Happy June, everyone. Anyway, pre-chapter notes:

- If you haven't noticed so far, all the chapter titles are based off of Kill la Kill's episode titles. Sort of.

- Minor characters! Hooray!

- This entire chapter was done today, so it feels a little rushed. Sorry 'bout that.


Mutilation Mountain – Peak

Mako has informed me that the poke-God here is apparently called Arceus. Okay, might as well swear on his name now.

Anyway, the next few floors were packed with wild pokemon once we headed up to the eighth floor. It was literally chaos. I swear to Go… Arceus. Thankfully, Mako is an Arceusdamn (that's… that's how you say it, right?) natural at this and managed to locate the stairs so we could escape relatively unharmed.

Now we're at the peak and there's still no sign of that monkey's partner, who Mako told me is an unnaturally thin munchlax, with teal fur and kind of looks like a tiny bear. I have no idea, really, but I think I get the basic idea of what one looks like.

"Muuuun~chieeee~! Where aaaare~ youuuu~?" Mako calls. It's obviously not working, so I settle for looking around myself.

The surface of the peak is pretty flat, but it's divided into two parts, with us on one part leading all the way back down to this mountain's entrance. The other part is quite small and leads nowhere, but has several rocks jutting out of the surface that form a semicircle.

Just then, there's a scuffing of feet (paws?) on the ground and Mako abruptly goes silent, her ears perking up to check who made that sound. (Apparently she knows me well enough by now that she knows it's me by the sound of my footsteps.) The silhouette of a bearish pokemon appears from behind a large rock from the other side and crawls over to us unsurely, eyes wide.

"Hey!" Mako shouts, having to raise her voice thanks to the rather large distance. "You over there! You're Munchie, aren't you?"

The munchlax – I think that's what he is – nods. "W-Who are you? How do you know my name?" he squeaks.

"Your friend told us!" Mako replies. "She's Ashley, chimchar, right?"

Munchie's eyes widen to a considerable size. "Ashley? She told you…?" He looks almost… shocked? I wonder why?

"Yeah, she put up a job request for it!" Mako grins. "Alright, just wait. We'll get you out of there somehow…"

"Ashley put up a job request to… to help me?" the munchlax looks like he's about to go into cardiac arrest. "W… Wh… Wha…?"

Disregarding his mumbles (that had already turned into incoherent blabber), Mako turns to face me. "Ryuko, do you know how to transform into a flying-type pokemon, maybe?"

"Flying-type…?" Neither of my former transformations had wings, and I don't think I'd be able to just turn into another pokemon completely… "Don't think so."

"Aww. Hm, now how're we gonna get him back here?" Mako ponders, staring off into space.

I stare over at the crevice separating us. It's fairly big and I don't think I'll ever hit the bottom if I fell, and I don't think I could jump across it either. Well, not me, I'm certain about that, but another pokemon might be able to…

Just as I'm about to suggest this, there's a loud flapping of wings above us. Mako looks up curiously and promptly lets out an undignified shriek.

Because above us is, quite literally, one of the largest furry bats I have ever seen in my entire. Goddamn. Life.

'Arceusdamn', Ryuko.

'Not now, Senketsu. 'Goddamn' sounds better.'

Point taken.

"RYUKO!" Mako screams.

"What?"

"S-SWOOBAT!" she screams again.

"Mako, I can hear you fine. Volume down?"

"Oh, okay." She clears her throat and continued on in a normal voice, thankfully. "That's a swoobat, Ryuko! But they're not supposed to be that big, seriously! It's, like, superpowered with something or something! Ah, I said something twice. Make that thrice!"

I tilt my head back up to look at the bat again. It doesn't seem like it's noticed us, but I'm not betting on it and I drag Mako behind the biggest rock I can find. In my perspective, we're just about sheltered that the swoobat shouldn't notice us, so I relax a bit.

"How big are they, usually?" I ask.

"Uh… a bit taller than me?"

Another glance upwards confirms that yes, that swoobat really is too big to be considered normal. It's probably twice the size of Mako, or more, if we're really unlucky. As we always are.

The swoobat suddenly starts descending after flying in a circle in the sky and lands neatly on the other side of the peak, where Munchie is. Speaking of, he's pressed against a rock, as far away from the swoobat as possible. It seems to work, because the bat doesn't even notice him.

It hops around a bit on its small, clawed feet and sniffs the ground, before chirping delightfully. Nothing happens for a while, until – OH MY GOD.

A bunch of fluffy blue furballs with wings just burst out off the semicircle the rocks had formed. That scared the fur off of me, swear. On second glance, they look a bit like mini-versions of the swoobat, but… fluffier? And I can't see their eyes. Uh…

"Those are woobat," Mako whispers. "They're the pre-evolution of a swoobat! I guess those are that swoobat's babies, huh?"

I nod absentmindedly. So then how did Munchie fit into all this? Had he wandered into this place by accident? No, scratch that, nobody is stupid enough to 'accidentally wander' into a place called Mutilation Mountain…

My question is answered as soon as I had thought of it as the swoobat sniffs the air once more and nears Munchie's hiding place. The munchlax tenses, holds his breath, and appears to cross his fingers, though he doesn't really have fingers anyway. Then in one, swift movement, the swoobat snatches him out from behind the rock and dumps him in the semicircle.

"OH MY ARCEUS THEY'RE GONNA EAT HIM!" Mako screams, loud enough for the swoobat to hear us. Distracted from its to-be-meal, the swoobat makes some sort of annoyed sound and flits over to us. Mako lets out another scream and looks close to fainting, which I do not need because right now, it looks like we're going to need to fight a giant bat. And I'm not doing that alone.

The swoobat screeches at us and tries to grab Mako, but the sentret reacts quicker than I thought she would and dashes out of the way, leaping onto a jutting rock and using that as leverage to pounce onto the swoobat and bite down on it. Hard.

It cries out in pain and shakes her off, causing her to crash against another rock and struggle to stand up, dizzy. I guess this is where I come in, because the swoobat's approaching her rather quickly.

With as much speed as I can summon, I push off the ground and leap onto the swoobat's back, grabbing onto one of its wings and chomping down on it in a similar style to Mako's. Apparently, biting it hurts a lot for it lets out another annoyingly ear-piercing screech and throws me off with a bunch of sound waves.

The attack Bite is a dark-type move, super-effective against psychic-types like swoobat, Senketsu adds in helpfully. I grumble a thanks and ready myself for another Bite attack (God, my jaws hurt), just as the swoobat takes advantage of my momentary delay and lunges towards Mako.

"A-Ahh!" With a panicked cry, I rush towards the bat, but it already has Mako in its feet (claws?) and is flying over towards the semicircle again. God, no, how am I gonna do this?!

Transform! Senketsu urges. Come on, transform into a flying-type pokemon! Do it, Ryuko!

"I'm trying!" I snarl, focusing as hard as I can. I have to think, right?! Think of wings! Think of saving Mako! Think of helping her for once after all that's happened!

And yet, nothing happens. I don't get the ticklish sensation like last time, and Senketsu's exhausted too much power from transforming me back to help me this time around. Damnit, am I really that useless?! Can I do nothing?!

"Get awaaaay!" Mako shouts – and I mean shout. Her voice turns into an ear-blasting screech that would make a banshee jealous and it pretty much blows the swoobat away, slamming it against the rock wall. And… am I seeing this right?! Are those Goddamn sound waves?! Oh, my God, I think Mako's reached a new level of awesome.

The sound waves push the swoobat further in the rock wall until it breaks completely, causing the bat to fall off the cliff edge and toppling down to the ground. It hits after a while, a sickening crack resounding even from here. That sounded… really, really painful. There are soft pants from Mako's general direction, but other than that, there's only the soft sound of the wind blowing.

"R-Ryuko?" Mako calls. "You there?"

"Here! Are you alright? What about Munchie?"

"He's fine. Aren't you?"

"… F-Fine."

"Okay, good." I sigh in relief. "Thank God, Mako… I'm sorry I couldn't do anything, I–"

"It's okay, Ryuko! Don't apologize!" Mako exclaims. "Let's just focus on trying to get outta here, right?"

"Right…" Looking around, though, there really isn't much I can use as, like, a bridge or whatever, so… "What about those tiny things? The woobats or something?"

As if on cue, there are high-pitched squeaking coming from the other side and the loud flapping of wings. One by one, four of the furballs fly out of the semicircle and plunge down to the bottom of the mountain, probably to find their mom. Or dad, I don't know. I sigh – okay, there goes that small problem.

"Ryuko? There's… There's still another one here."

… "What?"

"Like, there's still a woobat here. See? Hey, it's licking me! Aww, you're adorable!"

"…" I can feel sweat running down the side of my head. Is this sentret more stupid than I thought? "Mako, wasn't it going to eat you minutes ago?"

"Nah, baby pokemon can't eat live pokemon unless they're cut into pieces and presented right in front of 'em. So they think I'm their friend now, aww!"

"That's… nice…" I sigh. I'll just scratch this off as another one of her moments of stupidity. "But we have to figure out what to do now, don't we?"

"I can help with that!"

"Eh?" I turn around and behind me is… is… wait, yellow and red… where have I seen him before? Hey, that's right… "Nagot?"

"That's me!" He bumps his fist against his chest (or where I suppose his chest is) and nods confidently. "I can deal with this. Step back now, miss!"

"Huh? What – JESUS!" With a mighty leap, the scraggy lands on the other side of the split peak, landing with a tumble on the rocky ground. "What the hell?! How'd you do that?!"

"You'd be surprised at exactly what I can do, miss!" He grins and winks over at me, before slipping in one of the gaps of the semicircle. "Ah, sir, miss, and… child. I suppose. Are you in need of assistance to reach the other side?"

"Hey, it's you!" Mako exclaims. "The scraggy! Your name's… Nagot, right? Yeah, are you gonna help us?"

I think Nagot nods; I can't really see from here. Nevertheless, he continues. "Indeed I am! Hand onto me tight, alright? You, there; sir! Please don't hesitate. Come on, now!"

"Oh, wait!" Mako gasps. "What're we going to do about this woobat?"

"This young child has nowhere to go…?" Nagot hums. "Why don't you take him in with you all? You're a rescue team, are you not? Surely you'll be able to find a suitable home for the young child."

"Oh, okay! That'll be cool." Then after a bit, Nagot leaps back out from the semicircle and onto the other side of the peak, this time landing with a solid thump. Munchie scrambles away from him instantly, eyeing him dangerously, while Mako secures the woobat in her arms while stepping away from him carefully. Now that I look at him, he looks like he has what looks like red threads wrapped around his wings… well, whatever.

"Is… Did I hear him right? Are we actually going to keep that little guy?" I ask, hoping Mako'd say no. Of course, things never go how I like them, and the sentret nods enthusiastically. I bury my face in my paws. "How are we going to feed another mouth, Mako?! And this one's a kid, isn't he? He'll be needing, like, twice the food we eat!"

"No problem! Don't you remember what Ashley's reward is?" Mako says. "Two thousand poke and berries! Lots of 'em! We'll be rich enough to feed Wooby!"

"That's not seriously what you're naming him."

"Yes I am! I found him first, so I get to name him!"

"Oh, for God's – let's figure out a name later on, alright?"

"Fiiine…"

Then I remember we have company and turn to look at the other pokemon. Nagot looked quite proud of himself and Munchie just looked uneasy about something. "Nagot, why'd you help us? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but…"

"Your mother was starting to worry. It's been a day since you entered this Dungeon, did you know?" Nagot explained – hold up! A day?! But…!

He notices my shocked expression and catches on quickly. "Oh, if you didn't know, time travels much faster in Mystery Dungeons, miss. Anyway, your mother was starting to worry, and she decided to ask me to look for you all while I was passing by your house." He hesitates a bit on the word 'house', which I'm tempted to sock him in the face for, seeing as his 'house' isn't any better than ours.

I nod anyway, forcing a smile. "Oh, thanks. How do we thank you…? Uh, maybe you could–"

"No, no! Just your thanks is enough for me." He grins. My head hurts because last time I saw him, this guy couldn't even say a single sentence without stuttering five times. And… wow, I'm not even sure this guy really is Nagot.

"Well, okay. Thanks for being generous." Then I move on to our main concern; Munchie, who looked like he was about to sneak away. "And where do you think you're going? Your friend's waiting for you, you know, if she's still down there, anyway…"

"Are you sure?" he squeaks out all of a sudden. "Are you sure it was really Ashley? Are you sure you were really supposed to look for me and not someone else?"

"Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" I ask, raising an eyebrow (or what I suppose acts as my eyebrow). Munchie looks unconvinced, but eventually nods and inches closer to us.

I look over at Mako expectantly, who grins and holds up the team badge. With a bright flash of light, we're teleported back to the entrance.


Mutilation Mountain – Entrance

As soon as we set foot/paw on the ground, something wet drops on my nose. It gets harder and harder until we figure out that yes, it's raining, and a groan escapes Mako's, Nagot's, and my mouth; it's hard to forget what happened a few days ago when it had started raining.

"A-Are we going to have to stay the night at Zeika City?" Nagot asks, his timid personality back. I'm starting to wonder if he has a split personality or something.

Mako sighs and nods. "Ew, that place. It's all grimy and it's filled with drunks all the time, 'specially at night. Mm, we can deal with it. Come on, it's not far from here! Wooby, make sure to hold on to Mama's hand."

She's still calling the bat that name… whatever, we can deal with it once we find a cheap hotel.

The trek to Zeika City, which I later learn is a city known for its multiple bars and arcades, is rather uneventful. The rain starts coming down harder around halfway through, much to our chagrin, and there's the distant rumble of thunder in the distance to worry about as well. The sky is completely filled with dark clouds, so we can't really tell what time it is, but Nagot says it was well past five when he set off for Mutilation Mountain, so we can estimate it's around six or seven pm right now.

After around thirty or so minutes, we arrive at the entrance of a giant city, packed with buildings and nearly all of the lights on. There are a few pokemon outside bumbling about like drunk idiots (which they probably are, now that I think about it), but other than that, it's a straight dash for the first hotel we see.

Busting through the doors soaking wet probably isn't the best decision, especially since we're tracking mud, grass, and who knows what else along with us, but none of the hotel's inhabitants seem to notice. Except for… hey!

"Ashley?" Munchie squeaks, nearing the chimchar sitting on the couch warily. "Did you really…?"

"Only because you can be half-competent sometimes," the chimchar snaps before Munchie even has a chance to finish his question. She stands up and looks over at us disdainfully, before throwing us a large blue backpack towards Mako. The sentret scrambles to catch it and manages to secure it in her arms while still holding on to the woobat at the same time. God knows how she did that.

"There, your reward," she growls. "Now get out of my sight. This'll be the last time we'll meet, amateurs." She exits the hotel, dramatically slamming the doors close. Munchie scampers after her with one last look behind him.

Then they disappear into the rain.

Mako lets out a tired sigh. "Ashley's just this giant tsundere, isn't she?"

"What?"

"Nothing! Hey, so let's see…" she digs into the backpack, dragging it over to the couch and sitting on it comfortably. "Wow, two thousand and five hundred poke! Extra cash!"

Nagot looks at her. "S-Shouldn't you give that ba–"

"Three Oran Berries, three Pecha Berries, three Rawst Berries, three Cheri Berries, and three Chesto Berries. Ooh, sweet. Mom'll love these!" Mako continues on, ignoring Nagot completely. The scraggy struggles to get a word in, but I just shake my head and go over to the front desk. A pokemon that vaguely resembles a blue and black lion stands behind the desk, looking rather bored.

"Uh, how much for a night, two rooms?" I ask, feeling a bit intimidated by the pokemon.

She doesn't even look up from her book to reply. "One thousand and two hundred poke."

"I… uh, okay." That's a lot, and it feels horrible having to use our money so early, but… "Mako, it's a thousand and two hundred for a night and two rooms."

"Two rooms? Make it one! We can share a bed again and Wooby can sleep with Nagot!"

I sigh. So thrifty… "How's one room?"

"Seven hundred," she replies in that same monotone voice. I glance at the nametag on her neck; Fallow. Strange name, but I guess it doesn't really matter. "Yes, that's my name. What do you want?"

"What? Nothing," I reply quickly. There's this threatening sort of aura around her… "Thanks. Uh…" I grab the money from Mako and slide it over the desk, where Fallow barely acknowledges it. She snatches a key from somewhere and hands it to me.

"Room 783, fifth from the left, floor ten," she says curtly. "Enjoy your stay."

"Yeah… uh… you too," I say, probably dumbly, accepting the key and returning to where Mako and the rest were. "Hey, we got a room. Hurry up, we all need some rest." 'Especially you, Senketsu.'

His tiredness is only emphasized by the fact that he doesn't even reply to me.


Nagot fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, and the woobat has settled beside the scraggy, snoring softly. Mako's about to sleep as well, but I shake my head.

"Not yet. What about the woobat? What are we going to do about him?" I ask.

Mako pouts. "Really, Ryuko! It'll be fine, we can feed him! Mom's croquettes are healthy for anyone!"

"That's not what I meant, but…" I sigh. "Fine, we'll have to do with that. Then, what do we call him? You can't seriously expect me to take the kid seriously when his name is Wooby of all things."

"Oogh, you're no fun, Ryuko. What do you wanna name him, then?"

"It's not me, it's… I don't think it really fits him?"

"Then…" she tilts her head. "What?"

"First of all… how do we know the kid's really a dude?"

Silence.

"Oh yeah," Mako breathes.

I face… paw. "So it might be either a boy or a girl?"

"I guess so."

Another facepaw. "That's just wonderful."

"Then how do we find out what's its gender?!" Mako panics.

"Geez, calm down. Why don't we ask… that pokemon downstairs?"


Fallow looks at us, unimpressed. "You want to find out this woobat's gender?" she asks.

"Uh… yeah," Mako says.

She sighs. "Very well. She's a female. Now, I have a question for you two…" she extends a paw and points at the woobat's wings, where the red threads I had seen a while ago are. "What are these? Decorations?"

"Uh, we don't really know. We found her with those on already."

Fallow's face contorts into a disgusted scowl. "Take it off."

"What?"

"I said take it off," she snaps. "These… do you know what these are?"

"Uh, no."

"…" She paws at the red threads once more. "Then, hopefully, you won't need to know about it. As soon as you get the chance, take them off. It will save this young child a great deal of pain." Then she retreats back to the front desk and leaves us hanging by the stairway.

Mako peers over at the red threads, ignoring the woobat's cry of protest. "They look pretty normal to me…" She even reaches over and ties them into a ribbon around the woobat's wing, which further drives the point that they don't even look remotely dangerous. "She's not saying anything… I guess they're not that bad?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe that Fallow's just off her rocker or something."

Mako shrugs right back. "I guess we'll let her decide on her own. Hey, do these hurt?" the sentret asks, pointing at the red threads. The woobat hesitates a bit, before shaking its body side to side, which I guess means 'no'. "Then we don't need to worry!" Mako exclaims brightly.

"Okay, problem solved. Now what do we name her?" I ask. I would've crossed my arms, but I'm physically incapable of doing that right now.

"Um… I don't know. Let's start with letter M."

"M? Why?"

"Because then I can say 'I'm Mako, and this is my sister, M-something'! It'll sound cool because of the alliteration!"

I roll my eyes. Typical Mako. "Fine. Mako… Mako… Maiko? How 'bout that, Maiko?"

"Maiko!" Mako's eyes glimmer. "That sounds awesome! Let's go with that for now! You hear that, Maiko? That's your new name!" The newly-named Maiko squeaks and simply burrows her face deeper into Mako's arms, going back to sleep.

"Yeah, we need to sleep." I yawn. "Come on, let's go back. Get some rest so we can go back home tomorrow."


It has been some time since we have met, Ryuko.

"Wha–? Who are you? How do you know my name?"

You do not remember me? Good… it seems Iori has done his part.

"What? Who's Iori? Hey, answer me!"

My apologies. I am prohibited from answering your questions. However… I do know what you may do to receive your answers.

"What? Really? Tell me, then!"

No.

"EH?! YOU BASTARD!"

What a foul mouth.

"Shut up."

I did say I would not answer your questions. I may not do that until… urgh!

"Huh? Until what?"

Ugh… m-my apologies, Ryuko. I must go now.

"Eh?! Why?! Hey, come back…!"

'Get the hell away from her, damnit! Striking when I'm weak, huh?!'

Tch! So you're awake… wonderful.

'Hah?! Where do you think you're going?! Get back here!'

"W-What the hell? What's happening?!"

'Ryuko!'

"Who's this… Senketsu?!"

'Yes, it's me. Listen, that voice… don't listen to h… it!'

"What? Why?"

'She – I mean, it cannot be trusted. Look, just… trust me, alright?'

"… Fine. But you have to answer my questions."

'That will depend on the manner of your questions.'

"How I hate you…"


Witty Commentary aaat... 7:20 pm?! What is this?!

Anyway, Word Count is at 4060+ words. Eh, could be better, but I just wanted to get a chapter up today.

A note: school starts on June 9. Updates will come sporadically, if they will come at all. Don't worry, I have no intentions of abandoning this fic unless I say so myself, which is unlikely.

Anyway! So, let's review this chapter. Munchie is rescued by a giant (dead) swoobat and the team gets a new member, sort of. Nagot makes another appearance, and it starts raining. Again. I think Nagot's ability is actually Drizzle and not Moxie because literally every time he shows up it starts raining. Well, moving on, Fallow by cometshadow makes an appearance as well, hooray! We'll be seeing another pokemon of the shinx evolutionary line, but that's not important right now. And if you've watched Kill la Kill, then maybe you might have an idea of what those red threads are. But I'm not saying anything~.

Also, Maiko, or Maiko Ogure. She's a thing too. Remember Shinjiro? She's in the same category as he.

And lastly, Senketsu and this other voice. I swear, there are literally so many voices right now I can't differentiate them. Hell, they might as well be Senketsu A, Senketsu B, and Senketsu C. Not kidding.

Anyway! Alright, that ends it. Up next: that part where Friend Areas are a thing (except they're not), and maybe maybe maybe MAYBE the start of Sinister Forest. Whoo.

Thanks for reading. Have a nice day, y'all. (Wow, I'm already at seven chapters? What the...)

Slacker, 6/2/14