Chapter One:
A Beginning
"Hmm…" A short female Eevee was pacing quickly back and forth outside a large tent that had an uncanny resemblance to the Pokémon, Wigglytuff. Considering how late at night it was, the torches outside the tent had been lit, for lighting to see; however instead they cast upon he already odd tent, a sinister amber glow. To the Eevee in question, this made the experience all the more difficult to deal with.
Suddenly she stopped pacing about and looked directly at the tent.
"No. I refuse to be paralyzed by this any longer! This is it! I have to steel my courage today…" She said sternly, a look of determination on her face.
With that she took a step ahead but not without being completely taken aback.
Upon stepping on the wooden grate in front of the tent, a shrill - almost squeaky – voice began to shout from below:
"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected! Who's footprint? Who's Footprint?! THE FOOT PRINT IS EEVEE'S! I REPEAT THE FOOTPRINT IS EEVEE'S!"
Scared, like usual she backed off.
"That was too shocking! I guess that I can't. I can't work up the courage to go in after all. I told myself this was the day but I just can't. I thought maybe, that holding onto my personal treasure would inspire me. I can't do anything right. I'm just too much of a coward. This is so discouraging."
The Eevee, who was incredibly disheartened, decided it best to give up and leave. She was ashamed of herself again and needed time to think. As usual, she walked to the beach, which was, even at the worst of times, a generally peaceful place. Especially at sunset, when the Krabby on the beach blow their bubbles into the open sea air, the sun reflecting off of each and every single bubble creating a rainbow of colours floating across the sky.
"As usual, the sunset is beautiful. When the weather is good the Krabby come out at sundown to blow bubbles. All of those bubbles, catching the suns light off of the waves; it's always beautiful."
She gazed out at the sunlit waters, their soft reflective surface filled her soul with a melancholy sort of peace, perhaps from the memories she had of being a child here.
"This is where I always come when I'm feeling sorry for myself. But it makes me feel good to be here, like always before in the past. Coming here is uplifting, it cheers me up. So many happy days here…"
She soon heard a moaning sound coming from the west end of the beach.
"Hey! What was that? What's going on over there?"
After looking a short while she noticed someone collapsed on the beach.
"What happened!? Are you okay?"
The once who had been lying unconscious struggled to his feet and looked around, saying nothing save for a painful moan.
"You're awake! That's a relief!" The Eevee said with joy "You weren't moving at all I was seriously worried! Do you remember how you ended up unconscious out here?"
The Pikachu looked back at the Eevee with a nervous look on his face.
"Well, never mind that, you can always tell me later. By the way, my name is Miu, not that I have any actual feathers. Glad to meet you! Oh, and who are you? I've never seen you around here before, actually it's quite uncommon to see any Pikachu around here at all. It's a bit rude of me to not ask your name after all, so what is it?"
The Pikachu looked at her, now serious and intent on understanding what's going on.
"Wait, wait, and wait! Slow down Miu! What do you mean it's uncommon to see Pikachu around here? I see no Pikachu anywhere."
Miu was quite confused at this statement.
"You're joking right? Don't you even know what you are? You must have really hit your head hard!"
Now the Pikachu began to get angry,
"I know fine well what I am! I'm a human!"
That said Miu froze as if an Articuno had used a powerful Ice Beam upon her. She shivered, unable to come up with any sort of reply.
"What?! You say you're a Human?!" She shouted, the only statement she could think of.
"You look like a totally normal Pikachu to me."
He looked around his body, and sure enough, he was indeed a Pikachu.
"You're a little odd. Are you sure you're not just playing some sort of trick on me?" Miu said with dismay and confusion.
"I swear the truth! I have no reason to lie. At least, I don't think I have a reason to lie."
Miu seemed to understand that something was wrong here, but continued anyway.
"Alright then, what's your name?"
He stopped to ponder about it,
"My name? My name is… Kouhei."
Miu was happy to find the name of this new Pokémon, it wasn't often she got to make friends.
"Okay, well, you don't seem to be a bad Pokémon at least. Sorry I doubted you, it's just that more and more, bad Pokémon have been showing up lately you see. A lot of them have become really aggressive, and things have grown somewhat lawless."
Just then a Zubat and a Koffing rushed in, and crashed into Miu knocking away a small stone tablet.
"Well I do beg your pardon!" The Koffing said gruffly to Miu.
She looked at them both with an angry glare, slightly nervous.
"Hey! Why'd you do that!?"
"Can't figure it out huh? We wanted to mess with you! Can't face us though can you?"
With that the Zubat grabbed the stone tablet and bolted off, Koffing close behind.
Koffing stopped behind the two of them, Miu and Kouhei both,
"Not gonna make a single move to get that back? What's the matter? Too scared? I didn't expect that you'd be such a big coward! See you later losers!"
"I don't know what to do…" Miu said as she turned to Kouhei, "That's my personal treasure! It means everything to me. If I lose that… I don't really have anything else left."
"No time to waste then! Let's get it back from those jerks." Kouhei exclaimed.
Kouhei walked off in the direction they went,
"Come on!"
Miu quickly followed Kouhei, she was startled at how willing he was to get going, how willing he was to help her. Naturally curious, she couldn't help but want to inquire. She figured she'd have a chance to learn more after this was over, so she followed him without worry.
The beach had a small cave nearby, which the two thieves ran into to get away from Miu and Kouhei. As was now very common in this world, the cave in question was one of the many treacherous "Mystery Dungeons" that change their layout every time they are entered. In fact, these Mystery Dungeons have been a common part of this world for many centuries now, and quite possibly, this world would probably be very boring without them. After all, with great danger, comes great adventure, and soon too comes the treasure usually associated with such harrowing travels.
Walking into the cave Kouhei immediately noticed that the entire area was swarming with Pokémon all living in a somewhat large, underground network of tunnels. He paid little mind of this and carried on. Miu on the other hand was quite intimidated by the large amount of Pokémon in the cave. As she had so accurately stated before, the aggressive natures within some Pokémon have become far more prevalent and as such crimes are occurring far more often. For someone who was as shy and meek as she, this trip was a difficult and daunting task. Considering that any number of these Pokémon could be criminals she didn't know what to do except try hard not to think about all the nasty stories she'd heard about unsuspecting travelers and their quick and unfortunate demises.
"Hurry on then!" Kouhei called out to Miu, "I can see the end of the cave it's just up ahead."
Sure enough Miu and Kouhei had reached the end of the Mystery Dungeon without ever even stopping, or for that Matter, Miu noticing that they had even travelled that far. The two had quickly caught up with the would be thieves.
"Alright, now what you numbskull?! It's a dead end!" the Zubat shouted at Koffing.
Miu stopped the conversation right away, however. With the thieves cornered, she had her chance to talk things through.
"Hey!" Miu shouted, promptly causing the thieves to turn towards her.
"Well, well, if it isn't our old friend, the big chicken!" Koffing remarked.
"Give me back what you took from me! That's my personal treasure! It means everything to me!"
"Treasure? So that thing really is worth something then huh? It could be worth more than I hoped for I'd say. We ought to try selling it. Who knows? It might fetch a high price. Ah yes, all the more reason to never give it back! So, if you really want it back that badly; come and get it!" Koffing chuckled as he stared down Miu.
"Alright then! Miu, let's get that item back!"
Kouhei ran forward and leapt into the air landing a quick and hard punch right into Zubat's face. Much to everyone else's surprise Kouhei's strike was strong enough to knock Zubat out in one shot.
"Miu! Come on! I know you can do it! Beat him down!"
Her newfound friend's words of encouragement gave Miu the strength to stand against Koffing. She ran forward and leapt into the air, using a tackle attack to hit Koffing back.
However, perhaps she wasn't strong enough, or maybe it was that Koffing was stronger, but the attack wasn't enough. With that Koffing began to emit a foul gas that threatened to poison both Miu and Kouhei.
Miu didn't give up her resolve though, and tried again, this time knocking Koffing down, rendering unable to fight back any more.
"Blast! How could we have been beaten by the likes of you? Bah. Here you go, take it then!" Koffing shouted as he threw the stone back to Miu, "Don't think you're so awesome though! Your victory today was just a fluke!"
With that the thieves hightailed it out of there as fast as they could. Naturally, Miu picked up the stone and put it back where it belonged. As part of a pendant, she wore it around her neck.
"My relic fragment! Am I ever glad! I actually did manage to get it back. It's only because you agreed to help me out though Kouhei. Thank you so much Kouhei!
You see, they stole my relic fragment, well; at least that's what I call it. As you know it's my precious treasure. I've always liked legends and lore; I've never really had any friends so I took up a hobby studying old things. I always get excited when I hear any tales from the past. Oh how I dream of those legends! Hidden groves full of treasure, and strange relics of the past, uncharted territories veiled in shadow, and new lands; just waiting to be discovered. Such places must be filled with unimaginable gold and treasure! And the History! Wouldn't it be amazing to make all sorts of historic discoveries? It's what I always dream of, to be a great explorer one day. So one day, I came across this relic fragment. I admit, it does look like junk at first glance, but the pattern inscribed upon it has to mean something right? It must be the key to those legendary places. Some place where a hoard of treasure waits for me to find it. At least, that's what I feel. But you, what about your motives?"
"I have none." Kouhei said, quite plainly, "I don't remember enough to have anything of the sort. Actually, save for my name, and a few very thin memories of being a human; I have no idea of what life was like before I wound up here on this beach."
Miu looked disheartened at such a prospect, to lose everything that you had certainly would be hard to live with. I would be like starting a whole new life. That's when a grand Idea sparked in her head.
"I want to join an exploration team! This fragment has to fit into something somewhere! I want to solve the mystery of where that is. So earlier I tried joining an exploration team as an apprentice. But I chickened out, too scared to face the trials and tribulations on my own." Miu had a new look of determination on her face as she looked at Kouhei, "Would you, please join an exploration team with me? I'm convinced that we could make a great team. And, who knows? Maybe we can unravel your mystery too! Maybe, we can find out what your life used to be like! So, will you? Please?"
"No contest for this choice. I'll have to say yes. The prospect of adventure does seem appealing after all."
"Yes!? Really!? Thank you so much! I'm sure we can make this work, a team that nothing can stop! We need to head over to Wigglytuff's guild first though, and sign up as apprentices. That's where we need to train if we want to become a first rate exploration team. I'm sure it'll be tough, but let's give it our best shot!"