PARAGON
Hisui Incursion Arc [3]
Chapter 55 : Jubilife Church
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The man called Kamado swept inside like he owned the place. As Ash, Sabrina, and Riley stood up defensively, he sauntered through the front room until he was as close to the fire as the rest of them. His hand rested lazily on his sword’s grip, and he eyed each of the gathered in turn.
“I-I can explain,” Laventon stammered. “These three are friendly. They came from—“
“That’s not for you to decide, Professor,” Kamado intoned. “And what is that?” He flicked his head at Pikachu, prowling beside Ash’s leg.
“Stand down, Pikachu,” Ash said, trying to defuse the situation. “Don’t attack under any circumstances.”
“Heh,” Kamado grunted. “If only it were so easy. If pokémon obeyed commands as simply as that, Hisui would be a paradise.” His gaze swept between Akari and Rei, who’d both frozen the moment he’d stepped inside. “Cyllene, take these two and the professor back to the church,” he said in a louder voice. “I’ll handle these three.”
The woman by the door straightened and uncrossed her arms. “Are you sure?”
“Take them now.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she stepped inside as well. She trained her sharpened gaze on her three targets. “Let’s go,” she said, motioning with a thin finger. “Without delay, please.”
Without warning, she stalked forward and yanked Laventon’s arm toward the door.
“Please! Just take me! The children had nothing to do with this! I coerced them!” Laventon struggled against the woman’s hold, but her wiry build masked her iron strength, and he could not break free.
“Tch,” the woman called Cyllene spat. “I said without delay,” she muttered, her voice like an icy knife.
“We’ll go, Professor!” Akari spoke up. She glanced at Rei, but even he nodded in assent. “Just please don’t hurt him!”
Cyllene rolled her eyes and held out her other hand. “Your pokémon. Now.”
Rei and Akari hurried to unclip the pokéballs from their belts, three each, and swiftly handed them to Cyllene. She clipped them all to her own belt, and her eyes narrowed.
“Thank you.” She pulled on Laventon’s arm and started back toward the door. Just before stepping out, she turned back. “Are you sure you’ll be fine, Leader?”
Kamado didn’t budge. “Go.”
Cyllene scowled but obliged, and the two kids followed her out.
Kamado’s eyes hadn’t left the three newcomers, and they all awaited his judgment with bated breath. They’d wanted to disturb the past as little as possible, but their mere presence seemed to be unacceptable. The question now was how to get out of this situation as peacefully as possible.
Kamado’s gaze settled on Riley, but he soon turned back to study all three of them. The room held silence, save for the frosty winds slipping through the still-open front door. A mug rested overturned next to Kamado’s foot, and tea dribbled into the sand beneath the fire pit.
He nodded at them, at no one in particular. “Could you kill me?”
On his right, Ash felt Sabrina’s attention turn on him. No time to communicate telepathically. That would only make them more suspicious. But on his right, Riley’s gaze had also turned to him. They were deferring to him to answer. Pikachu had stopped prowling, but his ears were sticking straight up, ready for anything.
Ash inhaled, then exhaled.
“Yes,” he said flatly.
Kamado had no reaction. “All three of you?” he asked.
Honesty flashed across Ash’s eyes like steel. “Yes.”
An amused sound escaped Kamado’s mouth.
The entire house burst apart with a violent boom as wood splintered and glass shattered. Dust blasted into existence everywhere, and Ash felt himself thrown to the ground before quickly getting seized by something; he couldn’t tell what. He caught a mouthful of dirt and coughed.
Jerking his head around, he saw Sabrina in a similar predicament, then felt a familiar thrum of power emanating from her form. A ghastly emerald light permeated through the cloud of dust.
“Don’t!” he roared.
Sabrina frowned, but the light faded from her eyes and she allowed herself to be defeated.
Ash struggled against the invisible hold, blinking dust from his eyes. As it cleared, the remnants of Laventon’s abode became clear.
It was now nothing more than piles of smashed wood that surrounded them. His furniture was overturned and broken and the remnants of the fire pit sat bent on the grass a ways away.
On his right, a giant Heracross had jammed its horn into the ground, pinning Sabrina’s thin neck between its prongs. Her eyes were locked on the creature, but defiance burned in them.
In front of him, a Golem stood atop Pikachu, its clawed foot pressing him into the ground. Pikachu’s teeth were grit as the weight of the monster bore down on his back, but he wasn’t trying in earnest to escape.
That was a sight he saw just beyond the pokémon that had taken him on, though this one, Ash didn’t recognize. It was a bird of some sort, large and grand, with feathers of white and gray. But the thing that surprised Ash the most was the ghostly violet eyes that sizzled over its head, seemingly in place of real eyes. This pokémon didn’t even need to touch him. As it flapped its wings to stay just airborne, Ash could feel it exert its power against him, presumably, a psychic hold.
Kamado himself had incapacitated Riley personally. On Ash’s left, the man’s katana was withdrawn and planted into the ground just beside his neck. Riley’s hat had been knocked off and his limbs were splayed out, and he glared up at Kamado, who crouched over him like a predator.
But Kamado glared back. Then he turned to see the others.
Ash wasn’t resisting. Sabrina made no further move on her captor. And despite Pikachu grunting beneath Golem’s weight, he appeared to have accepted his fate as well.
Kamado sneered and slowly lifted himself off of Riley. He sheathed his sword with a practiced flourish and crossed his arms. Then, he shook his head. “Heh. Damn you, Laventon. Who are these monsters you’ve brought into our sanctuary?”
At some silent cue, Ash felt the bird pokémon’s invisible hold on him dissipate, and it touched down on the ground. At the same time, the Golem lifted its foot off Pikachu and the Heracross unburied its horn and took a step back from Sabrina. The psychic scowled as she got up.
As Ash lifted himself to his feet, Pikachu peeled himself from the ground, and after shaking himself off, scampered back up onto Ash’s shoulder with an irritated growl.
The sight around them gave Ash pause. This was his first time finally seeing the Sanctuary. Now standing in the ruined remains of Laventon’s house, a crowd of people all donning similarly primitive clothing as Rei and Akari watched from a distance, fear and shock shining in their eyes. Houses built of rugged wood and mismatched tile sat packed together tightly within the confines of the border wall, though luckily, it seemed Laventon’s home was placed at the edge of a small plaza, just far enough from his neighbors’ that Kamado’s carnage hadn’t damaged them. Nevertheless, the man stood resolute at the center of the circle of chaos, uncaring of the many eyes on him and their trepidation at his abrupt violence within the walls of their home.
The quilt of clouds over the sky had all but vanished in the time they’d spent indoors, for now, a gleaming indigo vista stretched out above them, speckled with glimmering stars that shined like sea glass in the sand. The sun had already set and the moon blazed white just above the horizon, bathing the Sanctuary in a soft nocturnal light.
“Clear out.” Kamado’s voice boomed through the barren plaza down the narrow streets that branched off from it. “Nothing to see here.”
To assuage the concerns of the gathered townspeople, he recalled all of his pokémon and turned a scowl on them. Slowly, the crowd began to disperse, faster as the seconds went by, since no one seemed to want to be left alone with Kamado or the subjects of his ire. Before long, only Kamado and the three remained.
The man’s back was to the three he’d just attacked, but he turned around nonchalantly to face them once again. “It seems I could not remove you three by force even if I wanted to.”
“We’re not here to cause trouble,” Ash insisted. “We’ll leave immediately.”
Kamado smirked. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Don’t you have a debt to repay to the good Professor?” Eyeing them all, he turned again and started toward one of the streets leading away from Laventon’s home. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the Church.”
Ash glanced back at Laventon’s ruins, guilt pooling in his stomach, but he soon followed after Kamado, not wanting to incense him any further. After a moment of similar hesitation, Sabrina and Riley came after.
Kamado didn’t talk to them the entire walk there. Townspeople glanced at them suspiciously as they passed, hunched over cauldrons and market stalls set up outside their houses. Pikachu had slithered back into Ash’s jacket, wise enough to know that his presence would’ve only complicated their predicament. The further they got from Laventon’s house, the gazes of the locals gradually shifted from distrust to curiosity. But upon seeing Kamado with them, none bothered them. By the looks on their faces, it wasn’t that they feared him. They respected him.
As they emerged from the last street, through a haze of chimney smoke and winter fog, the Jubilife Church lay before them. It was the largest and most elaborately constructed building in the entire Sanctuary, but also clearly the oldest. It stood on a foundation of dark cobblestone, and its walls were scaled in rust-red brick and dusty stained glass windows. It towered above the border wall behind it, containing two floors by the looks of it, with dark iron bars trimming its august convex edges. It looked more like an old-fashioned library than a church, by modern standards, but in comparison to the rest of the village, it certainly deserved to be called a place of worship.
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Kamado’s cloak fluttered behind him as he ascended the short flight of stone steps to the front doors. With both hands, he pushed them open, a set of twin dark oak doors, and stepped inside without stopping.
Ash, Sabrina, and Riley glanced between each other just before following him inside. They still hadn’t ironed out their story. Laventon, Rei, and Akari luckily hadn’t asked, but they still had no explanation for what exactly they’d been doing right before falling out of that rift in the sky.
Stepping into the Church, all the sound from outside seemed to go quiet. Their footsteps echoed softly against the polished floor and the front doors creaked as they closed behind them. Mahogany pillars held the vaulted ceiling aloft, and directly across from them, a grand kaleidoscopic stained glass window cast a rainbow of shimmering moonlight on the center of the sanctum’s entrance hall. But despite being a church, there were no pews. Instead, the chamber was completely empty, save for an array of doorways lining the side walls, and a twin staircase that curved around the room’s edges, leading both up and down.
“I can’t allow you to walk about our sanctuary freely yet.” Although Kamado spoke quietly, his voice echoed all the same. “I trust Laventon’s judgment, but I have a duty as this sanctuary’s protector.” He turned and crossed his arms. “I know I can’t beat you in a fight. So, strictly on the basis of protecting the Sanctuary, I’ll say this.” His eyes narrowed. “Defy me, and I’ll kill Laventon and the children. I know you just met, but you seem to have connected well enough. My assumption is that you wouldn’t want their deaths on your conscience. I hope this threat is reason enough to obey me.”
Ash frowned and he felt Pikachu’s static tickling his chest as the mouse’s anger flared.
“We have no intention of defying you,” he said, his fists balled.
Kamado nodded. “I’m glad. I did not want to dirty my hands with that either.”
“But,” Ash said before the man could turn away. “For the sake of transparency, I’ll just say you’d never be able to follow through on that threat even if you did want to.” He glanced over at Sabrina. “It would be impossible.”
The psychic's face remained stoic, but in the somber darkness of the church, her eyes appeared limned in a dull emerald light, her gauntlets glowing the same color.
Kamado frowned and raised a brow, then nodded once. “I appreciate your candor. All the same, you three will be given separate rooms throughout the church for tonight. Then, come morning, I’ll speak with you all individually. If we determine your presence here to be beneficial or benign, then Laventon and the children will be released and we can determine your place here then.”
Obviously, Ash didn’t like that they were being held hostage. If they wanted, Sabrina could locate and rescue them easily he was sure, but that would only antagonize Kamado. For now, they’d play along.
“Agreed,” Ash said.
Neither Sabrina nor Riley protested and that seemed to satisfy Kamado. His mouth beneath his bushy mustache stretched into a line, a smile if it could be called that.
Wordlessly, he led them down one of the stairwells leading to the basement. Waxy candles glimmered within shallow depressions in the walls, illuminating the way ahead, albeit barely. The hallway they came out in was narrow and lined with doors, and Kamado selected one out of the multitude and led them down yet another shadowed stairwell.
The next floor looked identical to the last, and as they passed down creaky hallways and through darkened rooms, Ash became convinced he was leading them through this maze on purpose to confuse them.
Nevertheless, after descending down far more floors than Ash had ever expected to, Kamado stopped in front of a door just like all the rest.
“You,” he said, nodding at Sabrina. “This is your room.”
Sabrina glanced at the other two before gingerly opening the door. The inside was scarcely larger than a closet. One singular candle pressed into the far wall illuminated the interior. A bed with surprisingly clean sheets was pressed against the wooden wall, but the room was barely longer than it.
“It’s like a prison cell,” Ash said, glaring at Kamado.
“Yes. That’s what you are. For now.”
As Ash gritted his teeth, he felt Sabrina’s hand touch his arm. Her gaze was cast aside. “It’s fine, Ash. It’s just for tonight.”
Ash could see Kamado gripping his sword tightly. His other hand was hidden beneath his voluminous sleeve. In the grim darkness, their eyes met.
“Not to worry, we have similar accommodations for you two as well,” Kamado said coldly.
Ash inhaled and exhaled slowly. “Let’s go,”
Sabrina stepped inside her room and gave her friends one last look before Kamado pulled the door shut with a noisy creak. His hand moved over the keyhole and the lock clicked.
Ash eyed his sleeve. Keys.
After sweeping through the underground citadel for another several minutes, this time ascending and descending, Kamado stopped outside another identical door.
“Yours,” he said, motioning to Ash.
The interior was just the same as well. Ash glanced back at Riley as he stepped inside but the man was sullen. Before he could get out another word though, Kamado pulled his door shut and he heard the lock click. Their footsteps quieted as they walked away until silence roared throughout Ash’s tiny cell.
Pikachu leaped down onto the ground and after sniffing around a bit, wrinkled his nose.
Ash sighed and sat down on his bed. Despite appearances, the mattress underneath felt comfortable enough and his pillow was clean and fluffed. Without reservation, he kicked his shoes off and swung his legs onto the bed, then lay back. Already, he felt himself getting tired.
To the sound of Pikachu’s piddling around the room, Ash thought back to the start of the day, the Time Flower, their unexpected arrival at Hisui, to their meeting with Laventon and his assistants. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten mixed into some inexplicable anomaly, but this was probably the most severe case.
“Lost in time with no way back,” he muttered aloud. Pikachu glanced at him but ignored his rambling. At least he seemed to be just fine with their situation.
Sabrina was as stoic as ever, but Riley…
Oh, right. Sir Aaron was dead. For real, this time. As was AZ. That giant battle had been all too easy to forget over the course of the day. But in the present, the world was still reeling. Rota was wiped off the map over the span of a few hours using a mythical weapon from the Great War. And now, half of Paragon was either bedridden or stuck in the past.
As Ash’s mind descended into a nebula of anxiety, he didn’t even feel his eyelids flutter shut, nor did he notice Pikachu blowing out the candle and curling up into bed beside him.
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He awoke to the sound of rapping on his door. It was still pitch black in his room since there were no windows to the outside, and the candle had long since been extinguished. As Ash was rubbing his eyes, he heard a key stuck in the door, and a moment later, it swung open. Light poured in from outside and he squinted.
“Good morning,” Kamado said, dressed just the same as last night. “Freshen up. Then, let’s talk.”
He was still dressed in his clothes from last night, so after rolling out of bed and stepping back into his shoes, he followed Kamado outside and back up the many flights of stairs they’d come down last night. Pikachu continued to rest on his shoulder as they walked, but the ascent woke him up. By the time they’d returned to the ground floor, Ash was fully awake and his thighs ached.
The main chamber was empty yet again, but sunlight poured in through the stained glass windows, basking them in multicolored light.
Wordlessly, Kamado steered him down a side hall and motioned to yet another room, its door ajar. It was a bathroom. Old-fashioned looking, but it seemed to have a sink and shower.
“Where’re the others?” Ash asked before heading in.
Kamado simply scowled before turning on his heel and walking away. “I await you upstairs.”
Ash watched him go and Pikachu glared at his back, but after a sigh, Ash headed inside. After shutting the door behind him, he noticed a towel and a change of clothes hung on the far wall. The clothes looked just like Rei and Akari’s, and upon touching it, the material felt thick and soft between his fingers, perfect for winter. Beside the sink, there were other essentials. Despite how archaic the church looked and felt, it seemed they were developed enough for wooden toothbrushes and mint leaves for freshening breath.
Fifteen minutes later, Ash emerged clean and clothed, his old garb left in an empty basket in the corner that he assumed served that purpose. His woolen coat didn’t come with pockets, so he kept his phone tucked beneath his belt, though he doubted he’d get very much use of it. To his credit, Pikachu had settled in amicably atop Ash’s shoulder and seemed to be enjoying his plushier throne. That would hopefully go over well in trying to convince Kamado that he was docile enough to keep within the Sanctuary.
As instructed, he headed back out into the main chamber and ascended one of the curved staircases, each step echoing throughout the room.
At the top of the stairs, leaning against the banister, stood the woman who had taken Laventon and the two children away. Her eyes were just as piercing as they’d been last night, and once they found Ash, they narrowed. She glanced at Pikachu, and Ash saw her fingers twitch, reflexively moving toward her belt, but she stayed her hand.
Without addressing him, she turned on her heel and began down one of the second-floor hallways.
Ash followed, and eventually, they came to a stop in front of a set of double oak doors. It was lacquered in an oily finish and gold trim lined its edges. This was the first and only of many doors Ash had seen in this place that looked any different from the rest.
The woman rapped her knuckles against it, and a moment later, they opened. Kamado stood on the other side, and his expression hardened.
“Mister Ketchum. Welcome.” He stepped aside and allowed Ash inside.
The interior was organized and ornate and Kamado seated himself behind a large desk. Old paintings of faded faces covered the dark walls and a window behind Kamado allowed the misty morning light to brighten the room. In front of the desk sat a smaller, shorter table with two chairs set up on either end. An array of food, what appeared to be some brown stew, a plate of bread, and a pitcher and glass of water rested in front of one of the settings.
“You may eat as we talk, Mister Ketchum,” Kamado said, raising his hand in invitation. “Please, sit.”
Almost on cue, Ash’s stomach grumbled, and he realized it’d been nearly twenty-four hours…maybe? Since he’d eaten? It was difficult to tell due to the whole time travel thing, but one thing was for certain. He was starving.
As he sat, the woman took her place across from him. Her cold eyes never left him even as he moved to start eating.
He took a self-conscious first bite and savored the sustenance.
“Your…pokemon can eat over there,” the woman said, pointing behind Ash.
A shallow bowl sat in the very corner of the room, filled with what appeared to be an assortment of dried berries.
Pikachu eagerly leapt off Ash’s shoulder and sniffed at his meal before eagerly indulging, completely forgetting everything and everyone else in the room.
“Ash Ketchum, this is Cyllene,” Kamado said. “She is the head of our Survey Corps.”
“Laventon and the children are also members of my Survey Corps,” Cyllene said. “Their transgressions are my responsibility.” Her mouth stretched into a smile completely devoid of mirth.
Ash swallowed his bite of bread and tried to gauge the situation. Cyllene looked pissed, but then again, Ash had yet to see her not looking pissed, so he couldn’t exactly tell how much hot water they were in with her. On the other hand, Kamado was a statue.
“Nice to meet you,” he eventually settled on.
“Cyllene spoke with them last night and got their side of the story,” Kamado said, tearing Ash’s attention away before he could see Cyllene’s reaction. “And I’ve spoken to your friends Riley and Sabrina this morning already. They each provided their accounts separately.”
He stood up and paced around in front of his desk, then sat back on it and crossed his arms. Ash looked up at him warily. Pikachu hadn’t even noticed, devouring his food.
“We already know that Miss Natsume is psychic. She can transmit her thoughts silently and relay yours and Riley’s to each other. We also know that she has done no such thing since I met you all yesterday. Given the time between your arrival in Hisui through the rift, your meeting with the members of the Survey Corps, and your infiltration into our Sanctuary, I find it unlikely that you would have had enough time to formulate a convincing fib for what exactly you’re here to accomplish. In other words, I’d like to hear the truth from you.”
Cyllene leaned forward, glaring. “Who are you, what is the rift, where did it come from, and why have you come here?”
Ash eyed her, not buckling under her challenge. Kamado is right. We didn’t come up with a cover story last night via Sabrina’s telepathy. But how do they know that? And what did Sabrina and Riley tell them?
Kamado’s eyes narrowed as Ash’s silence prolonged.
Pikachu licked his bowl and released a satisfied burp.
Cyllene’s face twisted into a sneer.
Ash leaned back in his seat and grabbed his glass before taking a swig of water. After placing it down again, he sighed and glanced between the two Church leaders.
“We’re from the future.”
Next — Chapter 56 : Alpha Pokémon
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