Noblesse Pokemon AU snippet: Nicknames are Important!

Takes place over episodes 16-18, while Rai is hanging out with the children for the first time. Shy Yuna is a bit cynical in her thoughts. Uses dialogue from the actual chapters (slightly changed to make a bit more sense, and add in the AU).

"Rai, thank you." Yuna's gratitude was more than sincere. That Shinwoo and Ik-Han would come to her rescue…they were friends, that was normal; they'd done so more than once, albeit in far less dangerous scenarios, and she appreciated it. Cadis Etrama di Raizel, however, was a surprise. Today was his first day, and there's no way he'd be familiar enough with his classmates to care enough to risk his safety for them. Heck, besides Shinwoo, Ik-Han, and Suyi, she doubted that any of her current classmates would have even attempted to save her from that strange man. Of all the days to have Yakgwa at the groomers!

"Rai?" Her friends echoed questioningly. Had they really not heard?

"Oh….All the girls call him by 'Rai.' We didn't know what to call him at first." And if it weren't for Professor Lee's copious anti-violence measures at the school, she was certain that they would have started fights over the right to ask the handsome foreigner if the nickname was okay. Since she was here, "But if you don't like it…"

"You can call me as you would like." That seemed to be the end of the soft-spoken young man's thoughts on the matter. How did his hair get so artfully windswept in that moment? There wasn't even a breeze!

"Okay." She smile in answer. That settled that. Yuna shifted to include the others in the conversation. "How come you guys were together so late?" She could guess, but…

"We hung out at the internet cafe." Shinwoo smirked.

"I see." Honestly, the boys could be so predictable sometimes. That they'd stay so late, and now only just be walking home was just…hmm. "Rai, where do you live, by the way?"

"Now that we think about it…." If it weren't for the fact that they just said the same things at the same time, instead of finishing each other's sentences, she'd think they were psychically connected, like those Ryukyuan gym leader twins.

An awkward silence fell over the group, the three friends staring down their newest member until he reached into his jacket, rummaging a bit before presenting them with a paper, held aloft between two fingers. Shinwoo took it, holding it so that his companions could see.

"Huh?" A blonde man was displayed proudly on the front, posing coyly. Was this a glamour shot? "It's a picture of Professor Lee. Why does he have that…?"

"There's a message on the back." Ik-han stated, so Shinwoo flipped it. 'I'm lost. Please, help', along with a phone number. What? There's no way that Rai was that close with the Professor, right?

The three, along with Rai, found themselves in a tastefully decorated living room. "I didn't expect to have any visitors, so all I have is tea." Professor Lee admitted, setting mugs full of the drink in front of the children. "Make yourself at home." The blond smiled at the kids.

"Thank you." The students -sans Rai, who was already drinking his tea- replied. Niceties out of the way, Shinwoo guzzled his drink, before bluntly asking, "Sir, do you live with this dude?"

"Yes, that's right. I know him personally, so he will be staying with me." Shinwoo nodded his understanding before Lee continued, "Well, I am surprised that all of you were together this late."

Ik-han laughed sheepishly, "We hung out at the internet cafe with Rai after school." He and Shinwoo always ended up losing track of time gaming. The habit wound up with the heavy sleeping Shinwoo being late for school on more than one occasion. Today had been a prime example.

"Rai?"

"Oh… the girls at school call him Rai. So we decided to call him Rai as well." Yuna explained,"Of course, Rai was okay with it."

The professor looked to Rai for a moment, considering. "I see."

Ik-han's expression changed. "But Yuna wasn't with us. We met her when she was in trouble."

"Trouble?" The blond seemed a bit shocked. This was a peaceful part of town.

"Yes. A guy was trying to snatch Yuna, so the three of us ran over there. Shinwoo and Bohoja attacked the guy and took Yuna away from him."

"Oh my, he won't be able to walk for awhile. Shinwoo wouldn't have gone easy on a man like that." Neither would Bohoja, for that matter. He'd given Shinwoo the Riolu specifically because of their similar personalities, hoping they'd both calm down, with each other to take care of. No such luck, unfortunately. But at least Shinwoo wasn't home alone anymore.

Professor Lee went on to explain, for Rai's benefit, since he didn't know, "Shinwoo worked with lots of athletes before. Many schools wanted to scout him because he is talented in every sport." With the best of his skills being in martial arts. He'd only gotten better with Bohoja at his side. Fighting type Pokemon were more durable, and made better sparring partners than humans usually did.

"Yes, I know. But that man stood right up, just as if he never got hit!" Ik-han was incredulous. This kind of thing didn't happen. Ever. Shinwoo was the best fighter he knew.

The blond hummed. "Maybe Shinwoo didn't hit him hard enough." He could hope. Shinwoo was at the pinnacle of what most ordinary humans could achieve, in terms of fighting skill. As an enhanced human, Lee well knew what that was.

"No, I kicked him really hard. I felt that impact through my foot, too." Shinwoo shook his foot, grimacing in frustration. "But he stood up, like nothing happened. Even when I had Bohoja force palm him."

"He stood up like nothing happened? I haven't seen anyone able to compete with Shinwoo or Bohoja when it comes to martial arts." This was bad. Please…please let it not be what he thought it was. His students wouldn't be able to reliably be able to defend themselves against such a being, and it'd be a massive discovery risk to take it out himself.

"His eyes and teeth were like an animals. His skin was sickly pale, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in a while. It was so creepy!" Well, shit.

"Ik-han's right. That guy's eyes were shining like a laser…" Double shit!

"Shinwoo, stop that nonsense." It wasn't nonsense, not that Lee could correct him without opening up a massive can of worms he'd rather stayed closed, and a good thousand miles away, if possible. "Luckily, Yuna wasn't hurt, and we ran away after Shinwoo and Bohoja took him down."

Hmm. What if…? He'd confirm his suspicions with Master. After the children left. If this was what he thought it was…."Sir?" The question snapped him back to attention.

"Yes, Shinwoo?" Did he have more details about the attack?

"Give him some lunch money." The redhead sat with his arms crossed, like the Professor'd done something wrong.

"Ah, lunch…w-what, lunch?" Lunch? But master didn't need to eat.

"I know he is new, and school ends early, but I had to buy him lunch." Oh shit. Not only had he failed to factor in that his master might want to eat with the other students, a student, one living on his own having to do his own budgeting, had bought him lunch. What had he done!? "Argh, I'm so low on cash these days." Yes. He'd fucked up. He'd be wiring some funds into Shinwoo's account at first opportunity. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done so, after all, he took care of his students. He just had to be discreet, so Shinwoo never noticed it was him. In the meantime, he deserved any punishment his master decided on.

The blond's self-recriminating thoughts were interrupted by a massive yellow fox bowling him over. The Ninetails had waited with her fellow bonded for 820 years for their master to return, and she was not going to wait any longer, no matter what Frankenstein said about "making sure master is settled." She halted at Master's chair, shoving her head under his hand and demanding to be petted. Sure, not as elegant as she normally was, but she had waited nearly a millennium for this.

"My, she really seems to have missed you, Rai!" Yuna wasn't sure if Rai even had a Pokémon, but here was proof otherwise.

"Ah, yes. She got here before he did, and she hasn't exactly appreciated being separated." Professor Lee explained, once he'd straightened his clothes from the unexpected tumble.

The Ninetails stretched her neck as Rai scratched a particularly pleasant spot between her ears. "She's beautiful, what do you call her?" Yuna asked. Certainly this pretty girl had a name that suited her as well as her trainer did.

But no! Rai looked confused. "Ninetails. If she has another form of address, she hasn't told me." Well of course not! Pokémon couldn't speak, except for the few that could do so telepathically. Even so, this was unacceptable.

"Rai, she has to have a nickname, otherwise, what makes her different from others of her kind?" The boys nodded. They understood.

"I agree. Even my Porygon has a name. Python. For the programming language I used to make it." Ik-han explained his choice of nickname. He was rather proud of Python. Most people went out and caught themselves a Pokémon, or got them from a breeder or professor. But no, he'd managed to make his. Surprisingly simply too. What with pokéballs transforming Pokemon into data and back again, it was fairly simple to upload the program into a Pokébank and from there to a PC box. He was ecstatic when he removed the newly filled pokéball from storage, and interacted with Python for the first time in the real world.

"Giving a Pokemon a nickname is an expression of the love you have for it." Shinwoo said, rubbing Bohoja's pokéball.

Rai nodded. That made sense, he liked the name they'd given him. But, "I can't think of a name that would suit her." Plus it wasn't his right to name her. If she'd wanted a nickname, she'd have told him, right? But she was looking up at him hopefully….

Yuna blushed a bit. "Well, I call my Eevee 'Yakgwa.' It's his favorite snack, so he responded to it being said even before we made it his name." She looked a bit contemplative. "Most people name them based on experiences you've had with them, but… people will often name them based on how they look, if they can't think of anything else. The way her tails fan out is kind of like a water lily, right? How about 'Lotus?'"

Rai looked his Ninetails, a moment passing before he nodded. "She says she likes it." Really? …was Ninetails one of the telepathic Pokemon? She'd have to review her studies. Or maybe Rai himself was psychic. He'd hardly be the first case, but they tended to stick to psychic types. Like attracts like, and all that.

Professor Lee took a glance at his phone. "It's getting rather late. You've all got to get home if you want enough sleep for school tomorrow." Then called his secretary to come pick them up.

Frankenstein finished up a phone call before turning to his master. "The secretary made sure the students went home." But still…. "Master, the story from the students is bothering me." Finally, he could ask. "The man that attacked Yuna… is he… a vampire?"

Raizel looked up from the packet in his lap, giving his servant his full attention. "Of course their story can't explain everything, but something about the situation is bothering me. One of the things that changed during your sleep was an agreement. At first, as you know, it existed to protect humans from vampire attacks. But now that humans have gained power, for the sake of secrecy, vampires are prohibited from attacking humans. That's why humans don't know vampires exist, unlike in the past. But if they broke the agreement and attacked in a populated area…."

"I don't know." Short. Succinct. Just like his master. But still…

"There's nothing you don't know about vampires." Because vampires sprung from noble energy.

"Uncontrollable desire. I could feel strong wrath and hunger that cannot be compared to any mutant I've encountered before."

He didn't deny that it might be a vampire. But he still couldn't tell? What kind of creature was it that Master couldn't tell if it was a vampire or not? Something was definitely going on. And Master might be involved. Frankenstein would have to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

Raizel flipped the packet to its front page, finished reading the guide to the 21st century, for now, at least. "He brought me lunch." Rai'd been touched by the action. He'd not needed food, yet the human had provided it anyway. Even though, as the conversation earlier indicated, he didn't have much money. The guide said money was important. It could be traded for goods and services. Like the food.

"Ahh…" Frankenstein looked a bit panicked. "I-I'm so sorry. I should have taken care of your meals…." Should have made sure Master had tea, and sweets, and just…an all-around better lunch period than he had to have had.

Frankenstein worried about the silliest things sometimes. "I tried the food here for the first time, and I liked it." Of course it was good. It was served at the school. Franken wouldn't let bad things be served at the school, right?

"Really? I'm glad to hear that." He didn't know what he'd do if Master disliked the place. Not that he'd ever seen Master actually complain about anything. He'd even drink that swill Urokai called tea.

"I like the place called 'school' as well." It had many windows, and the children there were happy. It would serve as an excellent place to learn more about this world, and how it worked now.

"Oh…I see…." Franken seemed relieved. There's no way making such a place could have been easy. Did he really think that Raizel would dislike something he'd worked so hard to make? Raizel didn't know, but…

"Rai…"

"Pardon?"

"My name will be 'Rai' from now on." Rai took a contemplative sip of his tea and patted the massive fox at his side. "And Ninetails will be 'Lotus'." Hmm. Names were such precious, important things.

Frankenstein smiled gently, pleased that his master was pleased, speaking of, "Master, what did you have for lunch? It must have been wonderful…." Shinwoo probably splurged a bit. He did like to treat his friends.

"Ramen." And it was delicious. He'd introduce it to other nobles, when he had the chance. They needed to know how wonderful it was. He went back to his contemplation of names.

"What the! Ra…." Frankenstein was already working himself into another panic. "Forgive me, Master!"

But Raizel's mind was already elsewhere. Names. Names were important. Something give to show your love. Something to commemorate a memory. He wasn't allowed to regret things, ever, but still….He reached into his jacket, and pulled out a pokéball, black, gilded with gold.

"Zygarde" A black and green canid appeared in the red light. Frankenstein was taken aback. 10% forme? He'd last seen Zygarde complete. Just how bad a condition was Master in, that Zygarde would also be this damaged?

"Lycoris." Raizel would call it Lycoris. Frankenstein wouldn't understand, but that was okay. The Zygarde would. It'd been with him even longer than Lotus. Even if he couldn't regret it…he still missed him, after all. Seer Ultima di Lycoris. As misguided as he was, as wrong as he was, he still loved him. Zygarde would become 'Lycoris'. Because Raizel didn't have his brother anymore. Because 'Noblesse' was originally a clan name, not a title. Frankenstein would never know, but that was okay. Raizel didn't really want him to.

Well. That ended up far more angsty than I meant. Ah, well. Bonus points for anyone who can figure out which specific flower I meant to represent Rai's brother.