You're surrounded on all sides by walls, sloping, enclosing, suffocating walls. They keep out the air and the light and everything that is good about the world, but they also deter the cold, the heat, the pain, the memories... they warp time, so that hours become seconds and every second lasts a decade.

Something didn't feel right.

Inside these walls, it takes great effort to think. This is a blessing in an undesirable form; when there is no thought there can be no boredom, but no reminiscence, either. Words cycle into endless loops and conjugations inside these walls. Words collide, form pictures, and pictures form ideas, but within these boundaries only one concept can exist at a time.

Hypotheses will have to do instead.

… I would have thought that, at least, if I could feel at all. My thoughts were strangely sluggish. I wondered if I was still breathing.

Emotions, impressions, decisions compress, form facts and falsehoods. There is a quest you are on. Do not forget it. Do not. Do not.

It's not like you should worry. They will not let you forget. But you must learn to listen, and understand what you hear.

You could sniff again, taste the imaginings of the everlasting sprite, but those memories are older, dusty, tired from repetition. You have a larger buffet just now.

It didn't help that I couldn't seem to control what I saw.

And the dreams of the young are vibrant, colorful indeed.

How wasteful that these creatures can forget such beautiful things...

~

When I woke up at dawn to Richard's shout that it was sunrise I felt awful, like I hadn't slept at all. I figured that was due to lying all night on a canvas floor with nothing but a blanket for cover and a giant man snoring in the background. I'd have to get used to these kinds of distractions if I wanted to keep being a trainer, but all the same...

I couldn't remember whatever I had been thinking about the night before, but I did feel guilty about leaving Drowzee in his poke ball. So I waited until Richard left the little house, then let my starter out. He seemed content, if still sleepy, and even let out an energetic "Zee!"

"Good morning to you, too," I replied, yawning. "Hey, we've got our battle today. Can you maybe show me what moves you know before we're, y'know, out there? I already know about Disable and Hypnosis."

"Drow, 'ee owz," Drowzee replied. Then he balled his stubby hands into fists and started slamming them against the floor. I had to scratch my head and try listing several different attacks before I confirmed that it was Pound.

"So we've got Pound, Disable, and Hypnosis." Not the best arsenal of moves. "Sure you can't use Confusion? C'mon, give it a try."

Drowzee opened his eyes wide, and I could see him furrowing his forehead in concentration, but it didn't make a difference; nothing changed at all.

"Well, hey. Good effort," I mumbled, trying to conceal my disappointment (and probably failing). With only one offensive move we would probably lose, unless Richard's Pokemon was a Magikarp, and I seriously doubted that.

"Trainer Monroe?" The man in question poked his head through the hut’s opening and looked at the two of us. "Come. It is time for our battle."

I nodded once, gulping, then forced my legs to start moving. Drowzee stayed by my side as we followed Richard out into the gray light of the early morning. I kept my eyes down, refusing to look left or right while we walked. We were going to fight, and I was going to lose. I glanced behind me once, saw that a crowd of people was following us to the shore, and kept my eyes half-closed for the rest of the trip.

I didn't notice when the ground under my feet changed from dirt to sand, but I did stop when I saw a wave of water slap over the grains directly in front of me. I looked up at that point to see that Richard was still walking straight into the water, his dark brown skin gleaming in the weak rays of the morning sun. Another wave splashed up, soaking my sneakers and socks, and I jumped back with a shudder; the water was cold.

A final glance revealed Richard diving into the ocean with the kind of ease that clearly had much practice behind it. He didn't resurface for what felt like a long time, to the point that I was actually getting worried that the man had drowned, because normal people couldn't hold their breath for that long, right?

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Then, without warning, he exploded out of the water with a wide grin on his face.

"Trainer Monroe, I challenge you to a battle between majū," he shouted, and my jaw dropped. Richard was sitting on top of a bulbous creature, a blue thing with red globs on top and large angry eyes and that was a Tentacruel which was not cool at all. "Do you accept?"

My mind screamed at me to say no, to run away while I still had the chance, did I really want my one asset in this world to be killed by a giant jellyfish? Unfortunately, when I opened my mouth, I found myself squeaking out "Y-yes."

"Excellent!" Richard dove sideways into the water, then surfaced a few seconds later a couple of meters to the side. He spread his arms out to keep afloat and yelled "Wrap!"

One of the Tentacruel's longer tentacles shot out of the water towards us, wrapping around Drowzee and picking him up before I could say a word. My starter brayed unhappily as the tentacle slowly pulled him back over the water and tightened, squeezing the air out of him.

My mind went blank for one very, very unhappy moment as I tried to remember what moves Drowzee knew, what he could possibly do to escape from this situation, and oh Mew it would be all my fault if I let him get hurt –

"Use Disable!" I yelled as soon as the attack popped into my head. Then, a second later, "But then hang onto the Tentacruel!"

Drowzee turned his head, opened his eyes wide, and shot the thin blue rings of Disable off towards the other Pokemon's head. The tentacle loosened and let go of him, but he wrapped his short arms around the feeler and dug his fingers in. The jellyfish shook its tentacle angrily to no result and made a deep, growling noise.

"Supersonic!" Richard commanded, barely half a second after I had started to yell "Now, try Hypnosis!"

Tentacruel screeched out a loud sound at the same time as Drowzee sent out his wave of mental energy. The attacks collided in midair, sending sparks of light off in every direction. The Tentacruel blinked, following the lights with its eyes; Drowzee, on the other hand, used the distraction to start crawling his way up the tentacle. I grinned, surprised at his initiative; maybe we weren’t entirely doomed after all.

"Careful, my partner," Richard shouted from the water. "Block his progress with Poison Sting!"

The Tentacruel narrowed its eyes, then lifted its head. A series of bright purple darts exploded from its mouth – I guessed that it was its mouth, anyway, it was kind of hard to tell – and shot into Drowzee. He cried out, loosening his hold on the tentacle but not letting go.

I scratched my ear hurriedly, wondering what to do. I needed to get Drowzee closer to the Tentacruel's body, but if the jellyfish kept using long-range attacks there'd be nothing for us to do. Drowzee was starting to look tired already, too. It suddenly occurred to me that he was probably just as new to all of this as I was. My dad had caught him in the wild, hadn't he? Did wild Pokemon fight battles on a regular basis?

"Again!" Richard shouted, and the poison darts shot out once more.

"I-into th'water," I yelled, garbling the sentence in my rush and not able to think of anything else.

Drowzee swiveled around the tentacle, dunking himself under the water, and the poison darts struck Tentacruel’s own limb instead. The Tentacruel jerked its tentacle up violently in response to the sting, sending Drowzee (who had been holding on) flying through the air. By some stroke of incredible luck he managed to land right on top of Tentacruel's head.

"Use Pound!" I shouted while Richard observed quietly. Drowzee obeyed, beating his fists against the blue creature. It didn't seem to hurt the Tentacruel, as the Pokemon only opened its eyes wide in response, but maybe if he hit the right spot... wait, no, the Tentacruel was already reaching a tentacle up to grab Drowzee again. What else could we do?

"That’s enough," Richard boomed. Tentacruel paused, then lowered its tentacle back into the water.

The tension that had been surrounding me since I had woken up flowed away quite abruptly, and the crowd of people who had been watching the entire time erupted in a cacophony of sound.

"W-wh-what?" I stammered, watching in confusion as the other trainer swam to shore, pulled himself up onto land, and shook water out of his ears. He had been winning – my Pokemon and I hadn't stood a chance – I looked back out at the ocean, where Drowzee was balancing on top of the Tentacruel very, very carefully.

"Smile and try to appear confidant," Richard muttered to me as he walked by. Then he folded his arms over his chest and glared at the other villagers. "You all saw for yourselves that the majū listened to the boy in battle; they are truly a team. To force them to battle past what their experience dictates is foolish."

"I do not agree, Trainer Richard," Michael said in a hard voice as he stepped out from the crowd of people. He didn't have his Hoothoot with him, and there were dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't slept much recently. He had looked tired the night before, too, but the effect was more pronounced now. "The boy must be tested properly."

"At his partner's risk?" Richard said. One of the people in the crowd groaned before being cut off by an abrupt hush, and I sensed an old argument resurfacing. "You go past any reasonable –"

"It is the only way we can –"

"Help!"

Both trainers quickly turned towards the sound of the voice, falling silent, and the crowd of people slowly shifted, releasing a petite woman with a oval face. I blinked, recognizing her; she was Florence's mother. I had met her the night before.

The woman shuddered, rubbing her arms slowly as she looked back and forth between the trainers with wide eyes. When she spoke, her voice was husky and her words trembled under their own weight.

"My daughter is gone."