This is what border control was. What border patrol was. It was two men standing at a traffic gate. Trading positions in the glorified toll booth every hour. Talking about nothing. Bemoaning the lots their deployment had cast for them. Bemoaning the upcoming hourly patrol of the sixteen kilometer stretch of worthless land they'd be assigned. Patrolling that sixteen kilometer patch of land. Checking sensors. Clearing errors, obstructions, nature itself. It was finding nothing. It was going back to the glorified toll booth and reporting an all clear. Just like yesterday. Just like last week. Just like last month.
It was that. Again. And again. And again.
Taro sighed and looked over at Hayate; his partner was slumped over in his stool, napping, instead of checking a suite of monitors and listening to an open channel for any updates from an adjoining station - of course, none ever came.
"Hey! Hayate!" called out Taro. He stood and strode over to the booth and rapped his knuckles sharply against the glass. "Wake up," he added, "The security of all of Kanto is at stake here and you're napping." He suppressed a smirk.
His partner stopped snoring and raised his head slowly, yawning all the while. "Oh, forgive me, I nearly forgot, I have to help hold back the tide of degenerate Sinnohans that are just waiting for us to slip up and run through," he mumbled sleepily. He sat up and stretched. "Fuck me man, I thought Rangers had a pretty good gig running for them, instead we've got this shit. Watch this patch of dirt and trees. Patrol this patch of dirt and trees. Look at this huge fence we erected. Look at these fancy cameras and sensors and psionic detection arrays and ectoplasmic interference antennae and blah, blah, blah." He turned to the array of monitors in front of him and scanned them, eyes glazed over. "Nothing ever happens, unless you count that group of Trainers from Johto that passed through," he added, disappointed, as he stood up from his stool and leaned against the wall of his booth.
Taro nodded and leaned a shoulder against the door frame of the booth and looked about its gray interior. He felt sleepy just looking at it. "Honestly, I was kind of hoping one of them were from Sinnoh," he admitted.
"What? Why? You wanna turn someone away from the region that badly?" came the reply from his partner.
"Nah, that's boring. I just want to know why they're even trying to get through. The law's clear as can be. It's not like the government was tight-lipped about all the measures they put up to keep them out of the region," he reasoned. "So I figure, hey, something must be making you desperate to even try, right?" He pulled the pistol from his holster and racked the slide back far enough to check for a round in the chamber. Satisfied, he pulled the magazine out and ran his eyes across the neatly stacked bullets. With a snap he drove the mag home again and holstered the pistol.
Instinct at this point – routine check performed every hour, but after the hundredth time it became quite clear to Taro that the bullet wasn't going anywhere until next month, when his deployment ended and he'd spend a fair chunk of his time in target practice. Evidently, the trees were becoming particularly unruly along Kanto's borders and the Rangers' collective accuracy was not up to par.
"When's the next patrol?" he asked after a long silence. It took less than three days for all sense of awkwardness to vanish from these pauses. He and Hayate had reached a mutual understanding that there were going to be a great deal of them.
Hayate checked his watch. "Hm, 'nother thirty minutes maybe?" he replied. He shrugged and looked out the window of the booth down the long, tree-lined path that led up to the gate. "Give or take, who cares? There won't be anything. We could skip it and it wouldn't make a difference."
With a sigh and shake of his head, Taro said, "No. We're not skipping a patrol, no matter how boring and useless they are."
His partner let out a groan and threw his hands up in exasperation. "Oh come on," he whined, dragging out the last word, "These patrols suck. Most of the other ranger stations don't bother with 'em anymore. Least, not as much as they should anyway. But no, we've got you and your by-the-books ass right here goin', No Hayate, we've been given a set of duties and we will complete them." He crossed his arms. "S'fuckin' boring man."
Taro walked away from the booth and leaned against the mechanized sliding fence. "Doesn't matter, they're not patrolling an actual route into and out of Kanto," he called back to his friend. He was surprised however, at how little traffic a checkpoint so close to the 22/23/26/28 four-way junction saw. He looked about – high tree density, clean breezes, sitting in a natural valley; the entire route was picturesque, he would have expected picnickers or something. Then again, he was already tired of the scenery, maybe everyone nearby was too. He shook has head. No, there were far better reasons for this desolate road.
They, like most everything that seemed to be creating tension these days, were wrapped up in politics. His mind lingered for a moment on a close classmate that had moved out to Goldenrod. Nothing she told him over their infrequent phone calls pointed to a Johto that was particularly happy being a natural neighbor and "younger brother" to Kanto. The region, she told him, saw Kanto as a brother that was a little too happy about dishing out "tough love."
They'd pressed the region into helping solidify anti-Sinnohan policies in this region of the world by "kindly" suggesting a few travel restrictions for Johto to implement. Thoroughly interested in not having to buckle under a few choice trade sanctions that Kanto was just mumbling about, Johto relented. Sinnoh, in response to the increased restrictions on their citizens visiting the region, wasn't pleased; though in comparison to the positively frozen relations between Kanto and Sinnoh, Johto had managed to maintain relatively open (though very cool) relations.
Taro turned from the fence and kicked at the dirt. He didn't agree with the ban that kept all Sinnohans from entering Kanto – but he also didn't disagree with it. His region had presented a good enough case for rejecting entry for residents of the region.
Ancient history, and the Sinnohans got to poking about in it. And then to poking about in something else. And now they were marrying them.
"You think it's true, Hayate?" asked Taro.
Hayate looked taken aback. "What? Of course I think it's true; it's a gigantic waste of time," he replied. The confused look on Taro's face led Hayate into a groan of annoyance. "You weren't listening were you?" he asked. With a sheepish grin of apology, his partner shook his head. "Forget it. If I can't even hold your attention, I'm not going to convince you to give up going on patrols." He pinched the bridge of his nose and then added, "Do I think what's true?"
"Sinnohans are marrying Pokemon," said Taro, "Er, again, too, if those old folk tales have a shred of truth to them. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me." He pointed to Hayate. "Like Aiko. Would you marry that?"
His partner threw his head back in laughter. "Of course they're marrying them man, haven't you seen the pics and vids circulating? Creepy as shit, man," he returned.
"I don't care enough to pry into what's going on over there," reasoned Taro, "It just doesn't interest me. This is my job, so I do it." He gestured at the fence and booth.
"Oh man, just listen to yourself. I mean, Aiko? Man, she's covered in venomous spikes. And scales. Looks cool as shit, but crawling into bed with that is just a death wish man, she's a fucking tank. Cute as a button when she was just a Nidoran though. But I mean, so are Woopers, and they're probably just as toxic too- Hey! Eyes on! We got a live one!" He pointed excitedly out of his booth at a figure that was approaching from down the road.
The figure grew steadily larger, producing the form of a red-haired woman riding atop a Stantler. She waved to Taro as the Stantler cantered up to the gate. "Heya!" she called to him in a cheery tone. She dismounted and strode up to the gate, brushing windswept hair out of her face. "Mind letting me through?" she added.
Taro looked her up and down. There weren't enough people passing through for him to catch Sinnohans on sight alone, if that was even possible. And if she was one, she was very cute. Blame it on the bright green eyes, he thought to himself. He strode to the gate and pointed to a small rectangular opening in the center. "Produce your ID if you're from Johto, else we'll need your regional ID and passport for Unova, Kalos, or Hoenn. Sub-regions will require a properly stamped sub-region passport and two forms of ID," he said automatically. He cleared his throat pointedly and his eyes flickered to the large sign the fence bore marked, "ATTENTION SINNOHAN CITIZENS: TRAVEL INTO KANTO IS PROHIBITED BY KANTO LAW."
Her eyes widened and she began to rummage in the bag at her side. "Sorry, sorry, I wasn't prepared ahead of time," she said quickly, "Um, here, this should be it." She produced an ID card and handed it to Taro through the opening.
"Thank you ma'am, I'll process it and have this gate open for you when it clears," he responded dully. He strode over to Hayate and handed him the card. "Punch it through," he muttered, "Gonna be another typical day I think."
Hayate took the card absently and said slyly, "Cute, ain't she? Wonder where in Johto she's from. Some mountain town? Got skin like snow." He slid the card through a reader and then pressed it into a slot. "Nice rack too- What the?" With a whir and the quiet buzz of alarm, the slot reader pulled the card completely in and then ejected it, shredded lengthwise. A monitor flickered red and then the words, "FORGERY DETECTED AND DESTROYED. DATE AND TIME LOGGED."
"That was a convincing forgery" said Taro, "Someone in Johto is getting rather rich I'd say." He glanced at the visitor – she was busy patting the Stantler on the side of its neck. "Either way, she didn't notice. Be on guard, we don't know if how she'll react to the news. Let's go." Hayate nodded and strode back to the waiting would-be visitor, who turned away from the Stantler and gave them a cheery smile.
"Heya! The gate didn't open," she said, "Something wrong?"
"Where'd you catch that Stantler at?" asked Hayate, leaning a shoulder against the gate.
The guest looked between the two Rangers, confused, and said, "Uh, near Ecruteak, why?"
"Done your homework, have you?" he replied. "Sorry you came all the way out here just to get turned away. You'll have some warm company for the way back at least, right? Sinnohan." He lingered on the last word and pulled away from the gate.
The woman's face hardened. "I'm not from Sinnoh; I gave you my Johto ID. Which, by the way, you haven't given back to me," she said, holding out her hand.
Taro handed the shredded ID card back to the woman. "Sorry, we ran the ID through our system and the reader spat this back out. It's a forgery," he explained.
She looked shocked. "It has to be some kind of mistake," she said, "I'm just trying to visit my grandmother in Viridian, she's ill and I'd rather not find out she died while I was held up at a gate by some Rangers with a faulty PC. I had that ID issued in Goldenrod, it can't be a fake!"
With a sigh, Hayate made for his booth. "Take care of this Taro, I'm going to fire a report back to HQ," he mumbled, "And use the latrine while I'm at it." Taro waved him off.
"Look ma'am, I understand you're upset, but I'm not letting you through. You know the legislation as well as I do, I'm sure it was publicized a considerable amount back in Sinnoh," he explained. "Save it," he added, when she opened her mouth in outrage, "You're not getting through. I was given clear orders, and sob stories do not fall under their purview."
The Sinnohan clenched her hands around sections of the chain link fence. "Listen," she hissed, "Sinnohan or not, my grandmother is actually ill and I'd like to see her before she dies. For the love of Arceus, just let me through; I'm going what, a three day walk away from the border to Viridian City? Then leaving after I stay with her for a night." She shook the fence slightly. "Please. You can accompany me if you want."
Taro's hand went instinctively for his gun. "Sorry to hear that ma'am, but I must ask you to move away from the fence and not attempt to topple it," he commanded, "And either way, I'm not letting you through. I am here to enforce the law, not help a poor soul break it."
She let go of the fence and ruffled her hair in anger. "Fine," she spat, "Fine." She threw her hair out of her face and returned to her Stantler.
Taro watched her mount it and canter away. It was a shame, she really was beautiful.
"Probably the most excitement we'll see for the next few months," he muttered. He turned back to look for Hayate in the booth, and upon seeing it still empty smirked. "I'm not cleaning the latrine if you ruin it," he mumbled to himself. He strode into the booth and checked the monitors, then the road again. His heart skipped a beat. "Oh, no no nonono FUCK," he shouted as a far more unusually shaped figured tore through the sliding gate. The woman and the Bastiodon she was riding came to a stop in the door of the booth, where the tremendous head of the Bastiodon almost completely blocked the threshold. Taro drew his gun and aimed it at the Bastiodon. It stared back at him with lazy eyes and yawned. "Confident, aren't we?" he said.
"Luxray! We're getting out of here!" came the voice of the Sinnohan from behind the Bastiodon. A loud cry rose in the air alongside the sound of a pokeball opening and producing its contents. Lighter footfalls than the Bastiodon's sprinted off, presumably into the woods, and Taro managed to catch the woman cry out, "Return!" The Bastiodon blinked at Taro and dematerialized.
Fortunately, the red beam had now become a fleeting contrail for him to follow, and so he tossed a pokeball into the air, producing the majestic form of a Rapidash. He mounted it and squeezed its midsection with his legs. "Shohei, into the woods, we're following that Luxray," he said to it. The Rapidash reared back and then launched itself into the forest.
It was now that the monotony of his post came to his aid – he'd been in these woods, traveled these woods, shit in these woods, and now he was going to track in these woods. Tare allowed himself a smirk. Perhaps he should have thought better of his wish.
The forest was thick, but not too thick that he couldn't take advantage of Shohei's speed, though he felt trees brush uncomfortably against the arms of his jacket at times. He wheeled his head about constantly, ears straining to hear the Luxray sprinting away from them over the sounds of trees whizzing by and the loud gallop of his Rapidash. He could only just manage to make it out, but it was growing stronger.
The Sinnohan ruffled the side of her Luxray's neck as they sped through the trees. "Good thing you see through these things right?" she cooed. With split-section decision making out of the way, all the Pokemon had to focus on was taking the most winding path through the trees in an effort to throw off the Ranger. The gallops that had been following behind them were getting louder, and so she added, "They're catching up. Take as winding a path as you can, as fast as you can, alright?" The Luxray gave a grunt of affirmation and began to weave more erratically through the trees.
Meanwhile, Taro cursed his partner's bowels. He and Hayate were assigned complimentary Pokemon – Hayate's pidgeot, Takuya, could cover huge amounts of ground quickly, get close to runners and allow Taro to track the bird down using a GPS device and a band wrapped around Takuya's leg. Without the pair, however, the going was significantly tougher than it should have been. He kept his eyes trained on the ground - blurred prints zipped by him, confirming that they were still on the right path. Once or twice, he swore he saw the figure of the Sinnohan in the distance. A realization struck him. "Ease up," he called down to Shohei over the din, "We're coming up on the cliff." The Rapidash's pace slowed to a canter, and Taro drew his pistol. He scanned the forest about him - the footfalls were growing fainter, but that would matter very little in a moment's time. "This way, keep following the prints and broken twigs."
The Luxray came to a halt at a cliffside that overlooked a huge section of forest and a small river a hundred or so feet below them. "Well this is a problem," mumbled the fugitive, "See anywhere we can get down?" The Pokemon's eyes flashed as it glanced about the area. It bowed its head and whined. "Damn. We've gotta figure something out." She wheeled the Luxray around and was met with the Ranger she'd been running from emerging from the forest.
"That's far enough I think," called out Taro. Shohei came to a halt and snorted as Taro dismounted. "Get that Luxray back in its ball. If you comply I'll have you back across the border instead of what protocol dictates," he continued. He gestured meaningfully at the Luxray with his pistol and then trained the gun back on the Sinnohan.
She didn't budge. "What does 'protocol dictate' then? Shooting me?" she retorted.
Taro sighed and launched into an explanation, "No, protocol dictates I take you in, restrain you - which I'll have to do anyway so you don't pull something dangerous, sorry - take you back to the station, call in the breach, and hand you over to veteran Rangers responsible for delivering you to the Viridian Branch Ranger Station. You'll be processed there, slapped with a heavy fine, and detained until we finish working out your deportation and contacting your home region - you're usually then deported straight there. Unless it's a determined repeat offender."
"Wait, what happens to repeat offenders?" she replied, distracted.
He paused and considered the girl. "Not worth my job. Need-to-know only, and you sure as hell don't need to know." He pointed the pistol at the Luxray again and commanded, "Now get off that damn thing, stick it back in its ball and come quietly. The last thing you want is to pay one of those fines." He pointed in the direction of the tremendous fence that now lined much of Kanto's borders and added, "How else do you think we're paying off that thing? It wasn't cheap, and your fine is going to make you seriously reconsider having been stupid enough to try to breach the border in the first place. I'm doing you a favor, so just come on."
The Sinnohan bit her thumb pensively and then glanced down at the Luxray. It turned its head towards her and let out a soft growl. She nodded. "No, no, I don't think so. I'll take my chances," she said at last. "Jump for it Luxray!" The Pokemon wheeled about and threw itself from the cliff towards the river below.
"No! Damn it, what is wrong with you?" shouted Taro. He ran up to the edge of the cliff and saw the two splash into the water. "Shohei, we need to get down there," he shouted at his Pokemon. It cantered up to him and he mounted it. "Absolutely insane, that river's like three feet deep."
Below, the Luxray crumpled into the riverbed amid a loud howl of pain and ominous cracking sounds. The water felt like concrete to the Sinnohan; she had lost her hold of the Pokemon a dozen or so feet from the water as they fell and plunged shoulder first into the shallow river. She felt her right shoulder collide painfully with riverbed and a muffled crack alongside it - the pain alone nearly knocked her out. Coughing and sputtering, she staggered out from the deceptive flow of water and collapsed onto its banks, sharp throbs of pain coursing through her shoulder and arm. Behind her she heard her Luxray howling and splashing in the shallows, trying vainly to make its now useless forelegs cooperate. She raised a shaking arm up and recalled it.
She laid on her back for a moment, each cough and sputter sending more pain through her shoulder. When she'd emptied her lungs of excess water, she prodded her injury lightly with a finger - pain shot through her shoulder again and through grit teeth she yelped. She let her head rest on the bank and looked up at the cliff above her. She wasn't dead at least. A terrible mistake overall, and she'd be caught for sure, but she wasn't dead. She almost chuckled. For all the trouble it caused her, the sound of the river was at least pleasant. Perhaps too pleasant.
Pain, terrible, blinding pain woke her - something had kicked her shoulder. With a shout she tore her eyes open and saw the Ranger looking down at her with a sour expression. "Don't touch my shoulder!" she shouted, blinking tears back.
Taro sighed. "Not the most intelligent idea there, Sinnohan," he began, "Why would you throw yourself into a river in a place you've never been before?"
With a snarl, the Sinnohan shouted, "I have a name you fuck, it's Kiyoko; you mind calling me by it?" Pained and bitter tears ran down her face. "You ready to take me back? Process me and dump me back in Sinnoh because the idiots sitting around in fancy chairs back in Saffron think we shouldn't be here?"
He looked at her. "Taro," he said at last.
Kiyoko's brow furrowed. "What?" she said.
"My name is Taro. I never asked your name, and I apologize. Honestly didn't think I'd have to, really. It was rude of me in retrospect," he explained. He looked about and clicked his tongue. "Shohei, don't wander too far off, even if there are some berries nearby," he called out. A loud snort came from somewhere in the brush. "Even if they're your favorite." He looked back down at the girl and sighed. "Why are you here?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Are you serious? I'm here to visit my dying grandmother like I said back at the border crossing," explained Kiyoko through grit teeth. "What did you think I was going to do, look at me!" Wit her good arm she gestured up and down her body. "See any room for something suspicious?" At this, her eyes widened. "Oh no, where's my bag?"
Taro looked out at the river. "Gone by now. Took me about ten minutes to get down here," he reasoned. "Unless you had something heavy in it to weigh it down."
"Just clothes," said Kiyoko. "And a charm I had blessed in Celestic…" She laid her head against the riverbank again. Tears rolled down her face. "Well, just take me back I guess. I'm not going to show up empty handed at my grandmother's deathbed when that charm might have saved her. Between that and my screwed up shoulder and my Luxray's broken legs…" She let her head fall to one side. "Just take me back."
Taro considered his options. Cute or not, she wasn't supposed to be here. She'd run from a Ranger, broken Kanto law, destroyed a border checkpoint - but she also threw herself off a cliff in an effort to get a simple charm to her grandmother. Her dying grandmother.
Still, it was just a charm. What could charms really do? Blessings came from mythical Pokemon directly, not from someone that runs a shrine dedicated to one. It meant an awful lot to her though. Enough to give up on trying to get into Viridian at all. Who gives up on seeing their dying grandmother over a charm?
A click in the air. She looked up and saw Taro facing away from her. "Shohei, get back here. We're combing the riverbank for a bag," he called into the brush. A moment later, the Rapidash emerged and rubbed its nose against his arm. "Eat your fill? Or did you gorge yourself like you usually do?" He glanced over his shoulder back at Kiyoko. "Viridian?"
She stared for a moment, and then comprehension dawned on her face. She nodded.
"Try something, we get caught, whatever might compromise my job - you're getting thrown to the houndooms. I'll help, but I'm not losing my livelihood over a pretty face. I'll see to your shoulder when I get back. I can't have you running off on me. Do we have an understanding?" The last words came out at almost a whisper.
Kiyoko closed her eyes and sighed. Her shoulder was busted and her Luxray was crippled. He had a gun, the lay of the land and his training behind him. "Best I can hope for. We do." she said.