Draco: I've been averaging about 2500 words per chapter in this story. Legend of Ransei had an average of about 4200 words per chapter. This story isn't going to be SHORT, but I suspect it's going to be a fair bit shorter than Legend of Ransei was, by word count if not by chapter count.

I've got nothing against vegetarianism, but I myself am not vegetarian. If your motives for being vegetarian are rooted in animal empathy, I would like to strongly suggest you skip the tail end of this chapter. That also goes if you struggle with understanding the idea of meat in the Pokémon world. I've been glossing over meals in all of my Ransei works so far to avoid my dietary bias keeping my readers from imagining whatever meal they like, but with the circumstances of this one I can't afford such a thing.

Pokémon and protagonist © Nintendo. Character designs © Koei. Ransei © somewhere in the middle.


Ultra Kingdom - Carnival of Frights: Cruel Prankster

"Good morn- What are you doing?"

Oichi smirked, raising her gaze to the dumbfounded Ranmaru, who had just stepped out of his tent. "Good morning to you too." Her com-crystal bag was sitting open at her side, and Lucario was kneeling at her side; she was currently working something that involved binding his stone in leather.

"Where did you get all that?" Ranmaru asked her. "I thought you'd just brought the prepared crystals."

"I was going to, at first," Oichi admitted. "But eventually I decided I should bring the raw materials, too - in case we had a succession of poor encounters and lost everything."

Ranmaru's gaze fell. "Excessive caution is better than a lack thereof," he observed. "And this is...?"

"Just trying to lessen the strain on the pockets of his pack," Oichi explained. She lifted the bundle up to give it a good look before handing it to Lucario. "Here, that should work. Try that."

Okuni and Gracia came out while Lucario was putting it on; there was a gap for his chest spike, and the stone rested in a pocket of sorts on his back. He made sure his aura sensors weren't trapped under the neck loop and grabbed his pack to see whether the stone's placement would cause any excessive discomfort; after a moment of standing fully-equipped, he gave an approving growl.

"Not bad," Ramnaru praised.

"Changing your mind about pretty stones?" Okuni asked.

Gracia giggled as Ranmaru glared at her. "The Cosmog say they're good to open another gate," she informed the group. "Should we get out of Celesteela Valley?"

"Haha, funny." Oichi packed her remaining materials into her com-crystal bag. "Let's get the tents down."

+x+x+x+

"I take it back. Give me a maze any day."

Oichi wasn't a hundred percent sure she could blame Gracia for the comment; the otherworld on the other side of the gate seemed to have a perpetual sunset at the perfect hour to make things threatening. Worsening the impression was the fact that their environs were an ominous-looking array of tents - all in dark colours, with narrow stripes at different angles per tent.

Okuni glanced around. "Is this... a circus?" There was a thick layer of disgust on her voice.

"What sort of beast would reside in a circus?" Ranmaru wondered.

Gracia gasped. "Wait, that one that attacked Nixtorm," she recalled. "Colourful body, weird movements - it would fit right in here!"

The Cosmog exchanged glances and gave confused shimmers.

"Yes, what was this?" Okuni asked.

"Didn't we tell you?" Oichi wondered. "Beasts were attacking various places in Ransei while everyone was going missing. They were never there for long; just terrorized people and vanished. One of them hit Nixtorm."

Okuni shook her head. "No, you didn't tell me, you just said that people had gone missing."

"Apologies," Ranmaru pleaded. "But Gracia is right - the attacker from Nixtorm would indeed not look out-of-place in this area."

Type: Null gave a cry of protest.

"Don't act like that," Oichi reprimanded, turning to him. "You and Wigglytuff weren't doing anything to that beast when we did fight it. It had to be a Ghost-type." She glanced at Lucario. "Dammit, that makes half of us who can't help if we run into that thing."

"Ghost and Fire," Ranmaru reminded her. "That thing was throwing flames. Lucario and I would be worse than useless."

Volcarona gave a worried cry, and Okuni twirled her parasol. "That puts us at a disadvantage, too," she murmured.

Gracia shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Maybe we shouldn't have come here," she admitted.

"We can't control where we end up," Oichi reminded her. She shook her head. "We'll just have to lay low, and hope we don't run into any beasts before we can leave this place."

+x+x+x+

When you don't want to find something, every shape in the darkness or sound you can't pinpoint might be the very thing you're trying to avoid. The Ranseans, realizing the terror of facing an opponent only one of them would be able to put up a proper fight against, found themselves advancing very warily through the array of tents. Everyone hoped to find somewhere isolated enough for them to take cover and bunker down until the Cosmog had rested up; yet Gracia and Gothitelle, at the lead for their best offensive chance, were jumping at every shadow for fear it was going to blindside them with a Fire Blast.

No one could blame them.

By some miracle, they'd yet to encounter any beasts before they found a tent with an opening they could find; Gracia glanced inside and was relieved to find it looked empty. It seemed like some performer's tent, with towering platforms extending from near to far, with a narrow wire linking center to center. She warily led the group in. "Okay," she murmured, "does this place look like a good idea?"

Oichi glanced around the area; there were what looked like audience bleachers right up against the edge of the tent. "Plenty of room to react," she noted, "but not a lot of cover."

Ranmaru gave it a thorough look, and was distressed to find two more openings, 120 degrees apart, between the bleachers. "Three entries," he observed. "Too vulnerable."

"I suppose we couldn't exactly make camp up on those platforms," Okuni observed, her gaze skyward. "If you turned in your sleep, you'd end up falling straight - Oh, Mulch!"

Something had stepped onto the wire from the platform closer, whose occupant they hadn't been able to see. Oichi's heart sank when she realized it was indeed the beast from Nixtorm - striped body in yellow and pink, with white spheres on its torso and a frill atop its shoulders. It stepped onto the wire with perfect balance, seeing to dance upon it and causing a dotted white sphere with pink starbursts upon it to roll along the frill.

Gracia whimpered. "I hate being right."

"Do we run?" Ranmaru asked.

Okuni shook her head. "We'd risk running into who knows how many more," she admitted.

"Dammit..." Oichi started when she saw the sphere almost roll off the beast's frill - one starburst was facing down towards them, and its footsteps came to a halt. "It knows we're here!"

The beast screeched down at them before twisting on the wire and leaping down; it landed in the center of the tent, and its head landed upon it as the Ranseans panicked. "Split up!" Ranmaru yelled. "Don't stay in its attack radius!"

Gothitelle swung her hand down for a pulse, and Null charged right at the beast to keep its aggression as Lucario, Volcarona, and all the Warriors dashed apart. The beast turned its hands towards Null, and he skidded sideways to put his broadside in the attack's path as the Fire Blast flew forward, slammed into him, and seared around them. Null charged in again, attacking it with a Crush Claw irregardless of its ineffectiveness before charging around on Volcarona's side of the beast; the creature followed him with its gaze until Gothitelle's attack bombarded him from all directions.

The beast whirled around at the attack - and its froze in mid-motion when its forward was locked onto Lucario. The Aura Pokémon growled, leaping towards one platform's supporting pole, and Null landed another undamaging hit to try and keep its attention on him as Gothitelle readied another Future Sight. The beast turned to Null, and another Fire Blast swamped him as Lucario started to climb; halfway up did he realize that the ladder was barely intact, and a rung broke when he grasped it, sending him falling back to earth.

He landed upon Gothitelle with a painful thud, and panic wrought both their faces as they tried to untangle from each other; the beast turned its hands towards them, ignoring Null's ineffective blows as fire began to whirl before it.

Something dashed into the tent past the two Pokémon - a figure in black and maroon.

Oichi double-took when she realized a Krookodile was charging at the beast; his jaws Crunched onto the beast's hands before the Fire Blast could fly - but not before the attack was there, leaving flames searing out the sides of his maw like a Charizard flying at speed. The beast screeched as it pulled its hands away... and the Krookodile didn't try to fight it, pulling its maw away and roaring in pain.

Gothitelle's Future Sight struck again while the two were reacting, and the attack distracted the beast long enough for a red-black-and-white figure to charge in from another entrance; the beast failed to realize the Bisharp was there before he twisted around arms crossed and then drove a Night Slash into its back. The beast tumbled aside, and the Bisharp and Krookodile exchanged glances and nodded before turning back to face it.

The beast screeched, making to charge them - and from the third opening in the tent entered a yellowish-green figure that promptly stood in their way. The beast skidded to a stop as the Haxorus halted before it; then the dragon roared, and mist surged around his claws, tail, and the blades aside his maw as he lunged forward, bombarding it with ferocious blows.

On the third blow, the beast was thrown to the ground... and its head rolled away, coming to a stop near Gracia's foothold. She panicked, making to scramble away - and at the same instant, someone else dashed in.

"Masanori's Kanabo attack!"

Welcome surprise rose on everyone's expressions as Masanori dashed up to the fallen head, sunglasses lifted and kanabo raised. He slammed the spiked weapon into the head with form that would make professional golfers jealous; the sphere flew up towards the tightrope above, and he dropped his glasses back down to cover his eyes again as it made contact therewith and exploded.

Oichi dashed down the bleachers as he chuckled, lifting his glasses again and approaching the Pokémon in the center of the area. "Masanori!" Then two more individuals stepped into the tent, carrying a metal folding fan and a scythe-esque spear; "Mitsunari! Kiyomasa!"

Kiyomasa raised his hand in greeting. "Lady Oichi! And company. What brings Warlords like you to a carnival like this?"

"The shittiest luck ever!" Gracia screeched.

Ranmaru decked her in the back of the head. "Language and volume, please," he reprimanded.

Mitsunari shook his head, regarding Null - who was regarding their Pokémon, who were each wary of him. "Where'd you get this one?" he asked Oichi. "And why'd you bring him into a fight with these things?"

"He's all I got, thanks," Oichi retorted - but there was a smile on her face.

"Normal, Fighting, Steel, Fire, Bug..." Kiyomasa shook his head. "Could've had a better party against a Fire/Ghost-type," he observed.

"We know," Okuni sighed. "Your timing is awesome."

Masanori propped his kanabo over his shoulder with a grin. "Well, yeah!" he agreed. "Saw you guys in trouble and charged in right in the nick of time! What's that make us, Kiyomasa?"

"Big damn heroes, Masanori."

"Ain't we just!"

"You need escorts again?" Mitsunari demanded, turning to Oichi. "After you two and Nobunaga united Ransei for the hell of it and barely recruited anyone in the process, I wasn't expecting to have to babysit you."

Oichi shook her head with a relieved sigh. "I have never been this happy to hear you be a condescending little bag of Mulch."

+x+x+x+

"Evia's missing?!"

The trio had made a hideout of sorts in a tent not far from where they'd come to the rescue, where they'd been happy to lead the others. On hearing the story, Masanori's outburst had Okuni scoffing. "Said the pot to the kettle," she mused. "Me and you three vanished off the face of Ransei, too. And so did Kotarō."

"Kotarō is an asshat that barely deserves to have a kingdom," Kiyomasa countered. "You're the junior Warlord to the sadist from Spectra, and we've got a reputation as troublemakers." His gaze fell. "But Evia is..."

"I know," Ranmaru agreed. "When I sent word out to each kingdom, informing them of Lady Evia's disappearance, anyone who wasn't aware someone else had gone missing was no less worried than we were. And some who were."

Mitsunari sighed. "So you've been running around otherworlds, thanks to these two?" He beckoned to the Cosmog, who gave indignant cries as he shook his head. "And without control over your destination, you're stuck fighting... beasts we've never heard of."

"Well, the Cosmog know about them," Gracia admitted. "They've been able to put a name to every one we've met. Poipole, Stakataka, Pheromosa, Xurkitree, Celesteela..."

One Cosmog gave a shimmer.

"Blasphewhat?" Oichi demanded.

The other shook his head and corrected her.

"Blacephalon," Masanori sighed. "Okay. We're not gonna talk about what that sounded like for a second."

A chorus of "Agreed" filled the tent.

Oichi elected to change the subject. "So," she mused, "you guys have been in this place since you disappeared from Ransei, right? What have you guys found to eat? We could always add it to the rations."

Mitsunari looked awkward. "Well... No one here is vegetarian, right?"

Okuni blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Some of these tents look like supplies storage," Kiyoamasa admitted. "One of them had food, in the form of meat. A huge vault of jerky that could fill six feast tables three meals a day for a week, if everyone who ate at the tables ate like Drapion."

Ranmaru crossed his arms. "We've found berries and vegetables in other places so far," he observed, "so meat would add variety. But that does beg the question of what the meat has come from."

"...Not thinking about it," Gracia insisted.

"That seems a bit-"

"Not. Thinking. About it."


Draco: When you're changing tabs and accidentally close an entire window without meaning to. #OhCrap #RapidFireNo #AtomicFBomb | Thank Alpha I'd only written, like, once sentence since I last saved.

I'd like to offer a disclaimer - the bombastic, hammy, and entirely unnecessary yell of "Masanori's Kanabo attack" has absolutely no basis (of which I am aware) in historical fact or Koei Tecmo games. Masanori just strikes me as the kind of person who would be #CallingYourAttacks despite not giving the attack in question a proper name.

Here's the battle info for the new Ultra Beast. Didn't include it earlier because that wasn't really a fight in Nixtorm.

Blacephalon
-Range: 3
-Move: Fire Blast
-Ability: Beast Boost | Explode