Chapter 5- Immutable: Boundary

Alejandrien, T’nuri, Kaliente, and Emile finally reached their destination, the eastern coast of Iaijustukage, home to the biggest port on the island. The Jangmo-o wagged their tail as the group continued forward, on the boardwalk next to them Kaliente fastened his backpack straps with a grin. While Emile smirked and adjusted her scarf, behind them T’nuri clutched her bone-club to her chest.

A chilly gust of wind tore through the dock from the current below. This jostled the vessels stationed at the harbor, ships and boats of all sizes, with Pokémon walking to and fro with crates and other supplies. 

“Hey, there you are!” A voice called out, and the Cubone, Jangmo-o, Fuecoco and Grookey turned around. 

It can’t be! She’s here! “Captain Bao!?” Alejandrien gasped, her eyes wide.

On the boardwalk below them floated the Clawitzer, a green scarf along her body. “I knew you all were looking for me. Yep, it’s me.” 

“Me?” T’nuri asked the Clawitzer. “Who?” 

“The Zháo Launcher Navigation Team Captain, Bao Clawitzer at your service! Now let’s hurry down to my crew and set sail.” She pointed her huge claw toward the far end of the docks. 

The four younger Pokémon followed her all the way down to their destination. Along the waterside, waved many large cargo ships, a wide green ferry, and a few massive ships: galleons. One galleon bore the Fogcutters Detective Agency magnifying glass on three towering grey sails. Below each sail stood a yellow mast, with three across the entire galleon. The galleon’s underside showed a light blue, yellow, and grey hull, a dark blue stern, and portholes. Back above the deck was the dark blue harpoon, cannons, and all around was a grey railing. At the very rear end of the galleon hung the grey lifeboat. 

Beside the galleon, a Heliolisk who wore a purple striped scarf unloaded a dolly of crates to the dock. An Exeggutor with a long neck and a green cloak monitored aboard the galleon’s starboard side, watching a few Pokémon adjust the cannons and sails. Toward the rudder was an Indeedee, one with horns curved upwards, they fixed the Wonder Map and loudspeaker horn beside it and went into the captain’s quarters, all the while the purple neckerchief on them blowing in the wind.

On the dock below it, Alejandrien, T’nuri, Kaliente, and Emile stood in the shadow of the behemoth of a ship and took everything in. The Heliolisk finished with his dolly and rolled it to the side, when he finished he waved to Bao.

“Here’s my Navigation Team’s baby, the Zháo Mega Launcher!” The Clawitzer explained, and jetted up the enormous hull.

“So, you finally have an Investigation Team. Que es el nombre what’s the name?” the Heliolisk asked, as he pointed to the ramp.

“Team Kirigiri!” Alejandrien replied, and carefully climbed onto the large wood and metal plank. 

Emile hurried across it on all fours and perched on the railing beside the ramp, her eyes darting back and forth.

The Heliolisk shrugged before he pointed to the Cubone below him. “And who’s this?”

Before T’nuri could even speak, Alejandrien jumped in.“T’nuri here is our fourth and final member, Luciano!”

Luciano, the Heliolisk grabbed hold of the Cubone’s claw and pulled her along the ramp. The Heliolisk helped Kaliente up as well before he grinned. “Well nice to meet you!”

“Likewise.” T’nuri closed her eyes as they got higher and higher above the sea, right next to the railing of the Zháo Launcher.

The draconic-Exeggutor tapped her tail on the deck, before she made her way to the center sail, toward the lookout. “Hang tight chicos kids!”

“Who’s this?” T’nuri asked, finally grounded onto the deck of the ship.

“I’m Vicenta,” The Exeggutor’s airy voice echoed down from the sky. Vicenta then went around to the other side of the galleon.

The Indeedee toward the third sail, near the captain’s quarters stairs, quickly walked up to the four Pokemon. They checked off a list on the note hanging from their neck.“It’s gonna be a rough ride,” the Indeedee said with a smile. “I hope you’re ready, Team Kirigiri.”

T’nuri sighed. “I hope we’re ready too uh-”

“This is Yawen,” Emile answered and dusted off her shoulders. 

Yawen nodded. “And if I heard earlier the Cubone is T’nuri.”

“Yup.”

“I’ll be right back.” The Indeedee hurried away to the front of the ship.

This galleon sure is massive. “Don’t get swept away now, y’all!” Alejandrien held onto the Cubone as other Pokémon – ones without scarves – ran about with ropes and other equipment.

“How were your investigations?” Bao asked as she rested on the railing beside the Jangmo-o, and their teammates.

Kaliente sighed.“There were small traces of sparkling fog on Greene’s.”

Emile hung her head. “Dark green on Calah.”

“But nothing’s as bad as Kuanalio,” the Jangmo-o groaned. “Which we could see the black Ruinous Fog sailing back to ‘Kage.”

“Really?” the Clawtizer blinked.

Alejandrien nodded. “Yeah it brought fire which burnt T’nuri and I pretty badly.”

“That’s not good.” Luciano rubbed his frilled neck before he pulled up the ramp.

Bao jetted higher into the air and went back toward the third sail, to the rudder. “Come on now folks! Hurry it up!”

Emile cleared her throat. “Let’s help out the crew.”

“What do ya need us ta do!?” Kaliente shouted.

Vicenta gestured toward the grated entrance below them with her tail. “Could you guys help secure the cargo in the bay?”

“On it.” The Fuecoco leapt into the room beside the center sail, with the Grookey hot on his trail.

“And if some of you raise the anchor,” the Indeedee added. “We’ll handle the harpoon and sails.” 

“Got it!” Alejandrien pulled T’nuri along with them.

At the front sail, near the center of the Zháo Launcher sat the huge sideways wheel of a rudder. “Here’s the anchor.” The Jangmo-o placed her fore-legs on it. 

T’nuri grabbed hold of the other rungs and pushed with Alejandrien, and eventually the anchor pulled off the seafloor and back up into the ship’s belly.

With that the Zháo Launcher finally set sail, toward the heart waters of the Archipelago, directly south of Iaijutsukage Island. The waves and fierce gales of wind dared to toss the mighty galleon off course and into the frigid depths below.

A rogue wave bashed the Zháo Launcher. Alejandrien blanched as she hung onto the railing beside the Clawitzer as she steered. Ugh, Apothecary Seismitoad was right! The waves are going crazy out here and we’re still so close to ‘Kage! 

“How are y’all hanging?” Bao shouted over the raging currents and howling winds. “Angle the front sails to port!” She ordered into the horn next to her rudder.

T’nuri shivered against Emile and Kaliente as the ship slowly turned back upright. “I just want to make it back home. At least tell my parents I’m okay.”

The Clawitzer exhaled as it started to drizzle. “Well T’nuri, don’t forget you’re needed by the DA. No, you’re needed by the whole Archipelago. You’re one of our Fogcutters.”

“I don’t want to be needed,” the Cubone slowly staggered upright. “I just want to go home.”

Bao clattered her claws as she carefully eased the rudder to the port side. The rain started to intensify and stronger winds picked up underneath the sails. “Listen T’nuri, I won’t sugarcoat it. Whatever is waiting for us, no matter what you see, and or how terrible it is; you have to go back to Kuanalio Island and clear the Black Fog. Do you understand?”

She really is putting quite the stress on this. Alejandrien placed a claw on T’nuri and stared into her eyes. “I’ll be right beside ya partner.”

Bao sighed, her eyes low. “T’nuri?”

The Cubone wiped the rain from the top of her skull-helmet as she took in a shuddering breath. “Yes, Bao, er Captain Bao. I understand.”

The Zháo Launcher continued its voyage far across the south-eastern waters of Iaijutsukage through the threat of the raging storm, powerful gales and ferocious waves. Dark teal ripples pushed and pulled against the hull of the ship as it weaved in between small islands and catastrophic conditions. 

In the southern ‘Kage ocean, the connection of the cool and warm waters brought dangerous whirling currents. In these currents swarmed small pockets of rushing white bubbly foam, and splashing excitement, all primed to rip and destroy anything unprepared for its wrath. 

After about an hour, the galleon reached a different type of troubled waters. An awful, heavy mist that concealed what was typically the smallest hint of Pa’a Lepo Island. 

It wasn’t like the stinging light grey fog that plagued Kuanalio, but it still wasn’t anything to downplay. 

Heavy rain kept pouring. The clouds above got darker the closer Zháo Launcher got toward Pa’a Lepo, even through the thinning mist. A chilly wind pushed against the sails as the ship slowed down in the shallower waters.

Light from the sun crept through more and more of the mist and T’nuri ran toward the bow of the ship, Alejandrien, Kaliente, and Emile right behind her. 

But what awaited them on the other side of the mist was like nothing they’d ever imagined. 

A wall. 

Far as the eye could see, sat an inconceivably tall barrier. One made of numerous colored semi-transparent mist. No, not mist. It was fog. This fog blocked off Pa’a Lepo Island from the outside world at about two kilometers high, and twenty kilometers wide. It wasn’t just any fog either, as the hues shifted in dull rolling waves. It had very specific colors: black, sparkling, dark green, red, blue, yellow, orange, purple, white, light blue, and light green. All which represented something different, yet one in the same.

Nothing was visible behind the curtain of faded rainbows, not even the beam of the lighthouse. The colors may have looked beautiful, but they shrouded the truth of life on Pa’a Lepo. And nothing with a spark of hope came out of its grasp. Not a ship of talented sailors, nor a powerful legendary Pokémon. Nothing with the drive of life. Only an empty, partially capsized vessel sat in the boundary, devoid of any sign of a single soul aboard.

“What, what is this?” T’nuri’s question rang out. Her eyes widened as she glanced back and forth at the massive wall. “This is it, this is the sparking secret? What Detective Ichigo said I had to find out for them?” She sank to the floor as her body tensed, brown eyes brimming with tears. “No this can’t be real. It’s not fucking real ! It’s not real!”

Holy Rayquaza almighty. “I can’t believe it either partner.” Alejandrien gasped. “A damn wall of fog?” 

Emile dropped her wooden stick as she stood completely dumbfounded, her ears and tail as low as they could possibly get. “What? What in the world? Ay dios mio Oh my gods.”

“You got ta be bloody kiddin’ me.” Kaliente’s jaw dropped, as his head crest fell. “Are you seein’ this shite? Absolutely insane.”

Luciano grabbed hold of his teammate’s lesser claw. “Bao, what is this?” 

“I.” The Clawitzer shivered beside the Heliolisk, the Indeedee, and the Exeggutor. “I don’t know.” 

“Well what the sands of the past and the future is this?” Yawen stamped on the deck. “This is unbelievable!”

“Excuse me galleon designation #693, Zháo Launcher,” a voice from a mega phone below bellowed. “Please send your Captain down immediately.”

“There’s some Pokemon at the docks.” Vicenta called. 

Bao jetted to the railing by the anchor and lowered it. “I don’t have the slightest clue as to what’s going on for sparks sake.” She grumbled and peered over the edge at the tiny newly shambled together dock, and the three skiffs in the water beside it. 

A claw touched the side of the Clawitzer’s shell. It was T’nuri’s. “We’re coming too,” the Cubone demanded, her gaze firm.

“Okay.” Bao lowered the ramp.

A Bombirder and a Psyduck sat next to the ramp while on the other side of the dock stood a Mankey and Ralts.

“My partner and I are from the Island Guild. Don’t imagine just because you work for the DA, that’ll make you special.” The Bombirder gestured her wing at the Clawitzer and her crew. “You can’t pass.” 

“Excuse me?” T’nuri growled. 

Yawen placed a hand on her shoulder. The Indeedee then narrowed his eyes.“Let them explain.”

“No ships with anything alive can pass through,” the Psyduck sighed. “Which means we both can still send cargo and supplies. Also don’t worry, the wire still works.”

“Anything else you need to explain?” Bao asked, her antenna twitching.

“Greetings Navigation Team Zháo Launcher,” the Mankey called as he held out a small blue ball, a Connection Orb, attached to an Expedition Gadget.

The Clawitzer floated forward. “Oh hello! You’re from the Expedition Society.” 

“Yes,” the Ralts beside him spoke. “Well try not to be too alarmed. Everyone on Pa’a Lepo island is relatively safe; there are no reports of any fog touching the sand.”

“I see, thank you.”

Mankey nodded. “And the Prime Minister is sending as much information as he can to Iaijutsukage, to Costa Niebla, and the other islands.”

T’nuri pointed her bone-club at the wall of fog. “Captain Bao, we need to try to go through. I need to see it for myself.”

The Clawitzer rubbed her side with her lesser claw. “All right, we only have thirty minutes.” She jetted back on board, T’nuri, Alejandrien, Kaliente Emile, and everyone else right behind her. 

With a faint thud both the anchor and the ramp pulled back up into the ship.

“It shouldn’t take thirty minutes,” The Cubone ranted as she paced the galleon. “It shouldn’t take twenty minutes.”

The Jangmo-o behind her looked to Kaliente and Emile who sat on the deck, drained into silence. There’s gotta be something I can say or do ta help T’nuri.  

“We only need ten,” T’nuri pleaded, her voice strained. “We only need ten minutes from where we are.”

“I’m here if ya need me.” Alejandrien stopped the Cubone in her tracks with their body.

T’nuri flinched at the contact but let out a trembling breath. “Thank you.”

The ship parted through the multi-colored wall of fog and was warped into a frigid storm. All across the waters edge was a pure white collection of fog, as if a cloud had sank from the heavens. There were no landmarks. Nothing was visible through the sea of clouds and ocean below, especially as the weather conditions changed so drastically.

That weather brought small pieces of ice that fell from the sky. It pelted the fur, scales, and hides of every Pokémon aboard the Zháo Launcher but still they continued onward. Onward into nothing, nothing onward. A never-ending struggle. An infinity of cruelty. These small pieces soon turned to hail, and hard chunks of ice blasted everyone. 

The jaggedly fierce ice drummed T’nuri through her skull-helmet and across her entire body. But no matter how much the Cubone held on and braved, the path before them never changed. 

“No!” T’nuri cried. “What is going on?” 

“This is ridiculous!” Kaliente shot out Embers to melt the approaching barrage. 

The Cubone made her way to the Clawitzer at the rudder, as new tears clouded her eyes. “Why? Why can’t we go any further?” 

“I don’t know, I really don’t.” Bao winced from the ice. “All I got is that it’s probably this multicolored fog’s power. The Society are our allies, unlike the Guild, they’d never lie.”

T’nuri tapped her bone-club in her claw as the temperature dipped again. “Wait, it’s fog. It’s just Ruinous Fog.”

“It is?” the Clawitzer asked, her eyes wide.

“That means I can cut it,” T’nuri rambled, her frantic breath clouding into puffs. “I can do what I did on Kuanalio Island. I can cut it.”

Bao blinked.“You can?” 

“Come on, Alejandrien.” The Cubone trudged over to the bow of the ship.

She needs me? The Jangmo-o slowly followed T’nuri, shivering all the while. “Alrighty. Let’s cut it!”

Alejandrien fired out a Scale Shot toward the boundary while T’nuri tossed her Bonemerang at the clouds too. These attacks collided together with the foggy wall but faded beneath the mist.

T’nuri’s bone-club returned to her grip from the ocean’s waves. “Why isn’t it working?!”

“I’m not sure T’nuri,” the Jangmo-o replied as she sat down. “Maybe we’re not close enough?”

“We should be!” The Cubone yelled with a wave of her bone-club.

Alejandrien placed their chin against the saddlebag for a moment. “But how are we gonna get closer when the wall becomes a cloud? I got it, it’s a cloud! Oh shoot, I’ll just try and get a sample.” They opened up a few metal and glass containers. Ice went into the metal one, while rain, and the cloud-fog into the glass one.

“I’m turning around!” 

The Zháo Launcher slowly turned around as snowflakes trickled from the clouds. As they neared the boundary of Pa’a Lepo and ‘Kage the fierce winds quieted down. But their sound was replaced with another, an ominous chant, one from the depths of the ocean called out. The ethereal voices, ones of an ancient tongue kept on going even as the temperature plummeted. 

“What is this chant?” The Exeggutor shifted side to side as the chills coated her bark-like scales. 

The Heliolisk below her shivered. “I’ve got no clue.” 

Wait. Alejandrien squinted through the cold. “I kinda understand some of it!”

“You too laddu?” Kaliente huddled beside the Jangmo-o. 

“It sounds like Gobian, another language of the Sand Continent,” Alejandrien explained.

The Fuecoco nodded. “Ta me it sounds like one of the Archipelago’s dying languages, Lauian.”

“Well what’s it say?” the Indeedee knelt down, notepad in hand.

The Jangmo-o took in a deep breath. “Cero Iglesia. Cero Iglesia is the most high, Cero Puerto most revered. Cero.”

The Fuecoco nodded. “I got that too, nothing else.” 

“Ah.” Emile clutched her head with a wince. “This hurts.”

Bao took a deep breath as the outside was in view. “We’re almost free.” Her voice echoed through the horn.

The Zháo Launcher parted through the multi-colored wall of fog once again, this time headed north, out of its ouroboros trap. As it went through the barrier of rainbow mist, Alejandrien scooped four glass jars full of the material inside, and shut the lids tight before none could escape.

A cold gale whipped off the ocean’s waters, right beside the towering boundary of ruin. 

“Can we head down to the docks and check again?” T’nuri asked, her teeth chattering.

The Clawitzer sighed as she finally brought her ship back to the docks, and anchored it. “We, we have to go soon.”

T’nuri stamped her feet on the planks, her eyes red. “But my family! They’re alone!” She growled. “They’re alone without me and I didn’t even get to tell them if I was okay or not. To top it all off, my little brother isn’t even home either!”

“We can send a letter,” Bao jetted down the dock with a blank page.

“Wait!” T’nuri nearly stumbled into the water as she chased the Clawitzer’s trail. “Send it to Amiya Typhlosion and Ricardo Marowak of Hau, Pa’a Lepo! Tell them T’nuri Cubone’s in Iaijutsukage, doing just fine!”

Bao floated beside Ralts and Mankey, the two Society Pokémon, with the page firm in her greater claw. “Excuse me, can one of you write that message and send it on the next cargo ship going to the island?” 

The Ralts pulled out a pen and scribbled out the request. “Got it.”

“You all should get out of here,” Bombiader squawked.

Psyduck crossed their arms.“It’s not gonna change with you staring at it.”

Mankey shook his head. “Take care DA, just know we of the Expedition Society and the Director believe in you.”

“Understood.” The Clawitzer nodded before she made her way back to the rudder.

“I cant.” T’nuri stood firm, her eyes locked onto the salty waves below. “I was supposed to go home.”

“Mate.” Kaliente took a step back as the Cubone’s arms trembled.

T’nuri’s voice wavered as she spoke again. “I was still gonna do what Head Hector and Lead Esperanza needed of me. I just wanted to go home first, that’s all.”

“T’nuri.” Emile held out her hand. “We’re leaving.”

“No!” The Cubone yelled and pounded her fists on the deck. “I can’t! Not yet!”

“Come on.” Luciano pulled the writhing Cubone all the way up the ramp. 

“You can’t understand!” T’nuri cried, her voice raw.

Yawen placed her down on the deck. “Remember T’nuri, you promised Bao.”

The Cubone shivered as she sat down. “I promised them: I’d be home.” T’nuri faced the railing and slammed her bone-club against the deck over and over again. No energy of any attack flew off the Cubone or her bone with each and every hit. T’nuri’s skull-helmet stayed perfectly white as well. The Cubone wept as she faced the indestructible wall, her brown eyes filled with the map of its surface. Words failed T’nuri. 

Alejandrien grit their teeth as they turned away. She needs ta be alone for a bit, I’ll probably just get in the way. “T’nuri will control it,” they pleaded in a whisper. “The influence of her fogcutting powers and her emotions.”

“We’re going to Kuanalio,” Bao’s voice echoed through the pounding rain. “I’m sorry T’nuri.”

T’nuri wobbled to her feet and grabbed onto the railing to steady herself, tears still dripping down her maw. “No, it’s okay. I will solve this Ruinous Fog. All of it. No matter what.”

T’nuri. Alejandrien offered her their shoulder. “But don’t you want to go home, more than anything else?” 

“I sparking do. I never said I didn’t. But that damn Ruinous Fog. It’s taunting me. That wall of Ruinous Fog thinks it’ll stop me. Well it won’t.” T’nuri paused her ramble to point at her scarf, eyes narrowed. “We’re going to Kuanalio. And I’m going anywhere it thinks it can just pop up. I hate that Head Hector, Lead Esperanza, and Detective Ichigo were right.” The Cubone held out the sharp end of her bone-club toward the wall. “The only way I’ll ever get home is if I clear this Ruinous Fog. I’ll learn about my fogcutting powers and any other mystery. I’ll go through the voidlands and back. I’ll die, if it means Pa’a Lepo will be free.”

“Woah laddie,” Kaliente wheezed out a puff of steam. “Determined to tread this path for real eh? Challenge number two done so quickly mate.” 

Emile tapped him on the head. “Don’t tease T’nuri, this is serious.”

“I know that,” the Fuecoco pushed the Grookey back. “I’m not taking the mick here. I’m just getting all my energy out, because Kuanalio is gonna be no joke.” 

Incredible. “T’nuri?” Alejandrien whispered, her tail low. 

“Yes?” the Cubone replied, wiping her eyes. 

“Thank you.” The Jangmo-o embraced her. “You’re doing such a good job with all this, and I want to show you that I care.” 

T’nuri blushed as Alejandrien leaned their head on her chest, claws wrapped around her tight. “Ah well, I’m just trying to control my emotions better.” 

Kaliente’s emerald green eyes sparkled. “You said something happened to you, enough to have ya pointing that bone at me, and I ain’t talking about a nice one.” 

“Silencio Silence.” Emile raised a hand to her reddened muzzle. 

The Fuecoco tapped her with a grin. “Oh don’t think about it too hard Emile.”

With a gasp the Grookey sat still as she blushed. “You- can’t, no, no come on. I- just because she’s-” Emile stammered with a groan.

Kaliente smirked. “In my opinion, you and T’nuri deserve a bit of teasing.”

“What?” The Cubone, with Alejandrien still on her chest, looked down to her bone-club. “Again I’m sorry, not using it as an excuse, but the rain on Kuanalio ‘poisoned’ me.”

The Fuecoco rolled his eyes. “It must have.”

“I don’t want to lash out at you guys anymore, but I haven’t figured out everything yet. Thanks for still putting up with me.” 

“Sure thing laddie,” Kaliente replied, and reclined across the deck.

The Grookey took a step back and nodded. “Of course.” 

The Jangmo-o got up with a shake of her scales. “I’ve got your back, partner.”

The voyage to Kuanalio from near Pa’a Lepo took four hours, even with the fair weather and calm, eastward winds. No fog plagued the waters edge, but there was a mist at a single perimeter line around the island’s shore. As the Zháo Launcher neared the southern sands of Kuanalio, everyone on board saw what had transpired in their wake. 

Fire danced across the beach. Plumes of black Ruinous Fog rolled heavy over the ruined land, ash and soot covering all. It spread throughout the entire edge of the tide, blurred the line between bubbly seafoam and searing blaze. The majority of plant life was miraculously spared, the sparse trees that grew and grew into the sprawling forest beyond the beach broiled, but didn’t burn. This wall of flame was now a punishment. One for Pokémon only.