From the beach, Flareon Light gazed out at the open, light blue water. He didn't see any ship, but felt a little haunted by the small specks of glass leftover.

A few minutes ago, he saw the last of the speck of red disappear on the horizon. He only got a glimpse, but still wished he hadn't seen the line of smoke the dragon left in the sky.

Light heard the gentle footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Lopunny Luke shaking out his leg after stepping out of the bushes growing at the back edge of the white sand. His burns had lightened to the point of being hard to notice, and his smile that he had when he first arrived returned.

"It went east towards inhabited islands," Lopunny said. "And it definitely can't fly forever. Unfortunately, it'll be up to you to chase it there. I can't afford to move around in a pattern..."

"I still have a lot of questions, though," Light said.

"Yeah. Tell me all of them."

"What was that pokemon…?"

"The name of that species is Reshiram," he explained. "It's a Legendary species, so, theoretically not real…"

"I'm certainly struggling to think of it as real… So, who are you? How did you get here?"

"I'm Luke."

"But how did you get here?"

"A ship."

Light didn't have much energy to get irritated with, but he still managed to. He grunted and kept taking in the view of the ocean.

"What was that place back there?" Light asked. "With all the glass."

"I have no idea…" said Luke. "If anything, it looked like Reshiram made it. But that doesn't make any sense… At least to me. Even in legends, assuming they're all true, Reshiram never did anything like that."

Light trusted Luke enough to not know everything. He helped him survive this long.

"Well, why were you around here?" Light asked. He wanted to know just how lucky he got today.

"Saw it from, well, a ways away," Luke said. "Followed it here. Got help from a nice sailor that should be coming back here soon."

Luke stood next to Light and pointed up to the sky. Light looked at him in confusion, but followed his arm.

"Flew in that direction?" Luke asked.

"Yah," Light said.

"There's an island county in that direction. Kaigan. I think it's going to attack."

"Attack? Why?"

"You saw it," said Luke. "I mean, it looked... crazy."

"No ones going to believe it," Light said. "Literally. So, what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," he sighed. "I mean, it's up to you what you want to do. I can't help you past here, as much as I want to…. A few personal things. Trust me, it'll be easier without me."

Light took another look over the Lopunny. He seemed a little ragged, but most of it was from the battle. The untouched fur on his body glimmered under the sunlight. He seemed young, but older than him; something like a young adult. His sentence finally registered in Light's head.

"Wait, you're not coming?" Light asked.

"No," Luke said. "I'll bring trouble, trust me. And I don't feel like I'd be that much help in a battle after all that."

Luke's burns seemed pretty bad, even if he was tough. Light glanced away towards the ocean.

"But I'm sure those sailors I mentioned earlier will help you out," he added. "I'm gonna take a look around here, write back to you later. I already paid them, so the sailors should be willing to help for more than just charity… They are pretty nice, though."

"Thank you," Light said. "For, uhm, being here."

Luke smiled and nodded. "No prob."

Light watched Luke as he turned back in towards the island. His legs raised higher when he got to the line of tangled, bright plants and vanished under the shade of the trees.


For Light, the sun bouncing off the waves mesmerized him. The color of the water changed from moment to moment. Seagulls dipped under the ocean and came back up with fish. Pictures and videos didn't capture how alive it was.

Eventually, something stuck out against the horizon: an eggshell white cruise ship.. Despite the distance, it managed to cast the jagged shadows in front of the sun that reached Light's feet on the white sand. There were dozens of small, circular windows on the side of the base, and more windows up top where he assumed it would be driven from.

He didn't expect a cruise ship, but this was nice. Really nice.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!"

Flareon Light screamed when a long, white part of the ship's side fell over on the beach. Although it landed a few meters away, it was close enough to send specks of sand on his gray mane and send the shockwave of the impact up to his head through his feet.

"Jewel!" an angry, gruff voice called out.

"Sorry," the voice said lamely.

Light pulled himself together and saw a small, blue pokemon at the top of the walkway on the deck. He shaded his eyes with his arm to get a good look against the sun over their head.

A Manaphy with her hands on her hips smiled up somewhere. Her eyes scanned back and forth until her eyes found him.

She seemed young; Extra young, like a few years younger than Light. She was tiny, or at least Manaphy's were tiny. Light had never seen one in real life given how rare mythical class species were.

Manaphy turned her head up to the right as a Slowking came into view. He just shook his head at her, exhaling a big breath. His eyes went to Light.

"You alright down there?" Slowking called.

Light nodded. He shook and dusted himself off a little, then walked to the white walkway leading up to the ship. It was a little high, especially for the lack of guard railings, but Light didn't fear falling from the relatively low height.

Once Flareon Light reached on the wooden deck, he looked up from his feet and towards the Slowking and Manaphy. The Slowking seemed much older, but had a kind of gritty, intimidating strength in the way he met his eyes straight on.

"Hi!" Manaphy said. "I'm Jewel!"

"My name's Light," Flareon said.

"Chad," Slowking said. "Where's that explorer? The Lopunny?"

"Oh, well… He said that he was going to take a look around and… go somewhere? I'm not sure.."

Slowking Chad stared back at him, then nodded once. "Ah, he'll be alright. He's capable. He paid us to help you get to your next destination. What is it?"

"Yah. Kaigan," Light said.

"I'll get us on course," Chad said. "Jewel, show Light around and find him a room. It's just a bit of a trek."

"Right away!"

Chad walked away towards a large set of wooden double doors leading inside. While he did, Manaphy Jewel disappeared from Light's line of sight. When he looked back at the doors, they had been opened. Jewel stood to the side of them, tapping her foot on the floor like a hummingbird's wing.

Light bounded forward, past Slowking and towards the doors. Jewel darted inside.

Light stopped in place. He didn't even see her move, just a blue blur shooting inside. He glanced at Chad.

"Yeah," Chad sighed. "Sorry."

Light didn't know how to reply. He pushed his lips together and looked down as he entered.

The doors opened to a ramp leading down into a large, empty circular room. A caramel chandelier hung down from the eggshell ceiling, and a hallway on the other end of the area leading further inside.

Manaphy Jewel waited on the side of the room by a spiral staircase leading down. She shot down it once Light started walking down towards her.

Paintings on the dark, wood walls of the staircase tricked Light's brain into thinking he was outside. Given that he couldn't keep up with Jewel anyway, he spared a glance at each of them.

This rampway was smaller, but still big. The walls were close to making him feel claustrophobic, but there were paintings on the dark wood walls that tricked his head into thinking he was out on the ocean. He kept looking at each of the paintings all the way on the spiral path down.

Light reached a maze of hallways with velvet carpet and soothing lights on the ceiling. When he looked at Jewel, she darted away.

The twists and turns of the hallways took a bit more energy than it should have. Light only managed to see something like Jewel's afterimage. Chasing after her ached.

Luckily Jewel stopped in front of a room with its door already open after a couple of turns. This time, she stayed in place while Light walked closer to it. An empty name plate stuck to the door. Other doors seemed to have them, too.

When Light peeked into the room, a window on a cream wall showed him the beach from a different view. He liked it enough based on the window alone, but it also had a TV facing opposite of a white, fluffy bed and a firm-looking couch. There was a lot of empty space, but he liked the extra room.

Light blinked a few times, wondering how Jewel got on the bed when he had been looking right at it. She bounced up and down with a neutral expression.

"Guess it looks good, then," Jewel said. "I'll be around the ship, so you can just call for me out on the deck for anything."

"I do have a quick question," Light said slowly. "How do you move like that?"

"Uh, well… It's the same thing that everyone knows. Lifestyle, psychology… All the stuff that affects your body's energy and stuff. Are you hungry?"

"…What?"

Jewel bounced on the ground. "You look hungry."

"What do you mean 'look hungry' mean?" he asked.

"I'll take you to the pantry, bro. It's all good."

"I'm not hungry at this second…"

"O-kay," Jewel said, clearly unconvinced. "But I'll have stuff, in case I suddenly become hungry enough to eat a whale. Or two."

"Okay…"

Light spun around in place a little bit when the Manaphy sped past him, but she was already gone by the time he faced the now closed door. He groaned to himself and walked over to the bed. He hopped on top and walked in a short circle a few times before settling down facing the window.

His footsteps were still on the sand, leading up to the trail the walkway left in the dirt. He wondered how long they'd stay there for. Maybe a few days, or just a couple of hours. He'd remember them for a while.