What a Beautiful World

Imagine a town isolated from the rest of the world. People and pokemon live in

complete harmony. No need for pokeballs or capture stylers. Just pure coexistence.

My hometown, Serenity Hollow is just this. Isolated from the rest of the world,

away from all wars and violence.

As I left my house for the day, I greeted all the villagers here. A short trek forward

is Minato's farm. He and his wife, Yuki, maintain this farm for all of us. There is no need

for currency exchange. We all just help one another.

Left of Minato's farm is Aly's restaurant. The two buildings are in such close

proximity to allow quick transfer of crops. Aly's signature curry is to die for. I have it

every Tuesday and Thursday.

A small distance away is Layla's textiles. I am the same age as her and she

is…heavenly. Her smile, personality, demeanor. Everything about her is perfect. I want

to one day propose to her as she always lights up my day.

There is also Village Chief Mo. He is the oldest person here and the founder of

Serenity Hollow. It is thanks to him that we enjoy the peace and coexistence that we

have now.

Wait! Speaking of peace and coexistence, I cannot ignore the pokemon here.

They live amongst us villagers. The combee help provide honey for us and in turn we

provide them the best food for their nutrition. Their happy buzzing always brings a

soothing sound to the ears. There are also pidgey who fly around and sing for the

village. The deerling prance around, their eyes full of curiosity and happiness.

Everyone here is happy. There is no reason not to be. We have achieved pure

coexistence with pokemon.

Oh! I almost forgot about myself! I am Logan. I work just a ways away at the

entrance of the Elder Tree Shrine. I help clean and maintain the place, along with

helping everyone settle in for our daily prayers at noon.

Chief Mo says the entire reason he was able to found this village was due to the

Elder Tree. It had blessed this land with fertility which allowed crops to grow at an

exceptional rate.

In addition it helped mediate any conflicts which may happen between both

villagers or pokemon. While I have never witnessed it in action myself, the residents

who are older than me always talk about the wisdom they gained from it. And as such it

deserves our appreciation every day.

The sun was nearing its high point and the villagers were gathering at the shrine.

"Mike you are to be seated here, Clara you go here. Tyler no. Not there you are

at this place."

Every day I get a pamphlet for the seatings for the villagers. I do not know where

it comes from, but this is my job. And to maintain village harmony, I help seat everyone

in their proper seats.

Placing anyone in a wrong spot could potentially disrupt the harmony we live in.

Though that is the same case for everyone's job. We need to strive for perfection for

harmony. Such are the teachings of the Elder Tree.

And soon she came to the front of the queue.

"Uh. Layla, you are seated there, right next to Minho."

She silently nodded and took her seat. Crap I nearly messed up my delivery

there. Any more mistakes and I may have disrupted the harmony of the village.

Shaking away those scary thoughts, I took my seat in the front row. Ever since

getting this job assigned to me, I have always been seated at the leftmost seat of the

front row. All the village residents waited for Chief Mo to settle into the pulpit. He was

the one in the village with the most direct connection to the Elder Tree. And as such, he

always imparted to us its teachings.

I waited anxiously to hear the words of wisdom Chief Mo was about to say. These

sermons were the highlights of my day. In fact it was the highlight of anyone's day.

Nothing was more important than maintaining harmony and hearing the words of the

Elder Tree.

"Everyone," Chief Mo began, "As you all know our village is in pure harmony. We

coexist with pokemon without the need for pokeballs, capture stylers, or anything else

like that. Step one foot outside our village and what would you see? A world of

savagery! That is all that is outside our village. In fact at this very moment a war is going

on in the outside world for pointless reasons! They do not live in harmony as we do!

Thanks to the Elder Tree!"

"Thanks to the Elder Tree!"

Every villager, including me, shouted this at the top of our lungs. To think that just

outside our village, we would have to face war. The outside world is full of savages!

People who were never blessed by the Elder Tree.

Oh how I thank my fate for being born in this village. This place is of utmost

happiness and harmony!

If only those outside savages were blessed by even a fraction of the Elder Tree!

Then they may have lived in the same harmony as we do. But that does not matter at all

now.

We are the lucky chosen ones and they are not. That is the difference between

us and those savages.

We have achieved coexistence and they continue to fight wars. We are better off

in every single way.

As the sermon ended, I walked back towards the main area of the city. Today

was Thursday. And Thursday means curry!

I always enter Aly's restaurant earlier than him. He, unfortunately, has a leg injury

which causes him to walk much slower than the rest of us.

But that does not disrupt the harmony in our village. Us villagers support him

whenever we can. His struggles are our struggles.

Did you know the savages outside our village lock their homes whenever they

leave? Just how primitive is their society that, if left unattended, their houses would be

robbed? We don't even have locks anywhere. What point is there for theft? Us villagers

are like family to each other.

Though even if there is harmony amongst us, there have been villagers who

nearly destroyed it. But, we are magnanimous people. They are banished from the

village, nothing else. We do not hunt them down, we do not kill them, we do not torture

them.

We just send them off into the outside world, the world they belong in. The world

of savages who cannot comprehend any feasible type of harmony.

A short while after, Aly entered his restaurant. His eyes met mine and he smiled.

"It's Thursday right? I won't be long."

I smiled back, "Thanks Aly."

I watched Aly as he walked to the back of his restaurant. I have been there many

times before. As my job ended after the sermon, I tend to help him serve customers

before the store closes for the night.

Though, while I have helped him cook, my cooking is nothing compared to his.

Aly's techniques, the way he works with the ingredients is a work of art. The patrat of

the village also help him run the restaurant. They are the servers and the dish cleaners

of the restaurant. The only watchdog in our village acts as the sous chef. Its knowledge

on food barely pales in comparison to Aly's.

Aly finally entered back to the main hall of the restaurant, curry in hand. I accept

the curry and take a seat.

I always sit at the third table from the entrance of the back of the restaurant,

facing to the left wall of the restaurant. As I sat down, I took one of the provided spoons

on the table.

"Let's eat!"

The flavors exploded in my mouth. It is impossible to describe the dance the

spices were having with its tanginess. The texture of the food matched perfectly with the

dance of flavors. It was all thanks to the Elder Tree that I was able to have this cuisine in

the first place.

Without it Serenity Hollow would have never existed and Aly wouldn't be cooking

for us.

But it does exist and it is all thanks to the Elder Tree. And as I finish eating, I

express this sentiment.

"Thanks to the Elder Tree for this food!"

I slowly got up and waved Aly goodbye. I was not helping him run the restaurant

today. I have a previous commitment set up for today.

And right as I left the restaurant, there was my commitment. Looking as beautiful

as ever.

"Took you long enough!"

Layla puffed her cheeks and seemed to be feigning anger towards me.

"Hey, Aly's food is too good and we both know that."

Just the fact that we were about to hang out together made my day. Wait, if we

are hanging out alone, could this be counted as a date?

"Yo! Earth to Logan. You still there?"

Layla was snapping her fingers which, well, snapped me back to reality.

"Yeah I am here, was just lost in thought."

Layla pursed her lips, "Mmhmm. Well, let's get going."

The two of us walked over towards the Elder Tree and then took a right.

We were about to enter the outskirts of the village. We were not supposed to be

here. The rush of rebellion was kinda fun.

But at the same time, we were risking the village harmony here. If we do

something wrong, we could be expelled into that world of savages.

As we approached the village barrier I got hesitant, "Layla are you sure we

should do this? We could be disrupting the harmony here. Like what if–"

She put her fingers to my lips, "Hush Logan. Have you never wanted to see what

is outside Serenity Hollow? And we won't disrupt the harmony if no one finds out," she

then did a zipping motion on both my lips and hers, "This will be our little secret."

"O-our little secret?"

I was feeling flustered and caved, "O-ok let's keep going."

"Yay!"

We finally reached the village barrier. I am not sure how it works, but it makes it

so we can't see what's outside the village and whoever is outside can't see what's

inside. Or at least that's what Chief Mo says happens.

And as we passed through the barrier, the sight was…horrifying.

Pokeballs. Capture stylers. An innumerable number of them were on the ground,

outside our very safe haven.

"W-what is this?"

Layla's face was pale. Her eyes widened in shock. And to be frank, so did mine.

No one in the village had ever seen pokeballs or capture stylers in person before. But

during sermons Chief Mo had shown us these disgusting tools for savages.

But then…why were there so many right outside our village? We have never had

any outsiders come here before.

"We have to get out of here," I told Layla

But her face was still in shock and she could barely utter a response, "Y-yes."

I was also scared, but I could not show that in front of her. This very sight could

completely ruin our village's harmony. The peace Chief Mo worked hard for. The gifts of

the Elder Tree.

They all would have been for nothing if the harmony was disrupted.

But right as we were about to pass through the barrier, a pokeball on the ground

caught my eyes.

There was just…something about this specific one. In the sea of pokeballs and

capture stylers why did this one get my attention?

This made no sense.

And…despite the harmony disruption I…took the pokeball on the ground.

I don't know why but it called to me. But, despite my instincts to protect the

harmony, I still took it.

It was an instinct that went against my…instincts.

But the two of us were able to safely get back into Serenity Hollow.

"I…I will be returning back to my home now. We cannot tell anyone about what

we saw, Logan."

"Yes," I replied.

Layla was too shaken. I have never seen her like this. Then again, I am not even

sure how I was able to maintain my composure.

This was too weird. Scary even.

As I entered the main town square, I noticed something I never noticed before.

Every single resident's eyes felt…blank.

They always smiled, always were happy. Always were…harmonious.

But something felt off. This place was too happy. The normal buzzing of the

combee, the singing of the pidgey, it felt staged, choreographed.

Everything around here felt fake.

Why had I not noticed this before? In fact, why did I believe everything that was

said to us by Chief Mo and the Elder Tree's teachings?

Wait. I cannot let these thoughts linger in my head. But it was because of that

pokeball.

After grabbing it, everything I knew began falling apart. I had some kind of

connection to it but I didn't know why.

"Hey Logan! You didn't help Aly today, right?"

Minato was smiling at me. And just like the other villagers, his eyes were blank.

"Uh. Yeah I made a promise to hang out with Layla."

I was nervous. He was off. But I acted through it. I cannot let anyone know about

what we had seen there.

"Oh," Minato patted my back and his smile grew into a smirk. A large smirk, "I

wish you luck!"

"Yeah, thanks."

I swiftly returned to my home after that exchange. Thankfully, no other villagers

wanted to strike up a conversation with me on the way home.

It was at this moment I did wish our doors had locks. I wanted to lock myself in

here and figure everything out, without the risk of someone finding out.

I gingerly put my hand into my pocket and took the pokeball out.

It was cracked, but still had some kind of shiny gleam to it. And there was

something in my head nagging at me.

It was as if it was something I had forgotten.

And then time passed too fast. The sun was setting and the village was winding

down.

But I noticed something else. The town got quiet almost…too quiet whenever the

sun set.

No one ever went out at this time. I had always thought this was normal but…the

existence of the pokeballs and stylers outside the barrier made…no sense. Things I

thought were normal began to seem abnormal to me.

As if there was a different kind of normalcy I have experienced.

But that was impossible. I have lived my entire life here. Why am I thinking

something is off?

"This may disrupt the harmony of the village but…I must get answers," I uttered.

And so, I opened my door and left my home at night.

The streets of Serenity Hollow looked like it always did. But there was a different

vibe to the place. That was to be expected though right? A village should feel different

at night than day.

Especially when all the residents have gone to sleep.

As I entered the center of the town, towards the shrine of the Elder Tree, I saw a

familiar face.

It was Layla.

She seemed to have heard my footsteps and turned towards my direction.

She looked like pure shit. She seemed…broken. She took the outskirts of the

village worse than I did.

"H-hi Logan," she whispered, "You couldn't sleep either huh?"

I smiled at her. Not one of those creepy, seemingly forced smiles that I have

gotten used to seeing. A genuine one of sympathy.

"You could say that," I replied

"Then," she pointed to a small tree nearby, "What in the world is going on here."

My eyes followed the direction of her finger and they widened.

At the tree were the combee and pidgey we see buzzing and singing at day time.

But they were suspended in the air or something like that.

Their eyes were open, blank, and unmoving. Their wings didn't move and the

smiles on the combee's faces were unmoving. It was as if they were frozen in time and

space.

This felt…off.

"What is this," I vocalize

"This…This is harmony!" came a voice from behind us.

It was Chief Mo. His arms were outspread. He was smiling ear to ear. And just

like the other villagers, his eyes were void of emotion.

But then his smile shifted to a frown. I had never seen Chief Mo frown before. It

was eerie, wrong.

"But you two. You two should have never seen this. You have disrupted the

harmony in the village and as such," Chief Mo pinched the bridge of his nose, "You two

are banished from Serenity Hollow!"

A wave of unease washed over me. I began seeing tri-colored lights. Red, yellow,

green. Red, yellow, green. Red, yellow, green. Red, yello…

I was getting drowsy. The world began fading. Man, I really need to sleep…

I shot awake. I was in a pure white room. The lights were blinding.

Where was I? A moment ago I was…oh right I was discovered by Chief Mo and

banished from the village.

But then what were those lights? And what is this white room?

On a bed next to me was Layla. She had not awakened yet. But as I tried to lift

myself up off the bed, I was just…unable to.

I turned my head towards my arms and they were strapped down.

Same for my legs.

I tried to look around the room. Trying to figure out what was going on. But I

immediately regretted looking around the room.

There were a couple dozen beds in the room. Each with a person on them.

In fact, I recognized some of them! That was Jonathan right? And over there that

is clearly Yuri.

They were all people who were banished from the village previously. But

something was wrong with them.

Why does Yuri have metal claws in place for her arms? And her ribs. They are

sticking out of her body rhythmically clicking against each other. Above her was some

kind of…red bag, dropping meat down towards her periodically. I then realized, her ribs

weren't clicking for no reason. They were taking the meat and eating it.

But it wasn't just her. Everyone else had something completely wrong with them.

Jonathan's head was not connected to his body through the neck. Came out of where

his shoulder was, grafted there. And in place of where his neck was, there was the

same type of mouth an eelektross had.

One person had pinsir arms and mouth for arms and back. Another person had

their spinal cord convulsing inside and out their body. Some things happened to other

people which I couldn't even describe.

This one person didn't even look human anymore. They vaguely had the form

factor of a human, but in all the wrong places. Every single motion which happened

from the body sent slight tremors through the room. It was…indescribable. An

amalgamation of human and beast. So unnatural, yet at the same time, felt completely

in place for this room.

But all that focus on other people, I did not even look at myself. While I had

vaguely glanced at my arms before and they were strapped down, my left arm was

completely grey and scaly.

"Wh-What happened to me?"

I tried to look down at my feet better and realized it wasn't just my arm. I opened

my mouth and touched the left side of my face with it.

Scaly.

This…this shouldn't have happened!

All I did was take a look outside our village and now this? This is what happened

to me?

And I took a better look at Layla. Her upper half looked perfectly fine, but as my

eyes followed towards her bottom half, I screamed.

And when I said I screamed, I screamed. It was…off.

She had six legs. Well, less six legs and more her two legs split into three

segments each.

Thank Arceus nothing too bad happened to her. But why? And who?

The latter question did not take that long to get answered.

A hiss sound came from a bit away, and some kind of door opened. Two identical

pokemon came through the door. They were beheeyem.

But I had never seen a beheeyem before so…why did I know what one looks

like?

They began communicating. While I technically couldn't understand them, at the

same time, I knew exactly what they were saying.

"Subject 27 had awoken."

"Its vital signs are stable. This might not be a failure."

"So could this mean the human pokemon hybrid experiments have finally

succeeded?"

What. Human pokemon hybrid? Was that the reason my entire left side was

scaly?

Anger flew over my body.

"Subject 27's vitals are fluctuating at an irregular rate!"

I am not some kind of test subject.

"What should we do?"

My left arm twisted around itself. It decreased in length and went into my pocket.

I instinctively took out the pokeball from my pocket and enlarged it.

I did not think at all, but the following words came out of my mouth without

thinking, "Scizzy go!"

My arm unraveled from its twistedness and threw the pokeball. Out of it came a

Scizor.

I still wasn't thinking, "Scizzy Fury Cutter. Get me the fuck out of here. And the

girl next to me! Cut her out as well!"

Memories overflew into my head. I was not from Serenity Hollow. I was born in

Nuvema Town.

I had been a decently skilled pokemon trainer. I specialized in chipping down the

opponent from the sidelines while my pokemon took the vanguard.

And then one day, I caught a beheeyem. I tried to befriend it, but it backfired.

After letting it out of its pokeball, the colored lights from its fingers red, yellow, green.

They put me to sleep and then…

I woke up at Serenity Hollow believing my entire life was spent here. I had fake

memories about growing up with Layla.

Was my attraction to her fake as well?

What have I experienced in the past few years? Was it all fake? Every emotion I

felt.

Were they all just implanted into me by these beheeyem?

And if that's the case for me, what about the other residents here? Were Minato

and Yuki ever actually married?

What about the teachings of the Elder Tree? Of harmony? Pure coexistence?

All that must have been a lie too.

I get off my bed. Everyone else in the room is too heavily experimented on to

save, but Layla and I can get out of here.

We were still in…somewhat normal condition to everyone else. But first.

I eye one of the beheeyem.

"Beehee. I thought we could establish a bond after I caught you. And this," I

gestured around the room, "This is what happens trying to befriend you?"

That beheeyem's eyes widened after being called out, "Human. We gave you

peace. We gave you harmony. And this is how you repay us?"

The beheeyem seemed to truly have believed that what it was doing, it was doing

for our benefit.

"That was not peace! It was control! You tried to create a utopia based on lies.

There is no such thing as a perfect world, yet you tried to falsify one by overwriting our

memories and creating this horror of a village. And that doesnt even explain this," I

pointed at my left side, "These experiments!"

Beehee looked at me with pity, "We are not an unreasonable kind, us beheeyem,

we were reasonable. Disrupt the harmony, you get banished. And every single person

here is a banished individual who disrupted the harmony," The pity then turned into

contempt, "But if you are not accepting of our conditions, it matters not. We will just

establish a new village and abandon this one."

All the beheeyem began glowing. And I began panicking.

"Quick Scizzy! Fury Cutter them down! Don't let them escape!"

I was desperate. The scales on my left side began sticking up. The pain was

getting overwhelming.

Can't these scales just detach from my body?!

As soon as I said that, the scales launched off, piercing whatever they hit.

"Aghh," I screamed.

From where the scales left my body, new ones were growing back, blood coming

out as they grew out.

I grinded my teeth. And ran towards the beheeyem.

Scizzy was unable to take care of them all by himself, but I could try to help.

"Logan," Beehee said, "It is truly a pity we can't see eye to eye. Farewell."

And so, all the beheeyem teleported away.

"Fuck you Beehee!" I yelled, "I will not let it end here!"

But then there was a more immediate issue.

I picked up Layla, who seemed to have been waking up.

"Scizzy, bring this place down!"

The other experiments here were too dangerous, or can't assimilate back to

society.

It was best to end their misery here.

As that was happening, I sprinted out of the door.

"Logan?" Layla's eyes widened, "I-I am remembering things. A…different life."

Was the departure of the beheeyem relieving the villagers of their brainwashing?

"Layla," I replied, "Serenity Hollow is a lie."

"No…That couldn't possibly be true!"

She was crying. But it was the truth.

As the building crumbled down and we exited, we were in the Elder Tree shrine.

And the Elder Tree had collapsed.

As we left the shrine, Layla began trying to walk on her own again. Despite the

six legs, she was able to converge them into two normal ones.

While her walking was wobbly and unrefined, we were able to get to the main

plaza of the village.

And all the residents were in shock.

Aly hobbled up to me, "Logan. Was…was nothing here real? Out camaraderie,

our time together."

I didn't know how to respond. While yes, the initial spark was fake, we all spent

years together. That had to mean something right?

"I am…not sure," I replied.

But then I looked over at the crowd. Everyone else looked just, if not more

disturbed.

Layla also looked at me, "Then Logan…were our feelings for eachother ever real

or was that also fake?"

My heart tinged. They were fake, but even if they were fake, they felt real to us.

"I am not so sure myself," I looked dead into her eyes, "But maybe we should

explore our feelings outside the influence of the beheeyem."

"Oh-ok."

She looked conflicted.

"Scizzy, get the pulpit from the shrine we just left from."

A few seconds later, he came back with the pulpit in hand.

Scizzy placed it right in front of me and I stepped up onto it.

"Everyone!" I exclaimed.

All the villagers turned their heads over to me.

"We have all become victims of beheeyem. They robbed us from our old lives

and made us live a lie."

I could hear the villagers muttering to themselves, agreeing, denying, coping.

"But that doesn't mean we should stay stuck here in fear! We must all move on.

Serenity Hollow is no more."

I look over at each villager directly in the eyes, "But that doesn't mean the bonds

we made are no more. While the place Serenity Hollow was fake, the experiences,

emotions, and friendships we built over the time were real."

I made direct eye contact with Layla, "I believe we should move on from this

place. Be it together or separate. Make a new life for ourselves."

I gestured out my hand, "I will be personally tracking down the beheeyem. For as

long as they are alive, they will keep finding innocent people just like us. They would

abduct them, make them live a lie! And they would perform horrible experiments to

anyone banished from the village!"

I let my left side shine in the light.

The villagers gasped in fear and surprise.

"You all should go wherever you want to. But anyone who wants to join me in

getting our revenge," I smirked. To be a good leader, you must sometimes feign

confidence, "We will go being hell to the beheeyem who did this to us."

A cheer erupted in the crowd.

"Yes!"

"Fuck the beheeyem"

"We must retake our lives!"

The beheeyem had messed with the wrong person. I will never stop until I find

them. Beehee. Wherever you are just know, your time is limited.

Logan is coming for you.

And that is the one shot done. This is my first attempt at one. I hope everyone

enjoys it. If you are new here, please check out my other story, I Am Ranger! I

might make edits to this story some time after. Make sure to follow, like, fav,

review, etc. This is iHavePlatesForDays signing off.