Chapter 7
November 26, 2014
This is so stupid… He adjusted his mask. A masquerade… for high school students? Really? He looked around. He was impressed by how many had shown up, however. It's a shame we had to all dress up. Hell, I can't even tell anybody apart. I mean… at least the girls are wearing dresses, but… dammit… I wanted to try talk to Keira…
"Senpai… do you know where the girls are?"
Next to him, the oldest of them shook his head. "For a moment, I almost didn't recognize you. As for the girls… I haven't seen them. I don't know what they're wearing even. You probably know Keira pretty well though. Did she tell you anything?"
"Uhm, nope. Naruchi… and… hey, off the computer!" The Jolteon was sitting in a leather chair. He had sunglasses, a brown jacket, and was his laptop. He had a pair of strikingly orange headphones.
"What?" He took it off. "I'm just keeping track of the security cameras in case the government comes for me. You never know."
Yusei the Flareon shook his head. "He's always like this. You know how he is. He's been mild these past few days, ever since he was shamed three times."
Kousei sighed. He didn't really know what to think about the Jolteon. He had the feeling he could seriously hurt one of them if he chose to, but never needed to. Although Ryujin had easily defeated him, he still kept confident. "Don't worry, Ryujin-senpai. I'll defeat you one day."
The Vaporeon's mask hid his expression, but he nodded. "I look forward to a challenge. You were impressive."
"Don't be so high and mighty. I know you're hurting that Mitsumi-senpai left you."
The Vaporeon flinched. "I'm going to try find the others…"
Kousei glared at the Jolteon. "Look. You found a way to piss of Ryujin."
"Hey, not my fault. Developing feelings interrupts good decision-making. I've kept track of each of your reactions. I know how Kousei reacts when Keira starts talking with him. Koyuki get flustered when Ryujin simply talks to her."
"Hey, you planted camera's in the dorm? How many do you have…?" Yusei groaned. "Don't tell me; probably one in the bathhouse…"
"Yeah. Just because I said to avoid relationships doesn't mean I'm not interested in girls. Those are four sexy girls. I can't believe you haven't tried making a move on any of them." Naruchi typed something in quickly, and the screen flashed. "Hmm… Yusei, how's your Model E holding up?"
Kousei frowned. "Uh, what's a Model E?"
"Fine." The Flareon clearly didn't want to talk about whatever it was, and Kousei decided not to push it. "Why do you ask?"
"Your temperature is a little high." That was all he said before a masked Pokemon walked up to Naruchi.
"Who're you?" The Pokemon was big and masculine. "Hmm… I've never seen you before. Kousei, who is this geek?"
Naruchi took off his earphones. "Ah." His eyepiece flashed red. "Hmm… a fighting type…"
"That's right." The Pokemon took off his mask. "I'm Tsuyo; one of the heads and karate and judo club president." The Lucario was intimidating as always, especially to Kousei, who was at a type disadvantage.
"Interesting." The Jolteon's eyepiece turned blue now. "I see. Your mother was the female judo champion… your dad was an ex-military general. That's pretty impressive background info."
"Hmm… a techy, eh? But I still don't know who you are."
"Just call me Naruchi. I'm a transfer from Sapporo. I've been granted permission by the school to stay at the dorm to program."
"I see. I'll let you be, in that case," said the Lucario with a nod. "I'm looking for Ryujin. You seen him?"
Kousei pointed to where the Vaporeon had vanished. "He's wearing a black suit."
"Alright. Thanks, Kousei." The Lucario vanished into the crowd.
"You know, uh, you want to find the girls?" asked Yusei.
"Sure. How will we spot them?"
"I don't know… most have their noticeable features covered up… I hate shoving my tail down these long pants though, ugh…"
Naruchi smirked. "I don't even know why you're all going to this stupid party. It looks horribly uncomfortable."
"Maybe you'd want to come if you were part of the school, actually."
"Well well… it looks like we've got somebody interesting." His eyepiece turned red. "Hmm… it looks like a…" He suddenly looked nervous. "Hang on… I can't get a reading on this guy… um… this is bad." His eyepiece turned a dark purple now. "Could they be coming for me?" On the computer screen, a smallish Pokemon was walking through the halls. He wore sunglasses and a white cloak. Naruchi's cameras had picked him up.
"I think we should try leave. That looks like an assassin if I'd ever seen one…"
"He has a large metal sword… oh boy. Not even Ryujin's wood sword could help us. Plus he doesn't even have a weapon right now." Naruchi seemed to recover quickly. "I suggest we return to the dorm. It's the smartest decision."
"But what about the others…? What if he's not after you?" He thought of Keira being attacked by the mysterious Pokemon. "We have to find them now!"
"You're right. Let's… well, he already ran off." Yusei didn't seem surprised. "Well, let's get them. Quickly now…"
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He had found Ryujin first. The two of them stood there, facing each other. They were in a small courtyard outside the pavilion. Four blue satellites of water swirled around Ryujin. The other Pokemon's cloak blew despite there being no wind. So badass…
The Pokemon pulled out a massive metal sword from behind him. He said nothing.
Ryujin was quiet as well. He kept his mask on. The Vaporeon's watery droplets changed shapes into that of needles. He himself started to become transparent.
"S-senpai… who is this Pokemon?" asked Rin. Koyuki and Rin stood nearby, holding some drinks. Both of them had their masks up. They were clearly shocked.
"What's he doing?" asked Koyuki nervously. "Are they going to fight? What's going on?"
Amazingly, nobody else had come outside. The cloaked Pokemon charged at the Vaporeon, and the Vaporeon's needles shifted into discs to shield him.
"Night Slash!" shouted the Pokemon as he was about to impact Ryujin.
The Vaporeon held out his hand, clearly bracing himself. "Acid Armor!" A thick glob of water surrounded the Vaporeon.
Then impact happened. A flash of darkness was emitted from the impact. "Nngh…" groaned Kousei. When it subsided, much to their surprise, were three Pokemon.
Tsuyo had stopped the massive sword. He had stopped the attack with his two palms. That's right… a steel type. He can take harder hits…
But even then, a little bit of blood trickled from a small gash.
"Attacking Ryujin… you've got a lot of guts."
The cloaked Pokemon back flipped away. He slid his large blade back into its sheath. "Tsk."
"So you're the killer?"
The cloaked Pokemon looked around briefly before darting over the stone wall behind him. He stood at the top of it, the moon glowing behind him before jumping down.
The Vaporeon's water had all vanished, and he seemed to relax, although there was a hint of unrest in his eyes.
"Was he the killer?" asked Tsuyo.
Ryujin shook his head. "No. He's not."
"How do you know?"
"Trust me, Tsuyo." He shot Kousei a glance. Don't say anything. "He's an… old friend of mine."
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When they returned to the dorm about 15 minutes later, the Vaporeon sat down on the couch, and sighed. "First, a secret government weapon. Now him." He rubbed his face. "What's going on with my life?"
"Senpai? Does this have to do with a few nights back?" Koyuki nervously sat next to him, which caused Rin to giggle.
He turned to the Glaceon. "Yeah."
She blushed slightly. Kousei knew how much she liked the Vaporeon. She had told him a lot about how highly she thought of him. "It's… who… is he? The cloaked guy."
"A very dangerous Pokemon. After the mirror a few nights back…"
None of them had spoken about it too much. Finding a bloody body inside of an alternate world will do that to you.
"We're back… huh?" Saki and Keira walked in through the door. "Oh! What's going on?"
"How was the dance, you two?" asked Kousei. I wish I found Keira… "Did you dance?"
"Yup," said Keira. "Although I didn't even know who… did you?"
"No."
Saki frowned. "Ryujin looks upset. Why is that?"
"I'm just tired," he said quietly. "I… I don't know him really that well. He's an old rival though."
"Senpai… please… what did the body have to do with it?"
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November 19, 2014
"AAAH! What the fuck?!"
"I…" Mitsumi choked. "It's a dead… Sandslash… Fira…"
Ryujin crouched next to her. "Once the real dies, the doppel also dies. This is her reflection." He rested his hand on the passed student head's body. "I'm sorry."
They had all passed through the mirror. After stepping out of the bathhouse where they always seemed to enter through, they had found the dead Pokemon.
"This is so… wrong…" said Rin. "I mean… she's died… twice?"
"Whenever somebody dies in our world," began Ryujin, standing up, "Their doppel also kills their reflection."
"What happens if you die in here?" asked Naruchi. He looked around, his eyepiece green. "This is beyond logic."
"We probably don't want to find out. Let's hope no doppels find us."
"Where's the exit?"
"Umm… it moves each time," explained Mitsumi. "We'll have to look around for it."
Koyuki looked nervous. "Umm, there is a DEAD BODY here and we're just going to walk away from it?"
"She's already dead. We are looking for some doppel that's disturbed. If our killer has any self-conscience, then we'll be able to tell. But if they don't…"
"Ryujin is making it sound like we've done this before, but we haven't. It's just a theory, really," explained Mitsumi.
"They reflect ourselves, being reflections. So therefore, they should bear similar feelings."
"Okay… so they'll be like us, right?"
"Well… similar but different… hopefully, we'll only meet the one we're looking for…"
Too late. A shadow formed against the hallway. "Hehe… looks like I've finally found you all."
"Shit…" choked out Mitsumi. "She's here…"
I am working on the one-shot I had planned, but… I'm still debating whether to post it and risk getting banned. Here's chapter 7. I'll spend the next week or two working on chapter 8 or the oneshot. Thanks!
NESpirit