[Part 1]
At the end of their first day staying on the route, the not-human greeted her with a bunch of different berry slices in a bowl.
"I've no idea which flavours you prefer, so I've got several different ones. If you like one of those, I can get more tomorrow!"
A nice sentiment, but food was food. She was just thankful not to get those tasteless paste and drip injections humans subjected her to for years. So she dug in, absentmindedly registering different flavours. This one was sweet, and a bit dry. This one was mostly bitter. This one was sour - she didn't care for this one in particular, but food was still food.
Suddenly, the next slice she bit into exploded in an overwhelming flavour, causing her to stop in her tracks, and process what she was tasting. This slice was smaller than the others, bright orange, and it was SPICY. So spicy, in fact, that she was tearing up, as if her eyes were irritated by something. A little bit on the dry side, but the spice was the main factor in all of this. And shoot, this was delicious.
Did she ever eat something so tasty at all?
She looked up at the not-human, and pointed at the bitten slice with her claw.
"Ah, you liked the Spelon berry? Try that green and red one as well! It's Liechi, and it's also spicy"
She bit into the mentioned berry, and listened to her tongue. Yeah, this one was also very spicy, but also very sweet. And… With some sour notes? She liked it a bit less than the first one, but it was still very good. She nodded.
"Okay, so you probably like spicy stuff. Got it, I'll buy more tomorrow!"
She nodded appreciatively, then proceeding to clean up the bowl. A few bites of other berries, a bite of spicy ones, repeat until there's no food left. By the end, she still felt somewhat thirsty, yet was full.
After that, the not-human introduced her to the Caterpie. He looked like he did not appreciate being here at all, and was rather rude, but not outright hostile. At least that edible thing the not-human gave him seemed to improve his mood a bit, though they did not talk much.
She soon asked the not-human to go back into the ball, since there still was some lingering weakness and tiredness she needed to sleep off.
Next evening, she was greeted with a bowl containing two strange, semi-opaque, wobbly things that somewhat looked like ice, and had chunks of those spicy berries inside.
"Think you can try these two? It's jelly, which is, like… Thickened water so it's more like food, I guess? This one is with gelatine, which is basically made of bone, skin and other such stuff, and this one is agar-agar, which is made of some sort of a seaweed"
She eyed the 'jellies' warily, but they didn't LOOK like water, despite supposedly being made of it. So she decided to give them a try. The one with skin and bone was spicy, almost like the berry itself, but also had this strange meaty taste lingering around it. It was also very smooth, to the point where it really felt like some sort of a 'thickened water', making it difficult to swallow. The second was also equally spicy, but didn't have that weird taste addition, and was a bit more firm, and… Almost crumbly? That made it a lot easier to eat.
She pointed to the second one, and nodded.
"So this one works? Okay, got it. I'll make more of this stuff then"
The not-human made these? Huh.
She finished the one that was made with seaweed, and listened to her body. This was not really comparable to drinking water, but she kind of felt less thirsty than if she ate that much of a berry? That was pretty good, all things considered.
Also, seemed like she was in as good of a shape as she could possibly be any time soon.
So she cried at the not-human to catch her attention, pointed at her head, and then looked quizzically.
"Uh… Wait, you mean it's time to move?"
She nodded.
[Part 2]
After feeding Owari and Caterpie, gathering all of her things, recalling everyone, and getting to the railway station, she took a train to Nagoya. It would've been a good idea to sleep on the way there, since she was probably not going to get any shuteye 'til next evening, but her mind was too busy part worrying, part planning.
Given how Absol did not give her enough in-depth info during their first talk, she still didn't have any idea what (or rather who) they were looking for. And given how much time they probably needed to make heads and tails of their situation, she probably needed to use a Realitybox just for that talk, not leaving any time in it for later.
That' of course, gave her some options on how to use it while in the city.
She was also thankful for still having her personal phone. The thing might've been mostly a game machine, yet it also had the one thing she desperately needed right now - an offline map. Of course, it was far from being perfectly compatible with this world, but it still gave her a general idea of where to go to.
Thankfully, the three locations mentioned - Nagashino, Okehazama and Anegawa - were supposed to be relatively close to each other. Okehazama was smack in the middle of Nagoya, Nagashino was a bit past that, in Aichi prefecture, and Anegawa, or Ane river, was part of Ibuki mountain range, a bit to the North-East of Lake Biwa. That last one could possibly be an issue, given the ongoing GyaraDocks situation, so it was not surprising that the Absol wanted to save it for last.
Soon, she walked out of the railway station, and it took her about half a hour of searching and asking around to find the building she was looking for. Dipping into an alleyway nearby, and making sure there were no cameras, onlookers, or noises, she summoned Absol.
Just like all the previous times, the poor thing looked like she was suddenly waken up with cannon fire.
"Okay, so we're in Midori ward, near where Okehazama should be. You probably need to tell me a lot of things before we can locate whoever you mentioned, so in order not to waste time while we talk, I'm breaking into the building over there, and taking their stuff," she pointed at the large building boasting gold-plated lettering, "That's a bank, they should carry enough physical money that we'll only need a job as a cover from now on. The owners were probably in cahoots with the people in that facility, so it's not like anything of actual value would be lost either way"
The Absol nodded, trying to hide a flash of anger in her eyes.
"You… Want me to carry you?" the Dark Type instantly and abruptly shook her head, looking at her in fear, "No touching? Alright. Will your Telepathy work from here while I'm in the building?" an unsure nod. Good enough, "Okay, then I'll try to come back as soon as I can. We'll have fifteen minutes. If anyone notices you, tell me, I'll deal with them"
A nod in response. With that, the paradoxical device was activated, and she came to motion.
"ONE OF THREE POKEMON. HUMANS ARE LOOKING FOR," the voice in her head sounded, "ASKED ME. FIND WAY TO CAPTURE. I DIDN'T"
She zipped past the security guards and staff members without alerting any of them.
"Why were they looking to capture these specific Pokemon? Are they Legendaries, or?.." she remembered that some Pokemon could be valuable despite belonging to more common species. Usually due to some innate characteristic like being able to talk, or having greater than normal power output.
"REGULAR SPECIES. VERY POWERFUL. MORE THAN LEVEL 100"
She reached the vault, guarded by a heavy door. Without much prompting, she began poking into the wall next to it, stone and metal slowly but surely giving way to her forceful touch.
"So Pokemon can be more powerful than level 100, huh," this could be explained by 5th axis weirdness, or something that was possible originally, but with no one achieving it before. Also… "Are you also that strong?"
"YES. BUT NOT AS STRONG"
"So, less powerful than these three, got it. Anyway, who are we looking for in Okehazama?"
"THE GLAMOUR OF OKEHAZAMA. GLACEON. OKEHAZAMA CONTEST HALL. FROZE THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE. THEN DISAPPEARED. SEEMINGLY. BUT STILL THERE"
The hole through the vault wall was finally large enough to get through, that was good. She noticed one of the guards walking from behind the corner, that was bad. Making a detour to dispatch of that guard, and drag him towards the entrance, she then entered the vault, and began shoving valuables - that is, banknotes of mostly low value - into her bag.
"That place is abandoned, right?"
"I DON'T KNOW"
"Anything about that Glaceon then?"
"HE'S USED TO CONTESTS. POWERFUL CRYOKINESIS. WAS NEVER SEEN SINCE"
"Not much, but good enough. So the plan is, we go to the Okehazama Contest hall, break in, and look for that Glaceon-"
"OKEHAZAMA."
"His name is also Okehazama?"
"CODE NAME. WILL USE AS OWN"
"Huh"
Finally deciding that she's had enough cash, she left the vault, and zipped out of the bank. She had no idea if the alarm was on or off - moving and perceiving everything too fast to know for sure - but at least she knew there were no records of her actually being there, thanks to all the reality rules at play. She had… About twelve minutes left when she reached the Absol, who acknowledged her return with a nod. Grabbing the Dark Type and zooming towards the Contest hall was not really an option, so she just nodded down the alleyway, and they walked there, as she watched out for any cameras and people.
"THE REST WILL FOLLOW. THE PLAGUE OF NAGASHINO. THE BUTCHER OF ANEGAWA," she noticed the Absol shuddering, "THE SEER OF HONNOJI."
"You… Want to be called after that facility?" she looked at the Dark Type. The Pokemon nodded.
"DON'T KNOW. IF HAVE OTHER NAME. BUT SURVIVED HONNOJI. MY NAME NOW"
It did make some sort of a twisted sense, yeah. Seeing how resolute the Dark Type was, she felt like starting suggesting other names was not going to achieve anything, so she turned her attention back to keeping watch for any signs of trouble.
"As you wish, Honnoji. So, while the Realitybox is working, how about we talk strategy?"
The Absol nodded.