The Cannibal

by Ross Destroyer of Worlds

The world has rules that keep it peaceful as long as most people don't realize that they're there. Yet the ones who do realize it use this knowledge for their own gain at the expense of the other inhabitants of the planet, in short they are monsters. I too am a monster, but a monster with a weakness in the form of sympathy. And with my weakness I will protect them from my own kind.

Chapter 1: Realist on an Idyllic Planet

As the light began to fade away from the corners of the sky the shadows that spanned the cold alleyways of the city stretched and expanded, filling the crevices that were covered in the veil of the evening sun with a midnight blue; and as the darkness spread from the alleyways so did their atmosphere, which was shady in a way that had nothing to do with the permanent state of darkness they existed in. The people of the city lived in two distinct factions: those who walked during the day, people in suits likely going to their trivial white-collar jobs or groups of grinning teenagers passing the time simply enjoying the company of their peers as they went off to do nothing in particular, and those who emerged during the hours of the night, people who either were unable to conduct their usual business during the day, or those from out of town who simply enjoyed the thrill of putting themselves in an unnecessary sort of danger for the sake of furthering their (usually poorly-planned) personal adventure. The latter group of nighttime visitors are part of the curious phenomenon that is the young pokemon trainer on their journey of which the goal can be many things, from becoming the crowned League Champion to simply leaving their hometown before they get caught in the trap of a daily routine forever.

Many of these trainers are the idealistic sort, conquering their obstacles and opponents with nothing more than willpower and the trust they have within their pokemon. While it may seem foolish for people of such a young age, to say nothing of the particularly reckless people the lifestyle attracts, to go out on their own into the few places they can find that can are actually dangerous, it seems that the almost child-like naivety (for they are often not much more than children themselves) of these trainers seems like a prophecy for certain doom; it is not so. The world they live in is inhabited with creatures that could, if they were so inclined, raze humanity and its works; yet despite humanity having given them fairly convincing arguments for their destruction over the years they are content to not only allow humans to exist, but to join them as the faithful subordinates of humans. The world they live in seems so perfect, and yet the perfection is only kept in place by the inability for the people and pokemon to fathom the capacity they have to cause horrors to occur; for if they cannot conceive of acts of malice they cannot commit them.

However there are those who can, people who either by experience or by nature realized the horrific potential of their world. These people are distinct even from the common criminals in this world, as they see the rules of the world for what they are: abstract and unenforced; and as such have the advantage of not being bound down like the rest of the populace. People like that could easily carve themselves a spot on the top of the metaphorical pyramid, and most do. But then there comes an unusual case, one who sees the world for its ripeness for exploitation and yet feels uneasy about doing so; one who recognizes that the true monsters are not the ones who are used to battle. That person is me, and I have come to see that I am one of the monsters, so I will be the monster that fights monsters. After all, he who fights monsters need not take care that he becomes what he fights if he is already one in the first place.