Sayaka stared at the large expanse of land below her. Standing at the peak of Mount Bristle, she couldn't help but let a few tears escape her eyes. Hitomi had become Kamijou's girlfriend, she knew that. Why? Hitomi had never, not even once, visited him in the hospital while he was injured. Hell, Sayaka had even did something ridiculously dangerous to get the Kricketot's hand better! But…

Why?

"Havin' fun up here, doll?"

The Totodile spun around, her battle instincts flaring up in an instant. While she knew she was still a newbie at this, she had a last resort Kyosuke, Sadie, and Artie hadn't seen, and it would hopefully be useful if ever she had to battle.

Behind her stood a Pokemon, albeit a very strange looking one. He had short, wavy blonde hair, a yellow leather jacket, and brown shorts. He had leather boots for footwear, and his chest was left bare, showing off his abs. One thing was clutched in his fist, however; a curved, horn-like yellow item with ridges on the side. It was obviously an item used by Drowzee Pokemon to eat dreams. He had a rather wicked grin, too – Sayaka found herself wishing the peak had more room to back away.

"Who are you?" was her first question, naturally.

The Drowzee smirked. "Why, just a travelling thief, mind you. Nothing dangerous, not really."

"Not really?" By his second and third sentences, Sayaka wanted to smack him already.

"Look, doll," he continued, ignoring Sayaka's remark. "All I want is to have some fun, see? But I'm cheap. Poor. Not a single coin on me. So all I'm sayin' is that you could sneak in some money for me? Ya're a spoiled little girl, surely yer mom says to help out other Pokemon?"

Sayaka stared blankly at him, unimpressed.

"… Well?" Perhaps his plan was a bit poorly made.

"My mom also said to ignore strangers," she replied bluntly. "Plus, what do you think you're doing, stealing from other people?! It's not right! If you want money, why don't you get a jo-"

Smack.

"Ugh, I did everything to sound normal, and this is what I get," the Drowzee muttered – or was it a Drowzee anymore? His voice was deeper, more gravelly, like the Chingling from their very first mission or Kamijou while he was 'possessed'. His palm had struck Sayaka's face and unexpectedly sent her skidding across the mountain peak, rocks crumbling down and never reaching the bottom while she did so. "I honestly don't understand Pokemon anymore these days. They sound so self-righteous and idiotic while they're doing the exact opposite. So rude."

"Wh-Wha…?" Sayaka unsteadily rose to her feet, holding her hand to the bruise on her cheek. "What happened to you?"

"Everything." The Drowzee scoffed. "Seriously now, I just want money for food. I try to be a vegetarian and you mess everything up."

The Totodile's sense of justice flared. "But! You could get a job, like I told yo-"

Blam.

The Drowzee unleashed a strange psychic energy that sent her even nearer towards the edge, and she momentarily freaked out while struggling to maintain her composure. "Doll, Shadows aren't allowed to have jobs. How stupid can you get? The manager would fire me in an instant if he knew."

Sayaka growled. "Then find a way that doesn't involve stealing!"

With a flick of her wrist, she sent a wave of water towards the Drowzee, but he simply deflected it with a psychic barrier. The water dissipated in an instant. Clucking disapprovingly, the Drowzee neared the shocked Sayaka with threatening eyes. "Weak. I've fought others ten times better than that. Now are you going to give me your money or not?"

Despite her emotions going absolutely haywire, Sayaka returned the glare shakily. "N… No. Of course not."

"Alright then. I'll just have to do this the hard way."

She screamed.


"SAYAK- owowowow. Ahem, SAYAKAAAA!"

Panting, Artie managed to catch up towards the speeding Torchic. "Kyo… suke…" he said, trying to get some words between breaths. "Saya… Sayaka's… she's probably at… at the peak by this point. Don't… waste your breath. S-Stop for a while and… and rest, ugh…"

Gripping his spear tightly, Kyosuke knew he had to stop for a bit and rest up. Heal his injuries, lick his wounds, whatever. But a small, nagging voice at the back of his mind refused to let up, telling him that if he did stay and take a breather, it'd be too late. So many wanted posters have been showing up at the boards lately, and all the outlaws reported were last seen in this very mountain. He couldn't relax while Sayaka may be in danger…

His spear disappeared in a dim flash of red light. He collapsed to his knees, panting tiredly. His eyes were already starting to close, and all the adrenaline he once had left him in a flick of the wrist. He doubted he could even lift a finger by this point. He could hear Artie sighing and Sadie bringing out the first aid kit from the Vulpix's backpack already…

'No!' the voice told him. 'You aren't supposed to be resting! Get up and help Sayaka! She might be in danger! Really bad danger!'

Of course, the rest of his body yelled 'no fuckin' way, bitch' at the voice.

"Gracious Giratina, Kyosuke," Sadie's voice (or what he supposed was Sadie's voice) echoed in his ear. "How many cuts did you get from this place? Arceus, we aren't even supposed to be here in the first place…"

"Sadie!" Artie's voice called out. "The bandages, please. I ran out."

"Already?!"

The Torchic kept thinking. Fire. He needed fire, didn't he? Even after all those years of fighting on the streets, he still didn't know how to conjure up his natural element. How embarrassing. In any case, he always did need to rely on his nails and spear for fighting, but what if it was a Pokemon with a Poison Point ability? That… would not be a very favorable experience, to be honest. Sure, his spear could be used for both close and long range attacks, but he preferred using it when he had to deal with strong enemies or lots of opponents.

So then. Fire. He needed to learn how to control that kind of thing. Even when he was really, really mad, the fire wouldn't react. It never did, anyway. So he'd probably have to turn to Artie for that kind of tutoring; but how would he say it? He had his pride to keep, after all, so perhaps he should just watch how the Vulpix did it.

… No, that wouldn't work. He did watch Artie's Ember attacks from time to time, but all he noticed was that the Vulpix would concentrate and form a fireball in his hands, then launch it at whoever he was fighting. No words of incantation or anything, just… that. He tried that when there wasn't anyone in their dorm once, when he decided to just lounge around while the rest went off to help out someone who lost their item.

Of course, it hadn't worked. All he managed to do was lose his temper and patience waiting for the fireball to conjure.

So he decided. Once he saved Sayaka from whatever danger there might be, he'd start on training himself to conjure some fire. He definitely would do that. He'd get his own little happy ending.

And then a scream.

A scream that sounded unnervingly like Sayaka's echoed in his ears.

The Torchic stood back up with amazing speed, ignored Artie's yelp and Sadie's undignified squeak, and rushed towards the peak. In less than ten minutes, he was there, and he was absolutely mortified at what he was seeing.

A Drowzee (or what he thought was a Drowzee) was there, binding Sayaka's wrists and legs with a purplish psychic rope (psychic bondage, he momentarily thought, before mentally kicking himself) and nearing the Totodile. He was about to rush forward, but instead, Sayaka's hand glowed and a sword (a cutlass, the rational part of his brain told him) appeared in her hand, and she cut the psychic ropes off like they were nothing.

The Drowzee was surprised. Of course he was surprised, even Kyosuke himself was surprised.

Sayaka rushed forward and slashed at the Drowzee's arm, causing him to shriek inpokemonly. Kyosuke recognized that kind of voice; rough, gravelly, the same voice Kamijou and the Chingling had made. Sayaka was panting tiredly and looked like she may collapse any minute, but Kyosuke wasn't any better, either. He couldn't even summon his spear, much less fight with it.

He tried. It didn't work. Easy, he'd just do this, then.

With another burst of speed, his nails lengthened and sharpened before they cut a clean wound on the Drowzee's skin. It screeched again, before retaliating with a psychic energy sent directly to the brain. It successfully gave Kyosuke a splitting headache out of nowhere and the Torchic backed away quickly, clutching his head with both hands.

Sayaka, noticing this, took another deep breath and swung her sword towards the bleeding wound and managed to cause more blood to spurt out. The Drowzee hissed and unleashed another blast of energy, flinging Sayaka straight off the mountain peak.

"SAYAKA!" Rushing towards the edge of the peak, Kyosuke stretched out his arm and tried to grab the bluenette's hand, and she gripped the hand tightly like it was the only thing keeping her alive… which was true, in some way.

Now, while Sayaka wasn't afraid of heights, she was afraid of being smashed to a bloody pulp on the ground due to the high difference between the ground and the peak. She struggled to keep her grip on Kyosuke's hand, and she was starting to regret ever having rushed up here all by herself.

"I-If you fall," Kyosuke stammered. "I'll… I'll fall with you…"

The two were just about ready to plummet to their deaths when a flaming typhoon encircled them. Sayaka screamed and tightened her hold on the Torchic's hand, nearly breaking every single bone in there, but the flames didn't even singe them. The fire wrapped around the duo protectively and carried them back on the peak without a single burn. Dissipating into smoke, the fire typhoon was no more.

The Drowzee, on the other hand, had several burns and bruises. Each and every single one of them was caused by Artie and Sadie respectively. The latter was crossing her arms on her chest proudly, then winced as the Vulpix dabbed some alcohol on the cut on her cheek. Blame it on the Drowzee's surprisingly sharp nails.

"I-I…" Sayaka stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence. "Um… wow. Thanks, I… I guess."

"Thanks?" Artie looked up, the slightest of smiles on his face. "If you're wondering about the fires, that wasn't me."

"Then who-" the Totodile turned to look towards Kyosuke, who was staring at his own hands, in turn. "… You… did that? But I thought…"

The Torchic didn't look like he believed it either, but he flicked his wrist. Instead of his spear, a fireball magically conjured above his palm. Widening his eyes, a grin broke on his face as he decided some serious training was going to happen later.


"Good one, Eri." Ai smiled slightly. Next to her, a figure clad in a yellow-and-black-striped vest grinned in response. She had shoulder length red gold hair with black streaks, and a pair of tiger-like ears poked up from her messy hair. A pleated dandelion skirt with (yet again) black zigzag stripes and gold boots adorned the lower part of her body. Snapping her fingers, cream gloves appeared, clothing her hands, and a burst of fire suddenly zoomed up towards the mountain peak. A fluffy cream tail wagged behind her, identifying Eri as a shiny Arcanine.

"'Twas nothing," she replied nonchalantly, playing with a fireball. "I just helped out a bit, is all. The little guy's gonna have to train himself if he wants that fire to be actually helpful."

"Still, though," Ai continued, frowning a bit now. "I can't believe you came all the way from the afterlife to here just to help me out. If you didn't want to, you could have just said so."

Eri scoffed. "Bah! Of course I wanted to help. If it was somebody else like, say, Oktavia-"

Ai winced.

"-then I wouldn't have come. But it's you!" she flashed a toothy grin at the Ninetales, showing her fangs. "Of course I'd have helped you!"

The Ninetales stared at her friend, trying to process what she had just said, before her face flushed a deep crimson. Did she just-

"Ah." Eri dug out her cellphone. Ai heaved a sigh of relief. "Ohh, Yui! How're you doing?"

'Ah…'

"Eh? Something going on in the ToraDora universe? I'll get to you right away!" Snapping her phone shut, Eri stuffed it in her pocket while giving Ai a sheepish grin. "Sorry, Ai. Got a little something to do in the other worlds." Noticing Ai's disappointed look, Eri hurried to say something else, when an idea popped in her head. "Hey! What say you and I have a duet together when I get back? It'll be great!"

That did it. Ai's ears perked up and all nine of her blue-tipped tails waved in excitement. "R-Really? Alright, then! It's my turn to write the lyrics, isn't it?"

"Mhm!" Eri nodded enthusiastically. "I'll get Wowaka to help out, too! You can look forward to that guy's composing!"


Meanwhile, while everything else was happening and everyone was having their own little happy ending, Miyako and Oktavia observed.

"Um." The Eevee paused for a bit. "Did you know this was going to happen, or did you control their fate strings a bit?"

"A bit of both, to be honest," Oktavia replied coolly. "Originally, there was supposed to be something like Aoi falling off the mountain or Akai dying against the Shadow. But if that happened, then I wouldn't have any of my fun anymore, would I? Being with these peo- Pokemon has been the most fun I've ever had for a long time, just being with Ophelio and Candeloro. So… I helped out. Just the tiniest bit." The mermaid thought about it for a while more. "Oh, and… I owed Ai a favor. I'll be looking forward to the song they'll make. It should be out a few days from now." With that, her navy blue cape appeared once again and she disappeared.

Miyako sat there in Oktavia's room, feeling relieved that nothing too bad had happened. Looking out, she smiled once she saw Team Tales dragging Team Red Bean Paste towards the guild doors. The Pichu guard had spontaneously recovered and was now scolding them for hitting him. Sadie was about to point out he had been the one to hit himself but Artie simply apologized and convinced the Eevee to get back in their dorms before Cirra found out they had wandered into a mountain only for teams at least ranked two times higher than their current rank.

Miyako's line of sight soon came to a poster in her hands – a poster that said, 'Welcome, one and all! Come to the newly built Spiral's Café; where hopes and dreams come alive!'

Interesting. Perhaps she could convince them to check out this new café… tomorrow, or the day after that, possibly.


Whoop. Late update, sorry about that. I'm just starting to read the Percy Jackson series, so I was a bit preoccupied. (Percabeth~)

Anyway. OH GOD I'M ALMOST AT THE DOUBLE DIGITS. For chapters, anyway. Not reviews. No one reviews or reads this anymore. -cries- But whatever. Um, 2k words this time, which is shorter than short. Sorry. Again. God, I'm not in the mood for this, I'm supposed to be watching Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, you know...

Oh, and if you got the 'afterlife' reference, I love you forever.

Reisu, 7/14/13