The dungeon was chock full of flying types that would beat up Alex, so I took the lead for most of it. Not to mention Drowzee, a psychic type… maybe we bit off a little more than we could chew here. I doubt that "dying" would send us back to the guild like it does in the game. By this point, my main attacking moves were bite and tackle. I made a note in my head to try to learn some cooler moves later. After a bunch of floors of avoiding getting instantly killed by a Starly's peck, we reached the top of the mountain. The mountain flattened at the top, jagged stone protrusions blocking the sides.

"Right… just go in this hole and grab the treasure, and you won't get hurt…" Drowzee was trying to coax the scared Azurill into entering this tiny entrance at the back of the mountain. By the strain in his voice and barely contained rage, I could tell that he was tiring of docile persuasion. Now was our chance.

"Hey, fatty!" Drowzee whipped around, adopting an expression that could only be described as murderous. "Get away from that kid!" He started approaching us. I wildly motioned my head to the side, hoping that Azurill would catch my drift. Lucky, he did. He scampered off behind a boulder to the side of the mountain, barely peeking his head to watch our fight.

"You two rescue punks looking for a fight? You're just stupid kids yourselves." I puffed my chest with pride.

"Yeah, and these stupid rescue punks are gonna beat your ass!" He raised his eyebrow, maybe surprised at my colorful language. Boy did I miss saying curse words, and I wasn't going to miss the chance to demonstrate my vocabulary. He looked between us, then suddenly started bursting out laughing. Confused, I looked at Alex. Oh… that's why he was laughing. Alex was quaking like a leaf. It looked like it was taking every ounce of his willpower just to stay standing.

"Beat my ass, you say? Who? This kid who looks like he could fall over with a puff of wind?" I ignored him. I had to get Alex in a fighting state, quick. I stomped over to him and chomped down on his arm. He quickly pulled away.

"Ow, what was that for?" I huffed.

"This is your chance to save someone, and you're over here too scared to fight? Maybe I should've teamed up with that Azurill, he seems TEN times as brave as you are right now." He looked back towards the Azurill, who had picked up a rock and looked ready to chuck it at the Drowzee. Tears in his eyes and shaking horribly, he was still ready to fight. I watched as Alex took a deep breath, and then another. His shaking stopped. He nodded at me, and we took our fighting positions.

"Oh? Finally stopped shaking? I wonder how long-" I interrupted him mid speech by lunging at him and sinking my teeth into his shoulder hard enough to draw blood. "I was talking, you brat!" He shot a beam of psychic energy at me, which I nimbly jumped over and retreated to Alex's side.

"What kind of idiot would wait for the opponent to stop talking to fight? Let's go, Alex!" On my word, we rushed him. He shot another beam of energy at me, but I was already prepared to jump. Unfortunately, he predicted my dodge and shot it into my jump path, causing me to jump right into it. The impact was enough to send me flying back a couple of feet, landing with an "oof!" Alex got close enough to shove a palm of blue energy right into his chest. He staggered back, clutching his chest.

"You brat!" Drowzee retaliated by throwing out the psychic equivalent of a vape trip: an oscillating circle of psychic energy that was headed directly towards Alex. Seeing that he wasn't going to block it, crossed his arms in front of him in a defensive position. The circle made direct contact. I could see by the way he grit his teeth, and the circle shaped branding on his fur that that must've hurt. It was super-effective, after all. I took my chance and rushed at him, preparing to hit him with another bite attack, but this time he was prepared. As I neared him, he slugged me right in the ribs, stopping my advance and sending me back a decent amount. Maybe it was my imagination, but I swore I heard my ribs crack… "You think the same thing will work on me twice?" Actually, I kinda did. It did in the games, at least. I looked at Alex, who was chewing on an oran berry trying to recover from his hit. Both of us were

in pretty rough shape. What could we do to turn this fight in our favor? I rushed up to Alex, and whispered a plan in his ear. His eyes lit up, and a confident grin appeared on his battered face. Well, he was certainly looking like a rescuer now. "Little strategy meeting? I won't let you!" He shot another beam of psychic energy. We dodged it, but it separated us. I could tell by the way my jump gave me a searing pain in my ribs that they probably were broken, if not heavily bruised. We looked at each other and nodded. I pulled out a blast seed from my bag, and threw it directly at the ground in front of him. A cloud of smoke covered him from our sight, but a vicious laughter pointed his location out.

"Hey, I think you missed your little attack there!"

"Did we, though?" At that moment, Alex and I rushed up to him using the smoke as cover. He couldn't react until it was already too late. I have to say, watching the confident smirk on his face turn into a mixture of surprise and horror was quite entertaining. Our combined bite and force palm attacks was enough to take him off his feet. Fortunately, unlike the games, we didn't need to give him another chance to attack. I kept biting into him, and Alex kept smacking him with his fists. After a little struggle, his limbs went limp, and his eyes rolled back into his head. I released my bite, cringing at the disgusting taste that now filled my mouth. I hope they have mouthwash here…

"Did we… do it?" Alex asked incredulously. He was still panting from the fight, as was I. My ribs ached awfully, and my breath came and left my body raggedly. It was all I could do just to nod. We walked over to Azurill, who had left the cover of the boulder and was now looking much less afraid, though still teary eyed. The stone he was holding earlier wasn't in his hands anymore. I recognized a stone at Drowzee's feet that much resembled the one he was holding before. Heh, what a kid. Alex was explaining to him how we had found him, and how his brother was waiting for him outside. It should've been a happy occasion, so why did I feel so… off? A foreboding sense of danger filled me with anxiety. Was it in the future, or… too late. I noticed it too late. By the time I turned around, Drowzee had already fired a powerful beam of psychic energy, much larger than the ones he had been throwing out before. My fearful eyes met his evil ones. The beam was heading straight towards Alex, who hadn't even noticed. Drowzee collapsed, but the beam kept going. It was like everything was happening in slow motion. The beam inching towards Alex, Azurill's eyes widening as he noticed the beam, Alex turning around with first surprise, and then fear, and then finally, me pushing him out of the path the second before the beam connected. It was only a second of searing pain, then the lights turned off.

I woke up to the grip of panic around my heart. A tight sensation wrapped around my body, heavily restricting my movement. I struggled in my bindings for a moment before I took notice of the familiar ceiling of my room at the guild. I looked around, and noticed that indeed, I was in my guild room. I breathed a sigh of relief. The wrappings around me were bandages, probably meant to restrict my movement. The fading adrenaline made me acutely aware of a sharp pain in my chest. I hoped I didn't hurt something again by struggling like that. At least I didn't die again. Once was plenty enough for me. The bed next to me was empty. I hoped Alex was okay, though if I wasn't then that probably meant that he was. I wondered where he was if not here. A glint in the corner of my eye brought my attention to a small bronze badge resting next to my bed. Bronze? I guess we must've ranked up then. I smiled. One step closer to achieving his dream. At that moment, Alex walked in. In short, he looked awful. He looked battered, like he just came back from a mission. His body sagged inwards, and there were bags under his eyes. He must've had it rough while I was unconscious. He still hadn't noticed that I was awake when he entered. He threw his bag on the ground and let out a heavy sigh.

"You know they say every time you sigh a little bit of your happiness leaves." His head snapped so fast in my direction I thought he would get whiplash.

"Emilia!" He rushed over to me, wrapping me in a hug. I winced as I felt some pain in my ribs, but beared it. He released me from the hug, looking into my eyes as if he couldn't believe I was alive. "How long have you been awake?" The frown that had previously looked etched on to his face now upturned in a smile.

"Just a little bit ago. Did everything work out with Maril and Azurill?" He nodded.

"The police came and apprehended the Drowzee, and shortly after Maril and Azurill were reunited." I breathed a sigh of relief. At least things weren't too out of whack. His smile slowly disappeared, and the excitement dropped off his face. "You protected me, and you almost died for it. All because I wasn't paying attention. You even warned me that Drowzee was a criminal, but I didn't listen. If… if you want to disband the team, I understand." He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Look at me." He hesitantly met my eyes. "I don't regret what I did. If I had a billion do-overs I would protect you a billion times. We're a team now, remember? We protect each other. It would've been much worse if you had been hit, right? You're weak to psychic type moves. Don't ever talk nonsense about disbanding the team, cuz whether or not you like it, you're stuck with me for life. Plus, how can we give up now that we've gotten Bronze rank already?" I noticed his bronze badge pinned proudly to his chest. He smiled. He was starting to tear up. "'C'mere you big softy." He wrapped me in a hug again. I didn't even care about the pain in my ribs, nor the wetness on my shoulder where his eyes were. It just felt good to hug him. Maybe… maybe this really was my second chance. After a solid minute, he pulled away, wiping the remaining tears from his eyes. "How long was I out, anyway?"

"A week."

"A week?!" Jeez, no wonder he was so worried about me. I would've been worried about me too, but I was stuck in the void of unconsciousness. I began to worry about the timeline of events. Had anything happened while I was out? Like, was Grovyle already a problem? I wanted to probe for answers, but I surely couldn't say, "hey, has Grovyle stolen any time gears yet?"

"So, anything new in the world?"

"Nothing major, if that's what you're asking. Sorry, looks like your injury didn't make national headlines, though it was the buzz around the guild for a while." I laughed, and my stomach growled seconds later. I guess being out for a week makes you hungry. I tried to wriggle around, but it didn't look like I was going anywhere yet.

"Can you grab me something to eat? I don't think I can move around much like this." I flailed my legs a little to exemplify my point.

"Yeah, yeah. I feel indebted to you for saving me, but I don't plan on being your errand boy forever, so you better get better quick." He left, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I let out a sigh, watching my bandaged chest deflate. What did I used to do for fun? It'd been awhile since I'd actually had time to explore hobbies or do something for fun, even as a human. And now, like this… well clearly my options were a little limited. I knew I liked to sing and play the piano. Singing I could probably do, though my voice and vocal cords were pretty different in this form. Piano, well, one look at my stubby paws told me that wasn't going to happen. I wondered if they even had instruments in this world. I liked to cook, but it would be admittedly difficult without hands or opposable thumbs. Still, I was in a world with a whole new set of ingredients with infinite potential. That did excite me a little. Was there anything else I could do just sitting here? I was honestly bored, and whenever I was bored my thoughts went wild. I didn't want that. Normally I would listen to music or something, but I doubted there was digital music or even any electronic devices here. I sighed in frustration. Was I really going to just THINK about music, not even listen to it? Yes, I was. I sat there, imagining my favorite titles playing in my head. To be honest, it worked surprisingly well, or at least it distracted me from thinking about anything bad. After a couple songs, I was brought back to reality by footsteps entering the room. It was Alex. He was carrying a colorful assortment of berries in his arms. "Am I interrupting something?" He came in and set the berries down at my side.

"Huh?"

"You were humming something when I came in. What was that?" I shrugged the best I could in my bandaged state.

"Who knows? Maybe something from my human life."

"Anyway, you should eat. Get your energy back." I nodded and pivoted by body towards the berries and took a bite out of one. It was difficult to eat without using my paws for stability, but I got the hang of it after a couple bites. After eating pretty much only berries for the entirety of my time here, I was kind of getting tired of the taste. The croquette was a welcome change, but I really wanted some pasta or something. I felt a little sick when I thought about if they sold meat here. If they did, I didn't want any part of that. After stomaching the rest of the berries, I rolled on my back with a satisfied sigh. "Feel better?" I nodded. "Good." He looked like he was scribbling something on some paper.

"Whatcha writing?"

"Just a letter to my family letting them know you woke up." I felt a little guilty after that. I'd been treating the situation pretty lightly, but I'm sure Alex was agonizing plenty while I was out. I shared my feelings with him. He clicked his pen and looked up at me with a smile. "The important thing is that you're awake now, right?" He clicked his pen again and went back to writing. Was that really it? I somehow felt responsible for everything, even though I knew I wasn't. I tried to roll over, but the stupid bandages covering me were making it hard. Maybe I was being a little emotional, but I had completely had it with these bandages. I ripped into the bandages on my chest with my teeth, freeing my limbs. "H-Hey! You really shouldn't be taking those off yet…" I shot him a look that said, just you try and stop me. That shut him up. I used my paws to unwind the rest of them, freeing up my fur. The fur on my side where I absorbed the impact of Drowzee's attack was a lot shorter, probably singed off and in the process of regrowing. After the last of the bandages were removed, I stood up on my feet, stretching my legs.

"See? All better." He didn't look totally convinced. I certainly didn't feel all better, but I was too proud to admit that the aching in my ribs might've been worse than I anticipated. Now that I was paying attention, I noticed my fur was all oily and gross. It'd been awhile since I took a bath. "I'm gonna go take a bath, okay?" He glanced between me and the note he was in the process of writing, clearly conflicted. "You don't have to come, I'll only be a bit." He sighed.

"Don't overdo it, okay?"

"Yes sir!" With that, I started my slow walk towards the bath. My ribs were still aching, so I couldn't go any faster than a leisurely walk. In the hall, I ran into a couple of guild members who congratulated me on my recovery. Apparently Alex wasn't the only one in the guild who knew. They said they all heard about my heroic actions on Mt. Bristle. After some back and forth conversation, they left me to go to the bath. The bath was completely empty. It wasn't quite late enough for people to be done with their jobs yet, giving me a perfect chance to be alone for a bit. I sank into the hot water, feeling the warming sensation creep up my body. It stung a little on my side, but not enough to bother me. Sensations filled my body. The warm water on my skin. The aching in my ribs. The steamy air condensating on my nose. The soft sounds of water lapping against the side of the bath. The steady stream of water filling the bath. The ever so faint sound of Pokemon chatting in the guild. All of these undeniably real - yet, it seemed like I hadn't quite acknowledged that this was my real life now. I wasn't taking my life seriously. Not that I wouldn't protect Alex like that again, because I would, but it's almost like I entirely didn't care. I was only worried because of how Alex suffered. I thought I could change in this world, but I hadn't changed a bit. I didn't care to live. I submerged my nose under water and watched the air bubble up to the surface. Could I change? Could I get to a point where I would be happy to see each day? I was going to try. I sat submerged under water for as long as I could take and lifted my snout. I let whatever dirt had accumulated in my fur get out and got out of the bath. I grabbed a towel off the rack with my teeth, silently wishing that Alex was there to help me. I plopped it on the floor with a sigh. I layed down, rolling around in the towel until I was sufficiently dry. Needless to say, I was glad that nobody was here to watch me.

When I got back to the room, Alex was gone. I figured that he probably went to go mail his letter and laid down on my bed. My ribs were still sore from all of that movement. I stared blankly into space while I waited. I thought back on our fight with Drowzee. Was all I knew bite and tackle? I should be able to use like, swift or something, right? Maybe I'd look into a training facility I could go to. It would be worth it to avoid, you know, nearly dying, to learn some new moves. I tried to create the star shape that makes up the move. As much as I tried to will it into existence, it didn't look like it was appearing. I was probably going about it the wrong way. I also wanted to learn cooler moves like shadow ball, but I'd need a TM for that, and they sure were expensive. If I was an Eevee, I could evolve, right? What did I want to evolve into? I groaned. I escaped career path choices only to have them replaced by who I physically wanted to be? How was I supposed to know? Plus, Eevees can also evolve from friendship values, can't they? What if I'm on a mission with Alex one day and I just evolve into an Espeon? I rubbed my forehead with a paw. Hopefully someone in this town knows something about Eevees. As if to save me from my horrible train of thought, Alex walked in. He raised his… eyebrow location.

"Back already? That was quick." He plopped down next to me.

"I told you I'd only be a moment." I studied his face for a moment. He looked really tired, like he was going to drop any second. "Wanna hit the hay?" His face contorted in confusion.

"Hit our beds? What?" Damn you, mistranslated expressions.

"Nevermind. Let's go to bed early tonight."

"Are you sure? We don't usually go to bed this early." I could tell he was being considerate for me, given how his body wholeheartedly yearned for sleep.

"Yeah, I'm still tired from… being injured. Sleep cures all wounds!" I listened as his breathing slowed, falling into a steady rhythm for sleep. I felt like I should've said something. Sorry for almost dying? Thank you for taking care of me? I opened my mouth to say anything, but no words came out, only a sigh. Guess I should sleep, too.