and Dun shakily held himself up in the air, flapping his wings as hard as he could to push the air and keep himself aloft. As he did so, he screeched out a horrendous tone down at the bug beneath him. His Hyper Voice was pounding into Heracross, hurting our foe, but nowhere near as badly as the Air Slash had.

But he can't manage more Air Slashes while doing this. Honestly, it's a testament to how incredibly talented he is and how much he's trained that he can work on two Moves of different Types at the same time, even if they both use different parts of his body.

Kotetsu wasn't going to let this continue, however, and over the noise Dun was making I heard her calling out "Rock Blast!"

Heracross began ripping stone chunks out of the ground and hurling them at Dun with incredible force, enough that any hit would bring Dun down, and possibly even out. However, not one of the stones managed to land on him, his body weaving through the air around the stones. Once or twice it was close, but the slight lag as Heracross fought through Paralysis was enough to let him dodge the attacks until it was too late; a light breeze picked up to a swift stream of air pushing through the cavern.

I had no time to relish in Tailwind working in concert with the Hyper Voice combo, as Heracross had decided he'd had enough of this. With a mighty leap and the strength of his wings to push past the wind trying to hold him back, Kotetsu's Pokemon had closed with mine, unleashing a flurry of insanely fast punches, each hit a blur even to my eyes.

Dun was launched clear across the room, bouncing around before he rolled to a stop in front of me. Giving a small groan, he slumped down, defeated.

That's definitely going to leave some bruises, even after a stop at the Pokemon 'Center'. He didn't look permanently hurt, though, so I resolved to worry about it later. "Great job Dun, we've got this in the bag now," I said as I returned him to his Pokeball. In truth, I was a bit more worried about the match than I let on - We'll be lucky if we beat just Heracross right now. But I think, there might be a chance for that.

"Miles, I need you to go caseless for this battle, ok?"

"Bzzt but wh- ah, I see," Miles said, giving me a nervous smile before abandoning their preferred body and hovering in front of me on the battlefield. They had their lightning bolt-shaped plasmic 'hands' spread out wide, to best catch the wind that still swirled around them.

Ever so softly I heard Kotetsu click her tongue in frustration before calling out "Throat Chop." No wonder she's upset, both her STAB Types are hampered by Mile's Ghost Typing in their base form. That extra speed is handy too - with it, Tailwind, and her Pokemon not being as practiced with Moves like Throat Chop as he was with Close Combat or Pounce, Miles can just keep out of range.

Miles zipped around the makeshift arena, the wind at their back enough to let him avoid the far more experienced opponent. "Will O'Wisp, drift type, contained pattern."

It wasn't a combination we had practiced often due to its limited situational use, but Miles executed it well. As they raced away from the ferocious bug, they conjured and left behind many of the fiery whisps as they passed, leaving them in Heracross' path. The bug was able to avoid most of those, at least on the first pass.

As the two of them continued to zip around the enclosed area, Heracross had to start dodging the previous flames left behind and slowed down further. Then, he stumbled at the wrong time, the Paralysis slowing him down enough for Miles to easily pull ahead and the flames to Burn Heracross.

"Hex, take them down." Rotom's plasmic eyes gleamed and ghostly energy coalesced around the Bug Type, taking him down to one knee. Good, but… I should look toward the next battle too. Even if I doubt I can win, I have to do my best, for the sake of my Pokemon. All of them.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Gligar taking the battle in with rapt attention. It was an expression I knew well, seeing something similar in my face when I would watch high-level battles. The feeling when you see something so far above you… and know you have so much farther to go, to get beyond even that.

"Duplicity." Another custom tactic we had been working on, and one I only felt half-confident in. Necessity proved to be the mother of advancement, as Miles sprouted a wicked grin on their face as they split into two, literally. Then again, and another time after that.

Melding Substitute and Nasty Plot together works quite well. The Moves don't share a common Typing, but the nature of the Moves lets them work together about as well can be done. The creation of the Substitutes was about half of Miles max creation speed, and they got about half as much of a boost as they'd usually get from Nasty Plot, and it was so very worth it not to give the game away.

Kotetsu wasn't going to let us set up endlessly, however, calling out "Bullet Seeds, hit the last one created each time." Heracross puffed up his cheeks and began spitting out a hail of glowing green seeds, streaking across the cave like real bullets. Miles winced as one of the shots winged them, trying to dodge around while creating more Substitutes.

They kept on targeting the real Miles, and I had to resist the urge to grin as my strategy was working. Each shot that hit did hurt Miles, undoubtedly, and their energy was being drained by the repeated use of the hybrid Move. For every shot that glanced off Miles though, at least three more seeds missed. It was clear that this Move was not something Heracross was used to using on such a small target, so his aim was off. The Burn also sapped a lot of power he'd have from his attacks.

The Tailwind finally died down, presenting a shift in the fight dynamic. Kotetsu shook her head slightly as if saddened by the fact that I hadn't made good enough use of the opportunity.

"Megahorn, finish this." Heracross' horn gleamed with green energy as he jumped across the battlefield. I could see the wings on his back fluttering as he streaked across the air, ready to fly and dodge around any attack my Rotom tried to direct at it.

"It's over, Shock Wave!" Which is why I picked an attack that hit everything. Suddenly glowing quite brightly, a surge of electricity radiated off of Miles, zapping everything in the air around them. With nowhere to dodge, Heracross tried to punch through, only for his body to be struck immobile by the tremendous amounts of electricity surging through his body.

With one last cry, Heracross fell far short of Miles, collapsing down to the rocky ground below. That's what a 4.5 times Special Attack Boost will do to you.

Kotetsu returned Heracross to his ball and looked up at the Substitute Rotoms floating about in the air, autonomous enough to spin around in circles and make telling them from the real one now impossible. Though she didn't make a sound, and her face was impossible to read with that mask on, from her body language I could tell she was frustrated and possibly worried for the first time. As she should be. Miles got a massive boost to his damage, and the Substitutes can tank the super-strong attacks for him. We might actually have a chance here!

My opponent had re-evaluated and decided to change to a different Pokeball, one that when it opened seemed designed to crush my hopes then and there. Plated with heavy yellow ringed scales that clanged loudly, the large lizard-like Pokemon rose, staring dismissively at Miles (and their many copies) gathered before them. He even turned back to face his trainer, as if to say 'This is who you call me to fight? What a waste of my talents.'

He might not even be wrong. Kommo-o, a pseudo-legendary. Hardly unbeatable, but one as well trained as hers is going to be tough, especially since I don't have anything to take advantage of his Fairy super weakness. The small familiar almost Potion-shaped bottle that hung on a cord around his neck was almost as worrying as the Dragon Type himself.

"Clangorous Soul," Kotetsu called out cooly. Kommo-o began shouting and thrashing about, shaking his scales to add to the cacophony. As the horrible sound invigorated him, he also clutched at the Throat Spray around his neck and squirted it into his mouth.

"Hex!" I desperately called out, not willing to risk taking the time to set up such a Move with a status condition, just hoping that the drain of Kommo-o's Move and Miles boosts would be enough. With glowing plasmic eyes, ghostly energy began to close around our foe, seeming like they would trap him in a ring of pain and suffering. My hopes were dashed as the tall dragon blurred, leaving the shades that surrounded him in the dust as he practically flash-stepped behind Miles and hit him with a punch.

It wasn't even a Move as far as I could tell but nonetheless sent what he hit flying into a wall… where it disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Being able to transfer over the tells, the signs of using a Move to their Substitutes took a fair amount of work and is part of why Miles knows so many less Moves than Dun, but that work has paid off. They still have five Substitutes left. Shock Wave won't do much damage against a Dragon, but they can't dodge it. If we get lucky-

"Finish this, Clanging Scales!" The Fighting Type Trainer commanded, and her dragon was more than happy to do her bidding. Smashing his armored arms together and clover-like tail to the ground, I saw the air ripple towards Miles and all their duplicates, a wave of sound preparing to crash through them and all their Substitutes - only to be met by a transparent pale pink barrier holding out against the assault.

My eyes flashed up to the ceiling where I saw the notch-eared Carbink valiantly diving down, interposing themselves between Miles and the attack, just as the soundwaves pushed through the Light Screen the Carbink had conjured.

The powerful attack still wiped out all of the Substitutes and sent Miles reeling backward, but the brunt of it was heavily weakened by Light Screen and Carbink's natural immunity to Dragon-type attacks.

"What's this?!" Kotetsu hissed, and I ran forward (though not directly into the midst of the fighting), waving my arms and hoping to derail this before something bad could happen.

"Stop, STOP!" Kommo-o paused, holding off on unleashing a ruinous assault, while Carbink just looked confused, tilting their head/whole body at me. "We were just training, practice. No one is really hurt. Trainers battle with their Pokemon to see who's stronger and improve but neither side should be seriously hurt."

"Been a while since I fought someone that could take down even one of my Pokemon, but even with your friend here, you can't beat Kommo-o!" Kotetsu proudly declared, crossing her arms. I eyed that dragon up. Nice of her to give me the handicap but…

"Yup, you're right," I agreed, recalling Miles to their Pokeball, much to her visible surprise, even with the mask obscuring her face. Laughing, I added, "I like to think I'm good, but I'd definitely lose here. Better to keep some of my team able to fight than pointlessly get beat."

She nodded. "Smart choice. I guess you're strong enough to travel through here," She casually admitted, as if the strength her Pokemon had shown wasn't magnitudes beyond any of the Pokemon here. "If you ever come back to Kitakami, I'd like to battle you again, mystery girl."

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself," My cheeks were dusted with crimson from embarrassment as I realized that fact. Should try to be more polite than that. Looking at both Kotetsu and Carbink, I said "My name is Nemona Glitterati, and I'm going to be the best Trainer in the world!"

That got a snort from Kotetsu, though she sounded intrigued. Carbink on the other hand was looking at me wide-eyed, hovering over and bumping into my hand and arm. "Hey! Wha- what's up?"

They made more chiming sounds that I couldn't understand, and while I had gotten better at understanding Pokemon in general, I was failing at this limited game of charades.

Do they want me to catch them? Maybe, but I feel like something else is going on here. "Now that you know what battling is like, did you like that battle?" I asked, and the Pokemon eagerly bobbled. Ok, so they were curious enough to watch but didn't quite get how battling worked at first. I don't think they're familiar enough with the concept of being trained to have that be what they were looking for…

I saw them drift down to the ground, trying to draw symbols in the ground again. "Oh! You want to be a Diancie! Or to be more particular, you want arms," I figured out, to which Carbink gave an excited chime. Kotetsu chuckled softly, recalling her Dragon Type as she watched us interact.

"I'm sorry, but like I said, I don't know how Carbinks change into Diancies." At the sad look in their eyes, I added "But if you want to work with me, I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you achieve your goal. It'll mean training hard every day and lots of battles, but I hope those will help and-" My words were cut off by them tackling me in an enthusiastic approximation of a hug.

"Hrk," I grunted. "Yup, you'll fit right in." As I said that and hugged them, I heard Gligar scoffing. "Don't be worried, I wouldn't be prepared to call myself a Pokemon Trainer if I couldn't train a full team of six, at least. You'll all get plenty of training, and I think you'll be able to help each other grow."

Gligar looked skeptical as if wondering what a floating rock could do. "I'm serious, Carbink are incredibly tough, so they'll challenge how well you can manage battles of attrition, and they'll learn how to deal with more agile foes from you. It's how we get stronger together."

Kotetsu spoke up "Alright, enough of this sappy stuff. You fought hard and should have no regrets. Continue down that tunnel-" She pointed to one of the exits. "And you'll find your way out of the mountain." She tilted her masked head to the side "You should be fine in this cave, and most of the mountain, but try to avoid going too far North; your strength is insufficient for what waits there."

Her brutal assessment felt like a slap in the face, but I could find no words to deny it. While I haven't been there in this life, I remember seeing the kinds of Pokemon that roamed far away from civilization in Kitakami. Dusknoirs, Grimmsnarls, and more. Bloodmoon Ursaluna in the mists. That one hurt the most to miss out on. Reminding myself of the dangers I had warned Kieran of and how I should take those words myself, I simply nodded.

I gave her a small bow, thanking her for the match before heading down. There were several more shafts and long drops, the first one leading straight into a large underground pool. I used Miles (after healing them up) to drift down and to the side, avoiding getting soaked.

Most of the Pokemon were making themselves scarce, hiding in the shadowy corners of the tunnels. Oddly enough, I noticed many Ekans and Salandits hiding behind Clefairys and even Cleffas. Why are they- oh, right, Kommo-o was making some noise and a Fairy Type would be the best defense against that. Not that I think any or even all of the Fairies in this cave could manage to beat that monster. I can't wait till we get that strong.

Exiting out into the bright light, Gligar and I shielded our eyes, her hissing as if it was an affront to her very being. Carbink however just stared at it, unblinking. "Uhh, you sure you want to do that? It'll hurt to stare too long."

They just looked at me confused with their clear blue eyes. "...Or maybe not, different biologies and all." My attention was drawn up the side of the mountain as we heard Kieran and Carmine calling out as they raced down to us.

"Oh boy, you guys aren't gonna believe what happened!"

Spoiler: A/N:

And it's another huge chapter! Fitting, though, for another Pokemon joining the team this chapter. I'm sure Carbink is a bit of a surprise, but I find them to be a fun Pokemon and they'll bring a different dynamic to the team. I hope no one is too disappointed though. There are tons of great Pokemon, especially in Kitakami that ultimately didn't make the cut. Fun fact: In the first draft of this fic, where it was a drop-in SI, not a reincarnated one, I started in Kitakami and actually had a Heracross as my starter.

I've had a ton of fun with this arc, but we've got other things to move onto from here (though we will revisit Kitakami some day). With this chapter, we only have one more update left in the arc, and it'll be an interlude.

Nemona's Current Team:

-'Dun' (Dudunsparce, Male, Normal Type, Starter)
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: None
- Abilities: Run Away, Serene Grace
- Moves known: Flail, Mud Slap, Rollout, Glare, Body Slam, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bite, Yawn (Invisible Version), Last Resort, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Hex, Agility, Air Slash, Giga Impact, Tailwind, Roost, Ancient Power, Drill Run, Hyper Drill, Triple Yawn, Ice Spinner, Solar Beam, Lunge

- 'Miles' (Rotom, Genderless, Electric/Form dependent Type)
- Tera Type: Electric
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Thundershock, Double Team, Hyper Voice, Protect, Thunder, Rain Dance, Will O' Wisp, Nasty Plot, Hex, Sunny Day, Substitute

- 'Gligar' (Gligar, Female, Flying/Ground Type)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Hyper Cutter
- Moves Known: Poison Sting, Sand Attack, Harden, Knock Off, Fury Cutter, Acrobatics, Bulldoze

- 'Carbink' (Carbink, Genderless, Rock/Fairy Type)
- Tera Type: ?
- Held Item: None
- Ability: Clear Body
- Moves Known: Harden, Tackle, Guard Split, Flail, Ancient Power, Light Screen

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

Step 1: Teach Carbink Body Press
Step 2: Throw up a Trick Room
Step 3: ???
Step 4: World Domination via Carbink

 

[Skyfyre]

"Hey Kiki! Wake up!" Groggily I opened my eyes, pushing my sister off who was busy shaking me.

"Stooop it." Moaning, I pulled myself up, blearily looking at my sister who was already dressed and ready. Her bed was on the opposite side of the room, the sun streaming down and showing she had made it. "How can you get up so early every day?"

"Practice! Besides, aren't you excited at least for today? You get to drop off the mask and hopefully not get eaten by the ogre!" She exclaimed with a cheer that belied her words.

"Ugh, of course, I'm excited about that - not the getting eaten part, I mean not getting eaten I mean- argh," Huffing I tossed my sheets messily to the side and pulled myself out of bed. I'll be too tall for it soon. Carmine has to scrunch up while she sleeps to sit on hers.

My sister would complain endlessly about anything, but she never brought up the bed, and I knew I wouldn't either; it was one of the few things we had left from our parents. Dad never was too handy with crafting, not like Mom was, what with Grandpa raising her. Still, he wanted to show he could be handy too, since he worked so hard on these. The rest of their stuff from Unova just sits in a box in the attic.

After our parents were gone, we moved in with Grandpa Yukito and Grandma Hideko. We loved them and they took good care of us, but sometimes, I couldn't help but miss Mom and Dad.

Yawning, I stretched out before facing Carmine. "I'm excited, but also worried. After we drop off the mask, Nemona and Cyan are gonna leave." And before that, we'll have our battle, which is what kept me up half the night.

Carmine's face softened and she leaned down to pat me on the shoulder. "No matter what happens, win or lose, she'll still be your friend. I know how much you liiiiike her." A blush spread across my face despite my wishes.

"Aww shut up! Not like you haven't been pestering her to Ogre Oustin a ton." It was my sister's turn for her face to glow scarlet.

"Be quiet Kiki!" She stomped her foot and added "That was just to get a better handle on her skill, I can't have an outsider beating me! I've figured out her strategy and nearly tied up with her."

"Uhuh," I agreed without truly agreeing, something that faux-angered her to no end. Truth is, I think we're both going to miss her. Cyan too, though the older girl didn't spend as much time with us. We didn't have many other friends in town before her.

After I got changed and we went to the dining room for breakfast I admitted: "You're right."

"Ha! Of course I'm right," she crowed. "I'm right about so much so umm, what was I right about again?"

"Nemona. She's not going to be upset or want nothing to do with us after this." I mean, she could be lying about wanting to know our birthdays so she could get us presents, but I doubt it. Doesn't sound like her. "I just… I wanna impress her with this battle."

"And I'm sure you will, dear," Grandma said kindly, plating the fried Chansey eggs onto our plates with some pancakes and passing them to us. She poured a bottle of Moomoo Milk for us as well (human grade, not Pokemon grade of course). "Eat up! You'll need your energy if you're hiking up that mountain again." She shook her head, muttering something about not being sure where kids got such energy from.

"Argh, stop fretting already, Kiki," Carmine complained, the sternness of her tone slightly offset by the food she was shoving down her throat. Swallowing, she said, "It'll be fine, you've got that secret weapon, right?"

I nodded. Applin and I worked on that all day yesterday while Nemona and her family had been sightseeing. And not just the Move we worked on with Grandpa, but the one Applin surprised me with too! We're gonna give Nemona a huge shock, that's for sure!

Carmine continued "So you've got this in the bag… and even if you don't," She added, earning an instant frown from me, even as I recognized it was fair for her to be dubious about my odds when even I was. "If Nemona reacts badly or anything I'll make her swallow a Koffing whole."

"Sis… don't go scaring off her too." That's not really fair though, Nemona isn't like other kids. There aren't many kids our age here, and the ones here aren't big fans of us 'city kids' from Unova after we had to move here. Carmine made a big deal about loving Kitakami since but they didn't change their minds and are kinda brats regardless.

My sister hadn't stopped proclaiming how much she loved our new home since, not one to back down once she decided on a path. That's something I admire about my sis. I might be too afraid in public to be the same way about most things, but I'll stick up for the Ogre! She's so cool and strong, I'm sure of it. Maybe, maybe once I give her this mask, she'll think I am too-

"Kiki, what are you mumbling?" Carmine demanded and I realized I'd been thinking out loud, though the words were muffled by the food I was eating.

"Ahh, nothing, gotta go, get ready." Finishing up my plate quickly I jumped out of my seat and rushed out of the room.

"Kiki! Ugh, leaving the dishes for me to do…" Carmine groused as I went to the entrance hall. Slipping on my sandals I prepared to leave- before hearing Nemona talking with my Grandpa just outside. It was hard to hear everything from behind the door but I could make out a few things.

"...the truth, handed… you know it, don't you?" Nemona asked. I could barely recognize the words as her own at first, she sounded so different. Even when we argued about Gligar at first, she was vibrant and energetic about everything. Here she sounds… cold.

Grandpa didn't sound any happier, with a hint of anger in his voice. "Perhaps so. What do you want? You can't tell them!"

"I can. I will. Unless you do it first. They deserve to know, Kieran especially." Why me especially? What do I deserve to know more than Carmine, but she also deserves? Missing the context made it hard to figure out what they were arguing about.

"How would you feel if I offered to tell them all of your secrets?" Grandpa retorted fire in his voice. I'm not sure I've ever heard him sound so angry before. "I have no doubt you have plenty."

Nemona was completely undeterred. "Good guess, though the fact it's a guess shows just how little you know, or could use. Besides, as much as I might be upset if you spilled my secrets, this one isn't really 'yours,' now is it? It's just one you happen to know. The only one who's secret it is- well, she's not talking." There's a joke there, but I don't get what it is.

"They're too young! If they revealed it, tried to tell others-"

"I don't believe the town would take it quite as badly as you…" There were a few more words I couldn't make out.

"If you believed that you'd be telling everyone yourself. Why ask this old man to drudge up…" After a minute of silence, he conceded. "I was always planning on telling them eventually."

"'Eventually,'" she scoffed, clearly disbelieving him. "They might be too young right now, but you need to set definite times in place or 'tomorrow' becomes 'never,' ya'know? Tell them by the time they're fourteen."

"You're in no position to make demands-"

"Tell them by then or I'll do it. They might deserve to hear it from you, but if you aren't going to ever tell them, I'll put you on a-" I bumped against the door, having been leaning in too far to hear. It wasn't that loud, but Nemona immediately stopped speaking, so I opened the door quickly, trying to act like I hadn't been listening in.

"Oh, h-hey guys, what's up?" I asked shakily. Nemona and Grandpa were standing out in the front lawn, the sun shining bright as the smiles on their faces. If I hadn't heard them a second ago there's no way I woulda thought they were mad with each other.

"Just here to pick you guys up for our trip," Nemona said breezily, before stepping over to Grandpa and grabbing the mask in his hands. His grip tightened on it for a moment, and in a brief interaction I would have missed if I blinked, her eyes darted to me, his followed, and he let go.

"Thanks for making this, I'm sure the Ogre will appreciate all the hard work you put into this. Thank you." For some reason, those words made Grandpa sag, as if the wind had been taken out of him.

"Glad to," he croaked out before turning away. "Have fun today. And stay safe." I couldn't see Grandpa as he said that, my view was obstructed by one of the posts that held up the roof above the front porch, but he seemed to be directing that at Nemona.

"Of course," she said seriously before happily grabbing my hand with her free hand. "C'mon, let's get going! Hey Carmine!" She shouted.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, hold up!"

***

We made it to up the mountain to the passageway without incident, the climb tiring but not very threatening with Dun out. Nemona's starter was massive, and there was a certain presence to him that made me feel like there were few Pokemon in Kitakami that could challenge him.

That makes sense, Nemona says she's been training him for over two years now. I wonder if Applin can get that strong in that time?

"What are you thinking about?" Cyan asked, peering over at me. Lost in my thoughts, I'd been lagging on the last section of our hike up and I jogged back to catch up with Cyan. The mostly white-haired girl was herself trailing a bit behind Carmine and Nemona.

"Ack! Just… I don't know if I can measure up to Nemona, you know?"

To my surprise, the older girl nodded without hesitation. "Oh yeah, I get that feeling." At my startled stare, she laughed. "I'm not blind, my little sister is gifted. Sure, I have things I can do that she can't, and she always praises me for those or my efforts, but it's clear how much more she excels at. Look at this trip; I'm pretty happy with the Horsea I caught, and Nims was the first one to praise me. Went on and on about how strong my Horsea can be and the Type advantages when she evolves into a Kingdra... but my sister also caught two Pokemon of her own here."

"Oh," I stated dumbly, having not expected that. "Do you think I can win?" Given what she just said, I assumed she would say no, but instead she had a pensive look on her face.

"Not sure. I don't think you have great odds, would usually say no, but… Nims has once or twice mentioned that 'one day' someone will come along and push her to her limits. A true 'rival.' She's got a couple of other friends who are trainers too, but she never refers to them that way."

Could I be her rival? But I want to be her friend, like with the Ogre…

"Kiki, hurry up!" Carmine shouted at me.

"Cyan, don't be a Slow…poke," Nemona finished awkwardly.

I giggled a bit as we hurried up to meet them. Nemona can be so weird. Carmine too, but at least Nemona doesn't snap at me when I laugh about it.

Distracted and hurried as I was, I missed a step and started to lose my balance, slipping off the edge of the final narrow walkway to the Den. I don't have Miles to help me, we forgot about that. Was the one random thought that popped into my mind before I fell.

Nemona was there in a flash, grabbing my arm before I fell more than a foot. Gravity still caused me to fall a bit more before Nemona's grip around my bicep arrested my movement, shooting pain through my shoulder.

"Ahhh!" Crying out from the pain and fear, the grip on the mask in my hand slackened. I tried to hold on, but ended up just flipping it up for a second after dropping it, failing to grab it again.

"Miles! The mask!" Her Rotom blurred out from her pocket, streaking below. I craned my head to look before the strong girl said "Focus on me. C'mon, just get back up."

Anxiety was something I was used to, but fear like this was something new. My body was shaking and I knew that I might die, that Nemona might die too. Yet, as I looked into her amber eyes, I saw no fear. Concern, but only for me, despite how close she was kneeling to the ledge herself, my weight pulling her down.

Then she heaved, steadying herself with her free hand and yanking me up with the other. I could see the muscles on her arms bulging as she whipped me up and almost over her head, placing me down gently on the bridge beside her.

"You ok?" Was her first question. My eyes were blurry, tears starting to form from all the emotions swirling through me. I hate being a cry baby, but if I open my mouth, I'm going to start bawling, I just know it. So I nodded my head, biting my lip even as tears started to roll down my face.

Nemona smiled, relieved I was ok, then turned to see her Rotom hovering back up, carrying the mask above it with its plasmic limbs. Miles passed the mask back to me and I took it gingerly, inspecting it for any damages.

Luckily, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. The turquoise mask had light red-orange swirls on its 'cheeks' like a setting sun with a black beak painted open in a devious smirk. The shining crystal eyes and feathers sticking out to the side and curving up gave it the appearance of some great bird of legend, a powerful hunter.

"Th-t-thanks," I stammered out, holding it close. Helping me up, we walked together, slowly and carefully towards the end of the bridge, and I let out a sigh of relief when we were on wider ground.

"Sorry about that," Nemona said, and I looked at her as if she had grown a second head like a Doduo. "I should have been more careful about the bridge. We've just been exploring Kitakami so much, I got complacent and- never mind, I'm sorry." Why does she try to take responsibility for everything? It's my fault for slipping off.

I couldn't say anything about that as I was busy fending off Carmine, who had rushed over to me the second we got to more stable land and was fretting about me.

"S-stop it, sis! I'm fine," I mumbled out, to little avail. We took a few minutes break to compose ourselves after that scare, even though we were only a few dozen meters away from our goal. My eyes were still a little red as I approached the entrance to the Den, and I felt almost more nervous going in there than I did on the bridge, wondering how the Ogre would react to our mask. Wondering if, by some miracle, she'd be inside there, waiting for me.

Of course, things don't work out like that. When I entered, it was the same empty Den I'd seen a dozen times before. With a sigh of disappointment and relief, I placed the mask on the ground, along with a letter I'd written (with Carmine and Nemona's help) days before.

'Hello Ogre,

I'm Kiki Kieran, and I think you're super cool and strong. I saw the masks you had and I know this isn't the same, but I hope you like this mask too. Grandpa made it with the help of me and my friends. It must be lonely up here and one day, I'd like for us to be friends too. No matter what, I want you to take this mask as a gesture of good faith and hope it brings you happiness.'

One last look around showed me the cave was empty, so I stood up and exited back into the light. Cyan and Nemona cheered me on as if it had been some big deal, and even my sister was saying "Good job Kieran."

"It was nothing," abashedly turning my face away, I wiped at my eyes some more, to make sure I wasn't crying again. "Uhh, umm, anyway, we have a battle planned, right?"

"Here?" Cyan asked. The opening around the Den was pretty high up, but it was much wider than the bridge.

Nemona nodded. "This should be fine. Sis, would you referee for us?"

The girl in question shrugged, standing off to the side along with Carmine as we took our places. "This will be a one-on-one battle with no switches allowed. The battle is to incapacitation or forfeit. Any attempt to seriously injure an opponent or attack a trainer or bystander will be met with disqualification. Boundaries are to the edge of the bridge and the Den, and umm, let's say fifteen meters above the ground. Trainers, get your Pokemon ready."

"Ah, umm, okay!" I shouted out, panickedly trying to take all that in. Pressing the button on my Pokeball, I released Applin in front of me, to a chuckle from Nemona. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just you're a bit eager. It doesn't matter here since we both agreed to which Pokemon we're using ahead of time, but in other battles when you have a bigger team, whoever sends out their Pokemon last gets an advantage. The referee has the trainers hold up the Pokeball they're going to use, and then they both release them," She explained, pulling out Gligar's Pokeball and releasing her Pokemon.

The pink flying scorpion spun about in the air, drifting near her trainer. My brave Applin shivered in fear at the predator that had almost taken his life before, but he didn't hide in his apple case. Instead, he stuck his body out, defiantly meeting Gligar's gaze.

"Wowzers, real battles are pretty complicated, huh?"

"You'll get used to them," she said easily. "It's like-" the brash girl paused, thinking. "Do you know how to ride a bike?" I nodded. While there were trucks that came in and out of Mossui town, bicycles were some of the easiest ways to travel around town, and anything short of going past Kitakami Hall or the Paradise Barrens.

"It's like riding a bike. It seems complicated at first, and there's a ton you need to learn and do all at once, but then you get the hang of it and it's second nature." Nemona wore a contented smile, clearly proud of herself for that simile.

"Hurry up and battle already!" Carmine shouted, causing both of us to deflate, though our Pokemon both perked up a bit at my sibling's heckling. Guess they're ready to battle. Grandma always said Pokemon are naturally more aggressive than people, on average, which is why she gets worried whenever I venture too far out of town without supervision.

"Alright, with that out of the way," Cyan spoke loudly. "On the count of three, the battle will begin. Ready?" Nemona locked eyes with mine, both of us nodding, the same drive pumping through each of us. "Three, two, one… begin!"

"Withdraw!" I called out immediately, hoping to bolster Applin's defense before Gligar could start pounding him. It'll also set up our first attack.

Or so I thought. Gligar and Nemona blew me away, almost literally, with how fast they were.

"Acrobatics." No sooner had the word left her mouth and Gligar was across the battlefield, slamming down into Applin hiding in his shell, leaving cracks and ripping a few chunks of fruity flesh off with her pincers and teeth.

"You're not holding back, are you? Well, neither will we, Sucker Punch!"

"Get out of there!" Nemona called out, and while Gligar would now listen to her trainer and try to follow her commands, she was a bit slow to respond here. Too focused on ripping and tearing my Pokemon, she backed away a second too slowly to avoid Applin's head jutting out of the apple and hitting Gligar in the gut.

"Gar!" The Flying Type called out, flapping away. Nemona's lips quirked down for half a second, before wiping away any displeasure from her face.

"Poison Sting, keep your distance." Gligar followed obediently, rubbing lightly at where she had been hit before flinging a bunch of needles out from her tail, each one dripping with a violet liquid.

"Withdraw, defend more!"

The battle fell into that pattern, me defending while they kept their distance and launched attacks. Each strike is getting weaker, I'm sure Applin can take on anything else Nemona can dish out now.

Just as I thought that Applin gave a plaintive cry, his tail seizing and twitching violently as a purple discoloration spread throughout the few visible parts of his body. "Huh?!"

Nemona was looking down on me - not unkindly, but still - like she knew something I didn't. Which she did. "Your Applin has been Poisoned. One of Gligar's stings managed to get through." Looking carefully, I saw where one needle stuck in deep, having landed through one of the cracks Gligar had opened up earlier.

"Gaaaah. We can't lose like this. Uh, uh, Astonish!" I shouted desperately, trying to rack my brain for something Applin could do with his few Moves to hit someone flying above. And it worked! Applin stretched his whole body out, his tail and eyes extending far out of his shell, shocking Gligar and causing her to reel back in the air.

My opponent, however, was unfazed. "Drop down and Sand Attack." A swift dive to the ground and she was kicking and flinging sand from the rocky ground into Applin's exposed eyes.

The ground here was more than just rocky, however; this section of the mountain had a bit of greenery growing on it, which we could use with Grandpa's secret Move. "Grassy Glide!" Applin gave a weak but happy cheer at that, his tail drawing on more power from the plant life and extending that to conjure a bunch of grass in a line that he slid on, straight towards Gligar.

"Quick Attack to reposition, do not hit Applin!" Nemona responded rapidly, and Gligar had to adjust her motion at the last second, but she ended up shooting past Applin to the side, my starter missing her as she moved in a bright blur.

"Sand Attack again," Nemona ordered again, and Gligar once more pelted Applin with sand. He could hide his eyes, but that just left him blind, freeing her Pokemon to make even more room.

My attacks failed, nothing coming close to hitting her until eventually, Applin fell over, giving a small croak as he was defeated.

"Applin is unable to battle, Nemona is the winner!" Cyan called out as I slumped down trying to figure out what went wrong. How? I trained… so hard…

The victor had the presence of mind to apply a quick antidote to my Applin and a Potion to her own Pokemon, praising Gligar for her efforts. Then she walked over to me and offered me a hand up. "That was a great match, Kieran." She sounds so sincere but…

"I lost," I moaned. "We worked so hard, but we couldn't beat Gligar." Trudging over to Applin, I scooped him up. "I'm sorry."

"Ap… applin." He said wearily. Glancing over my shoulder I tried to see if Nemona could understand what he meant, but she just shrugged.

"It sucks to lose, I know that, but really, you did well today. While you might not have beaten the Gligar of today, I'm certain you would have beaten the Gligar that attacked you two back then."

"App?" The Pokemon in my arms asked and Nemona nodded fervently.

"Really. That Sucker Punch Withdraw combo had us changing up our whole battle plan!" Applin's already overly large eyes widened and he even gave a few cheers, as weak as he currently was. My feelings were more mixed.

It was nice to hear, and what we wanted when we first challenged her. Nemona encouraging us confirmed she was my friend, and I was so grateful for that. There was something to her gaze, however, as she looked just past me that confirmed that I wasn't the 'rival' she was looking for either. I wonder, if I get stronger and prove to her I can be that rival, if she'll tell me that secret she and Grandpa were talking about?

"I wanna challenge you again!" I shouted suddenly, shocking the others. Nemona though, was delighted.

"That sounds great! Maybe not today, we need to get our Pokemon looked at, and then Cyan and I have to head out, but I'd love to come back and battle you again someday." Turning to my sister she added "Both of you."

"Hmph, of course. Next time we face, you're going down!" Carmine declared haughtily.

"Like your Ogre Oustin score?" Nemona slyly teased.

"Yeah- hey!" We all laughed at Carmine a bit, but with Cyan being older, and Nemona being… Nemona, she turned her rage on me. "Stop laughing Kiki or I'll wring your neck!" She yelled, but I knew she wasn't serious. My big sis gets flustered easily, but she's always looking out for me.

A trait that seemed common to all big sisters as Cyan (who had less of an appreciation for Carmine's more 'extreme' comments) stepped in and said: "None of that. If she gets on your case, let me know."

Nemona quickly defused the situation before Carmine could get upset with her sister for that. "Yeah, we have to stay in touch! I'll send you guys tons of letters and you've got a computer at home too, right? We can email each other as well, and talk all about our battles."

"Ugh, is battling all you can think about?" The older girl complained. "You're going to corrupt poor Kieran just like you did Arven and that Amethio boy." I felt a small curl of something unpleasant in my gut at the mention of these other people in Nemona's life, but it was shoved to the side quickly as Cyan took out a notebook and gave me and my sister her address and postal code, with a second one written down beneath it.

"The first one is for the family home, and the second one is for Uva Academy since I'll be going there in a few weeks."

"Wowzers…" I looked it up online after Nemona mentioned it the other day, and that school is huge! The Pokeball at the top looks so cool too.

Carmine wasn't as impressed, snorting derisively. "Uva Academy is nothing compared to Blueberry Academy." A vein bulged noticeably on Cyan's forehead, but the older girl took some deep breaths and said nothing as my sister continued, now speaking to Nemona. "Kiki and I will be going there when we grow up, like our parents did. You should join us," she announced imperiously.

Nemona stood between the two older girls, caught like a Deerling in a Druddigon's eyes. "Aheh, well, I haven't actually decided my school yet. Oh look at the time," she said, for some reason holding up her bare wrist. "Let's hurry back down to the town."

Turning and marching away, the sharp-eared girl suddenly remarkably deaf to Cyan and Carmine's arguments for which school was better, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. This was super fun. Meeting Nemona Glitterati was amazing, and I'm sure that the next time I see her, she'll be even tougher.

Looking down at the Applin in my hands, his natural color returning to him, I saw the fierce, draconic gaze in his eyes. Which is a good thing, because we'll be so much stronger too, next time.

With a full heart, we waved them off at the bus stop. "Goodbye! We'll see you again soon."

"Oh, you bet!" Nemona shouted back. "I can't wait to see you guys and Kitakami again someday. Goodbye, for now!"

***

My first letter to her I sent only a few days after she left and it began like this:

'Nemona, you're never going to believe what happened. I went to check the Ogre's Den the other day, and the mask and note were gone! Do you think the Ogre found them? She must have, I'm the only one who goes up there regularly. I hope she liked them, Grandpa worked so hard on it...'

Spoiler: A/N:

With that, the Kitakami arc comes to a close. Certainly won't be the last time we go there or see those characters, but for now there are other storylines to get to.

I'm curious what everyone thought of this arc. The chapters were a fair bit larger than usual, and it involved two new Pokemon captures in quick succession, and also what you thought of my portrayal of character canon to the games. Thank you all for reading.

 

[cazador]

New type mask for ogrepon

Also nemona goes to a different timeline to go to naranja academy