Chapter 8: Mysterious Sir Isu and the Flying Page
The doors of the Celadon City Pokemon Center closed shut. Phoinex walked up to the desk to speak with Nurse Joy.
"Hello!" Nurse Joy said in her usual perky way.
"Hi, we're the orphans from Pewter. We came to check in."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear what happened to you. Please give me your names."
"Phoinex and Landon Halliwell, Selena Night, and Zoe Ketchum." Nurse Joy typed the names into the computer. There was a small beep!
"Oh, so you're moving in with Ms. Yurika. She's wonderful, you'll just love her!" Nurse Joy said as she handed Phoinex a piece of paper with the address.
"Thanks. Listen, before we go, would you mind looking over our pokemon?"
"Oh, you're all pokemon trainers as well? In that case, sure, I'd love to look at them!" Phoinex dropped two pokeball on the counter. "Ok, these are mine." He dropped three more on to the counter. "These are Landon's." One more. "This is Selena's." One last one. "And that one's Zoe's."
"My, is this all you have?"
"No. We've all got more, but those are the only ones that need any care at the moment."
"Well, these should take me only about 10 minutes, ok? So how about you guys wait outside or in here?"
"Ok." Nurse Joy smiled as Phoinex walked out of the Pokemon Center. His friends were sitting on a bench against the wall.
"FINNEY! Come 'ere!" Selena yelled urgently. Phoinex walked over. "Look, we've been looking over page 7 of the Kodomo Files. AND LOOK! It says some of the other kids from Hogwarts might've survived!"
"Oh my god, seriously?"
"YES! Look here!" Zoe began to read aloud. "Information found on the charred remains of Oak's records tell us that D.V.U may have captured other Hogwarts students and shipped them to parts of the Nato Region under captivity in hopes of finding scraps of information or using the children for ransom."
"What's the Nato Region? I've never heard of it." Landon asked.
"I dunno. Like… the place on the other side of Kanto?" Zoe suggested.
"I remember reading about it back at Hogwarts. I think it's over the sea from Kanto." Phoinex said.
"Think we should try to get sent there?" Selena asked.
"No… It says 'may have', so there's a chance there weren't any other survivors."
"What's D.V.U stand for?" asked Landon.
"We're not sure. ONE of the files HAS to say though. There's a whole mess of stuff we don't know about that must be explained more on another page. That's why it's important we find them." Phoinex explained.
"One thing I don't understand is why D.V.U would want ordinary students though?" Zoe asked.
"Page 7 explains it sorta right here. It has one of those record things. Record: I have found out some dreadful news about D.V.U that I pray is not true. I have discovered that they are building a machine that changes a _______ ppearence. They are planning to capture children, and use the machine on them to make them look like the children that are to in_____ ures, and then use those children to get the treasures. How they will capture the children, I do not know." Selena said.
"Stupid burned blanks…" Zoe muttered.
"It says here some guy named Kalibar Borham is trying to figure out what goes in the blanks. Think we should find him?" Selena said.
"No. I think it'd be better if we found Sir Isu first."
"Kids, you're pokemon are ready." Nurse Joy said from the entrance of the Pokemon Center. The children ran over and picked out their own pokeballs, thanking Nurse Joy as they put them in their backpacks. Nurse Joy giggled. "You're welcome."
"Nurse Joy, would you mind telling me which way this address is?" Phoinex asked as he zipped up his backpack and handed Nurse Joy the slip of paper she had given him. She didn't even look at it.
"Why, of course. It's not too far from here." Nurse Joy raised her arm and pointed east. "It's right down there as a matter of fact. Second house on the left." Phoinex nodded.
"Thank you. Oh, there's one more thing I'd like to ask you. Do you know of anyone here in Celadon named Isu?"
"Izu? Hmmm… Come to think of it, there is one man. Izu Jannai."
"Do you know where he lives?"
"I think on the other side of town. He's the gym leader's grandfather, so maybe you can find him there at the Celadon Gym."
"Thanks again." Phoinex said as he and his friends walked off eastward. Nurse Joy waved at them with a smile.
"Byyyeeee! Hope to see you again!"
* * *
Zoe stared at Landon's backpack as the four walked down the street. She took a look at her own, then at Selena's, then at Phoinex's. Landon's was considerably smaller.
"Landon, how many pokeballs are you carrying?" she asked.
"6." Landon replied without even turning to look at her.
"And how many pokemon are you carrying?"
"6." Landon answered again, still not turning around.
"… are those the only ones you have?"
"Of course not, idiot. If they were, I wouldn't've told you I was gonna go change them back at Pewter, now would I?"
"Then were are the rest of them being kept?"
"At the Pokemon Storage Facility outside of Cerulean. It was a new thing the Kanto Government had worked out. I'm lucky they did though, or my pokemon would've burned down with the Pewter Pokemon Center."
"Why didn't you pick up the rest of your pokemon back at the Pokemon Center then?"
"I didn't feel like it." Zoe swung her backpack at Landon's head.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT?! We're all carrying our pokemon! Why shouldn't you?!"
"OW! Because I have a place to put them! You guys all kept your pokemon at that Hogwarts place, right? But that's gone, so you have no where else, which seems odd to me. Why haven't you guys registered to put them at a storage facility? Or here at the Celadon Pokemon Center?"
"We like carrying all our pokemon at once." Phoinex explained as he walked up the steps of a house.
"But that's against the rules. You're not exactly pokemon trainers if you have all your pokemon with you, are you? Can you compete for gym badges? Can you fight in leagues?"
"Uhhh… I never thought about that. I hope we can."
"… DAMN! We didn't register for the Pokemon League at the Pokemon Center!" Zoe said, hitting her forehead.
"… we didn't even register for the Johto League." Selena pointed out. Landon stopped Phoinex from knocking on the door of the red three-story house.
"Wait a minute, you weren't even in your own Pokemon League? Why the hell not?!"
"We're not interested in being Pokemon Masters. Not that much anyway. We all decided that after we graduated from Hogwarts, we'd take up some kind of career revolving around pokemon." Phoinex knocked on the door.
"Umm… Finney? I've been meaning to talk to you guys about this, but before all this happened, I was considering signing up for the Johto League. I want to win it for the trophy… something to be proud of… and for knowing how much better then all the rest I am." Selena said.
"She's being smart." Landon said. "Hogwarts is gone. This dream of waiting to graduate… it's over now. You need a new path to follow." Phoinex frowned. He kept knocking on the door absentmindedly.
"I suppose that's true…" He kept knocking.
"FINNEY, look, there's a note on the door." Zoe interrupted. She pushed Phoinex and Landon aside, and tore the yellow piece of paper from it's tape above the doorknocker and began to read aloud. "Kids, I'm terribly sorry I couldn't be here for your arrival, something came up at work and there was no one else to fill in. There's a key under the mat, so make yourselves at home. Your names are on the doors of your rooms. So you can start moving in, or how about coming to meet me at work? I work at the Celadon City Department Store, on the 5th floor, or just wait here at home until I get back. Look forward to meeting you-- Signed, Yurika."
"… this lady's our guardian, and she's not even here to meet us?" Landon complained.
"Be nice, she works at the department store. That's VERY important, so at least TRY to understand. I mean… THE PEOPLE NEED THEIR CLOTHES AND OTHER HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES FOR GOODNESS SAKE!" Zoe argued. She turned to the door automatically as she heard it click! open with the key Phoinex had gone ahead and used.
"So, what are we gonna do? Go in, or go meet her at work?" he asked, avoiding another huge argument between Zoe and Landon.
"I saw we wait for her here." Selena said.
"… me too, it'll be kinda awkward meeting her at work." Zoe added. Phoinex opened the door wider to let them in, but stopped as Landon ran off down the stairs.
"You guys can stay here, I'm off to the Celadon Gym!" he called back as he turned at the end of the path up to the house and onto the sidewalk where he kept on running. He waved at them. "I'll be back later, after I've won my third Gym Badge!"
"He's got badges?!" Zoe asked as she watched Landon run off.
"Of course he does… no wonder he's so passionate about the Leagues. He's in the Pokemon League himself. He must be training to compete."
"… well I don't see why he wants US to join. We'd kick his arse." Zoe said, folding her arms over her chest.
"We should follow him." Phoinex suddenly suggested.
"WHAT FOR?! Just to watch the Gym Leader embarrass him?!… wait a minute… yeah, you're right. We should DEFINITELY follow him."
"Not to watch his battle though, we might catch Sir Isu there." Phoinex said as he started to run down the stairs and down the path. Selena chased after, with Zoe behind her.
"Hey, Nurse Joy didn't call him 'Sir'!" Selena pointed out, panting, as she caught up to Phoinex.
"It must not be that strong a title." Phoinex explained, panting as well. "The only reason I can see that he'd be called 'Sir' is because he might be the former Celadon Gym Leader, and he was so good, he got the title 'Sir'. Or maybe he saved Celadon from something, or fought in a war, I dunno." Zoe caught up to them.
"Let's forget about the present right now for a sec, could we? Right now that we have the time. Back there, Landon was right for once. Our dreams are gone. There's no way we're gonna graduate from Hogwarts NOW! How are we going to make it in the world now?" she said, pausing to breathe.
"There's no way… we're going to… one of the other Pokemon Schools. I'm NOT... going… to Beauxbatons… or Durmstrang… It'd be dishonorable to Hogwarts' memory."
"But… those aren't the… only… Pokemon Schools. There are others out there." Phoinex said.
"You mean those… dinky Pokemon Schools in every… few towns?" Zoe paused to breathe again. "But those only teach you how to raise pokemon… and basically, just how to… become Pokemon Trainers. There's no way one of… THOSE schools could ever… give us what… Hogwarts could."
"But Hogwarts is… gone… what other choices do we have left? There isn't much… else we can do in the world… that involves… pokemon." said Selena.
"We can become Pokemon Masters." Phoinex stated, but his suggestion was instantly forgotten as TTT approached Celadon Gym and came to a stop. Zoe pointed at the small figure that was Landon as he walked in through the front doors.
"LOOK! There he goes!"
"It doesn't matter-- we're not here to cheer him on, we're here to find Sir Isu." Phoinex reminded Zoe, as TTT started running again toward the gym. Phoinex was first to burst in through the doors, and lay his eyes on the battle that had already started.
"Scizor, double team!" he heard Landon command as Zoe and Selena rushed in too.
"Bellsprout, stun spore!" commanded the Celadon Gym Leader. As Scizor spun around Bellsprout, an orange powder flew out of its mouth and surrounded the area, hitting Scizor, causing it to stop moving and shake in pain.
"NO, SCIZOR!" Landon cried out. He gritted his teeth for thought. He was considering whether or not to call back Scizor.
"He can handle this." Phoinex said, coming out of the battle. He saw who he suspected was an apprentice of the gym standing nearby, watching the battle carefully. He walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. "'Scuse me, do you know where Isu Jannai is?"
The apprentice looked away from the battle and turned to Phoinex. "Isu Jannai? He should be in the garden in the back, watering the plants or something." She said quickly before turning back to the battle. "The garden's over there." She pointed to a door in the left wall. Phoinex nodded.
"Thanks." He walked back over to Selena and Zoe, and grabbed them by the shoulders, leading them over to the door. He opened it to reveal the garden. It was extremely large in a green dome, but Isu was easy to find. He was sitting cross-legged in a small patch of grass that the path from the door led to. In front of him was a pot, and beside him, potting soil, along with a plant in a pot that seemed to small for it. Phoinex jogged down the path . Selena and Zoe stood behind at the open doorway to watch Landon's battle.
"Sir Isu?" Phoinex asked, bending down with his hands on his knees so it would be easier to talk with the old man.
"Excuse me?" the man said, looking up at Phoinex.
"Are you Sir Isu?"
"… if by Sir Isu you mean Izunoki Jannai, yes. I'm Sir Isu."
"You mean you're not a Sir?" Phoinex asked again, disappointedly.
"I'm afraid not. What gave you that idea? Who are you?" Phoinex sighed.
"No one important. I'm sorry to have bothered you." Phoinex turned to leave. As he did, a Gloom walked up to Mr. Jannai.
"What's this you have?" Phoinex heard Mr. Jannai ask as he grabbed what sounded like a piece of paper. "Name: Phoinex Halliwell?" Mr. Jannai read aloud, completely confused. Phoinex turned right back around.
"Yes?"
"What? You're Phoinex Halliwell?"
"Yes."
"How strange… this paper has your name on it." Mr. Jannai turned back to the paper in his hands and skimmed it slightly. "In fact, it seems to be entirely about you… Gloom, where did you find this?"
"Gloom, Gloom!" Gloom said happily, walking toward the exit of the garden. Mr. Jannai stood and followed. Phoinex decided to come along as well.
Gloom led the two out of the exit, and pointed up at the sky. Phoinex looked up, but only saw the blue sky. It seemed Mr. Jannai saw the same thing.
"Gloom, where exactly did you find this?" he asked again.
"Glo, gloom!" Gloom said, pointing at the sky again. Mr. Jannai looked up with a frown.
"I don't see anything…. AHHHHH!" Mr. Jannai yelled as his bandanna flew off in the wind. Phoinex watched him chase it around, and suddenly noticed the wind the way he should have.
When he had walked out of the garden, it was difficult for Mr. Jannai to open the door because of the wind, so Phoinex had ended up helping him push it open. The wind was still going strong all around them, Mr. Jannai's victimized bandana as the evidence. Obviously, the wind had blown the paper into town, and Gloom has coincidentally managed to catch it.
Mr. Jannai had finally managed to catch his bandanna. He sighed as he looked up at the sky again. "I don't know what you're getting at Gloom, but it doesn't matter, this paper's not too important to me." He looked up at Phoinex and walked over, his hand outstretched. "You're Phoinex, right? This might be important to you." Phoinex grabbed the paper and put it near his eyes, which started straight to the bottom right corner which read Pg. 4.
"It's one of the… one of the files…" he said in awe, starting to read.
"What's that?" Mr. Jannai asked, still confused.
"Umm… nothing. Thanks for the paper though!" Phoinex ran off back into the garden. As he ran up the path into the gym, he managed to hear his half-brother.
"Yes! Vileplume is gone! I WIN! Gimme my badge now!!!" Landon shouted. Phoinex ran through the door, passing right by Selena and Zoe in his excitement. He turned right back around as the Celadon Gym Leader handed Landon his gym badge.
"Look! LOOK! We have another page of the Kodomo Files!!"
"Well, duh. We found Sir Isu, didn't we? Kinda easy…. Kinda easy how he gave it so easily to you too…" Zoe said, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh? No, no, that wasn't Sir Isu, that was Izunoki Jannai, the real Sir Isu is out there somewhere. But see, Mr. Jannai's Gloom caught this page that was flying aimlessly in the wind."
"Oh, COOL!" Selena yelled. Zoe pushed her aside and snatched the page out of Phoinex's hands, skimming it quickly.
"Is it about me? IS IT ABOUT ME?!" she skimmed even faster. "Gah… NOOOO! It's about Finney."
"Really?" Phoinex snatched the paper back and started reading it properly.
"And you say this item of great importance was 'flying aimlessly in the wind', yes?" Phoinex nodded. "NOOOOOO! Facts about Zoe are flying somewhere out there, high in the sky! ANYONE COULD READ IT!!" Selena turned to Zoe worriedly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Huh? By what I said?"
"Yeah."
"Umm… That anyone could have a page of the files?" Selena groaned.
"And you're RIGHT. Anyone could have a page of the files! AND MANY OF THEM HAVE NO REASON TO KEEP THEM, SO THEY'LL PROBABLY THROW THEM AWAY!!" Phoinex looked up from the paper sharply.
"If they do that, we'll NEVER find all the pages."
"From when they were blown away, I'd say that was a whole lot of pages." Zoe added.
"And what if they get blow into the wild? Pokemon might eat them!" Selena complained. "There's no way we'll get all the files!"
"But we have too! Look here!" Phoinex turned to page four and began to read aloud, "Our superiors have asked of us to go through the remains of the Baudelaire Manors, and the belongings of Phoinex's Halliwell relatives to find the lamp's location. They want to rebuild the Temple of Suzaku from ancient times (a part of Project Akamatsu, Pg. 8), and teach Phoinex how to use the lamp so that he may become the priest of the temple." Phoinex paused. "And look at this too! This commitment to becoming the Priest of Suzaku is in no way an easy one for anyone. During his studies is not the only time Phoinex wont be able to see his friends-- it will be for the rest of his life. Once his studies are complete, as the Priest of Suzaku Phoinex will immediately be placed in the rebuilt Temple of Suzaku, where he will start to work on bringing back the legendary bird pokemon, Moltres, to the temple. With Moltres, Phoinex will start to help rebuild the ties between humans and pokemon, ushering in the beginning of Algernon (Pg. 9)."
"Who's Algernon?" asked Landon as he walked over happily. He peeked over Phoinex's shoulder and read what was in his hands. "This another page of those files you guys want so badly?"
"Uh-huh, stay out of this now, Girlypants." Zoe said as she pushed Landon's face away and got TTT into a huddle. "Ok, now that we have PRIVACY, we can talk about this. First off, the great and mysterious Baudelaires are becoming annoying. 'Baudelaire' in general is annoying. Second off, what is this lamp they speak of? Third off, since when is Finney so important to these people, and why? Fourth off, who ever DARES try to take away Finney from us is only setting themselves up for failure, and fifth, what's an Algernon?" Phoinex turned to page four again to see if he could find any answers.
"Let's see… wow… this might answer numbers two and three. The Halliwells' Irish roots lead back to the 16th century, beginning with a wealthy man. His most prized possession, the elemental lamp of fire, is said to have been locked away until another Halliwell with a feather-shaped birthmark was born."
"Don't you have a birthmark under your wrist?" Phoinex nodded and held out his left arm, palm up to show a birthmark resembling a feather there below his wrist. "So you're the one that's supposed to get this lamp thingy?"
"That's what the paper says." Zoe glanced over at it.
"Hmm… there sure is a lot of stuff on you, Finney… and it's getting kinda late, who knows when Yurika will be home? Let's think about this some other time. My head kinda hurts now."
"I guess it's true what you say about Yurika, so let's go." As Phoinex was about to fold up the paper, Landon stopped him.
"Wait, look there. At the top, where it says 'Status'. They labeled you as Orphan/Pokemon Trainer. Shouldn't it be student? HMMMM?" Phoinex folded up the paper.
"No, not anymore." Landon smiled slyly.
"So you'll join the Pokemon League?"
"I… yes. I will. And I'll get those badges easily, then I'll battle you."
"I'll join too! THAT'S WHEN WE'LL HAVE OUR BATTLE, GIRLYPANTS!" Zoe declared.
"I wanna join too." Selena said happily.
"You'll have to get an 8th badge from somewhere else though, now that Pewter is gone." Now Phoinex smiled slyly. He took a blue wristband off his right wrist, and held it out to Landon, with the top part facing up. There was a shiny badge with a burning H. Zoe opened her vest to show the same badge on the inside, and Selena dug in her pocket to show a third copy.
"We got these back at Hogwarts for excellent battling. And against the Headmaster, so I think they'll cover it." He snickered as he walked out of the gym, his friends following behind him happily. On their way to their new home, they would stop by the Pokemon Center and sign up for the Pokemon League. After that, they'd continue their way home and face a new challenge: meeting their new guardian.
(A/n: If any one wants a closer look at the Kodomo File pages that have been found so far, and want to try and figure out some of the "mysteries", they've been posted on FanFictionPress.Net, author search: Rudy. Obviously, they're titled "The Kodomo Files". Have fun.)