Chapter 3: "A Name Just As Red"
The Tokiwa Forest, which lay north of the city was a truly verdurous ocean, filled with healthy, ancient trees and swarming with innumerable wild Pokémon. Beni and his Houndour had been walking through its nigh-un-traversable routes for the better part of two days, going deeper and deeper into the natural labyrinth. Eyes watched them from every angle, some just curious but others with malevolent designs. Presently, the two escaped slaves were seated around a small campfire as the moon floated lazily in the aether above them. The thick canopy protected them from the light drizzle of rain. Fish and vegetables were skewered over the naked flames and Beni watched them cook.
"We'll be on the road for the rest of our lives," he said to his companion, who responded with a light growl. "We're technically fugitives. We won't be able to rest in one place for too long. In all likelihood we'll be hunted and if we're caught, they'll kill us…and all you care about right now is dinner, eh, boy?" Houndour barked approvingly. Beni chuckled and lifted one of the kebabs up, setting it on the flat rock in front of the hell-hound. The pair ate in silence, at least until Houndour finished wolfing his down and padded over to the human, resting a paw on his leg. Beni looked down and saw the hungry expression, remembering when he himself had gone without food. He passed a chunk of meat from his own kebab and while thinking of their next move, drifted off to sleep.
Their awakening was rude. Beni opened his eyes and found himself staring into the point of a spear. Casting his eyes about, he realised that they were surrounded by no less than twenty bandits, no doubt with others hiding in the underbrush, all smelling as bad as one another, and between you and me, they can be quite ripe. The bandit leader – a menacing, spiky-haired oath called Shiba – grinned as he picked his teeth with the end of a twig.
"Well, boys," he said, lifting Beni by the collar of his stolen robe, "looks like our friend here woke up. It's not safe to go wandering around this forest all on your own. Might meet some unsavoury characters, you know?" One bandit picked up Beni's bag. Houndour barked angrily in protest but three Geodudes pinned him down.
"Reckon we might sell the goods," Shiba continued. "Your donations of gold coins will be most appreciated as well. You can look back on your generosity in the afterlife. Sound like a good deal?"
"I've got a better one for you," replied Beni. "Put my things down and run away, nice and easy, and my hidden army of archers won't stick you full of arrows. How's that sound, Fatso?"
"You're bluffing, brat," Shiba growled. "There ain't nobody here. Ventilate him, boys." As the circle of thugs closed in for the kill, Beni smirked wryly, raised one foot and stamped it as hard as he could into the tree right behind him. Immediately, an enraged buzzing sound tore the air asunder and a swarm of ferocious insectoid Pokémon sporting large, conical stingers on their forelegs flew out of hiding, attacking the bandits, who ran screaming into the night. Beni landed and immediately went to Houndour's aid, kicking one Geodude aside as the other two joined their villainous masters in escaping. After grabbing his bag in the rush, boy and hell-hound sped away. This bid for freedom did not last long, within five minutes Beni found himself clothes-lined off his feet, landing hard on his back in a pile of fallen leaves. It was Shiba, who despite being bruised and stung all over, had been chasing his quarry for the past five minutes along with ten other remaining bandits.
"That wasn't nice," the leader snarled. "You've had your fun, boy, but now it's my turn. Just think…you'll die here and nobody will ever know." The bandits encircled their prey, and the ground beneath them was illuminated by their torches, well enough to see the lines appearing in the dirt to form letters.
I WILL
The air was filled with a high pitched, shrieking laugh and one by one, the torches went out. You must understand that this was a time when people, especially those who lived outside of civilisation, were very superstitious. Within seconds the bandits were running in a panic, Shiba included. Beni shook in fear himself and Houndour growled at the darkness. Two wide, white eyes appeared in the shadows, followed by a wide, red mouth and a purple body composed of oily fumes. A second entity, this one nothing more than a floating ball of gas, appeared next to Beni, who yelped in surprise and pulled his top up over his head. Laughing, the Ghost Pokémon regrouped as their mistress – perhaps the most beautiful girl Beni had ever laid eyes on – appeared beside them.
"That was a close one," she said. "Are you all right?"
Houndour moved before Beni could respond, opening his jaws and issuing forth a spinning fireball. The girl squeaked and ducked down as the ball whizzed overhead, striking the last bandit who was preparing to cut her down with his wakizashi sword. The man screamed and raced away and the group heard something heavy land in a body of water. The girl righted herself and shot a glare at the Ghost-types.
"You missed one," she said, to which they responded with sheepish looks. She smiled and patted their heads. "It happens." Beni got to his feet and dusted some dead leaves off of his clothes.
"Thank you," he said with a bow, then slowly started to withdraw.
"Don't go!" said the girl, grabbing him by the arm. "It'll be safer if we travel together, don't you think? My name's Kokoro, what's yours?"
"Me?" Beni croaked. He pondered this, remembering his own speech to Houndour about how they would be hunted by Aimi's family. To give out his slave name would be a foolish move. An alias would do. Picking his own name would be quite symbolic, part of his fresh new start. "Uh…Akai. My name's Akai…and this is Houndour." The hell-hound barked lowly and, being born and raised in the wild, decided to investigate the new arrival by sniffing her hand. After ascertaining she was indeed safe, he licked her palm. Kokoro smiled, not noticing how nervous, 'Akai,' had become under the stares of Haunter and Gastly. When she did notice, she made a dismissive gesture with her hand.
"They'll warm up to you," she assured him. That said, she bent down and picked up one of the torches, which Houndour relit with a blow of his burning breath. "Thank you. Come, my camp's just this way." So off they went, and during that walk, the former slave remained several paces behind the girl. It was an old habit that was beaten into him during his childhood and with his impromptu discharge still new, he was finding such mannerisms difficult to shake off. His companion walked by his side at all times, staring daggers at Haunter and Gastly whenever they started mumbling to one another. Every so often Kokoro would stop and glance back at him. He was dressed in the manner of her class, but certainly did not act like it. He was too…humble was the word she wanted to say but it did not quite fit, even after they reached the camp and sat down together on a fallen tree trunk he was stiff and kept his distance.
"Don't suppose you want to talk about yourself?" asked Kokoro, throwing another log onto the fire. "Is that Houndour your only Pokémon?"
"He's not mine in that sense," the former slave mumbled. "We're travelling companions. I don't think I believe in Pokémon training."
"I guess you've met one or two bad Trainers," said the girl. "Believe me they're not all like that. People and Pokémon can help each other to grow and mature when they work together." She patted Haunter on the head. Akai raised an eyebrow. That all sounded painfully rehearsed.
"It's not that," he continued to speak in an almost inaudible series of grunts and verbal spurts, "it's the idea of carrying living creatures around in Apricorns that doesn't sit well with me." Kokoro could tell he was upset and decided it would be better to change the conversation. She took a loaf of bread from her travel-bag and broke it in half and giving one piece to her shy new friend while sharing the other with her Ghost-types. After a long period of time with nothing said between them, Akai croaked, "There might be more bandits."
"Yes, we should get moving now," Kokoro agreed. "The city of Nibi is a few days from here. If we start walking now we'll be there before the end of the week." Akai kicked some dirt over the fire to extinguish it, plunging the party of five into darkness, the only light coming from the moon, which was for the most part blocked by the forest canopy.
After two days their supplies had started to run low. On the third morning, Akai sat at the edge of a stream with a crude fishing line he had put together himself from a few fallen twigs and some firm silk harvested from a Caterpie nest. Houndour sat patiently watching at his side. Kokoro, meanwhile, busied herself cleaning clothes upstream as Haunter hung them over a branch and Gastly slept in the cool shade of the forest. The girl looked to where the boy was, so perfectly still and professional.
"You know I don't think you'll catch anything," she remarked. "We've been here for over three hours and haven't seen a single fish."
As if on cue, Akai's fishing line twanged and he jumped to his feet proclaiming, "I've caught something!" As he struggled against the submerged opponent, Houndour stood up and barked in excitement. After five minutes of this tug-of-war, Akai was able to wrench his quarry up into the air. A fish had been caught on the hook, but most of that was held between the rubbery lips of a wriggling Poliwag.
"Congratulations," the girl smirked. "You proved there are fish, and after that ruckus they've probably all been scared away."
"Then how about we eat this thieving little whatever-it-is?" Akai snarled. The fat tadpole made a confused gurgling noise and dropped from the line, running fearfully away on its stubby legs. Houndour leapt after it, barking angrily and clamped his jaws around its squashy body. He presented the struggling creature to Akai like a prize. The boy shook his head. "Throw him back. He was just hungry." The hell-hound obliged and chucked its victim back into the stream.
"Are you going to try casting again?" asked Kokoro.
"No, like you said, there won't be anything left," said Akai. "We should just move on and hope our luck improves. Nibi can't be much further." With that, they packed up and started off again, but it was not long before they heard the sound of tiny footsteps plodding along behind them. The Poliwag was now just a few paces away, looking up at the party with its wide, dark eyes.
"Must still be hungry," said Kokoro.
"We barely have enough food for ourselves," Akai shook his head. "Go on, shoo." Houndour approached the Poliwag and growled at it, but it responded by spitting a jet of water into his face. Houndour made a surprised, "Arf!" sound while Haunter and Gastly snickered at him.
"Don't pick a fight with the little uzumaki," Kokoro tittered. "You'll just lose."
XXX
"It's still following us," said Akai. Night had once again fallen, but there were fewer trees now. They could see a dirt path leading out across a grassy field, and just beyond that was the city of Nibi, which sat at the foot of Otsukimi-san, the tallest mountain in the whole region. So tall was this mountain that its peak could not be seen through the clouds. They could not be more than a day's worth of travelling away now. It was a comforting thought, especially after spending so much time in the suffocating depths of Tokiwa Forest. The little Poliwag was sitting a few yards off in a soft patch of grass, looking at the travellers and brushing its tail along the ground. After a while of this, Akai reached into his travel-sack and pulled out a small rice cake. The Poliwag bounced over and ravenously accepted the offering.
"There," the former slave could not help but smile, "was that good, boy?" The little creature chirped and Akai rubbed its head. He could not stay mad at it. After all, it was not its fault it had such a huge appetite for something so small. Under the translucent skin of its stomach, the Poliwag's spiral-shaped innards wriggled.
"You're not so grouchy after all," Kokoro smiled. "So are you going to keep him?"
"I don't keep them," Akai reminded her sternly.
"Fine then. Are you going to let him follow us?" she asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Like I have a choice," Akai sighed. Poliwag hopped onto his lap and lay against his stomach to make itself comfortable. They all went to sleep soon afterwards, but about two hours later, Kokoro awoke feeling thirsty.
Not wanting to wake the others up, she tip-toed away to a small creek they found not too far back. It would not be long before she released a rather theatrical cry that brought the rest of the party streaking to her aid. Three men were restraining her while the fourth sat on a flat rock while chewing noisily on an apple. One of the men held his great smelly hand across her mouth to shut her up.
"You again," said Akai and Shiba simultaneously.
"Nice to see you," the bandit threw away his apple and stood up, drawing a blood-stained katana sword from his belt.
"The feeling's not mutual," Akai spat. "Now let her go!"
"Why? Is this little trollop your girlfriend?" Shiba sneered, using the tip of his weapon to brush aside part of Kokoro's yukata, exposing the flesh of her leg.
"Mm…lovely. You've got good taste, my friend."
"Let me go or you'll regret it," Kokoro hissed. Shiba responded by pulling her hair and was just about to smack her across the face (after all, that was not the part of her he was interested in) but Akai was quick enough to plant a small stone into his back, recapturing his attention.
"That does it!" the young man almost bellowed. "I'm going to beat some basic human decency into you!"
"Tough talk," said Shiba, retrieving an Apricorn from somewhere beneath his clothes. "Let's see if you can back it up. Go!" He struck the Apricorn with the edge of his blade, smacking it open and unleashing the ferocious creature within. The Pokémon that now stood there in the clearing was no less than seven feet tall, with purplish skin marked with red lines on its biceps, four sharp teeth and three bone protrusions on its head. It wore a dark loincloth held up by a metal belt.
"Crush him, Machoke!" Shiba commanded. The Fighting-type Pokémon pounded its chest, let out a roar and charged at Akai, landing a hard punch into his gut that slammed him into the side of a tree trunk. He cried out, more from shock than pain, as a few drops of blood splashed from his mouth and onto the grass. Growling, the Machoke wrapped one fist around the boy's throat and hoisted him into the air. Kokoro squirmed to get away from her captors but was held fast, but a vicious bite forced one of them to move his hand long enough for her to shout, "Akai! You have to fight back!" before she was forced to her knees and kicked in the ribs. Akai swung his legs out to hit the Machoke but his feet bounced off its rock hard abdomen harmlessly. He could not ask Houndour or Poliwag to fight for him. Such an idea was sickening to him, but he was just not enough, not on his own. As he started to black out from oxygen deprivation, the Machoke suddenly released him and he flopped to the ground. Coughing and dragging air into his lungs, he used the tree he had collided with to prop himself into a standing position. Poliwag had caught the spluttering Machoke's attention by hitting it in the back of the head with a condensed ball of water and now Houndour had joined in, bombarding the enemy with a spiral of fire from his mouth and raking his sharp claws down its body.
"Deal with that mongrel!" Shiba ordered. Machoke snarled and pulled Houndour away, throwing him into the air. The hell-hound spun its body in mid-air, slicing a heavy branch from the top of the tree, which smashed against the giant Fighter's forehead and knocked it senseless. Now brained and utterly off-balance, the Machoke collapsed right on top of its master and Houndour landed nimbly on its chest. Akai felt his strength return. This sudden dominance he had was invigorating. It was not a sensation he was familiar with but damn if it was not wonderful!
"This is my territory now!" he boomed. "Now drop the girl and get out of my sight before my canine friend here roasts you!" The Machoke disappeared into a cloud of white dots that were sucked into its Apricorn. The other three bandits let Kokoro fall forward on her stomach and fled with the semi-conscious Shiba under their arms, not noticing his head banging on the stones they passed. The young former slave knelt down by the girl and offered her his hand, helping her up into a kneeling position.
"Thank you," said Kokoro. "You…you wouldn't really have burnt them, would you?"
"I…I-I mean, of course not," Akai replied, shaking his head. "You think I would have?"
"Not really," said Kokoro, "but I had to ask. Can we go now? I'm sick of this place."