Kuro

It had been a while coming, but I couldn't stand here without a scarf and not shiver. Fur was a really nice quirk to have when cold weather was involved, but it didn't block all of it out. You needed to be an ice type of some sort for that, otherwise you're at the mercy of the cold. My breath created a light mist in front of my eye. For some reason, I liked watching my breath form in front of me. It didn't entertain me particularly, but it made me smile on occasion. Maybe I was still losing my mind.

"Say, shouldn't you be leaving soon?" The luxray to my right asked, sitting in one of the many fields of the nest.

"I don't have anywhere to be anymore, so nope." I replied, closing my eyes and taking in the cool air. Weather didn't bother me, and I liked cold air more than warm air. The only problem is that I have a much harder time bathing in the moonlight during winter.

"You got canceled on? That's sort of… unprofessional." Kage leaned his head onto the ground.

"It's not like this hasn't happened before though, I shouldn't really be surprised." I sighed and looked up to the cloudy sky. "Really do wish that I could do something more productive."

"Well, at least it's unlikely to happen for two days in a row. Maybe today would be a good day to go for the tests you were suggested." Kage suggested. Tests…

"That's a good point… even if I'd rather not think about it." I tilted my head and recollected. "Last time I ended up with much more soreness than I would have liked for what was supposed to be a measurement of abilities."

"Very true… although it would still be nice to get it over with!" Kage encouraged.

"That's true." I tapped my paw a few times. "I suppose it's possible that I won't be tossed around like before, maybe a different method is in place."

"Yeahhhhh, I doubt that." Kage interjected. "But still, better to get it over with as opposed to living every day in dread of something that won't even take very long." It's more about the physical punishment than the length…

"Then I guess I'll be heading over there now." I stood up. I wasn't exactly excited for the impromptu day off, so I may as well bite the bullet on something like this while I had the chance. Technically there was no reason not to pursue annoying tasks on days where nothing else was going on.

"I bid you good luck. Try not to let your bones break." Kage laid his head on the ground, seemingly unaffected by the colder atmosphere. I nodded my head absentmindedly and made my way across the stale scenery of the Nest as I normally would.

One short trip later, and I arrived at my destination. A wooden door matching most that I've seen here, though the Raven symbol in the center of it sharing a deeper shade of violet than what the rest of the Nest drowned itself in. I tapped my forepaw on the bottom half of said door a few times. An audible clearing of one's throat was easily heard from the other side. The door then flew open the direction opposite of mine, as if it had been tugged with much more force than necessary. Yet on the other side, there was nobody within reach of it. Only further back sat the froslass I was here to see, resting on what looked like a blanket with some papers at the edge of it. Hung up on the dark-colored walls were more papers of a similar look, though I couldn't read them from where I was standing. How did she just open this door exactly?

"Ah! Hello there!" I was greeted cheerfully. "Waltz in here and we shall speak." Shard stacked the few papers laid out on the blue blanket and laid them to the side, gesturing for me to walk forward. Right after my first two steps, the door behind me slammed shut, once more with way more intensity that shutting a door requires. Just the crack of the door hitting its frame made me jump a little.

"May I ask how you're… doing that?" I curiously inquired, glancing back at the door for a quick second.

"Juuuuuust a new trick I'm trying to get down. Explaining it to you would take… a long time. So don't worry about it!" She awkwardly laughed and floated to a standing position, just barely off the ground. "Whatcha here for?"

"The test you asked me about. I have nothing to do today, so I figured it would be a good time." I replied, looking at the gleeful icy pokemon.

"Nothing to-" She shook her head. "Your mentor is where exactly?"

"Good question. I was told that he wouldn't be here, not the reason." I shrugged a little. "Can't complain about a day to get things like this done."

"I'mgonnahurthim-" Shard mumbled and quickly inhaled. "Besides the point! Now hold still while I observe you." Pardon?

Shard floated over to me and lowered her head to my height, putting one of her arms under her face as if trying to think of something. After floating around me for a moment or two, staring and admittedly making me very uncomfortable, she came back to face me directly.

"So I'm gonna squeeze your foreleg, try your best not to scream in pain, kay?" She asked, extending her arm and grabbing my left foreleg. I just sort of blankly stared forward, processing what was just asked of me.

"You don't want me to… scream? So you're going to make me want to scream? In pain?" I tried to clarify.

"Oh yeah, you'll definitely want to scream." Shard casually informed.

"I'm sorry but what-" My voice squeaked and was cut off when Shard began gripping my foreleg tighter, and the pain I was just warned of came up instantly. I did as told and grit my teeth, trying my best to pretend it didn't feel like I was trapped under a boulder at the moment.

"Hmm… You're such a weird pokemon." She stated, however I could barely make it out. The task of not letting myself scream was way more difficult than I anticipated for the brief moment I had to mentally prepare. Before I had to resort to digging into the ground with my claws, the pressure on my foreleg was released, and I let out a sharp breath, falling onto my stomach and covering the portion she grabbed with my other leg.

"W-Whyyy…" I grunted, breathing much more heavily than I probably should have been from a twenty second grab.

"I needed to check something real quick. We didn't need a full battle for me to check how strong your muscles are currently." Shard cleared her throat and brought out one of the papers that was laid out on her blanket earlier, looking down at it and then back at me. "Now then, there's something very… confusing about you right now. Shall I explain?"

"An explanation as to the reason I needed to endure that would be nice, yes…" I replied with a sigh.

"Your body shouldn't be too tough right now. You went a long while with a non-existent diet, no exercise or even movement really, as well as intense forces on your body. For all intensive purposes, your body should be weaker than it was before all that. HOWEVER-" Shard inhaled dramatically. "That grip I just had on you? Shoulda broken your leg if that was the case. In fact, I probably would have shattered your bones beyond repair."

"So you're telling me you just risked-"

"BUT I DIDN'T!" Shard shouted defensively. "There are no problems with my ways of doing things. Kai's testimony that your body seemed more firm than before was plenty. Your body is stronger for some reason, way more resilient than it was prior to this incident."

"Are you sure about that? I don't really feel any different. If anything, I still feel out of it." I replied skeptically.

"Well you can trust what you think you feel, or you can trust the non-shattered foreleg you're currently rubbing." She cleared her throat. "From what you described to us of your recent experiences, the combat you went through should have crippled you for a little bit. Not very long, but you shouldn't be able to walk normally right now considering what came beforehand. Yet here you are, able to freely walk around the Nest, and even get back into training yourself a little. Somehow your injuries, while they still exist, became less severe because of… something." I'm not following.

"You're totally unaware of what may cause this apparent change? It just popped up out of nowhere?" I had a hard time believing something like that was remotely possible.

"Well, the closest thing I have to a theory is something I stole from Core. He said that there's a possibility that you encountered something that may cause… complications in the future. Not directly to you, however it may have, how you say, put you out there." Put me out there? As in make me a target for something? "Good news is that the Void has no way of knowing about it, and thus they won't be interested."

"If not the Void, then who would be interested?" I questioned.

"You see, that's what he didn't tell me. Some weird secret he's keeping to himself." Shard looked up with a questioning expression. "He knows more than me, but I wouldn't bother asking. If he wanted you to know, he'd tell ya directly, or he'd tell me. Plus it's just a theory! Nothing confirmed yet." A theory that's scaring me more than it should...

"How much did this… something affect my body?" I asked, diverting attention from the how.

"Not a super large amount. I feel like this would be how you ended up had you never stopped training in the first place, judging by your pace of improvement before." Shard spun herself in a circle and sat back down on the ground, back on her blanket. "I do wonder though, if it has any other effects on your mind or body. This is making me curiousssss."

"Well if we don't even know what it is, there isn't much of a point in thinking about it much." I sighed to myself. Right when I thought I was done doing mental gymnastics, yet another topic to think about. My hopes and prayers for new subjects to hold off for a bit have gone unanswered.

"I'll see if I can interrogate Core for more information! Well he's like, the only one I can't really do that with, but I'll try!" I nodded absentmindedly. Honestly though, I would have preferred the physical pressure than more hoops to jump through in my brain.

Before I could thank Shard for informing me about all of this, another knock came from the door behind me. I instinctively tilted my head towards it.

"Ooh! Watch this!" Shard exclaimed in an excited tone. She slowly raised her arm and took a breath. Her face took on a focused look, contrasting what I usually see from her expressions. I felt a small breeze cross one of my ears, making me turn my head completely to the aforementioned door. I don't know what I was expecting, but the door flying off of its frame and in my direction wasn't at the top of that list. I ducked my head down and essentially buried my body into the ground as the mass flew over me, crashing into the wall opposite that of its starting position. I slowly turned my head to Shard, who now had a look between surprise and disappointment. She brought one of her arms up and wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead.

"So uh… That wasn't what I meant to do." Shard awkwardly laughed. "You can come in whoever you are!"

I mentally sighed and pushed myself off of the ground, wondering if she would have gotten disciplined if she had smacked me in the head and knocked me out right there. A cool breeze flowed in from the now broken door, forcing a shiver out of me. Following the breeze, a small figure walked walked into the room. A small, white-furred fox, with a brown bag wrapped around her body firmly. The thing was about half of her body's size, it surprised me she was able to so effortlessly keep it up. Her eyes very confusingly stagnated on the detached door, propped up diagonally against the adjacent wall. She was visibly confused, as would anyone be in that situation.

"I-I um… I have something for y-you." She said in a soft voice, leaning down so her bag laid on the floor. I smiled as she reached her head down into the bag to grab something, amused at the new role she had taken on. Shard traveled over to Shiro, hovering in front of her and leaning down.

"How ya doing with this? Not too much legwork?" Shard slowly rotated around Shiro as she spoke, observing how she was holding up. At least, that's what it looked like.

"I-I think I'm doing okay. I-I just have to get used to it." Shiro replied, slightly muffled due to her head being stuffed into a bag.

"Awesome! Just make sure not to get lost. I've done that before!" Shard proclaimed proudly. Somehow, it didn't surprise me that she'd be the admin to get lost in her own domain. Seems like a Shard thing to do.

Shiro's head popped out of the bag, a small note clasped in her maw. She tilted her head up towards Shard, and it was snatched from her mouth. "Thank you! Your deliveries are very appreciated!" Shiro's tails individually swayed against one another, a small smile spreading over her face. Her eyes slowly drifted in my direction after the small burst of excitement dissipated.

"Hi! What are you doing here?" Shiro asked, her head slanting to the side curiously. She always had the same desiring glint in her eyes when she asked questions.

"Just here to finish something up that I hadn't gotten to yet." I let a smile creep up on my face. "Are you staying on schedule?" Shiro gave a gleeful and happy nod.

"Of course! I'm never behind!" She exclaimed with excitement. "I'm starting to learn my way around better too, almost the whole thing! Though once I tripped and lost my bearings and um… n-needed to ask for help to get back." Her energy dropped a little at the end of her sentence. I was still impressed at the progress she's made, a few mistakes were expected.

"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with getting help from Ravens, you have a hard job after all." I reassured. I don't think Shiro ever realized that she did much more than, well, she really should be. The age range of Ravens varied for sure, Pokemon who weren't even quite fully matured yet were allowed in, Naru and I being examples. Shiro was even younger than that, and despite us not knowing by exactly how much, it didn't change the face that she performed exceptionally.

"I suppose so." Shiro gave a small sigh. "I'll get better at it though!" She proudly lifted her head, turning back towards the entrance to the room. "I'll see you later, bye!" With that, She giddily galloped out of the room, heading to her next destination. A pleasant feeling enveloped in my chest from the experience.

"I wonder who helped her? Maybe it was Kai. If so, I won't punch quite as hard later." Shard put one of her hands to her chin. "Then again, there isn't an excuse to let your mentee miss out on valuable lessons because of your own bad scheduling and incompetence. Regular punch it is." She let her arm thrust forwards, sending a gust of wind to mess up my fur. I heard what she said, though my brain was hung up on the mention of Kai.

I hadn't met with him for training since I've been back, not until Core cleared me for it. I was cleared a day ago, but to be honest, I hesitated to show up at our training spot in the first place. I did in the end, but then Kai canceled on me, which may just be a positive more than a negative. It worried me to face someone I know is part of the Void again. Without any adrenaline going through me, I was expecting to react very poorly to interaction with Kai. It didn't matter how familiar I am with him, or how comfortable I've gotten with the idea of him as my mentor.

"Thank you for the tests." I said in a near monotone voice, bowing my head towards Shard. "I'll keep everything you've told me in mind. Maybe I can… figure something out somehow." Unlikely, but I may as well try and stay hopeful.

"Good luck! I'll think too, and go bother Core about it. A lot." I held back a little bit of a chuckle at the thought of Shard's pestering, before walking out of the room. She's probably going to have to pay for the door repair.

As soon as I walked outside, I noticed a sharp, cold sensation on the tip of my nose. I tilted my eyes upwards, noticing small, white spots appearing in my blurry vision. I took a deep breath, walking through the pale air in front of me. I didn't have anything else to do for the day. No training, no more tasks to complete, nothing really. I suppose I'll go home for the day.

Kai

"So? Are you going to report?" An authoritative tone raided my eardrums. "I know it's been a while, but this process should be second nature to you."

"I haven't forgotten." I replied meekly. It took everything in my body to not tap my claw against the dirt ground. "It's difficult to explain. None of the ones I'm investigating have secured themselves as serious threats. The leaders are, but only the leaders as of now."

"Well, Luna isn't going to like that one." The weavile in front of me sighed. "She's already fed up, I'd be surprised if you don't get punished for this. Badly." I shuddered intensely. That was the absolute last thing I wanted to happen. "Grace is destroying the training area right now, so chances are you won't be able to use it for a while. Not that you have many chances to go there anyway, but I figured I'd let you know." I gave a short nod.

"Lu- The boss is fed up?" I asked, curious. I hadn't been keeping up with many events taking place here, too focused on other things.

"Good catch." Another sigh came from the assassin. "I guess she tried something and it didn't work, probably failure to recruit someone promising. Her charisma relies too much on being eerie to work consistently." Why am I not surprised?

"I see." I replied in a stern fashion. I've been getting too close to letting my voice slip from the way they want me to talk as an admin. That would end up making my punishment that much worse.

"Not to scare you or anything, but you're under a lot of suspicion right now. From Luna, to the other admins in the top five, to even the fodder below you. They all think you're not being faithful to us." I took a deep breath. Keep the facade, don't show fear, nervousness, or anxiety.

"I'm… I'm aware." I got out. "You say they though? Not including yourself?"

"To be more specific, I know very well what you're doing." Oh… "That being said, it's not worth it to make a big deal about it, unless you take it too far. Don't attack any of the Void and you're golden until Luna herself makes a move."

"W-What do you mean?" I questioned, failing to keep my voice in check. I couldn't help but let some of my terror seep out. I knew I was treading on thin ice, but the threat that I've been caught froze my body.

"Exactly what I said. I guess we have plans for you, plans that Luna is very strict about keeping. You're probably going to be prepped to be a vessel." The word 'vessel' made my chest tighten. "You have the body for it, and the last vessel we made seems to be pretty effective. Although his personality sometimes slips through, it hasn't been an issue. You'd work just as well."

I couldn't find any words to return to the assassin. The threat of becoming a vessel was something that's been tossed my way before, but never with such strong indication that it's a real possibility. My body couldn't help but tremble.

"You know though, It's pretty impressive what you're doing. Fighting through the threats before you and helping the other side, I bet you're making a difference too." His voice sounded interested, I glanced up at his face to observe. I was expecting a cold stare, but instead was greeted with one of curiosity. "If I get caught with this knowledge, I'll probably get killed by Aven. I want to give you a chance though, so it looks like I'm dealing with a looming threat too." Another sigh came from the assassin.

I was dumbfounded. I got caught, I wasn't discreet enough with my actions, I didn't do my job well enough, but I was being given a chance. A chance from a Void superior of mine no less. Nobody in the Void has ever shown any amount of sympathy in my eyes, and it was being thrust upon me right now. I should be dead…

"If you put on a show, then I'll look the other way for now. I don't want to cut this short, so don't screw it up please." The assassin stretched his arms in a lax manner, once more, something I've never seen from anyone in the Void. "Needless to say, if you get caught by anyone else, I won't be able to convince them to back off of you."

"Why..?" It sounded like the assassin had more to say, but I interrupted. "What is this? How did you even figure anything out?"

"You just told me." He replied bluntly. My mind blanked temporarily after those four words. I gave myself away. "As for why, my priorities lay more with myself than the Void. I'd rather see something interesting than give more toys to a crazy woman."

"W-What?" I've never heard someone in the Void talk about Luna like that. If she ever heard it, she'd do more than just execute them. "But you work for her, do you not..?"

"Yeah, I do." He folded his arms in an annoying fashion. "In all fairness, it wasn't my choice. My connection to Luna, and most Pokemon here, doesn't exist anymore. It faded, and now-" He stopped himself. "I really shouldn't talk anymore. Please just go back to the Nest. You'll be reporting to Aven or… whatever her name is next. Be ready." Before I had the chance to ask anything else, the assassin leaned forward and blitzed out into the darkness surrounding us, leaving me to my thoughts. His movements were fast enough to echo in the metal chamber.

I was left alone now, with much more to think about. Too much for the time being. Before leaving, I felt I needed to clear my head at least a tad. My eyes closed slowly, and halfway through inhaling, a voice in my head shrieked.

'KAIIIIIIIIIIIII!'

The voice rattled my skull, nearly making me trip forward onto the dirt. Any coherent train of thought swiftly exited my head, being replaced by an angry voice. The source of the voice in question is one I've heard plenty of times before, in the same tone, no less.

'Alright alright, I assume I have your attention. I don't know where you are, but I suggest you come back here as soon as your legs will carry you. The faster you arrive, the less hard I'm going to punch you.'

I sighed to myself, and didn't find it in me to focus my mind for a reply. It was a normal occurrence for our mental interactions, me not directly replying. It was best to not invigorate her further, especially when she was… being her.

"Heading back would be smart." I said to myself, getting my breathing under control, before making my way down the cold, reflective chamber.

Hello Readers!

My my, it's been quite a while. I learned something new about life: Having a job while also worrying about classes and trying to maintain interpersonal relationships is very time consuming and difficult. Thus, even after such a break, I only have a small chapter that very likely lacks in quality in quite a few areas, which I apologize for. Life has been, well, life. It throws situations at you that you need to adapt to and conquer, and I'm still busy with that, alongside everythinggggg else. I am hoping though, now that I have a better handle on my schedule, I can start posting at least a little bit more! If anyone who started off reading this is still here, I greatly appreciate your stay and the fact that you can deal with a person who clearly has not mastered time management yet. -w-

That's all for now, here's hoping the future for the story is a bit brighter!
See You Next Chapter!