Chapter Text
Shuichi Saihara was used to travel. His parents were famous pokemon trainers and had taken him all over the region, entering pokemon contests and challenging gym leaders. One of the things that he had learned traveling with his parents, whether they intended for him to learn this or not, was that large cities always had a lot of crime.
Alto City was one of the larger cities in the Talon region and it had as much crime as could be expected. Unlike when he was traveling with his parents though, Shuichi now had the ability to help.
"H-hey! Stop right there!" he yelled. He nearly tripped as he was running, but managed to stay on his feet to continue the chase only slightly worse for wear. He tightened his hold on his Horsea, making sure it stayed safe in his arms as he tripped through crowds and dodged around tourists.
"I'm not gonna stop just because you ask me to!" The guy yelled back, not breaking his stride in the slightest.
"Horsea, smokescreen!" Shuichi called.
His pokemon cried out as it unleashed a plume of smoke around them. A confused murmur rose up from those around them, but Shuichi had kept an eye on the guy's trajectory and knew that he was likely to trip over someone and come to a stop for long enough for him to catch up.
The smoke was dissipated by the time Shuichi caught up to his suspect, laying in a tangle of limbs on the ground. He bowed to the two innocent people tangled up with his suspect. "Ah, sorry about that."
"Aw man," the guy sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He wore a genuinely remorseful expression and looked like the fight had finally gone out of him. "You got me." This was the first time that Shuichi was able to get a good look at the man. He looked older than Shuichi by a few years, with pale brown hair that seemed almost tinged pink and equally pale green eyes. He wore an oddly poofy dark hat that matched the loose dark jacket that was draped over his arms. His ruffled shirt and pants were pure white, the latter of which were tucked into dark boots.
The two civilians were quick to untangle themselves and take their leave, leaving Shuichi with his suspect when Officer Jenny and Growlithe caught up to him. Growlithe stood right in front of the guy, growling slightly.
"Good work, Shuichi," she smiled at him. "I knew that you could do it."
Shuichi ducked his head and pulled his hat over his eyes. "I-it's nothing," he mumbled. "You would have done a better job."
Jenny laughed. "Don't be silly, you're still learning. You'll never learn anything if you talk like that." She smiled again as she pat him on the back. The look turned fierce as soon as she looked down at the man Shuichi had caught. "You're coming with me for being suspected in several crimes of Team Midas. Attempt to flee again and my Growlithe might not be as nice to you as my apprentice was."
The man sighed again. "Man, Coine is going to be so mad when she comes to get me," he mumbled.
"What was that?" Shuichi questioned, leaning forward.
"Nothing," the man said. "Let's get this over with."
Jenny smiled at him again, her hand holding tight to the suspect's shoulder. "You go on ahead, Shuichi. You'll be late to the academy if you hang around here any longer."
"Ah, you're right," Shuichi said. "Thank you for everything Aunt Jenny."
"It's still Officer when I'm on the clock," she told him. She was almost never off the clock, his aunt was a workaholic if he'd ever met one, so Shuichi just smiled as he turned on his heel and ran toward Hope's Peak Academy.
Hope's Peak was a rather famous pokemon academy and one of the things that drew people to Alto City in the first place. Hope's Peak was different from other Pokemon academies, which just taught the ins and outs of pokemon and battling. The academy worked closely with the Maple Research Labs, which were also a huge draw to the city, meaning that the academy was a fast track into the more professional or academic world. Graduates from the academy had an open door to the research labs, to official league work, to the police station, or even the pokemon center. For that reason Hope's Peak was considered the best pokemon academy in the region.
The academy was one of the reasons that Shuichi's parents had decided to leave him in the care of his aunt. If he attended the academy, he would have a world of opportunities open to him. He was just lucky that his Aunt Jenny was willing to take him in, since it gave him the opportunity to have a first hand look at one of the paths he was most interested in taking. Being a detective wasn't the same as working as an officer, there were less restrictions for one and Shuichi had never gotten along with fire pokemon as well as he did with water types, but the two groups worked closely with each other. And if things didn't work out, he still had the connections formed at the academy to fall back on.
"Horsea!" His pokemon cried out, getting his attention. He looked down at his Horsea before realizing what he was doing.
"Ah, if I stand here daydreaming, I'll be late!" He broke into a run again, glad that his aunt often insisted on having him run with her. It had really helped his stamina over the years.
Hope's Peak Academy was very large. The school had multiple floors and was divided into seven different departments: Research, Healthcare, Technology, Battling, Pokemon Breeding, Protection/rescue, and League Facilities. While it was encouraged that attendees chose a department and stick to it, no one was barred from sitting in on other classes or even just jumping around. Once you were in the academy you had access to all its facilities and resources.
Shuichi had often split his time between the departments of Protection and League Facilities. While working with his aunt was nice and did give him a lot of field training, he still wanted to take the classes offered by the department of Protection and Rescue. He wanted to help people, after all, and in order to do that, he needed to learn the areas the police didn't cover. Who did people go to when they were in trouble? What could the police do and where could they go? There were a lot of questions that he wanted answers to and a lot of information that the academy could offer.
The department for league facilities was a bit different. It was one of the larger departments, covering more information than most. This was where you went if you wanted to become a gym leader, join the elite four, open a pokemart or a daycare center, or even if you wanted to open or run a contest hall. Shuichi would need their help and approval if he ever wanted to open his own detective agency rather than joining the police department or having to join an already existing facility. It wasn't something that he knew for sure he wanted to do, but gaining connections was good and having his face known to the people that could help him would be better in the long run no matter what he ultimately decided to do.
He kept his Horsea cradled in his arms. The academy allowed you to keep one pokemon out at all times if you wanted and he usually chose Horsea for that. It made him feel a bit better being able to hug his pokemon whenever he felt nervous or out of his depth and it was a lot more subtle of a gesture than tugging on his hat could be.
Shuichi was intercepted by Kaede before he could make it up to the Rescue and Protection department. Chimeco was floating beside her as always, but Kaede's expression looked more worried than usual. "Shuichi! I need your help!"
"What's wrong?" he asked, tripping a step as Kaede latched onto his arm and tried to tug him down the hallway.
"I told you that Kanade has been acting really weird lately, right?"
Kanade was Kaede's identical twin sister. The two didn’t seem to get along very well from what Shuichi had heard and the few times that he had seen them together, they were complete opposites. Kanade wore all black and he's never seen her smile, while Kaede was as cheerful and helpful as they came. Even though he'd never had a full conversation with her, Shuichi found Kaede's twin kind of intimidating. Her glare alone made him feel like she could paralyze him, he couldn't imagine talking to her for longer than a minute.
"Um, yeah. You told me," he answered uncertainly. He realized after a moment that she was pulling him toward the battle hall. Kaede and her sister were in the same department, but Kaede was training more for contest while her sister seemed to have a focus on battling. He could only assume that they were going to the hall to see Kanade, which made him hold Horsea tighter as well as tug his hat more firmly on his head. He felt like he needed all the armor he could get. He'd never entered the battle hall without finding at least one person that looked more intimidating than he felt comfortable dealing with.
"Well she disappeared the last few days and came back with... with..." Kaede huffed, unable to find the exact word she wanted. "I don't know, some kind of evil pokemon!"
Shuichi choked and stopped in his tracks. "Evil?"
Kaede paused in her pulling to look back at him. "I don't know how to explain it. But when I saw it, I knew that there was something wrong with it. I saw it attack someone when she was battling earlier and it used some move that I'd never seen before."
"It attacked someone?" He gasped. "Kaede, you shouldn't be telling me this, you should be talking to the professors or--"
"It wasn't here," Kaede told him, cutting him off. "I tried to follow her last night, because I wondered where she'd snuck off to, and I saw her battling someone in the cemetery near our house. I didn't see who it was but..." Kaede let go of him to wrap her arms around herself. "Shuichi, I don't know what to do." She looked up at him. "What if my sister is abusing her pokemon? What if she made them evil someone?"
"I really don't think we can jump to that kind of conclusion," he told her.
"What else am I supposed to think?" she asked, her voice high and slightly hysterical.
"Chime! Chime!" Her Chimeco floated next to her, nuzzling her cheek until Kaede reached out to hug the pokemon.
Shuichi moved to her side as well, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. "Have you talked to her?"
She shook her head. "Kanade wouldn't talk to me. She hates me."
"Well let's start there," he said. "We'll try and talk to her before deciding that she's some kind of evil mastermind, alright?"
Kaede nodded, putting a wobbly smile on her face. "Okay. Thanks, Shuichi."
Shuichi wasn't really sure what he could do in this situation, but he was a detective. Or at least, he was trying to be. If he couldn't do anything else, he could investigate and try to get to the bottom of whatever it was that Kaede saw. It was a good thing Hope's Peak was so unrestrictive. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting much done in his chosen department today.
The battle hall was made for Pokemon battles with two areas marked for battles at opposite sides of the room and an area off to the back with a desk for lectures. Kaede's sister was there, along with Kokichi from league facilities and his twin brother Kimochi, who Shuichi was fairly certain didn't actually attend the academy and just snuck in sometimes. Kaede paused in her tracks when she saw them and Shuichi looked closer, trying to see what she could.
Kanade was wearing all black, as usual, dark lips drawn into her usual frown and purple eyeshadow on her eyes. On one shoulder was a Murkrow and looming over the other was a Seviper. Kokichi had his hands behind his back with two ghost pokemon floating over his shoulder, a Ghastly and a Misdreavus. Shuichi wondered if the Misdreavus was new, since Shuichi didn't think he'd ever seen it before. Kimochi, who looked so much like Kokichi that he wouldn't be able to tell them apart of he hasn't decided to wear all black, had his arms wrapped around a Togetic, the pokemon flying out of his arms and hovering over his shoulder when he began to make a wild gesture in their conversation.
No matter how hard he looked, Shuichi couldn't spot anything that seemed off or out of the ordinary. He turned to Kaede, speaking softly to make sure that he didn't draw attention to them. "What is it that you're seeing, Kaede?"
She looked at him in surprise, mouth agape. "You... you can't see it?"
Shuichi shook his head. "No, I don't see anything abnormal at all."
Kaede wrapped her arms around herself again, her eyes glued to the sight before them. "It's that Seviper," she whispered. "There's something wrong with it. It's like... there’s an aura around it or something. I don't know how else to explain it."
Shuichi looked back at the scene in front of him, but he still couldn't see what she was seeing.
"That's not all though," she said. "I thought it was just her, but... Kokichi's pokemon, the Misdreavus. It has the same aura."
Just then, the ghost pokemon turned to look at them. The Misdreavus smiled and Shuichi felt almost like it was a threat. It couldn't hear them, could it? How good was a ghost pokemon's hearing?
But then Kokichi was calling its attention and he and Kanade were standing across from each other, ready to battle. That would explain why they both had two pokemon out. Double battles were usually harder to maintain between single trainers as opposed to in pairs, but he wasn't surprised that two difficult people would prefer difficult battles. But then... where did Kimochi go?
"Hi!"
"Ah!" Shuichi screamed and fell back on his butt, Horsea spitting ink at Kimochi's face. The boy began coughing and spitting, reaching up to rub his eyes and stopping short. "I'm so sorry," he said, quickly getting to his feet.
"Ack, this is a terrible hello!" he said.
Shuichi frowned, "Horsea, you can't just do that!"
"Horseeaa!" A stream of water shot at Kiomochi's face, washing off the ink.
Kimochi blinked a few times, before running a hand over his face to get the water off. "No harm done," Kimochi said. "You're lucky it's me here and not Kokichi or you'd never hear the end of it."
Shuichi knew that he was right. Kokichi had gained a reputation for pulling pranks on others, especially those that he didn't like or that bothered him. Kimochi was only somewhat better in that he only seemed to care about people that hurt his brother and made a career out avenging him. Though Shuichi hadn't seen Kimochi too often, he'd never ended up on the other boy's war path either. Even if they'd had other embarrassing incidents like this.
"So what were you doing staring and gossiping, huh?" Kimochi asked. He looked at them with the same excited expression Kokichi often wore and the similarity made him nervous. Most of Kokichi's expressions spelled trouble and he wasn't sure what to expect from Kimochi just yet.
"Um, we were just..." Shuichi hesitated, not sure what to say. Kimochi tilted his head as he waited for Shuichi's answer. Kokichi would have already made a fuss about Shuichi's hesitation or accused Shuichi of trying to lie by now, but Kimochi looked like he had all the patience in the world.
"We just wanted to watch the battle," Kaede said.
"The battle hadn't even started yet," Kimochi rebutted. He opened his arms and Togetic floated down to be embraced, letting out a small yawn as it did so. Shuichi felt himself yawn back almost immediately, those things were so contagious.
Kaede besides him was yawning as well, but she shook it off quicker. "Kanade is my sister, I'm allowed to watch her if I want to."
"And she's my girlfriend," Kimochi said with a grin. "Does this mean I'm allowed to stare at her from across the room and gossip about her, too?"
"We weren't gossiping!" Kaede said.
Kimochi laughed. "Yes, you were. You always are."
"Am not!"
"You wouldn't know how to keep your nose out out Kanade's business if you were paid to."
"H-hey, that's uncalled for," Shuichi stammered.
Kimochi tilted his head at him. "Oh, is it? So Kaede's allowed to be a busybody at everyone else, but when she's called out on it, there's a problem."
"She isn't..." Shuichi suddenly felt really tired. "She isn't..."
"Kanade's had enough of people talking about her behind her back, especially when that person is her sister," Kimochi said. "Don't worry, I'll take you to where you belong."
Shuichi didn't get the chance to say anything else before he felt himself dropping to the ground. Before he fell asleep, he could feel Kaede leaning against him, also out like a light.
Shuichi woke up in his usual classroom in the Protection and Rescue department. He raised his head sleepily from the desk it was laying on before bolting upright when he realized he had been moved. His eyes immediately landed on the fishtank that was on the table across from him, where Horsea was. The pokemon jumped up from the tank and made an excited sound when it realized that Shuichi was awake. Looking to his side, he saw Kaede still slumped on the desk with Chimeco. He leaned over to check on her and let out a relieved sigh when he found that she was asleep. Checking the other side of the room, he saw his longtime classmate Rantaro with a book in hand and his Chikorita in his lap.
"Oh, you're awake," Rantaro asked with a smile. How are you feeling?"
"Um, fine, I guess," Shuichi answered. He pushed himself away from the desk to check on Horsea, but the pokemon seemed to be having a good time, so Shuichi decided to leave him there for the time being. He was grateful that Kimochi had put his pokemon in the tank for however long he was out, even if he was a little annoyed at having been put to sleep in the first place.
"I was really worried when Kimochi carried you in here," Rantaro went on.
"He carried me?" Shuichi asked, his voice going a little high with embarrassment.
Rantaro smiled. "Kimochi is really strong. Blissey carried Kaede and since he had Blissey with him I figured nothing could be too wrong but..."
"He has a Blissey?" Shuichi questioned. Shuichi didn't know much about Kimochi, but he did know Kokichi. Kokichi was a troublemaker and a prankster. More than one person had complained about him at the school, though never about anything serious enough to get him in trouble. He would have assumed that any twin of his would be the same kind of troublemaker, and the stunt he just pulled proved that, didn't it? But Blissey only evolved through high friendship and the only other pokemon he knew that Kimochi had, Togetic, was the same. So, maybe he wasn't as bad as Shuichi was thinking?
"Yeah, you should have seen him with Happiny, he absolutely babied that thing," Rantaro explained with a laugh. Shuichi hadn't known that Rantaro knew Kimochi so well. Were they friends? "Anyway, he said that you both passed out."
"You could say that," Shuichi said. "His pokemon used yawn."
"Ah, that explains it." Rantaro closed his book and placed it on the table. "Well, it hasn't been too long, only about ten minutes. He asked me to look after you both."
"Ah, thank you."
He wondered how Kimochi knew what classroom to take him to. Had he asked someone? Did Kokichi or Kanade know? He had gained a lot of questions in a short amount of time and he wasn't sure where to start with any of them. Even if he ignored those questions, what was it that Kaede saw and why couldn't he see it, too?
There was a chance that Kaede was just wrong and making a mistake. There was even a chance that she was making it up, but that would be so out of character for her that he dismissed the possibility. If there was something wrong and he just couldn't see it, maybe other people could? Perhaps he should ask his aunt later and see what she has to say about it. It might be a long shot that she'd know something, but it couldn't hurt to try, could it?
With his mind made up, Shuichi went back to Kaede's side. Even if there wasn't anything else to be done right now, he didn't want to let her waste an entire day sleeping. He placed a hand on her shoulder to gently wake her up. They could talk more about his plans and then they could try to go to class like normal. Hopefully.
Rupert sighed and hung his head. The bench beneath him was hard and uncomfortable, the wall across from him was dull and unadorned, and the guards watching him had been ignoring him all morning. This day was going horribly and he knew that it was likely to get worse before it got better. If it wasn't bad enough that he had failed his mission, he had been brought in by a kid. Granted, he was probably barely older than that kid, but still! It was embarrassing and his superior was going to be so mad when he told her. If he told her. He still hadn't ruled out lying about how he was captured.
He wished they hadn't taken his Pokeballs because he would really feel better if he had Christmas at his side. Unfortunately, criminals didn't get to have pokemon in their holding cells. He sighed again, turning his gaze to the window, and wondered just how much trouble he would be in.
That was, of course, when the wall was blown in.
Rupert jumped to his feet, waiting for the dust to clear to confirm that this was his jail break, but he didn't have to wait long. He heard the click of her heels as she strode into his cell. Coine was a very sharp dressed woman and her appearance already made him vividly aware of how much of a sloppy newbie he looked like, and was. She was dressed in a lovely white dress that fanned out around her knees, the long sleeves of which ended in black cuffs that highlighted her white gloved hands. She had a white hat that matches his, team issued, sitting on black hair, most of which was hidden under her hat but a few locks of it framed her face and spilled down almost to the bottom of her dress. The look was completed by black and white heels that were as sharp as the steely look in her lavender eyes.
She didn't speak of his failure at first, which surprised him, just looked him up and down with her assessing her gaze. "You don't have your pokemon."
It wasn't a question, so he didn't answer, just lowered his gaze to the ground and rubbed the back of his head.
She turned from him, her Meowth running along at her heels. He looked out of his cell once the dust cleared and saw her Gyrados floating there, glaring down at him. Rupert decided to scurry after her rather than stay in the pokemon's sight.
"Hey!" One of the guards yelled, raising a baton.
Superior Coine just glanced at the man and spoke softly, "Pay Day."
Meowth happily ran up and tossed a fist full of coins at the man's face, making him quickly cover his eyes. The cat pounced on him, jumping off hard enough to knock the man over. Meowth followed Coine, using pay day on anyone that so much as looked at her until she found his pokemon belt, his two pokeballs still attached, and tossed it at him.
He nearly fumbled it before he was able to put it around his waist and release Christmas. His Delibird cheered happily upon being released, snuggling up to him and making him laugh as he nuzzled her back. "Thanks, Superior Coine."
Her expression didn't change when she looked at him. "We're leaving. Come along," she said as she walked past him, heels clicking against the floor.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
She walked fast for someone in heels and he had to hurry to keep up. He slipped a few times on the scattered coins and any time one of the guards tried to come after her, Meowth was there, preemptively stopping them. It was a good thing Officer Jenny wasn't here or this would be way harder.
Rupert followed her into the busted remains of his cell where her Gyrados still floated outside. She held up a pokeball, calling the pokemon back and stalking outside. "Do not get caught so easily again, Rupee. It's annoying having to fetch you."
He laughed nervously. "Sorry you're stuck having to train someone like me."
"I will do whatever Team Midas needs of me, even if that is training new recruits like you." She looked at him over her shoulder. "Now, I hope you're ready to run. We need to blend in before anyone catches up." She took off without waiting for an answer. He would never stop being amazed at how much more graceful she was than him, even while running in heels.
The police station was a bit of a mess when Shuichi arrived. There was a large hole in one side of the building and he could see his aunt Jenny yelling and pointing at those around her. He moved closer cautiously, staying quiet and holding Horsea close.
"I can't believe that all of you just let them walk right out of here and why? Because they threw a few coins at you?"
"She had a Gyrados," one of the men objected.
"And did any of you even take your own pokemon out and battle her?" Jenny asked loudly, stomping her foot as she did so. Even Growlithe looked annoyed beside her, giving a side eye to all the officers.
"It happened so fast."
"I should send all of you back to the academy if you can't even keep one lousy criminal!"
"Um," Shuichi spoke up hesitantly, reaching out to tug on his aunt's arm. As much as he wanted to stay out of the yelling, it was hard to watch the other officers being so harshly chastised. "What, um, what happened?"
Jenny sighed, but she looked much less annoyed when she looked down at Shuichi. "That Team Midas member you brought in earlier escaped. One of the other members came and sprung him and made a mess of my station in the process."
"Oh. I'm... sorry to hear that."
She smiled at him, placing a hand on his head and pushing his hat back in the process. "Don't you worry about it, Shuichi. This is a police problem and we'll handle it. You did everything right." She glares as she looks back over at her officers. "In fact, maybe I should hire you in place of these rookies!"
They all flinched in the face of her anger.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.
She smiles at him again. "Don't worry about all this, Shuichi. Team Midas isn't the most dangerous team out there, but clearly someone in that group isn't afraid to go to extreme measures. I don't want you getting hurt."
Shuichi nods, pulling his hat back down. "Alright. Ah, I had something else that I wanted to ask you."
"Ask away, kid."
"Well..." Shuichi tried to think of how to word this. It was a little hard to ask about something that he hasn't seen himself, but he'd spent all day thinking about this and his aunt was the only lead he could think of outside of trying to talk to Kaede's sister again. "Have you heard anything about, um, evil pokemon?"
"Evil... Shuichi, pokemon aren't inherently good or evil. You know that," she said.
"I, I know, that's not what I meant. I mean... pokemon with dark auras or something like that."
His aunt got an odd expression on her face as she looked at him more closely. "Why? Have you seen something?"
"No, not me," he answered. "My friend thinks that she saw a pokemon with a strange aura. Two actually, and... I wasn't really sure what to make of it."
She looked at him for a long time before answering. "I don't want you getting in over your head, Shuichi. If your friend is seeing things, tell her to come down to the station to talk to me directly. And tell her to stay away from pokemon that look or act strangely."
"So does that mean..."
"It's just a precaution," she told him. She smiled at him but it was thin, weak. She was hiding something.
Shuichi looked down, holding his pokemon tighter. "A-alright."
Jenny placed a hand on his head again before walking off to talk to her officers again.
"Horseea!" His pokemon cries out to get attention, blowing a few bubbles at him to cheer him up. Shuichi smiles down at Horsea, but his mind is still spinning. Is whatever Kaede saw real? Do evil pokemon really exist? And if they do, how can he protect her if her sister has one?
"What should I do?" Shuichi asked quietly.
Horsea just blows more bubbles at him. It doesn't answer his question, but it does make him feel better.