Arc 1, Chapter 23: Confronting Myself
by owryintheblindforestBack in the temple’s altar room and the present, the atmosphere had regained a bit of tension as Haruhi got put on the spot. To Amadeus, she didn’t seem terribly nervous, but some uneasiness still seemed present. I guess the pressure’s on…
“It’s alright if you fail, Haruhi,” Amadeus said, hoping to dispel some of the tension.
“Thanks, but I can do this,” Haruhi quickly responded, before turning back to Mya. “Anything else you want me to do before I start?”
“If you are ready, then you may take hold of the knife. That is all,” Mya said affirmatively.
“…Alright,” Haruhi said. Without much more ado, she quickly turned around and grabbed the knife with her mouth. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Amadeus watched her intently, already eager to see what the outcome would be.
Then she collapsed in place. For the briefest moment, Amadeus was fearful she’d cut herself on it, but her jaw held onto it tightly, even as she stopped moving. It was almost eerie, but logically, the same had to have happened with Amadeus. That’s probably pretty normal…
“Out of curiosity, how long was I in the trial?” Amadeus asked in an attempt to ease his worries.
“If you’re asking because you want to know how long she’ll be in there, it’s exactly an hour for everyone. From the outside, anyway,” Mya explained.
“…What? How does that work? It didn’t feel like an hour when I was in there.”
“Have you ever had a dream that felt like it lasted eight hours, Amadeus?”
“No…?” Amadeus blinked. “Oh!”
“You’re seeing it, right? It’s like being asleep and dreaming. Granted, it’s a strange one which is significantly more lucid than it otherwise would be, but the trial takes the form of a dream nevertheless.” Mya paused for a moment. “Speaking of seeing things, though, there is a talented glassworker in town. You could have a new pair by the end of the day if you so wanted.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s just pouring melted glass into a frame. Not terribly difficult if you have the right mold on hand, you know.”
“…So it doesn’t use this crazy magic stuff you guys seem to have?”
“No, not at all. Surely you would appreciate it.”
“I would, but I also don’t want to leave Haruhi here…”
“I’ll my call my assistant here with telepathy, it’s fine. You don’t have to leave her here.”
“Alright…”
Not much later, a very tired-looking Fiore stumbled through the door.
“You know it’s super early, right Mya?” She somewhat sarcastically asked.
“Good morning,” Mya replied pleasantly.
The Bayleef looked around the room. “I see the cult thing is happening. How long did it take for you to suggest that, I wonder? After last night, too…”
“Ah, today the Order of Lada is a cult, I see. Shall you tell me how traditional I am too?”
“In the year of our lord… Christ, is the official year nineteen twenty-seven? Crazy…”
“You’re getting old,” Mya joked.
“Hardy har,” Fiore replied, pulling out what looked like an eye chart. Amadeus couldn’t really tell.
“What’s a Christ?” Amadeus asked.
“My dude, do not worry about that right now,” Fiore responded, holding up the chart with vines for Amadeus to see. “Alright, read the top letter for me.”
Amadeus squinted. “…What even is that?”
“It’s the latin— Oh, right, you wouldn’t know that.” Fiore flipped the chart over, revealing something Amadeus could actually comprehend. One almost mundane eye exam later, it was over.
“Alright, that seems to be some pretty hardcore nearsightedness…” Fiore started scribbling something down on a notepad. “Swing by tonight, I’ll probably have, like, two pairs to pick from by then.”
“Two whole pairs? You guys are nuts.”
“Not as nuts as whatever the hell happened last night. That was a scare, that’s for sure.”
“Uh…”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to imply anything there,” Fiore quickly said, packing the eye-chart into a satchel. “I’ve gotta go. I have class.”
“Good luck with your studies,” Mya replied as she left. She then turned to Amadeus. “She’s been here for nearly eight years, and she’ll be done soon. It’s exciting.”
“…” Amadeus turned back to Haruhi’s sleeping body, with the knife still firmly in her clutches. “I’m more excited for Haruhi.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable,” Mya replied. “Although I imagine it will still be difficult…”
“…I’m gonna be optimistic for a change,” Amadeus replied.
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When Haruhi awoke, she was in the woods somewhere. She looked around cautiously, and saw smoke in the air.
It was blotting out the sky in some places.
She felt her heart throb as she cautiously walked forward. Her nose wasn’t the strongest, but she could slightly pick up the smell of smoke in the air. It wasn’t exactly something she was unfamiliar with, after all. She was a fire type.
“Is the forest burning down?” She asked nobody in particular. Seeing few other options, she picked up the pace ever so slightly to see the fire.
And yet, it didn’t seem like it was getting any closer for a long while. No matter how long she walked, the fire always seemed to be just off in the distance. Assuming it even is a fire…
Haruhi looked around, suspicious of her surroundings. She had no idea what to expect, other than the vague notion that she would ‘face herself’. To her, the massive amount of smoke she was seeing in the distance couldn’t be a coincidence.
Something suddenly clicked in her head, and a little puff of flames left her mouth. Is the fire supposed to be me somehow?
“Correctamundo,” A voice that sounded eerily like hers responded. To her inner thoughts.
Haruhi spun in place with a jump, almost ready to blast whatever she was about to see, before she stopped, shocked by what she actually saw. The Fennekin that stood there resembled her, for sure, but with one major difference.
She was almost entirely made of fire. Her fur, her paws, her teeth, and even her eyes seemed to be made of flames. She had an almost jovial smile on her face, like a child who wanted to play a game. This, too, seemed to have flames dripping out of it, like the teeth themselves were on fire. She was fire.
“Who the hell—”
“A part of you, dumbass!”
Haruhi froze in place. What in the hell is this shit? “I’m not that crazy about fire.”
“Oh yeah? Tell that to the people we hurt.” The Fennekin responded, irritated, perhaps offended. “But forget that. Let’s play a game of tag! I’m it!” Without warning, the other Fennekin lunged at Haruhi, prompting her to quickly dodge out of the way. She couldn’t evade being grazed by the flames though, which were… painful.
“Gah!” She yelped as her tail got singed. She wasn’t used to receiving such stinging pain from fire, and it caught her by surprise. Almost on instinct, she quickly swung her entire body around just to put distance between her tail and the other Fennekin.
“Were you shocked?” asked the flaming Fennekin. “That’s how it feels, you know.”
“Shut up…” Haruhi said, turning tail and running for it. If she wants a game of tag, then she’ll get one! Just gotta keep my distance… Haruhi ran as fast as she could to get away, but the other Fennekin seemed to keep pace easily.
“Wow, you’re fast!”
“Yeah, I’m trying!” She seems pretty content with this. What do I do from here, though? The other Fennekin followed Haruhi just as well as she could run, slipping through all of the cracks that she could and more. For a while, nothing seemed to be changing, and Haruhi was getting tired. Maybe I have to lose her somehow? But how…
Haruhi spotted a rather rotted-looking tree. Immediately, she shot a flamethrower right at it and charged into it. She felt her own flames hurting substantially more than usual, but that was fine for a second as the whole tree collapsed behind her, pinning her double down.
…It was almost like the doppelganger appeared underneath the tree.
“Hey! No fair!” The other Fennekin complained, struggling under the weight of the tree despite the fact that it was burning away on top of her. Haruhi felt a dull pain on her back, but she ignored it.
“Guess I win this round…” she said nonchalantly, running off. Seriously though, what do I do? Can I even do anything? Haruhi scanned her surroundings, but nothing seemed to be terribly different. For a while, that seemed to be the case. Nothing but the same vaguely on fire forest surrounded her. Until, finally, the scenery changed slightly.
Haruhi spotted a campfire off in the distance, and against her better judgement, approached it slowly. She found a note on the ground nearby, which only had the words ‘look and behold’ on it. Alright, we’ve got a lead… Haruhi gazed into the flames for a while, wondering what she was about to see. After what felt like forever, she finally saw something in the flames.
Her hometown.
Haruhi held her breath as the image in the flames began to take a clearer shape, and she heard voices coming from the fire. A Zigzagoon, Cottonee, and Fennekin were discussing something outside of what used to be the schoolhouse.
“Hey, Haruhi, are you gonna come by the mystery dungeon after school?” the Zigzagoon asked.
“You’d better not wimp out on us!” a Cottonee added. “You always do!”
“That’s only because Mom wants me on the farm,” the Fennekin replied calmly. “Pretty sure she wants you back there too, Kentaro!”
“I don’t care if it was Dad’s! I wanna be an explorer!”
“Okay, fine, I’ll come! But you gotta share the punishment with me!”
“Relax, Mom’s not gonna do anything!”
“Kentaro…” Haruhi muttered. Her very slightly younger brother. According to Haya, he’d been conceived shortly after she and her Father moved to Nōgyō No Machi.
Her father, apparently, hadn’t lived to see his birth.
“Deal!” The Zigzagoon replied. “I’m gonna steal your stuff if you back out!”
“Shut up!” the Fennekin said angrily. “You’d better not!” Tiny puffs of smoke escaped the Fennekin’s mouth.
“Then you’d better not be late!” the Zigzagoon cheerfully fired back.
The scene cut to inside of Aimai na Mori, sometime in the afternoon. The trio of children seemed to be making rapid progress through the dungeon, having no trouble dispatching of the ferals inside. The Fennekin shot an ember that seemed to take down two at once.
She was doing most of the work.
“Why aren’t you guys helping?” She asked frustratedly. “Am I only here so you guys can hang back?”
“You’re burning them all before we get a chance!” the Cottonee said defensively.
“You can definitely hit things from farther than I can, Maki!” the Fennekin grumbled. “That’s Kentaro’s excuse!”
“I’m not useless! I’m the strongest out of all of us!”
“You’re not helping!” the Fennekin replied.
“Yes I am!”
“No you aren’t!”
“Yes I am!”
“Shut up!” the Fennekin replied.
A while later, the Fennekin and Zigzagoon were back home. And their mother was yelling at them.
“What did I tell you two about diving into mystery dungeons?”
“It’s fine! We didn’t get hurt, right?” the Zigzagoon asked.
“You two should know better!” the Delphox said, exasperated. “If your father could see you now, I swear…”
“Dad was an explorer too, right?”
“That’s not—” the Delphox started, before collecting herself. “Your father would not want you two throwing yourselves into danger, understand?”
“It was Kentaro who wanted to go!” the Fennekin tried to argue.
“And you agreed!”
“Both of you, quiet down!” the Delphox said, clearly trying to retake control of the situation. She then sighed. “I want the both of you to stop wandering into these places, alright? In the very least, ask Mayumi to help you next time! It’s a dangerous place for kids like you.”
“But we were fine!” the Zigzagoon protested.
“It could’ve gone much worse,” the Delphox said firmly. “Please be more careful from now on. What if you got hurt?”
“But we didn’t!”
“No means no. Now go to your rooms, I need to finish up on the farm.”
“But—” the Zigzagoon started.
“Just go, you two.” the Delphox pointed down the hall as she said this.
Haruhi watched as the Fennekin and Zigzagoon walked down the hall together. The Zigzagoon looked just a little bit smug.
“See? She did nothing!”
“That doesn’t mean she isn’t mad!” the Fennekin hissed back. “She still sent us to our rooms!”
“Well, it didn’t this time, so there’s no problem, right?”
“Shut up!” Just a little bit more smoke came out of her mouth this time.
“You shut up…” the Zigzagoon mumbled, slamming the door to his room shut behind him.
The Fennekin sighed, and closed the door behind herself. As she did, she nearly jumped at the tiny flames that left her mouth as she did. She covered her mouth for a second, looked left and right, and then took another breath.
Another handful of embers.
Seemingly unsure of what to do, the Fennekin nervously climbed into her bed and tried her best to keep the flames from hitting anything. After a while, it stopped, and with it, the vision as a whole. The fire rather abruptly went out not long after.
“Why?” was all Haruhi could manage. Why show me this? Why now? It’s been so long since I’ve even seen him! Haruhi started looking around the campsite, trying to find anything she could that could indicate a way forward. After finding nothing, she still wasn’t ready to quit. She stared into what was left of the campfire with determination. You’re gonna show me more whether you want to or not!
Haruhi shot a flamethrower directly at the campfire, determined to make something, anything happen. Unfortunately, she got her wish.
“Man, finally! You left me under that tree for forever! I was wondering when you were gonna let me out!” The same lookalike Fennekin appeared out from her fire, looking almost ghostly as she did. “So, we doing round two, or what?”
“H-how the hell—”
“I think that should pretty obvious from context alone,” the other Fennekin commented. “You wanted my help, so you called me!”
“I didn’t—”
“Yes you did.” The other Fennekin let out an annoyed puff of flames. “Or do you really hate yourself that much?”
Haruhi looked to the ground, still not fully understanding what was happening. “…I don’t need you. Stay out of my way.”
The other Fennekin scoffed. “You use me every day without even thinking about it! And you and I both know you can’t hack it as a psychic!”
“Shut up!”
The flames surrounding the other Fennekin flared up noticeably, causing Haruhi to recoil just a little bit. “You want to play, or what? Nothing’s gonna come from this argument.”
“…Fine,” Haruhi said, resolute. “You’re it.” She then dashed off into the forest as fast as she could. If she’ll appear wherever I try to shoot flames, I’ll just have to work around that.
The forest itself seemed rather static, with the trees appearing in a fixed, orderly pattern. Haruhi realized that it could very well be completely static save for the campfire, but her intuition told her that there was more to see. No way that campfire’s all there is to see. There’s gotta be more to this place. Another campfire is the obvious one, but maybe…
Haruhi found herself having to dodge pounce attempts from her other self constantly. For some reason, the other Fennekin didn’t seem to be getting tired at all.
“Did we establish when I win?” She yelled as she ran.
“Whenever you managed to shake me! That’s what we agreed on last time, right?”
“I don’t remember that!”
“You treated it like that, so that’s what it is!”
“Uh… Okay!” Haruhi desperately scanned her surroundings, hoping to see something specific. She could feel that something like it was somewhere close, since they’d been running uphill for a good few minutes now. Until finally, she nearly ran off a cliff.
Perfect. Haruhi whipped around to see her other self, ready to pounce.
“You ready to taste defe—” the other Fennekin paused. “Oh no.”
“Ah, you see where I’m going with this?”
“Please don’t, that’s gonna hurt. A lot, I might add.”
“Sucks to be you!” Haruhi cheerfully said, shooting a Flamethrower off of a cliff. She watched as the other Fennekin helplessly appeared in the flames, then promptly plummeted like a rock.
Haruhi felt a jolt of pain that was quite a bit larger this time. Undeterred, she decided to look for another campfire. There’s gotta be another one of those too, right? After a while, nothing seemed to be happening. It was just the same few trees repeating themselves everywhere. Damnit! Where the hell is it?
Haruhi was almost tempted to shoot out a flamethrower in frustration, but quickly caught herself. Don’t wanna make that mistake…
For some reason, the word ‘mistake’ hung in her head for a bit. Like another voice was saying it. Haruhi quickly distracted herself from this notion, however, as she finally spotted another campfire not too far from where she was. Immediately, she ran over to it, and started hunting around the area to see if she could find another note. Without too much difficultly, she found it, and it simply read, ‘mistake’. What’s up with ‘mistake’? Am I gonna—
Haruhi froze in place as she realized what she might be about to see. It’s okay, Haruhi. You’re strong. You can take it, right?
You know what happened.
With great hesitation, Haruhi looked deeply into the fire, terrified at what she might be about to witness. Eventually, an image formed in the flames, showing the same Fennekin, Zigzagoon, and Cottonee from before. This time, they were inside of the school building, seemingly hanging around between classes at the very end of a hallway. The Fennekin was the only one without her back to the wall, but she didn’t seem like she was threatening them. It was just a casual chat… Haruhi lamented.
“So we’re doing again, right?” the Zigzagoon asked, sounding particularly self-assured.
“I don’t wanna do all of the work for you guys again,” the Fennekin grumbled. “I’m not coming.” There seemed to be substantially more smoke coming out of her mouth than yesterday.
“Don’t be a baby,” the Cottonee teased. “It’s not like you’re gonna get hurt.”
“Do you even want to be an explorer, Haruhi?” the Zigzagoon asked.
“I do, it’s just I don’t think we should be—”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” the Zigzagoon questioned. “Mom finds out and sends us to our rooms again? C’mon!”
“You guys just want me to come to make it easy!”
“So?” the Zigzagoon fired back. “You need to work on traversing a mystery dungeon too, right?”
“I don’t—”
“You’re just being lazy!” the Cottonee accused. “That’s all that’s happening right now! You’re lazy and scared!”
“What?”
“Haha, yeah!” the Zigzagoon chuckled. “Look at the scared, lazy little baby right here!”
Back in the present, Haruhi noticed just how much smoke was leaking out of her mouth back then. Looking back, it was a little obvious that something was going to give sooner or later. Even so, it scared Haruhi to see just how little it took to send her over the edge, even if she was only around ten or eleven at the time.
She fought the urge to look away.
“Shut up,” the Fennekin said as flames left her mouth.
For a brief moment, the Zigzagoon and Cottonee froze, clearly caught off guard by the sudden fire.
The Fennekin, meanwhile, was seeing red. “Shut up!” she screamed, shooting a massive fireball directly at them, immediately searing the both of them. The Fennekin, in a blind rage that came from seemingly nowhere, didn’t stop. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” For what felt like ages, the Fennekin continued screaming those words, every time shooting out more and more fire. As it happened, there weren’t any fireproofing enchantments on that building. By the time she finally calmed down, the entire building was burning.
“Wha…?” a very confused Fennekin uttered, seemingly unaware of the destruction she’d wrought. Where her friend and younger brother used to be, there was nothing but fire. In a panic, she ran around the building as quickly as she could, but everything was burning down, and collapsing. Eventually, she found the exit, and got out of the building. When she looked back, the entire schoolhouse looked like one massive bonfire.
There was a crowd of adults gathered outside, and more running over to the building in a panic. Seeing their eyes staring back at her, all the young Fennekin could do was sit there in silence.
Hirohito was the first to react. “Y-You!” He stormed over to her, an expression on his face somewhere between panic and rage. He looked back and forth between her, and the rising flames. He grabbed her by the scruff for a moment, as if he was going to attack her, then just… dropped her. “Someone! Help! My Daughter’s in there! She’s a Cottonee! She won’t make it!”
His words seemed almost hollow to the young Fennekin. It did provoke some thoughts in her mind, however. You killed them both.
You killed everyone.
It’s your fault.
These thoughts were quickly compounded by the words of the rest of the town over the next few hours.
“Murderer!”
“Fire witch!”
“Arsonist!”
“Firebrand!”
“Monster!”
“Demon!”
In the end, not a single person who was inside the building without at least some natural resistance to fire survived, and a fair portion of those who did survive suffered life-changing injuries. In all, fourty-seven were killed, thirty-five were injured, and two, including Haruhi herself, escaped all harm. The total included essentially every child in town.
Haruhi killed all of her friends.
The vision changed to the Fennekin sitting over the Zigzagoon’s gravestone what must’ve been days later, sobbing. “I’m sorry Kentarto… I stole your dream… You’ll never get to be an explorer now!” Through her tears, the Fennekin wore a determined expression on her face. “So I’ll go be an explorer instead! I’ll live out your dream for you! You hear? I’ll do it! By Arceus, I’ll do it! I promise!”
The vision faded away, leaving Haruhi panting in her own panic as the campfire went out. She wanted to cry and scream having relived it, but it already over. In the very least, she could take solace in the fact that it was behind her.
It didn’t feel that way, though.
Haruhi couldn’t shake the terrible feeling she felt just seeing it happen. Of course, that meant that things were about to get just a little bit worse. She let out a tiny puff of flame in her distress.
Out popped the other Fennekin. “C’mon, let’s just forget about that. Round three?”
“…Leave me alone.”
“I can’t.”
“I said leave me alone! You killed them all!”
“I was just as upset as you were! You’re the one that let me out back then, after pushing us both like that!”
“You made me a monster!”
“You made us both a monster! I was just doing what you wanted me to do!”
“I don’t need you! You ruined my life and everyone else’s!”
“I’m part of you! I’m gonna be here whether you want me to or not!”
“Well, then I’ll get rid of you!”
“And how are you gonna do that?” the other Fennekin asked, screaming, flames higher than ever.
Haruhi’s face twisted into something hateful. “…You’re it.” Haruhi dashed into the woods, hoping to find another opportunity to rid herself of the flaming Fennekin before she caught her. The woods were as repetitive as ever, but Haruhi knew by this point that that wasn’t all there was to see in there. As long as she kept running, she’d find something, eventually.
And she did.
A dead end, to be more precise. Haruhi had managed to back herself into a corner inside of a cave with a river nearby. It wasn’t long before the other Fennekin tackled her, burning Haruhi In the process. Admittedly, it didn’t hurt as much as Haruhi expected, but it still hurt pretty badly.
“I win this round,” the other Fennekin declared, seeming more annoyed than triumphant. “Now are you gonna get over yourself and chase me?”
“Gah…” Haruhi groaned as she got up, rubbing her sides in an attempt to ease the pain. As she looked over herself, she noticed the river nearby.
She had an idea.
Evidently, the other Fennekin did not like this idea. “Please don’t,” she pleaded, sounding terrified at the idea.
“I think it’s for the best,” Haruhi muttered.
“H-Haruhi, if you throw me in there, I’ll—”
“Die?”
The other Fennekin paused, then started begging. “P-please! I don’t want to die! You need me, right? I just want to—”
Haruhi immediately shot a flamethrower into the water, and watched as the fiery Fennekin took a plunge. What she didn’t expect, however, was the immediate pain that followed. It felt as if her entire body was being viciously torn apart, and it felt like that for a while, until finally, the other Fennekin looked covered in soot, completely absent of any flames that once were.
Immediately, Haruhi felt terribly cold.
Hollow, too.
She found herself shuddering, but tried her best to press onwards. Her steps were slow, and her body felt unusually heavy as she walked. She found herself panting from the exhaustion, and her eyes grew weary.
“Damnit…” Where’s the next campfire? There is one, right? I feel so cold… Haruhi, intuitively, felt she was getting close to the end of the trial somehow, but it felt helpless. Even the fires in the woods seemed to be weakening. Haruhi trudged on.
And on.
And on.
Why is it so cold? Haruhi wondered. Instinctively, she tried to throw out some fire, and briefly panicked at the thought of bringing back what would surely be a very angry Fennekin… only for nothing to come out. Is the fire really gone? Just like that?
…Did I really throw it away like that? Somewhere in the back of her mind, Haruhi began to regret what she’d done. Not very much just yet, however. Trying not to think about it too much, she trudged onwards. Her vision was starting to get hazy, however, and the apparent fires in the distance had all but died out by now. It was getting very difficult to see.
Haruhi felt very lonely.
What am I even doing anymore? This sucks… Haruhi was beginning to feel an uncharacteristic despair creep into her heart. Now, more than ever, she was beginning to feel lost. Lost like she’d never felt in her life before.
She stopped in her tracks.
Would it even matter if I just admitted defeat right here? For the first time in her life, she genuinely and truly felt there was nothing she could do. She’d felt similar frustrations with using psychic-type moves in the past, but something felt different this time. It was a hopelessness she couldn’t describe. For a brief moment, she considered very literally lying down and giving up.
She wasn’t ready to give up just yet, however. Desperate for something, she tried reaching out for her psychic side. To her surprise, it responded, and she managed to levitate a nearby leaf with greater ease than she’d managed before. For a fleeting moment, she felt accomplished.
And yet, she still felt hollow. Something was missing in this picture, but she couldn’t place what.
As she watched the leaf levitate in the air for a moment, she noticed something. Wait a minute, that’s not a leaf. She pulled it in closer to get a better look, and realized it looked very similar to the notes she’d seen earlier. She looked around her, and saw an extinguished campfire.
This is the third campsite! It’s right here!
But the fire’s out…
Squinting in the darkness to see if she could make out what the note said, she read a single word.
“Fire?” It just says ‘fire’ on this thing. Does it want me to light this thing somehow? Haruhi looked at what was left of the campfire. The sticks could probably still be set on fire, but she was lacking fire right now. Knowing that she had to light it somehow, Haruhi grabbed two with psychic and attempted to scrape them together like she’d read about in an explorer’s book before.
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her. I can’t believe I’m doing this… C’mon, C’mon, C’mon… After a full minute of seemingly fruitless scraping, Haruhi started to smell smoke. And not long after, the fire finally sprang to life.
“Yes!” Haruhi exclaimed out loud. For a moment, she just basked in the fire’s warmth, which was particularly welcome in her current state. That feels nice… After a second, she started staring into the fire once more, wondering if it would even work.
If she was paying attention, she would’ve noticed the apparent fires in the distance starting up again.
After what felt like forever, an image finally started forming in the flames. Haruhi recognized the image as the inside of Mayumi’s Dojo. A Fennekin and an Umbreon were sitting together inside.
“So…” the Umbreon started. “How are you doing today?”
“Bad,” the Fennekin answered honestly.
“You’re here because they wanted you to work on controlling your fire, right?” the Umbreon asked. “I’m sure that’s a lot for you.”
“No matter how I try, it feels like it’s slipping out of control sometimes,” the Fennekin complained. Some more smoke started billowing out of her mouth. “I don’t know why, I just can’t keep it down.”
“What I’m about to tell you might sound a little bit weird, but stick with me for a moment.” The Umbreon patted the Fennekin on the back. “Fire, more than most other types, tends to have a bit of an emotional component. When you’re stressed, it becomes more difficult and unruly, and this can build up over time.” The Umbreon turned to a training dummy. “So what do you do when you get stressed? Well, talk to someone, for one. But other than that? Screaming into a pillow works pretty well.” Almost instantly, the Umbreon unleashed what looked like a powerful dark-type attack into the dummy, which came apart easily. “It’s pretty similar for us Dark-types, so I know the feeling. Releasing it safely every now and then does wonders to help.”
“…Just go nuts with it?”
“Yeah, just shoot it into the air or something. Give it a try. This whole room’s fireproofed.”
Nervously, the Fennekin exhaled a massive flamethrower into what was left of the dummy. Haruhi remembered how that felt.
“Feel a little better?” the Umbreon asked.
“Yeah.” In hindsight, it was more accurate to say that she felt way better.
“Good. So from now on, whenever it feels like you’re losing control, just find somewhere quiet and exhale a little. It does wonders to let it fly every once in a while.”
And that was where the vision ended.
As the fire faded away, Haruhi realized the deep, dark mistake she’d made. W-What have I done? I’ve killed a part of myself! The coldness worsened without the campfire. Haruhi almost wanted to stay here and relight it, but it dawned on her what she had to do now.
She knew what was missing.
With an added sense of urgency, she dashed back the way she came, a newfound energy inside of her. The woods were no easier to navigate, but Haruhi figured her best shot was to at least try to get back the way she came. Eventually, she found the river from earlier, and she was now shivering from the cold. She desperately looked for the other Fennekin as hard as she could. For a while, she was afraid she’d drowned completely.
Eventually, she found her double’s cold body, black as soot. Desperately, Haruhi tried to resuscitate her, doing everything she could remember to wake her back up.
Please wake up! After a long while of very amateurish cpr, the other Fennekin’s eyes fluttered open briefly, before shutting again. Little embers starter forming in her fur. Yes! Come on! Haruhi decided to hoist the other Fennekin onto her back, and making a makeshift campfire, and placing her other self into it, who was thankfully breathing by now. It’s a long shot, but… Haruhi tried to release a gentle fire onto her. It was a weaker flame than she even expected, but it was enough. The other Fennekin became fire once again.
Slowly, the other Fennekin rose to her paws. She hazily looked around for a second, before spotting Haruhi and turning away from her.
“…You tried to get rid of me.”
“That was a mistake and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hurt you like that.”
The other Fennekin was silent for a while, before looking back at Haruhi.
“You called me a monster.”
“And I was wrong. You aren’t.”
“…Do you mean it? Does it mean you’re the monster now?”
“…Maybe we don’t have to be,” Haruhi responded.
The other Fennekin turned back around to face Haruhi fully. “You swear you’ll let me play every now and then, right?”
“Right,” Haruhi agreed.
“…Okay.” the other Fennekin replied. “What are we gonna tell everyone else?”
“Let’s not worry about that for now,” Haruhi answered, before leaning in to hug the other Fennekin. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt at all. If anything, it was comforting. “We’ll do our best.”
The other Fennekin reciprocated the hug. “…Yeah.”
Suddenly, Haruhi felt the other Fennekin merge into her, and surround her. It felt significantly hotter than before, and a strange sensation overcame her, as the front of her body started to lift off of the ground. She felt her legs and tail become longer, and her ears larger. She felt herself standing on her hind legs, but somehow, it felt more natural. She looked down at her body once the flames started to subside a bit.
She’d evolved into a Braixen.
“H-holy shit, it happened!” In hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been surprising, since she saw Amadeus evolve, but it was still something she hadn’t really expected to happen so suddenly, especially after she’d spent the better part of her life fantasizing about it. Haruhi flexed her… hands? It felt wrong to call them that, since they were technically still paws, but that didn’t compare to the almost alien feeling of actually using them.
And yet, it felt surprisingly natural. As did taking a step forward, and keeping her balance. Haruhi looked over herself for a second time. Guess my new body doesn’t come with a wand… Am I gonna have to spend money on that?
Eh, screw that. I’ll just grab the first one I see when I wake up. That’s normal, right? Haruhi took another step. It was a new feeling, but the muscle memory was already there, like she’d been doing it since she was born. She picked up the pace a bit, and eventually, went for a run. This is so weird… I thought it would be a little bit more ceremonial than this. I don’t know why, though…
Is someone enjoying their new body? A voice Haruhi didn’t recognize played in her head.
“W-who the hell said that?” Haruhi immediately blurted out.
Ah, significantly more crude than your friend. Or boyfriend, I suppose. I love it.
“I asked you a question,” Haruhi said, having calmed down just a hair.
And assertive, too. Tee-hee. I’ll give you the same hint I gave Amadeus. Let’s just say I’m the one running the show around here, and I’ll let you try and put the pieces together before we properly meet after stage two of the trial, hm? There was a brief pause. Just so you know, he figured it out pretty quickly, so if you’re stumped, just ask him.
“…Lada. The Mew Mya was talking about.”
Wow, you figured that one out almost as quickly as he did. You two are both rather bright, aren’t you?
“It’s not like there’s many people you even could be,” Haruhi commented. “If it was something I feasibly could figure out, the only other option is Mya.”
Oh please, I’ve stumped mortals before. Haruhi heard a sigh before the voice continued. In any case, congratulations on passing the trial. I was worried you weren’t going to make it after you threw your fire into the river, but you realized your mistake and pulled through. For that, I applaud you.
“Thank you, Miss Lada.”
No need to be so formal! Lada replied. We’ll have a more in-depth conversation once you clear stage two with Amadeus. Bye for now! The entire world around Haruhi started to glow a brilliant white.
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Haruhi woke up with a start, immediately dropping the knife from her mouth, which looked especially silly given that she was now a Braixen. She sat up and looked around for a second, and immediately spotted Amadeus.
“I did it!”
“I can see that,” Amadeus said, running over excitedly.
Haruhi paused. While she was sitting, Amadeus was barely taller than she was. “I think I’m gonna tower over you if I stand up,” she commented.
“I don’t think I particularly mind that,” Amadeus replied.
Haruhi giggled. “I guess it’s not an issue.” She scanned the room until she spotted Mya. “Hey, I think we’re ready to move onto part two of the trial now!”
“You will have to wait a day, I’m afraid,” Mya replied. “You two should enjoy each other’s company in the meantime.”
“Not that I’m as eager to jump back in as she is,” Amadeus started, “But I don’t really see why we can’t just keep going.”
“It’s a tradition,” Mya replied. “Besides, Lada tends to dislike it when we rush things.”
“Ah,” Haruhi said, a hair disappointed. “I was kinda excited to keep going…”
“Well, at least it’s an opportunity to explore the town a bit,” Amadeus pointed out. “You were wanting to do that, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Haruhi agreed. “I was just hoping we could ride that momentum a little.”
“Yeah…” Amadeus muttered. “Uh, can you be my eyes as we walk? Squinting is giving me a headache.”
“You should ask for a new pair of glasses,” Haruhi commented, standing up. She was indeed significantly larger than Amadeus. It was strange, to say the least.
“I did, actually, the Bayleef came by earlier and gave me an eye exam.”
“Oh, neat,” Haruhi muttered with a nod. “Let’s go get our stuff back at the clinic first…”
“If you’re headed back to the clinic, I will join you,” Mya interjected. “I imagine Fudo’s alone in there. He’s likely to wake up sometime today.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot about him…” Amadeus admitted. “He’s gonna be so surprised when we try to catch him up on everything that went down in the past… what? Two days? It’s been wild.”
“Under two days, I think,” Haruhi pointed out. “It was pretty late by the time we got to Outer Meade.”
“And then Jack happened, and then… Arceus, it’s so much,” Amadeus muttered. “Mya, I’m really starting to appreciate the fact that you’re making us wait a day. I think I need the breather.”
Mya laughed. “Life can be full of surprises, no?”
“Yeah…” Haruhi said, staring at her new body in awe.
Amadeus noticed. “That must be a pretty huge change for you.”
“The thing that weirds me out the most is how natural it feels…” Haruhi responded, staring at her legs for a bit. “I always figured I’d have to re-learn how to walk whenever I evolved, but nope. It just came naturally.” Haruhi grabbed her tail. It felt almost like a pillow with how big and bushy it was. “Dude, look how big my tail is. It’s, like, half the size of my body.” I could hide so much stuff in this…
“You didn’t notice it with Fudo?”
“I did, I just never thought about it that much…” Haruhi replied. She stared at her tail some more, before realizing what was missing. “This is where most Braixen like to hold their wands, right?”
“Do they?” Amadeus asked.
“Yeah, they do,” Haruhi replied, letting go of her tail. As they were now outside, she looked at a nearby tree. “Hold on, I’m gonna get one.”
“From the tree?”
“Yeah, sure,” Haruhi said, rather dismissively. “No sense shelling out the cash for something fancy when we’re nearly broke, right?”
“I mean, I guess, but do you really think—”
“My Mom said she got the wand she’d been using for years from a tree, too,” Haruhi said, cutting Amadeus off. Mya chuckled behind them both. With some effort, Haruhi managed to break off a branch without too many leaves on it, and managed to just… will a flame on the tip. Weird. Haruhi turned around and struck the best pose she could think of. “How do I look?”
“Cool?” Amadeus said, adding an audible question mark.
“Heh, you don’t sound— woah!” Haruhi yelped as she dropped the stick with the tip still ignited, then quickly caught it with a psychic. Mya’s eyes widened, but Haruhi didn’t notice immediately “…Well, that’s a lot easier than I remember it being.”
“Do you think evolution caused it?” Amadeus asked.
“I mean, probably…” Haruhi admitted. She managed to make the stick do a few very wobbly spins in the air with the tip still ablaze. “Still needs work…”
“What you did just now,” Mya began, “Wasn’t easy.”
“What?” Haruhi asked.
“You’re using two types of move at the same time,” Mya explained. “That’s usually not possible for most type combinations.”
“Wait, really?” Haruhi asked. She thought back to what Mayumi had told her about switching types. If teacher was right, then what am I doing? “Does the tip being on fire even count?”
“If you weren’t maintaining it, it would be ashes by now. What you’re doing requires both Fire and Psychic at once.” Mya scratched her chin. “Did she naturally learn how do that? I suppose the trial would’ve given her the potential, but this is a bit much…” she muttered.
“Potential?” Amadeus asked, clearly curious.
“Let’s just say Elm will want you to enroll here in the future,” Mya said, brushing his question aside.
“Wait, we can do the magic stuff now?” Haruhi asked. That’s so cool! I’ve been itching to ask her what it was!
“Tell you what,” Mya began. “You two pass tomorrow, then I’ll explain what it is in greater detail. Does that sound like a plan?”
“Yeah, sure,” Haruhi quickly replied. One more reason to do well tomorrow… Haruhi grabbed the stick with her paw again. She tried pointing it at the sky, and shooting a weak Ember. The attack emerged at the tip, where the flame was. “Man, that’s gonna take some getting used to…” Haruhi stuck the stick into her tail fluff, then had an idea. Seconds later, she discovered she could create a flame at her fingertips just as easily. She put a paw on Amadeus’ head. Creating a flame at the tip of his nose was just as easy.
“What are you doing?” Amadeus asked, swatting at the flame.
“Uh, sorry,” Haruhi apologized, feeling a bit bad. “Just experimenting.”
“Please ask before you do that next time,” Amadeus said, just a little annoyed. “I think you burned my nose a little.”
“A-Are you okay?” Haruhi asked nervously.
“Yeah, it’s fine, just… give me a little warning?” Amadeus looked a bit sheepish.
Haruhi continued making flames at the tips of her paws. “This feels a lot better.”
“I think that’s blasphemy,” Amadeus joked.
“Nah, it looks cool,” Haruhi shot back.
“I don’t think that’s how blasphemy works—”
“Erm, you two,” Mya called out. “We’re at the clinic.”
Haruhi looked around. Was I actually that wrapped up in the conversation? That was fast. Haruhi gazed at the sign. It was written in unknown script, which she could read relatively well thanks to having gone out of her way to learn it years earlier, wanting to study humans. Apparently the humans here called it something else, but the name was slipping her mind, on account of having heard the name while she was very preoccupied with worrying about Amadeus. What was it? Lat in something? Bah, it was something weird…
“What does it even say, anyway?” Amadeus asked, noticing her staring at the sign. “I can’t see clearly.”
“Inner Meade General Clinic,” Haruhi read off. “In unknown script, that is.” Did I ever explain what that was to Amadeus? I don’t think a topic like that would’ve come up naturally…
“Is that the weird set of symbols on the back of the eyechart I saw earlier?” Amadeus asked, looking to Mya this time.
“Indeed it is,” Mya confirmed. “But you should call it the Latin Alphabet. Some of the humans here get up in arms about calling it what they see as the proper name.” Mya opened the front door of the clinic, and held it open for the duo. “Now let’s check on your friend.”
Fudo was still unconscious, somehow. Come on, man, any day now. “You’re sure he’s mostly healed by now, right?”
“He is. I suspect that the only reason he’s still incapacitated is exhaustion combined with the multiple head injuries. I still think he’ll be up by the end of today, however.”
“He must’ve been working himself to the bone tracking us down…” Amadeus commented.
“Pardon?” Mya asked. “Isn’t he also running from the Seer?”
“No, he was working with Dumas,” Haruhi corrected. “Didn’t I tell you that?”
“Er, no. You did tell Elm everything, though. I will have you know that he has neglected to tell me anything.”
“Oh,” Haruhi said, a bit caught off-guard.
Amadeus was looking at Fudo somewhat thoughtfully. “Hey, where’d you put the stuff he had on him?”
“Oh, that?” Mya said rather casually. “It’s somewhere in this building, let me look…” barely a minute later, Mya returned with what looked like a satchel. “Here it is.”
Haruhi decided to be the one to take the initiative on rifling through the thing, and discovered… not much of note. A couple of now-moldy berries, and other rations, and a single dusty orb alongside, most interestingly, a keychain with a small piece of metal which said ‘click button to leave and return’ on it.
“I think I know how Fudo got around now…” Haruhi said, showing the keychain to Amadeus. “Dumas must’ve made this for him.”
Amadeus squinted, evidently struggling to read the tiny font size on the metal. “We’re definitely making sure he doesn’t get that,” he said rather affirmatively.
“Yeah, no kidding.” Haruhi looked over to Fudo. “Gonna have to keep a close eye on the goods, though. He’s some kind of professional pickpocket. Dude used psychic once and the crystal was in his paws…”
“Really? That easily?” Amadeus asked. “…We still have the crystal, right? It’d be really bad if that got lost in the chaos yesterday.”
“Uh…” Haruhi quickly ran over to their own bag, which had been haphazardly thrown next to Amadeus’ bed the night before, and had to squat down to pick it up. This thing was bigger than my head this morning, holy hell… Wait, that’s wrong. My head was smaller than it. A quick check of it’s contents revealed the Ultranecrozium crystal was still safely inside. “Whew, it’s still here.”
Amadeus breathed his own sigh of relief. “Now how to keep them away from Fudo…”
“Actually, if it really is important to keep those two things safe, there’s nobody better to ask than Elm. His personal vault is very difficult to get access to, not to mention Inner Meade itself.”
“Really? You’d do that?” Amadeus perked up.
“Yes, he shouldn’t be terribly busy right now. In fact, I’ll call him right now.” Seconds later, a relatively familiar Meowstic in a lab coat teleported in right next to them.
“New trinkets?” Elm immediately asked, a childish grin on his face.
“Uh…” Haruhi slurred out, hastily grabbing the crystal and keychain. “You can keep these safe, right?”
“A fine addition to my collection…” Elm said in a bizarre impression that Haruhi couldn’t identify for the life of her. “In all serious though, yes. The crystal’s the Ultranecrozium I saw in your memories, right?”
“Yeah. Did you know—”
“Oh, I know about Z crystals. I once visited… well, you wouldn’t know what Alola is, given that it’s off in human land, but they had a ton of those there. I’ve never actually gotten the chance to touch one before, that’s for sure…”
“I was going to remind you that one of these things leveled a city before, but sure. You’re absolutely sure that nobody’s going to get to it, right?”
“Would seeing the vault make you feel better about giving it to me?”
“I would like to see the vault,” Amadeus quickly said.
“…Honestly, it would,” Haruhi added, replying to Elm’s question.
“Alright, just take my hand!” Elm reached out his paws, and Amadeus and Haruhi nervously took hold. Almost instantly, they arrived in a poorly-lit stairwell. Haruhi tried to create a fire to see better, but it… didn’t work.
“…Why isn’t my fire working?”
“Security feature number one,” Elm replied. “All supernatural abilities are disabled.”
“Me creating fire isn’t supernatural,” Haruhi pointed out.
“You’d be surprised,” Elm replied, walking down a step. “Also, please notice you can’t move your legs.”
Haruhi tried moving her legs, and nearly lost balance. “…Okay.”
“Also, the vault itself is almost ten minutes of walking downstairs that way, and this entire passage in addition to the vault is surrounded by a thick layer magic-reinforced concrete. This would be hard to get into, yes?”
“…Holy shit,” Haruhi replied. “Yeah, I’m convinced. Can we move now?”
After a brief moment of waiting for Elm to actually put the things he’d been given in the vault, which didn’t feel brief at all, he teleported them back to the clinic.
“Wait,” Amadeus asked. “How’d you teleport me? I’m a dark type now.”
“Oh, that’s—”
“Don’t tell them yet, you’ll spoil the surprise,” Mya quickly interrupted.
Elm looked almost disappointed, like he was eager to explain what just happened. “Fine, you can keep them in suspense, Mya…”
Amadeus looked between the two of them, perhaps eager to get spoiled, before turning to Haruhi. “How much do you think he kept in there, anyway?”
“Probably some cool stuff he’s found over the years…” Haruhi muttered back. “You think we could ask him to hold onto Dumas’ Medallion after all of this is over?”
“Actually…” Elm said, cutting off Amadeus. “I was hoping we could at least begin to discuss that. Not to put you two on the spot, but…” Elm’s face grew a tad serious. “Do you have any plans for a more… permanent solution?”
Haruhi and Amadeus both tensed up. The truth was, there weren’t any. That’s a really good question…
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