Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, blah blah... you know the usual, only the characters I have created.

Blades and Souls

Rating: R (includes heavy gore, uses of guns and mild language)

WORD CHART:
Hakama a baggy pair of pants, like a skirt but stitched through the middle, mostly Samurai and
Aiki students wear these.
Katana a curved, double-handed sword, also known as a Samurai Sword.
Gi also known as a Do-u-gi what most martial artist wear.
Tatami a mat made of straw, mostly found in Japanese houses.
Futon like a mattress, but without springs. Laid on the floor and slept on instead of beds.
Bokken a wooden stick shaped like a katana, only 7 times its wieght.
Shougun a High ranking general in the military, also like a Knight from medieval England, owning vast lands of Japan that he had conquered, yet still owned by the Emperor of Japan.
Kimono most people think its what the geisha's and Japanese women wear, but it actually means "something for wearing" and is worn by men and women alike, usually vast and colourful for female kimono's, and grey and black for the men's and Shogun's

Satoshi Kami flew through the night, silent against the wind. His short black pony tail flaying silently against his neck. His dark brown eyes locked firmly on his own chosen path, as if the trees around him weren't there. His hakama stuck to his legs with sweat and the wind, on his waist there clipped was a sheath, holding Satoshi's Katana swaying with each huge step he took. His Gi stuck to his flat chest, sticking to the immense sweat from running.

He wondered why the world he was in turned how it was. Was it his master, nay his Father? Or was it them that started the war, he kept wondering. This world that he lived in, Honshu. With one glance it might look the same as its neighbouring islands like Kanto, but there was something here that none of the others had, something that separated them so much. A war wages on, for decades against them and humans. A war that swept havoc and destruction all over Honshu. No one knows how the war started, but they know when it will stop; the prophecies for tell that the end of the war will be in 4 nights time.

Satoshi still ran, ran for all he was worth. Ran to his only place he could call home, the only place he could feel safe for a second, until the idea of them lingering outside will snap him back into uneasiness.

He soon came upon a clearing in the woods, and in the middle there was a small oriental hut, its paint peeling and moss creeping up its side from age. Around the hut, approximately 7 metres away from the Hut, was sprinkled on the ground white powder; surrounding the Shrine-like hut fully. Satoshi didn't stop moving after he stepped over the circle of powder, he kept moving towards the hut. As soon as Satoshi reached the old rice paper door, silhouettes appeared in the shadows of the trees, rustling, whispering.

One of them lunged into the moonlight brandishing a pair of white claws, followed by sleek black fur. With its cat-like head with a red feather poking out of its left ear, followed by smaller legs and three larger feathers following in tow on its tail. The creature reached the line of powder, running at its peak, when suddenly it stopped in mid air, frozen in space and time above the powder.

Satoshi took no notice and closed the door shut. Sneasels were after him, hunters of the night, moving in packs; there must have been at least seven of them outside hiding in the shadows of the trees from the full moon. The one that tried to go after him must have been a juvenile, not knowing the powers and scent of the Takaki Powder, a strong mixture of unknown roots and bones, made by the Oracles of the Auo Mountain.

Satoshi slumped onto the tatami-clad floor and unbuckled his sword, and pulling three red and white spheres the size of a man's fist out of his Gi. It looked sophisticated and looked totally different from the sword and its surrounding; a small room with rice paper doors on the north and south side, and mud walls on the west and east sides, with a small shrine on the east side; with a picture of an old man, with various candles and a small bowl full of rice.

Satoshi walked to the west wall, which was a cupboard and he pulled out a futon, and laid it on the floor. He walked to the north west of the room to a small fridge, and pulled out a bottle of water and he slowly started drinking as he moved back to his small belongings. He put the sword on a small stand next to the futon. He grabbed the three spheres and put them next to the stand. He put the bottle next to the stand and took off his Gi and Hakama, then he squatted in front of the small shrine and bowed, he then crawled over to the futon to sleep, 3 nights to go.

††

"Good Giro-u, you're get the hang of controlling your ki, keep it up. Ok Musashi, your swings need to be more controlled, try practising slowly first, and come back later. Jo-u, your thrusts are fine, try doing multiple thrusts this time." ordered Satoshi, surrounded by three figures: a small yellow rat with a brick-wall type scale patterns named Giro-u. A huge praying mantis with a reptilian head, with two huge scythes instead of arms and a pair of wings on his back named Msuashi. And a huge wasp with spear-like arms instead of small arms named Jo-u.

The three set back on their tasks, in different areas around the small hut, with Giro-u lunging at Satoshi, Musashi practising fluent strokes and slices with his scythes and Jo-u lunging at tree stumps, his arms blurring at his speed. All of them had distinctive marks on their left cheeks, a tatoo of a dragon coiling around. Satoshi wore the same outfit as last night, but now he had a bokken out and throwing thrusts at Giro-u, who dodged, swerved and pulled off moves to go around the sword to get into Satoshi's centre, to unleash would-be slashes with his sharp claws.

††

Satoshi ran, ran like he did countless other times, running before they caught up to him. His Pokémon were stored in the red and white spheres, which was carefully tucked inside Satoshi's Gi. He held his sword out instead of having it tied to his belt, giving him more maneuverability, he ran with grace, fluently and speed.

He was running to the nearest village, Miyazaki village, on the outskirts of the Fushido forest. He ran, to join in the Final Association: an army built for the final battle, which will bring the end to the war.

Satoshi reached the village half an hour later, heaving heavily, yet never daring to slow down. The village, unlike his small hut did not have Takaki Powder sprinkled around it, instead they had sentry posts scattered around the perimeter. Satoshi ran past the posts, and started to slow down to a quick jog. He jogged past the old houses and sales huts, an exact replica of a 16th century Japanese village. Honshu was scattered with three different cultures, yet they all ally for this final war.

Satoshi slowed into a walk, yet still he was on the move and his senses alert: they can still slip past the sentries, but not in large groups, so more silent Pokémon manage to get through at an uncommon rate. He came to a large building with a small crowd gathering at the gate. Satoshi pushed and made his way through the crowd, hiding his sword to not frighten the people.

He got to the gate, which was guarded by two heavily armed men, holding an assault riffle and a sword quite like Satoshi's hang from their belts.
"I came to see Master Yamamoto." said Satoshi to the guard man on the right.

"What's your name and what business do you have with Master Yamamoto?" asked the guard firmly in return.

"My name is Satoshi Kami and my business with Master Yamamoto is to talk about the crusade." The guard man pulled out two pieces of paper, and took a few glances at the first, and comapred the other with Satoshi's face.

"Ok, you're clear to go. Be quick, this crowds been here since dawn." the Guard Man muttered something into his wrist mike and the gate opened a fraction.
"Thanks." Satoshi slipped through the small gap and encountering an almost picture perfect garden, with marble stepping stones lining to the front door of the building. He made his way to the door which opened before him, to a room of full luxury; cushy cushions, bars, indoor pool, and Super-high-speed Internet that only the rich men of Honshu could buy. The whole room was floored with marble, which gleamed in the futuristic lights from the ceiling.

There was a staircase on the left hand side of Satoshi, who made a beeline to it. He walked up the marble staircases with golden edges flickering with his shadow. Satoshi came to a beautiful oak door, with golden door knobs. Before he even reached for it the door swung open, revealing a room quite like that of the ground floor. Instead of the bars and cushy cushions, there was a desk and straight back chairs, apart from a leather chair behind the desk, which on it sat a man in his mid-forties, with greying hair. He wore a Shogun's Kimono, with a huge array of military badges stuck to his left bulging chest.

"Satoshi, its been, what? Ten years since we last met?" spoke the man in a crisp voice, Satoshi only smiled weakly at the question.

"Hi Dad." replied Satoshi emotionless.

"Ha! You got tall, but you're all bones!" he paused "You eating right boy?" Satoshi only clenched his fists as he looked down at the ground.
"You've really grown..."

"Yeah, but you're still bigger." Satoshi's nails were digging deeper into the palms of his hands.

"Well, I am Daimyo you know..."

"That's, not funny..." the man behind the desk laughed. "Dad?"

"Yeah?" Satoshi's voice started to falter.

"I hate you." He could feel the nails penetrating the skin, blood starting to trickle from his clenched fists.

"I know, I know..." The room fell silent. Neither Son nor Father dared to break the silence.

WOOOSH!

From the bare open window to Satoshi's left, a large needle flew through to connect with his Father's right arm, penetrating right through his body, sticking out through his other arm. The guards that was blocking the door instantly ran to the window until soon they too were hailed with the needles, going right through their brains, spewing blood and goo all over the polished wooden floor. Satoshi scrambled to his Father's side. His Father croaked out the words:

"You'll cry... You're gonna cry... You always... cry, see? You're crying." he painfully made a small smile. Tears ran down Satoshis face.

"I hate you Dad." he cried, his fist clenched as hard as they could go.

"Save it for later." he uttered one last time, before his retinas started to fade.

"I hate you." Satoshi muttered again. "You've never treated me the way you should have treated me. I've always hated you."

††

Satoshi awoke in a start, he was in an army tent, that was swaying dangerously from the strong gales outside. He pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and unzipped the entrance of the tent, the wind hit him in the face, so strong that he was blown back a few steps before he gained his balance. He stepped out in to the morning sun.

He was on the edge of a huge plain, with weeds and bald patches of dirt everywhere. Around him lay other tents, housing the remaining rebellions of human kind. On his right was a huge rock wall that stretched all the way to the other side, and on his left was a cliff, dropping down to god-knows-where. On the other side of the plain, he could make out small dots moving slowly, some minuscule, some gigantic.

A cry ran around the four hundred or so tents, the raise of the alarm had broken the choppy air like a scythe, and its reaction was spontaneous: other soldiers with red and black armour that glinted in the sun walked out of their tents, and some even being healers. Some even started to let out their own Pokémon out into the late-dawn.

Satoshi threw out his three Pokéballs, and out came their respected inhabitants: Giro-u the small Sandshrew, Musashi the Scyther with its scythe's gleaming in the morning sun, and Jo-u the Beedrill, it's wings humming to life as it lifted its wasp like body off the ground. All of them, had a micro-chip implanted into their back of their skulls: control chips to maintain their loyalty to their respective owners.

The Rebellion stood in a line with various Pokémon at their sides. Soon the smalls dots became a wall of Pokémon as they came closer to them. A few of the soldiers at the back pulled their bows to their maximum. Some cocking their guns at the front. Some unsheathing their swords out of their sheath, the sound ringing in the air soon to be left forgotten. None whispered, none dared to break the silence as the thudding of paws grew louder. The tents flapped in the strong gale as others clothing giving in to the wind.

As soon as the others were able to be seen more detailed, all hell broke out in the open, the last war, the end to it all, the war to decide the true winner, begun.

A Sneasel, just like the one that attack Satoshi three nights ago, came at him, claws brandished. Satoshi went into a crouch as his right hand made for the hilt of his sword. He swung the blade out of its sheath at the same time, severing the Sneasel's head off, resulting in icy blood fountaining over everyone.

His sword unsheathed; its curved tempered blade with the crimson blood gleamed in the early morning light. Its worn out hilt held firmly by both of Satoshi's hands. He slashed and swerved, twisted and evaded as he went through the flanks of them. He took a quick glance to how his Pokémon are going: Musashi was cutting through hoards of Linoone and Sentret: a type of ferret with agility to match Musashi himself, while Jo-u was parrying with the same species of his own. But Satoshi couldn't make out where Goro-u was. But before he searched for him, he spun to his left just in time to see a orange lizard swinging down on him with a gleaming claw.

Satoshi's blade went through its head as he spun, not even bothering to see his defeated foe drop as he swung to block a blade like a leaf from a green lizard with leaves sticking out of arms and other limbs. They both parried until a cheap swing from a huge bear tried to knock out Satoshi, only resulting in him ducking, and the green lizard taking the full blunt of the extreme force.

††

The fighting went on, with arrows, energy beams, blasts of fire and water flew through the air, while swords and spears clashed on the ground.

Unexpectedly the ground beneath Satoshi fell as three brown heads like a mole popped up at surprising speed. Satoshi only just evaded the quick strike, but still he fell into the gaping hole in the ground where the moles came from.

He landed with a thud, quickly raising himself up with his sword. He looked around the place, he was in some kind of tunnel, with other tunnels leading to the dark unknown. He looked up at the hole he came through, but came to a decision that he wont be coming out of here the same way he came in.

The tunnel around him started to shake, and in one of the larger tunnels, Satoshi could just make out a blur of grey that was heading towards him at an astounding speed. He ran into one of the smaller tunnels to his left, hoping that the thing was too big to fit inside the hole he was in. He waited as the rumbling came to an ear-splitting noise. Then shoom-shoom-shoom! Large boulders went past the small tunnel entrance he was in, Satoshi letting out a sigh of relief: glad that he wasn't out there.

Satoshi ventured further into the small tunnel he was in. As he walked further, the more narrow the tunnel started to become, and soon he started to move onwards in a crouch, bending his back in a defenceless position. He turned a bend and came upon a body of a man with three huge holes gushing with blood out of his chest. Satoshi bent down and grabbed the man's assault rifle and he put its strap around his neck. He moved on without the knowledge of what kind of danger lay ahead.

The tunnel started to widen and slant upwards, suggesting that it was nearing the surface, when a sharp pain surged through Satoshi's left arm. He looked back just in time to catch a glimpse of movement. He looked down to his left arm as he noticed that half of his biceps was blown off, instead replaced with a gaping hole, similar to the wounds the man that he came across earlier had.

Satoshi put up a mental barrier to try and forget the screaming pain, he'll find a medic once he's out of this damn tunnel he thought. He gripped the handle of his Katana tightly as he advanced back the way he came from , with his left arm hanging uselessly at his side. He came upon a small purple monkey, with a weird hand like limb at the end of it's tail. It glared at Satoshi as it brandished its sharp claws teeth. It leapt at Satoshi, swinging it's sharp claws at him, only to connect to Satoshi's Katana. It leapt back and made a small energy ball between it's two hands and soon it shot the energy in a shape of a star at Satoshi. The only thing Satoshi could do was hit the star back, baseball style with one hand. The energy shattered on the contact of the curved blade. The blade did not stop its movement after shattering the energy star, it kept its momentum and turned the block into a lunge at the monkey. Flesh and metal connected, only in a result of the monkey's big eyes fading out.

Satoshi flicked his blade out of the monkey's chest and staggered back up the tunnel. He soon reached the surface and was greeted only by a blur of the sun, and the sounds of war. He couldn't even get enough time to get adjusted to the bright light as something came at him. He only just evaded the attack when a gun sounded and he heard his attacker drop to the ground. As his eyes focused he found a dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties wearing an army suite and holding a smoking pump-action shotgun in her hands. A white ruck-sack hung over her lean shoulders as she looked at Satoshi's wound with her dark brown eyes.
"What happened to you Satoshi?" asked the woman as she started to unbuckle her rucksack when Satoshi's assault rifle flared to life as he aimed it at a floating huge Ray behind the woman.

"Oh, some stupid Aipom shot a Swift at me, but he didn't last long." replied Satoshi to the woman, reloading the gun. The woman started to rummage through her ruck-sack as Satoshi cocked his rifle.

"You know, you haven't changed one bit have you?" asked the woman as she pulled out a bottle of thick brown liquid, and started to pour on his damaged biceps.

"Neither have you Mana. I just hope this war finishes an-" plumes of blue smoke rose from his left arm "argh, this always kills. And, we can start all over again..." said Satoshi his skin started to rapidly healing and mending its self at an unimaginable speed.

"Pfft, you wish man. You know we we're over after you joined the special force legions, and I left for my medic course and hand-held weapons classes. And if you want to know, I'm already engaged, so go find another bird will you?" a slight pause resulted between the two. "Anyway don't use that arm for about 2-3 minutes, then you can hack what ever you want to with it again." as she started to pack her things up, Satoshi started to rub the place were there was a gaping hole in his arm.

"I hate these, they make you go all itchy and they get really annoying. Man, the good old days, how I wish we were back there now."

"Well, the past is the past, and it stays there. Just keep your mind on the things-" she blew a head off a ferret like Pokémon with her shotgun "- around you."

"You take care of yourself." replied Satoshi as he sheathed his sword and unstrapped the assault rifle from around his neck, giving him more freedom in aiming. The two left, going to opposite sides of the field: Mana going to the parts where injured soldiers lay, shooting various other beings along the way that tried to attack her.

Satoshi ran the opposite direction, the barrel of his gun leading the way. He couldn't use both of his hands so his only option was to use a flailing sword, or a gun that could be wielded with one hand. Obviously he chose the later.

After he killed a few more small grunts, he started to get his feelings seeping back into his left biceps. He let rip one last round of bullets at a stumbling horse with a mane of fire who crashed into the ground. He threw the empty rifle away as he drew his curved blade and charged at a large crowd of humans fighting them. But before he reached them, he came upon Musashi fighting against an exhausted Jo-u. There was a weird tinge in Musahsi's eyes, almost, vengeance burning inside them. Satsohi noticed that the control chip on the back of Musahi's head was no longer there, one of them must have destroyed it thought Satoshi as he ran to the aid of Jo-u. But before he reached the two, Jo-u took a scythe to his arm and the same followed to his neck.
"NO!" shouted Satoshi, anger brewing up inside him as he plunged his own blade into the back of Musashi's neck.

Satoshi spun on the spot, tears welling in his eyes at what had happened. He had killed his first ever companion and witnessed it kill one of his second companion. Now his only other companion left was Giro-u. Satoshi spun franticly as he searched the battle field. He ran and cut through flesh as he ran from one side of the main battle field to the other. He heard a familiar cry to his left as he spun to meet a scene, where Giro-u was fighting a weird cactus like creature with a goofy sneer on his face and spines littering all over its body.

Giro-u was badly injured, with gaping wounds and bruises all over his body, Satoshi cursed himself to leave a still inexperienced companion on its own. The weird green cactus shot a barrel of needles at Giro-u from one of its limbs, though heavy with fatigue, Giro-u dug deep into the ground, leaving just a small hole in the earth as the needles flew above it harmlessly. The cactus being looked about itself as Giro-u erupted from the ground beneath it, hitting the cactus by surprise. The cactus took a broken stubby leg. Anger brewed up inside it and it stabbed its prickly arm into the gut of Giro-u, who sickeningly lurched backwards and land among the dead and the burnt weeds, not moving. Satoshi's eyes went wide.
"No..." he muttered. hoping against all hope that Giro-u would stand up and continue the fight, waiting for its master's arrival. But Giro-u never moved. Suddenly the green cactus started to convulse, growing in size and its limbs growing. Soon it stood at about the same height as Satoshi, wearing a weird hat brimmed with spikes that lined its body, looking sharper than before without a goofy grin. Satoshi, now with tears floating behind him silently held his sword horizontally behind his back, out of the sight of the cactus and an extension to his swing.

Satoshi charge at his opponent, still with the curved blade behind his back, he ran with his tears forgotten behind where he stood before. He came up to the cactus and as it thrust one of its arms at Satoshi, he evaded the thrust by stepping past it and did a full 180° degree turn to meet its bare back, and swiftly swung his blade through the body of the cactus. The two halves of the body landed on the ground in a thud, green ooze trickling out of the ends where the rest of the body should have been. Satoshi walked slowly to Giro-u, and knelt beside him. He patted the brick-like patterned skin of the sand shrew, and said one last good bye to him, and hoped he will meet him soon.

He grabbed his sword and stood up, with his head bowed and eyes filling up again. A huge brown dragon with a white belly and dragon wings landed behind a rocky outcrop and started to make its way to Satoshi. It opened its mouth and a huge white ball of energy formed in front of it, growing larger and larger. Before it reached its peak, a loud boom went off. Then nothing happened. Confused, Satoshi looked up and only found that the huge dragon's head was clearly blown off by something powerful. The huge entity swayed and came crashing down onto the rocky outcrops.

Satoshi looked over to his left to only find Mana kneeling in the blood and mud, her shotgun smoking again, and a look on her face that she had just ran a mile. She had jumped from a nearby boulder, reaching her peak near the dragon's head, she let loose a familiar round of shotgun bursts, mere metres away from the huge dragon's head. Satoshi looked at her with wide eyes, not noticing the tears that ran down his face.

"You gotta stop crying man, its ruining up your personality." said Mana as she started to walk to over to Satoshi.

"I have no meaning to live." he muttered, under his tear-covered stern face he was slowly breaking down.

"Hey..." Mana walked closer to Satoshi, and embraced him. "What happened has happened. You can't do anything about that. What you have to think is what lies ahead of you. Now, what do you have to do?" she asked in the kindest tone she could muster in the state they were in.

"Avenge my Pokémon's deaths and then to rid my worthless life."

"Don't talk like that! What you need to do is to end this war, and live a happy life and die as an old man." she patted his head and looked him in his brown eyes "You can't die here, you're the hero of this storey for gods sake!" Satoshi smiled at the comment. "Just don't ever give up, ok? And I'm not gonna go and marry some jerk over you, I was just joking back then. I am going to marry you Satoshi, you're the only one for me. I can't find anyone else like you with so much emotion, and passion. So don't go getting yourself fing killed ok? for me?" She asked with a smile.

"Ok, for you Mana, for you." Mana brushed away his tears and looked at him one last time before saying:

"Thanks. Now, we've got a war to win!" Mana shouted cheerfully. She glanced over Satoshis shoulder and her eyes widened. "Oh god, and I think our odds just got bigger."

"I don't think I can make that much difference you kn-"

"No, that!" she cried as she pointed at something in the sky, flying above all the chaos, was a small light. It soon started to grow and it started to endorse everything on the field.

As soon as the Pokémon saw it, they became silent, almost, waiting. The few little humans left layed their arms to their sides as they too watched about them as the light engulfed everything. Satoshi and Mana watched on, mesmerised at the beauty of a creature emerging from it.

A magnificent silver dragon landed in the middle of the plane with grace, the strong wind now stopped, as if commanded by the monstrosity. Its silvery scales were all smooth and equal, that it almost looked as though it was skin. Its huge palm-like wings folded itself to the sides and blocking the view of its blue chest. Its dragon like head possessed two black skin erecting around each eye, and the same material on the end of a long tail.

It boomed out to all of the soldiers that were scattered everywhere. "My people, sons and daughters of the legends. This meaningless war was a stupid act all together, and has proven to me, and the other Legends that humans and us are not meant to be. My people, I will end this so called 'The greatest Exodus of our kind', and it has proven not to be the answer after all. Come, we shall find our true home, some day. To all of you humans, may God have pity on your guilty souls." The gargantuan creature spread its wings and waved one gigantic push of its graceful wings, and off it soared into the sky, with the remaining Pokémon soaring behind them being lifted up by some unknown power.

"Well, that was, something, wasn't it?" asked Mana as she still stared up at the disappearing dot in the sky. "I hope that's the end of it, hang on, what did that thing mean about 'The greatest Exodus of our kind'?"

"I dunno, beats me," replied Satoshi "But I least know that there wont be any more fighting for a while..."

"Yeah, lets hope so... But we have something more of an important task to be finished first." she said with a sly smile, and the two embraced into a kiss.

That's when something that the two didn't notice happened, a light similar to the one before illuminated the sky, but with more ferocity. The huge beam pounded on the island of Honshu, and disintegrating houses and mountains, the forest and the island itself. The powerful wave created by the blast killed every other living creature on the face of the earth.

Now, nothing remains. Only a huge crater in the middle of the western ocean of the world, but no one to look at.

The humans didn't prove of any worthy after all.