The Caterpie dinner had been… nice.

Yeah, it had been nice- and Virah couldn’t help but appreciate the expert cooking of Kitten again as she slowly ate away at the pieces that had been handed to her by the Meowth, and in the end, she ate a lot of servings.

But… a part of her nagged at the fact that she was guilty for killing the Caterpie earlier- and that was why she ate as much of it as she could, it was a way to compensate for the kill.

To make sure that nothing came to waste but looking back, she most likely didn’t have to worry about something like that as Kitten practically ate most, if not all of the Caterpie, with both Whitney and Grene simply eating out around three to two pieces respectively.

And, of course, it was also worth noting that if she… did feel guilty about killing the Caterpie, then she wouldn’t really be sitting down on this empty grove to clear her head- okay, maybe what she was thinking was the exact opposite of what was happening but there’s a good reason for it.

And that’s the fact that she didn’t feel anything- not guilt- not anything after she killed the Caterpie.

Sure, she cried moments after the act but afterward? When she was waiting for it to be cooked and then eating it?

Nothing.

Even she could see that not feeling anything at all after the kill passed wasn’t normal.

So she decided to think things through and wonder just why she was now apathetic to the death of the Caterpie.

Yes, it can be argued that she was also apathetic to most things- as well as used to seeing the death of Pokemon to begin with, after all, she had seen Pokemon kill each other first hand several times in the past, - but maybe that wasn’t the case here? Or rather, that shouldn’t be the case here, because this kill was more personal than just being a bystander and watching Pokemon kill each other.

Virah touched her chest, “I’m not that apathetic toward things am I?” She asked herself in a breathless whisper while eyeing the starry skies above, it was an odd question, but one that she needed to ask herself, “am I?”

The hand touching her chest clenched around her shirt and she frowned, wondering just why she didn’t feel anything at the moment- her thoughts came back to the kill and a memory of the Caterpie’s messed up eye came to pass but that quickly disappeared and she was once again alone. Thinking about her kill still yes, but alone mostly.

Virah sat up, “okay, so maybe… it has something to do with my Aura,” she theorized, which had a high chance of being wrong but hey, first steps and all that, “okay, maybe, maybe, maybe- stop saying what ifs and actually consider the option,”

Virah closed her eyes and sat in a cross-legged pose that left her feeling light headed and after a while, she started falling into a trance that eventually turned the darkness of her closed eyes into a memory- one that had now made itself familiar from just how many times she experienced the particular instance of her parent’s death but it was weird- something was wrong.

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The her then continued running around playfully and the scene played out the same- until she went to warn her parents about the odd smell that she sniffed, and there, the memory shifted, specifically, in the way her parents’ eyes turned from that of a normal humans to the large, bulbous things that the Caterpie species calls their eyes.

They were wide, taking up most of her mother and father’s head and even parts of their nose, but the eyes looked natural to the facial structure, as if that was always the case, and Virah would… probably not believe that they were natural but the memory her didn’t seem to notice something amiss.

Their eyes also had an extra feature, the stab wound, slit-like in its shape, was there too, the one that she inflicted using her knife, blood dripped out of it and down her parent’s cheeks in a mockery for tears.

Words flashed in her head-

“@#$#@@!!” That was her father, he sounded happy, jubilant, playful, and it would have been heartwarming if it wasn’t for the streaks of red lines running down his cheeks and the choking sound that had turned into his voice.

Her mother’s laugh sounded mechanical, forced- as if she was speaking through a microphone in a room that was damp and dark. She spoke in the same choking like sound as her husband’s but Virah could feel her joy through the haze that was her slowly panicking state, and she felt happy- her mother that is, “@#!#%$!!!”

Her vision went through the same motions again and it would go on to continue with her going out of their house and coming back to it full of policemen- with normal eyes thankfully, allowing Virah to have some breathing room to process what she was about to see, - and, once more, she got close and she was lifted up by one of them just as the corpses of her parents were being strolled out of their house.

Everything played out much the same way- with a few differences; her parent’s eyes were still large and bulbous, and they were big enough for Virah to know that they were giving her a side glance despite being corpses.

Virah met their eyes-

The vision cut off and she was breathing in and out- she felt herself breathe in and out- she was outside of the vision and her trance was coming to a close.

She snapped her eyes open and immediately, her body collapsed into a heaving mess that breathed hard enough to choke out her heart through her lungs and she started coughing when the two organs touched each other- her fit lasted for a good while but she did eventually recover enough for her to sit upright again.

“Okay… so I’m not apathetic,” she said in relief, “my Aura ate it,”

Great, guess that’s one more problem for her to deal with, and she had just come close to dealing with the choking scent of mercury that assaulted her senses and made her head go numb too…

Virah laughed out something hysteric and she slumped, “great…” she said, “do I have to start worrying about these sorts of things in the future?”

Maybe she has, and at the thought of all her problems coming back to bite her as a haunting she… felt oddly calm- like someone seeing storm clouds on the horizon and thinking that they would be fine, that, whatever it is nature throws their way, they’ll stand tall and proud even when they’re being torn apart- or maybe that’s just the adrenaline fading from her system, making her feel relieved.

“Maybe,” Virah stood up, “but it’s time to stop thinking about what ifs and actually do something,”

She silently made her way out of the grove and back to their tent and when she got there, Whitney took one sniff at her and said, “eewwww! You smell so bad!” The pinkette was pinching her nose while waving her other hand in front of it, “what were you doing for you to smell like this?!”

Virah blinked once, then twice, and her stupor was broken by Grene saying something, which she only caught the last part of, “-she trained her Aura,”

“I did, yeah,” Virah recovered and nodded, “I trained my Aura,”

“This late?!” Whitney exclaimed, “why?!”

“I thought it was appropriate, and I can always go to the lake afterward,” Virah lied with a casual shrug, she grabbed her trainer’s bag and went out, “well, if you two need me, I’ll be down by the lake washing myself,”

“You better come back without that smell!” Whitney yelled from behind her as she left the entrance of the tent.

She… didn’t head to the lake at first, as paranoid as she was- the forest was already starting to go dark and she had a feeling of someone out there watching her, and well, she wasn’t sure why she felt that way but she did and- and-

Shivers crawled up her spine and she quickly ran back to their tent, when she got there, Whitney’s playful expression turned into concern, and instead of saying what she wanted to say, she decided to spout out words of concern, “you’re pale,”

“I- I know,” Virah nodded, “I felt something watching me and a shiver crawled up my spine-”

“Gengar,” Grene said.

“Yeah…” Virah dared to turn back outside and thankfully, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She still zipped the tent flap close regardless and let out a sigh, “a Gengar,”

“It must have been attracted by your Aura training,” Grene said with a hum, “I don’t know where they take kids when they make them disappear but if I were to hazard a guess? They probably eat them,”

“Eugh,” Whitney said to try and liven the mood, “I wouldn’t eat Virah even if my life depended on it!” She laughed, but it sounded forced, “that Gengar must have some low standards huh?”

Virah chuckled, “maybe,” she nodded, “it does have low standards,”

The three girls giggled.

Unfortunately for them- or rather fortunately- the Gengar wasn’t able to hear them mocking it, as busy as it was fighting five Rangers at the same time.