Chapter Text
Osomatsu could smell the scent of the sea on the air as he began to wake up. Vision slightly blurred, he groaned and blinked a few times to clear his sight. He was . . . on a beach? He didn't remember being here. He didn't remember even falling asleep.
“Where am I?” he murmured out a little as he pushed himself to a stand, eyes squinting at the breeze that flowed against him. It felt nice, and he had to take a moment to stop and just . . . enjoy the scene. It was a beautiful beach, with crystal clear waters, blue the farther it went out. The sand was warm, the breeze was nice, he sighed out and sunk his feet deeper into the sand just to feel the warmth it gave off. It was cozy enough that he was starting to drift off to sleep once again, that was until he was jolted awake by the sound of a screech.
“AAAAAAAHH!!”
It was a familiar screech, one that he could tell who it was right away.
“Choromatsu?”
Osomatsu stood up quickly, coming to his feet and following the source of the panicked screaming. Sure, Choromatsu yelled a lot, but it never sounded this frightened. One he had gotten to the center of the noise, he looked left and right, but didn't see his brother anywhere. The only thing that seemed to be there was some weird looking . . . sheep thing. It was hunched over on the ground, shaking and shuddering like it was in pain, and curiosity got the better of him as Osomatsu slowly took steps towards it.
“Hey, little guy, are you alright?” he asked, extending a paw out to-- wait. Osomatsu froze as he stared down at his hand, which wasn't a hand at all. It looked almost like a dog's paw. He waved it back and forth in front of him, to make sure that this was him and not some animal messing with him.
“Oh god DON'T HURT ME!!” The sheep thing suddenly shrieked out and drifted back as if it was as light as a balloon. That was . . . Choromatsu's voice! But it was coming from that thing!
“Choromatsu?!” Osomatsu snapped out, causing the creature to pause and look at him with confusion.
“. . . The dog is talking and it knows my name-- wait, Osomatsu?!” He recognized the voice after a second, and Choromatsu drifted back towards him as if he was riding on the very breeze that blew across the beach.
“Yes I'm Osomatsu!” he barked out. “And I'm not a dog, what the hell are you even talking about?!”
The sheep creature just looked at him with half lidded eyes before pointing out towards the water, and Osomatsu's eyes followed as the two of them started towards it's edge. Slowly, Osomatsu peered into the water, seeing his reflection on the surface. This . . . wasn't him!! He looked like some kind of dog! (So Choromatsu wasn't wrong after all.) There was creamy tuffs of fur on his head, around his neck, a fluffy tail of the same color. The rest of his body was covered in orange fur with black stripes.
“. . . Are you sure I'm not a tiger or something?” he said, looking towards the sheep, who promptly smacked him on the back of his head.
“You don't look anything like a tiger, you idiot! You look more like a dog than anything!”
“Well you look like some stupid sheep.” Osomatsu snapped out at him.
“I KNOW!” Choromatsu yelled out in return before letting his lofty body drift to the ground, settling against the sand. “I don't know what's going on, or why we're these weird creatures, why we're on a beach. . .”
“Oh man, where's everyone else? What if they're some weird creatures too?” asked Osomatsu, sitting down in the sand next to Choromatsu.
“I haven't seen them, but I'm sure they're not too far--” said Choromatsu, but was cut off when there was the sound of some kind of explosion. The two of them turned around quickly, taking in the sight of two more creatures on the beach that seemed to be fighting. One of them looked like a cat, black and red and a bright bell at it's neck that gave off a faint ring whenever it seemed to shoot fire from it's mouth. The other looked like a large wolf, four rock like protrusions sticking out from it's mane of fur. It was dodging the spits of fire the cat creature was sending out almost effortlessly by jumping and sprinting about, and the cat looked like it was getting more and more annoyed.
The cat finally made an attempt to leap at the wolf, but it ended up going over it as the canine ducked down and bounced it off of it's back. With wide eyes, the cat flew through the air before landing on it's back at Osomatsu and Choromatsu's feet. The two backed up as it struggled to a stand, growling out low before snapping out.
“JYUSHIMATSU! HOLD STILL GOD DAMMIT!”
“. . . Ichimatsu?” both Osomatsu and Choromatsu stared down at the feline, who blinked and turned around to look towards the two behind him. He didn't seem to look as surprised as the two others did to hear the sound of his brother's voices coming from weird animal like creatures. He just stared between both of them before giving some kind of smug expression.
“You gotta be faster, Ichimatsu nii-san!” The wolf came bounding over towards the three of them, sliding slightly in the sand as he came to a stop and looked between the sheep and other dog like creature. “WOAH!! ANOTHER DOG!”
“That's Osomatsu and Choromatsu.” said Ichimatsu, sitting down and licking his tongue over his paw.
“DID YOU GUYS FIND OUT YOUR POWERS YET?!” shouted Jyushimatsu, plopping himself right down next to Ichimatsu.
“Powers?” said Choromatsu, looking down at his body before back up towards his much larger brothers.
“We have powers? NICE!” shouted Osomatsu, though that last part sounded a lot like a bark.
“We apparently have some kind of special powers, like I can breath fire.” said Ichimatsu. “Not exactly a quality of a cat, but I'll take it.”
“I CAN CONTROL ROCKS!! HAHA!!” Jyushimatsu shouted out, causing Choromatsu to drift back a bit.
“Aren't either of you concerned about the fact that WE'RE SOME WEIRD ANIMAL CREATURES AND NOT HUMANS?!” he snapped out at them.
Both Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu looked at each other before back towards their brother, their expressions hardly changing. Choromatsu just sighed out and lowered his face down against those tiny paws of his.
“I wonder what Karamatsu and Todomatsu were turned into!” said Osomatsu, suddenly standing up and rushing off to look around the beach for them. They couldn't be too far, right? Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu watched as he ran off, before looking back towards Choromatsu who seemed to be having a break down over all of this.
“There's something wrong with you, all of you! How can you be fine with this?! Well Ichimatsu, you don't count.” Choromatsu groaned out, glaring over at his younger brother. “You've always had that weird dream of becoming a cat.”
“I am fine with this.” said Ichimatsu with those hooded eyes before licking at his paw and using it to clean his face. Choromatsu watched with a deadpan expression before flinching at the sound of Osomatsu once again shouting out.
“OW OW OW OW IT HURTS!” the canine was rolled over onto his back, paws up against his chest as another creature stood next to him. It looked like a fox, one of the kinds of legands, nine tails and all, but the fur on it was completely snow white and it was . . . wearing sunglasses? Judging by Osomatsu's reaction, he had probably found Karamatsu.
“Buraza, is my fur too bright for you? It's MAGNIFICANT SHINE cannot be tamed, I am afraid.” the fox said, placing a paw against his chest. “It is a PERFECT FASHION that I am able to grow upon my own body. FANTASTIC.”
“HAHHAA STOP!” shouted Osomatsu in barking laughs. “It's too much! IT HURTS!”
Everyone else made their way over towards the other two, and Karamatsu turned his head to look towards the approaching mob.
“More beasts? Are you friend of foe?”
“Shut up, shittymatsu.” Ichimatsu hissed out.
“KIT-SU-NE! KIT-SU-NE!” Jyushimatsu barked. Choromatsu just continued to hold his face in his hands.
“Ah, friend it is! FAMILY even!” shouted Karamatsu, and leaned to hug against the nearest brother towards him, Ichimatsu. He regreted this instantly when the cat caused his body heat to rise rapidly and burn the ever living shit out of the fox. “AUGH! HOT!”
“The only one that's missing is Todomatsu, has anyone else seen him?” asked Osomatsu as he sat up. Everyone looked around before shaking their heads. While the most of them were contemplating where their youngest brother could be, the didn't manage to hear the footsteps in the sand coming up behind them. It was only when they heard a more feminine voice did they all stop and turn to look.
“Here you guys are! Sylveon and I have been combing the beach for an hour trying to find all of you!”
Osomatsu's gaze lifted to see a woman standing before him, dressed in a two piece swimsuit with a sheer sash tied around her waist. All five of them couldn't take their eyes off her, they didn't even see the rather irritated looking creature beside her. Canine, feline, it was hard to tell, but it had bows on it's body, with long ribbon like tendrils that gently wrapped around it's body.
“STOP STARING!” Todomatsu's voice snapped out, causing the rest of them to suddenly come to attention.
“Todomatsu?” all of them spoke out, causing the woman to glance between them and the Sylveon beside her.
“Have some decency, will you?!” snapped out the creature. “Tch, still gross even as these things.”
“Pokemon.” said the woman, reaching down and petting over the Sylveon's head. Todomatsu blinked a moment before his eyes closed and he leaned into the affectionate pets, causing the rest of his brothers to grow EXTREMELY jealous.
“Right right, Pokemon. I forgot!” said Todomatsu with a smile.
“Oi! You can pet us too, right?” said Osomatsu, leaning forward only to get slapped away by one of those ribbons.
“Don't touch!” Todomatsu hissed out, but he was shot down when the woman leaned in to scratch under Osomatsu's chin.
“Ah, I can't believe you all can talk now!” she said with a bright smile, and Jyushimatsu pushed himself past everyone else, tongue lolling out of his mouth as his tail wagged a mile a minute behind him.
“PET ME TOO! ME TOO!” he shouted, bowing his head down when the woman leaned in and pet at the top of his head. Todomatsu just stared on before clearing his throat.
“Trainer-chan, don't you think you should give them an explanation as well? If what you said earlier is true, us being out in the open like this is probably not a good idea.”
The woman looked back towards Todomatsu and smiled, standing upright and nodding. “You're right. Todomatsu was it? Haha, I'm gonna have to get used to calling you that. I've always known you as just Sylveon.”
Dusting herself off, the woman motioned with her hands for everyone to follow.
“Come on then! The hotel isn't far from the beach, I'll explain everything when we get there! Or well, at least as much as I can! You guys can tell me your side of the story as well!”
Todomatsu followed after her almost immediately, but it took everyone else a moment or two of processing before following as well. Osomatsu looked down at his paws, slightly buried in the sand before letting out a small sigh and trotting along after everyone else.