Obviously, I don't own Pokemon.

[=-CHAPTER 11-=]

- (Izan) -

"Huh? I don't get it." Robin said for the umpteenth time as Lora and even Joe facepalmed in the background.

Izan sighed. Again. This girl was a pain in the ass.

The information she gave was surprisingly thorough though. Go to this place, try to avoid doing this or that- things like that. All he'd expected was the location, not general advice or rules about the market. She even gave him information about how to dress to seem inconspicuous and as if he belonged.

That wasn't the issue. The issue stemmed from the fact she learned as fast as a brick could walk.

He knew she was trying to understand, but it was like things went in one ear and out the other. If it weren't for her sometimes astute comments, he would've thought Joe was smarter than her.

She was… weird. Teaching her something was a new level of difficulty. But once she got it, she understood on a level he hadn't intended to teach her.

Scoffing, she kicked a rock. "Look, if you don't want to teach me, you could try teaching me a secret technique or something. I don't know, something to power my Pokemon up, ya know?"

And then there was that.

That was the fourteenth time she'd 'subtly' hinted that she saw him use his power yesterday. Otherwise, why would she ask about techniques to empower attacks again and again?

It was such a left-field topic that not realizing she was spying on him would've made him idiotic.

When he got back, Izan planned to call the cops on her. Snitches got stitches, but she was so annoying.

And on top of that, she was always rude unless Joe was talking or he was teaching her something. And even then, she was still carelessly disrespectful.

Besides, it would be better for everyone if she got put away.

She had illegal items that were taboo even amongst gods. Her attitude was sure to get her into tons of trouble if she wasn't already in some. And she pulled a knife on him. And probably others beside him.

A knife! In the Pokemon world! A world with tameable fifty feet dragons!

If she didn't get put away now and suffer the consequences, she was sure to offend the wrong person. And that person wouldn't hesitate to introduce her to a face full of Hyper Beam.

Being locked up would be a good thing in her case.

But if, after being investigated, she happened to get charges to last her a few decades? Well, that sounded like a personal problem.

He was not being petty. Izan was just a good Samaritan.

"So what part of what I said did you not 'get'?" He asked, ignoring her suggestion completely.

She pouted, pausing to stop and think. That was a first for the day. They were already walking, so it'd been a few hours since everyone woke up and they started talking.

"Well, you said Pokemon level up from a mix of a strong body and a higher amount of energy. But how could that be true? Any typical Abra hasn't moved a finger its whole life and yet they level up fine."

Huh. That was a halfway decent question.

He'd already explained that energy amount increased by constant use, just like muscles. Mastery was a completely different thing, and she kept getting them mixed up.

Though her question was a bit more than just basic information, if it got her to stop saying she didn't 'get it', he'd gladly answer.

"That's because Pokemon have a certain physical-to-energy ratio depending on the species. Some are mostly one side, like Abra, while others are both." He explained.

Her nose scrunched up. He could already hear the 'I don't get it' that was about to come out of her mouth.

Hastily, he elaborated. "For example, your Tyrogue needs an equal balance of a strong body and a good amount of energy. Yet, when it evolves it will rely more on a strong body to level up than a surplus of energy."

Meanwhile, someone like Natu over there needs to constantly use moves every day to train instead of working out. He relies more on energy in that case."

Joe almost teleported in front of them, apparently listening to their conversation. "Ooh, ooh! What about Meowth?!"

Izan snorted, amused. "Both Meowth and their evolution Persian need an almost equal balance of the two. And avoid fattening them up, if you can. A slow Meowth is as useless as a physical Alakazam."

"So you guys evolve into something called a Persian, huh? Well, I guess you guys will just have to be the fastest set of Persians around." Joe declared softly, staring at the three Pokeballs that hung off his backpack.

"Right, right. I think I'm starting to get it now. But I think a cool technique to get Tyrogue to punch through mountains would be helpful. It would let the lesson stick, ya know?" Robin commented, convincing no one.

Izan sighed. "Robin, if you want a cool technique, why don't you ask Joe? He's got a super cool secret technique, doesn't he?"

Perking back up, Joe spoke loudly. "You want to use my super secret technique my family has been developing for thousands of generations? I refuse! It's secret, after all."

Suddenly, Lora joined the conversation by groaning loudly.

"Oh my Arceus, please don't enable him. It's not even an actual secret technique. He's just an idiot and thinks that you can-"

Joe, once again, almost teleported over as he put a hand on Lora's mouth.

"Woah there! Don't be blabbing out my secret technique just because you're jealous." Despite his own words, he had a beaming smile. He was enjoying the attention.

"Wait, you've seen it? He wouldn't even show it to me and he's been talking about his stupid secret technique since we were kids." Robin asked incredulously.

They knew each other since childhood? That explains the infatuation.

Dryly, Lora pointed her finger and Joe's hand was psychically forced off of her face. "Calm down, I won't spill. And yes, I saw it. I was curious so I teleported in during one of his 'training sessions'" She added with air quotes.

"C'mon, you've gotta tell me! This idiot won't even…"

While they all talked, Izan quietly walked from behind, smirking at his successful distraction.

Truth be told, his mind was still racing about the discoveries he'd made the day before. The word 'discovery' being used loosely, as he only followed the instructions laid out in his dreams.

He didn't have a name for his odd power, and it was not Aura, so he just decided to call it Kyouka. A Japanese word that stood for 'strengthen'.

But after trying out a bunch of things with it, he scrapped the name. It was a bit cringy and didn't match what his ability could do.

Thinking that it perhaps worked like Reinforcement from Fate, he activated it again and again on different items. If his assumption was correct, he'd be able to reinforce a stick to the durability of metal.

Yet no matter what he tried, that yielded no results.

When he tried to push the energy outward, it stubbornly refused to move. Instead, there was a vague sense that he could strengthen something attaching himself to Sandshrew.

And after quite a bit of activating and deactivating it, he realized there was something there. He didn't know how long ago it was there, but he could sense the bonds between him and his Pokemon.

He could even sense the bond between him and Nidorino all the way in Vermillion. Except there wasn't one between him and Nidoran.

His conclusion? It must've formed when Nidorino gained sapience. Whatever technology the league used to force sapience through Pokeballs, it also linked the person to their Pokemon.

A power to strengthen both himself and anything that he's abstractly linked to.

Did he have the power of friendship? …Hopefully not.

His thoughts suddenly were interrupted by Joe's loud exclamation.

"Guys! Stop talking about my super awesome once in a million years secret technique already! We're finally here!"

Izan looked around the corner, the road forking into a huge mound of dirt that just sat there in an inconspicuous clearing. Almost the entire mound was just a huge hole, and it didn't look stable at all.

It was completely out of place with the rest of the forest, but it was no doubt.

They finally made it to Diglett's Cave.

"And so it begins," Izan muttered under his breath.

He didn't doubt for a second that something was about to go drastically wrong. Even if the mission didn't say they had to do much besides observe and report back? It was a cave. If you see something in a cave, it sees you too. Usually.

At least Diglett Cave wasn't an imposing sight. If anything, it looked brittle like it would topple over at the slightest touch.

It wouldn't, but still.

The idea of it collapsing on top of them sent shivers down his spine. Being buried alive was one of those primal fears that are nearly impossible to get over. Like the fear of a plane crashing, knowing how unlikely that is but still unable to shake it.

A small squeeze and a tilted head from the budding assassin on his shoulder did put a smile on his face though.

"It's nothing, Sandshrew." He sighed, letting the fear ooze out of him. If there was one thing she was good at, it was digging things up. No matter what happened, he trusted her.

And what was up with him, lately? He was not an emotional person. Not in his past life, at least.

He could admit it, he was an adrenaline junkie. But that was only because of how calm and collected he normally is. Things just didn't excite or surprise him as much as others. That was why he thought being a Pokemon trainer was a blessing, the exciting battles, and adventures.

Plus, you know, the free magical monsters.

So why the hell was he of all people worried about a cave collapsing? Even if Bruno's massive Onix somehow fell on top of them, they'd be fine.

He knew that, and yet…

'Wait, did Bruno even catch that Onix yet? Is it still ripe for the takin-'

"So… what are we waiting for?" Joe asked, interrupting Izan's scrambled thoughts and ignoring the rest of the group's nervousness. "It's not like a giant Onix will fall on us or something."

Izan blinked in surprise.

Robin gave Joe a look. "Y'know, that's not impossible. There are other Pokemon than Diglett in these tunnels."

Joe nonchalantly waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon already, we're burning daylight out here!"

"Wait."

Before Joe could brazenly step into the cave, Lora yanked the back of his hoodie with psychic energy.

"Whaaat, what is it now?" Joe whined, letting himself get pulled back.

Robin didn't miss a beat. "Because you completely missed the sign, you dolt."

Izan would be the last person to admit that he also ignored the sign and was going to walk in without reading it.

"Oh!" Joe perked right back up. "It says uh, 'No hunting or capture. Violators will be prosecuted.', so we can't catch any Diglett? Not that I was planning on it." On the sign was a picture of a Diglett with the universal 'no' symbol on top.

"It's because Diglett is on the protected Pokemon list. It's illegal to capture or harm wild ones because they were hunted to near extinction by farmers. Being herbivores that naturally ruin land wherever they go made them pests at the very least." Lora replied matter-of-factly.

That explained a lot that Izan always wondered about. Like why thought it was a smart idea to start an electric gym next to a ground-type Pokemon's main habitat. Any smart trainer would just go catch one and use them against him.

But if they were unavailable in the first place, then the only Pokemon you could get around Vermillion City would be water types or birds. And something like the occasional Rattata had no chance against a Raichu.

Even the Nido siblings, who weren't assumed to be native to this area, weren't that useful until complete evolution.

Speaking of Nido siblings, did that mean he wasn't supposed to kick those Diglett's asses before? …Oops.

"Fine. Don't attack the mole Pokemon, got it." Joe flippantly stated. "Let's go already."

Izan huffed before following the rest into the dark cave. Beams of light shot through cracks in the ground and into the cave, causing it to be dimly lit. A feeling in his gut was urging him to just 'get on with it' but that same gut feeling was the main reason he accepted to join this group in the first place.

He was genuinely starting to mistrust his gut.

Lora seemed on edge for some reason in particular, but if she were anything like Rachel, then… he'd keep an eye on her.

Just as he thought about doing that, Lora's Natu suddenly opened its wings wide and began to emit a low humming sound. Its eyes glowed pink in the barely illuminated darkness.

"Uh…" "Natu is scouting the area since we don't know where the problem is. Like echolocation but with psychic energy." Lora abruptly said, cutting him off.

"Oh, that's pretty useful." Izan idly commented after a moment.

…

This excursion was less exciting than he'd thought it would be.

…

And much more awkward.

Hours passed in relative silence.

They hadn't encountered much of anything thanks to Natu sending off random psychic waves to scare off any Pokemon. It was putting Izan on edge, and his gut feeling kept getting worse the more they continued along.

"Obviously, Charmander is better than Squirtle. It's a dragon that breathes fire. What's cooler than that?" Robin started.

"Uh, obviously the turtle that can rock those sunglasses like it's nobody's business. Have you seen Squirtle? Squirtle squad for the win, you plebian." Joe replied.

"You don't even know what a plebian is."

"Neither do you!"

"Yeah, well at least-"

Oh, yeah, that was happening as well. Joe and Robin kept arguing about nothing every so often.

"Shut up, I think I hear something." Izan interrupted. There was a low rumbling coming from behind them. "Also, Bulbasaur is clearly the winner. It's cute, it sweeps like half the gym circuit, and it's designated #1 in the Pokedex."

Even so, they both stayed quiet, but the glares they sent his way were very loud.

Almost five minutes passed of silence, and although they seemed to be getting more and more annoyed, the entire group stayed quiet.

Suddenly-

"Run!" Lora sprinted into the darkness as if her life depended on it.

Not wasting any time, Izan sprinted after her, running past her due to her weaker physique. If there was one thing growing up in a relatively dangerous neighborhood taught him, it was that if someone is running, you run too.

Questions are for when you're safe.

Izan glanced behind him at the confused faces of both Robin and Joe. They took a moment, but they too started hurrying after them. Looking in the far distance, he could see a bunch of… 'somethings' in the darkness if he squinted.

Whatever it was, it was gaining on them fast.

"What are we running from?!" Joe yelled for him.

"A… horde… of Diglett." Lora responded, already winded. She needed to start working out or something. "On the right!" She continued.

Izan didn't slow down, jumping and pushing himself off the wall so that he didn't lose much speed when turning. Lora was losing speed, and fast. He had to do something or his escape button would get trampled and they'd be lost.

"Sandshrew, can you use [Sandstorm] while running?" He asked, totally not forgetting she was there.

"Shrew!" She nodded, confident.

She hopped off his shoulder, landed on the ground, and ran alongside him. Picking up speed, she was a few meters ahead before jumping and turning back with her arms wide.

*CLAP*

With a bang, all the dust that accumulated from the landing and scurrying coalesced and shot out behind them.

Almost perfectly timed, Izan caught Sandshrew out of the air without stopping even a bit.

"Good…hah… thinking! Take a… left!" Lora managed to pant out, Natu seemingly giving her directions in the darkness.

Quickly running around the corner, they collectively held their breaths and stayed low to the ground, trying to stay as silent as possible.

"Diglett, Dig, Diglett Dig." "Trio Trio Trio"

The horde passed harmlessly by for a full minute, losing them in the confusion and darkness.

When they did, they each took their sigh of relief.

Joe slapped Izan on the back. "Nice going, Izan! I was gonna make the trio use [Fake Out] but that probably wouldn't have been enough."

"Oh, Tyrogue knows that move. I just… didn't think to use him." Robin surprisingly admitted. Her face was hard to see but she sounded embarrassed by the sound of her voice.

"I'd suggest we keep our Pokemon out but the cave might be a little small for that," Izan whispered, ignoring the thanks. It wasn't that big of a deal. "Maybe we should- What is it, Lora?"

Lora had been tugging on his sleeve for the entire minute they'd been holding their breath from the Digletts. He thought it was a nervous tick but now it was getting annoying.

Izan turned and saw quite clearly what 'it' is. Maybe he should've trusted his gut a bit more.

"Oh." Oh, was right.

He wasn't short by any means, and he still had to incline his head upwards to get a good look at it.

They all turned to look straight into the eyes of an enormous pink dog, a pit bull that was well over 7 feet tall almost frothing at the mouth at them. Its red eyes were staring straight at them. Its nose twitched in their direction and saliva hung in slippery ropes from disgusting yellowish fangs.

And if that wasn't enough, it was oozing a miasma that screamed with malice.

"GRAAAAAAAAAGH" The Granbull let out an ear-piercing roar, forcing both Natu and Sandshrew back into their Pokeballs. Slobber splattered onto Izan's face.

There was only one reasonable response to something like this-

"Bleegh" Robin suddenly threw up.

And it was not to throw up. That was not what he meant. At all.

- (Lora) -

Without any rhyme or reason, Lora blinked and was suddenly dropped on her ass like a sack of potatoes.

"Ow! What the hell is- Where are we?" Her memory had never failed her before.

The NPCs were breathing hard, holding onto the cave walls, especially Izan who was visibly sweating his ass off. He looked like he was in pain. Why was he in pain? Holding his leg, he-

"What the hell is going on? And what's wrong with your leg?" She blurted out.

That… never happened. She didn't blurt things out. That was not what Lora did.

And she didn't forget things either. This… this was wrong. Completely, utterly, gravely wrong.

"Oh, great, and now she's got memory loss. Arceus, fuck me." Izan said to no one in particular, lying against the cave wall.

No, no she didn't. Lora didn't get memory loss, and she would prove it. By

They were going into Diglett's Cave to find out why the Diglett were getting rowdy as a part of a mission. As a group, they invited Izan along, whom she discovered was a Mystic. And he was an NPC with high LUCK.

After a pretty short journey, they entered the cave, got chased by a horde of Diglett and Dugtrio, and successfully managed to run away with Izan's help.

Then, they encountered the… they encountered the…

It had no name. It had no station in reality. It wasn't a PLAYER, nor an NPC, nor a… thing. It shouldn't exist. It shouldn't. According to every law within reality imaginable, it was wrong.

And it was so filled with maliceragewrathfury that she couldn't… she couldn't…

It was getting hard to breathe. Why was it so hard to breathe? Where was Natu?

"Oi." Someone said something. Who? Why did they sound so far away? "You're hyperventilating. I don't know how to help but maybe just focus on me and not whatever you're thinking about. Focus usually helps me calm down."

Focus on them? On who? It was getting harder to hear them, and her vision was getting blurrier. Where were they? All she could see was-

"Gold." That was… her, right? That was her voice.

"That's right, just focus on my eyes. Or the color, whatever you wanna do to calm down." And that voice was… Izan.

That's right, Izan. She was starting to remember now. Whatever that thing was, Izan lashed out with a kick after it roared its loneliness and confusion at them.

She remembered its head snapping back from the impact, and that was when three cats clapped at the same time, stunning it.

It was Joe's cats, his squad of Meowth.

And that move was his secret technique.

A combination attack he designed to try and stun an opponent so badly they fainted. Two [Fake Out] attacks and a [Helping Hand].

That would never actually cause something to faint, but it was amusing that he thought it did.

And then she just stared at the thing for what felt like an eternity. It was so foreign, so odd. Pink, bipedal canid with a flat face and huge canines protruding off its muzzle. If it wasn't so terrifying, she would've thought it was cute.

"Hello? You stopped hyperventilating but you're still not all there, are you?"

Cute? That thing looked… familiar. It was… a Pokemon. Obviously.

"Okay, just continue ignoring me then."

And if she cross-referenced its features to the descriptions she knew of every Pokemon in the Pokedex, it would be…

"Granbull." She blurted out again. That was getting annoying, now. And it couldn't be Granbull, that didn't make-

"Yep, that was a Granbull. Though I don't know why it looked like that. That was one ugly sonuvabitch. Literally, in its case." Right, Izan was still there.

Sitting next to her. Staring straight into her eyes. Barely inches apart.

"Gah!" She pushed him and scurried back, forcing down her blush. Now was not the time to be thinking about… that. And in any case, he was just a lowly NPC, and she… she-

A loud smacking sound echoed in the dimly lit cavern. Her cheeks began to burn at the sensation.

-She needed to focus. First, she couldn't remember things and started having a panic attack, and then she almost considered Izan a person. Someone capable of receiving her affection.

If anything, he'd just be a cute pet. Wait, cute? Eww, if anything he looked like… like… honestly, he just looked like the average person.

Her brain obviously must've been scrambled by that Granbull's roar.

And even if it hadn't done so, she refused to be manipulated by something as common as the suspension bridge effect. Well, common among Pokemon trainers.

"No, that's impossible. It couldn't have been a Granbull." She finally replied, getting back on track.

He gave her a blank stare before sighing. What was that about- Oh yeah, she just pushed him. Sorry, not sorry. "Well, why couldn't it be?"

"Because it was way too tall. Plus, Granbulls are notorious for being cowards. It wouldn't have used an attack on us since we outnumber it. Unless…"

"Unless…?" Joe asked- Oh, right, the other two were still here.

"Unless it was enraged and felt cornered. But even then it shouldn't have reacted so violently." She explained. "If I recall correctly, the Snubbul line is one of the first Pokemon to be documented as trained by people. They are not like… that."

Izan snorted. "Yeah, no shit it wasn't acting correctly. It looked more like a ghost Pokemon with its red eyes and weird aura."

The conversation paused as everyone turned to stare at Izan.

He blinked, perking an eyebrow up. "What? Was it something I said?"

"Izan…" She began slowly. "There was no 'weird aura'. Nor were its eyes red. And speaking of eyes, why are yours… pulsating? And an entirely different color."

At that, his face went uncharacteristically blank. As in, absolutely zero emotion behind that look.

He wasn't that emotive of a person, but he wore his emotions on his sleeve.

This entire thing better not have been a part of his stupid elaborate backstory or something equally dumb.

Arceus, she hated dealing with high-profile NPCs. Everything they did would just escalate further and further into one big saga of stupidity.

The moment they were done here she was finding a new Party. Joe and Robin were easy to deal with but they weren't worth dealing with Izan.

It was nothing personal to Izan, she just couldn't deal with the stress he brought with him.

"Okay, clarifying question." He began hesitantly. "Did you happen to get a glimpse into its mind? Is that why you were freaking out so badly?"

The moment he said that her breathing picked up. B-but she wouldn't… She refused to lose control.

She clenched her fists and grit her teeth as she thought back with perfect clarity. She was fucking Lora the absolute. THE Player.

A simple question would not incapacitate her.

"Yeah," She spat out rather than spoke. "Disregarding how… wrong it was, it was like someone closed its heart off, forcing it to live in apathy. It's trapped in a labyrinth with no exit. A maze with no prize.

"It probably doesn't even realize it's… well, here. Most likely? That Granbull is just attacking anything it can sense, scared out of its mind."

…

"…What the fuck." Yes, thank you Robin for that intelligent summary.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Izan sighed, flopping back onto the ground. "I'm pretty sure I know what's going on, then."

"Whatever it is, we need to leave and get help. If it stays like that, someone is gonna get hurt. And Granbull will probably hurt itself in the process." Joe suddenly spoke up.

"You guys can get out of here, but I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to deal with that dog myself," Izan replied, holding his hands over his face.

"Are you stupid?" Robin blurted out. And Lora couldn't help but agree.

He continued, ignoring her completely. "That 'thing', if what Lora said is correct, is a Shadow Pokemon."

…A what?

"And if it's a shadow-" He held up a hand, glaring at it for a few seconds.

Abruptly, a thrumming sound filled the room as a golden light enveloped his hand, brightening up the dimly lit cavern.

"Then I'm the light." He huffed.

This story has more attention than I was anticipating, tbh. Lemme know if I missed anything in editing. I know that last bit was a bit cringe but eh, I was tired of rewriting that scene. Also I know this took a while to come out but…

ANyWaY.

In other news, I've been asking my WebNovel readers random questions out of curiosity, so I'll ask you guys the same question I asked them.

Random Question: What's the last fic you read before this one? Last one I read was Yamcha RPG and it filled my head with ideas for a gamer-esque DBZ fic.