Arc 1, Chapter 9: WELCOME TO THE CITY

Breakfast the following morning was a bit busy, to say the least. The restaurant was extremely busy, and the noisy chatter going around from the thirty or so other occupied tables was a far cry from the normally peaceful breakfasts that Amadeus had gotten to know in his time here, although it was hardly his first time in a restaurant like this. Haruhi, however…

 

“We should’ve stayed in the room…” She groaned, making a concerted effort to not be too loud.

 

“This getting to you?” Mayumi asked.

 

“Everything’s so loud,” She complained. “Were you used to having breakfast like this?” She asked, turning to Amadeus.

 

“I usually just ate breakfast at home,” He admitted in turn. “You are right that it’s pretty noisy in here, though.”

“The place is cheap and the food is good,” Mayumi said, taking a bite of a sandwich that was apparently the meal of the day. “It’s just that this place is pretty popular for the time of day.”

 

Amadeus quietly took a bite of his toast. It was nice to have had some over the past few days when he expected to be spending the majority of his time for the trip on the road. Unfortunately, that looked to be coming to an end. At least, if Haruhi got her way, that is.

 

“So we’ve got… what? A little over a week to get there, still?” Haruhi asked as everyone finished their meals. “We could probably walk the rest, right?”

 

“It is a two-day walk,” Mayumi pointed out. “We could be there by tomorrow morning if we took a boat, however.”

 

“I like the idea of taking another boat,” Amadeus stated.

 

“Dude, are you gonna take the easy way out every single time?” Haruhi asked.

 

“We’ll get there faster on the boat,” Amadeus replied.

 

“C’mon, man! Where’s your sense of adventure?”

 

“It’s the quickest and safest option.” Amadeus turned to Mayumi. “Mayumi, help me out here.”

 

“Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that you do need a little bit more experience,” She sighed. “That being said, I don’t necessarily disagree with the notion we should just get there as soon as we can.”

 

“So…?” Haruhi asked expectantly.

 

“You two decide,” She replied. “We leave immediately after that.” She then walked off to go pay.

 

Haruhi isn’t gonna budge, is she? Amadeus thought to himself. I don’t really want to go walking though the countryside again. He ruffled through the bag. We need a quick way to resolve disputes like this…

 

“Hey, Haruhi?” He asked, brandishing a single Poké coin. “Heads, we go by boat, tails, we go on foot. Sound good?”

 

Haruhi shrugged. “Fine by me.”

 

Amadeus flipped the coin, and it spun around in the air for a bit, before landing… tails up. Haruhi smirked.

 

“Hah, time to walk!”

 

“…Of course,” Amadeus grumbled.

 

“…Did you two just decide the outcome of the next few days on a coin toss?” Mayumi asked, walking back over.

 

“…Is there a problem with that?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Well, I was hoping you two would actually discuss it, but I suppose this works too…” She turned to the door. “Well, we’re off. Let’s not waste any time.”

 

Leaving the city was a bit of a strange feeling. The buildings gradually grew smaller and smaller, then just a little more sparse, and slowly but surely, the trio was definitively out of the city. The transition was so gradual that, to Amadeus at least, it felt like they’d exited the city without even realizing it. Soon, the city of Bōeki no Machi was but a blip on the horizon, and it was a bizarre feeling.

 

“How big is that place relative to where we’re headed, anyway?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Oh, you’re gonna be blown away,” Mayumi said, hyping the city up a bit. “Hakken no Machi is the third largest city on the entirety of the Daylight continent. Bōeki no Machi isn’t even in the top fifty. It can’t even hold a candle to where we’re headed.”

 

“Is it really that big?” Haruhi asked. “I mean, that place we were in just now was pretty huge…”

 

“Just you wait…” Mayumi replied.

 

 

---

 

 

The next day and a half was mostly uneventful, save for the natural conversation that just happened as they walked together. Most of the time, they walked nearby the coast, or at least, the coastline was in sight as they walked. Eventually, they found a strange-looking patch of beach.

 

“Well, this is Odayaka na Kaigan. A short little mystery dungeon of only three floors, known for being one of the easiest dungeons to traverse. Once we’re past this, it’ll only be a few more hours before we arrive in Hakken no Machi. With that in mind…” Mayumi turned to Amadeus and Haruhi. “Now then, you two. Lead the way. Show me how much you two have learned.”

 

“I won’t let you down, Teacher,” Haruhi said confidently. “Ready, Amadeus?”

 

“Ready as I’ll ever be, probably…”

 

Immediately, they found themselves at the beginning of a long hallway, which they proceeded down. Then, they arrived at a four way intersection. Amadeus and Haruhi glanced down the halls, and down one of them was what looked like a bigger hub room.

 

“Hey, let’s look this way!” Haruhi said quickly.

 

Amadeus nodded, and the trio arrived at the hub room. Including the one they got in from, there were a total of six different pathways. After picking one at random, they arrived at a three-way intersection.

 

“That way’s clearly the where we would’ve ended up had we gone the other way earlier…” Amadeus mumbled. “Oh, the stairs are over there.”

 

One floor down in just under ten minutes. The next was much messier. After ending up in a six-path hub room, they explored the floor for nearly twenty minutes before finding a four-way intersection that they hadn’t seen previously at the end of one of them. After exploring two of the paths for a further ten minutes, they finally found the stairs hiding just around a corner in the final one they checked.

 

The third and final floor was also a bit messy. They again ended up checking several different routes before finding yet another hub-room with five separate paths. Amadeus sighed.

 

“Let’s pick this one…” He said, gesturing to a pathway that seemed to stretch on for a while. After walking down the path for a solid five minutes, they arrived at a dead end. A few more frustrated sighs later, they picked another path, and this much shorter one… did not have the stairs at the end. The third and final path they picked had the stairs at last. In total, the dungeon took about an hour.

 

“How did we do?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Well…” Mayumi started. “That was definitely a bit slow for this place, and I don’t think it was entirely out of your control. You were mostly right to prioritize searching from places with more branching paths, but overall, I think you two committed a little too hard to the routes you chose. Spending too much time on one path is a big commitment, and you could’ve saved some time if you picked the clearly shorter paths first.”

 

“Oh…” Haruhi said. “So we weren’t very good, then?”

 

“It was fine,” Mayumi quickly responded. “Don’t beat yourselves up too badly, you’ll get a feel for this as you get more experience.”

 

“So…” Amadeus started, “We’re a few hours of walking away from the big city?”

 

“We sure are,” Mayumi confirmed. “At our current pace, we should arrive before nightfall tonight, and you’ll still have a handful of days to show up on the Guild’s doorstep. Big day tomorrow, right?”

 

“Arceus, I wanna march straight up to the guild’s doors as soon as we get there…” Haruhi said, pacing in place in excitement.

 

Amadeus found himself getting a little excited himself, wistfully gazing at the horizon. Not much longer now… Still, what is Dumas’ deal, anyway? Why did he want me there so badly? I mean, sure, if he’s me, and he wants to figure out what happened, sure. But does he really need me? He fiddled with the pin on his shirt a little bit. In the meantime, I guess we’re going to have to find someplace to stay…

 

After a few hours of walking, the grand city slowly faded into view. Against the backdrop of the ocean and the massive mountain in the background, it seemed like a massive smudge of grey and brown, the individual buildings impossible to discern. They continued walking for what felt like ages, and as they slowly drew nearer, Amadeus realized they were still nowhere near the city, yet it kept growing, and growing. When they finally neared what seemed like the outer city limits, past a few factories that seemed to be producing power, or at least transporting it from elsewhere, the heart of the city still felt absurdly far away.

 

“This should be the place…” Mayumi muttered, which elicited a reaction from Haruhi.

 

“Uh, Teacher? We’re nowhere near the center of the city. Are you sure this is the place?”

 

“Oh, no, this isn’t our final stop,” Mayumi reassured her. “We’re just taking a little shortcut.” She gestured to a building in front of her. The sign read ‘GoH Flyer and teleportation system, station 14’. Inside of the building was a massive series of platforms that looked like someone was meant to land on them, given that they were under an open roof. “Welcome to the fastest way of getting around the city,” Mayumi said as she rang a bell on the counter inside, and a frazzled-looking Slowking teleported in.

 

“Hi, can I see your- Oh, dark types, we need a flyer…” He paused for a moment, fiddling with what looked like a guild badge. “Right, someone’s on their way. Can I see your cards?”

 

“I’ll cover them, they don’t have cards with you guys yet,” Mayumi replied, showing what looked like the same license she’d shown to get onto the Yamashiro VII.

 

The Slowking looked over the card for a moment, and nodded. “Alright, Koichi should be here any moment now. Remember, make sure the harness is secure, and don’t try jostling around too much. Got it? Good.”

 

A few minutes later, a Staraptor descended onto a nearby platform, harnesses in hand. “Where to?”

 

Mayumi fiddled with her bag for a moment, and pulled out a small slip of paper. “This address, please.”

 

The Staraptor squinted at the paper, mumbling something about crummy handwriting under his breath. “Alright. Let’s secure you three properly…”

 

The Staraptor fumbled with the harnesses for a bit before managing to restrain the three of them properly to his chest, and then tensed up. There was a brief moment of anticipation. Then, suddenly… takeoff.

 

“Whoa!”

 

Again, the massive city was laid out before Amadeus, even if the wind in his eyes made it a little hard to see. It was an exhilarating experience to be flying so fast, made even more so by how the city seemed to slowly approach. It just kept getting bigger, and for a while, it looked like it was getting further away. Until, slowly but surely, it was beneath them. And it was massive.

 

Utterly massive.

 

Forget district black.

 

This place was the size of the entire Expedition IV.

 

No, scratch that. It was probably bigger.

 

Flying overhead for what felt like forever, despite only being a few minutes, the city seemed truly gargantuan, and perhaps beautiful, the backdrop of the sunset doing it more than a few favors. Amadeus was in awe. And a little bit nostalgic. This place, despite everything, was the closest thing to home he’d ever seen, despite the distinct lack of taller buildings. He quietly chuckled to himself, although he could barely tell he was doing that over the volume of the wind blowing in his face. This place doesn’t seem too bad…

 

“Look!” Haruhi yelled, pointing at a grand building that seemed to be close to the center of the city. Perhaps ‘building’ was too underwhelming a term. This place was a fully-fledged imperial palace, and towered above the rest of the city, seemingly atop a large hill. It’s large, sloping, convex rooftops and having several more floors than any other building there spoke to the building’s importance. “There it is!” Haruhi kept shouting. “The Guild!”

 

Slowly, they started to descend, and it became apparent that they were still pretty far from their eventual destination. The Staraptor gently put them down on a street littered with a few small buildings that were presumably houses, although there did appear to be a shop of some kind on the corner. The Staraptor left without another word.

 

“Hey, uh… Teacher?” Haruhi asked again. “Are you positive we’re where we need to be?”

 

“Your mother gave me an address to take you to before we left,” Mayumi explained. “I figure we’d better see what this place is first. She said it was relatives of hers.”

 

“…I didn’t know I had relatives.”

 

“Well, we’re about to see if you do.” Mayumi walked up to the door of the house in front of her and knocked.

 

“Coming!” A small feminine voice replied. The door opened, and a Snivy opened poked her head out from behind. The Snivy stared at them for a few seconds, before turning back into the house. “Dads! We have visitors!”

 

A few seconds passed, and eventually, a Delphox arrived at the door.

 

“…You three must be Mayumi, Amadeus, and… Haruhi.” His voice wavered a little bit as he spoke Haruhi’s name. “My name is Akihiro, and this is my daughter Kohana. My son Fudo and my husband Ryo are inside.”

 

Mayumi gave a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad Haya remembered to tell you who to look for. I wouldn’t put it past her to forget something like that.”

 

Akihiro chuckled. “Hah. That does sound like the kind of thing she’d do. The Haya I remember, anyway.”

 

“The Haya you remember?” Amadeus asked. “Does she not write often?”

 

“…No.” Akihiro replied. “But that’s a conversation for later. Come, we’re having dinner soon.”

 

Akihiro guided the trio into the house, and Amadeus could smell something cooking. Something with Petaya berries, maybe? The house itself was a little small, which made sense given that the building itself was crammed between two other buildings, but it didn’t feel particularly cramped. Akihiro guided them to what was presumably a dining room, with a living room adjacent to it. A Braixen was seated at the table, and a Serperior was in the kitchen preparing something. That must be Fudo and Ryo… The Braixen looked up at them.

 

“Dad number one, stop bringing random strangers into the house. You’re gonna get us robbed.”

 

“Very funny, Fudo,” Akihiro replied.

 

Fudo got up from the table, and walked directly over to Haruhi. He squatted down to get to eye level with her, studied her for a moment, and then turned to Akihiro.

 

“Isn’t she supposed to be a year or two older than me? Why’s she still a Fennekin?”

 

“Hey!” Haruhi yelled, a small ember flying out of her mouth. Ryo chuckled in the background, muttering something.

 

“Come now, Fudo, not everyone can be as talented as you,” Akihiro said with a sigh. “In any case, you three make yourselves comfortable. I presume you’re all staying for at least tonight.”

 

“I’ll be leaving these two here tomorrow,” Mayumi replied. “I hope you’re okay with them staying here?”

 

“There’d be more of a problem if I wasn’t. But we can discuss all of that over dinner, no?” He said with a small shrug.

 

The circular table was ill-suited for seven people, barely able to fit all of the chairs necessary, and it led to everyone’s plates being right next to each other. Amadeus felt a bit claustrophobic, with Mayumi to his left and the huge Serperior that was Ryo to his right. Haruhi was stuck between Mayumi and Akihiro, and was eyeing her uncle nervously.

 

“Alright, why don’t we start with you two?” Akihiro asked, pointing to Mayumi and Amadeus. “I assume you’re related? How’d you two end up meeting Haya?”

 

“Well, I’ve known Haya since I moved to Nōgyō no Machi. She’s been running the local berry farm for as long as she’s been there. At least, I think so. I moved there some years after her, as far as I can tell.”

 

“…Ken mentioned a farm out south when he ran away with Haya all of those years ago,” Ryo stated. “I assume that’s the one?”

 

“…Who’s Ken?” Mayumi asked.

 

“Ken Obstagoon? Haruhi’s father?” Akihrio asked. “…Where is he?”

 

“…Mom said that my dad died suddenly after I was born,” Haruhi interrupted dismissively. “I never met him.”

 

“Ken is… dead?” Akihiro asked.

 

There was a brief silence, broken only by the sounds of Fudo and Kohana noisily eating.

 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ryo finally said. “We never really got along well with your father, and neither did your grandparents, but…”

 

“It’s fine,” Haruhi reassured him. “I never really knew my Dad.”

 

Akihiro sighed. “Moving on from that… grim topic, what about you, Amadeus? You wouldn’t happen to be Mayumi’s son, would you?”

 

“Oh, uh…” Amadeus fidgeted with his glasses nervously. “No, I arrived in Nōgyō no Machi just recently. My, uh, parents aren’t exactly around.”

 

“Are you an orphan?” Fudo asked from the other side of the table.

 

“I mean, now that you say it, I guess…”

 

“Amadeus and I are technically related,” Mayumi quickly explained. “His situation as of late has been a bit messy.”

 

“I would’ve stayed in Nōgyō no Machi for longer if the offer to join the guild didn’t come up,” Amadeus added.

 

“Well, that’s a decent segue into what I wanted to talk about next,” Akihiro stated. “In her letter, Haya stated that the reason she’s even allowing Haruhi to come here is due to something that ‘forced her paw’. You got an offer?”

 

“The Seer himself just happened to be in town for the festival recently, and he offered Amadeus and I a spot if we showed up on the Guild’s doorstep in two weeks!” Haruhi exclaimed. “I don’t think Mom would’ve let me go under any other circumstances.”

 

Ryo chuckled. “Hah. I knew it. Dumas is always pulling random young people from the countryside.”

 

“…Wait, isn’t the Seer’s identity supposed to be a secret?” Mayumi asked.

 

“It is,” Akihiro began, “But Dumas doesn’t exactly care about subtlety. I’m fairly certain most of the city knows by now, which may very well be the same as saying the whole continent knows, given how big this place is.”

 

“Oh,” Haruhi said. “So this isn’t the first time this happened?”

 

“It happens constantly,” Ryo said, shaking his head. “I’m fairly certain it’s the only reason he bothers leaving town anymore.”

 

“…Wow.” Amadeus fiddled with his pin nervously. “I wonder what he saw in us…”

 

“Who knows?” Fudo asked. “His official position is as a combat instructor, though. Maybe he thinks he can whip you two into shape or something.”

 

Haruhi perked up. “Are you…?”

 

“I’m a trainee of the guild!” Fudo confirmed. “I’ve been training under him for a year or two now. I’m gonna become a full team with a few friends soon, actually.”

 

“Oh, wow,” Haruhi said, impressed.

 

Yeah, I’m awesome, a faint, foggy-sounding voice said in Amadeus’ head, and presumably everyone else’s. He recoiled a bit at the prospect of his mind being read. Hopefully Fudo hadn’t been excavating his memories this whole time. “Not that awesome, if you can’t even use telepathy clearly…” He spitefully commented.

 

“He sounded clear to me,” Haruhi responded.

 

“Uh…” Fudo started.

 

“Hey, Fudo,” Kohana interrupted, pointing at a very confused Mayumi. “I don’t think Miss Mayumi heard you. She’s a dark type.”

 

Fudo looked a little sheepish. “Man, I thought that would be cool.”

 

“Fudo, please stay out of everyone’s minds. You just met them, after all,” Akihiro said disapprovingly.

 

“…Sorry.”

 

There was another lull in the discussion. Eventually, Haruhi spoke up.

 

“Hey, uh… What was my Dad like? I’ve never really thought about him.”

 

“Well…” Ryo started, “He was an interesting man, to say the least. He was a number of years older than your mother when they met, and he rarely took no for an answer. More often than not, it was his way or nothing at all. He was always so argumentative… And Haya, well, she loved that for some reason. She was still a Braixen around the time she first became pregnant with your egg, you know that?”

 

“I do sorta remember Mom still being a Braixen when I was very young, yeah…” Haruhi confirmed.

 

“In any case,” Ryo continued, “Your Mother ran away with him and your egg after a particularly nasty argument with us over their relationship one night. Not including the one she sent to tell us you were coming, she’s only sent four letters to us, and the last one came well over a decade ago.”

 

“…Wow, I had no idea things were that bad,” Mayumi commented. “What were the letters about?”

 

“They were all about Haruhi,” Akihiro responded succinctly. “Last we heard, she was doing well in school, and then… radio silence.”

 

Silence followed. This time, it was Kohana breaking up the silence.

 

“Hey, Haruhi? How old are you?”

 

“Uh… eighteen?”

 

“Wow,” Kohana said with the kind of innocence that only a child could have, “You’re a really old Fennekin!”

 

“Too old,” Fudo added.

 

“Shut up!” Haruhi fired back.

 

“I’ll have you know I was twelve when I evolved. I’m sixteen now, so, technically, I’m six real years older than you.”

 

“What does that even mean?” Haruhi asked, her voice now raised.

 

“Shouldn’t it be four?” Amadeus asked. “I think your math is off…”

 

“What are you even basing that on?” Haruhi’s frustration was seemingly starting to climb higher.

 

“Alright, let’s not argue over maturity,” Ryo said, attempting to speak over everyone. “Please.”

 

The silence came back, but only for a moment.

 

“What about you, Amadeus?” Fudo asked. “How old are you?”

 

“Seventeen.”

 

“Okay, so you’re still waiting on an evolution too.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

The rest of the dinner wrapped up without incident. Amadeus excused himself from the table to find the bag with all of their stuff in it, and when he returned, he discovered that the conversation had turned to sleeping arrangements for the night.

 

“Hey, Amadeus,” Fudo pointed at him, then at himself. “You’re with me. You get the bottom bunk.”

 

“…You guys went through the effort of setting up extra beds for us?” Amadeus asked.

 

“You’re staying with us for the foreseeable future, right?” Akihiro asked. “It just made sense to get the extra beds.”

 

“That’s… really nice of you guys, actually.” Haruhi looked a little embarrassed.

 

“Please, think nothing of it,” Akihiro reassured her. “You in particular are my niece. I’m not about to make you sleep on the couch for months on end.”

 

“You guys really didn’t have to go so far…” Amadeus walked over to Haruhi. “Come on, we have to sort though our stuff…”

 

One sorting session later, Amadeus found himself following Fudo upstairs, carefully making sure he didn’t drop his few belongings. Haruhi had kept the bag, since she had more of her own personal belongings. That left Amadeus to use one of his spare shirts as a makeshift bag to carry everything.

 

“This door, right?” Amadeus asked, his voice muffled from carrying the shirt with his mouth.

 

“How can you tell?” Fudo asked.

 

“This one smells a lot more like you.”

 

“First of all, weird. Second of all, is your nose actually that good?”

 

“Yeah, I’m a Shinx, a strong nose comes with the territory.”

 

“…Okay.” Fudo cautiously opened the door. His room was… a little unusual, to say the least. The first thing of note was how high up everything was. Fudo had an entire desk hanging from the wall, high up, along with several other things, including an entire series of shelves littered with personal belongings. The ‘bunk’ bed was also high up on the wall, with Amadeus’ bed being on the floor below, and the ceiling was domed. It quickly became apparent why it wasn’t such a hassle to set up an extra bed, at least in this room. There was lots of space on the floor.

 

“Is there a reason why everything’s so high up in here?” Amadeus asked, setting his things down on the lower bed.

 

“Oh, when I started getting really good at using Psychic, the Seer recommended I move everything up the wall so I have to be using it constantly.” He levitated himself up to his bed and sat down using Psychic to demonstrate. “My Dads thought it was a weird suggestion, but I think it helped.”

 

“I mean, he’s part Dark type. You wouldn’t expect him to know a lot about that stuff…”

 

“…Right, you met him in-person. What was he even in town for? Did he say?”

 

“Something about a recent weird thing that happened in town that just happened to catch his attention? And the festival I guess?”

 

“Festival? There was a festival?”

 

“Yeah, a festival. The town holds them yearly in remembrance of the big tragedy on the mainland a while back, or whatever.”

 

“…Honestly, every time I hear about that big disaster, it just sounds like some kind of scary story some parent makes up to scare their child out of doing something. Nothing about it feels possible to me. How do you even get a blast that big?”

 

“Beats me.”

 

“But anyway, I’m a really good Psychic,” Fudo said as he floated himself down. “And I know I wouldn’t have screwed up basic telepathy, so I’m a little curious why you said you couldn’t hear me well earlier.”

 

“…What do you want from me? It was foggy and faint-sounding.”

 

“It seemed like everyone else heard me fine. Except for Mayumi, but we both know why that is. I didn’t do it any differently for you.”

 

“Well, I didn’t hear it clearly, so there.”

 

“…But why is that?” Fudo walked over to Amadeus and sat down next to him. “You know, most people’s minds aren’t very different structurally. I should be able to interact with all of them in mostly the same way.”

 

“…What do you mean?”

 

“As a psychic, I have the ability to use my own mind to interact with my environment. That mostly takes the form of lifting things with my mind, or sending out pulses of psychic energy as an attack, but the important part is that all of this comes primarily from the part of my brain that deals with active thought. And the one thing every psychic can do that isn’t a move is create a link between this part of the brain in the user and a recipient, and that part of the brain should be mostly the same in everyone. I can even do this to myself to do all sorts of fun things with my brain, but that’s a topic for another time.”

 

“…Okay, go on.”

 

“The crucial point is that in order to use telepathy, I have to first create a link between the thinking parts of our brains, and then send a thought into your brain. It’s kind of like suggestion, but it’s not—let’s not get sidetracked—but if you try sending it to the wrong part of the brain, it’ll sound weird and distant.”

 

“So you did send it to the wrong part of my brain?”

 

“That would explain what you heard earlier, yes, but that shouldn’t be true, since I sent it to the same part of your brain as everyone else. Unless…” Fudo leaned in. “Your brain is built differently for some reason.”

 

“Why would that be?”

 

“I don’t know. But I do know that I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was sending it earlier, since I do it all the time.”

 

“…You’re saying you want to take another look?”

 

“Yeah, do you mind?”

 

“…Don’t go snooping around my memories, okay?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Fudo reassured him. “Alright, here I go…”

 

There was a brief paused. Followed by Fudo blinking several times. “Crap, you’re way different. What’s going on in here? Your whole mind is rearranged…”

 

Amadeus suddenly flashed back to his first time in a mystery dungeon. The fear, the running, the fear, the running…

 

I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m going to die

 I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m going to die

I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m going to die

I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m going to die

I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m—

 

“Oh, wow, memories are over here…”

 

“G-get out!”

 

“Okay, okay…” Fudo backed up physically to make his point. “I’m out now.”

 

“…Can you never do that again?”

 

“I won’t go in without asking. I promise!” Fudo aggressively reassured him.

 

My memories aren’t safe from this dude… “Can I just go to sleep?”

 

“Oh, uh, before you pass out, there was one thing I wanted to give you.” Fudo used psychic to pull something out of a drawer overhead. “I didn’t really have an extra desk to give you, but this should be able to hold everything you brought. It’s another one of those bags that holds more than it looks like it can from the outside. There’s a little nightstand, too…” Fudo tapped the small table next to Amadeus’ bed.”

 

“Oh, thanks.” Amadeus threw everything he had into the bag, then crawled under the covers.

 

“Good night,” Fudo said, flicking off the lights and floating back up onto his bed.

 

 

---

 

 

Dumas’ office was usually pretty quiet at this hour, which made it the perfect place to pull an all-nighter. He’d just heard that the duo he’d recruited in Nōgyō No Machi had arrived in the city earlier today, which was… good. Less good was the fact that Mayumi had apparently been escorting them there. Ugh. That bitch again. Get back out of my life, please and thank you. …Of course it had to be her. I bet she’s told them both everything she knows, too. Actually, I’d like that, because it makes them easier to separate. Dumas’ eye was drawn to a framed photo on his desk of him as a Luxio, posing with a Lucario. The photo had a small bloodstain on it. He felt a little nostalgic.

 

Dumas sighed. His past self’s sudden appearance had been a rather nasty curveball, putting it mildly. He had to keep everything on a need-to-know basis, including the Guildmaster himself, and an incompetent, cowardly, socially impaired Shinx was just about the last person who needed to know. Still, there was a tiny chance he could inadvertently reveal something he didn’t want going public, and he couldn’t afford that risk. That should’ve meant that the Shinx stayed in Nōgyō No Machi, but it just so happened that he’d managed to make friends with a talented young fire type who could be a big help in the near future, so to the city he comes.

 

Dumas chuckled. Hah. ‘Human’. What a joke. I now know what that really means, after all… Dumas fiddled with the Medallion around his neck.

 

“Soon.”