Warning: Reader Discretion Advised. Pokémon x Human relationships. I do not own Pokemon.


Chapter: Through the Looking Glass

If we got caught doing this, they'd probably kill us. Perhaps it would be pleasant - my body battered by soft hands like angry diamonds and the sultry smell of many different perfumes suffocating my senses. Considering old man Natsu and his pack of self-proclaimed "Rowdy Boys" were dragged from the Celadon gym at least once a week, usually hooting and mumbling obscenities about the ladies within, it's more likely I'd just be reported to the nearest Jenny, dragged into a cell for an hour as a lesson, and then left to my own devices with a slap on the wrist. There usually weren't serious consequences for this type of trespassing if it was benign, but my situation is different from most.

I descend from a traditional bloodline, the Yukihiro's. Not particularly powerful, our family has always faithfully served one of the greatest Kanto households- the Takagaki's. The Takagaki's are one of the last three surviving Great families to exist, and most of my relatives devoted their lives to preserving that family and its dignity. They were proud to say they served the Takagaki, just like their ancestors had, and just like their children would until the supposed end of time… in their eyes, this was the way it was meant to be. Fate. My mother believes in that very same fate. She still requires me to take swordplay lessons, she believes Pokémon are servants to be earned and not given… the consequences by her hand would be quite severe.

If I got busted here and my mom found out, I'd likely lose my chance to earn a starter Pokémon. Or worse. I used to have two older brothers. I grew up without them because of the decisions they made. Their names are never spoken now, their pictures stripped from the Wall of Preservation in the center of our ancient home, and my memories of them are merely echoes, like a dream - shadows with cold faces, sad eyes, and muffled voices.

I've always been careful to never cross the line that would mark me as irredeemable in her eyes, and this was definitely crossing it. My heart pounded away in my chest, and a shiver racked down my spine.

As if sensing my doubt - She would probably argue cowardice- my childhood friend, and fellow infiltrator of the Celadon city grass-type gym, Akane, turned around and narrowed her eyes into slits. From higher up in the tree we were currently climbing, she glowered down at me, her storm of spiky red hair already speckled with various tree-things, bits of twigs and leaves. She climbed much faster, though much more chaotically, than I did. One branch level up, her equally fiery-hearted Charmander glowered as well. They say that a Pokémon looks like its trainer. In fact, the glint in Charmander's eyes was more reminiscent of Akane's brother, who was her original trainer... But I won't say the two weren't eerily alike at this moment with matching glares.

Akane's sharp, though smooth, voice cut through my thoughts. "Get your ass up here Jin! Hurry up!"

I sighed.

…In order to fend off those who wished to spy on the traditional and ceremonial training which took place within the quiet confines of the Celadon City grass-type gym, run by the beautifully hypnotic Erica, various trees and other forms of plant life had been carefully erected outside of the gym over the years, blocking off all views to the windows out front and on the sides as well as providing a crisp, almost minty smelling haven of cool air before the facility. Unintentionally, that had also created a path for the particularly brave (and young) who could climb the limbs of the tree if they truly didn't value their lives. From there, they could then cross the roof, and hang from a sill, to then peer (or climb) inside the dark-glass -though not opaque- windows that prevented the sometimes-smoldering sun from pushing its way inside. All of this was what I'd been told, since I hadn't done this myself, and it appeared that Natsu and the Rowdy Boys had not yet braved this particular path, a path Akane had carved out herself. She had still not told me what I was going to see when I looked through the glass.

While most people who lived in Celadon had no real contact with the illusive gym leader, I had met her personally twice. She was not a Takagaki, but she was from one of the other three surviving Great families. This was not a simple trespassing for me, this was an invasion of something deep, something ancient- a destruction of long-held neutrality. This was, if interpreted by the wrong people, a declaration of war that many years ago I really would have been killed for. Then again, back then I would've been trying to steal ancient scrolls or treasure or something… which got me thinking.

"Why are we doing this again?" I asked, muttering as I pulled myself up with strong hands, gracefully climbing the various levels of the great tree, curving and bending and clutching where necessary. Perhaps my skill with the traditional samurai sword was somewhat subpar, my mother would agree with that, and my Pokémon detail retention nonexistent, but I knew how to climb a damn tree.

"Jinnosuke… You won't believe me unless I show you." That excuse again.

"Can't you just join them and let me in normally?" I asked.

"Becoming a member isn't an option. I tried. They said I'm "Too brutish to understand the delicate art of flower arrangement and perfumery." Whatever that means." With a barking laugh, Akane shrugged one lean shoulder, the muscles beneath the dark skin of her bare arm flexing visibly beneath her shirt. Was it truly a surprise that the meek, reserved ladies of the flower did not want to consider Akane one of them, with her messy head of spiky red, long locks, jockish nature, and savage attitude? Even her starter was a brute, always getting into fights with other mons, and her two other Pokémon weren't much better.

"I suppose I understand all that, but what I don't get is… who cares about the Flower Society? Why do you want to be a part of them so badly?"

"Like I said! I have to just show you!" Akane gave me a dirty look, wiping the sweat from her forehead as we reached the top of the tree. She beckoned me toward the edge to the gym's roof, positioned against the huge branch nearest to her. Due to the canopy of foliage, no one could see us from this angle, but once we crossed onto the roof that camo would be gone until we went further onto the roof and out of sight. We'd have to move quickly- it had been hard not to get caught just climbing up considering how on guard the Jenny's were around here. We had Crazy Natsu to thank for that.

"Come on Jin," With a soft push of breath, Akane leapt from the branch to the roof, landing easily, and then her charmander, Flayr, followed suit. The tiny fire lizard's orange body easily scaled the short distance, and remarkably - considering her immense, potent tail flame- nothing caught on fire. Like Akane herself, Flayr was a powerhouse of energy and fiery will.

I jumped the distance myself, stumbling as I landed, but before I could fall, Akane grabbed my arm, helping me up, and we kept moving. With an easy sprint, we disappeared out of sight.

I suppose all of it was worth it for the sight I was greeted with as we crossed the roof.

"Woah," I said, unable to come up with the words for how I was feeling.

It was only a three-story building, not that impressive of a height, but the sight of the city behind the gym wasn't what I was gawking over. It was the garden hidden at the center of the building, where a blissful array of colorful flowers, seemingly every hue on the rainbow, and small trees were kept safe and cool within a massive, crystal-clear greenhouse…It was a large, squarish region of plant life and nature, its roof made of glass that surely glowed under the light of the sun. As it was, the moon was the only source of light in the sky.

If you did not come to the top and see from this angle, you would never know this greenhouse even existed… A completely private garden at the center of a building very few were allowed access to.

"It's amazing," I admitted, "I can understand why you want to join them if this is something you get to walk through every day. And we're just seeing it from above… What kind of Pokémon do you think are inside?"

"What? That's not what I'm trying to show you! You can see that stuff by walking outside Celadon idiot," Akane muttered, grabbing me by the arm. "Come on, come on!"

We hurriedly crossed the rest of the square-shaped roof, completely avoiding the block of greenhouse at the center, and instead went all the way across and to the left edge of the gym. This part of the building was blocked firstly by a strip of trees that lined the entire base of Celadon, and also a massive wall-like hedge that had been erected for the privacy of this apartment strip years ago.

Down below, a long path lit by dull lamps ran around the back of the buildings, threaded this way and that. There were benches, small ponds, tiny personal places blocked by small garden walls, belonging to the people who owned the buildings attached to this place… the type of people who lived here were wealthy, the type of wealthy old money bought. My family had never been prestigious enough to own land like this, though our home was nice too. Erika's family was not like that, and I was seeing it all now. The garden I hadn't been able to witness for long, and now this.

Akane showed me some part of the roof I was apparently expected to hang down from. Fair, the roof would be easy enough to grip there. I was strong, and I had decent vitality. I'd be able to hold on for a fair bit and observe whatever forbidden treasures awaited us inside the stupid grass gym, but…why would we do that, again? My mind was looping.

"I'd rather go back and try to see what Pokémon are in the Celadon gym's garden…"

"Jin." She said my name vaguely, and ignored my words, "They've already started."

The tall, lean girl was glancing at her Pokewatch with a strange kind of grin on her beautiful face. I didn't like the way she said 'start'. Her cerulean eyes flashed with a strange excitement I've never seen in her before. It made me a little uncomfortable…

Akane had long since been my only contact to the bizarre, to the bold, and to the exciting. I swallowed back my reluctance and didn't comment, merely waited for directions.

Akane turned fully to me and from that angle, and at that moment a ray of moonlight seemed to bounce gloriously off of her. Sweating from exertion, bronze skin glowing in the pale moon, she seemed like some kind of moon goddess. I thought I'd defeated these feelings, but like ancient enemies, familiar sensations started to slither around in me as I beheld her in the midnight light.

It had been a long time since I've seen her this excited… literally years… and this was her first time talking to me in weeks. Out of the blue, she'd sent a single text saying to be here, and to be ready for tree climbing. Just like that, I had let go of all my inhibitions- I snuck away from the bodyguard that was practically my shadow, I abandoned my evening studies, and came here… for her. She hadn't even shown excitement seeing me when I showed up, because she knew that obviously I would. It was me that had wondered if she'd even be there when I arrived, and my heart nearly stopped when I saw her again.

My mother hated Akane - hated what my mind became when I was around this insufferable, wild girl who refused to submit to tradition… So, what was I doing here?

I stifled my complaints and knelt where she suggested. Grunting, I clutched the crucial spot of the roof that would be easiest and most comfortable for prolonged grip. Akane's pearly teeth flashed, expressing her approval, and next to her, Flayr charred in reassurance, her tail swishing back and forth. She was as excited as her trainer. "Don't worry. They won't notice you, the glass is too dark," were her only words of comfort. I found that hard to believe. Clearly, they cared about the security of privacy, this was remarkably hard to get to. Akane had really found this spot all on her own, was she crazy? I felt like a madman, three stories up, about to dangle from a roof for a peak at some unknown all for a big-breasted, crazy jock my mother despised.

"Stop looking up at me, Jin," Akane said, using her finger to point downward. Her laugh was musical. "Look inside."

So, I did. And for a long, breathless moment, I forgot how to speak or to think as I beheld what awaited me behind the formidable wall of near-black glass…Only the start of an ache in my muscles and the gentle battering of the evening wind made me sure that this was real. Akane let out a grunt as she dropped down next to me. Unlike me who needed both hands, she could maintain an easy grip with only one.

"What do you think?" Akane's voice whispered, but I barely heard her, barely saw her.

In a third-story room at the back left of the Celadon gym, multiple women were deeply, passionately involved in a private, personal activity with their Pokémon. It made sense why Erika did not want people to see this unless they were a sacred member of the sisterhood. I never would have suspected that women like this would do such a thing… Sweating, I felt an overwhelming, heavy rush of excitement as I leaned closer, sealing my forehead against the near-black window, desperately wishing I could see things better. The light in the room was poor. They certainly wouldn't see us up here, hanging at the top of the tall windows like madmen, and because of that our vision of the events was poor too. I understood now why Akane was desperate to get inside.

A long, black-haired woman with straight bangs was wearing a black and blood-red floral kimono, the top half peeled down to reveal her large, creamy breasts, with nipples practically begging to be sucked on. She was playing with another woman, a golden-blonde in a silky pink dress that clung to subtle curves. The dark-haired woman held the back of the blonde's head and kissed her deeply. From here, I could not see an exchange of tongue, but surely there was one. Between their legs, a Pokémon I didn't recognize eagerly licked at parts I'd never seen before, the sacred part of a woman a man only sees in marriage.

I didn't immediately blame myself for the natural, rising hardness between my legs. Various other women in similar dark, crimson kimonos paced back and forth in the room, watching over a group of women who were naked, blindfolded, and bound, legs spread on various beds. The black-haired woman had an expression of supreme seduction as she pulled away from the kiss, a smirk on her pretty face.

Whether they were bound or unbound, it was obvious these women were here by choice. Under the watchful glance of the dark-kimono-clad women many grass-type Pokémon were utterly dominating the line of blind-folded, gagged women. Some with various forms of vine-whipping, some fucking the trainers - something I didn't even think was a possibility, a sight I would never forget and which I felt immediately get seared into my mind. This was something I could never be prepared for. Or describe. When a large, muscular Ivysaur groaned so loud even we could hear, tossing his head and obviously dumping a load into the woman he dropped his immense body on over and over I felt my stomach turn, my mind blitzing around…

"I- W-What the fuck is this?" My body could hold me up no longer. I went back up. I closed my eyes once back up on a solid surface, leaning back and enjoying the brush of cool air on my skin. Against the darkness of my eyelids, the events of the dimly lit room replayed my mind. Truly, it wasn't a dream…

Darkness faded to a blur of red hair and tan skin as rough hands shook me, my eyes opening. I focused, and the pretty face before me twisted into a frown. It was Akane. She didn't seem happy.

"You okay?

"Why show me this?"

"You're so boring. I figured you could use some excitement. Maybe seeing something like that will finally make you grow some balls."

I tried not to let my anger show, but my fists clenched, and I exhaled slowly. Immediately, the shadows of past arguments started battering me. All her old questions. Why didn't I want to get a Pokémon? Why not go on her journey with her? Why not be something more? Excitement. With Akane, it always came down to that. My life was peaceful, steady, the same without her around. The past two weeks had been boring, she was right. The way I liked it. I was not like my brothers, and I wasn't like Akane, either.

"I don't need excitement." I got up and turned as if to walk away, but Akane urgently clutched my hand. I'd forgotten what it felt like to hold her. I missed it, missed her, even as my anger simmered beneath my skin.

"No… Don't go. Jinnosuke, please, I know you're not like your mother. That's why I called you here. Surely you don't think it's that bad."

My voice came out cold, vicious, sharp like a blade in the night. "Akane…"

"Jinnosuke… Pokémon aren't servants like your family says. They are the same as us."

This was what caused our fight, caused all our fights. People like Akane, and apparently Erika and her girls, could claim whatever they wanted about humans and Pokémon. About history. But here is reality: A long time ago Pokémon thought they were the same as humans. And a long time ago humans cut them to pieces with long, guiltless blades. Blood washed across the land like a hellish wave... there was no point where humans and Pokémon have ever been the same, at least not in Kanto. The ancient scrolls and texts protected and hidden within my household have shown me that, something I could never show to Akane.

What did she think she would gain from showing me this? Of all people, why would she share this with me? I used to be able to read her mind through her eyes, that was shut off now. I glanced at Flayr.

"Do you…do that with her?"

Akane was quiet for one second too long. "What does it matter?"

I walked back across the roof, to the path of trees that would bring me back down to reality, back down to my home. "Goodnight, Akane."

She didn't say anything, and I didn't glance back.


My mom is what many consider "a very important woman!". Many would go even further and call her "A stalwart, staunch protector of traditional values that modern day extremists wish to do away with", "A keeper of time", "One of the last fragments of backbone holding our withering society together." At least those are the type of things said to her during the annual meetings I'm dragged to, forced to dress up in the traditional family garb and kneel for hours along with my vast extended family before my mom and the heads of the last surviving foundational families of the Kanto region. Mine and the other vassal bloodlines would line up, one by one every year, and offer themselves in their entirety before the three great heads. Year after year, we give praise, tribute, performances… Honor to our retainers goes beyond simply tradition, it was how we protected our own interests in the different regions of Kanto, territories which were slowly, inevitably being lost by family heads and absorbed by the government.

My mother is a local politician, taking the region by storm, her old-school values were irresistible to the traditional sorts that lived in Kanto, even at the expense of the new generation, people like Akane. I've never held that against my mother.

I wasn't surprised when a form appeared from the shadows near the gates of my old home, a black expression on her pale-moon face. I had been assigned this protector when my mother started talking politics, rising in power. The council had assigned her to me. Not as important as my mom, she was the daughter of my mother's protector, and not nearly as good a ninja.

"Where were you?" She crossed her arms on her small chest, and I shrugged.

"Do you deserve to know, if you have to ask?" When her small, heart-face, framed by curly silver locks, grew dark. I spoke quickly, "I was just hanging out with Akane."

"That girl again?" My bodyguard mused, and her eyes narrowed. "You didn't sleep with her, did you? As you know, you're sworn to-"

"Lady Setsuna. Kin, I promise, I haven't broken any of my vows."

Even if Akane wanted me to.

"Besides, that was my last time seeing her." I sounded serious enough that Kin actually got a worried expression. The last thing I wanted was my keeper's pity. Instead, I stalked past her, walking into the entrance of my empty, quiet home. Of course, my mother was not home, and I hadn't expected her to be. Servants wandered through the quiet halls. We were servants so that we could have servants. I was aware of the evil of such a thing, for the line kept going lower, and when you got to the bottom, there were people who simply had nothing, but I had never been the sort to contemplate such things.

Pokémon are tools, Pokémon are servants. History made it so, that was reality. When I closed my eyes, I saw the immense, crimson wall-scrolls depicting battles and ancient struggles as old as time…

"If that is your last time seeing her, you are serious about Lady Setsuna then?"

I had never met Lady Setsuna of the Ayano family. Never wanted to. Sworn to her since birth, she was a more powerful figure than I would ever be. I was sworn to her because my mother earned me this marriage. I would be marrying up, and in exchange, the far older Lady Setsuna would have a potent male partner and a servant utterly- both in me, and my family. The Ayano family was stronger than mine, richer, but smaller… it benefited from merging with us, and my eighteenth birthday was fast approaching: The day of my marriage, the day I'd get my first Pokémon - the weight of that day was heavy on my mind.

Would Akane ever forgive me for succumbing to it?

When I tried to sleep, I was hounded by that dark room… and the writhing bodies, slick with pleasure-sweat within.