Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It shouldn’t be this cold.

Ingo’s first thought murmured in his head, barely registered over the loud bang that jolted him from sleep. He found himself looking up through the darkness and at the ceiling of his tent — the thick fabric above was moving, dim except for a blur of ambient light that stretched up the wall and reached across it. 

Something was howling. And still slamming.

Rubbing the frost from his heavy eyes, Ingo turned onto his back and sat up to properly assess the room.

It was impossible not to immediately notice that the doors to his tent were open and loose, wind swinging them back into the walls repeatedly. And the warm light from his now-opened furnace had been snuffed out, replaced with a cold, dim glare from the snowstorm raging outside. Snow was piled at the entrance and scattered across the floor, as well as sprinkled across his own bed and belongings. 

How did that happen?

Shivering, Ingo pulled back his blankets and left its waning warmth to approach the entrance, picking Gliscor’s Pokéball off his table on the way over. Steadying the doors with his hands, he used one of his feet to shove most of the snowpile back out through the door. When that was taken care of, he took a cautious glance outside, squinting into the hazy storm.

Clan members had told him that the Zoroark packs would grow more comfortable with approaching the settlement when the temperatures dropped to even more unforgiving temperatures, and the nights grew longer. 

Was it already time for that? Had one of them tried to get into his room? Had it actually entered and then left?

He didn’t think he would have been left unharmed if one had. And his supplies surely wouldn’t have been left alone either.

Perhaps a curious Zorua, then? But Zorua couldn’t reach up high enough to open the tent doors… unless he hadn’t truly secured the locks when he went to bed, perhaps.

Ingo looked over his shoulder into the dark room to check if the assumed intruder was still here somehow, pressed into a corner or hunched under his bed frame. But there was nothing in the darkness, of course. No sharp eyes glowing from the corners, no ominous forms blending in with the furniture. Not even any snowy footprints smeared on the floorboards. 

Turning back to face the flurry rushing outside the doorway one last time, Ingo stared into the spaces between the snowfall. No forms, no figures, nothing. He could barely even see the trees through the flurry, the white-dusted forms bending and swaying with the gale.

Something about it was unnerving.

But the intruder was long gone now, if it had even been here in the first place.

Ingo shut the door, one last rush of cold pushing through as the howling wind was muffled, and the ambient light was swallowed by darkness. Locking it securely, he pulled on the doors to double-check this time. The man sighed, a cloud of breath fading into the air. The wind was no longer tormenting him, but it was still freezing inside. Too cold to sleep comfortably.

Moving towards the frozen furnace, Ingo set Gliscor’s Pokéball back with the rest on the table before crouching down. The fire inside had gone out completely, leaving a dark hollow in its place.

Something had to have done that, surely. The wind may have been able to extinguish it, but it would not have been able to swing open the locked hatch.

Reaching out for his wood supply tucked into a low shelf nearby, Ingo placed three more logs into the furnace and sparked a small flame. It quickly illuminated the insides with a warm orange as it steadily began flickering across the logs, and Ingo shut the furnace door before any embers could jump out.

The only thing left to do was get back into bed and wait for the room to heat back up. Ingo trudged across the wooden floorboards and pulled back his somewhat-warm sheets to curl up under them.

With his head sinking into his pillows, Ingo let out an exasperated sigh as he tried to make himself comfortable under the covers. His heavy eyes scanned the room one last time — nothing. No movement, no sounds, and no wind, save for the storm now muffled outside. There was only the soft, swelling glow of the furnace working hard to thaw the freeze that had settled.

Ingo relented to the heaviness and closed his eyes, but deep down, he expected he probably wouldn't be falling back asleep. It had always been difficult for him to do so once he was roused. 

And the thought that someone or something had been in his room while he was asleep was admittedly unnerving.

So with eyes closed, he listened to the snowstorm rushing outside, buried under his insulated blankets in a haze as the hours melted together, until a bleak daybreak began to brighten his tent’s canvas. It was difficult to get out of bed and travel down to Jubilife Village’s training grounds that day, he didn’t feel well-rested at all.

—————

Six nights later, Ingo once again found himself blinking into the darkness, shivering under his blankets like he’d been sleeping in deep cold for half an hour. 

Another bang of the door against the wall, and more howling of the wind rushed in to greet him. 

More snow scattered across the floor and his belongings.

Ingo sat up quicker this time, eyes scanning the room. His heart jolted when his gaze met with a dark silhouette hunched over the end of his bed, large yellow eyes staring at him.

The eyes blinked and the head tilted. What had once startled Ingo now put him at ease.

“Gliscor,” Even amongst the wind and snow rushing inside, Ingo sunk back into his blankets with a sigh of relief. His ace must have exited his Pokéball and chased off whatever had entered his room. “You’re keeping watch, aren’t you?”

The eyes blinked again, and slowly Gliscor reached upwards to hang from the rafters by his tail, hunching back into the darkness where he felt comfortable. The only sounds made were the creaking of his carapace, and his soft chittering.

Once again, Ingo removed himself from his bed, shoved out all the snow at the entrance (and took another peek outside, to of course find nothing. The swaying tree line in the distance still caught his gaze for more than a moment, though), and re-lit his furnace — much more swiftly this time, knowing Gliscor was there and at ease. It meant he at least had the comfort of knowing no wild beast was hiding in his room with him this time.

“Did you see anything out there?” Ingo spoke aloud into the room as he locked the doors and checked their security.

“Scorrr,” Connecting eyes, Gliscor chittered reluctantly. Perhaps he hadn’t seen what it was either.

“That is alright, I appreciate the vigilance all the same.” Ingo yawned as he buried himself back under the warm blankets, looking up above him at the rafters. Gliscor stared back down and chittered, large eyes now catching the furnace’s dim flicker. Ingo could feel his companion’s gaze linger on the back of his head, before he heard his carapace creak as he shifted to watch the door. “Goodnight, Gliscor.”

He was probably going to have to bring this semi-nightly occurrence up at the Pearl Clan’s next morning meeting, he thought.

Eventually the sun rose up over the snowy mountains after another haze of hours went by. Ingo noticed somewhere during that time Gliscor must have returned to his ball, as the room was empty when he finally moved to leave his bed, groggy and exhausted.

—————

Five nights later, Ingo had once again awoken to the same exact scene. A frozen, scattered room that had been opened up to the harsh cold, and a confused Gliscor crammed up above him in the rafters, tail hanging down and wide eyes watching over him. 

He got up and swept the snow out once again, but something felt different this time.

“Do you sense anything out there tonight?” Ingo turned up to his companion, scrunched up under his own wings in the rafters. Gliscor didn’t move from where he sat, but his large yellow eyes were focused intently out the door.

Ingo followed Gliscor’s gaze out into the snowstorm. Like every other night, the tree line could barely be seen, bending with the rushing snow. Ingo squinted, trying to see them better, but he quickly decided to stop — staring too long was warping one of the closer trees to look like, well… something was standing there.

It sent dread through him, but no, it was just a tall, thin tree, dark against the snowstorm. He was starting to see things.

Rubbing his eyes as he locked the door, Ingo relit his furnace, climbed back into his now-cold bed, and sighed.

“Goodnight, Gliscor.”

“Gliii,” 

Buried under his blankets, Ingo’s gaze was lazily drawn to the small window openings in his door. He watched the snow rush by behind them, blurred and long and wispy. He closed his eyes, accepting this was going to be another sleepless night that dragged on until sunrise. 

He really needed to bring this up again at their next morning meeting. It was concerning that it felt like every single night this happened was just the exact same night, repeating itself.

Maybe they needed a nightwatch. Some extra eyes around the settlement’s perimeter at night, to keep scavengers at bay. Maybe he’d suggest that tomorrow.

—————

Four nights later, Ingo did not wake up to the expected sight of his ceiling. 

He awoke to the sideways expanse of dark snow and distant mountains, with the wind and snow screaming in his ears. Cold bit deep into muscles and bare skin where it had seeped into his clothes and dragged against his face. 

Dragged.

He was being pulled–

The tug of his leg, void of feeling but aware of the strain, became obvious once it was suddenly dropped in the snow like deadweight. Ingo choked on a cloud of frozen breath and scrambled to push himself upright with numb limbs.

He was in the middle of the snowstorm, frigid wind lashing him. 

Hands went to his waist for Pokéballs that weren't there. Looking around frantically to both gain his bearings and try to spot his kidnapper, Ingo spotted his distant tent obscured by sheets of slurry. The doors were open to the darkness inside, and a trench of disrupted snow trailing behind him led all the way back to it. 

Something had dragged him out here. And while that something seemed to now be long gone, it had managed to pull him all the way out of his tent, through the settlement, and a good distance into the howling wastes.

Where was the night watch? There was absolutely no one out here, as far as he could see. How had no one seen this happening? He couldn’t even see any telltale signs of them in the distance. No lantern lights or anything.

Ingo stumbled to his frozen feet and quickly made his way back to the open doors on shaky legs, teeth chattering and mind thoroughly rattled. Entering his snow-scattered room, he noticed it was quiet in a way it hadn’t been the last few nights.

There was no dark shape up in the rafters, no yellow eyes watching him from open spaces between furniture. And there hadn’t been outside, either. 

Gliscor was not out this time. Had this thing even bested his own Pokémon with its stealth?

It unnerved him that whatever had done this had gotten as far as it had undetected. Had it adapted, learning it had to be sneakier?

He looked out through the door before shutting it quickly. There was nothing to be seen out there, and still no flickering lights from anyone keeping watch — there never was anything, but he felt like something was still out there.

This is no longer safe, Ingo thought, new fire flaring in his furnace as he threw his heavy pile of blankets back over himself, having added four more to the pile. His Pokéballs had now been moved beneath his pillow rather than the bedside table, and he released Gliscor. This time, he kept his companion with him on his bed, his long heavy wings draped over like another blanket.

Settling back under his covers once more, Ingo’s side swelled before he released a massive, exhausted sigh through his nose. This was getting to be ridiculous, what was going on? If it wasn’t Zoroark season at the start of all this, it had to be now. He was going to have to bring this up again in the next meeting, because it was not being taken seriously enough. But no one else was reporting occurrences like this. Was it only bothering him? He didn’t–

Ingo’s thoughts halted as his eyes adjusted to the dark. In the shadowed corner of the room and behind one of his cabinets, there was a single long tendril, stark against the darkness. Wispy and white, it hung in the air, suspended as if it was underwater. 

That hadn’t been there before.

Something about the sight made Ingo’s chest flutter, sick. What was–?

He didn’t know what happened next, as suddenly he was blinking exhaustion from his heavy eyes. It was morning, Gliscor was gone, and his blankets had been tossed about, now strewn around the bed and floor rather than piled on top to insulate him; he found himself to be freezing, and it felt like he had been for some time. 

Had he nodded off and somehow slept through the rest of the night without any blankets on him? That wasn’t good.

His eyes ached, heavy with exhaustion — he sure felt like he didn’t sleep well. Groaning, he pulled himself out of bed while he wrapped one of his thickest blankets around himself. He had to warm himself up by his furnace a little before getting ready for the day. 

He was intent on reporting this at the morning meeting — how had he been allowed to be dragged that far out unnoticed? They had told him they’d have people stationed outside, on the lookout for any Zoroark. If this had happened to him, it could happen to anyone.

Maybe he should go back to sleeping at his other place tucked away in the highlands. He stayed in the settlement around winter by choice, but maybe it would be safer to leave. Maybe this thing would stop tormenting him then.

Ingo threw a glance over at his cabinet one more time.

As expected, the wisp was gone, like it had never been there in the first place. But his dread was not. It settled in his chest as he hunched in front of his furnace.

—————

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Ah, good afternoon, Miss Akari… my cab could be in better shape, I admit.” Ingo sighed while rubbing at his eyes with the heel of a hand, as if the act itself was exasperating. His words sounded clogged. “My sleep schedule has been somewhat derailed lately.”

Akari moved to sit down on the bench next to Ingo, though she kept her distance, sitting on the other end. Rather than proudly standing at his post before the training grounds’ battlefield, he had secluded himself back against one of its walls. With his posture even more slouched than usual, he was bundled with extra layers, his stuffy nose practically in a steaming cup of tea. 

While the days had been growing colder, Ingo had easily dealt with much worse than this. And he never opted to sit down while at the training grounds unless he absolutely had to.

“Sounds like you’ve got a cold. Do you need anything?”

“No no, I can assure you I am not ill, do not worry.” Ingo sniffed. He was not oblivious to the way she was leaning away from him, clearly wary. “There was simply a mishap last night.”

“Oh.” Only then did Akari scooch closer to him – she was growing curious now, anyway. “Well, what happened?”

Ingo sniffed again. He didn’t even know where to start, really. “It seems that there is a Pokémon that continues to enter my home every few nights while I am asleep, but I cannot fathom why. It never steals any supplies, nor does it damage anything. And while it hasn’t… explicitly harmed me yet, I’m afraid the possibility is rising. Initially I brushed it off, but I am concerned that doing so has only intensified things. It is making sleep difficult.”

“Hmm.” Akari began to gently swing her legs on the bench, bumping her heels against the dirt. “Is it a Zoroark? It’s nothing you haven’t handled before.”

“Possibly, though it seems rather unlikely at this point.” 

Ingo thought back on that morning's meeting with some regret. He supposed he had embarrassed himself by asking why he had been allowed to be dragged out all the way into the wastes in the middle of the night, and why nightwatch seemed to be completely absent, having been nowhere to be seen throughout the whole incident. 

Other members had responded back that actually nightwatch had been active last night. They had people stationed around the settlement last night, and none of them had ever seen anything enter his home or drag him out. No one had seen him running back either. 

He had been in his tent the entire night, according to them.

After the meeting, one of the clan’s elders had taken him aside. He told him that they were only taking his words seriously without any proof of incident, setting up a nightwatch based on his word alone because he was a respected warden. But if it was all a false alarm — bad dreams, or sleepwalking, perhaps — then he best try not to embarrass himself in front of the whole clan with such confidence.

Ingo’s frown pulled thinking about it. He felt it best not to share any of that with Akari.

“A Zorua, then?”

“Afraid not.” Ignoring the fact that he doubted it could have even opened the front doors, a Zorua certainly could not drag him that far out of his own tent by his leg.

“Misdreavus?”

“No,” A delayed but confident answer; not once had he been woken by any child-like screams that the species were well known for.

“Um, Haunter?” 

“I’d… say not.” That one was more difficult, but ultimately, it wouldn't have needed to open his doors to enter. Right?

“What about Froslass?”

“Apologies, but I don’t believe any of these quite fit the identity of my intruder.”

“Well, what if it’s not even a Pokémon then?”

“I’d have to say I doubt that,” But a part of him briefly considered it.

Ingo knew what Akari was referring to. About the solitary wisps she’d come upon, wandering through the wilds in isolation after the sun had set. About the ghost stories the clans’ kids told each other, concerning souls of the long-dead settlement to the south roaming into their village from the wastes. Wanting to inhabit their homes as if they were their own.

Pokémon, he could deal with. He knew Pokémon. But the supernatural, he wasn’t so sure about.

“How can you be sure? Have you even seen what it looks like?” The teen continued to poke at the subject.

“It only arrives when I am asleep, and has always departed by the time I wake up. And I cannot fight off sleep indefinitely, Miss Akari.” Even now, the thought of getting quality rest made his muscles ache for it.

“Yeah, but I can!” Akari reconsidered her words when Ingo threw her a ‘please do not try that’ look. “I mean, I can do it in your place – stay awake when you won’t! I can stay with you tonight; I’ll keep watch when you go to sleep, so when this intruder comes in, I’ll be there to catch it!” She seemed to be making herself more excited over the idea as she went on. “We can make it a sleepover!”

“While I do appreciate the offer Miss Akari, under these circumstances I must decline.” Ingo was not keen on the possibility of getting the teen involved with this… thing, whatever it was. Her generally superficial reception to it told him she might not have realized just how alarming this situation was, either. “Besides, the Pearl Clan has recently decided to begin patrolling the settlements’ borders after nightfall. And I’ve decided to keep my own Pokémon out with me for now. I am certain this mystery intruder will not enter so effortlessly anymore.”

“Oh come ooooon,” Set on persuading him, Akari began chanting. “Sleep o-ver. Sleep o-ver. Sleep o-ver!”

“How about I let you know if I believe your services are required.” He compromised, taking another sip of his tea.

“Ohhh,” Akari knew what that meant, but she couldn’t force it, she supposed. She kicked at the dirt again, unsatisfied but accepting. “Fine.”

Ingo took another sip from his tea and dipped his head forward. He did not feel ready for the day.

—————

Three nights later. Ingo laid there as he blinked awake, finding himself staring at the ceiling once again. The wind was howling and open doors were slamming against the wall. Just as expected.

He turned onto his back and propped himself up on his elbows, eyes heavy and mind foggy. The furnace was out once again, and snow was piled at the door, just like it always was.

As he swung his legs over the side of the bed and began to cross the cold floors, Ingo realized with some discontent that the novel fear of the situation had begun to fade somewhat – it felt more like concerned caution now, or participating in a routine. Symptoms of someone who was growing too comfortable with the circumstances, and that made Ingo… uncomfortable.

Maybe it was because he had Gliscor out with him now, sleeping up above him from the rafters. 

Or maybe it was just because a few too many nights of bad sleep had worn out the senses. He didn’t know.

The doors were closed and locked once again, and Ingo turned, yawning as he approached the furnace to light it. Crouching down, he reached for the firewood and sparked a flame, before shutting the small door and securing the latch.

“Is it all clear, Gliscor?” Ingo asked out loud as he watched the flame flicker, making sure it would grow brighter instead of smolder. His companion had been rather quiet; had he even noticed if anything had come in? 

There was no answer, however. Was Gliscor asleep? As a nocturnal Pokémon, Ingo would have thought he would have been very alert right now– 

“Gliscor?” Ingo tried again. He looked up from where he was crouching to search for his companion, but fell back onto the floor instead.

Gliscor was not here. Not in the rafters, not by the bed, nowhere at all.

Instead, there was something else. It almost blended in entirely with the darkness that accumulated back there, but…

Two legs.

Two long, dark legs, thin as could be, back against the wall and right next to his headboard. A heart-stopping visual all on its own, made worse as Ingo’s eyes followed them all the way up into the rafters above. He couldn’t see where they ended, being lost to the darkness. 

But sticking out of that darkness to hang down were the same wispy white tendrils, suspended like cobwebs in the air. Like hair.

That same white wisp from last time.

It was like whatever was standing there was bent over backwards just to fit under the roof.

Whatever it was… It was in his room. It was next to his bed. It had been standing above him. 

A bolt of terror struck him, but before he could say or do anything, a loud crack exploded from behind. A tremor, then snow burst into the air and dim light intruded through the sudden gaping hole in the room that used to be the tent’s entrance — Ingo found himself on the floor with half of his room missing, as if the wall had been ripped off.

What-?

His instincts told him to look back, to not let whatever was by his bedside out of sight. A quick look over his shoulder though, and there was nothing there. It was gone, just an empty wall now in its place. Ingo stared back out past the jagged boards and torn fabric of his open wall into the flurry, almost dazed as the static in his ears gave way to distant shouts, cracking wood, and enraged bellows amongst the wind.

Something was attacking the village.

Was it the… thing that he had just seen? Was it responsible for the hole in his wall? 

Getting to his feet, Ingo took one look back at his wrecked room, exposed to the elements. Snow was piling up on the floor and furniture (some of which were now knocked over), and scraps of cloth and fabric were flapping in the wind. His belongings were strewn all about now.

But there were definitely no long, dark legs. It hadn’t hidden – nothing was peeking down from the now-crooked rafters. The sense of dread was still there, heavy in his chest, but it felt different. It was not from its presence anymore.

The screams and commotion were growing louder, now. He had to help – perhaps that is where Gliscor had gone too. Turning, Ingo hastily grabbed for his hat and tunic, pulling them on as he slipped into his shoes. Then a move to collect his Pokéballs, stuffing them into his tattered coat’s pockets as he pulled it off the hook from which it hung.

The snowstorm fully embraced him with its stinging cold as he stumbled out of the debris, rushing away from his tent and into the extensive blackness.

It was near impossible to see anything through the combination of heavy darkness and thick snowfall, but he could hear everything. He was surrounded by the sound of shouting and crashing, stomping and roaring, all distorted by the storm. Visceral and unrelenting, it sounded like a massacre.

Terror gripped at his heart – there were men, women, and children here who were not equipped to defend themselves from something like this, not in the middle of the night. If whatever had been in his room was going from home to home, attacking whoever was inside–

More screams somewhere ahead of him, and what sounded like wood splintering. Roaring.

“Hey!” Ingo squinted as the flurry continued to berate him, calling out to someone, anyone. The only answer was more screaming and crashing. It sounded like a home was being torn apart. Pulling his coat closed around himself, he hurried towards the sounds.

If he had his bearings correct, then Urb’s family’s home should have been up ahead.

Ingo’s ears suddenly rang, and the sounds died. Instead, a murky, unrecognizable shape came into view, revealing itself to be a pulverized Pearl Clan tent as he got closer.

“Urb!” Ingo called out for the clan member as he approached, kicking through the snow. The home was unsalvageable, wind howling as it rushed through the openings in the twisted boards that were bent and broken beyond repair. He stepped around the fragmented belongings scattered across the snow, hand ready to grab his Pokéballs from his coat pocket.

There was no answer, so he tried to call for the young man again. “ Urb!”

The wind blew over the last intact pot in the home as he stepped inside, shattering it at his feet and across the broken floorboards.

“Leuca!” He called next for Urb’s sister, then their elderly mother. “Platea!”

The fabric coverings tore as part of the structure weakened, the boards bending a little more. Ingo covered his head reflexively, but thankfully it held.

“Does anyone need assistance!” A sudden rush of the gale tried to drown him out with its howling.

No voices answered him. No calls, no groans, no nothing. Peeking into the wreckage, Ingo found no one. 

He was alone here, standing in the wreckage of this abandoned home.

Ingo was too frazzled to decide if that was a good or bad thing. 

Another boom cut through the silence to rattle him, with distant screams following behind. It was as if the source had moved, and was trying to taunt him… or lure him. Ingo’s chest felt sick — what was going on?

But he found he couldn’t ignore it; leaving the site behind, he ventured out into the sheets of flurry again. And again, he was surrounded by the terrifying sounds of a fight, of a vicious, heavy beast relentlessly going after his people. But he kept pushing forward towards the noise regardless. He couldn’t see, but the incline beneath his feet told him he was pressing uphill.

It was Vicus and Rema’s house that he came across next. They had children in there.

Even more destroyed than the last, only one wall of this tent was left standing, barely – the storm was pushing against it, intent on separating it from the last stretch of canvas and rope that kept it up. The rest of the home had fallen inward; he couldn’t have searched inside if he wanted to.

“Rema!” Ingo called out when he thought he spotted someone lying limp in the snow, but it was only one of their spare tunics, half-buried under the growing sheets of white. “Vicus?”

Another gust, and the storm finally ripped the wall free. The last remaining side of the home collapsed onto the rest of the debris with a crash, and the canvas was taken, lost to the wind.

“Humi? Asty?” Ingo reluctantly called out the names of their children, though at this point he felt he’d receive no answer either.

He stood before the fallen home, shivering in the cold until another explosive crash several yards away brought another bout of screaming and crashing. Ingo turned and ran into the snowstorm once again, trying to catch up with the storm-warped roaring.

Ingo heaved out clouds of air, pushing through the snow that was beginning to seep higher into his pant legs – it felt like it was getting deeper. Where was everyone? Where was the nightwatch that was supposed to be out, patrolling the settlement? Where was Gliscor? He should have ran into someone by now. It was like he was entirely alone out here in the settlement, like this thing was going house to house, snatching away everyone inside and destroying everything as it did so. But it hadn’t done it to him, he was still here. Why? The entity in his home – was this a Zoroark, relying on illusions? Was it trying to trick him specifically? That didn’t make sense. If this was some kind of strategy, this was the worst, most calculated attack he’d ever seen. What was going on? This wasn’t right—

Another abandoned house, smashed to rubble with no one in sight. Pressing past it and pushing uphill, he found even more wreckage, with the snow working hard to bury it entirely. The sounds of fighting were always just out of reach, he was never fast enough, and was always left to find the horrible aftermath.

“Irida! Gaeric!” Ingo threw out into the flurry. He was becoming desperate at this point; the further uphill he got, the closer he was getting to her, and to the center of the settlement. Everything was there–

His chest squeezed again, his limbs were starting to grow numb. This couldn’t be happening.

It was still impossible to see anything through the snowfall. If he hadn’t passed by all those homes, Ingo would have started to wonder if he somehow wandered out into the barren wastes instead. He raised his hand, ready to call out again, when a bellow reverberated through the air. 

It was not somewhere far off this time. There was no distance to distort it.

This time, the call was unmistakable.

To his left, a hulking shape stood out in the storm. Ragged and sharp like the destroyed tents, it was different in that it was moving and breathing. Unkempt fur stuck up in tufts, rustling in the wind where it hadn’t frozen over in patches. Sharp Icicles jutted up in curves like frosted scythes, and bright eyes surrounded by black, sunken shadows were trained on him.

Ingo froze. Here was the one responsible for demolishing the entire village. One of his worst fears had come true – the behemoth had finally put in the effort and found a way to get itself across the river to reach their settlement, and had found him again. He was always sure on some level, Draugr would have wanted to finish him off – it was why he always took such care to avoid Avalugg’s legacy. Confusion and terror teamed up to stop Ingo in his tracks entirely.

Draugr’s challenging roar rumbled through Ingo’s rib cage. The hulking Mamoswine took a step forward, slow and purposeful. Ingo in turn took a step back, quick and unsure.

His shaking hand flew to the Pokéballs in his coat pockets, only to find they were… empty. He went to his other pocket, then his belt. They weren’t on him. Where were they? He had grabbed them, he knew he had. They were supposed to be in there–

It was just the two of them out here, and he had nowhere to go.

Draugr huffed, heavy and forceful, lowered his head, and charged. 

His bellow was deeper than Ingo remembered, scarier, louder. His frame was bigger. His tusks were longer, sharper and splintered into more sharp points than he could count. His eyes were warped, and his once-heavy movements lacked their drag.

He was worse than Ingo had recalled in every way. 

Ingo’s instincts screamed at him, yelling that he needed to get out of the way. Yet the snow held onto his legs when he tried, and he found he could not move. Not like how he wanted to. Maybe it was a reflex. Was he shutting down?

“ No, nono no-!” In a moment, he was shoved off his feet, pulled into the air by a deep, dreadful, familiar tug that reached under his ribcage. His heart skipped a beat before he was slammed back down, the snow at his back and blurry red eyes staring into his face.

A glance downward to see the tusk had been driven right into his abdomen. He couldn’t feel it, but he knew it had pushed right through, up and out through his back. He’d been gored, his entire side having been hole-punched to accommodate this pillar of ice.

His hands went to the tusk, red spreading over it. To hold on? To push on it? To pull it out? He didn’t know. It was already stuck, the frozen surface melded to everything warm inside. Just like last time. Why couldn’t he feel it? This was worse than before. He couldn’t survive this. Had anyone else fallen victim to this? Was this why he couldn’t find anyone? Draugr was bellowing again. He was going to push further. Oh, oh– his whole side, his guts, everything inside was going to fall out—

Thrashing in the snow, Ingo gasped, choking on a shout as if he’d been suffocating. He fell back onto his side, grabbing at his open gash to hold everything in.

He couldn’t—

Wait.

Dim sunlight stretched across the fresh, soft snow to reach him. He squinted at the cold, early-morning sunrise peeking out at him from over the purple mountain line.

A group of Chimecho and their kin were gently jingling far off somewhere, and the distant burbling of the river went on amongst the peaceful quiet. The open doors to his perfectly-intact tent creaked gently as it swayed behind him from where he laid, crumpled in the snow at his doorstep. His coat and hat hung just at the edge of view through the doorway; he’d never put them on.

Gliscor was standing there before him in the snow, terrified and looking like he wanted to help, but he didn’t know how. How long had his companion been there? How much had he seen?

Chest heaving, Ingo frantically felt beneath his underlayer, now twisted and filled with snow, and grasped at his side. Frozen fingers rubbed against scarred skin, shakily following it up his back as far as he could reach. Only after pulling the shirt up to visually confirm it for himself was he finally reassured.

It wasn’t open. 

There was no blood staining his hands or saturating his clothes, nothing falling out that should be kept inside. 

The old injury felt rough, yes, and a painful sensitivity lingered from the prolonged exposure to cold air, but it was healed over. It had been for a long time. Just like it was supposed to be. 

He was fine.

It hadn’t been real. None of it had been real.

Ingo hung his head, heaving breaths stuttering out as he leaned forward in the snow. His heart was thundering beneath the hands that clutched at it. 

“G-Gliscor–”

“Gliiii,” Gliscor whimpered as he reached out and carefully wrapped his claws around his trainer’s neck, hugging tight. Ingo hugged back.

The gentle strip of sunlight dulled the frigidity as he took in the early-morning ambience, slowly processing that he was safe at his open front door. He was still in the settlement, just outside his tent, and Draugr was nowhere in sight. Pearl Clan members were approaching him, saying things he didn’t hear. Gliscor was still fretting against his shoulder. Hot adrenaline receded back to the familiar weariness as the cold air froze his sweat. He didn’t realize tears had sprung up in anticipation of the pain.

All these nights… he had never left his tent, let alone his bed.

His doors had never been opened.

Gliscor had never been out with him.

He had never woken up.

These were all nightmares. 

This whole time, he was experiencing horrible, vivid nightmares.

Chapter Text

The dojo’s bench creaked quietly as Ingo shifted, straightening his back to sit up a little more. Unaware of how long he’d been doing it, he realized he had been hunched over his cup of tea, staring down aimlessly into its rising steam again.

Ingo sighed through his nose, pulling his scarf up higher over his mouth. 

He could not get last night’s incident out of his head.

It had all felt so real. All the nightmares had, really – but last night was worse. Very real and very horrible. That particular one had not exactly been new to him, either.

It had been a long time since he’d thought back to when he’d first woken up under the care of the Pearl Clan, after he’d been unfortunate enough to be dropped into Hisui right within the vicinity of Draugr. 

When all he could remember beside his own name was the incident with the alpha mamoswine — a lone, fresh memory amongst a void of static that haunted him to the point of evolving into a recurring nightmare.

Images in his head of the moment that gnarled tusk of ice had grazed him, replaying over and over again — except in his dreaded dreams, it had gored him entirely. He’d woken up in the medicinal tent many times from the fabricated agony, only to reel as actual, vivid pain seared him and startled clan healers tried to get him to lay back down. 

It had haunted him whenever he slept, day or night. It was the only memory he had to recall at the time, all his brain had to hold onto at that point. So what else could it do, but replay that specific experience over and over?

After a certain point of repeatedly subjecting the healers to so many bouts of terror (and apologizing profusely every time), only Calaba had really been willing to stay with him through the nights anymore. He still appreciated that she did that; the consistent time spent together had allowed him to develop his first friendship within the clan, though she was the only one who had seemed to know how to best handle his episodes anyways.

All in all, even with Calaba’s help, it had taken weeks to shake that recurring nightmare.

Things would always end the exact same way: encountering Draugr in a snowstorm with no way to escape and no people or Pokémon to help, just to end up getting fatally gored by the beast’s tusks.

Last night had certainly been no exception. It disturbed Ingo that it had suddenly come back with such nasty vengeance.

But what upset him more was that it had changed to accommodate the entire Pearl Clan this time. 

It hadn’t ever changed like that before.

As with most dreams, lots of the finer details had faded as the hours passed, but some things, Ingo knew they would stay clear and vivid, keeping a firm grip on his mind for a while — the collective fate of the clan, his own death at the end of Draugr’s tusk, and the appearance of that thing standing against the wall next to his bed .

That thing. That wispy, gangly-legged thing. That was new, too. What was that? 

Whatever it was, it had made his heart clench. Even just thinking about it now… 

It had already been a repetitive nightmare once before. Was he going to fall into the cycle of repeatedly experiencing it again? It was horrible enough already to go through this new variation once, but to go through it over and over? 

Dormant anxiety spiked briefly; it had already been difficult to attend the morning’s meeting less than an hour after the incident, and look at the people he was sure he’d lost the night before. 

To do it again and again, that would be unbearable; he didn’t know if he could handle something like that–

“Hey! Don’t fall asleep in your tea!”

The steam heating his face suddenly became very hot and uncomfortable. Ingo looked up from his cup – he had done it again – as Akari dropped onto the bench next to him, making them both bounce on the bending wood a little.

“Good morning, Miss Akari,” Ingo’s words came out as an exhale more than anything, tired as he mumbled into his scarf and closed his tired eyes. But it was a breath of relief as well; her company and contagious enthusiasm brought about a familiar comfort, and while he always appreciated it, he was especially grateful for the reprieve in this particular moment. “I hope you are doing well today.”

“I am, but what about you? Are you sure you’re not sick?” The teen leaned closer to him this time, bumping her shoulder against his; she probably knew he wasn’t, and he suspected as much based on her tone. He was sure this was another one of her unassuming attempts to get him to talk to her.

“I am sure,” Another exhale. There was disappointment with having to stay on this topic, but Ingo hoped that wasn’t too noticeable in his features. “It is still just a matter of experiencing difficulty staying on track with my sleep schedule.”

Akari turned her head towards him, scrutinizing him. He had secluded himself to this bench against the dojo’s wall yet again, he was almost falling asleep in his tea, and he looked like he could barely hold himself up. He was wrapped up in extra layers too, while still shivering and dealing with a runny nose. And the thoroughly frazzled look he’d had before she sat down on the bench…

This seemed like symptoms of something more than just a little trouble sleeping at night.

“This morning, I awoke to find I had… left my tent in the Pearl Clan’s settlement, and had been sleeping in the snow outside.” Ingo added unprompted after a moment; Akari wondered if perhaps her concerns showed through her expression a little too noticeably.

“What, like were you sleepwalking?” If he wasn’t in such a bad state, Akari might have teased him about that. On its own, the thought of Ingo sleepwalking right through his door and stumbling around outside seemed a little comical when she visualized it. But she supposed that answered why he was so cold. “Or is this like, part of that intruding Pokémon problem thing you were talking about?”

“…I’m not entirely sure what it is, anymore.” 

The hopeless words came out with some effort, like he only had the energy to offer a vague summary of the actual answer. He set his cup of tea down on the bench and massaged his eyes with the heels of his palms, leaning into them. Akari sat there awkwardly at his side, not knowing what to really say or do next. 

This seemed heavier than she had expected.

Ingo was deeply troubled, clearly, but he wasn’t offering much information. Much more than she would have ever expected. Was he truly unsure of things, or was he intentionally refraining? She didn’t want to pry if it was the latter. 

“I apologize, I know what I am saying is not making much sense.” Ingo finally confessed, still leaning into his hands. “I suppose I am still just trying to make sense of it all myself, and running on an overworked engine is making the task more difficult than it should be.”

It was sad — and a bit uncomfortable — seeing him like this. Akari knew Ingo would usually take care not to let her see him in such a disposition. But regardless of whether exhaustion or sheer distress was to blame, it was slipping through. She didn’t exactly know what was going on, but it seemed like every time he said something, a little more of this problem’s depth was uncovered. And right now, it already seemed like it went pretty deep.

She wasn’t sure how to best help Ingo, not at this moment. But Akari knew what always made her feel better when she needed a break.

“Hmm,” The teen got to her feet and turned to stand in front of Ingo. “Well, I’m gonna go get some potato mochi; wanna come get some with me?”

The sudden switch caught the man off guard. He finally looked up from his hands at her. “Oh, I um, appreciate the offer, but I am alright.” 

“Aw come on,” She reached forward to tug gently on his coat sleeve. “Wrong answer! You were supposed to say yes!”

As lethargic as he was, Ingo still laughed a little at her efforts, his arm hanging like deadweight as she pulled it. He supposed if he didn’t feel so weighed down, he’d be more inclined to go. His legs ached. “I’m fine, really. I’d just like to rest here a little bit longer.”

“You’ll be fine-er if you come with me, though! You can rest against the table!”  

“I already made a stop earlier for my tea-”

“Potato mochi will warm you up even more then!” Akari began her habit of chanting again, gently jostling his limp arm with each repetition of the phrase for emphasis. “Get up , get up , get up- ”

It took him longer than it should have, but it dawned on Ingo that she wasn’t doing this because she actually wanted mochi. She was just trying to inconspicuously do something to make him feel better. 

Appreciation lessened the ache that weighed heavy in his legs. Ingo finally relented to her pulling and moved to stand up with her, much to her delight. “Alright Miss Akari, you’ve persuaded me. I will accompany you; thank you for the invitation.”

“Yes! We can get dango too!” Ingo was barely able to pick his cup of tea back up before a visibly-excited Akari started pulling him across the training grounds. He was sure he was going to be the one to pay for said dango — he had fallen into a habit of buying it when she wanted it so that she could save her own earnings — but he didn’t mind. 

—————

“What if I steal you from the dojo and make you explain all your Path of Solitude strategies to me?”

“…Pardon?” 

“You know, just have you do something easy that you can do while sitting down.”

It took Ingo a moment to process; allowing himself to rest his head against arms crossed against the table had allowed the edges of his thoughts to blur with static. He raised his head, adjusting his skewed hat.

“Cause you’re like, really tired.”

In Ingo’s defense, just sitting there and waiting for their food made it easy to relax, especially with the rising morning sun warming his back.

“I can let you know when Beni brings the order out, if you wanna to just rest for a second.” 

“Thank you,” Ingo breathed deep, thankful for the reprieve. Dipping his head forward into his crossed arms, he shut his tired eyes and relaxed against the table.

…

Wind howled, and a sharp hooked pillar of ice split through the darkness, jamming itself into and tearing upwards through fabric, then fat and muscle, then organs and bones — like all of it was nothing more than paper.

“AUGH!” Hands clutching at his tunic, Ingo shot up from the table with such a start, he almost fell backwards off the bench as empty plates clattered and Akari shouted, following suit and jumping up.

“What!” The fear in her scream pulled his senses out of its state of uncontrollably misfiring. She stood up, terrified as she looked in every direction. “What? What? What happened?”

“I’m-” Wild eyes drank in the surroundings as Ingo slightly loosened the death grip meant to hold in spilling insides that didn’t exist. He shuttered, the jumpstart shaking his system into nausea as he forced himself to sit back down. “I’m, I’m sorry-” Terror gave way to regret; he absolutely hadn’t wanted her to see that. He shouldn’t have let himself doze off like that, but he wasn’t expecting to- “I’m fine-”

“Ingo, what is going on?” Something tightened around his wrist. He looked up from the table to see Akari had grabbed his arm, holding it securely. 

Grey eyes hard with confliction, Ingo opened his mouth to say something. But before he could even breathe a word out, a plate clattered against the table, piled with fresh hot mochi.

“Here’s your order,” Beni set down two sets of chopsticks for them. “Double helping of Potato Mochi, extra crispy. Anything else?”

“Um, no thank you,” Akari gave him a smile that she hoped didn’t look too forced. “Thanks, Beni.”

“If you find you do need anything else, let me know.”

Ingo sat quietly, listening for the sound of a sliding door as he stared off towards the training grounds. Akari glanced over Ingo’s shoulder, sitting just as awkwardly as she watched Beni head back into the canteen. It felt like he took forever to walk through the entrance and out of earshot.

“I believe my intruder has not been a Pokémon at all, but rather a once-departed, deeply upsetting recurring nightmare that has somehow made its way back to the station. One that I experienced when I first arrived here.” Slumping back into a more relaxed position, Ingo finally filled the uncomfortable silence after waiting another moment for security. “It is rather embarrassing in hindsight, seeing as I’d so loudly insisted it was the former to my community this last week.”

“What’s the nightmare about?” It was said like Akari wasn’t quite sure that was appropriate to ask him.

Ingo cleared his throat, patting his side for emphasis with the one hand still wrapped around to hold it. “Draugr.”

Looking to where his hand was, Akari threaded her fingers together, quieter now. “Oh… man. I didn’t know that… that was something you went through. I’m sorry.”

“You wouldn’t have, it’s alright; I’d rid myself of them long before our tracks had crossed, and I’ve never had a reason to bring it up.” 

Ingo’s hands moved towards his cup of tea to take another drink.

“So, if you’re having them again, is it like every night?” It would certainly explain his worsening lethargy over the past couple weeks.

“No, thankfully as of now, it is not a nightly occurrence,” Ingo confessed. “Just every few nights. But they’re growing more frequent, it seems. And… worse.” He put his head back in his hands as he continued on. “It had not been quite so obvious at first. I don’t know why. I had not even been aware I was dealing with this again, until it had progressed to the point of being unmistakable as anything else. It steals my sleep and leaves me exhausted.”

And frazzled. It’s also leaving him very frazzled. Today it was, at least. Akari could not ignore how blatantly disconnected he had been all morning, but she didn’t blame him; her mind would probably hide somewhere else if she was forced to replay a traumatic event like that, too.

“And they feel so real, ” Ingo added, dipping his head to run his fingers through the hair under his hat. Despite his reputation to avoid doing such things around her, Akari almost thought he was going to delve into more grizzly details. But he didn’t, perhaps stopping himself once he realized, and just sighed through his nose instead.

“Do you know why it’s happening again?” Akari pushed a little more.

“No,” Ingo shook his head. “And that may be the most concerning part about this predicament — I have no idea why it has chosen now of all times to make a reappearance.” 

“Well, I know how to help this.”

“And that is?” A pointless question, as Ingo already felt he knew the answer.

“A sleepover!”

“Ah,” Ingo bobbed his head, like a slow, lazy nod. “Of course.”

—————

“Is that ok?”

“It’s more than sufficient, thank you.”

Standing in Akari’s housing unit after finishing a day of long but easy work — they really had just sat down somewhere so he could take it easy by explaining his Path of Solitude strategies — Ingo assessed the makeshift bed set before him. Akari had certainly been generous with the blanket layers — very generous. There had to have been at least nine or ten there altogether. He knew his back would appreciate that, though. He was sure he wouldn’t even be able to feel the harder floor beneath him.

“While I am thankful for so many blankets,” Ingo pulled the layers back to slip under them. “I do hope you did not have to go through the trouble to borrow some from someone just for me.”

“Oh, no. Rei stays over a lot to hang out with me, so I’ve just got a bunch extra in case.” Akari went over to the lone lantern on her table to extinguish it. “I’m always prepared for a sleepover!”

As Akari blew the light out and the room darkened, Ingo felt a weight settle beside him. He looked over to see Ember settling down against his middle to sap his warmth. She glanced back at him and huffed, curling her head against her shoulder.

Ingo almost wondered if she would actually sleep with him tonight. But once Akari set herself under the covers and began making herself comfortable, the quilava got up and pattered across the floor, taking her new spot against her trainer.

Ingo couldn’t help but find that amusing — Ember was fond of him, but of course, Akari was always going to be her favorite by far.

“Goodnight, Ingo.”

“Goodnight, Miss Akari.”

Ingo relaxed under the comfy layers and turned onto his side, staring across the dark room at the wall.

It felt different, staying in a new environment tonight. He couldn’t deny it made a part of him feel guarded — it wasn’t like he felt this unit was unsafe, it just wasn’t his familiar space. 

But thinking back to his space, to the dark room with the wall his headboard leaned against, where those stretched legs had just stood there. Connected to who-knows-what crammed up in the rafters above…

Ingo felt something inside him lurch unpleasantly. He readjusted himself under the blankets, shutting his eyes as he pressed into his pillow. Perhaps Akari was right; maybe for peace of mind, it was better to be sleeping somewhere else tonight. He listened to the sounds of the room. Just like in his own space, he could hear the elements outside, mellow and subdued. And the sounds of shifting fabric whispered whenever he moved. But this time, he could hear Akari too — her and Ember’s breaths, slow and steady in the corner. 

It was a lot more comforting to drift off to the ambience of company, rather than the usual confirmation of total isolation.

At some point he must have fallen asleep, as he next found himself blinking awake to the dim morning light creeping through Akari’s window

Starly chirped somewhere off in the distance as Ingo moved to sit up, leaning forward into his knees as he rubbed at his eyes. It seemed the night had been kind to him, allowing him to sleep soundly. He found the arm that he had slept on ached, but he supposed he had to blame that on sleeping on the floor.

Ingo turned to glance over at Akari, who’s back was pressed against the wall beneath her unit’s window. She was still lying under her blankets which partially covered her face, breathing slowly and contentedly as she slept with Ember pressed into the crook of her curled body. If they were still sleeping, he didn’t want to wake them. Quietly, Ingo pulled his tunic back on, secured his hat and coat, and slipped into his shoes. 

He glanced back at Akari one last time, making sure she was still asleep as he went for the door. He’d make a quick visit to Choy’s store so he could come back and make some breakfast for them both to share once she woke up.

—————

“So, everything was ok last night?” Sitting next to Ingo, Akari yawned as she watched him remove the cooking pan from where it hung above her housing unit’s irori. Taking it over and setting it down on Akari’s table, he used a spoon to begin dividing through the contents — pan-fried egg and cake-base with bits of oran berries mixed in, crisped perfectly at the edges, if not very slightly overdone.

“It appears so,” Picking up a plate, Ingo shoveled half of the portion onto it, and handed it to her. It was a bit hacked up from Ingo’s indolent cutting with a blunt utensil, but the presentation made no difference — all that mattered was that it tasted good, and by the wonderful way it smelled, that was guaranteed. Akari sat down in her chair and took a spoonful of honey from a jar she kept, and drizzled it over her half while Ingo scraped the remaining half onto a plate for himself. “Though I am hesitant to say it has departed indefinitely. I may have to see how the next few days go first.”

That was how the pattern seemed to go. It would leave him alone for a couple days before returning to strike again. If anything, tonight and every night after were the nights he was worried about. 

“Well I hope that horrible nightmare is gone forever,” Akari jabbed a forkful of her food and bit down onto it; while different texture-wise, to her delight she realized it was the closest thing to a pancake she’d ever tasted in Hisui. “And if you were ok last night, I bet it was ‘cause you stayed here with me and Ember!” Ember purred from where she laid under the table, gnawing on a whole oran berry of her own, as if in agreement. Akari got a look I’m her eyes as she chewed another bite. “Maybeeee you should sleepover again tonight too, just to be safe.”

“Miss Akari,” A warning statement as he joined her at the table with his own plate, meant more to express she wasn’t being as sneaky with her plans as she thought she was, rather than to admonish or turn her down.

“And maybe tomorrow night also, just to be double sure!” She kept going as Ingo picked up the honey jar next, taking a spoonful. “You can make more of these awesome pancake things too every morning-” She held her plate up, already halfway finished as she jabbed more on her fork. “These are like, really really good.”

Ingo huffed a little laugh through his nose; it meant something to know she appreciated what had come to be one of his favorite things to cook — speaking of, he should probably start eating before it got cold. He began cutting into his own portion. “Well, I appreciate the compliment. Though, I’m unsure if I can commit to that.”

He couldn’t stay all the way down here in Jubilife for too long. He still needed to visit Lady Sneasler and her kits in the highlands, and the Pearl Clan were soon going to need his help with planning the winter’s hunting parties. But the thought of going back to that empty tent tonight, all cold and dark and now stained with the stark imagery of debris and destruction that marred his brain… if any place would dredge up the nightmare again, it would definitely be there.

“However, let’s see how the day goes first. Then perhaps making a decision will be easier.” Ingo cleared his throat, then finally took a bite. Just as he thought, a little overdone, but the honey covered it well enough.

—————

The sun was setting now, slowly dipping closer to the Hisuian mountain line as the orange sky prepared to shift to purple. Ingo watched it from where he stood at the training grounds, considering.

If he was going to leave Jubilife for the Highlands, he’d have to do so now. Honestly though, the ideal time would have been half an hour ago. An hour, if he would have wanted to get to the Icelands before sundown. But he didn’t mind traveling through the last stretches in darkness if he had to.

He’d already decided that he wasn’t going to return to the Pearl Clan’s settlement, though. Not tonight. 

Returning to that solitary tent. Opening up his eyes to more splintered walls giving way to howling snow. Pursuing the sounds of screaming just to meet with the gnarled end of an ice tusk. Shouting himself awake at the very beginning of the day with yet another night of no good sleep.

The more he thought about it, the more it unnerved him. And the more unnerved he got, the more concerned he was that he’d just trigger another instance of that nightmare. He knew he was just scaring himself and self-fulfilling the fear of it happening. He’d already done it once at The Wallflower yesterday by submerging himself in such thoughts, but he couldn’t help it.

Though perhaps it would be different if he went to Lady Sneasler’s den for the night. The kits were as much a source of happiness and comfort as they were a distraction. Or maybe if he brought out all of his own Pokémon…

Ingo yawned, rubbing his eyes with a closed fist. The day had felt extensive, and he was exhausted — he could feel the ache in his bones. He could, but did he really want to make such a long trip to either place when he could just stay here, a place to sleep waiting just several yards away? 

Truly, that option was the favorable one by far. And he knew how badly Akari wanted him to stay with her. 

It would have been an easy choice, one he would have settled on hours ago, if he wasn’t so worried he’d potentially subject her to witnessing a potential nightmare, and the… intense reactions that usually came with it. 

What if he sleep-walked outside? What if he shouted? What if he did both? Oh, then it wouldn’t be just Akari witnessing it. The Pearl Clan had been put off by it, and Jubilife’s villagers probably would too. The potential shame of it all…

“Ingo!” Finally, the voice he had been expecting all evening rang out from the training grounds’ gates. “You’re still here! Does that mean you’re gonna stay another night?”

And it was bursting with hope too, which he also expected.

Ingo turned his attention to the dirty, scuffed up, sweaty teen running towards him from across the battlefield, returning hastily from the day’s mirelands expedition. She was absolutely filthy — had she been running through the onix tunnels again? “Ah, welcome back, Miss Akari; I was just debating my departure… I am still undecided.”

“Really?” Akari slumped. “Stay with me again! Please? Look, I even found this today in a distortion-”

Turning to reach into her satchel, she rummaged around until she pulled out a little cardboard box. While it once seemed decorative and bright, it was not caked in just as much dirt and mud as she was. 

“It’s a card game! I had to wrestle a heracross for it!” That explained why she was so dirty. “I wanted to play it with you tonight! Now you’ve got to stay over, because I didn’t go through all of that for nothing!”

She was trying so hard to get him to stay, and Ingo could see that.

Maybe tonight would be ok. Maybe he’d be fine again.

Taking in a deep breath, Ingo put his hands on his hips and dipped his head. “Alright Miss Akari, one more night.”

“Yes!”

Chapter Text

“Ok, next one. Would you rather…” Akari squinted at the card’s small print before blurting out a laugh. “A, perpetually feel itchy, or B, always feel like you’re about to sneeze?”

“Oh,” Ingo shook his head, laughing a little with her. “Both are horrible!” He thought about it intently, leaning his elbows against the table and resting his chin against his clasped hands.

The two of them sat at a table Akari had pulled out near her irori, surrounded by game cards scattered about from the many previous rounds before. The sun had long since set, and dinner had been finished a couple hours back; with Ingo’s tattered uniform folded up on top of his makeshift bed and Akari’s extra layers tucked away in her dresser, they had gotten comfortable, and had nothing left to do but play the game until they decided to sleep – which Ember had already since done, curled up and listening to them both from where she lay curled up in the blankets on Akari’s bed. 

“Hmmm… alright, I’ve got my answer.”

Akari then considered the pair of cards in her hand. Ingo could tell she was trying very hard to think like him and try and figure out his choice — if she guessed this one correctly, she’d win the game. She only needed one more point, but then again, he did too, so it was close.

Finally Akari picked out the second one, presenting it to Ingo; it had the letter ‘A’ on it.

“Incorrect!” He announced, causing Akari to smack her hands against the table enthusiastically (And inadvertently scare Ember out of her sleepy stupor).

“What? No way! You’d seriously rather need to sneeze forever?” She shouted at him. “That’s horrible!”

“It sounds favorable compared to constantly scratching at an itch that will not go away!” Ingo couldn’t keep his laugh out of his voice. “I just couldn’t go with that option.”

“Yeah, well, if you feel like you’re always about to sneeze, you’re always gonna be walking around taking those weird deep breaths and gasping,” Akari shot back at him, before imitating the buildup to a sneeze with dramatized expressions and noises. “Ah, ah, agh-! See? You’d look insane!”

Ingo only laughed again at her display, shaking his head. “Then it’s good that this is only a hypothetical choice, right? Alright, next one.”

He leaned forward to reach for the next card in the pile, holding it close to read it.

“Would you rather… wake up one day as A, a Slowpoke, or B, a Magikarp?” Ingo made a face at the question. “Hmm.”

“Oh, this one’s hard,” Akari hunched forward, face scrunched as she tried to decide. “Uhh… ok. I got it!”

Ingo then looked at his pair of choice cards. If he got this one right, he’d win. If not, Akari would have another chance to do so. He did not mind either outcome. With a bit of uncertainty, he held up the ‘B’ card.

“Nope!” Akari raised her hands up. “Wrong!”

“Well to be fair, I couldn’t recall what a ‘slowpoke’ was in order to properly assess,” Ingo excused himself.

“Oh, dang-” The celebration died down as Akari realized. Another card, while few and far between, had mentioned something that he couldn’t recognize. She should have picked up on that and discarded it or explained, but she had gotten too into the game, and Ingo never pointed it out, preferring to guess rather than stop everything just to have her explain. “You should have told me! They’re like these little pink guys. Uh, imagine like, if a bidoof was shaved.” She kept thinking. “And if it had a long tail. And big eyes, and curly ears, and these tiny pointy teeth!”

Ingo made a face at the horrific creature his mind conjured up. The description sounded sort of familiar, but surely what he imagined was much more hideous than the actual thing. 

“And you’d prefer that over a Magikarp? You’d have the opportunity to evolve into Gyarados.” He was well aware of Akari’s admiration for big, powerful Pokémon.

“Ok yeah, but Slowpoke’s evolutions have one thing that Gyarados doesn’t.” Akari held her hands up off the table, flexing her fingers open and closed. “Hands! Opposable digits!”

“Alright, fair point.” Ingo would also prefer those to fins regardless of how big or strong he’d be, he supposed. He’d have to ask if Akari could draw these Pokémon out for him later, but for now, he just set the card aside with the others. “Your turn to draw.”

“I’m gonna get this one right, prepare to lose!” Akari grabbed up the next card from the stack and held it close, like she didn’t want Ingo peeking before she read it – as if that would change anything. “Would you rather A, get married with clown makeup on your face, or B, give a huge speech on stage in your swimsuit?”

“Every card is just presenting two equally horrific scenarios!” Though he was more amused with it all than opposed to it. Repeating them to himself quietly, Ingo then weighed the options in his head. “Alright, I’ve got my answer.”

Looking down at her choice cards, Akari went between them, thinking hard again. She really wanted to get this one right and win, Ingo could tell as he waited and watched her. Finally, the teen held up the ‘B’ card for him to see.

Ingo let the tension hang for a moment before he clapped his hands together, a smile in his eyes. “Correct!”

“Really?” Akari gawked, as if she had expected to be wrong, but that quickly gave way to joy. “Yes!” 

But then joy gave way to mirthful curiosity; Akari leaned against the table with a big grin, thoroughly entertained with Ingo’s choice. “So you’d seriously rather do the swimsuit speech over the clown makeup wedding?”

“I have publicly spoken enough times by now to find it the significantly less stressful option… even in these hypothetical circumstances. And I could deal with hiding behind a podium while I spoke, if it meant I didn’t have to frame and hang up the results of the wedding photography.” Ingo defended his pick. “I am surprised you’re surprised, seeing as you bet on that choice.”

“I guessed! I didn’t know!” 

The earnest confession made Ingo laugh. He reached forward to begin collecting the cards. “Well, you won the game regardless, so congratulations to you, Miss Akari.”

“Can we play again?” Despite asking, Akari began to help Ingo, grabbing her piles and handing them to him as he stacked them all together. “One more game?”

Ingo considered it. While it was admittedly a very enjoyable game, and quick to play between only two people, it was getting late (the game’s addictiveness was entirely to blame, he was genuinely having fun), and unlike Akari, he did not adapt as well to altered sleeping hours – something he couldn’t let get any worse being as exhausted as he already was. “As enjoyable as it is, perhaps tomorrow we can continue; it may be best to mind our sleep schedules now.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course – I’m sorry.” The disappointment was superficial, quickly dissipating as Akari realized that Ingo had had sleep on his mind since this morning. He needed to get to bed.

Ingo handed Akari the full deck of cards, and she packed them away back into their box. Pushing her chair back, she got to her feet and went to put it away in her unit’s storage chest. They did play like, five games anyways, and she was kind of tired too. “But if we play again tomorrow, we gotta do it with Rei and the Professor, and Zisu too! I need to know how they’d answer some of these!”

As Akari put the game away, Ingo went to pick up the lanterns that they had set on the table.

“Done?” He looked over as Akari closed and locked the container. She nodded, so Ingo blew the set of lanterns out, one after the other. The room first dimmed, then darkened entirely, save for the few weak embers glowing in the sandpit.

The wood flooring creaked quietly as they headed for their beds. Akari gently lifted up a sleeping Ember just enough to slide beneath her covers, and Ingo moved his folded coat and hat over to get under his own blankets.

“I like these sleepovers,” Akari yawned from across the room. “We gotta do them more often. It’s more fun when one of us isn’t sick.”

She had a point, as most of the times he’d stayed over here, or she’d stayed with him, it had been when one of them had come down with something, and the other had come over to help out. Or when unfavorable weather had prevented them from getting back to their own places. Though, it seemed Akari had forgotten that he wasn’t staying over tonight just to play cards, he was staying here out of her own hopes that company and a different sleeping environment would prevent another instance of his recurring nightmare. So in a way, it sort of still felt the same.

“We can certainly schedule more in the future.” Was all he said instead.

"Goodnight, Ingo.”

“Goodnight, Miss Akari.”

He had expected that to be it, but after a moment he heard Akari again in the darkness, quieter. “I hope being here, you sleep ok again tonight.”

So she hadn’t forgotten.

“Thank you, I hope so too.”

He really, really hoped so.

Ingo turned onto his side and pulled the blankets over his shoulder, up to his neck. His heavy eyes glanced around the dark room again – the simple walls, the wooden flooring, and the irori with its heated sandpit. It all didn't feel as foreign as the night before. There was no reason to feel guarded.

Ingo closed his eyes and settled into his pillow. Despite being hesitant about staying tonight, he was grateful for the company, and for the game that kept his mind entertained and focused on fun things. He was comfortable and relaxed. Last night was ok. Tonight would also be ok, and tomorrow would be too. 

–––––

Darkness, at some point, gave way to dim light.

Ingo sat up, rubbing his eyes again as the familiar sound of the starlys’ morning songs reached his ears. He looked over to see waking light filtering through the unit’s window, and once again Akari and Ember still laid fast asleep under it, curled up together.

Another night had been kind to him it seemed, and for that he was grateful. Very, very grateful.

Leaning into his knees, Ingo sat there in his gratitude, taking in the gentle sounds of the morning until he became aware of the dull, empty ache in his stomach. He glanced over at Akari a second time — she had wanted him to make those pancakes again, hadn’t she? Now would be a good time to start on that.

As quietly as he could, Ingo once again got up, got dressed, and slipped through the door to head over to Choy’s store for some fresh ingredients.

The air was crisp in the way only early mornings could make it as Ingo closed the door behind him, and stepped out onto Jubilife’s street. There were a few people out and about as usual under the pink sky, and Tuli and Ginter were just pulling their Ginkgo Guild cart into its usual spot as he made his way across the road. Reaching Choy’s storefront, he began to assess the various boxes of berries that had been set out.

“Good morning, Warden Ingo!” As Ingo browsed the wares, Choy greeted him. Giving a glance to Ingo’s product of interest, the shopkeeper walked closer. “Back again already; returning for a repeat purchase, I’m assuming?”

“Good morning, Choy. You are correct,” Ingo nodded his head. “Same as yesterday, I’d like a-”

Ingo stopped as something fluttered sporadically from under his rib cage. It pressed noticeably before relaxing, leaving a tingling heat to fade into the flesh around it.

“-Ahem!” Ingo coughed into his fist reflexively, and Choy gave him a rightfully concerned look. He stood there for a moment, then tried again. “Apologies. I um, I’d like a fourth pound of oran berries, and some of those c- ghk-”

The Something pushed again, hard. Ingo’s hand went to the hot pressure beneath his sternum, clutching a fistful of his tunic as he leaned forward against the boxes. It wasn’t so kind as to relax this time, instead cramping tighter with another breath, another beat of his heart.

“Warden?” Choy was reaching out to him now, but Ingo reflexively stepped back for a reason he couldn’t even explain. He choked again and the cramp twisted with another wave of pain, pulling everything attached inside with it. Every breath was tightening it. It was like his heart was-

A heart attack.

He was having a heart attack, wasn’t he?

What else could it be? Was this what it really felt like? He didn’t know.

This couldn’t happen to him — he was healthy. Wasn’t he? He was young… enough. Surely. He had no pre-existing medical conditions. None that he’d known about, at least. Right? 

He didn’t know. He couldn’t know. He’d lost all that out in the berating snow he’d woken up in. The sudden realization sent a bolt of fear through his chest, which only seized another heartbeat into cramping against the twisted tightness.

A crowd of Jubilife’s villagers were suddenly around him as he took another step back into the street; he hadn’t noticed them gathering. Ingo sank to his knees, and hands too concerned with grasping at the bloated blaze in his chest couldn’t catch him when he collapsed over onto his side. To his horror, the circle that had gathered only moved away to make room for him. 

A painful gasp, filling lungs squishing the fragile, failing, distended heart against his breastbone. They were all just standing there, staring down at him. And he could do nothing but stare back from where he laid against the ground, a sideways view of just their legs. 

He was aware they were talking all around him, but he couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. He was too busy clutching at the still-tightening cords inside his chest.

Why was nobody helping him?

…No one could help this. Pesselle was probably just several yards away inside the Galaxy Hall, but she wouldn’t have what he’d need to stop this. What he’d need to be saved. No one in Hisui did. He was going to die out here on the street, a spectacle. Did he know anyone in the crowd? It hurt so bad inside him. Akari was going to find him like this. Probably after everything had already… happened.

“Augh-!” Ingo gasped as it pulled again, hot agony pulsing in another wave. His ribcage was compressing another swell, his lungs twisting with it. It felt too big. His body reflexively curled with the pull, as if that would lessen the searing strain. 

Wait, wait, please — He wasn’t ready yet. This was too sudden. He had so many people he couldn’t leave yet, so many things he still had to do and say, all of them suddenly nothing but blanks in his collapsing mind.

As Ingo blinked the stinging tears from his eyes, he saw it. Behind the spaces of the crowd that had gathered who stood slanted in his sideways view, just a few feet away, were the legs.

The gangly, stretched black legs. Standing in a way where they were perfectly aligned with his tilted view against the ground. As if it was the rest of the world that was slanted, not its broken stance. 

The legs exceeded his failing vision, jutting up to the left and out of his field of view. They just kept going, leaving him unable to see the body they were connected to. Their direction went right into a building anyways, if he had his placement right. What he was seeing just couldn’t work. 

But they were there.

This thing was here with him. Watching him. 

“Would you rather.” A voice he could suddenly hear, whispering right in the ear that was pressed against the ground. Ingo couldn’t even turn his head – it would pull everything inside even tighter with it. “A, this happen here, in front of everyone? Or B, out on the mountain when no one is with you?”

The bloated bundle in his chest, already straining too tight, twisted again. Amongst the fire searing everything inside his chest, something tore.

“AHGK!” Halfway between a choke and a cry, Ingo recoiled. Something that was suddenly tangled tightly around him constricted with his movements, and wood cracked hard against him as another horrific scream rang out to his right.

“Ingo!” It was Akari’s voice he realized, shrill and panic-stricken as he gasped where he lay. Ember was yowling. Everything was so dark, he couldn’t see. He felt hands grab his side within a moment, yanking on him to pull him over onto his back. Had she finally come outside and found him? “What? What?” 

Turning his head, Ingo blinked hard, and the darkness gave way to both Akari’s form, leaning over him and looking scared out of her minds. Ember was still howling and pacing around the room, set off. He was lying against the wooden floorboards of her unit, covered in cold sweat and tangled in all the blankets that had made up where he slept. The still-night sky poured weak ambient light into the room through the window, and rain beat hard on the roof above them, just like the sensation buzzing in his chest. B-bmp. B-bmp. B-bmp-

He was still in Akari’s unit. And it was very early in the morning, if not the middle of the night.

“Akari-!” A gasp more than a sentence, Ingo blinked through the residual tears meant for the pain as his heart refused to stop pounding — a particularly scary sensation at the moment. He was flooded with emotions; relief that it wasn’t real and he was alive. Frustration that he had once again been subjected to such torment. Shame that he had done this in front of Akari again, at such a time of the night when he’d startled her out of sleep. And profound terror that it had been different this time, and had felt so authentic, so painful. 

It was all so overwhelming to realize.

It had happened again. 

Despite changing his environment to feel more at ease, to escape the dread, it had happened again. 

And it had changed to fit the location. It had taken the game, something that had been a comfort, a reprieve, and twisted it.

It had maintained feeling realistic. The thoughts, the sensations were all so vivid, so visceral.

“I’m so sorry, I thought-! ” Ingo sucked in a deep breath through tight teeth, holding his chest as he tried to sit up. There was no pain anymore, but he could still feel the sensation. He had died just moments ago. “My heart-!”

“Is this what it’s doing to you?” Her appalled reaction only brought another swell of remorse that she had to witness this. This was so much worse than what she’d seen at The Wallflower, and he knew it. This was exactly what he was afraid would happen. “Ingo, this is- this is… horrible! I didn’t know it was like this!” 

Another lingering tear slipped out as Akari wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. Ingo held her back with one arm reluctantly, feeling her head press against his shoulder — he didn’t want her to feel his heart still hammering inside his chest. He kneaded his free hand against it.

Ember was still upset. Growling, she whipped around and yowled in their general direction, looking around restlessly with her quills sticking up.

“It’s ok, Ember!” Akari reached out and pulled her partner Pokémon close between them. “It’s ok!”

Ember pressed against them both, quills still raised but reducing her aggression to a low growling. She turned in the small space and pressed her forehead against Ingo’s side, huffing. She stayed stiff like that, staring around the room with her head against him, but thankfully it seemed she had calmed down. Akari turned her attention back to Ingo and held him tightly, letting him process and giving him a chance to calm down and say something. But when he didn’t, and it became clear he wouldn’t break the now-heavy quiet that was just stretching out longer and longer, she decided she would. 

“…I’m sorry you had to go through that again.”

The warden stared right through the floor with distant eyes. With half his mind still floundering somewhere else, he left her hanging in silence for longer than he meant to. He sputtered when he finally realized. 

“No, no… it was,” He sucked in a breath, a stalled understanding finally clicking on what she was referring to. “different this time.” Another pause, wondering if he should go further. “I believe I was once again led down the wrong tracks. This isn’t a recurring nightmare.”

Akari pulled back to look him in his eyes. “What?”

—————

“Here, it’s not as good as what you can do, but it’s the best thing I can make.”

With Ember curled up comfortably in his lap as he mindlessly pet her, Ingo tilted his head up to see a cup of steaming tea in one of Akari’s hands, and a full plate staring back at him from the other – A large helping of fluffy yellow eggs and crispy pan-cooked shredded potatoes, the latter of which she’d salted generously. 

Scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, that’s what they were. Wow. That was something he hadn’t had, much less thought about, in… as long as he could remember.

“Thank you,” Ingo graciously took the cup and plate, staring down at the latter as Akari sat down beside him with her own. She didn’t sound too proud of the meal’s quality, but it looked plenty fine to him — he was so focused on it, he hadn’t even realized Ember still hadn’t left his lap for Akari’s.

After he’d woken everyone up four hours before the sun was set to rise, Ingo had known there was no going back to sleep. Not for anyone. Even though he felt like he hadn’t gotten any sleep in the first place, he was too nervous to do so, and Akari was too concerned to leave him alone.

So as the hours had passed, the both of them had sat together and talked about it by her irori, where the heated sand in the pit warmed them. Ember had even chosen Ingo’s lap as her place to curl up as opposed to Akari’s. The level of clinginess had been admittedly uncharacteristic and a little surprising, but Ingo had appreciated that she had wanted to comfort him. Only when the earliest glimmers of sunlight began to peek through the window did Akari get up and declare she would make breakfast today, telling Ingo to just sit back and relax.

And so with no strength to argue, he resigned himself to running his fingers through Ember’s warm fur as the teen began to prepare breakfast for them both. 

“Are you gonna work today?” Akari asked in between mouthfuls of egg and potato.

“No. My schedule at the dojo is open for the day.” A rather short reply for the considerable amount of time it took to answer. “So I am slated to depart for the highlands, to visit Lady Sneasler and her kits.”

“Mmm.” Akari hummed in acknowledgement. She was being careful with him, talking carefully. She had been since his nightmare, and a part of him was disappointed that he’d made her feel like she had to do that. “Can I come with you?”

Or B, out on the mountain when no one is with you?

Ingo’s eyes hardened, tearing the phrase out of his head with a harsh mental rebuke and crushing it. He then turned to consider Akari’s offer, softening. “Yes. Your company would be appreciated. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Akari spoke into her hot cup of tea as she took a sip, careful again. Ingo began to eat, and they were quiet until he set his empty plate down beside him, and went back to petting Ember again.

“Do you still not know why it’s happening?”

It was asked with a reserved voice. Ingo knew it was coming from a place of wanting to help, but being scared it would pressure him to open up to her about something he maybe wouldn’t want to. Perhaps about some unshared traumatic event that had possibly happened recently.

That was not the case, and as morbid as it sounded, Ingo didn’t know if he was thankful for that or not. It gave no possible reason or explanation for this suddenly happening, and no hints about how to diminish or get rid of it. And that’s what bothered him the most. “No. I don’t. None of it makes any sense to me.”

The first true instance of these nightmares had dup up the raw, forcefully-buried memory of a horrific accident and intensified it horribly. But this one, it had reached down so deep that it had dredged up a fear from the very pit of his stomach, so visceral yet dormant, he hadn’t even been aware he feared it – the possibility of suffering a failure of health that Hisui had neither the technology or knowledge to save him from.

Now that it had been pulled to the forefront of his mind, it terrified him.

What was he possibly going to experience next? What could be worse than that? Ingo didn’t know, but he was stricken with the notion that his brain could somehow find the answer. Why was his mind turning on him so viciously?

It was all over the place, except for one thing. There was one constant.

Those legs. That stretched out Somebody that he could never see. It had been there with him again.

What was that even supposed to be? Was it someone he was supposed to know? Was that why he couldn’t see the rest of them? Was it possibly the man who looked like him? No, NO. That immediately felt wrong.

So then, what was it supposed to be? A representational figment of death? Did his subconscious think he was going to die soon?

“The only recurring thing, the only constant has been this… well, has been these legs.” Ingo forced words out of his mouth, so that he could focus on those instead of the ones spiraling down in his head. “These last few instances, I’ve seen something standing close by to me.” And every time he had spotted it, it happened to be closer to him than the last. “But I’m afraid I can never see anything clearly past the legs. They’re just too long, and too dark to make out.”

There was no response, just silence, and Ingo thought he’d have to return to the horrors swimming in his head. Maybe he’d started delving into things he shouldn’t with her.

“Legs?” Akari finally reiterated. The amount of concern in her voice caught Ingo off guard.

“Yes,” Not knowing what else to say, Ingo turned to see Akari was now staring right at him, and Ember had raised her head up, the first movement she’d made since she first settled onto his lap.

“Did it have one big eye?” Suddenly not at all careful or gentle anymore, Akari pointed at one of her own, shutting the other for emphasis. 

“Uh-”

“-Or what looked like a neck full of these huge, thick red teeth?” She next pointed at her neck, exposing it by tilting her head up.

“I don’t… know-”

“-Or like this weird, long white hair that’s stuck up above it?” She raised both arms straight above her head.

“I- yes- yes, it had that, I believe-” Ingo was growing genuinely unnerved. She was acting like she knew what this was.

“But you’re not-” Akari stopped herself and studied him with scrutiny. “You said it happens every few nights? The last time you had one was last night, then two nights before that was uh, the other one,” She was trying to construct a timeline in her head. “When did you have a nightmare before that?”

“I don’t know,” Ingo looked down at his fingers, trying to solidify the hazy math in his head. “I know the night before the nightmare involving Draugr, I was alright. And… the night before that was fine as well. But I believe the night before that I had a- well, I wouldn’t say it was a nightmare. Perhaps more of a premonitory dream-”

“So then that’s three nights,” Akari kept track for him, though she spoke slowly, as if trying to keep track of something herself. “Was the next gap between the nightmares four nights?”

Ingo thought about it for a while, muttering to himself to recount the events and count with his fingers. His frown pulled when he stopped, concerned with the answer, though not understanding why past the fact that Akari had guessed it. “I believe so… yes. It was.”

“Oh man,” Akari stood up and began pacing and shaking her hands out, which only fed Ingo’s unease as he watched her. “Oh man. Oh man, Ingo-”

“What?” 

“-I know what this is!” She didn’t stop pacing as she talked. “This is a Pokémon! You were right the first time! That’s why Ember was so worked up, she could tell it was there! Ember-!” Akari gestured to the now-alert quilava. “-That’s why she hasn’t left your side, she knows! These- these nightmares! The nights in between getting closer together, it’s all like a countdown! At least, I think it is- I mean, I know what’s supposed to happen at the end of all this, I just didn’t know it came on gradually-”

“What kind of Pokémon would cause something like this?” Ingo tried to get her back on track before she spiraled too far. He didn’t know what she was talking about, and all this buildup was scaring him — had he not been taking this as seriously as he should have? Akari’s own reaction wasn’t helping. He couldn’t recall a Pokémon that could do all of this to a person, but he also knew he had lost knowledge of many, many Pokémon that he either hadn’t personally encountered here in Hisui, or that Akari hadn’t described to him, just like the Slowpoke from last night. Was this one of these Pokémon?

“Does Darkrai sound familiar to you?”

His gut recognized it in a way his brain did not, telling him that this Pokémon and what it was doing to him was serious, but not being able to explain why. “Um, Somewhat-”

“It’s a Pokémon that makes people have these terrible nightmares!” Akari barely gave him a chance to finish his sentence, spilling out her explanation now. “It like, enters your dreams while you sleep, and turns them into nightmares! I think it feeds off of them, or thrives, I can’t remember- but it will keep people asleep and put them through nightmares that don’t end-!”

“Akari-” Ingo attempted to get her to slow down.

“-But you keep waking up after them! You’re not stuck! But you’re so tired, and they’re happening closer together; maybe it just keeps deciding to return to you, or maybe it’s like, counting down – the nights are like perfectly following a pattern! And then you’ll- uhm, we need Cresselia, the feathers-!”

Another Pokémon that only sparked a glimmer of familiarity. Ingo couldn’t keep up with all of this, but it sounded like she was saying this thing was invading his brain and exploiting his worst fears to harvest them, and that it was only going to get worse from here. “Akari, please, I can’t understand-”

“Ingo, if you go back to sleep, you’re not gonna wake up this time!” Akari stopped pacing now, turning on her heels to face him.”The pattern, it’s- the next day is tomorrow! It has to be tomorrow! It’s going to keep you asleep, stuck in a nightmare that keeps going on and on indefinitely! And I don’t have a feather, and Cresselia isn’t here, and-”

Akari’s words gradually blurred at the edges as sleep deprivation pressed on it. He didn’t understand what she was talking about but he knew that he had known at one point. And this thing , it was eating his mind. His mind, when turned against him like this, terrified him. It was an inaccessible vault that kept everything about him out of his reach. But this thing, it could go in there and find whatever it wanted – worries, fears, insecurities, trauma – and twist it into just the right shapes to reach down deep and activate the most raw, visceral, and ghastly reactions it could ever want. 

It already had. Twice.  

This thing looked for weakness, and uncertainties in the psyche. And Ingo, in this broken, empty state Hisui had left him in, was a man with many more uncertainties than he was even aware of.

No wonder it had attached itself to him like a parasite. No wonder it kept coming back to him.

“-Ingo. Ingo!”

The static lifted, and Ingo’s thoughts gave way to the worried teen shaking his shoulder.

“Ingo, you cannot go back to sleep.” Akari’s expression was firm now. More confident, more sure of herself. “Do. Not. Go. To. Sleep. Ok? Not until we figure this out.”

The thought of forgoing even more sleep already made his poor, exhausted body ache for it, but the thought of experiencing all of this without end was as unbearable as it was terrifying. Ingo blinked, frazzled. “Alright. I will keep my engines running.”

“Ok, good.” Akari then pulled out her Pokéball and held it out. “Come on, Ember.”

Jumping down off Ingo’s lap, Ember returned compliantly. Ingo wondered if she was going somewhere when she pulled on his coat, urging him to get up and follow. “Now you and me, we’re going to the Professor’s office to see if we can find anything on Cresselia, and where to find it.”