Draco: We are officially at more chapters than Legend of Ransei, but I think we're at a bit of a smaller word count. It's different writing the same characters without gameplay to base it on. #SequelEscalation

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


Ultra Kingdom - Forsaken Lands: A Fallen Place

"Obstagoon... Perrserker... Cursola... Sirfetch'd... Mr. Rime... and Runerigus."

Oichi lowered the drawings that Okuni had made - each labelled by Nagamasa's Warriors. "Nice to put names to them," she admitted. "It's weird to meet a Pokémon you've never even heard of."

Nagamasa had invited the Ranseans to stay for dinner; a much more welcome dinner than the rations they'd been living on in the months since they left Ransei. The Warriors were alone in the castle, without any servants to help them - and it wasn't that they were silent and unseen servants, for Oichi knew well the difference between a castle with no servants and a castle with unobstructive ones. The meal had been enjoyed - although the two parties hadn't made much in the way of conversation with each other, given the language barrier - and Ranmaru had given Oichi their drawings as they, Gracia, Lucario, and Gothitelle made their way to a living room of sorts; the sun was starting to set outside, and the others had been escorted to the bedrooms for the night, with Type: Full waiting outside the living room (for fear of crowding things).

As Oichi handed the drawings back to Ranmaru, Nagamasa stepped in, Manaphy sitting in one arm and the drawing supplies from the entrance hall in the other. With the arrangement of the furniture not really conducive to how their communication needed to propagate, the four Warriors elected to sit in a circle on the floor like children playing a simple game; Oichi, Gracia, and Ranmaru set their hands on one another, and Manaphy curled one strand around them and the other around Nagamasa's hand as he sorted through the papers.

The tips of Manaphy's hair started to glow, and she opened her eyes. "Okay."

Nagamasa found what he was looking for - Okuni's drawing of the gate. "This rift," he asked. "You came to this place through this rift?"

Ranmaru nodded. "This is not the first place we've arrived in through the rift," he elaborated. "We've been using them to travel between... otherworlds, looking for people lost from our home."

"Which people?" Nagamasa asked.

"Everyone else in our group," Gracia replied. "We found them scattered in different worlds. They'd gone missing without a trace from our world, along with..."

Oichi spoke up. "Along with my wife, Evia."

"Then you have been going through these rifts voluntarily," Nagamasa observed. "And... you have been able to open them where you want?"

Gracia shook her head. "Maybe I should just show you."

She carefully made to remove her hand, causing Manaphy to uncurl her hair from them; then she drew the bag off her shoulder and set it down. Nagamasa's attention was on her as she slowly opened the bag, reached in, and gently lifted out the Cosmoem.

Nagamasa yelped, pulling his hand back in surprise. "In tegmine siderum? Duo ex illis!?"

"He does know," Gracia observed.

She set the Cosmoem down and returned her hand to the union; Manaphy offered Nagamasa a worried look before curling her hair around their hands once again. "Where did you find them?"

"We found them before they were like this," Gracia explained. "The Cosmog appeared in our homeland, and I was able to Link with them. When the disappearances started happening, they revealed they could open the gates."

Nagamasa turned towards the Cosmoem. "And what is this?"

"When they opened the gates, it took a toll on them," Ranmaru explained. "They needed rest for some weeks before they were able to open another. In the last place we had gone to, we found ourselves under a very great threat, very shortly after we arrived. The Cosmog were the ones that chose to open the gate - without our asking."

"And so they have become cocoons of the stars," Nagamasa realized.

Oichi blinked. "Cocoons? What are you saying? The Cosmoem are...?"

"They are idols of legend," Nagamasa explained. "They would be delivered unto altars as offerings. And when no one is looking, they would vanish, and in their place would be found the sun or the moon - legendary beings that roam the space between these places."

"Then... what does that mean?" Ranmaru murmured. "They are sacrifices, meant to call these legendary Pokémon?"

"No way!" Gracia moved her free hand to defend the Cosmoem. "I'm not sacrificing them!"

Nagamasa shook his head. "There are no altars in this place," he insisted. "And I do not know that the moon or the sun would come without being called. You have nothing to fear."

With a deep breath, Gracia let her hand fall, and Oichi turned back to Nagamasa. "You haven't told us what this place is," she observed.

"I do not know for certain," Nagamasa insisted. "This castle and everything in this place had existed before I came here."

"Meaning what?"

"My Warriors and I were friends in our childhood," Nagamasa explained. "We lived on a small island, as part of a fairly small community. One day, we stumbled upon a rift. It brought us here, and then closed behind us. We have been trapped here since." He took a deep breath. "I... suspect that this place is some sort of safe haven - that it was made by someone who travelled as you are, in the hopes that those who were lost in the rifts would find it. Perhaps someone made use of this place, long before my Warriors and I arrived here - and, perhaps, someone will make use of it long after we are gone."

"That's not impossible," Oichi observed.

Ranmaru sighed. "You mean you've been trapped here since your childhood?" he asked. "That the gates have never opened since?"

Nagamasa pursed his lips; Manaphy uncurled her hair from the Warriors, and looked up to him. "Papa?"

"Doleo," Nagamasa murmured. "Donec increscat dies. Dormiamus hospitio."

He started out of the room, and Gracia stumbled over her words for a bit before turning to Manaphy. "What?"

"Day late," Manaphy said quietly. "Papa sleep." She made to follow him. "You sleep, too."

Her movement was slow on land, but she followed Nagamasa out the open door. With a sigh, Oichi got to her feet, and Type: Full stepped in. "Sorry you had to sit that one out."

The other two rose as well. "He kinda copped out on that last one, didn't he?" Gracia observed.

"Indeed," Ranmaru agreed. "But if he had found another gate, he would have taken it, wouldn't he?"

"A safe haven in the otherworlds?" Oichi murmured. "And then a gate appears - the same kind of gate that ripped him out of a place he knew was safe and dragged him here?"

"...Point," Ranmaru conceded.

+x+x+x+

The three Warriors and their Pokémon made their way to the bedrooms. Ranmaru and Gracia retired quite quickly; Oichi stayed up a little longer, approaching Kotarō's room. She didn't even need to knock; the doorknob turned when she halted before the door, and it opened to reveal the Yakshan behind it.

"He departed ahead of you," Kotarō observed.

"He's trustworthy," Oichi proclaimed. "You don't do anything to him or his Warriors unless they attack first."

"Ha..." Kotarō smirked. "Are you certain you're not simply biased by his Link with a small Pokémon?"

"A Pokémon of legend," Oichi corrected. "No matter how small, the Sea Princess is a legend all the same - and I have no reason to think her a legend any less powerful than the Black Yang."

Kotarō scoffed. "Very well," he observed. "But if they do attack first, I'm not like to hold back."

He closed the door in Oichi's face, leaving the healer to sigh. The conversation with Nagamasa had only renewed her concern for Evia; this place was their eleventh destination, and there was still no sign of her.

She started towards the empty room with Full, and retired for the night.

+x+x+x+

The next morning, Nagamasa's Warriors had departed by the time the Ranseans awoke; the others went to collect all their rations and camping supplies from the lake, and Oichi and Full found Nagamasa himself at Manaphy's basin with the writing supplies. There were a few outdoor chairs and a short table she hadn't noticed the other day, when he had introduced them, and he was hunched over the table with a sheet of paper as she approached. "Good morning," she greeted.

"Salve iterum," the Warlord returned.

Oichi glanced towards the basin. "Where's Manaphy?"

On hearing the Sea Princess' name, Nagamasa turned a drawing towards her. Oichi glanced at it and discovered it looked to be a diagram of sorts. Manaphy was at the bottom of what seemed to be the basin before them; four musical notes were drawn, run through with an arrow connecting her to the shore, where a humanoid figure stood.

"So she doesn't come until you call," Oichi mused.

Nagamasa tapped the notes with his pen before pointing it at Oichi. "Ut hic vocant eam, si libet."

Oichi stared at the tip of his pen for a moment before realizing what he was suggesting. "You want me to-" She scoffed, a smile rising on her face. "No. I'm not going to jump in on your little practice when you have a Link with a legendary Pokémon. No, no thanks." She shook her head.

With a small smirk, Nagamasa reclined in his seat again.

Sighing, Oichi took a blank sheet of paper and one of the pens before kneeling at the table. Okuni had been serious about her lack of artistic skills, but as Gracia had mentioned, the exact imagery was less important than getting your point across; the gate was not a super-complicated image when she tried, and gazing up at Nagamasa's headband let her recreate that recognizably enough. She drew an arrow pointing his mark through the gate and made what was more-or-less recognizable as a castle shape before... deciding that Manaphy was a bit too difficult for her to draw. She drew a pattern more or less matching those of thee Sea Princess' body and eyelashes, encircled them (with what ended up looking egg-shaped), and drew question marks around it before turning it to Nagamasa.

"Did you find her before you came here?" Oichi asked.

Nagamasa regarded the image for a moment before taking his pen and crossing out Oichi's representation of the Sea Princess. "Non inveniret eam quasi membrana ovi egredi." He quickly drew a shape close along Manaphy's silhouette before pointing it to the side of the gate with the castle.

"I didn't need you insulting my art skills, thanks," Oichi muttered.

Manaphy's four-note cry emerged from the water; the two Warriors turned as she started to swim towards the shore. Nagamasa got to his feet with a smile, whistling the notes back, and the Sea Princess leapt from the water as she had the previous day, landing in his arms. "Papa! Mane!"

"Mane, Manaphy," he returned. "Dormivistine bene?"

"Mhm. Somnus felix." She turned to Oichi. "Morning!"

Oichi giggled. "How can you sound like a child, and speak both his language and mine?"

Manaphy giggled back. "Hand take," she prompted, holding out one arm.

With a nod, Oichi held out her hand for Manaphy to wrap it; Nagamasa did the same, and her hairtips glowed as he turned his attention back to Oichi. "Is there something particular for you to come find me, so early?" he asked.

"You didn't really answer the last question yesterday," Oichi admitted. "But I think I get it." She beckoned her free hand towards her drawing. "You did see one more gate since you arrived."

"Yes," Nagamasa confirmed. "Manaphy came through it when it appeared at the lake. When we arrived after it had vanished, we found her in the water. We all considered ourselves fortunate this basin was here."

"Is that why she sleeps out here?" Oichi asked.

Nagamasa nodded. "If she spends too much time outside an ocean environment, it does terrible things to her." Manaphy looked away he said that, and he continued; "I try not to keep her away from the basin all day. As you might have guessed, I do not spend a great deal of time away from the castle."

"I see," Oichi mused. "Do you not have Links with any other Pokémon?"

"Well... no," Nagamasa admitted. "None of us had forged any Links before we came to this place. We have made them with the ones we found here. I had been the subject of some friendly taunts before she arrived."

Oichi nodded, turning towards the basin briefly before turning back to him. "Tell me more about the sun and the moon," she asked. "You said they were legendary Pokémon?"

"Yes," Nagamasa confirmed. "There were stories about them on the island village I called home - though nothing that was ever put into practice. It is said that they roam a void - which I believe refers to the space between these places you have been searching."

"And you have only ever been to this place since you arrived from your home?" Oichi asked. "The only gates you've seen were the one you came through, and the one Manaphy did?"

Nagamasa took a deep breath. "...There has been one more," he confessed. "I've only been to it once, shortly after Manaphy arrived. It's rare that we get the opportunity, and none of us have dared to take it twice."

Oichi shook her head. "I still haven't found my wife," she informed him. "With the Cosmoem unable to open the gates, we have to take whatever-"

She cut herself off as she realized what he'd said.

"...What do you mean, you get the chance?"

+x+x+x+

"What in Distortion!?"

When Oichi shared what Nagamasa had told her, all the Ranseans freaked out. "I'm serious," the healer insisted. "The sky garden's high enough to pass over the castle. It happens when it drifts past the ravine, it does get close enough to climb on from there. When it does, there's a gate that opens - and it takes them to the same place, every time."

"But what is that place?" Kotarō demanded. "What sort of area would they be scared of?"

"He wouldn't say," Oichi admitted, "but I think there are beasts through there. With the way they refuse Links and the power they have, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to try their luck."

Okuni sighed. "And... you're suggesting we go through that gate?" she asked. "Despite it being a once-in-how-long chance?"

Gracia turned to her. "What else are we gonna do?" she retorted. "The Cosmoem can't open the gates, and we still haven't found Lady Evia."

"Indeed," Ranmaru conceded. "We've only this one chance. If we're to be trapped here for evermore, I would rather we didn't do so regretfully."

Oichi nodded. "I'm gonna take the chance," she proclaimed. "Anyone who wants to stay here with Nagamasa and his Warriors can, but I'm going through that gate at the first opportunity."

"I'm coming," Gracia proclaimed. "No way am I letting you go through it alone."

"And I, as well," Ranmaru insisted. "We've come this far, I'll not abandon you yet."

Mitsunari shook his head. "You lot still need escorts, don't you?" he argued.

Kiyomasa chuckled. "Yeah, our job's not done yet," he agreed.

Masanori hoisted his kanabo over his shoulder. "Not leaving us behind!" he cheered.

"...It's probably not the Pheromosa's forest," Okuni wagered. "I'll come."

Kotarō raised an eyebrow when Oichi turned to him. "You're giving me the option?" he observed.

"Yeah," Oichi insisted. "Your vow just means I can give you an ongoing order before I leave."

"Ha..." Kotarō smirked. "You'll not let me throw Warriors into oblivion. I'll be more than happy to impart my wrath on the beasts."

Ranmaru nodded. "That settles it," he observed. "We're all going. What's our course of action?"

"Nagamasa said the sky garden drifts close enough to the ravine every week or so," Oichi explained, "and sticks around there for an hour and a half. Then it passes over the castle two hours later. We'll make camp at the top of the ravine and wait for it to get near, then get on and wait for the gate."

Gracia's smile fell. "The top of the ravine?" she asked.

Oichi turned to her. "Yes, what about it?"

Okuni chuckled awkwardly. "You mean with those huge Exeggutor?"

"...We'll be very careful."


Draco: I don't imagine Nagamasa having a particularly deep voice, but I can't picture someone speaking [the language I've chosen for these Warriors] without hearing it in a baritone. There's no reason for it.

Also, for some reason it feels worse when I do it in a language other than my own so I feel the need to excuse myself, but Manaphy's [use of the language] is deliberately meant to be as spotty as her English.