Chapter 35
Song: Butter-Fly (English Fan Dub Ver.)
Artist: LeeandLie (Original Japanese Artist: Koji Wada)
My broken wings dream of the sky,
And they'll never be able to fly.
Only if we never try,
On my loo-o-o-ove!
If I could become just one thing,
I'd be a butterfly-free soaring.
I really miss you...
So finally I'm on my way.
Let's focus on the people we trust
And leave out all the doubt behind us.
So if you're ready...
Can we go? 'Cause there's no time to wa-aste.
I wanna kno-o-ow oh...
If the sky above is only for show.
I wanna kno-o-ow oh...
What tomorrow will bring so let's spread our wi-i-ings!
Maybe this world's an infinite dream,
And there is only hope living in me!
May it not fail me now!
We'll turn this thing around and bring back the lovin' somehow!
My broken wings dream of the sky,
and they'll never be able to fly!
Only if we never try,
On my lo-o-ove!
On my lo-o-o-ove!
Back in the Pokemon World, Team RWBY are waiting on Blazerina in the Pokemon Center. The reason being is because Blazerina has evolved into a Monferno, but her colors are completely different from normal Monfernos. Yang taps her right foot while waiting next to the examination room while Blake is reading a book, Ruby is eating a cookie and Weiss is getting annoyed by Yang's tapping on the bench.
"Would you relax!?" Weiss scolds Yang, "Your tapping isn't helping."
Yang stops, "Sorry, just getting a little anxious. With everything that is happening, I'm finding it hard to relax."
The door to the examination room opens with Nurse Joy and Blazerina coming out.
"Hey!" Yang is happy to see her partner.
Both Yang and Blazerina hold each others hands and wave them up and down.
Nurse Joy says to Yang, "Your Monferno is in perfect health. However, I am unable to figure out the cause of Monferno's appearance. I checked with other Pokemon Centers to see if they had any similar cases, but I've found none."
"Really?" Weiss thinks to herself, 'Do our auras have something to do with this change? If so, I wonder if Ruby's Pokemon will go through similar changes. Including Blake's and my own. Yet I also wonder if there will be any changes to my Pokemon. But is there is a connection to our semblances acting up?'
"Hey, Weiss?" Ruby taps Weiss' shoulder a few times.
Weiss breaks her train of thought and looks at Ruby, "What is it?"
"Are you worried what I think you are worried about?"
Blake puts her book down, "If so, we should test that theory out before the Showcase."
"Right." Weiss nods.
The four headed outside in the back of the Pokemon Center at nighttime when no one is looking. The lights in the back are still on to illuminate the darkness of the starry sky with only a few sounds from cars returning home to retire for the evening. A few nocturnal Pokemon come out and enjoy the night air such as Hoothoots and Noctowls fly high in the night along with Zubats, Spinaraks spinning their webs while looking for food in more darker corners, Alolan Rattatas take this opportunity to take whatever they can to their nests before morning and a Misdreavus patrolling out looking for any victim for its pranks. Team RWBY are going to figure out what sort of changes happen to their semblances. Blake goes first to see what happens if she uses her shadow.
Blake takes a deep breath in preparation as everyone watches, "Okay. Here we go."
Blake creates a duplicate of herself with her semblance and steps back to make room. After a few seconds, the clone moved. It looked around and at itself in confusion on what is going on. The rest of Team RWBY are completely shocked to see Blake's shadow clone able to move freely.
"Holy...cow..." Yang is in complete awe and shock on this new revelation.
Ruby rubs her eyes a few times to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. She looks at the two beside her, "I'm seeing this, right?"
Weiss' jaw dropped and eyes widen from this new power Blake has obtained.
The Blake clone and Blake herself interact with each other as they mirror each other. Poking each other's fingers, touching their cheeks, petting each others hair.
"Are you...my shadow clone?" Blake asks.
"I thought you were." the clone speaks.
Blake takes a few steps back after seeing her clone able to speak. Ruby, Weiss and Yang are startled as well.
"How is that possible?" Blake asks.
"You tell me." the clone shrugs, "I'm just as lost as you are."
Blake pinches and pulls on the clone's left cheek. Yet it doesn't seem to feel any pain.
"What's that for?" the clone speaks with her cheek being stretched.
"Can you feel it?"
The clone thinks about it for a moment while Blake still holds onto its cheek. "No, I cannot." The clone is unable to feel any pain. Nothing at all.
Blake then press her index finger on the clones forehead and it disappears.
Yang is spooked by all this, "That...was creepy. I mean, you just made a duplicate of yourself that gained sentience. So weird."
Weiss has an opposite view, "Not really. It was like looking at a 3D mirror that you can use to make sure your outfit is on right. Imagine the possibilities."
"I never thought of that." Yang thinks about what Weiss says and it does sound like a good idea. "Yet I wonder if Blake can use her semblance on other people. Better yet, objects and Pokemon."
Ruby jumps up, "My turn!"
"Hold on, Ruby, hold on. There's something that Blake needs to test."
Yang stands in front of Blake as Blake places her finger on Yang's forehead.
"Alright." Blake says, "Move."
Yang moves out of the way and a clone of Yang was created.
"Whoa!" Ruby lets out a loud surprise that might've woken-up the neighborhood. "Blake made a duplicate of Yang!"
"Ssshhh!" Weiss shushes Ruby, "Keep your voice down."
Yang and her clone interacted with each other the same way Blake did to her clone.
"This is actually pretty cool." Yang says.
"You bet." the clone agrees.
"Yet I wonder..." Yang takes a good look at her clone, "I wonder what would it would be like to-"
Blake places her hand on the clone's shoulder and it disappears.
"Hey! I wasn't finished!"
"It's Ruby's turn now." Blake says, "But don't ever think about it."
Ruby preps herself before using her semblance to prepare for any sort of unforseen side effects. "Okay, okay." she says to herself. "Let's do this."
Ruby bursts into red rose petals and dashes around the arena with inhuman speeds. Ruby passes by a few times as she created a gust of wind as she passes by her teammates. While Weiss and Blake are eyeing Ruby, Yang notices that flowers have started to sprout from where she dashed by. Tulips, poppies, orchids of various variety, dandelions, and morning glories. Red rose bushes started to grow along the fence of the arena at an accelerated rate. The apple trees close by started to have a mix of flowers and apples which the flowers are in full bloom and apples are as big as a Machamp's fists. Ruby flew high in the air before doing an epic landing where petals are scattered all over as she lands in a kneeled position. The girls covered themselves as the petals blow right by them. Once the petals settled, the girls looked around and noticed that they are in some sort of garden that could only be found in deep forest clearings and are in total awe that Ruby created this garden just by passing by with her semblance. Ruby is just as awed as everyone else when she got up and looked around.
"Oh my gosh." Ruby says as she noticed all the nature she had created. "Did I do all of this?"
The three just nod while gawking at Ruby.
Ruby smiles, "Sweet! I made a garden."
Yang starts to get excited as she wants to know what she can do. "My turn!" she is enthusiastic on what her semblance can do as she runs up gets pumped up.
Ruby heads back with Weiss and Blake as Yang goes next. Yang slams her fists together a few times...right before she punches herself. Her semblance will only work depending on the amount of damage she has sustained. She repeatedly punches her gut multiple times as her eyes turn red, but not because she is angry, and her long, golden hair glows and catches fire. Once she thinks she has taken enough damage, Yang punches the air as a vortex of fire is fired from her right hook that burned down the rose bushes and the fence along with the other flowers that was in the path of Yang's fiery attack.
"Wow." Yang is impressed by what she has unleashed. "Just...wow." Her eyes turned back to normal along with her hair.
Ruby points out, "Yang! You set everything on fire!"
Yang looks at the damage and freaks out, "Oh boy! Not good!"
Weiss uses her semblance to get rid of the fires. Five strange glyphs are seen over the fires, yet they aren't like the ones she usually uses. These glyphs are in the shade of cobalt blue with the snowflakes have water drops on them along with having some coral shapes while having wave symbols on the edges. Water pour down from the glyphs and onto the fires, putting them out. Everyone was surprise to see this new form of glyph. Even Weiss is just as surprised.
"How did you do that?" Blake asks Weiss. "I mean, you can use propulsion, time dilation. But that was new and you used it with out Dust."
Weiss looked at her hand while trying the best she can to explain, "I...I thought about extinguishing the flame with water and my semblance just did that."
"Ooo!" Ruby has an idea, "Try to think of growing something."
"I'll try." Weiss reaches out and activate her semblance.
This time, she calls forth an emerald green glyph that has trees and roots with flower petal patterns on the edges of the circle. The glyph shined down on one of the scorched areas as the flowers that was burnt suddenly new flowers appear. Yet instead of the flowers that were there before, white and glittering roses appear along with grass. Everyone was stunned when she did that, including Weiss herself.
Ruby smiles, "You can use elemental-type of glyphs. The same kind that Pokemon have. Wait, try something like a psychic glyph or a ghost glyph."
Weiss close her eyes and calls forth a pink glyph that has a psychic-type symbol at the center. Weiss focus as she tries her new glyph.
Yang thinks to herself, 'Is that the symbol of the psychic-type Pokemon?'
Weiss opens her eyes and the glyph disappears. She looks at Yang, "I just heard your thoughts."
Yang freaks out, "Wait, you did?!"
"Yes. You thought about the symbol of a psychic-type Pokemon on my glyph."
"Holy Miltank!" Ruby is excited, "You can read minds and use psychic powers!"
Yang gets an idea, "With a glyph like that..."
"No, Yang." Weiss says before Yang can say anything. She places her left hand on her forehead, "I feel drained after using that glyph. I feel a little sleepy."
"Guess certain glyphs require more aura and concentration." Blake hypothesis. "Possibly even stamina and mental capacity. That would explain why you're tired."
"That could be it." Weiss agrees with Blake's theory.
Yang points out their new abilities, "Soooo... I can use fire whenever I take damage and the temperature is based on that amount of damage I received. Ruby can create flowers and cause plants to grow when she dashes by with her semblance. Blake can create clones that are sentient yet don't feel pain. And Weiss can use glyphs that are based on Pokemon types and can use them without glyphs."
Weiss yawns, "That's about right."
Ruby is now being hyper, "This is awesome! Our semblances got an upgrade."
"But is this world effecting our semblances?" Yang asks. "I mean, for a while now, we've been stuck in this world and we just figure out that our semblances just, for lack of a better word, evolved." Yang goes bring up a good point. "Is there something here that cause these upgrades? If so, what is it? Do we even keep them when we get back or not?"
"Hmm..." Blake thinks about what Yang is asking. "Those are some interesting questions. We should investigate this when we have free time. But where should we start?"
Ruby has an idea, "Maybe we could research Aura Guardians first as a starting point?"
Blake and Yang look at Ruby.
"I read somewhere in my Megadex that Aura Guardians are able to sense and control aura which was inspired by the Pokemon, Lucario. If we can find information on them, we might learn more about what is happening to us."
"That...is actually a good idea." Blake likes Ruby's idea. "If we could learn more about Aura Guardians, we may learn more about what is happening to our semblances."
"Semblances are developed by a person's aura." Yang lay down some trivia, "Semblances are also 'fueled' by aura. If we learn more, then we can find a link to this phenomenon." She looks at Weiss, "What do you think, Weiss? Weiss?"
Weiss is doing her best to try and stay awake, but she keeps on dozing off. Barely able to stay focus.
"Looks like Weiss is Feleng down." Yang makes an awful pun.
For those that forget, Feleng was a Pokemon Weiss caught that evolved into Felunge that she nicknamed, Kitty.
Blake smiles and shakes her head, "Come on, let's get her to bed. We'll discuss this situation further after the Showcase tomorrow. We can even talk about our Pokemon changing appearances after evolving as well."
Yang and Blake pick-up Weiss and take her to her bed with Ruby giggling a little.
The next morning, Nurse Joy went out to check on the arena and is shocked to see the area being a mess with plants growing wildly, scorch marks on the ground, and a hole in the fence that was caused by some serious scorching.
Nurse Joy drops her broom, "What happened here!?"
Team RWBY eye on Nurse Joy and see her surprised as they lean from the wall to peer out the window.
"I think that's our cue to leave." Weiss whispers.
The other three nod in agreement and they head out.
They headed over to the same dome where the Pokemon Contest was once held at that is now hosting the Pokemon Showcase. Ruby and Yang take their seats as they wait for the Pokemon Showcase to begin. In the meantime, Yang and Ruby check out their Megadexes to learn more about Aura Guardians to understand the phenomenon that is happening to them.
Ruby looks over as she asks Yang, "Any luck?"
"Barely." Yang says while looking over her Megadex. She seems to be disappointed, "Not much information on the Aura Guardians. Some of this stuff is pretty vague. It's like something happened to them and they just erased all traces of using auras. There are some legends about them. One legend in the northern Kanto Region, there was the Kingdom of Rota that had an Aura Guardian named, Sir Aaron. There is one legend in the Sinnoh Region about an Aura Guardian and his Pikachu stopping a rampaging Spiritomb by sealing it in Hallowed Tower in a stone. After that, they just suddenly disappeared. Not much about them in present time."
"This is harder than I thought." Ruby scratches her head. "Maybe we can find a library with some old books about Aura Guardians. I do love to read books."
Yang chuckles, "You and Blake have a lot in common when it comes to reading."
In the dressing room, Weiss and Blake appear to be wearing pink, frilly aprons with Weiss brushing Kitty and Nicholas as well as preparing Monarch eagerly waiting to go on stage. Blake is tying a bow tie on Frogadier with Aveden perched on Blake's shoulder and Blake's Tircwe and Smore on her dressing table.
"Hey, Weiss?" Blake speaks.
"Hmm?" Weiss stops brushing and looks at Blake.
"Let's not use our semblances in the Showcase. Because that would be cheating."
"I know." Weiss already knows of this, "So we're just gonna use skill to win."
Blake looks at Weiss, "So, we're in agreement?"
"Yes." Weiss gives a small nod.
They both smile and nod at each other as they agree not to use their semblances.
Back on the stage, all the spotlights are turned on and swirl around with the curtains rising.
"Salutations, mesdames et messieurs!" a familiar voice is heard through the speakers, "And welcome to the Brazil City Pokemon Showcase, where nature and dreams coexist and become reality!" All the spotlights shine as one on the host of the Showcase, "I am your guide, Monsieur Pierre! Let's all walk down this thorny path our princesses walk through as they attempt to make their fantasies real!"
The audience cheer as Pierre is on stage. Hard to see in the background, but it looks like the stage is set to be nature-themed. It looks like a maze garden with hedges comprised of rose bushes with different color roses. A cherry blossom tree is also barely visible and giant tulips are seen at the edges of the stage. Above it are garlands of white lilies and orchids. Kleffki is seen holding a silver eye with a blue rose jewel on it and blossom petals below it.
Pierre tells them of the theme of the Showcase after explaining the rules, "For today's theme performance: Flower arranging!"
The lights on the stage turns on to reveal the background.
"The performers must work as one with their Pokemon in order to arrange the most beautiful arrangements among this great banquet of flowers we have selected. Their hearts must work as one to create such an arrangement without telling their Pokemon what to do."
Can Blake and Weiss take on this challenge to advance in the Pokemon Showcase? Stay tune for next time!
AN: Oi! I hope you guys are doing alright in this outbreak. As for me, I have to get another job because the company is outsourcing in two months. Wish me luck with job hunting. Now for Q&A:
Guest: Thanks man (or woman), will keep it in mind.
Saramus92: I'm glad you like it.
keybladelight: ...
I'm also uploading this early because I'm helping my relatives in the campgrounds again. Until then, stay healthy and stay safe. Also avoid people who won't wear masks. Especially on trains. Good luck!