They both took off at the same time.

Kyosuke managed to squeeze in the first attack before Walpurgis's sword stabbed him in the gut, however; a stream of fire erupted from his palm and scorched the Skuntank's arm. Truth be told, the Torchic had been aiming for the sword so that he wouldn't be in any mortal danger, but he had missed. He acted as if he had been trying to do that all along, though.

"Not so high and mighty now, are you?" Kyosuke called out as Walpurgis howled in pain. Narrowing his eyes, the Skuntank raised his sword higher and…

… plunged it straight onto the ground.

A rumbling sound filled the air and Kyosuke looked around distractedly. He noticed Artie's face, dawning with some kind of revelation; Sadie's equally confused face; Oktavia's 'well-fuck' expression; Miyako's mouth wide open in shock; Kriemhild and Gretchen looking horrified; Ai…

Ai was staring at Walpurgis with an unreadable expression, but Kyosuke noted a hint of resentment in her eyes.

"This," the Skuntank said, smirking. "is what I like to call 'the killin' of unwanted Pokemon like ya'."

And then the entire fucking house came down on them.

'Oktavia?'

'Yes?'

'I'd just like to say… giving me a second chance isn't very equal to saving me or giving me a happy life or anything.'

'The ignorant candle hosting Kyo-Kyo says otherwise.'

'I highly disagree.'

'So be it. Don't worry, Kaori's a Chronicler, you'll be fine.'

'Because that makes perfect sense.'

'It… does…'

Smoke everywhere –

And –

Something… –

A violin… again –

She called it… –

Symposium Magarum –

Kyosuke groaned, at first, when he woke up… then he stared around at his surroundings without moving his neck because goddamn every single bone in his body felt like it had been broken to pieces, and then the pieces broke into more pieces.

He was aware that his entire body was underneath a whole shit ton of debris and that he was slowly suffocating and he was probably gonna die, yeah?

But Sayaka's fate relied on him completely, and if he didn't get her Soul Gem back to her body soon…

"Kyosuke! Kyosuke, wake up! Wake the hell up b-before I make you!"

Okay, he hadn't expected that. He was thinking more along the lines of Walpurgis gloating about his victory, so on and so forth, not someone who had the voice of an angel. That is, if she wasn't an angel already…

He felt one of the floorboards on his head disappear and pure blinding light blasted his pupils; he tried to shut them close, but then a face lined with short blue hair appeared in his vision and then he was thinking of every single positive adjective to describe what he was seeing.

He felt something cold drip on his cheek and he noticed that the face's beautiful blue eyes were flooding with tears, and they were raining on him like no tomorrow. He couldn't resist the urge to wipe the saltwater off her face, even if it stung his fingers a bit.

"Hi. Glad you're awake." He managed a smile.

"If ya're done having yer melodrama ov'r there, I'd really like to continue our battle?"

Walpurgis's haughty voice pierced the air and ruined the moment once more as Sayaka helped the panting Torchic back to his feet. Said Torchic turned to the Skuntank with a glare so intense Walpurgis felt like backing away. He maintained his composure, though just barely. "Obviously… yer not fit to take me on yet. How 'bout ya get yer ass kicked by these two?" He gestured towards the arrogantly grinning Kriemhild and the mortified Gretchen.

"To me, it looks like you're the one not fit to take me on," Kyosuke grumbled. "The day I ever get my ass kicked by anyone, least of all them, is the day the sun explodes."

"That day isn't very far from now," Ai piped up from her levitating blue will-o-wisp. Kyosuke turned his glare on the Ninetales, but she didn't even flinch.

Just then, before the Torchic would try to act cool and fight off the Koffing and Zubat, a blur of brown and red smashed into Kriemhild at full speed. He went flying – past the debris, past the broken house, and smacked on a tree trunk. Before he could even get up to try and see who assaulted him, an array of knives pinned him to the trunk by sticking themselves onto his clothes.

Standing in front of him was Sadie, crossing her arms and smiling proudly at her handiwork. Artie simply rolled his eyes as he tossed a fireball from hand to hand. "This guy actually managed to poison Sadie last time we fought," he said, turning around to stare right into the now frightened Kriemhild's eyes. "I think a punishment is in order."

With a flick of his wrist, the fireball split into four and enlarged in size greatly, before speeding towards the Koffing and burning the poor Pokemon up. With great effort, he managed to dispel the fireballs with a barrier tinted purple, but the damage had been done; at least it hadn't caused greater. His clothes burned and his skin scorched, Kriemhild forcibly pulled the knives off him and advanced towards the duo with a threatening glare.

… Rather, he advanced towards the duo with the slowest speed possible. Sadie looked puzzled at his behavior, while Artie readied another fireball in his right palm.

"Heads up," the Koffing drawled, seconds after firing a dozen poison-tipped spikes at them. Thanks to the warning, however, they managed to dodge most of them, but they didn't expect the sudden sharp slash of air that tore at their backs.

Gretchen squeaked a 'sorry' out as she flapped her wings, hard; another Air Slash sped straight toward Artie, and the physically frail Vulpix couldn't get out of the way in time as he flew towards the very same tree trunk and slumped to the ground.

Sadie, instead of panicking, turned to Gretchen with murderous intent very much visible in her eyes. With knives appearing in the spaces between her fingers, the Eevee managed to cross the distance between her and Gretchen in seconds as she stabbed her knives straight on the Zubat's wings.

Screeching in pain, Gretchen scrambled to get away from Sadie as she reached for another bottle of poison in her dress pocket. However, the Eevee was already there, knife in hand and very much trying not to slice the Zubat's head off.

Before Sadie could land the fatal blow, however, more spikes came towards her out of nowhere and crashing onto her back, where the Air Slash had already damaged. She screamed as the spikes made contact with the openly bleeding wound cutting onto her bare skin and kneeled on the ground. Gretchen, with great difficulty, pulled out the bottle of poison and (muttering 'I'm so sorry' all the way) poured it on the wound.

Berserk Button: pushed.

Practically an explosion of fire burst from the area below the tree trunk, and the fires encircled Kriemhild and Gretchen, singeing their clothes and skin, but not overly hurting them. The fires did cage them effectively, though, and the two Poison types looked over at what seemed to be a glowing mass on the ground worriedly.

Bright plumes of fire spurted from the mass every once in a while, and quite suddenly, the glow disappeared. In place of a simple Vulpix, however, was now a Pokemon that seemed to be about Ai's height, with curly blonde hair and a dark yellow vest over a sunny shirt. He wore dull yellow (dull yellow being sort of an oxymoron) jeans that managed to stay on because of an orange belt, and finally…

The nine long tails with orange tips that told the world Artie had evolved into a Ninetales.

While it didn't look like all his wounds had healed, they had recovered greatly. There were a few rips and tears on his skin, and his glasses were just barely hanging on, but he looked fine enough to fight once more. Though it didn't look as if he was doing it voluntarily, flames that looked suspiciously like wings encircled his brown loafers, giving him the impression of an intimidating enemy.

Clutched in his right fist was a staff, and a very long and intricate one at that. It measured about three feet and at the tip was a burning, flickering red flame. The design on the inferno-shaded staff consisted of an animalistic Moltres, the legendary Pokemon bird of fire. Similar wings of fire sprouted from its sides, adding to his impression.

"So." His voice didn't seem to have changed. It made Gretchen shiver like a human popsicle all the same. "You… hurt her."

It wasn't a question, they were going to die, and… they were going to die.

Artie raised his staff and aimed the tip directly at Kriemhild first; he was trying to remain stoic, but he was shaking like his bladder was about to burst. It very well near did. "I. I can't… I."

A stream of fire erupted from the tip and crashed onto Kriemhild's arm, where Kyosuke's spear had punctured some days ago; it hurt, obviously, since he shrieked without limit. Gretchen's eyes widened, both in fear and relief – it had hurt, but Kriemhild wasn't dead, so…

"I hate it when I'm merciful," Artie mumbled, just loud enough for Kriemhild to hear, and the Koffing hung his head in shame as well.

Just as Artie was about to rush to Sadie's side and bring out his handy-dandy first aid kit, he felt something rushing towards him at great speed from behind. He turned around, but it was too late; Walpurgis's sword was hurtling towards him without any intention of stopping or changing direction and…

… and then it actually did stop and change direction.

Artie's neck instantly snapped to Miyako's general direction, and his assumption was right – the Eevee was focusing ridiculously hard while her chain timepiece glowed brightly. The sword itself was lined with pinkish psychic energy, and it had flown back to thunk towards the poor, abused tree trunk. It clattered to the ground moments later, right next to an orange stone that had saved both Artie's and Sadie's life.

Sayaka looked furious at what Walpurgis had just done. Stomping towards him, she pulled out a cutlass from nowhere and pointed it directly at his throat with an angry glint in her eyes. "What were you thinking?! That was their fight! You had no right to interfere with it!" she screamed. She spared a glance at the scene and saw the aftermath; Gretchen pulling out various antidotes of all kinds and Artie having to tend to both Sadie and Miyako.

Walpurgis, on the other hand, just smirked. "They din't have an official duel like me and that Sakura guy. I had ev'ry right to interrupt, mind ya, croc."

Her glare hardening, Sayaka slowly stepped backwards and rejoined Kyosuke as he struggled to stay on his two feet. Oktavia and Ai stared at each other without any emotion, but Sayaka could see the tension between the two peculiar Pokemon… if Oktavia could be called a Pokemon.

"So?" Kyosuke asked, trying to keep his voice loud enough for Walpurgis to hear. "Are you done hiding behind your lackeys now?"

"Hidin'?" Walpurgis bristled. "I'm doin' anythin' bu' hidin', an' I'll show ya what I'm really doin'!" In the speed of light, Walpurgis conjured up several shadowy orbs half-surrounding him from behind and pointed at the trio. The Shadow Balls launched themselves at Kyosuke first, smashing into his already tired body and causing him to lose consciousness once more. Oktavia deflected most of the Shadow Balls aimed for her, but she winced once a particularly big one sizzled on her barrier. Sayaka slashed at the orbs with her cutlass before they reached her; two balls crashed onto her from either side when she was distracted with Kyosuke's unmoving body, though.

Sayaka desperately crawled over to where Kyosuke was, scooping him up in her lap and trying to see if he was still breathing. He was, but she could feel his heart rate slowing down. Sayaka was going through every single possibility in her head, but she came up with none-

Didn't he somehow…

With great difficulty, she looked over to Oktavia with a look that said 'i-don't-want-to-ask-for-your-help-but-just-this-o nce-okay?'. The mermaid witch didn't seem to understand for a moment, but then smiled (a honest-to-goodness one now, this time) and snapped her fingers.

Another day in the life of Kyosuke. Wonderful. The Torchic scowled at his internal thoughts.

He'd oh-so-accidentally woken up a tad too early today, and he was now staring at the guild for Exploration Teams. It was a strange one, with so much gold and an old Raichu for a guard, but it seemed almost… intimidating, in some aspect.

He didn't want to join an Exploration Team, oh no (in fact, he held deep resentment towards a few). He just happened to come across the building while gathering berries from the trees in Apple Woods. Thankfully, most of the Pokemon there were weak and untrained, so he managed to get away from the poisonous ones even without Fire type attacks.

Cradled in his arms were several kinds of berries, along with Oran and Sitrus. He hated gummis, surprisingly enough, but he had to eat them anyway so that he'd be able to stay in tip-top shape for random fights.

An Exploration Team suddenly came out of the guild, and Kyosuke hastily ducked behind a tree as he watched the duo – a Charmander and a Treecko, he assumed – talk animatedly with each other and head towards the west.

Checking to make sure no other teams were going to come out, he inched his way to Treasure Town carefully. He spotted a hint of red and green and, eyes widening, he abandoned his slow speed and rushed towards the very edge.

He didn't slow down until he reached the cliff edge, where the waves from the beach below crashed at the bottom. Luckily, it didn't seem as if anyone was watching, so he crawled down to a hidden tunnel.

Kyosuke ended up in some kind of makeshift chamber; it was located deep underground and had most of the necessities needed in daily life. However, rain sometimes seeped through every now and then, and the Torchic didn't feel like making some kind of roof with his limited resources.

Dumping the berries in a basket on a wooden table, Kyosuke sighed tiredly and sat on the bed, pushing off his slippers and crawling underneath the blankets. Today, he did indeed go to Apple Woods to pick some berries, but he had heard one of the local schools was having a field trip there today, and, well…

… one of the students there was that blue-haired Totodile with the violin…

Even admitting it to himself internally was embarrassing, and his face flushed red. It was a coincidence he picked this day to go to Apple Woods! A total coincidence!

… Even his argument didn't sound like an argument anymore. It was more along the lines of a desperate excuse.

Maybe he did spy on them a little bit… maybe he did fend off a few of those annoying Pokemon that tried to attack them… and maybe, just maybe, he did lead the group of the bluenette towards a tree with rare berries…

He just overheard that their activity was to collect as many berries as they could! He thought they'd be given extra points for getting rare ones…

Kyosuke wondered why he did that in the first place.

When the Torchic came to, he was laying on his bed in the guild dorm.

It took a good few seconds for him to remember what had happened.

Immediately, he sat up straight, then yelped at the sudden pain that erupted at his backside.

"Hey, don't do that!" an admonishing voice came from his left. "You're not fully healed yet, so take it easy for now."

Kyosuke knew that voice.

Once he heard that voice, it felt like the weight of the sky lifted from his shoulders, and he plopped his upper body back on the bed. Sayaka's confused face was the first thing he saw, and the first thing he categorized as 'cutest expression ever'.

"You actually followed me?" she asked in amazement. "It's a sign of the apocalypse!"

"It will be the apocalypse once Yuuki and Chiwa finally come here!" Oktavia's normally calm voice yelled from the other side of the room. "I hate it when they leave me waiting!"

Sayaka turned an irritated face to the mermaid witch. "Oh, shut it, Oktavia. Just because you've helped me once-"

"You mean, like, three hundred and forty two times?"

"-doesn't mean you get to complain in my room, stay in my room, and interrupt me in my room!" A tick mark appeared on the side of the Totodile's head.

Oktavia simply crossed her arms smugly. "I don't care about your restrictions, dear. Ah, if only I could tell you what you really are…"

"Excuse me? What who really is, now?"

"Nothing." Oktavia disappeared, her navy blue cloak fluttering in sight for a nanosecond.

The Totodile sighed, before returning to Kyosuke's side. "I hate it when she gets all difficult and annoying like that," she grumbled.

Just when the Torchic was about to give a remark about how he was difficult and annoying as well, he noticed a few scrapes and bruises on Sayaka's skin, and a little… something behind her on the table. He asked about the former.

"Oh, these?" Sayaka absentmindedly patted one of her band-aided ones. "It's nothing. I just, uh…" she hesitated, flinching at the thought. "My Soul Gem was just kinda corrupted, so I, um… yeah." She finished lamely.

"Oh." No doubt it was his fault it was corrupted, Kyosuke thought. "Well then. … Violin?"

Sayaka didn't seem to be surprised at his discovery; in fact, she smiled a bit. "Sarasvati? She's an old friend of mine, don't worry."

Silence for a bit.

Abruptly, Sayaka turned away from Kyosuke, her cheeks tinted red. "Um." It was almost like her tongue was taped to the roof of her mouth. "I… um, before, in that house… you said…"

She doesn't mean anything to me.

Kyosuke winced; even thinking the words hurt. He couldn't believe he had actually said that, lie or not. "I didn't mean it."

The Totodile let out an obvious sigh of relief. "Oh."

'You owe her an apology.' Oktavia's telepathic voice echoed in his head. Kyosuke wasn't anywhere near surprised.

'Yeah, I think I'll do that.' The mermaid witch's speechlessness was amusing.

Before he knew it, Kyosuke had scooped Sayaka up in a hug, and the bluenette didn't bother trying to go on the defensive – she just buried her face in Kyosuke's chest and inhaled his scent.

The words came out without him knowing it. "I'm just glad you're okay."

3K WORD SPECIAL YEEEAH

For your information, I stayed up late to watch Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S, and now I'm just FEELS. And when I closed VLC Media Player, this idea just came to me, so I stayed up extra late to type this. Then I remembered I had to actually make sense when I type, so...

... Nah. I fell asleep on the keyboard. Review!

(Also yes, Artie evolved. :P Sorry I didn't get your approval beforehand, Kyophelia, it just kinda came to me and I doubted I'd get an answer from you fast enough. Hope you like it.)

Reisu, 8/12/13