PARAGON
Hisui Incursion Arc [2]
Chapter 54 : The Sanctuary
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“Smuggle?” Ash asked, his gaze still fixed on the settlement below. “Can’t we just walk in through the front door?”
Laventon chuckled nervously. “We could, in theory. But…outsiders aren’t exactly welcome. It’d be far easier to sneak you all inside and spare you the misfortune that usually befalls those who arrive here seeking refuge.”
“Five hundred years have passed and they still haven’t let it go,” Akari grumbled, and her Staravia squawked noisily.
Laventon sighed. “After the end of the Great War, a number of survivors displaced by the destruction sailed north seeking refuge in Hisui,” he explained. “Our home was almost overrun many times. Our predecessors tried to take in as many as they could, but there were simply too many, and eventually, they had to be repelled by force, lest the entire settlement collapse.”
“That’s terrible,” Riley said flatly. “For both sides.”
Akari’s face hardened. “We did what had to be done then. But even now, they won’t accept outsiders.”
“Our ancestors carved this place out of nothing,” Rei said, sounding serious. “If we let it fall to the horde, all their effort will have been for nothing.”
“The horde doesn’t exist anymore,” Akari countered. “Everyone still just lives in fear of the Great War.”
Laventon nodded. “Sound arguments from the both of you. But I think you all dropped in at a particularly unfortunate time,” he said, turning to face Ash, Sabrina, and Riley. “The rift above Mount Coronet has had everyone more on edge as of late, and winter is almost upon us. Food will be scarcer than ever, and I doubt they’d be keen on having to feed not just one, but three more mouths.”
Ash’s brows furrowed. This truly was a completely different time. The shadow of the Great War still hung over a land as remote as Hisui, which was separate from the rest of the world. And this post-apocalyptic reality was hitting him far faster than he’d expected it to. Under other circumstances, he might have found this whole ordeal fascinating, but now that he was living in it, he was finding it difficult to appreciate the novelty.
“Now then, I will have to request you hide your Pikachu,” Laventon said, eyeing the electric mouse warily. “I’m afraid that’s non-negotiable. People are one thing, but pokémon…”
Pikachu cooed in dismay and Ash nodded. “I understand. I’ll keep him hidden.” Since he didn’t have Pikachu’s pokéball, he unzipped his jacket and nudged his partner inside. Luckily, Pikachu didn’t protest, and he zipped his jacket back up, savoring the warmth the mouse provided.
Laventon didn’t look terribly satisfied, but he nodded all the same. “Now, then. I think we’ll have Rei and I distract the gate guards while Akari leads our new friends to my abode,” Laventon said. “The fog is thick enough that they won’t have spotted us yet, so head back down the other side of the hill and sneak through the tall grass as we usually do.”
Akari frowned, hesitant. “Are you sure about this, Professor? Our way in is…”
“I know, I know. They’ll learn of our secret entrance. But what other choice do we have?” Laventon’s dark eyes glimmered mischievously. “Plus, this puts them in our debt, does it not?” He glanced at Ash and smiled.
Akari tilted her head, but the professor didn’t budge. Sighing, she shrugged. “I’ll trust you, Professor.”
“That’s my girl! Now, hurry along. Spry as these young ones appear to be, catching cold will mean death all the same in this Hisuian winter.”
Ash bowed. “Thank you, Professor. Akari, Rei. We’ll repay this debt for sure.”
Rei grinned and cracked his knuckles as if preparing for an actual fight.
Laventon nodded. “We’ll see you in just a bit!”
As Rei marched up beside Laventon and the two of them started back toward the settlement, Akari led them back down the hill into a field of wispy tall grass. It was sparse enough that no pokémon would live here, but dense enough that it would hide them from the guards atop the walls, whose sight was already hindered by the frosty fog.
As they crept along, Ash glanced up at the sky. Because of how foggy it’d been back at the beach, it’d been difficult to tell what time it was, but now that the clouds were a bit thinner, it seemed to be around late afternoon. They’d lost almost half their day.
“We go this way whenever the Professor wants to sneak a pokémon inside to study,” Akari said quietly and they crept through the grass. “But we have to be quick about it. The gate guards are strict about who comes and goes. So after I drop you guys off, I’ll have to hurry back to the front gate.”
“What does he do with the pokémon after getting them inside?” Ash asked. “If they’re that strict about pokémon getting inside, do they really not know about his studies?”
“The professor has a workshop near his home, and luckily, the townspeople already think of him as a bit of a quack so they don’t poke around too much. Plus, it’s not like we’re bringing back anything all that dangerous. The last one we captured was a baby Buizel, and after the professor finished studying it, we released it back into the wild without any problems.”
Ash smiled at that. It reminded him of Professor Oak. It was comforting to know that even back then…or back now, there were those who sought to learn about and understand pokémon.
After creeping into the shadows beneath the walls of the town, Akari stood and sprinted up to the wall, pressing herself against it. Ash, Sabrina, and Riley followed without a sound, and she knelt. Sliding her fingers beneath one of the thick logs, she pulled upward, and part of the log came loose. Pulling outward, she caught the wood with her fingertips and gently rolled it aside, revealing a narrow hole cut between the top of this log, and the rest of it buried in the ground.
“Nifty,” Ash muttered.
“It’s small, but you should fit. Follow me.”
After Akari slipped through the hole, Ash glanced back at the other two, then knelt down and crawled through. It stunk of moss and sap, though it didn’t last long, and when he stood again, he was on the other side.
There wasn’t much space here, though, as Ash found himself face to face with what appeared to be the back wall of a stout cottage. A sizable boulder covered in lichen also sat buried in the ground, making the space even smaller.
Riley came up behind him with Sabrina bringing up the rear. She brushed some dirt out of her hair and looked back over at the hole.
“I’ll close it when I head back out,” Akari whispered. “Now follow me.”
Not giving them time to study their surroundings, she snuck past the boulder and started racing away, staying beside the wall. It seemed they were running through the narrow space behind all the houses closest to the wall, so Ash made sure to stay as quiet as possible. Voices leaked out between the gaps in the houses, and his heart hammered in his chest, wondering just how far the professor’s abode was.
Soon enough, Akari stopped in front of a certain house, which looked just the same as the others. They were faced with a sliding wooden door.
“Here,” she said, pulling open the door. “I think there should still be a bit of a fire from this morning, so that should keep you warm, at least. We’ll get you some fresh clothes soon, I promise!”
Just before she snuck back the way they came, Ash whispered, “Thank you, Akari. We really appreciate it.”
Sabrina nodded in agreement, and Akari smiled, before turning and disappearing again behind the house beside Laventon’s.
The wooden steps creaked as Ash stepped inside and he hoped no one else had heard. Once inside, however, his anxiety ebbed away involuntarily as the warmth of a smoldering fire in an iron pot hanging from the ceiling permeated him to the bone. Inhaling, he smelled fragrant herbs and spices, cold stone, and thin smoke, and it reminded him of the scents that emanated from some of his neighbors’ houses during Pallet’s winters. He felt Pikachu turning around in his jacket, so he unzipped it to let him out.
Sabrina and Riley walked in behind him and he heard the door close behind them. They glanced around as well, taking in the small but quaint abode. It appeared to have several rooms separated by sliding wooden doors, though all were open now. Tatami mats covered the floor neatly, but there were none beneath the fire pit, with only sand to serve as flooring. The furniture was sparse, with only several dressers and cabinets pressed against the walls.
Pikachu scampered throughout, sniffing this and that, lingering next to an iron chest, which probably meant it contained food.
Sabrina raised her hand and her gauntlets glowed. A moment later, Ash felt a weight evaporate off of him as his clothes suddenly dried in an instant. Likewise, Riley felt himself as the water disappeared off of him too, and he looked up at Sabrina.
“Sorry,” she said. “I would’ve done that earlier, it’s just…”
Riley removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “No, thank you.”
Sabrina knelt and took off her shoes, and Ash and Riley followed. Huddled around the fire, a silence settled over them.
Eventually, Ash leaned back. “What the hell,” he said.
Riley’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry about this. I didn’t expect this at all.”
“It’s not your fault. Sir Aaron gave the Flower to me. I would’ve gone in anyway.”
“What do you think happened to our pokémon?” Sabrina said quietly. She glanced up and met Ash’s gaze. “What about your Gengar?”
Ash raised a hand to his chest and shook his head. “Nah, he’s gone too.”
“Same for me,” Sabrina said, rubbing her head.
Riley listened to the exchange but didn’t inquire further. He was messing with the sand beneath the fire pot, clearly distracted. Every now and then, he’d shake his head in disbelief.
“I’m guessing our pokémon are right where we left them,” Ash said. “If that’s the case, then our Gengars should be able to get everyone back to the gym, and my Lucario can tell everyone what happened.”
“But they don’t even know what happened,” Sabrina said. “We don’t even know what happened. I mean…this wasn’t supposed to happen right?”
Ash glanced at Riley, but quickly looked away. The young man had been despondent since hearing about Sir Aaron’s death. Although Sir Aaron wasn’t yet dead at this point in the past, he had just died for real in the present, and Riley hadn’t even had time to mourn before getting whisked off to ancient Hisui. The last thing Ash wanted to do was burden him even more.
“I don’t think so,” Ash said cautiously, trying to word it in a way that wouldn’t make Riley feel guilty. “My guess is that rift above Mount Coronet has something to do with it. I don’t know Hisui’s history well enough to say if that rift is known about in the present, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen time and space tampered with at Mount Coronet.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Sabrina frowned. “I wonder if we could return to the present through that rift.” Suddenly, she jerked up. “Wait. The Flower.”
The realization hit Ash like a rock, and he was digging through his pockets before getting a chance to doubt this hope. Even Riley had looked over curiously. Unfortunately, they were empty, and he looked up at the other two sadly. “I don’t have it anymore.”
Sabrina nodded glumly.
“I just hope it isn’t sitting there in that forest waiting for someone else to find it,” Ash said “And I really hope our pokémon don’t somehow gain access to it.”
“They shouldn’t,” Riley said. “I’m sure King Aaron’s Time Flower was created so that it could only be opened by certain people. Likely, it vanished right after we used it.”
Whether or not that was wishful thinking, Ash didn’t want to say. “This might sound stupid, but do you think us being here will cause any time paradoxes or anything like that? Like, what if even if we do get back home, we find out the world is completely different because of us being here?”
Sabrina immediately looked to Riley for an answer.
The Guardian furrowed his brows. “It’s not stupid at all. I was thinking the same thing after Professor Laventon mentioned Hisui. For now, it’s probably best that we impose as little as possible on this reality, though with the way the butterfly effect is described, I can’t say confidently that our efforts will mean much in the grand scheme of things.”
That answer…didn’t make Ash feel better. But basically, it seemed like it was out of their hands. They just had to hope for the best on that front. “So, I guess we’re not telling them that we’re from the future then?”
“I think it’d be best if we didn’t,” Riley said. “Putting the difficulty of explaining such a case aside, until we can figure out what exactly happened, I want to disturb the past as little as possible.” He scratched the back of his head. “Honestly speaking, I don’t even want to stay here for too long.”
“I mean, it’s not like we can hike up Mount Coronet by ourselves,” Ash said. “Right?” He glanced at Sabrina. “You couldn’t teleport us there, could you?”
Sabrina hugged her knees, blushing slightly, and shook her head. “I can only take us places I’ve been before. Plus…” She rubbed her gauntlets and shook her head again. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Ash frowned and straightened. “Please stop apologizing, guys. It’s not your guys’ fault we’re in this situation. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me.”
“I agreed—“ Riley started to say, but Ash cut him off.
“I made the call to go after Sir Aaron’s Plates now. I’m thankful that you guys decided to come with, but really, this is something I should’ve done by myself.” His shoulders sagged and Pikachu pawed over to him, nuzzling his knee.
Riley swallowed and nodded. “There’s no point in wallowing in despair. Really, we should be grateful that we’re all here together and not alone. And Ash, I’d never let you return to the distant past all by yourself.”
“S-Same!” Sabrina added.
Riley smiled. “For now, let’s wait for Professor Laventon and the others to return. After we get our bearings from them, we can figure out what to do next.” He cocked his head. “Ash, you can’t sense the Plates or anything, can you?”
Ash shook his head. “I wish.”
“Figures,” Riley muttered. “King Aaron would never make it that easy. Well, now I’m questioning if it’s still worth pursuing those Plates. He’s already gone at this point in time so it’s not like we can go and seek him out. I think our priority now should be getting home.”
Sabrina shifted. “Um, actually I was wondering…”
Riley and Ash glanced at her.
“It’s been five hundred years since the Great War ended, right? I don’t know when Sir Aaron came back, but five hundred years is a pretty long time. Maybe he’s already finished recreating his body?”
Riley stared at Sabrina, before slowly turning away back to the glowing fire. A crack appeared in his depressed demeanor as he frowned, considering the possibility. “I… That’s possible,” he said quietly.
“It’s probable!” Ash said, latching on. “If Sir Aaron was trying to keep his Plates safe, hiding them in the past would be one of the best ways to do it. It only makes sense that he would create a special Time Flower that would take its users directly back to that time period to obtain them from him!”
Riley glanced up and smiled slightly. “Let’s not get our hopes up too high. If that were so, I’d expect him to be waiting for us. And if that rift over Mount Coronet is his doing, why there of all places? I shudder to think what may have happened if Sabrina hadn’t broken our fall…”
Ash deflated and nodded soberly, and Pikachu followed suit, sighing and collapsing onto the floor.
“I wonder what would happen if we die here,” Sabrina said. “Would we just wake up back in the present?”
“That’s an untestable theory,” Ash said, looking up.
“Indeed,” Riley said immediately after. “Let’s assume for now that death here would mean death for good and act accordingly.”
Ash scooted closer to the fire pit to warm himself and luckily they didn’t have to wait much longer for the Professor. Several minutes later, they heard his booming voice outside talking to someone else. It got louder as he neared his house, and his three guests stood quietly, moving closer to the walls so they’d be out of the line of sight of the front door when he opened it.
“Sooner or later we’ll get one!” they heard him say just outside. “Alright! Thank you, Mr. Yamada! Alright, I’ll talk to you later! Keep your foot dry! I’ll bring some more salve tomorrow!”
With that, the front door slid open and Professor Laventon stepped inside. He eyed his guests immediately and smiled mischievously.
Right after, Akari and Rei ran up to his left and right and pressed themselves between the gaps, swiftly blocking anyone’s view from outside.
“Be careful, Professor!” Akari scolded.
“Ah, right,” he chuckled. “Sorry.”
The three of them slipped inside and Rei slammed the door shut behind them, then breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ah, Mr. Yamada,” Laventon mused. “Cut his foot open on a rock while fishing. Heals mind-numbingly slow at his age. Need to be careful of infection.”
“I don’t think they care,” Akari muttered, wrapping around the fire pot and pulling off her scarf. She stuck out her tongue in disgust as if imagining what it’d look like.
As Ash, Sabrina, and Riley moved back to the center of the room, Rei took off his cap and tossed it to the corner before seating himself right in front of the fire pit and warming his hands. Laventon peeled out of his white coat and draped it over one of the dressers before joining them.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Ash immediately said. “I know you’re taking a big risk in sheltering us.”
“Oh, not at all! I could never leave the three of you stranded out in the cold.”
For some reason, Rei and Akari both smiled wistfully, the glow of the fire tinging their cheeks red.
“The cold is the least of my worries, truth be told,” Riley said.
“Oh, yeah, you guys are, like, in a completely foreign place!” Rei said, grinning. “Man, on one hand, that’s so sick, but on the other hand, I feel so bad for you guys.”
“We are a little lost,” Riley agreed, smiling.
Akari had disappeared into one of the other rooms, but she returned now with an iron kettle held in both hands, which she promptly sat atop the smoldering coals and seated herself beside Rei.
“You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you’d like,” Laventon said. “Now that you’re inside, all we need to do is get some local attire for you, you’ll blend right in with none but us the wiser! That way, you don’t have to stay cooped up in here all day.”
Akari’s eyes narrowed at that invitation, but she held her tongue.
“Where is here, exactly?” Ash asked. “Sorry, we’re not too familiar with Hisui.”
Laventon smiled. “Ah, not to worry! I doubt this cold north has made it even onto your maps. This here is one of the few human settlements across Hisui, and the largest. This place is called Jubilife Village or Jubilife Sanctuary, though most just call it the Sanctuary.”
Ash, Sabrina, and Riley exchanged a look.
Jubilife, Ash thought.
“As we talked a bit about before, the Sanctuary was established shortly after the end of the Great War. Prior to the war, the village was actually closer to the coast, but in the wake of so many attacks, it was moved further inland where it would be easier to defend.”
“We didn’t always have that wall around us,” Rei explained. “Before the Great War, the Sanctuary had so many powerful trainers that wild pokémon didn’t dare mess with us. But after the war ended and the village moved inland, the wall went up and we didn’t have to fight pokémon nearly as often. Because of that, a lot of talent disappeared over time…” He clenched his fist, the embers of the fire glimmering in his eyes. “Right now, the Sanctuary would totally collapse if some violent pokémon decided to bust the wall down.”
“Don’t say stuff like that,” Akari murmured.
“I’m going to protect this place,” Rei declared. “No matter what.”
Ash could tell there was a reason for his conviction, but decided not to ask about it now. It sounded like he, and possibly Akari too, had rather tragic origins.
“The Church is doing the best they can, but young Rei is right,” Laventon said. “There simply aren’t enough people willing to enter the field and gain experience training and battling with pokémon. And even the ones that do…” He trailed off, as if unsure if he should continue.
“...are weaklings,” Akari finished. “We're only twelve, yet we’re some of the strongest trainers in the village.”
Laventon nodded. “Unfortunately, she’s right. Blessed with talent and bravery as these two are, this place would be safer if there were more adults who could measure up to them.”
Akari stood and lifted the kettle from the stove. Steam billowed from the spout, and she produced a tray with six empty mugs from beside her. After filling each one, she passed one to each of the gathered.
Ash accepted his graciously with a “thanks,” and as the steam wafted up his nostrils, he could smell woody herbs and sweet honey. Taking a sip, the tea electrified him, spreading warmth throughout his body. It was delicious.
“Did you say ‘the Church?’” Riley asked after taking a long sip from his mug.
“Mm, yes,” Laventon said, putting his mug down. “The Jubilife Church founded the Sanctuary many years ago. A band of rogues and explorers who came to Hisui… They were searching for the great Father Sinnoh. Yet, though they never did, they established an order that would one day come to govern this little village.”
“Father Sinnoh?” Ash asked. Is that Arceus?
“The founders of the Church believed Father Sinnoh was the pokémon Arceus,” Laventon said as if he’d read Ash’s mind. “But the Church is a secular institution these days. It’s just, the name stuck so that’s still how we refer to the Sanctuary’s leadership.”
“Hmm, I wonder if the founders of the Church were Guardians,” Riley said.
“That’s what I think,” Rei said, thumbing himself. “Sailing across the ocean to a dangerous new land in search of Arceus? That’s gotta be you guys!”
“It certainly is possible,” Laventon agreed. “Though I’m afraid there are no Guardians here today anymore if they were. Nowadays, the Church is divided into six different corps, each presiding over a different aspect of life within the Sanctuary. The Construction Corps, Agriculture Corps, and Medical Corps are self-explanatory, I believe. The Security Corps patrols and maintains order within the walls. They’re the ones we deceived just earlier. The Supply Corps deals with the merchants and ensures that resources are being allocated efficiently. They’ll be the first to notice three extra mouths to feed, so we’ll have to figure something out there. And the Survey Corps—“
“That’s us!” Rei grinned. “We go outside the walls on expeditions to fight and train pokémon!”
Akari sighed. “The Survey Corps is the smallest of the six Corps. We’re supposed to be exploring the rest of Hisui for the sake of the Sanctuary’s future, but now, we’re basically just a glorified Security Corps.”
“It’s like they forget how much we do for the Sanctuary,” Rei said, scowling. “We’re the ones catching and training all the pokémon that all the other Corps use! Without us, the Sanctuary could never function like it does now.”
Surprisingly, Akari nodded in agreement.
“You said this was one of the few human settlements in Hisui,” Ash said. “Are there others?”
“Two notable others,” Laventon said. “The Diamond Clan and Pearl Clan are schimatic sects from the Church. While our predecessors believed Father Sinnoh to be Arceus, the other two believed him to be Dialga and Palkia, respectively, ancient dragons said to command time and space. Nowadays, no one here thinks all that much about who Father Sinnoh is or isn’t, and I suspect the two Clans are the same. But, that is their origin. They maintain villages elsewhere in Hisui.”
Rei had thrown in some more kindling for the fire, and it now snapped every so often, sending a flurry of small glowing embers into the air.
Ash sipped on his tea as he digested all this information. This was all new to him, and from how attentive the other two looked throughout, it seemed to be for them too. The Jubilifers’ insistence on the danger posed by wild pokémon disturbed Ash, even knowing that all three of them were more than capable of fighting without pokémon. They described wilds like they were bloodthirsty beasts, and, after encountering pokémon said to be from the Age of Carnage down in Paldea’s Area Zero during his two-year training gauntlet, Ash was beginning to think getting to the summit of Mount Coronet alone was going to be even more difficult than they initially thought.
“Professor Laventon, the last thing we want to be is a burden on your society,” Riley said. “We appreciate your gracious hospitality, but, if we’re to stay here any longer, I’d like to do things the proper way. Is there someone we can speak to, say, the head of the Sanctuary, who we can introduce ourselves to and formally ask for haven?”
Laventon smiled and nodded. “Of course, Sir Riley. The one you’ll want is the current head of the entire Jubilife Church, who oversees all six Corps. That’ll be—“
The front doors slammed open and Rei and Akari immediately bolted to their feet, pokéballs withdrawn in an instant. A cold frost wafted in from inside, and the tatami mat crumpled beneath the sandaled footsteps of the new arrival.
“I could overlook it when it was measly Bidoof and Starly you were sneaking inside, Laventon, but this is a bridge too far,” came a deep, gravelly voice.
A man with charcoal-gray hair and a bushy mustache of the same shade stepped inside. He wore a dark kimono patterned with the raging sea, and a wool coat sat draped over his hardened shoulders. A violet katana was sheathed beneath his waist wrap, and a burly hand rested on its handle.
Professor Laventon turned slowly and smiled nervously. “L-Leader Kamado. Can I offer you a cup of tea?”
A woman with slate-blue hair leaned against the door, scowling at the residents inside, and even Akari and Rei seemed to hesitate at the sight of her. She did not look pleased at all.
Next — Chapter 55 : Jubilife Church
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Like before with AZ, I’m going to be bending the canon to fit the story, though this time, there are some practical reasons why. Keeping the ‘Galaxy Team’ name kind of shatters suspension of disbelief when ‘Team Galactic’ exists in the present. I recently got into Bloodborne and I came up with the idea for the ‘Jubilife Church’ just a couple chapters ago, inspired by it. I think it’ll be cool.