Chapter 1
The incredible world of Pokémon. Pokémon have been found living all over the world. In forests, in the skies, in the oceans, and even in towns and cities, living and working alongside people every day, many of whom own Pokémon of their own for all sorts of purposes. Training, battling, evolving, Pokémon have become a part of everyday human life, and vice versa.
In the Paldea region, however, there was one person who had chosen to distance himself from engaging in Pokémon. And that person was Joshua.
Joshua was unwilling, if not hostile towards Pokémon and the people who cherished them. As such, it had been difficult for him to find a job, only just recently being hired as a daytime security guard at Naranja Academy in Mesagoza. Although, some days were more bearable than others. And this just happened to be one of those days.
I just want a vacation. Joshua thought to himself as he sat and stared at the table in front of him. He had built a tiny tent made of napkins and a plastic cup on that table, and it made him want even more to take a vacation. But he couldn't. That couldn't happen anytime soon. Just the thought of an actual vacation elicited an audible grunt from Joshua, and he brought down a fist on his napkin-cup construction. Vacations were for people with lives, people with money, and, most irritatingly, people with Pokémon. Joshua had none of those. If not a vacation, Joshua would have settled for a little peace and quiet, but he wasn't going to get that, either. Certainly not here.
School security guards were only given twenty minutes for their lunch break, so Joshua and his coworkers only had two choices for where they spent their compressed rest time. They could either hole up in the guards' dingy break room, which stank of pickles and bleach - not a good combination - or they could just go out to one of the restaurants in Mesagoza. Usually that was the preferable choice, but today, Joshua wasn't so sure it had been the best one. A kid was having a birthday party, and a dozen of the screaming spoiled brats were running amok. To make matters worse, some dipshit had given the birthday boy an actual live Squirtle as a gift, and the restaurant had turned into a chaotic battle zone of inept and giggling assaults.
In and around the pint-sized revelers and the Tiny Turtle Pokémon, other people and Pokémon plowed through a variety of food. Joshua's nostrils were inundated with a jangling mix of greasy pizza and burgers and curry.
Joshua balled up the paper wrapper from the fries he'd just eaten without tasting. Now that it was in his stomach, he belatedly realized the fries had been a little too hot. An inferno began to burn in his solar plexus.
Joshua shot the balled-up wrapper into a nearby trash can. Dozens of the large steel-mesh receptacles were interspersed among the rows of small square tables dotting the expanse of the unusually large restaurant. Joshua's paper ball hit the back rim of the can and then dropped in with the rest of the food wrappers, napkins, and paper cups.
Score. Joshua thought inanely.
Too bad he wasn't tall. For a few seconds, Joshua blocked out the screaming children and Pokémon, imagining himself being someone much different than who he was.
At twenty-five years old, Joshua was okay with his age. He was cool with his looks, too. He was five foot six and in pretty good shape, even though he didn't have time to work out too much. He didn't think his curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and regular features were particularly handsome, but they weren't ugly, either. On one of the rare dates that he'd had in high school, a girl had told him his eyes were "intense," because of his pronounced low ridge. She'd also said he had a "chiseled" jaw. He thought she read too many romance novels. For sure, she'd expected a lot more "chivalry" from him than he'd been capable of. She hadn't wanted a second date. Now he couldn't even remember the girl's name.
No, it wasn't Joshua's appearance that was the problem. It was his circumstances. Or maybe it was just him.
Most of the time, Joshua told himself that his life sucked because tragedy had robbed him of a normal childhood, and by extension, a normal adulthood. But the truth was that the tragedy wasn't the real problem. The problem had come before the tragedy, Joshua was the problem. If only he'd been someone different back then.
What would life be like if Joshua had been the kind of guy that girls wanted to date in high school? What would he be doing now if he'd gotten to go to college? He wasn't tall, but he was quick. Maybe he could have played basketball. Or baseball. Or maybe he could have even been a Pokémon Trainer, like pretty much everyone else in Paldea. He could have done a lot of things…if he hadn't stayed home and…
"What's wrong?"
Joshua blinked and looked across the table. He frowned. He'd forgotten Jacq was there. And that took some doing. Jacq wasn't a fade-into-the-background kind of guy. He was one of the teachers at Naranja Academy with a somewhat slumped and scraggly appearance, a huge contrast to Joshua's tall and stiffened stature. Jacq was an okay guy. He didn't get on Joshua's nerves the way most other people did.
Jacq frowned. "You seem to have gotten less sleep than before. I can tell by those dark circles around your eyes. Has something been keeping you up at night?"
Joshua figured Jacq's question was rhetorical so he didn't answer it. Jacq blinked for a few seconds, then waved his hand in front of Joshua's tired face. "Are you still there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Joshua.
Joshua shrugged. "I'm fine…I've just been…well, you're right about the sleeping thing."
Jacq nodded. He dropped his lids to half-mast over his round eyes as he pushed his glasses to the edge of his nose, and gazed past Joshua's shoulder. Joshua could tell Jacq wasn't watching the kids playing with the Squirtle. Jacq was lost in his thoughts.
After a few seconds, Jacq sighed. "A few summers ago, I traded a mint-condition Shiinotic lamp for a used copy of some old novel. Can't remember the title of it, though. But I'll say this: that lamp is probably worth a fortune now. I'd like to participate in that memory. Actively kick myself in the ass for such a stupid decision." He let out a sad chuckle. Then he shook his head. "Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent."
Feeling bad for Jacq, Joshua said, "I think we have time for a beer. Want one? My treat."
Jacq lit up. "Really? Yeah. Thanks, Josh."
"Sure." Joshua stood and made his way over to the red-and-silver patterned bar. A woman who was wearing too much flowery perfume was at the bar, and as soon as Joshua heard what she was saying, he started regretting his offer to buy Jacq a beer.
"I just want a hard shot of liquor please," the woman said in a high-pitched voice.
Joshua saw a Shroomish sitting next to the woman, and Joshua shifted his feet. He took a long, deep breath and turned away, attempting to shut out the sound of the woman's unnatural voice. But he realized that there was no need to, for the woman had stopped talking, and had begun stroking her Shroomish gently.
Although the birthday party had ended, kids were still playing around with the Squirtle among the tables. Some of the kids, a group of five, were pretending to be cops and robbers at the edge of the room.
"Hands up!" one of the little kids nearby shouted. The sound came from a blonde girl with green eyes. She had her hands fisted around a pretend gun. A brown-haired boy was caught in her sights. He threw his arms up.
"Book 'em," the girl ordered another boy, a freckled kid with spiky hair. He marched over to the brown-haired boy and pretended to put handcuffs on him.
Joshua smiled. Those kids must have learned all of this from something they watched on TV.
The freckled kid started leading the pretend-handcuffed kid away, taking him to…
Joshua's smile abruptly disappeared.
Just beyond the pretend-cop and the pretend-criminal, a small boy was pressed up against the half-wall at the edge of the restaurant. The top of the half-wall was filled with plants, some of which drooped over the wall. The boy, his curly black hair a tangle that nearly flopped over his eyes, huddled under the fronds of some kinds of fern. His brow bunched, his mouth compressed, his gaze darting left and right, his frail arms wrapped tightly around a plush Piplup, the boy was a picture of fear.
Joshua frowned. Why did the boy look so scared? Was he in trouble?
"Here you go," a lively female voice said.
Joshua registered the voice but kept his attention on the little boy…until someone gently poked his shoulder. Joshua turned toward the poke. A smiling gray-haired woman pointed at the bar. "I believe you're next," she said. Her voice was warm and kind, and it briefly brought back a memory of…something…something from before…before…
"You want your usual, right?"
This time, Joshua turned toward the voice. "Hey, Charlie," he said. "Sorry."
Charlie flashed her wide smile at Joshua. A pretty graduate from Naranja Academy who worked at the bar (or so she told Joshua), Charlie was friendly with everyone. According to Jacq, however, Charlie paid particular attention to Joshua, even though Joshua hadn't noticed.
Joshua frowned, his thoughts on the scared little boy. Was the kid lost? Why was he alone?
"Your usual?" Charlie repeated.
"Huh?" Joshua focused on Charlie. Her long brown hair was in a ponytail today.
Charlie hovered the glass of whiskey over Joshua's drinking glass.
"Yeah," Joshua said. "Sure." He might as well get himself something now that he was here. "Also, an extra shot for Jacq."
"Got it."
Joshua turned away from Charlie and looked past the little girls, whose dance had degenerated into a giggle-fest. He took a step to his right so he could see the area by the half-wall's planter. He spotted the fern, but the boy…
…the boy had disappeared.
Joshua quickly scanned the area. Aware that his breath was quickening, Joshua could feel a rushing sound in his ears. He recognized the sound, the sound of panic.
"So, did you hear about our new beverage?" Charlie asked.
Joshua heard Charlie but he didn't acknowledge her. He was still desperately trying to spot the little boy.
"It's actually apple cider," Charlie continued. "Sparkling apple cider. It'll really give you a kick in your taste buds."
Joshua stepped away from the bar. Dodging a couple of roughhousing preteen boys, Joshua strode past a row of tables.
"Josh?" Charlie's callout chased Joshua as he broke into a half-trot, heading toward where he'd last seen the boy.
Joshua's gaze was a laser probe of fixation. It ignored everything Joshua saw except for…
There!
Joshua spotted the boy. He was about forty feet away. No longer by the half-wall planter, the boy was heading for the front door. The boy mostly had his back to Joshua now but Joshua recognized the floppy black curls, and he saw a Piplup flipper sticking out from under the boy's bony elbow.
The boy stumbled awkwardly out the front door, heading to the outside dining area. And he was no longer alone.
As Joshua jogged closer to the boy, he saw that a tall, black-haired woman had her hand clamped around one of the boy's wrists. The woman was pulling the boy along, wrenching him into a pace that was obviously far too fast for such a little kid.
"Hey!" Joshua called.
Joshua broke into a run.
Shoving through a young couple holding hands, Joshua kicked chairs aside and pushed past anyone who got in his way. Only peripherally aware of heads turning towards him and a few annoyed grunts and angry protests, Joshua sprinted through the streets of Mesagoza.
Because the woman was hindered by the awkwardly floundering little boy, Joshua quickly closed the gap between him and the woman. "Hey you!" he shouted. "Stop!"
Like most of the people and Pokémon around Joshua, the woman started to turn toward him. Joshua briefly registered the woman's raised eyebrows before launching himself through the last three feet of space between the two of them. As Joshua shot toward the woman, he pulled back his arm, clenching his fist. He aimed a swift jab at the woman's nose.
Joshua heard a cracking pop as he felt cartilage give way beneath his knuckles. At the same time, his momentum resulted in a tumbling collision with the woman. Together, they spilled into a nearby water fountain.
When Joshua hit the water, he lost his ability to logically process what he was doing. Something primitive in him took over, something that turned his arms into churning pistons that kept driving into the woman's face.
Give him back!
When the woman fought back, landing a glancing blow along Joshua's jaw and angling a knee into his belly, Joshua's rage revved into overdrive. He threw himself onto the woman, flinging both of them down into the water. Whether a result of the woman's retaliation, or Joshua's own savage fury, Joshua bit his lip. He tasted blood. In fact, he felt warm blood on his knuckles, too, a contrast to the fountain's ice-cold water.
Out of the corner of his eye, Joshua saw red filaments swirling in the clear fountain water. The red triggered a memory, and the memory turned Joshua's thoughts dark; so dark that it felt like he was falling into a black void.
GIVE HIM BACK!
