Chapter 7: Relaxation and Confrontation
"Don't you fret, dear. Haru does this all the time. Trust me when I say she'll be up and running by tomorrow morning." Slate let out a sigh of relief. Some Pokémon that were out late at night had thankfully aimed the Mienfoo in the right direction to the infirmary. He was worried they would think he had attacked her or something. I guess what the nurse said was true if everyone who saw him immediately knew what happened to her and for that he was infinitely thankful. He thanked the Kangaskhan for watching over the Elgyem and left the infirmary. His relaxed state didn't last long as he instantly thought about what had caused Haru to pass out in the first place.
"What was she so afraid of? Didn't she say she saw some creature? What was it to make her so scared? What was my life before I lost my memories!?" Slate groaned and rubbed his temples. It was too late in the day for this. His thoughts drifted to Drizzle. Did they still think he was some human? Nothing much came up about Vivian's assumption, but he was worried they might do something about it since they think he's the reason there's been a lot of apparent craziness going on in the world.
Then it hit him.
Did he cause the Mana Rot? Haru said it's never been discovered before. Is his appearance and memory loss tied to the virus? The Mienfoo stared down at his shaky paws.
"Am I really a human?" The thought alone made Slate nauseous. He didn't want to admit it, but with no proof on either side of the scale he couldn't ignore the possibility. The raiders that invaded Drizzle forced their way into Slate's thoughts. They knew who he was. He cursed himself for not managing a chance to ask one of them. Did they know he could be a human? That could have been why they were after him. ...Why were they even after him to begin with?
So many thoughts and theories raced around Slate's head like a school of Finneon getting chased by a Sharpedo. He was so engulfed in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed the door he was approaching and bonked his snout straight into it. He grunted and rubbed his nose before slowly opening the door. Lillia had already begun to stir from the noise of his impact.
"Great." He thought. "Now she's going to be even more mad at me for waking her up." The psychic slowly lifted herself into a sitting position. One quick glance out the window was all the information she needed to shoot a glare at his direction.
"What are you doing?" She immediately questioned.
"I-I...uh...was talking t-to Haru." He was stuttering more than he wanted to. This was his friend. He shouldn't be this worried to talk to her. Her deepening glare said otherwise.
"That Elgyem? Why?" She continued to prod at him.
"I c-couldn't sleep. So I w-walked around and we ended up b-bumping into each other." Lillia had apparently struck a match inside Slate since he was beginning to get frustrated with her questioning. It was like she was interrogating him.
"Why was she even up?" Slate grunted.
"Studying Mana Rot." Lillia had apparently struck a match inside the Mienfoo since he began to get a little heated. "Why a-are you asking so many questions!" His voice began to rise in volume.
"I want to know what you're up to. Can't a friend ask questions?!" Her voice was doing the same.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you didn't care about my well-being seeing as how you wanted me to not rest after getting attacked by a cult!"
"Obviously I care for you, asshole! Why else would I risk my life trying to save you!"
"Well maybe you should have just left me to die! It would have been better than seeing your face again!" Slate flinched as the words escaped his mouth. He didn't mean that. He couldn't be anymore grateful that Lillia tried with all her might to save him. It was too late though. Her expression noticeably wavered. The Mienfoo caught a glimpse of something he didn't want to see from her, genuine hurt. Lillia didn't let it show for long, however. She quickly put on a look of anger curled up back in her bed making a point to put her back towards his own bed and shuffling hers farther away. Slate sighed and got comfortable on his own.
He already regretted saying that to her. As annoyed with her actions as he was right now, no amount of torture would compare to that brief second of hurt that he caught in her eyes. That still didn't detract from the way she was acting towards him. He briefly recapped how angry she had gotten at him for just wanting to stay at the Guild a few more days and that all but cemented his opinions on the matter.
"She gets what she deserves." With those final thoughts, he managed to find a peaceful sleep and drift off.
"..."
"Hello!"
"Gah!"
"Finally, you can understand me."
"W-Who are you?"
"You prob...me...nam...bi..."
"Hey! Y-You're starting t-to get quiet again!"
"..."
Slate's eyes snapped open. Jerking out of bed, he frantically shot his head around until he realized where he was. Those dreams had nearly gave his memory the slip. Whoever was trying to talk to him seemed to finally get a clear hold of him, but they faded away all too quickly.
"Are those even dreams?" He wondered. Slate then thought about the end of the dream. The usual assortment of flashing images he didn't understand. He wasn't quite sure if that was supposed to be him or not. it certainly didn't look like him nor did any of the other figures look like anyone he knew? No matter how many dreams he had, nothing about these made any sense to him. What were they trying to tell him? Were they trying to tell him anything at all?! Were they just dreams that had no correlation to him whatsoever?
Slate was getting tired of having dozens upon dozens of questions with zero answers.
His dreary eyes looked out the window. Sunrise. He then looked over to Lillia. Still asleep and still turned away from him. He huffed and forced himself to crawl out of his bed. He could hear the buzz of the crowd from outside his room. That made him wonder if anyone could hear their arguing from last night. The Mienfoo didn't dwell on the thought for long before leaving the room and heading for the mess hall. There, he inevitably found Mia waving at him to get his attention. He waved back before making his way towards her.
"Good mornin'!"
"Hey." He didn't even bother trying to hide his troubled demeanor as she rolled him a sitrus berry. He dug in without question before she started speaking.
"Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? You look down."
"Lillia and I-I fought again."
"Oh, Slate. I'm sorry t'hear that. Ya'll just need a bit more time apart." Slate only shrugged as he continued to slowly tear apart the berry in his paws. Eventually, he found the right words and gave an actual response.
"We yelled at each other."
"About what?"
"Just...e-everything." He heard a soft sigh come from Mia.
"Hey, you two will make up eventually. Trust me when I say you need some more time apart t' think about what you're arguin' about and come up with a resolution you can both agree on."
"If you say so."
"I'm assuming that means you're stayin' another day."
"Yeah." Slate answered, sighed, then fiddled with his food a bit.
"Well, we can't have this, now can we?" He raised a brow and looked over at Mia, confused.
"What?"
"This." Her paws motioned around him. "This whole depressing Slate. How about me and you take a tour around Haronfield. It'll help give you some time to think and let yourself have some fun. Besides, you're leaving soon, right? Why not get one little look of the place before you leave. I promise you'll feel better by the end. Slate gave her offer a thought, but it lasted all but ten seconds. He more than needed that time to relax. The last few days have been nothing but a living hell to him. Losing his memories, getting raided, kidnapped. Yeah, he needed this.
"I'd l-love to, actually."
"Perfect!" She clapped her paws together. "We should-
"Attention!" The Guild's loudspeakers began speaking. "All Guild members and non Guild members on site, please report to the conference hall once again in about five minutes. I repeat, all Guild and non Guild members on site, please report to the conference hall in five minutes."
"Ah, well I guess we should tackle this first. I wonder if it's about that disease." Slate could only shrug. The two quickly left the mess hall and once again trailed behind the horde of Pokémon. Much like yesterday, they all packed into the conference hall and the Goodra took the stage shortly after.
"Good morning, everyone!" He flashed a wide grin at all the members before continuing. "Haru had another one of her...episodes last night. So I'll be fully in charge of the announcement today." Clearing his throat, he pulled out some small slips of paper and began reading off them. "Our research team has been hard at work trying to learn about this new disease now known as Mana Rot. What we've learned thus far is, like the name implies, once you become infected by this specific disease, it eats away at the mana in our bodies which, as I'm sure you all know by now, prevents you from using attacks." He stopped and glanced at a different piece of paper. "The way this virus spreads is still unknown. For now, it seems as though contact is not one of them, as many researchers by now should have been infected, but are not. However, we shall continue with our current drop box method of job request rewards until further notice. Apart from that, we shall continue with business as normal." He hid the papers away and looked back at the crowd, concern more evident on his face. "One last thing, this is unrelated to Mana Rot. Keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious individuals. Ever since the most recent kidnapping, there has been an increase of paranoia and rumors going around Haronfield. They could be nothing, but that's no excuse to let our guard down." His shoulders untensed and any negative emotion left his features. "That's all for today. I apologize for dragging you all here, but we have to take this Mana Rot seriously. Have a good day everyone." He waved and casually walked off the stage.
"Phew. That's a relief. I was worried he would issue some sort of quarantine and we'd have t'cancel our tour." Slate hummed a response. "By the way, do you mind if we stop by my place real quick? I have a few things I wanna do there."
"Sure." The male Mienfoo mindlessly trailed behind Mia as she led him out the Guild's front doors, through the morning traffic, and into her little apartment. Slate made himself comfortable on her couch once more as she rummaged around towards the back, grabbing a bag, her sun hat, extra Poké, and finally a handful of berries to snack on. After collecting all of that, she walked over to where Slate was lounging and sat down next to him.
"Has anyone ever told you that your fur is gettin' real long back here." She rubbed a paw behind his ears. Ignoring the sensation the action provided, he answered.
"Is it?"
"Sure is. I could tie it up or give it a trim if you want. It would make you look a mighty bit more presentable." She suddenly perked up. "N-Not that I don't think you don't look presentable. I just meant that it would look a little odd if a man like yourself was walkin' around with your fur lookin' like the top of a Jynx's head." She rambled.
"No, I d-don't mind." Slate laughed at her recovery. "Probably just tie it for n-now."
"Alright, give me one moment." Mia hopped off the couch and quickly came back with a small fur band in her paw. "Turn around." slate did as he was instructed and let the female Mienfoo work her magic. "Done." She proudly announced after about a minute. She ran off once again to snatch a little handheld mirror. "I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I just put it in a little ponytail and aimed it upwards. What do ya think?"
Slate stared at his new appearance in the mirror. Like Mia informed him, the back of his head had what looked like the tip of a paintbrush. He had to admit that he liked it a bunch. It fit perfectly between his ears and gave the top of his head a little more spice.
"Oooh. I l-like it a lot!" He offered her a polite smile.
"Phew! You don't know how much of a relief that is t'hear. Back home, I have a lot of little sisters, so I had all sorts of experience with this stuff. Was hoping that I didn't lose any of my luster after all this time. Anyway, I'm good to leave whenever you are. I already have some places in mind." Slate nodded with some renewed vigor. Soon enough, the pair of Mienfoo were back out on the streets.
"What's the f-first place we're v-visiting?"
"Some attraction that I've heard about a few times whenever I'm out and about. It sounds fun, but you need someone else to play it with. That's what you're for." She winked at him." Slate let out a noise of curiosity while Mie led him around. At last, after a lot of walking, they arrived at a small building. Oddly enough, it had no sign in the front. He was expecting something a little more extravagant. A room devoid of any other Pokémon greeted them as they entered. That is until an Electabuzz popped up from behind the booth in front of them.
"Welcome!" He extended his arms. "I wasn't quite expecting customers so early in the morning so we're not fully set up yet. Give me a moment and I'll be right with you." The fighting types nodded and let the Electabuzz get back to work. He walked off into a closet to the side and began digging around. Slate focused his vision back in front of him. He could see a court a little further back behind the booth. His head tilted to the side.
"Is this some kind of game?" He asked himself. His thoughts would be answered as the electric type walked in and out of the closet and to the court. Coming out with a handful of foam balls and a net every time. He pinned the two nets up against the opposite sides of the courts and placed the balls down until there was an even amount of them on each side of the court.
"Sorry about that." He wiped his hands off as he returned to the booth. "How many rounds? It's one hundred Pokémon per round, up to a max of three.
"Only one hundred? That's mighty cheap I must say. I think we'll just keep it to one round for now." Mia dug around into her bag until she acquired the appropriate amount of coin then gave it to the Electabuzz. Afterwards, she retired her hat and bag and followed the Electabuzz as he guided them to the back court, Slate hot on their tails.
"The rules are very simple. Just try and get all of the balls into your opponent's net as possible. The game ends when there's no more ammunition and whoever has scored the most wins! What you can't do is cross the line, use moves, or take any balls out of the net. When they're scored, they're gone. Any questions?" Both Mienfoos shook their heads. "Great. Each of you take to one side of the court and you can start on go." They each went to hug a wall that their nets were on as the Electabuzz headed outside the court's lines. Slate took his eyes of the electric type to look at Mia. She was giving him a competitive looking smirk, one eyebrow in the air. He merely gave a sheepish smile in return "3...2...1...GO!"
Mia wasted no time in going on the offensive. She dove for a ball and shot it straight towards Slate's net. Having been busy rounding up all the balls on his side, it landed without a hitch. The defending player flinched, but continued to gather his ammo. The female Mienfoo continued her assault, this time to a much more prepared Mienfoo. One ball after the other flew across the court. Much to Mia's surprise, no other goals had been made. Slate had managed to keep each and everyone out of his net with surprising agility.
Slate caught his breath and brought his attention to the last ball in Mia's paw. Expecting her to chuck it straight at the net, he prepared himself. Instead, she lobbed it into the air. Slate raised a brow and watched it graze the roof. Unknowingly to him, Mia revealed another ball from behind her back and tossed it. It landed with a silent "swoosh" and even went completely unnoticed by Slate. He looked at her funny when she started giggling. She went for another ball. Nothing.
"Uh oh."
Every single remaining ball was on Slate's side of the court totaling to ten. Having full knowledge of this, Slate gathered them all into one spot and prepared his onslaught. One, two, three, four, five balls had flown across the court. Mia couldn't keep up! Slate's surprising agility wasn't just in his defense. Every time a ball had landed in the net, another one had come streaking through the air to do the same. Slate's breathing began to increase. By the end of his attack, all but 3 balls had successfully been scored.
"My goodness...Slate!" She said in between breaths. "I wasn't...expecting...you to...be so fast!" He shrugged and mimicked the face she made at him at the start of the match, laughing a bit afterwards. "Why you...I'm not out just yet."
"A-Actually, you are."
"What?" Slate had already done the math. She could only make three more goals and he had a five point lead. He had already won. "Well...I'm gonna end this game with some dignity!"
She didn't.
Slate's innocent smile remained plastered on his face as he blocked every incoming ball and scored right after. Mia wanted to be mad, but she couldn't bring herself to once she realized how much fun Slate was having.
"I win!" He proudly proclaimed. The Electabuzz clapped.
"Excellent display! You're a Teeterball master! I'll be right back with your prizes. You can leave the court if you want." They did as he said and patiently waited for him to come back out of the closet. He did so a couple of seconds later with a medal in each hand. The gold one went to Slate while the silver one went to Mia. The former's reading "King of Teeterball" and the latter's reading "Queen of Teeterball."
"We both get one?" Mia questioned.
"Everyone's a winner at Teeterball!" The Electabuzz then leaned down and acted like he was whispering to them. "That and it keeps the kids coming back for more." They both let out a chuckle. "Speaking of which, you two come back soon!" He waved them out and the two went back to walking around the streets.
"That sure was fun!" Mia looked over to him. "I'm assuming you had fun Mr. King of Teeterball." He shot her a toothy grin and it was a sufficient enough response. "By the way, you don't mind us shopping a bit do you. Window shopping, at least. "
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine with that. I p-prefer browsing anyways."
"Perfect. There's this big shop that sells all sorts of things. I figured you'd like to look around it." Slate nodded and let Mia take the lead once again. As the pair walked, the female struck up another conversation.
"I wasn't expecting you to be so light on your feet." She laughed. "I must have been away from the farms too long. I tired out way faster than I want to admit." Slate shrugged, unable to find a good enough answer. He continued to let Mia speak. A lot of it was idle banter between the two that he mostly tuned out at a certain point. He wasn't a fan of talking this much. That is until she brought up something that caused him to flinch. "I wonder if you were some sort of professional athlete in your old life?"
He didn't really like the way she said "in your old life." It made it sound like his memories were nothing, forgotten history that was lost to time. One quick thought of Lillia forced him from saying anything he didn't want to. Though, her thoughts still got the gears in his brain moving again. Was he? That would definitely explain why he was so fast? He didn't even think about that. He did prove that during the Drizzle raid as well, dodging and weaving in between all the fighting. Wouldn't someone have recognized him? Also, wouldn't his movepool play into that? If he was some swift Mienfoo, why did he have Rock Tomb? A slow move that's useful when on the defensive. None of it made sense to him, as per the usual now. With another set of thinking gone to bust, Slate let out a mildly annoyed grunt, interrupting more of Mia's outward thoughts.
"What's the matter, Slate?"
"S-Sorry. It's just y-you got me thinking about m-my memories and-
"Oh my Arceus! Slate, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you fret about that stuff. Come on," She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and led him in another direction. "we're almost there. Just relax." Slate nodded and offered her a weak smile that she thankfully accepted, but his mind was still racing. He hated thinking about this stuff now. All of it never went anywhere and just made him upset. Thankfully, their next stop aided in pushing back those thoughts for now. The male Mienfoo's mouth silently opened as his head bent backwards in an attempt to spot the top of the building. It was super skinny and had two bulbs at the base and somewhere near the top, some sort of hourglass shape. The actual rooms of the building, he assumed. Squinting, he could just barely make out a point at the top of the second.
"Impressed? They call it the Sky Piercer because of the whole needle on the top. Supposed t'be because of how it pierces through the clouds or something goofy like that."
"Definitely the c-coolest shop I've been to."
"Right? Let's go inside, they have all sorts of cool stuff." Mia guided him inside and she wasn't lying. Dozens of shelves lined the interior. Each one displaying some sort of unique knickknack from beads to giant stuffed Pokémon. Slate let himself get lost in the selection of colorful bags.
"M-Maybe I should get a bag. What d-do you think, Mia?" He glanced to his side, but it was devoid of any other Pokémon. "Mia?"
"Surprise?" He let out a little yelp as Mia appeared behind him, paws behind her back. "Sorry," She giggled. "I just spotted something you might like and figured I could buy it for you. Close your eyes." Slate figured it was pointless to try and deny her request and did as instructed. A warm and fuzzy sensation wrapped around his neck. Whatever it was, it was comfy. ...Was it a Comfey? "Alright. Open em' up!" Slate was pleasantly surprised to find a cute little blue scarf coiled around his neck. "Winter is right around the corner and I figured that you could use a little extra coatin' to keep yourself warm." She motioned a paw to the blue ribbon on her hat. "That and it'll make us match."
"W-Wow! But...I can't accept this. I can't pay you back..." Mia merely waved a paw.
"Nonsense. Think of it as a gift from me."
"Well, thanks." He still felt like he owed her, but if she said it was fine he had no choice but to rub it off. "How do I look?" He struck a mild pose and immediately regretting it, feeling stupid. However, she seemed to enjoy it and released a little laugh.
"Like a dashing young gentleman." Slate laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh! I know! Let's go t'the top! It's a bit of a climb, but the view is t'die for." Slate nodded and pretended like he totally didn't have an intense fear of heights. He unwillingly trailed behind her until they reached the large spiral staircase. She began walking and he found himself frozen in place. Before she was able to notice, he began climbing. As he caught up to her an odd instinct kicked in and he glanced behind him to check if anyone was following him. "Slate? Are you alright?" The female Mienfoo questioned behind her. Slate had completely frozen and scouted the staircase like a Staraptor on the hunt for food.
"...Yeah. Y-yeah, I'm okay." He looked forward again, replacing the worried look on his face with a smile. She remained hesitant, but nodded either way, returning to her now slower ascent.
Slowly, but surely, the pair had successfully scaled the living hell that was that staircase. Fortunately, much like the first floor, the top floor offered a large variety of items to browse. Unfortunately for Slate, the walls were replaced by windows giving him a full view of the cold and unforgiving ground below them. Mia was more than ecstatic to see the sights. He was less than enthusiastic.
"Woah! I forgot how gosh darn pretty this view was from up here!" She was already pressed up against the glass and looking all around. "Isn't this view amazing, Slate? ...Slate?" Her head cocked around to find him hugging the innermost wall. He smiled and nodded but she could see right through it. "Slate, are you afraid of heights?"
"...No." Slate found the tower's floor to be quite enticing. Mia rolled her eyes and walked over to him.
"Let me show you a trick my grandpappy told me." After some brief tugging, the two were close up to the windows, revealing the sprawling landscape. To Mia, at least. Slate had glued his eyes shut at some point after being dragged. "If you just lock your eyes straight onto the horizon instead of straight down, you won't be nearly as scared."
"I-I don't k-know."
"Just give it a try. For me?" After some coaxing, Slate finally gave into Mia's consistent attempts to open his eyes and slowly opened them back up. Remembering her advice, his eyes locked onto the horizon. At first, his eyes hadn't moved from that initial spot and his face remained calm, but shaken. Though, after a little bit, his eyes began to divert and actually take in the sights their little spot had to offer. From there, the look of fear had morphed from fear, to curiosity, and finally to genuine excitement."
"Wow..."
"I know! It's a gorgeous view."
Being one of the tallest buildings in Haronfield, Slate could easily spot many of the popular locations and even the Guild's tower. Soon, he grew daring enough to look down to the streets and spot the many different shopping districts they had passed by on their way here. That didn't last that long however and his eyes shot back up to lock onto the horizon.
"Look at you! Already willing to go outside your comfort zone." She chuckled. "My grandpappy's tricks are always the best." Slate nodded in agreement.
...What was that smell? Slate sniffed the air around him. His nose eventually led him towards Mia. Multiple questions came into his head. When did she start standing so close to him? When did she grab his paw? And why was that smell coming from her?
"Hey, Mia?"
"Hm? What's up?"
"What's that smell?"
"Smell? What are you..." She went quiet for a moment. That silence was cut short by her sudden embarrassment. Her face instantly rose in temperature and she jumped away from him. "Oh m-my stars! I-I guess it m-makes sense you wouldn't know what that i-is given the whole a-amnesia thing." She was about to say something but cut herself off. "You know what? F-Forget about it."
"But-
"Slate!" She glanced at a couple pairs of eyes that were looking at them and Mia forced herself to calm down, her face still a few shades darker. "It's n-not that important, seriously. D-Don't fret over it. O-Okay?" Slate sighed but eventually relinquished the topic and the pair went back to sightseeing.
"...I thought it smelled nice."
"Ooookay let's go." Mia separated from him and headed back down the stairs. "You have no idea what you're doin' t'me, Slate." Was all he heard as she vanished down the stairs.
They had stopped at a couple of more shops on their tour. None of which had nothing all too special. A few food stands here and there, a few clothes shops over there. Soon enough the two found themselves relaxing on a bench along the street. The sun was sitting just above the horizon, though barely visible thanks to the many towering buildings.
"Welp, I've pretty much run out of stuff I wanted to show ya. Did you have fun?" Slate nodded.
"Yeah. We're gonna have to go back to that T-Teeterball place next time I come." Mia noticeably shrunk.
"Right. I keep forgettin' you're leavin.' I honestly thought you would have left today. That's why I...you know, yesterday." It was hard for Slate to forget how she acted. "What day are you leaving?" Slate thought about it for a moment.
"Tomorrow. If I can get Lillia t-to agree with m-me. I probably can since she s-seems ready to zip out of here."
"Well, it's still three fourths. We could get somethin' for dinner again if you'd like."
"Three fourths...?" Slate's expression shifted as he thought.
"Hm? What's the matter?"
"Yeah I-I just...crap! I f-forgot about Haru!" The female looked at him funny.
"Haru? That's the Elgyem ain't it? What about her."
"I promised h-her last night that I'd m-meet her at three fourths today to answer s-some more questions about the c-cult."
"Oh. I'm guessing that'll last a bit?" She asked hesitantly.
"Probably. I w-was hoping to talk to Lillia tonight a-as well."
"...So this is actually the last time we'll see each other for a while?" The pout she gave him made Slate feel pretty guilty. In an attempt to keep her spirits up, he quickly wrapped her in an embrace. The light gasp she made at his action showed that she wasn't expecting that from him. Though, she happily returned it.
"I promise I'll c-come back. You've b-been way too nice t-to me for me not to."
"I'll keep you to that." She chuckled.
Their embrace didn't last too long and he soon broke off of her and began walking away. They exchanged goodbyes and she soon disappeared from his line of sight. Slate was left with the crowded streets and his own thoughts.
The Mienfoo may have lost his memories, but he wasn't stupid nor was he oblivious. He was well aware of Mia's advances in him. If the kiss from last night was anything to go by. He felt for the medallion around his neck and grasped it within his paws. He looked at it as he thought about his situation.
As much as he enjoyed her company and as much as he appreciated her trying as hard as possible to be nice to him and make him happy, he had no romantic feelings towards her at all. She is a little too active and pushy for his tastes. He sounded like a jerk for saying it, but he hoped by the time he returned to Haronfield she would have found someone else by then.
He soon found himself back in the Guild. After traversing the same path as the other day, Slate was back behind the door's of Haru's office.
"Come in."
Slate let out a startled yelp at the voice. His head darted around the area in an attempt to find the source of the voice. It was, of course, empty. He was the only Pokémon around. He heard a laugh and by now his head was spinning.
"It's me, Slate. Haru. I'm speaking with you telepathically. I sensed you outside the door."
"Oh. C-Can all psychic Pokémon do that?"
"The what? Telepathy or sensing Pokémon?"
"The latter."
"Not a lot and not intentionally. Some psychics can sense presences only if they're attempting to. Much like the mind reading thing I told you about the other night. Lillia, for example, can't do that no matter what, but I can if I'm trying to sense anything near me. Anyway, you can come in."
"R-Right."
He opened the door and Haru greeted him with a little wave, still chuckling. Slate pulled the chair back and sat in it. The Elgyem already had her clipboard and pen out.
"Much like last time, this won't take all that long. Let's just-
The psychic was interrupted by a knock at the door. Haru noticeably huffed.
"Come in!" At her orders a Simisage's head popped out from the other side, slightly nervous. "I told you not to bother me around this time?"
"I-I'm aware ma'am. It's just we've made some potential advancements on the disease and would like to go over them with you." Haru sighed and set her clipboard and pen down. "Alright. Give me one moment, Slate. This shouldn't take too long." She floated out of her seat and disappeared behind the door with the grass type.
Contrary to what she said, a good long while went by and she was still talking to the monkey outside the room. He thought it would take about a minute to get the matter settled, but he must have had a lot of things to go over With nothing to do or no one to talk to, his mind inevitably drove back to Lillia. He reflected on their situation for what felt like the one billionth time.
She was mad at him for not being up and ready to move to their next destination. He didn't get that. It reminded him of the time in Drizzle where he was watching over that egg for a good amount of time before they had even left. While she hadn't gotten as mad as she was now, she still got frustrated at him for the same thing. On top of that, there was their argument from this morning. He didn't mean anything that came out of his mouth. He was tired, frustrated, and confused. He was just spouting word vomit at that point. Regardless, he couldn't forget that look she gave him during that fight. That look of hurt. She had never looked at him that way before and it struck a chord inside him. He really needed to apologize for that. Maybe when they talked later, he could start with that.
Another memory popped in his head. That time she had comforted him at Peb and Amber's house. "I'll help you." Her voice made him wince. She had managed to calm him down as he had his emotional outburst and promised to help him no matter what.
Those thoughts came crashing down onto him like a meteorite. All of a sudden her frustrations from before started to make sense. Here she was, going out of her way to try to get his memories back, even going so far as to abruptly leave the place she grew up in. And what was he doing? Why, he was just sitting around from place to place twiddling his thumbs. First with the egg and now this. Granted he still felt sore from that night, but he didn't want to admit that he was ready to leave yesterday. He made his statement and was already not on the best of terms with her. It all made sense to him now. He needed to apologize to her for everything.
"Sorry about that. He actually had some important stuff about Mana Rot we needed to go over." Slate snapped out of his depressing state and looked back at Haru. "I won't bore you with the details though. Let's just get these questions out of the way first. …Are you okay? You look a little down."
"Yeah…I'm fine."
Slate sat completely frozen outside of their room. For several minutes now, he had been tossing around different ways that he could go about doing this. His nerves definitely weren't helping. He knew for a fact she was absolutely pissed at him and she would not want to talk to him. With that knowledge, his first incentive was to apologize right away. Surely that would at least soften her up and let her listen to the rest of what he had to say. The thing that was worrying him was that very possible fact that she would just outright reject his apology. That scared him the most considering she's the only Pokémon he knows that is able and willing to help him with the whole amnesia. That thought alone was enough to make the Mienfoo quiver in his boots. Trying to find his thoughts was a scary and difficult enough endeavor, the last thing he wanted was to do was do it all by himself. He had to stifle his hyperventilating before it could get out of hand. That's the main reason he's so worried about this confrontation. Either way, he hoped that it wouldn't be the case and put his paw on the door's knob. Opening it up, he was greeted by Lillia facing the opposing direction and out the window. She was sitting atop one of the not broken shelfs to give her a better view. Her ears twitched as he opened the door and she glanced around to see who it was. After they made eye contact, she made an unreadable expression and quickly turned back around. Slated gulped. It was either now or never.
"L-Lillia?" She made no response, as he expected. "I'm…uh…r-really…" He froze up. Why was this so hard?! She was a friend, someone he could turn to. Someone who could help him. Why couldn't he just mutter out a simple apology!? Why was he so scared?! "What I-I mean…is j-just…"
"Slate." Lillia eventually stopped him in his sorry state. "Just drop it. Please."
That was NOT the response he was wanting to hear from her. This whole thing was crumbling so much faster than he had ever anticipated! Her tone didn't quell the nerves raging through his fur either. It was completely monotone. No anger, no hurt, no sadness, and no emotion. Just…nothing. How the hell was he supposed to interpret that?! Was she mad at him? Disappointed? Or just uninterested? Slate came to the worst conclusion. That she was merely done trying to help him. She sounded like she wanted nothing to do with him. That assumption was the catalyst for Slate's dam bursting.
"N-No I won't, Lillia!" He rushed forward and twisted the psychic to force their eyes to make contact.
"Hey! What are you-
She stopped herself as her eyes met his. Tears were already welling up and his expression looked worse than a Wishiwashi's while it was washed up on shore.
"Please just listen to me! I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry for everything I've done! Ever since we've met you've been going out of your way to help me and what did I do to repay your kindness!? Sit on my rear all day, waste your time, and get myself kidnapped like a useless idiot! I've been nothing but a burden to you but please forgive me! I'm sorry!" As he yelled out all the thoughts bursting out from his brain, his breathing was beginning to increase in pace. Actually, it was increasing fast. Very fast.
He couldn't breathe.
Lillia thankfully took notice of Slate's panicking right away.
"Slate!"
""I'm sorry I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any of it please forgive me I just wanted to-
With each word that poured out, a raspy gasp followed after and the Mienfoo began coughing like he was infected with the flu.
"Slate! Calm down and look at me!" She had to move his head with her paws so that they retained eye contact. "Just breathe, Slate. It's okay. We're okay. Just breathe." Lillia's comforting words were thankfully enough to morph Slate's gasping into exhausted breathing and eventually back into something more stable. Once she was sure he was okay, she removed her paws from his face. He backed away from her, one paw holding onto his other arm's sleeve.
"I'm sorry."
He tried to read the look on her face. She looked upset, but that was most likely from his little episode. She was most likely still mad at him and was just feeling pity from how pathetic he looked. Unbeknownst to him, that was the completely opposite of how she currently felt.
Words could not describe the amount of guilt washing over her. She just caused her closest friend to have a mental breakdown and panic attack right in front of her. All because of the way she acted and because of how impatient she was to a guy who literally got abducted by a cult. Something had to be done about it.
"Slate, please stop apologizing."
"But-
"No. I said stop. I should be the one apologizing. Not you."
"...What?" The fighting type looked at her, confused. Lillia sighed and hopped off of the shelf she was on and walked over to her bed. She scooted it back closer to his, closer than it was originally in fact, and patted his. He followed suit and sat in his.
"You don't deserve to apologize. You did nothing wrong.
"But I have. Like I said, you've been so adamant on getting my memories back, I haven't tried to keep up or shown my gratitude in the slightest. I've just been useless.
"That's the point. You've been trying to keep up. You have no memory of who you were, little to no combat experience, and was forced to deal with an army of raiders and cultists. So there should be no reason for me to be trying to drag you from place to place with no chance to recover. You don't have any experience and I've been insensitive to you by not going along with and trying to force you to go along with me."
"Well, that's my own fault. I should've been stronger like you. Not some pathetic weakling." He responded adamantly. Lillia let out a dry chuckle.
"There are two things wrong with what you just said. One, you are not weak. Not only did you save my life back when I first met you, you not only survived, but fended off a raider while saving an egg. I don't care what you have to counter that. You're not weak, Slate. And two, you think that I'm strong." She sighed and looked away from him.
"But you are! You not only attempted to hold off a group of raiders all on your own, but you even tried to beat a whole band of cultists to save little old me."
"You see? The key word you used is tried. I couldn't beat all of those raiders alone and I couldn't even get myself to knock a single cultist down. I'm not strong." She perked up from a paw being placed on her shoulder. She looked over to see Slate giving her a soft smile.
"I don't care. What matters is that you did try. You, an angry little ball of fluff, tried to single handedly stop large groups of Pokémon to not only save an entire village, but just to save someone like me." She giggled at his description of her. "Some weakling would never be able to even attempt a feat like that. You are strong, Lillia. Don't let yourself think otherwise.
"Slate…"
"Speaking of which, I don't think I ever mentioned it, but thank you for trying to save me back there. I don't care if you didn't succeed. I'm just thankful that you care enough about me to even consider doing something like that." Lillia remained silent for a while, struggling with the right words to come up with. She had to rub her eyes a bit as she finally came up with something.
"I'm not sure if I deserve it, but you're welcome." Slate's smile broadened.
"Of course you deserve it. I don't know anyone else who would even consider doing something like that." Lillia returned his smile with one of her own and the two remained silent for a bit after that. Slate was just thankful that they managed to patch things up. Eventually, Lillia kicked the conversation back up.
"By the way, who are you?" Slate's facial features quickly changed to one of confusion. Lillia laughed. "The scarf and fur?" He had completely forgotten about those.
"Oh yeah. I hung out with Mia today. She did my fur like this since she said it was long and bought me the scarf at the Sky Piercer." Lillia grew annoyed at the mention of the female Mienfoo, but she didn't outwardly show it.
"Ah okay." Before anything could get awkward, Lillia shifted the conversation. "Sooo, are you ready to head out tomorrow?" Slate nodded.
"One hundred percent. Where are we headed?"
"One sec." The cat got up out of her bed and shuffled around the room until she got ahold of her bag. Once that was obtained, she sat back down. NOt before scooting the bed a little closer to his. "Those damn cultists took everything from my bag so I'm not left with much." She revealed a small map and unfurled it on the floor for the fighting type next to her. "Thankfully the guild provided us with another map so we shouldn't be lost whenever we explore, but…" She looked back in the bag. "We don't have much resources left. A couple of berries and that's it. We won't be able to afford anything." Slate listened along, feeling guilty over the loss of all her money, but chose not to voice his thoughts. "There's a small town to the southeast of Haronfield, but it's on an island so we would have to rent a water ride or something and…we can't really do that right now. So, instead we'll have to do the next best thing." Her paw landed on a specific picture of a village. "Driptide." The village was far south of Haronfield, about triple the length compared to that village on the island.
"Driptide? Isn't that the place Vivian wanted us to go? To see a Carracosta or something?"
"It is, though it's our only option at the moment." Slate scanned the map a bit more. His eyes landed on a place far north of Haronfield.
"What about there?" His paw tapped the village in question. It was entirely surrounded by a mountain range making it difficult to spot if one were to quickly glance at the map.
"That's…I think that's The Highlands."
"What's that?" Lillia shrugged at his question.
"Not sure. What I am sure about is that the Pokémon that live there are very discreet. Not too much is known about them and they aren't the most welcoming to outsiders. Not that they kill them or anything, it's just that none aren't really welcome past their walls." She giggled. "Imagine hiking through those mountains just to get to a place that won't let you in. Anyway, the rest of what I know is that they're sort of primitive. Like they have kings, queens, princes or princesses, and guards. It's like something out of a fairytale."
Slate listened to all the info she was spouting. The way the Highlands was described, it sounded like the type of place he would love to see. It sounds mystical like Lillia said. Though, he felt like something else was making him curious about the place he couldn't quite put a paw on. Nothing came to mind so he shrugged it off.
"So yeah, even if we did survive the several day hike through those mountains, they wouldn't even let us in."
"Fair enough." Lillia rolled the paper back up and stuffed it in the bag. She got up to put it away and as she did, asked a question.
"What do you want to do? About Vivian's mission, I mean." The fighting type shrugged.
"If we go there, I guess there wouldn't be any harm in finding that Carracosta. We'll tackle two birds with one stone."
"Really? I thought you said you weren't a human?"
"Yeah but, there's been so many thoughts buzzing around my head lately. A lot of unanswered questions and thoughts that lead to dead end after dead end and it's really been driving me a little insane. At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if I was actually a human before." Slate looked at her curiously. "Do you think I'm a human, Lillia?"
"I don't know. Do you think you were a human?" Was her only response.
The question made the Mienfoo very conflicted. There have been one too many questions and assumptions popping in his head left right and center. All of which resulted in him being left more confused. It doesn't help his case with his potential link to his appearance being related to Mana Rot. That was definitely something he did not want to think about.
"I don't know anymore. Nothing makes sense and everything I think of gives me more questions rather than answers." He felt a soft touch around his leg. Pulling his own paws away from his head, he saw Lillia resting one of her own paws on him.
"Don't worry. The more we look around, the more stuff we'll find along the way. Just think, it can only go up from here."
"Right. Thanks, Lillia." She smiled before removing her paw.
"So it's settled then. Tomorrow, we eat breakfast and then leave for Driptide. Once we get there, we ask around for if anyone knows or recognizes you all while looking for that Carracosta that Vivian mentioned to us. Does that sound like a plan?"
"Right as rain." Lillia nodded before stretching her limbs.
"Right, well I'm beat."
"But you didn't do anything." The Mienfoo joked.
"I'll have you know brooding in your room all day is very tiring, Slate." He laughed while doing some stretches of his own. As he looked for a comfortable spot in his bed, the Espurr beside him continued the conversation.
"You know, I don't think you stuttered for most of that conversation." Slate perked up.
"Oh! You're right! I didn't even notice."
"Well look at you, able to actually be able to have normal conversations and shit."
"Har har. Good night."
"Night. And uh…Slate?" The aforementioned Pokémon looked over at her.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for cheering me up earlier. What you said meant a lot to me."
"I could say the same to you." He heard a faint laugh come from her before she continued."
"Sleep well, Slate."
"You too." Eventually, the fighting type's eyelids grew heavy and he managed to have the most peaceful sleep since he had arrived at Haronfield.
AN: Heya! Apologies for the wait on this one. This would have come out well over a month ago but this chapter has been the single most hellish thing to ever make. Everything was going fine and dandy when all of a sudden poof about half of my current draft gets deleted out of nowhere and I could not recover them no matter what I did. I had never experienced a bug like that before and it never happened again so I have no clue what happened there. It was around 4k-ish words so yeah my motivation fell off a cliff when that happened. Then I got hit by Hurricane Ian and while my family and I were unharmed, the same could not be said about my wifi. That went out just as I had gotten my motivation back for multiple days. So yeah, getting this thing out was an absolute nightmare, but I got it out nonetheless and I hope it was an enjoyable enough read. Next update is actually going to be the chapter 1 (and maybe 2) updates seeing as how drastically different the writing and characters are from their modern incarnations so be ready for that.
*Also* it happened in September, but Paradox is finally a year old and wow. I can't thank you all enough for the amount of support and readers I've gotten since then. This little side project of mine has blown up way more than I ever could have imagined and has now become an integral part of my life so thank you and I hope you'll stick around as the story grows and grows :)
