Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: The Light of Morning

"How is our patient doing, Hana?"

"He's doing well, sir. He should be back on his feet in no time at all."

Kesshi could hear voices nearby. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. The only thing he really knew was the pain he felt across his body.

"How is it now?"

"His aura has pretty much completely replenished itself. It's incredible. I've never seen anyone whose aura replenished itself so readily."

Aura? None of it made sense to him. Slowly he opened his eyes…

The light of morning greeted him like an old friend as things came into focus. He was staring upward at rafters high above him in the ceiling. He was lying on some sort of bed. He turned his head to one side. The stone walls of the room were bare, except for a few small, vivid portraits that hung to provide some color. Other beds sat between Kesshi and the wall. Each bed had a small nightstand and a lamp. I think I'm in a hospital of some sort, he thought to himself. With his surroundings, that was a logical conclusion, though it was very much unlike any other hospital he had ever seen.

Kesshi tried to sit up. Suddenly, a sharp pain cut across his abdomen. He winced and let out an involuntary cry of pain. Footsteps came running over across a wooden panel floor toward him.

"Don't overexert yourself. Your body's still recovering." A young woman, probably no older than twenty, put her hands behind Kesshi's back, supporting his body temporarily. "Chansey, could you help me out here?"

A large, pink Pokémon came bumbling out from behind her. Kesshi recognized it as the same type of Pokémon you saw at the Pokémon Center helping Nurse Joy. "Chansey!" she replied happily. Chansey took two pillows from a nearby bed and set them up on Kesshi's bed behind his back to give his body support. It helped to alleviate some of his pain.

"Thank you," Kesshi replied gratefully. He looked over the foot of his bed across the room. A tall, thin old man was walking over towards the bed slowly. His long, pure white beard complemented his receding hairline. He wore a night robe of royal purple, much like a nobleman of old. He had the look of someone who had been through many years of trial, yet he seemed to radiate with kindness.

"It's good to see you awake," he said upon noticing Kesshi looking at him. He spoke in a smooth, reassuring voice that…

"Wait a minute," Kesshi realized. "You're…"

"The man in the alley," he finished, a smile visible within his beard. "Yes, that was indeed me." The old man sat down at the foot of Kesshi's bed.

"Who are you?"

The old man paused. "To most, I am known as Osamu."

"Osamu?" Kesshi contemplated. That was a very unusual name. Though he wasn't one to talk. As far as he knew, he was the only Kesshi in the world.

Osamu nodded to acknowledge him. "I had heard the fighting and arrived to find you on the ground, completely drained," he said. "I brought you here in hopes that Hana, the head of the infirmary, would be able to help you." He gestured to the young woman who had helped Kesshi moments before.

"Where is here exactly?" Kesshi asked.

"Unfortunately, I cannot give an exact location to where here is. All I'll tell you is that we are located a fair distance outside of Goldenrod City."

Hana now approached Osamu. "If it is not a problem, sir, might I request that you let our patient here have some breakfast before…" She stopped when she saw the look of displeasure on his face.

However, instead of being angry about the request, he shrugged. "All right, it's no big deal," he said. "Would it be possible for…" He now looked back over to Kesshi. "I don't believe I caught your name earlier."

"Oh," said Kesshi, a little surprised. He hadn't introduced himself to anyone. "Kesshi. My name's Kesshi."

"Thank you, Kesshi. I should asked that sooner." Osamu turned back to Hana. "Would it be possible for Kesshi to meet me in my office later to talk about last night's ordeal?"

Hana nodded. "That will be no problem with me, sir. Would you like me to bring him over or…?"

Osamu put up a hand. "No, no. I shall not bother you with that task. I will come by later and pick him myself. With that, I shall take my leave." He bowed respectfully to Hana before turning and walking out the door, shutting it behind him.

Hana sighed. "He certainly has the strangest methods of meeting people," she said quietly under her breath.

"What was that?" Kesshi asked curiously.

She blushed. "Nothing, nothing." She turned to Chansey and whispered something into her ear. Chansey jumped up in excitement and left the room. "Breakfast will be here in a few minutes." It was at that moment that Kesshi realized that he was starving. Perhaps he had been distracted by trying to figure out where he was to comprehend how hungry he was.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Chansey staggering back into the room, carefully balancing a tall tray of food. Kesshi was impressed by her ability to keep the food on the tray. That was until…

"CHANSEY!!"

A floorboard was sticking up ever so much. In a scene reminiscent of a classic cartoon, Chansey tripped on it, sending the tray of food flying right at Kesshi.

"Oh, crap…"

A plate of eggs smacked him in his face. However that was the least of his worries. He couldn't tell what felt worse: the glass of cold orange juice that running down his back, or the bowl of hot oatmeal that was running down his pants. He didn't jump up in the air only because he didn't have the strength to do so. He could only muster a stifled groan from behind his scrambled-egg mask.

"Oh no, are you alright?" Hana asked as she came running across the room. She and Chansey immediately began cleaning up the mess that was all over Kesshi's bed (not to mention all over Kesshi himself). All the while she kept apologizing and Kesshi kept trying to tell her everything was all right. He was at least able to get to a bathroom and clean himself off.

Hana provided him with a long-sleeved shirt and pair of jeans. The shirt's sleeves were too short for his long arms. Meanwhile, his jeans—while long enough—were way too large around the waist. He had to keep his hands in his pockets to hold his pants up.

After the debacle was over and the clean up had ended, Chansey came back into the room with a fresh tray and food and—after safely navigating around the floorboard—delivered Kesshi his long awaited breakfast. Almost as soon as it arrived, Kesshi had cleaned all the plates and drank every drop of juice. Chansey watched, thoroughly impressed.

After finally being able to enjoy his breakfast, Hana brought Kesshi a large cup of a bubbling, purple-colored liquid. "This isn't poisonous, is it?" he asked, slightly concerned. The way that it was bubbling and steaming reminded him of a Halloween witch's brew.

Hana chuckled. "No, no. It's actually a powerful pain reliever. Drink up."

Kesshi was still a little skeptical. After all, every pain reliever he had taken before was a pill that never seemed to work as well as they said it would, not a potent mixture that seemed more fit in some fantasy novel. He decided to play along. Slowly, he brought the cup up to his lips and drank it up. It tasted absolutely horrible, something like a mixture of motor oil and rotten vegetables. He wanted to spit it out, but he forced himself to swallow it. Almost as soon as it hit his stomach, a strange sensation began to resonate throughout his body. Just like that, the aches and pains had simply vanished from his body.

"Wow, it worked," he said, rather impressed by the promptness of the relief. This is a whole lot better than the commercial stuff, even if it does taste awful.

"Of course," said Hana. "I said it was a pain reliever, not a pain maker."

She does have a point, he thought to himself.

Not long after, Osamu made good on his promise and returned to take Kesshi to his office. He was no longer wearing the night robe he had on earlier. Instead, he wore a long cloak of the same royal purple color. But what caught Kesshi's eye was the gold symbol on his left breast. It reminded Kesshi of the Poke Ball symbol he commonly saw around Goldenrod City. However, this seemed different. It almost looked like an eye, staring out at him from across the room.

Osamu smiled after looking over Kesshi's new clothing ensemble. "Well," he chuckled, "this is certainly different from what I saw you in this morning."

Kesshi explained what happened earlier with breakfast. Osamu simply shook his head. "Can't say I'm surprised really."

"What do you mean?" asked Kesshi.

"Well, Hana's Chansey recently evolved from a Happiny. She still hasn't gotten used to her larger size yet. I figured that she would have some growing pains. Now are you ready?"

"I guess so," said Kesshi with a hint of uncertainty. He still had no idea who this man was and what he wanted to talk to him about, but he figured that he would listen to what he had to say.

Osamu held open the doors of the infirmary and led Kesshi out into the hallway. The hallway was very dark and cramped, unlike the infirmary. The only light came from a few ill-suited sconces on the walls. Faded, peeling oil paintings hung solemnly on the walls, further adding to the mood. Man, this place could use some updating, Kesshi thought as he looked around.

He took a particular interest in one of the nearby paintings. It appeared to be quite old, yet the images depicted in it were quite clear. An interesting creature stood proudly next to a man. It bore a striking resemblance to a jackal, yet it stood on two legs. Three small spikes—one on the back of each front paw and on its chest—protruded from its skin. It stared up at man, almost reverently.

The man himself was quite an anomaly. He was dressed in a heroic outfit of black and navy blue, holding a scepter high in the air. He wore a hawk-tailed hat over his mass of messy black hair. But the one detail that caught his attention was the gold symbol his hat. It appeared to be the same symbol that Kesshi had seen on the left breast of Osamu's cloak. He tried to get a closer look…

"You may look at the artwork later. However, now we must go to my office."

Kesshi looked up to find that Osamu standing next to him. "Oh, sorry," said Kesshi, a little embarrassed about holding him up. Osamu nodded and beckoned him to follow. Kesshi stood for a moment, but quickly followed behind him.

The rest of the hallways were similar to the first: dark, cramped spaces that made him feel claustrophobic. Kesshi walked silently behind Osamu, still thinking about the painting he had looked at earlier. It seemed quite strange that Osamu had the same symbol on his cloak as in a painting. Perhaps there was some connection between the two. He added this to the long list of questions that were floating around his mind that he wanted to ask.

After quite a long walk through the halls, they had reached a dead end. Kesshi looked around the hallway for a doorway. However, there was none. "Uh, I think we're lost," he said, slightly annoyed with the old man.

Osamu just smiled. "All is not as it appears in this place," he said. He bent down in front of the far wall, feeling around like a blind man feeling for a doorknob.

A sweatdrop rolled down the back of Kesshi's head. Is he joking? He turned around to leave. But then…

"A-ha, there we go." There was a loud click that made Kesshi stop.

Suddenly, the floor below their feet started shaking. The dust that had settled on the floor was knocked airborne, causing Kesshi to go into a coughing fit. He looked back just in time to see the wall open like French doors into a whole new room.

Kesshi's jaw dropped. "H-how…? What…?" he stammered, still in amazement with what he just witnessed.

"As I said before, all is not as it appears in this place," said Osamu, brushing the dust off of his shoulder. "Come." He gestured to Kesshi, inviting him into the room. Kesshi nodded silently and followed Osamu inside.

End Chapter 1