I was incredibly thankful that Professor Alder had allowed me to spend the night at his house with his son. Marco had, supposedly good-naturedly, offered me his bed, but I respectfully declined and slept on the couch. I was going to have to talk to him about a few things soon. It would wait until later, though.
Lutrus insisted on interrupting my bath and joining me, doing more splashing around in the water and playing than actually getting clean. He sat still for barely long enough for me to scrub him down once before swimming in circles around me, making me laugh a bit more than I should have. Truly, there were some pretty good things about finding oneself in Shikoku.
I borrowed some of Marco's clothes while mine were being cleaned. It was only slightly awkward that I was wearing one of his shirts and a pair of his boxers, which he assured me were clean, but he seemed more embarrassed than I was, so I treated it like it was no big deal. It wasn't, technically, but he wasn't yet catching that.
Lutrus was asleep long before I got to feeling tired. I laid in bed for a while, staring at the ceiling, and finally got up after I thought everyone else was asleep, quietly letting myself outside and making sure the door didn't lock. I crossed my arms and looked up at the stars in the sky, my eyes falling on the two moons that Shikoku's world boasted. Must be nice. I thought to myself. Then again, it only reminded me I wasn't at home on Earth… I was in a stranger in a strange land, to put it lightly, and I don't know how I had gotten there or how to get back.
The thought was disconcerting, to say the least. The longer I stared at the sky, the worse I felt. I realized I had tears in my eyes; I had just lowered my head to let the first of them slide down my cheek when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Marco's voice was soft and comforting. I turned towards him and buried my face into his chest, not even bothering to hold back the sobs. You taught me that one.
Truth be told, this was the first time since I'd gotten to Shikoku that I'd really thought about you. Sure, you're always in the back of my mind, but something about finally having a little bit of downtime just…just hit me, all at once, I supposed.
"Shiloh…" Marco began, "I know this…must all be really…um, alarming for you…"
I wished that he wasn't speaking. He was attempting to comfort me, and I was okay with that, but he just wasn't really succeeding and I didn't really need to deal with that sort of thing right then.
"I just want you to know that I'm…totally here for you, and…" he attempted to continue. I lifted my tear-stained face to his eyes and forced what I knew was the most false smile I had ever forced.
"It's not really about… never mind." I told him. "Marco, we need to talk."
"About what?" he looked concerned. "Whatever it is, I'm here to help."
"You have…" I sniffled, wiping at my eyes and composing myself. "You've been really nice ever since this morning. You're hospitable and caring and all of that. I'm scared, though, that you're mistaking this for something it's not."
"What…do you mean?" he asked, looking utterly confused.
"Marco, there's just a lot about me that you don't know. And to be honest, I don't believe this is the right time to tell you, either." I explained. "And what I really need right now is just a really, really strong friend, alright?" It was probably the biggest friendzone speech I'd ever given, and I felt horrible for saying it, but Marco's features softened and I could tell he wasn't upset. At least not visibly.
"I can do that." He responded, wrapping his arms further around me in a hug.
Marco gave wonderful hugs, I decided right then and there. We stood there, me sobbing into his chest and getting his shirt all wet, for probably the better part of an hour. Finally, I looked up at him and nodded once with a smile that very clearly claimed my exhaustion. I was out of tears. "Thank you." I said quietly.
"Don't mention it." He replied, and reached up to lightly touch my nose with his finger, a gentle, playful poke.
I wasn't prepared for the fresh wave of tears that I broke out into. You habitually did that exact same thing. I hid my face again as my brain recalled, against my will, the tone you got in your voice when you were being mischievous and you touched my nose, just like that, and claimed, "I love you so much." The sound of your voice was beginning to fade, and I wasn't sure how long I could handle myself not hearing you speak. It simultaneously made me want to cry myself to sleep and just get out of this crazy, fucked up place all at once, sleep be damned. When I calmed down again, I allowed Marco to lead me back inside, to the couch where Lutrus was curled up asleep. I took great care to try not to wake up my Buizel as Marco guided me to lie down and covered me with a blanket, telling me with a smile that he would see me in the morning, but as he left the room, Lutrus's eyes slowly blinked open.
The second my Pokémon caught sight that I had been obviously crying, he climbed across the couch to lie directly on my stomach, his head laid against my chest, giving me a sympathetic look. "Buiii…?" he asked quietly.
"Thank you, Lutrus." I whispered, wrapping my arms around him. He reminded me of your cat, which prompted a few more tears, but I was exhausted, and half delirious at this point, and slipped off to sleep; for the second night in a row, I cried myself to sleep.
"Buibuibui!" The excited, chipper noises from Lutrus made me stretch and open my eyes, squinting in the light streaming through the windows. "Buiii!" Lutrus insisted. I blinked a few times for my vision to clear.
"Natnat!" Oh, god, that was a huge purple fuzzball. I guess when I had imagined Venonat, I had always thought they wouldn't be bigger than your average Pikachu- maybe a foot tall or so. This one was definitely more than two thirds of my five feet tall, though, maybe half of the height Marco stood. It made Lutrus look short- a good half of Lutrus's two feet was in his tails, but it just seemed…well, ridiculous to have a Venonat in the house.
I was going to assume that it was Marco's Venonat. This thought was confirmed when Marco maneuvered around it and my Buizel, showing quite an impressive display of balancing two plates and two bowls in two hands, and setting the table. "Hey, you're up!" he grinned as he looked over to me. "I made breakfast… I don't, normally, but if we've got a long walk ahead of us, then we might need it."
"Who's the newcomer?" I asked as I sat up, nodding to the Venonat in question.
"This is Vinny." Marco replied. I bit back the snarky response I had to that and simply smiled. "He's been with me for about a year now… the reason he wasn't around yesterday was because he sometimes works with the laboratory, searching in the forest for berries, and he does his best at night." He reached over, rubbing a hand on the Venonat's fuzzy head, "He sleeps during the day after that, so I was letting him rest. We were going to go to the last day of the festival together, but… well." Marco gave me a smile as he looked up. "Then you showed up and kind of changed our plans."
I suddenly felt bad. "If you had plans and I'm messing them up, don't alter that on my sake."
"Oh, no. Listen, Shiloh." Marco said, waving me over to the table. I got up to join him and was pleasantly surprised at the pancakes Marco had cooked up. I absently wondered where meat would come from in this world, but decided quickly not to think about it. "The Lazuli festival is once a year. Friends are more important."
As I was packing the few things I now owned, an amount which increased somewhat drastically when Marco not only refilled my canteen but also gave me a few bottles of water, I reflected on that thought. I had to close my eyes tightly and force my mind away from what I began to remember; late nights gaming, runs to the convenience store for mixed sodas that shouldn't have tasted as good as they did, the verbal teasing of the strange relationship we held from your frien—
That was the word that set off my emotions. You had a hell of a great group of friends. I finished packing and gave a nod to Marco, who also looked ready for quite a long journey. "How far is this place we're going?" I asked him, giving him a once over.
"Half a day's walk. We'll be there by mid-afternoon since we, uh, kind of slept late." Marco replied. I frowned. Marco was in shape. Maybe not perfectly, but he had visible muscle definition in his arms and his chest seemed sturdy enough. He got his exercise. I usually did not. I shifted slightly, uncomfortably, thinking about the excess weight on my body. This trip would not be nice, that was for sure. "But I was also thinking," Marco added, "That you would probably not really return to Lazuli Town."
I was slightly taken aback. That was true; I hadn't really had plans to return despite what I figured out from this supposed wise man. I couldn't stay in one place knowing that there might be a way out of here that was within my reach. "Well…no." I responded, giving him an incredulous look.
"That's why I asked my father if I could go on your journey with you. To, you know, protect you." Marco offered, smiling sheepishly. "You also said you needed a good friend, and, well… friends stick together."
"I don't suppose I have a choice." I responded to Marco's hesitant smile with one of my own, which seemed to comfort him a little.
"Not really." He agreed, walking over to the door and leaving me no choice but to follow, Lutrus bounding along lightly by my side. "Besides, I know this world…at least in theory. I've never left Lazuli Town. But I know sort of how it's laid out, and…"
There he went again with his rambling.
In the beginning, the journey wasn't too difficult. The path was clearly marked and had obviously been traveled often. It was only after the first two hours or so (not that I was great at telling time by the position of the sun, and I didn't have a watch like Marco) that we had to veer off towards a mountain. Now, I'm not particularly the worst rock climber by any means, but it still wasn't easy for my thighs and calves to work at an incline for that long. We had to stop fairly often for me to rest, but it wasn't until lunchtime that anything particularly interesting happened.
We were nearly done with the sandwiches Marco had packed when there was a clear, loud rustle from the bushes behind me. I jumped, whirling around and moving over towards Marco. "Is it another Ursaring?" I asked immediately.
"Maybe. Hold on… oh, no." Marco's eyebrows raised as a Pokémon leapt from the bushes, landing on the ground in a crouch. It was a humanoid shaped, dark-colored Pokémon with a large pink feather coming from one side of its head and long, angry-looking claws; I recognized it instantly, but Marco looked hesitant. "What is that?" He asked, holding up his wrist and pointing a closed fist at the Pokémon. He brought up his other hand to his watch and pressed a button, and it began to speak in a pleasant female voice.
"Sneasel, the Sharp Claw Pokémon. It mostly travels at night, using the cover of darkness to hunt for prey."
"A Sneasel!" Marco grinned. "Awesome. Hey, Shiloh, Lutrus looks about ready to take it on, huh?"
"Huh?" I mirrored. I looked over to see Lutrus in a crouch facing the Sneasel, teeth bared, in an action I could only describe as snarling. "He does." I agreed. "What do I do?"
"Well, take charge!" Marco responded, backing away and leaving me feeling slightly defenseless. "Tell him what to do! It's your first battle!"
I felt slightly ridiculous. Putting on the bravest face I knew, I tried to remember what sort of attacks a Buizel might know. "Um, Lutrus," I called. "…Use Quick Attack?"
Lutrus sprang into action, rushing at his target. The Sneasel looked over, and leapt out of the way gracefully, landing lightly in the lower branches of a nearby tree. I frowned. Of course it was going to be fast. It then shot forward in return, slamming into the side of Lutrus with an audible thud.
"No!" I gasped immediately. Lutrus was thrown to the ground, but got up quickly. The Sneasel rushed again, and knocked him over a second time, to which he pushed himself up once more. On the third rush, Lutrus moved, and the surprised Sneasel kept going, sliding onto the ground. I seized my chance.
"Lutrus, Water Gun!" Lutrus responded almost before I was done speaking, a strong jet of water shooting from his mouth and hitting the Sneasel hard. It gave a cry of anguish and shot forward the second Lutrus's attack was over, ramming into him and knocking him down, then leaping away.
A lightbulb went off in my head. "Lutrus!" I called, "It's fast, but it's weak! Just keep dodging and using Water Gun!"
"Bui!" The battle went on like this for a few more rounds, with Lutrus doing a fairly good job of anticipating where Sneasel was going to strike and moving away in time to follow behind it with a jet of water. I watched in awe as my Pokémon fought the wild Pokémon, and Lutrus finally snarled and leapt into the air.
"Wait, Lutrus, what are you—" I didn't get a chance to finish. As the Sneasel passed under the place where he'd been, Lutrus flipped in the air and struck the ground, a powerful shockwave bursting from that point in the ground and knocking the weakened Sneasel to the ground. I stood in stunned shock.
"Well, don't just stand there! Catch it!" Marco insisted.
"Oh!" I gasped. That was right. I had been given a handful of Pokéballs before we had left. I fumbled in my pocket for one and pulled it out, touching the button on the front and watching it expand in my hand. "Here goes nothing." I murmured, taking a half step back and hurling my arm forward with all my strength, as if I were throwing a baseball.
The Pokéball flew its course, lightly touching the Sneasel's body and then capturing it in a red, glowing light. The Pokéball hit the ground and shook once, twice, three times, and then stopped. There was a suspenseful pause in the air in which I was convinced that nobody breathed, which I then broke with a happy cry of, "I did it!" I whirled around to find Marco next to me with his arms out and threw myself into him. He spun me around once and set me down, the both of us laughing, and I turned to find Lutrus leaping at me as well. I caught him in my arms and hugged him tightly, grinning. "You did great!" I told him.
"Zelll!" Lutrus responded, just holding his arms around my neck.
"You have a new Pokémon." Marco pointed out.
"Oh! That's right!" In my excitement over getting a new Pokémon, I had almost forgotten that I had gotten a new Pokémon. I carried Lutrus over to the Pokéball, and let him down to pick up the spherical container that held the Sneasel. Turning it over in my hand, I smiled. My moment of reverie was interrupted by the ever-observant Marco.
"Hey, I guess if you're stuck here a while, you're not doing too badly for yourself, huh?"
My mood instantly turned sour. I knew I was being a bitch, but the prospect of…well. It wasn't pleasant. I had too much going on for me at home for this. "Let's go." I all but snapped, striding over to get my backpack and continue on up the path, ignoring my now-aching legs. Fitness be damned, I was going to figure out what the hell was going on.