Pausso, Zubat, and I were able to make our way down the tower without any difficulty, and I told my partner everything that had happened on the way. Most of the Pokemon and all of the people we’d seen before were gone; probably they’d all fled downstairs when Lugia and its storm first hit the building. When we reached the second floor Zubat flew ahead to investigate, then came back with her ears twitching madly. “Zu, at!” she squeaked quietly as she flew in large circles above us.
“Did she say the soldiers are still there?” I asked Pausso, to check if my guess was right. He bobbed his trunk quickly. “Okay. Let’s do this carefully.”
We crept a few steps down the staircase, then I crouched down so I could peer under the ceiling and into the room. Near the front entrance a cluster of soldiers were arguing loudly. It sounded like the soldiers who had been left downstairs with the monks wanted to go upstairs to investigate, but the ones who had been up on the roof vehemently opposed that as a bad idea. The monks had all gathered near the central pillar, where they conversed in low voices, and many wild Pokemon were scattered around the rest of the room.
I backed my way up to the top of the staircase so I would stay out of sight, then turned to Pausso. “The soldiers are a little separate from everyone else,” I muttered. “Think you can manage a long-range Hypnosis?”
“Zee,” he replied in a confident tone. He went down a little further, then lay on his stomach along one of the middle stairs and waved his hands in a careful pattern. I waited up above until I heard the argument abruptly stop, followed by the dull thuds of several bodies hitting the ground. One of the Pokemon down below yelped in surprise.
I rushed down the stairs and poked my head over the handrail, then sighed in relief. All five of the soldiers had been hit by the Hypnosis, and they were all fast asleep in a pile on the ground. I gave Pausso a thumbs up, and we ran down the rest of the stairs with Zubat close behind.
“Young trainer,” one of the monks said severely as we jogged over to the group by the pillar, “you should not have done that. Attacking others in this tower is not allowed.”
I grinned up at him, not feeling guilty at all. I was quite convinced that any other approach would have led to the soldiers attacking everyone else in the tower. Hypnosis had been the simplest solution. “I know, but we didn’t hurt them. We just helped them rest, like everyone else here does. Is that so wrong?”
The man narrowed his eyes at me, unamused. “This is no joking matter.”
Before I could reply the hairless monk who had greeted me earlier put out a hand in a calming gesture. “Hypnosis and Sleep Powder have been used in this tower before, to care for those in need of rest,” he said steadily. “I believe we can make an exception for this case.”
Several of the other monks seemed unhappy, but they didn’t protest when the primary monk led me away, back towards the entrance. As we walked he put his hands behind his back and looked at Pausso, then at Zubat, then at me. Then he hummed lightly and smiled in a mysterious way. “I overheard when the soldiers spoke of the sky spirit’s arrival,” he said casually, like we were just discussing the weather. “Did you commune with them?”
I hesitated for a moment, then decided there was no reason to hide the truth. “Yeah, you could say that. Lugia wanted to ask me some questions after it, umm, dealt with Finnegan.”
The monk nodded serenely, as if this was to be expected. “You are quite young to be one of the legend-touched,” he told me. “It is a difficult path to tread.”
I blinked at him. “No offense, but I’m not special, not like that. I think one of the other monks called Lugia here. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He peered down at me with an inquisitive look. “And is Lugia the only majū of legend you have met?”
I ducked my head down as we passed through the entryway and into the world outside. Unbidden, I thought of Celebi, still trapped in the gold and silver ball back in Ecruteak. “Umm…”
“As I thought.” He smiled and then, to my surprise, steepled his hands together and bowed towards me formally. “I suspect you will see me again, Trainer Monroe. Know that you are always welcome here in Brass Tower if you need a place to rest and recover.”
“Umm, thanks,” I replied, trying to bow in reply. Mine wasn’t nearly as elegant as the monk’s had been.
Wait. How had he known my name?
I looked back up, about to ask, but the man had already gone back inside. I thought about going after him but quickly shrugged it off; probably he had just overheard the general talking earlier. Anyway, I had more important things to do.
Pausso and I walked a few dozen feet down the path as Zubat glided overhead through the late afternoon sunlight. Then I sat down cross-legged in the dirt and pulled Finnegan’s satchel open. I’d waited to release all the Pokemon because I was worried about keeping track of them all as we went down the tower, but now there was no reason to delay.
One by one, I pulled the poke balls out of the bag and pressed their buttons, releasing each Pokemon out into the clearing. Sudowoodo and Corsola were first out. Then came Piloswine, Hoppip and Natu, and the Ledyba I vaguely recognized as Cyril’s partner. Each Pokemon seemed surprised to be back out in the world, but happily so. Well, apart from Hoppip and Natu; they immediately resumed the argument they had started several days before during our last disastrous training session. I had almost forgotten about that after everything else that had happened.
The final ball contained Misdreavus, and the ghost cried out in surprise when he recognized the tower behind us. “I need your help,” I told him as Pausso gave the rest of the Pokemon a quick summary of everything that had happened. “I think Hisa and the others are in the city somewhere. Do you know where he would have gone? Can you lead us to him?
Misdreavus’ eyes lit up and he bobbed up and down quickly in a nod. Then he zoomed off towards the east, away from the tower.
“Wait, wait!” I yelled after him, and he turned around to glare at me with impatience. I hastily told the rest of the Pokemon that we were going to find their trainers and got everyone sorted into a group that could run together, with Natu perched on Piloswine’s head and Corsola held in my own arms. Then we took off at the fastest jog the group could manage.
We must have made quite a picture: a whole herd of different species of Pokemon running and flying through the city, with me thrown into the mix for good measure. But I didn’t hang around to notice the reactions of the various people we passed. I was too focused on following Misdreavus through the streets. Luckily, Misdreavus’ path kept us moving along the northern part of the city, which hadn’t fallen to the soldiers yet, so we didn’t have to deal with any attacks from enemy forces.
Soon we reached the center of the city, and I realized that I was starting to recognize some of the buildings. First I saw a low building that was famous in modern Ecruteak for being the oldest continuously-running tea house in the region; then we passed a bathhouse known for deep pools that were heated by fire Pokemon. That meant we were in the historical district of the city – well, historical in my era. Maybe it was just a regular district now. But from what I remembered about the city, I had a hunch about where Misdreavus was headed.
We turned a corner and the ghost made a beeline for a large building halfway down the street. I grinned in satisfaction. My guess had been right: Misdreavus had been leading us towards the Kimono Dance Theater the whole time.
The theater looked exactly the same as it always had when my family had gone to see performances in my own era, with its vibrant blue roof and the red lanterns hanging from the eves. The large platform where the dancers would sometimes put on outside performances was empty except for a young girl who sat on the edge, swinging her legs as she watched the world. She turned her head to look at our group as we barreled down the street, obviously curious. Then she gasped and jumped to her feet.
“Shadow!” she screamed in excitement, waving furiously. I stared at her, confused, as she briefly turned back towards the theater and shouted at the top of her lungs. “Father, Shadow is back!”
In front of me, Misdreavus cackled and zoomed forward much faster than the rest of us could move. In moments he had reached the young girl. I opened my mouth to shout a warning – ghosts could be dangerous, after all – then stopped myself. Misdreavus was spinning in circles around the girl and giggling in a high-pitched way, while the girl kept trying to jump up and hug him. He had gone insubstantial, though, so she couldn’t touch him.
One of the doors to the theater slammed open and a man – Hisayuki – ran out. For a moment, he stood still and stared at the Pokemon, and Misdreavus stopped circling to stare back at him. Then he laughed out loud, a deep belly laugh, as a now-substantial Misdreavus flew forward to tackle him and nuzzle his head. The girl ran up to the pair and kept trying to jump up and pet the ghost, though she couldn’t quite reach.
I was still a few buildings behind, with the group of Pokemon all around me, when Florence ran out the open door to see what was going on. She noticed Hisa and Misdreavus first, of course, but then she looked around more broadly and spotted the rest of us. A wide grin spread across her face before she ducked her head back into the building. “Monroe is here!” she called to whoever was inside. “And he brought the majū with him!”
Then everything started happening so quickly that I could barely keep up. The other trainers all poured out of the building, and the Pokemon all called out excitedly and ran forward in fresh bursts of speed as they saw their partners. Even Corsola jumped out of my arms so she could try to scurry towards Kiah as quickly as possible (though her running speed was slower than my own); he quickly closed the distance between them and scooped her up into a hug, crying quietly as he hugged her close.
I finally reached the building and stumbled to a halt, putting my hands on my knees so I could gasp for breath. Luca and Piloswine had collided together and were jabbering at each other, the Pokemon and human languages overlapping; Ledyba had attached himself to Cyril’s back and kept nuzzling his hair as the trainer tried to get him to come down; even Hoppip and Natu had made their way over to Florence, who kept grinning broadly as she checked them both over for injuries. Pausso hummed in a satisfied way as he watched all the happy reunions, though he was breathing heavily from the run too, and Zubat hooked herself onto my shoulder as her ears rotated madly.
Sudowoodo still stood beside me, and the grin on his face had faded. I hesitated, then reached out to pat the Pokemon’s shoulder. He felt smoother than he looked, more like rock than bark. “Hey, don’t worry. Jordan will be fine.” He shot me a look that was clearly skeptical. “Well, okay, he’s probably still a prisoner back at the Violet camp, so that’s not great. But now that everyone else is back together I’m sure we can figure out a way to free him.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Su…” he replied in a low tone, not sounding very convinced. I looked at him and scratched the back of my head awkwardly, not sure what else to say.
“My goodness; this is quite a bit of commotion,” a new voice said.
I looked up at the entrance to the theater, where the voice had come from, and blinked in surprise. Michael and Isaac had just walked out of the building, and Michael watched the reunions with Hoothoot held tight in his arms, smiling fondly at the displays, while Isaac looked fascinated by all the spectacle. Behind them had appeared two women I didn’t recognize, both wearing kimonos with intricate designs stitched into the fabric. That in itself wasn’t unusual, since plenty of people wore kimonos in this era. But the way these women moved in their dresses, it was like they belonged in them, like no other outfit would ever fit.
The first woman laughed and ran over to join Hisa, who now had two kids hanging off of him; a boy who looked a few years older than me had joined the girl. The second woman was the one who had spoken. She stood tall with her back straight, and it looked like she was trying to keep her face composed, but her mouth kept trying to twitch into a smile. And an Espeon stood by her, its tail lashing from side to side as it looked about at all the Pokemon that had gathered around the theater.
That settled it. These had to be the predecessors of the famous Kimono Girls.
The woman with the Espeon turned slightly to face Hisa, then raised a hand to her chest. “Trainer Hisayuki, might I impose on you to introduce our new arrival, who I must assume is your colleague?”
Hisa paused and looked up, which gave the boy who was hounding him the perfect opportunity to jump up and grab Misdreavus. The Pokemon didn’t seem to mind; he just cackled in glee as the boy dragged him down in the air and the young girl tried to elbow her way into getting hands on the ghost. “Monroe!” Hisa called out, sounding delighted. “You took your time. What happened to the plan?”
“It went sideways,” I told him with a grin. “But it worked out in the end, sort of. What are you all doing here of all places?”
He shrugged. “What better place could there be? Everything important always happens here.”
“Hisayuki!” the woman standing next to him snapped as she swatted at his arm. “Introduce us to the poor boy so we can invite him inside.”
“I am getting to it,” Hisayuki complained, though the smile he shared with the woman implied that he didn’t really mind. “Monroe, this is my wife, Kiri. She is a dancer at this fine establishment. And these two rapscallions are our children, Morosuke and Ninoko.” His children yelled out something that might have been a greeting as they continued their tug-of-war over Misdreavus, who had obligingly stretched out his head to make the game more fun. “And this,” he said, gesturing over to woman who had spoken first, “is the esteemed leader of the Kimono Troupe, Chiyo, and her partner Espeon. As anyone will tell you, they are the true brains behind this city.”
Chiyo shot a stern look at Hisa, but then she turned and bowed formally at me. “Well met, Trainer Monroe,” she said in a gentle voice. “You are more than welcome here. Please, come inside and rest.”
I was led into the theater and felt an immediate wave of nostalgia. The performance hall looked exactly the same as it did in my era, with its wide, low stage and the rows of cushions that formed the seating for the audience. I didn’t get to see the hall for long, though, as Chiyo almost immediately led me through a door in the back of the hall that led to the performer-only spaces.
We walked down a long hallway and into a comfortable room that held many cushions and several low tables. Most importantly, there was food on one of the tables. Plates of thinly-sliced sashimi, containers holding pickled vegetables, a pot of soup, and a large bowl of berries formed what looked like a proper feast. There were small plates and bowls all about with half-eaten food still on them – our arrival must have interrupted everyone else’s dinner.
I must have been drooling, because Chiyo raised a hand to cover her mouth and laughed quietly. “Please, you must eat,” she told me, and I wasted no time in grabbing portions of everything on the table. I was horribly hungry, and seeing all that food reminded me of that fact tenfold.
I also grabbed a handful of berries and handed them off to Pausso. He looked at me in a disgruntled way and tried to return them, but I pushed them back towards him again. “I know you prefer dreams,” I told him in a quiet voice, “and we’ll talk about that soon, I promise. But this is what we’ve got right now. Please, eat something.”
For a moment he looked mutinous, like he was going to push back. Then he let out a resigned sigh and popped an oran berry into his mouth. I grinned, then offered another berry to Zubat, who still clung to my shoulder. She grabbed it in her mouth and launched herself up into the air, flying up to the rafters of the room so she could hang upside down and nibble on the berry more easily.
Then I dug into my own food. And oh, it was delicious. Hunger is definitely the best seasoning for any meal.
As I ate the rest of the group slowly funneled in and took up the positions they must have left before, and the room grew lively with the sounds of people and Pokemon talking. After a few minutes Hisa and his family came back in, and he promptly sat down next to me at the table and demanded to know what exactly had happened the previous night. I told him about how the attack on Finnegan’s tent had gone all wrong, though I skipped over the part about Jordan’s past – it wasn’t my secret to tell, after all. Then I told the story of everything that had happened that day, all the way up to reaching the top of Brass Tower and what Lugia had done to Finnegan.
The discussions around the table slowly quieted down as others started listening to my story. By the time I finished telling what had happened with the legendary Pokemon, the whole room was silent. I looked around at the others to see that several people seemed shocked about what had happened, which was fair. I was still shocked that I had seen literally Lugia and Ho-oh and made it out alive.
Chiyo didn’t looked surprised, though. She had a calculating look on her face as she sat with perfect poise. “So the Violet general is no longer with us,” she mused, slowly petting Espeon as it lay curled in her lap. “This is our opportunity to shut down this unprompted attack once and for all.”
“Yes,” Cyril said in his typical lackluster voice. He held Ledyba close in his lap and occasionally ran a hand over the bug’s hard wings. “Most of the soldiers loved the general. If you tell them he’s dead, I bet they’ll back down.” If he was upset about Finnegan dying, he sure didn’t show it.
Hisa hummed and nodded, not appearing to notice as Misdreavus stole a slice of fish off his plate. “And with the recent intelligence we have gathered, we should be able to talk the captured majū down as well. If we can get them to stop fighting in the streets our own people will be much better placed to push back against the invaders.”
That was weird – I was pretty sure I’d had more pickled radishes on my plate, but they were gone now. I cast a suspicious look at Misdreavus, then grabbed a jar from nearby on the table to get seconds. I looked over at Hisa as I worked to twist off the lid. “Does that mean you figured out how the army is controlling the majū?” That had been bothering me all along. Why would a bunch of just-captured wild Pokemon be willing to fight for a group of humans they didn’t really know?
Michael had been trying to convince Sudowoodo to eat something on the other side of the table, but now he looked over at me. “It was trickery,” he said flatly in a voice that made it clear he disapproved of what the army had done. “They told each side that the other side had teamed up with humans in a nearby city. Then they released small groups of opposing majū at strategic locations to cause as much damage as possible. None of the wild majū bothered to talk to the other side, so they were entirely fooled.”
“A risky strategy,” Hisa commented, “and one we can subvert easily. All we need do is have our own majū tell the wild ones what has been done to them, and the fighting can cease.”
“I do not think it will be that easy,” Chiyo commented demurely, “but we can certainly try. Tonight, before the news spread of what happened at Brass Tower.”
Hisa agreed, and the adults in the room started discussing plans for who would go where to push back the Violet army. I frowned down at my plate, thinking. There was something we hadn’t accounted for…
“Edwin!” I said suddenly as I placed it. “He’s in the city too, Finnegan sent him away before the battle. Won’t he cause trouble?”
Hisa exchanged a glance with his wife, who was seated next to him. Then he sighed. “Not exactly. Come, I will show you.”
I nodded and looked down at my plate just in time to see a paw swipe the last slice of pickled radish. I whirled to the side and stared at Pausso, who stared right back at me. Then he slowly raised the pickle to his mouth and chomped on it.
I felt incredibly smug and didn’t bother hiding it from my mental bond with him. He did like some regular foods after all! Pausso snorted at me in reply, but he felt mostly amused, not irritated.
We followed Hisa and Misdreavus out of the room and down another narrow hallway that seemed to lead to some backstage preparation area. Zubat detached herself from the rafters and flew after us, though she kept close to the ceiling. Misdreavus appeared to notice her as well, and he shot Pausso and me a curious look, but he didn’t push us about it. I was glad for that; I knew I had to talk to the bat soon, but I wanted to wait until I wasn’t surrounded by others for that conversation.
“They arrived perhaps an hour, maybe two hours ago,” Hisa told me as we walked down the hallway. “The rest of us were still trying to decide what to do about them when you arrived.”
“Who?” I asked as we reached a door. Hisa didn’t reply. Instead, he exchanged a few murmured words with Misdreavus and slid the door slowly open.
Edwin and Fearow were sitting in the room.
I took a step back instinctively and drew a breath so I could tell Pausso to Hypnosis them. But I stopped myself just before I gave the order. Fearow wasn’t attacking; he just sat there with his wings folded up, looking kind of miserable. Edwin didn’t look much better. And what Hisa had said before…
“You let them in here?” I asked, appalled.
Edwin spoke up before Hisa could reply. “We surrendered ourselves,” he told me, and his voice was husky. “After the general sent us away, I… I simply could not continue this fight. Not with how things had developed.”
Oh. I hadn’t expected that.
Edwin suddenly sat up straighter, and he looked at me piercingly. “You got away,” he said, and his eyes flickered to Pausso and Misdreavus. “And you recaptured the majū.” His eyes gained a haunted look as he stared at me. “What happened in the tower? Where is General Finnegan?”
I swallowed hard. Now that I was further away from the roof of Brass Tower I had decided I was glad that Finnegan was dead. He had done so much harm just so he could gain more power, and he didn’t care who he hurt to get there. The world was better off without him. But I couldn’t forget Edwin’s words from when we had walked up the trail to Ecruteak that morning. Finnegan had done good in the past, and that was the man that Edwin remembered.
I couldn’t find the words to answer him, so I just looked down at the ground instead. Apparently that was enough information in itself, because Edwin groaned quietly and put his head in his hands. Fearow made a clicking noise next to him and raised one of his great wings, then draped it awkwardly over Edwin’s back.
Hisa chose that moment to step in. “We plan to tell the army tonight, in the hope that they will back down and cease fighting,” he said quietly. “Will you help?”
Edwin didn’t reply. He just sat there silently with his head in his hands. I could see that his shoulders were shaking, just a little.
Hisa sighed and motioned for me to leave the room. “I will come back to check on you in a short while, and we can discuss more then,” he told the other trainer as we left. Again, Edwin didn’t indicate that he’d heard Hisa at all.
We didn’t say anything as our small group walked back to the main room, because what was there to say? Edwin had been on the wrong side, and though it was good that he’d surrendered, that was still too little too late. But now his world was crumbling apart, and I felt bad for him, at least a little.
Back in the main room the others had moved to a different table and spread out a huge map of the city, and they were moving around cups and small jars to show where different people would go to talk down the army. I sat down next to Florence and listened quietly for a while, trying to get a sense of what the plan was and how I would fit into it.
After ten minutes or so, I realized that I wasn’t in the plan at all.
“What about Drowzee and me?” I asked during a convenient lull in the conversation. “Where do you want us?”
Chiyo gazed at me from her position at the head of the table. “You two will stay here for now,” she said gently. “You have been through a harrowing experience with your capture at the camp and the events in Brass Tower. With the majū returned, we are not in such desperate need of trainers. You should rest.”
For a moment I wanted to protest – Florence and Luca were helping the others, why couldn’t I? This war wasn’t over yet, and it felt wrong to sit back and relax when the city needed to be protected.
But then I took a moment to evaluate myself. I still ached from a dozen small injuries, and I was tired, so very tired. Now that I had eaten all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep. I kind of doubted that I could force myself back outside and onto the field, even if I felt I should be there. Fine then. I would let the others wrap up this conflict, and I would take a well-deserved break.
But first I would talk with Pausso, and with Zubat. It was time to figure some things out.