A/N: Thank you for sticking with this story! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of their characters. I just own this story and my OCs
The next morning, Cynthia invited Lucian to a quaint little cafe that sold local food to discuss the next steps they needed to take in order for them to control this sickness.
Cynthia had gotten the local eggs and fish combo with a sweet pastry on the side and an iced Americano.
Lucian had gotten a matcha latte with some unappetizing looking oatmeal. He took a bite or two here and there, but really just pretended to eat so as to not offend Champion Cynthia.
"Lucian, glad to see you meet me this morning!"
"Likewise, m'lady. It is a beautiful morning."
"Now Lucian, we've known each other for quite a long time now, I think we can drop the formalities."
Lucian just chuckled. Cynthia has said many things like this so many times Lucian cannot even remember each instance. Even if it wasn't for the fact that he was trying to maintain a certain distance with Champion Cynthia, he wouldn't feel comfortable addressing her in a less formal way. It seemed too intimate, especially since they don't really know each other that well. They are colleagues at worst and acquaintances at best. And truly, he preferred it if it stayed that way.
"Anyways, what do you think about the situation at hand?" asked Cynthia.
"I think we have very little to go off of. We're not epidemiologists or doctors. How are we supposed to cure these people, let alone figure out how they all became contaminated with this illness."
"This is where you are wrong dear Lucian. We have all we need!"
Lucian raised his brow.
"We have the legend to guide us, Lucian."
"My lady, with all due respect, I do not think a legend will help us cure these people now."
"There is always a bit of truth to legends and myths. I say we use the Legend of Nightmarus as a guide to help us figure out what we should do in order to help these people."
Lucian internally grimaced. The legends were nothing but hurtful to his people, but he could see Cynthia's point of view. There were plenty of myths and legends he and his people believed in that others would find crazy.
"What do you have in mind then?"
Cynthia smiled, "I think we need to split up. I am very interested in looking for this mysterious 'moon wing.' I think if I can find a pokémon where this wing came from, then maybe we could get one step closer to finding a cure for these people."
Lucian nodded his head, "And what would you like for me to do?"
"I was thinking you could look up pokémon that would be similar to Nightmarus. Maybe then we could find and capture this very rare pokémon or capture its descendant."
With that, the two left the cafe off on their respective missions.
Right after her effective meeting with Lucian, Cynthia decided to take a visit to Canalave Library and rent out a study room to do a little research.
Canalave Library was a public library but it was also partnered with Titian University, one of the top 10 best colleges and universities in the region.
The Canalave Library was able to start because of a large donation of both money and books from Cynthia's great-great-grandfather, Cedric Shirona. Because of this deep connection to the library, Cynthia comes from a long line of family members who became alumni of Titian University.
And now Cynthia was coming back to this prestigious library not as a student, but as an alumnus herself.
It was very nostalgic for her to be here. She spent some of the greatest years of her life dedicated to this place and studying at this library.
She spent her first day at school at this library. She studied for her first test in this library. She wrote her first research paper at this library. She gave her first dissertation at this library.
The Canalave Library was like a second or third home for her. So many memories were wrapped up in this place.
She came to study at this library almost every day, except for the days she went to her favorite bakery. Her favorite spot to study when she was a student was at a little desk in the corner of the fifth floor. It gave a great view of the Ares River that split the port town in two. And this is exactly where she found herself studying today, canceling the room she wanted to rent.
As she was sitting there taking everything in, she noticed that there were very few people present on this floor. It was just as she remembered it. Most people studied on this floor during finals week since it was a quiet zone. But most people liked to study with their friends and be able to talk every once in a while; so this floor was not conducive to them.
Luckily for Cynthia, things still seemed to be the same, especially now that she is so recognizable. It's hard to come by peace and quiet in a public space at her level.
Cynthia quickly pulled out her laptop and went to a website showing known pokémon native to each region in the entire world. In order for her to go through all the results to find what she was looking for, she limited her results to a few key parameters. First, Cynthia was looking for a pokemon that was native to either Kanto, Johto, or Sinnoh. Sinnoh made sense since this is where the people who settled the Mercury Prefecture came to. Though she added Kanto and Johto because that is where the people who settled the Mercury Prefecture were from. After the uniting of the kingdoms of Kanto and Johto, a lot of civil unrest broke out. This led to many people fleeing from Kanto and Johto looking for other regions to inhabit. This also led to many native Kantonian and Johtonian pokémon finding homes in other regions as well. If this divine bird was to come from somewhere, it would be from one of these three regions. Second, she was looking for pokémon who were connected to the moon and or known to heal.
Her search results gave her three pokémon: Clefable, Blissey, and Togekiss.
Clefable has wings, is associated with the moon, and is native to Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh. Blissey has wings, is associated with healing, and is native to Johto and Sinnoh. Togekiss has wings and is associated with healing. Togekiss was her least likely option, but she wanted to make sure she didn't leave her search results window too narrow. She didn't want to rule out anyone that met even a few of the search criteria.
With her top three pokémon she believed could heal these people, Cynthia instantly contacted Roy and asked him to get a feather from each of these pokémon.
The next day, Cynthia went to the hospital with Roy to put her plan into action.
"So what exactly will we be doing here?" asked Roy.
"We will be using these three feathers to see if one of them will be a cure."
"And how exactly will we be doing that?"
"In the legend, it states that those who touched the moon wing immediately were healed. Since it is a legend, it may be exaggerated. So we will be putting one of each of these feathers on three different patients, preferably on bare skin. We will leave them on them for around 12 hours and then come back to see if there has been any improvement. I don't think the patients will immediately wake up, but they may be taking food better, sleeping more restfully, or even coming back to consciousness for a few seconds. We just want to see improvement."
Roy just nodded, and they got started.
The next day when they came back to the clinic, they both checked in on the patients' conditions. After checking with the doctor, they found that none of the patients given the supposed 'moon wing' made any improvements.
"I'm sorry," said Dr. Lee, "Their conditions haven't changed. The treatment didn't work."
Roy swore under his breath.
"Maybe there is something else we could try," said Cynthia, "Even though touch didn't work, maybe we could extract an essence from the feathers and use that to make some sort of shot or put it in an IV bag. Would that be possible, doctor?"
"Mmmmm, it could work. But it will take some time."
It took five days for researchers to extract an essence from each of the five wings and then make that essence into an IV drip that would go on for 12 hours.
Once the IV drip started, it was just a waiting game to see what happened. The patients' conditions and their vitals were checked each hour of the twelve hours to see if there were any changes.
Once the twelve hours were over, Cynthia and Roy went back to the hospital to check on the patients. Unfortunately, none of the patients responded to the treatment.
Guess they were back to the drawing board.
After leaving the cafe from his meeting with Cynthia, Lucian decided to head somewhere else to get breakfast, or he guesses it's brunch now.
Lucian decided to head to Moon Town (1) in search for the cafe he used to work at while he was in university.
When Lucian was two years into his studies at Titian University, he decided to get a job to help him pay for an off-campus apartment. Living on campus was becoming unbearable because of the harassment he faced daily; so he decided enough was enough. But he didn't have enough money on his scholarship in order to afford a new place to stay; so he went out looking for a job.
Lucian went to many restaurants, cafes, and shops to apply for a job. But everyone rejected him except for one place, a cafe in Moon Town. Moon Town was a part of Canalave City that housed many Lunites and Eclipsites and their businesses. It wasn't Lucian's first choice to work in that area because it was so far away from campus, but he didn't regret working there because he was able to find people that he could connect with.
Lucian worked at this cafe for the last two years before he graduated. Working at the cafe were some of the best times he had during university. If anything, it made it worth traveling hundreds of miles away from home in order to get an education.
As Lucian was waiting at the bus stop for the next bus to Moon Town, he saw multiple business stands where people were selling dream catchers. Business was especially selling well with all the rumors of Nightmarus attacking people and sending them to the hospital.
Dream catchers were really popular in the Mercury Prefecture. People thought that they had protective abilities and prevented those from getting bad dreams and nightmares while also acting as a ward against Nightmarus.
Lucian scoffed at all the people buying dream catchers. For if they knew where they really came from, they would be less likely to use them.
Dream catchers actually came from the Children of the Moon. When the Children of the Moon first made contact with the new settlers who made a home in the Mercury Prefecture. The Children of the Moon helped the settlers survive in their new environment while also sharing parts of their culture.
For the Children of the Moon, dream catchers were known as mendengar (2). Mendengar were larger and more elaborate than any of the dream catchers the tanpi (3), or those who were not of the moon, could make. They were also blessed in the temple before they could be used. Many were passed on from generation to generation.
Unlike dream catchers, the mendengar were not used to get rid of bad dreams or escape Nightmarus. They were used to focus their dreams so that they only received visions from either Kosong Darkrai or Penuh Cresselia.
The Lunites would use their mendengar under a full moon, when Cresselia's influence on Dunia was at its peak. While the Eclipsites would use their mendengar under a new moon, when Darkrai's influence was at its peak in Dunia.
Both the Lunites and Eclipsites would hang up their mendengar during the holy month of Puasa.
The mendengar were special to the Children of the Moon, and it always made Lucian irritated at the misuse of his culture. But there was nothing he could do about it.
Once the bus arrived, Lucian got on it and went on his way to the cafe.
The cafe that Lucian went to was known as 'Feast of the Moon.' It was run by a lovely couple. The husband was a Lunite and the wife was an Eclipsite. They both reminded Lucian of his parents. Their cafe served a lot of native foods from his homeland as well as a few modern Sinnohvian dishes.
When Lucian entered the cafe, he was immediately enveloped into a hug by the owners. While hugging them, he saw a flash of white. The owners were crying as they were sending their youngest off to college; while they were crying tears of joy over their eldest having their first baby.
He was glad to see that everything was going alright with them since he's been gone. He's missed them. They gave him a place of solace in this shiny but bleak town. They made it bearable for him to even get through college. He owes his degree to them.
As they were serving him brunch, they chatted a bit before the owners had to get back to work again. Once they left, Lucian decided to get out his laptop and do a little research to figure out which pokémon could be causing this illness.
Lucian already had a hunch of his own. The illness that a lot of the patients have reminded him of a common illness that many people get in the Moon Bay Prefecture. In his homeland, the sickness is called takut (4). Takut is caused by a pokemon that uses the move 'nightmare' on a human.
When 'nightmare' is used on a Pokémon, it usually only lasts from 6 - 72 hours. But when a human gets hit with 'nightmare,' it causes a deadly illness. Many of the Children of the Moon get the illness by being outside in the forests around wild Pokémon during rituals or camping, a favored outdoor activity.
On the Full Moon Isles, it is usually Hypno, the evolution of Drowzee, that causes this illness. On the New Moon Isles, it is usually any member of the Gastly line that causes this illness.
Because Lucian wanted to be thorough, he decided to look at his online database to see what other Pokémon knew the move 'nightmare.' He didn't want to rule out any foreign pokémon. Anyone could have smuggled in one from another region illegally. He wanted to cover all his bases.
So his search came up fruitful. The only Pokémon that could learn the move 'nightmare' were Hypno, all members of the Gastly line, and Munna, as well as its evolution Musharna.
Lucian immediately set out to work to see if anyone has seen any of these Pokémon in the area. He also checked with customs to see if anyone had imported any Pokémon from Unova.
The true work had just begun.
Word Count: 2, 586
Date Updated: Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Footnotes:
(1) Moon Town - I wanted to make this analogous to Chinatown or Koreatown in real life. It would just be a place in Canalave City where there is a huge concentration of Children of the Moon, their businesses, their workplaces, and their homes
(2) Mendengar - This is Indonesian for 'hear.' This was provided by google translate. The mendengar (or dream catchers) are used to help the Children of the Moon to only have dreams that are vision from Cresselia and Darkrai
(3) Tanpi - This is a word I made up from combining the words 'tanpa' (without) and 'mimpi' (dream). Both of these words are Indonesian that I got from Google Translate. Tanpi are just anyone who is not a Child of the Moon
(4) Takut - This is Indonesian for 'fear.' Takut is a sickness that is prevalent in the Moon Bay Prefecture. It causes those who have it to sleep and never wake up.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading this story! Please continue to stick with this story. I hope to finish it by the end of March
Please comment and let me know what you think