Chapter 2: Agyneastra

After a bit of a jog, the scorbunny and the “puffy” reached a cave entrance. Banny stopped sprinting along with Kirby and turned to him. “This is the entrance of Agyneastra town.”

Kirby tilted his body in curiosity. “The town is in a cave?”

Banny shook her head. “Nah, the town is on the other side of this tunnel.” She put a paw on her hip. “You see, the entire place is surrounded by a formation of rocks almost like it’s inside a big crater!”

The puffball’s eyes sparkled in wonder. “Woah! That’s so cool!”

The bunny just realized how childish that alien looked and acted, yet has a terrifying ability… he could deceive people really well if he wanted and that’s kinda scary to think about. “Anyways… let’s go already, dad’s gonna be pissed if I don’t show my face again soon.” Kirby nodded and they both entered the tunnel. The passage was lit up with torches attached to the wall, so any Pokémon with low visibility could be guided easily by the torches. “Also, heads up, there will be probably a guard at the end of the passage.”

“What do you mean probably? Aren’t guards supposed to keep watch at all times?” Kirby had learned that lesson multiple times by the amount of guards he had to defeat every time he invaded a castle.

“Well… sometimes, the guard will be sleeping rather than actually protecting the city.” Banny chuckled and Kirby giggled along with her. After walking a bit more, they saw a Pokémon standing by the exit, leaning against the cave wall. It seemed to be a white bipedal feline creature with red fur in some spots of its body, a big white fluffy-looking tail, and some red eyes. The most noticeable feature of the Pokémon was the sharp black claws on each paw. “Huh, so he’s not sleeping this time.”

Kirby tilted his body. “That’s the guard?”

“Yep. His species is called a zangoose.”

“Oooh, I see! I’m gonna go greet him!” Kirby beamed as he started sprinting towards the white feline.

The scorbunny flinched in surprise and extended a paw, calling out to the puffball. “Hey, wait!” Unfortunately for her, he had already gone ahead.

The guard was just minding his own business as he stared into the distance, possibly daydreaming by how he wasn’t paying attention to the pink demon approaching him. The puffball poked him on the belly and he snapped out of it, looking to the sides then down. He stared at the creature in front of him and couldn’t help but mutter, looking confused. “… what?”

Kirby waved at him joyfully. “Hi!”

The feline looked confused and looked around once more before looking at Kirby again. “Uh… are you lost kid?”

“Kid!?” Kirby asked a bit baffled. “I’m not a kid, I’m an adult!”

Before the guard could ask anything else, he saw a scorbunny running in their direction, stopping right in front of them. She started explaining a bit nervously. “Hey Zenith! So uh… could you let us through? Don’t mind the little guy, he uh… just went a bit ahead of me!”

“He…? I thought it was a she…” The guard said looking back at Kirby, analyzing the puffball.

“What!?” Kirby blurted out. “Excuse you, but I’m not a girl!”

Banny just wanted this to be finished fast so she reluctantly agreed with the puffball. “Y-yep! Definitely a boy, now if you’d excuse us!” She started pushing Kirby past the guard towards the exit of the cave.

Zenith just looked at them before leaning on the wall muttering to himself. “What a weird Pokémon… looks so much like an earless and furless jigglypuff… hope it doesn’t cause any trouble, or else the captain will be pissed… especially at me for letting a potential threat in…”

Meanwhile, Kirby was struggling, trying to get out of Banny’s grip. “Hey… let me go! I wanna go back to that guard and say to him a lot of times that I’m not a child and I’m not a girl!”

“Calm down alright!? It’s not that big of a deal, plus, you’re not the only one in this!” The scorbunny assured, trying to get the pink puff to calm down. Luckily for her, he did. “Geez, you say you’re an adult and still make a scene…”

Kirby looked away from embarrassment. “Hehe… sorry…”

“Well, in any case, we’re here. Welcome to Agyneastra town.” The scorbunny pointed in front of her to show a massive town below the hill they were standing. The puffball looked at the town and his eyes sparkled with wonder. Indeed, they could see rectangular buildings along with some head-shaped buildings being surrounded by giant rock formations like the town was inside a massive crater. The houses and shops were on different layers of the ground. In the middle of the entire town, there was a massive white crystal that seemed to be the height of the rock formations surrounding the crater. The scorbunny crossed her arms. “Like I said, it looks like it’s inside of a big crater.”

“Woah! This town looks incredible! I wanna go see everything!”

Before the puffball could sprint off again, Banny grabbed his nub, holding him back. “Just wait a second! Before you go explore, we need a cover-up story for you.”

Kirby looked back at the bunny with a questioning look. “Why?”

“Well, if it isn’t obvious, you can’t just tell other Pokémon that you’re an alien from another world, they’ll be suspicious of you.”

The puffball just waved it off with a smile. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine!”

Banny grabbed Kirby by the cheeks. “You don’t get it, Kirby! Pokémon will try to kidnap you or try something stupid to you, and when you reveal your… abilities, everyone will be wary of you.”

The puffball looked away as he thought about it and, with a frown, he looked back at Banny. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t want to cause trouble on the first day here…” Kirby sighed and the scorbunny released him. He could be reckless and childish sometimes, but he knows how to follow the advice from other people and act seriously when needed. “So… you thought about any cover-up stories?”

The bunny put a paw in her mouth to think. “How about this? Let’s just say you are a newly discovered Pokémon species, not a mythical but quite rare. Since you look a little bit like some Pokémon, people will most likely buy it.”

“Oh, I see! So, are we going to use um… Puffy as an actual species name?”

“Nope, that doesn’t even come close to a species name.” Banny crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought, after some seconds she opened them and frowned. “I can’t come up with anything good…”

Kirby put a nub in his chin as he started thinking. The name of the entity he came from is called Astral Birth Void, as he learned some years ago. He was also connected to the stars as well… hm… Astral… “How about… Astrali?”

The scorbunny tilted her head. “Where did that come from?”

Kirby thought of a way to explain this without revealing too much, not to freak Banny out. “Uh… well, you see, my uh… parents… had Astral in their name, and since I have the powers of the stars as you saw when I gained an ability, I thought it would fit.” The puffball smiled.

The bunny thought for a little bit and smirked. ”Not bad, not bad. I don’t remember any species with that name so… I guess that’s good to go.”

Kirby smiled. “Nice!” Thinking about it, he hadn’t even come up with a name for his own species. He should’ve at least thought about it more after discovering his origins. Well… at least this was an opportunity to settle that, he is definitely gonna use Astrali as his own species name now. Kirby then looked at the town, tapping his feet in excitement as he pointed at it. “Can I go now!?”

“Yes, let’s go. But please stay by me, I don’t want to see you off my sight, and the next place I see you is in jail…” Kirby nodded and the duo entered the path to the outskirts of the town. While descending the hill, Banny spoke again. “Alright first off, does your world have currency?”

The astrali looked at the scorbunny. “Oh? Yes, it does. But it’s boring… don’t tell me your world has that too…”

“Yep, it has.” Banny pulled out of her bag a gold coin with the letter P in the middle with two lines crossing the letter horizontally. “This is called poké, it’s those coins you saw in the dungeon.”

“Oh, uh… I see.” Kirby really wasn’t that good at understanding currency, especially the coins. In the Forgotten World, he had Elfilin manage the star coins since he was better at that part. “Um… do I have to buy delicious food as well?”

“Yes Kirby, even food.”

Kirby sighed sadly. “Aw, man…”

Banny just shrugged. “That’s capitalism for you.”

At that word, he was immediately reminded of Magolor. Once the alien traveler noticed that Kirby was carrying a lot of coins with him after returning from the forgotten world with the Star Coins he gathered in his time there, he sold the puffball a lot of items (mostly useless) that he found on his travels. And yes, he took advantage of Kirby who did not know how the currency was valued. “Yeah, unfortunately…” Kirby responded.

The bunny rubbed her nose patch. “Anyways, the other thing I need to warn you about is to always have a map of the city with you. The reason Is quite obvious.”

Kirby instantly got his mood back up. “Yeah! I can’t wait to explore every nook and cranny!”

“Well… first we need to find you a place where you can sleep, of course.” Kirby then made an understanding nod. “Alright then, good. First, it’s best to see if my dad will let you live in our house because I doubt you would have any money with you.”

The astrali shook his head. “At the dungeon, I didn’t bother picking up coins.” He rubbed his back sheepishly.

“That’s fine honestly.” Banny sighed as they reached the outskirts of the town. Some Pokémon already being visible talking to each other. She was getting really nervous about this. What if Kirby does something weird she hasn’t seen before? What if the other townsfolk get weary of him and see that he isn’t a Pokémon? What if they literally attack Kirby and he retaliates!? What if-

Banny looked at the puffball beside her, however, her heart sank once she saw that the astrali wasn’t beside her. “Kirby?!” She looks around desperately and finds the puffball walking towards a goodra and a noivern talking. “Oh Arceus…”

“So, you know about that rumor about that Lucario-“ The slimy slug dragon paused once she noticed that her tail was being poked. The noivern looked at the cause along with her to find a pink puffball smiling at them. “Uh… who-”

“Hi! I’m Kirby! Nice to meet you guys!”

The noivern and the goodra looked at each other in confusion before looking back at the astrali, the dragon bat speaking this time with a deep female voice. “Um… hi Kirby… where are your-”

Banny interrupted while grabbing Kirby. “Sorry for the interruption guys! He’s still a toddler, so you know how it goes!” Banny sheepishly laughed and pushed the astrali away from the dragon types before he could protest. After they were a bit far away from them, the scorbunny sighed. “Kirby, try to keep a low profile to not attract any unwanted attention, alright?”

Kirby made a frown. “But I was just being friendly…”

“Be too friendly with the wrong people, and they take advantage of you. Understand?”

The puffball sighed, she was indeed right about that. Maybe it was time to try not to get too trusting so cases like Marx and Magolor (even if he was being controlled a little) didn’t happen again. “Yes, I do…” Kirby looked around and saw lots of other Pokémon walking and talking around him. To orange dragon-like creatures, to even a ball of bad-smelling gas that floated in the air. The astrali’s eyes sparkled once more at the variety of Pokémon he was seeing. “Woah… so many cool Pokémon!”

Banny released him and smiled at Kirby. “Yeah, there are a lot of species of Pokémon in the world, some being discovered just recently and all. And like I said, it’s the perfect disguise for you.”

“I can’t wait to meet them all!”

“Calm down buddy, let’s take it easy for now. Come on, my house isn’t that far.” The scorbunny motioned for Kirby to follow and they started walking on the town’s dirt street.

Kirby was looking at the townsfolk and the architecture of the town like a small child in an amusement park. Some Pokémon were looking at Kirby with strange looks, and even a yellow and white ostrich-like Pokémon flinched at the sight of Kirby for some reason before minding their own business and walking slightly faster. Kirby didn’t notice that reaction. “Are we there yet!?”

“Yeah, we’re close.” Banny was thankful that the astrali was behaving well, aside from the first contact with the other townsfolk. While they were walking, Kirby pointed at certain buildings and asked what they were for, mostly the head-shaped buildings. The scorbunny pointed at the misdriveous-headed building. “That’s Mismo’s shop. She sells all kinds of weird accessories that apparently have some magic in them. Her species is called a misdreveous” She then pointed to the shop with the head of a swampert. “That’s the general market. It’s owned by Smish, who’s a swampert.”

Kirby then excitedly pointed at a building that was unlike the rest. It was a stand fully made of metal, along with the ceiling. There were a lot of weapons on display: swords, axes, hammers, and even some protectors as well. On the counter, there was a pink girl with pink long hair who was reading a newspaper with a grumpy look. “Wow! Who’s the blacksmith?”

The Scorbunny visibly grimaced. “Oh um… that’s Ruka, a tinkaton. She’s kind of a grumpy ‘mon, but she gets her job done without any complaints strangely enough.”

“Oh, I see.” Kirby said before both of them moved forward. The tinkaton glanced at the duo before looking back at the newspaper, which on the backside of it, there was some news talking about some cult sightings.

After a minute, they arrived at a two-floored building made out of bricks and stone, a wooden door at the entrance, along with two windows on the first floor and two windows on the second floor. Banny sighed. “We’re here… hope I don’t have to face Dad’s wrath for leaving so suddenly…”

“By the way, who’s your dad, Banny?” Kirby asked as Banny opened the door.

“His name is Treth, and he is called a lucario.” The scorbunny entered the house along with the astrali and shouted. “Dad, I’m home!”

Footsteps coming from the wooden stairs could be heard along with a voice. “Banny! Where were you!? I was looking everywhere for-” A furry blue and black bipedal canine, with spikes coming out of his chest and paws, descended the stairs desperately until he stopped, looking at Kirby. “… Banny… who is this…?”

The white rabbit rubbed the back of her head while smiling sheepishly. “Well… that’s um…”

Kirby waved at the Lucario joyfully. “Hi! My name is Kirby! Nice to meet you!”