Monday, June 19th, 1978, 1950

Vermilion City Citadel

“Oh! Me! I’ll go first,” volunteered Ellie with a raised hand. “Does it have to be about anything super serious, or is anything okay? I don’t want to, like, ruin the mood, ya know?”

Kuon nodded in apparent understanding. “Go right ahead! There is no rule that says a toast has to be serious. In fact, some of my all-time favorites were about absolute Tauros-shit that didn’t matter whatsoever.”

“Dear, language,” tsked Liza with a frown. “We’re not surrounded by your soldiers here. Try to be a bit more considerate.”

“Nonsense!” scoffed Kuon. “I guarantee these kids swear at least as much as I do.” He looked at Mare. “Back me up here dear boy; tell her that you swear like a sailor—and don’t lie. I spend more than half my days with cocky teenagers and know how they are. You’re no exception, I guarantee it.”

Mare tilted his head consideringly. “Sailor is a bit of a stretch, but maybe like an apprentice dock worker? I’m pretty good considering I grew up with Sula—you all heard her in her match against Blaine. I don’t think I need to quote her comment regarding her Lapras.”

Dani chuckled, remembering listening to the match right after she and Mare got back from the beach. It felt like a lot longer than just a few weeks ago.

“True,” pointed out Kiriel, of all people. “I’ll admit, Mare is far better than his sister in controlling his tongue. I’m not sure where things went so wrong with her in that regard, but the remaining results speak for themselves. One doesn’t need to worry about the opinions of others if they have the power to back it up—which my daughter clearly has in spades.”

Mare stiffened next to Dani at the comment but didn’t say anything—perhaps ironically proving Kiriel’s point. That’s not a bad thing though, is it? Sula seems like a hot head.

Ellie shook her head. “Tauros shit, Mare. You swear the most out of the three of us—for sure. Don’t you think, Dani?”

Why is Ellie roping me into this? I just want to make it through the dinner without deeply offending anyone!

“No, I would say Mare’s initial assessment seems accurate,” Dani replied, earning a pout of disapproval from the other girl. “He falls somewhere between apprentice dock worker and hardened sailor. And Ellie, I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re probably the worst out of the three of us.”

“So true,” agreed Mare with a smirk, looking more than a little happy to finally not be the target of a joke. “You’re definitely a bad influence on us innocent Kanto kids. Our morals will be entirely corrupted by the end of the circuit, I’m sure.”

“Rude,” pouted Ellie, but she and Kuon seemed to be on the same wavelength, and it was easy to tell she wasn’t taking anything to heart. Dani was grateful for their efforts to recover the dinner after the icy start between the two Seiichi.

“We’re moving on. It’s my toast, so there,” Ellie said, sticking her tongue out at Mare, who made a show of being affronted, much to the amusement of the rest of the table, even Kiriel, who Dani still couldn’t believe was acting like such a normal person.

They’re like siblings, Dani realized as she watched Ellie and Mare interact in such a casual fashion. Mare had really come a long way from day one. It made her think about her twin brothers waiting for her in Celadon with her mom and grandparents. I wonder how tall they are now. It had been a while since she had seen them last, and toddlers grew like weeds.

“Go on,” prompted Kiriel. “We’re listening now—you’ll find it’s easier to just ignore Kuon here if you want to make any progress.”

The man in question made a face of mock outrage before directing his attention back to Ellie, clearly used to the good-natured ribbing.

“Noted,” said Ellie as she picked up the glass of sake, holding it up high. “I would like to toast to my first actual win! Thanks to our fearless leader Mare and his intrepid partner, Dani, I, an absolute novice, managed to defeat a local who may or may not have been a literal child, twin-tails and all. In a two versus two match, brave Petal and noble Willow tore down the dastardly foes of purple spike creature and sand-rat against all odds. Cheers to this victory, and to many more, Arceus willing.”

As Ellie finished her statement, they as one downed the sake—the flavor was slightly sweet, which Dani expected—but it also held several botanical notes and even a bit of spice as it burned its way down her throat.

Her eyes watered as she processed the toast itself. In contrast to Ellie’s normal breezy tone, the speech had been made with all the dramatic flair of a trained orator, and Dani found herself strangely impressed—even though she was also frazzled at being referred to as Mare’s partner, of all things. What was that supposed to even mean?

“Well said, young lady,” nodded Kuon. “A warrior’s—sorry, a trainer’s—first win will always stick with you no matter how many years go by. I thank you for your toast, but I must confess I’m uncertain which pokemon you were referring to?”

“Nidorino and Sandshrew,” Dani supplied helpfully, having already deduced the pokemon’s identities from Ellie’s earlier retelling of the match. “It was somewhat of a battle of attrition, but the Sandshrew was apparently no match for her Dratini’s Dragonbreath, having followed Mare’s advice to train the move extensively during our travels.”

“Not at all bad for a first match,” commented Kiriel. “Both of those pokemon have powerful final stage evolutions. You may have earned yourself a rival if you’re fortunate. Nothing like a good rival to promote growth.”

“Ugh,” Ellie said. “I certainly hope not! She was so, so mean to me! Telling me all about how it’s the law this and it’s the law that, and that I was a dummy for not understanding. I didn’t even want to battle her! Dani was looking for a good trainer so Petal could evolve but she just threatened me out of the blue. Not cool. And Petal didn’t even evolve.”

Mare sighed, finally choosing to join the conversation. “And you just had to bring out Willow, didn’t you? After I explicitly told you not to?”

Ellie shrugged. “Hey, no harm no foul, right? Or do they not stay that here? Would you have rather I lost the match because I tossed out River instead? You know how he is—the poor guy would’ve gotten eaten alive.”

“That’s not the po—“

“It kind of is,” interrupted Ellie. “Back me up here, guys? Dani?”

What do you want me to say? It was a risky move that worked out this time—like most of the things you do—is what Dani wanted to say, but instead she was rescued by Kuon and his loud voice.

“Oh, it’s fine—nothing to fight over,” laughed Kuon, leaving Mare looking nonplussed as the boisterous man effectively overruled him. “I’m happy to hear the locals are sticking to the law, although some of the other comments were probably unnecessary… things are a bit tense with the political situation and Kanto nationalism is coming up in a big way. I’ll see if I can’t tone things down over the coming weeks.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be my job?” interjected Kiriel. “If I recall, I’m the one in hot water for that very issue.”

“Hey now,” warned Kuon. “This is a celebratory meeting! Sake shots and stories only, please, Kiriel.” He looked around appraisingly. “Although I daresay we should eat something before the next toast, or I fear we won’t last through the night.”

Dani couldn’t say that she was feeling much from the first shot. The blanket of numbness was still there, insulating her emotions as it had for weeks now. It wasn’t like they were gone, exactly. It was more like she could ignore them in a way she couldn’t before.

However, she did notice that her anxiety, of all things, had abated slightly, although she couldn’t tell if it was from the sake or from the relaxed atmosphere that had settled into the room. Maybe things weren’t so sideways after all.

At a snap from Kuon’s fingers, the first course was brought to their table. Once again subverting her expectations, it was a simple spring salad with ginger dressing served family style on a large platter.

There was no fancy chef introduction or touting of exotic ingredients. It felt much like dinner had back when her family was still together, although they certainly never had anyone to deliver their salad when they snapped their fingers.

The table was quiet for a few moments as everyone passed around the plates and began digging into the meal in earnest. As her grumbling stomach had annoyingly pointed out earlier, she was quite hungry, so she took the opportunity to shovel as much food in as she could without seeming too much of a slob.

After weeks on the road largely eating freeze dried packages originating from Mare’s seemingly bottomless backpack, the fresh meal was a treat that she meant to enjoy despite her very real fear of spilling dressing onto her silken robes, not wanting to find out the price tag in such a fashion. I would die if that happened.

“This is good,” said Ellie quietly beside her. “Actual, real, food. Oh! And before I forget, Mare owes me ice cream. Do you guys have ice cream here?

“Oh, right. I totally forgot about that. I guess I did say I would buy you ice cream if you won,” conceded Mare, who looked towards their hosts. “Do you guys have any here? I don’t really want to run down into the city tonight if I can help it.”

Liza looked at Kuon, shrugging. “I can’t say that we do, but I’m sure you could find some in the city tomorrow, if Ellie is willing to be patient. We’ll have to talk scheduling at some point, but I’m sure Mare could find some time to give you a tour sometime this week.”

“That sounds nice,” agreed Mare. “We could probably call Sula; I bet she would know a good place after all the dates she went on here.” He turned to Ellie. “Is tomorrow okay? I know I said I would do it tonight, but I suspect we’ll be here for awhile if we’re all giving a toast.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Oh, youth,” teased Kuon, earning another elbow from his wife, which he ignored.

“By the way Ellie, before I forget,” began Kiriel. “Your father has been worried sick about you when he didn’t hear from you weeks, considering we expected the journey to take little longer than ten days. I strongly suggest getting a hold of him at your earliest convenience. He’s called at least once a day asking if I had heard from you or Mare and I ran out of ways to tell him he was overreacting. I’m nearly positive he thinks I’m a heartless and uncaring woman.”

Are you not? Given the current discrepancy between Kiriel’s current demeanor and Dani’s previous knowledge, she was uncertain what was real.

“Oh, shit,” breathed Ellie, her eyes widening in realization. “I didn’t even think about that! It’s been so crazy the last few weeks that the last thing on my mind was finding a fucki—sorry I meant stupid, phone. He’s gonna kill me! We didn’t even see a single pokemon center after leaving Fuchsia, so there’s really not much I could’ve done anyway.”

Kiriel cocked her head. “What do you mean, find a phone? Mare has the latest model of satellite phone in his pack. It hasn’t even hit the markets yet. Were you not aware?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Maaaarrreee,” wailed Ellie, glaring at him with narrowed eyes. “Is this true? You had a phone that entire time?”

Mare shrugged, looking completely unapologetic. “Yeah, so? You never asked or even mentioned talking to your dad, and I had no reason to use the phone. It’s not like we’ll always be in service, either, so it was probably good for him in the long run. Besides, I don’t really like relying on that type of thing unless it’s an absolute emergency.”

Besides nearly dying and getting your stomach ripped open? Not to mention my hands? Dani was beginning to question her belief that Mare was an eminently logical person. He seemed to fluctuate between intense caution and casual disregard depending on his mood.

Ellie sighed, bringing her hands up to her head to massage her temples. “Right. I don’t know what I was expecting. You’re you, after all.” She then turned her attention to Kiriel. “Thanks, Miss Seiichi. I’ll be sure to call him tomorrow at a pokemon center.” She frowned. “I don’t want to ruin my night getting yelled at, if I’m being honest.”

“Good call,” agreed Kuon with a chuckle. “I can’t imagine that phone call going well, although I’m sure your father will be grateful to hear from you.”

“That he will! But now I have lots of stories to tell him, too.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what exactly did you kids run into that took so long? The trek is certainly not an easy one, but nearly three weeks is excessive,” asked Kuon.

He appeared nonchalant, but Dani felt like it seemed forced, and she got the same vibe from him as when she first walked into the room. He knows something is off, she realized.

Dani felt Mare tighten up beside her at the question even though she fully expected something like this after she and Ellie had realized Mare had given the Kumire less than the whole truth.

“I thought we already covered that, Kuon? I told you; people were just trying to grab some of our stuff, and we fought them off. No big deal.” Despite his tension, Mare managed to sound relaxed outwardly even to her. She hoped it was enough considering how well the Kumire seemed to know him.

“Maybe to you, but I want the gritty details. How many, what pokemon did they have, did they have any distinguishing characteristic—that kind of thing. As I told you, I lost several men in the region, one of them a long-time friend who had no business dying in the middle of nowhere like that. If they were taken out by the same group that assaulted you, I want to know about it so I can eliminate them before they hurt anyone else. Is that so unreasonable?”

Mare quirked an eyebrow as he took another bite of salad. “I thought you said this was about celebration and merrymaking, or did I mishear you?”

A flash of irritation crossed Kuon’s face before he gave a resigned sigh, his shoulders slumping. Liza rubbed his back with a concerned look on her face. “You’re right, you’re right. I got ahead of myself. That conversation can come later. But Mare,” he said seriously. “It does need to happen. I’ll not be left in the dark of what’s going on in or around my lands, especially when I’m housing you and your friends under my roof for the duration of your stay. Are we clear?”

“Clear, sir,” Mare replied, his face neutral. “Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow,” agreed Kuon as he gestured to an attendant to begin clearing the first course. “But now, I ask that you allow an old man a moment of nostalgia, for my toast requires a bit of a storytelling, as it were.”

Rather than responding, Mare simply held out his empty glass with an expectant look, earning a laugh from the old man.

“That’s more like it,” Kuon said, standing up to pour another round of sake, methodically going from person to person. After everyone had another full glass, he sat heavily, glancing around to make sure he had their attention.

Kuon began his story with a solemn tone. “It was during the War of Unification, near the tail end of things in 1960. We had been steadily advancing into Johto and were nearing Cherrygrove City. We didn’t have the full force; mostly working our way through various pockets of resistance here and there. I’d like to think that we were vigilant and well-trained, but I’ll admit we were maybe a bit too comfortable. That was when it happened.”

He looked around, letting the silence stretch dramatically before continuing. “Something must have been playing with our eyes, because the previously empty forests around us were suddenly teeming with trainers. Arrows began to rain down on us like a fucking cloud and a veritable herd of Donphan were headed up from behind, spurred from behind by a few well-trained Houndoom. And don't even get me started on the lances of ice and pillars of fire headed our way. The situation was looking dire, to say the least.”

Kuon paused, taking a drink from his glass before refilling it. “I sent off two of my Electrodes with orders for a maximum power explosion in the hopes that it could take down a decent number of the fuckers. My men started glassing the tree line us around us, but they had already put up decent fortifications so the attacks weren’t doing much.”

“What happened next,” asked Ellie, her eyes wide with curiosity. “How did you survive? You must have been so scared.”

Kuon smiled, but it was a sad smile. “Well, we didn’t; my men started dropping like flies. We didn’t have time to put up any defenses, and frankly, we here in Vermilion tend to emphasize more of the offensive side of things, being electric specialists and all. But not all of us, thank Arceus. My man, the one who died the other day, was a damned fine Psychic specialist, skilled in barriers, teleportation, and uh… other aspects of war that I’d rather not name if you can read between the lines.”

Dani kept her face carefully neutral. The description sounded uncomfortably close to a certain someone they were doing their best to forget and she could tell right away she wasn’t the only one who noticed it, even if Ellie and Mare didn’t give any outward tells. She decided to just keep her mouth shut and go with the flow, following Mare’s lead.

“Right,” said Mare, his voice still relaxed. “I think we get what you mean. So, what happened?”

“As I was saying, my man—Adrien—somehow managed to get his full team out, immediately setting up a sphere of nigh impenetrable barriers around the few of us still remaining after the initial bombardment,” Kuon explained, and Dani could tell he was proud. “Out of a unit of fifty soldiers, less than ten of us remained, clustered together tightly so that no part of us were sticking out."

Adrien was Kuon’s man? Does that mean he knows? Did he know what Adrien was doing this whole time? Dani’s mind whirred with concerns that certainly needed answers at some point, but there was little she could do at the moment. Does he know we were part of the reason Adrien died?

“Wow,” beamed Ellie. “That’s super impressive, right? How did you guys get out of there? What were your pokemon doing?”

“Well, we walked out,” Kuon chuckled, seeing the looks on their faces. “And besides the two Electrode, I didn’t lose any others, having the presence of mind to return them when the barriers came to life.”

“Okay, but seriously,” prodded Ellie. “Did you teleport or what? From how you explained the situation there was no way for you to overwhelm your assailants.”

“Well, what do you know about Psychic pokemon?” asked Kuon. “An understanding of the basics is important.”

“They’re fairly rare and little understood beyond the few specialists in the Saffron area,” began Mare to a few nods from the adults.

Seeing their reaction, Dani saw Mare’s habit of overexplaining in a new light. If this was the only positive feedback he received, of course he would be like he is.

“They can create barriers, move objects without touching them, teleport to distant locations, and tamper with the minds of pokemon as well as humans,” Mare continued. “But that’s basically it.” He shrugged, settling back into his chair.

“That’s a pretty good basic explanation, but have you seen them much in action?” asked Kuon.

Mare shook his head. “No, I can’t say that I have. Have you two?” He directed the question their way.

“Nope,” replied Ellie right away. “The only psychic move I’ve seen was when Dani told her Venonat to use Psybeam on Eon when we first met her. It didn’t seem very effective because Eon slammed her around until she passed out.”

“Oh?” interjected Kiriel. “And who won the match, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“That would be Mare,” Dani replied with a frown as she remembered the embarrassing battle. “I had no idea he was an experienced trainer and just thought he was a cocky know-it-all without a shirt. I underestimated him.”

“I see,” replied Kiriel before returning to her salad with no discernable reaction.

Dani turned to Mare with a smirk, knowing how self-conscious he was about the mistake but was surprised to see him smiling back at her. Why is he smiling at me like that?

“Hey, I still won, shirt or not.” He shrugged before turning back to Kuon, who was observing their back and forth with an amused grin. “But back to the more important issue. What’s the deal with the whole psychic type-energy refresher?”

“Well, it’s to provide some context as to what psychics can do on a basic level. The difference, in this case, was that Adrien’s pokemon were not on a basic level. Two of his pokemon were managing the barriers, and the remainder were solely dedicated to one task. Can you guess what that was?”

Ellie cocked her head. “Keeping you guys alive, right? I imagine they were probably trying to Teleport the heck out of there as soon as they could.”

“Wrong,” said Kuon softly. “They were killing everything within fifty meters without a shred of mercy. In fact, this battle, which later became known as the Cherrygrove Massacre, became one of the defining moments for legislation regarding the use of psychic pokemon in wartime.”

If Adrien was so strong, how were we able to survive even for an instant? Dani wondered. It sounds like he could’ve killed us all without breaking a sweat if he wanted. All sorts of things from their encounter were beginning to make less and less sense.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Mare, his voice disbelieving, as if he had somehow heard her thoughts and put them to voice. “I don’t really understand how an ambush could get turned like that just from one group of psychics, regardless of how powerful they might be. From your description there were potentially hundreds of Johtan soldiers in the forest waiting to ambush you. They could hang back and just unleash from a safe range until there was nothing left of you but ashes. It sounds like they botched the ambush, to be honest.”

“And that was why I asked you what you knew about the type,” explained Kuon. “Now, for the next question; what does it take to kill?”

“Dear, isn’t this a bit far?” asked Liza with a frown. “Is this really necessary to make your toast? Have you forgotten about the ‘be merry’ part?”

“Yes, it is. Some things aren’t so simple,” said Kuon, ignoring the second half of his wife’s question and turning to her. “Dani. from what Mare tells me, you’re quite an experienced trainer. Have you seen death in any capacity in your encounters?”

It’s like he sees right through me, realized Dani as a hot flash of panic emerged before being tamped down like everything else was. Does he know what happened? She thought about lying but remembered Liza’s comment about being authentic and stopped herself, choosing to be open.

“Yes,” she said simply.

“And what did it take?”

“Very little,” Dani admitted. “If anything, I was shocked at just how fragile things can be. Too much of the wrong substance, for example.” She lifted the full shot glass, rolling the alcohol around in the glass before setting it back down. "Or even a slight disruption in the passage of blood through the body, and you're done for."

“And that,” Kuon said, looking around at them. “Is exactly my point. I could hardly have said it better. A trained psychic is the most lethal type of pokemon in a close-range engagement. Sure, the flashy elements can bombard defensive installations from hundreds of meters away until they exhaust their reserves. But psychic pokemon can do whatever they want to you if they have the power for it. And Adrien’s did. We walked out, as I said, doing our best to ignore the screams of soldiers as necks broke, hearts stopped, and men choked to death with lungs crushed inside their chests. And it wasn’t just humans; besides Dark types, there is no species that has immunity to their influence. With a powerful enough psychic, there is very little to be done barring to stay out of their rather limited range, which becomes significantly more complicated when you factor in their teleportation abilities. Nothing was safe, save the few Houndoom doing their best to keep their trainers alive.”

An uneasy silence descended upon the table as everyone processed Kuon’s morbid story. Dani didn’t really understand the point, but still found herself curious as to what the eventual toast was supposed to be. To fallen allies? To scraping through dangerous encounters? To the overwhelming power of psychic pokemon?

As if reading her mind, Ellie spoke up. “So, what’s the toast? That was a pretty ominous story, Mr. Kumire. Sir."

“The story isn’t over just yet. There’s one more piece,” Kuon responded. “It’s not long, I promise,” he clarified after seeing their reactions.

“Go on, Kuon, I find myself very curious where this is going,” said Kiriel, who looked much more composed than when she first arrived. “I think I know, but let’s hear it. We still have four more toasts to get to, after all.”

“Of course, of course,” nodded Kuon. “The only thing left to add is how I ended up with such a man. How does one end up with a team of pokemon specifically trained to kill and torture at such a prodigious scale?”

“Obsession, I would guess,” commented Mare. “Most people tend to diversify their teams rather than specialize in something so niche. That skillset hardly seems useful outside the scope of war or violence.”

“Correct, as usual,” confirmed Kuon. “What causes one to develop such an unhealthy obsession? I’m sure we can all agree that such a thing is by no means normal.”

“That’s for sure,” breathed Ellie. “Some type of loss, I would think? Unless he was just crazy from the start and randomly gathered up a gaggle of psychic types, which seems pretty wild but it’s definitely a possibility.”

“Correct again,” congratulated Kuon. “Mare, you seemed to have surrounded yourself with some excellent young women. I’m sure you value their company immensely, am I right? And you would be upset if you lost them?”

“Obviously,” said Mare, but his tone was uncertain. “Where are you going with this? Of course I would be upset if something happened to them; it’s only logical.”

“Just so,” said Kuon with a tired smile. “Just so, Mare. And such was the case with Adrien. His wife and newborn daughter were killed in an attack on Pewter city by Johtan forces in the Great War. He used to be a happy man, only serving in the military as a result of the draft at the time, using his pokemon to defend and transport soldiers and goods. After his loss, he threw himself wholeheartedly into creating the deadliest team of monsters he could find, inadvertently setting himself up to save the remnants of my unit.”

“That was a sad story,” whispered Dani. “I’d like to hear your toast now, please.”

Kuon picked up his glass, waiting for the others to join him. “A toast, then. To the monsters in human form that cut off their humanity to protect those they love. A testament to the horrors of war we must strive to avoid. And a lesson. That every life lost has further reaching effects than we could imagine, no matter how distant they may seem at the time, or how evil our enemies appear in the depths of our anger and hurt.”

He poured out a bit of his drink before downing the remainder. “Adrien Vaska, I salute you. You lost yourself to war, and never came back. But, in doing so, gave me a second chance at life that I have no intention to squander.”