Arc 1, Chapter 26: The Sucker with No Self Esteem

Amadeus took in a deep breath. The nerves were starting to get to him a little. “Ten, one hundred, one thousand, one million, ten million, one hundred million… I forgot to start at one…”

 

You okay? Haruhi asked.

 

Just a little nervous, that’s all.

 

“Same here,” Haruhi replied in speech.

 

Amadeus felt himself lift off of the ground slightly. “Oh, you’re getting there.”

 

“No way this is gonna be ready in time for later…” Haruhi lamented. “I can barely get you off of the ground.”

 

“Well, you could still break my fall with it,” Amadeus pointed out, trying to be helpful.

 

Haruhi had been trying to lift the dark-type Amadeus with her newfound magical abilities, which was proving to be difficult. Apparently, heavier objects were harder to lift with Psychic, which didn’t seem to change when doing it with fire. Not to mention actually doing it that way felt very finicky. Haruhi was occasionally struggling to perform it at all.

 

“This is supposed to be making fire type act like psychic, right?” Haruhi asked. “Or however Mya explained it?”

 

“We probably should’ve asked for help with this…” Amadeus muttered.

 

“We’ve already been going at it for a few hours,” Haruhi pointed out. “We don’t have time to get a real lesson.”

 

“Well, now we don’t…”

 

“We’re working with what we have here, Amadeus. There’s no point arguing about it now.”

 

“…Alright.” Amadeus craned his neck, looking down at the town. They’d been on the same hill for the past few hours attempting to use the typing magic while Fudo went to convince Elm to give him the gadget back.

 

Amadeus would’ve commented on how long he was taking if he didn’t happen to spot Fudo walking up the hill there and then.

 

“I’ve got the gadget. Or trinket. Whatever we’re calling it. You guys ready to go?”

 

“About as ready as I expected, honestly,” Amadeus answered. “By the way, I was thinking… Couldn’t we fight him literally anywhere we wanted? If Mya can take the three of us to Hakken no Machi, she could take us anywhere that’s just as far.”

 

“Dumas doesn’t know that I know,” Fudo pointed out. “If we ask him to come to the middle of the desert, he’s gonna know it’s a trap immediately. The outskirts of the city might make him suspicious, but he might still decide to investigate anyway if he thinks it’s plausible.”

 

“Fair enough,” Haruhi replied. “I wouldn’t wanna check out the Iris Desert either.”

Iris desert? Amadeus asked.

 

The big one in the middle of the continent. Not important right now, Haruhi replied.

 

“Also, I already had a great spot to set up the ambush in mind. There’s a whole bunch of condemned buildings near the outskirts of the city that nobody ever goes to because they’re so far out of the way. They’re perfect.”

 

“Alright,” Amadeus replied. “Can you call Mya over?”

 

“Give me a sec to find her, I gotta pick her out from the whole village…”

 

Nearly a full minute of Fudo closing his eyes and making frustrated expressions later, Mya popped into existence next to them.

 

“Are you three ready to head off?”

 

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Haruhi replied. “Let’s go.”

 

“Alright. One moment, it’s been a long time since I teleported so far, and with a dark-type no less. Are you sure you want to head to those run-down buildings you showed me, Fudo?”

 

“Yes, that’s correct,” Fudo replied.

 

“Alright…” Mya stretched, and cracked her knuckles, before putting her hands around the three of them. “Three, two… one.”

 

Immediately, Amadeus felt a rough jolt as he was teleported all the way back to the city. He nearly fell over from the dizziness, but caught himself.

 

“Apologies, that was a bit much…” Mya replied. Evidently, she was reeling a bit herself. “You need me to stay to get you three back once all of this is done, correct?”

 

Amadeus paused. Staying in Inner Meade wasn’t something he considered. If he did stay there, he’d be able to properly explore the Typing Magic, and be largely safe from any repercussions the Guild might impose.

 

Something deep in his heart told him no. “Just the Medallion so Elm can keep it safe,” he responded. “Win or lose, we’re staying here. Just hang back and watch from afar.”

 

Mya solemnly nodded, and teleported away, leaving the three of them to their own devices.

 

“I came by here once when I was younger, and something about this place has always stuck out in my mind,” Fudo said, walking closer to the buildings. “Apparently, they wanted this place to be a much bigger hub. There’s a whole flyer and teleportation station that they abandoned here. It’s a total ghost town.”

 

Amadeus looked to his right. In his opinion, it was hard to call this place a part of the city at all. It was more like small village that used to be outside of the city. He could see the heart of the city far off in the distance. We’ve gotta be even farther away from the city center than when we first flew in with Mayumi. No wonder this place is a ghost town.

 

That takes me back… Haruhi replied wistfully. “So we’re just gonna hide in one of these buildings and set the trap there, yeah?”

 

“Something like that,” Fudo replied. He then pointed to the building next to the one they were standing in front of “That one had a working staircase last time I was here. Let’s try to get to the roof…”

 

The building itself certainly looked condemned. It was partially boarded up, save for a handful of cracks that got torn out over time. The interior was, to put it mildly, dusty. Amadeus spotted what used to be a glass countertop, perhaps one that also functioned as a display case. The walls were mostly torn down, but an open closet in the back revealed some very old-looking tables. There were also a few cracked shelves along the walls that weren’t destroyed.

 

“Was this a candy store?” Amadeus guessed.

 

“Personally, I think they sold alcohol,” Fudo replied, ascending a staircase he had entirely too much faith in. “C’mon. There’s not much else to see here.”

 

The roof was in remarkably good condition, not even creaking under Amadeus’ weight. They were two stories high as they looked into the cracked street below, and fairly high up.

 

“…Guys, what if Dumas decides to destroy the building?” Amadeus asked.

 

“We could tell him we’re in the building next to this one,” Haruhi replied. “Or maybe one even further, just to be safe.”

 

“Good idea…” Fudo said, hastily pulling out the gadget and bringing it close to his mouth before stopping. “Anything else we should discuss?”

 

“Not that I can think of…” Amadeus replied. He didn’t realize it in the moment, but he was shaking.

 

They all were, to some extent.

 

Fudo carefully twisted a nob on the small piece of metal he had, almost painfully slowly. He took in a deep breath as Amadeus heard the sound of static.

 

“…Sir?”

 

For a few seconds, there wasn’t a response.

 

“Fudo, where the hell have you been?” the voice on the other end said, sounding nearly irate.

 

“I lost the keychain the gadget was attached to. I had to go on a whole journey to get it back.”

 

An audible sigh was heard. “Alright. Where the hell are you, anyway? Your father has been giving me shit about this for the past five days.”

 

“Was I really gone that long…?” Fudo muttered. “Uh, you know that ten or twelve block stretch of condemned buildings on the outskirts of town? I’m there.”

 

“Yeesh… you need a flyer? Getting back to Teardrop island from the middle of Northerner’s Territory must’ve been hell.”

 

“Actually, could you come here?”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s, uh, urgent.”

 

“What could possibly be happening right now that would require me to come to your location?”

 

Fudo paused. “I found Amadeus and Haruhi. They agreed to come with me on the condition that we’d meet out here. We’re in the building that you told me used to be a dojo for steel types. We’re on the ground floor.”

 

A long silence followed.

 

Chills ran down Amadeus’ back.

 

Finally, Dumas responded. “…I’m coming. You’ve had a rough week, but don’t worry. You’ll be taking a long rest after this.” The static abruptly cut, leaving the trio in dead silence.

 

Amadeus felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

 

“Just to be sure,” Amadeus began, “That’s not the building we’re on the roof of, right?”

 

“It’s that one, just across the street,” Fudo said, pointing. The building he pointed at was almost completely boarded up, save for the entrance. It would be almost impossible to tell that they weren’t there.

 

The silence that followed for the next several seconds was almost painful. Amadeus could hear the sound of his own pounding heart over the gentle breeze. Part of him wondered if Dumas was going to detonate the bomb with what little Ultranecrozium he had before coming. If he did—

 

Finally, he arrived.

 

Dumas surged through a portal of his own creation, followed by what looked like a tidal wave of water behind him, crashing into the ruined building. It collapsed seconds later, followed by some of the surrounding buildings. After allowing the building to collapse, Dumas walked forwards, and started inspecting the rubble. “Those two have better had their bag on them, or I just got soaking wet for nothing…” he griped loudly enough for the trio to hear.

 

Good thing we picked the building across the street, or we would’ve died just now… Amadeus thought, fighting the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. The important part is that he thinks we might still have the bigger gem. He’s not gonna run off and blow up the city if he thinks that. “Fudo, now! While he’s distracted!” Amadeus whispered.

 

Amadeus watched as Fudo slowly pulled out his wand and attempted to pull the medallion off with a psychic. Unfortunately, the best he could do was make it look like it was gently sliding down his neck, as Dumas was looking down and moving the rubble.

 

“C’mon, c’mon…”

 

Fudo managed to get it all the way to the top before Dumas decided to look up at… something, Amadeus wasn’t sure, and then immediately froze as the medallion suddenly stopped obeying gravity. Hastily, Fudo tried yanking the medallion off, but it was too late. Dumas grabbed it with his teeth, and then it glowed yellow far more intensely than Amadeus saw over a week prior.

 

Several large, spherical objects formed just above them, also glowing yellow.

 

Amadeus didn’t think, he just ran, as did Haruhi and Fudo. That proved to be a wise decision as Amadeus heard the deafening noise of explosions behind him. Amadeus almost enthusiastically leaped off of the roof, falling onto the roof of the building behind him, not entirely unharmed, but alive. Haruhi did similarly, wincing as she landed. Fudo simply floated down.

 

At least we’re not separated… The titanic cloud of dust and smoke kicked up by the blast and subsequent collapse of about five buildings was almost impossible to see through, but Amadeus doubted that Dumas would be far behind.

 

“You dimwits realize fighting me here means I can be as destructive as I want, right?” Dumas shouted from the other side of the smoke. “You could’ve tried fighting me somewhere else, you know!”

 

As if we had many good options… Immediately, Amadeus jumped down from the roof of the building he was on. “He’s gonna chase us,” he said, trying to be as quiet as possible. “We’ll have to try again.”

 

Haruhi sharply inhaled. “The moment I see him, I’m firing.”

 

She wouldn’t be waiting for much longer, as Dumas surged through the smoke cloud. True to her word, Haruhi fired a flamethrower, this time forcefully blowing it out like she had as a Fennekin. Dumas covered his face and closed his eyes to defend himself, then immediately formed a massive water bubble above both of them.

 

Haruhi! Amadeus immediately lunged at her, tackling her out of the way of the massive bubble of water that crashed down over where she was standing, adding a protect to make it just a little bit safer. He and Haruhi narrowly avoided Dumas as he crashed into the building behind her. The streets were starting to look very wet, and as Amadeus stepped in it, he realized it was ice-cold.

 

Shit, shit, shit, shit… Amadeus heard as Haruhi reeled from the cold water flowing over the ground. Haruhi immediately set up a Sunny Day, likely hoping to capitalize on a dazed Dumas. However, her Flamethrower barely cracked Dumas’ own protect, who immediately cracked the ground with a Façade, and then looked Haruhi dead in the eye.

 

“You’re fighting me at my absolute strongest. I will not hold back. Surrender now, and I will spare you. Last chance.”

 

“Go screw yourself,” Haruhi replied, shooting another flamethrower, and yanking Amadeus back by the scruff as she leaped backwards. How the hell are we gonna get close to him?

 

Great question, Amadeus replied, now running on his own. We need to get the drop on him again, I think.

 

Hey, quick question. Do you want me to burn you?

 

You’re asking me this now?

 

We don’t have the time to argue about this, just answer!

 

…Yeah. I need the strength.

 

Quickly, Haruhi shot a tiny flame onto Amadeus’ back, sending a jolt of pain up his spine. Yeah, that works… Amadeus felt an odd strength flowing through his body. It was almost strange how energized this kind of pain made him, especially after not experiencing it properly for a while, but he wasn’t going to question it now.

 

Especially not now.

 

Amadeus spared a glance behind him, and saw Dumas creating what looked like a dart, but much larger, as his tail glowed silver. Without warning, Dumas spun around, launching the object at Amadeus and Haruhi with what looked like an Iron Tail.

 

Incoming! Amadeus thought, quickly veering to the side as whatever Dumas launched at them exploded. Haruhi was slower, and seemed to move in the other direction. In seconds, there was a smoke cloud between them.

 

Are you okay?

 

I’m fine! Haruhi immediately replied, cutting through the smoke with another flamethrower in Dumas’ direction. Where is Fudo?

 

Good ques— Amadeus’ train of thought was cut off by a rapidly-advancing Dumas charging straight through Haruhi’s flames, paw ready to slam down. Amadeus desperately leaped out of the way of Dumas’ attack, managing to receive a painful graze in the process.

 

Dumas’ medallion started floating again.

 

Dumas immediately created a large metal barrier surrounding him and Amadeus. Amadeus tried to smash through the barrier with a façade, but Dumas caught his leg and pinned him as he tried to escape. Amadeus briefly saw Fudo about a block away.

 

“Goodb—” Dumas started, but was immediately cut off as he was forced for make another grab for his Medallion, giving Amadeus enough time to run almost halfway to Fudo.

 

“You alright?” Fudo asked, still a ways off.

 

“About as alright as I could be!”

 

“That’s go—” Fudo started, before something exploded behind him, knocking him flat on his face. Amadeus, not having any time to react to this, quickly ran over and yanked him by the collar, guts working overtime to keep his strength up. By the time Fudo was back on his feet, Amadeus saw something bright approaching them. He and Fudo dove for cover as what could only be described as a laser blew right past them. There’s no limits on the ‘what’ of what he can make, huh?

 

“You two realize I can see which way you— Gah!” Dumas started, before presumably getting cut off by Haruhi firing another flamethrower.

 

We have to try and overwhelm him! He can’t keep taking our attacks and keep the medallion around his neck at the same time!

 

I’m coming! Amadeus, steeling himself, sprinting back down the block to see where Dumas was. The flames had yet to fade, but it was clear Dumas was still standing, and clearly focused on Haruhi. Amadeus kept running, and lunged at Dumas with a façade, hoping to deal some lasting damage before he fully recovered.

 

It connected straight into his jaw, knocking him prone.

 

This is our chance! Amadeus wasted no time in sprinting over, and yanking the medallion with all of his strength, hoping to remove the thing from Dumas’ neck once and for all.

 

Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy.

 

Amadeus heard a deafening bang, and felt himself flying backwards. For a excruciatingly long time, he lay on the ground, ears ringing from the noise. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, laying on his side, was Haruhi, flat on her back. Still painfully dazed, he rose to his feet slowly, but could barely maintain his balance.

 

He saw Dumas suddenly standing over Haruhi, what looked like a blade made of water clenched in his teeth. Amadeus tried to run over, but tripped over something that wasn’t there previously, and fell on his face.

 

“You’re next,” Dumas said, raising the blade above Haruhi, prepared to end her life then and there.

 

“Stop!” Amadeus screamed. Not like this not like this not like this not like this

 

The second Dumas swung, what looked like a black blur slammed into the side of his body, knocking him back significantly farther than Amadeus would’ve expected, saving Haruhi’s life at the same time. Amadeus watched as Mayumi, of all people, ran over to a Haruhi now quickly rising to her feet and shoved something in her mouth.

 

“Teacher?” Haruhi asked, surprised.

 

“I was hanging around the outskirts of town and heard a lot of explosions,” Mayumi explained. “What the hell is going on? That is you, right Haruhi?”

 

“Dumas is trying to kill us,” Amadeus explained. “Get the medallion, it’s dangerous—” Amadeus got cut off again by a bomb suddenly appearing between him, Mayumi, and Haruhi. He immediately hid behind protect, deciding that if there was anyone who could protect Haruhi while she was vulnerable, it would be the person who just saved her life.

 

“Where the hell did that come from?” Mayumi shouted over the chaos.

 

“You want more of that, you bitch who refuses to get out of my life? I’ve got more!” Several more bombs started appearing overhead. “Plenty more!”

 

He’s losing his mind! “Run!” Amadeus, Haruhi, and Mayumi started running as fast as their legs could carry them, as Dumas started raining down bombs on them almost indiscriminately. As he did this, nearly every building in the surrounding area started to collapse, kicking up a colossal amount of dust. Haruhi, can you see Fudo anywhere in this mess?

 

Nope! We’re just gonna have to hope he makes it out of this mess okay! On the bright side, it doesn’t look like he’s worried about Fudo at the moment!

 

That’s not very reassuring! Amadeus looked behind him, and through the smoke, he saw another very distinctive bright light.

 

“Duck!”

 

The trio fell to the ground as another laser screamed overhead, barely avoiding the three of them in the chaos of the still-exploding area.

 

“I gave every last one of you a chance!” Dumas screamed. “I made you who you are, Fudo! I tried to live up to your expectations, Mayumi! I saw the talent in you nobody else did, Haruhi! And I tried to help you see the world as it is, Amadeus! You all could’ve accepted the world as it is, and tried to change it with me! But no! You’d rather let the rot keep on going! You’re all part of the problem!”

 

“So you’re just gonna kill everyone?” Amadeus screamed back. “That’s your genius solution to the world’s problems? Just kill whoever you think is to blame?”

 

“And why wouldn’t that work?” Dumas yelled back, a furious insanity lacing his voice. “Besides, this isn’t just about my solutions anymore! Not that you’ll ever live to see it, of course!”

 

Amadeus tried his best to pick out either Dumas or Fudo in the chaos, either by sight or smell, but that wasn’t going to happen with the massive amount of smoke in the air. Fortunately, Dumas wouldn’t be able to see them either, which meant he couldn’t attack them with any kind of accuracy, but it also meant that Dumas was free to continue fighting them however he wanted.

 

“We need to put more pressure on Dumas! We’re gonna go back on the offensive as soon as we find Fudo!” Amadeus said, nearly yelling to get over the noise of the explosions happening around him.

 

“I’m trying to figure out where he is!” Haruhi hurriedly replied, outright clutching her head trying to concentrate in the cacophony around her.

 

Distantly, Amadeus heard Fudo’s voice.

 

“He’s to the left somewhere!” Haruhi yelled.

 

“Good job, kid!” Mayumi yelled back. “Knew you had it in you! Let’s circle around to meet him and go from there!” Amadeus hoped Mayumi’s level head would be an asset here. They could certainly use the help.

 

About half a minute of running later, the explosions started dying down, and Fudo rejoined the rest of the group. Mayumi ducked behind some cover and motioned for the rest to follow. It wasn’t much shelter, the battle thus far had destroyed the majority of the surrounding area, but it would have to do until Dumas found them and the chaos started back up again.

 

“We need to get the drop on him somehow,” Mayumi started. “The moment he spots us, he starts attacking. That’s not something we can withstand for long.” Amadeus was quietly impressed by the speed at which Mayumi had managed to assess the situation.

 

“He already knows we’re here!” Fudo whispered. “How are we gonna do that?”

 

“He gave us a pretty damn good opportunity to hide,” Mayumi said, gesturing to the chaotic mess that was once several blocks of condemned buildings. “It’ll be another minute before he finds us. Let’s use that time to lay a trap.”

“I can hold him off for a few seconds,” Haruhi stated. “If we could just steal the damn medallion in that time, we’re golden.”

 

“What if you and Amadeus both came at him from the front?” Fudo suggested. “If I was pulling it off of his neck at the same time, he wouldn’t be able to catch the medallion as I was trying to pull it back if he was getting attacked at the same time.”

 

“Yeah, that could wor—” Amadeus started, but was immediately cut off.

 

“Where the hell did you bastards go?” Dumas shouted, from somewhere alarmingly nearby.

 

Amadeus peeked around a corner.

 

He was coming their way.

 

“He’s here,” Amadeus whispered, ducking back behind cover. “Haruhi?”

 

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she responded. If this works, we win, right?

 

I sure hope so… Amadeus peeked back around the corner.

 

The silence was palpable.

 

Dumas came closer and closer to passing them.

 

Amadeus closed his eyes.

 

“Now,” Amadeus whispered.

 

Immediately, Haruhi burst around the corner, and set up one final Sunny Day, blasting an unprepared Dumas in the face with a Flamethrower. It was now or never. Amadeus ran around the corner, following up with a Façade, barely even noticing the flames grazing him. He slammed into Dumas’ body, knocking him backwards. Finally, Fudo yanked the Medallion back as hard as he could.

 

Dumas was sent tumbling backwards, and the medallion in the other direction.

 

We did it! He doesn’t have the Medallion anymore! Amadeus immediately went to catch the medallion, and stuffed it into his bag for later.

 

“He’s just a normal Luxray now! We can take him!” Haruhi shouted, seemingly prepared to rain hell down on Dumas if that was what it would take.

 

Amadeus watched as Dumas got up, rubbed his neck, and then… panicked. Dumas looked around frantically, and then at the group.

 

“Please!” Dumas… begged? “I need that! Give it back!” Something was very wrong with this picture.

 

“No,” Amadeus responded, secretly caught off-guard by Dumas’ sudden change in demeanor. “It’s dangerous and we’re locking it away where nobody will ever get to it again.” What is he playing at? Does he really think we’ll give it back if he just asks nicely?

 

He’s desperate, obviously, Haruhi replied.

 

You’d think he’d try coming after us… Dumas suddenly started glowing yellow.

 

“Please! Amadeus! Give it back! It’s the only way!”

 

“The only way for what?”

 

“It’s the only way I’ll— Grah!” Dumas desperately lunged at Amadeus, and was only met with another Flamethrower. Dumas rolled around, clawing at his face in pain, and—

 

Abruptly stopped moving as the yellow glow faded from his body.

 

Amadeus watched as Dumas’ body simply fell on it’s side, already on the ground. His jaw went slack, and his paws limp. Amadeus looked at his companions in confusion, who all returned the look. Was it a trick?

 

Amadeus placed the bag down next to him and walked over to Dumas. He felt around his mouth. He wasn’t breathing. He felt his chest, and listened to it. His heart wasn’t beating.

 

“He’s… dead,” Amadeus said quietly.

 

Fudo quickly ran over and inspected the body himself, perhaps not believing it. He stared at Dumas for several seconds afterwards, before tears started forming in his eyes. Dumas, despite everything, was still his mentor. “I… G-guys… We killed him.” Fudo was seemingly fighting the urge to cry with every fiber of his being.

 

 Amadeus himself was feeling a little sick, and tore his eyes away from his dead other self. He saw Haruhi and Mayumi, staring, perhaps unable to comprehend what they were seeing.

 

Amadeus rushed over to Haruhi, and embraced her, desperate for comfort. “I can’t look any longer.”

 

“…I know.” Haruhi hugged him tightly.

 

Amadeus felt pain well up from deep inside of his heart. Amadeus knew what Dumas’ death meant they’d done, and the fact that he was actively trying to avoid killing Dumas made it all the worse. Worst of all, they hadn’t been given a say in the matter. Dumas seemed to know he was about to die, afraid of it. Taking the medallion meant taking Dumas’ life. They never had a choice to begin with.

 

A single tear rolled down Amadeus’ face. I’m just glad I could be with you for this…

 

Me too. Haruhi decided it was best to speak up. “Fudo, can you call Mya and tell her we have the Medallion?”

 

“Y-yeah…” Fudo said, standing up and wiping the tears from his eyes. Mya arrived moments later, and took the Medallion, only nodding solemnly when she saw what had become of Dumas.

 

Eventually, Amadeus calmed down enough to look at Dumas’ body again. It was a painful sight, but they weren’t exactly going to have a long time to grieve. “…So now what? More people from the guild are gonna be here any second now.”

 

“We’ll wait and explain the situation to them,” Mayumi said. “They’ll understand when they see the state this place is in. Hopefully, anyway.”

 

“I sure hope so, teacher…” Haruhi replied.

 

“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in a situation like this,” Mayumi replied. “Worst you’ll get is a suspension from working with the Guild for a while and some community service. Besides, there wasn’t much we could’ve done differently.”

 

“Well, you’re right, but…” Amadeus trailed off. It occurred to him there wasn’t much point in worrying about it.

 

The worst was over, after all.

 

 

---

 

 

For what felt like the millionth time, Amadeus put a piece of garbage into a trash bag. This had gotten old within an hour of starting, and it didn’t feel any less monotonous now. Not to mention the smell of trash. It had to have been burned into Amadeus’ memory by now. I can’t wait to be done… Amadeus complained.

 

We’ve got, like, another hour of this shit, then we’re done for good, Haruhi pointed out. Just thirty, right? We’re on twenty-nine.

 

I know, I know… Amadeus picked up another piece of litter. It’s just a little hard on my nose, that’s all.

 

“Well, we did find some cool stuff, right?” Haruhi pointed out. “That’s why we picked this type of work.”

 

“That chess piece was pretty cool, actually…” Amadeus admitted. Absentmindedly, Amadeus picked up what he assumed was another piece of torn up paper, only to realize it was a newspaper. Today’s paper, in fact. “Well, someone doesn’t read the news,” he commented.

 

“Wow, they threw the whole thing away…” Haruhi muttered, peering over Amadeus to get a look at it.

 

SEER OF GUILD OF HONOR KILLED IN ATTEMPTED BOMBING OF CONDEMNED BUILDINGS

 

Stopped by bravery of young Guild trainees and one other

 

This morning, Shogun-Guildmaster Tokugawa Toxicroak confirmed that Dumas Luxray, the lone individual responsible for bombing several blocks of condemned buildings on the outskirts of the city, was indeed the Seer of the Guild of Honor. Authorities say his cause of death was a heart attack, but—

 

Amadeus stopped reading after that. “I’m just surprised people like us,” Amadeus commented. “Shouldn’t it have been easier to blame us?”

 

“Well, I’m not about to question it,” Haruhi replied. She then took out a pocket watch that they’d borrowed from Akihiro to keep track of time. “We’re nearly done. Let’s throw this stuff to the boss man and head home, yeah?”

 

As it turned out, Mayumi was right that the worst they’d get was community service. Many in the guild had apparently felt they should get off scott-free, given the circumstances, and Mayumi and Fudo had, but for some reason, Amadeus and Haruhi still got slaps on the wrists. Only thirty hours was enough to be done in a week if they did it full-time, but they couldn’t work at the Guild until it was done. Haruhi decided they should get it done ASAP, which Amadeus reluctantly agreed to.

 

Amadeus stretched as he started carrying the garbage bag they’d been using—one that was bigger on the inside, just like their exploration bag—and followed Haruhi to the man in charge of the organization they’d been helping for this. It was a pretty average charity, one just dedicated to helping waste collection, nothing fancy. If anything, it was tiny, being run by a single Walrein.

 

“Hey, Atsushi,” Haruhi greeted, putting the bag on the table. “Today’s catch.”

 

“Today’s the last I’m gonna see of you two bozos, right?” the Walrein responded. “Read about what you two did in the morning paper. I can’t believe you two even pulled a stunt like that. Absolute madness.”

 

“I mean, he was kinda crazy too,” Haruhi pointed out.

 

“That’s probably true,” the Walrein conceded. “To think a bastard like that got to that kind of position…”

 

“Well, he’s gone now,” Haruhi responded. “See ya… sometime, I dunno.”

 

“I sure hope so,” the Walrein sighed. “It’s not everyday someone puts this much effort into picking up trash.”

 

“It was nice working with you,” Amadeus said as he walked out of the door. “So, I’m guessing you wanted to start Guild work up again tomorrow?”

 

“We can take a day off if you want,” Haruhi replied. “I just wanted to get this over with. They gave us the choice of when we wanted to come back, after all.”

 

“I wouldn’t be opposed to starting up the Guild work again. Beats picking up trash.”

 

“Hm…” You think the Guildmaster’s gonna want to talk to us when we get back?

 

It’d be weird if he didn’t, Amadeus pointed out. We only told what we absolutely had to, after all.

 

Eventually, the duo made it back home, feeling more than a little exhausted.

 

“Welcome home, you two,” Akihiro greeted them as they walked through the door. “Glad to finally be done with community service?”

 

“Boy, are we ever,” Amadeus replied with an exhausted sigh. “Does Fudo get his freedom now?”

 

“I think he does,” Ryo replied from around the corner.

 

Naturally terrified of having nearly lost one of their only children that was missing for an extended period of time, Akihiro and Ryo had stopped Fudo from leaving the house nearly as long as he’d been home, much to the latter’s chagrin. It was certainly understandable to Amadeus, but part of him felt it was a bit much.

 

The other part of him reminded the former that Fudo, in fact, nearly died twice in the span of a few days. They all had.

 

Amadeus sat down at the table, and Haruhi sat down right next to him. He wasn’t quite used to how much smaller it felt yet, but he’d get there eventually. For now, it was just nice to be back to eating dinner with Fudo’s family.

 

“And that Medallion is somewhere safe now?” Akihiro asked. They weren’t supposed to say much about Inner Meade, but they could leave out details.

 

“We saw it,” Haruhi said with a mouth full of food. “Nobody’s breaking into that place. You’d be crazy to try.”

 

“Well, if you’re convinced, I suppose I can believe it,” Akihiro replied. “It’s just that a Medallion that gives it’s wielder the ability to create anything out of thin air sounds dangerous.”

 

“That’s because it is,” Amadeus said in between bites. “If you were creating superpowers, you’d have to try pretty hard to make that kind of ability weak.”

 

“No kidding…” Fudo said. Clearly, running through a hellscape of constant explosions was still fresh in his mind. “Even with him clearly trying to kill us, I feel like he only really scratched the surface of what’s possible.”

 

“And there’s more of these crazy magical artifacts out there?” Ryo asked.

 

“I mean, we only know about two, maybe three more,” Amadeus pointed out. “Although it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s even more out there. I just hope they aren’t quite as strong. For everyone’s sake.”

 

The meal of rice and berries Amadeus was eating was particularly delicious. Ryo’s cooking, as always, was something else. This stuff’s so good. I’ve missed this.

 

You said that the past five days in a row, Haruhi replied.

 

Yeah, Amadeus agreed. Despite how the past few days had been, Amadeus was happy that they didn’t have to worry about too much at the moment. After what had happened over the past few weeks, any return to normalcy was a welcome change of pace, even if it was probably only temporary. The rest of Calamity was still out there, unfortunately.

 

Going to bed had been interesting these past few days. Haruhi didn’t even come close to fitting in the bed in Kohana’s room anymore, so she’d been sharing the bed in Fudo’s room with Amadeus for the time being, since it could actually hope to fit the both of them. It was nice sleeping with Haruhi, if a little cramped.

 

Fudo being in the same room was very slightly awkward.

 

“Are you guys sure that’s a comfortable sleeping position?” Fudo asked, sounding dumbfounded.

 

“Positive,” Amadeus replied, practically buried under Haruhi.

 

“You’re still gonna have everything so high up, Fudo?” Haruhi asked.

 

“I’ve been living like this for years,” he replied. “Not gonna stop now.”

 

“Well, good for you, then,” Haruhi replied back. We could probably fit another mattress on the floor, Haruhi pointed out to Amadeus.

 

Eh… This isn’t that cramped, Amadeus pointed out in kind. We can worry about a bigger bed once we have some dough.

 

You like snuggling like this, huh? Haruhi asked. I seem to recall you disliking this when we did it the first few times.

 

In my defense, I wasn’t used to it then, Amadeus replied.

 

Well, you sure are now… Night, Amadeus.

 

Good night, Haruhi.

 

 

---

 

 

After deciding to take it off, the following day started rather slowly, with Amadeus and Haruhi relaxing at the table after breakfast. Even Ryo had work today, and Kohana had school, so it was just the two of them for the most part, which they agreed was nice. With little else to do, they’d been playing card games.

 

As it turned out, it was difficult to avoid telling each other what their hands were when they occasionally heard each other’s thoughts due to a psychic link they could not close.

 

Damn, two aces? Amadeus heard.

 

“Haruhi, I heard that just now.”

 

Haruhi was dead silent for a moment, before throwing down her cards in frustration. “How many times has that happened?”

 

“Twelve.”

 

“…We should not have played poker. Or any card games.”

 

“You, uh, did say chess was boring, and there don’t seem to be any other board games in the house.”

 

“I know that,” Haruhi replied.

 

Amadeus walked over to the radio, which was currently off. “You wanna just listen to the radio?”

 

“…Sure, I’m down. Have we even done that before?”

“I used this one a couple of times, I’ll see if I can find the good stations…” Amadeus hopped up on the couch to reach more easily and fiddled with the dials for an embarrassingly long time before, finally, a jazz station came on. It was a soothing tune with a very prominent saxophone. “I like this station, it’s grown on me.”

 

“Really like the relaxing ones, huh?”

 

“Yeah. It’s nice to just listen to something calming, yeah?”

 

“Yeah…” Haruhi sat down next to him on the couch. “I do think it’s nice to listen to something more exciting every now and then, though.”

 

“Oh, totally…”

 

Haruhi stared at the bookshelf, just across from the couch. I bet I could use psychic to grab those now.

 

…Go for it.

 

Way ahead of you… Haruhi seemed to concentrate on the shelf for a moment, and then a book started slowly levitating to the couch. After a few seconds, it was close enough for her to grab out of the air, which she did. “Arceus, I can be so lazy now. How does anyone go back to physically picking things up after learning how to do this?”

 

“They don’t make it a habit, I think.”

 

“Fair enough…” Haruhi responded, scanning the cover of the book. “Oh, that’s funny. Remember that book on supporting moves I read a while back?”

 

“Oh, that one?” Amadeus asked. “Did you ever learn Will-o-Wisp?”

 

“I tried it once, but didn’t get it working properly. I think it was the first week after you started working out?”

 

“You weren’t feeling it, huh?”

 

“Honestly, I just thought it would be redundant. I mean, if I wanted to burn someone, I’d just attack them normally, right? Besides, learning a move meant specifically to burn someone just felt… wrong?”

 

“Knowing you, that sounds about right.”

 

“Yeah…” Haruhi opened the book to the page on fire-type moves. “I might go back on that.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Well, I’m less opposed to it now than I was then. Less afraid of hurting people, at least.”

 

“That’s… good, probably.”

 

“Er, thanks.” It’s a part of who I am, and I shouldn’t fight it.

 

I agree.

 

The two spent the rest of the morning rather absentmindedly reading through the book, even for moves they didn’t really have a chance of learning, mostly out of curiosity. There were a few standouts, like Electric Terrain, which sounded like an electric type Sunny day, Power trick, which Haruhi though was hilarious, and Heal Bell, which could’ve been an amazing move if either of them could learn it. They would later discover that they couldn’t.

 

Eventually, their day got a little more interesting when Akihiro came home much earlier than expected.

 

“Hello, you two.”

“Akihiro?” Amadeus asked. “Don’t you usually get home way later?”

 

“Yes. The Guildmaster wanted to talk to you two.”

 

“Already?” Haruhi asked. “I didn’t think he’d even consider doing that until we officially came back.”

 

“Well, he wanted to talk to you two today. He asked me specifically to bring you two to the guild when he heard you two took the day off.”

 

“I guess we don’t have a choice, then…”

 

“It would seem you do not,” Akihiro confirmed.

 

The trip back to the Guild was interesting, to say the least. Now that Amadeus was a dark type, he couldn’t be teleported around by normal Pokémon, so they were stuck flying through the air. Amadeus could already tell that this would take quite a bit of getting used to. Soon enough, they landed, and Amadeus and Haruhi were outside of the throne room once again. Just being there was surreal after everything.

 

Amadeus slowly pushed open the door. It felt oddly heavy. Even heavier was Tokugawa’s gaze, staring him dead in the eye the second he walked into the room.

 

“Greetings,” Tokugawa simply said.

 

“Hello, sir,” Amadeus replied. “Are you here to ask us about what happened yourself, or—”

 

“Precisely. First of all, I want to know if it’s true that you decided to hand over that supposedly powerful Medallion to Elm. You made no mention of Inner Meade in the police report, but I did get a call from him that night.”

 

“Yes, we did that,” Amadeus replied. “It just seemed like the safest place for it to stay.”

 

“I’ve only met him in person once before, so I won’t comment on whether he might use it, but I must know just how safe the vault he speaks of is. Were you about to see some of it’s security measures for yourself? How strong are they?”

 

“He took us to a hallway leading up to the vault, and we couldn’t move or use moves inside whatsoever,” Amadeus responded. “We couldn’t even use things that were just part of our bodies like smaller puffs of fire.”

“I’ll have to convince him to allow one of my other people to see to be sure, but that sounds… strong. Alright, next question. How exactly did you discover Inner Meade in the first place?”

 

“We were wandering around the wilderness when Fudo approached us, and tried to bring us back home for Dumas. A fight broke out, and Fudo got hurt, so we brought him to the clinic in Outer Meade, which happened to be nearby,” Amadeus explained.

 

“And you discovered Inner Meade while you were there somehow? Did you happen to see a resident entering Inner Meade while you were there?”

 

“It was more roundabout than that,” Amadeus answered. “The town healer was treating him in Inner Meade, but we didn’t know that initially, so we… well, I got suspicious, and we left because we feared something bad was going to happen. Then, while we were wandering around the woods, we got jumped by a freakishly strong Lucario, got badly injured, and then happened to run into that same healer from earlier on her morning stroll, who rushed us to her actual clinic in Inner Meade.”

 

“And you were made to keep most of this a secret in exchange for knowledge or where you were, correct?”

 

“That’s more or less true, yeah,” Haruhi confirmed.

 

“…Anything else I should know about the circumstances of your arrival there?”

 

“Actually…” Haruhi started, “There wouldn’t happen to be a Lucario with a similar Medallion to Dumas somewhere in the Guild, would there?”

 

“I don’t believe so. Continue.”

 

“The Lucario that jumped us had a Medallion like that,” Amadeus explained. “He was definitely not normal, and he even told us that Dumas sent him. Elm even ordered that Outer Meade be evacuated because the last time that Lucario was seen there, it got wiped out.”

 

Tokugawa started looking around the room, eyes resting on a tapestry that looked very old. “If memory serves, a background check hinted at either a Riolu or Lucario that had been seen with Dumas repeatedly right back when he joined that hasn’t been seen with Dumas since.”

 

“That’s probably the same one!” Haruhi pointed out.

 

“Well, we’ll have to look into it,” the Guildmaster agreed. “Alright, next question. Dumas died of a heart attack during your fight with him after you removed the Medallion, correct?”

 

Something in Amadeus twitched. “…Yes.”

 

“And you went into that fight somewhat prepared to do that, correct?”

 

“Yes.” That was only slightly true.

 

“How did you learn of how the Medallion worked?”

 

“It was guesswork, mostly,” Amadeus admitted. “We only really had our previous fight with Dumas and the Lucario to go off of. We only knew that the power came from the Medallion because Dumas said it himself, so we reasoned that he had to wear it to use it. Dumas dying totally blindsided us. Honestly, I’m still not sure how exactly the Medallion works.” He probably doesn’t have to know about Lada. We didn’t get much from them, anyway.

 

“That’s… disappointing, but I commend you for being able to put that much together.”

 

The room fell silent after that.

 

“…Anything else, sir?” Amadeus asked. Surely, the Guildmaster had something more to say if they weren’t being dismissed outright.

 

“There is, but I am slightly hesitant to say it.”

 

“Why is that, sir?” Haruhi asked. “You’re normally very direct.”

 

“It would be a… controversial decision if it became more widely known, to say the least. Especially given how some felt about you two over the course of the trial. But I think it would be warranted, for a few reasons I’ll get into in a moment.”

 

There was another brief silence in the room, but not nearly as long as the last. It was almost as if Tokugawa was collecting himself before the worlds could leave his mouth.

 

“Amadeus Luxio and Haruhi Braixen,” he began, “You are being considered for the position of the Seer of the Guild of Honor.”