Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - SoF - Twist in Time


Chapter 29 - The naive martial artist


Ri's POV


The awareness of body returned and brought a soreness in all of my muscles with it when I began to wake up again. My head hurt like hell and bringing up a proper thought wasn't possible. Firstly, because all of my senses were dulled by constant signals of pain and secondly, because the drowsiness of my slumber was still keeping my mind from clearing up.

After a while, I finally became used to the soreness and the first proper thought floated through my head.

'Ugh... What happened?'

With a grunt of pain I opened my eyes and exposed them to a blinding light, making me raise my right arm to shield them from the incoming sunlight. Another grunt escaped my mouth doing so.

My sight finally cleared up after my eyes had adjusted themselves. Putting my arm down again, I became aware of the fact that I was laying on my back.

A blue sky was greeting me while I noticed something soft, brushing against the fur I was laying on. By the smells that entered my nostrils, I could tell that I was somewhere inside of a forest. Meaning that my body was probably rested on grass.

I could also make out a couple of tree tops at the edge of my view, only strengthening my guess.

It got confirmed when I rose my body into a sitting position and tilted my head to my left, letting out yet another grunt. Finally able to properly make out my surroundings, I began to inspect the location.

A big circular patch of soil was placed at a clearing that was surrounded by trees and bushes. In its middle, was a set up, unlit fire-pit. A couple of wooden logs were placed around the small pit, acting as sitting opportunities.

'Huh? How did I...?'

Before I could complete that question, my mind shot out the last events I remembered before I had lost consciousness. My view wandered onto the ground in front of me while the scene replayed itself in my head.

'Right... I tried to use an Aura Sphere after that memory shred. Ugh... I wonder if Cobal is okay.'

That thought made me rise my head and look around the clearing again. There was not a trace of the Lucario, worrying me a bit.

Turning to my right, I noticed that a sword was leaning against a tree that stood right next to me. Next to it was the rest of my equipment.

Looking at my gear made me wonder how it had gotten off of my body, making me properly inspect myself. Other than a couple of darker spots on my cream-colored fur, bandages around my upper chest and right arm and a constant soreness under those pieces of cloth, I was completely fine.

Getting up from the grassy floor, I stretched my aching muscles a bit while I still kept an eye out for my friend.

'Ugh... Where is he?'

After I walked to the gear that was laying under the tree that had been behind me, I picked up my belt and tied it around my hip. Grovyle's pouch got attached to my right upper leg like usual.

A frown could be seen on my face when I picked up my broken piece of armor. The right shoulder-plate had a huge dent in it and was covered with black stains. The leather-bands attached to it were completely ripped apart.

'Great... It's completely ruined. I guess I owe Cobal a set of shoulder-plates now.'

Placing them back onto the ground, I picked up my blue scarf and tied around my neck, letting the remaining piece of cloth fall behind me like a cape.

I frowned yet again when I looked at the gold-decorated sword in front of me. Grabbing the fake weapon with my right, bandaged hand, I inspected the dull blade for a moment.

After I turned towards the middle of the clearing again, I wondered why I should still wear this thing.

Probably out of curiosity, I swung the blade through the air in front of me.

From that first swing, my instinct told me to keep going. Putting my left arm onto the hilt aswell, I continued with another slash. Somewhere in my muscle memory was the knowledge on how to use a sword.

When I slowly put my right foot in front of me after a third swing and held my weapon forward like a kendo-fighter, a strange feeling rushed through my head.

I had used some kind of sword-style during my fight with Riley, back at Crystal Cave. One of my bones had served as a sword but I only got to use it to defend myself from her Iron Tail attacks. The stance had been the same...

But that wasn't the first time... I had learned to fight like this from somewhere.

'Right, I have-'

"Ngh!" A jolt of pain shot through my brain when another memory entered my mind.


"You want to challenge me to a match?" A brown haired human teen in a black kendo-outfit asked.

I was somewhere inside a building. The walls and floor were made of wooden planks. A couple of wooden dummies were placed on the other side of the room and other kendo-fighters were standing behind the boy in front of me.

"Yup! I heard you won your last five tournaments, so I wanted to see what you were all about," my voice, replied. "You seem pretty strong, I would love to fight you!"

"Well, I accept. Do have your own equipment with you or do you want to borrow a sword from our club?" he questioned.

"Uhm... Actually... Do I really have to use one of those wooden sticks? Why don't we just fight sword against fist?" I returned.

The kendo-fighter seemed to be shocked. "W-what?"

"I don't actually train your sport... I just want to see if I could beat your style with mine," I responded.

"Are you joking?" He was completely perplexed now.

"Nope," my voice chuckled.

"Errr... I... I'm sorry but I can't fight an unarmed opponent." the teen explained.

"Fine! Give me one of your swords," I exclaimed. "If that's what it takes to have a battle with you... But, hey! I might pick something up from our fight!"

My opponent sweatdropped. "I'm sorry... Who are you again?"

"Me? Well, I'm-"


The memory ended abruptly with the flickering of a TV that had no signal.

Still holding my sword in my right hand, I stood almost in the middle of the clearing, clutching my aching head with my left paw.

'Ugh... I... I was human in that memory. That... That was Kendo... Did I learn these movements from the battle I had with that guy? I guess I really want to challenge every strong Pokemon I come across because I used to be into martial-arts as a human... And what was that last part? Dammit, I can't remember properly...'

Looking at how I was holding the gold-decorated sword gave me yet another strange feeling. I had held the weapon before but the knowledge of my experience with a sword-art changed my view on it all of a sudden.

'This... It almost looks li-'

"Agh!" A blurry, flickering picture appeared in front of my eyes for a split second as another wave of pain shot through my brain.

...

My black hand was replaced by by a blue one while the sword in it changed into a strange white stream of energy that shot out of my paw like a blade.

...

My sword slipped out of my hand while I brought my right paw up to my head, falling down to my knees in the process. My eyes were shut tight while I was down, waiting for the pain to fade and my composure to return to me.

"Ri! Are you okay?!" Cobal's voice called out from my left.

I could feel how something grabbed onto my shoulder before the headache finally faded and I was able to open my eyes again.

"What happened?" A worried looking Lucario greeted me when I turned to the source of the voice.

Still a little dazed, I blinked a couple of times and tried to clear up my mind before I answered to Cobal. "C-cobal? I..."

"Are you okay?" he interrupted me with a voice filled of concern.

I brought my paws down to my thighs and nodded. "I-I'm alright. I just had these two memory shreds and... Uhm... Yeah... Other than that I'm fine."

His worry didn't fade while he got up and put his paw off my shoulder, offering his other one to lift me from the ground.

"Thank you." I thankfully accepted his paw and the Lucario pulled me up onto my feet again.

"Alright... It's quite a good timing for you to wake up now. I just finished collecting some apples. We could have a proper talk during lunch... Are you okay with that?" Cobal offered, holding his arm towards the logs that were placed around the fire-pit.

After grabbing my sword from the ground, I followed the fighting-type and sat down onto one of the 'benches'. While I was leaning my weapon against the log, the Lucario pulled out two red apples from the slightly bigger pouch on his belt and held one of them out to me.

I grabbed the fruit and gave my friend a smile.

"Alright then," Cobal started while I bit the first bite out of my apples. "Do you want to talk about the memories first or about the incident during our match?"

After I had swallowed the first piece of fruit, I answered. "There isn't much I can tell you about the memory shreds I just had... In one of them I was a human. I challenged someone from a kendo-club and-"

I stopped when I noticed Cobal's confused expression.

"Oh, sorry. Kendo is a martial-art from the human world that focuses on sword-fighting," I explained. "I didn't even train that sport and still challenged him. I guess I used to be crazy like that."

A chuckle escaped my mouth when I connected this trait of mine with the events that happened since I woke up at Treeshroud Forest. Things like challenging Wigglytuff while I was still injured came to my mind. "I kind of still am."

He seemed to have a question but simply nodded and let me return where I had left off. "Uhm... The second shred came immediately after the first one."

I stopped there for a moment and tried to remember the picture that had flickered through my mind.

"It wasn't like usual... I saw a flickering image in front of me all of a sudden," I continued.

"Hm? What did it show you?" Cobal asked curiously.

"A blue paw and some weird beam of aura that looked almost like a sword," I answered. As soon as I told him about the blue paw, I remembered the other memory shred I had, before I had lost consciousness.

"Now that I think about it, I have seen a blue paw in my memory about the Aura Sphere too," I added, taking another bite out of my apple and waiting for the Lucario's answer.

He folded his arms, still holding his apple in his left hand and looked like he was in deep thought for a moment.

"A blue paw... This would mean that those memories are from when you still were a Riolu. Considering that you are a Brute Breed, we can say that it was possible for you to learn Aura Sphere in that form," he said, unfolding his arms again.

"But why didn't it work then?" I questioned in a disappointed tone.

"Here's the thing... You might have remembered your training for the move but you are still very far away from mastering it," Cobal replied.

"What? Why?" I was a bit surprised now.

"You didn't properly control the input of aura and left out the part where you control the rotation completely. The shape of the sphere was good but other than that, it was horrible," he explained.

"Uhm... I just mimicked what I have seen in my memory so I have no idea what you are talking about," I responded, feeling a little embarrassed.

The Lucario nodded to himself, probably being satisfied that his assumption was correct. "The summoning of an Aura Sphere has three major part in it. Input, shape and rotation. The user has to pour his aura into the sphere in a steady pace, controlling the shape of the sphere in the process. But at the same time, he has to balance out the rotating energy inside of it with the stream of inflowing aura. Only when these three factors are in balance, he can summon a proper Aura Sphere."

I processed the information and asked the first question that came to my mind. "Can you show me how it's done, then?"

The Lucario shook his head. Just as I saw him do that, I began to feel disappointed.

"I'm sorry but there isn't much more I can teach you about it. You have to figure out a way to balance the three factors on your own. I could try tp give you a few tips but other than that..." the fighting-type explained. "Anyway, what exactly did you mean with 'beam of aura' in the second memory?"

I shrugged off the feeling of disappointment and thought about the image again. "I'm not sure... Something like a blade of aura was streaming out of my hand. It looked just like I was holding a sword."

"Can you try to do something like that?" he asked.

"Hmm... Okay, let's try it," I said, quickly finishing the apple in my paw and grabbing the sword that was next to me.

After I had thrown the core into the fire-pit in front of me and put my weapon through the holster on my belt, I got up from the log and created some distance between me and the campfire. Cobal had gotten up too and just finished his apple while he joined me.

"Uhm... Here goes nothing." I tensed up and got into the stance of a kendo-fighter, without actually holding a weapon.

I concentrated my aura into my paws and focused on the image I had seen in front of me. The blue 'flames' that radiated around my hands listened to my commands when I tried to form a stream of energy with them.

Somewhat surprised, I focused them into a thin stream that shot out like I was holding a sword.

When I saw the beam of aura that was forming in my hands, a familiar feeling came over me. It felt happy and confident for some reason. Suddenly, controlling the stream became much easier and the wide beam compressed into a dense 'blade' of aura.

"It's working!" I cheered, eyes fixed on the light-blue 'sword'.

"I should have figured that the Spirit of Faith knows a lot of unique moves but summoning a Sacred Sword in this manner even surprises me," the Lucario next to me commented.

"Sacred Sword?" I repeated, giving him a confused look.

The knight nodded. "Yeah, it's a move that is especially effective against dark-types. I have learned it myself but I'm not quite sure if it's practical to use it like you do."

My head tilted to the side and my look turned even more confused. "Huh? What's wrong with it?"

"Please dissolve the blade, I don't want you to black out again," the knight said, startling me a bit.

"Black out again?" I lost the focus on my move, making the blue aura fade into the air while I got into a normal stance again.

"Will it explode too?" I asked with a worried voice.

Cobal actually laughed at this. "No, no, don't worry about that with this move! The way you use it simply uses up a ton of aura as you might notice."

I actually felt a little drained, now that he mentioned it. "Oh, alright... But this move... Could it actually cut somebody? Because if it does, then I won't use it."

My friend responded by shaking his head. "I assume that it would not. When I use this move, I cover my actual sword with my aura. That just leads to an added effect on my attacks that gives me an advantage over dark-types."

I was relieved that my new move most likely could not cause any life threatening wounds. But the way he explained his way to use the move brought up some questions.

"Uhm... How exactly does aura increase the effectiveness on dark-types?" I asked, actually getting curious.

"What did you feel when you created your Sacred Sword?" the knight returned.

"What I felt...?" His question perplexed me a bit. "Uhm... I'm not sure... It was familiar somehow. I felt happy, confident and-"

A confused look wandered onto my face. "... Uhm... Good. It was like I was pouring those feelings into my aura."

Cobal smirked and nodded. "That's right. So what you're saying is that you put this positive energy into your aura."

"Yeah, you could say that," I confirmed.

"Dark-types draw they power from bad emotions like anger, hate and fear. Their aura has traces of negative energy inside of it, meaning that you can attack their negativity with your positive energy," he continued. "However, if you can't bring up any of those positive feelings, you might not be able to create a proper Sacred Sword... So be careful with that."

I nodded. "Okay... Uhm... I now understand how your version works... But how exactly would mine work?"

"Probably exactly the same as mine, only without leaving any cuts on your foes. A dense beam of aura can disrupt your opponents aura and stagger them for a while. I'm not completely sure but I assume that it won't lead to any lethal effects," the Lucario answered. "Against a dark-type, this version might be devastating as your blade is completely made out of the positive energy. But I recommend against using it without knowing the exact capabilities of the attack... You could try it once we have the Time Gear."

"Oh... Okay." I nodded in agreement. We couldn't really afford to waste much time so I decided that the smartest thing to do would be to try out my new abilities while we travelled to the next Time Gear.

Now that we had finally finished those topic, I finally asked a question that was on my mind ever since I had woken up again.

"So... Where exactly are we?" I questioned, inspecting the clearing again. Somehow it felt familiar to me.

Cobal seemed to feel a bit uneasy for some reason. "Well, we are at the border to Foggy Forest..."

'Wait a second... This is where the guild had set up our camp at the Expedition!' I realized, remembering the short time I spent at this camp.

Thinking about Riley and Ozu again, made me feel kind of depressed. A sigh escaped my mouth before my eyes caught a glimpse of my broken armor that way laying on the side of the clearing.

Feeling a bit embarrassed now, I gave the knight in front of me an apologetic look. "Uhm... Cobal... I kind of broke the the armor you gave me with that Aura Sphere. So... Uhm... Sorry."

The knight jumped a bit to this and looked embarrassed himself for some reason. "Ehm... Don't mention it! It's me who should be sorry! I didn't want do it but I had to undress you to bandage up your chest."

It wasn't before he mentioned it that I realized how my equipment had gone off of my body.

'So it was him who took off my gear and put those bandages on me... I should've figured... But why does he feel so embarrassed about it? He only touched my che-'

I couldn't help myself and turn red a bit when I realized how this must have looked like. I might have been a Pokemon but I still felt quite uncomfortable, knowing that he had his hands on my chest.

"Uhm... I-it's okay! Y-you had to fix me up after all!" I responded, trying to get away from that topic.

"It's just that-" he stopped himself before he could make this more awkward. "Let's just forget about it and focus on the task at hand!"

"Okay, let's get going then," I replied, turning towards the opening that led into Foggy Forest.

The Lucario quickly followed me and we walked deeper into the forest that would lead to Fogbound Lake.

...

Unlike last time I was in this forest, the fog was completely gone. On the Expedition, my friends and I had some trouble because of our restricted view but now that the secret of the lake had been solved, the fog all around the area had cleared up.

I was able to see the goblet-shaped rock formation that stood in the middle of the forest through the tree-tops while Cobal and I headed closer into not so foggy Foggy Forest.


Something strange happened when the usual 'dungeon-feeling' rushed over my body. All of a sudden, the whole scenery changed and my vision was occupied by a dense fog. The trees had turned into actual walls made of wood. A couple of openings were noticable at some spots of the walls.

"W-what?" I gasped, looking around the now fog filled woods.

Cobal joined my side and seemed to be just as surprised as I was when he noticed the changes.

"But we solved the secret of the lake! The fog should be gone..." I turned to the Lucario, giving him a confused look.

"Dungeons are distortions in space... Maybe changes in the outside world don't affect them?" he theorized.

This was a possibility. Grovyle had mentioned something like this while he explained the priciple of Mystery Dungeons to me.

"Anyway... Should I take the lead or...?" I asked getting back on track.

"If you want to lead, no problem!" Cobal replied with a smile.

"Alright... Follow me then," I said, turning towards an opening.

Something caught my attention while I headed towards the first corridor. Right next to the opening I noticed a single berry one the floor. "Look, it's an Oran Berry!" I recognized the berry by the blue color and walked up to the item. Bending down to pick it up, I opened one of the pouches one my belt and placed it inside before my gaze fell back onto the corridor next to me.

"N-now that I think about it, it probably would be better if I go in front! You're still injured so I will take care of any wild Pokemon," he said in a strangely embarrassed tone as he quickly walked past me and into the hallway. The Lucario was holding his nose with his right paw for some reason.

An expression of confusion wandered on my face while I wondered why he was acting so strange all of a sudden.

Shaking off the weird feeling, I followed him deeper into the floor of the dungeon.

...

Just like the last time I had been to Foggy Forest, we mostly had to face grass and flying-types. Cobal and me were pretty much resistant to those types. Now that I was a Lucario, bird Pokemon didn't cause me any trouble at all. Their wind based attacks weren't even able to leave a scratch on me anymore. This left me very thankful to my new steel-typing while we cleared floor after floor.

Cobal dealt with most of the wild Pokemon by slashing them down with his sword. I couldn't help myself and feel a bit uneasy while I saw how the wild Pokemon literally busted into black smoke when the Lucario stabbed them with his weapon.

This was the actually the first time I saw how the knight used his blade. His way to approach his enemies resembled Grovyle's somehow. The Lucario got into reach with Extreme Speed and defeated his foes by slashing at their weak-points.

Traversing through the dungeon wasn't really hard. None of the feral Pokemon were giving us trouble and its layout was pretty simple. We found the staircase only after one or two room on every floor.

After about fifteen minutes of exploring, we reached the last set of stairs and left the dungeon.


Outside of the dungeon, we were greeted by a similar scenery from before we entered it.

In front of us was a path that lead to the great rock-formation called Fogbound Lake. The sky was still clear and blue and green trees were littered across the sides of the pathway.

However, the position of the sun indicated that a couple of hours had passed while we explored Foggy Forest. At first it was a bit strange to me but everything cleared up when I remembered that this was an possibility after clearing a Mystery Dungeon.

When I closer inspected the goblet shaped rock that was standing in the distance in front of us, I noticed another strange thing. It was completely grey and colorless. No blue from the waterfalls that ran down the sides of the structure. No green from the trees that were growing around its foot.

Time around Fogbound Lake had stopped.

"We're almost there,"I said, trying to start a conversation while we walked towards the lake.

Cobal faced me. "So there supposed to be a lake up there, right? How exactly did you get up there at your Expedition?"

I had left out that part of my story. "Right, I didn't tell you! Well, there's a cave at the bottom of the lake. Steam Cave, I think. My friends and I went through it and came out at the top of the rock."

"I see, Steam Cave... Is it true that a lot of fi-"

He stopped all of sudden and tensed up while his view wandered in front of us.

With a somewhat worried look, I did the same and looked at the path before us.

...

There was nothing.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Someone's coming," Cobal said, facing me again.

At first I was confused and didn't know how he could've known something like this but as soon as I remembered his ability to sense aura, it made sense to me again.

When I focused on the path in front of us again, I noticed that some bushes on the right side of the pathway were rustling.

Tensing up again, my eyes fixed onto the source of the noise and waited for whatever might come out of it.

A Kirlia stepped onto the path, the Pokemon's gaze locked onto the ground in front of it.

A white scarf was tied around its neck, the remaining pieces of cloth hanging down behind it like a pair of streamers. Above the scarf, a red headband was on its neck, hanging down onto the upper part of its chest.

For some reason, I could tell that this was a Muscle Band, a popular item among fighting-types. What this piece of equipment was doing on a Kirlia was a mystery to me though.

The Pokemon was startled when it noticed Cobal and me.

"Whoa!" it almost yelled, jumping a bit. The voice was female.

Before I could even turn to my partner and ask him on what to do, the Kirlia put a smile on her face and slowly walked towards us.

"Hi, there!" she greeted.

"Uhm... Hello," I returned, relaxing myself again.

"What are two knights doing here?" the psychic-type asked when she reached us.

Her stance was a bit unusual for a Kirlia. Somehow I knew that her species normally had the graceful stance of a ballerina. This Pokemon's posture looked more casual and... a little sassy.

"Actually, only he's a knight," I corrected.

"Wow! I've never seen an actual knight before!" The Kirlia focused her eyes on Cobal, giving him a mischievous smirk. "Not to mention that this one is quite handsome."

"H-handsome?" The Lucario was caught off guard by her flirt and turned red a bit.

She chuckled to his reaction. "Could it be that you are a prince that came here to claim his princess?" she asked, winking at him.

"W-wha..." He was speechless.

I could only watch with a confused look on my face while Cobal tried to regain his composure. This Kirlia had him completely stunned with two sentences.

"Or does he already have one?" the psychic-type asked, turning to me.

Now it was me, who was caught off guard.

"What? No! He's like ten years older than me! Also I-" I stopped myself before I could blurt out the fact that I was a human. "... Uhm... We have only known each other for a couple of days."

"Hahaha! Sorry, just wanted to make sure!" the Kirlia beamed at us. "By the way, I'm Celsius!"

I took a quick glance at Cobal who had already turned normal again, giving him a determined look. This was quite a risky situation after all. Giving her my real name could have lead to some negative consequences but I decided to tell her my name anyway. I was done with lying.

"I'm Ri!" I replied, giving her a somewhat forced smile.

At first, she seemed to be a bit confused and gave me a closer look. Her eyes narrowed while she inspected me and widened again when she noticed my burnt arm.

"What happened to your arm?" the psychic-type asked with a shocked face.

I was getting a bit angry by her stare but stayed calm and gave her an answer. "It's a bit complicated... I would prefer if you just ignored it, your staring is a bit unpleasant."

"But it looks pretty cool! Does it hurt? Can I touch it?" she asked, annoying me a little.

Turning my left side away from her, I held my left arm with my right one and shook my head. "Please, I don't want to talk about it..."

Celsius seemed to be disappointed and had a somewhat sad look on her face.

"Anyway, this is my partner Cobal," I continued, pointing at the Lucario next to me.

"Oh, so my dashing prince is called Cobal! That's good to know!" she smirked at him again.

"Nice to meet you?" the knight replied in a questioning tone. Now that he knew that this Pokemon was somewhat of a flirt, he wasn't fazed by her that much.

"What is a Kirlia doing alone in Foggy Forest? Did you get lost?" the Lucario questioned.

Celsius responded with a smile. "Nah, I'm here with two friends of mine. We have a job here and I kind of got bored, so I decided to check out the area around our camp."

Her expression turned serious all of a sudden. "Actually, now that I think about our job, you two shouldn't really be here. The area around Fogbound Lake is closed off to any Pokemon other than the team that's supposed to guard th-"

She put her white hand over her mouth and looked a bit shocked.

'She just was about to say Time Gear, wasn't she? So that means that she's part of the team that was sent here to protect the gear... We should be careful...'

"S-sorry... I'm not supposed to tell you what we are doing here!" she said, rubbing the back of her head. "Actually, it's me who should ask you! You two aren't supposed to be here!"

I gave Cobal another glance. He had a worried look on his face and was also waiting for my answer.

Before I answered Celsius's question, I went over the options I had at that moment.

'I wanted to tell the truth from now on but this would definitively lead to a bad situation... I could tell her another reason that isn't a lie but... Do I have another reason to be here, other than the Time Gear? What would the 'real' me do? If I hadn't lost my memories... Would I...? Hmm...'

A smirk appeared on my face. "Well, we're here because I want to challenge the legendary Pokemon Uxie to a battle!"

"You want to do what?!" She seemed to be quite shocked by this. "B-but Uxie is at Fogbound Lake! I can't let you go there!"

'Dammit.'

"Come on, I just want to ask him for a quick match," I replied, trying to persuade her.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea... Things are a bit tense right now," Celsius explained.

My eyes focused on the Kirlia's Muscle Band. "Well... If I can't challenge him... Would you have a match with me then?"

"Me?" She seemed to be a bit confused by my sudden challenge.

"Yeah! I'm a bit curious why a Kirlia like you is wearing a Muscle Band," I answered. "You seem to be more of a fighter than a ballerina."

She put her hand onto the headband around her neck and gave me a smile. "Do you like it?"

"Sure! That scarf of yours looks pretty cool too," I complimented the psychic-type.

"Thanks! I thought the same thing when I bought it!" she beamed, rapidly jumping from one leg to the other.

"Alright, then! I like you! I accept your challenge!" she exclaimed, calming down again.

Another mischievous smirk appeared on her face. "Let's make it a bit more interesting though. If I win, I get a date with that good-looking friend of yours."

This time, I had to laugh to her tease. Cobal turned red again and muttered something under his breath.

"And if I win, you will let me go up to Uxie and ask him for a match!" I replied, giving her a determined look.

Celsius hesitated a bit before she held her hand out to me. "I might get in trouble for this but... Okay, you got a deal!"

"Great!" I replied, going for the handshake.

"Do you want to-" she began to ask, however, Celsius was interrupted by a sudden scream from the side of the path.

"There you are!" a male voice shouted, making us turn our heads into the direction of its source.

An Eevee was now standing on the dirt road, giving the Kirlia next to me an angry look. "You can't just run off like that! What if somebody would have tried to-"

The normal-type blinked when he noticed that two Lucario were standing next to the Pokemon he was just yelling at.

A big explorer-bag was hanging on his side, being held by a leather-band that ran over his shoulder. His fur seemed very well-groomed as it fell smootly down his body and even seemed to shine a bit.

"Hi, Corrine!" Celsius greeted the Eevee.

"Celsius? What have you...? Who are these people?" Corrine questioned, giving Cobal and me a confused look.

"Well, this here is Ri..." the Kirlia introduced me.

As soon as the Eevee heard my name, his expression changed. I could've sworn that I saw a glint in his eyes while his gaze fixed onto me.

Somewhat nervous, I waved at the normal-type. "Hi!"

"And this handsome knight is Cobal" Celsius continued, pointing at the Lucario.

"Hello," the Lucario responded.

Corrine's eyes were still locked onto me. I began to feel a little uneasy and gave him a confused look. "Is something wrong?"

"Sorry, what?" It seemed like he was just shaken out of a trance.

"You keep staring at me," I clarified.

"Oh, sorry," the Eevee apologized. He still looked in deep thought for a while until his eyes widened when he noticed my arm.

Again, I felt rather annoyed by the stare. It wasn't the stare itself that bothered me, rather the questions that came afterwards. I really wanted to avoid a conversation about that topic... Not exactly for myself but somebody else... I just didn't really know who.

"Oh, excuse me..." Corrine noticed what he was doing and shook his head, creating eye-contact with me again.

"I'm not really acting like the greatest gentleman right now, am I?" he said, putting a smile on his face. "I should properly introduce myself first!"

"As my partner Celsius has mentioned before, my name is Corrine!" the Eevee introduced himself, going for a little bow. "I was a bit surprised just now, explaining my rude behavior... Normally, I act like-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Celsius walked next to the Eevee and ruffled up the fur on his head.

"The greatest gentleman in the world!" she finished for him.

"Would you stop!?" He quickly got out of her reach and tried to fix the messed up fur between his ears with his paw.

I didn't really pay attention on what he was doing with his hair but when the normal-type put his paw down again, the fur on his head was well-done and shining again.

What followed was a short argument between the two Pokemon. Corrine was calling the Kirlia "childish", "irresponsible" and turned even more angry when she mentioned that she accepted to have a match with me. Celsius simply shrugged his 'insults' off and laughed when he exaggerated at some points.

I couldn't feel any hostility in their argument. These two obviously were good friends and spent some time together. They knew how the other one was ticking.

A sigh escaped Corrine's mouth when they were finished. "So you want to have a match with her now?" he questioned, facing me again.

I nodded. "Yeah... And if I win you'll let me go up to Fogbound Lake, right?"

"Ehm... I don't think we can allow you to do something like this... We'll have to talk with our final member Siavon before I can say anything," the normal-type replied. He seemed to be in deep thought and was giving me a keen look.

"Our camp isn't far from here. We can have our match there!" Celsius continued, pointing into the forest to our right.

"Yeah, let's get to our camp... You two can tell us a little more about yourselves on the way," Corrine said, already heading into the direction in which their camp was supposed to be.

'Why is he acting so weird? I guess my name must've raised some suspicion... I can't blame him... I would be suspicious too... Only question is if his suspicion will turn out bad for us...'

The Kirlia followed him through the bushes. I was just about to do the same when Cobal grabbed my shoulder, indicating me to wait a moment. I assumed that he wanted to talk in private in order to discuss about our plan on collecting the Time Gear.

When the two Pokemon in front of us were out of listening-range, we followed them at a steady pace.

"I thought you were done with lying... What has changed your mind?" he whispered.

"Who says that I lied? I just told him the other reason I have to be here," I whispered back.

"Oh, okay... Anyway, what is your plan?" he questioned in a worried tone.

"Okay, Plan A is to beat her in the match and claim my price of our bet. Once we're up at Fogbound Lake, we'll try to explain everything to Uxie and hopefully get the gear without hurting anybody," I explained.

"And what if you they follow us up there? What if Uxie doesn't believe us and attacked us? There are just so many things that could go wro-" He couldn't speak any further as I interrupted him.

"Hey! If they find out about our true intensions, we'll simply explain our situation to them and hope that those three will believe us. If they don't and we end up having to fight them, then so be it. The same goes for Uxie... Should they not give us the time to explain ourselves and fight us right away, we'll tell them once they're deafeated," I continued.

"Is there a reason for you two whisper like that?" Corrine asked, giving us a suspecting look.

"Sorry!" I called out to him, catching up with the Eevee and Kirlia.

"As I mentioned before, I would like to know a little bit more about you two..." the normal-type said in a stern tone.

"Uhm... Okay. What do you want to know?" I asked.

"Well, how did you get the idea to challenge Uxie to a battle?" he returned.

"Uhm... I have met him before... He used the illusion of a Groudon to fight me last time and well... I'm really curious to see what the real one can do!" I answered honestly.

Corrine seemed to be a bit surprised. "You know him? When exactly have you been here the last time?"

Putting my paw up to my chin, I tried to remember how long it had been since I went on the Expedition. "Uhm... I'm not sure... Two weeks?"

The Eevee responded with a thoughtful look and muttered something to himself. It was a bit unclear but I was able to make out the word "Expedition". If he knew about the Expedition of Wigglytuff's guild, he also knew that 'Ri' was there too... I had to be careful with my words.

"Where do you two come from?" Celsius asked, joining the conversation.

"I'm a knight of the royal house of Alteal but I come from the tribe of Lucario that lives near Crystal Cave," Cobal answered.

"Uhm... I'm not really sure where I come from... I have amnesia and don't remember that much about my past. But Cobal here told me that I am supposed to have lived in Alteal just like him," I explained with a somewhat sad look.

"That sucks..." Celsius responded with a concerned look.

Corrine only seemed to have heard the word "Amnesia"... This made me wonder if he knew that 'Ri' had it too. If so, he must have been completely suspicious about me by now.

I had to come up with something to increase the chance of a peaceful solution... If thing went on like this, a fight was inevitable... Just then an idea popped into my head. "Talking about Alteal... Have you two heard of the Spirit of Faith?"

The two only got confused by my question. "Spirit of what...?" the Kirlia asked.

"It's-" A sigh escaped my mouth. "Forget it..."

'There goes that... Dammit...'

"Look, there's the our camp!" Celsius exclaimed, pointing at an opening in the trees in front of us.

The four of us left the forest and found ourselves at a big clearing that ran all the way to the goblet-shaped rock formation that could be seen to our left.

Now that we were closer to Fogbound Lake, I could see the effects of removing a Time Gear much clearer. The whole area around the rock had lost its color and the waterfalls that fell down from the edges of the goblet were frozen solid. The two water-pillars fell down into two frozen ponds which ran along a path that went all the way to the clearing we were standing on. The border of the timeless area ran along the corner of the clearing. From above, this must've looked like a circle that was cut off a bit on its left side.

"Looks retty cool, huh?" Celsius asked looking at the black and white area.

"Yeah..." I replied, turning my head to my right to further inspect the clearing.

Two tents and a campfire were set up at the right side of the circle. A wodden log was placed near the fire-pit, acting as a bench. I could make out a Pokemon that was sitting on the log, looking at the flames in front of it.

It was a Haxorus. A pouch was strapped around its left upper arm and a belt was tied around its waist, holding three more pouches.

"That's Siavon," Corrine explained, leading us to their team member.

While we were walking towards the tents, my gaze fell onto the frozen waterfalls again. At the bottom of one of them, I could make out a small layer of ice.

"Hey, is there a reason why there's a chunk of ice over there?" I questioned, pointing at the spot.

The Eevee in front of me let our a sigh of annoyance while Celsius simply responded with a chuckle.

"Celsius wanted to know if the waterfalls can be frozen in this state... Yet another exhibition of her childish behavior," Corrine explained with a frown.

An experiment like this made me actually wonder if the physical state of time-frozen water could still be changed. "And? Does it work?"

"Nope... The ice just covers the waterpillars. The waterfall itself doesn't change," Celsius answered with a somewhat disappointed look.

"Uhm... Exactly how did you manage to freeze that pillar?" I asked. "Do you know an ice move?"

She responded with a smile. "Maybe... It wouldn't be fair if I told you all of my moves before our match, right?"

The Kirlia was right, just by knowing that she had some sort of ice-based attack I already had a slight advantage... It somewhat bothered me.

The Haxorus that was sitting in front of their firepit noticed us and turned around when we reached it. Now that it was facing towards me, I could further inspect its appearance. A trio of claw scars ran across the dragon-types chest. Another scar could be seen on its right eye which was completely white.

This Pokemon obviously had been in a lot of battles.

"Oh, you're back." The voice was male.

"I just left to kindly escort our friend Celsius back to camp," Corrine replied. He then turned back to Cobal and me. "Arceus knows when she gets in one of her 'adventuring' moods..." A sigh left his mouth. "She rarely comes back on her own."

"Oh, gimme a break..." the Kirla responded.

Another short argument between the two followed. While the two Pokemon sorted out thier little difference, the Haxorus in front of us gazed into the sky as if nothing was happening around him. I wondered if I should start a conversation with him... It was like he hasn't even noticed that his team mates dragged two Pokemon with them.

"By the way..." Siavon turned to us again, giving me a quick glance. "Who are these two friends you brought back with you?"

Celsius and Corrine stopped talking and looked at us.

"Well, the knight is called Cobal and the other one is... Ri..." the Eevee introduced us. His voice was bit strange when he said my name... As if he was implying something. "She talked Celsius into having a match with her... She wants to have a match with Uxie too..."

The Haxorus got up from his seat and walked next to partners. He then put his head down to my height and gave me a closer look. "Ri? Like the Riolu that worked with the time-gear thief?"

For some reason this didn't faze me. Not hiding anything took away my fear from getting exposed somehow. "Yeah! I've got the same name!"

He stared at me for a moment before a bored look appeared on his face. "Must be annoying to have the same name as an outlaw..."

I sweatdropped. It seemed like he didn't even care that I could have been 'Ri'.

Corrine poked the dragon-types leg, getting his attention. "Ehm.. Siavon... Could I talk with you for a second?"

The normal-type looked at me. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

'That Eevee is suspicous enough as he is... If he can talk that Haxorus into thinking that I'm me, we're screwed...'

I turned to Cobal, giving him a quick glance. He had a worried look on his face.

'He's probably thinking the same thing...'

"Go right ahead, we don't mind," I said, facing them again.

Corrine nodded in response and led the dragon-type behind one of the tents that had been set up. I could see Siavon's head, looking down at his smaller team-member. He still had that bored and careless look on his face.

"Hey! Ri," Celsius said, drawing my attenion to her. "How exactly did you meet Uxie? He told us that he stole everyone's memory about Fogbound Lake that came here before Wigglytuff and his guild."

I frowned for a moment before a smirk formed on my face. 'Well... Here it goes...'

"That's because I have been on their Expedition..." I answered.

She looked confused and seemed like she didn't know how to respond to this.

My eyes wandered back to Corrine and Siavon who were already walking back to us. The Haxorus was gazing into the distance again while the normal-type was looking at me with a stange look.

"So you really have been on Wigglytuff's Expedition," the Eevee said in a strict tone.

I was a bit surprised that he managed to hear that but I decided to remained silent... Something about the way he said those words told me that he figured out who I really was.

"Magnezone told us what he knew about Wigglytuff's Expedition... He never mentioned that a Lucario was present at that event." He smirked. "He only said something about a certain Riolu... The only way for you to have been on this Expedition would be that you are said Riolu!"

"Wait... She's what?" Celsius asked getting even more confused.

I folded my arms. "You're right... I guess there's no need to talk around the truth any longer..."

...

"I'm Ri, the time-gear thief's accomplice."


End of Chapter - 29