Much like the Sinnoh region, the Johto region was home to a great number of myths and landmarks associated with these legends. Sinnoh was far more deeply ingrained with its legendary lore, and endless secrets were constantly unearthed.

Yet Johto is where many of the stories were said to have begun. Innumerable tales spinning about, changing slightly with each iteration. The twin towers of Ecruteak City, the swaying tower of Violet City, the eerie Ruins of Alph, the turbulent Whirl Islands, and everything associated with Blackthorn City. Indeed, the history of Johto was rich with mystery and wonder.

Adding to the historical feel of the region was that each city seemed to actively resist the passing of time. Although the oldest landmarks were hundreds of years old, the cities remained simple and small, ignoring the temptation of technological progress that had creeped into many other areas of the world.

No matter how many times Iris visited the region, she was always taken aback by how naturally the cities had merged with natural surroundings. Sure, it was still inferior to Hoenn's integration with nature, but once one had seen the work done in Fortree City, everything else seemed like it hadn't even tried.

The small city that Iris and Kaito had arrived in was surrounded by forest, with the various buildings dotted along a paved road. There was the ever-present Pokemon Center on one end of the city, nearest to one of the city's main entrances, and the looming magnificence of a Pokemon Gym further in. The most prominent feature of the city, however, was definitely the large tower just beyond a large lake.

Iris had needed a few minutes to get her bearings after such a long-distance Teleport, so Kaito hovered beside her passively, turning his attention to the various humans as they passed by. The two Pokemon got more than a few curious glances from the trainers and residents alike, but none of them approached or bothered them. This was not unusual behavior within some human settlements - Pokemon were considered as much a part of the city as the humans, provided they didn't do anything to harass the others. A lot of the Pokemon trainers passing through the region kept a Pokemon or two outside of their Pokeballs, and judging by the demeanor of these Pokemon, it was an arrangement they found agreeable.

The Kirlia smiled to herself, observing one such trainer sitting on a bench outside the Pokemon Center. She was pampering a Cyndaquil, taking care not to burn herself, as the fire Pokemon cooed happily at the attention. It reminded Iris of Cecilia, but at the same time the parallel made her feel slightly sad. She looked over at Kaito, and saw that the Togetic was gazing around with a wistful expression on his face.

"What's up?" Iris wondered. It was a rare experience to see Kaito in any sort of emotional mood, however slight. For as long as she had known the Togetic, he had always seemed serious or lost in thought, with occasional flickers of excitement or anger.

"This city is so nostalgic for me," Kaito responded. Another surprise, but not as great. Iris always did get the feeling that Kaito was more forthcoming with her than with the others. She knew the Togetic would never have given such an answer without hesitation to Lin or Cecilia, despite interacting with them far more often.

"Really?" Iris asked, smiling. "Did you grow up here?"

"Yes."

Iris giggled quietly, and Kaito gave her an inquisitive glance. "Nothing, I just think it's kind of cute, thinking of you wandering around as a Togepi here."

"I wasn't alone. I was being looked after," Kaito said, and Iris followed his gaze to the large tower. He then shook his head and looked back at her. "If you're ready, we need to find Sorin."

"Sorin's in this city?" Iris wondered. It didn't seem like the type of place the Altaria would stay, if only because he'd stand out to ridiculous extents as a dragon Pokemon, and one not considered native to Johto.

"Not likely. I had you teleport here because it's a perfect landmark near to our destination. Sorin's most likely going to be on the outskirts of the Ruins of Alph," Kaito explained. He gestured for the Kirlia to follow him, and immediately set off.

It was very apparent that Kaito was intimately familiar with the city's layout, because he navigated the streets with ease, changing direction only to allow for passerby to get past them unhindered, and Iris had to keep a brisk pace to keep up with him. They passed the gym, and Iris paused to examine the sign out front. She had seen a few Pokemon gyms before, but not from this close-up, at least not since she was a young Ralts in Hoenn. The sign was clearly labeled "Violet City Pokemon Gym", and smaller text designated the Gym Leader as a Flying-Type expert. Unwilling to lose sight of Kaito, Iris pressed on without reading the smallest text.

The Togetic had paused seemingly in the middle of the road, and when Iris caught back up, he remained where he was. He wasn't looking around like he was trying to get his bearings or figure out where to go next, he just had stopped.

"Uh...lost?" Iris wondered, already feeling awkward at the sudden stop.

"No, we go south from here," Kaito said, pointing to the path that led away from the paved road. There was no indicator that this was an intentional path, no pavement or even a dirt trail, but there was nevertheless a break in the trees.

Iris blinked. "Then...why did we stop?" she wondered. With how quickly Kaito had been moving before, it still seemed strange to be waiting at a seemingly arbitrary point.

"I'm just a little wary of going that way," Kaito admitted. This was yet another surprise. Iris had spent quite a bit of time with Force or one of the others whenever Kaito was around, so when it was just the two of them, she was often taken aback by Kaito's upfront shows of weakness or nerves. He was much more distant otherwise.

"Why?" Iris wondered, peering down the forested pathway. There certainly was no obvious reason for unease, the section seemed quiet, but not unusually so.

"It's usually a bit of a training grounds area for Pokemon trainers," Kaito explained. Iris gave him a blank look.

"But...you just passed like...a dozen trainers on the way here. Why is that a problem?"

Kaito frowned slightly. "Trainers won't usually challenge other Pokemon while in a city. It's got too much risk of collateral damage and most Pokemon in a city have a trainer already. Outside a city's a different matter."

Iris squinted at Kaito, so much that her pink eyes were practically invisible. Kaito had just previously traveled from Johto to Sinnoh without teleportation, so his concern seemed strange at first. She was about to question this detail, but changed her mind right after opening her mouth. Kaito had probably flown higher than he currently was when he had traveled, so at this level of height, he would be more at risk from Pokemon trainers spotting him and possibly challenging him.

And she couldn't really argue against his concern. When she was a Ralts, she was incredibly vulnerable, scarcely even capable of producing the psychic power needed to protect herself from aggressive Pokemon or trainers. All she could really do was teleport herself to safety, but she always felt like a spineless coward for doing so. Yet every time she tried to actually practice, or stand up against an enemy, she'd get beaten easily and be forced to teleport just to stay safe in the end. It had been a miserable existence, and the world always seemed relentlessly cruel. Always the strong taking out the weak, and the weak repeating the pattern to ensure their own place in the chain.

Kindness still existed, of course. The world never felt truly bleak and hopeless. She could always sense the kindness in people, and that's how she started to be drawn towards specific individuals. Crowds made her nervous, because not all of them were kind. So many emotions existed in the world at any point in time. Anger, sorrow, fear, joy...it was a lot to take in.

"Should we take a different route, then?" Iris asked finally.

"Hm...no, the other route is longer, this is the most direct route to the Ruins," Kaito lamented. "I just need to steel myself and go for it."

"Uh, okay. Should I stay close so I can Teleport us if something goes wrong?" Iris offered. The Togetic gave a nod, and Iris smiled a little. She waited patiently for another thirty seconds or so, until Kaito hesitantly led the way down the forested pathway. It wasn't even a particularly long walk, but the treeline was narrow enough that Iris felt a little claustrophobic before the path expanded outwards, with one pathway heading to the west, and another continuing straight ahead.

Kaito tensed up abruptly and Iris flinched, looking around nervously. It didn't take long for her to see the source of Kaito's unease: A human was walking towards them, coming from the straight pathway. The human was dressed in rather casual clothing, and while he had a bag slung over one shoulder, his clothes could have been put on straight out of the dryer, or however that phrase went. There was no evidence of wear on them, or travel fatigue in the man's eyes. Furthermore, Iris could sense that this man was on the kinder end of the emotional spectrum.

The man's gaze fell upon the two Pokemon, but he did not stop walking to consider them, or hasten to pull out a Pokeball. He gave them a mild nod of acknowledgement and glanced behind him, saying something inaudible to something, before veering off his straight path and heading towards the western pathway.

Now that he had moved to the side, Iris was able to spot the Pokemon following the human. It was a graceful quadruped with a smooth blue body, and a ruffled collar. It had three fish-like fins adorning its face, a blue ridge along its spine that ended at the tip of its tail, which ended in a mermaid-like fin. Even at a glance, Iris could clearly label it as a female, but found that she couldn't really pick up on its emotional vibe. There was a level of trust towards the human, but almost nothing else. Even the most stoic Pokemon she had ever met before, Kaito and Lin in particular, at least gave off a sense of how they felt. The glance the Vaporeon cast their way was one of utter indifference, and she followed her human down the side path until they disappeared from sight.

"That felt weird," Iris said absently. Kaito looked back at her, an expression of puzzlement flashing across his face. Iris blushed a little. "Oh, just thinking aloud. That Vaporeon has like...no emotion at all."

"I didn't really notice," Kaito said thoughtfully. "I did sense the human was patient and kind, and that she had no ill feelings towards him or us. But that's all I wanted to know, so I guess it's no surprise I missed the absence of feelings. But I wonder why they're going to the Ruins."

"Huh? The Ruins are that way?" Iris asked, pointing after them.

"It's the ONLY thing that way," Kaito said seriously. "No one would use the Ruins as a travel route; it's either a detour or a destination."

Iris shrugged a little. She wasn't even completely sure why the two of them were going to the Ruins. Kaito's information from Sorin had been fairly vague from his explanation back at the Chateau, but it definitely seemed interesting, or at least something that'd be interesting to Kaito. He had been immersed in ancient lore and artifacts even before she had met him, and while she originally thought she was mostly kept around because of her teleportation being so handy, no one ever treated her like a tool or convenience. They always treated her respectfully, like a real friend or companion, and never pushed her into helping with things she didn't want to. Force in particular was very sweet towards her, and they bonded over their mutual shyness at times.

She smiled to herself absently. Force had been much shyer when they first met, and could relate to her fears that she was somewhat useless. He always felt weak, or picked on by others because he wasn't super-confident or macho. Maybe that had been a Riolu thing when he was growing up, but Iris had never asked those deep, probing questions. She knew he'd probably tell her, but sensitive topics were still a difficult path for them to tread. That was why Force had overruled Kaito's objections when Diablos had offered him the fragment...

Iris winced at the thought. Kaito had originally been wary of accepting anything so freely offered by the Spiritomb, and although Diablos had reassured the group that the fragment would be ultimately beneficial, Kaito was still unconvinced. Force had made the decision himself to accept, seeing it as a golden opportunity to become stronger than he currently was, to be more of an asset to the group, and to be able to support Iris more. He had nothing but good intentions, and that had blown up in his face.

"Iris?" Kaito's voice interrupted her thoughts. She blinked up at the Togetic. "You must not have heard me...and your facial expression kept changing. Lost in thought?"

"A little. Just thinking of the situation with Force," the Kirlia admitted sheepishly. Kaito nodded solemnly. "Both good and bad things, actually."

Kaito was about to reply, but visibly reconsidered. "Well, I was saying that we should continue on," he said, moving along the path leading to the Ruins, but looking back to confirm that Iris was paying attention this time. She nodded and quickly followed, gazing around at the trees lining the path. Every so often, she caught a flash of movement and sound, but nothing came out and made its presence known.

As they passed through a gateway of some sort, they emerged in an area far different than the one they had just left.

Crumbling structures stretched out before them, the ground faded and worn, subject to the march of time with all effort dedicated to preserving what was left, rather than refurbishment. A single modern structure sat near to the gateway, and many large boulders were scattered around the site, remnants of a bygone era.

Men and women moved about the area in small groups, with at least one in each group dressed in a formal white coat and carrying papers and clipboards. They would talk to one another in hushed, excited voices, and then continue onwards, or make their way into the modern building, which Iris suspected was their base of operations or whatnot.

Kaito examined the area with thinly-veiled excitement. Returning to a site filled with mystery and lore was probably something straight out of his dream journal. The fact that he and Iris didn't really have a definite conclusion to the trip seemed not to have occurred to him, or at least it didn't faze him. Neither did the fact they had not located Sorin.

"So, Iris...how about we get started?" the Togetic suggested eagerly.