Chapter 8, in which Anna receives her first welcome to Vie

What was this I had uncovered?

A human.

A live human.

Our gods who hadn’t shown themselves ever since calamity struck a hundred years ago had summoned a human — there was no Pokémon appointed hero; there was no attempt at using divine power to solve this — no: a hundred years after the worst crisis to have struck our world, the gods brought someone who had never used a move; someone who had no idea of the workings of our modern day world; someone who is completely lost, panicked, and in no state of mind to solve the crisis that was Mystery Dungeons. Just what were they thinking?

Worse still, humanity was long gone — was I supposed to inform Anna humanity was extinct? I couldn’t possibly dance around the matter forever. Things could only get worse from here on out, and I was baffled this was the best our gods could do — if they were even trying.

Nevertheless, I was quick to make my way to the temple, where upon entering its monumental doors once more, I was quick to spot the Emolga sat before the depiction of Arceus at the back. Unlike the other visitors to the temple, who were always respectful and solemn, Anna was a wreck. It was clear she had been crying — a fair reaction given the demands Arceus had imposed on her — and her presence at the temple was likely in an attempt to better reach him. New to the time period as she was, Anna didn’t know that no god had ever been involved with the temples.

I gently made my way up to her before gently laying my hand on her shoulder — I did not want to panic her too badly.

“AAH!” — she jumped back, turning to face me before calming down. Her shout had drawn a few onlookers’ eyes.

“Hello. I had a few things I wanted to talk to you about — would you care to have a quick walk with me?”

“O-oh, ok. …I don’t have anything else to do, I guess.”

We made our way out of the temple. I won’t lie — I did not care for the news of her humanity being public; at worst, no one believes me, and my mental state and reputation are heavily scrutinised. The reason I’d chosen to leave the temple was because I was afraid of zealots’ reactions to the news that Arceus was back.

“What, uh, did you want to talk about…?” asked Anna, after the temple had been left behind us.

“If I might be so bold as to ask, were you… formerly human?”

Of course, I already knew, but her reaction was an answer of its own. Her shock was immediately pronounced, and after turning rather quickly to face me, she asked:

“How did you… figure that out?”

I opened my bag to pull out her journal. Before I could even begin explaining, she snatched at it, and immediately began riffling through the pages.

“I’d found your journal in a Mystery Dungeon.”

I wanted to ask more questions, but they could wait, as Anna was now breathing heavily in a paroxysm of relief, on the verge of tears once more.

“Oh my god thankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!” she yelled before finally giving in, and beginning to sob.

“This was the ‘item’ you referred to when we spoke at my place, right?”

“Yes,” she answered between sobs. “I just — it’s — no one b-believes I’m human so I-I just… g-gave up trying t-to explain that.”

“So, if I’m not mistaken, your amnesia was merely a lie so you don’t have to try explaining it?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm. Say, our directionless walk has us headed to Our Story, would you like to go there? I can get you something.”

“Our Story…?”

“Lovely little bar, most people quite like it there.”

“Yeah, s-sure, I g-guess.”

We turned down another alley to get closer to Our Story. As we passed a few houses, a lovely little view of the sunset appeared. With a small gesture towards the sun on my end and a nod from Anna, we took a moment to stop and admire it.

For me, it was merely a sunset like any other — a resplendent orange glow casting long shadows. A lovely sight at the end of every day: on bad days, a small reminder that sometimes, an ending can be much better than what precedes it; on better days, a brilliant conclusion to something worth remembering.

However, to Anna, it was exactly like all sunsets before her divine kidnapping — a stark reminder of her former home. On one day, with no regards to her thoughts on the matter, without warning, she had been kidnapped by the gods for no reason other than to be asked to save the world. What were her parents back at home thinking? How were Jane, Mike, Dan, and others doing? How would any of them react if they knew what had happened to her?

I couldn’t help but notice during this pause that she had been gripping her journal far tighter than before. It was her sole link to her past life — the only thing that truly mattered to her, right now.

We stood before the sunset a fair while. I grew tired of it rather quickly, but I had not chosen to stop and look at it for myself — I needed Anna to calm down. After all, I was not here solely to return the journal. I was genuinely worried for her well-being, especially since she was the target of some divine plan, which was, unfortunately, the next thing we needed to discuss.

It was not long before Anna had stopped sobbing. After a few moments of silence, she chose to ask me:

“How… how did you read this?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m a historian. Although I know a fair bit of general history, I specialise in human history.”

“What… what do you mean, human history? I-I thought it was just Pokémon in this world.”

“Hmmm…” I furrowed my brow. “There’s no easy way to put this. …humanity has gone extinct a couple thousand years ago. Likely you were transported through time by the gods.”

“…oh.” The Emolga seemed to dive deep into thought once more. Eventually, she said plainly: “Uh, let’s get going, I guess.”

And so we did. It’s now I chose to ask my question:

“So, what do you make of Arceus’ instructions?”

“I-I can’t do any of this! Am I s-supposed to lead an army‽ I can’t do that! I’m not a hero!”

“I can’t tell you I know what Arceus was thinking.” I kneeled in front of her and grabbed one of her hands. “What I can tell you is that I won’t let you be alone in this. I can imagine your situation to be horrifying, so, unlike Arceus, I’ll try to do my best to help you.”

Anna leaned in to hug me.

“Oh my god thank you SO MUCH!” She began crying once more.

“No worries,” I commented. “I think, come tomorrow, we should think about forming a team at the Exploration Guild, right? It’s what Arceus told you to do.”

“I-I also need s-somewhere to live… the G-Guild is going to kick me o-out tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow, we can take some time to buy you a bed — you can stay at my place.”

It was now that we finally found our way to the bar, which we promptly entered. Within were rather few people — Quil was off to sleep, so the only few presently here were those who enjoyed the drinks over his stories.

I was surprised when Anna entered with stride, walking rather confidently to a table at the back. When I looked where she was headed, this reaction made more sense — Asterus was there.

The shiny Zorua was staring intently at his table, though there was nothing quite of interest on it. Lost in thought, no doubt.

Anna caught his attention when she finally spoke up.

“Hey, I found it!” She was holding up her journal.

“What did you need me for, then?” he asked jokingly. “But actually, where did you find it? I’ve been looking so hard for it.”

“I found it while looking for your necklace,” I stated.

“By Arceus, I’m so stupid.” He put a paw to his face. “So, what are you doing now?” he asked Anna.

“I’m going to, uh, form an Exploration Team with Ida,” she said.

His look was rather wistful, curiously. He replied simply with: “…uh, yeah, sounds good. Can I join you? I wanna try helping out a team.” Looking at me, he added: “I’ve been thinking about what you told me the other day.”

Odd response, but I knew him to be an accomplished solo explorer and he was a friend of Anna’s; both things we desperately needed.

“Any help goes a long way,” I stated. “In any case, I think it’s required to have a minimum of three people to form a team.”

“If we need three people… I-I’m glad it’s you,” stated Anna.

“If I might ask, how do you two know each other?”

“He saved my life, just like you,” said Anna.

“It was just five bandits, it’s not that bad.”

“Five? You undersell yourself,” I noted.

“And then, he, um, spent the next two days looking for my journal because the bandits stole it.”

“I got the journal back after hunting them into Dark Depths, but then my bag tore. Then you took it. And then I forgot to put it on the Guild commission. I can tell Victini hates me.” Asterus then mumbled something under his breath.

“Apologies. I have been trying to find human relics in Mystery Dungeons — you can imagine my surprise when I found the journal.”

“Well, anyways, do we have a team name yet?” asked Asterus. “That’s kinda important.”

“Anna, would you like to do the honours?”

“Uhhh… ummm… I-I can’t think of a-anything.”

“Well, let’s just keep it simple then: if we have all been united by the journal, why not just simply call ourselves Team Journal?” I proposed.

“…T-That sounds nice, I guess,” said Anna.

“Lovely. Let’s go with that,” stated Asterus.

That said, a small lull in the conversation had appeared — I had chosen to step away to order drinks for us. As I returned with two cups and a bowl of Liechi berry juice, the conversation had picked back up again a little.

“…speaking of, this is your own journal, right? Can’t think of many people that enjoy writing in Unown, heh,” Asterus chuckled.

“…that’s actually b-because I’m human,” replied Anna shyly.

“Hmm? Neat.”

“Odd reaction,” I said, putting down a plate with our drinks. “You don’t believe her?”

“I’ve seen weirder — Dungeons really prepare you for anything, heh.”

“If you say so,” I noted.

Perhaps he was not surprised at Anna’s presence here, but he really had no further questions? Odd.

We began sipping at our drinks — a lovely sweet, somewhat fruity, somewhat floral taste.

“A-Actually, about that… uhhh,” started Anna, embarrassment clear.

“Speak freely — you’re among friends,” I reminded her.

“We’re chill,” added Asterus.

“W-What… are you? I felt so stupid asking for ‘the big white cat with yellow eyes’ when I was looking for you earlier today.”

“Cat…? In any case, I’m a Meowstic.”

“Meowstic…?” she replied, confused.

“Something wrong?” I prodded.

“N-No, it just… makes too much sense.” A brief pause, during which I’d let off a confused look. Asterus had something of a coy smile. “…forget it.”

“If you say so,” I replied.

“Before you ask, I’m a Zorua!” noted Asterus.

“Emolga, Meowstic, Zorua?,” she stated, pointing at each of us in turn. “…ok.”

Another pause appeared, during which we continued sipping (or in Asterus’ case, lapping) at our drinks. Eventually, this time Asterus broke the silence.

“Ida, you said you were a historian earlier?”

“Yes, I’ve studied at the University of Vie. I specialise in human history. Actually, I’ve already received an award from the University for discovering some of the most interesting discoveries in recent times.”

“Oh, really?”

“What did you find?” asked Anna.

“That’s what makes them so interesting. We can’t tell their purpose. They’re made of the usual materials, glass, plastic, and metal, but the artefacts themselves don’t seem to have any moving parts or purpose. It has everyone at the University perplexed.”

“Maybe y-you can show me later.”

“Absolutely — No way I’m passing on the opportunity of learning from a real human.”

“A-Actually, speaking of history… I kinda, uh, ran away, when you were explaining, but I was interested. Can you finish the story you were saying?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, it’s a history lesson now? What kind of team is this?” asked Asterus jokingly.

“We finished when I mentioned the founding of Cordelia City, right? As a reminder, it was founded be Cordelia Leafeon on the year 0, right after the end of the Great War. She had wanted a city built where cooperation between the two nations could be had, to try to reduce the split between Vians and Morites, if only a little.

“It was also around this time Verdant Town was founded. Not all residents of Mors had wanted to try to mingle with others in Vie, so they made their own town. Although it’s still south of Cordelia City, and was on the border of Vie, it was much more lush than any place in Mors — so, they chose the name Verdant Town.”

“I always find it a little funny just how plainly everything is named,” said Asterus. “Really, no one could come up with anything more creative than that?”

“Have you ever tried naming anything at all?” I asked him. “Anyways, when the water in Mors had subsided a little, around 53 post bellum, the older and somewhat more nationalist citizens of Vie had demanded former residents of Mors and their descendants return where they came from. Those in Cordelia City were protected by the leaders of the City and Arceus himself, who were upholding the idea of a mixed city, and those in Verdant Town were in their own secluded bubble, ignored by everyone. The ones who did have to leave, though, founded Renunti City over the ruins of Mors. Since the incident, Mors’ cartographical borders had mostly been ruined — some forgotten, others wholly trespassed due to the flooding. It was not viable to make new ones, so now the continent as a whole is known as Vie.

“Since Verdant Town is so far south, it is now a good travel stop for traders passing between Cordelia City, now the capital, and Renunti City, currently the two biggest cities in Vie, so it’s gotten a nice growth in recent times.”

“…i-is Cordelia City the capital because Arceus protected it? It sounds like people hated it.”

“No, there’s a whole other struggle in history that is known as the Race to the Top Revolutions. Those would take a while to explain, and it’s getting rather late. Maybe another day.”

“Fascinating. You know your stuff,” said Asterus with a smile.

Another moment, before Anna picked up with a much more grim subject.

“It sounds nice here. I j-just wish I could enjoy this without having t-to save the world.”

“Jirachi be swift,” said Asterus.

“Huh?” asked Anna, confused.

“Jirachi is the God of Desire and Wishes,” I noted.

“’Jirachi be swift’ is one of those things you say automatically when someone says they wish for something. You know, like how you automatically say ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ and that kind of stuff,” added the Zorua.

“Rather old-fashioned, I see,” I said.

“Huh?” asked Asterus.

“Expressions involving the gods have fallen a little out of favour since they abandoned us.”

“Wait WHAT‽” Anna nearly jumped out of her seat at this revelation. “What… I- …what am I supposed to do‽”

“Calm down. We can explain this in more detail tomorrow. We’re in no rush,” I said.

“…I-I’ll try.”

“It’s getting late, I’ll head out, I think. Here again tomorrow morning to sign up our team?” said Asterus.

“Alright,” I noted.

I stayed a little to speak with Anna, and reassure her. Eventually, we headed off, where we found ourselves at the entrance of the Guild.

“Well, good night. I’ll see you tomorrow at Our Story,” I said.

“…g-good night.”

She turned to enter the Guild, but I chose to interrupt her.

“Wait, one last thing. I don’t think anyone told you this yet, but… welcome to Vie. Unfortunate that I couldn’t tell you this under better circumstances.”

“Oh… thanks.”

She entered the building, and so I turned around to return home.

Suddenly, regret struck me.

I had just signed up for a divine plan. If nothing else, I had put myself in immense danger, with no real benefit to myself other than the opportunity to speak to a human. Was that really worth mortal danger?

I remember this moment clearer than most. The dread I felt was simply overwhelming.

The one and only thing running through my head then was a simple mantra.

She needed my help. She couldn’t do it alone. I can’t abandon her.
She needed my help. She couldn’t do it alone. I can’t abandon her.
She needed my help. She couldn’t do it alone. I can’t abandon her.