January 8th, 2026

Floor 21

I ran for my life with the bunny close behind me. I never thought I'd be running with a bipedal, pretty Normal-type rabbit. We were running nevertheless. After walking through the woods of the twenty-first dungeon, I had stumbled on some Honey lying around. Well, it turned out that the Honey was owned by a giant hive of Beedrill, and those Beedrill were not happy to find me taking some for my food back in town.

Now, normally, I'd use an Escape Orb and get out of there. There was no use wasting HP and PP when something worse could go wrong around the corner. Besides, I'd get to keep the Honey without worry. However, today wasn't a normal day—I was with a willing Buneary.

"We're going to have to fight them," she panted. "So let's make it a contest."

My mind picked up the statement and raised red flags everywhere. A contest? That could either be fun, painful, or both. Either way, it was better than running. I wanted to show off my power anyway.

"I'm listening," I said as I kept navigating the floor.

Buneary slowed down to catch her breath, so I copied her. She pulled back the cotton fur on her ears and steadied herself. "Whoever kills the most Beedrill in two minutes wins, deal?"

The concept was rather pointless; I was two levels ahead of Buneary (43 to her 41) and had higher stats overall. I had Rock Tomb at my advantage, a super effective attack that Buneary lacked. Considering my advantages, I accepted her challenge and waited for the clock on my menu to change to the next minute.

The last number on the digital clock went from a six to a seven, so I shouted for us to start and jumped into the air, which was filled with Beedrill to the point that you were almost breathing them.

I used Rock Tomb and one-shotted nearly every Beedrill possible in two minutes. I did have to dodge some attacks since they were naturally faster, but I still managed pretty easily. In the first minute, I had killed fourteen spawners in only a minute. With just thirteen seconds left, I was slicing the last few bodies still carrying the red cursor.

However, I noticed Buneary's Silk Scarf was giving her an even stronger Dizzy Punch than I had expected. She was doing a good bit of damage, too, and when the time was up, she killed her last one. She dared me to say my number first, but I kept taunting her back and doing the cheesy "ladies first" excuses.

"If you don't tell me, then you didn't do anything," she sneered.

"Twenty-six," I admitted rather modestly as I picked at my paw.

Buneary's expression went from annoyed to amused. She raised an eyebrow and kept a gri on her face. "Twenty-six? That's it?"

My face turned red. "Well how many did you beat?"

"I killed thirty-seven," Buneary said without modesty. "You better step up your game, Mr. L.A."

I got flustered. "There's no way you beat forty Beedrill in that time. At this level. That's insane!"

Buneary shook her head. "You're right. I beat thirty-seven," she said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes and nagged her about cheating and lying the rest of the way back to the town. We used our Escape Orbs to return to Floor 21, and I later escorted her back to her guild's base on floor twelve. We left on good terms, but I was still miffed about losing the competition. No Pokémon is that good.

In the bushes outside of our little skirmish, a Tyrogue managed to avoid my inner radar for stalkers. I later realized this was the Tyrogue that worked for the Golden Warriors; he was Scyther's grunt, basically. He put his X-ray Specs back in his bag after watching the spectacle and got his menu out to send a message to the guild leader. He pressed the microphone symbol near the typing box and cleared his throat.

"She's with him again," Tyrogue said, which caused the internal microphone to translate the voice message into text. Tyrogue sent the update and slowly returned back home. His mission was complete. Buneary was caught again.

. . .

Though not as good as the Grasslands', Floor 21 had fantastic Moomoo Milkshakes. The server in the dairy restaurant was a Miltank herself. I sipped the straw of my milkshake as Buizel's came onto the counter. I looked at the counter a sec and recognized a white-and-black peppery mix. The little black spots were everywhere. It reminded me of my own counter back home.

But that wasn't the focus of our meeting, and neither were the milkshakes. The real reason was the new information Buizel got on his "girlfriend," Frillish. I learned from Scraggy that she was, in fact, a member of Black Ice, but she was also one of the higher-ranked members. She wasn't like Croagunk and Pancham. As a reward, I told Scraggy the best place to level up so he could evolve. Buizel, though, found out his information by watching Frillish's menu when she wasn't paying attention.

"I still can't believe all of this," he said to his milkshake. "Just a few weeks ago we were the happiest people in the world…now I'm scared to death of her."

I felt bad for Buizel, yes, but we both knew we needed to find a way to get rid of her. If he just dumped her, then Frillish could just hire Black Ice assassins to finish us. If he ran away from her, there are no doubt several spies around town that would find the clumsy weasel in seconds. We were stuck in a hole—right where Frillish wanted us.

"She won't even let me evolve. She's level 36, so she still has four levels to go until she can evolve. She wants us to evolve together," Buizel whined.

I secretly enjoyed Buizel's basic form, too. I didn't want him to evolve and grow taller than me. Even so, I wanted what was best for the raid team, so his evolution would have to come. I had to put my personal jealousies aside. I couldn't let them blind me from the real goal: getting out of this game.

"Combusken didn't find anything on Floor 38, either. So we have some psychotic team killing people for some future reason that we'll all figure out and probably die from anyway," I said pessimistically. "Are we still on for tonight?"

Buizel nodded. "She'll be meeting a 'friend' again tonight at eight o'clock on the fifth floor of this dungeon. We just have to follow her there and stake the meeting out."

The instant idea would be that the fifth floor would be prone to people walking on by; it was an earlier floor with lower-leveled Pokémon. However, most of the dungeon dwellers were now skipping the first floors and going the shortcut to the checkpoint, floor twenty-five. Floor five was visited by maybe three people every few days, and those three people are just looking for items. It was basically vacant.

"Sounds like a plan," I smiled.

I got off my seat and raised my hand up for a high five. Buizel, still in his seat, returned the notion, though he nearly teetered off his stool. He hopped off safely, turned to the door, and smacked it without realizing. I opened the door for him and he, embarrassed, walked out in shame.

Before the stakeout, though, I needed to get someone else on board.

. . .

She sat in a chair directly across from her boss's desk. His chair was turned away from her; he was busy despite calling her into his office. The Pokémon, stubborn and short-tempered, radically typed on his keyboard as if the world was in danger. She kicked her feet back and forth in the chair and let them dangle over the side.

Scyther spun around and looked at the paper report laying open on his desk. He flipped through a few pages, sighed, and glanced at Buneary. Her heart was beating hard and fast. He opened his mouth and her eyes followed.

"Hello, Buneary," he said emotionlessly.

"Hello, sir," she replied.

He struggled to close the folder because of his scythes, so Buneary helped him. He quietly uttered a thank-you to her, but he continued his harsh expression.

"You've been distracted recently, I hear," he continued.

Buneary's heart fell into her stomach. She could feel the acids dissolving it right in front of Scyther. She couldn't say anything because she knew what was going to happen.

"I don't want you to lose what the real concern is," he explained. "I want you to stay away from that Riolu. I understand working with him during the boss battles, fine, whatever, but playing with him? Risking your life for fun? Your 'flirting' was a waste of time that you could have used to recruit or train more members of the guild. I'm disappointed in you."

Buneary shook her head. Tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. "Lord Scyther, please! I didn't mean to seem distracted. Riolu's just a friend."

Scyther got out of his chair. "Buneary, I'm surprised at you! You never go against me. Do you care to get out of this game? Ever?"

She slowly nodded. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want you near that boy again. We have more important matters to discuss."

Buneary knew that if she left the guild, she'd been on her own. Even if she teamed up with Riolu and his friends, they'd experience trouble and she'd only be a liability. Here, she was in a place of power where she could actually made a difference. She thought back to her suicidal beginnings in the game. She'd come far since then. She couldn't go back to being alone.

"I understand, sir," Buneary whispered.

"Good," Scyther said. "You can go back to your desk, then. I'll have some paperwork regarding the recent break-in for you in about an hour."

Scyther watched his top-ranked guild member walked out of his room in utter silence. He had hit the edge of her loyalty right then. He was blocking a friend from her life, a friend she had made against the odds of death in this game. He knew what he was doing was immoral, but he had to protect himself somehow. He sat back in his chair and looked at the documents. He picked up the sheet of paper and accidentally sliced it with his scythe.

"Dang it, that's the sixth copy," he sighed.

. . .

Buneary sat at her desk and finished up the papers she had left before being called to Scyther's office. She fought back the urge to cry and steadied her breathing. Riolu was the nicest person in this game, but she couldn't choose him over her work. She worked so hard to get up to this position. She was at the top of the game. She was well-known for her prestige. She was wealthy from the guild's gains. She was powerful—so, so powerful. But was she powerful enough to throw away Riolu like that? She'd have to be.

Buneary opened her menu and saw an incoming message from the desk attendant, an Audino. She opened it and read the black lettering. Usually, she would get tips or leads in investigations. Now, though, the message was something more personal.

"Riolu would like to see you, Ms. Buneary. He doesn't want to wait. He's talking about black ice or something and needs you. Y/N?"

Buneary hit the "reply" button and, regretfully, typed the word out for "no." She knew he wanted her to come for some mission, but she just couldn't. Seeing the words for that guild he was always talking about, the one that almost had her killed not too long ago, raised some awareness, but she could do nothing more than be aware. She couldn't go with him, nor could she supply him with weapons. He always refused to join a guild.

"Send him away," she eventually typed and submitted. Audino later confirmed the action. Buneary bit her lip.

. . .

That night, Buizel and I quickly stepped into the green portal once Frillish had left for a few minutes. We were beamed to the dungeon, a creepy forest, and Buizel immediately wished to turn back. The trees were bare of leaves. Their trunks were rotten and brittle. The walkable land was a mix of dead grass and dry, cracked dirt. I didn't remember the dungeon being so frightening when I went in with Buneary.

We slowly followed the Frillish through the dungeon. She'd stop and look back every now and then, but we'd be hiding behind rocks or trees. Occasionally, we did run into a wild Pumpkaboo or Gourgeist, but my Payback attack did more than enough to destroy them.

"Maybe we should turn back," Buizel suggested.

"Nope," I said. "We're already on the third floor of the dungeon. After this next one, we'll be on the floor the meeting'll happen at."

We kept walking and eventually had to make an unexpected rest stop. After just avoiding a Monster House thanks to my skill, we hit a dead end. Though I do have the Stair Seeker Team Skill, which pointed out where the blue-square icon of the stairs was, we were prone to hitting the boundaries and having to circle back around to find the marble steps.

Through all that walking, Buizel found the perfect opportunity to complain: "I'm hungry," he said.

I opened up my menu and saw that my Belly value (which determined my hunger) was at 45/100, which was plenty to make it up a little bit more. I told him so and reminded him that we needed to save up resource so we don't have to waste money on more. He sighed as we walked up the steps to the fourth floor.

We kept walking and found the stairs in the second room of the floor. Luckily, we hadn't run into Frillish at all. I started up the steps and noticed Buizel picking something up nearby. I scrunched my eyes to see what it was and quickly warned him about the item's effects.

"This feels weird," Buizel said as he threw the purple glob between his hands, "but it looks edible to me!"

As Buizel put it in his mouth, I tried to explain the risk of eating Grimy Food. Once he swallowed the chewed-up-gum blob, I was ready to vomit myself. However, he quickly made a gross face and tensed up into paralysis. I sighed as I got out a Cheri Berry and eventually helped the weasel out of his status condition.

Goofiness aside, we slipped up the stairs and made it to the fifth floor of the dungeon. We were about to walk out into the open of one of the rooms when I heard someone speaking in the distance. I grabbed Buizel by the scruff of the neck and pulled him behind the shelter of a big-enough rock. In the near distance, I noticed a crescent-shaped shadow, but I quickly ignored the distraction and focused on Frillish's voice.

"Buizel likely isn't a main candidate," she told someone. "He isn't, but his friend—the Riolu that everyone else has a fetish for—definitely is. He's quick-witted, too. I think he made Buizel get onto me."

I looked over the rock to see a large panda Pokémon almost wearing a cape. I recognized the Pokémon as Pangoro, the evolved form of that Pancham grunt from before. The past two floors must have been kind enough to him in experience for him to level up enough. It also meant he was near a Dark-type when it happened.

"I can't see!" Buizel whisper-screeched. He looked over the rock, too, but he lost balance and fell to its side, exposing our cover. I quickly dragged him back and noticed the crescent shadow was gone. Frillish and Pangoro were suspicious, of course, and came to check out what made the noise.

I jumped out and used Brick Break on Pangoro, slamming a fist straight through his face. He fell over and angrily got back to his feet. Buizel used Aqua Jet on Frillish, but he quickly felt both awkward and nervous when the attack did no damage due to Water Absorb. Frillish smiled at Buizel's attack.

"Oh, hey Frillish!" Buizel said innocently. "I was looking for you! You wanna go out and get some milkshakes?"

Frillish grabbed Buizel by the throat and lifted him in the air. The pink-based Pokémon crushed Buizel's throat in her grip. He squealed and she smiled in pleasure.

"Actually, I was working on a move that would work out for the both of us," she said.

Frillish blinked. Her eyelashes created two small hearts that went right into Buizel's. He immediately became infatuated. I knew the last thought in his head before being struck by the hearts was the mission Whismur had sent us through before. I was ready to kill Pangoro then and there, a murder that would destroy my reputation, but I was ready to do it.

I got my first ready and used another Brick Break on Pangoro. I jumped up in the air and, just as Pangoro was using Slash. I dodged the swipes and ran along the Pokémon's long arm. My first crashed into his face, but Pangoro had already healed up with an Oran Berry when I was watching Buizel. This attack did slightly more than the last, but one more would finish the job.

My last Brick Break started with a sprint. I ran at the recovering Pangoro and fixed my fist to where it would kill him between the eyes. I knew the act was inhumane, but going after Black Ice was my job.

It was weird, that last attack. It felt like I was sliding through a barrier that made me entirely too weak to do anything. Going through the air was like jumping into a pool of jelly. I was going too slow, barely moving, and when my pause had ended, I was on the ground panting. I was lying on my stomach. On the ground in front of me was the crescent shadow of an almost-halo.

I looked up to see a bug's corpse staring blankly into my eyes. Its body was a shed exoskeleton. Three sticks that resembled wings protruded from either side of the immobile skin. The Pokémon was Shedinja, a rather interesting creature with terrible—and I mean terrible—HP but amazing immunities. I had used my Brick Break through the ghostly body of Shedinja and was temporarily trapped inside of it, sort of. The most I knew was that I was gasping for breath right after.

Pangoro used Vital Throw and knocked me against the rock that I was previously hiding behind. I looked to see Shedinja delicately turn around and face me. Pangoro was now holding Buizel, the captivated Pokémon clueless and ready to die, between his big, meaty arms. Frillish floated nearby and used Absorb, draining green bits of HP from Buizel's bar.

"I can keep going, Shed," she told the other Ghost-type.

"That's enough," Shedinja calmly said. He looked back toward me. "Hello, Riolu. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

I felt confusion surging through my body. I didn't know this Pokémon. I didn't know a Nincada, a Ninjask, and definitely not a Shedinja. I claimed not to know him in completely innocence, but the Pokémon only laughed.

"You Fighting-types always were the easiest to fool," he smiled, though not externally. He smiled through his words.

That phrase made my heart stop. My pupils dilated as I recognized that raspy voice from before, from the Beta Test. I thought back to the early floors of then. I was in a group of Fighting-types at the time. We went into a dungeon. None of us came out alive. I had noticed, off in the distance, the glimmer of two large blue diamonds in the distance. Under them, crooked and unnatural, was a disgusting, toothy smile.

"You've only cared about yourself," he said to me, though I could barely translate the words to make sense.

"No," I whispered. "That's impossible." I kept myself up against the rock as the Ghost-type floated over menacingly. He looked at me, the soulless eyes reflecting back nothing but darkness, and wheezed through his empty shell.

"Th-that's impossible," I repeated.

"You let that Sableye die so you could sleep at night, huh? I heard you worried about how you lost everyone, lost your own party, and you only cared about yourself. You've always put yourself in front of others. You've never been willing to face your consequences and risk anything."

The words caused me to wince at each pause, each period. I tried to rebuttal with my innocence, but nothing resulted.

"You didn't even want Buizel's sister when I sent the Mankey into a panic."

Buizel was luckily still infatuated enough to not hear that comment. I knew the trap was rigged back then, I knew it, but to know that I was so accurate, yet so far off? I felt my skin stiffen. I was blinking tears away. I didn't want to face this sort of senseless evil, not now. Not when I just earned my friend's trust back.

"I'm trying to do better now!" I shouted.

"You'll never do better. When Gothita died, you made it all about yourself. Again. You didn't mourn her loss and move on; you turned into a chump that wanted a pity party every minute."

I felt myself sweating. I didn't think sweat was programmed into the coding, but I couldn't confirm whether the sweat was real. My mind was sweating. I was facing the greatest evil in the game right here. Forget True Reality, forget my own selfishness. This was true villainy.

"Leave Buizel out of this," I said. "Kill me instead. I'd rather die than live this sort of punishment."

Shedinja spun around on some sort of axis in dramatic hilarity. "This is what I'm talking about! First, you tell everyone it's not your fault Whismur died instead of comforting your friend about it, and now you're wanting to die so you don't have to face the consequences! This, Riolu, is why I'm personally after your death. I watch you succeed and leave the rest of your friends in your shadows. You want to rise above everyone else, but let me tell you this," he said.

Shedinja grew closer to my face until our noses were nearly about to touch. I looked in his shadowy eyes and, deep inside, I saw the figurative blue diamonds of death. The crooked smile, the glittering foreshadowing. It was all there. I screamed out for someone to stop him, for someone to save me, but nothing happened. I looked deep in his empty eyes as he replied.

"You will never rise above me," he finished.

I grabbed an Iron Thorn from my bag and stuck it up like a dagger. Shedinja dodged the attack and signaled for Pangoro to pay attention. The panda, enjoying my desperateness, came to his senses and stretched Buizel farther. Frillish prepared another Absorb attack.

"It's a shame that it has to end like this," Frillish told her boyfriend. "You spent so much money on me. I'm going to miss it, but I owe the boss a favor. I'm only following his rules."

"Gggghh," Buizel squeaked.

"So you're the boss?" I asked Shedinja.

Shedinja turned in a slight angle. "Let's say I'm just an associate. I wanted the pleasure to meet my favorite victim, but I didn't want it alone. The true boss lies in hiding, but still watches you. There's never a moment we aren't watching, Riolu. And judging. I've been judging since floor one."

I lost my momentary spike in confidence and quickly cowered back to the rock.

"Do you feel that adrenaline pumping? The emotion in the air? I remember seeing you use the Kecleon cheat on the first floor. Interestingly, I didn't recall that trick. Where'd you learn it?"

I held my Iron Thorn back in the air and Shedinja cowered slightly.

"Alright, alright. Look, your friend isn't a threat. Frillish's mission determined that much. You, on the other hand, are towards the top of the list. Killing me would only limit your life even more."

Up until this point, I was willing to kill even the lowly grunts like Pangoro. However, I knew that killing Shedinja would only haunt my dreams until I die. It was a death sentence. I didn't want to die like that. I couldn't die. I knew I was too aggressive but too hesitant to sacrifice myself. This was a game where lives matter, but mine mattered more to me. I put the Iron Thorn down at my side and trembled.

"That's more like it. Perhaps your cowardice is the reason why your happiness hasn't reached enough to evolve—every time we threaten your life, your tranquility, it goes down. You didn't gain anything when that bunny got ranked up to second in command. You weren't even happy for Buizel's newfound love. You're only happy for yourself."

He stared right in my face. "There's a prize on floor thirty-eight," he said. "There are many candidates for this prize. Just know there are others experiencing the same problems you have. If you have any shred of decency in your selfish mind, you'll try and help. Help them stay alive and get through this game."

"Why are you saying this? Do you want me to try and defeat you?"

Shedinja remained emotionless. "I feed off of your will to survive."

I saw an opening to Buizel. I just had to use the Iron Thorn and throw some Escape Orbs. My idea let both of us live, but we'd be on the run. We had to be careful. This guild was on my heels nonstop. I lifted my weapon and threatened it straight at Shedinja.

"I dare you," he said.

I smiled. "Never dare me."

I threw the Iron Thorn. Shedinja moved into the shadows right before I could thrust it at him, but that's okay. That's what I was going for. The arrow soared near Pangoro, causing him to drop Buizel on the ground. Frillish backed away as the weapon came hurtling near. It slammed into Buizel's immobile body and caused a decent amount of damage.

"He missed!" Frillish squealed.

I grabbed an Escape Orb and threw it at Buizel. I started running toward him to block any interference, but the weasel quickly looked up from the impact of the arrow, saw the orb, and snatched it up. He used the orb and was teleported home without any interruption. Frillish and Pangoro watched the blue portal disappear as I stopped running, slid under Frillish, and used Payback to knock her into Pangoro. The attack didn't kill her, but it did significant damage. I saw the crescent-shape shadow disappear into the darkness provided by the overcast sky and overshadowing trees.

"Watch your back, Riolu," Frillish snarled. "If Shedinja doesn't get to you first, I'd love to watch the poison slowly drain your HP bar down like it did that cute little Goth."

I glared back at her with equal hatred in my eyes. "I hope you do, Frillish. I really hope you do."

I used the Escape Orb and quickly found myself in-between playable rooms. I was then thrown out of a green portal at the town floor and fell on top of a recovering Buizel. We both grunted and got off the ground. I was relieved we both made it out alive, but I had some questions first.

"Did you hear anything that happened?" I asked him.

Buizel shook his head. "I was too busy thinking about how perfect Frillish was," he said. "What happened?"

I thought of the whole selfish speech, the death threats given out, and Shedinja admitting he let Whismur die to break us up. I thought of how terrified I was to learn that beta Sableye was actually Shedinja, and he was alive, watching me. I thought of how insane I had been before, how paranoid I had felt, until Sableye was dead. I felt that insecurity come back like re-catching the flu.

The worry, the dread, the closure. Closure would help Buizel get over Whismur's death even more, but could I even muster enough courage to speak of it? Could I tell him why she died? I hadn't gotten to explain it fully to him; Frillish was always drawing attention away. Now that she's gone, and he's alone again, could I really make him feel so much more alone?

I had to tell him. He deserved to know. It was his sister. He had me now, so I'd offer him the support I had failed to give months ago. I would be a good best friend. I'd set things right. If he knew what happened, he'd be able to cope with it. Or he'd leave me again to save himself. I'd be really alone. I'd be the one who was left in the dark. He had to know, but I couldn't lose him again. I strained through the indecisiveness and quickly blurted out a phrase.

"Nothing really," I lied. My guilt grew twice its size when I saw the relief in his face. "They just tried to kill us like usual."

Buizel smiled. "Great! The last thing I ate was that Grimy Food…can we get some actual food? Is there a Pokémon McDonald's?"

I laughed at his terrible joke for the sake laughing. I kept my optimistic attitude up the whole night. Sure, it was late, we almost died, and I learned my nightmare is a reality. But you know what? I had my friend back, and that's all that matters to me.