Pokémon XYZ: Life, Death, Order, and Chaos (book 2 of the HBoD series)

Chapter 42: Aiming for that Blazing Confidence

"Greninja" I whispered, closing my eyes as I searched for our connection. There, pulsing. Two separate lines of life, side-by-side. They began merging, becoming one. "Connect!"

Greninja and I yelled in unison, a cyclone of water bursting around the Water and Dark type. Immediately I felt my body strain, beads of sweat already forming on my forehead. Now that we weren't in a life or death situation, the same adrenaline that had let me do this twice with Greninja back in Laverre City wasn't there, so now I was finding out there were limitations to this power.

I clenched my teeth. "Embrace the night! Full Sync!"

The water cyclone shattered, then formed back together to form Greninja's new form, wearing a cloak that reminded me of my trench coat. I sighed, wiping the sweat of my head. It felt a little easier on the both of us in this form, now that the energy wasn't just circling out of control around him.

"And there it is," Robert was grinning, clapping his hands. "The Kage-Shinobi!"

"The what?" I looked back at him and Alex, raising an eyebrow. We were currently camping on the fall-covered Route 15, despite it still being summer. A river ran right by where we had set up camp, all our Pokemon either playing in the shallow river or sitting in the shade of beautiful Fall trees.

"Darkness and ninja," Alex explained, slapping Robert on the back of the head. "I'm actually the one who came up with the name."

She smiled at me. "Darkness being Kage and ninja being Shinobi. Together you and Greninja are the Kage-Shinobi."

I looked back at Greninja, who met my gaze with his red eyes beneath his hood. "How about that then? We're the Kage-Shinobi. A name where we're one."

Greninja croaked happily. I grinned and went over to my Pokemon, lifting his cloak with one hand. It appeared to be made out of tiny black bubbles all stuck together, giving it great mobility. 

With a slight pain shooting up my spine, Greninja's cloak and additional weapons dematerialized. 

"Geez," I cracked my neck, feeling slightly better. "We need to practice this a lot more if we want to avoid any drawbacks. That is, if we can avoid them at all."

"This is interesting," Robert mused, staring at his pokedex. Actually, to call it a pokedex at this point just didn't cut it. Throughout the journey, Robert's been experimenting with it, adding and taking stuff off. Now there was an additional screen that could pop out and read what I assumed were vitals.

"What?" I asked, Greninja and I coming over.

"Hm?" Robert looked up. "This was you and Greninja's bond levels, which I managed to observe through this."

He pointed at the screen, where two vital signs merged and became one, however, they were slightly off after a few seconds. "I'm certain your bond is fine, it's just the physical difference you have to overcome. Greninja is a Pokemon and you're a human. There might be more to this than I can identify though, so I can't be an expert for you."

"Whatever it is," I grinned. "Me and Greninja will overcome it."

"Gren," my Pokemon agreed, walking towards the river to join Absol, Mawile, and Florges, who were all playing in the water. Greninja leaped in, splashing the water in their faces.

In the middle of the camping area Snorlax was splayed on the ground next to a tree, snoring. Quilladin was rolling around on his stomach freely and Corvisquire watched from his perch on the branch overlooking the two. On the opposite side of the tree Arcanine and Ninetales slept in the sunlight together. Pyroar and Vespiquen were doing a mock battle without any special moves while Lucario sat away from the main group in a crisscross position, eyes closed in meditation.