Chapter Text
Freezing.
Zoroark was absolutely freezing, it could barely feel its legs as it struggled to get back to its den.
It couldn’t help the whisper of a laugh that escaped its lips, of all places to be so cold the last place it would think of was the Obsidian Fieldlands.
Stupid. It was so stupid. It knew humans were expanding, knew they were getting bolder, but it needed food and it couldn’t find any near its den.
They had seen it when it dropped its illusion and hadn’t hesitated
It hadn’t either.
Zoroark shook its head, it didn’t matter right now, and looked up. It was close, so close, the cliffside cave that was its home in sight it just needed to climb up.
It kneeled down, trying its hardest to keep its legs from collapsing and jumped.
One ledge, another, a third, it just needed climb one m-
Before it made the final leap it felt its legs finally give out.
It barely felt the impact as it crashed to the ground, the food it was carrying scattering on impact. It tried, with everything it had left to get its body off the ground, but just couldn’t.
It laid there in the quiet forest exhausted and about to die. Part of Zoroark screamed to get up, an angry and bitter part of it that refused to die here.
But another, much more tired part of it, willed its eyes to close.
Distantly, as though it were underwater, it could hear the panicked bark of its young.
The last of its young, the only one it could save as it ran like a coward from the screams of its brethren.
Zoroark wished it could tell it’s young it’d be okay, that everything would be okay.
But as the darkness it once held mastery over consumed it, it could only hope its little fox would be safe in a land that hated their very existance…
———
Akari couldn’t sleep.
Really how could she, tomorrow would be the day that decided whether she’d get to stay in Jubilife Village or be thrown to the Lycanroc.
She felt confident that she could do it, something inside her scoffed at the idea of catching 3 Pokemon being a challenge, but still it was a lot of pressure…
She probably just needed some fresh air.
Getting up from her futon, Akari walked over to the window and began wedging it open. While it was the middle of the night, she still didn’t want to go outside by herself. The whispers and strange looks from that afternoon burned into the back of her mind.
Once she got the window open Akari took a deep breath. It was nice, the quiet and darkness, something about it just made her feel safe in this unknown place.
She stood there, appreciating the night, when something caught her ear.
Rustling?
She opened her eyes to see… something she couldn’t quite make out walking behind the barracks she’d been given.
From what she could see it was clearly a pokemon, small and if she had to describe it it almost looked like an Eevee, and it was sniffing the ground as if looking for something.
Akari stood still watching the creature. She could hear it grumbling and whimpering, as if something was wrong, but it didn’t seem to be injured from what she could see so she couldn’t understand what-
Before she could finish her thought something rumbled.
More specifically the pokemon’s stomach rumbled, as it whimpered once again and fell to the floor exhausted.
Akari looked around the room until she eyed the small box of potato mochi next to her, leftovers from when Professor Laventon had bought some for her earlier.
She took a piece and leaned out the window.
“Hey.” Akari whispered.
The pokemon jolted to its feet. It looked around a moment before its eyes landed on her, and it backed away hissing quietly.
“Hey, no it’s okay I promise!” Akari said, trying to keep her voice as quiet as possible. She held out the mochi for it, “You’re hungry right?”
It stared at the food for a moment, before inching its way towards her.
As it got closer she could make out more of its features. Its fur was black, with red markings on its face and fur puff. A Zorua, the voice in the back of her head told her.
It looked really soft if she was being honest.
Once it got close enough however, Zorua snatched the food from her hand and backed away quickly before devouring the mochi in seconds.
“Zor…”
It pawed at the ground, as if disappointed there wasn’t more food.
Akari smiled and reached over for more mochi.
———
By the time Akari was finally back in her room she was exhausted. Mostly from the walking and the fact that she was stuffed full of mochi. With the help of the Cyndaquil the professor had given her, completing her task was even easier than she thought it would be.
As she began changing into her pajamas she heard rain begin to fall outside.
A lot of rain.
By the time she had finished putting on her t-shirt what had started as a drizzle became a downpour, the rain battering the hut she now called home.
Before she flopped onto her futon, she grabbed the pokeball containing Azi, the Cyndaquil Professor Laventon had given her, and had her light the fire pit.
Once lit she cuddled up with her pokemon ready for a peaceful night of sleep.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Or it would have been, if it wasn’t for the scratching by her window.
At first she thought it was the rain, but it was insistent and loud enough that she eventually got the message and got up despite Azi’s protest.
Her body shook as the cold air smacked her face, and looked around but she couldn't see-
“Rua…?”
Akari looked down to see as the once empty space melted away to show the very soaked pokemon from last night.
“What are you doing out there!?”
Without thinking she reached out and scooped it up and brought it into the room, the little pokemon not moving a muscle after it was lifted off the ground.
She gently set it down by the fire to warm up. It was still frozen as she went to find something to help dry its fur.
It wasn’t until Azi came over to inspect the newcomer that it seemed to snap out of its shock, shaking its fur out and startling Azi. The Cyndaquil lit her fire and cried out in anger while the Zorua stepped back and hissed at her.
“Hey!” Both pokemon turned to look at Akari, her arms folded and face scowling, “No fighting, we can all be friends here.”
Azi looked between her trainer and the Zorua, before letting her fire die and stomping back to Akari’s futon to sulk.
Akari sighed, before grabbing the box of mochi from today's dinner (the Professor and Rei were apparently huge fans) and holding out a piece towards Azi, who’s anger miraculously disappeared once she had food in her mouth.
Once her partner was satisfied Akari made her way back over to the firepit and held the box out for Zorua to see.
“Here! You're probably hungry right?”
Zorua stared at her for a moment, before sniffing the box and taking a piece out to munch on. Akari smiled, leaving the box next to the pokemon, and took a sheet from her bed to wrap around Zorua.
It startled, but after a few seconds settled back down and went back to eating.
Akari stepped back to watch as the pokemon ate. Her attention was solely on it wondering why it came back, didn’t it have a family or friends to take care of it, until she heard snoring coming from behind her.
She turned around to see Azi asleep on her bed, an idea popping into her head not long after.
Making her way to her discarded clothes Akari rummaged around until she found what she was looking for, an empty pokeball.
“Hey.” Zorua stopped from taking another piece of mochi and turned its gaze towards Akari, “I had an idea! Since you seem to like me, why don’t we travel together!”
“Zor?”
“We can see all of Hisui together and make lots of new friends.” Akari smiled, “What do you say?”
She held out the pokeball for the Zorua to see.
Her smile, however, wavered when the pokemon’s ear drooped and it curled into the sheet wrapped around it.
“…rua…”
“H-Hey it’s alright.” Akari tried to reassure, letting the pokeball fall to the side, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. And we can still be friends, yeah?”
Zorua perked up a bit and stared at her, eyes seeming to sparkle.
Slowly, it got up and made its way into Akari’s lap, where the girl carefully lifted it up into her arms.
Akari brought them over to her futon, wrapping them and Azi in the blankets, and drifted off to sleep snuggling with her new friends.
———
When Akari woke up the next morning it was to knocking on her door.
She rolled over, groaning into her pillow.
“Gimme a minute!”
The knocking stopped and Akari brought her head up from her pillow to blearily look around.
The events of last night flashed in her mind and she searched the room more intently for her new friend. She was a bit upset to find that they had apparently left before she woke up.
Stumbling her way to the pile of clothes that was her Galaxy Team uniform, Akari wouldn’t have noticed the new addition to the pile if it hadn’t fallen and hit her foot as she carelessly pulled at the fabrics.
After a bit of internal (and maybe a bit of external) screaming she looked down to see what hit her.
On the ground was a wooden bracelet, parts of it stained brown with dirt as if it had been dug up.
Picking it up Akari couldn’t help the smile on her face as she inspected it further.
On the front of the bracelet was the stylized face of a Zoroark.
Akari slipped on the friendship bracelet, finished getting dressed, and made her way out her hut to begin the day.
———
“If you came from beyond the space-time rift… could you be from the space where almighty Sinnoh is said to reside?”
The girl in front of her looked Akari up and down, before nodding to herself.
“I am Irida, leader of the Pearl…”
Irida’s words petered as her eyes widened on the bracelet around Akari’s arm.
“See, this is the problem with the Pearl Clan. Wasting time whenever they see-“
“Where did you get that bangle?”