"Gah-!" I staggered back, my link with Grovyle having been severed for what must have been the dozenth time that day. Shu and his Delphox knocked us down at every turn, and yet Kudou was adamant that we should keep going. This meant that my first day of training was effectively spent feeding Grovyle Revives in a seemingly fruitless effort to boost our ability to maintain our bond in battle.
"Ah..." I winced, the pain vanishing without a trace, though sweat still matted my fringe to my forehead as I watched Grovyle slump over once again.
Even Shu seemed uncomfortable.
"To be fair, you two are taking the full force of super effective attacks..." He said, still bonded to his Pokemon. "This is probably the hardest way to train for this..."
"But it's fine..." I straightened up, reaching into my pocket for another item. "After all, we can master this – or at least get better at it – eventually. You managed it, right? It's not impossible..."
"Right..." Shu averted his eyes and Delphox looked back at him with concern.
"Here, Grovyle..." I held out a Revive to his mouth and he chewed on it tiredly.
"Groh..." He shook his head and I helped him stand.
Just then, there was a high-pitched sound that floated across the pitch, catching everyone's attention. We turned to see that Nelly had blown a whistle that Coach Kudou had given her.
"All right, everyone." Kudou said, looking around at us. "Good work today. It's time we wrap up for the day. I don't want you to overdo it, especially considering that this is our first day since our flight here. Head back to the dorms and get yourself something to eat. We'll review your work and revise our plans tomorrow."
"Thank you, Coach!" A jumble of shouts came forth.
"Phew!" Hikaru stretched. "That went well!"
"I'm hungry..." Yu sighed.
"Better hurry or there'll be no food left!" Carmello joked, running off ahead, with the younger boy soon in hot pursuit.
"Delphox." Shu-ling said, calmly dismissing the link to his Pokemon with no backlash whatsoever. A few small embers flickered over the creature's body as its black tinge returned to natural shades of orange and the second wand in its hand faded to cinders.
"Thanks for training with us." I said, standing up straight with Grovyle.
"That's ok." Shu bowed slightly. "You did well."
"You think? I dunno, I don't think getting knocked out a bunch was very good." I laughed.
"Well, towards the end you started to look like you might withstand our attack with a bit more practice."
"Huh." I looked at Grovyle. "Like a pain tolerance thing?"
"Yes, I suppose." Our opponent smiled.
"Well, thanks. Do you mind if I ask how it is you came to get so good at holding your bond with Delphox?"
Something in Shu's face changed and he seemed uneasy.
"Rooo..." Delphox seemed concerned again.
"...I'm sorry. I would rather not tell that story..." He looked away.
"Oh..." I felt bad. "That's all right. Don't worry about it." I smiled.
"I'll see you." He bowed again and turned, returning his partner as he went.
"See you." I replied, watching him go, wondering what was wrong.
"He didn't sound too thrilled... What happened...? Well, I suppose it's too soon to go prying into stuff like that. I barely know the guy..."
I shook my head and brought out Grovyle's PokeBall. "Good work, buddy." I held out my empty hand in a fist and he bumped his own hand against it.
"Groh."
"We'll better at this. Now get some rest." I called him back in and pocketed the ball.
"How are we looking?" Midorima approached Xene and Jordan to discuss what they had observed whilst watching everyone train.
"Well, we won't know properly until we go over these stats later." Jordan pointed at his laptop screen. "But so far, everybody looks to be in good shape."
"You're more than welcome to join us when we review it all." Xene offered.
"If you wouldn't mind." The tall Korean boy pushed up his glasses with a serious yet kind smile.
"Hey – good work today." Kiria said to Nelly as she walked past.
"Oh – thank you!" She smiled. "I was actually quite nervous..."
"You did fine. Also, I like your outfit. I see you've taken after me." Kiria joked, pointing to her own black tights.
"Thanks! They suit you so well, but I didn't know if I could pull them off." Nelly looked down.
"Nah, you've got it down. Just don't rip them, ok? Then I'll think you're starting to steal my look."
"Oh, no, I couldn't make that work." Nelly laughed. "Besides, that's not my style, really. The punk rock look works best on you."
For a second, Kiria mulled over the words. "Punk rock, huh? Yeah, I guess that's what you'd call it." She looked at herself. "Anyway, don't let me keep you." She waved, making her way back towards the dorms.
"Bye!" Nelly smiled.
"Mhm..." I patted my pockets, making sure I had everything.
"Hey." A happy voice called to me.
"Hey, Nelly." I smiled.
"How do you feel?" She asked.
"I'm ok, the pain goes away pretty quick." I replied. "Good work today, by the way. I saw you making your way round to everyone."
"Thanks - I'm just glad I managed to keep up." She laughed.
"I can imagine." I nodded. "It seemed like you were-!"
"Whoa!" Zhang cried, his eyes fixated on the sky. "What the heck is that?!" He immediately reached for a PokeBall.
Most of the rest of the group had already made it inside, but Zhang, Kiria, Nelly and I, as well as Kudou and Darragh were suddenly all looking skyward.
What Zhang had spotted was a purple hole being torn open in the air, appearing out of nowhere. A second later, the sound of it forming wormed its way across the sky.
"Another Ultra Wormhole?" Nelly backed up.
"Something's different..." Kiria took up a defensive stance, her combat instincts kicking in.
I watched the wormhole vibrate in the sky. It was morphing, folding and shaking all at the same time – like it hadn't intended to open in the first place.
"It looks like its trying to close itself." Kiria said.
Meanwhile, Kudou looked like he had seen a ghost. The sight of the wormhole froze him for a moment, and it wasn't until Darragh put a hand on his shoulder that he regained his senses.
"Percy?"
"I'm fine..." He blinked.
"Something's falling!" Zhang gasped, being the first to spot a small purple creature tumble backwards out of the void. Whatever it was, it appeared unable to control its fall, as it flipped and spiralled downward at an alarming rate. Almost immediately, the wormhole it had come from blinked out of existence, disappearing almost as soon as it had shown up.
"Raichu, catch it!" Zhang cried, throwing his PokeBall forward. His Raichu appeared, breaking into a sprint the moment its feet touched the ground. But this unknown creature was much too far away – and falling far too fast.
"Snowflake!" I called, throwing her PokeBall into the sky. "Extreme Speed!"
My Togekiss flapped her wings and blasted forward with immense speed, stirring wind around her. She shot along close to the ground before pulling up, and at the last second, Zhang's Raichu leapt up, latching itself to her side and climbing up onto her back. The two Pokemon tore across the sky, darting straight for the falling creature, now seconds from hitting the ground.
Snowflake made a sharp turn in the air, and Raichu launched itself from her back, shooting through the air at a perfect trajectory. It and the strange being met in the air, and Zhang's Pokemon caught it, pulling it in close.
Just in time, Snowflake brought her turn round and swooped below, catching Raichu on her back.
The three of them flew back down slowly, and Raichu hopped off Snowflake's back the moment she landed.
"Is it ok?!" Zhang rushed over and took the creature from Raichu's arms.
The creature had a purple body, with a spiked tail that gave it a vaguely reptilian appearance. There were three grey spikes on its head that resembled nozzles, and its dazed eyes were a light cyan.
We all rushed over to take a look, and Kiria seemed to recognise the species.
"Looks like a Poipole." She said.
"An Ultra Beast?" Nelly asked.
"Yeah. But not a brute like the last few we've seen."
Thinking back to Buzzwole and Guzzlord made me shudder.
"It looks traumatised... Poor thing..." Zhang made sure to be careful when handling it.
"Let's bring it inside." Kudou said. "It clearly needs to rest."
"I'll call Nurse Joy over." Darragh said, heading out towards the Pokemon Centre in the village.
"Good job, Snowflake." I said, turning back to my Togekiss.
"Keee." She rubbed up against my arm.
"Good girl." Nelly smiled, crouching down to stroke her wing.
"Tokkii!" The Pokemon beamed, nuzzling up to Nelly instead.
"Thanks." Zhang nodded to my Pokemon. "We wouldn't have caught it without you."
"Rairai." Raichu nodded.
With that, he took the creature into the dorms, with Kiria and Kudou right behind.
"Well... I wasn't expecting that." I said, rubbing Snowflake's head as I watched the others walk away.
"Nope." Nelly agreed.
*
The next day, Xene and Jordan had put together a food plan for our Pokemon according to what they observed each individual one to be lacking. Therefore, for about an hour, they had requested that we leave our Pokemon with them, so that they could all have their appropriate meals.
The Poipole from yesterday was fast asleep in the meeting room, wrapped in a blanket with a pillow beneath its head. Nurse Joy had examined it and had determined that it had been under some form of extreme stress. Understandable, considering it hadn't exactly looked like it had come through that wormhole willingly.
Either way, for the time being, we were permitted to take a look around the village we were in whilst our Pokemon were tended to. Unfortunately, Nelly had to stay behind to go over today's training plan with Kudou and the other staff, so I decided to tag along with Skyra and a few others to a small historical building that sported a variety of old paintings, weapons and artefacts.
"The craftsmanship on display in these swords is admirable." Midorima said, observing a set of swords hanging up behind a glass cabinet.
"Especially the markings etched onto the blades." Skyra pointed.
The room we were in was modelled so that it looked like a traditional Japanese interior, with sliding panel doors and spotless floors. The displays were mounted on the four walls, with none placed directly onto a sliding door for obvious safety reasons.
I was looking at a painting that was almost the size of the entire wall that depicted a ship caught in a storm.
"Stuck in a storm, huh?" My eyes ran over all the little details, such as the rising waves in the distance and the sharp rocks peeking over dips in the water. "It's kind of like that feeling..." I thought back to that night I had spent alone at home, and how it had felt like the loneliness had been suffocating and drowning me at the same time. "I mean, I guess it's not so bad right now. I'm not completely alone..." I could here low mumbles behind me as my teammates chattered.
Not a lot of us had come here. Most had gone shopping or down to the river. It was just me, Skyra and Midorima, though Caleb had been looking around in another room, and Kiria had been hanging around outside the building when we came in.
However, unbeknownst to me at the time, the room I was standing in was far more dangerous than it appeared. It was made so by the quiet entrance of one person.
On the back wall, completely behind me and to Skyra and Midorima's left, an old rusty scythe was hung from rope. However, the glass case that typically kept it covered had been damaged at some point, and the staff had cordoned off that particular section with cones and tape until they could have the cover replaced.
Of course, to any sane person, none of that mattered.
But to Caleb, it was a weapon left out in the open.
The boy with the mohawk had skulked in completely undetected, with the sliding door having been left open. Neither Skyra nor Midorima were aware he had entered the room, and his eyes were instantaneously drawn to the old death weapon hanging there. And his target was me.
*
As quietly as he could, Caleb moved around the tape and stepped beneath the scythe, reaching up to the rope in order to untie it. In seconds, the rope fell away, its knot pulled back so it looked more like a lasso on the floor. The deviant took the heavy weapon into his hands, the weight all on one end which he fought to keep upright.
Now he had the scythe, there was no need for him to be quiet. Caleb pushed the cones out of his way.
Skyra was the first to turn, seeing the boy kick the barriers aside, a huge rusting weapon in his grasp. He saw the malice in his beady grey eyes and traced their gaze into the back of my head.
"Toby!" He shouted, alerting me and Midorima to the danger.
I turned and froze, the sight of the huge metal blade scaring me stiff.
"What are you doing?!" I yelped.
"You're finally gonna pay!" Caleb shrieked, lifting the scythe above his head, the blade drooping down to the floor behind him.
"Huh?! What did I do?!"
"Don't act like you don't know!" He roared, tightening his grip. "You took everything from me!"
I had always known that Caleb had a grudge against me, but I had never figured out why – and I didn't think it was so bad that he genuinely wanted to kill me!
"I don't know what you're talking about! I swear!" I backed away, hands up. My heart was racing. I had really hoped that I'd met my last psychopath already.
"LIAR!" Caleb cried, putting all his strength into swinging the scythe down.
Behind him, Skyra had dashed over to the scythe's wall mount and grabbed the rope that had previously held it up in place. The moment he had the knot in place, he threw the rope at Caleb.
The scythe came up from the floor and arched over his head – where the rope latched over the blade like a perfect lasso. Skyra pulled the end of the rope hard and the hole closed, tightening around the rusty metal. Caleb was left with the scythe hanging in the air, his arms fighting to swing it forward whilst Skyra's arms fought to pull it back.
"Dammit! Get off!" Caleb hissed, gritting his teeth as he put all his strength into forcing the weapon forward. Skyra's feet slid across the floor, and suddenly Midorima was by his side, wrapping the rope around his wrist and leaning back with his full weight.
"Akio! You're mad!"
"Shut up...!" Caleb struggled. "You're not the boss of me, Captain!" He joked about how, even when they had both been on the Korean team, Midorima hadn't been able to reign him in.
"Violence is not the answer!" Midorima tried to reason, finding it hard to hold on, his body not built for athleticism.
"Just knock it off!" Skyra growled, yanking on the rope and forcing Caleb to stagger back a step.
"Please!" I begged. "I don't know what I did to you-"
"SHUT YOUR DAMNED MOUTH!" Caleb screamed, slamming his foot down and propelling his weight forward.
I threw myself to my right.
The scythe may have been rusty, but the back and forth pulling of the rope and resulted in it slowly tearing through. Caleb's big push forced the blade through the rope, slicing the knot in two. Skyra and Midorima fell back, and Caleb's weapon slammed down into the floor in front of him, smashing a dent in the ground where I had been a moment earlier.
I slid across the floor and hit my shoulder against the corner of the room – I was boxed in.
"Hrrraaah!" Caleb groaned as he lifted the heavy weapon back up. Midorima was on his knees and Skyra was in the process of climbing to his feet when the sliding door to my right shot open.
Kiria stood in the opening, and everything seemed to slow down.
The scythe was above Caleb's head, and he was about to swing it right down on top of me. Kiria processed the scene in less than a second and sprung into action. With merely two steps, she had come between me and the attacker, her hand in her pocket. Caleb swung regardless, and Kiria's foot shot out, colliding with the wooden handle. Not only did she stop its downward swing, but the sudden change in forces ripped the weapon from Caleb's hands, sending it clattering across the floor. In the same moment, as Caleb stumbled back in shock, she spun round and her hand shot out of her pocket faster than the eye could see. Nobody even saw the small dart leave her hand – and by the time Caleb realised he had been hit, he was unconscious.
The boy twisted back and fell to the floor.
I was sat in the corner, terrified. From where I was, Kiria had leapt in from outside my field of vision and had saved my life with a display of skill that lasted less than three seconds.
Skyra and Midorima were breathing hard like me both because of the effort they had put in to hold Caleb back, but also because of pure shock. They had both done all they could – and they were both fully aware that it almost hadn't been enough.
"Thank you." I swallowed. "Thank you so much..."
"Are you all right?" Kiria turned and squatted before me, searching my face.
"Y-yeah..."
"And you two?" She looked over her shoulder. The other boys nodded. "Good. Here." She stood up and offered her hand. I took it and she pulled me up onto shaky legs. "Take it easy."
"Thank you..." I said again.
"You're lucky I'm here." She said, looking over at Caleb's body.
"H-he's not...?"
"He's alive." Kiria folded her arms.
"You keep saving me..."
"Yeah, well, my job is to stick close."
"...To me...?"
Kiria looked back at me then away, avoiding an answer. "All of you, get back to the dorms. I'll handle this mess."
"Are you sure?" Midorima asked.
"I've got it under control." Kiria was clear.
"Thank you, again..." I said as I passed her and left the room. "And you two, as well..." I told the other two as we left.
"Don't mention it." Skyra sighed. "We were almost useless."
"That's not true, you-!"
"Yeah. Don't worry about it. Besides, you're clearly still shaken up. Come on. Let's get back."
"Y-yeah. Ok..."
*
"Geez, Kid..." Kiria slung Caleb over her shoulder after she had informed the staff of the incident and set them up with money for repairs. "You've got some anger issues. I wouldn't be surprised if you get kicked out after this."
*
Too many draining things were happening around here already. Ultra Beasts falling from the sky, people being secretive and unwilling to talk, and now I had narrowly escaped an attack on my life – for reasons I didn't even understand. The other two didn't see it, but as we walked back, a stress-filled tear trickled down my cheek.