To hallucinate the truth

All in all, I could honestly say it was an enlightening experience. That certainly did not make my nausea go away, but it was pretty revealing on myself.

Oh, and like most people, I was not thrilled by what I could see.

Selfish, power-hungry, miserable, weak looking pre-teen. Especially that last one.

When I let Levys out of his pokéball to apologize, he slapped me.

Shocked, I remained silent and a few tears even threatened to appear in my eyes as I thought he was angry with me.

«I'm sorry, Levys. » I looked down and got hit again for my trouble.

«Karp! » He protested. «Kaaarp karp karp. »

«Hum… » I hesitated. It was true that I was getting better at understanding him, I swear. It's just that this was a bit mindboggling. Was he angry at me for what I did, in which case he argued against Falkner even then (prompting me to give him an award and a real feast for pure awesomeness), or was he not angry at me at all and did not want me to apologize?

Only one way to find out: ask him.

«Why are you angry? » I said, making my magikarp blinked.

«Karp karp kaaaaarp. » He replied slowly.

Only one way to find out: ask him with a yes or no question!

«Are you mad because of the match? » I tried to sound calm. Either way would make me guilty as heck, but at least I'd know the truth.

«Karp. » He moved his head right and left and I felt my knees weaken with the emotion.

«But Levys…! » I started protesting just as he jumped out of the lake and slapped me.

«But- ! » Once. «Levys, I - ! » Twice. «Will you just -? » Thrice. «Okay, I get it! »

My cheeks were as red as his scales at that point and I massaged the sore spots.

«You really ought to - !» Oh to Reverse World with it! My arrogant pokémon had the nerves to slap me again and dared looked smug about it! He even dove underwater for a second and I could definitely tell that he was laughing at me!

«Levys, how dare you? » I cringed, indignant.

He looked perfectly fine with that. One less point for him. There.

He surfaced again and I almost choked. Levys suddenly did not look very amused.

He had the badge in his mouth.

«Drop that! » I instantly ordered.

My pokémon's eyes narrowed and I flinched.

«I-I'm serious, drop that! » I said, backing away slightly.

I was hit by a splash of water.

Levys seemed really angry with me now, but I did not want to back away either. Why couldn't he understand? That badge was not something I deserved, not with the way I received it. To get a badge through that sort of behavior was not something I wanted to live with, even if my starter was the one to urge me to.

«…please… just… drop it, Levys. » I pleaded softly.

I'd rather not argue on something like that with him; it was painful.

Levys looked sad, but he finally agreed and let the badge sink into the water once more.

«Karp? » He said, tilting slightly to the right.

«I was not a good trainer back then, Levys. I want to get that badge by fighting properly, not by acting inconsiderately, do you understand? I'm not giving up on my dream, I swear. We'll face Falkner again, but only when we're ready to take him on, okay? I don't want to risk your life like that ever again. » I finished explaining, calm but sad.

«Karp! » He replied loudly, making me blink in surprise.

And he jumped on me, tears moistening his big round eyes. Wait… could a fish cry?

«Karp kaarp kaarp! »

My only response was to hug him strongly.

«What a touching scene. » Someone commented from behind me.

Without losing a moment (…as if I could do that), I turned around and faced the intruder.

I lost my voice for a second and I frowned in confusion. There was a monk in front of me… unless it was just a shaved man wearing some eccentric clothing.

«Hum… » I hesitated.

«Ah, forgive my intrusive behavior. I was simply touched by the great display of friendship you two offered me. » He bowed politely and I sulked a little. Who had offered him anything? That was just a good moment between us two alone! In a public place though… maybe I should not protest too loudly.

«Yeah, yeah, pleased to have made your day. Can you leave us alone now? » I dismissed him.

«Oh no, it would be irresponsible of me to leave you like this. There is a very bad aura surrounding you right now. » The man declared, as if that made any sense.

«Huh… »

«I fear much trouble on your path if you insist on walking away now. » He tried to sound wise, but I must admit that I was not really impressed.

Troubles on my way? Who would doubt that? On the other hand, I did not want to walk away, I want him to leave. As far as ominous predictions go, I've heard better before.

My unimpressed look failed to make an impression on him as he grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the tower.

«Hey! What are you doing? » I yelled as Levys fell off me. «Let go of me, you freak!»

«I am afraid I cannot. »

«Yes, you can! Just let go of my arm! » I screeched!

Unfortunately, there was no one else near the lake and no good-willed villager heard of my predicament.

Of course.

«Return! » I pointed Levys' pokéball his way before he was out of the device's reach.

The man dragged me on a wooden bridge (which was really hard for a dragged body, with all those planks hitting every meter or so) toward the local tower. I vaguely remembered that place being associated with bellsprouts, but I was doubtful. A whole building dedicated to bellsprouts, really?

My kidnapper remained silent the whole time, apparently having a stone for a heart. My absolutely adorable pleas and my soul breaking threats did not even crack the armor of his skin.

That or I was the crappiest actor ever.

Because, really, I was scared out of my mind at this point. The man just went passed the enormous doors of the tower and closed them behind us. Never had the sight of doors being closed seemed so unbelievably scary to me before.

I was alone with a man that had decided I had a bad aura and was going to meet trouble if I continued on my way. Did that mean the problem was going to be him, because I had not taken him seriously?

«W-what are you g-going to do with me? » I asked, my voice trembling with fear.

«Oh, but I am going to help you. » The monk replied, apparently genuinely surprised at the sight of my shaking body.

«T-t-then, let me go! » Oh Arceus, could this get any worse?

…why did I ask that? Something terrible was bound to happen now…

«I cannot. I told you it would be extremely irresponsible of me to let a child walk away directly into trouble. » My kidnapper did seem sorry for the scare he had given me…

«Then what are you going to do? » I asked warily. At this point, a good surprise would be nice.

«Help you. » At that, he smiled mysteriously and I found myself wishing to have jumped in the lake as soon as the man had started talking to me.

He walked passed me, not even glancing at me on the floor. I was quite relieved when he left the room by walking upstairs.

Now alone, my first reflex was to make a dash for the doors. My second was to realize there was no handle. My third was to try to push these doors and get my sweet freedom back, to no avail.

Now what?

The room reminded me of Falkner's gym, minus the platform. The interior was decorated in that old wooden style that had impressed me before. However, right now, a feeling of emptiness, of an aging building, was pressing on me in the semi-obscurity that reigned in the tower. It felt as if this place should not be here anymore.

I shivered from head to toes and I decided that maybe that monk would let me go if I asked nicely. Anything would be better than staying in this creepy tower longer than necessary.

I stumbled in the stairs and hit my face once, but I just ignored it, stood up and continued climbing. I was certain this place was haunted.

I froze in place when I saw what the man had been up to.

Oh, and I screamed. Let's not forget that.

«Welcome in this inner sanctuary of peace. » The monk greeted me, as polite as before, with an extra dose of creepiness.

I mean, he was sitting in a circle of black candles in a dark room with some sort of creepy blue mist surrounding him! Where the heck was the peace in all this? Was it the peace due to the deceased?

It looked like he was trying to summon Giratina!

I must admit that I was a little white with shock after my scream had died down.

«My apologies for scaring you. I did not think you were the kind to be afraid of the dark.»

That was not the problem! Well, actually, it was PART of the problem, but the real deal was the utter creepiness of all this!

«Please, come and sit down with me. »

NEVER! «This is important for your growth as a trainer. »

What was important was me leaving this place! Nothing else!

«I will not hurt you. »

Says the houndoom to the mareep!

«If you refuse, your pokémon will be the one to suffer in the long run. »

Nothing he could say would make… Levys?

«W-what do you mean? » I swore, if he so much as hinted at going for Levys, I would set him on fire with those candles!

«Sit down and all will be revealed. » He motioned to a circle chalked up on the ground.

My whole body was screaming to me to just run away and be done with that, but my mind refused. If this was to protect Levys from harm, then I had to do it. I owed it to my starter.

I took place in the circle and looked directly at the monk. Said monk looked very pleased with my decision.

«Excellent. I knew from the start that you would choose this option. Young trainers are easily impressionable and will often leave without a second thought. Only those with a true bond with their pokémon will choose to stay. »

My brain short-circuited.

«You mean this was just to test me? » I protested with a very deep indignation. This had been one of the scariest experiences in my life!

«Partially. Some components are really needed for what we are about to do; others… not so much. »

I gulped down, not exactly reassured. What could need this kind of setting?

«Young trainer, I feel that you are conflicted over your training career. »

I blinked for a second, impressed, before I remembered that he had listened to me talk to Levys.

«No, I just made the decision to be more careful in battles from now on. I don't see what the conflict is. » I crossed my arms stubbornly. This was getting too personal to my tastes.

«Exactly. You do not see, for the true problem is hidden within. There is no wickedness in wishing for the safety of your pokémon; it is actually quite noble. However, you will face trouble at one point in your journey and, that day, you will be lost. »

«Can you see the future? » I said, a little bit mocking though the sheer seriousness of the man was making me nervous.

«No, I cannot, but I can easily detect patterns. »

«Well, why don't just tell me what my big problem will be, so I can deal with it and skip the whole ordeal in the first place? »

«I cannot offer you the solution. You are the only one that can. » He shook his head sadly, as if he would rather tell me everything anyway. «What I can offer you, however, is foresight. »

«What do you mean? »

He did not answer. Instead, he called a bellsprout out and looked at me in the eyes. For a second, I felt as if my mind was opened to him before getting a grip.

«What are you doing? »

«Do not resist. » He instructed me.

Have I mentioned that this was the kind of order that pushes me to do exactly the opposite?

«What are you doing? » I tried to stand up, but the monk had moved forward and kept me in place. Our faces were only inches away from one another now…

«Just calm down and breathe slowly. »

The bellsprout waiting in the shadows had started moving, as I could see some sort of pink mist fill the air. That was supposed to be Sweet Scent, wasn't it? Was he trying to call pokémon here? But there weren't any here…

Unless you counted the ghosts!

Trying to get my breath under control was useless now, as I could feel a cold chill around me. There were ghosts here; there was no about about it.

I heard a scream-inducing chuckle rise from the ambient darkness and dozens of glowing red eyes suddenly stared at me.

I was white with terror. Arceus! Was that monk trying to give me a heart attack?

«G-go away! » I yelled at the ghosts, only to be answered with a chorus of mad laughers.

«Do not be scared… » The obviously mad man whispered to me.

«HOW CAN I NOT BE SCARED WHEN I AM TRAPPED WITH A WEIRDO, HIS BELLSPROUT AND LAUGHING GHOSTS? » I shouted at the tops of my lungs.

My small rant was met with literally hysterical laugher from the ghosts and I wondered how long it would take for my brain to shut off.

Not long apparently, because my vision started to blur.

«W-what's happening? » I stuttered, my head feeling heavy.

«Relax and let the truth reflect in your mind. » The monk told me.

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed that the bellsprout was spraying a greenish mist now. I could not quite process the information before I blacked out.


I cannot be certain of the exact moment I returned to the world of the living, but, for a long time, I stayed lying on my back, my eyelids too heavy for me to lift. It felt as if the life had been drained out of me…

I jolted upward, that thought waking the heck out of me!

Panting in panic, I looked around me, only to see I had been lying in some forest.

«What? » I frowned, confused.

I was alone and I could barely hear the singing of some pidgeys in the background…

This had gone beyond weird. One minute I was stuck in a dark room with ghosts and a crazy monk and the next I was lying in the middle of a forest. Had he decided to go even further with the kidnapping and dump me in the middle of nowhere? That was a hypothesis I should not ignore.

«Is anybody here? » I turned around to see if I had not missed traces of human activity.

«I'm here! » A familiar voice surprised me.

«Martin? » I blinked. Was he a part of this?

«Who else? I left you a minute ago. I did not think you would be so afraid to be left alone for a little while. » He grinned condescendingly.

If it was not for the fact that this made no sense, then I would be pissed at him for teasing me again. However, I was only confused even further by his statement.

«Did you see a man wearing a monk's attire and followed by dozens of ghost-types? » I glanced around, visited by a chill not unlike the one I had experienced earlier.

«No. Did you want to convert yourself? » He tilted his head, now just as confused as I was.

«It's… it's probably nothing. » But, of course, my worries did not disappear, nor did Martin's perception.

«Surprise headlock! » He suddenly grabbed me and my mind effectively wandered off my strange kidnapper.

«Let go of me! » I ordered him, without effect though. If anything, it seemed to encourage him even more.

Great.

«Now to find a body of horribly cold water that will make you sick… » Martin whispered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear about it.

«What? » My eyes widened. He wouldn't…

«Ah, I can see one. » He said with a smile.

«Where do you see that? » I frowned.

We were in the middle of the woods, what kind of body of water did he expect to find in the five meter radius of a clearing?

«Just below. »

Unbeknownst to me, Martin had apparently walked more than I thought as we were now standing on the verge of a cliff!

I lost my voice instantly.

«Just there, can you see that little blue dot? That's a lake. » He pointed to a very blurry piece of dark green below with what appeared to be some sort of blue circle.

«Martin, that's just – »

«Here we go! » He jumped, my head still locked under his arm.

He, mother of Arceus, jumped!

The feeling of falling was exactly what my mind needed to shut down into a gibberish mess.

Until Martin reminded me of his Giratina cursed presence that is…

«What a view. » He commented cheerfully. Cheerfully? We were going to die because of him and he was cheerful? WHAT?

«I HATE YOU, MARTIN! » I screamed with a venom stronger than what I thought I could master.

«Ah, but hatred is a form of love, dear lil' teddy. » Martin replied with a little smile.

«THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SE – »

I was brutally cut off by the impact of us two entering the lake at a speed I could not put a number on. My lungs instantly filled themselves with cold and muddy water and, with the signal of pain the rest of my body was sending me, this was surprisingly not my number one worry.

The fact that I had not died on the spot was a somewhat nice surprise. Normally, I would thank my lucky star and her gazillions of colleagues for saving me, but I was a bit preoccupied by the fact that I could not move and that I was sinking deeper into the water.

Martin was nowhere near in sight. In fact, I could not see a thing. It was like I had fallen so deeply that the light refused to reach this far into water.

My body still did not respond, though the sensations were still horribly present. For anyone that wonders, this is beyond scary, terror and any other word you might think of, WAY beyond that.

It was dark, it was a void, and it was beyond what I could endure.

I could not tell how long it lasted, an eternity or a second, but things started to change. My body felt different now, but I feared that I had lost my sensations. I could not feel my legs anymore.

«Karp? » I heard a rumbling noise and the recognition stimulated my senses to the maximum.

«Levys? » I asked, my own voice distorted by the water. To my great surprise, I felt no pain, as if the world had suddenly changed.

«Karp karp. » It was not Levys. The voice was slightly different, more graceful.

I was right. A magikarp bigger than me swam into my field of vision.

For some reason, I was not afraid. I wanted to, but my body and my mind refused to feel fear at the sight of such a gigantic magikarp. It felt familiar.

«Kaaaaarp. » The pokémon stroke my cheek and the love in that single movement made me feel at peace.

If only I could understand what was going on…

«Karp! » Another magikarp approached us, this one smaller but still at least as big as me.

«Brother? » I said out loud before freezing.

Why did I say that? Why had it been so… natural?

Then it hit me. I had died and returned as a magikarp.

What?

«Karp karp! » My brother swam into me, mocking. Great, even in this life I was being teased by my peers.

«Kaaarp. » The massive one separated us easily, a bit roughly in the case of my brother. Furthermore, he looked pissed himself now. Maternal justice was the best kind.

…alright, I had to find out how my brain worked now because this was getting a bit out of hand.

«Karp. » She said nicely and we took it as an order to follow her.

Swimming as a fish was a bit weird, as I had the experience with a human body, my mind contradicted my instinct. This was… an unusual turn of event.

But I couldn't honestly protest about it. Perhaps it was my now different brain, but I was content with what I had now, a mother and a brother. She taught us how to find food, how to hide, how to sleep, how to survive.

And then she was killed.

We didn't have the time to panic. A tentacle came from a shadow and snatched her away. The last thing I saw of her was her body being dragged away in the darkness of the bottom of the lake. The last thing I heard of her was a panicked «Karp» that I never quite understood.

My brother and I fled. If our mother could not fight back, we had no chances.

We tried to survive by ourselves. This was much harder without our mother's help. We were still too young to fend for ourselves.

Alone, neither of us would have been able to pull through, but our combined efforts allowed us to live to adulthood, even if we were not as strong as we could have been.

My brother died by being snatched away too, but from getting too close the surface. A pair of claws pulled him out and I never saw him again.

I was alone now.

It was hard. The lake, though this concept was purely human to me, had shrunk down. I could not tell why, but it had and things were starting to go downhill. The predators were more aggressive, now forced to live in a smaller environment, and food was scarce. More than once, I ate things that were completely unknown to me. Once, I even swallowed a rock that was of a different color, with the hope it was somehow edible enough to could calm my growing hunger.

It was dark in the lake. Light could still filter from the surface, but it felt dim. I knew that sooner or later, the looming threat of death would snatch me too.

I caught a glimpse of something floating ahead of me and, fighting my instinct with all my strength, I forced myself to test it first. To my delight, it tasted delicious and I tried to swallow it whole.

I suddenly felt my body being pulled forward.

Without thinking, I tried to back away, but it was stronger than me.

I could see the surface of the lake get closer fast now! Was I going to be killed the same way my brother had?

The memories of him flashed before my eyes and I felt a burning anger fill me. I would not go down without a fight!

I pulled, swam, splashed, flailed, trashed, dove, charged, everything! I did everything in my power to fight for my survival, if only to know that I had not given up!

I was thrown out of the lake, completely. For the first time in this life, I was not in a body of water.

I hit the ground, who was hard and uncomfortable compact. I helplessly tried to get back into the lake, but this was so foreign of a feeling now that I could only jump in a straight line toward the sky.

Something hit me in the ribs and I was sucked into a small rock. My sight went black again.


«GAH! » I screamed, jolting awake in the dark room, the creepy (and definitely crazy!) monk staring at me with interest.

«I take it your inner quest has been successful? » His politeness surfaced again and I looked his way with bewilderment.

What part of me waking up screaming meant that it had gone well?

Then, it hit me. I was supposed to wake up screaming, I was meant to think I died, twice! I wanted to glare that man to death. I had been scared out of my minds so many times today it was not even close to being funny anymore!

I slapped the hand he offered me and the monk seemed honestly taken aback by my attitude.

My anger flared up. He did not understand that I could be angry with what he had put me through?

I wished nothing more than to scream at him at the top of my lungs, but a sudden chill went down my spine as I was touched by a ghost-type and I forced myself to sound calm.

«What… did you do to me? » I asked, leaning backward… just in case.

«Is it not obvious? » His serenity returned and he smiled.

«It is. You drugged me. » I shot him a wounded look… and I hoped really hard that my poor acting skills did not fail me now.

Not that I had anything to worry about anyway.

The man's eyes widened greatly and he looked shocked beyond words.

«No! Of course not! » He strongly denied my accusation, waving his arms wildly for added effect.

«Yes, you did! I did not fall asleep on my own! » I tried to put as much pain and anger as possible in my voice, which wasn't very hard after the traumatizing experience this had been.

«I did help you fall asleep, but this was not via a drug. I simply had my bellsprout use Sleep Powder on you. » The monk tried to explain, but this only served to annoy me.

«That's exactly what I meant by drugging me! You put me to sleep against my consent! And those ghosts did something to me! I know they did! » I gritted my teeth in anger and I stood up, ready to leave regardless of that man's opinion or even of those ghosts!

«T-They did use Dream Eater… » He stuttered weakly.

«What? » It was my turn to be bewildered. Not in surprise, but by the sheer amount of stupidity I had in front of me!

Dream Eaters could send people into a coma! It messed with people's way of thinking while they were dreaming and overstimulated the area of fear! To use that on a human being, even worse, on a cute teenager like me, was beyond irresponsible!

…yes, that time my teacher had ranted about a boy threatening to make a girl's dreams disappear with that was fresh in my memory and I could not forget it, no matter how many times I tried.

«Let me go, right now. » I would not take «no» for an answer. This man, under the cover of helping me, had put me through something very dangerous.«I want to leave. »

For a moment, he only stared at me and I feared he'd ignore my demands and try the same trick again. He did think I had been successful though. If I was lucky, he would…

Oh crap, I was doomed to stay here forever…

«Of course. » He bowed to me, although it was more of an apology than a mark of respect.

I blinked in surprise at the man and, before I had the time to react, he stood up and went downstairs. Not very reassured at this sudden change in behavior, I did follow him (I had asked for that, after all), albeit consciously.

The hysterical cackling that erupted behind my back sent me through a panic and I ran as fast as I could to get out. I had forgotten about all those ghosts that had answered his call.

I felt a chill as I looked back to the upper floor and could not see past the darkness.

«I do hope you will one day find it in your heart to forgive me. » The monk apologized formally this time and I turned around to see that he had opened the doors.

Without letting the frantic beating of my heart show on my face, I walked out of the tower, my eyes fixated on the crazy monk, just in case he was overwhelmed by madness and decided to throw me in the lake or have me eat his robes.

…Wait, that sounded like something Martin would do…

I am fairly certain the monk did not understand the meaning of me hitting my forehead with my palm at that very moment. He did send me a weird look, but he smiled too.

Creepy.

«I can see that your vision of the world did change and my mission here is done. I shall pray that the ones that do need spiritual enlightenment will find my way. »

I had to fight the urge to freeze in place. Instead, I went with the very logical course of action that is running away!

Next stop: the police station.

Thankfully, no one followed me, explicitly at least, and I could reach that haven without trouble.

Inside the actual building, I stopped to think about exactly what I was about to say. Here, in this mundane setting, I felt extremely silly with what I intended to do next. So I stood where I was, not really sure of what I wanted to do anymore.

«Hello? May I help you, kid? » A tall police officer finally approached me.

I was not scared, even if I could swear he was the brother of that driver from the Reverse World.

«Hum… y-yes… » I stuttered on my words, blushing in the process.

The man had a very engaging smile and kneeled next to me. The warmth on his traits instantly reminded me of the way my mother looked at me when she was happy and I felt my fear melt away.

«You see… I was just kidnapped by a very weird monk… » I looked away, as if that was something shameful.

The officer grabbed my arm gently and asked me to follow him further inside the office.

Five minutes later, I was sitting on a chair with a cup of juice, while trying to convince one officer not to phone my mother. So far, I was on the losing side of the discussion.

It was not easy to go against the official procedure, not against a severe looking dark-haired female officer.

«I will call her myself, I swear! » I tried to appeal to the woman's maternal instinct by looking as vulnerable as possible, which was backfiring spectacularly. She was convinced I needed to take a break from training, or at the very least, had to get a guardian to travel with me.

«Look, Maria, you're just making him more nervous and I think you will agree with me that he does not need any excess of stress right now. » My savior came in the form of that tall officer I had first met.

«Fine… » She let go of the phone she had been holding all this time and focused on me instead.«Well, can you tell us exactly what happened? »

I bit my lips.

«I'm… not quite sure to be quite honest… » That was perfectly true. I did not understand what that had been about. I had been talking with Levys about pokémon training and that man had suddenly come from behind me and dragged me into the tower. Worse, he had held some sort of weird magic-looking thing and had drugged me.

I told them what happened, mentioning that I was just as confused as them in regards to the motives of that guy. Their eyes widened when they heard about the Dream Eater thing too.

«And you said that he let you go? » One of them asked me.

«Yes. He told me I was done with my… spiritual journey thing and opened the doors… » I frowned.

I had not told them about that dream I had; I had a feeling that was too personal to share…

I felt Maria's gaze on me and I shifted uncomfortably.

«This is not our man then… » She declared, looking at her colleagues with a tired expression.

«I think we should send a team in the tower immediately. We do not know if that monk had the intention of staying there any longer. » One of the other officers replied, though there was some sort of silent acknowledgement toward her statement in his demeanor.

«Right. » A pair of officers nodded and left the room. A second later, I heard their voices, muffled by the walls, calling a few more names and the movement of several adults rising from their chairs at once.

While I had been distracted, the remaining officers seemed to have agreed on something behind my back. By the looks on Maria's face, I should be afraid, very afraid.

«We have come to an agreement. » She started and I subconsciously nodded. It had been awfully fast. I didn't look away for that long, did I?

«In regards of that kidnapping you have been victim of, we will provide you with an escort during your stay here, as long as that monk is not under arrest. »

Great… babysitting, just what I needed to look even more like a weakling.

Then, the face of that monk floated before my eyes and I promptly forgot any and all opposition I might have had. Bodyguard? Good. So long as I wasn't drugged once more in my stay here, I would put up with that.

The officer that volunteered to stay with me until the end of the affair was a blonde man by the name of Grant, which was what I gathered.

The man barely introduced himself, not looking immensely happy with the task he had been given. That was one thing we had in common, but I had to admit this was making me a bit apprehensive of the time we would have to spend together.

It became significantly worse when he announced that it would be in our best interest not to leave the town in itself, as this could make us more vulnerable to an attack.

It also meant I would not be allowed to train either, unless I faced a great number of other trainers like me, preferably beginners, because I really didn't feel like losing any more battles today.


As it turned out, I did lose more battles today. Luckily, I managed to find a few other trainers, most of which were standing not far away from the lake leading to the Bellsprout Tower. While the bridge and the tower itself were obviously off-limits, the borders of the lake had been deemed safe, although I would sometimes catch a glimpse of a police officer patrolling the area.

The trainers were even water-types trainers, which meant this would be my first real battle on an aquatic field. Given that Levys was at ease the most in a lake like that one, it should have been much easier for us.

Levys did indeed have a blast… I hope. The part where he was being beaten aside, I meant…

Who could I have guessed that other water-types were good swimmers? Not me…

The day unfortunately ended with me feeling my pockets being much lighter than yesterday and being followed by a police officer that was obviously restraining himself from snickering in my face.

This was not a good day.

The thought made me blink. It was an alarming tendency that my days were never truly good, but really, this one was pretty much taking the cake.

Nurse Joy's kindness did make me feel better, but that was not quite enough and, after the sun had set, I would still feel empty, if not for the anger.

«Are you okay, kid? » Grant openly asked, as I was lying down in my bed.

Alright, would I be honest or act like my mom would want me to? If it was Martin, Allan or maybe Anna, I knew how I would have acted.

«…I'm fine. »

Sounds like my mother got another victory to her belt. She was probably jumping around the kitchen now. I was still too polite to say what I really thought of my crappy day.

«Is that so? » The man said simply, neither asking nor doubting. It was refreshing that he was willing to consider my opinion in all this.

Levys was looking at me through the glass of his aquarium. He had gotten a few bruises in today's battles, but nothing Nurse Joy couldn't heal. I knew it was not the reason I could not look away.

Seeing him swim in the lake had caused a little pinch at the level of my heart. Seeing Levys swim in his tank now was comforting. It should have felt very, very wrong. After all, he was not free there, just a prisoner of that small box of glass. But I could not find guilt inside me anywhere.

I was afraid I was not a good person.

What would brother think o…?

What did I just think? I jolted upright, surprising both my pokémon and my bodyguard. I barely noticed.

I didn't have a brother, but the magikarp I had been forced to think I was had one! I was awake though. Why would I think like that now?

«What I can offer you, however, is foresight. »

Riiiiight, and brain damage on top of that, as an extra bonus.

«If you refuse, your pokémon will be the one to suffer in the long run. »

Why? That guy was just whacked… right?

«Relax and let the truth reflect in your mind. »

What truth? What had I actually seen?

I had been killed, unceremoniously, by Martin who had acted like his usual moronic self… which was close enough to the truth for me to accept, but then… I had woken up as a magikarp, grew up as one, saw my mother got killed, saw my brother got killed, then I got dragged out of the lake and…

The revelation blew away my strength and I fell on my back, eyes wide.

I caught sight of Grant, hurrying to my side, calling for my name, but really, I could only guess. Images and sounds were being muffled by a foggy veil at this point.

I shot a pale look at my pokémon, my starter, Levys, and could not bear the weight of his round clueless eyes anymore.

This had been so wrong. That monk... he had no right… no right at all! …to show me that.

Weakly, I stood up, ignoring Grant that was frantically trying to get my attention.

«Levys… » I said, my mouth painfully dry.

My magikarp tilted his body to the side, even frowning a little.

«Kaaarp? » «Do you have a brother? » Even as I let the words escaped my mouth, I was praying to Arceus. Because it was not fair, not right, not nice, to know all that without even asking for permission. It was violating Levys' privacy to do that.

I would personally punch any person that would try to share my whole past to another person without my permission. I would cringe at the very thought of it!

The moment they heard my question, the heaviest silence I have ever experienced fell on the room. Levys had never looked so stunned. I saw it… the traces of a sadness I could only remember too vividly…

That was all the answer I needed.

I cried. I couldn't explain why, but the tears wouldn't stop flowing. Was I crying because that mother and brother I had really died? Was it because I was ashamed of what I had done to my partner? Or was it really just compassion for my dear starter?

My forehead resting against my pokémon's fish tank, I asked for forgiveness.

Oh, and before you ask, yes, I did spend the next six days at the hospital, checked from brain damages, traces of hallucinogens and lasting traumas.