The first thing that Virah noticed when they made it to the bottom of the stairs was the darkness, there was no light in the tunnel that led up to the stairs and as their entry way started to rearrange itself back into a floor, the fear that Virah felt became palpable.

A Claustrophobic grip around her throat started to choke her and her ears started to ring from only hearing her and Janine's footsteps, her skin prickled from something crawling on her arm, the tingling sensation raised goosebumps and got her hair to stand up on one end.

Sensory deprivation, that was what she was currently going through, she has experienced this exact same thing before and yet this dark tunnel was completely different from the darkness that enveloped her during meditation.

If that was the complete killing of all sensation, then this was paranoia incarnate, her mind started to make her feel things that weren't there.

In truth, the only thing that her brain should be able to pick up was the cold air and the sound of steady breathing and the rhythmic footsteps.

Virah steeled her nerves and focused on those exact same things, the edge of her mind still whispered of dangerous things lurking in the darkness but there was none, she knew that.

"Good job," Virah turned to the source of the sound, Janine wasn't visible, but from her tone, Virah could tell that she was satisfied, "these tunnels are commonly haunted by Haunter and Ghastly so Ghost Type residue is strong around here,"

"No wonder," Virah flared her Aura and just like that, the whispers started to melt away, her toxin far more potent than the leftovers of the Ghastly line.

"Hm," Janine grunted, "I expected you to figure it out after I tell you about it but I suppose this works too," the ninja's footsteps stopped, "well then, while we're here, we might as well train,"

She stopped… no, she was still walking, Virah stopped moving and strained her ears, her eyes widened and she swerved her head sideways, what-

"A ninja should always be expected to know how to kill the sound that they make and execute silent kills," Janine explained, "we are infiltrators, not fighters, what you did in Goldenrod is a mistake I sought to correct,"

"Weren't we-" Virah jumped back and dodged the projectile, the only sign of it ever being there was a pang of steel once and then it was gone.

She leaped backward when she heard the whooshing of air, the kunai moved fast enough to-

"Focus Virah!" Janine shouted, breaking her out of her panicked thoughts, "what are you doing?!"

Virah exhaled and narrowed her eyes into a glare, Janine was right, she was being stupid by panicking and worrying about dodging Janine's attacks and how deadly they were when she was supposed to figure out a way to win.

She ran back, wincing the first time she heard her footsteps but she quickly tried to kill the sound of her feet, she failed, but Virah thought it was a good effort nevertheless.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She didn't know how long the tunnel was, wasn't sure where she was even, she didn't count her steps from the entrance to the spot where Janine suddenly trained her but she trusted her gut feeling and what it told her was that she was now near the entrance.

Virah raised her steps higher than normal and kicked the wall, the momentum forced her body to move right and for her shoulders to strike the wall on that side of the tunnel, she grunted as the impact rattled her bones.

Grabbing one kunai from her wrist, Virah shoved her arms against the wall and pushed, once more, she used the extra momentum to add weight and speed to her strike only to falter when Janine blocked her wrist with her forearm before grabbing it in a vice grip.

"Sloppy, imprecise, but good theory," the older ninja said, "I'll lend you a book katas but for now-"

Virah's eyes widened, after sparring with Grene for so long, she recognized the pull on her hand, she tried to raise her feet but it was too late, Janine had grabbed it and with a heave, Virah was lifted up before getting tossed to the ground in the same instant.

Air violently escaped her lungs as her back struck the floor, her body bounced once, then fell.

She lay on the ground, limp, her limbs ached and her back was burning, the shoulder and elbow on the arm that Janine pulled felt dislocated and despite hoping that they weren't, Virah was sure that they were.

"Get up," Janine said from above, "my assessment is done, get up,"

Virah pressed her hand against the floor and winced, something must have gotten broken in there.

"How did I do?" Virah asked breathlessly as her shaking legs stood straight.

"Well first, give me your hand, the one I pulled," Janine offered and Virah did so, the older ninja held her hand, placed another on her shoulder and before Virah could protest, she pulled and pushed her joints back in place.

Virah held back a scream as her bones cracked into position, when Janine let go, she keeled over, cold sweat dripped down her forehead and soaked her back.

"This is brutal," Virah said.

"What? You think getting caught by that Steelix would have been painless?" Janine scoffed, "get used to the pain, you already attacked a base so there's no going back now,"

"R-right," Virah nodded, "now what? You'll teach me how to silence my footsteps?"

"No, you'll have to practice that yourself, everyone's different when it comes to sneaking and you're not unique in that aspect, the best way to learn is through trial and error," Janine answered, "no, the next thing we'll be doing is continuing our way down the tunnel, like I said, I'll show you the ropes,"

Virah limped behind Janine as the ninja carefully and casually walked down the tunnel, she didn't know how Janine saw her earlier but…

She blinked and her world erupted into light.

"I'm stupid," Virah said.

"So you know how to perceive Aura," Janine said from somewhere in front of her, "hm, guess we'll skip that process as well, good job,"

With her new vision, it was only then that Virah realized that the tunnel they were on had widened at some point, and now instead of that tight nook, they were in a wide chasm that was crawling with Poison/Bug Types.

One of the speedy creatures she was following with her eyes could only be a Venonat and the other, more stationary one was obviously a Spinarak.

There were other Bug Types here too, though no signs of a Pincer or a fully evolved one, just pre-evolutions and babies.

A Zubat flew overhead and Virah frowned, "how do did you even tell that I was running away from you earlier? Doesn't Aura look the same no matter the distance?"

"Hmmm… you don't know how to modify your perception," Janine said, "basic then, good to know, it make buying the books easier,"

"What books?" Virah asked, she turned to the ninja only to spot her walking towards the wall, Virah jogged after her, she covered her eyes when light washed into the tunnel after Janine pulled over a flap.

"Welcome to the underside of the region," Janine looked back at Virah with gleeful eyes, "you shouldn't trust anyone here, me included,"

"Yeah, I get that," Virah grumbled, trusting Janine wouldn't pull tricks in that tunnel was a mistake on her part, she should have been more wary and suspicious.

"Always be vigilant Virah," Janine explained, "giving someone every fiber of your being, emotions and all, is a mistake, it is stupid, and it dulls your mind, we ninjas are a blade, and we should never dull before our age catches up to us,"

"I know," Virah nodded seriously as she walked into the oddly bustling street? Underground tunnel? "What is this place?"

"We're technically in a hydro electric plant, more accurately, we're inside the Azalea District," Janine explained, "back then this place used to be a river, one that ran from Mt. Silver and down to the ocean, but something happened, I don't know what, however,"

"Any explanation is welcome," Virah told her as they started moving across the district.

"Well, according to the legends, Ho oh and Lugia flew away one day and suddenly, the earth shifted at the same time as the oceans, their levels rose, storms were a constant, volcanoes erupted out of nowhere, it was chaos," Janine summarized, "it was how the Bell Tower came into existence if I'm correct, as Bellsprouts started to breed ravenously at the time, thankfully, through their roots, the earth was kept intact."

"The clean up must have been annoying if even this place is still here," Virah said.

"Hm? Oh no, tunnels such as these were held together by psychic power." Janine explained.

"Alakazam?" Virah asked.

"Well, who else could do such precise calculations? I don't really know if they're powerful enough to do it however, still, maybe they did it as a group, hundreds of Alakazams working together could pull this off," Janine answered, adding a theory of her own into the mix.