While Pachuku for some reason still wore both his bow and the underlying band from their prior world; with nothing else to their name, the trip throughout the day wasn’t entirely easy, even after picking a direction seemingly randomly. Pachuku was at the very least grateful for having the ‘basics’ since Sanvu’d be basically useless without them.
Lush greens surrounded them on all sides, as if the forest itself was pristine. At one point, the duo passed a waterfall leading into a pond of some kind, a reprieve from the long road of walking they’d chosen, before the world set to challenge them with-
“A dungeon?!” Pachuku noted. Ahead, the path underneath the forest appeared to twist and ripple the air ahead.
They had no choice but to proceed forward, as any other direction would be too cumbersome for the Pokemon since they had been walking for a majority of the morning.
“So… are dungeons entirely unexpected?” Sanvu postulated, as Pachuku reacted to the rippling in front with a shiver before shaking himself out of it.
“N-No, you’d naturally expect them anywhere. B-But, we went for so long without one that we, uh, had it good, so I was just, um, shocked that one would be here.”
Despite the worries of the duo, and especially the fact that if Pachuku picked anything up, they would only be able to use items liberally since their bag had been lost to the ethers of space, the dungeon was rather easy, and quiet. Barely any apparitions attacked them, the few of them that exhibited each of their types being battles they could otherwise easily avoid, or manage to take down with almost no issue at all. They noted that the battles themselves seemed to take longer, but attributed this to the fact that they fought back the way you expected apparitions to, or so Pachuku said; apparently the way they’d been doing so prior to this wasn’t the same.
It was only 5 or so floors before they didn’t even realise they weren’t in the dungeon anymore. Both were exhausted; for a variety of reasons. The sun still glinted high in the sky; it had only been a couple of hours or so, and it was approaching midday fast.
As they approached the rolling hills with grass and a dirt path that looked worn, the trees thinned out before they encountered something that wiped a bit of each of their exhaustion away.
“Hey, is that…” Pachuku panted, looking out. Both could see a large body of water; and nearby to it…
“Civilisation!” he cheered, as Sanvu huffed out a laugh in his own way.
“We did iiiit!” the squirrel elatedly announced, running on ahead as Sanvu followed behind, their pace slow, but eager nonetheless to finally be out of the wild of the rest of the day.
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Over the Mountains
As they approached the small village, they came to the foot of what appeared to be a very large hill with a tall tree growing on it. It appeared to overlook the water, and provided quite the expansive view of the many buildings that lined the edge of the shore, as well as what looked like the central hub of this small village, comprised mostly of grass and stones.
Both Sanvu and Pachuku decided to make their way up here for a bit of a break, taking in the amazing view alongside the wind that blew here. Everything was just so serene; so calming, as if the view alone could wipe clean all their worries… if even just for a moment.
“I… didn’t think we would really find anybody, honestly,” Sanvu commented softly. “To be honest… it’s still hard for me to really… trust anybody, after all our… own experiences with society, all kinds of society,” he figured, as he leaned against the tree, Pachuku opting to just lie near the tree splayed out. “Honestly, I just thought it’d be all… nature and stuff.”
“Well, we were bound to find somewhere eventually. Not all Pokemon like roughing it out, not like that, aheh,” Pachuku laughed, as he rolled on his side. “I get what you mean and all… there’s no way I’m trusting Mentage either after all that… nonsense they peddled, but… if we just sit here and only talk between ourselves… we’ll figure nothing out, right?”
“I know, but… I don’t know how I didn’t notice until now but… especially now that I have my memories back, I’m… not used to being around so many people, so… I wasn’t as used to talking. You might have to do a lot of the talking for me.” Sanvu somewhat sighed at this; it was a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding.
“When have I ever had a problem with that?! You just leave it to me if you’re that worried.”
“Thank you. I really owe you one.”
“You owe me nothing. You’re my friend, and I told you, I’ll stick with you until the end, especially with what you mentioned last night and all. We’ll probably have to find ourselves a bag and all, maybe make the team again officially somewhere else, but, better to be alive and surviving than otherwise, right?”
“…Can’t argue there.” He could only smirk at their newfound freedom, with both its pros and cons evident even in this moment.
Besides a quip here or there, their time on that hill was mostly spent relaxing in the peace and quiet. Some Pokemon looked to be milling about, excitedly talking to one another on the other side of the shoreline. They looked as if to be preparing for something, some of them pointing their way before they opted to get up and see what the town had to offer. Pachuku pretty much offered to be the one to talk if anyone were to budge them as confirmation.
Though surprisingly, no one did. As they made their way around the lake, they met with few greetings, but nobody asked where they had come from, which was somewhat of a relief, but still nagged them in the back of their minds. They could only hope, after all, that history would merely stay as history.
~~
When they stepped into what looked like a large central plaza, after crossing a wooden bridge, it was but a couple minutes later that a small Pokemon barely bigger than half of Pachuku’s height fluttered out of the doorway of a large building to their left, its small chittery voice calling out to many who waved to it upon its entrance. It appeared to look like some kind of small bug resembling something between a bee and a butterfly, with a long brown scarf around its neck that at the front appeared to have a needle-like protrusion. When it spotted the two of them, both of them gave equal greetings, but Sanvu noticed the confusion on Pachuku’s face when it fluttered over.
“H-Hello, um… sorry, we’re new to these parts uh-“ the Electric-type stammered.
“Oh, I’m Rilibi, but if it helps, I’m just Ribombee, otherwise, as that would be my species,” the kind bug replied, her voice sing-songy as she fluttered in the air. “And who’re you, kind Pachirisu and Snivy?”
They provided their names and happily introduced themselves to the bright bug. “Oh, well is that so! Welcome here then, Sanvu and Pachuku, to Serene Village! I hope you two enjoy your time here today,” she introduced.
“Well, uh, now that you mention it, sure, I guess, thanks Rilibi,” Pachuku thanked.
“Anyway, I’ve got a friend I need to visit, so, it was nice catching up with you two, but, um, I’d better go!”
“See you!” Pachuku waved as she fluttered by, Sanvu also waving silently. When she left, Pachuku began shivering profusely.
“You… alright?” Sanvu probed, nervously, as Pachuku shook his head.
“I’d just… never seen her species before. Not that I don’t forget some species from time to time, but… she was definitely a Pokemon, but, I felt bad for not even knowing who she was, you get me? It’d look bad on me and all, and I hate that sort of thing.”
Sanvu hummed in agreement as they continued moving about.
They walked around town sharing many greetings before a commotion of Pokemon started from the cafe that the Ribombee had flown out of, neither of them wanting to go in if they didn’t have any money to pay for food, despite that they were very hungry from only eating the scraps they’d found along the way.
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Welcome Home and Thanks – Mix
“Hey look! The Heroes of Dark Matter are coming now!”
“They’re here!”
“I can see them coming down the path!”
“This whole day was because of them, after all!”
Sanvu and Pachuku followed slowly, as they went to go see what the entire ruckus was about. As they approached the centre of the plaza, a crowd was beginning to form, as they soon parted for two Pokemon in particular: A Pikachu… and a Fennekin.
It was slightly surreal as the two of them also took this in; Pachuku hadn’t particularly seen them himself, but it was quite the visceral experience for Sanvu, who recognised them almost instantaneously. Despite that neither of them wore those green-striped scarves around their necks anymore; the two were still recognisable as ever as the ones Sanvu had seen in several instances prior in both dreams and the simulated ‘reality’ they had called home.
The Heroes of Dark Matter… it was without a doubt that these two were meant to be, looking barely any older than either of the duo of Mentage themselves. Daniel looked particularly shy, though provided happy smiles all the same while Sparky, just ahead of him was happily getting in and up in everyone’s faces.
Pachuku noticed the recognisation present in Sanvu’s expression, and nudged him with a paw. “Wanna go see them?” he encouraged, with the smile being the only hint he needed to attempt going closer to the commotion.
~~
As they did, Sanvu noticed Daniel’s eyes settle on him, and a look of something akin to shock crept on his face, though it was clear the little fox was attempting to mask it so that he still looked cheerful enough for the crowd. It wasn’t something unnoticed by Sparky either, who made a rather obvious head-tilt, murmuring something that Daniel whispered and smiled back to, before pointing in their direction with his nose, causing Sparky to also look their way. Another set of murmuring later, and the Fennekin decided to approach them despite neither of the two saying anything.
“Hey, um, Snivy? Pachirisu? Can I ask a favour of you?” the fox requested, in a quiet voice that was only somewhat louder than Sanvu’s regular volume had been for the past day. “Can you meet us on the hill with the big tree?”
“Us?” Sanvu echoed, and Daniel nodded.
“Yeah, both of you.”
“Daniel! What’s up?! Where we going?!” Sparky caught up, visibly panting.
“To the hill with the tree, Sparky, come on,” Daniel encouraged the two to follow, as Sparky seemed to get the jist.
“Sure! Oh, they’re gonna love the view!” He ran off to quell the crowd so that they could have some peace and quiet.
“So… what’re your names? Had to be cordial and all, while we’re still settling on everybody getting used to the whole names thing going around…” Daniel mentioned, his head curiously tilting as they approached the hill. Most of the crowd had opted to leave them alone, meaning the four of them were by themselves for the most part. They provided their names, and Daniel and Sparky provided theirs in return.
“That’s no surprise,” Sanvu murmured once they’d finished introductions. “I’d had a vague idea of your names before this, and I hope that we can explain why…!” he admitted, trailing off.
“I’m hoping we can do the same on our end. There’s a lot to… discuss,” Daniel replied. Eventually, the four of them made their way back up to the hill, with them opting to sit in a circle.
“We were just here. The view’s great!” Pachuku commented as Sanvu sat down under the tree, opposite to the two other Pokemon.
“It really is,” Daniel muttered, with Sparky practically bouncing as he sat down.
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Partner’s Theme
“Yeah, well, this place is special to us for plenty of reasons too! Probably why Danny picked it, and all.” It was but a moment later that their stomachs loudly demanded attention, and so Daniel brought from his bag two large apples that he provided to the other Pokemon.
“So, I should probably start with why… I wanted us to come here,” Daniel started, his voice managing a greater volume. He managed to take a big breath, before starting his story.
“So, first of all, I’m glad to see that you’re, well, here, and well. We’d heard apparently there were Pokemon who Dark Matter had taken… and we didn’t hear about their existence for a long time… because they weren’t turned to stone in this world.
I remember seeing you… when we were stuck in the Voidlands, that one time, and, from what I recall, it looked almost exactly like you,” Daniel motioned with his paw to Sanvu, who was listening intently. “You looked… like you were in some kind of forest, and, like… something was happening to you? You looked, as if in pain. That moment has stuck with me for… a long time.”
“That would’ve been… Elevated Forest; wasn’t it…” Sanvu recalled slowly as Pachuku looked down, as if embarassed. “When all the Grass-types would show me… those… Void Shadow things… sucking all of you guys up. I would touch them and receive visions of… all that you were doing, in those ‘Voidlands’ that you called it.”
Sparky visibly deflated at that. “Yeah… that… that wasn’t… that whole thing was… horrible… to say the least…”
“And it bugged me, because we were turned to stone ourselves, at that point, and so it made me wonder… what else was Dark Matter hiding that we couldn’t see? Because besides… that horrible moment, that wasn’t the only time I saw you.
When we fought Dark Matter… well, Dark Matter at one point resisted one of my attacks, and then I saw something extremely strange, and it also involved you. It looked like you were running away… from something, I don’t know what, but, it began to make me think something was up more than what I’d seen prior,” Daniel explained.
“Running…?” Sanvu echoed, to which Pachuku replied almost instantly.
“The last day! When we fought Crobat! That was the last day we had in the simulated world, when we had to run from all those lights!”
“Simulated… world-“ Daniel echoed, with Sparky equally shocked.
“Running… from lights?” The Pikachu also echoed, equally as confused himself.
“Well, let’s just say… you guys interested us, because every time Dark Matter was involved… there you guys were. So we tried finding all sorts of information on what other kinds of Pokemon Dark Matter could have taken… but came up blank. We knew Dark Matter had the capability to make worlds, since we fought it in a world of its own creation, but we could find nothing about you. It was if all that information, on anything even related to you, was scrubbed from the history of this world…” Daniel continued. “I almost thought I was going crazy…”
“We didn’t find you… until today, two whole years after we fought and defeated Dark Matter.”
“Wait- two years?!” Both Sanvu and Pachuku echoed this in unison.
“Yup!” The Pikachu responded. “Two whole years have passed since that whole battle! Almost hard to believe myself.”
“It’s been so much time that a mirage passed, and another one’s set to happen, I think, in a few months?” Daniel muttered, to Sparky, but loud enough that either of them could hear.
“A… mirage?” Sanvu echoed, with Pachuku mirroring his friend’s silent confusion with a head tilt of his own.
“It’s… some kind of event, where a bunch of new Pokemon begin appearing all over the place, and others show up more frequently, or something like that. Apparently, Pokemon start seeing images that aren’t supposed to be there, lights fall out of the sky, all that crazy stuff. Sometimes Pokemon types change… they’re still in the process of being studied, especially since another one’s expected to happen soon… you can feel it in the air when one’s about to happen,” Daniel noted.
“No wonder I couldn’t recognise that Pokemon from before…” Pachuku realised. “I’d totally forgotten mirages were, like, a thing! Especially now that you mention it… we were totally messed up in that world if I couldn’t even recall those.”
“They’ve made themselves more… obvious than they have in the past,” Daniel noted. “That’s what I hear from the older folk.”
“But yeah, we’ve been interested in you ever since Danny brought it up!” Sparky smiled, bringing the conversation back to them. “He’d always want to know if we would ever see a Snivy and a Pachirisu together, and we looked for ages, but we found barely anything on what happened to you. So, if you wouldn’t mind, would you tell us what happened to you? Especially since, you, like, know a lot about us, but not the other way around. Plus, what’s this about a simulated world or something?”
So Sanvu and Pachuku recounted their experience in Mentage Town, everything in regards to Mindscape, and the disappearing memories of the Pokemon that inhabited the fake simulated world that they had called home up until this very day. Because of the nature of the conversation, Sanvu also revealed his humanity, which in turn allowed Daniel to reciprocate his. It was an afternoon of much information to be shared, as the wind brushed by, the trees rustling, as they were allowed a moment of reflection on each of their absurd histories.
“When I saw you,” Sanvu was explaining, primarily about the mission in which he’d been able to see through Daniel’s eyes, “I was touching some kind of… downed Grass-type apparition? It was only for that particular day, and I didn’t experience it again until, like you said, we were running away from the projection lights.”
“Well, I think… that battle with Dark Matter was particularly hectic, but at one point, it resisted my attacks, and it also felt really hot to Sparky; much like a Fire-type would,” Daniel mused in response. “That’s when I began to see you running away, as if I was in your head for a second, when I had slammed into it to attack it.”
“It was the same with you! Only… multiple times throughout, and not just once.”
“Maybe there’s a relationship there.”
The revelations continued, even down all the way to what Sanvu had explained about Return of the Stars, and how now that he has his memories back through what can only be described as a miracle, his resolve to get home was ever greater than before. Upon their explanation finally ceasing, Daniel nodded, his face resolute.
“This is fantastic! Not what happened to you, of course, all of that sounds terrible, but, if you wouldn’t mind me asking… would you guys like to come to the Expedition Society with us?”
“Are you… even allowed to do that?!” Pachuku asked.
“I think we are,” Daniel smiled with Sparky nodding. “Not only because Mawile would appreciate this whole thing about the simulated world and all you experienced so that all of what Dark Matter did… both in our world and its own, can be prevented for the future, but also because, like you guys said, you could use the help.”
“We might be the Heroes of Dark Matter… but honestly, we’re still just the Hopes! For anybody and everybody out there! So we’ll help anybody in need, you included!” Sparky boasted, proudly puffing his chest, a few sparks escaping his cheeks as he did.
Sanvu couldn’t help but shy away as Pachuku smiled. “Thank… you, I guess. We didn’t even have to ask or anything…”
“It’s no big deal. Honestly, I was beginning to think you were a figment of my imagination when it happened, and I’m so glad to know that you’re okay after all that mess,” Daniel warmly shared. “Especially since, it sounds like you guys went through several layers of hell yourselves.”
“How do you… handle it, being… the hero, and all? Wouldn’t that mean… you’re like… one of the greats?” Sanvu wondered. Daniel turned his head away at this.
“Honestly, I don’t. Sparky handles all that for me… I just wanted the world saved… all this attention stuff with being one of the legends… It’s, a little much, not gonna lie…”
“But that’s okay!” Sparky interjected. “Because we saved the world because it needed it, not just cause of any other legends or whatever!”
“But… in a way… wouldn’t that make you, a hero in your own way?” Daniel mused, confusing Sanvu once again. “For you to realise that the world that Dark Matter made for you… was fake enough that you managed to defeat it from the inside, just as we destroyed it on the outside… maybe we should be grateful to one another for doing all that we did to it.”
“Yeah! I mean, everyone had their part to play!” Sparky cheered, his face alight.
“I… guess you can put it that way,” Sanvu laughed nervously, with Pachuku following not far behind. As Pachuku shared his opinions though, the shock of it having been 2 years had hit Sanvu particularly. It meant one thing in particular that he was only coming to the realisation of now.
“If it’s been 2 years… that means I’m 19… I missed becoming an adult, never celebrated becoming 18…” he mused, laughing as if to make it seem like a joke; but he couldn’t hide his genuine disappointment when his face curled into a frown. Daniel smiled much harder upon hearing that with his large sensitive ears, which flicked quite notably upon hearing this.
“Oh, I’m 17, and Sparky’s 15, so that just wouldn’t do. All the more reason we can go back, huh, so we can give you guys a proper celebration worthy of such an achievement,” he offered, with both of them nodding in agreement almost instantaneously. “We can pass the cafe on the way, since they should have freebies today, with it being the anniversary and all.”
“Yeah, we can just relax before we get out on the road anyways, no big deal!” Sparky cheered. “Good to get us to know one another more, anyways!”
“So how’s that sound?”
“…Sounds great,” Sanvu agreed. “Don’t know how we’ll repay you though.”
“None needed,” Daniel smiled, “I mean, it’s kind of our job to help people anyway, so it’s no big deal, honest.”
“Aw yeah, that sounds great!” Pachuku beamed.
“Thank you,” Sanvu breathed again, to Daniel as they prepared to leave, heading for the cafe in anticipation. “It really means a lot that you help us out like this.”
“What would I do if my fellow humans… and Pokemon weren’t able to pick themselves up, huh?”
~~
The afternoon spent in the cafe was one spent warmly, in the wooden interior with its warm-coloured fabrics covering the floor in various tables on its two floors separated by many stairs, with Pokemon murmuring to one another quietly, each in their own conversations, with some taking notice of the heroes as they entered. Upon ordering their food and finding a table to call their own, they happened to find out a lot more about one another, and about Kangaskhan, the large brown warm Pokemon who welcomed all of them as they entered, as well as learning of the fact that nobody had heard of Mentage Town, among various other quirks, such that the duos shared a bit of synergy with both the humans exhibiting quiet, shy traits while the Electric-types were much more excitable comparatively.
Despite the many crowds of Pokemon around that did little to ease Sanvu’s social anxiety, Pachuku pretty much offered to speak where Daniel wasn’t doing the same for their team. It was a moment of relaxation, and celebration of the world of peace that both teams, in their small ways, managed to cultivate for each other, even if completely unknown to either at the time.
Once their tummies were settled and filled, they decided on the road to Lively Town, where new destinations and experiences awaited.
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