Savoir-faire – To Know and To Do
XVI: Envoyer – To Send
Day 24: The history of Route 10 could be comparable of the Lavender Town Radio Tower, except that no other place in the world has a history of being a mass grave for over three millennia.
(delete) I found their graves.
The hardest part of the journey up to now, I realised, was leaving Noël. Having to leave the blond behind in Cyllage, trekking across the bridge of the Pont Brière towards Kalos Route 10, Menhir Trail.
"Wait!" I turned back, before skipping to the side to avoid being bowled over by the speeding bicycle. My limbs flailed as I fell. Unlike me, Dr du Bois merely sidestepped Noël's bicycle to watch the Kalosian Ice-specialist bowl into the bushes. She held some string in her hand she was fixing.
"Noël?" I gaped. "What are you doing?"
The Trainer finally surfaced with a huge gasp. "Eevee!"
"Huh?" I echoed.
"Oh," Dr du Bois sounded bored. "Donar, Eevee are usually protected Pokémon within a safari and owned by Trainers, right?"
"Uh, yeah," I nodded. "Eevees are rare."
"Menhir Trail is the only place with a known habitat of wild Eevee," Dr du Bois flatly revealed.
"What?!" I sat up quickly. "How the hell?"
"Not only that, but Kalos is also in possession of a Moss Rock and an Ice Rock," she continued. "It's quite a subject for Eevee specialists like Sophie back at the Sycamore Laboratory."
"Précisément!" Noël exclaimed. He was actually shuddering at the thought. "I completely forgot!"
"So I suppose you're out to find a Glaceon?" she asked. "Good luck. We'll be on our way."
"Erm... Doctor, I think we might as well travel with him," I offered. "I mean... where is the Ice Rock?"
"The Frost Cavern, Dendemille Town, in the Montagnes de Kalos," she answered. "Still quite a ways away."
"So, this might help you in your research, right?!" I offered.
"How?" she looked dubious.
"I mean... how much more research do you need?" I retorted. "I decide how the trip goes, right?"
"... of course." She had a mysterious smile as she stated it, as if I had given her some new data I had not known.
"Noël!" I called as he brought Sapin out. "Want to travel with us until you reach Dendemille Town?"
"Huh?" Noël looked up from where he was about to walk into the tall grass. "What?"
"Erm... if you want..." I gulped. "Just... well, Dr du Bois can be rather intimidating, but-"
"Might as well..." Noël looked dubious. "Is she cooking?"
"Great!" I nodded. "Today is..." I looked to her. Dr du Bois had some sort of hostile expression while she fixed the string in her hand.
"Erm..."
She bent down to pick up a rock, hefting it in her hand. She then dropped it into a small cradle attached to the string, and then she looped the string, the cradle at the opposite end. I belatedly realised that the string was woollen in texture; not a string. A sling.
The string snapped out in a fashion designed to propel stuff, and I nearly bent my head to follow the arc of a rock, were it not because she then produced a stone in the other hand, the hand not holding the sling.
"I picked up beef yesterday," she monotonously answered, dropping it into the leather cradle. "We'll have chilli."
I swallowed once she turned to continue walking, turning around to see Noël looking down, face-to-face with the broken corpse of a Beedrill. Its head had been smashed in. A rock lay by its side, a sort of clear liquid that also flowed from the head staining the greyish brown.
Sapin made a sound like the shifting of pine, horrified.
"That was... uncalled for," Noël whispered. "She killed... she killed here."
"Here?" I echoed.
"Menhir Trail..." Noël swallowed. "Menhir Trail is the largest known Pokémon graveyard. Pokémon murder... to kill a Pokémon here- to kill a Pokémon at all..."
We caught up to around a large tree, where Dr du Bois rested. She looked reflective, almost dreaming as she sat between and before Darkrai and Altair. Darkrai and Altair held a book between them; it looked like Darkrai was progressing to letters.
"What did you do?" Noël hissed.
"That Beedrill was going to attack you," Dr du Bois replied. "I had thought that you would be grateful to have your miserable life extended."
"I appreciate the thought, but you just killed a Pokémon," Noël sharply replied.
"It wasn't a very nice Pokémon."
"It was a Pokémon!" Noël protested.
"So it deserved to live after attacking?" Dr du Bois turned her head to look at him with slanted eyes. "You would forgive a Pokémon that sees nothing wrong with killing you if needed?"
"You could have used another method... you could have warned me!" Noël yelled.
"It would have been too late." Dr du Bois replied. "Your issue is that I have just taken a Pokémon's life, in exchange for your own. I remain justified in the use of violence to terminate a life in the defence of others. If I receive your recriminations, they are of course unjustified, because I have employed them to save you. Now if you don't mind, I would rather rest in peace."
"Arceus end you," Noël growled. "When the Rangers come for you, I will testify."
"The end result is self-defence," she pointed out. "I will walk free, and you will be an ungrateful brat."
Noël bristled, before walking away. Frowning, I faced Dr du Bois. "You didn't need to do that."
"Are you going to share in his opinion as well?"
"Well..." I hedged. "I... doctor, I think throwing a warning would have been a better option-"
"And watch as the Beedrill stung him out of shock, knowing that my hands were clean at least?" she asked.
The razor's edge behind that dark answer made me shut up. For an expressionless almost-robot, Dr du Bois was remarkably expressive.
"No one's life is worth the sake of my moral high ground," Dr du Bois continued. "He should be burying the body right now. If you hurry, perhaps an impromptu service could be arranged."
I hovered around, and yet I hated her, this being of coldness and logic and facts and absurd acceptance of recriminations with guilt and without turning a hair. I left, and it made no difference to her anyway. Perhaps it didn't, since she was used to it. Maybe it shouldn't be odd, that she would resort to killing Pokémon.
"Donar."
I turned back, only to see that Crystal had been called out of her Pokéball, and then the Chandelure had her leash attached and Dr du Bois was handing the leather loop to me.
"The origin of candlelit vigils come from the gathering of Litwick along the sides of graveyards in Unova," Dr du Bois offered. "The Litwick line often acted as psycho-pomp figures into the Distortion World, or so it was believed. A Chandelure makes for an able master of ceremonies."
I warily nodded to the bobbing Chandelure, accepting the leash with bad grace before the Ghost/Fire Pokémon led me towards the clump of grass I had last saw Noël approach. "What's with her...? Do you know?"
The Chandelure shook her glass head, making a wobbly sound. Behind me, I thought that a few shadows moved, but they must have been my imagination. Either way, I found Noël a ways away, by a large upright stone. The Beedrill corpse was laid there, by the side, but Noël was cradling a brown bundle in his arms, Sapin by his side.
"Shit!" Noël swore, one hand rifling through his bag. "Antidotes!"
"What?" I knelt down, watching the Eevee curled up there.
"I found him by the stone," Noël mumbled. "Guess the Beedrill had more than one victim... anyway, Donar, do you have an Antidote?"
"Sure..."
I handed it over, watching Noël lay the Eevee out and spray the Antidote on the sting in its flank. Both of us flinched as the Antidote had no visible effect.
"What do we do?" Noël muttered, almost to himself. "The Cyllage Pokémon Centre is too far, and the Geosenge Centre as well... at this rate, this little one will die..."
Crystal made another noise, tugging on her leash.
"Huh...?" I looked from the Chandelure to the Eevee. "Poison... maybe Dr du Bois has stronger Antidotes. She does carry around a veritable apothecary..."
Noël didn't look too happy, but sounded resigned as he carried the Pokémon, and we followed Crystal towards the tree. Dr du Bois, as expected, was setting up camp already, dropping the bivouac tarp as we approached.
"Crisis?" she acidly murmured.
"The Beedrill got one," Noël opened his arms to show the writhing brown-furred form.
Dr du Bois reached inside her bag for a white tarp, laid out on the sheet. "Lay it out. Altair, get here. Liz, I'll need help."
The Lucario sighed, before nodding to Darkrai and then approaching us as the Floette appeared.
"Idiots, can't you even pull out a Poison Barb?" Dr du Bois snarled halfway, dropping the small barb. "Can't be helped. Flash Cannon, low setting."
Altair manipulated the light, focusing onto the wound with a beam the size of a penlight to cut into flesh.
"Beedrill poison usually requires isolation procedures," Dr du Bois murmured. "Sterilisation complete. Liz, Aromatherapy."
The Floette spun, a strange bouquet of smell that seemed to relax the Pokémon. The Eevee's breathing rate evened out, and we heaved a sigh of relief.
"Treatment complete," Dr du Bois murmured, already reaching for a cloth. "Altair, we'll need some of the Pecha Berries."
The Lucario made a wuff, but reached inside the bag for the delicate pink Berry, which Dr du Bois immediately crushed and then wrapped the cloth around the pulp before dropping it onto the Chandelure's head-flame. "Crystal, cook this poultice. We need to prevent inflammation."
I watched the entire display of medical efficiency carried out, impressed despite myself. A woman who could not only heal, but also kill, was a dichotomy.
"Are you awake?" Dr du Bois observed as the Eevee began to stir. "You were stung by a Beedrill. That boy brought you to me for treatment. I have sterilised and removed the poison, and now we are going to use a Pecha Berry poultice to prevent inflammation. This will sting."
So saying, she dropped the lightly steamed compress onto the Eevee, who wailed slightly but otherwise made no response. The liquid coursed over her hands, hot and steaming, but she made no response other than to check.
"A bit of rest, and we're done," Dr du Bois nodded, standing up. "Noël Duval. You will wash that cloth and return it to me when it is clean. Now, before I charge you for medical treatment, leave me be."
"Doctor, that was amazing!" I blurted, stunned. "How did you... that was amazing! You just did what we'd need to go to a Pokémon Centre for!"
"I did do what a Pokémon Centre usually does," she snapped. "Cleaning the wound, sterilisation, healing and then after-care. Just because there isn't a funny little bell to signal it when I dismiss a patient doesn't mean that a single individual is any less capable. Now, if you don't mind."
Having packed up her medicines now, she turned to face the tree once more, almost in contemplation before continuing with the setting up of camp.
"What's with her-"
"We should let the Eevee rest," I interrupted Noël. Liz perched on my shoulder then, smiling in cheer as we laid the Eevee down. "That's a very handy skill."
"Well, she could be..." Noël grumbled, but then relented. Noël and Sapin waited next to the Eevee for a brief moment, deliberating on their next move before deciding that we could do with some training. That was, of course, the time when I got attacked.
I had no idea how it happened; one moment I was sitting, and the next moment something was flying at me with the force of a train crash.
What attacked was a small, bipedal, bird-like Pokémon. It has red, cape-like wings connected to its tail with green undersides, and small hands ending in eagles' claws. Red chest feathers, a white abdominal area and legs with small yellow feet gave it a colourful appearance. Its green, mask-like face with an orange stripe down the middle and orange rings around its eyes ending in a small, red beak growled in a high-pitched cry, much like the rooster it resembled. Eyes with black sclera and large yellow irises echoing.
"Aerial Ace!" Noël shouted in recognition. "It's a Hawlucha!"
"Huh?" I blinked from my position on the ground, I pulled my PokéDex. Hawlucha, the Wrestling Pokémon. With its wings, it controls its position in the air. It likes to attack from above, a manoeuvre that is difficult to defend against.
"Roll!" Noël's next call made me move, in time to avoid the Hawlucha about to stomp me. "Sapin, use Grass Knot!"
The Hawlucha floated above the skies, skipping over the ropes of grass.
"Flo!" Liz cried in panic.
"I'm fine," I assured the little Pokémon, pulling out a Pokéball and flinging it out to release Fletchinder. "Fletchinder, Ember!"
The Hawlucha somersaulted, avoiding my Fletchinder's flame attacks to head towards the Eevee. Maybe it's- "We're not enemies!" I cried out.
The Hawlucha cried out, before it skidded, leaping up to stomp down on Fletchinder's back for a higher apex to its leap, feet pointed down. It was going to stomp on me, and I rolled as I just managed, still placing myself close to the Eevee. "We're not enemies!"
"Lucha!"
He's right, you know. Altair was approaching us, a bucket in hand. Do you know the nearest water spot, by the way?
I paled, remembering the unfortunate Vivillon and Flash Cannon. "Get away!"
Is that how you thank someone about to save your life? Altair asked, not facing me. I am informing the Hawlucha about the situation.
True to form, the Hawlucha paused, listening. Finally, it hung its head in acknowledgement.
It's alright, Altair offered an arm. Misunderstandings happen. Come now, we should inform the local guardians that the Beedrill has been disposed.
"Local guardians?" I echoed.
"The ruins of this trail is the largest and oldest Pokémon mass grave," Behind Altair, Dr du Bois's voice dispassionately answered. "The Kalos region's graveyard of Pokémon, in a sense. Patrolling this area are the Sigilyph and Golett, brought from Unova for the sole purpose of protecting the graveyard. They have performed their commission ever since that day. How else did you think that the Eevee can proliferate here, in comparison to the rest of the world?"
She then turned to Noël. "I'm insulted in you. Hawlucha is a part Flying-type Pokémon, one Ice Shard from your Snover would have been enough. Now put that Snover back before the entire Trail is covered in snow. We're going to start."
True enough, it was slightly nippy when we got back to camp, where another sight greeted us; Dr du Bois had pressed a Golett into service alongside Darkrai. The two of them were playing ball with a pack of Emolga. Very nervous Emolga, but still playing Emolga. We have the spectre of vengeance and nightmares Darkrai playing with cute little Emolga...
"Well..." Slightly amused, I called out all of my Pokémon too. "Let's play!"
How very unusual.
"Legendary Pokémon don't mate?" I asked. One of the local Golett had stumbled upon my little camp, and I pressed it into service almost immediately with a kind word so that Altair could be kept off duty. It was currently engaged in a game of toss-the-Light-Ball with Liz, a swarm of Emolga, Donar and Noël and their Pokémon sans Scylla. Altair and the Hawlucha sat by the injured Eevee, ostensibly keeping guard but really talking, Altair taking the more active role as the one with actual telepathy.
Even so, we tend to be attracted to those of the opposite... physical temperament. Darkrai shrugged. I would imagine that any of myself with my exact same temperament would be rather boring as a life companion.
"You've a very nice temperament," I agreed. "You're right, though. Homosexuality in Pokémon isn't quite documented, mainly due to the efforts of the conservative mindsets and religions that seem based around the different regions. Since the institution of the Kalosian Civil Code of the XVIII Century decriminalised homosexuality, though, such opinions tend to be freer in Kalos, and it reflects in its Pokémon... somewhat."
I once knew a Togekiss who fell for a Breloom, Darkrai reflected. They were female. The Breloom was stoned with her Trainer and the Togekiss sold to be mated. He paused, as if wondering if that anecdote should have come with more feeling. It was a sad fate.
"You might be referring to the Battle Frontier case of the Suzuki lynching," I commented. "The Togekiss later killed all of the judges of that case on orders from its Trainer and the two of them died. It became a landmark case that rose in Sinnoh to highlight the plight of LGBT individuals and thus amended the Sinnoh Civil Code instituted years later."
It is very sad, humanity, Darkrai reflected. Why is it that the laws are different here?
"It's actually more of regional differences rather than universal humanitarian negativism." I explained. "Erm... in Sinnoh, did you leave Newmoon Island long enough to be aware of the followers of Arceus?"
My greatest pursuers. Men in white cloaks who persist in carrying torches and chasing me, often with prayers to Cresselia to follow. Hisvoice sounded wry.
"Well, in philosophy, there is a term, cultural hegemony," I began. "Erm, firstly, what do you understand about human stories?"
To humans around Newmoon Island, it appears that they regard Arceus as Creator of Dialga and Palkia. Giratina and the likes of me are the darkness that Arceus and his followers seek to eliminate. That is a ludicrous sentiment, of course.
"Precisely," I nodded. "A ludicrous sentiment. Arceus takes residence in the Hall of Origin, and popular thought holds it that the Hall is the site of creation. That is a hegemony, a simple thought that all Pokémon were created by Arceus, despite the existence of the fossil record that proves otherwise. So why do these thoughts persist? Humans and Pokémon are not wilfully denying the truth, are they?"
No, they are not.
"So who benefits from the propagation of the idea as Arceus being the creator?" I asked. "Arceus is worshipped, and so is Dialga and Palkia, presumably because of their power. The priests of Arceus and their followers then condemn the worship of Giratina, decrying it as counter to the order of nature or some such, and gradually this thought evolves. Without opposition from Giratina and such, the ones who hold power and such are the ones who support the new orthodoxy, the ones who control Infernape and Lucario. In human anthropological thought, the spread of the worship of Arceus or elements of such became displaced during the Orange Wars between Kanto and Sinnoh, and from there Johto also adopted such orthodoxy, but replacing Arceus with Mew. We can therefore class the belief in Arceus as a monotheistic creator as cultural hegemony, a unification of belief systems, roughly speaking."
I understand. So what is derived from this? Why would anyone villainise us?
This is painful, I thought. How do I explain to a Pokémon that the reason for his ostracism might not be as logical as he thought? "When humans gain power... they tend to eliminate their rivals. Dark-type and Ghost-type Pokémon are the counterparts of Normal-type and Fighting-type Pokémon. It's only a theory, and I don't know a lot about Sinnoh belief systems compared to Kalosian beliefs, or Pokémon beliefs or even if Pokémon have a religion, but... there could be a political basis. Ostracism based on a simple fear of the unreal is never a good thing, Darkrai."
Darkrai was ponderously silent for a brief moment, before he nodded. I understand. Not all humans are the same. It is unfair to compare them and you.
Delphi had always been offended at such views, for reasons I had never known. Yet Darkrai's calm acceptance did not give me relief. "I hope... I hope you understand."
The fighter is an able teacher, and you are the first human to have accepted me unconditionally, without expectations hidden from sight.
Unova and Kalos never had the same reverence for such Pokémon, because of different social conditions and different lines of belief. There were only different artificial social constructs in place, that the preconceived notions blinded us from. Pokémon, who had no reason or language to lie from each other, would not understand it. Except, maybe, Psychic-type Pokémon. An Alakazam was perhaps the most choleric of intelligent Pokémon, after all.
With the smell of cooking rice and chicken stew floating to us at the moment, Darkrai did not seem to have sensed anything untoward, rather eagerly taking to chatting with the Golett and Emolga about things. From their eager sentiments and reaching for the small pile of Berries I had left by the side, I supposed that they were discussing foods and hummus.
"Can I have an Oran Berry?" I turned around to regard Noël looking to the pile.
"For the Eevee," he clarified, scowling. "He needs food."
"That won't make a difference," I answered. "Take the Sitrus Berry, it's more efficacious."
"Sitrus Berries are expensive."
"I got them for free from the old man at the Camphrier Berry Gardens."
"They give Berries for free?"
"I agreed to lease out his gardens when I was still a Trainer," I answered. "Perhaps it's a habit, but the old man did me a good turn, and an investment in one of the Kalos region's rarer commodities was a good investment. My lease expires next year, when his grand-daughter becomes old enough to inherit the Gardens."
"Hmm," Noël took the yellow Berry. "So you're a businesswoman, a nurse and a humanities professor? How does that work?"
"I lease the land out, let the family work on it and gain proceeds in exchange for holding the land in my name and for providing the materials, most of the details which I leave to a firm of lawyers," I answered. "To answer, I actually had a full medical license for strong pharmaceuticals, but I let that lapse when I turned to the humanities."
"Hmm..." Noël turned his head around, regarding the rocks that dotted Menhir Trail. "There was a song about this place, right?"
"L'auberge au crépuscule," I agreed. "The soundtrack for the film « La fleur sans lendemain ». Part of the scene was filmed here, in Geosenge, before the male lead left the female lead played by Diantha to set off in war. It won the Smeargle Award for Best Picture, I heard."
"There was another film planned after that one, set in Geosenge too," Noël commented. "'Course, the actual site was destroyed following the Team Flare battle, but... what was that film again?"
"« Luminosité Éternelle »," I answered. "The song... how does it go? Le jour finissait/ dans un décor de pourpre et d'or/ sur la vieille auberge où tendrement/ L'amour nous berçait/ grisant nos cœurs fous de bonheur/ je crus en tes serments..."
Noël Duval joined in. Of course he did:
"L'auberge au crépuscule,
Où je reviens toujours,
Lorsque l'oiseau module,
Un dernier chant d'amour.
Estompant l'ombre rose,
Caché sous l'humble toit,
Où mille tendres choses,
Me rapprochent de toi."
I was recalling more words, more of the melody, of that haunting song that was ignored when the film catapulted Diantha into stardom:
"Et tristement je pense,
À mon bonheur enfui,
Pourquoi sans ta présence,
Ai-je peur de la nuit?
L'auberge au crépuscule,
N'attend plus ton retour,
Lorsque l'oiseau module,
Un dernier chant d'amour."
I drew a breath to begin the next verse, but Noël Duval recalled faster:
"Hélas je sais bien,
que chaque amour se fane un jour,
Tout comme une fleur sans lendemain.
Plus fort que ce lien,
Le souvenir n'a pu mourir,
Et me rappelle en vain.
L'auberge au crépuscule,
Où je reviens toujours,
Lorsque l'oiseau module,
Un dernier chant d'amour.
Estompant l'ombre rose,
Caché sous l'humble toit,
Où mille tendres choses,
Me rapprochent de toi.
Et tristement je pense,
À mon bonheur enfui,
Pourquoi sans ta présence,
Ai-je peur de la nuit?
L'auberge au crépuscule,
N'attend plus ton retour,
Lorsque l'oiseau module,
Un dernier chant d'amour."
I ended the song with a drawl rather than a soprano, instead considering why did Noël Duval choose to mention a rather obscure song. "What did you need?"
The infuriating Trainer had the gall to cross his arms. "I just needed to see what you're really like. Why you're looking at that tree constantly, why you're setting up at an old camp-site. Even though I've known you guys only for awhile, I get the feeling that there's something very wrong. And that song, it's a funerary, tragic song. I think you buried someone here."
He was more perceptive than I thought. "I see."
"I understand if you need to mourn," Noël spoke. "But please don't take it out on the kid. He still has a future, let's not let ourselves interfere in that."
I just found myself confused as Noël Duval left me to join his Pokémon and the Emolga swarm in their game. A society that encouraged their minors to search for danger was a very odd society indeed. For a veteran Trainer to class Donar's future as unrelated... the illusion of agency is a fascinating study.
"The Eevee's waking up!" Donar's voice broke me out from my reverie as I looked towards my latest patient. The Eevee stood on wobbly legs, but smiled shyly up from its new position in Noël's arms, Donar having placed him there. Altair and the Hawlucha were nowhere to be seen.
Darkrai floated towards me. The fighters are currently... occupied. Does this happen often?
"Altair will return come the dawn," I told him. "Let me introduce you to this dessert called chocolate trifle. While I have no idea how you should react to the theobremine, it seems that you should not neglect a food such as chocolate. At the worst, I shall have Liz on standby. Shall we?"
You allow... that?
"I acknowledge the bodily needs of my partner Lucario requires outside assistance," I answered, "even though certain couplings are permitted under special recognition by the Millennium Pokémon-Human Relations Convention, because of the lack of compatible parts and a lack of sexual attraction on his part. As for your reluctance, Darkrai, I understand that the Sinnoh region is a conservative, Arceus-fearing place that recognises only one norm to the exclusion of many, yet surely you must know that male Pokémon do have sex with each other, sometimes across seemingly incompatible species."
… it's alright. It's all fine, really. It seems... rather lonely.
"...his mate died," I answered. "He got along with a Murkrow we met in Mélancolie Path. I gave the Murkrow a Dusk Stone after a bout of training. I was hoping... that he could find some closure."
It seems as though he has, Darkrai told me, floating some ways around the trifle container I had. And for whatever my misgivings shall be, this... is divine.
"...you ate the entire bowl?!"
… I found a companion Golett; further arrangements to be made the moment Altair returned from his impromptu sojourn. Noël Duval got the Eevee I treated, to be evolved as a Glaceon at the earliest opportunity. He named it Jacques. For the frost, he said.
Donar and his Pokémon get along well. The Fletchinder is growing. I believe that Altair could persuade the Hawlucha to tutor Fletchinder. I shall have to suggest it to Donar.
...(cancel the last bit. I am not to interfere.)
(Nevertheless, if I were to hint at it...)
Note: France uses civil law, which Japan also uses to some degree. America uses common law – which is where precedent and 'stare decisis' comes in. Therefore Unova law is different from law in the other five regions, in that there is no other statute than federal law/provincial law/city law, etc.
The song lyrics are from 'L'auberge au crépuscule' by Rina Ketty. It means 'The Inn at Dusk' and the story is something about romance, meeting and parting come dusk.
The two films are fictional: the first is translated as 'The Flower Without Tomorrow' and the second as 'Eternal Light'. I find it odd that, while Diantha is stated to be an actress, that none of her films save for that one role was ever highlighted in the main storyline. So, I created a background for her, much like Wikstrom.
Critique, s'il vous plaît!