Chapter 25: Knowledge, part I
Turo walked out of the classroom feeling pretty lightheaded, and definitely not because of his current physical state. That painting of "Professor Olim" had shaken him; it couldn't be a coincidence. It had to be proof that he and Sada would manage to find a way to travel through time, there was no other explanation.
Seeing it had also suddenly brought another memory of his to mind: that time he had travelled to the future with Ortega and Moreau, and how that teenage girl seemed to know him... Or at least, had definitely recognized him.
"Aren't you-"
She had been on the point of saying something. And now, with Sada's - because it had to be her- painting giving him a clue... Maybe she knew him because he was actually supposed to go back there, in the future? That had to be it! He would find a way back, and... and do whatever that girl knew him for.
Maybe he had been the lead programmer between some new Artificial Pokémon... Wait.
Yes! Of course!
Iron Leaves! That's why she had looked at him so weirdly! He was supposed to become the creator of the very Pokémon he had asked the name of!
The sheer absurdity of the situation made him laugh out loud, not caring about the weird stares he was getting from various classmates that were walking out of class along with him. Clavell stopped rearranging some notes and threw him a weird look.
« Turo... Are you sure you're all right?» he asked quietly, furrowing his eyebrows in worry.
« I'm perfectly fine! I feel great!» Turo answered, shoulders still shaking with laughter.
« You don't look fine... You're shivering.» Sada added, approaching after having bid goodbye to Raifort. She touched his forehead with her hand, her fingers feeling cool at the touch.
« I'm fine. I'll just go to the infirmary to lay down a bit-» he answered, before stumbling and having to prop himself up against the wall. He took a long, hard breath, gasping for air. Of course he had been laughing himself silly just now, but his chest hurt, and his throat felt particularly swollen.
Sada's hands clamped over his arm, the woman holding him up almost by force.
« Clavell... W-what is happening?»
Turo felt the man hold him by his other arm.
« Let's get him to an hospital. Just to be safe.»
The two escorted him out of the Academy, Clavell calling for a Flying Taxi immediately after. As they waited for the vehicle on the edge of Uvanja's infamous staircase, Turo sat down on the first step, resigning himself to amused stares by kids that were walking down the stairs.
Great.
Not only had he made a fool of himself every single morning when he just worked here as he panted and gasped his way up, now he had to look like someone that would struggle even walking down them.
Which... admittedly... He kind of did, since one of his usual tripping accidents would send him rolling all the way down so he was especially careful, but that wasn't the point!
« C'mon, Sebastian, I just caught a cold... I don't want to lose the entire afternoon on some dumb visit-» he grumbled.
Clavell was simply staring at the sky, lips thin as he refused to look at both of them.
« ... What was the deal with that painting? You were whispering something in that weird dialect of yours... Which is quite rude to do in front of others to obviously hide what you are saying, I will have you know. » He said after a moment, and Turo flinched, suddenly feeling guilty.
Clavell... Had helped them so much, without asking for anything in return.
« ... You wouldn't believe us anyway.» he muttered after a moment, which only made the older man furrow his eyebrows even more.
They were interrupted by the arrival of the Flying Taxi, which made Turo's breath more difficult for a completely different reason. He had seen them flying overhead, but never actually used one.
« We're... We're getting into that?» he asked as it landed, the Squawkabilly that were carrying it filling the air with their loud chattering. Were those things seriously held up only by these little bird Pokémon? They barely looked bigger than Miguel! He thought they must have used... rotors, or fans, or... some other, safer method of propulsion.
The pilot stepped out of the vehicle and took a look at all three, his face mostly hidden by the reflective glasses and helmet. He looked well built, tall and with a square jaw.
« All right, three people... To better distribute the weight, one of you will have to ride in the passenger seat next to me. » he said as he lit a cigarette.
Clavell gasped, outraged.
« No smoking on school grounds! I hope you don't smoke in the cabin? Especially while carrying young trainers?» he asked in disbelief. The pilot rolled his eyes, annoyed.
« Of course I don't. The Squawkabilly don't like the smoke.»
Turo, meanwhile, had other worries.
What did he mean, "distribute the weight?"
« Why are they different colours? I've read they fight each other if their feathers are err... different.» Sada commented, which didn't help Turo feel safe.
They did what now?
« Oh, don't worry. They've been specially trained to get along. It actually works out pretty well if you make a group of different colours, you know? They get really competitive over who can fly faster.» the pilot shrugged, exhaling a ring of smoke.
Turo watched as Clavell and Sada climbed inside... Why was she getting on so casually? All right, she had no concept of driving security and barely knew what a seatbelt was, but this didn't look safe! When you were flying on a Pokémon, you had a saddle! Or it could at least catch you if you fell off! This was little more than a dingy little can held up with rope by Pokémon apparently famous for fighting each other. Who ever thought this was a good idea?
« I-... I don't think I should...» he began, before Clavell narrowed his eyes at him again from inside the cabin, and he promptly shut up.
... He couldn't make it obvious he had never ridden one of these things.
He was the only one left... seconds stretched by as the pilot finished his cigarette.
« You coming or not? I don't have all day.» he said with a hint of irritation, squashing the cigarette under the heel of his boot.
Turo looked at the Squawkabilly. The biggest one, with green feathers and a nasty scar on his head, glared back at him, squawked, and promptly defecated on the sunroof. He grimaced as he resigned himself to climb inside next to the pilot.
The ride was as raggedy as he thought, the cabin swaying at the slightest wind making his stomach lurch and conversation impossible by the Squawkabilly's loud chattering. At least it was mercyfully short, taking just a couple of minutes to reach the hospital, leaving him confused as he stumbled out of the carriage again. He wasn't used to Mesagoza feeling so... small when flying over it. Yet he knew that it was already Paldea's biggest city in this time... He shook his head as Sada jumped out with a grin, apparently having enjoyed the ride, and joined her and Clavell to pay for the ride. He could ponder Paldea's urbanization's growth another time.
For now, he only needed to worry about... the upcoming visit.
Which actually worried him quite a lot. Not because of what could potentially come up, oh no. But he didn't really have much... how to say... trust in 21th century medicine.
At least they had discovered antibiotics, but the rest... er... he wasn't quite sure at what level of tech they were. Didn't they still cut people open by hand?
Not like he had to worry about that right now... hopefully. He had survived in Sada's time. This couldn't be worse, right...?
---
Sada had found the ride on the little cabin tied to the Squawkabilly absolutely incredible.
What an amazing idea! Talking was impossible, but it's not like they could talk even if they had directly ridden on a Pokémon... and you could carry multiple people and supplies this way!
She would have liked to talk more to the "pilot" about it, so she had given him her number. That had made Clavell look at her weirdly again, while she didn't think Turo had even noticed as he tried to not fall out of the vehicle. He had looked pretty green during the whole ride.
Stepping inside the hospital made her remember when she had woken up in Turo's time. Everything had been... So blindingly bright, and just the concept of buildings had been quite foreign to her. The fact that you could build something that big that spanned entire floors and housed hundreds of rooms and people... Even if she lived at the Academy now which was pretty similar, it still felt quite impressive.
What wasn't similar to the Academy were all the signs she could see everywhere, with long and complicated words that just reminded her how poor her grasp of the language still was. Every time she thought she was starting to figure it out, new words for things she didn't even know needed a name seemed to pop up. Like, apparently, a different type of "doctor" for every single part of the human body.
Sada quickly realized that she would have had no idea where to go if she ever needed to come here alone. Clavell, however, was walking with a certain purpose, so she followed along, trying not to act too clueless about what was going on.
They decided to have Turo do some "exams", which apparently didn't involve answering any kind of questions like those they were supposed to take at the Academy, which was weird. And confusing. Why use the same word? In any case, the exams seemed to involve things like getting a bit of his blood and prickling his skin with tiny little needles, which Sada followed with quite some fascination. So you could tell what illness people had by doing this?
Now they were waiting for a "doctor" to finish examining the results, which he was doing with furrowed eyebrows. Turo, by her side, looked more and more uncomfortable the longer the doctor was silent.
Clavell looked pensive.
« I am... perplexed.» the doctor finally said as he put the results down.
There was a short silence.
« Um... what...?» Turo said, voice suddenly coarse.
« Nothing serious. It just says here that you're allergic to various kinds of pollen... mostly Smoliv and its oil.»
She knew Smoliv was a Pokémon, but she had no idea what an "allergy" was. Turo looked similarly taken aback, his eyes widening slightly. They were still a bit red, along with most of his face.
« I... All right. Um... do I take antihistamines now or...»
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Both Clavell and the doctor were looking at Turo with similarly dubious expressions.
« I'm more surprised that this is news to you. How does someone go their whole life not realizing they are allergic to Smoliv oil? In Paldea, of all places. » the doctor commented. Still with no idea what an allergy even was, Sada could only give Turo an anxious look. It was probably something that just didn't happen in his time, if she had to guess. Was this bad...? She noticed Clavell was narrowing his eyes at Turo, looking deeply in thought.
« I... guess I just never noticed...?» Turo gave an awkward laugh that sounded wholly unconvincing even to her.
« Well, you better start paying more attention to your health now, Sir. Some results of your blood exams are... strange. Muscle mass atrophy, reduced bone density... When I first looked at these,I have to admit I thought I was looking at the results of someone much older.»
A heavy silence fell in the room. Turo looked stunned, face white. The doctor seemed to notice his sudden anxiety, because he chuckled and waved the paper away.
« No need to look like that, it's nothing that we can't fix! You will just need to... pay attention to what you eat and try to exercise a bit more, eh? »
After a long moment, Turo swallowed and nodded slowly.
« ... yes. All right. Sure.» he answered in a small voice.
They didn't talk until they were out of the hospital again, not quite sure what to do. Clavell cleared his throat after a long moment.
« ... I had half an idea you were having an allergy reaction...but you really had no idea? How...?» he asked, causing Turo to give an annoyed sigh.
« Because there aren't any damn Smoliv where I'm from! And before you ask, no, we can't talk about it. » he muttered, crossing both arms to his chest with a stern look.
« And... You, I believe, have no idea what an allergy even is. I've observed you, during class. I know when you simply don't know the translation for something and ask Turo, and when you look completely lost on what a word represents.»
Sada flinched when Clavell's attention suddenly went to her, and looked away, panicked.
« No, I... didn't know the word in Paldean...» she tried her usual excuse, before hanging her head when Clavell just glared at her, not impressed. They both knew he just had to ask her what it was to make it obvious she actually didn't know.
Sada took a deep breath, looking between the two.
... Honestly, she was getting tired of this whole situation. Turo was adamant that they had to keep their secret, but it was obviously straining Clavell's patience. He had put his trust in them, but they hadn't done the same with him. In a way, Turo was repeating the exact same mistake he had done with her, when he had tried to keep him being from a different time a secret from her at all costs.
Would it really be that bad if Clavell knew? Maybe he wouldn't even believe them.
« ... Let's move away from people, and I'll explain everything.» she said after a moment. Turo's eyes flashed with alarm, but Sada glared back at him, copying his own stance by crossing her arms. She was in charge of the situation right now, and she wasn't backing off.
« Let's just... Tell him what happened? He deserves to know.»
Normally, she would have said this in her own mother tongue, but she wanted to make a point to Clavell to not exclude him. The man seemed to notice and appreciate it, his features relaxing the slightest bit. Turo still looked reluctant.
« ... You looked more relieved when you told me the truth. I want to do the same.» she sighed, and that seemed to convince him. He nodded, even if he didn't really look completely on board with the idea.
« ... All right. Let's go somewhere more private. Not that I expect him to believe us.» he muttered.
"Somewhere private" ended up being Clavell's laboratory back at the Academy, after another quite bumpy taxi ride. Even if it was technically open to everyone, nobody except him seemed to use it most of the time, so they could talk without fear of any random passerby overhearing.
To further make the conversation private, Clavell shut the door behind him after they had entered.
Surprisingly, after they had sat down at random at one of the many desks, Turo was the first to speak up, the smallest hint of a smirk coming to his otherwise impassible expression.
« ... What is your theory about us? You've obviously been thinking about it a lot. Just out of curiosity... I want to know how crazy you would think we are after we tell you our version.»
That had been unexpected, but Sada had to admit she was now curious herself. She turned to Clavell, who seemed to have been taken aback. It didn't last long, as the man fixed his glasses and gathered his thoughts before starting to speak.
---
Clavell had to admit, he had expected the two to keep dodging his questions... So he had been pleasantly surprised when Alba had actually decided to stop acting all mysterious. Good.
« Well, let's start with all the evidence I've gathered. » he answered, automatically straightening his posture and adopting his "researcher voice". Feeling the urge to do things proper, he got up and walked to a whiteboard in the corner. Turo's eyebrow raised, but he didn't comment on it. Clavell grabbed a marker, and started to write a bullet point list.
« Let's start with the most obvious things: you appeared in Area Zero, an area that's notably off limits, barely speaking the local language, and with no way to call for help. No documents, no money, no trace of an identity even outside of Paldea. It's like you suddenly dropped in there out of thin air.» he said, writing out every item as he listed them.
« Then, your backstories. Alba, you claim to be from Kalos, yet I haven't found any record of someone named like you in Kalosian school records. Same thing for you and Paldea. I checked when I had to fabricate your documents to get you enrolled at the Academy.» he added, nodding towards Turo.
Neither of them moved nor showed any reaction; these were still quite obvious things that they must know he would have noticed.
Understandable.
« Let's get to your tics-»
« Our what?» Sada blurted out, eyes widening in surprise.
« I've noticed you both have some odd mannerisms. » he calmly answered, alternating looking between the two.
« You, Alba, are hypersensitive to any strange noise... Mostly mechanical or artificial noises, I've noticed. You will also tense up and reach out to grab a weapon as a first reaction to spotting a wild Pokémon. You've tried to disguise it by pretending to raise your hand to your forehead as if you're thinking, but it becomes obvious after seeing it happen enough times. » he explained, before moving onto Turo.
« You claim to be from Paldea yet had no idea we have switched to on-the-road Pokémon Centers for quite some time. You have never ridden a Flying Taxi, and especially in the first couple of days you were always fidgeting around with your hands... Doing weird gestures, pressing and touching things like you expected it to do something. You've also tried to disguise it, mostly by just keeping them hidden in your pocket or gesticulating - yes, like that.» he said as Turo, evidently feeling called out, hid his hands deeper into the pockets of his school uniform with a scowl.
« I could list a lot more, actually... but the final piece of evidence I wanted to discuss were your clothes-»
« What's wrong with them? » the way Turo seized up only confirmed his hypothesis, but Clavell momentarily ignored the man.
« I had my suspicions that Sada's clothes were made of real Pokémon fur the moment I saw them. Woolo or Mareep clothes are nothing strange. Clothes roughly made from Mamoswine fur, of all things... Are a different matter.»
« How are you sure they are made of-» Sada muttered in a low voice.
Clavell simply straightened his glasses, then pointed to the array of lab equipment all around them.
« I'm a biologist. I examined both of your clothes by taking samples of them while you were at work, before you moved into the dormitories. Or at least, I tried to- Sada's fabric matched Mamoswine's DNA found in fossils and the rare living specimen that Piloswine sometimes evolve into.»
Nobody had quite figured out what triggered the evolution yet, but that wasn't the point. He turned to Turo; judging by how pale the man had turned, he already knew exactly what was coming.
« ... Your "scuba diving suit" however left me completely baffled. It's not organic in any way. I wasn't able to even determine the material it's made of, except that it looks almost like there's some incredibly complex circuitry embedded inside it.
If it wasn't impossible, I would tell you it looks like a computer made out of fabric, which as far as I'm aware is beyond our current technology. » Clavell finished writing a big "clothes???" as the last point of the list, then turned back towards the couple. Now was the moment to actually announce his theory out loud; he hadn't done it until now, honestly because a little part of him still thought it was crazy... But science didn't lie. Results didn't lie.
Today had only made him more sure of it.
« My conclusion is that you two... as absurd as it sounds... are not of this world. Rather, not of this time. You've somehow found yourself in Area Zero from a different era... did you?» he asked in a low voice.
A stunned silence fell in the room, only the whirr of a laboratory centrifuge busy preparing some samples breaking it.
If he was completely wrong, this was the moment they would call him nuts. Instead, they both simply sat in silence, Turo with a completely unreadable expression and Sada biting her lip.
« What's a "DNA"?» the woman finally broke the silence with a candid question. One moment later, Turo snorted, then drew both hands out of his pockets to slowly start clapping.
Clavell furrowed his eyebrows, not quite sure what that reaction meant. Was he being mocked, or... ?
« ... Impressive. How long have you known?» Turo asked in a low voice once he was done , making Clavell's heart start to race in his throat. If they were actually admitting to it... the implications...
« Since you got so obsessed with those Scarlet and Violet Books, and desperate to go back to the very place you had just escaped. I had more theories until then: Sada being a feral child raised by wild Pokémon that you found-» he explained, to which the woman started laughing.
« - or you being some weird secret agents on an undercover mission-»
He didn't want to mention the "forbidden romance" theory. He had really liked that one, and letting it go had been hard. He was a bit of a sappy hopeless romantic.
« But nothing really explained all the little reactions I had noticed until I started asking myself what would even cause them. It was a process of elimination after that.»
Clavell took a deep breath; now that he had actually brought it up... he didn't know where to start and what to say. Dozens of questions filled his mind.
It had been his theory, of course, but to actually hear it confirmed... It felt surreal.
« ... When?» he asked after a moment. « From where...?» he didn't finish the question.
Sada lowered her eyes, fidgeting with the helm of her school uniform's skirt as she thought.
« I am from... the "Paleolithic", professor Crayne called it in history class...»
She had said it so casually, but Clavell felt his legs dangerously sway under him. He lowered himself into a chair. It made sense.
« That's why you didn't know... so many things... and the bow... and the clothes, of course... » he then wordlessly turned his head towards Turo, who simply nodded, his face a blank mask.
« I'm from the future.»
He had even less ideas on what to ask next. He didn't ask for confirmation, or proof, because everything he had seen about them just made so much sense if what they had just said was true.
« ... so when you said just now that there are "no Smoliv" where you are from...?» he asked.
Turo frowned and looked away. He seemed reluctant to answer.
« They're long gone. Extinct. More than a thousand years ago from my time. »
So he was at least from a thousand years in the future...? While Sada.. she was...
The centrifuge finished its job with an incredibly loud ding: nobody paid any attention to it as Clavell raised one trembling hand to his face to adjust his glasses. All right. One thing at a time.
« This would have been so much easier if you had just been secret agents on a mission.» he confessed, overwhelmed.
Time travellers. From who knew how far away. Suddenly, little details he had noticed made even more sense. Why Sada had looked so incredibly interested in the past, all the things she didn't know or had never seen before, or why she liked the outdoors so much. Or how Turo would sometimes look frustrated as he typed at Jacq's laptop, or glance out of the great windows of the Academy to look out at Mesagoza with a quiet look of sadness on his face, the weird accents he had never heard before...
Clavell let out a low sigh, trying to put himself in their shoes.
He... He couldn't quite imagine it.
« Just... One thing isn't clear to me. » he said instead in a lower voice. He got up, walked back to the whiteboard, and slowly started erasing his little list of evidence.
« You... You two obviously look close. Yet you said you were in the Crater for barely a month... How...?»
« We already knew each other.» Sada answered. The woman took a long breath, and after exchanging a quick glance with Turo, resumed talking.
« We first met in... in my time.» Sada started.
« My... Um, people in my time have developed time travel -» Turo had just got out, making Clavell drop the eraser to the ground.
« T- time travel?!»
Just how far in the future was he from?
He hurriedly picked up the eraser, glad that he was momentarily turning his back on them to compose himself, before putting the eraser back in its place and turning his attention back towards the two.
« Yes... it's still pretty new even in my time though, and there's extremely strict rules about it. Not something anyone has access to. That's how I met Sada. I... I travelled to her time by accident and we met. » Turo turned to look at the woman and the smallest smile crossed his face as she smiled back.
« He would always come and go... He looked so weird with that bodysuit, but I just thought he was from some faraway tribe... Then he finally confessed the truth to me.» Sada laughed softly as she scooted her chair closer to his.
Clavell couldn't avoid letting out a little gasp.
« You told her you were from the future?» he asked.
« Well it was either that or get stabbed with a spear-» Turo mumbled, but it was an obvious joke - even if said in a completely dry tone- as he took Sada's hand in his, warmth shining through his eyes.
Clavell sighed incredulously.
« Two people from completely different times meeting by chance... So I was right! It is a forbidden romance!» he gleefully exclaimed.
The two both froze and turned to look at him with almost opposite reactions. Turo closed his eyes with a defeated sigh, while Sada furrowed both eyebrows and frowned.
Clavell scoffed and felt himself blush a little bit under her disappointed glare.
« I-I really liked this other theory I had, you see-» he mumbled in his defense, then tried to change the subject.
« Anyway... what happened after that? How did you land here?»
It was Turo's time to answer now, and he did so after a slight hesitation.
« It's complicated to explain, but in short... it takes a special object to travel safely. Sada accidentally tagged along when she shouldn't have and it was evidently... too much. It wasn't her fault-» he mumbled hastily as he furrowed his eyebrows. He looked deep in thought suddenly.
« I keep thinking... why here of all places. That's why we want to go back to Area Zero... properly, this time. We need to explore it completely, not just the upper layer of it.»
Sada opened her bag and took the Scarlet Book out of it, opening the book to one of the many pages with pictures of never seen Pokémon.
« We know these Pokémon are real because they are from our time. So maybe Area Zero has some way of... pulling things from other times. Like with us.»
... so that was their theory. Clavell tried not to get distracted by the enormous implications of mysterious, yet unseen Pokémon from other times wandering without a care in the Crater along with those mysterious crystals, ready to be discovered. His researcher side wanted to bombard them with questions: what Pokémon were they? What types? Were they all similar to modern version of Pokémon? Why did Smoliv go extinct in Turo's time?
His more sensible side decided that doing it wouldn't exactly be polite. They had time to discuss things.
« I see... and you want to study these crystals we've been finding to have an excuse to go back into the Crater as soon as you graduate?»
They both nodded.
« Then you could ask Jacq for help. He's been working on a system to log information about all the Pokémon captured by students. We could use it on a smaller scale for now: instead of all possible information, just the ones that have been spotted or captured covered in crystals like that Flamigo. » he said, and Turo's eyes started shining. He got up and started pacing back and forth.
« Yes... it could work. They will probably be rare enough that students can easily just log them manually: species, what type they seemed to be... location would be ideal... but GPS still sucks in this time...» he sighed as he rolled his eyes, before giving Clavell an apologetic look.
« ... Sorry, but it does. I've looked at the Pokénav from Devon that Jacq got his hands on. Any real time "digital map" that can at most tell you "you're on route 101 right now" barely deserves to be called that.» he scoffed.
... well, that surely explained why he had looked so sad every time he had to work anything remotely technological.
Sada looked thoughtful, staring at an old map of Paldea hanging over the radio that had saved both their lives.
« ... Maybe Raifort can help. She told me that for her Treasure Hunt she wants to travel all over Paldea, checking out old ruins of castles and villages from the time of the Paldean Emperor... she could probably help in mapping the places other students tell us to check out. She's actually asked me to join her.» she said with a little smile. « And I want to do it. It sounds fun. I want to see Paldea, not just Mesagoza and the Crater.»
As they kept discussing things, Clavell could feel both of them visibly relax in his presence. Now that they didn't have to mind every word, every gesture in his presence, they felt more... open to him, each in their own personal way.
Sada asked him again what a "DNA" was, something she would surely just asked Turo about before, because they had accidentally ignored her question earlier.
Turo, meanwhile... well, he seemed to enjoy complaining in detail about the current level of technology, judging by his earlier... how did the kids call it these days? "Diss" at Devon.
He somewhat wished that they would have confessed their situation to him from the start, but he could barely begin to imagine what it must have felt like, to be in their place. Would he have done the same?
He wasn't sure.
But he felt like this was the start of something new. Something huge that would change his life completely.
Clavell pushed aside the thoughts that had plagued him about the Crater since they had discovered those shards. That something was obviously going on in the Crater. That whatever had been limited to Area Zero until now was obviously slowly creeping its way to the rest of Paldea. Thoughts about old legends, and treasures, and curses... that maybe he should be stopping them from going back there.
But... he would be lying if he said that those shards, and whatever else waited in Area Zero, didn't fascinate him too. If it was really possible to change a Pokémon's type... any Pokémon's type, in anything else... that would be the discovery of the century. All they knew about Pokémon biology would have to be rewritten from zero. It was incredible. It was exciting.
And now that his almost too crazy to be true idea had actually been proven... he couldn't just ask them to forget about the Crater. They deserved to know why and how they had arrived here... didn't they?