AN: To this day, this remains one of my favourite chapters. I learned a lot writing this story, but this chapter in particular taught me more than I ever bargained for.

Much like the last couple of days, Halloween was spent continuing to train. The wild Pokémon in the area had pretty much figured out that if they tried to battle with Kevin or the rest of his team, they'd be knocked out sooner or later. This meant that the team either had to find a new area or battle against each other instead. Kevin preferred the former rather than the latter.

Kari had finally grudgingly evolved, too. True to her word, Grotle as a species was not something very nice to look at. The golden armour covering most of her back combined with the random bushes just made for a very odd combination. Of course, that was all Kevin's opinion, but judging by the glances Kari kept getting, his thinking was probably mainstream.

He didn't know what the water type starter looked like in Sinnoh, but if Lana considered Grotle to be cute (and she seemed to be an expert on cute things), there had to be something in the water she was drinking. Even if she didn't know what Grotle looked like, Turtwig wasn't exactly adorable either. He felt the slightest bit sorry for her.

With nothing better to do, Kevin wandered over to the newly evolved turtle and greeted her before getting to the point that was starting to bug him. "Do you know why Lana picked you?"

"I'm a female," replied Kari. "That apparently meant that we were a great match."

"Huh," said Kevin.

"Yep. Twenty-four years of biting and growling and one kid still finds a reason to choose me. Not the adorable little Piplup beside me, he's an icky boy, and besides, her cousin got that one already. Honestly, I think you're going to be the closest I get to understanding humans." Kari finished her rant by closing her eyes, the blind one unhealed from evolution, and sighing.

Kevin was quiet. "You know about that, too?" he half whispered. So Mr. Shade had found out the truth? Kevin wanted to know how he managed that, it being kind of a secret and everything.

"A little. He didn't talk about it very much, just once at the beginning and an allusion here or there," Catching his expression, Kari added, "Look, I don't care what you are. I don't care that you're related to him, either. I won't tell a soul."

"Uh… what?"

"What, you want everyone to know that you're—"

"No!" Kevin quickly silenced her. "Uh, never mind, I just thought… nothing," He turned on the spot and hurriedly walked away before she could say anything else.

The Shade was a relative? But… that didn't make any sense. Unless his dad had gone crazy or something, but that couldn't be true, Cory was an Infernape and the Shade was a Monferno. Seriously, it'd be hard not to recognize Cory if he was the Shade. So who else would that leave? Uncle Nick passed away…

Oh yeah. He had another uncle, on his mother's side, from the other Crazyland. The one from the clan who started the whole demon thing and stuff. Well damn, Kevin never would've thought that he would be so persistent for so long. Then again, if their obsessive traditions had anything to say, he probably felt the need to be rid of any "demon offspring" or some junk like that.

So dear old Uncle Mono was (most likely) personally trying to kill his little sister's demon son just so that the pure bloodline wouldn't be contaminated. Couldn't he just be happy with his own family living their perfect little traditional life up on Mount Chimney? Damn it.

Seeing as the Shades were a group, he probably had Inneo the wonderful, official demon-hunting hero on his side too. Other clan members were likely as well. Okay, now he was just looking forward to getting to the Battle Frontier and teaching the Shades a lesson. He really hoped the team would be good enough by the end of the year to get ferry tickets.

Kevin grinned for his small triumph. He knew who the Shade was and knew about all the personal beef he had, so all he needed to do was get there to take him on. Sweet.

A rustle from behind alerted him to a spying Raichu situated in surprisingly well-camouflaging shrubs. Upon seeing that he had been noticed, the Raichu flashed a grin of his own, his extremely white and pointy teeth glinting in the sunlight.

"Good morning. Sorry if I snuck up on you," the Raichu said.

Kevin blinked; he hadn't heard a Pokémon speak… well, Pokémon, since he'd been captured. "Uh… hey," he replied, unused to speech he'd used only a little over a week ago. "Who are you?"

"Just a passing citizen wondering where all the wildlife went. Going by your training methods, I'd say you've scared them all off," His smile turned into a frown. "Tell me boy, do you like being trained?"

What kind of question was that? Even if he'd admitted it to himself earlier… "I like getting stronger. My trainer isn't really all that skilled… I'm kind of training her instead, I guess," he replied.

"Mmm. So you're not interested in becoming a Naturalist, then?" The Raichu narrowed his large eyes. "Hey, you look a little bit like… Heh, Shady. You're the one he's looking for, right? So then why do you want to fight him?"

"Uh… He wants to kill me?" Kevin tried. This guy was a Naturalist? Kevin didn't really think talking to Naturalists was that important right now, but whatever. "You know him?"

The Raichu scoffed exaggeratedly, making his unusual ears bobble a bit. "Yeah, I know him. He really wants to kill you now? Funny, he told me he doesn't do things like that." He paused, then as an afterthought, added, "He really is a buzzkill sometimes."

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm special," Kevin said bitterly. Apparently everyone in Crazyland was sadistic, not just Kari.

He managed a smile. "Hmm. Well, if you ever feel like joining us Naturalists, just say the word, boy. We're one hundred percent against Shady's idea of a perfect world, just so you know." He turned to run off into the woods. "Name's Chuno!" he called back before he disappeared on all fours.

"Ehh…" mumbled Kevin. One hundred percent against the Shades, huh? If Kevin's mother had told him anything, Uncle Mono's "perfect world" would have him and a select few others atop a monarchy with everyone else obeying his every whim. In short, like the Hoenn clan, but bigger. Maybe he should've asked the Naturalists to help him out or something.

Well, whatever. All he had to do was say the word, right? Chuno or whatever his name was seemed affable, if you ignored his implied… er… favour of people getting killed.

…On second thought, it was probably smarter to just stay the hell away from the Raichu. Kevin was about to head back to the group to train again when Kari plodded up to him.

"Did he just say his name was Chuno?" she inquired with a puzzled look on her face. "But he can't be a Naturalist, he's a Shade!"

"Huh?" Kevin said. Great, more confusing stuff.

She shook her head. "Honestly, way to pick your members." When Kari saw Kevin's face, she tried to explain further. "Oh… Well, there's a stupid rumour that the Shades are murderers and want to kill people. I guess you found out what happened to the one that really was."

"But the Shade wants to kill me, too," Kevin said, still confused.

She laughed. "Ha! Maybe you, but nobody else is going to get hurt. He probably couldn't stand the blood…" Trailing off, Kari shuddered.

Whatever disturbing thought she was thinking, Kevin didn't want to know. "Well… Okay then. So Chuno is an ex-Shade and formed his own group against them?" he asked.

"Looks like. I can't tell you the details; all I ever heard was whatever Rowan happened to have loud enough on his TV," Kari suddenly became cheery. "Well, are we ready to take on the gym yet or what? Lana says that Veilstone's only twenty minutes away,"

Kevin nodded, folding his arms. "Probably. Mist looks like she might evolve soon and there's nothing we can really do with Nini or Cheri, so all we really need to do now is strategize. What type is the gym?"

"Fighting, I think," Kari replied.

"All right. Styler's in, then. You suck at defense, so you're out. I guess that leaves me and Mist," Kevin mused, glancing overhead to see the gray, but still fluffy, cloudy sky.

She huffed. "You say that like all I'm going to do is sit there and take hits."

"Well, that's how it works, right? There's no way you're a sweeper, at least not a good one, not with your speed. I guess you could stand in one place and fire Razor Leaves or something, but then you're an open target and anyone smart enough will be able to take you out in a hit or two, so—"

"You know all of this and never had a trainer before?" Kari cut in, barely taking in anything he'd said.

Kevin sighed. "It's not hard!" he said exasperatedly, "All I did was watch the Pokémon League when I was little! Half of the strategies I saw came from little kids just like Lana! 'Course, they weren't usually the good ones, but it's so easy it's not even funny." He half-glared at nothing in particular.

"You sure that it's not just humans that find it that easy?" Kari asked quietly.

Kevin's half-glare turned into a full one directed at Kari. "If that were true, then every kid and their mom would have captured all of us easily. The humans just turned our survival instincts into a sport years and years ago. There's nothing we can do about the past, sure, but there's no reason we can't be good at the sport ourselves. If anything, we should be even better, since we actually know how attacks work. I know what I'm doing, and it's because I'm good at battling. No other reason."

Kari seemed to be biting her lip. "Yeah, but Kevin, you're different than 'all of us', you know. Don't you think that the differences are both physical and mental?"

"I know I'm different! I don't freaking care! I don't care if I'm a demon child or a freak of nature or what, because it shouldn't matter! Why is it that every single person that looks at me thinks that I'm something wrong?" he shouted. "Kyle never got that! He was fuzzy and adorable just 'cause he had mom's normal face! So yeah, maybe I think a bit differently, Kari. That doesn't freaking mean that it's wrong. Arceus."

He knew he exploded. He knew that somewhere along his rant, he'd completely burst into flames. He hardly heard the Grotle facing him as she spoke, and frankly, he didn't care about any of those things either. Hell, he didn't give a damn about anything at the moment; his mind was spinning, full of all the times he remembered being called different – and it was overflowing.

It was only when Kari yelled even louder that he heard her. "I KNOW! I KNOW YOU KNOW THAT YOU'RE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PEOPLE! WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW IS THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT FROM YOU!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"NOT EVERYONE DOES THE SAME THING THAT YOU WOULD DO, KEVIN!" She growled, lowering her volume. "You think you know everything about the world and that you're smarter than everyone else, right? You think you don't need help because you've gotten this far without it. Wrong! Not everyone sees the situation you're in as something like, 'Hey, if I just act cool and trick people to get the information I need, I'll be on my merry way and be just fine!' You think that you're normal aside from your appearance, but you're not. Underneath you're human through and through, not a Pokémon, and you need to understand that!" Kari breathed heavily, her face contorted into one of outrage.

Kevin stared at her. Kari took a deep breath to continue.

"The only reason you and your father were ever called demons is because you acted so alien to the other Pokémon. It had nothing to do with your looks. Your mannerisms and habits are all human, and instinctively, that makes Pokémon shy away from you. Kyle didn't get called a demon because he tried to act like a Pokémon and kept a lot of his thoughts to himself, even if he didn't want to. Face it, Kevin, you're one quarter human, and you're going to have to deal with that."

He was speechless. There was nothing to say. No one, not even his parents, had ever directly told him that he was part human before. Cory had come close once, but he'd stopped short…

He remembered an old photo. His grandparents. A Monferno and her trainer. And no explanation otherwise.

He'd pretty much put two and two together after that. Kyle figured it out too, and they talked about it occasionally, but to have someone he only met a week ago up and explain to him exactly why he'd been treated the way he had for his entire life just struck a chord with him.

Then he noticed something.

"Why do you act human, too?" he coolly and quietly asked, watching Kari's eyes widen slightly in surprise.

She took a moment before answering, face turned towards the grass on the ground. "I honestly wish I could figure myself out the same way I understood the both of you. The only theory I have is that I'm a defective specimen and grew up with an uncanny knack to analyze things. I don't have any human mannerisms to the same extent that you do, but my logical path of thought makes me seem more like you than I actually am."

Kevin nodded. "Okay... Okay. Let's go train."

And without another word, he walked away, a little more quietly than usual.