Pokémon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Frontier Justice

[K_S]

I'm here for the catnip, (rewinds that statement in my head a few times... meh, still works irony non-withstanding)

I've read up to chapter three but decided to dig into part one for getting done on time's sake.

Chapter one:
At first, I expected the main human character to be a generic officer/jenny knock-off. Having the human come from a non-'mon world was definitely a unique twist, as was having them be an adult (a rarity) was also interesting. Basically, we have the mystery of their life and what they lived alongside the mystery of the 'mon world and them having to piece it together while the reader in turn is trying to piece them together... It's a nice lure and one that kept me lingering.

I'll admit the breaking of his legs, reality going all... shaky jello in bits and pieces.... it took me a reread and getting to chapter three to figure out some of what happened. That the main character blinking in and out of the world during the arrest and what was happening in fragments of the "other" place was more than a dream took some time to sink in. And the hints peppered beyond the damage, well I'm curious to see how they play out.

I do feel bad for the main character's immediate family though. They seemed close to their old man and losing a kid is a common fear, adult, or otherwise, I can't imagine this displacement adventure being over in a blink/moment as time seems disjointed in their abduction but not at a standstill... So time's likely passing, how that winds up resolving I'm sure will be mentioned much later in the tale, so I'll keep my nosy pokings to a limited amount until near the end game I guess...

Flipping over from our human transplant to the guild was a bit jarring. While it's introduced in bits and bobs, so as not to lose a reader (Healer and wounded 'mon talking, to pan out to room back to character focus again) it felt a bit odd to not have much physical description of the characters as they were introduced. While I kinda gave it a pass as they're 'mon talking to 'mon and therefore their differences would likely be commonplace to them even a few throwaway descriptors would have helped in the beginning. On the flip side, this gets remedied a bit when the human joins the team and the newness gives reason to dig into the cast's physics a little bit. But at first, since it didn't start like this there was a bit of float to the character-heavy sections.

You know if Lloyd and our transplant cop get friendly enough I can see them both getting along very well since both have somewhat prying, inquisitive mindsets.

I liked the battle, the contrast to the 'mon's rather gracefully attacks to the rather pragmatic human's approach of bringing a gun to a knife fight/dogfight... And how it's shown, we get the near prosaic glances of the 'mon attacks than the human's rather blunt way of fighting... The tonal shifts were done well and the focus spread enough so the reader had a good idea of what everyone was up to nearly at all times. That's a very advanced technique to have under your belt and it was a pleasure to see in action.

Thanks for this great read, until either next 'nip or I get some downtime to actually toss a quality review up.

KS

 

[IFBench]

Finally here to review chapters 1 and 2! I absolutely love the concept of a still-human human in the PMD world, and I'm excited to read this!

First chapter was really good! I liked the little bit in the human world at the beginning. Great way to show what Mason's life was like before all this happens. The subsequent section also helped establish the Pokemon world before Mason's arrival, which was nice.

I really liked Mason's reaction to being isekaied! It was really well done, and felt realistic! Great job!

Immediately, Mason proves that despite his legs being broken, he can still be extremely dangerous. I actually gasped when the bullet went straight through the first Houndour's head. Great way to show his capabilities!

Ooooh, looks like something happened to humans in this world long ago. Very interesting!

And now Mason and these three Pokemon are on a team together! That's definitely going to cause some heads to tilt once they get back to civilization.

Overall, an excellent introductory chapter that does a great job at introducing Mason and the world he's now in!

The second chapter was great, too! There was less surprise than I was expecting at an actual human being in the guild, but given that the ones in charge of the guild likely being highly experienced, that's understandable.

A mysterious wound in the back of Mason's head, and 9 mysterious bullet holes in a tree when Mason can only fire six at a time...I'm guessing that that mysterious wound is a gunshot wound, and that someone else arrived here with Mason, with their own gun.

I'm very intrigued about what's up with this Lycoris group. They have badges, so my initial thought was they were a rival guild to the one Kira is in, but surely that wouldn't have warranted as much anger as Kira had shown.

Overall, a great chapter that sets up a lot of intrigue, and starts showing more of the world.

I look forward to reading more!

 

[Umbramatic]

Here for Catnip and Chapter 2!

I still appreciate the gonzo Western vibes of all this. Also getting to know the Pokemon cast - they seem pretty colorful and fun. Stuff seems to be piling up, slowly but surely, into an actual Plot. Everyone being weirded out at the Real Actual Non-Transformed Human is something I haven't seen n a PMD fic before and it's delightful.

I will say the perspective flip in the middle confused me - it wasn't entirely clear it WAS a perspective flip at first, or to who, so I was kinda confused until the end.

But your base remains solid and decidedly delightfully gonzo, so I hope to see where it goes further.

 

[Vray]

So my review is for Chapter 1.

So I read the original version of this chapter and I know you said you wanted to change some things, so I've been waiting to finally get to see what you had in store. And they did not disappoint.

The first section seems quick and out of body with how it jumps from one thing to another in a sort of cryptic manner, but I think that works well with what you're trying to do. Memory flashes and all that, aheh. We even get a cameo of that brother character, though a bit more direct than other information conveyed.

The next new section with Kira and Ronin I actually don't think adds too much. While it does set up the interest Ronin and Lloyd have in humans and setting up the characters, such information wouldn't be stressful to scatter throughout the story. Bear in mind, I'm not saying this section is bad or nothin' cuz it's pretty good, but considering we don't know these characters yet it can be a bit of a tonal or at least flip of the "tension", especially considering we go back to Mason in the next section.

The last part is just like before and that's a good thing. All in all, good intro still and improved with the additions. Good job, keep it up.

 

[canisaries]

So I heard some people talking about this fic on the discord and I decided to check it out. I've read Chapter 1 and I want to give my thoughts on it, but unfortunately I have to say they're not very positive. Before I get deeper into the issues I personally had with this chapter, I have some comments to make about the prose.

I picked up a lot of grammar stuff on my read, but I’ve filtered out the ones I’ve already seen addressed - though I want to emphasize the points about run-on sentences and inconsistent tenses since both of those were pretty distracting for me during my read. Here’s the other stuff I noticed.

My body refused to move, locked in a bent down position as something probed my every wanted movement from within.

I can't figure out what this part means.

The world disappeared along with all sensation of it,

Sensations are really all one has of the world, so this would get the same meaning across with "the world disappeared".

The Emolga nodded wordlessly as it fell in behind me, wincing in pain from its arm. I could tell it was broken. Poor guy probably busted it up trying to glide. Maybe he wouldn’t notice if I stole a look at the memory of what happened… but me being a Gardevoir of respectable reputation stopped that idea before it could take hold.

We walked past a few other Pokémon before arriving where we needed to be. The room’s wooden walls didn’t do much to muffle the noises from the outside of it, much to my despair. Alas, a doctor such as me cannot be too picky over my environment, so long as it is clean and workable.

"Me being a Gardevoir" and "a doctor such as me" seem pretty unnatural for someone's internal monologue, but just changing them for something like "but being a Gardevoir of respectable reputation, I pushed the idea away" and "a doctor cannot be too picky" would do wonders.

He turned to me as I entered with a small smile on his face.

The word order here is very strange. "As I entered, he turned to me with a small smile on his face" would be more natural.

The cool nature of the place around me took hold as I glanced around the area with all manner of surprise on my face. It appeared to be a heavily wooded forest, the scale of which I knew nothing about.

"The cool nature of the place" sounds odd. "The coolness of the place" sounds better.

Despite the longer barrel my revolver had, it still kicked and it barked pretty damn loud. But at the least, the subsonic ammo for it was much easier on the ears…

When I read this part initially, I couldn't tell whether he actually fired the gun here or if he didn't.

The reflection showed me in detail, from my dark brown hair and cyan colored eyes,

Cyan refers to a very vivid shade of light blue which I cannot believe a real life human having in their eyes. I would call them light blue or, if they're a greenish blue, teal.

My ability to see anything was seemingly turned off,

It'd be quicker and more dynamic to simply say that he was blinded.

A deathly silence came over me as I got to a crouched position,

Similar thing here. "As I crouched" is shorter.

They caught sight of me and mimed the expression that the Greninja had.

I think you want "mimicked". "Miming" is to convey a message through gestures, aka what a mime does.

I missed purposely, hopefully that’ll keep them away from me.

Purposefully?

The Gardevoir’s powers flared up as she took beside the Gallade. “Can’t tell, I’m guessing they’re dark types.”

I don't think what her powers looked like was previously mentioned at all, so I don't know what to picture at her powers flaring up. It has to be visible somehow for the protagonist to know something's happening.

“Keep ‘em busy,” the Greninja said in a tone that seemed to radiate annoyance as he disappeared from sight.

I noticed structures like these a few times - ones where a character has a tone or voice that does or has something. Most of the time, it just feels overly verbose when a simple "the Greninja said, annoyed" would do and flow better at that.

They had some semblance of a plan clearly, how deep was is to be determined.

"How deep it was was to be determined"?

Flame jumped at us and knocked them further out as two more Houndour jumped in front of me from the bushes.

Flames?

I noticed that my temporal allies looked rather shocked by the gruesome display

Temporary?

It’s jaws clamped down on my shoulder, the adrenaline in my system clawing at my mind to fight back. I clawed its eyes desperately, it yelped and pushed me to the side.

Using "clawed" in quick succession with the first use being metaphorical and the second literal threw me off.

Blood dripped from it, looking at me as the life faded from its eyes and dropping dead.

With the way the sentence is structured here, the active agent here is blood, not the houndour. The second clause also makes it sound like the looking and the dropping dead were simultaneous when you probably didn't intend for them to be.

My revolver’s cylinder whirled and clicked as I took out each of the four spent bullet casing. Tossing them to the forest floor before I carefully inserted four live rounds in their place.

Casings? I tossed?

Dear gosh I wasn’t having that conversation with them right now.

I have a very hard time picturing this guy saying "dear gosh" when he drops the F bomb so freely before.

With the critique of the prose out of the way, it's time get to the more general thoughts I had about this chapter so far. As the beginning of the review suggested, I had a number of issues with it, the most pressing of which was the main character and how he's portrayed.

To get right to the point, it's very uncomfortable to see a police officer character whose itchy trigger finger is portrayed as an endearing flaw. He shoots creatures whose level of intellect he admits not to know and he aims to make his shots fatal right off the bat, not bothering with any warning shots or warnings, period - and he does all this with a smirk on his face. It seems that you're going for a cowboy type who doesn't play by the rules, but the problem is that there are actual police officers out there who abuse their position of power and use lethal force far too freely and it is anything but charming. It's terrifying, and the way this story seems to romanticize such behavior is disturbing and frankly tone-deaf.

This is largely responsible for me finding this character very unlikable, but not fully. I also find his cocky narration and attitude grating (which I fully admit is subjective) and thought that him being worried for the Gardevoir, who seemed perfectly capable of defending herself and sustained fewer injuries than the other team members, came off as patronizing and belittling of women. Now, naturally, a protagonist does not have to be morally perfect (I'd argue that they shouldn't), but all of these traits combined with the fact that I couldn't find a single likable trait for him in this chapter simply lead to me disliking him. And it really doesn't seem like you're going for an explicitly unlikable protagonist - or if you are, there are several factors missing that would make it work. I could write out what I think those are, but the recent conversation about "asshole characters" in the discord pretty much covered everything I'd say, so consult that if you're interested.

I think someone also mentioned in their review that they wanted to learn more of this character in the beginning, and I agree - we really don't learn much at all about him other than he's cocky and an irresponsible police officer. His memories with his father and brother could have been endearing, but when they were also about guns and killing things, it only kind of adds to the sadistic gun-nut feel he has about him. And in general, it is good to first get to know and become engaged with a character before putting them through hardship.

Then there were a couple miscellaneous things that pulled me out of the story mainly by feeling unlikely or unfitting. Bullets working on Pokémon better than real life animals was one of them, but I do understand it's kind of necessary for the premise to work. I do also see the narrative reason behind the team recruiting the protagonist, but it feels very shortsighted of them to accept a stranger with strange powers they don't really understand into their team - though this could be the team twisting the truth and actually wanting to keep a closer eye on him rather than actually have him as a member of their team.

I'm usually a sucker for characters from one setting introducing their technology to characters from another, but the mon not comprehending long-distance communication felt off for a world where telepathy and PMD magitech presumably exists. Lastly, it felt pretty unrealistic for the protagonist to be able to talk and aim his gun so well while his freaking legs are broken. It had this feel of "my character is so awesome he can do all this stuff despite this horrible pain", which is not really impressive if I'm not engaged by the character to begin with.

I don't want this all to be negative, though, so I do have compliments to give. A cult of Arceus is intriguing, and that opening had some good horror as the protagonist shifted between worlds, found long periods of time gone by without experiencing them and having little to no control over his body. It also makes one wonder what kind of phenomenon would cause him to change worlds in that manner.

That concludes my thoughts. Feel free to reply here or hit me up on Discord if you have any questions. See you around.

 

[Yodakage Kira]

Chapter 13: Far From Home (1)

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A broken knight remembers what brought him to Narkin, and the memory that haunts his dreams…
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“Hey,” Kira’s soft voice called out to me. “It’s time to wake up, Ronin.”

I wanted to pretend I was still asleep, but our emotional connection betrayed my state. I groggily opened my eyes as my powers sharpened with continued focus. The tent flapped as some light wind brushed up against it, the entrance remained open, early morning sunlight pouring in through it.

Kira was on her knees, bent over to whisper in my ear. The Gardevoir was beautiful, as always.

I chuckled. “We’ve got all the time in the world, what's a few hours used to sleep in a little?”

“Hours that would be better put to more productive things.” Something pinched my arm, the sharp pain abruptly running up my arm and jolting me awake.

“Ow-” I rubbed my right arm. “You don’t have to be a goon about it.”

She laughed softly into my ear. “Oh chivalrous Gallade, the morning just isn’t the same without your face, come on.”

A weary smile grew on my face as I carefully got up and followed her out into our campsite. There was a fire going, surrounded by stones and a floating metal pan with sizzling meat in it. I was hungry already merely at it’s sight.

“This should keep us going for a while, considering that I’d rather not have to eat while exploring for human artifacts.” She sighed before the meat on the pan flipped seemingly by itself. “We’ve got a few hours, and a hope that it’s worth our time.”

I sat by the fire on the opposite side of her. “I’m sure it will be.”

“Well at least we’ll see something new… even if we find nothing to bring back.” Kira mused as her eyes met mine.

Our crystal hearts briefly glowed pink. Her emotions flowed into me, them consisting of sharp skepticism, radiating hope, and glowing happiness. The feeling stopped, though our lingering emotional connection never dared falter.

It held us together after all. Our hearts were one, our minds and emotions were open wide like a book to one another in a way I could never describe perfectly. In my mind it felt like the ultimate completion of myself.

The sun was softly shining through the leaves of the forest trees. I squinted a little, but still saw her face clear as ever. “Far from home, but together we are.”

“I swear there was more to that old saying, it's just on the tip of my tongue…” She snapped her fingers before groaning in annoyance. “And now I lost it. Oh well.”

I lightly grinned in amusement. “We’ll have plenty of time to remember while we’re out there.”

“Psh, nonsense… we’ll be too busy staring into each other's eyes.”

She flipped the meat in the pan again as I chuckled. With a satisfied look, she split the meat evenly onto two plates. Carefully she handed me one and sighed. Contentment surrounded us like a cloud of mist.

We ate in silence, there wasn’t much to be said. We had a plan for the day and each other. That was all we needed. Normally we would have berries, but we were running out of them rather fast… despite our rationing of them already. But we did have meat, mostly for emergencies when we really had nothing else. It tasted odd to us but it wasn’t bad.

Travelers cannot always be choosers. Especially when they’re out in places unexplored by anyone.

We had packed our campsite easily, we barely had anything other than the tent and some blankets. We carried so little that we ended up with only a single pack that we swapped carrying every hour. I had made sure to cover our tracks before we left.

Kira and I had exited the forest shortly after beginning our trek, we intended to stop by a new town that had recently popped up by word of mouth. Though I was skeptical… it being so out on the frontier just didn’t sit right with me.

Narkin was its name, and it apparently was in the process of installing a port. This was the furthest we’d ever been from home… but we wanted to go further still. Nowhere was ever far enough…

I noticed we broke out of the thick forest, now overseeing the seaside town from atop a hill. I stopped in place and squinted. The town looked early in development, I didn’t hold hope that it would hold out. There were wooden houses… what looked to be a market… and a port was definitely being built… but not much else.

At least this place looked like it wasn't a den of thieves and thugs.

“So what do you think?” Kira asked wearily. “Does it look safe?”

I sighed before continuing to walk. “We don’t know until we get there.”

Some level of fear had run into my mind and heart. Though it was mostly because I did not know how to fully use my newfound powers as a Gallade. Kira and I only evolved together recently, but our relationship stretched far beyond that.

I muttered under my breath to myself. “Steel thy heart.”

It was always much easier said than done.

Our approach did little to quell the growing feeling of dread in me. I tried to desperately hide it from her… but I knew it was impossible. I could only minimize it and hope she didn’t bring it up. For both our sakes, it was best that we both spoke not of our fear.

A Pokémon stood at the entrance, leaning against the wall of a building. Some dust from the path kicked up in a sudden breeze. The Inteleon stared to the sky, its gaze sometimes shifting down to path seemingly out of boredom. I could tell it knew we were approaching.

“So what brings you to Narkin, chaps?” he suddenly asked, a single eye looking towards us.

I responded evenly. “We’re travelers, just stopping to get some supplies before we head off on our way.”

“Ah, I see.” He pointed to the town’s center. “Market is that way… though things have been quite scarce lately. Odds are you’ll have to trade goods instead of using Poké. We’ve… had a rough couple of days.”

I squinted a little, nothing seemed wrong visually with the town itself. “What happened?”

“The old coot in charge sent a Guild team out on a supply run to a mystery dungeon we recently found. Long story short, all of them turned up dead. And now we’ve got our work cut out for us.” I noticed rising anger in him. It seemed directed to whoever this ‘old coot in charge’ was.

Kira piped up. “We’re sorry to hear that, for what it's worth.”

He wordlessly nodded before his eye turned back to the sky. Frustration was creeping throughout him, both inside and out. His expression had changed, now a blank stare gazing up at the blue abyss above. I dared not pry about anything.

“Just do your thing,” he said with a sigh. We passed by him, about to go where he directed. But his voice rang out again. “Oh, and have a good day.”

Kira wearily smiled. “You too.”

A short walk brought us to the center of the town where there was a surprising amount of other Pokémon going about their day. Much of it turned into a blur of supply shopping and general sightseeing, turns out mostly everyone in the market was actually living there according to some of the shopkeepers who noticed our obliviousness of the area.

Nonetheless, we had everything we needed for the foreseeable future. We had started to make our way out of the town again, but we were stopped by a Rockruff.

They approached with their head tilted to the left in curiosity. “Wow, are you travelers?”

“Yes.” I responded evenly. “Though we were just leaving. I’m afraid we have things to do.”

She let out a disappointed sigh with the innocence of a child. “Aw, but I wanted to ask some questions…”

Kira looked at me with one of those expressions. I didn’t even need to feel her emotions to know what she wanted.

[Are we missing anything that I can grab so we can at least justify not being there on time?] I telepathically asked her.

[Not particularly… but…]

I rolled my eyes. [Alright fine. A few minutes doesn’t really change much anyway.]

“We have some time,” Kira said happily to the Rockruff with a welcoming smile. “Ask away.”

Her eyes lit up with her tail wagging a little in response. “Yay! What place did you last explore?”

“We were at the human ruins on the island of Cretia.” Kira answered.

Awe flashed across her expression. “Did you sail a boat to get there?”

Kira went on to explain what we did in Cretia.

Originally, we had planned to hitch a ride on a Pokémon that was able to fly, and who were willing to do so for payment of some kind. We wanted to be there quickly. But that had changed when we discovered that the trip wasn’t possible over the ocean by air. So we instead opted to enlist the services of a Lapras to get there, we spent much longer at sea but we made it without too much of a hitch.

Cretia had no towns or settlements, so we had to make due with what we found there and packed with us. No settlements could feasibly be made without a lot of proper monpower, and with it so far out on the frontier, the only thing Pokémon could do was travel and explore it before heading back. We came prepared for the worst that we heard it had to offer…

Our first day there was spent trying to figure out where we were, and how to get to the ruins. We had eventually decided to climb a steep cliff to get a better view. It was astoundingly treacherous, one of us had nearly fallen every minute, a few times we had to catch each other with our powers…

But eventually, we pressed upwards and made it to the top. The pain wasn’t for nothing. We had a view of the ruins a long whiles walk away from us up north. Though it was starting to get dark… and neither of us had the desire to climb down during the night.

We had set up camp on the side of that mountain…

I remember staring up at the stars above us, endless in number and splendor, and the twist of fate ending me up being there with Kira. In that moment, I felt like the smallest of bug types against the world. Insignificant. Miniscule.

But in me stirred contentment. I was happy, I was with Kira, and we had our entire lives to look forward to. No matter how insignificant they were compared to the grand expanse of the infinite. At the end of the day… the stars themselves bore witness to our trials and hardships.

“Did you get to the ruins and explore them?” the Rockruff asked curiously while tilting its head.

Kira nodded. “We traveled there the next day. Wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be… despite that horrible swamp that was in the middle of the island. The ruins themselves were quite the sight. Towers of an unknown material that stretched into the skies above… odd metal box-like things that were on these large pathways… and we got a few things that we brought back to the research Guild for a reward.”

“Wow- didja keep anything?”

“No,” I answered while shaking my head. “We weren’t there to collect things. Though we did see plenty of curiosities while there.”

Her ears perked up as her eyes almost seemed to glow. “My mom and dad explore places like that for our Guild! They tell me about all sorts of things that they find… though I never get to see any of them.”

“I’m sure they have their reasons. Who are they?” I wearily asked. For some reason… I couldn’t shake an odd feeling of dread as to who they were.

She looked me in the eyes with an innocent smile on my face. “They’re both Lycanroc and work for the Guild as explorers! Also… have you seen them by any chance? They went out on a mission to the mystery dungeon and haven’t come back yet…”

The dread I was feeling was suddenly reciprocated by Kira. The words of that Inteleon rang back into the center of my mind. Kira glanced at me worriedly, we both knew where this was going… and neither of us had the heart.

“No, we haven’t seen them.” I barely croaked out.

“Oh, okay…” Her ears folded back in disappointment. “It’s been two days… and they said that they would be back much sooner than that… I’m starting to get worried…”

A grimace had been planted on Kira’s face, her voice was laden with emotion. “We’ll… tell you if we find them.”

“Thank you!” the Rockruff yipped happily.

My heart briefly glowed as I glanced at Kira. [We can’t in good faith leave her like this…]

[Let’s go talk to the Inteleon by the entrance again and see what they plan to do about her situation.] Kira firmly responded with.

“Are you two okay?” the Rockruff asked while tilting her head again.

Kira nodded. “Don’t worry about us, we’re fine. We never did ask for your name, did we?”

“Oh right,” the Rockruff exclaimed in relaxation. “My name is Lily, and I want to be an explorer like my mom and dad!”

“My name is Ronin, and her name is Kira. I’m afraid we do actually have business to attend to now.”

Lily nodded. “Okay mister Ronin, goodbye.”

We walked away, making our way back to the Inteleon. A darker tone had taken hold within the both of us. The cheery demeanor we had before was long gone, replaced by dreary expressions and gloomy emotions.

Our walk back was faster… or at least had the illusion of being so. We found ourselves face to face with the Inteleon again. On our approach, he turned and faced us.

“Hello again, chaps. Are you heading out?”

I shook my head. “Not quite yet I’m afraid, we had a few questions about something.”

“I can see the doom and gloom all over you…” He sighed. “I’m going to guess you met Lily… and put two and two together, right?”

Kira’s voice was laden with emotions. “She doesn’t even know yet. What is going to happen to her?”

“Our Guild leader wanted to get someone to take care of her from now on. Though so far, nobody has come forward wanting to do so. In the meantime he doesn’t want anyone to tell her what happened.”

“There is at least a plan for her future?” Kira asked tentatively.

The Inteleon nodded. “Yep… though she deserves better than this. Especially since her whole family already… Never mind, I’m trailing off. Did you want to ask something else?”

“… No.”

“Well if you end up with some, you can find me at the tavern by the Guild. Have a good evening.” He waved goodbye as he walked back into the town.

“It’s evening already?” Kira gasped. A look at the sun told us everything, it was starting to set in the distance. We must had spent more time trading for supplies and talking then we realized.

I looked back into the town. “Maybe this is for the better. If we stay, we can see if the Guild has jobs for people like us that we can take since it's a fresh frontier town. And possibly a want for human relics.”

“… And we’ll get to see what happens to Lily,” she added. “Thank you.”

A smile crept across my face as we held hands. A little cheeriness had returned. “We’re just doing the right and honorable thing.”

“Oh you, let’s go find a lodging to put our stuff away in.”

“Agreed, heh.”

We walked around town, eventually finding lodging. We paid for a room and put our supplies there for the time being. We wouldn’t need them until we went out on our exploration of those ruins. Today certainly went off course… though we at least get to potentially make the life of an unfortunate victim of this cold world better.

After a while we met with the Inteleon again at the tavern. He gave us his name, Ace. We talked about our exploits and what brought us here. It was then that we found out that he disagreed vehemently with what the master of the Guild wanted to do with Lily.

Ace was a friend of her parents. Not a close one… but someone who still cared. He wanted the best for Lily, something along the lines of an apprenticeship to eventually be an explorer. Apparently the Guild master disagreed, instead wanting to send her back to Vicol despite not having any family there to take her in.

He told us that the Guild master’s reasoning was that Vicol was the safest region to send her to. While Ace argued that she would be completely alone if she got sent back, she knew the Pokémon here, and not much else.

As quaint as this place was, it was Lily’s home. The image left in our head was that odds were that the Guild master would put his foot down and send her back. Ace called him a stubborn old coot for a good reason it would seem.

Eventually we left the tavern behind. The sun had nearly completely set. It’s golden rays were still basking the town and ocean in its splendor. We went up the hill while following the forest’s edge to where apparently near where the mystery dungeon was according to Ace.

We sat on the cliffside, staring out into the sunset and town below. Both of us were content.

“This town isn’t that bad.” Kira remarked.

I nodded in agreement. “I’d go so far as to say it's rather fine.”

“I wonder if they need doctors…” she trailed off and glanced at me. “All my practice and knowledge might not go to waste after all.”

I shrugged. “I don’t think this will be a permanent thing. We’re going to be exploring those ruins, then coming back here for a while before moving on to the next. Like we always do.”

“We’ve run far enough away from Vicol to where we feel safe, haven’t we? It’s not like we can even go any further even if we wanted.” She stated while looking towards Narkin.

I sighed wearily. “Maybe this could be a good place to finally settle down…”

Rustling in the bushes behind us caught our attention. It was brief, but we both knew someone was there. Our powers flared up as we felt for what it could be… surprise taking hold as it took the shape of a familiar Rockruff.

“Come out, Lily, we know you’re there.” Kira called out.

The Rockruff showed herself, waltzing out of the shrubbery with a confused look on her face.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s rude to stalk your fellow ‘mon you know, and shouldn’t you be indoors?”

“Sorry mister Ronin… and missus Kira. I just thought that you were leaving town for good… I got excited when I found out that you were still here.”

Kira giggled as she gestured for Lily to come closer. “Well you followed us all the way up here, might as well enjoy the view.”

Lily sat between us and stared out into the sunset with awe. Her head slowly tilted slightly with her tail wagging, like she wasn’t paying attention to what her body was doing. The look persisted on her for a few minutes as we sat there.

Eventually she broke the silence. “I’ve never been out this far from the town before…”

“When you grow up and become an explorer, you can go out as far as you want from town.” Kira said in a wistful tone. Lily’s look darkened in response.

“Mom and dad always told me that it was dangerous… sometimes they’d come back with big cuts and have to be healed.” Something seemed to break within her heart. Tears began to well up in her eyes. “It’s been too long… they’re gone… aren’t they?”

I looked at Kira. What was the right thing to do here? I was at a loss, my mind blank and without any meaningful thought. Maybe she knew. I’d trust her judgement here, I wasn’t too good with this sort of thing.

More rustling in the bushes sounded out behind us…

I jumped to my feet and turned around, finding us surrounded by Pokémon with weird badges and hoods. I felt nothing but malicious intent from their emotions.

My blades extended out as I stepped out-

Pain riddled through my chest as something sent me flying into the air. I reached out to catch myself, but seeing nothing but Kira’s horrified expression above me as I continued to fall. I saw her try to fight them off as I fell…

The ground approached far too fast, air whining past me with every second. I braced for it as I closed my eyes.

 

[IFBench]

Finally here for our review exchange, for chapters 3 through 12! First up, chapter 3!

Oh boy, looks like we're finally getting to see Mason's Honedge companion! I've been looking forward to her showing up! She's really interesting from what I've seen!

Oh boy, another human is here! I'm intrigued to see what they're up to.

And there's a Zororark after Mason! This'll be interesting to see how Mason, Scarlet, and Kira deal with this.

More about Lycoris! Seems like they have Mason's father with them, likely unwillingly.

The battle with the Zororark was neat, and a nice first showing of Scarlet's combat abilities!

And oh boy, looks like Luson isn't working alone. I suspect this Decidueye is going to be a problem for the group too. I wonder who their employers are? Lycoris?

Chapter 4!​

Ooooh, looks like we're starting off from Scarlet's perspective! I wonder what being Chosen is all about? Seems like it has to do with being shiny.

Rain being able to break Zororark illusions is a very neat idea!

Wonder how Lloyd got these favors?

Huh, so Mason has to do a dungeon run first before being able to join the guild. That makes sense for an entrance exam to a group that's constantly dealing with mystery dungeons.

Oh boy. Visions of past, future, and other worlds, and strange voices if you go deep in a mystery dungeon. I'm extremely intrigued about this.

The group's reactions to the phone were neat! Wonder what Mason found to charge it?

Oh boy, Mason has a stun gun and he just tazed the guildmaster. That'll be useful to him.

Those seem like they might be human ruins. Wonder how they got here?

Chapter 5!​

Oh boy, an ancient battlefield filled with tanks. That definitely would be jarring for Mason, going from Pokemon town to long-abandoned human warzone.

Ooooh, looks like dungeon resets have to do with time! Very interesting!

The scene where Scarlet was sharpened was a nice bit of reprieve from all the action and reveals.

Huh, Mason feels deja vu about this tank...does this have to do with his missing memories, perhaps?

Humans skeletons are in the tanks, huh. So either a whole bunch of humans were transported here in the past and had some sort of battle, the area was brought over sometime after the humans died, or this is a post-human world. Or maybe something weirder is afoot.

Mason has another gun! And oh boy, looks like someone's been in the tank since mystery dungeons existed.

Oh, wow! So Mason has EXTRA memories because a psychic-type botched some sort of mind attack! That's extremely interesting!

Chapter 6!​

Oh boy, copies of Mason and Scarlet. This can only end well.

...huh. So Mason's copy shot straight through Mason and hit a Galarian Slowbro. Seems like these copies aren't real, only some kind of visions. Maybe this is one of those visions Kira was talking about?

Ah, seems like it, at least according to Scarlet.

Ooooh, Scarlet's royalty! That puts her line about coming to Narkin because things were boring back where she was from in an interesting perspective.

Oh dear, Mason's copy is back, and looks like it's tangible this time, and hostile.

Reflections are a really cool concept for a dungeon entity! I really like that idea!

The battle with the Salamence was really cool! Lots of action and dynamic movement here. I liked it a lot!

So it seems like by defeating certain entities, you can open a rift, which causes a dungeon reset. Or at least, that's how I'm understanding how this works. Nonetheless, it's very interesting!

I really love the use of repeated description after Mason seemingly gets strangled by his Reflection, only to seemingly go back a few seconds into the past. Really helps cement the strangeness and deja vu that Mason's feeling there.

And Reflections supposedly only appear much deeper in dungeons than Mason explored...something's definitely up here.

Chapter 7!​

Woohoo! Mason and Scarlet are now officially part of the guild!

Oh boy, more about Lycoris. So they've killed a lot of Pokemon, and have some relation to a long-done war...very interesting. And they did something to an Eevee that gave him such a highly dangerous and transmissible disease that after the Eevee died, they couldn't even bury the body. Gotta say, you did a great job at making me absolutely despise Lycoris with a single incident.

Team Shade seems neat. A kind, yet severely bumbling team.

Huh, so the Reflection strangling Mason may have been real after all, and just reset. Intriguing!

Chapter 8!​

So Luson and the Decidueye, Rin, are brothers. And their task will get them killed if they aren't careful...I'm pretty sure now that their employers are Lycoris.

Ooooh, neat! Mason's made himself some camoflage! That'll be useful!

Very interesting seeing how differing Ronin and Scarlet's views on honor were. I quite liked that.

So Mason didn't have a very good relationship with his father. Wonder how that'll impact what'll happen once the two reunite. Or maybe is Mason's father purposely avoiding him in this world?

Crack theory: Mason's father is father is Luson and Rin's employer

Oh boy. Rin's seen the human. This can't end well.

Arwin, huh. That's the same name that Mason remembered back in the beginning of chapter 3. So it was someone from Rin and Luson's group who Mason got the extra memories from, it seems...

Ooooh, items! Always neat to see items handled in a PMD fic!

One of the guildmaster's teammates! Looks like she has an interest in human relics, too.

Oh dear, a hostage situation with a Sableye holding an Oshawott captive, and it seems like from the way this Sableye is threatening they don't care whether the Oshawott dies or not. Wonder what they need a warp orb for?

Chapter 9!​

Oh, wow. Mason just severed this Sableye's fingers with his gun. That's brutal, but deserved.

Awwww, the Oshawott admires Mason for saving him!

Oh boy, reinforcements. A Pangoro...and a Galarian Slowbro. I feel like what Mason's reflection did at the start of chapter 9 is about to happen for real here. Neat way of foreshadowing!

Huh. Initially, I thought the Sableye just wanted to get a Warp Orb for thievery's sake, and the Oshawott was just an easy target for being a hostage, but now it seems like the Oshawott was their goal. Wonder what they want with the little guy?

And Scarlet just drained away most of the Pangoro's life. Nice to see that come into play!

Team Shade to the rescue!

That was a really cool battle scene! I liked it a lot!

Oz is adorable. I want to protect him.

I have a feeling that Rin's had some bad experiences with "only in it for the fame/money" teams.

Ooooh, looks like my theory about their employer being part of Lycoris might be right!

Oh boy. So Lycoris has been around at least since mystery dungeons started appearing, may have even caused their existence, and this all might be related to Celebi. I am very intrigued.

Chapter 10!​

Other guildmasters are coming to visit, and one of them really hates humans. This will definitely go absolutely fine.

Oh boy, someone else with a gun, and they have a golden mask. And they're a sniper. And sounds like they've been around for a while. Very, very interesting.

Wonder why all the human stuff is from World War 2?

Huh, so Celebi's been trying things for...something, and sounds like Mason was their latest attempt. Is Celebi trying to stop Lycoris? That's what I'm thinking.

I really like how some Pokemon's names are just sounds. That's a really neat concept!

Oh, wow! Mason just rewinded time! That's probably what happened with the Reflection strangling. Extremely intriguing!

Chapter 11!​

Mason has an older brother, and seems to think very highly of him...given what you said to that one Storycrafter prompt in the discord a few days ago, I think something bad happened to Mason's brother.

The golden masked creature appears! Huh...and they don't seem to have a mind at all, or at least something is very, very wrong with their mind. That rules out them being human. Probably.

And seems like the Etyth mountain royalty is very important, if Mason saying that got that much of a reaction out of Rin.

Oh dear, Ronin's been shot.

WOW that was a lot of revelations. Echoes of Celebi? Humans can change fate? There definitely were humans brought here before Mason? And that "their minds stolen from them, but their souls remain" line unnerves me...I'm guessing that the gold masked creature is a human who had that happen to them.

Speaking of the gold masked creature, it's been defeated, despite all odds! Victory, but at a cost, especially for Ronin.

Chapter 12!​

So the gold masked creature resembled a human...seems like I might be right!

Ronin's feeling hollow...oh no. I think that gold masked creature did something to him, possibly trying to make his mind like its.

Oh boy, Mason's lost half his ammo. I'm almost certain it's going to end up in one of the villains' grasp.

Neat idea to have reviver seeds be finite and extremely rare!

Oh, wow, so all shinies are Chosen! And they can all see into the past inside mystery dungeons. Very intriguing!

Oh dear. Bisharp clans do not sound like good places to live from Blair's description. I feel sorry for him.

I feel really sorry for Kira, too, and Ronin. That scene at the end hit hard.


Overall, I'm really enjoying this so far! You have some really intriguing concepts in this world, the characters are really interesting, and the plot is gripping. I look forward to reading more!

 

[Yodakage Kira]

Chapter 14: Far From Home (2)
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A Rockruff was definitely harmed in the making of this chapter
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I sat alone beside Ronin, Lloyd had left us a while ago. The Gallade I called my partner wasn’t himself. I had tried to talk with him about what we could do… but it all devolved into us reminiscing of our past together.

Lightning crackled outside the window of the Guild. A storm had rolled in during the night, much to the displeasure of everyone. But despite it, Ronin had fallen asleep… though I knew what he was dreaming about.

His mind blacked out as the memory of him hitting the ground after getting blasted off that cliffside played out. Our brief connection almost made me forget what recently happened to him. I glanced at his shattered heart, reminded that this connection wasn’t ever going to feel the same way again.

I remember watching him fall in horror as Lily screamed. I had torn around and attempted to blast them back, only to feel something rip through my lower abdomen before everything started to go black. Lily was screaming our names as it was all happening before she was knocked out, just as I was losing consciousness.

I remembered their badges… a memory forever burned into my mind. One that I will hate forever… especially with what they took. I glanced down at my abdomen. Seeing the scars of a blow that may not have killed me… but instead murdered something else…

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I awoke in a dark room. I shot upright and tried to get up, a sharp stream of pain erupted through my body. I nearly cried as I fell back to the ground with its intensity only growing with each second. Tears had welled up in my eyes… I couldn’t focus on anything around me.

I shakily prodded with my left hand, feeling some sickly wet and sticky bandages wrapped around the lower half of my body. Pain tore through me as I dared push slightly in. I went limp on the floor, some of it subsiding as I rolled and faced the ceiling of this cold dark room.

The memory of what happened to Ronin sprung up in my mind. His fall off the cliff couldn’t have been anything but fatal… despite how much I hoped otherwise.

For the first time in a long time, I felt truly alone.

The tears in my eyes finally started to fall onto the hard rock floor beneath me. Today, I had lost everything. And soon… I would probably lose my life as well. Whoever these ‘mon were didn’t strike me as the kind that would do this to me and still try haphazardly to keep me alive for no reason. Whatever it was, I could only hope that it was quick. I wanted to utter a prayer to Lord Yveltal at the least, just maybe so my request could be granted…

But I couldn’t. The memory of Lily was also there in my mind yelling at me, telling me that I could at the very least try to save someone who was still alive. I wanted to wail in pain as I rose to my feet out of spite alone. I barely held it back as it all went numb in my head.

I weakly raised my fists and struck the bars of my cell. A metallic clank echoed from them, they did not move an inch. My anger dissipated along with the noise of my useless resistance. It was expected, yet it didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Well look who’s finally awake.” I turned my head to face the voice. Seeing the form of a Nidoking stepping through the door out of here towards me. “I’m impressed. You’re standing so soon after the whole ‘getting your guts rearranged’ thing.”

“Let. Me. Out.” I growled as I banged my fists against the bars once more.

He shook his head, ignoring me completely. “We needed test subjects, and you’re the lucky ‘mon that is the one we’ll be comparing all the others to. And before you say something along the lines of ‘why couldn’t you just use one of your own men?’ well, we’re not comparing everyone else to someone who is clean.”

A sharp pain in my head brought me to my knees, dwarfing even the constant stabs that came from my abdomen. It all melded together while I could do nothing but wish I could scream…

“You should be fine when it eventually stops. And I’m not just talking about the pain, you’ll see soon enough.” I heard him chuckle as he stomped off down the hall.

I tried to move my body, finding myself unable to stir even a muscle. The pain slowly dulled and was replaced by a dreadful cold. Maybe I would have been better off dead, at least this wouldn’t have been something I could feel.

The doubt if this pain was really worth it swirled around in my thoughts. It relentlessly fought to be answered, was it all really worth it? Was this all really worth it when the odds of Lily surviving with my help assumes that I can get out and have the ability to even help…

I didn’t like the answer at all, I was repulsed by the very idea… but I knew it was true. This was all hopeless. Nothing can be done from my side, I was trapped and probably still slowly dying from that injury ever so slowly. The only ‘mon here who could maybe get out alive is… her…

Ronin was… dead… and soon I will most likely follow after him. Was giving up the last thing I wanted to remember doing before oblivion took me? Well, I could hardly say that I was giving up. There was nothing I could do.

Trapped in a cage, nigh mortally wounded, with no one in the world looking for me.

Was it really giving up if the only outcome was more pain and death?

The cold had overtaken the torturous agony of my wounds. Everything numbed and tiredness had quickly settled in. My weary mind welcomed it with open arms, the dull light of my heart slowly fading away as I closed my eyes…

Simply wishing that death came softly.

…

Yet the miniscule light of my heart refused to go out in the face of death. What was the idea that compelled it when every part of my being wished to waste away? Hope? There was none to be had. Spite? Who could I spite by simply living?

It was none of those things. This feeling did not falter… and it was determined to not be snuffed out. I could tell it was foreign to me, whatever this feeling was…

Lily came back into mind. She was here, and me doing nothing was spelling her doom. The feeling changed, it seared red hot like anger. It wasn’t out of control like rage- it felt calculated yet driven. It demanded retribution. Cried out for justice. It wanted her safe at the very least.

It wanted me to give my all to stay alive to at least have the chance to save her. It wanted me to defy the inevitable.

My hands finally moved. I directed them to my now throbbing wound as a green glow surrounded them. I would not die here, or at least, not yet. Whatever this feeling was… it certainly had it’s point. I had to at least try for her sake.

A little relief flowed through the wounds as the light washed over it. The feeling in the rest of my body slowly returned, the cold beaten back by this newfound determination. If Ronin was watching me now… I’m sure he’d be proud.

I will save her. And maybe, if I get out of this alive, keep her safe until she can do it herself.

I carefully took the haphazardly strewn bandages off of me, finding my wound in my abdomen no longer bleeding, but it didn’t look any better on the outside. My powers couldn’t fully heal it by a long shot… but I’ll live, and can at the very least run and fight for a bit.

‘Steel thy heart’ right? That’s what Ronin would say in situations like this. Keep calm, and wait for the right moment… whatever that moment was.

Some of the pain was still there, though nowhere near as debilitating. I had sat upright in the middle of my cell with my legs crossed. My powers were dulled significantly thanks to the metal everywhere. If I wanted to affect someone or something, they would have to be trapped in this cell alongside me.

Or… if they willingly walked in.

I turned my back to the hallway and laid down on my side. I slowed my breathing and focused my mind as much as I could. They made one mistake, forgetting to cuff the psychic in bonds crafted of dark type material to completely subdue my powers.

This was my only chance. Catching someone by complete surprise by playing dead and escaping using their keys. The odds were not in my favor, but thanks to this feeling I had the motivation to try.

I waited in position for what felt like hours. Not moving so much as a muscle for anything at all. My heart almost leapt into my throat when I could finally hear footsteps echoing down the corridor towards me.

The footsteps continued to echo, getting louder with each successive punctuation. Everything was dependent on this moment. At its loudest, it abruptly stopped. They were just outside the cell from what I could tell. It was hard not to shiver in the circumstances, I barely kept it back due to the consequences if I did.

“Psh, ripped off their bandages and everything to kill themselves. That’s something new…” I heard muttered along with the jingling of keys. “At least we don’t need them alive…”

My heart almost skipped a beat. It was working…

The metal door creaked as it was swung open. One footstep… then two… I could feel their shadow just over me. They bent down and put their head close to my heart… I could feel their breath on my shoulder…

The feeling swelled within me like a silent battlecry, now was the time to strike.

My heart glowed as my powers focused on their mind and body. I could feel a little surprise shoot through them, knocking them off guard mentally and allowing me unhindered access to something very important…

I’ve treated all manner of Pokémon for all manner of wounds. Back home in Vicol, I could have become a prestigious healer if I hadn’t chosen to run off with Ronin to explore the world. I knew how to fix things, bones, flesh, chiten, scales, even feathers, I knew it all.

But I had to know it all… a psychic can’t affect what they don’t know. And of the Nidoking behind me, I knew the exact bone that needed to be snapped to cause instant death.

My powers flared up as the glow intensified. The bone was in mind, my powers squeezed around it in an instant. He gasped and stepped back-

A muffled snap echoed out before silence took control. Then… a thud of a body hitting the floor. I couldn’t sense him anymore… he was dead. I got up and took the keys that hung from a large belt around its hip.

I stood resolute over my handiwork… not quite sure what to feel. His face was still mid-gasp, and would forever be frozen like that. I shook my head and ran down the hall looking in each of the other cells dotted along the way, not a single one had anyone in them. Some had signs of Pokémon being in them… but I could not tell who.

The feeling swelled again as my eyes laid on the door out of here just up a staircase. I ran up and met it, my hands drifting across its metal. I paused just as I was about to open it using the keys. I didn’t know what to expect on the other side, much less where this even was…

I bent down and peeked through the keyhole. I could see that on the other side was a small stone brick room, not decorated at all. I could see another door that looked reinforced and locked… hopefully I had the key for it.

I slowly opened the door and entered this odd room. It squeaked a little much to my dismay, on the other side I found the room to be much bigger than I envisioned. There were more hallways that connected to this one on both sides, lit only by torches.

A sudden searing pain flared up in my abdomen, I collapsed to the floor as some blood seeped out of the wound there. I was pushing myself too hard. At this rate… I’d drop dead before I even found her. I shakily got back up, not caring about the blood covering most of my lower half.

Lily… I still had to find Lily…

I turned to my left and limped down the hallway quietly. Each frail step slightly echoed down it. There was nothing in these halls other than the occasional torch or candle, not a chair or cabinet, nor banner or carpet. What was this place?

Eventually I ended up in a square room, this one wasn’t empty…

Along the walls were cabinets with various vials full of liquids I could not name. Some looked like they had blood in them… others seemed to glow faintly in the soft torch light. Small metallic things that look like they were supposed to be attached to something were scattered about some of the cabinets. I briefly picked one of these thin pieces of metal up, they seemed hollow… one side was incredibly sharp… just what were these things for?

In the center of the room was a table with straps made of metal and some other material I could not name. Blood was on the floor surrounding it, and all over the odd table itself. I dared not approach it. Some other tables were around the room, odd knicks and knacks on them that I could not discern the use of.

Something caught my eye…

It was something that had one of the thin and long metal bits attached to it, it was made of glass and had an odd clear liquid in it. A part of it seemed like I could push on it to make the liquid go through this metal thing.

A clipboard was beside it, a few papers sprawled about the area with various things on them.

The newly born Oshawott escaped with the ring as you know by now…

It wasn’t relevant, so I pushed it to the side…

This syringe has a solution in it that will mimic the effects of human ‘adrenaline’ of whoever it is injected into. All the benefits include what we’ve seen, on top of being something that isn't controlled by the whim of a body’s functions…

I pushed it to the side, but the feeling had directed my hand to pick up the ‘syringe’. It sounded useful… especially if it was something humans had. I guess that I had to inject it into myself by stabbing the metal bit into an artery…

I picked up the last piece of paper…

The Rockruff’s testing wasn’t a complete waste of time after all. We compared her to the Gardevoir we have here, and have seen changes beyond her obsessing over her parents' fates. She’s lost her mind… or at least that is what others would say, but not us. We know what she is seeing. The Rockruff is being transported to a mystery dungeon nearby the town, where we’ll see if our ‘Oracle formula’ is working as intended on the grander scale.

The paper dropped to the ground as I rushed out of the room and back down the hall. The feeling kicked into overdrive as I rushed to the exit, the cool air of the night caused me to shiver as I practically flew outside.

I was in a clearing surrounded by walls made of large rocks and stone bricks. There was nothing lighting the place except for the moon above. This place seemed to be deserted… the lack of anyone was welcome but it did not feel right.

I hastily limped across the clearing and up a staircase that went up the side of the wall. My surroundings were foreign, it being a thick forest that seemingly stretched for miles. I was in the absolute middle of nowhere. I would die out in that forest before I found anyone in the state I was in, much less save Lily.

I looked down at the ‘syringe’ with the feeling that it could help me. They said it had benefits, what they were I knew nothing of… but maybe it would boost my powers. Whatever this ‘adrenaline’ was, it’s of human origin… I’d be putting my faith in a long gone race.

I shook my head and almost laughed to myself, before plunging it into my leg and pushing down on the part sticking out.

The sharp pain was gone in an instant, replaced by the rapid beating of my natural heart. The syringe was empty, I extracted it and tossed it away. My mind’s view rapidly expanded out as seemingly limitless power flowed through me.

A light surrounded me as my body seemingly changed a little bit. My heart seemed to split, though nothing but power was gained from it. I saw beyond the forest, it was exhilarating, addicting even. I could feel her.

I focused this newfound energy through my heart, sending myself so far away would normally be impossible. But thanks to whatever this was, I was able to. A brief light surrounded me as I appeared close to where I felt Lily.

I was in some brush, a little ways from where they were. I saw and could feel five Pokémon around a small cage with Lily in it, each of them had those damned badges on them. Their minds… I could feel them so well… each of their emotions in such intricate detail… I shook my head, none of that mattered.

They would soon not feel anything… thanks to this limitless power.

They were too far away to do what I did with the Nidoking. But did that matter? I felt invincible, the power I have allowed me to do things impossible for me previously. Surely I could beat them. They didn't even have a dark type amongst them.

The feeling swelled intensely, surely this would be their time for retribution.

I saw a Dragonair on the verge of falling asleep from boredom. A little bit in front of them was a Blaziken with Lily, their cold stare hanging over her. A Pidgeot with some ruffled feathers flew overhead, landing near the group’s campfire and saying something before getting cozy. A Breloom was already asleep among them…

The final Pokémon, an Espurr, was staring in my direction. They knew I was there… yet… they weren’t sure if I was a feral or not. They must not be familiar with reading the minds of those around them, that was my opening…

There was a rock behind them, big enough for it to hit hard, small enough for it to fly fast. My powers reached out past the Espurr, lifting the rock silently into the air. The Espurr had taken a few steps towards me, the group not noticing their sudden absence around the fire.

I pulled the rock back as hard as I could. It flew through the air and collided with the Espurr’s head, a loud thud sounding out as it fell to the floor unconscious. It’s comrades were still doing their own thing, none the wiser as to what just occurred.

A pained yelp stole my attention. The Blaziken had tossed the cage into the center of the group beside the fire. Her front left paw was bending in a direction that definitely wasn’t natural. My surroundings came into focus as every feeling in me intensified.

I leapt out of the bush with a grasp already forming around the Dragonair. Some of them leapt up as they saw me, it didn’t matter. My powers flooded through my heart again as I threw the Dragonair and Breloom onto the campfire.

The Blaziken charged at me with fire building in its claws. My powers wrapped around the unconscious body of the Espurr and the rock. A fireball erupted from the charging Blaziken. I swung the Espurr around with my mind and threw it directly at it.

A fiery explosion rocked the area, the Espurr’s connection to my mind violently snapped. And I felt absolutely nothing but vindication. The feeling that brought me this far swelled again, I was winning. I would avenge Ronin after all. I suddenly felt weird…

“Agh- what?” Intense throbbing started in my head, I almost fell to my knees as it gave away to pain. A light briefly surrounded me as the changes this power granted me disappeared. Blood flowed out of the wound in my abdomen as the searing agony returned.

I dropped to my knees as everything set in. I screamed out as all the power left in me exploded out and through the area. I had pushed myself far too hard. The campfire went out, the Breloom and Dragonair that were recovering were sent flying back along with the Blaziken and Pidgeot.

Silence was heavy in the air. Only broken by Lily’s occasional whimper, or my pained grunts as I failed to get up. The others I knocked down slowly rose back up, all of them minus the Espurr. I weakly laughed…

Truly this was the greatest tragedy of all. Tricked into believing I had a chance to break free from fate and save another… only to end up dying a meaningless death. Lily started to cry, her wails into the night would not be answered after all.

The feeling still had the audacity to tell me to stand. The traitor of mind, pretending that it will all mean something in the end. I weakly laughed again as I slowly stood back up. All of this was meaningless anyways.

I put my hands out in front of me as the Blaziken prepared another fireball. My powers were gone, but I didn’t care. I would die on my feet.

A brilliant orange light pierced the veil of the night as the fireball was charged. The cool night air licked at my wounds and aching head. Lily’s cries were still ringing in my ears. I closed my eyes, seeing Ronin’s smile one final time.

…

An explosion knocked me off my feet. The warmth of the fire was close but didn’t hit me. My eyes shot open, seeing the group contending with an unseen foe. The hope in my mind was resurrected again.

Something blue flew out of a tree, colliding with the Blaziken’s neck. It cut across with pinpoint precision. The Blaziken clawed at it’s wound as blood surged through before dropping to the floor. It was bleeding out fast.

The Pidgeot tried to take to the skies again, another small blur of blue collided with it’s back. More blood spilt over the grass as it fell to the floor. I had noticed that it landed beside the Breloom, which already had a cut across it’s neck alongside the burns from the fire.

A blast of water sent me and the cage with Lily in it flying into the forest. I almost fell unconscious lying there in the dirt after I landed. I barely stopped myself, everything hurt beyond belief. Everything wanted to rest…

The distant sounds of fighting almost lulled me away again. I shook my head and sat upright, seeing the cage had a hole in it and was now empty. A trail of blood led away from here…

I forced myself to my feet. Barely able to limp. I focused on one thing and one thing alone… keeping Lily alive and safe.

The trail of blood led me through some bushes and far away from the fighting. My tired mind was barely able to fathom any reasons as to why she’d be running if she saw me. Did she think I died? Was she afraid of me?

Eventually the scenery gave way to a clearing near a cliff. I looked over the edge, seeing a town near a beach. It was Narkin. This clifface was much higher than the one Ronin was sent flying off of… I looked to my left, seeing where I lost him further down.

“Stay aw- away from me…” I hear on my right. Lily was there, her left paw was bleeding with bones being where they definitely shouldn’t.

I was in disbelief, why was she afraid of me? “What’s wrong? Don’t you remember me?”

“You kill him… you kill him… you kill-” A blue tinge of light flashes across her eyes. Her voice desperately sounds out as a rock rises from the ground beside her. “I can’t let you. T- they won’t s- stop if I d- don’t.”

I tensed as a familiar horror ran through me. “What are you talking about?”

“YOU KILL HIM,” she screams as the rock flies into a tree beside me.

Desperation crawled into my voice as I raised my arms. “W- who?”

“He- I…” Another tinge of blue flashes across her eyes. She whimpers as she takes a few dangerous steps back. “I- I just want it to stop.”

I had no idea what those bastards did to her. But whatever it was… she was seeing something. I didn’t know what to do. I took a few steps forward, eliciting her to step back until her hind legs were directly on the edge of the cliff.

I coughed as the pain briefly intensified. “Please get away from the edge-”

The air was knocked out of me as another rock hit me in the gut, forcing me against a tree as I fell to the forest floor. I desperately called out to her. “Lily, stop, please. It’s just me.”

She leapt forward just in front of me, a glow in her maw like she was about to finish me off. The blue tinge around her eyes returns, she stops. Her ears perked up like she was hearing someone. She turns around and faces the cliff before saying something. “Mom? Dad? Was that you?”

The Rockruff started to walk slowly back towards the edge without realizing it. I called out, each one falling on ears that weren’t listening to me. I desperately started to crawl towards her as she picked up her pace.

“I’m right here!” she said to the open air. Another step and she would fall. My arms gave out as I hopelessly watched her reach out. She tried to step down on nothing, a yelp followed by a desperate scream for help…

Then deafening silence…

…

I wanted to cry, but my body couldn’t even manage it. Lily’s ominous rambling rang in my head. Everything felt so surreal, surely this couldn't be reality. Sleep finally started to take me… the last thing I saw being a Greninja running towards me as it all faded away to black for what I hoped to be the last time.

 

[Namohysip]

Hey Yoda! This is a review for catnip. I had planned on only reading the first chapter to give my thoughts there, but the premise was interesting enough that I gave the second chapter a read as well. Overall, I'll say that this is a unique start compared to the stories I've read before, not only because of how it starts off in the human world, but that the human also doesn't transform at all!

That already changes a lot of things from how I'd usually see a story like this going, and it makes me wonder how, logistically, this will work out for him going forward. He has his revolver, yes, but I don't really know how much ammo he has, nor how often he'll be able to use that, let alone replenish his supply. Maybe he'll have to bluff it, or have someone invent the firearm. Or make them out of Blast Seeds?

There are subtle hints to the world building of this place as well, and I'm wondering how prominent Psychics in particular will be, considering how much attention there is to them. The fact that the perspective for some of the story is in their eyes also adds to that. But I'll admit, since this is first person, it gets a little confusing whose perspective I'm in sometimes, since it changes; I'm wondering why it isn't in third person limited, if that's the case, since that seems to be the way the story is trying to go. I also noticed a few issues with dialogue, such as missing commas when addressing someone, or a period at the end of a sentence when it's followed by a dialogue tag. For example, "Let's go over there." He said-- that isn't correct. that period should be a comma, because "He said" is accompanying the dialogue. And, therefore, 'He' should be lowercase to go with it.

But overall, I was interested in the premise, and I'm curious to see where that premise will go as the actual plot--which we're already seeing hints of--starts to get rolling!

 

[Yodakage Kira]

Chapter 15: Realization
------------------------------------------------------------------

I was supposed to have fifty-three rounds for my revolver in total by now. But, me being a complete moron lost me half of that. I now only had twenty-six rounds in total. My dad would have given me a verbal berating unlike nothing else for such a horrific mistake. And my brother… well he definitely would have some choice words for that stunning performance report.

However, things weren’t a complete loss…

Kira had sent us all home for the night. She insisted upon staying at the Guild with Ronin, and Lloyd let her. The Greninja came back with me and Scarlet, and had started reading a book on the couch. I didn’t bother to ask what it was about. Mostly because I didn’t want to interrupt him.

Scarlet kept close to me… though I could tell she was doing her own thing. She had frozen up during our conversation at the tavern and I was too… shy to prod. She clearly had a lot on her mind then.

The only good thing to come out of yesterday were the wrecked remains of this golden mask thing, and the sniper rifle. I had studied the thing… and was correct in my assessment that it was a damn Kar after all.

The weird masked thing supposedly had no ammo for it anywhere. Much to my displeasure.

Whenever I touched the damn thing… I swore I could hear a voice in my head other than mine. I didn’t want to clean it, because that meant fucking touching it. So I put it beside my bed with the safety and everything still on. It felt less like a weapon to wield and more like a ticking time bomb.

Oh well… it was more freaky shit for me to figure out later.

I glanced at the levitating red sentient sword looking out the window to the bedroom. Moonlight flooded in from it. A question came back to me. “So… what’s your deal?”

“What do you mean?” she responded without missing a beat, now turning to face me.

“I so much as mention where you're from, and peop- Pokémon everywhere recoil like I just killed someone. Why?”

“Arceus above…” she muttered. “Where to start… Alright, the fortress was the first building ever made in Etyth. Originally, it was built there hundreds of years ago because a long gone king wanted a defensible castle where his metal kin could thrive. I am now going to skip all the other boring bits because… it is useless information. The important part is that the current ruling king of that fortress, my father, allowed the fortress to be a staging ground for the settlers of Etyth who came from Olia and Vicol.”

I nodded along. “So essentially… your father has influence because of his generosity, and as a result, you do as well because you’re royalty?”

“Yes.” She turned back to face the window. A frustrated sigh escapes her. “But another reason why is because of my sisters and mother…”

I chuckled as a sarcastic tone seeped out of me. “Mommy issues?”

“SHE IS NOTHING BUT AN ARCEUS-FORSAKEN TYRANT-” I tried to jump back at her outburst. Her ribbon wrapped around my arm before I could and pulled me close, she squeezed tightly. “There is nothing that makes me happier than the idea of that slag-ridden wench of an Aegislash getting melted down and molded into an anchor before getting tossed into the MUCKING OCEAN FOREVERMORE.”

Lloyds voice broke in like a savior in my dreams. “Is something the matter?”

“Uh… no…” I said as I yanked my arm out of her grasp, I swear I could feel her glaring into my back. I spotted the Greninja’s head up the stairs with his book in hand. “She’s just… having a moment?”

“What does… that mean?” he asked as a confused expression washed across his face.

I worriedly glanced at her. “Hell if I know-”

“I am fine,” the sword said in a tone far more calm then it should have been. The badge attached to her ribbon flashed a little in the moonlight. “I just don’t talk about… it… very much.”

Lloyd sighed wearily before I heard him leave. I didn’t need to imagine the frustration of getting interrupted while you were doing something. Hopefully the guy has a quieter place that doesn’t have us in it…

A yawn escaped me as I took off my equipment. I put the remainder of my revolver ammo in a secure pocket in my vest, still currently without it’s kevlar. I had to get armor sooner or later. Things would be a lot harder for me without it, especially since I can only bleed so much before passing out.

I could feel Scarlet gazing weirdly at me despite my back being turned to her. I shook my head before taking my shirt off and lying in bed. It was comfortable, somehow, despite not even having a mattress. The air was neither hot or cold, I could sleep well with the blanket over me.

I closed my eyes and was prepared to sleep-

“Why do humans wear so much clothing?”

My eyes cracked open, seeing Scarlet staring at the pile of clothes and police equipment I neatly made beside my bed. “Because unlike you, it's easy for my body to be outside it’s intended working temperatures… oh, and because it provides basic protection.”

“Protection? Did not expect that… the only time you will see Pokémon in a lot of clothes is when they are rich and can afford it to be made to fit them specifically. It is entirely for looks with us.” She backed away from the pile and started to look out the window again.

“What about armor?” I asked as I shifted my body to face her. “Is that something Pokémon use?”

She turned back to me. “Occasionally… though it is not widespread.”

“Hard to make?”

“That is one reason…” She glanced at my clothing. “Hubris is another, some say that they do not need it. Some honestly do not. But others… probably would do better with it. Maybe that is why you humans are considered so powerful… you cannot afford to be prideful and spare yourself any room for failure when everything is out to get you.”

I chuckled briefly as I eyed my revolver. “It’s hard not to be when everyone doesn’t know what you’re capable of…”

“Just do not let it get to your head, human. I doubt it will last forever.”

With a roll of my eyes, I laid back down. “You’re starting to sound like my dad.”

“Then he is a wise man.” she retorted while going back to stargazing.

“Peh, well, I’ll be sleeping now if you don’t mind me.”

I turned my body around to face the opposite wall from her. I closed my eyes and tried to take my mind off of everything around me. Things weren’t the best, but they certainly could’ve been worse. Hell, if my brother was here he’d probably say things were actually rather amazing considering what it could have been.

He would be right… and I’d probably retort that I’m not an optimist. I always had a habit of wishing that things were better instead of being content. Peh, maybe that’s why he liked the idea of being an officer so much. He would have gotten to actively participate in the betterment of society.

I could myself slowly starting to drift off, it wouldn’t be long now. Would I dream when it finally came? Or would morning be the next thing I see? I didn’t think about it too much, I hadn’t cared at all…

What was I doing before I ended up here anyway? I still see those memories from before… the arrest of that guy and briefly talking to my dad… waking up in my apartment before getting called by my dad because he was worried… then waking up in the middle of the night and recovering the photo of my brother… and finally… me and my dad going out to the shooting range…

But they were full of holes… incomplete. I was missing something important, that being context. I neither knew the time, or the day. For all I know… it could have been my birthday- wait…

The idea of sleep seemed to back away into the corner of my mind. What day was it? It was summer because I was complaining about the damn heat. My birthday was in June… ugh… why can’t I remember what day it was?

I remember being excited for my birthday in the memories before the gaps start showing up. But when they start showing up… everything goes to hell. I can’t remember what I felt. Did all this happen around my birthday? Really? What kind of sick joke was this?

With my mood royally ruined, I flipped my pillow to the cool side and tried to drift off…

“So tell me, human, what sort of clothing do you have for your head-?”

Anger seeped into my voice. “Shut. Up. I’m trying to sleep.”

“Oh, right. Forgot you fleshies needed to do that.” she responded in a huff. I swear I heard her ribbon swish a little around me.

I could feel her staring at me despite not even facing her. Like a looming presence in the back of my mind. “Do you have anything better to do than stare at me while I sleep?”

“… I am not staring at you.”

Something told me that this was going to be a long night…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The moon was gone, clouds covered the sky above. Not even a single twinkle of a star could be seen. I had approached a single campfire out in the middle of nowhere. Fin and Luson sat around it. It didn’t take the bird long at all to figure out I was there.

“Arwin…” Fin began as he noticed my presence, his tone laced with a layer of fear buried in it. “We’re… still-”

“I know. The operation was not a success, but we learned a few things in the end. I’m simply here to tell you of another oncoming opportunity.” I stated in a neutral tone.

Luson chuckled. “Oh? And what may it be?”

“The day after tomorrow, Ace will be having a meeting with various other neighboring Guilds. Including one that is vehemently against Humanity. Assuming I sow some chaos into the mix… it should be easy for you to slip in and grab it.”

“What sort of… ‘chaos’ are you talking about?” Fin asked.

A smirk grew on my face as I used my powers to make a human weapon float in front of them. Their faces morphed to one of understanding. The Zoroark laughed. “Pfft, where’d you get that thing?”

“There was more than one human that arrived that day. I got this from one of them.” I put it back into a holster attached to the inner side of my carapace. “Do not forget anything that I have told you, and remember, I do not care about how many you have to kill to get to it.”

I turned around to leave, but Fin’s voice rang out. He stared into the fire. “What exactly did the human do, anyway? It was like he knew we were there…”

“He did know. Your ambush was successful, but he brought time itself back a few moments. The only thing remaining is his memory of it. You will have to land a decisive blow on him… or else he’ll just do it again in the future. He does not have control over it yet unlike the Revenants. Speaking of which… I will assign two of them to help when it’s needed. I expect this time to be a success.”

Luson pointed a claw at me. “How do you know so much about the human’s powers?”

“The phenomenon is something I have researched greatly.” I explained. “These powers… are easily beaten when you know what their limits are.”

Fin turned his head to face me. “But how?”

“Do whatever it takes to tire him out if you cannot take him out in one shot. And, if he is not careful… something else will happen to him if he shifts time back too much in a short span. I cannot answer why I know these things… Lycoris doesn’t share it’s secrets.”

As I ended, I walked away from the light and back to the darkness of the forest. Disappearing from view as the rain above started to fall. The world around faded as my powers took me away, I had somewhere to stop briefly…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slowly opened my eyes as the grogginess of the morning started to set in. It would seem I did not dream after all, or at least… I did not remember. I looked up to the ceiling before wiping the sleep from my eyes.

“Finally awake?”

“Barely,” I groaned without missing a beat. I saw Scarlet out of the corner of my eye, she hadn’t moved at all from her position by the window since last night. “Anything interesting happen?”

Scarlet levitated towards me. “Not a single thing.”

“Were you that committed to just staying there all night?”

Scarlet waved her ribbon around as it lightly glowed green. “I required some of your lifeforce. I had to focus in order to get it without causing disturbance.”

“What for? To sharpen your blade again?” I asked. So long as she didn’t kill me, I did not really care what she did.

“I am a ghost,” she stated nonchalantly. “We all require the essence of living things to survive. Typically, normal living things radiate enough that ghosts can gather more than enough to survive and thrive. The process of gathering it might be akin to… sleeping.”

“And let me guess… if there isn’t any lifeforce… you die.”

Her blade rattled in its sheath. “Not right away… they start to go insane and it all eventually ends in death.”

“Oh…” I trailed off with the image of Scarlet going insane becoming a new fear of mine.

I yawned before getting out of bed and reaching for my black shirt. I put it on without issue, before putting my still kevlar-less vest on right after. I snuck around my grey button-up sweater as I slowly made my way to the stairs down.

I could hear Scarlet right behind me, the slight fluttering of the red sentient sword’s ribbon gave her away. The both of us had nothing to say as I walked to the kitchen. What would the combined pantry of a Gardevoir, a Greninja, and a Gallade have inside? I hesitated for a moment. Would it be rude if I looked without asking?

It would certainly be rude if I actually took something…

Something tapped me on my shoulder, I nearly jumped away. The only thing that stopped me was my tired body. I turned around, seeing Lloyd just standing like he was there the whole time. I glanced at him and the pantry.

He rolled his eyes. “You uh… eat cooked meat, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Then tell you what…” he trails off as he opens the pantry. Sounds of rustling come from inside as he brings something out. “I’ve got some dried meat. I’ll give it to you on one condition.”

I shrugged as he handed me a metal container, a smell came from it that made my mouth water. “Name it.”

“I was going to go out hunting tonight. I want your help carrying my haul back, I’ll even split up what we get from whatever I take down between us.” The Greninja folds his arms after closing the pantry.

The smell of the meat reminded me of something familiar to me. And after opening the container, it was confirmed that the meat was jerky. I nodded at Lloyd’s request without a second thought. “Yeah that sounds perfectly fine to me, heh.”

“Great, I’ll see you later then. I’ve got to get to the Guild to deal with some uh… team stuff.” He trailed off as he walked over to the door. Before walking out, he turned to address me one last time. “Ruby will be back soon, just please do not go anywhere… uh, you’ve already dealt with enough of Luson right?”

I sighed wearily. “What about the Decidueye?”

“You stay especially away from him.” He finished with anger bubbling in his voice. The door closed as he left me and Scarlet alone again. I glanced at the meat in the tin, already wondering how it’d taste…

Scarlet’s voice tore me away. “What ticked him off?”

“Something about the Decidueye…” I trailed off, thinking about any possible connection. One loose end came to mind. “You remember Fin and Orik, right? From the note in the tank? We have names but no faces to put them to…”

Scarlet’s blade rattled in its sheath. “Fin… I know him. Lloyd muttered that name after I told him about what had happened to us. So Fin must be Luson’s partner, the Decidueye.”

“Then who is Orik?”

“A question we will have to answer ourselves,” she stated as she looked out a nearby window. “Our first mystery… besides finding your father.”

I nodded along as I took a bite of a piece of the jerky. It was pretty damn good, a little salty… but I was expecting that. “Yeah… but I remember another name from just before you woke me up in the Guild…”

“And that name would be?” she asked while turning to face me.

I took a deep breath, it was like the name carried tangible weight. “Arwin.”

“Arwin…” she trailed off as she turned back to the window. “Hmm, maybe they are connected. We will have to investigate them as soon as possible.”

I nodded again. “Yeah, we gotta figure this shit out fast…”

“Any ideas on where to start?” she questioned.

“Where I first ended up here…” The memories came back to my mind about what happened not even a week ago. “Back in that damn clearing…”

She put her ribbon on the door handle. “Then let us go.”

“What about Kira? She’s gonna be back soon apparently.” I reminded.

Her ribbon drifted off of it and back behind her. “Right…”

I went and sat down on a chair and started to eat the rest of the jerky. There wasn’t much, but it’d be enough to keep me going for a while. It tasted good and went down easier than almost anything I could make…

Scarlet continued to look out the window like a sentry. Her unmoving metal body looked unnatural when compared to the fluid wagging of her ribbon. It was oddly mesmerizing. Alien even. I knew enough about most Pokémon and their powers already, but at the same time… I knew so little about the finer details.

The small things, like body language, or signs of aggression. It never set in just how truly alien this place is compared to my world… but now… I’m starting to get a grasp. Like I said at the beginning, I had to adapt to my situation and make the most of it. I could learn… but did I have the time?

Some things might be similar, like buildings, societal structure, morality… but I don't know what is different until it hits me in the face. And I better pray these changes aren’t detrimental when they eventually come.

I’m surrounded by creatures that could easily kill me in my current state if they ever wanted to. I needed time to learn… that is what keeps a Human alive after all. Knowledge.

Scarlet made a metallic clicking noise before talking to me. “Kira is coming.”

The front door suddenly opened as a tired Gardevoir strolled in. Her head was hung low with the purple bandanna wrapped around her left bicep stained with what looked to be tears. The badge being haphazardly attached to it. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy… guilt clawed at the back of my mind.

I wanted to wave, or smile at the least… but I couldn’t muster it. I froze up as a sea of feelings swept through me. I avoided her gaze, my eyes now glued to the empty tin in my hand. She was psychic… I had to keep my emotions in check with her.

“Could you point us in the direction of where you initially found Mason? We wanted to go there to look around.” Scarlet’s voice broke through the tense silence with the subtlety of a nuclear bomb. Kira turned her head to face her.

What I initially expected was for the Gardevoir to explode on her. Instead, much to my relief, she sighed while taking the bag she had off her shoulder. “I can’t give directions… but I can take you there in a bit.”

“Thank you.” Scarlet said as she floated back over to me.

Kira went upstairs, what for I didn’t know. I looked back to Scarlet as I hissed at her quietly for almost causing disaster. “Do you not see Kira’s condition? Why would you just abruptly ask something like that?”

“Because every second counts,” Scarlet retorted. “Waiting ‘till later would do nothing but waste precious time your father does not have.”

I shrugged and sighed in defeat, before leaning back in my chair. She was right… even if a little blunt despite her edge.

I eagerly awaited for Kira to return.

 

[Flyg0n]

here for catnip! I read through chapter 1! I'll focus mostly on some broader strokes and temperature reads

So to start with, I think you have a really interesting premise. The twist on classic PMD by having the human end up in the PMD-esque world but not turn into a Pokemon is really neat! It raises some good questions and opportunities for conflict.

You also seem to have gone for a more 'frontier' vibe than the usual civilizations featured in say, PSMD. I have to say, I'm pretty curious how technology and other PMD tech will look like in your world.

On the topic of Mason... You've got a neat setup for a character. To me, Mason comes off as a rookie cop type, a bit trigger happy (more on this later) and maybe insecure in his abilities. He mentions once or twice how he's still trying to get the hang of things, and seems vaguely uncertain of himself. I do like that I can see obvious flaws and shortcoming in his behaviors, as that leaves plenty of room for the best part - character growth!

You've also introduced us to the three pokemon I assume will be the rest of the core cast - Kira Gardevoir, Ronin Gallade, and Lloyd Greninja. It was a bit harder to get a read on them but this is chapter 1, so thats not a big deal! Plus we've only seen a little bit of them. Kira strikes me as responsible/hardworking maybe, since we do see her making an effort to care for the emolga, and because Ace comes to her when the other two aren't doing their duty, hehe.

Lloyd seems particularly interesting in anything related to humans. I wonder if there's particular reasons why that will be revealed!

Pacing. I'd like to briefly talk about pacing. I think you do a good job, since by the end of chapter 1 we get to the obvious part of any classic PMD story. Human joins rescue team. I also thought it was neat that you spent a little extra time in the beginning, showing his life and job and etc, and seeming psychic visions/distortions/poke-magic influencing him before he got fully pulled into the poke world? It was confusing but seemed intentionally so. However, i did find that it dragged just a wee bit. Cutting about a paragraph or two's worth of words certainly wouldn't hurt!

The parts that stood out as important was definitely the brief allusion to his brother, and the small interactions with his dad when he caught the thief. I think dragging out this slowed the story down a bit, since as the reader I already knew what the end result would be! Mason, now trapped in PMD world!

I did appreciate how it seemed to happen over a period of time though, that was neat!

The only other part that confused me was honestly his reaction to the Houndoom attack. At first he seems perfectly happy to shoot them, heck almost seems to take delight. However he was just talking to sapient pokemon a moment ago, and didn't seem aware of why these Houndour/doom were different. I might expect a little more hsitancy, especially since as a cop the default isn't really shoot first, ask questions later.

That said they are trying to hurt him so it seems justified that lethal force is a reasonable response, I just couldn't connect with his thought process. Especially since later, after the attack, he seems a a bit uncertain. If he was so uncertain, I might've expected him to try his taser, his baton, or even talking or yelling at them, like he did earlier with greninja.

I think clarifying his chain of thought would really help here! Maybe
'Oh no they're attacking, why are these mon attacking and not the others?>I should defend myself> [Pulls out baton/taser] >Oh no they're using lethal force, I have to, sadly!>back off before I hurt you!>Shoot to injure/kill>Hmmm I don't understand why they acted like this/I hope I did the right thing.

I couldn't tell whether he took pleasure in the act or regretted the necessity of it, so I had a hard time empathizing.

To be clear, its also fine if he is trigger happy! Thats something that can certainly be explored, but he seemed to waffle a bit between the two. So yeah, whatever you want to go with is up to you, and what dynamic you want for his character.

That all covered, you've certainly got an interesting set up, good foundations for a MC, and lots of potential for interesting drama/tension! I can confidently say I actually haven't seen a PMD story quite like this yet. Best of luck on all your writing!

 

[Yodakage Kira]

Chapter 16: Revelation

---

So, before I begin, I just want to say that my life has been an absolute circus. I’m doing fine now, things are stabilizing again, but chapters are gonna take a while to be released. Not as long as… well, however long from last time to now, but I doubt I can do it once every few weeks. I haven’t forgotten about any of them, and I still enjoy doing it, it’s just I have a lot of things I do. It’s been more than a year for this to come so I think it should be worth it. And also; Merry Christmas!

But yeah, enough about me, enjoy and let me know what you all think so far!

---

I decided that I was taking my phone with me for the purpose of gathering photo and video evidence of whatever I find there. Just in case I need it later. Because who fucking knew, I could end up in some sort of court from out of nowhere and need evidence.

When the only thing I could be certain of, is that there is no complete certainty, I’m gonna start being a little bit more prepared than usual. Especially since one of my enemies is literally someone who can make illusions.

“Are you two ready to go?” Kira asked softly as she descended down the stairs.

I was snapped out of my stupor and stood up. Scarlet approached her, I followed just behind. “Ye- yeah, we’re ready.”

“Perfect.” The Gardevoir nodded as we stood near her. “Remember, Mason, breathe out.”

The memories of what would happen if I didn’t flowed through my head. I breathed out as a glow wrapped around us, the sensation of the world around leaving. The brief sensation left me, I breathed in on instinct. Air flowed back into me as the familiar clearing came into focus.

We were here again… where it all began.

“I’m gonna take a look around… thanks again for this, Kira.” I said as I glanced around the area. She wordlessly nodded and sat down in the shade of a tree.

Obvious signs of the battle were still here. Charred grass and tree bark, my spent bullet casings, hell even one of the Houndour bodies was still- oh, upon a closer look… just the rotting head remained. I sighed at the sight of it all… where would we start?

I walked towards the pond and stared at my own reflection. I looked almost exactly the same, minus that previously I did not have a purple bandanna wrapped around my neck. The expression staring back wasn’t of the fear I first had. No, it was determination… or a mix of tiredness and being done with all the bullshit that has happened.

A slight smile grew on my face as I turned to the right. Where I initially was laying down and woke up was right in front of me now. Just on the edge of the clearing itself. Immediately… I noticed something on a tree that I woke up under…

Dried blood was on the bark. I tried to compare where my head wound was to where the blood was smeared. It matched up when I stood up to full height. Was this my blood? I woke up here after all, after getting rendered unconscious by someone according to Scarlet’s story.

I stepped back and took a picture of the scene with my phone. This would be the last event in whatever timeline of events took place if that was indeed my blood. And for now, I had no reason to assume that it wasn’t mine.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet’s voice abruptly came from behind.

I didn’t budge as I responded. “Making a timeline of events… speaking of which, do you remember what Pokémon that you were chasing after?”

“Only one of them was psychic… they teleported away as soon as I started to attack them. The psychic was covered in some sort of robe… all I could tell was that they could hover.” She came into view, coming up beside me with her ribbon flowing gracefully. “The rest were… a Leavanny, a Boldore, and a Maractus whom I slew. There was one other, but they went after your father and… lots of banging echoed out. I forget what they were.”

Some part of me recognized them… though I could tell it was from those foreign memories. Subordinates was the word that came to me… I took that as a good sign of a little progress. Person of interest number one… our ‘mystery psychic’…

“So you couldn’t tell what the psychic specifically was?”

She responded without missing a beat. “No, I cannot even give a vague description other than that they were incredibly short for a Pokémon.”

“Eh, alright.” I wrote everything down on a notepad app on my phone. “We’re gonna have to do this the hard way…”

Scarlet’s blade rattled in its sheath. “It would seem so.”

One last thing was on my mind regarding questions I could have answered right away. Kira came back here and recovered some stuff, specifically my father’s hat and badge. I needed to know if she saw anything of interest that could speed things along.

I walked back over to the Gardevoir doctor. She was still sitting in the shade of a tree, an expression on her face that hid something beneath it. Her eyes were no longer red and puffy, and her tears had since been wiped away. But what she was feeling was no secret…

Some guilt once more clawed its way into my mind and whispered into my ear of the things I could have done to prevent the situation from happening. The feeling was beaten back like the devil it was, how was I supposed to know what that golden masked thing was and wasn’t able to do?

Luson and this Fin guy fucking knew we were there. They shouldn’t have. They got that information from someone who must actively be working in the Guild. I wasn’t the one to blame for any of this… but I will be the one to get Justice for it all.

Wearily, a sigh escaped me. I had to take small steps, no one can conquer the world within a day. It has to fall methodically and with a plan. I have one and thus should stick to it. For now… I just had to make sure I can freely move around without getting hounded by Lycoris and their hired dogs.

Kira’s soft voice broke me out of my thoughts. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah…” I trailed off and nervously scratched an itch on the back of my head. “When you came here and found my dad’s hat and badge… did you see anything out here that might be worth investigating now that we’re here?”

She stared for a moment in thought. Slowly, she nodded before pointing to a tree beside the pond. “Small holes were punched in that tree over there… about the size of the projectiles your weapon shoots.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

I tipped my hat at her as I started to walk over to the tree in question. The second I laid eyes on it… I could see the bullet holes. From here I could already count around nine rounds being buried in the body of the tree. Though getting closer revealed more details, I could see dried blood, and the bullets themselves seemed to not puncture very deep into the tree at all...

Something was shot here, and the bullets punctured straight through it. This didn’t happen very often at all, but I somewhat knew the context thankfully. Now it was time for a little guessing game for situations like this…

Dead or alive? Starring… whoever this sucker ‘is’ or ‘was’.

Couldn’t have been something with armor or that had a lot of meat on its bones because the bullets had punched through it. It had to be bipedal, judging by the angle the bullets were lodged in at and the distribution. If I had to guess… my answer would be that this guy was definitely dead.

No being, magical or otherwise, walks away after getting nine bullets put straight through it. And even if somehow, someone does… they usually become a statistic not long after anyway. And if I had to guess the weapon of the day, I would say a glock.

It had to be either my father’s weapon… or my missing one. None of these answers were good. One leaves me watching my back for anyone that could pop out of the woodwork with the gun at any time. The other means I’m going to be here forever looking for the damn thing, and thats assuming that it wasn’t picked up by whoever the fuck knocked me out.

The glock is probably gone, and I’d accept that… but I won’t like it. If I was paranoid before, well now I’d have to check my back practically every other moment. Can’t be too sure after all. I’ve only got one shot at this… right?

What happened to me back in the mystery dungeon flashed back into my mind. I felt every bit of it, even now I could, despite my best efforts to forget about it. It definitely was some spooky shit that I had zero current explanations for.

What happened to me? What could have caused it? Was it even real? And if it was… could it happen again? Could I… weaponize it? Damn, there I go thinking like an American again... I ain’t sorry.

“Are you well? You have been standing there for a solid moment.” I whirled around to meet the voice, seeing Scarlet now near me. She seemed to be peering at me with a confused expression.

I sighed as I turned to view the scene again. “I’m fine… just remembering what happened to us in the mystery dungeon…”

“Seeing the reflections and that odd scene with us at the cave entrance?”

“No, the other- oh, wait…” I just realized why I had freaked out initially. She didn’t remember it happening at all. I was either crazy, had an actual vision, or something else was at play.

Her crystal eye turned to me. “Is something amiss?”

“It’s fine…” I tried to brush it off, but her gaze didn’t budge and it seemed to cut straight through me. “… I’m just trying to mentally put things together and it isn’t working.”

Scarlet’s gaze slowly went to the scene around us, it felt like a weight was taken off my very soul. The blood-red sword levitated towards the tree and stared at it for a moment. What felt like a minute passed, I swore what seemed to be a blue tinge of light flashed within her gem.
The sentient sword had turned from the tree and was facing where I had woken up. She spoke in a matter of fact tone. “Are you aware of what my powers are?”

“Yeah, I am. You’re a steel and ghost type-”

“Not that,” she turned to face me and sighed. The blue glow in her gem intensified briefly as I looked in bewilderment. “I mean my powers granted to me as a Chosen.”

Confusion was growing within me, I blinked as I took it in. “I wasn’t aware you had… other powers… uh, what are they?”

“I am granted the ability to see into the past when in mystery dungeons. Or where any distortion in time resides in general, they are far more common than you would think. Us Chosen are usually meant to go to these places and try to decipher their pasts and what is potentially causing them…”

My gaze slowly left her, instead my sight drifted around the area aimlessly. Green grass and trees… Kira was still leaning against one… perfectly cloudless and blue sky. I squinted, the sun got into my eyes a little. My right hand went and pulled my fathers hat down over my face a little more. I didn’t quite get why Scarlet was bringing this up now.

I folded my arms and sighed. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because this place holds a lot of distortion… I might be able to peer into the past and figure something out… but I make no promises. Just give me a few moments.” she said while turning back to the tree where I first woke up.

“Huh…” My stare had blankly gone to the many trees around us. I didn’t have much else to do at the moment. “Alright then…”

What felt like an eternity passed as I wordlessly watched our surroundings like a hawk. Paranoia had quickly found its way back into my mind with every second, flashes of the past few days kept popping up in my thoughts. We were absolutely exposed out here despite the forest around us.

It didn’t take long for my mind to start playing tricks on me as well. Rustling in the bushes, hushed whispers, hell, I swore I could hear the readying of a gun at one point. However I was accustomed to it, though it was hard to keep a calm demeanor when we could get ambushed at any given moment. My right hand was always near my revolver, but now it was practically holding it already.

I really am a fucking wreck aren’t I? Paranoid, can hardly hold together my sanity… At least I’ve got self confidence… but even that has its damn limits. An uneasy breath escaped me as my hand slowly drifted away from my weapon.

Scarlet’s voice cut me out of my stupor with the sharpness of a knife. “Mason… who is the third human?”

I nearly spun around to face her in shock. The blue tinge in her gem seemed to intensify. She did not turn at all, still staring at the tree. What the hell was she talking about? There was only me and supposedly my father here. Was she… seeing something?

“Who is the third human, Mason?” She repeated in a neutral expression lacking any realization how much of a bombshell this was for me. The name Mark Miller rang back in my mind… but so did a multitude of other names and potential appearances to go with them like a mental slideshow.

My overwhelmed mind could barely comprehend it. “Wh- what are you talking about?”

“Arceus above…” she muttered in acute realization. “I will show you what I am referring to.”

Before I could get a word out, I felt her crimson colored ribbon grab my arm. It was as silky smooth as any other time I felt it, but now its touch made my skin tingle as a low light blue glow seemed to wash around it. I didn’t really have time to really understand what was going on. I blinked, the moment my eyes opened everything was… stuck…

The leaves on the trees around us, despite the wind previously blowing them, had frozen in place. My eyes drifted to Kira, who was in a similar state as well. The only moving things were me or Scarlet. It looked like time itself just stopped. My jaw hung a little open at the sight.

The sound of Scarlet’s metallic yet calm voice rang in my ears. “All of what you see now is due to my powers. Now watch, you will see their true capabilities.”

The tingle in my arm spread around my whole body. I shuddered as it seeped through every bit of my being. I had no way to resist or fight it off, so I stayed still and wondered what was happening. My mind was oddly calm about the situation…

Whatever guesses I could have had about what was about to happen fell silent as everything started to move… but it didn’t look right. A few drops of dew that had fallen from a leaf above us rose to the canopy, and confirmed to me that everything was going in reverse.

I felt as if I should be more in awe of this. I should be racked with questions and doubts… but I didn’t care. I shouldn’t question why it works… just how. I’m not in my world anymore after all, with things that will stress me out and simply cause me more pain until I just accept it as it is. So fuck it, I’ll play with the time magic, I won’t question it.

Scarlet’s voice rang out again. “You can tell everything is going backwards, right? Ah, I see the realization in your eyes, human. Do you have any questions?”

“Yeah… I can garner only us are able to see this, and that we’re in a state similar to unconsciousness.” I pointed to the spot where I first woke up. “How far can you go back? Or is it very specific and recent things that it’s going to show?”

Scarlet rose into the air, stopping about twice my height up as she slowly gazed around the whole area. “We are able to peer as far as we want without limits. But so long as distortion is in the area, which usually comes from… humans, or other things that affect time and fate. Distortion is able to be created from what I remember. But… someone like me would be unable. You however perhaps can, but I do not say for certain. Nor could I elaborate on how.”

“Okay, not that hard to understand honestly… Uh, what are you doing up there anyways?”

She answered without missing a beat. “Just getting a better view of everything that is about to happen.”

I glanced around in confusion. The movements of everything had accelerated dramatically, waving around quickly enough that I felt uncomfortable being so close. I noticed Kira was no longer there… It was oddly mesmerizing at the same time…

Within the time it took for me to blink, all had frozen still. I was facing where I had woken up, and right in front of me, was myself. Standing. Holding a glock eighteen. Pointed right at me and the tree with a bunch of bullet holes in it.

“Scarlet… this can’t hurt us, right?”

“No, human, none of this can,” she continued to gaze around the area. “Just do not stare at bright objects like a slag-minded bug type and all will be well.”

I chuckled nervously while stepping out of the way of my past self’s aim anyways. “I’ll be safe instead of sorry.”

“Do whatever you want, so long as it is not idiotic. One can never be too careful, as my father told me. Now look, behind your past self in the distance near the treeline… the third human.”

My gaze settled on the area she described…

…

A third human was there. The human had long hair, smooth white skin, and was wearing general outdoors-y clothing. A thick jacket, baggy pants. All of it was different shades of green except for the black pants. Including the forest camo hat she was wearing. I took a deep breath as I remembered who this was, my mind had become incredibly focused on this single thing now in front of me.

Mary…

Why does her of all people have to be here as well?

Deep breath… deep breath… sigh…

“... I know who that is.”

“You do?”

I nodded. “The story is a complicated one… just know that she is a close family friend, she knew my older brother, and was really close with him… we need to find her now.”

Deep breath… deep breath… I can figure this out… I can fix it…

The sword made no remarks or asked more questions. I thought that was off, but I noticed the blue glow in her gem strengthened just a bit. Whatever she was doing clearly took her concentration. It didn’t take long for my thoughts to completely dominate what I was paying attention to…

I couldn’t believe it despite the evidence before my eyes. Mary did not deserve this at all, after everything she’d done-

Stop… deep breath…

I can find her.

“Where does she go?” I asked almost immediately in a hurried tone. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way, but the state of my mind wasn’t helping at all. By the time it slipped from my lips it was far too late for that.

Scarlet’s powers flared up without a word spoken, the scene began to play out without a single bit of sound…

I was knocked out already by something completely shrouded in a cloak like Scarlet said. It seems that it teleported away the bodies of its comrades along with itself when it fled, leaving blood in its wake, clearly bleeding badly. Other Pokémon were there… Scarlet had intercepted them violently. What I had shot by the tree Scarlet just skipped past, but I didn’t care, my focus was on where Mary was running off to. She had taken off into the forest, pursued by what looked to be a wolf of sorts in the chaos that my father was causing…

It was Luson and Fin, going at it against my father… It was sped up to the point that I couldn’t focus on any specific details, but it went on for a while before it dragged them off further into the woods in a direction different from where Mary ran off in… She was alone, with a Pokémon after her…

“We can probably learn more from this-”

Scarlet interrupted me in an oddly soft tone. “Hold on, human. I know the feeling well, and know what you seek to do. We should move quickly.”

The sound of a loud snap filled my ears as it all began to fade. I blinked my eyes… and the world was normal again. A chill ran up my spine as the wind blew past me, gently moving the trees and leaves above me as the warm sun shone down… Kira was moving again normally…

My gaze fell upon where Mary had run off to. Deeper into the woods…

“We’ll be right back, Kira…” I muttered as I walked past her, Scarlet floating just behind me.

The Gardevoir nodded. “Please don’t take too long.”

I nodded back to her as I took off on a brisk jog down the place that she’d gone. I could see the trail the Pokémon left behind. It didn’t look fresh, but at least its prints in the dirt and trail of destruction was obvious enough to trace. Trampled foliage, the paw prints in the dirt… and a human’s shoes… we were on the right track.

Something had begun to smell absolutely terrible. The trail had led us to the mouth of a cave, the smell was stronger. It was pungent, one of death, decay, rot. It wasn’t a good one, but not enough to make me queasy. Still made me grimace and cough quietly into my sleeve.

I drew my revolver, made sure I had six rounds in, and peeked into the cave as Scarlet did the same…

Just past the entrance was a decaying body of the Mightyena. I only recognized it as such because its head was mostly intact… the rest was bones, decaying ones at that. The flesh had spoiled and wasn’t even on the body anymore. It was all over the floor, black with rot and decay, having turned into liquid from it. It had a terrible smell, probably going to get me sick just by being near it.

“... What could have caused this decay?”

“Your guess is as good as mine…” I said before entering the cave, staying as far as I could from the rotting corpse. I called out with my gun aimed into the darkness of the cave. “Mary?”

Deafening silence responded. Not even the sound of rustling or breathing. Scarlet and I were completely alone after all. It made me all the more nervous…

My gentle steps against the stone could be heard as I went further in. It seemed a lot deeper then I first thought, a little offshoot went to the right. What was on the other side was out of view, but it was all still silent. My gun was trained on it. I could see the main part of the cave had an end but it was a bit further down. Scarlet watched it over for a few moments before following my movements towards the corner that signaled the beginning of the offshoot. Acting like a shield, ready to spring into action.

I looked around the corner-

…

…

…

“... Is that… oh Arceus…”

…

…

…

“Mason?” There was a pressure on my shoulder. All I could manage was a nod of my head, a slow one, and a deep sigh. “... Is that Mary?”

… Further in the offshoot was a human, a girl dressed in a dark green jacket, black pants, a forest camo hat… her gaze was frozen in place, staring up into the roof of the cave. Her body lacked any distinct wounds. But it was completely pale, now lifeless. She seemed… oddly at… peace… there seemed to be no struggle in the surrounding area.

I crouched down beside her body, my right hand holstered my gun briefly. I stared into her amber colored eyes before I closed the lids. Scarlet watched me, now completely silent. I got a better look at the rest of her, and there was nothing to denote how she died…

…

… There was a symbol engraved onto the back of her right hand. It looked like a letter of some kind, but it was completely foreign to me. Even the phantom memories I accidentally stole had nothing to say about it. What did this mean?

“... Scarlet, what’s this?”

She backed away the tiniest bit. I couldn’t tell out of what emotion, but the sentient crimson blade seemed very keen on staying away from whatever this symbol was. Her ribbon waved, a little quicker than usual… before she answered.

“That… is a legends sigil…” She was struggling with her words. “... This means Life. Which means… I… doubt she is dead… But it would mean that she is not here anymore… Lord Xerneas was here… but…”

My eyes averted from Mary’s body, their gaze rested upon the stone floor as water dripped onto it from above. With my voice barely able to be kept steady, I spoke to Scarlet. “But what?”

“... Lord Xerneas is supposed to be dead… all of them are…”

With a deep sigh, I picked up Mary’s body. She was light and cold. A chill had ran up my spine but I held strong. But I knew… this would hurt more later. “Let’s go bury her at least… that’s the least I could do for her…”

The sword wordlessly nodded, leaving me to lead the way outside. Now holding the body of a close friend… every step echoed in my head… my thoughts had been blank for a while now… hardly able to comprehend what was in front of me… maybe it didn’t want to… didn’t want to bring back… that… pain…

I could already feel the tears in my eyes.

 

[Yodakage Kira]

Chapter 17: Reflection

The human was wearing an expression colder than the frozen peaks of the Etyth mountains. A somber demeanor with cold silence surrounding us, I might have shivered were I a fleshie. I felt a slight breeze wash over the area with the rustle of my crimson ribbon waving behind me. In front of us was a grave with no headstone, instead some sort of symbol made with sticks. A long one was stuck into the ground, with one other, attached horizontally on the upper half, but not quite the top. A cross of sticks.

Mason had made it… I hadn’t asked why.

I could only assume it was some Human way to pay respect to their dead.

There was much I wanted to say… Questions from yesterday, questions for what he was going to do now, questions such as… if he was going to be okay…

They say my kind have troubles with emotion, that feeling and empathizing often requires much thought from us. That it is rare that such things resonate with our spirit on a level that we grasp it right away. We have a long time to dwell on them after all… but here…

“What did Xerneas do?” The human finally broke the silence, his gaze still down upon the grave.

“Any number of things are possible… but the one I would like to believe… is that your friend was taken by her Ladyship, and that Lady Xerneas has not been dead this whole time.”

All the stories ran through my mind. Of all the legends and where they went off to, supposedly. Each one had a different tale regarding their deaths. Some doubt that they are really gone, while others said that they were killed by Lycoris, some say they are just hiding amongst us… I had no stake in any of these answers, it mattered little to me in the end. There is no dispute that they exist. And that is all that mattered to me.

Mason sighed wearily. “I hope so. But right now… there isn’t much I can do with the body of a friend and nothing to go off of beyond what amounts to hearsay.”

“I am sorry there is not anything else I can do beyond just providing what I know…”

“It’s okay…” his gaze remained on the grave, the tone he had was quiet and soft. Almost like he was afraid of disturbing the rest of someone here. “... I just… she doesn’t deserve this. None of my family and friends do… I can deal with this, maybe, but them… just no… no…”

The end of my ribbon gently rubbed over his slacked hand. “What do you remember her for?”

“She was there with my older brother when he needed it…” the Human did not move his hand, a quick glance of his mental state through the contact of my ribbon told me he was… saddened, certainly. And that he did not seem to mind the contact at the moment.

I staved off further questioning. I could feel the grim nature of this subject already through his tone.

But through that sadness I felt something else. Only hints of it that I dared not look deeper into. Guilt. So much of it that just feeling it made my ribbon tense and hold still against the wind. A question nearly slipped out of me, of what it was that clearly haunted him. It was raw, yet old, something clearly intertwined into the furthest reaches of his mind. I could not fathom having to live with that kind of weight on my mind.

Yet despite him being different in many ways, his emotions, his thoughts and feelings… they all felt the same as any Pokémon. And just like any other Pokémon, he could hide what was below with a calm attitude and a friendly tone. The fact that Humans of all things are just as vulnerable to these pitfalls as Pokémon…

…

“... Scarlet?”

The workings of my mind snapped back into focus. I quietly sighed before responding to him. “Yes, Mason?”

“I know you’re dead serious in helping me until the end of this mess… I just…” his gaze drifted to me before he continued. “... Thank you. This is one hell of a mess to navigate… but it's made much easier mentally knowing I at least got people I can depend on.”

His words were far warmer than anything I had received in a long while. It was an assurement that made me feel more confident with all this. “You are welcome, Mason.” What I saw in his mind briefly came back, I quickly added something to it in hopes of it maybe helping. “I am here if you wish to talk or have any questions.”

“I am too…” Mason said quietly.

…

… The human took a deep breath and began to walk past the grave and towards where Kira and Lloyd said they would wait for us. Some tears he had wiped away stained his clothing. He took a deep breath and seemed to somewhat recover himself.

“I’m gonna give them some thanks too. They deserve more… but right now I don’t know how I could help. Especially with all that’s going on… tomorrow is the big meeting thing, and I just know it's not going to go well. Things like that are never smooth. But after, do you have any clue how we could maybe heal Ronin?”

My mind still dwelt on his words from before, but I answered, even if in a bit of an absentminded way. “The only thing that can now is a revive seed… which are incredibly rare and have only been found in mystery dungeons. They are so powerful that giving one to someone who has just died will bring them back to life with no injuries. There are those that sell them, but it is unknown if there is an effective way of getting them.”

Mason was undeterred. “Would your status get you access to any?”

“Perhaps. I know nobody personally who could supply any. But I know a Chosen would have little difficulty procuring one for their endeavors if they went to the right people, especially one that is royalty.”

“That sounds a bit risky…” Mason finally let go of my ribbon and folded his arms as we went along. “... Before that, we can do runs through mystery dungeons when we can, maybe luck will be on our side.”

“I do not believe betting on luck is a good idea.”

The slightest bit of an airy chuckle escaped him. “Of course not, which is why it's a good idea for you to come up with some names for us to go to, meanwhile, we do dungeon runs. Maybe we’ll get lucky, you never know for sure.”

“Ah…” my voice quietened a little. “I did not mean any offense. I agree with that course of action.”

Much to my surprise, the human just shrugged, continuing to speak in a calm tone devoid of the stress that surrounded him. “It’s fine.”

The rest of our walk seemed like it was going to be in silence. We were not far from the pathway that led back to the home of the team we had been staying with. I noticed Mason tossing glances behind us and to the grave but never said anything to interrupt him. I had no clue what to say, if there was anything I could say that made sense in my position.

I was not good at making friends, and by Arceus, I was not going to let that squander every level of connection I could have. Especially with one of the only people to seemingly give a damn about me for something more than what I hatched as.

I let my ribbon gently wrap around his right hand like before, a gesture to articulate a comfort I could never effectively give in words. He did not pull away from it, or say a word on it. But with what little I dared sense from him, his mind seemed a little thankful.

“... She was there for him because I never was.”

A low metallic creak came from my blade. “Did you at least learn?”

The human sighed. “Only when it was too late to change the consequences of my actions.”

My ribbon slumped. That raw guilt I saw was beginning to make sense. But… “Have you sought his forgiveness and made amends?”

Surely there is some level of nuance, there had to be…

“He’s been dead for nine years because of this once trainwreck you hold the hand of.”

Another creak came from my blade, a much quieter one. “I see now why the guilt within you is so intense…”

“I may not have directly killed him, but it was the consequences meant for me that did. They had terrible aim, or maybe, in some twisted way, it knew exactly what it wanted. It took away the one person that tried to get me out of the grave I had dug myself into and I was a fool to not step out when I was given opportunities and warnings from all those around me. I could have done anything else, I could have never gotten involved in what I did. All it would have taken is an iota of brainpower to fucking think about what I was doing beyond just the immediate satisfaction it gave.

My purposeful ignorance should have put me six feet under on that day. It should have ripped the psychotic blot of recklessness that I was off the face of the earth. But it didn’t. It instead took the man known for his virtues. For the goodwill he has with all those around him. Someone so selfless he thought it better to try and save me from myself then indulge in the fruits of his work…

I cannot ever hope to be anywhere close to being a hero that he was… but…”

Mason sighed, his mind, despite everything he said, was calm. Even with a few tears in his eyes.

“... For him, I’ll help who I can. I won’t let the good times he brought about die with him.”

“That makes you a better person than most.” I said, assured in the nuance of maturity. I could never imagine the Mason I saw now committing anything even remotely close to that ever again. “Do you not see the results of your growth?”

The human gently wiped away the tears with his free arm before he spoke. “I do. I just wish it never took any of that to get here… But now that I am here… I want to make the most of it for his sake.”

His words struck a certain chord within me. For the briefest moment I felt the cold air of those damned mountains around me, I swear the sight of the throne of my father was before me. All the associated thoughts threatened to clamber to the center of my mind-

“I… certainly know that struggle well.” I only realized now it was like looking into a twisted mirror… one that clearly had a better head on than me. That damned guilt… no wonder it felt so familiar.

Mason said nothing in turn. I do not believe there was anything more either of us could say in our current states. My own thoughts were clouded by the very emotion I felt within the human, these things were not anything I wanted to think about now. Of all the times to be assailed by the past…

Yet… my mind slipped into a calmness. The kind in feeling to what one has on a day with oppressively cold rain coming down overhead. Mason largely felt the same. I could feel he had taken solace in understanding, even if barely.

But I could barely fathom it still… The human- Mason, suffers these distresses like any other person. He feels them like anyone I know. He at least tries to deal with it, right the wrong any way he can. That is more than anything I have ever done…

Still I wonder, if I was any smarter, any braver, could I be anything like that? There was nothing I wanted to do with it all back home. I would much rather leave that mess behind… but…

… There was something else with him… something I couldn’t explain… the dungeon… Luson and Fin… it was right in front of me all along…

…

---

A few hours had gone by since Scarlet and I tended to Mary’s grave, and I was getting more royally pissed through each one. Couldn’t stop thinking about her. If Xerneas had her, I was going to get her back. I just had to figure out where the fuck Xerneas went. Which if I was to guess, is a lot harder than I want.

Tomorrow is that damned meeting and I was dreading every second ticking by, bringing us closer to it.

I put that aside as I settled into a chair in the living room of Lloyd’s house. Kira was there, along with the Greninja in question. Ronin was also here, apparently he was cleared to be fine enough to stay here again… I could barely look in his direction. I knew him and Kira were sitting on the same chair, with Kira cradling him a little with both arms.

Scarlet was floating beside me, having not left my side. She seemed absentminded. Barely talking or asking questions. Didn’t help that her tone was distant whenever she did speak, the conversation we had clearly struck something. Her eye was looking towards the floor, her ribbon perfectly still, half wrapped around her sheath.

Lloyd was sitting back in a chair while reading a book that I couldn’t see the title of. He seemed the most collected out of everyone here. I wanted to say thanks, but the moment was rough. Even our short conversation about Mary and what we were going to do about her felt so tired.

“Lloyd…” I said quietly, trying not to cause anything for Kira and Ronin.

He responded in a bit of a louder tone, seeming to talk normally. “Yeah?”

“Just wanted to say thank you, to all three of you, for the help so far. And everything you’ve said that you’re going to do.”

While the mood wasn’t going to change on a dime at large… The little bit of positivity seemed to lighten it up ever so slightly. Kira and Ronin’s expressions seemed to relax, while Lloyd’s tone grew a little lighter.

“It’s no problem, Mason,” he sighed before putting the book down and stretching out a bit. Night was well upon us by this point. His gaze went to me, and it was surprisingly soft. “Just hoping the recent discovery doesn’t… make things worse… I, uh, know how bad things can get in one’s mind with all that’s been going on… Especially with the weight of tomorrow no doubt on everyone’s shoulders.”

I leaned back in my chair, fatigue and all my mind begging me to go sleep. “I can’t say I’m doing the greatest by any stretch. But, I guess one thing I’ve got is a plan.”

“A plan… yes… what may it be?”

“I will be on the lookout for revive seeds in dungeon runs I’m going to start doing with Scarlet. Meanwhile she’s going to do what she can to find us people who might have some.”

Lloyd squinted a bit, clearly a bit taken aback. “Oh, you’re… well, I can help with those if you want.”

“I wouldn’t mind… still new to it, after all.” I said in a slightly humorous tone. Hoping to lighten the mood more. It wasn’t much, but the genuineness seemed to definitely make things more relaxed.

“Heh, right… right…” he trailed off for a moment. The silence was something I dared not fill, especially while his gaze stayed locked with the floor. A few moments passed before the chair creaked as he rose up from it. “I should head to bed, and so should the rest of you. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

Kira gave a wordless nod as she got up, carrying Ronin in her arms. He seemed quite out of it still even if he was conscious. Definitely needed sleep. The Gardevoir near silently stepped along the wooden floor and up the rotating staircase to the bedroom area.

The Greninja gestured to me with his webbed right hand. Or what I assumed to be one. “You coming?”

“Yeah… just gotta do something first.” My gaze went to Scarlet.

The frog just nodded as he took a deep breath. His footsteps creaked the stairs ever so slightly as he went. All that was left in the dimly lit living room was the shiny Honedge beside me.

“Scarlet?” I said in a quiet tone.

I received no response, no movement, nothing. Not even the slightest wave of her ribbon. But before I could muster any kind of further response to the odd behavior… her eye began to glow a light blue. I assumed she was doing something with her powers.

With a sigh, I left her alone. Slowly getting up and walking up the stairs. My gaze practically glued to the sword that now slightly glowed in the near pitch black. She hadn’t moved at all still. And I was a little worried… but had no idea what it could possibly be.

I retreated to my bed as quietly as I could to not disturb the other three. The moment my head hit the soft pillow, fatigue nearly took me away instantly. I closed my eyes and hoped tomorrow would have mercy on me…

A mercy I probably didn’t deserve…

---

The night was quiet. While everyone had gone to sleep… the glowing eye of Scarlet remained where it was. She still hadn’t moved, within her was a terrible fight that she was even guilty of remotely feeling at all. It left her with a distraught pit within her.

This was the power she sought. She was sure of it. The legends spoke of it in great detail, there was no way this was anything else. With it she’d be able to finally do something about the past, the guilt, all of it…

But the only way to get it…

…

Just the fact that the thought even entered her mind, no matter for how brief, was enough for the distraught sword to wish to fling herself into the nearest body of water and be left forgotten there. It disgusted her…

Yet… how else could she do it? Maybe… just maybe… there was one other way…

She’d want to wait first. While she may have warmed up to the human, she wanted to be sure that such issues would not make his state any worse. This was the only way in her eye. To be absolutely sure.

Scarlet prayed for some kind of helpful intervention. Words she’d said hundreds of times before in the past. Yet now with a deep worry that punctuated it all.