It was the next day, my team and I had just wrapped up our modified training routine, and I couldn’t find Pausso’s poke ball.
I hadn’t left my bag unattended for long, just for half an hour while I did stretches, sprints, and exercises. I didn’t even notice that his ball was missing until I opened the pouch to pull out my notebook and realized there was no telltale glint of red.
I panicked for about half a minute – what if it had fallen overboard somehow – but then came to my senses. Pausso wasn’t freaking out, so he could probably still sense that his ball was nearby. When I asked him he confirmed that it wasn’t far off, though his sense of it wasn’t fine-tuned enough for him to know exactly where it was.
Then I panicked all over again. The pouch had been closed when I left it behind in my hammock, I was sure of it. I couldn’t think of anything I’d done that morning before training that could have led to me dropping the ball. That meant someone must have snuck by while we were training and taken it out on purpose. And if they had Pausso’s ball, they could recall him without warning, and I wouldn’t be able to stop them, and –
C̶a̶l̷m̸ ̶ d̶o̷w̶n̸, Pausso thought to me forcefully as I started to hyperventilate. Y̴o̵u̷ ̶ d̵o̸ ̵ n̷o̷t̸ ̶ k̸n̴o̵w̷ ̵ t̷h̶a̷t̴ ̷t̸h̸e̸r̴e̴ ̷ i̸s̴ ̸ i̷l̵l̵ ̴ i̴n̷t̴e̴n̷t̵ ̴ a̶f̴o̸o̷t̴. Echo squeaked her agreement and flapped forward to lightly bat her wings against the side of my head, a gentle reminder to not forget her.
I forced myself to take deep breaths. They were right, of course. This could all just be a misunderstanding. And we had Echo on our side this time, and she didn’t have a poke ball so she couldn’t be forcefully recalled. I breathed a little easier at that thought, happy for once that she had refused the ball I made for her.
Though what if the culprit had stolen one of the unused poke balls as well and –
No. I wouldn’t let myself get sidetracked. I would just go from person to person across the ship and ask if anyone had seen Pausso’s ball. If no one would admit to taking it I would demand an all-hands meeting and we’d get to the bottom of the problem. Yes, that sounded like a sensible plan.
The nearest person was Florence, but I immediately disqualified her as a suspect. She’d been training alongside me the whole time, and besides, she was Florence. She wouldn’t take Pausso’s poke ball.
Next closest was Kaiko, who was manning the tiller as usual. I walked up to him with Pausso on one side and Echo flying on the other and took a deep breath, ready to launch right into questioning.
“Alola!” he said cheerfully before I could get a word out. “Beautiful weather today, yes? Your local guardian must have blessed the skies this day.”
I immediately deflated. I had only known Kaiko for a few days, sure, but I’d never seen him in anything other than a good mood. He was kind and fair and he worked hard without complaining. I couldn’t imagine him ever stealing something, especially not something so important.
“It is nice,” I said as I glanced out at the ocean. We were being carried along the coast by a strong wind, and I could see that same wind chase puffy clouds through a bright sky above us. Perfect sailing weather, apparently. “Dunno if it has anything to do with a guardian, though.”
He chuckled. “Ahh, you Johtoans,” he said in an amiable tone. “You are clever in some ways, but you do not understand how to show proper respect to the gods.”
I leaned against the back of the boat and raised my eyebrows at him. “And you do?”
“It is different where I come from,” he informed me. “We give… hmm, what is the word. When you give a thing to one greater than you and expect nothing back?”
“Tribute?”
“Yes! We give tribute to our island’s guardian. In turn, they protect us from evil.”
I knew that I ought to ask him about Pausso’s poke ball, but I was curious now. “How does that work?”
He hummed lightly and pushed the tiller a bit to the right, turning the boat slightly away from the shore. “Take my home, Poni Island. We worship Tapu Fini.” As he spoke he made a sweeping motion with his free hand from the top of his head down to his waist, as if he were pulling a blanket over his head. “In turn, she gentles the sea so we may fish and trade safely. On days when we must not go out, she blankets the ocean with a thick fog as warning.”
I frowned. “But this guardian – she’s a majū, right? Why would she look after humans?”
“Tapu Fini does not only watch over us humans,” he said mildly. “She protects all life on and around the island.”
“But you just said that you fish. Shouldn’t she protect the fish too?”
“You do not understand,” he said patiently. Briefly, he shifted his eyes away from the sea in front of the ship, which he usually scanned continuously, and looked at me directly. “We catch and eat the fish so we may live. Other majū do this as well, like the Bewear and the Pelipper.” He briefly looked up to where Zuri’s Pelipper glided lazily next to the ship and smiled. “When we die, our bodies are given to the ocean. There we will feed the young fish so life may continue. Tapu Fini’s role is to protect all of us, not any one person.”
That sounded like something straight out of The Luxray King, but he said it simply and with conviction, like it was an obvious truth. I nodded briefly, then glanced at the big man sidelong. “It sounds like you miss your home.”
“I do,” he said easily.
“Then why are you here? Why not go back to Alola?”
He still smiled, but there was something a bit painful about it now. “Very few ships sail from Johto to Alola,” he told me. “If I find one that is taking new hands, perhaps I will go. For now, the Relicanth is home.”
I thought about pushing further to find out how he’d ended up in Johto in the first place, but Pausso gave me a little mental nudge. Right; this wasn’t why I’d come to talk to Kaiko in the first place. “Umm, I had a question for you, actually,” I said quickly. “I came up here because I couldn’t find Drowzee’s poke ball. Do you know where it is?”
Kaiko raised his eyebrows briefly, though his gaze stayed fixed towards the front. “I apologize, but no. Perhaps you should ask Sizhen? She knows where everything on the ship is stowed.”
Well, at least I knew where to go next. I thanked Kaiko quickly and looked around. Sizhen was nowhere in sight, so I headed down the stairs to the lower portion of the ship.
Sizhen was indeed busy doing something alongside Aipom next to the side of the ship. I was about to walk over to them when I noticed Isaac working at the ship’s table, with Oddish hanging out next to him. Maybe he knew something?
“Hey,” I said as I approached him. “Have you seen my poke ball? The red and white one.”
Isaac closed his notebook and looked over at me, blinking. “No. Is there a problem?”
“Not sure,” I said quietly with a glance over at Sizhen and Aipom. “Hopefully not.” I looked back at him, then, and grinned. “You’re looking better.”
He had furrowed his brow at my answer, but now it smoothed out. “The Enrui healer gave me ginger root to help with my nausea,” he said with a small smile. “It worked very well, better than I expected. It is good to be able to return to work!”
“That’s nice.” I watched Echo and Oddish as they held an animated conversation next to us. “What are you working on?”
He paused and tapped a hand on the cover of his notebook before answering. “I have been thinking about different containers,” he finally said. “We do not know how the composition of the outer shell affects the performance of the ball. Perhaps we should expand to other materials, like the metal used in the very poke ball you are looking for, and experiment.”
“Maybe. Getting a lot of metal to experiment with would be hard, though.” I hummed as I thought. “Maybe it would be better to add stuff onto the apricorns instead of replacing them completely? Like what we did with the fireproofing.”
His tapping paused. “Perhaps,” he said, eyes distant. “That could work.”
I nodded, then glanced back over at the two crew members again. “I’ll keep thinking about it,” I promised him as I turned to leave. He just nodded absently as he opened his notebook again and started scribbling thoughts down.
As I reached Sizhen and Aipom I realized they weren’t just hanging around; they were actively working on something on the wooden wall of the ship. Sizhen shifted to grab a tool behind her, which let me see that there was a small gash in the wall that let in light from the outside. Luckily it was above sea level, so no water flowed in.
“What happened?” I asked, startled.
Sizhen glanced back at me, then looked forward to the hole in the ship again. “Damage from last night,” she said quietly. “Apparently we dropped anchor right on top of a Kingler’s favorite spot. When he came back and found us in the way, he fired off a warning shot.”
I stared at her. Somehow I had thought that being on a ship made us safe from the crazy wild Pokemon of this era. Apparently I was wrong. “And you just let us sleep through the whole thing?” I asked, dumbfounded. “How did you fight him off?” For that matter, how had we missed such an event when Florence and I and our teams were trading off night watches? Unless Snubbull had fallen asleep on her shift again…
Aipom chittered derisively as Sizhen smiled. “There was no fighting,” she told me as she picked up a small plank of wood from the floor beside her and passed it over to Aipom, who grabbed it with her tail and held it in place up against the side of the ship. “Henry was on duty, and he gave the Kingler the usual offering. After that the majū was content to let us stay for the night.”
My mind flashed back to something that had happened the first night I’d been on the ship. Just after we’d dropped anchor Tanaji had fetched a small cloth bag from belowdecks, then had walked around the perimeter of the ship and slowly emptied it, tossing berries, bits of hard bread, and nuts overboard. I had meant to question him about it, but I’d gotten distracted when Natu appeared on deck clutching a giant seashell and Florence turned to me and Pausso for an explanation.
Sizhen picked up a hammer and a few nails from a wooden box and started hammering the plank into place as Aipom held it steady. I leaned against a nearby barrel to watch. “Is that how it always works? When a wild majū bothers you, you just bribe them and they leave you alone?” I asked, pitching my voice above the hammer.
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Aipom leaned down slightly and frowned at me. “Aie! Poh pom, aipom poh aie. Pohpoh Aipom pom.”
Pausso twitched his ears and looked over at me. S̶h̶e̵ ̶ s̶a̸y̷s̵ ̵ i̷t̸ ̵ i̵s̷ ̷ a̶ ̴ t̴h̵i̴n̷g̵ ̶ o̵f̷ ̵t̵h̸e̶ ̴ s̴e̷a̴ ̵ P̴o̸k̴e̶m̸o̸n̵, he thought to me. B̴o̵r̶d̷e̴r̷s̵ ̵ a̷r̸e̷ ̶ m̷o̶r̷e̵ ̵ m̷a̴l̶l̸e̸a̷b̶l̶e̶,̵ ̵ s̸o̷ ̴ t̴h̷e̵y̵ ̸a̸r̵e̸ ̵ m̷o̵r̶e̵ ̷ o̸p̴e̶n̶ ̵ t̶o̷ ̵ n̷e̶g̶o̷t̴i̵a̵t̴i̴o̴n̶.̸ ̷ A̷n̷d̵ ̸ m̷o̴s̴t̸ ̶ d̵o̴ ̴ n̵o̶t̷ ̶ m̷i̶n̷d̴ ̸ i̸f̴ ̷ a̶ ̵s̸h̸i̴p̴ ̷ p̴a̷s̴s̸e̸s̶ ̶ t̷h̶r̴o̶u̷g̵h̸;̸ ̵ i̸t̷ ̵ o̷n̶l̷y̴ ̵t̴r̴o̷u̶b̴l̷e̷s̶ ̸t̷h̸e̷m̵ ̸ w̷h̴e̷n̷ ̶ i̸t̴ ̵ s̴t̵a̵y̵s̶ ̵ i̴n̴ ̵ o̴n̶e̶ ̶p̴l̶a̶c̴e̵. I nodded, ignoring the twinge of a headache that had crept into my mind from such a long mental speech.
Sizhen didn’t appear to notice that I had already gotten an answer from Aipom, because once she finished hammering the last nail into place she spoke up again. “Most of the sea majū are cooperative,” she said. “A few, not so much. We plan out routes to avoid species like Sharpedo and Jellicent. And on the rare occasions that a majū does not want to cooperate, Pelipper is usually able to take them down.”
As she spoke she hefted a large can of something off of the floor and settled it on top of the box positioned under the new patch. She pried the top off the can, revealing some kind of black substance inside. Then she gestured to Aipom. I watched with great interest as the Pokemon swung down and wrapped her hand-tail around the can. The tail suddenly glowed with a robust red heat – Fire Punch, maybe? Whatever it was, it warmed the black substance up right away and made it look more malleable, almost liquid.
After saying a quiet thank-you to Aipom Sizhen dipped a paintbrush into the substance and started spreading it around the edges of the plank. I watched, feeling almost mesmerized, as she sealed the patch up nicely until not even the tiniest bit of water could make it through.
Then she turned and looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Did you need something?” she asked.
Oh, right. “Drowzee’s poke ball went missing from my pouch. Have you seen it? Kaiko says you know where everything is.”
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I only know where the stowed items are. Gone missing from your pouch… I would blame stowaway Rattata, but since Aipom joined the crew they have all been chased off.” Aipom chittered smugly as Sizhen frowned in thought. “Are you sure you did not leave it somewhere by mistake?”
“Pretty sure.” I glanced over at Aipom, who was using her tail to reseal the can. “Aipom, how about you?”
The Pokemon looked over at me and shook her head. Pausso asked her a follow-up question of some sort and she responded briefly. N̶o̸ ̶ s̷u̸g̶g̶e̴s̸t̶i̸o̴n̵s̷.̸ ̸ S̴h̵e̷ ̶ d̵o̵e̷s̵ ̵ n̶o̸t̴ ̵ s̸e̷e̷m̵ ̵ i̵n̷t̶e̷r̷e̵s̶t̵e̷d̸, he thought to me.
I watched the two sailors speculatively for a moment. One of them could be lying, but I kind of doubted it. Sizhen didn’t seem like the type, and Aipom looked too bored to be involved.
I thanked them and made my way back to the upper deck with my Pokemon in tow, though Echo flew off to hang in a shaded portion of the deck as soon as we came up into the sun. Half the crew had been eliminated, so that left just three more people to ask. Zuri and Henry were discussing something in low voices by the main mast, and they looked a little suspicious, so I decided to ask them first.
I crept as quietly as I could up towards the mast until I could finally hear some of what they were saying. “… of them,” Zuri said as she peered through a telescope towards the ocean. “I think we can expect a visit by tonight.”
“I still say you humor the child too much,” Henry commented. “Better to –“
I had been so focused on being quiet that I walked right into one of the taut ropes that held the sail up against the mast. I let out an oof noise as I wheeled my arms to keep from falling over, and of course the two adults noticed.
“Ah, Monroe,” Zuri said as she slid the telescope closed. “Need something?”
Might as well leap right into it. “What’s going on?” I asked immediately. “Who is visiting tonight?”
“You heard that?” Zuri shrugged. “An, ah, unusual acquaintance of ours. You will find out soon enough.”
“Calling her an acquaintance is a stretch,” Henry muttered.
There was no reason for them to be this cagey… unless… I took a step back, my heart hammering, and sent a feeling of anticipation to Pausso so he would know to be ready. “Did you take my poke ball?”
They both blinked at me. “What?” Zuri asked.
“Drowzee’s poke ball is missing.” I took a deep breath, then glared at them. “Did you take it so you could give it to your acquaintance? Don’t lie to me!” Pausso snorted from slightly behind me, and I could feel his mind thrumming, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
I waited for Zuri to look angry or smug, but she just looked bewildered. “What?” she said again, tilting her head slightly to the side.
“Why would Blackbraid want a poke ball?” Henry asked, sounding equally confused.
I looked from Zuri to Henry, then back to Zuri again. They looked confused and a little concerned. They looked… innocent.
Great. I had leapt to conclusions and fallen straight into the pit of misconceptions.
“You didn’t take Drowzee’s poke ball, did you.” My face felt horribly hot all of a sudden. “Umm. Sorry.”
Zuri tilted her hat back and gazed down at me. “What an odd thing to assume,” she said mildly. “Trust me, boy; if I ever decide to take something from you I will do so to your face, not by skulking about like a damned coward.”
That was… somewhat concerning. Still, I nodded and glanced back at Pausso, motioning that it was okay to stand down. “Okay. Umm… why won’t you say who this acquaintance is, then?”
“You would not believe us,” Henry said in a dry tone. “She needs to be experienced firsthand.”
And that was even more concerning. Well, I supposed I would find out what that was all about soon enough.
I muttered another apology and quickly backed away. The heat slowly left my face as I thought things through. Zuri and Henry were cleared, and I doubted Pelipper would steal a poke ball without his partner knowing about it. That left just Tanaji.
And come to think of it, wasn’t Tanaji the most likely suspect? He wanted to become a trainer, after all. Maybe he had just borrowed the ball to see what it was like. Though I shouldn’t make assumptions after what had literally just happened.
I made my way towards the front of the deck where Florence and Tanaji sat against the side of the ship. Florence had settled into her post-training cool-down session. It looked like she had already distributed water and pick-me-up berries to her team; now she was focused on Skiploom, who perched on her lap as she carefully dribbled water over his flower.
“Grooming is another thing to keep in mind,” she told Tanaji in a serious tone. “And every majū’s needs are different, just like with diet. Skiploom needs fresh water twice a day and baths at least once a week.” Skiploom chirped his agreement with her statement. “On the other hand, Natu prefers dust baths. I learned that the hard way the first time I tried to get them both to bathe at the same time,” she said, making a face.
“Good to know,” Tanaji said. Then he noticed me standing nearby and smiled. “Hello!”
I knew better than to make accusations this time, but I also wasn’t going to beat around the bush. “Hey Tanaji. Did you borrow Drowzee’s poke ball? Or have you seen it on the ship?”
“No,” he replied automatically. Then he frowned. “Why, is it missing?”
My stomach plummeted. Tanaji had become a friend over the past few days, and I didn’t want to doubt him. “Yes,” I said even as I started mentally listing what would have to happen next. I could gather the whole ship together but now they all knew what I was looking for, and if someone had taken the ball they would have figured out an alibi by now, and –
“Monroe,” Florence said in a confused tone, “you know where Drowzee’s poke ball is.”
I stared at her. “I do?”
“Half an hour ago Charity asked if she could borrow it,” she said in the slow and steady voice she reserved for people who were acting especially stupid. “You said yes.”
“I did?” I wracked my brain, trying to remember what she could be talking about.
Wait. There had been a moment when I was right in the middle of doing push-ups. Charity had come down to the lower deck and said something, but I had been too preoccupied to listen. I’d just grunted in response, and then she had left.
Really? Was it actually that simple?
I didn’t waste any more time talking to Tanaji or Florence. Instead, I ran up to the very front of the ship where Charity was sitting cross-legged with her back to the rest of us. I rushed forward with Pausso right behind me and in moments I was looming over her and could see what she was working on.
Oh, thank Mew. Pausso’s ball was indeed sitting right there.
“Hello there,” Charity said cheerfully as she leaned backwards to look up at me. Then she looked puzzled. “Are you alright?”
I quickly snatched up the poke ball, then sighed in relief. It was safe. Pausso was safe. I shared a brief feeling of relief with him as I carefully stored the ball back in my pouch. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Though Charity, I never said you could borrow this.”
She looked hurt. “You did too! I asked if it would be okay, and you said,” she paused, then adjusted her voice into a breathy kind of grunt, “sure.”
“I did not! I was just – that’s just what it sounds like when I’m exercising!” She didn’t look very convinced. “Seriously!”
“Then I suppose I am sorry,” she said carelessly. She didn’t really sound sorry, but she kept going before I could press her on it. “More importantly, your Drowzee’s poke ball is fascinating! The outer material is different, of course, but have you noticed that the button works differently too? There are some strange parts around the inside of it.”
“Umm, yeah. I thought it would be best to go with something simple for ours.” I frowned at her. “You didn’t mess with it, did you?”
“I only looked,” she promised. “What I could see was impressive already! It looks like some of the components are embedded within the walls. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to construct such a device, especially working with metal!” She smiled up at me. “You said your father makes these, yes? He must be very talented.”
“He is,” I replied as I sat down against the side of the ship next to her. Pausso chose to stay standing so he could lean against the side of the ship and peer off at the water. “Though he doesn’t make poke balls by himself. He works with a team of people, like how we all work together.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, of course. Dad’s company had factories that actually constructed the various types of poke balls using robots and stuff; he’d taken me on a tour to see how it all worked once. But it wasn’t like I could tell Charity that.
Or could I? I looked at Charity sidelong, speculating. She did tend to have good ideas about poke ball construction, and she’d noticed a lot about Pausso’s ball just by looking at it. Maybe she’d be able to figure out the gold and silver ball too?
Well, there was no point in telling her now. Celebi’s ball was hidden back at home, after all, and we had more pressing concerns to worry about. If I couldn’t figure out what to do next after seeing the strange device Zuri had talked about, maybe then I would tell Charity the truth, and Isaac too.
Maybe.