Maka and Soul both wake up early, as the sunlight streams through the thin towel-and-sheet tent. It turns out that Soul doesn't have very much food: their breakfast consists of berries and trail mix bars and she can't see too much else in his travel bags.
"Are you, uh...on a trip somewhere?" she asks tentatively.
Soul doesn't look at her when he answers, focusing all his attention on packing up his blankets in the biggest bag. "Yeah. Something like that."
"A long way from home, I guess?"
"I guess."
They walk outside the tent, blinking in the light and relative warmth, and Soul points out the path down the mountain. She can just barely make out the roofs of Shibusen, poking out of the snow-topped trees, but she can clearly see the full Guild building on the plateau overlooking it.
"Some parts might be a little messed up because of the snow, but they clear out the path pretty widely once you get to the base of the mountain," Soul explains as they take down the tent together, and tie the components to Soul's bag. "There's no twists and turns or anything. You just keep going straight until you hit town, and then it's pretty obvious how you get to the Guild."
Maka gulps. "Thank you, really. For everything."
"No problem." Soul smiles, and she's startled by it, how the light glints off his shiny teeth and adds sheen to his matted head-feather. It's a smile as bright as the sun itself. "You're going to love it down there, Maka. Shinigami's Guild, it's this cool historic place, there's so many Pokemon that become really rich and really famous because of the awesome things they did, because they trained in this place. Everybody who meets them loves them, it's...It must be really great."
"It must," Maka agrees, stifling a giggle. "You should come with me!"
Soul's smile drops just as quickly as it came, and he looks at her with surprise. "I told you I can't, I - "
"You said the Guild was around to help people, right? Well, you helped me last night when no one did. If you think you need to prove your worth to them, that's more than enough, you know."
He lets out a huff that Maka thinks might have been an attempt at a laugh. "Prove my worth. Huh."
There is a long and heavy pause. Soul won't break the silence, so Maka decides she will. "It seems like you've already decided, but if you ever want to change your mind...The Guild's not going anywhere. And neither am I."
"Yeah, well...I'm sure you'll find whatever you're looking for there, I...I have to go someplace else." Without further ado, he turns on his heel and starts for the path behind them, that will take him out through the mountain range and beyond. "Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great."
Maka swallows a sigh, not wanting to make him feel any worse. "Yeah...Stay safe out there!"
There's no response, and Maka watches until he disappears down the slope before forlornly making her own way down Mount Silver.
It's as Soul said: relatively easy. The slopes are high but not narrow or steep, and though there's snow on the ground there's no ice for her to slip on. It takes some careful footwork and some clambering over rocks and snowdrifts three times her height - it had never fully clicked with her before just how small some Pokemon were - before managing to get to the bottom and into the pine forest. The first half of this leg of the journey proved to be more of the same, blowing a rough path through the snow and fallen branches with move. She figured that as long as she was in this body, she might as well try and see which moves she knew, if any. Some had to be instinctual, right?
It turns out that she can do Magical Leaf pretty easily, but has a fair bit more trouble working up what she's pretty sure is a Fairy Wind. She winces when one comes out a big stronger than expected, and knocks down snow and branches and pine needles to the ground with a great crash. But there doesn't seem to be anybody around to be inconvenienced by it, and it all lands in more snow anyway, so she supposes it's all right. They must teach things like this at the Guild, she reasons as she finally steps onto the cleared path, so she guesses she'll learn more moves and better control when she gets there.
At the thought, it's as if someone's dropped an anvil into Maka's stomach. She must be nearly into the town by now...What is she supposed to do, even if the Guild lets her in? It's a Pokemon-run, humanless society, how is she to know the right way to act? No idea what to do with her new, strange body, no idea how to get to her old home or old body, and no memories of them or of anything in the first place - !
She has to stop dead in her tracks, to swallow a sudden lump in her throat. She has a semblance of a plan, okay, and that's comforting on some level, but...She really does have no clue of where she stands or what her next step ought to be. She's never been the type that couldn't stand on her own, she remembers that, but all the same...It would be very, very nice to maybe have someone to lean on right about now -
"H-Hey! Hey, Maka!"
She does not jump six feet into the air out of fleeting terror, thank you very much. But she will admit to being very surprised to turn around and see a very familiar-looking Sneasel sprinting down the makeshift path towards her, the contents of his bags audibly being bounced around on his back.
"Soul?"
He skids to a stop next to her, doubling over and holding his knees as he catches his breath. "I...Uh...I, uh..."
Maka blinks. "Did you...really change your mind?"
"Yeah!" Soul blurts. He lifts his head to look up at her with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I didn't want to...I mean, uh, I didn't want you to go alone."
Maka takes exactly one second to let that sink in before she is seized by a fit of absolutely relieved laughter. "You know, I didn't want to, either."
Soul laughs along, and she can see some of the tension leaving his body as he straightens up. "Sounds good to me." Maka keeps going, and Soul easily falls into step by her side. "So...Looks like you made it most of the way down pretty good. I saw the marks you left on some of those trees, though."
"Oh, yeah, those." Maka doesn't know how a blush looks on a Togetic's face, but she can feel it heating up. "I'm...not very good with my moves yet. The whole...human thing, I'm not used to it."
"Oh," says Soul in a very different tone, looking thoughtful. "Forgot about that. Well, I...guess it's the kind of thing that should come naturally with your body? That's what my mom and dad tell me. Used to tell me, I mean, when I was little."
"That's about what I was thinking. What kind of stuff do you know?"
"Let's see...I'm not very good, but I know Agility, so that's helpful. Icy Wind: proud of that, not as helpful in weather like this though. Used to know Quick Attack, but I've been trying to train on my own and I think I upped it to a Feint Attack. My Fury Swipes are pretty good, but I really want to try and learn Metal Claw. I know Sneasel who could do that way younger than me, so I'm kinda behind."
"That's okay! Everyone is behind with something. When we get to the Guild, do you think they'll let us train together?"
"Definitely! All the exploration teams do."
"Then let's hurry up and get there!" With a sudden burst of renewed excitement, Maka doubles down and starts hurrying further along the path. "Come on!"
"Hey! Maka! Wait up - Wait, can't you hover? Why are you running?!"
~0~
Maka's attempts to follow Soul's suggestion are only half successful, as she isn't quite sure what to do to stay in the air. But as with her moveset, it seemed to be at least partly instinctual. So she goes the last stretch of the journey alternating between a tense hovering and an awkward, short-legged trot, while Soul jogs along at her side attempting to give pointers.
"Our kind are climbers and scurriers," he says, watching her attempts with considerable surprise and interest. "I don't know anything about flying. Hopefully there'll be another Fairy-type there to help you out there. Speaking of, do you think the human thing is something we should keep on the down-low? I mean, I believe you, but..."
That gives Maka a bit of pause. "Yeah...It is pretty weird, and that's not really the impression I ought to give, right? I think we could just say I lost my memories, and I'm trying to figure out where I came from and how I got here. That's all true, isn't it?"
"That'll work. Good timing, too: we're here."
Maka startles so badly she drops to the ground, feet landing on a flat cobblestone road. She blinks, and looks up at the bustling town of Shibusen, reflexively moving closer to Soul as he leads her over the town limits. Even though talking to him has gotten her over the initial shock, she still can't help but stare as they make their way straight down the main street up to the Guild. Xatu and Kecleon in booths and storefronts, chattering away with their customers, a Marowak leading several Fighting-types in combat forms in the courtyard of a dojo, a fleet of Delibirds with their mail sacks circling in the sky, little Larvitars and Teddiursa running gleefully through the crowd while their parents lumber after them, trying to rein them in. The words culture shock run through her mind, but even that's not quite enough to describe the way she feels, actually seeing this society.
"Don't worry about it," Soul tells her under his breath, noticing her discomfort. "This is a town known for how safe it is. Nobody here's gonna give you trouble."
"Have you ever been here before?"
"Well, no, but...I've got reliable sources, okay?"
Soul seems to know the landmarks here pretty well, pointing out different businesses and their purpose as well as any tour guide. He even calls some of the Pokémon by name, before catching himself and backtracking with an, "At least, I think that's them, I could be wrong."
"So I see," she says after the third or fourth time. "So, will you know who Shinigami is when you see him? Or anyone from the guild?"
"The guild teams, negative. Shinigami? Definitely. Everyone knows who he is. Even if you've never seen him before." Soul stops, and she nearly bumps into him. She hadn't realized it, but they've reached the end of the main road: all that's left to see is the towering plateau on which the guild sits. It's so high up that all Maka can see are the two striped, pointed stone ears (painted deep purple like the rest of the surface) sticking up from the top. Cut into the hard brown earth is a wide stone staircase: clearly the guild's members get plenty of exercise just coming and going, Maka observes, looking up and up at it.
"Well. Shall we go?"
Soul audibly gulps. "Yeah. Guess so."
But before they can so much as take the first step upwards, there's a deafening blast from the side of the plateau. They both spin around to see chunks of earth and stone flying into the air, along with the distinctive fiery violet of Shadow Balls. Maka can feel the collective shock of the whole town, while seems to stop and gasp as one, all heads turning. The source of all the commotion makes himself known immediately -
"Nice try, you bastards!" The scar-faced Mightyena wheels around the wide corner of the plateau with a raucous, barking laugh. "Next time maybe don't try to Paralyze a guy with Quick Feet, huh?"
He comes right for them in a black and grey blur, and behind them Maka can hear the frightened noises of Pokemon running to hide in their houses. She's frozen for a moment, knowing she has to do something but unable to reach what. Soul looks the same, eyes huge with fear. But shakily, he steps forward.
"Maka...Maka, go, he's - !"
The Mightyena spots them, and Maka hadn't believed it possible but he charges even faster. "Outta my way, runts! I got places to be!"
And all at once, Soul's entire demeanor changes. His claws flex out and his hackles raise. "Yeah?! Well, you're going through me first!"
Soul darts forward, right into the Mightyena's path, and Maka recognizes a Feint Attack. The Mightyena is clearly faster, but it skids on its clawed paws for a split second, caught off guard, and Soul's attack slams straight into his broad chest with a great spark of black light. A small sound of surprise and delight escapes Maka; a direct hit, that had to be - !
Fangs glimmer in the bright sunlight for a moment, and then there's a piercing yell of pain.
The Mightyena is smiling through his mouthful of Soul's chest, even as the smaller Pokemon screams and writhes in his teeth. He swings his head back and flings Soul out of his mouth like a toy. "Dark Types like us shouldn't fight each other, brat. You can't do shit to me."
Soul's back hits the plateau so hard the breath is audibly knocked out of him, and he drops to the ground and doesn't move. Before she knows it, Maka is screaming -
"SOUL!"
- and she is moving.
The world tunnels out around her, and she is barely aware of the power building up all around her body. The Fairy Wind comes almost on its own, this time. The Mightyena apparently thinks its fight unfinished, stalking towards his fallen opponent with a smile that bleeds, and that smile only widens as he turns to the next small Pokemon to rush him. He starts to run again, meeting her charge, and she sees his head lower, his paws glow, building up for what she assumes will be a vicious Sucker Punch.
Fine. Fine, then! He doesn't scare her!
The shrill battle cry rising from her throat almost stings, but it builds in her chest like white fire, flows in her veins and gives her strength. She rams her body, her power, into the Mightyena with everything she's got, and she knows that such a thing should hurt..But right now she doesn't feel a bit of pain, as they make impact. It's like seeing stars, when they hit, black and violet and silver. For an instant she can't see at all, swept away in a rush of heat and rage and desire to sink in claws and kill -
She's snapped out of it almost as soon as she registers what she's feeling. It's his body that gives, that's thrown by the explosion of clashing powers up and away, landing headfirst into a nearby tree. He drops to the ground, knocked out cold, and melting snow falls from the branches on top of him.
Maka breathes out, her body still tingling. Every hair of down on her body is standing on end. She lands gently, surprised to feel her feet touching the ground again; she can't remember ever taking to the air. In an instant, though, she is moving, running to the fallen Sneasel still lying face down.
"Soul!"
She takes him by the shoulders and turns him over. He's still conscious, she thinks: his eyes are squeezed shut with pain, but he's breathing, albeit probably too fast to be healthy. He's bleeding too much, from both the torso and the back, for her to tell how deep the tooth marks actually are. It sticks in his fur, runs off him and falls in fat drops into into the dirt and slush. It terrifies her, but somehow, she doesn't panic: she has a feeling she's seen worse even if she can't consciously remember it.
Cover the wounds, pressure stops the bleeding is warring with scream for help in her head, and her body moves again without her really thinking about it. She presses her tiny arms down where she thinks the worst of the bleeding is, brushing dirt away from the wounds, and lifts her head to call for somebody. But before she can make a sound, there's the clatter of many different feet coming from the same place the Mightyena had.
"Get back here, you pucker-faced asshole! You can't keep me down!"
"Black Star! You don't even know which way he we - Oh, my goodness!"
A Lucario and a Bayleef skid to a stop in front of them. Both are dirty and beaten up, the Bayleef bruised like a dropped peach and the Lucario's chest horn chipped, its paws dripping minutely with blood. For one beat, they and Maka look at each other in shock, then the Bayleef pushes forward.
"You'd better come with us!"
~0~
"So...Is he going to be okay?" Maka asks, not at all liking how timid she sounds. The guild's infirmary is small, and the smell of healing sprays has never agreed with her.
Nygus finishes wrapping Soul's chest in the medicated bandages, then turns to answer her. "Yes, he'll be fine. A little bit of rest is all he needs now."
Maka, by contrast, had only been given an ice pack to hold on the bump on her head. So minor, she barely feels it. "Are you sure?" she can't help but press.
Froslass' expressions are hard to read by nature, but she feels fairly certain that the equivalent of what Nygus' face is doing is a reassuring smile. "Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry about him, you did great getting him to me so quickly. In fact - yep, there we go, he's waking up now."
Maka does not like the yelp that escapes her at that, either. She leans over in the small plastic chair to better see Soul, who looks smaller than usual, lying on his back on the paper-laden examination table. His eyes flutter open halfway, and there's still a glazed look to them but he manages to focus on her face fairly quickly.
"H...Hey." His voice is faint but loud and clear enough to hear from where she is; she guesses that must be a good sign. "She...She's right. Mmm fine. Don' even feel it."
"That's because you're still a little loopy from the pain medication I gave you. But, you're not quite wrong."
Maka only feels a little bit comforted. They've made it into the guild, technically, but she still feels as uncertain as she did when they left. She wonders if this is really the best time to make their case, but she reasons that she might as well. "So...After Soul's back on his feet, I was...Well, we were wondering...What we could do, now that we're here."
But before Nygus can answer, the infirmary door was blown open and fell to the floor with a mighty crash.
Maka lets out a cry of surprise louder than she'd intended, and Soul jumps three feet off the table. Nygus, however, is entirely unfazed. "Morning, Guildmaster. Eventful day, hm?"
The hugest Gengar Maka has ever seen lets out a great booming laugh. Maka recognizes the particularly long ears and the white stripes marking the face to realize that this must be the famous Shinigami. "So I've heard! I must say, you two kids were very brave! That was a much more dangerous prisoner than we thought, I do apologize that you ended up having to deal with him instead of our members."
"'S cool," Soul mutters, looking everywhere but at the guildmaster's eyes.
Maka would disagree. "He's a criminal? What was he here for?"
Shinigami looks puzzled at the question. "It was my understanding that the entire town knew by now! A member of our guild was...defeated by intruders last night, and passed away of his injuries. That Mightyena, one Ragnarok by name, was the perpetrator."
He looks about to say more, but Soul breaks in to explain, "We just came into town, haven't been here long enough to hear anything. I'm from the other side of the region, and Maka's...Sh-She's a, a what-do-you-call-it, amnesiac. Doesn't know where she came from. Or who she is. Or...Anything, really."
Now both older Pokemon are looking at her with deep concern. Nygus asks, "Maka, you didn't have any other head injuries before your fight with Ragnarok, did you?"
"N-No, I don't think so. I just woke up on the mountain last night, and I don't remember anything before that. I didn't know where I was, I...I didn't even recognize my own body." Technically that part is true. The next part makes her perk up. "I don't even know whether I'd have made it through the night if not for Soul!"
She glances over at Soul, and his feathers are twitching like mad in embarrassment. He starts to mutter something, but she cuts him off before he can downplay himself.
"He found me lying flat on my face in the middle of the blizzard, and he carried me home on his back and made sure I was okay. And in the morning, he took me into town so we could get to the Guild, and he attacked Ragnarok first, to protect me!"
Wow, look at those feathers go.
Shinigami looks surprised, but pleased. "Soul, is this true? That's quite a noble thing to do."
Soul is looking straight down at the floor. "I...It sounds cooler when she says it. And she's the one who actually beat the guy..."
"Well, you both performed just as admirably as any of our exploration teams!"
"Actually, sir!" Maka jumps in. "That's why we both came: we'd like to join your Guild! I...I don't remember how to use my moveset or abilities or anything else, and Soul and I thought training under you might help me find some answers somehow. And both of us want to get stronger."
The Gengar practically bounces with delight at her words. "Well, then! I'm sure we'd all be happy to welcome a couple more hands on deck, especially ones who have proven themselves so early on! And so helpful of you to come in a set of two; would you be open to becoming an official exploration team?"
A grin lights up Maka's face. "Yes, of course!
Even Soul is smiling. "Sounds cool."
"It's settled then! Sid will put your names in the registrar just as soon as I speak with the staff. You two will stay here tonight, and in the morning, we'll put you to work!"
