The Past Speaks:
Bronzor and I had been walking along route 206 for about 3 hours after leaving the wayward caves and so far had been lucky enough to avoid any encounters with other wild Pokémon or any other mishaps. While walking I had my compass out, not really to see which direction I needed to go but because Bronzor enjoyed floating around it as a form of entertainment. Meanwhile using my other hand I was poking through my pokédex, examining the options available to me. So far I had found that it had the obvious pokédex part, the map which I had already found, various places to record notes and take photos, as well as a Trainer ID. Clicking it open revealed a rather bland photo of me along with my information.
Name: Aaron Carter, TrainerID: 31815, Age: 14, DOB: March 30th, 451 APB, License issued: March 30th, 461 APB, Money: 5000.
Huh, well at least I'm not totally broke. It appears that I was issued my license on my tenth birthday according to the info. It all did not really make sense. What did APB mean? It seemed like the year, but what about all the information about me? I was still me. I had the same name and same look as I did when I was 14. So it didn't appear as though I had taken over someone else's life, which was a relief to me, and meant I wouldn't have to pretend to be anyone else other than myself. But how could I have been issued a trainer license if I hadn't existed before today?! All of it was very confusing. At least I had the necessary information to at least show who I am if questioned when I finally get to civilization.
Speaking of, Bronzor and I had been walking for a while and it was starting to get dark. I have a general idea of how far we had traveled due to the map, but it appeared that we had only made it halfway to Oreburgh city after over 3 hours of walking. I guess for the game they really had to shrink the size of the world. The path hadn't been too hard. There were signs of a partially overgrown dirt path that we had been following. Grass had grown over several portions and in several places it looked like some sort of ground or rock Pokémon had dug through the path. It was rough but manageable and looked like it hadn't been used all that much in a while. Which made sense with the bike path above. Why walk the path where you might get attacked when you can bike over it without any trouble?
Regardless, I decided we should stop for the night. Not only did I not want to chance running into a Pokémon in the middle of the night, but my legs were killing me. I had finally gotten used to their shorter length during our walk, but it still left me with my 14-year-old physical ability which, while not terrible, was not quite ready for the large hike to Oreburgh in one go.
Resting my back against a tree off the path I settled my backpack in my lap and dug out my water and granola bars. I had done my best to conserve water on my walk and still had roughly half of the bottle left. It should last until we get to Oreburgh. Opening up a granola bar I spared a glance over to my traveling partner. Bronzor had been very well behaved during the trip. Besides playing with my compass and occasionally floating over to look at my pokédex as I looked over it, Bronzor had not made much of a fuss at all. It liked to check in every once and a while by gently using its psychic ability to connect with me. It was never annoying and more like asking how I was. In a way it was also comforting to have the little Pokémon care about how I was. I had chatted with it a bit but mostly Bronzor seemed to just send over its feelings to what I was saying. None of it came across as words or sentences but it still got the point across. I was not entirely sure the Bronzor line was capable of full psychic speech or if this was the limit of their communication. It was something worth looking into later. "Hey Bronzor" I called over to where Bronzor had been resting on a rock.
Bronzor floated the top portion of its body up enough to make eye contact and sent over a questioning feeling. "Would you mind coming over here? The Pokédex has a scan function to tell me about whatever Pokémon I scan. Would you mind if I scanned you real quick?" I shook the pokédex in emphasis to my point. Bronzor floated over before plopping down on my backpack in front of me. It nodded gently before closing its eyes and resting back on my backpack. Taking that as a yes, I raised the pokédex up and quickly scanned Bronzor.
Bronzor: The Bronze Pokémon. Height: 1' 08". Weight: 133 lbs. Genderless. Ability: Levitate. Known moves: Confusion, Hypnosis, Iron Defense, and Confuse Ray. There are researchers who believe this Pokémon reflected like a mirror in the distant past.
Hmm interesting. Bronzor must have been levitating when it floated into my chest. Otherwise it would have squished me because I am sure it weighs more than me. The entry didn't give as much information as I had hoped but I suppose for the purposes of training it was all that was needed. I was hoping they could give me a bit more on proper care for the line but I guess I will have to research that myself. However the entry did give me an idea. Gently tapping on Bronzor to get its attention I showed it the pokédex. "How would you like a name? Based on the entry it says your line was thought to be like a mirror in the past. There's a story of a goddess named Amaterasu that had a mirror known as the Yata no Kagami that was supposed to reveal the truth of whatever it reflected. So how about we call you Kagami?" I suggested.
Bronzor tilted back and forth for a bit, seeming to think on the suggestion. I felt waves of contemplation and intrigue flow over our mental connection. Finally Bronzor floated over and stared before nodding resolutely. Breaking out into a grin I placed my hand along the rim of its circular body, gently rubbing back and forth. The newly named Kagami released a metallic hum before settling again on my backpack, enjoying the feel of my hand running over its metal form.
We stayed like this for a while, both enjoying the time to relax after walking for so long. I could tell the journey had tired out Kagami as well. The metallic humming continued as I ran my fingers over the leaf symbol on Kagami's back. The symbol indented slightly while the 6 orb like structures near the rim seemed to balance out Kagami's weight. The coloration seemed to resemble oxidized metal, with portions being a deeper blueish green color, especially near the orbs, while the inner disc was lighter. Were Bronzor originally less oxidized? How long did they live for? Was it possible that Kagami was really from ancient times? It made me want to learn more from it and see what it could tell me.
I knew from the Legends: Arceus game that the Sinnoh region had formerly been called the Hisui region and that prior to the arrival of the Diamond and Pearl clans there had been a culture known as the Celestica people. These people were responsible for some of the extensive ruins found in the region and the Archaeologist in me wanted to know more.
Where had the Celestica culture gone? If they were capable of building places like Snowpoint Temple, they must have had some way of either befriending or keeping Pokémon away during construction. And this was at least 1000 years before pokéballs were made. It made the question of where they went even more mysterious. These people were obviously very capable of living in a world where Pokémon could force them out. To gain enough footing to live a sedentary lifestyle to the point of building huge structures suggested that they were both able to keep Pokémon from damaging their buildings, but also well off enough to support the people working on building the structures while still feeding the population. Modern construction in the Pokémon world had assistance from Pokémon such as the Machop line, so maybe the Celestica people also had help from Pokémon.
It also brings up the question of if the Celestica people worshiped certain Pokémon similarly to how the Diamond and Pearl clans did. I felt it was almost certain that they had in the case of Snowpoint Temple. Why else would Regigigas reside inside the temple? It also made sense that worship of a legendary could give them the confidence to build such a structure. It could also answer the question on how they kept other Pokémon from damaging the structure. I doubt other Pokémon want to mess with something that basically is dedicated to a legendary. But that still left the question. Where did these people go?
As my mind drifted in between these topics I slowly felt the encroachment of sleep edge in. Kagami was already resting on my backpack and appeared to be asleep, if the Bronzor line slept that is. Mindful not to jostle Kagami, I got as comfortable as I could against the bark of the tree. Hopefully we would stay undisturbed through the night. I felt some of Kagami's psychic awareness spread around us so I hoped if something did try to mess with us Kagami would notice it. Luckily it was summer so the Sinnoh region climate was still rather pleasant. I would have to get better camping gear eventually. My eyes and my limbs felt heavy as I drifted off to sleep.
Flashes of images passed. A temple blown to bits, a tear in the sky, light flashing over the world, shadows reaching from the depths, clawed and hungering, panic and fear radiating from people and Pokémon alike. Suddenly a bright light pushed against the shadows. Both burst into wild flashes of power erasing all the other images. Only two silhouettes remained. One of light and one of shadow. Both turned on the other and rushed towards its opposite. Light became dark. Dark became light.
I woke with a startled gasp. Cold sweat ran down my neck as I fought to bring my breath under control. My body shook slightly. Was that just a nightmare? Or was it something more? I knew what I had seen. I had seen it before, but never so real. Seeing it in a game was one thing but to see it like that. I fought to not shudder.
Kagami nudging me in the shoulder brought me back to the present. Waves of concern and worry passed over to me. I gently rested my hand on top of Kagami's rim. "I'm fine Kagami, just a nightmare. No need to worry."
Kagami stared for a moment longer, assessing me before tentatively nodding. I shook the last bits of sleep from my mind before standing up. The sun was just rising over the horizon. I wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore, not unless I had Kagami use hypnosis on me, that is, so might as well get moving. I grabbed my backpack and prepared myself a gourmet breakfast of granola. While munching away I glanced over at Kagami. What do Bronzor eat? Do they eat? Kagami had shown no interest whatsoever in the granola I had eaten and did not appear to have any sort of mouth structure. I knew that the line gained some sort of mouthlike part once it evolved to Bronzong but it still didn't answer if they needed to eat. You would think the pokédex would have given some info on that, but I guess not. "Hey Kagami, are you hungry? I don't really know if Bronzor need to eat so please let me know if you need something."
Kagami looked at me in confusion for a second before shaking its body back and forth negatively. Suddenly the image of rocks and what I could only assume was psychic energy passed through my mind. "Huh?" I blinked in confusion. Kagami made a metallic sigh before more images appeared. Me eating a granola bar before the same images of ores and energy, and then an image of the energy and ore flowing into Kagami.
"Oh! I get it now! You get your sustenance for ores and psychic energy, right?" I asked. Kagami nodded excitedly before floating in a loop around me while cheering. Well at least that is one less thing to worry about. "Well alright. Just let me know if we need to stop to find some ores. Let's head out. I wanna try to make it to Oreburgh before noon so we have a chance to look around."
With that, we began walking again. I once again pulled out my compass for Kagami, lifting it up for the bronze Pokémon to circle, and we set off on our way. There was a slight chill in the air as the residual cold of the night gave way to the rising sun. Kagami floated along next to me, occasionally deviating to mess with the compass or explore the surroundings. Several Starly flew overhead, some led by larger Staravia, and I saw a few Geodude amongst the scattered rocks and boulders. Mindful not to step on one and piss them off I kept my eyes on the path.
We continued in this fashion for several hours before I began to smell something between smoke and dust. Just over the tree line I could see plumes of what looked like industrial smoke. Kagami and I picked up our pace and within a few moments finally reached our destination. Oreburgh spread before us, multiple mining structures surrounding a hodgepodge of large buildings. We had finally made it.
"Well, ready for civilization Kagami?" I asked. "Bronz!" called back Kagami excitedly. I grinned. "Then let's go!"
