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Yanqing has been missing for two hundred and fifty-eight days now.
It’s exact. He’s been counting.
Jing Yuan pages through his notebook, massaging the ache that’s accumulated between his eyebrows as he steps off the S.S. Tidal to Snowpoint City. Rain is crashing down in torrents, and soaked white locks slip into his face as he tries to protect the ink from bleeding.
Two hundred and fifty-eight days, ever since he was dragged out of his life as Sinnoh Champion, and disappeared without a trace. Nobody knows why. Some people insisted he ran away, to pursue higher training, while news articles hesitated more each day to promise he’d be home soon.
That’s not Yanqing. Yanqing does not just disappear without a trace.
And that’s mainly because Jing Yuan knows his son is an attention seeker.
Well, it’s more than that. They run— ran the Seat of Divine Foresight together, home of the Battle Estate, and Yanqing had been coming home to challenge a Trainer that had finally ranked highly enough in Double Battles to face the two of them. It was a battle that had accumulated incredible publicity.
Yanqing never passes up on publicity, and never passes up on a fight.
So, no. This was very out of character.
He’d come here to ask the Elite Four again for assistance— surely, Baiheng and Jingliu are still in the area and could lend a hand. Dan Feng was likely busy, but if his little brother A-Heng was in town, maybe Jing Yuan could drag him into it. He’s a researcher on part of the Astral Express— perhaps he knows something.
Yanqing did not just disappear. Jing Yuan has done enough research to at least ensure that. The last he was seen was nearby Summit Ruins, making his way home to Jubilife City. He’d been riding his Corviknight Voidarc, and Jing Yuan had known something terrible had happened when Voidarc had crashed on his doorstep, black feathers spraying everywhere.
Yanqing’s other Pokémon, like his Alolan Ninetales, Clearbreeze, and Lucario, Ebonstyle, were found later searching Mount Coronet helplessly, calling out for their trainer together. They even found the baby Honedge Yanqing had only recently picked up in Kalos, wailing alone in fear among Abomasnow. The only Pokémon they hadn’t found was Yanqing’s starter, a competitively bred Shiny Sylveon, Yanzhuo, a former Eevee Jing Yuan had given him at the beginning of his journey.
His Solgaleo, Snowmoon, dripping with water, nuzzles up against him— she’s been searching for Yanqing too, but to no avail. She was kind enough to accompany him alongside his other Pokémon, his Luxray Mimi, and Snorlax Reverie. Raised from a Cosmog since before Yanqing had come into their home, Snowmoon had been grown by the time watching over his son. She’s terrified for him, crooning every night by his bedside and chewing at his old toys.
Salt spray hits his wet face as he shuffles down the steps, only to bump into a figure that lands a hand on his shoulder. A flash of blonde swishes into his vision, and his hopes roar like victory in his chest.
It’s him, it’s him, he’s home, and Jing Yuan knows the love is bleeding through his thin face before he realizes the stranger is much too tall to be Yanqing.
“Oh, my apologies!” Jing Yuan laughs, a little too loudly to compensate for the sorrow in his chest. Snowmoon cuddles him with her nose, purring despite the cold. “I didn’t see you there!” He tries not to sound disappointed.
The man just smiles, long blonde hair pooling down his white suit like liquid gold. “No, it’s no trouble at all. You seem rather occupied. I’m sure nobody can blame you.” He raises an eyebrow at the Solgaleo seated at his boots— having a Legendary at his heel tends to draw eyes, but Jing Yuan can’t stand to be alone here without her.
Jing Yuan laughs weakly. Occupied is one way to put it. He’s been drowning. “I thank you for your generosity. I haven’t been myself lately.”
“Nobody would be.” His gaze lowers, like blooming emeralds, inescapable and inquisitive. “After all, your son was taken from you. Anybody would be sick.”
His gloved hand startles, digging into Snowmoon’s mane for grounding. Maybe he’s seen the news reports, Jing Yuan reassures himself, it’s natural, it’s normal. Many people know about their relationship. He’s sharing condolences. The whole world knows that you are grieving.
“Jing Yuan, your son was taken from you.”
Gentle green eyes embraced by pale eyelashes lift with sorrow, as pure sympathy pours over this poor man’s face, like he’s been here many times before.
An umbrella opens over Jing Yuan’s head, and he finally knows reprieve from the rain.
“My name is Luocha, and I can help you get him back.”
—
Yanqing is having the most terrifying year of his life.
He thinks it’s been almost a year. He came here in the summer, and the rain is finally coming back for a second round of war. He hasn’t been able to count the days exactly, with how everything in this stupid time tries to kill him.
Hisui is an awful place. Traveling back in time has only made him want to return to the future. People and Pokémon hate each other here. There are no modern appliances. The weather is awful. There’s no Internet. He’s been eating potato mochi for a year. The scenery isn’t great. It’s primitive in this time.
Worst of all, he’s all alone.
Yanzhuo curls against him, yawning as she rudely stuffs her head into his lap for petting. She’s always been demanding like that, and Yanqing couldn’t be more grateful to have his first friend with him. She’d returned to being an Eevee, some strange twist of the rift, but it hadn’t been hard to evolve her back into a Sylveon. Her tiny blue paws have accompanied him on every expedition, just like this one. The snow is coming down in the Alabaster Icelands tonight, but she’s braving it just for him.
There’s somebody else here from his time, named Tingyun, but she’s forgotten everything about her past life. She’s his only real friend, everybody else being acquaintances or too scared to speak to the boy who fell from the rift and possible harbinger of the Distortion Crisis.
He hasn’t told anybody that he has his memories of the present. He doesn’t even go by Yanqing here— he goes by Lengfeng, although he isn’t sure why. Maybe it’s easier to distance himself from the stranger, Lengfeng, who‘s lost and traumatized in Hisui, because he’s the champion, Yanqing, who’s still warm at home and snuggling with Snowmoon. He knows so much more than he’s supposed to, and it’s isolating.
The snow sings louder outside the cave, howling through the icy sediment, and Yanqing winces. Maybe he should have brought a Fire Type. Willowfoil wiggles into his side with a sympathetic chirp, white wings fluttering fruitlessly to warm him up.
That’s not to say he hasn’t tried to regain a sense of normalcy. He’s managed to build out his Pokémon team, with Crimson Shadow, a Hisuian Samurott he got as a starter, and Peerless, a Hisuian Braviary who isn't here at the moment. Willowfoil joined later, a vicious Togekiss, who he got as an egg from the merchant Luocha. This was naturally before Luocha tried to kill him for the elemental Plates and the revision of the world.
After he’d been kicked out of Jubilife by Commander Hua for perceived treason, no thanks to Su Mei, he’d trained up a vicious Alpha Garchomp, a Pokémon he usually wouldn’t take on as a main team member but needed to for the raw power. If wild Pokémon, or worse, an ignorant villager seeking revenge, crept up on him, Xuanyuan would take them out first.
He’d wanted to get a Hisuian Arcanine, just to remind him of sleeping with Snowmoon, but he’s scared of picking up too many big Pokémon. If he ever has to pick up and run, it’s easier to have smaller Pokémon that eat less and draw less attention. Crimson is only a little taller than him, and Willowfoil alongside Yanzhuo are even tinier. Xuanyuan is a walking calamity and the only one he’s eager to risk. Peerless is out hiding the Plates in every corner of Hisui.
Yanqing tries to train his tai chi with Crimson, but it isn’t the same as sparring with Ebonstyle. He isn’t ready to pick up another Lucario.
As long as Luocha isn’t coming back anytime soon, and stays “mysteriously disappeared” after his failed attempt to take the Plates, it’s fine. Yanqing just needs enough time to fill out his Pokédex and abandon this world in the past, along with Luocha. By the time he’s home, Luocha will be in a gravesite. He can be safe. This can be left behind him, like some awful nightmare.
That’s what Hisui is. Yanqing blinks back the heat behind his eyes. Just a really bad nightmare.
“Seek out all Pokémon.” If that’s his divine mission by Arceus themself, he can complete it and get home. If nothing else, Yanqing can get something done. He can get Tingyun and himself back to the present.
Yanqing feels tears puddle in his eyes, but he blinks them away before they freeze to his face. He misses heaters. He misses Jing Yuan. He just wants to go home, and see Professor Yang and Fu Xuan and even Yutie. He wants to visit Yunli’s forge and ask about Mega Stones, he wants to hug Snowmoon and say he’s sorry for leaving her without any notice. He wants to tell Jing Yuan he’s sorry for leaving him alone.
He hopes nobody blames him for disappearing, or thinks he ran away. Tried to play at the Kanto Champion and vanish for no good reason. He isn’t a bad son. It’s not that he wasn’t strong enough. He hopes people know this wasn’t his choice.
Suddenly, he hears a scrabbling noise, and a familiar voice rumbles gently through the hail. Against himself, Yanqing perks up, and Yanzhuo does too— her ears twitch excitedly, searching for the sound. She’s the only one on his team who knows that voice, because that’s the voice that raised her.
He came for me, Yanqing can’t help but hope so desperately, I’m safe, I’m saved, I don’t have to be afraid anymore, I don’t have to run, he’s here!
“A-Qing?” The rustling sound of snow starts up again. “A-Qing, I’m here! Where are you? A-Qing, please, say something! I made it!”
“General?” Yanqing asks weakly, scraping to his feet as Xuanyuan suddenly snarls, on high alert. That’s fine, she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know they’re finally going home!
The thought tastes like tears. He’s going home.
He’s going home, he’s going home! He’s coming home!
“General, I’m here!” Yanqing screams, stumbling out of the cave, reaching out, gloved hands slipping on his voice, barely able to grasp onto it, “Please, I’m here, I’m right—“
Scarlet claws carved from garnet razors curl around the cave entrance, clicking one by one.
Yanqing’s words die a suffocating death.
Yanzhuo prepares a Dazzling Gleam, and Xuanyuan’s jaws light up with Crunch, their only super effective move. Willowfoil stays tucked by Yanqing’s side, ready to fly him out.
“A-Qing?” Salivating canines make their appearance, fogging up a foxlike snout. “A-Qing, I’m here! Why aren’t you coming to me? Don’t you miss me? Do you hate me?” A hungry jaundiced eye opens, slit in the center and sallow at the edges. “I love you. I love you, Yanqing.”
Hisuian Zoroark. A colossal Alpha Zoroark, monstrous just judging by the size of its head. It eclipses all the light leaking into the cave with just its shadow. It must be as big as Xuanyuan, Yanqing realizes dizzily. If not bigger. The size of its claws can swallow up his chest and more.
“Yanqing.” A tinge of anger simmers in that voice, and Yanqing cowers. “Yanqing, come out this instant. Not after you abandoned me. You don’t get to hide.”
Yanqing sets a hand on Willowfoil’s back, a silent command to attack without hesitation.
That achingly familiar voice moans, sobs, “Oh, Yanqing, Yanqing… don’t leave me waiting. Is it my fault? If it is, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I know I’m not a good father. I know, I’m trying these days. I’m trying, A-Qing. Is that why you won’t come home? I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Yanqing’s voice comes out as a hoarse scream. “XUANYUAN, KILL IT!”
That moonlike eye splits open wide with fury.
With its disguise discovered, a river of saliva spills from the beast’s lips, peeling back into a devastating roar.
“Jing Yanqing, YOU TRAITOR! You don’t get to go home, DON’T BOTHER COMING HOME!"
Vicious ruby claws lunge for his throat, Xuanyuan bellows like shattering earth, and Yanqing doesn’t know if he’s going to be fast enough. If he’s strong enough. If there’s anything he’d been most terrified of when first setting foot in Hisui, it was the knowledge he wasn’t making it home.
This world is going to take him first.
(Later, when the Zoroark is dead, and Yanqing is curled up in the cavern's corner, red paws patter up to him and a white muzzle pokes at his side. Yanqing cowers from the ghostly green flame, the gold eyes, unable to look, but there's a terrible kinship they share that he can't look away from. Yanqing has made another orphan to join him.)
Apyra, the Hisuian Zorua, is the last to join his team.