Chapter Text
✧✧✧
On the cliffs above Obsidian Falls, a figure in a long cloak approached a wild Blissey. A Togekiss circled high above, a pale shadow against the blank sky. Though the man was tall, the Blissey still towered over him by two feet or so. Human bowed low before Pokémon.
Like any Blissey, this one could be docile. She could also be ferocious on a whim, like any Alpha. Had there been anyone around to witness this scene, they might have held their breath, wondering if the Alpha would choose to attack. But she did not. She did not seem surprised, startled, or even curious about this human’s presence. She turned her back and allowed him to pass.
After gathering some medicinal leeks, which he held in the crook of his arm, the wanderer paused at the head of the cliff, overlooking the waterfall and the raging river below. A gust blew back the hood that covered his head. Wisps of ashen hair swirled around him, escapees from a braid that looked as though it hadn’t been touched for many days, except by the wind.
The man looked down at the rushing waters, as though contemplating the fall. Then he held out a hand that was wrapped, like that of a mummy, in strips of thick wool. Large flakes of white drifted down to land in his palm. He stared at them silently.
The Togekiss swooped down to take a closer look, as if to check that the droplets were not her own feathers. After a sombre pause, while they both watched the flakes shrivel into pearls of water, the Togekiss chimed and nudged the man’s hand. He looked at her with a smile in his eyes and spoke in a voice that was hoarse and quiet, as though he wasn’t used to speaking out loud anymore.
“You’re right. I must make myself some new gloves.”
✧✧✧
Akari stepped out of her cabin onto the village’s snow-covered main street, noting that it was even colder than it had been yesterday. She pulled on the warm gloves that were waiting in her pocket. Her red scarf was long enough for her to wrap around her neck one more time. She did that, then tucked the ends into the front of her navy-blue uniform jacket.
She began to walk the short distance to Galaxy Hall, her own breath clouding the air in front of her. On the way, she passed scraps of old posters on walls and lampposts. They bore faded and tattered remains of a face she had once known. Akari didn’t really notice the posters anymore. A few more snowfalls and they would be gone entirely. Paper reminders were no longer needed. That name and face, and what that man had done to make himself an unwelcome terror, were now common knowledge in Jubilife Village. People still talked about it, whenever there were reminders. Akari, herself, had become a reminder. The villagers would shake their heads and cover their dismayed mouths with their hands to hide their whispers. Some of the wardens from both clans spent a lot of time in the village these days; they, too, had taken the story home with them.
Sometimes, people got some of the details wrong. Some aspects had become distorted, even though it had been less than six months. Akari had tried to say so little in the first place. She had never intended it to become the talk of the town. She never bothered to correct anyone. Instead, she just hoped that people would eventually stop talking about it – about him – altogether. For now, work and life went on.
Professor Laventon’s laboratory was not very warm, but it was a nice contrast to the icy chill outside. As usual, the professor was standing at his desk, cup of tea in hand, poring over the current state of their project. The Pokédex was not yet complete.
“Hi, Professor.”
“Hello, old girl…good morning to you…”
Laventon didn’t look up. The words seemed to beep out of his mouth like an automated greeting. He was always like this, first thing in the morning. Akari figured it was because the Pokédex was the first thing on his mind when he woke up, and the last thing he thought of before he went to sleep. She preferred him this way. While she’d been unwell, he’d been far too attentive.
‘Why, Akari, how are you? Are you quite alright? You don’t need to be here so early, if you need some more rest. Shall I make us some tea?’
Akari didn’t take off her outerwear, since she knew she’d be going out again soon. The lab was more Rei’s domain than hers; he was Laventon’s assistant, after all. He still did some survey work, but he’d been happy to cede a lot of that, since Akari’s arrival.
“Rei’s not here yet?”
“Is he not…?” Laventon raised his head and looked around the lab. “Ah, he must have gone downstairs. Someone had a request, and the early Starly gets the Wurmple, as they say!”
Akari paused to pet the professor’s Quilava, curled up half-asleep on the bench near the door, before making her way to the large board where people would pin up requests for the Survey Corps. A request might have been about a specific Pokémon they wanted to see, or a mystery they thought might need a surveyor’s brave touch. Nothing was too small or too large. There weren’t many requests right now, but one caught Akari’s eye, thanks to its familiar writing. She didn’t read every single word, but she recognised its plea. Something about a Pokémon interfering with mining at Oreburrow Tunnel.
“Huh? This is an old one. I sorted this out last month.” She unpinned it and was about to throw it in the trash. “Professor? Shall I get rid of it?”
“Oh, let me see. It cannot be as old as that. I take good care of that board, you know!” Laventon leaned over and peered at the scrap of paper in Akari’s hand. “No, I believe that one is from a few days ago.”
“But…I dealt with it. I’m sure I did. It was an Alpha Onix, and Kochika caught it. He gave me some iron scraps as payment. I remember.” Even though she was in good health now, with no symptoms bothering her, Akari still worried about that head injury. She wondered whether it might have some effects that would destroy her gradually. Something like memory loss, that would start off small and insignificant, like a slow-spreading wildfire in her brain. She tried to laugh it off, but her hand came up to stroke the side of her head, underneath her hat. She could still feel a tiny bump, but it didn’t hurt anymore. “Unless it was a weird dream I had.”
“You must have had a premonition!” Laventon generously joined Akari in laughing, and patted her on the shoulder as he returned to looking at the Pokédex. “I can ask Rei to deal with it, if it doesn’t take your fancy. Now, how are we getting on with the Pokédex? Any luck with those others that Cogita told you about? Or those odd outbreaks we’ve been hearing about?”
“No, sorry. The weather hasn’t been right. Or my timing hasn't.” Akari kept hold of the request from Kochika, still puzzled and preoccupied by it, and headed for the door. “I’ll go and look into the mines again. I need to know I’m not going crazy.”
Akari had helped most of the village’s residents at least once. She wasn’t the best at remembering names – nothing to do with her head injury, she was sure she’d always been this way – but faces came back to her much more quickly. She remembered Kochika for looking young, though she was sure he must have been older than he looked. He was of middling height, with a friendly sort of face, dressed in a plain dark green kimono. The same description could be given to a few people in the village, but when Akari spotted Kochika near the village pastures, he immediately waved and beckoned her over. The pair exchanged bows in greeting.
“Akari!” Kochika bowed again, more deeply this time. “I apologise for bothering you again so soon, with that new request.”
Akari hadn’t expected to feel so relieved to hear that. She laughed, louder than she’d intended to. “Ha, it’s no bother! I just thought I was getting déjà vu or…something. So, what’s going on? Another Alpha?”
“Truth be told, I don’t even know if it’s a Pokémon at all.” Kochika turned towards the pasture fence, looking troubled as he leaned over one of its beams with his arms folded. “The guys I recruited are too scared to go back there. People talk, so I’m sure the whole village thinks that place is haunted by now.”
People sure do talk.
Akari joined her neighbour in looking out over the pastures, though there wasn’t much to see right now. The few Pokémon that lived in the pastures must have been tucked away in the sheds and barns. Akari could only see the tip of a Bergmite, mostly hidden in the snow. It seemed to be asleep.
“Do you think it’s a Ghost-type Pokémon?” she asked. “You’ve got that Onix, right? An Alpha should be able to take care of anything. You don’t really need to worry about strategy or – ”
“I did try! But this creature had some eerie moves, Akari. It even managed to put my Onix to sleep! Then it tried to attack us, so I panicked. I had to put Onix in one of those little Apricorn balls for the first time, just to get him out of there. The men were yelling, ‘Leave it! Leave it!’ But I couldn’t."
Akari gave him a sympathetic glance and a smile. Many of the villagers were still afraid of Pokémon, so to find someone like Kochika – who had not only managed to befriend an Alpha Onix, but even put his own safety on the line for it – was quite touching. It made Akari feel like she was achieving something. Something that meant more to her than any grand heroics.
“Well, some Pokémon can do stuff like that,” she said. “A lot of wild Pokémon will lash out if they feel threatened, and Ghost types just have weirder ways of doing that. What did it look like?”
“We didn’t get a good look at it. It was so misty in the tunnel that day – don’t ask me how it was misty! All I remember is some green glowing lights, and then the mist turned a strange purple colour. The next thing, we…”
Kochika’s voice, the cold air, and the pastures before them, all faded into some other dimension. Akari saw herself staring through that purple mist and meeting a pair of human eyes. They were frenzied, full of a violent hatred that had steeped like toxic tea over weeks and months, set in a pale and sweat-drenched face. Akari had to steady herself against the fence, clinging to it with her gloved hands.
Fortunately, it seemed Kochika hadn’t noticed her momentary panic. She was getting so good at hiding things.
“Do you know what it was, then? Was it a Pokémon?” Kochika’s eyes brightened with a sudden idea. “If it’s one that you’ve captured and studied, maybe you could show me? Even just a picture in that big book of yours might help me to recognise it.”
“Maybe.” Akari tried to smile, though she wasn’t sure if she managed it. If she did, it probably wasn’t a very reassuring smile. “Let me go and check it out in person tomorrow. Then I’ll let you know.”
That night, Akari struggled to drift off. It wasn’t just her cold bedroom, nor was it the blizzard that howled outside.
You’re overthinking this. You’re jumping to conclusions. Wild Spiritomb do exist. They have to exist.
She awoke in the dead of night, feeling cold hands locked around her neck.
✧✧✧
The wanderer could not sleep.
He had chosen this place carefully. The wind could never reach him here. He had his fire, built and guarded by a watchful Arcanine. He had his bedroll and a blanket. A Togekiss lay between his feet, her wings spread over his lower legs.
But it was miserably cold. His stomach grumbled. The blizzard shrieked through the valley, louder even than the nearby waterfall.
The wild Pokémon were loud tonight. Judging by the amount of noise they made, some of them must have been Alphas. These were not Pokémon that belonged in the Fieldlands. They were lost out there, somehow. Some of them belonged to the eastern coast, others to the frozen plains of the north. Once the snowstorm ended, they would disappear as quickly and mysteriously as they had come. The man had seen it with his own eyes, in broad daylight.
Even though these occurrences posed no threat to him – his companions could take out a dozen Alphas, if they had to – he was bothered by the mystery of it, and what it could have meant. The daylight hours kept him too busy to ponder things like this, but the days were so short, and at night he had little to do but sleep and think and feel.
He reached out towards his legs, cold fingers seeking out warm feathers, seeking out comfort.