Ron the True Fan: And now for something… different. But not quite.
Empire of Ransei - Aurora Province, Imperial Palace - 1014 hours local time - Day 254 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
Sayaka Yamato, Empress of the Ranseian Empire, was… annoyed. She cared absolutely nothing for those yellow abominations of nature.
Sharks were supposed to stick to the water, not be on land. Yet Violight's infatuation with these things was the reason this gathering was even called. So their little freaks of nature lost their fins? So WHAT?
Who would seriously CARE?!
"My fellow governors and friends…" Raidan Genchiyo started, one of those things in his arms. "Over the last two years, an icon of my province has been disappearing. Loved, easy to befriend, so easy to please it's almost comical." He then lifted the finless land shark into the air for all to see. Sayaka couldn't care less. "LOOK WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING TO THEM!"
The governors and their families, for some reason, did care. Even the ones supporting her son's policies over her husband's stupidity were shocked and appalled before the little thing made a weak, ashamed 'Gible…' Raidan quickly moved the thing out of the limelight, holding the shark to his chest and petting it comfortingly. Sayaka just went right back to sipping her sake, her husband giving her a disapproving and somewhat furious look.
So what? Why should she care?
"Gible is the symbol of Violight, but there is no province without a Gible colony!" the governor yelled, holding the shark tightly. "They dig tunnels for infrastructure, kickstart power plants, older colonies even form the basements for houses and apartments! They even find lost kids and bring them back home! They HELP us! And THIS IS THE THANKS THEY GET?!"
"Thank you, Governor Genchiyo." said her husband, who was also angry for some reason. Oh, please. "I am ashamed, my friends. My oath as the Emperor demands I protect everyone in the Empire, human and Pokrmon alike. The fact this has been going on for two years means I have failed. I can only beg forgiveness."
"You cannot be everywhere, Your Majesty." said Sayaka Nene, leader of the ninja clan of the same name and governor of Illusio Province, no relation to the Empress. The violet-haired kunoichi was loyal to Ransei, not the Emperor. So long as the Emperor acted purely in Ransei's best interests, they served. "Appointed by Arceus or not, you are human. Thus it is up to the regional governors to ensure your will. And clearly, peace has made us all lax."
"Quite." said the very angry Emperor. "Bring in Ash Ketchum. I want him to speak before this court, to explain how he discovered this… obscenity."
Sayaka rolled her eyes again. Who gave a shit about Pokemon?
Ash's eye twitched repeatedly.
"Someone's badmouthing Pokemon." Misty said dryly, noticing the twitch. "A lot. Concerningly a lot."
"Someone is going to get my foot up their ass if they keep it up." Ash groused, knowing somewhere, somehow, someone was insulting the partners that they should be helping and caring for and as someone who cared for their Pokemon like they were flesh and blood family, As felt his civil duty was to put his foot up their ass, figuratively speaking.
Most likely, he'd just feed them to a rabid Shadow Pokemon. His patience had been tested to its' absolute limits recently. He was VERY tempted to go on a bit of a purging spree.
But that was the Rocket Matriarch blood talking. His own nature wanted them beaten to a pulp and jailed, but not dead.
The redhead poked his head into the room they were in. "His Highness will see you all now." he announced. "Be forewarned: he's mad."
"Candle to an inferno." Iris said, pointing at Ash's seemingly calm but inwardly raging form. Only Pikachu dared to stay close while Ash was so angry a red ring threatened to breach the walls of reality. (WHACK!)
Only one other dared to get close. And all Ash did when she embraced him from behind was sigh. Serena's touch soothed it, but did not quell it.
"You're right to be mad for them." she said. "But you ARE scaring us."
Ash sighed. "Don't mean to. But… it's WRONG." he said, Kyoji's Gible trying to make one of the victims of the… finning feel better with a nice chomp. It wasn't working, but nothing would stop a Gible from trying to make others happy.
And that made Ash a little happier. That did not mean the finning was right.
So he sighed, Serena letting go of his back, but he grabbed her hand. "I think I'm going to need a friend."
"I am your wife." Serena said, but she smiled regardless. "Though for now, a friend helping you through a dark time will do."
Ash kept the 'not married yet' comment to himself. He had three years to get used to it.
Though Taggard probably wanted him putting babies into every single girl he was engaged to to secure a proper line of succession, age be damned. After all, apparently Aaron's mom was 14 when he was born.
Not. Freaking. Happening.
He didn't care about Taggard's paranoia about people wanting to end his family line.
At least the old bastard would learn that his friends weren't just dead weight.
Wasn't their fault their Pokemon were either not as they were when he went back or that some of them were overly specialized. Not every situation required a torrent of water, a wall of flame or a zap of electricity.
That said, he WAS happy the old man wasn't insulting Serena anymore. He didn't want to know how she did it, but she did it.
10 minutes later, they finished.
"At the end, I was kinda mad and wanted to know if any of the other Gibles in Ransei were being treated that way." Ash said, ending the recap of the whole event.
It was not his finest moment. He let anger cloud his thinking.
Though everyone clearly didn't have a problem with that, as some just nodded while one actually smiled, though smily was holding a finned Gible, petting the shark.
"And you did discover this, giving it to our security services to discover how widespread this… depravity is." the Emperor said, very, VERY mad that this happened.
Ash couldn't blame him. Pokemon abuse was close to the top on the list of things he was more then willing to make people have a bad day for.
Not quite 'screwing over the timeline and ending the universe' which he would actually end lives for, but close enough.
"All this prompted by looking for your Gible?" the Empress asked dismissively. "Hardly worth the effort."
Ash turned his gaze to the Empress, fixing her with a gaze. He wasn't expecting much from it.
So when her eyes widened and she averted her eyes from him, she figured out a simple lesson: NEVER badmouth Pokemon in front of Ash. The pain, emotional or physical, is not worth it.
"They also took YOUR DAUGHTER'S Gible." Serena added, her Hime personality in the fore. "One would think you would be more concerned. After all, abducting the starter of a member of the Royal Family is an attack on said family."
Sayaka gagged, as clearly that thought never occurred to her. Serena looked to him with a gentle smile. She would support him in ANYTHING. At least Ash could take comfort in the fact that didn't change.
The governor of Violight beamed with pride at hearing that Tatsuki's starter was a Gible. Then again, icon of his province. Even the poor thing in his arms made a weak eyesmile. Ash was sure the little guy would chomp if he felt better.
"Indeed. And I hope that the Rotan royal family will help us in discovering who these people work for." Tatsuhiro stated, Sayaka facepalming at this for some reason before Ash gave her another soul-burning look.
He was pretty sure that, eventually, she was going to try and kill him for that. So long as it was a long way away, he didn't really care.
"We should talk to the Gibles." Kyoji suggested. "I REALLY doubt anyone would hide their faces in front of Pokemon. No one could understand them."
"And that's why no court would ever listen to third-hand testimony." Taggard snapped. "Rotan, Ranseian, Galaran: that's a basic rule of law. Third-hand accounts are dismissed out of hand for a good reason."
"Everyone knows Ash can understand Pokemon!" Kyoji retorted. "He's a translator!"
"Not a court-appointed one. And there's no legal recourse for a Pokemon translator!" the old man retorted. "There are HOW many species? That's at least 800 languages!"
"Just shy of one thousand at last count." Misty added helpfully. "Though with all the evolutionary lines being shared and all-"
"I get the point." Kyoji deadpanned.
"He's not wrong, though." Iris added, her Fraxure and Gible sitting in her lap. "Maybe this would be a good chance to reform the laws."
Taggard huffed. "That would require proving someone can understand them to begin with, not generally getting any gestures-"
The building shook, knocking the old guardsman off his feet and Misty toppling into Iris, bust-first.
And while in any other, calmer circumstance, Iris would be more then happy to explore her compatibility with the other girls, right now she was kinda choking on Misty's boobs.
So she shoved the redhead off her, though as soon as Misty knocked everything back into place, Iris gave her an apologizing look. For her part, Misty waved it off.
"That was an 800 kilogram bomb." Robin said, her Eevees releasing on their own accord. "Fuel oil, nitrogen and sawdust as a stabilizing agent with an electric detonator."
"Should I be concerned you know EXACTLY what that was?!" Kyoji asked, clearing his ears.
"I've mad AND detonated bombs just like that." the white-haired girl replied. "I was a resistance fighter in Orre, remember? I know exactly how to make improvised explosives."
Mei got to her feet, Natu retaking her place on her head. "Robin's past as a terrorist aside, we need to find Ash." the shrine maiden said, getting her weapon and flicking the safety off. "Many Ranseians would kill to see Ash dead simply because he's Rota's prince."
"Then get your butts moving!" Kyoji said, running over Taggard, whose face was planted against the floor.
Ash cursed his luck and his Aura. Sure, it saved his ass and that of Serena and Pikachu, who he instinctively covered and turned his back the moment they heard the explosion.
"Pikapi…" 'Ash, you ok?' Pikachu asked.
"I think I'm going to need a chiropractor, but I'm ok." Ash answered, standing up and looking at the area, finding almost everyone hurt in some fashion. The Emperor was being carted out, massive wood splinters in his arms and legs, the Empress wailing like a banshee.
Ash winced. Bitch or not, that was a lot of shrapnel to be hit with.
"Stay here." Ash said, before rushing to the wounded.
"FUCK!" Sayaka screamed, getting wood splinters pulled from her arms. "KETCHUM! I KNOW YOU SOMEHOW CAUSED THIS!"
"How?" asked the clearly ninja-trained, if not actual ninja, governor of Illusio. "He hasn't been here long enough to set up any contacts or obtain anything. And your watchdog would have reported it if he even tried."
Ash ignored the conversation. People could be paranoid for no good reason. He was paranoid for SOME good reasons, but even he knew only to be worried in regards to certain people.
"He had to have something to-FUCK!" yelled the governor of Terreria Province Hiro Shingen, who was having medics tend to his stump of an arm. "He comes here and-"
"Has no time to do anything except go on a tour that goes wrong." said Raidan, petting the Gible. "Common sense, idiot! He has not only no reason to do this, but no time! The young lord had nothing to do with this!"
"You only say that because he saved those land-"
"ENOUGH!" Ash yelled, finally losing his patience as he tossed a piece of debris off of an injured man. "We don't have time to deal with this stupid shit! People are hurt or dying and you're wasting time issuing blame?! Figure out what happened AFTER everyone's safe! Or do I have to ask my starter to go over there and KNOCK YOU BOTH OUT?!"
"Pika." 'I should be offended.' Pikachu retorted before making a spark. "Pika…" 'But considering he HAS A POINT…'
"My apologies, Lord Ketchum." Violight's governor said. Ash narrowed his eyes at the title. "You heard him! Tend to the wounded and get them out of here!"
The doors came crashing down, Ash's party rushing in to help with the wounded. "The fuck happened here?" asked Kyoji, seeing the Emperor get carted out. "Besides the obvious…"
"Nothing good." Ash answered, locking eyes on someone just arriving… and not looking concerned at all.
Prince Komuahito.
Asshole… or benefactor?
The investigation was quick, but thorough: Ferrum agents, taking advantage of less-than-adequate coast guard patrols, got into Ferrum, created the bomb and waited for the right moment to set it off.
Someone in Galar tried the same thing over a thousand years prior, apparently. But the reinforced building prevented the explosion from being worse then it was. But Ash wasn't exactly forgetting the smug look on Prince Komuahito's face.
When he brought it up with the others…
"The Prince has never disguised his hate of his father's policies of eventually reopening the borders." Ryo said. "Few of the governors actually want to, but with the idea of wider trade and more money in their coffers, it's a tempting offer. But the safer option is keeping them closed."
"Which the bombing will make the people clammor for." Robin predicted. "And we'll be kicked out of Ransei while they demand greater security measures."
Depressingly, something Ash had experience with. Pokemon and people as a whole wanted to feel safe.
"I'll pack our bags." Taggard said. "Have fun with your civil disturbance."
"We're not leaving Ransei." Ash retorted. "Someone's using this as an excuse. They might've even helped it along and I'm not going to let whatever they're planning come to pass."
Kyoji chuckled. "You know, you bitch about situations happening to you, then you leap into action-" he said before Ash gave him a look. "…Wrong thing to say?"
"I WANT to take a year-old boring vacation, but I'm not just going to stand by and let something like this happen." Ash answered, a faint image of days gone by in his face as he got to his feet. "We're going to need a place to lay low, figure out what's going on and stop it."
Sabrina looked at Kyoji. "You know Ransei better then we 'outsiders'," she said, Tatsuki scowling at the implication that she didn't. …which was true: she'd never really left Aurora. Violight was the only province she knew, thanks to her starter.
Kyoji took two seconds to figure out the best place to go. "Illusio. It's going to be hell for some of us, seeing as it's filled with psychics, but it's more or less neutral territory." he answered. "Just get ready for a LOT of answers before you ask questions. I hate seers."
Robin then voiced the big question. "So how do we get out of the palace without anyone noticing?" she asked.
"Plenty of passages out of the palace. We kinda learned our lesson after the last unification war." Kyoji answered, looking to Ryo, who sighed.
"I'll get you to them, but after that, you're on your own." the specops man said. "At least I can slow them down, but I can't go with you. So pack what you-" Ash preempted him, picking up the backpack he had not bothered to unpack. "…Fair point."
"In my life, it pays to be prepared." Ash deadpanned.
Elsewhere, Komuahito was fuming. BUT there was one surefire way to calm him down as the cooks were forced to make his favorite stew.
Ferrum might have been an ineffective government, but their fanatics believed utopia without Pokemon was POSSIBLE.
It wasn't. But utopia had many meanings.
One of which included control. Ferrum proved that absolute control was needed in a chaotic world. They sponsored EVERYTHING Cipher did, both before AND after the war.
Subjugation.
Under Ransei.
Some of the more… idealistic governors would balk against this. But after time, they would accept it.
Ceramic clacked on wood as a simple seafood stew was placed in front of him. Salmon, tuna, shrimp, kelp…
And a yellow land shark fin.
He couldn't help it. It was… an itch. And cut down on that annoying music.
How did people sleep with that constant NOISE?
Now, what to do with the Rotan Prince? Killing him, unfortunately, was out of the question.
His sister was spending an awful lot of time with him, though… He'd ask mother about it. AFTER he was done.
6 hours later - borders of Illusio and Avia Provinces
Even the Natus acted the same here. A massive flock just STARED at them for fifteen minutes as they walked past.
"Mass teleporting is not fun." Anabel moaned, Sabrina helping her to her feet.
"It could be worse. We can't fly. Walking would take forever and the princess here would slow us down with that formal outfit that is NOT meant for long-distance walking." Robin said, Tatsuki glaring at her for the dig against her clothing.
"Ladies, ladies, please…" Neesha said, getting their attention. "Continue! Draw attention to us and get us sent off."
"A bit late for that." Kyoji said, looking into the treeline 25 meters away to their collective right.
"Ninjas." Ash said. "A LOT of ninjas. Not being very stealthy about getting close, either."
Seconds later, 20 or so purple-dressed shinobi poked out of the grass, looking annoyed. "We were not being noisy, boy." spat the leader of the team.
"Uh, you were. By ninja standards. I mean, sure, there's no way to completely be silent, but you were telegraphing yourselves pretty loudly." Ash retorted. "And I picked up a few tricks from your counterparts on the mainland. Koga and Aya were a LOT stealthier then you guys."
That made Ash sad for a moment, remembering Koga's death. At least the guy went out on his own terms.
The ninjas were NOT happy with the insult, but didn't move to attack. "Ash Ketchum, our orders are to escort you back to Aurora Province and see to your safe departure from Ransei." the leader said. "Resistance will not be tolerated."
Ash sighed. "You know… I really don't want to do this." he said, quickly pulling out a pokeball and tapping the button to open it. "But it's not like you want to let us do what we have to do…"
The form of Charizard appeared, taking to the air, all the ninja going for their own Pokeballs.
"I wouldn't!" Mei warned. "The Chosen's Charizard is far stronger then any from Ransei and knows Blast Burn! Do not give either of them a reason to vaporize you!"
"And if you keep surrounding us, I'll let Charizard do whatever he wants with you." Ash said, getting looks from EVERYONE.
"Ok, that's WAY out of character for you." Misty said, now highly concerned.
Ash chuckled mirthlessly. "I'm just making it very clear that I DON'T want Charizard to incinerate you all. But he REALLY wants me to tell him that there's nothing stopping him from turning you into cinders on the wind." he said, the ninjas all giving each other nervous looks. "And after the whole 'Team Rocket shooting me' thing, they don't give a damn about the life of anyone trying to kidnap me, hurt me or kill me."
Kyoji turned his head to Ash, frowning. Charizard WAS all but ordering Ash to let him do it, but Ash himself sounded like he wanted to do it himself. The King's influence.
He was talking to the son of a bitch.
"Walk away." Ash sternly instructed. "Walk away, tell your boss you couldn't find us and you won't get fifth degree burns."
"There's barely a thing as fourth degree burns." one of the ninjas said before remembering the not-so-subtle death threat. "…Oh."
"You won't do it." the leader said. "You don't have the will."
Never tell Ash what he can and can't do.
"Charizard." Ash started, the ninjas all turning ghost white under their tunics. "Blast-"
"ENOUGH!" screamed a somewhat familiar male voice. "You fools test the Chosen of Arceus and you will get yourselves killed for it!"
"Stay out of this!" cried one of the ninjas.
"You will leave or the Chosen will have you turned into fuel for a fire." said the voice, coming out of the trees, revealing himself as Kuro Kotarō, governor of Yakasha Province, wearing all black. "He has warned you. Do not test his patience. I suspect his trials have made him less then tolerant for fools getting in the way of his mission."
"You got THAT right." Ash deadpanned before anger started getting into his voice. "I came here for a vacation, a break from all my worries for a few weeks, NOT TO DEAL WITH ANOTHER GODDAMN CRISIS!" he returned to a more calm tone as he said "So, yes, not in the mood for people being very DUMB."
The ninjas promptly decided to GTFO.
"We're going to need to talk when we get settled." Kyoji said sternly.
"And I'm not going to argue. I probably need it." Ash replied. "But I'm not wrong. Trying to save people from themselves and they keep fighting it."
Kyoji couldn't say Ash was wrong. But he couldn't say he was right, either.
He threatened to NUKE them.
Maybe this was resentment against people like Team Rocket ruining people's lives or trying to take over the world.
Questions for later.
Entry 112: Viperia Province
A toxic wasteland dominated by lavender flowers, the only plant that can grow there, Viperia is the land of poison masters and ninja.
Thousands of battles involving toxins and poisons scarred the land, meaning only the best suited would survive. Sayake Nene, a logical and sensible woman, is governor of Viperia and head of the local ninja clan. Their loyalties are shifty: the head of the house is loyal to the Emperor, but only to a point and rumors indicate that the majority of the clan spy on everyone for the Prince.
Viperia was also one of two homes for the Akamura clan prior to their dissolution.
Ron the True Fan: You have to HATE it when Ash is right. And to be blunt, before everyone goes 'Ash isn't Ash!' …I am NOT the anime writing staff. I don't ignore everything that happens to him and wave it off. EIGHT YEARS of traumatizing bullshit (I am rounding, but Johto is NOT going to be fun) and YOU try to remain patient, upbeat and optimistic. You will fail. Ash is lucky he lasted as long as he DID before finally deciding enough was enough and it was time for less GENTLE methods of getting the job done. Doesn't help that the King's fucking with his mind.
Takeshi Yamato: That's certainly true. That said, expect things to get utterly crazy in a massive hurry - Ron and Jorn planned this arc out, and… well, expect Anderson's catchphrase to get a MASSIVE workout.
Ron the True Fan: I wouldn't go that far.
Ja Ne!