Chapter Text
In Professor Laventon’s office in the Galaxy Hall, four people are sat huddled around a kotatsu. The focus of the room is centered on one thing:
Onion.
Or Petilil, rather, as Emmet has found out she is called. Apparently they were not uncommon in the Crimson Mirelands of Hisui. But Onion is a rather unique specimen, of the sort that the professor and his assistants have never seen before.
Rare as Pokémon with albinism are in the future, they’re quite literally unheard of in this day and age.
(And wasn’t that novel? To find out that he and his brother had come from the future. He still isn’t quite sure what he thinks of that. Theoretically, the other ‘skyfallers’ have a way back home, but he was hesitant to change tracks until more of their memories were recovered. He would rather not wake up somewhere unknown. Again.)
Pooling their collective memories of the future, few as they may be, they had come to the conclusion that Emmet must have at least some experience with Pokémon breeding. It certainly explains his instinctive knowledge of statistics and egg moves and ability inheritance, as well as certain genetic conditions that normally wouldn’t survive more than a few days in the wild. Especially considering Pokémon breeding wasn’t even a concept that existed at this time, nor were stats and abilities measured in depth.
It is also the reason he is currently being bombarded with questions by two verrry enthusiastic teenagers and one verrry confused Galarian.
“She’s quite small for a petilil, isn’t she?” Laventon asks, peering down at her from behind a notebook. Apparently he used to be terrified of Pokémon, but has gradually grown more comfortable being around smaller ones. He’s still too nervous to touch them, which Emmet thinks is a bit silly, but he isn’t one to judge people.
“Yup,” he replies. “Many grass-type Pokémon get most of their energy from the sun through photosynthesis. Like normal plants. Which is why they are green. She is not green, so she cannot photosynthesize. The lack of pigment means she has no protection from the sun so she burns easily.”
Akari gnaws on the end of her pencil for a moment. “What about grass-types that aren’t green?”
Emmet hums thoughtfully, slumping over the tabletop and resting his chin on his crossed arms. “There are a lot of mushroom Pokémon that are not green. Most of them burrow underground and eat tree roots.”
“Yeah,” Rei says, “I see paras gathered around the bases of trees a lot of the time when I’m out surveying.”
“What about tangela?” Laventon interjects. “Can its vines function as roots?”
Ingo speaks up from his place sprawled across the couch, eyes closed and a sneasel kit asleep on his chest. “Tangela are mostly carnivorous, actually. They just pull prey into their bodies with their vines.”
“That’s… disturbing,” Akari says. “What’s inside their vines, though?”
Ingo cracks an eye open to glance at her. “Do you want to find out?”
“Nooo thank you!” she exclaims. Emmet stifles a laugh.
Rei sets down his paintbrush and gently pokes Onion, prompting her to turn around. “Back to the original point - so the reason she’s so small is because she can’t photosynthesize?”
Akari hums thoughtfully. “Considering petilils aren’t built for eating meat or roots or whatever because they’re meant to photosynthesize, I’d guess that she can only get nutrients from berries and stuff. But because she can’t camouflage like other grass-type Pokémon, she’s probably more likely to get eaten by something else, right?” She directs her question back towards Emmet.
“Yup,” he says. “That is why you almost never see albino Pokémon in the wild. They stand out too much, so predators can hunt them easily and prey can spot them hiding. There are also other things that come with it that makes survival harder, because of how genetics works.”
“Man, that sucks.” Rei reaches out again to lightly brush Onion’s leaves.
Akari pulls out a measuring tool and holds it up next to the petilil, who chirps up at her. “Gosh, you’re so tiny! Barely half the size of a standard petilil! I wonder if she’ll be a tiny lilligant, too…”
“Do you think you’ll evolve her?” Rei asks.
Emmet leans back until he’s resting against the side of the couch. “Mmmaybe. She has gotten verrry strong, and I am verrry proud of her progress, but I think I want to keep training her for a bit longer. Work on building up her strength and learning some recovery moves.”
“Oh, like Drain Punch?” Akari says.
And.
What?
Emmet sits back up. “I am Emmet. I may not remember much. But I am verrry certain that she cannot learn Drain Punch.”
“Why not?”
He stares at her incredulously.
“It is a fighting-type move. Does she look like she knows how to punch things?”
“She doesn’t even have hands,” Ingo mumbles from behind him.
“No, I mean after she evolves!” Akari clarifies, which explains exactly nothing.
“Um. No. I saw what her evolved form looks like while I was passing through Unova. They do not look like they can learn how to punch things either.”
Akari flaps a hand at him and scrabbles around her bag for her Pokédex. “But they’re literally fighting-types! Of course they can learn fighting moves!”
What?
“You are incorrect. There is no way they are fighting-types. I have seen fighting-types and they do not look like that.”
“Okay, but they do, ” she retorts, flipping through the pages rapidly.
“They do not. ”
“They do!” With a triumphant laugh she shoves the Pokédex across the kotatsu towards him, the page flipped open to Lilligant, and -
“That is not what she evolves into.”
Rei buries his face in his hands and laughs.
“That is literally what petilil evolves into. I’ve seen it happen. I did the research. Shut up,” Akari snaps, jabbing a finger at the picture of the lilligant roughly sketched and painted into her book.
Emmet leans closer, scrutinizing it. Onion shuffles over to look down at the picture too.
Humanoid, green leaves, white face, yellow collar - similar enough to what he can recall.
But long and slender limbs, sharply tapered arms, small pink flower, short leaves - no?
"I have never seen this Pokémon in my life."
Ingo sighs quietly from behind him and Akari groans, dropping her head down onto the table.
"I mean," Rei says, "to be fair, you have amnesia."
"Irrelevant!" Emmet sits upright, pointing an accusing finger at the boy. "My memory is flawless! I can clearly recall the events of the past two years and ten months! I know what I have seen and it is not this!”
“And you’re quite sure it wasn’t just a different Pokémon entirely?” Laventon asks tentatively.
“I am Emmet. I am verrry sure. They are similar enough that I know I saw a lilligant. I think you just drew it wrong.”
Akari lets out an offended gasp. “Excuse me? Are you implying that-”
Emmet interrupts. “I have never implied anything in my life. You drew it wrong.”
Ingo lets out a bark of laughter as Rei gives up on trying to quell the argument. “Emmet is incredibly stubborn. I don’t believe these tracks will lead anywhere.”
“Because I am Emmet and I am right, ” he snaps, crossing his arms dramatically. Onion hops down from the tabletop to settle in his lap.
Laventon, desperate to prevent the conversation from further derailing, directs his next question to Ingo. “What are your thoughts, Warden? You’ve spent plenty of time in the wilds of Hisui, so perhaps you have some insight to spare.”
He hums thoughtfully.
“Ingo,” Emmet hisses through a strained smile. “Ingo, my beloved twin. My dearest brother. My favorite sibling. You are legally and morally obligated to agree with me.”
He hums louder, sitting up slightly to dramatically stroke his beard in thought.
“Ingo!” Akari pleads. “Aren’t we friends? Don’t you trust me? Your best friend who you know has spent half a year studying Pokémon and who knows more about Hisui than your brother?”
The sneasel, having been rudely awoken by Ingo’s movement, mimics him and rubs its chin with a clawed hand, squinting down at the people seated around the kotatsu.
“Ingo,” Rei huffs, “for the love of the Almighty, I am actually begging you to end this. You’re the only person they’ll listen to. Please.”
He sighs, dropping his hand down to ruffle the fur of the disgruntled sneasel. “I could very easily solve this conundrum! However, it is rather entertaining watching you both argue. You are two incredibly stubborn people, and witnessing you attempting to sway each other is truly a sight to behold. It would be positively criminal for me to interrupt, especially when you look like you’re enjoying yourselves so much!”
Rei drops his head into his hands with a muffled “why are you all like this?” while Laventon sighs wearily.
The edges of his frown quirk up for a second in a small smile. “Just kidding. Hisui has a regional variant.”
Which -
What???
“What do you mean it has a regional variant? What even is a regional variant??” Emmet stares at him incredulously.
“Are you kidding me?!” Akari shouts, throwing her hands up in defeat before flopping backwards to lie on the ground. “A regional variant! Why did - Am I just stupid?”
Emmet reaches behind him and pulls a pillow off the couch, throwing it at Akari. It hits her square in the face with a quiet oof. “You are not stupid. Stop that. What is a regional variant?”
“It means the lilligants look different,” Ingo says smugly.
“No shit, Ingo,” Emmet shoots back, ignoring the scandalized gasp at his language. “Is that it? Is it just Pokémon that look different?”
“It’s a result of evolutionary adaptation, my good sir!” Laventon proclaims. “The lilligants of Hisui have such powerful legs to better help them traverse the snowy mountains! I imagine they look quite different in other environments.”
Akari sits back up to sprawl across the tabletop. “It’s like the sneasels! Of course it’s like the sneasels, why did I not think of that?”
“To be fair,” Rei interjects, “sneasels are the only Pokémon where we’ve been able to take a close look at both regional forms. It isn’t like we have much to go off of.”
“Still,” she sighs, “we know about basculins being regional. And samurotts, too.”
“And braviaries,” Ingo adds. “And zoruas.”
Emmet tilts his head, shooting Ingo a curious glance. “Aren’t those all Unovan Pokémon?”
Akari blinks over at him. “They are?”
“Correct!” Ingo says. “I had wondered why so many Pokémon here seemed just left of familiar, but after encountering Johtonian sneasels, it occurred to me that they must be Hisuian variations of Pokémon that I was previously familiar with.”
“Huh,” says Rei. “I know rowlet, cyndaquil, and oshawott all have different evolutions here because of… something to do with the environment, but it never occurred to me that so many of these are all Hisuian variants. I guess I never thought about it because I just haven’t seen any of them before.”
Akari pulls her Pokédex back across the table to flip through the pages some more. “Well, we already knew that basculin and qwilfish and sneasel have regional forms, but I think that’s only because we’ve seen their standard forms before. Considering how many Pokémon there are that I don’t recognize at all, I wonder how many more of these are regional variants? I just assumed they were native Pokémon that had gone extinct, but I guess they probably still have other forms alive in the future.”
Ingo squishes the sneasel’s face in his hands. “I wonder if our actions in this time have had any effect on the future? It saddens me to think that Sneasler’s line will end soon.”
“Don’t worry. This will be your legacy,” Emmet says, blindly reaching back to pat his arm. “Fell from the sky and single handedly saved an entire species from extinction.”
Ingo barks a laugh. “That might be setting our hopes a little high. I don’t think I can be responsible for the survival of a whole line of Pokémon.”
“You never know,” Akari shrugs, “maybe we’ll get back and find out that suddenly these weird purple sneasels have been spotted around Mount Coronet.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” he sighs. “I’m afraid I can only do so much for them.”
Emmet hums thoughtfully. “We will see. Whenever we decide to leave.”
There’s a beat of silence.
“So what will Onion evolve into?” Akari asks.
“A normal lilligant. Because she is normal.”
“But we’re in Hisui-!”
Ingo sighs as the argument is started anew.