Naru

Kage, Vero and I were all walking back from making a delivery to a small family in a town not too far away from the Nest. It wasn't far enough for us to be flown there, so we walked about nine miles to our destination. It was a semi-small town known as Spirit town. The houses there were all relatively small, but not quite as small as the one I used to live in. Other than the houses however, there wasn't much there. It was a very calm area, no roads or paths paved into the ground, just a grassy plain. There were many flowers growing all around the town, as well as the surrounding area that the pokemon of the town regulated and nurtured. There were also quite a few trees and bushes growing a variety of berries. It created a very colorful atmosphere, and I wished that Kuro was with us to see it. He had an obvious love for nature and peace, and I think this town would be a nice place for him to visit.

Maybe when we both get a free day I'll take him here…

The family we made the delivery to had a Mother, Father, and one child. The Mother was a calm Togekiss, the Father was an energetic Roserade, and the child was a small Togepi. They were all very nice pokemon, and they even showed us around the town, as well as the surrounding area as thanks for the delivery. As I said before, it was filled with nature, and it was a very peaceful area. The entirety of the family also made the tour more lively, and overall, it was a great time, especially for what was supposed to be a quick delivery and then a return trip. I was happy that all of the missions I've been on aside from the first one have been simple, and have not given any unwelcome surprises. I was very thankful for this, as getting nabbed by the Void was not something I want to have happen to me on a normal basis.

Vero and Kage were wrapped up in a strange conversation, something to do with one of Vero's abilities. Speaking of which, I never knew how many different things Vero was able to do. Kuro started to teach her a few things that was taught to him by Kai, and she now knows how to control her 'dark energy' as Kai refers to it. One strange thing about her is that she doesn't seem to have any drawback from using her energy like Kuro does. When he taught her how to do it, he specifically mentioned that the side-effect he has is very, very annoying, and how he still hasn't fully coped with it after a month of practicing with it. Yet, when she used it for the first time, nothing. No drowsiness, no hunger, no sickness, no extreme pain like Kuro, just... nothing. She was able to use tendrils from her claws and arms with ease. For a while, Kuro was confused greatly by this, but then Vero explained another one of her abilities, and he had an idea of why she didn't have a drawback. Vero has the ability to knock people out without really battling them. She said she focuses a 'strange energy' in one of her paws, and she can transmit that into another pokemon, knocking them out, assuming they aren't another dark type.

As soon as Kuro heard this, he theorized that the energy she had been using to do that was the same energy that was used to bring out tendrils. Since she had been doing this for a very long time, she had already adapted to using the energy, so her body didn't violently react when she tried to bring it out like it does with Kuro. To be honest, I didn't entirely understand his explanation, but he couldn't think of anything else, so I just shrugged and went with it.

It's not like I can think of a better idea…

The three of us made it back to the Nest, and Vero and Kage gave me a farewell, saying that they needed to go buy something from a shop. I nodded and said goodbye to both of them, before awkwardly standing in the middle of the Nest's plaza, wondering if there was anything else I could do. I very quickly came up blank and decided to return to Kuro and I's room. I figured I would eventually find something I could occupy my time here with when not on a mission, but it wasn't really an issue as of now other than boredom.

Once I made it up to the balcony our room was on, I looked over the railing, as I never really took in what exactly was right outside of our room. When I looked, I saw nothing but endless green. Our room was facing away from the rest of the Nest, which meant that we were facing nothing but miles of a peaceful field. I enjoyed this view, as it gave my mind a state of tranquility and peace. While I was looking over the fields of grass, I noticed a pokemon in the distance. It seemed to be walking in the opposite direction of the Nest, and it was too far away for me to discern what species it was. It looked like a spec of white and pink, but I dismissed it as a wild that was traveling somewhat close to the Nest. However, something was bothering me about it. I didn't know what it was, but that pokemon sent a strange feeling of… Dread? Anxiety? I didn't know how to describe it, but it wasn't a normal feeling for any pokemon in the wild. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I thought about it more, and I decided to cut my thoughts off and enter the room behind me.

Once I walked in, I was met with a usual sight. Kuro was sitting on the ground, against a wall, writing something in a notebook that he seemed to document a lot of events in. Apparently, he originally used it to keep track of everything he knew about the ones who attacked him when he was younger, but after a while, he started just using it to keep track of certain events that may be helpful to remember, such as when were taken on our first mission. I don't know how something like that would be forgotten, but better safe than sorry I suppose. I wondered when he would run out of paper in the thing, after all, he's been using it since we got here, and there wasn't an infinite number of sheets in between the two black covers, so he had to be close to running out of space.

Kuro looked up from his writing after I entered the room.

"Welcome back, Naru." He greeted me with a slight smile, which I returned.

"Hi Kuro! How was your training today?"

"Training went fine, as usual." He told me, but then changed his expression slightly. "Although, I had some interesting events happen to me after I finished training…"

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling slightly worried.

"Well…" He lifted his paw, pointing at his bed. "We may have a new roommate…" I looked over to where he was directing, and I didn't know how to react.

There was a very small Vulpix, asleep in Kuro's bed. It looked very young, and also had a color to it's fur that almost matched the lighter parts of mine. This was strange, as it was not the normal coloring for a Vulpix. I had heard previously that there is a far away place that contains pokemon of different coloring and outright different forms altogether than what most are used to and guessed that this Vulpix was one of those. However, I needed to ask questions, and as soon as I opened my mouth to do so, Kuro began to explain.

"This would be a young Vulpix that was actually hiding in one of the old storage areas of the Nest. I don't know how long she's been there, but I've actually been feeding her for quite a while now." Kuro explained, putting his paw back to the ground. "I would have said something to you, but she seemed to be extremely scared of any pokemon that came near her. I've been feeding her for the past month or so, and she still shivered in fear every time I came back. I didn't want to draw attention to her if that's how she was going to react to others." Kuro cast his gaze downwards. "Something happened that sort of forced me to break the schedule of feeding her that I had."

"What happened?" I simply asked.

"Well, after my training, I went over to the storage area, and the place she had been hiding for all this time in order to feed her like normal. Everything was going to be the same, but when I came close to the shack, I saw a rather suspicious looking pokemon enter, and that was followed by a scream from her." He pointed to the Vulpix once again. "As it turns out, the pokemon that entered the shack was an admin of the Void." Kuro said, prompting me to gasp.

"An Admin!?" I asked with a slightly panicked tone. "You ran into a pokemon like that!?" I barely knew anything about how the Void handled its members, but I knew they had to have some kind of recognition of those who are in an authoritative position, and I assumed that's what he was talking about.

"Yes I did." Kuro simply said. I was able to hear the tiredness in his voice. "He had some… Messed up plans for this Vulpix. So I tried my best to defend her from him. However, I knew from the first attack I was hit with that it wasn't likely I would win. Because of this, after managing to knock him down once, I used my tendrils to get the Vulpix out of there. I had to run to a forest first in order to not led him back to the Nest, and after distracting him there for a bit, I managed to get some distance between us, and used that opportunity to get away. Luckily, it looks like I pulled out by the skin of my teeth." Kuro finished explaining with a sigh.

"Wow… Sounds like an ordeal." I told him. I've only battled Void members once before, and it was on our first mission. The ones I fought were reasonably strong, and considering that Kuro lost all confidence in winning after one attack, I didn't want to think about the battle that he could have been forced into. "Either way, I'm glad you got out okay, and I'm glad you managed to rescue this Vulpix as well. Especially considering how young she is." I looked at Kuro and smiled. "Also you survived a fight with a Void admin, that has to be a sign of your progression."

Kuro chuckled and awkwardly twitched his ears, seemingly embarrassed at what I just said. This made me suppress a laugh. I looked over at the sleeping Vulpix. She was using Kuro's scarf as a blanket, which I assumed he draped over her after she fell asleep. I smiled at the thought, but I then noticed that the Vulpix was starting to stir. Kuro seemed to notice as well, and he put down his notebook and pen, walking a bit closer to her. He then turned his eyes to me.

"You may want to stand back a little bit, she may be afraid of you at first…" Kuro told me, and after listening to how she acted when he was bringing her food, I agreed, so I walked to the other end of the room. I probably didn't need to be that far away, but I didn't want to add to the discomfort that this Vulpix was most likely about to have.

After a minute or two of stirring, I saw the Vulpix slowly open her eyes. Once they were open, I saw her blue irises dart around the room a few times. She then looked very confused, and started to slightly shake. She looked scared, and I was about to say something to try and quell that, but then I saw saw Kuro slowly approach her, and he put on a soft smile.

"You don't need to be scared. Nobody here is going to hurt you." The Vulpix's eyes went to Kuro, and after a few seconds, I saw her shaking die down a bit. "I just took you back to where I live, the place you came from isn't safe anymore. Not only that, but it's almost fully destroyed, but this place isn't dangerous, so try to calm down." Kuro said, keeping a soft tone.

The Vulpix nodded her head, and it looked like she wasn't shaking at all anymore. It looked like she found comfort with Kuro, and I guessed that was because he just saved her from some psycho. Thinking about it more, I guess he did the same thing for me after we met...

"Now, I have someone that you should meet, and you don't need to be scared of her, she won't hurt you." Kuro looked at me and motioned to come closer with a slight swing of his neck, which I followed. "Also, I don't think I ever told you. My name is Kuro. This is Naru." He rose a paw and pointed at me, and I smiled at her. "Neither of us are going to hurt you. We both want you to be safe."

The Vulpix looked between Kuro and I a few times. She looked like she was observing us, as if checking if what Kuro was saying was true or not. She looked calm, which I was happy about. I didn't want this Vulpix to be scared around us, otherwise it would just make everything harder, for both us and her. Not to mention, her being calm meant that she was a least a little bit comfortable, and that was the most important thing at the moment.

"I-I'm okay." The Vulpix spoke. "I-I'm sorry if I was rude." I honestly wasn't expecting any speech from her, but I wasn't going to complain.

"You weren't rude at all." I told her, trying to have a tone as soft as Kuro's. "Anyone in your position would be scared, and considering what you've been through, I don't think you're being rude in the slightest."

"I agree." Kuro said after me. "You're acting naturally, no need to be sorry."

The Vulpix seemed slightly surprised by Kuro and I accepting her. You can see it in her facial expressions. It kind of reminded me of how I was surprised at Kuro not wanting to beat me to a pulp after I rammed into him the day I met him. Because of this connection. I wondered something.

What if… She had something similar happen to her..?

I stopped thinking about possibilities of why she was in an old storage unit for the Nest, mainly because I had a feeling that we were going to find out fairly soon. As I thought this, Kuro confirmed my prediction.

"Why exactly did you spend so much time in that shack?" Right after Kuro asked, the Vulpix shuddered slightly. "You don't need to say anything if you don't want to, no pressure." He assured her.

She seemed to pause and think for a minute, considering whether not to tell us the reason or not. After that minute passed, she took a breath and sighed slightly.

"I-I was in there because o-of something weird that h-happened." She said, before pausing and slightly shivering once more. "I-I used to live far away from here. I-I don't remember who I lived with, b-but I know it was with someone else, and t-that it was on an island. W-We went on a boat to go somewhere else one day, b-but these weird pokemon were o-on the boat, and they started to tie up all of t-the passengers. O-One of them took me to a d-dark place. I-I didn't know w-what was happening, b-but they gave me some weird medicine. A-After that, I-I couldn't remember where I-I came from, or w-who I was with." The Vulpix was back to shuddering heavily. It looked like Kuro was about to ask her to stop, but then she kept talking. "I-I spent a long time in the d-dark room, and I-I didn't know what was happening. O-One day, they left a d-door open and I-I ran out of it. I kept r-running until I found that small shack. T-Three days later, you came and gave me f-food." She lifted her head to Kuro.

Kuro and I both nodded throughout her story, and I didn't know what to think. She had been taken away from whoever was most likely watching over her in the past. To top that off, she didn't even know who watched over her in the past because of… medicine? Whoever kidnapped her gave her something that took away her memories, and if that's the case, she could have been in this 'dark room' for longer than she thought. The thing that's bothering me about her story is that if she got her memories taken from her by this weird pokemon, then why does she still vaguely know things from before they were erased? It was like the memory erasure wasn't complete, it just took away her ability to recollect specifics about the events she does remember. Like how she can remember that she lived with one other pokemon, but can't remember who that pokemon is. To me, this was strange.

I can speculate who took her from the boat… It was most likely a Void member, but I don't know for absolute certainty. Maybe I can get a better idea if I knew the species of pokemon that took her…

"Do you know what kind of pokemon took you to the dark room?" I asked, keeping my tone low.

"I-I don't know the name of i-it. The top half of its b-body was green, and the bottom was w-white. He had red eyes, but one of them looked like it was cut badly." She said, and I noticed Kuro shudder slightly, and watched his eyes widen for a split second. "He didn't have n-normal hands or paws, he had long b-blades."

After this was said, I knew exactly who had taken her, and my suspicions of why she was taken were cleared up.

She was taken by the Void… And I know what member of the Void took her, and Kuro knows too.

"Thank you for being brave and telling us that." Kuro said, before smiling at her. "On a lighter topic, what's your name?"

The Vulpix seemed to pause, not knowing what to say. This confused me at first, but then a possibility popped into my head.

"I-I don't remember my n-name." She simply answered.

I was afraid of that. Her memories are almost all lost, with the exception of the vague ideas she has about her past. The entire thing just made me sad. The fact that this girl can't be older than eleven and she has already been through something this traumatic without anything from the past to comfort her just upset me. I also started to draw parallels to Kuro and I, as the whole 'being on your own at a young age thing' seemed to be a constant in pokemon I've been meeting for a while.

Because of this, I knew that we couldn't leave her behind.

"Then, why don't we give you a name?" I suggested, and the Vulpix tilted her head.

"L-Like what?" She asked, and I went deep into thought. The thought of her not knowing her own name being confirmed for me only saddened me more, but this further motivated me to give her a name, one that fit her, and one that she would appreciate.

If only I could think of a name for my life…

I was never good at thinking of names, for pokemon or inanimate objects, thinking of a name for something was not my strong suit, but above all, I wanted her to have a name that she liked, and one that would make her feel okay, or at least, slightly better about the sudden situation she found herself in without her memories.

The only problem was, I came up blank. I was about to scold myself for my lack of creativity, but my thoughts were interrupted.

"What about Shiro?" Kuro asked. Both the Vulpix and I looked at him with an intrigued look, making him flustered beyond belief. "O-Of course, only if you like it, it was just the first name that came to my head." Kuro looked like he was blushing, but the Vulpix looked ecstatic.

"T-That sounds great!" She said happily. It was the first time since she woke up that she not only smiled, but looked genuinely happy. The sight made me smile, and Kuro was too, despite the slight blush still on his face. However, I saw her mood slightly drop, confusing me. "I-I appreciate it, b-but won't I be a b-burden?" Her asking this made my heart crack, but Kuro didn't drop his smile, and he softly put a forepaw on her head.

"Of course you wouldn't be a burden." He said. "I know you haven't had the best experience since you lost your memory, and you've been put in a lot of danger since then, but as long as you're here, you'll be safe. Before, you were living in a very unsafe place, and what kind of pokemon would we be if we made you leave? The two of us will make sure you stay safe." Kuro took his paw off of her head. "You won't be a burden, we want you here, Shiro."

Shiro then smiled again, and then bowed her head down. It looked like she was holding back tears.

"T-Thank you!" She said, and wiped away one drop that left her eyelids.

I smiled at the sight. I also noticed how well Kuro can comfort others when they needed it. He did the same for me in the past, and in almost in the exact same manner after he helped me from that Gallade. It was a bit strange considering his experience with social situations before he came to the Nest. He knew exactly what to say a lot for someone who didn't speak to anyone outside of his family for the first sixteen years of his life. Yet, he still stays silent a majority of the time when he's in a conversation with more than one other pokemon. I wondered if it was an issue with his confidence. He was very much aware of his lack of experience in social situations compared to everyone else, and I think this results in him not having confidence in normal social situations. It really was a shame, because I think his social skills are a lot better than he gives himself credit for.

I wonder if I can do something to help him with that..?

After some time passed, Shiro went back to sleep, realizing that it was getting fairly late. It looked like she was very tired, and I wasn't sure as to why, but after thinking about the day she must have had, it made sense to me. I looked over to the side of the room to see Kuro yawning, and also leaning against the wall. He was clearly exhausted from the events of earlier that day, but he didn't show it until now. I could see the fatigue in his eyes, and then a small thought occurred to me.

He… Doesn't have a bed for the time being… Does he?

After realizing this, I noticed that Kuro was preparing himself to sleep while leaning against the wall, which didn't look too good for his back. He needed to train with Kai again tomorrow, so sleeping like that before his training probably wasn't the best idea. After thinking about this, one thought led to another, and I felt heat rush to my face. I shook my head out of my current thoughts, but I knew they would just continue to prevail in my mind until I said something.

"H-Hey, Kuro?" I said, stuttering a bit. Kuro picked his head up and looked at me. "A-Are you sure it's a good idea to sleep like that when you have to got to another training tomorrow?"

"Well, I sort of lent my bed away, so I'll deal with it until I convince someone to give us a third bed." Kuro responded.

"Y-Yeah, but it's probably not good for you, especially considering the wounds you usually come back with." I told him, preparing myself for giving Kuro a possible solution. "I-I think it w-would be better if you s-slept properly. Why don't you take my bed? I don't have anything straining to do tomorrow."

"I'm not going to take your bed from you just so I'm not sore while training." He told me. "I can deal with whatever soreness I have tomorrow."

I didn't think that was the best decision. It would definitely hamper his ability to train, and I didn't want to think about what Kai might do if Kuro doesn't perform properly. I knew next to nothing about how the two of them interacted while training, but I imagined that it wasn't always pleasant, considering who Kai was. Because of this, I really didn't want Kuro to show up tomorrow without being at his best. However, knowing that Kuro wasn't going to budge, I had a suggestion for him.

"T-Then, so Kai doesn't hassle you tomorrow," I stuttered out before pausing slightly. "W-Why don't we just share a bed for a night!?" I spouted really quickly, and louder than I intended.

I looked at Kuro after I embarrassingly spouted this, and noticed that his body stiffened slightly, making him slightly lean away from the wall and look at me. I saw a very flustered look in his face, and I didn't blame him after I said something so absurd. His ears twitched a few times, and for a second, I thought his rings flashed a small light.

"W-What?" He asked me. "U-Umm, are you sure you want to do something like that?"

"I-I just don't want Kai to hassle you when you train tomorrow. I-If you're sore, you might not perform as well, and K-Kai probably wouldn't take kindly to t-that." I told him, not being able to get rid of my stutter.

He seemed to process what I said, as if actually considering what Kai would do if he didn't perform.

"R-Regardless of what I say, you're not going to let me sleep without a bed, are you?" He asked me. I shook my head in his direction.

"I-It's bad for you, especially if you need to do something strenuous." I told him, focusing on getting rid of my stutter, but taking note of his at the same time.

"O-Okay then." Kuro responded, before getting up and yawning again.

I was already sitting on my bed, and Kuro walked over and then sat on it next to me. He was facing the other direction, towards the rest of the room, while I was facing the wall behind the bed. The two of us both laid down in the small bed, facing opposite directions in order to minimize the awkwardness of the situation. I felt Kuro's fur rub up against my back, which made my body heat up. It really didn't help that the bed was definitely only made for one pokemon. I doubted my ability to sleep like this, but I had to deal with it, regardless of the feeling I had right now. But, even know I felt a lot of awkwardness, I couldn't help but feel a tad comfortable at the same time. This led to a lot of conflicting thoughts in my head, but I brushed them away and told myself to stop thinking.

This was my idea after all… Maybe talking will make the situation easier to handle… I need to talk with Kuro about something anyway…

"You could tell who was in the 'dark room' with Shiro, right?" I asked him, breaking the awkwardness a little bit.

"Yeah, I could." He responded, shifting slightly. Feeling his fur move against my back made my body warm up even more. "I should've known a threat wasn't enough to keep him away from actions like that." I heard him sigh. "But, there's something else about him being there that bothers me."

"What about it?" I asked him curiously.

"Shiro said that I came into the storage shack three days after she ended up there. Since she got there by running, the area she was being held in can't be too far away the Nest, maybe a few miles at most. However, Myriad was a large distance away, and that Gallade tried to attack you the day before we applied to join the Nest." I started to process what Kuro was wondering about. "If I found Shiro three days after she left, than that means that she saw the Gallade at least three days before our first mission. If I remember correctly, three days before our first mission was right after I gave him that eye wound during the night of the previous day. Because of this, I've been wondering how he could've traveled such a distance in that short amount of time. It really doesn't make sense to me."

I thought about what Kuro said, and he was right. The ride from Myriad to the Nest was definitely more than ten hours, and that was on a vehicle. That Gallade may have also had a fast way of travelling, but it would need to be faster than our method of travel. A lot faster. I didn't know how fast the aircraft we were on traveled, but I'd imagine that if we needed to get to the Nest in a reasonable amount of time, then it had to be pretty fast. Initially, I thought about the Void's ship, but the structure of that really didn't look like it favored speed, it reminded me more of a fortress than something used primarily for transportation. However, if it wasn't that, than how exactly did he get so far so quickly?

"I don't think it's a good idea to think about it too much right now, it's starting to make my head hurt." I told Kuro, who let out a small chuckle.

"I know what you mean. This combined with everything else we have to think about since arriving here has had my head spinning the whole time." I also chuckled a little bit. "We just need to be patient. I'm sure if we keep going the way we are, we'll get our questions all answered eventually, it'll just take some time and effort."

I agreed with what Kuro was saying and decided to ignore the rising questions in my head for now. It was true that the longer we stayed here, the more information we're getting about the subjects that rotate around our questions. The longer we kept on doing what we were doing, the more information that we would get, and the closer we would get to answering our questions. I wanted to further ask for Kuro's thoughts on the matter, and how close he has gotten to answering some of the questions in his head, but I heard that his breathing had become steady. I slightly sat up and looked at him to see him peacefully sleeping. I smiled at the sight, and felt my tiredness catch up with me as well. I went back to my original position and closed my eyes until I felt sleep pull me in.

Kage

I was peacefully laying in my bed, happy to be resting after a day that wasn't spent getting beat up by my mentor. I definitely trained with Xen more than I went out of a mission of some kind. Because of this, I salvaged every day that I was able rest in my bed without feeling extremely sore. I thought I would start to hold a candle to Xen after training with him for long enough, but neither Blitz or myself have been able to even hit him consistently. I felt myself improving, but the difference between me and Xen was absurdly large, to the point that after a month of training with him almost every day, I still feel like he always does something new, and always gives Blitz and I a surprise. It frustrated me at some points, but because I was improving, I didn't feel the need to criticize his teaching. I sighed, knowing that I would be dealing with the same training tomorrow.

At least he actually lets us leave now…

I wondered if everyone's mentors were as strong as Xen, as the information I have from others' about their mentors doesn't give me a chance to compare them to Xen in any way. Apparently, Naru's is strong enough to constantly knock her around, but she can actually damage her mentor after some time, something I couldn't do for my life. Vero didn't have a mentor, so I couldn't compare anything with her. Kuro said that he couldn't tell if he was really damaging his mentor at all. According to him, his mentor tried to make their training emulate a real battle as much as possible, and Kuro said he notices his mentor slowing down a bit towards the end of each of their sessions, but he doesn't know if it's from damage received, or just being tired after a long session of training. Either way, I could tell that everyone I talked to in the Nest was improving in their battling, which meant that we all have good mentors.

There was something that I noticed about Kuro though. I had been watching him help Vero train multiple times in the past due to her not having a mentor and Kuro being the same type as her. Whenever I see him train with someone else, or even by himself, I can't help but notice how quickly he's been improving since the battle we had in the finals of the applicants' tournament. His growth was almost unnatural, and I'm not the first one who had that thought. It was something that Naru mentioned to Vero and I, and apparently Kuro's mentor said the same thing to him at one point. I wondered if it was because of his mentor's training that he was growing at the rate he was, or if it was something to do with him.

I wonder if he has any idea why his improvement is so fast…

Thinking so much about training brought up a few memories from before I joined the Nest. There were all memories of me battle training with others, preparing myself for whatever I had to face when I tried to come here. Thinking back, that training was probably the only reason why I managed to finish first in the applicant's' tournament. Had I not known how to engulf my fur in electricity and control it, Kuro most definitely would have gotten the better of me in that battle.

I looked over to the small table next to my bed, and stared at a picture, the only thing I actually brought to the Nest other than a bag. It was a picture of a large group of Luxios, as well as a few Shinx, and one Luxray. I was one of the Luxios at the time, and this was a tribe of sorts that I came from. I was raised in the tribe to be a warrior, someone to help others in the future and train the younger members of the tribe. I remembered all of other tribe members, as well as the Luxray who taught me basics of battling before I left for the Nest. all of my thoughts made me smile lightly.

"Reminiscing a bit?" Vero asked me from the other side of the room, her also laying in her bed.

"Just thinking back to a few friends who I used to talk to." I said, keeping my smile. "Did you have anyone you had to barge through in order for you to try and join the Nest?" I asked her. She chuckled at my wording.

"I just lived with my mom before I came here, and she was all for me trying to join the place that opposed the Void, even if she didn't know exactly who they were." She told me. "After all, apparently everyone here has at least one previous experience with the Void at one point, and I'm willing to bet that's the reason for most pokemon applying to this place initially."

I thought back to a previous experience I had with the rest of my tribe, and I immediately brushed it away, not wanting to think about it.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Hopefully everyone here gets a chance to cause some havoc to Void." I said.

"I agree." Vero responded before yawning. "Well, I need sleep, and considering your mentor, I suggest you sleep as well."

"Don't remind me…" I grunted.

Vero chuckled at my remark and layed on her back and closed her eyes. I then curled up in my bed, waiting for my drowsiness to get the better of me.

Hello readers!

Just wanted to say that I will be elaborating a lot more on the pasts of Kage and Vero in the future to make certain events more clear, as well as explain their experiences with the Void, I just wanted to clarify that I won't leave both of their pasts as vague pictures painted in this chapter.

Also, I want to apologize for my inability to come up with decent names for characters. I kind of suck at thinking of names, and the ones I've picked so far are pretty basic. For those of you who don't know, Kuro means black in Japanese, and Shiro means white. See how creative that is? Not very. Hopefully as new characters get introduced in the story, I will think of better names.

I once again want to thank everyone who has sent helpful reviews, PMs, etc. I appreciate all criticism and kind words, as it makes me a better writer and subsequently makes me feel utmost joy in my heart! (I wonder how much more cheesy I can get with these…)

See you next chapter!