Draco: When I got Shield, I also got Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Deciding against getting any DLC for now, I shut down my internet connection to make the update notification shut up, popped the cartridge in, and started the software.
Beautiful opening movie, lovely musical theme, you only start with the original eight, there's a story mode like there was in Brawl, and Stamina mode is finally a regular Smash rule instead of a Special Smash. I am not ready for this. If I start playing that, I'm gonna drift out of a Pokémon mood, and I am on the biggest roll I've ever been on. I'm already trying to get as much done as I can before Re:Mind comes out because I know I'm going to drop everything to play that one.
...Come to think of it, that's why my last large-scale Pokémon fanfic failed. I had less than a year before the turn of the Generation and tried to write the whole thing in that span, got myself on a roll of a chapter or more per day, and did really well until Bravely Second came out. I played that game and my Pokémon mood went to pot.
Ugh, I'm still using Galarian slang. I hope it's just my literations (novelizations, whatever) talking. Every time I play a new game I contemplate how I would write it as a literation, just because I've written so many of the damn things.
Pokémon and protagonist © Nintendo. Character designs © Koei. Ransei © somewhere in the middle.
Ultra Kingdom - Bamboo Forest: The Swordsbeast
"Is it just me, or did it take you guys a little longer this time?"
Gracia's comment as she stepped out of her tent with the Cosmog was met with an accusatory shimmer. "Yeah, fair enough," she admitted, "we did kinda jump the gun on the last one. But that's because we had a bomber on our tail. You made the offer." Then, when they both glared at her; "Right, sorry, that's not really fair to accuse you like that."
"An argument first thing in the morning isn't really the most cheerful way to start your day," Oichi accused, drawing her attention.
"Lady Oichi," Gracia greeted. "The Cosmog say they're good to open the gate."
Oichi smiled. "Excellent. Let's get ready to depart, then. This place is nice enough, but the weather is kind of getting to me."
"You're not alone on that front," Ranmaru admitted, stepping out of his own tent. "Wet garments are all the heavier."
"You wanna talk about heavy clothes?" Oichi argued. "Try wearing an evening dress."
Ranmaru turned bright red.
"...Have you worn an evening dress before?" Gracia asked.
"Not of my own choice," Ranmaru admitted.
"What?" Oichi was laughing in short order. "When did you-?"
"One of the perils of spending any significant amount of time with Lady Nō," Ranmaru observed, "you're left to whatever whims might strike her fancy. That thing looked dreadful on me."
"That thing looked lovely on you," Okuni retorted from behind; Ranmaru flinched as she stepped forward. "I still have the photos back in Spectra."
"That, I have to see," Gracia grinned.
Ranmaru turned to Okuni. "Please don't."
"There's no shame in looking beautiful, Ranmaru," Okuni reprimanded.
"I don't care how beautiful I might have looked," Ranmaru protested, "a heavy dress and makeup were-"
"Makeup?" Gracia exclaimed, and Ranmaru slapped his hands over his mouth. "She made you wear makeup?"
Oichi sighed. "I'm sure it was gorgeous," she admitted, "but that's a bit much, don't you think?"
Okuni shook her head. "He looked liked the finest lady ever," she insisted. "I was so jealous."
Ranmaru buried his hands in his face. "Hall of Origin, smite me now..."
+x+x+x+
With how unpleasant the weather was in the Buzzwole's oversized leafage, there were no complaints when the Ranseans arrived on the other side of the gate.
Bamboo - as far as the eye could see, and growing so tall no one could see the tops of it. There was much firmer earth beneath their feet - there was a slight slope to it, but nothing that would make camping a struggle - and with the growth around them, the light shining in was filtered to a rather soft glow.
"Wow," Kiyomasa muttered. "Imagine getting into a swordfight in this place."
"Pity the farmer," Mitsunari muttered.
"And the fighter!" Masanori argued. "If you chopped it at the wrong angle when you weren't looking, it'd clonk you on the head."
Gracia looked upward. "With how big this stuff has grown," she observed, "that'd be a pretty hard clonk. Let's nobody take their swords out, okay?"
Ranmaru glanced around. "There's not really much room to pitch tents in any sort of formation," he observed. "Let's see if we can't find a clearing, shall we?"
As the group started through the bamboo, Full lowered his head towards Oichi, his RKS slot opening; she carefully withdrew the Flying-type disc from it and drew the empty case from her bag, slipping it in. "What sort of beasts do you guys think we'll find here?" she wondered.
"No idea," Okuni admitted. "Maybe just try to expand our type coverage until we find something."
Oichi fingered through the discs until she found the Rock-type disc, opening the case and slipping it into Full's slot. As it closed, his spikes turned a pale tan colour, and he lifted his head as they continued walking.
It didn't take long before they reached something - although it wasn't a clearing as they had hoped. Rather, there was a giant stone figure standing amidst the bamboo; it almost seemed like a statue of a giant shinai, buried point-down in a pedestal of sorts.
"That's raises a whole bunch of questions," Gracia murmured.
"It's... not a weapon," Oichi observed, "it's one piece with the base."
"But why would this be here?" Ranmaru wondered. "These worlds seem to be designed to be comfortable to the beasts. What sort of beast would be comfortable with a giant sword sitting in the middle of..."
"Wait," Mitsunari interrupted. "Do you hear that?"
The group fell quiet, straining their ears - and they did hear something. A sound that Oichi recognized anywhere - that of a blade cutting through the air - and she seized her buckler in a panic as she realized it was getting close. "Please be friendly, please be friendly, please be friend-"
Three lines manifested across the stone shinai before them - and then it burst, the shards flying in every direction.
"What the hell?!"
Floating there what a beast unlike anything that anyone had expected - its body seemed to have all the thickness of paper. It had an abstracted humanoid shape in bright white, with legs coming to points and arms that looked like sword blades; a pair of green protrusions emerged from its shoulders like the grips of swords worn for daishō, and a pair of strange patterns was closed around the base of each arm like a ricasso. Its arms were not joined to its sides, but to a red segment on its chest; its head had a similar red layer on its top point, and two small protrusions that might have been meant as eyebrows extended over it.
It brought one arm forward quickly, with the unmistakable sound of a blade cutting through air; then it swung it back, and gave a rattling, high-pitched cry.
"I take it back," Gracia exclaimed. "Swords out!"
Oichi drew her rapier as her eyes swirled purple. "Metal and grass," she realized. "Oh, dammit!"
Ranmaru made to draw his zanbato as Lucario hurled an Aura Sphere at the beast; it made to cut the projectile, only to have it blast against its blade, throwing it to the ground. Volcarona leapt forward and twisted into a Fiery Dance before it could right itself, and to everyone's surprise, the beast rose up still alight, made to flee... and then collapsed, falling to the ground again.
"...Wow," Okuni murmured. "Not very durable, is it? I was expecting more of a fight."
"We got lucky," Oichi insisted, sheathing her rapier. "We had the type advantage and managed to land the first hit. If it had gotten the drop on us, we'd be in a lot more trouble." Full turned to her, and she reached for the RKS discs. "And I'm glad we did get so lucky. Next time we're keeping you unarmed until we have a look at our opponents."
She switched out the Rock-type disc for a Fire-type one, causing Masnori to yelp when Full's spikes turned red. "You sure you wanna have fire in a forest like this?"
"Bamboo doesn't burn easily," Ranmaru reprimanded. "At least not its outer layer. If it's cut open properly, the interior might light more quickly, but I wouldn't say our chances of that happening are particularly great."
"So," Kiyomasa mused, "you think this would work as a camp site?"
Everyone looked around; with the stone shinai having been carved into pieces, the pedestal on which it had stood was indeed large enough to host everyone's tents in a safe formation to light a fire between.
+x+x+x+
The light was starting to dim as they pitched their tents (although with how thick the bamboo grew, it was hard to tell if there was a sun setting or not); dinner was dished out, and Oichi elected to take the first watch of the night.
Okuni was the last one still up, stepping towards Oichi and Full. "So," she mused, "hoping for a friendly swordsman, were we?"
"Were you not?" Oichi argued.
"What exactly made you think we were gonna find any other people in these worlds?" Okuni asked.
Oichi shook her head. "Besides the fact that there's still two unaccounted for from Ransei? I've got my fair share of reasons."
Okuni had intended for this conversation to go in a very different direction - but Oichi's response had caught her by surprise. "I'm sorry?"
"Well, first, there's Full," Oichi explained. "An artificial Pokémon, made by humans, put into stasis by humans - and arriving in Ransei out of nowhere, just like the beasts. At first we were thinking he had been made in some faraway region, but... the more I think about it, the more I wonder if he'd been made in one of these otherworlds."
"Wow," Okuni murmured. "That... actually might be a good point." She turned to Full. "You got anything to say?"
Full gave a low cry.
Oichi giggled weakly. "Fair enough," she admitted. "With what we know about you so far, we can't really expect you to have seen much of the region you lived in."
Okuni shook her head. "What else?"
"I keep thinking about the Xurkitree's power plant," Oichi replied. "I know all these otherworlds are just what's comfortable for the beasts that live in them, but just how much it seemed like it belonged in Violight... if that place ended up in our world and someone came across it, they wouldn't think anything was out of place until they ran into the beasts. They'd think it was a man-made plant."
"Might be thinking that one through a little too much," Okuni observed. "Anyone who saw the Pheromosa's forest wouldn't think there was anything weird about it. Anyone who saw the Blacephalon's circus would wonder where the carnies are."
Oichi sighed. "You're right. I'm probably just overthinking it. Being on the road so long is starting to do a number on me."
"Can't blame you there," Okuni agreed. "I've had enough travelling to last me a lifetime. When I get back to Spectra, I am going to wash myself until I run out of soap and soak in the furo until I wrinkle."
"Nō is going to punish you for that first half," Oichi observed.
"So worth it," Okuni insisted. "Lady Nō can tie me up and hang me from the ceiling by my arms and legs for all I care, as long as she waits until I'm clean first."
"I did not need that reminder," Oichi muttered, burying her eyes in her sleeves.
Okuni turned to her. "Reminder of what?"
"If you think ropes are exclusively for punishments and captivity," Oichi reprimanded, "you really don't understand what Brother's relationship with Nō is like."
Draco: Sorry for the curb-stomp with the Kartana, but I intended to have the Aura Sphere and Fiery Dance be the lead-up to a sizeable fight sequence before I double-checked its stats and discovered how Mulch UB: Blade is for Special Defense. Like, aiya. I never weakened them before I threw the Beast Balls, it's impossible for them to fail against those things during Looker's UB hunt and I can't find a Wormhole taking me to Ultra Forest during Ultra Warp Ride. Here's the battle info for the new Ultra Beast.
Kartana
-Range: 4
-Move: Leaf Blade
-Ability: Beast Boost | Hero
