"Kalos, huh?"
Rory didn't really know how he felt about traveling out of the region, especially since he'd never been away from Unova before. It would be the farthest away from anything that he was used to. Then there was also the matter of his parents…
"What are you thinking about?" Robin asked from beside him, also walking alongside the sidewalk. They had just arrived at Virbank, so there weren't that many other people around yet. Despite that, Robin still spoke in a hushed tone.
Rory was surprised by this sudden question. He looked down towards the braixen, her face unreadable. He was on guard that she might try to jab at him again, but still decided to answer.
"Well, I've never been outside of Unova before," Rory replied, setting his eyes back on the clouds above. "I was just thinking about what it might be like, and that maybe I should tell my parents that I'm leaving," Rory took a second to put his hands behind his head as he walked. "I mean, I don't have to, considering I'm 20, but I don't know if it would feel right keeping them out of the loop."
Rory paused as he saw Celeste skip in front of them, her head turning to and fro, taking in all of the sights of the city.
"Although there's no way they'd believe the reason, so maybe it's better not to."
There were a few seconds where neither of them talked, the sounds of machinery and traffic getting steadily louder the farther they walked.
"I don't see why not," Robin replied. "Humans have things that let you talk to each other across long distances, right? If your family is really important to you, then there's not much reason not to."
"Hmm, yeah I guess you're right," Rory replied, giving a genuine answer for the one he had received.
"As for the why, you can just say something like, 'I'm going off to explore,' it wouldn't be that far off, right?" Robin mused.
"I don't think you understand how much that wouldn't sound like me at all," Rory replied. "My parents would be more likely to believe in Genies than me going off to 'explore' another region."
A snicker escaped Robin's snout. "Yeah, I guess so. You don't seem like the adventuring type."
It was just a simple statement, and Rory agreed with it, but the way she said it still made him a little peeved.
"I could say the same thing about you," Rory rebutteled. "You still decided to come with us though."
"Well, I just decided that I could use some fresh air. But you're right, I didn't leave my birthplace until recently, so I'm not used to traveling around like this."
"That makes two of us," Rory said. It was a pleasant feeling actually agreeing with Robin for once.
"Come on, Slowpokes, you're lagging behind," Celeste called out from in front of them.
"You're the one walking fast," Rory called back. "You look like a fish out of water. Have you never been here before?"
"I have, although it was a while ago," Celeste said as she waited for the two to catch up to her. "I'm not quite sure where to get a boat at, though."
"Guess it's my turn to act as the guide," Rory said. "Follow me."
"Do you know where to go?" Celeste asked curiously.
"I grew up here, so more or less," Rory replied indifferently.
"Really? What was it like?"
"Never a dull moment, that's for sure, " Rory replied simply, not really wanting to get much into it.
"Why did you move?" Celeste kept up her questions.
"Parents decided to move to Nimbasa after I graduated highschool, but I didn't really want to move to a big city, so I moved to Excus town."
"Ugg, I couldn't imagine living here," Robin commented in a hushed tone. "This air is extremely toxic, nothing like living in nature."
"Well, you get used to it," Rory said.
Now, after moving more into the city proper, the street and sidewalk were starting to fill with people, and Rory noticed Robin scrunch up next to him in order to avoid running into other people.
"Braixian brai," she whispered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rory asked.
"She said she's going to switch to Pokemon speech for the foreseeable future. You know, since there's starting to be a lot of people around," Celeste spoke for her.
"Oh yeah, I guess we'd get a lot of attention if anyone heard you," Rory said.
"That's alright, though. It might be more fun if we speak like Pokemon while we're here," Celeste suggested. "Togekiss."
Robin looked over to Celeste as a slight smile formed on her face. "Brai…braixen."
"Mar mar!" Flora joined in.
"Oi, did you forget there's someone here that can't speak that," Rory said.
"True, but I can just translate for you," Celeste said.
Rory admitted that it was probably for the best so that Robin didn't stand out, but for Celeste, it might have the opposite effect.
"You know, I've always wondered this, but how does that language even work," Rory asked as they turned a corner, now leading the way to the docks himself. "All you're saying is one word over and over again, right?"
"It's all about the inflection," Celeste explained, wagging her finger all the while. "It's all one word, but depending on which part of it you say and in what way, it turns into an entire language."
Rory raised an eyebrow. "Really now? It all sounds the same to me."
"Braixen…" Robin growled.
"That's because you're uncultured," Celeste said with a straight face.
"Hey, how's that my fault?" Rory snapped back.
"Oh, that's what Robin said, not me," Celeste said with a giggle. Rory's ire turned towards the fire type, who was now looking away from him. This was getting ridiculous, so Rory decided to stay quiet for the rest of the trip to the pier.
The place where you would go to buy tickets was the exact same as when Rory was last here, to his relief. There was a small building right next to the dock, as close to the waterfront as a building could get. A lot of other people must have wanted to travel, as the line for the tickets was almost out the door. It certainly didn't used to be this crowded.
"Brai brai…" Robin said, eyeing the small building and the mass of people in it.
"Robin says she'll stay out here," Celeste translated. "We'll go and get the tickets. How many are we going to need?" she asked, counting each person present.
"Just two," Rory replied. "Children and Pokemon get on for free. It was started as a promotion to help starting trainers travel between the regions."
"Makes sense," Celeste agreed as they walked through the doors of the building. They didn't get very far before having to stop, the last person in line being right at the door. Knowing this was going to take a while, Rory sat down by a nearby wall, and Flora followed suit.
"Although if Pokemon and children don't have to pay, then we'll only need your ticket. I'll be able to get on for free."
"Uh, Celeste, you're almost as tall as I am," Rory replied as Celeste slid down the wall to join him on the floor. "I don't think you're going to be able to pass as a child."
"I dunno, I'm pretty flat, I might be able to," Celeste said with a wry smile and a laugh that was only met with an eye roll by Rory.
"Right…"
"I'm joking anyways," Celeste said. "But I've got a trick up my sleeve that will let me get on, I promise."
"What, are you just going to sleep in your lamp?" Rory guessed. "Unless you stayed in there the whole time I think they'd find out. They're pretty strict about smuggling.
"Yikes, no I'd rather not go in there unless I have to," Celeste said with unexpected urgency. "It's better than that, but I can't show you here."
"It's really not that big of a deal to buy another ticket; I have the money, you know."
"Nope, now you've got me excited to surprise you."
"Whatever you say."
Rory was wary that he should trust her, but she helped out Flora by suggesting action when she was sick, so he decided that she probably knew what she was doing.
Probably…
A few more minutes passed before Celeste spoke up again.
"By the way, I meant to ask this earlier, but what do you think of her?"
"Her?" Rory replied for more clarification.
"You know, Robin," the genie prodded. "What do you think of her?"
Rory gave it a little bit of thought as he looked up to the roof. "I dunno, she seems like she's pretty good in a fight, and she knows a lot about medicine, so in the end, it's probably a good thing she came along." Rory stopped before adding a little quieter, "I could do without her attitude, though."
"No, not that, silly," Celeste physically prodded him this time. "I mean as a girl…she's pretty cuuute, aaain't she?" she said, dragging her words out.
"This again?" Rory huffed. "Celeste, I-"
"Yeah yeah, you're no fun, I get it," Celeste said preemptively.
"If you knew that then why did you ask in the first place?"
Celeste didn't answer, and just held her face in a fake frown pretending to be upset. Rory just shook his head and tried to ignore her antics.
The line had finally moved up, and it didn't take long after for Rory to get his ticket. He wondered if he should really trust Celeste's plan, but he didn't really feel like questioning her about it. Chances are she still wouldn't tell him anyway.
"Alright, we've got some time before the boarding starts, so what say we do some sightseeing?" Celeste said once they exited the building and met back up with Robin.
"There's not really anything interesting to see here, but you're free to do that." Rory replied. "For my part, I need to go buy some more food while I can."
"Alright then. I guess Robin and I will just have fun by ourselves," Celeste said with a shrug. "We'll meet back up here in an hour."
"Sounds good to me," Rory agreed. "Well, have fun 'sightseeing," he said before breaking off from the group, with Flora marching behind him.
"Rory needs to learn to let loose," Celeste said teasingly. "I feel like he's always super serious. Well, come on, Robin, let's go find something to do."
And with that, Celeste was off into the city. Robin didn't really want to walk around this city, but she had no choice but to follow her if she didn't want to end up alone in this unfamiliar place.
"Braixen," she called out as she went and caught up with the genie.
"Yup, here it is," Rory said to himself, looking up at a convenience store sign a little above his head. "Guess it would be weird for a store like this to suddenly go out of business after only two years."
"Mar?" Flora presumably asked something from next to Rory, her head tilting a little bit.
"Oh, this is a store I used to go to all the time, my family and I lived just around the block." Rory explained. "I guess I forgot that you've never been here."
Rory had met Flora shortly after having moved to Excus town, but the time around his moving kinda melded together a bit. They had been together for so long now that Rory sometimes forgot that most of his life had been without her.
With the intent on buying more food for the trip, now for 4 mouths instead of 3, Rory approached the sliding doors of the building, but stopped abruptly when a loud voice shouted nearby.
"That's outrageous! How cruel can you get?"
"I'm telling you, that's the rule, and I'm also telling you to scram!"
This argument was happening right next to the front doors, between what looked to be an older man–a worker at the store, judging by the apron uniform–and a younger boy. The thing that stood out the most to Rory about the boy were the fluffy, cat-like ears on top of his head, and a long tail of equal fur.
"The sign says right there that we don't serve demi's, and that most certainly means you!" The clerk continued when the boy wouldn't leave. The cat-like boy didn't say anything in response, but instead just ran away, past Rory and around the corner.
When the clerk had spotted Rory, he regained his composure.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that, sir, please, come on in and shop."
"Uh…right…" Rory said simply before passing the man to the door. He briefly looked towards the corner that the boy had run around.
Guess that hasn't changed either. He thought.
"So, Robin, tell me about yourself," Celeste started a conversation as the two of them walked around the city. It turns out that Rory was right, and that there really wasn't anything to do or see here in the city proper, and Pokestar studios, the grand movie making and tourist attracting landmark, was too far outside the city for the time that they had. So, Celeste and Robin had resigned to just walk about.
Robin was still not used to Celeste speaking in her native language, so it took her a moment to respond.
"Me? I'm not sure what about me you'd care about."
Or what I'd be willing to tell, Robin thought to herself.
"Oh, it doesn't have to be anything specific. It can just be something simple, like how you ended up at the apothecary."
"Not telling," was Robin's curt reply.
"What about where you grew up?"
"Nuh uh."
"Um…do you have any hobbies?"
"No, not really."
Celeste let out a weak laugh when it was clear she wasn't getting anywhere.
"Sorry, I just-" Robin said after realizing how obstinate she was being, but Celeste cut her off.
"No, I shouldn't have been so nosy. I get it. Is there anything you do want to talk about?"
"Nothing comes to mind." Robin said, narrowly dodging bumping into a large charizard that passed by them. Robin scooted closer to Celeste to the point where she was almost climbing on top of her. While she didn't like being so close to her, she didn't like being so close to everyone else even more. "Sorry, I've just been out of contact with most people for about a year now," Robin continued "so other than the few Pokemon that showed up at my apothecary, I haven't really talked to anyone in a long time."
"Ah, I see. Well, no need to force yourself. I get that it can be tough to do something again after a long time of inactivity, especially being social."Celeste responded reassuringly
"Mh," Robin replied simply, truly not knowing what else to talk about. Still, even though they couldn't find anything to talk about, Robin did notice how easy it was to talk to her. Maybe it was because she wasn't really human, or maybe there was something about being able to speak in her original language.
"Oh, here we go. What do you think of Rory?" Celeste said, thinking of something Robin might actually want to talk about.
"Rory?"
"Yeah, as I said before, he's my wisher currently, but I'm still trying to get a read on him."
"He's annoying, that's what he is," Robin replied bluntly, true to form. "He asks such dumb questions, and I feel like he has a negative view on Pokemon…although I suppose he's not helpless, and at least has some social niceties, so I wouldn't say he's all bad."
Celeste laughed at this, to the dismay of Robin.
"Sorry, it's just that you two are more alike than I think either of you realize."
"Don't tell me that…" Robin groaned.
"Hey, missie, can I offer you some tasty ice cream?" A voice from the noise of the city cut through the cacophony and made it to the pair. A man behind an ice cream stand said this, his eyes directed towards Celeste.
"Ice cream? No, I'm good." Celeste rejected.
"How about you, little braixen?" He asked. Robin wasn't ready for the man to address her.
"Me?" Robin said, pointing at herself.
"Pokemon can get some for free, you know," the man said.
Robin stopped to think about it. She wasn't sure if she should try any human food here…especially since…
"It's really good," Celeste's recommendation interrupted the fire type's thoughts. Robin looked up at her to see her warm smile.
"Alright, sure, I'll try it," Robin said with a nod, and after getting one scoop of vanilla, she took a hesitant lick.
"This is really good!" she exclaimed, before eating more of it. It didn't take long for her face to freeze up along with her brain. "It's really cold though."
"See, I told you it's good. You do need to eat it moderately though," Celeste recommended, switching back to Pokemon speech after walking away from the ice cream stand.
"I've never had human food like this. Is this normal for the human world?"
"Ice cream is a pretty good benchmark, yeah. You'll be surprised by what some of these human's can cook up." Celeste said with a grin.
The genie looked up to a clock hanging on a nearby light pole to check the time. "But anyway, we need to get back together with Rory."
"Right."
Even after their conversation was done, Robin continued to think about the ice cream in her hands as she ate it.
I wonder what else the human world has that we don't.
Now with a bag full of food tucked away in his backpack, Rory started to walk back to the meeting place, not having much else to do. However, as he spotted a side road leading away from the main streets, a thought occurred to him.
"Hey, Flora, want to see something cool?" he asked. Flora nodded enthusiastically, so he motioned her to follow him. Heading down the side road, the scenery around them quickly changed to older buildings, and the roads became more decrepit.
Through some back streets and across a few low roofs, Rory led (and carried) Flora through some old, seemingly forgotten parts of the city. Finally, after sliding through a hole in a chain-link fence (that Rory could have sworn used to be larger), the two of them found themselves at what looked to be an abandoned construction site.
Metal debris and chunks of rebar were scattered around the dull, gray site. The only indication of color were large yellow, "Do Not Enter" signs scattered about, complete with worn tape of the same hue and lettering.
"Here we are," Rory announced. Seeing Flora's confused face prompted Rory to explain further. "This used to be a secret base for my friends and I, back when I used to live here. It's out of the way and no one comes here, so it was a perfect place to meet or hide."
Flora didn't take long to start exploring the area. She started climbing on different objects around the site, looking over to Rory with satisfaction on her face. She didn't get too many chances to climb around on things small enough for her, and she was certainly enjoying the bit of fun exercise. Rory watched her go, and smiled back at her when she climbed a particularly large crate. The grass type gave a large 'Look at me' type of wave.
"Don't hurt yourself, now. You're still recovering, remember?" Rory lightly warned her. She replied with "Maractus!", but based on the fact that she continued jumping around meant that she didn't really care for his warning.
"Well, I'm sure she'll be fine," Rory said, the smile not leaving his face. Looking back over to the crate that Flora had been hopping on top of, a specific memory of this place that Rory had forgotten started to come back to him.
"Ow ow," a young boy exclaimed as he sat on a solid, wooden crate.
"I know it hurts, but this will make you feel better later," a younger girl said beside him. She was currently in the process of patching up the boy. She was putting patches over his bruises and covering his cuts with bandages.
"I know that, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt right now," the boy replied snappier than he had meant it. The girl recoiled a little at his sharp words, but she continued to work. She brushed one of the strands of her fluffy, pink hair out of her face as she worked.
"I don't understand why you want to fight so much," the girl spoke without looking up at him.
"I don't want to do it, but they're always making me," the boy said.
"Is that why you jumped into that last fight before those guys even knew you were there?"
The boy simply gulped, knowing there was nothing he could say to counter.
"I just…hate seeing you get hurt," the girl said as she abruptly stopped wrapping up the boy's arm. He looked down at the young girl, his eyes reflecting his thoughts.
"Nezumi…"
"I don't get it," she choked out, making the boy realize that she was crying. "What's the big deal? There's no reason for any of this. Please, let's just go home…"
The boy was surprised by this sudden flood of emotion coming from the girl, but still, he held his ground.
"I can't yet," the boy replied, making the girl look up at him. "Leif is still out there, I've got to go help him out if I can."
"Why? Why are you always so stubborn," her voice started to rise in volume. The girl clenched her fists as her sadness turned to anger. "Fine!" the girl shouted suddenly, throwing down the roll of bandages onto the ground. "Then go and break all of your bones for all I care, idiot! I hate you, Rory!"
And with that outburst, the girl ran off, away from the setting sun, and quickly out of sight. The boy simply watched her go.
"What was her problem?" He thought. After hopping off the crate, the boy picked up the bandages and started to wrap them around his arm himself. Once he was one, he started to head towards the setting sun, where the shouting and sounds of fighting were coming from.
Rory sighed as he tried to push the memory away from his mind. Looking back to Flora calmed him a little bit.
The fact that most of the site was unchanged from how he remembered it proved that this area was still not well known. For some reason, this idea was calming to Rory. At least not the whole world was passing him by.
Suddenly, Rory was snapped out of his daze by the sound of fast footsteps coming from around a corner of the construction site. He wasn't able to react in time to the figure that dashed into view and subsequently into him.
A soft thud sounded as the figure slammed into Rory. Despite the surprise, Rory was able to catch himself and keep his balance. The other person, however, was not as adept, and fell flat onto their back, landing on the hard concrete.
"Yeesh, you good?" Rory asked the figure now getting up from the ground. "You should really look where you're going," he lightly chastised.
"Um…I'm really, really sorry," the person said with a meek, soprano voice. She adjusted the hood on her oversized blue hoodie that had slipped off her head a little in the fall. Rory was a bit surprised to see anyone else in this corner of the city.
"It's alright, but just be more careful in the future, yeah?"
"O-okay," she replied quietly, her hands clutching each other near her chest.
"Anyways, see ya," Rory ended the conversation before starting to walk away. It was about time for the meet up, so he was going to grab Flora and–
"Um!" the girl shouted before Rory could get very far. "Please don't tell anyone I was here, okay?"
"Huh?" Rory turned around to face the girl.
"Please, you can't tell anyone!" The girl's voice was getting more desperate with each word she spoke.
"What are you talk-"
"I'm begging you!"
She practically yelled this last line, and gave a dramatic bow along with it. She kept her head down to the ground while Rory processed the scene. What could cause her to be so desperate like that?
He didn't know if maybe it was the small amount of quivering in her voice, or the fullness of the bow, but something told Rory that she wasn't faking this.
"Uh…sure…you got it; I never saw you," Rory said hesitantly, despite not knowing what he was agreeing to. The girl let out a relieved gasp after he said this.
"Th-thank you so much," she said, propping back up only to bow again.
Just then, Rory heard more footsteps running from around the corner. This time he could tell that there were multiple sets. The girl tensed up as she heard them too.
"Oh no, they're here," she panicked. With quick reflexes, the girl dashed over to the side of the site where the garbage dumpsters were and hoisted herself into one with movements that were impressive in both speed and precision. Once she was in, she closed the lid back on the bin, now hidden from anyone out on the street.
Rory was so distracted by the stunt this girl had just pulled that he almost forgot about the other people coming around the corner. He snapped his attention back down the street as he watched two more people round it.
Immediately, Rory could tell these guys were trouble. With ratty clothes and a punk aesthetic, these guys were the definition of street thugs. Add on top of that that they were in this part of the town to begin with, and Rory was starting to have a very bad feeling about these two.
Rory tried his best to act nonchalant and let the two guys run past him. He must not have done a very good job, though, as one of the guys quickly slowed down to stop by Rory.
"Hey, bro, wait up just a sec," the man spoke in a voice that didn't seem to match the friendly words he had used. "Did you see a girl with a large blue hoodie run past this way?"
Great Rory thought to himself. Why'd I have to get dragged into this? Rory took a second to compose himself before saying anything.
"Eh? I dunno, I could have," Rory replied, looking up at the man's face from his slouched position. "I passed a lot of people to get here," he lied.
"She had a large blue hoodie, light brown hair, and long black stockings," the man repeated, his tone getting impatient. "She should have just run past and have been pretty obvious. Now tell us where she went." The man was effectively demanding now. The other man had also stopped, and now both were practically breathing down his neck.
"I told you, I can't remember," Rory replied, his own voice rising in annoyance. "Now buzz off, got it?"
"You're lying," the man yelled and grabbed Rory by the scruff of his shirt, suddenly pushing him against a nearby wall. "We can do this the hard way if you want."
Rory bit his tongue so he wouldn't say something he would regret. Letting out a large sigh, Rory decided his next move.
"Fine. I'll tell you, just let go of me," Rory said.
"Finally ready to talk?" The man said as he forcefully let go of Rory, pushing him back into the wall.
"Yeah yeah, she wasn't worth protecting anyway," Rory replied. His eyes slowly made their way to the dumpster. He let out another defeated sigh before continuing.
"She ran down this street and took a left at that alley," Rory said, pointing the directions out. "She ran out of sight, so I don't know where she went after that," he went back to glaring at the two men. "There, happy? Can I go now?"
The man gave Rory a deadly stare, but Rory wasn't going to back down and gave him an equally lethal one.
"See, that wasn't so hard," the man said after a few seconds, gaining back his fake cool composer. "Just cooperate next time and we won't have to resort to stuff like that, yeah?" The two of them ran off and darted down the alley way that Rory had pointed to without another word.
Once their footsteps had vanished, Rory dropped his shoulders and relaxed his body. He wasn't aware of how tense he had been.
"What a pain…" Rory said to himself. Sometimes it felt like bad luck just seemed to follow him.
"Mar mar…" Flora's small voice came from beside him. He looked down to see her coming out from behind a nearby lightpost which she had used as a hiding place from the kerfuffle. She was shaking slightly.
"Sorry, those guys scared you, didn't they," Rory said as he knelt down to Flora's level, who went up and lightly hugged his leg. "Don't worry, they're gone now," he reassured her the best he could, patting her flowers as he spoke.
His eyes were eventually drawn back to the dumpster on the other end of the road. The lid was slightly open, and Rory could see the girl's small hands grabbing the side of the bin. Her watery eyes were staring him down while her arms were shaking.
Whoops. Rory thought. Looks like his lie might have been a bit too good.
