Explanations

The next morning came. The first thing Mark did was go to the guild, but Verm wasn’t around, or at least not on the first floor. He went upstairs, thinking that he might as well check on Simon while he waited.

To his surprise, however, Simon was awake, and talking with none other than the ghost he was looking for. The Squirtle wasn’t looking too optimistic, but at least he wasn’t going crazy like last time.

“Hey.” Mark said, getting into the conversation. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t really know. I just… I still can’t believe it, you know? I woke up in the middle of the night so I’ve had time to think about it, but…”

Verm sighed. “Honestly, be grateful that you missed it. When I came in the scene was… not pretty, and I can only imagine how Mark felt living it at the moment.”

The Cubone shifted uncomfortably. He was mostly over it, but the memories still remained, and they hurt every single time.

“Hey, Verm? Can you let me have a private moment with Mark? We need to talk.”

“Yeah, sure. And by the way Mark, my team said yes, so we’re gonna get something to eat and then we’ll leave. Try not to take too long.”

With a nod, the ghost left, leaving Simon a bit confused.

“His team? What was that about?”

“Charlie gave me the idea of working with them for a bit while you recovered, mostly so I had something to do. But don’t worry, I’m going back with you once you’re out of here.”

“Right…”

Simon was hesitating, as if wondering how to tackle his next words.

“So, I’m sure you have a lot of questions about me. Like why am I being chased.”

“Gren said you were special. But then they didn’t tell me why, saying you should be the one to do it.”

“In a way, I am, yes.”

More silence. This was more serious than Mark thought. He looked around nervously, noticing the same mole Pokémon as yesterday, and Charlie struggling to not fall asleep on his chair.

“I don’t think there’s a way for me to say this without being direct, so… I am a human, Mark.”

‘…what?’ That was the only thing he could think of. It was him the one that needed to say that, not Simon. Suddenly, a lot of answers were given with that sentence, but also a lot of questions spawned.

“W-wait, but what about your parents? Didn’t you say they abandoned you or something?”

“That was a lie. It is true that Rose found me, and her parents adopted me. After all, I did appear in this world when I was like, 14? I don’t remember at this point, honestly.”

“I-is that why everyone is targeting you? B-but why? What have you done?”

“I didn’t lie to you in that regard, I haven’t done a thing. But when problems appear, most will blame the one that’s different…”

“So you’re just being chased for being a human?”

“Mhm. Which brings me to my next question. I’ve had suspicions for a while now, but there was never a good moment to ask.” He cleared his throat. “You are human too, aren’t you?”

“I-I…”

“It’s okay, you can say it, as long as it doesn’t get out of the guild, you’ll be fine.”

Mark leaned back against the wall, hugging himself. All he could do as a response was to weakly nod.

“Okay. I… I get why you hid it, so don’t worry about that. But now the question is, why are there two humans in this world at the same time?”

“What do you mean? Have there been humans here before?”

“From what I’ve been told, yeah. Rose’s parents had a whole encyclopedia on them, always being called here to save the world or something similar.”

“You got here to save the world?!” At this point, Mark was only asking questions. Every sentence Simon said was a new rush of doubts in his head.

“I honestly don’t know. Apparently a legendary Pokémon has to bring you here in the first place, and I had a dream my first night that confirmed that Dialga was the one. But after that, nothing. No new dreams, no big event happening that I should prevent… Absolutely no information.” The Squirtle looked at Mark. “And judging by your reactions, I doubt you even had the one dream like I did.”

“I-I didn’t… I’m sorry, this is all so… w-why am I here then? Why are we here?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s what we’ll focus on next.”

Mark didn’t know what to do or say or think. He vacantly stared at the ground, confused by all the information suddenly dropped on him. It wasn’t until Charlie got close that he remembered that he was indeed still in the real world.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I gotta get some check-ups on Simon.”

“R-right, sorry. We’ll talk later, okay. For now, please take your time to recover.” Mark sighed. “And I’m sorry for not being able to protect Rose.”

Mark left without letting Simon respond, but he knew he was going to say something. He didn’t want to argue, he just wanted to get that out of his chest.

It wasn’t hard to find Verm and his team, sitting on one of the tables of the café, so Mark approached them and sat with them.

“Oh, hey Mark. How did it go with Simon?”

“It went well, just… a lot of info at once.”

“Right, you just learned he’s…” Mark nodded before he could finish. “And I’m guessing he asked you the same.”

“You knew?”

“He just told me his suspicions before you got there. So are you… you know, a human?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Simon said it was okay if the guild knew, and he trusted Verm too much to hide it. He didn’t care if the other team members knew either, after all, he was going to be with them for the next few days.

“Having two humans here is awesome, but also scary. It’s never happened before.” Mark turned to the new voice, a weird blue bug with a very long jaw. They literally had to look upwards for it to not hit someone.

“Not only that, but also, what kind of disaster can it be that it needs two of them?” Yet another Pokémon that Mark didn’t know. This one, he couldn’t even try to find a resemblance to any animal or thing, they were a bipedal creature, with what looked like an ax on their head, and other sharp edges along their body.

Mark’s staring had to have been obvious, because Verm interrupted his thinking.

“Right, you don’t know them. That’s Siobhan, they’re a Vikavolt. I think you heard me talk about them with Simon and Rose when we first met.” Right, that sounded familiar. “And then there’s Dorothy, a Bisharp.”

“That’s me! But you can just call me Dot, much easier.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m… I’m Mark.”

“Oh, yeah, we know. Verm already talked about you a lot.” Siobhan said, chuckling.

“Well, let me grab something to eat and then we can… do whatever you guys do, I guess.”

“Don’t bother, Lily’s shift already ended. But I got some extra stuff for you.” Verm winked while handing him a pastry he didn’t recognize. But after so many days eating here, he learned not to question it, the food was good and it filled him, that’s what mattered.

“So what’s the plan?”

“A Pokémon that got lost in a dungeon. Obair-Ghreis Temple to be exact.”

“The what temple?”

Dot laughed at that. “Honestly, don’t ask us! You humans used that name, and it was just kept like that over the generations. Good luck trying to figure it out if you don’t know what it means already.”

“Point is…” Siobhan interrupted. “Mostly Psychic-types. It will be a breeze for us, especially Dot.”

“Yeah, you won’t need to do a thing. I know you learned your first move, but if you haven’t used it at all ever since, you’ll have to train before using it in another dungeon.” Verm’s expression changed a little bit when saying that, probably the memories of the scene replaying in his head.

“Well, I… I know I won’t be too much help, but if there’s anything I can do, you just have to tell me. Last thing I want is to be a burden.”

“We’ll figure it out when we get there, but really, don’t focus too much on that. You’re here to take your mind off things, not to add more things to worry about.”

Mark sighed at that. Verm was right, but it wasn’t easy for him to just do nothing. After all, the whole incident with Rose happened because he didn’t do anything to protec-. No. He wasn’t going to think like that. He did all he could, he shouldn’t keep blaming himself for something he had no control over.

“Ok, let’s get going. We’re looking for a Psyduck, by the way. I don’t think I got to mention that.”

‘Yeah. Just… Focus on the mission, Mark. It’ll do you good.’