Chapter 1 – Questions
~~ AN: Sorry for the delay on this one, from now on chapters may or may not be released within a week of the last one. School keeps me busy for the most part as well as other commitments. At the latest, 3 weeks between chapters, and I'll make sure it stays that way. Also, I've decided to discontinue the BGM recommendations. ~~
"Name, age and occupation" stated the officer in the interrogation room.
"Sooru, 17, unemployed" he replied, in a calm, concise manner, looking diagonally in a downward motion towards the floor.
"No last name?" questioned the officer, with an intrigued look on her face.
As Sooru and the officer's eyes met, he shook his head and murmured:
"Not really, no."
The officer sighed, and stood up with her notepad and the pen she used to write on her left and right hands respectively. Sooru followed intently with his gaze. The officer was young-looking - she could not be older than her mid-twenties - and had a ponytail made from her darkish brown, tangled and yet pristine hair, which was mostly covered by her officer cap. Slim, but not thin, her figure was slightly lean. She had caramel, oily skin, and she was also shorter than Sooru – he stood at 5'8 while she was 5'7. One could say she was 'well-endowed' in the area around her cervix, and while her bosom did not appear voluminous due to the traditional officer's outfit she wore, it was large enough to stand out from a mere glance compared to her overall body mass. Her legs were smooth, almost gleaming with pureness, as if emollient was regularly covering them. Her eyes were benign in nature yet sharp in concern whenever an issue arised, and her nose was acute as if one could caress it and feel the soothing breath of her being slightly levitate across the hand. Her lips were colored with an astonishing red, but not from lipstick, rather from the natural color one could infer she developed over the years of her fruitful childhood. Her arms, thin, yet powerful enough to subdue a rabid Bunnelby, would complete her idiosyncratic figure, and ultimately, her.
"You know we need a last name to find your records, don't make me have to search the database" she whined with a frustrated look on her face.
"There aren't that many Soorus in Sinnoh, I doubt you'll have trouble finding my picture in there" he asserted as he shrugged with his right shoulder a little higher than his other.
Neither of them wanted to be there, not at that time of night anyways. While the officer would rather be sleeping, or watching a movie in her couch with some popcorn, Sooru was unexcitedly hoping he'd get to take a closer look at the fossil he had found that night. The officer sighed again, but this time it was a longer, much heavier sigh, like she knew he wasn't looking like he was going to cooperate. She sat down on a chair near one of the desks on the right side of the room which had a computer hooked up to it, and pressed the power button near the bottom of it with her index finger. Then, once the system had powered up and sent her to the desktop, she began typing on the keyboard. Unknown to him, she actually hadn't written anything down in her notepad, she just traced the words about 2 centimetres off the notepad. She already knew Sooru.
Since Sooru rarely ever left the house let alone interact with many people, he never really took notice of who lived around town, not even his neighbor. He took one shopping trip to the mart every once in a while, with the money he'd earn from his online webpage, but that was it. Apart from paying for utilities, which were relatively cheap considering he really only consumed electricity, the rest was spent on food and his webpage, which could be described as a "news review site". He'd take recent articles and comment on them, usually expanding on them with mildly checked facts and his own views. While he barely had any followers and few visitors, the ad revenue was borderline enough to pay for the rationed life he lived.
The officer attempted to hide her curiousness beneath her tiredness, but nevertheless she began to make smalltalk:
"You're that kid who lives in 86 right?" she asked.
Sooru acknowledged her inquiry: "Yeah. Surprised people still know me."
"What do you do down there? Didn't you go to the trainer school in Jubilife?"
"I did. I used to, I mean. I just get by now. Guess it wasn't for me" he replied, trying to formulate a thought.
"It's the easiest thing to pass, and yet, you didn't even bother with it. Guess procrastination knows no limits."
She scolded him like he was some sort of delinquent, but when she pulled up his record she was surprised to find it was empty. No previous felonies, no reports, no arrests. Nothing. Clean as a Spoink's pearl. She leaned back on her chair as her eyes widened a little with a brow raised. The officer spoke up.
"Odd day today. You spend your time inside a dark room, and yet here you are, 3am, in the interrogation room, with dust and dirt on your clothes, a set of mining tools, and some sort of stone which you were adamant about handling carefully. Odd as odd can be."
"Aren't you going to ask 'What gives?' or 'What's the meaning of this?' or something?" he inquired.
"No. Honestly, I don't care, and I can't be bothered writing up a report. You're clean, and that mine is bound to collapse anyways. Roark keeps shrugging it off and saying that if it collapses it will only allow them to further amplify their scope of searching. For what, I don't know, maybe that stone of yours."
"So… is that it then?"
"Hmm?"
"I mean, am I free to go?" he clarified.
"No. You're going to tell me what you've been doing for the past 6 months in that place of yours before you leave this room, or I'll make you do community hours for disturbance of a public establishment."
"The mine isn't open to the public though" Sooru questioned.
"I wasn't talking about the mine. But you bring up another point which only digs your own grave, ironically: I'm ninety-nine percent sure you weren't supposed to be there tonight."
Sooru realized his mistake, and looked away from the officer towards the ground. "You said you didn't care, what's it with the blackmail now?" he asked, a little concerned.
"Tell me what you are doing in your house and why you were in the mine today" the officer asserted.
"I'd rather not."
"I wasn't asking" she asserted once more.
Sooru remained silent. After a while, the officer explained:
"Your friend was worried. Says he knows you from Snowpoint City. I got an e-mail a few weeks back, and I was supposed to check up on you but you never opened the door, and there was no concern large enough for me to break into your house so I never did."
Sooru shook his head. "I do not know anyone from there. Who sent you this?" he asked, now more concerned.
"He didn't give many details. Some 'Xander' guy" she explained.
Sooru pondered on the thought of this 'friend'. He hadn't traveled to Snowpoint City in his life, and yet here was this person claiming to know him from there. Could it be someone who follows his webpage? Perhaps a fan or someone he's interacted with online? The chance was so slim that he disregarded this possibility, but it wasn't outright impossible.
"I'm planning to travel to Snowpoint City soon to see my sister. I could take you with me and…"
"I don't know him. Not personally at least. Thank you though" he pronounced sharply as he cut in.
The officer printed some files from the computer and stapled them together, then opened a cabinet and deposited them in it. As she stood up to walk back to the centre table's chair, Sooru pointed at the fossil:
"What are you planning to do with that?" he asked, as if he had some uncertainty as to whether or not he'd get to keep it.
"Well you never stole that fossil, because it is a fossil, right? I don't see why you want it otherwise. and the mine is, legally, a public space. So, I don't see why you can't keep it. If you're interested in reviving it though, you'll have to go to the research lab: you'll find out more about the fossil that way."
"And you think they won't just keep the fossil and throw some 'legal' document in my face which denies my ownership of it? And I thought I didn't know the town…" Sooru complained.
The officer sat for a moment thinking before speaking up:
"If you had a Trainer's License this wouldn't be a problem. For now, I'll give you a written document which certifies your ownership, we use these for freelance miners and researchers that come to the town to work on the mine. Just make sure you fill it in properly. If it's revived though, then I can't guarantee whether it'll still be yours or not."
Sooru nodded and stood up, wiping dust off his still dirty dark, navy jeans. As he walked towards the door, the officer grabbed his wrist, making Sooru turn to face her. Sooru didn't turn back, but stopped, once he heard her shuffle in the chair.
"Be careful. If it's not me next time you won't get off this easy" she warned.
"There won't be a next time" Sooru asserted.
As Sooru began to pull the door to walk out, the officer turned to face him and spoke up:
"Sooru, don't your parents worry about you?" she worriedly inquired.
"They say as long as I'm happy and not causing trouble, that they won't complain. They want me to study or become a trainer but I think they've given up on me" he justified.
"And have you?" she further questioned.
"Well, I hope not. Otherwise I'll have to give this fossil to Roark" he smirked.
Sooru walked out and turned towards the walkway that lead to his home. As he was walking out, he wasn't really sure if that last remark he used was really him. Since when did he have any type of wit to make such comments? Regardless, Sooru was glad he'd gotten out of the situation without any major issues. There was just one concern left in his mind: who was this Xander? It was around 3:30 am when he received his answer, as he picked up his phone after it vibrated twice in short intermissions.
"My name is Evelyn, i was kinda hoping u would know that. Sorry if I seemed pushy, but idk what u expect when we hear an earthquake-like noise so late in the night" he read from a text he had received at the time. Not on his contacts list, which had about 3 or 4 phone numbers - not including his parents.
"I should ask how you got this number but I'd be oblivious to do so. I hope you know this is illegal, right?" he texted back.
About a minute or so later he received the following text:
"You ask too many questions, maybe I need to keep u in a cell until tomorrow."
Before he could reply, he received yet another text: "And about that Xander guy… yeah he doesn't actually exist. I made that up cause i was worried about you. Well, not really, but u get the point."
And annoyedly, yet half-jokingly, Sooru sent the following message in return:
"So, you lie in my face, blackmail me with potentially judiciary threats, and now text my private phone number which you obtained from the database. What a great way to become acquaintances."
"Do u always text like that? Cause if so tell me now so I can find someone more interesting to talk to" she protested.
"I should report you for harassment" he deftly replied.
"We both know u want someone to talk to, Sooru" Evelyn bargained.
"And I know you want to talk to me too. TTYL" he concluded, as he locked and returned his phone to his front pocket, took out his keys from the opposite - all while swapping the arms he held the fossil with - and opened the entrance to his home, where he'd likely not rest in again for a long time.