I remember Chingling quite clearly.

I knew their favorite food, their moves, their favorite place to live in, how they have a more complicated language than us humans and other tidbits of information. The reason why I knew about all of these is only because my teacher is a psychic type specialist after all

I would remember them giving out a lot of random facts about psychic types and he would mention the Chingling line quite as it is his favorite pokemon.

Although some of my memories are rather hazy, there is one fact about Chingling that my teacher would repeatedly mention.

When you see it, there is only one thing you can do.

Cover your ears and hope for the best.

The instant I finished shouting, I immediately pocketed my things, covered my ears, leapt back as far as I could and dropped to the ground.

I just hope my actions are enough to alert the girl and her pokemon that something's wrong. The girl would be fine as she is deaf but I doubt her pokemon can do anything about what's about to happen.

Just as I dropped to the ground. A whole new level of sound is introduced to me.

The ringing had stopped and instead, it was replaced by an ear piercing shrill that resonated throughout the air. My ears are in an instant agonizing pain and it felt like someone's banging on my head with a metal bat all while pounding it like a drum

I shut my eyes close and I bit on my lip, hoping the pain could distract my mind for even a moment. I tried pushing my hands even closer than it already is into my ears, putting a lot of pressure into it and even tried gripping them tightly but despite all that, my body still couldn't help but squirm like a worm.

Ralts.

A single word struck my head.

Ralts... I need Ralts!

My hands trembled, itching, fidgeting, burning with my desire to see Ralts, but there is a slight hesitation coming from my mind.

If I let go of my hands now, the pain would only get worse.

But if I let this go on, let Chingling scream to their heart's content, I might end up with the same fate as the girl.

Deaf.

I sunk my teeth on my lips even further that it started to leak blood. The pain within my ears is torturous and with each passing second, it only gets more painful.

My fingers twitched.

My hand fell off from my right ear, moving backwards quickly and inserted itself smoothly into my pocket.

Pain intensified and items shuffled around. I felt the touch of the objects I kept within but none were those I felt is the one I'm looking for. My fingers wriggled and felt each and every object frantically.

A cold smooth surface grazed me but as my fingers wrapped around it, i realized it was merely a coin, tossing it. I grasped another object and this time it felt like a sphere.

Instant relief filled me and I yanked the item out of my pocket and pressed the button that's on its surface.

I opened my eyes a little, expecting the brilliant red flash that comes alongside with the release of the pokemon.

But there was no flash.

And the item—the pokeball, hung open, empty and unresponsive with no Ralts in sight...

"Huh...?" I blinked.

Something warm seeped through the gaps of my fingers. My mind feels blank and my ears are still buzzing with pain.

There's a strange warmth surging through my body, it felt comfortable for a second but then it started to increase rapidly and it's as if a blazing furnace is just right beside me.

Is this what happens when your ears are damaged to the point of bleeding...?

I'm sorry Ralts...

I groaned, slumping my hand that held the empty pokeball back to the ground. Opening my eyes is becoming a strain as my eyelids feel so heavy. Taking a deep breath in, I closed my eyeli—

An explosion that sounded much louder than Chingling's high pitched screeching awakened me, forcing my eyes to open and be struck with the sight of a flaming ground and a charred surroundings.

"What?!" I tried to yell but I could only hear a muffled, incoherent sound coming from my mouth.

Another explosion erupted near me, sending pieces of rocks and dirt flying everywhere.

"What's happening....?"

The screaming had momentarily stopped as evident by the reduced pain I'm feeling, although my ears are still ringing and throbbing in pain.

Pushing myself off the ground, I am presented with even more destruction.

The ground looks as if it's been painted black and there's fire dancing around everywhere, some even dangerously close to a bush or a plant and at a huge risk of starting a fire.

I glance around, quickly spotting a huge figure that is completely surrounded with flames.

"Ninetales..."

Their head is on the ground, furiously scratching their ears with their paws and they seem to be howling as they did it. Occasionally, the flames covering their whole body would burst and cause a huge ball of fire to erupt.

I distanced myself away from Ninetales while searching for the girl and her pokemon.

I found her h iding behind a tree with one hand clasping her ear but there was no sight of her pokemon anywhere.. She noticed me staring and gestured at me to come towards her fast.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Looking at Ninetales with a frown, I ran to the girl while watching if any stray fireballs would come towards me. None did and I reached the girl without any problems.

She smiled as she saw me and showed her phone, motioning for me to get mine as well.

I complied with it and asked. [What's the plan now? Run away? And where's your pokemon?]

[Gem's fine, in her ball. Do you have any signal? Running away is good but if we leave, the fire would consume this whole mountain, we need to call someone first.]

Some tension left me as I heard the little shadow monster is safe but it returned with even more force as I was reminded by the potential damage the fire would cost.

[I'll check] I typed, taking a look at my phone for any sig—I cursed. [There's no signal!]

The girl grimaced and her fingers became a blur, quickly typing a bunch of words.

[Darn it! The pokemon center should still accept calls without signal right? You know any?]

[I only know Mossdeep's]

[Call that. They can handle this right? I sure hope so.]

My brows furrowed, Pokémon Centers are mainly for healing your pokemon and providing a place to stay, sometimes they are called in an emergency to deal with a dangerously wounded pokemon but a fire? The best case scenario is that they'd call fire fighters or rangers here.

Despite my worries, I still made the call and we waited for it to be picked up.

I couldn't hear the phone ringing as the call was being made but I could feel the tiny vibrations it did. I wondered how I'm going to talk clearly with my ears being useless for now with each vibration making me feel nervous about the incoming call.

Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, it stopped vibrating and I could hear a muffled sound coming from the speaker.

"Hello!" I spoke up, "There's a problem—A fire here in Lilycove at Mt. Pyre."

The person on the other end of the line responded, still being a muffled mess. I don't know what they said but I assume it's about the details.

"Umm I'm sorry, my ears are damaged right now so I couldn't hear very well. The fire is caused by a panicked Ninetales that were trying to stop Chingling from screaming."

More muffled sounds

"There is only me and another person in the area, I—arghhh!!"

The screaming is back. Chingling's screaming again. Somehow still able to hurt my ears more than it already is. Somehow still able to scream in my ears despite sounds being only a muffled mess to me.

I let my items fall on the ground and I covered my ears once more but it did little to no help.

The girl flinched beside me and I could see her wincing.

Was she actually bothered by the sound?

She paused at me, smiling a tiny bit but then turning in to a more serious face and walked closer, reaching out her hands, helping to cover my ears. It offered barely any help and the pain is still there but now, it was more tolerable

A wave of warmth hit me and the screaming suddenly got cut off by an explosion.

I let out a deep breath and almost collapsed on my knees. I gripped my ear tightly, hoping it would just fall off at this point.

The girl patted my shoulder.

"I'm okay, thanks for helping..." I uttered, offering the girl a thumbs up as I picked up my stuff.

I took a look at the situation, finding Ninetales and Chingling in battle with each other. With one sending out fireballs one after another and the other dodging said fireballs with relative ease.

Chingling looks like it wants to scream out loud but Ninetales isn't having any of it, spawning balls of fires nonstop, not giving Chingling any moment to unleash their voice but as this goes on, their surroundings kept getting damaged, turning worse and worser every second they kept fighting and the fire just kept growing.

The mountain really might burn into crisp if the rangers won't come any time soon.

[Hey let's go before the fire surrounds u—] I typed again but I was interrupted by the girl shoving her phone to my face

[We need to do something about them or else the fire would turn everything into ash.]

Do something...?

[We've already called the Pokemon Center, they'll handle this.]

[The fire's spreading too fast! There'd be no mount Pyre when they got here!!!]

I frowned.

The girl bit her lip. [Are you not worried about the pokemon living here? Or the cemetery!? Though it looks like some graves are abandoned, there are people who still frequent here to visit their dead relatives and it is an important part of history. Are you letting it all burn away!?]

[Even so! What are you planning to do!?]

The girl looks down, to the empty pokeball in my hand

I instantly realized what she meant and I clutched the pokeball tight in my hands [No.]

[Yes. We just need to throw that to Chingling and that'll calm Ninetales down.]

[Calm Ninetales down?! They were threatening us the moment they saw us! And how are you even supposed to put Chingling in the ball! It's not a hundred percent catch rate and I can't even expect either of us to be able to accurately throw the ball at them, have you seen them dodge a literal ball of fire!?]

[We'll leave the moment we catch Chingling] The girl typed then paused to write another sentence.

[And don't worry. I'm pretty lucky at things like this. I CAN catch them.]

[Trust me.]

I grit my teeth. Looking at the two pokemon that's duking it out. Although they're both only doing one thing, blasting fire and dodging, the sheer destruction is simply terrifying and if the fire is still getting increasingly stronger.

I thought about the graves of all those abandoned people I saw.

Their last traces on this world might just burn away...

[Fine.]

The girl's face looked happier the moment I said that.

[I have a pokemon that can] I stopped for a moment, biting my lip [help us]

[Oh?]

[I have a Ralts that can teleport us close to Chingling. That'll give you a better aim then after you throw it. Ralts would then teleport us out. Got that?]

[Got it!]

I looked at the girl while sighing then gave her the empty pokeball. I then fish out Ralts actual pokeball in my pocket, took a long look at it then curse and let them out.

Anger. Just plain anger immediately entered my mind as Ralts's form materialized, it was like that for a while but as a second goes by, it just quickly fizzled out and turned into disappointment instead.

I winced at that.

Ralts took a glance at me and quickly turned away, huffing and taking a look around them, their eyes immediately widening

"First off, sorry for not letting you out till now. I'm sorry for recalling you like that without warning and I'm sorry again for taking this long to let you out but—" I stepped in Ralts's view

"—I need you to help us."

He rolled his eyes and pointed at Ninetales and Chingling, anger already returning and disappointment increasing

"Yeah. We need Chingling to be captured so Ninetales wouldn't be angered anymore and so we need you for us to get close to Chingling to get a better aim and for you to teleport us out immediately."

The anger spiked to a very high degree.

"I know it is reckless! I am against it at first but after remembering there are people here whos' only record of them ever existing might get erased. I-I feel like I need to do something.... or I'll let this girl do it all by herself."

Ralts turned to look at the girl and I was worried he'd invade her mind to give her a piece of his mind but he just returned his gaze at me, the anger calming a bit before turning into conviction.

"Thank you."

[Get ready. Hold my hand] I turned to the girl and offered her my hand, pocketed my phone then let Ralts hold my other one.

I took a deep breath and signalled to the girl with my eyes. "Let's go."

The scene shifted. Our bodies adjusted and the warmth increased to the point that my skin felt like it was on fire. Chingling's back is facing us and Ninetales is just right in front of them.

The girl's body shifted as her arm threw the ball, I watched as it flew off her arm, passing through the air and getting closer to Chinglin—Chingling quickly looked back, dodging the ball and opened their mouth and let out a horrid scream that pushed the ball away from them.

I widened my eyes, the pain in my ears spiked for a single moment and the temperature spiked as well.

A burst of flames appeared right in front of us. I reacted fast, pushing the girl away and I jumped to the side, carrying Ralts

Ralts flinched as the flame passed us and I couldn't blame him for his reaction. Although we dodged that perfect and passed us only for a moment, the flame felt like it was directly on my skin, eating away at my flesh.

At least that stopped Chingling from screaming.

I looked at Chingling with a slight glare. We missed. That was it, we tried and it was unsuccessful.

"Let's get out of here Ralts." I urged my pokemon

Ralts didn't respond but I was already moving to where I pushed the girl, only to see them getting up and running back to the ball

"That reckless girl Ahrghhh!!!" I groaned, scratching my head.

After telling her that we only get one chance, she just ignored me and tried to go at it again. Why couldn't she just give up! There is fire everywhere around us. Smoke is starting to fill the air and if we continue to stay, we'd pass out from the lack of oxygen.

I put more force on my legs, hoping to catch the girl but I already knew I wouldn't be able to catch her. I saw it before but she is really athletic, sidestepping through fire and other obstacles and being able to run without stopping or slowing down. It was evident she would get to the pokeball before I can get to here

And so that is why I must do this "Ralts teleport us to the ball!"

I stopped in my tracks and waited as a wave of nausea hit me, seeing a new sight within my vision.

"Stop!" I shouted, grabbing the arm of the girl that' sreaching for the ball.

"Let's teleport out already!" Deaf the girl may be, my intentions are clear with my forceful grabbing of her arm and by the tense expression sitting on my face.

The girl frowned, her eyes piercing through me and her arm not relaxing one bit.

She shook her head.

"We've already lost our chance!!! I—just no! We've failed! There's nothing else for us to do but give up" I sighed.

No matter how much I try to seem desperate to her, I look sad, worried, and scared. She wouldn't budge. Even if I knew she couldn't hear what I'm saying, I still try to argue with her.

But for some reason, as if she knew what I was shouting to her, she responded

She pointed at the two of us and at the pokeball. Again and again until her meaning clicked with me.

We try again.

"I-you! This... argh!" Frustration built up within me and I glanced at Ralts, expecting him to be in disapproval but he was....

Nodding.

"This is idiotic." I said, turning my head down for several seconds before saying "Teleport us Ralts."

I grabbed the girl closer to me and she yelped but her expression turned serious as she realized, getting into position and holding the pokeball in a peculiar way.

The scene shifted. Ninetales's back is facing us this time around, the pokemon still trying to shoot down the elusive floating chime.

If they're gonna go ahead and be reckless, then it won't be a problem if I go reckless myself right?

Hugging Ralts tightly, I leapt past Ninetales, going to the side and reached out my hand towards Chingling.

The said pokemon is surprised to see me. Their mouth opened wide and the ropes in their body straightened up like a cat's tail but their reaction is fast, they flew sidewards and dodge me when my hand was just inches away at their face.

Then they just froze, their body stopping in the air.

I took advantage of it, my hand shutting down on one of their ropes, quickly tightening it and pulling it close to me.

Chingling opened their mouth, taking in a huge amount of air in preparation to scream. I grip their rope hard and I didn't dare let go, using my shoulder instead to try cover my ears

But no scream came.

A half red, half white ball struck Chingling in the head before they could release their voice and Chingling's form disappeared, absorbed by the ball.

It wriggled on the ground as if it was alive, the pokemon inside trashing around, wanting to be released. I couldn't pay attention whether the capture was successful or not though as I felt an increase in temperature in front of me.

"Ah." I let out, seeing Ninetales's with a barely closed mouth, fire burning in their body.

They snarled at me and raised a paw threateningly only to be surprised when a hand is raised at their face

The girl appeared and she put me behind her, her body becoming the obstacle between Ninetales and me.

I stared at her for a moment, seeing her standing so tall without an ounce of fear or any hesitation but a short burst of anxiety tugged at my mind and I touched her hand and then we were gone.

I did not remember much after that, my mind has already reached its limit and I was even surprised at myself for having endured the pain for so long. I know we have teleported as suggested by the mental headache at the back of my head but when I opened my eyes there was no one

Only an empty, white ceiling.