Savoir-faire – To Know and To Do

XXXIII : Croire – To Think

Day 72: We arrived at Lumiose City. Here is the centre of Kalosian power, the most revamped and oldest urban settlement in the entirety of Kalos. The birth, of the modern region...

The birthplace of Marguerite Linden du Bois. (delete)

The birthplace of legends.

Hospitals were flooded with the smell of cleaner and ammonia. That was a universal fact. And yet, here in the Hôpital de le Luminosité Éternelle , Lumiose City's oldest and first hospital, it seemed as though it had been graced by some otherworldly presence... as it had. Marguerite... no, Daisy Linden, Dr du Bois, was as otherworldly as it came.

There was proof. Of course there was proof. It lay now in the... Gengar... and Trevenant, and Gourgeist now lingering by the foot of her bed. The bed of Marguerite Linden du Bois, the wonderfully, infuriatingly mysterious woman of my teacher, née SAS Daisy Linden, the Champion of Kalos.

The woman herself stirred.

Wikstrom had arrived on the scene first, his anguished expression apparent as he carried her bridal-style down from the Azur. L'Hôpital de la Luminosité éternelle now had Elite Four and Gym Leader guards, and yet with Altair standing by, I doubted any of them could stop a Champion's Pokémon if Dr du Bois decided to escape and run...

Altair growled.

I flinched. It made me remember how he'd used those teeth on those Houndoom.

You are afraid.

I looked from Altair to Darkrai, the other terrifying one. "I- I don't see why not," I replied carefully.

One green eye opened. Dr du Bois stirred, her body rising from clean white sheets with utter grace. "Mmm?"

"Dr du Bois." The acknowledgement came out colder than I intended. "Or... Daisy Linden?"

Her lips parted in a small yawn, eyes narrowed in pain as her diaphragm fluttered with every breath she took. "You know me as Dr du Bois. Why change it? I did not suddenly change my name, you know."

"Because you're the Champion of Kalos!" I nearly shouted at her. "Because you did some freaky thing, and those ghosts evolved even though they usually can't, and now I have no idea what's going on! Altair and that Gengar Mega-evolved because of something you did, and I'm going to need a therapist if I don't die first because of something you omitted! What else are you lying to me about?!"

She didn't deny or encourage it. She just twitched, wincing as if the lights, my volume, everything of her surroundings hurt her. Maybe it did. Maybe dying and returning did hurt her.

"Well?!" I demanded. "You got Altair to fling me overboard!"

"And I saved the lives of your friends and yourself," Dr du Bois answered. "What are you expecting?"

"The truth!" I threw up my hands.

She shrugged. "Explaining the situation would feed into the executive centre of your brain, your reasoning and argumentative centres. I could explain, but it would be pointless were you subconsciously disbelieving."

I drew the chair up, plopping myself into it and crossing my arms. Then I realised that, in the dressing gown the hospital staff forced me into after my wet clothes, I crossed my legs. "Try me."

Dr du Bois did not seem to have noticed anything, curious as she was. Petting the Gengar on its grinning blue head, Dr du Bois looked far away, as if absorbed in mulling over my proposal. Shadows gathered from around her, gathering into a green-purple ghost.

"Poucet, Donar. Donar, Poucet," Dr du Bois absently commented, ignoring the Spiritomb.

Pleasure.

"...hi," I sighed. I had long resigned myself that Dr du Bois would pick up dangerous pets.

"So..." I started, as if it would sink in if I repeated it enough. "...You're the Champion of the Kalos region."

"Technically, former Champion," Dr du Bois corrected.

"But everyone calls you the Champion."

"The team that won me that title is no more," Dr du Bois admitted.

Yes, I know. They died. My heart throbbed for her, and by my side Frogadier shifted, pushing against my leg.

Altair walked to stand by her bedside. Paw and hand met. The Gengar and Trevenant crowded. Gourgeist had left to watch Léa; obviously, that Ghost was not attached to the Doctor.

"I had mentioned before, that the legitimacy and social stability of a region is dependent upon its Champion's strength," she finally began. "The truth... goes beyond that. Should you realise the truth, you will never be able to see Pokémon the same way ever again. You would never be able to connect with Pokémon the same way as anyone else."

"...tell me," I answered. " S'il vous plaît. "

Dr du Bois clicked her tongue, and I thought I glimpsed wisps of the same rosy light as she raised her right hand. "Fine."

Gengar licked her hand eagerly. The Ghost/Poison-type Shadow Pokémon was... "What... are you doing?" I stuttered.

"In exchange for your service, I will feed you," Dr du Bois told the Gengar, pulling a Pokéball from her belt and tapping it onto its rotund body. "And with our bargain, I christen you as Mignon."

The Gengar disappeared into the Pokéball. It blinked once, then stopped shaking. The capture had been concluded.

Dr du Bois opened it, and the Gengar gleefully began sucking at her fingers. Watching her hand get swallowed by that imp of a ghost made me feel sick. "What are you feeding him?"

"My life," Dr du Bois planted a kiss on its forehead. "Ghost-type Pokémon require some form of energy to sustain themselves. Most Ghost-type trainers would remain in a spiritually powerful nexus such as Mt Pyre or Ecruteak City, or an emotionally charged area like Hearthome City, for that purpose. Yet, life energy is the closest substitute to feed them."

"You're..." I stared at the Gengar in no small amount of horror. "You're insane! Are you throwing away your life? Is that how you feed the pink menace too?! And Phantump- I mean, Trevenant?"

"It can't be helped," Dr du Bois shrugged. "This life overflows within me. My life force is an infinitely more palatable food to my Ghosts. If this would grant them some small succour, I would feel at ease. That at least, I have done something out of love."

"Don't demean yourself!" I insisted. "There are people who are about you! Why don't you realise that people would be sad if you died?!"

"Daisy Linden should have died six years back," Dr du Bois reflected, her hand moving to cradle her stomach. The same place, I realised, where she had been gored in the dream. The girl in the dream had laughed, even in defiance, taking the legendary Pokémon down with her by dint of a Destiny Bond...

"During the last, final raid on Team Flare, mere years after my defeat of Lysandre at Geosenge, Team Flare managed to capture Xerneas and Yveltal again," she told her tale. "I defeated the grunts, but the Legendary Pokémon were freed and angered. I was forced to take them both on in battle, with my full team. Of the six that accompanied me in battle, only Altair and Vega, my Flygon, survived. I lost Delphi, Deneb and Sealeo. Their bodies were gathered, burnt to ashes and scattered amongst the tombs of Geosenge by the Kalos League, at Diantha's orders. My Banette was lost, presumably having deserted. And the lie of Daisy Linden's existence became completed, when I tried to step down and was barred from doing so."

"That's... that's unreasonable!" I shook my head. "Why?"

"Who knows," Dr du Bis shrugged, and it gave her an air of a martyr. "Politics, perhaps. No other region had to lose their Champion to win against great evil, nor did that Champion have to make battle against the local Legends to protect the region, and live to do so. I was alive, so was the rationale. I was immortal now, something beyond human. I could train more Pokémon, and I would be an everlasting pedestal to lead Kalos. Even if it went against every ideal of the Pokémon League... Kalos had never liked Charles Goodshow, or the rise of Indigo Plateau."

"I... have been living a half-life ever since," Dr du Bois continued, still with that same dreamy look on her elegant features. True, she bore the same grace of Daisy Linden, the easy confidence of all Champions. "Four Pokémon, along with Daisy Linden, died that day."

"And the Kalos League covered it up," I whispered, my tightening. Altair's resolved look as he evolved... Darkrai's quiet fury, even the Gengar... why would the Kalos League do this. "Why?"

"Because I had become something more than human," Dr du Bois reflected. "Daisy Linden is pitiful. Not because she stumbled and fell, but because, in attaining the goal of all Trainers, of becoming the best, she had lost herself. Daisy Linden had carved her mark into history so young, had eaten so greedily at the banquet of life, that life's pleasures held no further meaning for her years down the path."

"But Marguerite Linden du Bois has meaning," I insisted, some form of passion pushing me to argue with this goddess of reason, this figure so far from my imagination that one of her servants would crush me with but a thought. "You have given Darkrai, Altair, even I, meaning. We would be sad if you were to die."

Her lips parted, and she flushed up with pleasure at my words. Possibly, Dr du Bois was as sensitive to flattery as any other girl.

"...Oh."

"Your life has meaning." I repeated. "Not to feed to your ghosts alone. You keep saying that you've lived a half-life, but look at you. You're wealthy, connected, famed, and knowledgeable. You are the most accomplished professor I know, and will have the privilege of knowing. You have trained a Lucario as a surgeon, a Darkrai as your assistant, and you will probably train Liz as a medic or something, but you are so much more than living now. Those demons, you have conquered it. So please, don't throw away your life."

Dr du Bois considered me for a long moment, before she reached up to her eyes. I saw her dig into her fingers with some alarm, before she drew out the contact lenses within.

Altair held up her bag for her to rifle through, dropping the tinted lenses into a lens case before snapping it shut.

The blue-green of Daisy Linden's eyes met mine, and I felt the pressure of Dr du Bois's presence.

"I'm tired," she announced. "And injured."

"...I'll leave you to rest," I automatically replied when Altair elbowed me in the gut. I escaped with Frogadier, but not far. I only managed to stumble back to my own bed in the general wards before I freaked out.

Dr du Bois was Daisy Linden, the Champion of Kalos. That made me feel... rather inadequate. Definitely.

Then again, Dr du Bois made me feel inadequate on a daily basis, so that was okay. That was OK.

...Right?

No one would ever say that Daisy Linden would have been a good patient. No one would ever say the same for Marguerite Linden du Bois.

"Doctor..."

"I've been in bed rest for three days," I complained. "Altair, back me up here."

"Doctor, you were shot!" Donar argued back. "Altair, don't you dare."

My Lucario looked from me to him, and plainly ignored us.

"You know I'm fine, I know my limits, I am going out," I pointed to the double doors that Donar was blocking me from with Shelgon and Ivysaur. Ivysaur's maw opened in something approximating a laugh. "Where are my discharge papers?"

"Altair, back me up here!" Donar started yelling.

Altair shrugged.

I felt branches around me, before I was picked off the ground by Cyprès, the Trevenant. "Cyprès, what are you doing?"

"The nurses said rest," Donar replied, a tad gleefully. "That includes not running around Lumiose City."

"You little..."

"I'll give your regards to Serena and Léa, then," Donar waved as I was carried away.

From my shadow, Mignon cackled. Aegis provided amusement in my room by clashing his tasselled arms on his shield.

"Oh, shut up," I crossed my arms and glaring at Liz, Crystal and Jelly waiting for me. "And what now?"

Crystal gave a hiss, while Jelly began waving her multiple arms. Both moves brought great discomfort as I realised their message, along with Liz's chiming.

I believe the boy won this round, so you should- Altair paused as he saw what I was doing.

"...I understand," I told the three Pokémon heavily. "Jelly, your circumstances I shall handle before we set out for Lavarre City. Crystal, I shall have to negotiate something with Capo. Liz... I have a gift for you."

The blue Floette widened her eyes as I produced the Shiny Stone I had retrieved from Miroir Way.

"All Floette must choose, at some point in their lives, between longevity and power," I told her. "If you accept, then you shall attain power at the cost of a finite lifespan. Such is the curse of your kind."

Liz floated, hovering so close to the stone, about to touch it... before she gave a reply of high, twittering syllables.

I nodded, my hands still holding out the gift. "Never let it be said that Marguerite Linden du Bois does not fulfil her obligations."

Then, Liz hovered to perch on my shoulder, pecking my cheek for a brief moment.

"You..." I smiled, even as Altair clarified her wish to me. My boredom and frustration seemed to have melted away, warmed in a rush of relief that had nothing to do with Lumiose City's oldest hospital and everything to do with my personal catharsis. "I... will try."

I settled myself at Cyprès's feet, the shade refreshing even indoors. The melody of the song was still apparent, even as I hummed it. Mignon and Cyprès waved in time to the music of their rebirth.

So cute, I reflected. I hated myself after thinking those thoughts. Patting Crystal and Jelly, knowing of meeting and parting, whether willingly or otherwise, whether it be far away or close in the future...

It was... surprisingly relaxing, I admitted as Poucet hovered nearby, and Darkrai began to infiltrate the room to join us. I had nothing against a cappella, but I preferred the accordion. Still, extremely sentimental, I was sure.

"We'll share a Galette," I promised Darkrai.

We... will?

"Yes," I promised. "We will."

A knock resounded on my door.

" Entrez, " I commanded.

It opened to reveal Léa Morelle, and Gourgeist, as well as Ramos.

"Léa Morelle," I greeted. "Are you not supposed to be meeting with your friends?"

Wisps of flame began to gather around her, her personal Will-O-Wisp. Her grey eyes glittered, the gems cold though her soul burned. "You..."

I looked to Ramos, who seemed as lost as I felt. "Sorry, sprout. She wanted to meet you," the elderly Gym Leader told me.

"You have my gratitude," Léa Morelle told me, quite formally. "For Gourgeist, and for rescuing me. Leader Amaro said that... that you left Gourgeist for me."

Gourgeist chirruped, the bass tone reverberating to wake up Cyprès, who replied in a groan like creaking wood.

"I accept your gratitude," I answered. "Goodbye."

"Wait!" Léa pleaded. "I... I've won the Plant Badge from Leader Amaro. Leader Amaro offered a place in his Gym, and I'm very grateful. But, I want to learn about Ghost-type Pokémon. And... so... will you be my teacher?"

At first I didn't realise she was asking me when finally I understood. I expressed that I was both flattered and surprised. Since I'd never expected this request, and I was a little daunted in the face of it, I paused. I promised I would do my very best to accomplish a task that was, for me, as demanding and difficult as any I had ever contemplated. It came with an expression of gratitude for the trust she placed in me, and I almost came close to being moved by it.

It later transpired that I had said none of this out loud. In fact, my default response was to sigh, contemplate, and order Mignon to haunt them out of my room.

Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!