Savoir-faire – To Know and To Do
XXI: Compter – To Count
Day 47: This is a continuation, penned seven days after the fact that we fought off the rogue Tyranitar.
Yes, the attacker of the Zapdos was a Tyranitar, as our electro-avian friend had established beforehand. However, Zapdos had neglected to mention the fate of Julia of Hearthome City.
I am sorry to report that Julia of Hearthome will neither see her home again. Nor will her left palm ever fix itself to the rotted stump that remained of what we retrieved. It happens when her former partner dragged her rotting corpse across Fourrage Road and through the Tisane.
I know you will read this, Professor Oak. We found clear signs of sexual abuse. The semen we swabbed did not belong to a human being. The vaginal tearing was too large for any human being. Her hips had been crushed by sheer weight.
(Edit. The professorship would be gone before I let Samuel Oak draw his own conclusions from this.)
A palm.
Dr du Bois was pale, even paler than usual as she produced a handkerchief to poke at the... meat... and check it. As her head bowed, a breeze passed my face and with it what felt like a load of sand.
"Wind...?" Dr du Bois turned her head up to face me and then the river that flowed between Shalour and Route 12. One of her hands trailed towards her pockets. "Donar, get back to town."
"What?" I echoed. "Why?"
"Altair, I need you," Dr du Bois flung out the Pokéball, calling out the Lucario. "Crystal, return-"
A truly terrible roar echoed, and a veritable whirlwind laced with sand erupted. Altair was batted aside as if he truly weighed nothing more, and Dr du Bois ducked before a green paw swiped at her head, or where it had been.
The Tyranitar bellowed, an earthquake with every step rendering me from being able to move further. Pointed rocks loomed over the field.
I skidded, staring at them in despair. Stealth Rock-
The Tyranitar let off another ear-splitting roar, its tiny triangular head oriented before it stepped, and with it an awful crack much like that time she prepared marrow on toast. Bones cracking.
"Frogadier!" I called my own Pokémon, who unleashed a Water Pulse immediately.
The Armour Pokémon bellowed before it charged towards me. One arm slapped away my Frogadier, before its mouth glowed, an orb of energy about to be unleashed and eradicate Donar Oak.
I reached for Frogadier, rolling, trying to run-
A fizz echoed, and the Tyranitar screamed, an unholy mix of pain and fear and hate of the behemoth monster. It stormed front and back, clutching with stubby red-brown-green paws as it stumbled at its face, at its smoking head. On its head, I saw, red-white flames flickered, eating through.
Holding onto a smoking, squat-barrelled orange gun, Dr du Bois heaved a breath slowly as the Tyranitar fell to its knees and nearly began rolling, its moans of pain frightening and heaving up to crush my legs.
Frogadier made a note of distress, about to form a Water Pulse.
"No," Dr du Bois cautioned, shaking as she got back to her feet in the midst of the dying sandstorm. Her hands shook before she put the still-smoking gun away somewhere on her person. "Magnesium burns in water. Altair."
Understood. The Lucario squatted, using his Bone Rush to knock out the Armour Pokémon. He then started scraping up some of the sand on the ground to pile on the groaning creature's hind-brain.
Dr du Bois limped over, and after a moment of seeing them shovel sand to pile on the monster's head, I joined them. The flames hissed and sputtered, more white than red, and I had to stop several times from the heat, Frogadier always hissing between the flames and I. Somehow, though, shovelling sand onto a Tyranitar's head was rather calming.
"You shot it?"
"I was about to call for help before it advanced, clearly with horrible intentions," Dr du Bois elaborated. "A Tyranitar with Sand Stream walking into Shalour could cause a repeat of the landslide. Flare guns were meant to call for help. However, it did not act as expected, and clearly it meant us harm."
"You shot it," I echoed in disbelief as the head was completely buried and Altair sighed.
Dr du Bois hauled herself to her feet, legs shaking as she meandered some ways away to peer towards the surrounding fields, empty as the Mareep had long since fled. In the distance, a puff of white floated on the Tisane.
Dr du Bois sighed as she paused, taking in whatever sight there was. "Donar... go get... Officer Jenny. Leader Korrina, too. We need... evidence..."
She collapsed onto her knees, and it was only Darkrai who prevented her from falling onto her face.
Darkrai made a noise of distress. Marguerite...?
"Dr du Bois...?" I shook her arm, shrouded in her coat and cold from wind. "Doctor? Dr du Bois!"
Sometime during my six years of studying, when I found myself in Unova for an academic conference, I was in Undella Town. I remember bringing Crystal, who was still a Lampent, to the local casino. Undella Town was a resort town, and it showed in the multitude of humanity that littered its beaches and buildings. Compared to the innocence from Nimbasa City, Undella Town drew a far more mature, far more hungry crowd to fritter away fortunes in Poké. I enjoyed the baccarat tables, especially chemin de fer.
I had banque when the Pumpkaboo Pie cocktail was served to me.
"From the gentleman across," the server helpfully pointed out that untrustworthy man, his thin face and the smirk permanently etched onto it marking him as the Dark Master of the Unova Elite Four.
I held up my unlit drink, and my new Lampent. "Flame it."
Grimsley started as the drink caught in brilliant blue flames, and I let it continue burning while I took the straw to down the whole thing, his dark eyes in mine the whole time.
Why, of all things, did I begin to remember this...?
The flames, instead of the warm coffee liqueur and the suffusing cinnamon, tasted like wood-smoke. Heat blistered at my arms and hands, and my skin peeled and blackened from fire. What was going on, I knew not; neither the mystery of my feelings nor of my comprehension was understood by myself. A lone soul, scattered to pain and loneliness for reasons I knew not. Why did he attack us...?
"If you wish for something, you must be prepared to pay a price for it."
Will this... save my home...?
"I swear upon my name, that this land will be saved from this catastrophe. However..."
You're so unfair... Tricking a dying girl into such an act, truly one of the fée... I shall place my faith into the future. If I must die over and over... do it, Xerneas!
Black flashed to white, and I fell awake.
The Verey flare gun was a weight near my leg, solid and reassuring. My limbs could move, extremities and all, and I was prepared to fight.
Marguerite?
My guard fell by increments as I reassured myself that this was the Darkrai I knew.
You are awake, Altair commented.
"What happened?" I asked.
You discovered her body, Darkrai explained, seemingly unperturbed. Then you blacked out. The fighter and I had to carry you back. The Tyranitar was also discovered. The officers outside... they mentioned something about charges?
"Legal charges. I might get into a spot of trouble over the law. It's not a problem, because of self-defence, Darkrai." I widened my eyes, the contours of my face stretching to mimic tearful innocence and desperation, like the first time I had killed. "I will get us out of this."
What are you doing? Darkrai now questioned.
"Trying to look innocent," I answered. "Human cultural assumptions places me at an advantage, mainly because I'm a woman and an academic, and no one thinks academics have the stomach to shoot people. If I convince people to draw their own conclusions, the fact of the matter is that many would see only the cover and thus the deception succeeds. How do I look?"
...passable, Altair answered me, since Darkrai seemed at a loss for words.
The door of the single room – I'd only noticed it now – opened, and with it a doctor accompanied by Officer Jenny.
"You're awake!" the doctor sounded surprised. "Well, aside from shock... Officer Jenny. Would you mind...?"
"It's fine, docteur," I replied.
The doctor checked my pupil response and breathing as well as the miscellany of medicine, before he declared the result I already knew. "Mademoiselle Linden-"
"Dr du Bois," I interrupted. "I'm an anthro-Pokémon sociologist attached to the Sycamore Laboratory. Although, I think it's time to switch to political science."
"Oh?" Officer Jenny nodded, before producing a notebook. "Well, we need your statement."
"I'll be pleased to cooperate," I answered. "It's so sad, that girl..."
Officer Jenny nodded grimly. Perhaps it was due to my involvement as the one who discovered the rotting corpse, but I was let off with only a few questions.
How may I achieve that? Darkrai nearly sparkled.
"Darkrai... it'll take a bit of deception to pull off," I answered. I would have loved to continue disabusing him of the notion of making himself seem innocent – lost cause though it seemed – before a knock echoed.
Shall I...?
"Should you wish," I answered. I gave fifteen seconds before I called: "Entrez!"
"If I may, Mademoiselle," the flash bastard in a yellow scarf and black suit made a bow, right hand crossed to above his left pectoral.
If I had the energy to waste on full-body shudders, I would. Daisy Linden and Grimsley had never met face-to-face; Marguerite Linden du Bois might not be remembered, especially from the gambling maniac of the Unovan Elite Four. Though it begged the question of what was Grimsley doing here to begin with...
"Mademoiselle du Bois," Grimsley Pieris prompted, and I realised that to him, I must be a young girl with the bad luck to be involved in all this.
"Doctor," I automatically corrected, watching his opinion change. Worst-kept secret of a gambling addiction or not, Grimsley did not seem to possess a superior poker face. Or he could be prepared to throw me off. Was he the good or bad cop?
"Dr du Bois," he corrected. Oddly, he ignored or overlooked Darkrai. "You were the one who discovered Julia's body?"
"That... I am," I paused. Dead bodies were all well and fine, but advanced decomposition of animal protein-based flesh did not always sit well.
"Could you please tell me of the circumstances?"
"I was training with Donar," I replied. "Donar Oak, I mean, a young Trainer. I am currently following him around as part of my dissertation of the social forces surrounding a Pokémon Trainer."
A humanities scholar, I watched his estimation of me fall. "He must not be a very good Trainer."
"He's talented enough," I answered, reviewing my words. True, Donar Oak did have the potential to go into the Leagues, though there was a reason why two out of three professional Trainers failed. Resources were one flaw of his quest, but I digress. "My partner Lucario, Altair, he assisted me when I felt the sandstorm coming by the banks of the Tisane."
"You have a Darkrai and a Lucario travelling together?" Grimsley questioned.
"Darkrai is my research assistant," I promptly replied. "Altair is my partner. The difference is that I have Altair's Pokéball and Darkrai has no Pokéball."
"How very unusual," Grimsley bowed to Darkrai. "A pleasure to meet you, lord of nightmares."
Darkrai's cyan eye glittered like a steel blade, before he settled back.
"Darkrai was facing against my Chandelure when the Tyranitar attacked," I continued, my eyes widening. "When it did, I presupposed that it was a Pokémon with Sand Stream. I withdrew my Pokémon and I was about to use my emergency flares to call for help, but it appeared, and I... I killed it, didn't I?"
"No, no," Grimsley assured, palms up to face me. "Please, elaborate on the circumstances."
This was going to take a while.
I don't know if we were extra-lucky, or if Dr du Bois was just that well-connected. Barely three days after the Tyranitar attack she had gotten a call from Professor Sycamore and the Professor Oak, as well as a gift basket from Professor Juniper in Unova. Rangers and Officer Jenny dropped in on her.
Wikstrom himself, with a member of the Unova Elite Four that gave me a rather warped feeling wavered between trust and mistrust, came over with a giant bouquet of wild daisies.
"For the daisy," Wikstrom had offered to Dr du Bois, pale and still stuck in bed. During that time, I had alternated my full training regime, and Bagon had started eating more, a process that the PokéDex detailed as a natural segment of preparing for evolution. Fletchinder had mastered Aerial Ace and Flame Charge, and we had decent coverage to be gotten.
"I think we need a Fighting-type," I detailed. "After that... Steel-type? Fairy-type?"
"Something that can handle Ghost-types," Serena added, a touch darkly.
"Well..." I pondered, walking towards the extremely stylised building that housed the Shalour Gym. The moratorium on Gym Leader battles was going to be lifted ahead of schedule, so we thought we might as well research on Korrina's battles before participation.
"What kind of building comes decorated in gilt?" Serena huffed as we ascended a set of stairs, either side with railings and a flat incline present.
I pointed to a sign by the door. "The kind with royal acclaim."
"How d'you know?" Serena glanced.
"There's a really fancy crown on the sign," I indicated where the fleur-de-lis was. "Dr du Bois mentioned it somewhere in Parfum Palace."
"Oh, someone's an aficionado of Kalosian heraldry," a man dressed as a referee rubbed his hands together, his pleasant face smiling. "This building used to be the great manor house of the Lierre lords, you know. The Lierre family still keeps it, though of course, Leader Korrina has had it modernised. Very stable architecture, the building, and the exterior protected by cultural mandate."
"Really?" I sounded impressed, for the referee puffed up his chest.
"Yes," the referee nodded. "Do you see the open-top crown, the one with the Lanturn as its curve? That is the mark of the Dauphin, in pre-Revolution times, establishing the duchy of Shalour with the charge of fostering the Kalos army, along with several other cities. Some of the oldest man-built buildings in Kalos Gyms in the Kalos region are the Laverre City Gym, the Santalune Gym, the Anistar Gym and our Gym."
Serena and I followed the referee in, through a modern roller coaster rink and towards the central battlefield. Korrina was already facing off against a Trainer, her Hawlucha versus what looked like a giant chestnut on legs.
"What's that?" I muttered to myself, pulling my PokéDex.
Chesnaught, the Spiny Armour Pokémon. When it takes a defensive posture with its fists guarding its face, it could withstand a bomb blast.
"The last evolution of Chespin," Serena commented. "I remember Shauna talking about- Shauna?!"
I turned my head, peering. True to words, Shauna was facing the Gym Leader, and judging from her expression, she found it tough.
"The challenger is down to her last Pokémon!" the referee – a different guy from the one directing us to the crowded stands – called.
"We won't lose!" Shauna retorted, with Chesnaught bellowing in answer.
"My Hawlucha has the Flying-type," Korrina pointed out. "Hawlucha, Flying Press!"
The Hawlucha leapt, falling down from above to stomp on Chesnaught.
"Chesnaught, Spiky Shield!" Shauna called.
I watched as a shield of green formed around Chesnaught, before the green flared in spikes that scratched at Hawlucha.
"Spiky Shield not only protects absolutely, but it also injures the opponent!" Shauna boasted. "Chesnaught, follow with Seed Bomb!"
"Chest!" the Pokémon nodded, about to slam an explosive seed.
"Hawlucha, Power-Up Punch!"
The Hawlucha punched, sending Chesnaught skidding back.
"Now, Aerial Ace!" Korrina called, as the Hawlucha took a running jump that led to it soaring through the air, cutting at a rush on Chesnaught, who groaned and fainted.
"Chesnaught is unable to battle. Leader Korrina wins!"
"Chesnaught..." Shauna smiled, recalling Chesnaught into his Pokéball. "Take a good rest."
"Aerial Ace, Flying Press, Power-Up Punch..." Serena got up.
"Shauna!" the two of us approached Shauna, who turned and smiled upon our appearance.
"We were in the area!" Serena hugged Shauna. "When did you get here?"
"I only just walked through," Shauna answered. "Hi, Serena, Donar. Have you challenged the Gym yet?"
"No, not yet," Serena shook her head. "Come on, we should take your Pokémon to the Pokémon Centre."
"I just don't get it... why did that Flying Press affect Chesnaught so much?" Shauna grumbled.
"Flying Press is a Fighting-type move with Flying-type attributes," a voice mentioned behind us. "It's Hawlucha's signature move. Your Chesnaught is doubly weak to the Flying-type."
"Noël!" I exclaimed, looking to the older Trainer.
"Bonjour," Noël nodded to me. "Your friends?"
"Serena, Shauna, this is Noël Duval," I introduced. "I met him at the Ambrette Lab. Noël, Shauna and Serena, my friends. The three of us, plus Tierno and Trevor, started out at the same time."
"Bonjour, mesdemoiselles," Noël winked as he spoke. "So you finally shook off that professor?"
"No," I shook my head. "Dr du Bois is in hospital."
"What? Why?"
I filled them in on the Tyranitar attack, and even mentioned Julia's body being found. Serena and Shauna were equally shocked, and Noël frowned.
"How... unfortunate," Noël mumbled as the four of us walked in the streets of Shalour City. "A Zapdos was injured, and is at the Shalour Pokémon Centre? That's a bit... unsafe, right?"
"Unsafe?" I asked.
"Most people never see a legendary Pokémon in their lives, and for a Zapdos to appear so suddenly, not to mention stay... must have been some injury," Noël commented to us. "There are villains who might try to catch him."
"It's... probably safe," I hesitated. It might not be safe, and I should have known that, but... but it was Zapdos. Surely-
The crowd waiting outside of the Pokémon Centre suddenly seemed, to me, a hunter's trap lying in wait, patient in the wait for Zapdos to leave the Shalour Pokémon Centre.
I dropped by Dr du Bois while Shauna went to get treatment for her Pokémon. The professor was not working in bed, but she was reading out loud to her Pokémon: Crystal suspended overhead, Jelly floated by the vase of daisies with Liz on top, Aegis and Altair back to back, and Darkrai waiting. She was reading:
Il me fallut longtemps pour comprendre d'où il venait. Le petit prince, qui me posait beaucoup de questions, ne semblait jamais entendre les miennes. Ce sont des mots prononcés par hasard qui, peu à peu, m'ont tout révélé. Ainsi, quand il aperçut pour la première fois mon avion (je ne dessinerai pas mon avion, c'est un dessin beaucoup trop compliqué pour moi) il me demanda...
"Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose-là?" Serena spoke up.
"« Ce n'est pas une chose. Ça vole. C'est un avion. C'est mon avion. »" Dr du Bois just continued reading. "Et j'étais fier de lui apprendre que je volais. Alors il s'écria: « Comment ! Tu es tombé du ciel? » « Oui, » fis-je modestement. « Ah ! ça c'est drôle… »"
"Bonjour, Dr du Bois," I said. "When are you leaving?"
"Hopefully by today," Dr du Bois replied, a touch of asperity present as the book was set down. "Bonjour, Donar. How was the Gym battle?"
"I haven't participated yet," I answered. "I'm going to work out a plan of attack before I start on the Gym. I remember your words, Doctor."
"What words?" Dr du Bois glared to me. "To fix relations with your father?"
"To not hold the idiot ball,"I ignored the jibe about my father. "Noël's here too. I think he's headed to Coumarine next. Could we...?"
There was a long silence I was very acquainted with, before Dr du Bois inclined her head. "...Make sure you win. We need to stock up on food supplies."
Yes!
Day 51: Donar and Serena won against the Shalour Gym, and Shauna managed to catch up as well. Donar gained the Surf HM; useful when crossing the Tisane. I am torn between splurging and with-holding. Surely, I could splurge on something for his sake...
(Edit. Donar Oak is not my son; I am not his mother.)
The Pumpkaboo Pie is based on the Pumpkin Pie cocktail:
1/3 shot Kahlua
1/3 shot Bailey's Irish Cream
1/3 shot Tequila (white)
1 dash cinnamon
Carefully layer this shot with Kahlua on the bottom, Bailey's in the middle, and tequila on top. Light the tequila on fire and sprinkle with cinnamon.
The book is Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Chapter 3 opening.
Critique, s'il vous plaît!