Chapter 6: A Visit to the Archives

The week flew by fast. What came from Monday went to Wednesday, then Thursday, and in the blink of an eye it was already Friday.

Ruby glanced out the window of the dimly lit library, watching as rain scattered itself over the city. Few pokémon moved through the streets in rushed paces, mostly being water or grass type or having some sort of protection from the pressure. The drizzle itself was nothing serious, no thunder or grey clouds, but it showed no signs of stopping since late dawn.

Gabi flipped through a few pages of a book before placing it back on the shelf in a different place of where she found it. She shook a little at a nerve before turning her eyes back to the rain.

“You okay, Rubes?”

“I’m fine” she replied. “Rain just got me thinking is all.”

“Alright” the psychic type sighed. “Thanks for offering to let me go the library with you.”

“Y-yeah. You said Tori was on her last shift?”

“I think so. That and I was bored. I don’t get to talk to you much, so… y’know, I at least get to spend the day with someone else.”

Ruby looked around the library for ideas. She knew what she came here for. She came to get more info about mythical pokémon and maybe more, but… she hadn’t been here in at least two years, so trying to remember where things were felt like sorting through boxes from a distant past.

“H-hey Gabi?”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“C-can you go ask the front desk where they keep books on legendaries and mythicals? I’m too shy to ask them myself.”

“Yeah sure” she responded.

As Gabi floated away, Ruby took the moment to look through the nearby aisles for any subsections of shelves that might have info valuable to her.

The first was quick to be disappointing. She widened the gap between her petals so her two small hands could reach through and pick off one by one. None of the covers of any books on the shelf seemed to be related to mythology at all, so Ruby dismissed it and leapt towards the second shelf right behind the first.

The second shelf was just as disappointing. She found herself grumbling as there was nothing but info on fossils and pokémon biology, her stem drooping in disappointment.

She walked towards the third shelf only to be stopped by a familiar green blob.

“Y-you found it?” Ruby mumbled.

Gabi revealed a small orange strip of paper hidden within their palm. “Yup. And it came with a free bookmark since it’s my first visit.”

“O-oh congrats.”

“Yeah no problem. You want it? I don’t read books much as you do, you might find it more useful.”

Ruby tilted to the left so that her bag was facing the Reuniclus. “Sure, you can put it in here.”

A wave of telekinetic force lifted the strap up slightly, with the bookmark flying in comfortably. The psychic energy then let loose of the bag, easing tension.

“Follow me” Gabi announced, floating past a few shelves towards the other side of the library.

Ruby was quick to run behind on her stubby little legs, pausing with anticipation as a Medicham passed by them, giving a weak bow before she turned away to find Gabi waiting near the designated area.

“You ready?”

“Y-yeah of course. U-uhm…”

“So… what are we looking for?”

Ruby tiptoed towards the ends of the aisles, finding Unown runes painted over the wood, to indicate where subsections and names were categorized by alphabetical order. “Remember what Jirachi and Mallku said about how ‘that used to be the case’? W-well, I want to see what the books have to say about it. I’ve only seen mythical and legendary pokémon in picture books. But we were never taught about much else.”

Gabi shook irritably, glancing around like a pest was bothering outside of her vision. “Victini was mentioned too? And there was someone else..”

“Heatran. But I don’t think it’s a mythical pokémon like Victini and Jirachi. There’s another type of classification, i-isn’t there?”

“Legendary?”

“Y-yeah. Can’t believe I forgot.”

Ruby sighed, looking back at the runes.

“So… we know that Jirachi, Heatran and Victini are just kinda… here, right?” Gabi sighed as she tried to remember everything from the following week. “And from what I remember, that’s supposed to not be the case? To think all this time we were wrong about these pokémon..”

“N-no, there’s something you’re missing” Ruby corrected.

Gabi frowned but said nothing more.

“S-so, as from what I remember, Jirachi said that the three of them were punished by Arceus, causing them to be sent down to our… planet?”

“Which means they had to have done something really bad” Gabi finished. “So… they had to have been punished from somewhere too, but then you get the issue of whether Heatran can actually fly or not, which makes no sense if you account that no laws of gravity would support-“

“W-wait!”

“What?”

Ruby inched towards a nearby corner. “C-can we speak a little quieter? I don’t want our secret out..”

“Okay” Gabi whispered.

They hid behind a shelf before Ruby picked up conversation again. “Right. So do you just want to search around this little area until we find any names that seem familiar?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Ruby darted towards the north end while Gabi floated towards the south end. They flipped through covers and read the spines, getting more dissatisfied with their results as they searched. The texts, despite being silky and highly fashioned, did not make up for the irrelevancy of their interior. A few deities and gods with etched-out names were plastered atop the front cover, but none that they were looking for.

“This is a lost cause” Gabi huffed, finishing the last row and slotting the book back. “Nothing that looks like Jirachi, Victini or Heatran. Mostly books about Keldeo and a few dusty ones about other legendary Pokémon, but the dusty ones seem to have a lot of ripped out pages.”

“I don’t think there any other libraries around here.”

“Fuck.”

Right as Ruby was about to think about packing up and going, a Ninjask carrying a large book twice its size approached her, wearing a pink collar above its claw-shaped arms.

“Yo, I’m one of the staff overseers. Your green friend over there said you were looking for books about mythical pokémon? Found this little critter in the back, think you might find it helpful?”

The Ninjask zoomed towards an empty table close to Ruby’s size and plopped the book down right as the other two followed them.

“Thanks” Ruby mumbled, tilting slightly.

“No problem!” the Ninjask responded, zipping back to the front desk to handle a line of customers.

The two of them waited in front of the table, patiently thinking.

“Well?” Gabi quiried, teleporting chairs towards the both of them.

“We can try this out.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Ruby took the chair, opening the gap so her eyes could squint to see the writing while Gabi scooted the seat in. Giving a thumbs up, the psychic type used a wave of psychic energy to flip the book until the Table of Contents.

Even if you were illiterate, you could tell what the book was about. A watercolor drawing of a Celebi was glued to the front, with the first few pages of the book showing a few other mythical pokémon of various sizes. The both of them noticed it right away when they saw it. A drawing of Jirachi with a small yellow star floating in its palm and pink light booming around it, resembling a wish of sorts.

It was a shame they couldn’t grant wishes anymore.

If they could, Ruby knew exactly what she would wish for.

Much to both of their surprise, there was no Table of Contents. Instead, the pages after showed more drawings of the mythical pokémon, with one or two small paragraphs on each page, talking about each in accordance to the drawings.

Right away, Gabi flipped through the book until there was mention of Jirachi.

“Mind if I read?”

“Y-yeah” Ruby whispered.

“The book says here that Jirachi sleeps every thousand years but can wake up for seven days if woken by a voice of purity. Only two sights have ever been recorded, as it is said to live somewhere beyond our planet. When woken up, it can grant any wish desired, but like many other mythical pokémon, conceals a deeper energy that can be sapped and used for long-term destruction, or major societal development, depending on the needs for the energy. However, sapping this energy is said to lead to the death of Jirachi as a result.”

Ruby gulped, remembering Mallku’s wording. “What about Victini?”

“Hm…” Gabi flipped a bit more, stopping at a page with a fairy-like creature with V-shaped ears. “The pokémon Victini was discovered many hundred years ago by scientists conducting research on feral Parasect, but has since fled from its original spot, having never being seen again. Though Victini’s V ears do not relate to any words aside from its name, many religions have represented the V in shape of “victory”. Many other words have also been represented, such as “violence”, “vengeance”, and “victimization”, though origins are mostly unknown.”

Gabi let out a big groan after reading. “Yeah, reading time’s over. Let’s go home.”

“O-oh okay” Ruby responded, surprised to see her tired so quickly. “I guess we can maybe think more about this when we walk home.”

“Dunno Rubes. We got a meeting tomorrow with Malls, so I don’t think wasting time thinking about this is going to help your sleep schedule.”

“Right.. and I think he expects us to be able to get to the bunker on our own so…”

“Yup.”

“Good luck getting Tori out of bed.”

“Doesn’t matter, she’ll be late anyways just like last week” Gabi joked, chuckling under her breath.

The two of them moved out of their chairs, Gabi taking the book under her gelatinous arm while Ruby pushed in both of their seats.

“So… Rubes, do you think we got the info you wanted?”

“N-not much” she stumbled. “But I think we got a fair amount. I haven’t seen or heard much about what Victini is but I have now.”

Gabi used her open arm to force Ruby into a hug. “Any progress is good progress right? Com’on Rubes, you got to spend the day with me and we learned something really valuable! What a good day!”

“Y-yeah I guess it really was” the grass type mumbled, blushing.

“That’s the spirit.”

The two of them moved towards the exit, Gabi shouting a “See ya!” before opening the glass door so Ruby could move in before her.

“Thanks-“

“Of course.”

The rain had stopped by the time they had left. A few fire types started to slowly return to the streets, avoiding large puddles left from the aftermath. The good weather had come back in the form of sunshine, and Ruby was thankful.

There’s not many people here. Maybe letting loose would be okay. But… the college isn’t too far, I shouldn’t have to worry too long.

“You like the sunshine, huh?”

Ruby turned around, noticing Gabi’s smile. “Y-yeah I adore it.”

“So, why haven’t you transformed by now? That’s what a Cherrim does, right?”

“Anxiety” she mumbled, shaking slightly in her petals.

“Fair.”

The two of them moved through the empty streets in silence. Unlike the last week, the city was barren and somewhat quiet, the few pokémon left moving in rushed paces, completely ignoring any street ferals or beggars by the sides of buildings or entrances. The quietness wasn’t all too bad though, leaving a relaxed mood on Ruby and a comfortable-but-busy aroma on Blubluk.

It was a good change of scenery and mood. The protests had left a bad mark on the area, and the rain was what healed that mark. A few grass types were even positioned in the middle of the street, forming a little circle for them to photosynthesize while talking about the latest drama or natural disaster.

Ruby’s eyes eventually fell over Gabi, and she nearly jumped as she noticed that the psychic type was still carrying the book from earlier.

“You stole the book!?”

“Aw cheer up Rubes.”

Gabi placed her other arm around her, carrying Ruby off the ground and into her grasp.

“H-hey let me go!”

“Relax” she hushed. “I’m giving you a break so your stubs don’t get tired. Anyways, yeah, I stole the book. We’re never coming back. And think about this: Mallku said we’re going to a whole different continent, so we can take this on our journey and dump it in a dungeon or something and they won’t have evidence who stole it.”

“You’re squeezing me-“

“Fine.”

Gabi let Ruby down, shaking irritably as she got back on her feet.

“First off” she hissed. “They do have evidence who stole it! That Ninjask literally gave it to us and knows we were the ones who had it! You want to go to jail for stealing a book!?”

“We won’t be alone at least” Gabi joked.

Ruby groaned. “Unless we return it in the next week we may as well be on the run.”

“Tori loves stories. Maybe she’ll steal a book too and we can call ourselves ‘The Book Grabbing Gals’”.

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Aw, cheer up Rubes. Maybe Coni can join in on the fun and we can be a quartet. Or maybe Malls, and we can be a squad! Think about how fun that would be!”

“Why are you-“

“Listen” Gabi interrupted. “Malls said we probably won’t come out of this alive anyways. Gotta do some law-breaking every once in a while right? I’m taking this book with me whether you like it or not. Maybe it’ll be useful.”

“Fine.”

“I knew you could do it.”

~

One night again, Mallku found himself fighting insomnia.

It was a cruel beast, with sharpened, bloodthirsty fangs and blood-shot eyes. The creature was similar to Ari when he first met him, but different. It didn’t have wings and didn’t have this concealed drop of fear in its pupils. It didn’t fight with a hint of regret, it fought with hunger.

And unlike Ari, Mallku was afraid of this creature.

It was in no way a pokémon. No malicious deity could concoct such a monster. Insomnia had no sense of love or cherishment or anything that made a pokémon… a pokémon. It seethed on the stress of its victims, tiring the prey down more and more and more until they were no longer sane.

Mallku had seen a few victims in his life. Despite being mostly ferals, he saw it in civil mons too. He saw it in Jirachi. He saw it in Ari. He had seen it in his guildmaster once, and it poisoned the mon in a way that made that day so much like a nightmare.

Darkrai doesn’t have to be in the room to cause nightmares.

And yet, the cause was a polar opposite of Darkrai.

Shaking out of his thoughts, Mallku leaned over his left side and looked back at Jirachi.

The basement was cold and scary during the night. The wool blankets that Mall had bought from the department store a few months ago had eased both, but it was still omnipresent. Jirachi, like everyone else who was still asleep, wrapped snuggly in the blanket on the cold hard floor.

It wasn’t the greatest living conditions, but it was the best he could get. Thankfully, the other four rarely complained about this issue. Simply being protected from malicious hands was enough in itself to make them happy. Even at the cost of being stuck underground for months on end.

Mallku squinted his eyes in the dark, watching as Jirachi snored comfortably in the blanket. At least someone is getting some rest he thought to himself.

He had to admit, the steel type looked cute when asleep. The tiredness and mental struggle was fully concealed in their rest, being under-shadowed by a sense of youngness and innocence. Anyone who didn’t know the mon personally would be quick to assume it was just a toy for power, an easy-to-manipulate one at that.

But Mallku had seen them in their beer drinking days. He knew of the terrible things this mon has done and will do in the future.

But there will be many obstacles to jump over until then.

One being… meetings.

The Weavile turned to his other side, eyes locking onto his scarf and badge that he had set on the nearby countertop for the night. Victini and Heatran lounged in awkward mess near the corners of the room while Ari and his massive wingspan were sprawled out in the middle of the floor.

A… Roaring Moon. The first one to be documented, at least from what Mallku had seen himself. Despite being from a completely different universe entirely, this was still a pokémon. A failed lab experiment who had broken out its cage, confused and angry and frustrated to find itself in a body different to one that it claimed to be originally from.

Ari had found Mallku not too long after he broke out. The night was vivid and real as the both of they had remembered, one of fear and confusion and comfort.

The same poison keeping him up at night again was the same poison who helped him find Ari, in the streets, alone and cold and scary. Crazy thought, but a true one at best.

The sound of Jirachi sputtering and coughing caused Mallku to flip back to his other side.

The mon’s eyelids started to open as the coughing slowed down, lighting up at the sight of a familiar face awake.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“Night… mare” the steel type rasped.

Mallku reached for them and placed them into their lap, patting their star-shaped head lightly. “Shhh, I’m here. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything hurt you.”

“T-thanks… Mall.”

“Always.”

Jirachi looked around the room. The light was off and everyone else seemed to be asleep, so it was definitely not sunrise yet. “What are you… doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about taking a walk, but I didn’t want to abandon you all in case of emergencies.”

“Oh okay. So uhm..”

“The dream was scary wasn’t it?”

“Y-yeah” they muttered.

“Are you comfortable sharing?”

“I don’t know how much you can take.”

Mallku chuckled quietly. “Fate has put me through so much worse. Much worse. But if you don’t want to share I don’t mind that. It’s up to you.”

“Damnit, now you’re making me feel sad. I’ll share it. I need to establish my dominance quickly if I’m gonna lead a random crowd of pokémon to fight a literal god.”

Despite still having just woken up, Jirachi was quick to get back into their former self, stubborn and blunt and mildly immature despite their age.

“Go ahead kiddo.”

“Alright” Jirachi started. “Well, at first the start of the dream felt like a replay of old memories. The life at the Hall of Origin and all that bullshit. Well, I was walking towards Victini to ask if they heard about news regarding Meloetta, for… some reason. But when I saw them, they disappeared, and instead of Victini it was… you, and you started yelling at me a-about how much of a coward I was…”

The mon started to sniffle, showing tears. “And then you shouted at me to… eat a potato for some reason, and then you kicked me o-off the edge and into a live volcano…”

“Sounds wacky” Mallku smirked. “Especially that part about the potato. Looks like Monday really threw you off, huh?”

“It’s an annual thing” Jirachi lied. “Every time Mall cooks potato salad I have to throw a fit and make a mess on the floor while everyone is watching.”

“I don’t think that’s what ‘annual’ means.”

“Point is, I told you that I don’t like potatoes, but you keep cooking them anyways. Ari taught me that one, he says it’s targeted harassment.”

“I don’t think that’s what ‘targeted harassment’ means. Someday I’m going to have to steal a dictionary from the library and force you to read it. Maybe getting the responsible one to break some laws will finally shut you up.”

“Fine” Jirachi groaned. “You win.”

“I don’t care that I win. I care that you’re still somewhat well fed and taken care of with a responsible adult until the day I die.”

“You said you supported law breaking! That’s not responsible!”

“Only when I say it is” Mallku joked, chuckling.

“I’m older and have more experience than you. Plus, someday you said you were gonna give me the throne, huh? You know… let me make the rules, decides where things go, et cetera? When’s that gonna happen!?”

“The more you drink the more days I take off. That’s the rule, remember?”

By now, the both of them started to become tired, showing itself right as Mallku yawned. “Ugh” he groaned. “Look who’s the sleepy one.. now, hugh…”

Jirachi started to form a small smile, like a younger pokémon who knows something you don’t. “But you’ll stay awake to talk with me some more, right?”

“We got a big day tomorrow kiddo. You need ‘ome sleep too..”

Mallku stretched a little before resting his head against the floor, moving Jirachi so that they were to the side of him.

“But I don’t want to..” they whined.

“I’ll cook up something for lunch with the Babiri berries I bought on Wednesday. But only if you go to sleep.”

“Bet.”