Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Days when Ash visited were the best. Red sometimes knew when to expect them — birthdays, New Years, if a Professor Oak called him or Team Rocket was nearby — but Ash was unpredictable. Sometimes he’d shown up with little notice, and Red would wake up to a disgusting smell from the kitchen, and excitement would follow. The disgusting smell wasn’t Ash, no matter what jokes that jerk Gary would make; it was just meat. Red couldn’t even smell it without feeling sick. So the only time Delia cooked any meat was when Ash was coming over. Red stumbled out of bed, opened his bedroom window, hung his head out breathing heavily until the nausea passed, and got fully excited. It was only a few weeks after Ash’s visit for Red’s eleventh birthday, and he was already back from Paldea.

Ash was sixteen years older than Red. He’d been to every country in the world, at least for a bit. He’d become the youngest ever Monarch, aka Champion of Champions, a few years before Red was born. And when he was ten, there were so many times Ash had saved the world or defeated Team Rocket. When Red turned ten, he hadn’t even been brave enough to go on his own journey. You’d think all that success would make someone arrogant or mean, but Ash was so nice. He always pretended Red’s boring life in Pallet Town was cool too. And he always acted like Red could be as good as him, and he never called Red a wimp, even though everybody thought Red was a wimp. He couldn’t even smell meat without getting sick. To say nothing of the nightmares. Or how he froze up when people expected him to talk.

Aunt Delia was nice, but she worried about Red all the time. She acted like he could never be better. Ash knew he could, and that was what made him the best.

After pulling on jeans and a long-sleeved jacket, Red ran down the stairs, disappointed to not see Ash in the living or dining rooms. He glanced to the kitchen. Aunt Delia and Mimey walked with a spring in their steps as they cooked all of Ash’s favourite foods.

“Oh, morning Red,” Delia called over her shoulder. “Sorry about all this.” She inclined her head towards the bacon Mimey was frying.

It’s fine, Red wanted to say, but the words died in his throat, so he just nodded as he ran towards the front door.

“Hey!” Delia had turned towards him, hands on her hips. “Put your gloves on!”

For a moment, Red frowned down at his sleeves. They were long enough to cover his stupid birthmark.

“Gary’s out there with his arcanine, I don’t want you getting burnt again,” Delia explained. “Or cutting yourself patting his golem. Or electrocuting yourself getting a piggy-back ride from his electivire.”

“They’re sorry,” Red replied. He was the one who got carried away. Gary’s pokémon were surprisingly well-trained, and they were all more upset at hurting Red than Red was to be hurt.

“I’d still feel better —”

Red ran back upstairs, grabbed his gloves off the nightstand, and made sure to pull them on in front of Delia.

“I know I’m a nag,” Delia sighed, “but you’re really good at finding trouble.”

Red nodded. He pulled the front door open and stepped outside. It was cold, even with a long sleeve jacket on. There had been almost a whole week of rain, and the ground was still squishy, but the sun was breaking through the clouds. Hopefully everything would dry soon and stop smelling so muddy. He took a moment to send out Aero, watching as the little aerodactyl flew onto the roof. He was always a bit cranky when Red woke him up.

“— ratata in the fields,” a deep voice around the side of the house said. Red ran towards it.

“What’s got you worked up, huh?” Gary Oak’s shrill voice asked. It was probably supposed to sound soothing. Red wondered if Gary could ever truly sound like anything but a screechy cartoon bully.

Gary was standing by his arcanine, hands moving in long strokes on his side. His arcanine growled slightly, nose pointing towards the long grass beyond their fence, before it suddenly turned its enormous head to look at Red.

“Hey,” Gary said, “hey, don’t —”

Arcanine bounded over, tongue dangling out, and jumped on Red, licking his face. Even as he hit the ground, Red giggled, scratching deep into the fur around Arcanine’s neck.

Gary grumbled, “Bad dog.”

“Good dog,” Red whispered.

Gary whistled and his arcanine backed off. “Sally didn’t see that, did he?” He glanced up at the sky nervously.

“He’s on time-out.” Sally liked to bite kids who were mean to Red. He’d bitten Gary a few times too.

But Gary nodded and looked Red over as he pulled him to his feet. “You’d better not be muddy. Your aunt’ll kill me for that one.”

“I’m fine.” He wanted to hug Arcanine again. “What’re you looking for?”

“Nuthin’,” Gary said.

“The guy with the yellow rat,” Arcanine said. “Wanna chase ratata though.”

Red stared at Arcanine. “I dunno when Ash is coming.”

“Hm?” Gary scratched the back of his neck, laughing. “Oh, Ash’s comin’ home? Funny coincidence. We were just walking.”

“We’ve been walking in a circle around your house for twenty minutes,” Arcanine said.

Gary scratched Arcanine’s neck like he was trying to calm it down. “Gee, you’re growling a lot today, buddy.”

Not everybody understood what pokémon said. Delia told Red not to say anything. Pokémon weren’t used to people understanding them, and humans got jealous of people with special abilities. Red’s mum understood pokémon too. That’s why Team Rocket killed her.

“So! Hey, Red, how’re you doin’?” Gary asked loudly. “Haven’t seen you at the lab this week.”

Red shrugged. He wished Arcanine would jump up on him again, because it was funny, and meant he didn’t have to talk. “Went with school. Saw your grandpa.”

“Huh, he didn’t mention that.” Red wasn’t sure why Professor Oak would tell Gary about yet another school trip to the Pallet Pokémon Lab, but he wasn’t sure why people said most of the things they did. “What’d he show you this time?”

It had been more about the PokéDex. It was always about the PokéDex, and how some of them could become Trainers when they were ten, and Red tried not to think about how he’d just turned eleven. But Red was saved from figuring out how to say that by the roar of a charizard. He looked up at the sky, grinning as Charizard circled them. Aero took to the sky to circle in the opposite direction, which made Charizard huff angry embers at him.

“Heeeeeeey!” Ash called, waving.

“Heeeeeeey!” Pikachu also called, from Ash’s shoulder. Charizard landed next to Red, and immediately nuzzled his chest so hard, he was lifted off the ground for a few seconds. It was impossible not to laugh.

“Aw, you never liked me this much,” Ash said, patting Charizard’s neck as he slid off its back. Charizard huffed, not really saying anything. It rarely did.

Pikachu cried out his name, leaping from Ash’s shoulder to Red’s. It nuzzled against his cheek as Red scratched its head. Red’s hair was probably starting to stick up on that side, like Ash’s. As Pikachu nuzzled Red, Aero landed on Ash’s shoulders, one leg on each. Ash shouted with alarm. Aero cackled to himself.

“Don’t bully me!” Ash cried. “Red! You promised you’d train him!”

Red shrugged.

“He’s still pretty small, for an aerodactyl,” Gary observed. “This is the one that hatched, right?”

“Uh-huh, the one Goh bred for Red’s mum,” Ash said. He raised his eyebrows, like he expected more of a reaction from Gary when he brought up Red’s dead mum who was definitely murdered. But maybe Gary, like Red, wondered why nobody used her name anymore. Especially because he’d had two mums.

“I’ve never seen one that wasn’t resurrected from Old Amber before, I’m not making it a thing,” Gary said hastily. He looked at Charizard. “Thought you were travelling with your pidgeot again.”

“Pidgeot wanted to check in on the Viridian Forest,” Ash explained. He didn’t even look at Gary, he was grinning at Red. “Pikachu’s real happy to see you too! Do my pokémon like you better than me?”

“Yes,” Charizard and Pikachu joked.

Red didn’t get a chance to say anything before Ash was hugging him, too. Ash was really strong. He didn’t look it, but his hugs were so powerful they usually made Red’s bones pop. Then he’d start with — “Whoops! Sorry, buddy, I’m just happy to see you too!”

“’S okay,” Red said, though he was winded. Aero flew over to his side, cooing as it nuzzled him.

Ash pulled away and turned to Gary. “Didya wanna battle Pidgeot?”

“Haven’t had the chance in years,” Gary replied. Arcanine growled behind him, wordless but not unfriendly. “How’s ’bout we see what you’ve learned right here, right now?”

Pikachu jumped back onto Ash’s shoulder, sparks at its cheeks. Charizard huffed at Arcanine. With a grin, Ash pulled out a PokéBall. “I’ve been in Paldea, y’know.”

“Ooh, how scary.” Gary smirked. “You won’t be able to do that tacky gem stuff here, Ashy-boy.”

“So? Wait until you see what my primeape evol—”

“Ash Ketchum!”

Of course Aunt Delia had to ruin everything. She was standing on the porch, still wearing her apron, hands on her hips.

“Hi Mom!” Ash cried.

“You’d better not be having pokémon battles in my garden again!”

“Of course not.” He clipped the PokéBall back onto his belt. “I was just telling Gary he’s gotta wait until later to hear about Paldean pokémon.”

“I’ve been to Paldea,” Gary muttered. “I’ve even been to Area Zero.”

“Liar,” Ash whispered.

“Gary is welcome to join us for breakfast but no pokémon battles.”

“Okay, Mom! Promise!” Red could see Ash crossing his fingers behind his back.

Gary cupped his hands around his mouth, like he wasn’t loud enough already. “Thanks, Mrs Ketchum, but I gotta get back to Gramps!”

“Yeah, we’re just saying hi, Red ‘n’ me’ll be in soon!”

Aunt Delia looked sceptical, but went back inside.

“Yes I have been to Area Zero, like ten years before it was cool,” Gary insisted. “Professor Sada personally invited me due to my expertise in ancient pokémon, as a matter of fact.”

“Pretty sure the professor down there is Turo —”

“Turo?! Are you kidding?! He’s a stay-at-home dad, not a professor!”

“What? Their kid goes to this awesome boarding school, I met him and his best friend the Min—” Ash replied. He glanced down, like he was just now noticing Red peering up at him. “I’ll see ya later Gary, I gotta show Professor Oak my PokéDex anyway.”

“And Gramps won’t yell at us for battling.” Gary waved to Ash, said, “Come by later too Red, okay?”

“Okay,” Red said, wishing Gary would move back to Sinnoh already.

Ash recalled Charizard, and Pikachu dashed ahead to the door. Red offer Aero his Ball, put it away when he didn’t want to go in, and followed behind Ash, barely remembering to hold his breath before they went in.

“Ta-da!” Delia cried, gesturing at the table covered in dishes. “All your favourites, Ash! Even croquettes!”

“Mom, you don’t have to make all this for me,” Ash said. He clearly meant because it made Red sick. They’d talked about it before.

“It’s fine,” Red managed to say this time.

Delia still said, “I just get excited to see my baby!”

“Mom, I’m twenty-seven…”

While Delia hugged Ash, Red took his gloves off and washed his hands. That was what she’d tell him to do next anyway. Then he took Aero over to his perch (in the window, Aero loved to watch people go by and scare them) and went and sat at his place at the table, staring at all the food. It was easier when the food was already cooked and it didn’t smell so much like death, but he still couldn’t eat it without getting sick. Ash told him outside of Kanto, there were so many places where nobody ate meat. Delia said it was another reason Red wasn’t ready to go on his Pokémon Journey.

Ash talked excitedly about all the pokémon he’d met in Paldea, particularly a ‘purple bike-lizard type pokémon’ called Miraidon he’d apparently helped a prince save. Red tried to ask if Paldea actually had princes, but even around Ash his voice would fail, so he’d look it up later when it sounded like less of a dumb question.

“And, the prince with Miraidon, Florian, he told me some great news, that’s why I’m back already! They’re starting a school,” he looked at Red, “for people with special abilities.”

There was a clattering sound that made Red jump, staring at his aunt. She’d dropped her rice bowl, but was too busy staring wide-eyed at Ash.

“It’s part of Uva — no wait, Naranja — uh, what was it, oranges for the history school and grapes for the science school, the whole academy is called Sagrada even if it should be called Fruit —”

The really old school in Paldea with a crystal PokéBall built into it. Everybody knew it. But why was Ash continuing to talk when his mum was being so weird? Pikachu had jumped across the table to help clean up. Mimey was usually right on things like that, but he was clearly upset by how emotional Delia was getting. He’d stopped miming and everything.

“Anyway, I told him you can talk to pokémon —”

“Why would you do that?!” Delia cried.

“Because he can,” Ash replied. “Mom, it’s not like Team Rocket has anything to do with Paldea.”

“You don’t know that,” Delia said. “They weren’t supposed to be in Sinnoh.”

She glanced at Red in the apologetic pitying way that meant she’d referenced his dead parents. He knew what’d happened, he knew it’d happened in Sinnoh where he was supposed to have grown up, he knew Team Rocket were evil and still popping up around the world. But he also knew nobody had seen Giovanni in eight years. Red had checked every night since he was first allowed to use a computer.

“Mom…” Ash sighed.

“Red, please go upstairs to your room,” Delia said, “Ash and I need to talk about this.”

She’d barely given the instruction before Red got up and went to the stairs. He knew if he crouched on the landing behind the handrail, he’d be able to hear what they said without being spotted. Red had spent a lot of time eavesdropping on Delia talking about him with other people.

“Mom, it’s like the school I went to in Alola, remember?”

“Paldea is a lot bigger and further away than Alola,” she replied.

“Which is why Team Rocket —”

“You can’t tell people about his powers,” Delia interrupted, in a frantic almost-whisper. Red leaned closer, frowning with focus to decipher what she was saying. “We can’t risk it, Ash.”

“When’s he gonna learn how to use it right? He’s great at it but he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“He’s still too young,” Delia insisted. “It’s too much.”

“Mom, when I was his age, you let me —”

“It was a very different world back then, Ash.”

“Uh, not really Mom… And this is just a school.” From his voice, Red could picture the confused frown on Ash’s face. He was probably remembering all the times he’d saved the world. Maybe even the time Aunt Delia had been kidnapped by an entei.

“You need to talk to me about these things first,” Delia said. “Red isn’t like you.”

It was just a basic fact, but it still hurt every time Red heard it. And he heard it a lot. People would look at him and see either his amazing cousin (hero, five time Monarch, beloved by pokémon and people alike everywhere) or his dead mother (archaeologist, the longest reigning Champion of Sinnoh). Then they’d be disappointed by how short Red fell. He was too quiet, too weird, too easily scared.

“I know, Mom, he’s way smarter than me,” Ash said with a hint of laughter in his voice. “He won’t go running into trouble like I do.”

“You say that, but he does all the time when you’re not here. And if you’re both away, getting in trouble… My heart can’t handle that.”

There was the sound of chairs moving. Red backed away, but realised they must be hugging.

“Sally’ll look after him too,” Ash said. “You can always count on that.”

Delia sniffed. “He’s on timeout.”

Ash didn’t ask. You never really had to ask why Sally was on timeout.

“The director of the school wants to come talk to you about it, see what you think,” Ash said. “See? I can be an adult sometimes.”

Delia laughed. Red was relieved to hear it.

After a few moments of silence, Red snuck down the hallway to his room. He stood outside, staring at Ash’s room opposite for a few moments, before deciding it wasn’t worth going inside. Ash would come find him when he was ready. In the meantime, Red would read about Sagrada Academy on Bulbapedia. He’d never thought about going to a Trainer School, because it would mean going. It would mean more strangers who met him and were disappointed. Or maybe there would be people just like him. That’s what Ash seemed to be implying. More people with special powers Red wouldn’t need to keep secrets around.

Ash knocked, and Red had to go to the door to let him in because his voice failed yet again. But Ash still grinned at him like he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Hey buddy,” he said, “sorry about all that.”

Red looked at his computer, with a picture of the Uva Academy science lab still visible in all its sterile glowing white glory. He managed to say, “’S okay.”

Ash closed the door behind himself and walked over. “Hey, it’s that Fruit School!”

Red nodded.

“It’s a really cool place, I wish I could’ve gone there, I went to a few classes they kept asking me to teach people stuff and you know I’m no good at that,” Ash said as he sat at the chair, scrolling quickly through the page looking at the pictures. “I wasn’t a very good Trainer before Pokémon School.” From his head, Pikachu made a noise and Ash laughed. “Okay, I was fine, but I got way better. Sometimes I wish I’d gone there first. But I’d never trade my journey with Brock and Misty for anything, of course!”

Red didn’t know what to say. He’d heard a lot about Ash’s journeys, but not a lot from Ash himself. Ash’s friends would visit to say hi to Aunt Delia (who they still called Mrs Ketchum even though nobody was sure if Mr Ketchum had ever existed) and they’d say a lot. The Professor Oaks would mention things when Red checked up on Ash’s pokémon. But Ash himself would only talk about the latest journey he’d come home from.

“And y’know, Mom’s just scared, if you really wanna do something she won’t stop you,” Ash said, smile still on his face, eyes still on pictures of the school.

“Won’t she?” Red muttered.

Ash looked at Red with a frown. “All she wants is us to be happy.”

But that wasn’t true. Red had heard it over and over. Aunt Delia wanted him to be safe because she’d promised her dead younger sister. Safe and happy are different.

“The director of the school, Clavell, he’s gonna come talk to us, you’ll see, it’s a great place,” Ash said. He smiled again. “Only if you want to go, though.”

Red stared at the computer screen. There was a picture of the library in the entrance hall. Students in purple and orange uniforms hung around, some sitting on chairs, some on the ground, laughing and talking together.

“I want to go,” Red decided.

Ash cheered, jumping up and pulling Red into another tight bone-cracking hug.

“But,” Red gasped, “but, the special abilities.”

He was lifted into the air in a full spin before Ash set him down again, grinning ear to ear. “I dunno much about that! Some people can use magic and some people can’t. What matters is how cool Paldea is, Red!”

Red frowned. He asked Pikachu, “Is this magic?”

“Who cares?!” Pikachu cried excitedly, “Paldea is cool, Red!”

Maybe it was magic behind Ash and Pikachu’s hivemind.

Ash laughed, scratching Pikachu’s head.

It wasn’t the weirdest idea. Red had seen a human psychic before. And sometimes spirit mediums would show up insisting they had messages from his dead mothers and Aunt Delia would sic Mimey on them. Also, Ash had Aura, but he never really used it outside of battles. Apparently Red’s mum had it, too. He didn’t know if he had it, but he did sometimes get a strange feeling around certain people. Plus it would just make sense for it to be magic behind Ash’s insane strength.

“Let’s go finish breakfast, okay?” Ash suggested. “We’ll talk about all this later, when Director Clavell comes over.”

Red’s thoughts were chased away by the anxiety of how upset Aunt Delia would be, but when they returned to the table she was humming happily and chatting with Mimey. She was acting like nothing had happened again. Red was relieved but also tired all of a sudden.

Three days later, Red opened the front door to see an old man in a purple-and-white suit. He was clearly a lot younger than Oak but his hair white and lanky, his face lined, and something about his overly stylish teacher look made Red sure someday the man would ask him what ‘poggers’ meant.

“Hello,” the man said, “you must be Red, correct?”

“Yeah.” He noticed the PokéBalls attached to the man’s blazer and wondered what was inside. “Um. Ash is —”

“Director Clavell! Hi!”

The man turned to look behind him. Ash was running up, waving, Pikachu a few paces ahead.

“I was just in the Viridian Forest checking on my pidgeot,” Ash explained, “d’ya wanna go have a look? Pidgeot is so cool, his ‘treasure’ is the flock of pidgey and pidgeotto there, but also exploring with me. Red, you could come and translate!”

“As interesting as that sounds Ash, I think I had better start by speaking with your mother and cousin,” Clavell replied. “Where is your mother?”

“Uhhh…”

“Upstairs.”

“Upstairs! I’ll go get her,” Ash declared, “Red, show Director Clavell to the living room.”

Red would much rather it be the other way around, but he showed Clavell the way as Ash bolted inside and up the stairs. Clavell probably could’ve seen the couches and TV from the doorway and figured it out for himself. He sat on the couch nearest with impeccable posture, and Red felt embarrassed trying not to sink into the one opposite. Clavell was staring at him, or maybe over his head?

“Is that an aerodactyl?” he asked.

Red glanced over at Aero, who was fast asleep on his perch. “Um. Yeah.”

“How remarkable.” Clavell smiled at maybe Red, but probably Aero. “I haven’t seen one in person for a very long time. Are you his Trainer?”

“Um, he was supposed to be Cyn— my mum’s,” Red replied, “but, I hatched him.”

Clavell’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything else, Ash and Aunt Delia came down the stairs.

“Oh, Director, I’m so sorry, Ash didn’t tell me when you’d be arriving!” Delia cried. She looked over at Red’s left arm, and Red lifted it slightly so she could see the sweatband in place, covering his birthmark as always. “Can I get you something to drink? We have Pallet’s famous banana green tea.”

“How can I say no to trying a local delicacy?” Clavell sounded like he really wished he could say no. Delia didn’t pick up on that at all, and beamed. “I was just talking with Red about his aerodactyl.”

Red was about to clarify again when Ash excitedly cut in, “Isn’t it the coolest?! My friend Goh bred it for Red’s mum, and we had it in an incubator for like ten years and it still didn’t hatch but when the incubator broke Red started looking after it and it hatched right away. Gary said it’s probably because aerodactyl had such long life spans but something similar happened with me and Lucario so I think it’s because of Red’s —”

“Ash, can you come help me?” Delia called.

On one hand, Red was glad he didn’t have to carry tea around while being stared at. On the other, he really wished he’d heard Ash finish that sentence. Aero had hatched about six months ago, and Red didn’t know what he’d done that’d been different to anything else people had tried.

Pikachu climbed onto Red’s lap, and he was happy for the reassurance.

“You seem to have quite a way with pokémon,” Clavell observed.

“I guess,” Red mumbled. Anyone would be the same if they could understand pokémon.

Ash set the tea tray on the table before sitting next to Clavell. Aunt Delia set down a plate of cookies, arranged carefully on top of what had to be the commemorative plate from one of the times Ash was declared Monarch of the World Coronation series. There was a distinct pattern of pokémon type symbols and crowns on the outer rim. If Ash realised Aunt Delia was using that plate, he’d be mortified. Luckily Red’s stomach hurt too much to eat.

“Ah, thank you Mrs Ketchum,” Clavell said, accepting a teacup. “You’re far too kind.”

“Nonsense, you came all this way to talk to us, it’s the least I can do.”

“I must apologise, Minaji Florian wanted to come as well,” Red barely had time to get caught up on the unfamiliar word before he became alarmed by, “but there was an incident involving a group of students who call themselves ‘Team Star’ — nothing to worry about, it’s a support group for troubled students, and Florian has been assisting them.”

“Florian’s really nice, Mom,” Ash supplied. “I was helping him and Arven with those Titan Pokémon, remember?”

“Oh, yes, I remember.” Aunt Delia looked a bit dazed. “I suppose not all teams are bad, are they.”

“Team Star’s just like Team Skull, remember them, Mom?”

“Yes, dear, I remember.” She smiled sadly at Clavell. “I’m sorry, Director. Cynthia was my younger half-sister, so I was always protective of her even when she didn’t need it, and I can’t help being the same with Red.”

“Of course, it’s perfectly understandable,” Clavell agreed. “I will admit, I haven’t been Director for long, but I’m doing my best to ensure Sagrada Academy is a safe place for all students — those who are there full time, those who are only learning about Pokémon Training, those who attend our adult education seminars — all of them.”

Yes, yes, adults waffling as usual. But what was that word they’d called this Florian guy?

Clavell took a sip of the tea and did an amazing job not flinching. Delia smiled like she was looking at another satisfied customer in the restaurant. Clavell sounded slightly strained as he said, “I understand you would be concerned, but we would do our best to make Sagrada Academy a safe place for Red.”

“I’m sure your school is wonderful, but Red is a very special boy,” Aunt Delia replied. “Oh, of course all children are special, but… He looks just like Cynthia, don’t you think?”

“The resemblance is uncanny,” Clavell agreed, “though I think our students are more likely to recognise him as Ash Ketchum’s cousin.”

For a moment Red was worried Aunt Delia would hear the underlying meaning — that most people had forgotten Cynthia by now — but she smiled tearfully and nodded, beaming at Ash. “My Ashy does a lot of good in the world.”

“Mooooom,” Ash groaned, “we’re talking about Red going to that fruit school.”

“Yes, of course.” Clavell set down his teacup. Red wondered if he’d drink from it again or find some excuse not to finish it. He’d decide how much he liked Clavell based on what he chose. “Sagrada Academy has a range of enrolment options, but for an eleven-year-old, I believe the most relevant would be our secondary education course.” To Red, he explained, “You’ll learn everything you would at a top-tier Trainer School such as Indigo Academy or the Viridian Trainers School, while getting your high school diploma.”

Red frowned. Did he know anyone who had bothered getting a high school diploma? Except Gary, but Gary didn’t count for anything. Maybe Brock? But Brock was weird too. Had Goh gotten it? Goh was almost as cool as Ash but about a million times smarter (usually). And Goh wasn’t normal either.

Ash scratched his face with a nervous laugh. “You should probably get your high school diploma. It’s useful for… Most stuff.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah, like being a doctor… or nurse… or a real researcher… or Gym Leader in some regions… or anything but a professional battler… Maybe even then, I dunno…”

There was a far-off thoughtful look on Ash’s face that really didn’t belong there. Ash didn’t think about things, he did things. It was a way better way to live than getting so stuck in your own brain you can’t always speak.

“There are many options opened up by having one, and it never hurts to get,” Clavell explained. “Particularly if you are learning battling and pokémon raising at the same time.”

Red nodded. It made sense, he’d just never thought about it. You either stayed in Pallet forever, or became a Trainer at ten and left. The wider world was a theoretical blur of Ash’s stories and things Red knew about his mothers. Well, Cynthia. Nobody ever said much about his other mother.

“Director, tell him the other bit,” Ash requested, “about the uh. Elves? X-Men? Dai-magic?”

The what? Clavell seemed just as confused as Red.

“Ash,” Delia said icily, “I don’t think —”

“Oh, do you mean the dainisa?” Clavell realised.

Delia gave a strange, strangled noise that made Red want to hide. He may have gripped Pikachu too hard, because the poor little rodent started tapping at his hands with a questioning, “You okay?”

“Yup, that’s it!” Ash cried. He laughed. “You’d think I’d remember what we are.”

You’d think Red would’ve heard the word before, if it is what they apparently are. What did it mean? People with special abilities? That’s what X-Men were, right? Red didn’t watch Unovan media, not since he was six and watching Joltik-man gave him nightmares about guns.

“Yes, you would think that.” Clavell laughed, good-natured but clearly concerned, before confirming with Red, “I’ve been told you have some remarkable abilities.”

Quickly, Red shook his head.

“Director Clavell, he’s a very shy boy,” Delia explained, “so you shouldn’t expect —”

Ash interrupted with an excited shout, “Clavell, sir! Send out one of your pokémon! Red’ll show you what he can do!”

Pikachu chirped just as loudly in agreement.

“Very well,” Clavell said, pulling one of the Premier Balls from his side and pressing the button. Red watched, awed, as the blue light came together to form a white duck. Atop its head was a swoop of blue hair, or maybe water? It flicked it back with a loud, “Here’s the star!” before posing facing Red.

“Quaxly!” Ash cried excitedly. “Red, say hi!”

“Um.” Red stared between Ash’s excited face, Clavell’s curious intelligent gaze, and Delia’s pale stern gaze. When their eyes met, she shook her head. But Ash looked excited, and Quaxly was staring at Red, so he said, “Hi.”

Quaxly peered into Red’s eyes. Its own were a deep, dark blue, like the sea after a storm,

“You, you said you’re a star…?” Red muttered.

Quaxly’s eyes widened. “Yes! You understand! I’m a special boy and I need you to tell that man I simply cannot continue to eat bland-ass oran berries when there are perfectly good pecha berries which are more worthy of me.”

“Um… Director Clavell, Quaxly doesn’t like oran berries anymore. He likes pecha berries.”

“Oh, my.” Red glanced up to see Clavell’s hand pressed to his mouth in astoundment. “So that’s why he hasn’t been eating as well lately.”

“That’s right!” Quaxly cried. He pressed a wing to Red’s knee, tapping it repeatedly. “Thank you for saving me from dying of mediocrity.”

“You’re welcome?” Red wasn’t used to pokémon being so… dramatic.

Clavell called Quaxly over. He reassuringly groomed its feathers as he promised no more oran berries, and recalled it. “You can understand the language of all pokémon?”

“Um… not…” Red glanced back at Aero, who was growling on his perch.

“Aero’s a baby,” Ash insisted. “Every other pokémon I’ve ever brought home, and all my friend’s pokémon, and all the pokémon at the lab, he understands them all!”

But Aunt Delia told Red to keep it a secret. She said that was why Team Rocket had killed his mother, because she spoke to pokémon too. Was something bad going to happen now? What was going to happen to him, if more people found out? And why didn’t Red know about any of this? Minaji, dainisa, what did any of it mean? Had his Aunt been lying to him? He was already so scared because of all the things she told him to lie about, like why he kept his wrist covered, his talking with pokémon, his birthday, but he hadn’t thought she was lying to him, and if she was, maybe the world wasn’t so scary. Maybe Team Rocket wasn’t around every corner. But why would she lie to him about that? What if Director Clavell was one of them, and they’d tricked Ash into sending Red to Team Rocket Academy or something? What if everything Aunt Delia told him was true and something awful was going to happen because Red had let a stranger know he could talk to pokémon just like his dead mum who Team Rocket shot?! 

Pikachu’s paw pressed against his cheek. Red hadn’t even noticed it climbing onto his shoulder. “It’s okay,” Pikachu said, “trust me.”

And Red did trust Pikachu. He breathed in deeply, did his best to smile at Pikachu, and was rewarded with their cheeks being rubbed together. The static was more reassuring than painful.

“Well, Red, I think Sagrada Academy would be the perfect place for you to hone your abilities and learn more,” Director Clavell said kindly. “From the moment I stepped into this house, you’ve shown how much you care for pokémon. This ability of yours, and how well developed it is, shows how well-suited you are.”

“Hang on,” Delia said, voice trembling. “Paldea is a long way away. How will you keep him safe? And —” She looked at Red. Her eyes were wet. “Red, do you even want to go?”

Red looked away, nodded, and said, “Yes.”

“I guarantee you, Mrs Ketchum, we will do everything we can to protect Red,” Clavell said gently. “We’ve had many students with famous relatives before, and some presently attending — such as the son of Professors Sada and Turo, the niece of Chairman Rose, and of course Florian — and will take similar precautions with Red’s safety. But we usually find students are not star-struck for long.”

Red hoped that was the case. He also hoped none of them remember Cynthia, so he wouldn’t hear more about how much he looked like her. Though his classmates in Pallet Town usually brought that up because it meant Red looked girly, not because they remembered Cynthia.

“Mom, it’s gonna be okay,” Ash squeezed his mother’s hand. “I can take Red there myself if it makes you feel better.”

“Of course we ensure new students are escorted from their homes to the academy,” Clavell said. “Mrs Ketchum, I would be more than happy to discuss any concerns you have, and introduce you to our staff.”

“I’ve met them all too, Mom, remember? I sent you that painting the art teacher Hassel did of Mimey!”

Delia sniffed, wiping her eyes. “It’s such a nice painting.”

There were still so many questions churning in Red’s head. But Clavell set about reassuring Delia, with supporting anecdotes from Ash, and Pikachu was still periodically nuzzling his cheek, so Red resigned himself to simply watching and listening for more clues.

Sagrada Academy was divided into Uva Academy and Naranja Academy, which meant grape academy and orange academy (hence why Ash kept calling it ‘Fruit School’). Uva Academy focused on medicine and sciences, Naranja Academy focused on history and social studies. Students could take classes from either, until they were fifteen and expected to pick one to specialise in. Both taught battling and pokémon care. Nobody was explaining what exactly a dainisa was, or why this Florian guy was such a big deal, or if Red was right in his deduction that they meant some people were literally magic and Florian was the prince of magic or something. (Ash did call Florian the ‘Prince of Speed’ at some point but that got a confused reaction from Clavell, and seemed to be an inside joke or outlier that shouldn’t be counted.)

Before long, Clavell stood up. “Well, if there are no more questions for now, I had best be on my way.” He took a card case from his pocket (it was covered in a pattern of grapes and oranges) and handed one of his business cards to Delia. “Please call if you think of any additional concerns.”

Delia shook her head, and in a very soft voice said, “Maybe this will be good for Red.”

“Please discuss it further as a family. Term begins in mid-September, but orientation for our boarders is a week earlier.”

That gave Red about a fortnight to prove he could go.

“Red, I hope to see you at school,” Clavell said. “Ash, do take care.”

“See you at Fruit School, Professor!”

Clavell sighed slightly but left without correcting Ash.

Nobody said anything. Delia started clearing things away without any comment. As she did, Red saw Clavell hadn’t finished his banana green tea.

Honestly? Respect.

Red didn’t expect Ash or Aunt Delia to pick up the topic immediately, and they didn’t. As they washed up, Ash kept talking about how nice and cool everyone at Sagrada Academy was, Delia kept saying ‘That’s nice dear’, and Red wanted to ask his questions but his tongue felt too heavy to move and they were in such a comfortable rhythm he wouldn’t be able to bother them anyway.

So Red took Pikachu out to the backyard. He meant to stop, but he just kept walking. Up the hill, away from the town. Pikachu followed dutifully without comment.

“Do you really like Paldea?” he asked.

Pikachu made a thoughtful “chuuu ka” noise. “I don’t like the Pokémon Centres or the really tall mountains.”

The mountains made sense, Pikachu never liked mountains, what with its little legs. Even if Ash would always carry it up them with no second thought. “Why not the Pokémon Centres?”

“We can’t sleep in them!” Pikachu cried. “It’s like, when the —” It started alternating between mining driving a car and pretending to be a car, with its ears bent back awkwardly in the shape of a car bonnet.

“A petrol station?” Red guessed. “Where cars stop?”

“That’s right!”

That was worrying. “Are there lots of cars?”

Pikachu shook its head. “The sandwiches are amazing too!”

Red didn’t particularly care about food, so long as he didn’t have to eat any pokémon. They came to the big tree at the edge of Professor Oak’s enormous yard. The fence used to be much bigger, but apparently Team Rocket had blown it up, and all the pokémon stayed inside. Now it was a little wire and wood thin, mostly decorative, and few pokémon hung out anywhere near it. Red still liked to sit under the tree and watch them in the distance. Sometimes pokémon would come over to talk to him. Usually the same one. Aunt Delia would get mad at him for wandering off, but he could still see her house down the hill, so there was only so much she could say.

Aunt Delia was annoying, but Red was still alive. And she probably wouldn’t be so annoying if he were stronger. If he could speak freely like Ash. If he could make friends with humans. If he could show more of his emotions. If he didn’t remind everyone so much of dead people.

Red sat under the tree. He peered up into the leaves. No bugs in sight. The metapod that’d been up there last week must’ve evolved and moved on. Pikachu climbed onto Red’s head, bending down to peer into his face up close. Its eyes were so brown, warm and inviting, like the trunk of this tree itself.

“Will I make friends?” Red wondered.

“Of course!”

Relaxing against the tree trunk, Red tried to remember the last time he’d had a friend of his own… His eyes were too heavy to keep open. The sun was streaming through the trees, falling across his face in patches of warmth…

He was walking down the street home, glancing carefully at the big road as a truck went by. The tall buildings got in the way of the mountain view and he wished they were up higher, like his classroom at school. He pushed his hat up so it wasn’t pulled so low; the blue and black pattern almost stopped him from seeing the traffic coming, and you gotta be careful in a city like Saffron while you’re holding hands with your little si— 

Red startled. Pikachu had crawled down into his lap, and peered up at him with curiosity.

“A weird dream,” he explained. He relaxed against the tree again, wondering what the city had been. Sometimes Red dreamt about places he’d seen in videos or heard about from Ash’s stories. Or Ash’s friends’ stories about Ash.

The sunlight was refreshing, or maybe the nap had been refreshing despite the nightmare. He hadn’t been out for long. He decided to walk back along the fenceline, peering into Oak’s field, wondering which tauros belonged to Ash. 

It didn’t take long for the bulbasaur to find him.

The bulbasaur found Red every single time he went near the Lab. Her body was a little small, but her bulb was big, and she always walked a little crooked as a result. Red paused, Pikachu perched curious on his shoulder, and waited for the bulbasaur to come to a stop by the fence and peer up at him. Their eyes were the exact same shade of red. Red knew, because his other mother had eyes that colour too, and one of the only pictures he had of her was close to her vibrant eyes as she tried to duck out of the shot.

“Does your back hurt again?” Red asked.

“Catch me,” the bulbasaur replied.

Red crouched down, reaching through the gaps in the fence. The bulbasaur stepped forward, butting her head against his fingers, before turning to her side. Pressing his fingers against the scaly skin nearest her bulb, Red moved them along, closing his eyes to try and focus on feeling the tension. The bulbasaur always had tight muscles, and she liked Red because he could massage them out easily. He’d focus, his fingertips would start to feel warm from his focus, and then he’d feel the bulbasaur relax. Red opened his eyes to once again find the bulbasaur lying sprawled out on the ground, murmuring in contentment.

“Catch me,” the bulbasaur repeated as Red stood up.

With a sigh, Red started to reply how he always replied, “You deserve a Trainer, and I’m not —” But he was going somewhere. So he corrected himself: “I’m gonna go to school. Wouldn’t that be boring for you?”

“No. Catch me.”

That was that, then. “I’ll talk to Professor Oak.”

The bulbasaur jumped to her feet. “When?”

Red glanced at Delia’s house up ahead, the Professor’s lab further up the hill, the fence, the bulbasaur’s bright red eyes… He separated the wire in the fence as much as he could and gestured for the bulbasaur to jump through.

“Red…” Pikachu had a rare warning tone.

Ignoring it, Red opened his arms for the bulbasaur to jump into. He held her carefully and walked quickly back to the house. As they approached he could see Ash on the small front porch, pacing back and forth, Rotom Phone following him as he ranted animatedly. If Pikachu weren’t with them, Red would’ve crouched down behind the hedges and snuck closer to eavesdrop, no hesitation. Unfortunately Pikachu was a good friend, and shouted, “Ash!” and ran ahead to him.

“Hey buddy!” Ash cried. Quickly Ash says to the phone, “I gotta go, Red’s here with a bulbasaur!”

“Wait, Ash —”

“Callbacksoontalksoonloveyabye!”

Snatching his phone out of the air, Ash turned to Red with a too-wide grin. “What’s with the bulbasaur?”

Red asked, “Was that Goh?”

Almost immediately, Ash’s entire face went pink. “Ha! What! Goh’s in Fiore!” Red stared at the phone in Ash’s hand, hoping he didn’t need to remind his cousin what it was used for. Maybe not, as Ash spluttered, “Hey, didya know, they don’t have Trainers in Fiore!”

“Uh-huh.” Ash had talked a lot about going there to try Pokémon Ranging as another step towards being a Pokémon Master. “The bulbasaur was hurt so I helped her and now she wants me to catch her.”

“Wow! That’s amazing! You’re so awesome, Red!” Ash crouched down in front of the bulbasaur. “Hey buddy! You’ve got a really special Trainer, you know that?”

The bulbasaur replied, “Get out of my face.”

“Uh, Ash —”

“It’s so cute,” Ash cooed, reaching to pat it. “You’ve got the same eyes, only it looks grumpy, hey, just like —”

The bulbasaur bit Ash.

Red pulled the bulbasaur back as Ash yelped, quickly explaining, “She doesn’t like people being close.”

“Aha, sure.” Ash tried to sound positive as he massaged his fingers. “Is it Professor Oak’s? Or another Trainer’s? Or a starter?”

“She’s a starter,” Red said.

At the same time, the bulbasaur said, “I’m a starter, dummy.”

“Rude,” Pikachu huffed.

“Yeah, he didn’t know,” Red agreed.

The bulbasaur huffed unapologetically.

“Let’s go talk to Professor Oak,” Ash decided, glancing back at the house. He was clearly deciding whether or not to let Aunt Delia know, and to Red’s relief, he decided against it. They started walking, Ash staying at Red’s slower pace.

“Can I ask you some questions?”

Ash beamed at him. “Of course, buddy!”

“Will you tell the truth?”

“Aw, c’mon, I never lie to you.”

Red raised his eyebrows. “Is Goh your boyfriend?”

“What! No! It’s complicated! I thought you meant questions about Fruit School!”

Biting his lip to keep from smirking, Red shrugged. He had meant about school, but he needed to make sure Ash would tell the truth first. “About school. What’s with the magic people?”

Blush vanishing, Ash more confidently replied, “Some people can use special powers. Powers like making fire or water and stuff, like what pokémon can do. Like how I can use Aura just like Lucario! And I think it gets better and easier the more we bond with pokémon, my Aura stuff got so much easier after I met Greninja and Lucario.”

Red nodded. “And those people are called dainisa?”

“Yeah, that’s what they call themselves.” Ash scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh. “I dunno much about it. You’re basically an elf, Red.”

An elf? Red didn’t know much about Fantasy or Occult nonsense. “You’re not?”

“Nah, I guess I’m basically an elf too, but Mom doesn’t talk about it and…” He trailed off, shook his head, and said, “It’s not a big deal. What you are doesn’t change who you are.”

Sometimes, Ash said really cool things.

And then Ash kept talking. “But their leaders make a big deal about how they’re not humans and better than humans and I don’t like that. A lot of people are, I dunno, normal about it? But Florian’s the first one I’ve met who’s nice.”

Frowning, Red muttered, “Why would I wanna go meet more mean people?”

“Ah!” Ash jumped in front of Red, waving his hands insistently, “no, no, it’s not like that, I’m explaining it bad. A lot of bad stuff happened to the dainisa so they wanna stay secret, their leaders are intense about it, except Florian wants to change that, he’s the only nice one of their leaders I’ve met. He wants to build peace between humans and dainisa and pokémon. I just don’t think about stuff like this.”

“I guess…”

“You can ask Professor Oak more,” Ash suggested. “He knows about all this. I think.”

It seemed weird that Ash would have all these abilities that were apparently magical and didn’t really question them much. Well, okay, maybe not that weird, but… “Why didn’t I know anything about any of this?”

Ash’s face went from panicked to annoyed. He turned away and started walking again, and Red momentarily wondered what he’d done wrong this time, until Ash spoke again. “Mom didn’t want you to. I should’ve told you anyway, but I didn’t think about it much…” He gave Red a strained smile. “Sorry, bud.”

What could Red say to that? He looked down at the bulbasaur in his arms. He’d never really thought he was stupid, but maybe he was. Who realised they could talk to pokémon and never asked a question about it? Aunt Delia had told him he had to keep it a secret, and he’d asked why it had to be a secret, but not why it happened. He knew most people couldn’t do it, but it wasn’t completely unheard of, was it? Aunt Delia had always told him, ‘your mother could talk to pokémon too.’ He didn’t even know which one. And he couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t understood pokémon… How was it meant to be magic or a special power when it wasn’t special to him at all?

Suddenly Ash spoke again, and Red jumped. “Florian’s the Prince of Dainisa, so he can explain any of this too if you don’t wanna talk to Professor Oak about it.”

“Prince… Is that what Minaji means? Prince?”

“Oh, yeah, they have their own language.” Ash shook his head. “It’s actually kinda annoying.”

Honestly, Red was relieved when they reached the lab. He wasn’t understanding much more than he’d already guessed. It was hard to believe that Ash, who’d travelled all over the world, didn’t know more. Even saying he wasn’t interested in it… Was Ash really that oblivious?

Professor Oak called them into the back. Ash started animatedly explaining what happened, but Oak cut him off with a simple, “You’re ready to take it?”

Face warm, Red nodded.

“This bulbasaur has wanted Red as a Trainer since they first met last spring,” Oak explained to Ash as he searched the shelves of PokéBalls. “It’s refused to go with any other Trainer.”

Red pointedly ignored the way Ash was looking at him. If he validated it, Ash would be embarrassing in front of the bulbasaur, and that was the last thing Red needed right now.

“Bulbasaur is a good starter,” Oak told Red as he came over with a normal-looking PokéBall, “they’re easy to raise. They need lots of sunlight and water but that shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Accepting the PokéBall felt like waiting for a rock to be dropped in his hand, but it was much lighter than expected. Maybe because Red was a bit distracted by how to keep holding the bulbasaur and the Ball at the same time.

“Are you sure you want this?” Red asked.

The bulbasaur glared at him. “Yes.”

Staring into those unblinking eyes, filled with confidence, all Red could say was, “I’ll do my best.”

The bulbasaur butted her head against the Ball and disappeared into it. Red held it in both hands, marvelling at how the metal felt warmer with a pokémon inside.

“Let’s get you registered as its owner,” Professor Oak suggested, leading the way to the computer. Trying too hard to be casual, he followed up with, “Do you want a Trainers license as well?”

Red nodded.

“Yeah!” Ash cheered. “Professor, guess what! Red’s gonna go to that fruit school in Paldea!”

“Ah, that explains why Clavell stopped by yesterday,” Oak mused. “It’s a great choice, Red. You and bulbasaur will do well there.” He had some kind of a form open on his computer screen and was filling it out. Red watched over his shoulder as Oak hesitated at date of birth.

“Erm, when was your birthday again, Red?”

“1996. July 31.”

Red said it automatically without thinking. Then he remembered — Aunt Delia told him to lie about his birthday. He didn’t remember the actual day. She told him to lie about it and he didn’t even remember the truth.

“It’s August 8 on his birth certificate,” Ash corrected. When Red looked at him, Ash explained, “I was there in Hoenn when you were born.”

But Red had always been told he was born in Sinnoh, where Cynthia was from… 

“Aw, Red, Mom said a lot of stuff she thought would keep you safe,” Ash said, “but she got carried away.”

“Didn’t she just,” Professor Oak muttered.

Red was too overwhelmed to say anything, or even know what to think, so he focused on the PokéBall in his hands. Aunt Delia did tell him to lie about a lot of things he didn’t understand, and he knew his birthday was one of those things. But why would it matter where he was born? Hoenn was a big region. There wasn’t any point trying to make sense of it. His aunt was scared for his life and she did a lot of strange things as a result and it was easier to just go with it than think about why. Including why Ash was telling Red stuff now.

“Would you like to give bulbasaur a nickname?” Professor Oak asked.

That was the kind of question Red preferred. He’d talked to the bulbasaur about it, before he realised he couldn’t go on a Trainer Journey. “Saur.” Because it was easier for Red to say shorter sentences and names.

“There we go.” Professor Oak turned in his chair, holding out an old-fashioned PokéDex. “If you get a Rotom Phone, you can transfer your credentials across to the PokéDex app if you’d prefer it.”

“Thanks.” But Red kinda liked the old-fashioned one. Bright red, no reliance on the internet, harder to hack unless you physically grab it off someone, and lots of buttons to push.

“Professor, have you heard anything about Prince Florian and the X-Men Elf school?” Ash asked, loud with excitement.

In a completely flat voice, Oak replied, “Not really.”

“But Florian said you’re from one of those big important families —” 

“I’m not involved in their activities.” Oak stood up and smiled at Red. “I’m just excited to see another promising young man leave Pallet Town with a pokémon.”

Why did so many people not want to talk about any of this magic stuff? It was making Red second-guess going to Sagrada Academy. Then again, he could always ignore all the magic stuff and stay in his dorm with Saur and Aero and maybe Sally… 

“We’ll get Florian to explain, I guess.” Ash gave the awkward laugh that meant he was trying not to get sad or angry. “Sorry Red!”

Professor Oak looked at Red thoughtfully for a moment before telling them to wait another moment. He left the lab entirely and Red wasn’t sure where to look, so he sent out Saur. Saur stared up at him, and padded closer when Red crouched down. She stopped herself from leaning into it when Red scratched under her chin.

“Is the Ball nice?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s it like?”

“Good garden.”

Well, that settled that then. Red gently scratched along Saur’s ear, trying not to be too rough. Her skin was thick and leathery but so was Aero’s, and Aero’s wings were super sensitive. He recalled Saur to her Ball when he heard Professor Oak returning, not wanting the old man to think he was spoiling Saur already. Oak was holding a book bound in purple leather. It wasn’t particularly long, and didn’t look special compared to all the big thick heavy books Red was used to seeing in the lab, but Professor Oak didn’t immediately offer it to Red like he usually would.

The Professor sighed heavily, like he didn’t want to, but spoke anyway: “Dainisa are very secretive people. Nobody but other dainisa are supposed to learn of our existence, supposedly to protect magic from being exploited by humans, and the leaders like to keep it that way.”

Red wanted to ask why, but he was afraid if he said anything Oak would stop speaking.

“You’ll find out more helpful information from interacting with people who live within the community, not from people who never learned about it, such as Ash and Delia, or people who rejected it, such as myself and Gary.”

Again, Red wanted to ask why — But Oak held up the book, and Red’s brain froze in shock. The symbol on the front was a sun, made up of four triangles, four squiggly lines, one of which connected with the spiral in the centre. The same as his stupid birthmark.

“There’s a young professor in Kalos who was researching the bond between dainisa and pokémon, as well as between humans and pokémon. His research was quickly defunded but I still have a copy of his initial findings. Perhaps the only copy remaining.”

Red accepted it, mind still buzzing too much over the symbol to really process what Oak had just said.

Ash asked, “Professor, what’s that symbol?”

Red wasn’t emotionally prepared for the answer, but he had to listen. Nobody had ever told him anything about his stupid birthmark, except he needed to keep it covered. He’d wondered a lot about it, even asked Aunt Delia if it was actually a tattoo multiple times, but it was in his baby pictures too.

“Hm? Oh, it’s the symbol of the Sun, from an old dainisan legend,” Professor Oak replied. “They say the Sun is an extremely powerful dainisa, something like a demi-god, born during a solar eclipse with the blessing of Arceus. I don’t remember the details.”

Red didn’t like the way Ash was looking at him. He quickly took the book with a, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Please keep it safe.”

Red nodded. “It’s rare. Got it.”

Ash didn’t push the topic, and thankfully, didn’t bring it up on the walk home. Extremely powerful magic? Chosen by Arceus? What a joke. Red couldn’t even talk most of the time. 

Everyone was giving Red scraps of information. There were magical people called dainisa. He was one of them and apparently they weren’t human or pokémon but a secret third thing. The dainisan prince was starting a school within a school. There were magic snobs and magic laws and a secret language? And Red’s stupid birthmark was on a book some French guy wrote as a symbol of power and destiny, things he didn’t have. He was just a lonely coward from a small town who happened to be related to special people.

All Red wanted was to go to school with Saur and Aero (maybe Sally too) and maybe make some friends, all in a place far away from any Team Rocket activity. If he had to put up with magic bullshit to get that, so be it.

That night, he dreamt of a big city again, but the details slipped from his mind when he woke up struggling to breathe. Hopefully it wasn’t a bad omen.

Chapter Text

After Clavell’s visit, and maybe also after meeting Saur, Aunt Delia was fully on board with Red going to Sagrada Academy. That didn’t give him any more information. Red tried to read the book Professor Oak had given him, but when he looked at the sun symbol on the cover, remembering what Professor Oak had said about it, his stomach twisted. He had managed to read the cover — Magical Bonds: An Analysis of the Connections Between the Abilities of Pokémon and Dainisa by Augustine Sycamore.

Ash left almost as suddenly as he’d come. He did remember to tell Red he was leaving, and promised, “I’ll be back soon to take you to Fruit School!”

“Please don’t,” Red replied. The last thing he needed was Ash Ketchum drawing attention on his first day of school.

Of course Ash pushed back, but Red insisted, and now he just had to hope Ash didn’t do what he wanted anyway. Aunt Delia laughed, saying Ash surely would ‘follow his heart as always’, but she’d try to stop him. She, at least, understood what it was like to be a normal person overshadowed by a celebrity.

Clavell organised to meet them at Viridian City airport, where he would also be meeting several other students from the ‘Tohjo Area’, as he called it. Red spent the rest of August reading about Paldea in all his favourite spots around Pallet. There weren’t that many — the grassy knoll by the beach, the tree near the lab, the fence marking the end of the town and the start of the road to Viridian City — but Saur enjoyed the sun, and Delia was less anxious about letting him go out with Saur than with Sally. She didn’t give Sally back until the day before Red left, which of course meant he burst out of his PokéBall the second Red touched it and started clinging to him while growling at Delia for ‘daring to separate me from the baby once more.’ He only stopped when he realised Red was struggling under his weight. Despite being a big scary dragon that was very proud of being a big scary dragon, Sally always forgot how big he was and tried to crawl over and around Red like a puppy.

“You’ll have to behave at school,” Delia told Sally, hands on her hips. “I’m counting on you to look after Red without biting any more of his classmates!”

Honestly, Red wouldn’t have minded leaving Sally behind, but you’re not supposed to think that about your dead mother’s salamence. And he’d probably miss Sally more than be embarrassed by him. …And it was kinda good when he bit people who upset Red.

As she helped Red pack, Aunt Delia started talking about her own time at boarding school. Apparently she’d gone to Viridian Academy since she was eight, and that was where she’d met Ash’s father.

Who is Ash’s dad?, Red didn’t ask, because there’s some things you absolutely do not bring up.

“Now that I think about it…” Delia’s smile became smaller. “That was the year Cynthia was born.”

Red knew that, because he knew maths.

“It was a wonderful time.” Delia handed Red a stack of t-shirts she’d finished folding. “Sometimes it was sad, being so far away from my family, and why… But I liked school.”

Red put the t-shirts in his suitcase.

“Why, I must’ve tried almost every club! Tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy, poetry…”

It seemed odd to be taking a suitcase when Red had seen how much could fit in Ash’s backpack. Couldn’t he do something similar? And Clavell said they had a uniform, so he’d have to wear that when he got to school.

“You don’t have to stick to pokémon because of who your family is, Red.”

“I know,” he mumbled. He watched as Delia stood up and finally noticed the purple book on his dresser. Her smile disappeared entirely as she stared at the sun symbol on the cover. “Professor Oak gave me that. Since nobody can tell me about the magical people.”

“Dainisa,” Aunt Delia corrected on autopilot.

Red didn’t say anything. He couldn’t think of what exactly he wanted to say, but he wanted to say something. His aunt knew more than she’d told him. And she must’ve realised he was thinking that, because she turned to look at him with tears in her eyes.

“I always said I’d tell you when you’re old enough,” she said, “but I left it too late, didn’t I?”

Red nodded.

“I’m so sorry.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hands. “I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t understand enough, I don’t know enough… But I know what it’s like to get too much responsibility too young.”

Was there anything Red could say? Delia wanted to be reassured, but, well, Red had found out he wasn’t even human and Delia could’ve let him know at any point but decided not to.

“You understand that I love you, right, Red?”

He nodded.

“And that all I want is you to be safe?”

And once more.

“And your mother, I promised I’d always keep you safe, and I’d never let Giovanni anywhere near you again.”

Red stared. “Again?”

Delia sniffed, wiped at her eyes. “He wasn’t after your mothers, Red. He was after you.”

“Me?” That didn’t make any sense.

“You’re not like other people,” Delia said. “You use magic like it’s nothing.”

Red shook his head. “I’ve never —”

“Understanding and speaking to pokémon is magic, Red,” she said. “Most people need to actively think about doing it, or can only do it for a few seconds, but you don’t. And you do it all the time.”

“O-okay?”

“You’ll realise what I mean when you meet more of us,” she said, “and you’ll see that… That you have so much more magic than everyone else. More than anyone I’ve ever met.”

This was sounding dangerously close to what Professor Oak had said about the sun symbol. Red shook his head. Aunt Delia smiled weakly, reaching for his right hand. She squeezed it tightly for a moment, before reaching for his wrist. Red watched, heart pounding with dread, as her fingers traced over his birthmark, the four long triangles, the four squiggly lines between them, one of which became a spiral at the centre. A sun he’d always hated, and avoided looking at as much as possible.

“I still don’t want you to show this to anyone,” Aunt Delia said softly. “It’s more important now than ever. You’ll meet dainisa who’ll know what it means straight away.”

Red was starting to get pissed off. “I don’t know what it means.”

“Minaci,” she said, in that dainisa language Ash had said none of them knew, and Red knew it meant Solar Demi-God before she got around to translating. “It means you’re the Sun. The most magically powerful dainisa. Chosen by Arceus to bring balance between dainisa, humans and pokémon.”

Well, that sounded like nonsense. Completely stupid, actually. It was harder to disbelieve coming from his tearful aunt than from a dismissive Professor Oak, especially with more details, and his heart wouldn’t stop racing. Red could understand pokémon all the time, and that meant he was the most magically powerful of some species he hadn’t even know existed? How lame were everyone else’s abilities, then? And what did that have to do with balance or Arceus itself?

All he could ask was, “No joke?”

Aunt Delia nodded, not meeting his eyes. “I don’t — I don’t understand much of what it means. I should’ve tried harder to find out more. But I know Giovanni was trying to steal your magic. I know he’s still trying to do that, wherever he is.”

She was trying to explain things to him, but she was only making Red more confused. And he was confused enough about the idea of magic. And he wouldn’t be so confused if she’d at least told him magic was real. Then he’d have less to be confused about.

Red pulled his hand away. Sally growled. Delia looked up, alarmed.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“Red, I don’t — I thought, it’s too much of a burden, and I don’t understand it either,” Aunt Delia had started to speak very quickly, with a sharpness in her tone. “I barely have magic, I never spend time with our dainisan family, I don’t remember the language or culture, the only other dainisa in town in Professor Oak and he thinks it’s all stupid, oh and they definitely didn’t want anything to do with me after I got pregnant and had to drop out and —” She cut herself off. “I’m sorry Red, you’re right to be upset, I just.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Well, that was awkward.

“Okay, fine,” Red said. For some reason it didn’t do anything to stop Aunt Delia crying, but if he did anything to comfort her he’d just get angrier. “What do I do?”

“Keep it hidden at school,” Aunt Delia said, “you never know who’s a Rocket. Or who wants to use your magic. Try to find out more, without telling anyone who you are. Don’t tell them your real birthday, that’s how they found you… Minaci is born during a solar eclipse. I remember that part of the legend.”

Of course. Because everybody is walking around with the dates of solar eclipses memorised, desperately looking for that kid who can talk to pokémon so they can kill him for his magic. And it seemed way too dramatic for how someone as boring as Red was born. It’d suit Ash.

Aunt Delia must’ve misread his face, because she started trying to reassure Red, “You don’t have to do anything, or be anything except you, Red. Be you and be safe.”

Safe from people who wanted to kill him for magical powers or whatever. Cool. It wasn’t like any of this meant anything to Red, except that his aunt had always lied to him. Apparently lying is the path to safety. Was that what his mothers had done wrong? They hadn’t lied enough so they had to die for some old Rocket dickhead to kill a baby for magic? It was all too stupid and Red didn’t care. All he wanted was to get away from his lying aunt and… He remembered the look on Ash’s face as Professor Oak explained the sun symbol.

Red asked, “Did Ash know too?”

Delia hesitated. “Yes.”

Funny. All the times Ash called Red special, he’d hoped his amazing cousin was seeing something about Red that he liked. Instead he just knew Red allegedly had more magic than anyone else.

“No, Red, please, don’t be upset with him, I asked him to —” She reached out for him, and froze when Sally growled. His tail coiling around Red’s legs, and it was a relief, because nothing was feeling real and he wished he genuinely didn’t care about any of it. “I’m so sorry Red.”

How’s that help, Red didn’t say.

Get away from me, Red didn’t say.

I feel sick, Red didn’t say.

All he could do was pat Sally on the head, turn back to his suitcase, and keep packing. If he loved Paldea, maybe Red would never have to come back to Pallet Town.

Aunt Delia left him alone after a few more attempts to talk, and a lot more growling from Sally. Red didn’t feel any better.

It was too hard to wrap his head around it all, so Red buried the stupid book by stupid Augustine Sycamore at the bottom of his suitcase and started shoving the rest of his things on top. He hoped he’d be less angry by the time he was done, but he wasn’t, so he recalled Sally, grabbed Saur’s Ball too, and snuck out for a walk. It felt good to lie down on the grass with the pokémon, until he thought about the sun shining down on them. Then he had to go sit in the shade, legs pulled to his chest, unsure if he wasn’t thinking about it on purpose or not.

Aunt Delia made him okonomiyaki for dinner and didn’t nag him for sneaking out. She talked lightly about the next day, when they’d leave, all that, and Red wondered if she had meant to leave it to the last possible moment to tell him the truth.

Red tried to be nice to her, because he knew he wasn’t going to see his aunt for a long time, but it was harder than ever to speak. And he didn’t know how to fake it like she apparently did. He’d always thought she was simple and honest, overprotective for sure, but — But how was Red protected by not knowing people wanted to kill him for his alleged magic? Or that he was a Chosen One too, like Ash? Maybe he would’ve felt less overwhelmed by having to live up to being Cynthia’s son and Ash’s cousin if he’d known that Arceus liked him. Or whatever it meant, because Delia couldn’t even tell him that!

It was hard to sleep that night. When he finally did, Red dreamt of camping on a snowy mountain, his long hair whipping around him even though he’d pulled it way back into a high ponytail. He woke up disoriented, wondering where his tent and long hair had gone, before remembering who he was and then where he was. Red stared at his suitcase by the door for a few long minutes as he breathed in and out and accepted he wasn’t freezing to death in the middle of Pallet Town’s summer.

The things Red got scared about were so stupid. No wonder his aunt and cousin wouldn’t tell him the truth about magic and Team Rocket and his mothers’ murder, he was enough of a coward as is.

Red looked at Sally, who was nuzzling against him reassuringly. He patted him on the snout. “You need to do me a really big favour today.”

Sally bumped his snout against Red’s fingertips, before starting to nibble on them.

“You need to stay in your Ball no matter what until I let you out.”

Sally huffed.

“They don’t let loose pokémon on planes unless they’re small. Like Saur or Pikachu.”

He moved his mouth away from Red’s fingers, sulking.

“Sorry.”

Sally huffed again. “It is okay, baby. I shall do that which you ask of me. I guess.”

Maybe someday Sally would learn to call Red something other than ‘baby’. At least he’d promised, Red thought, as he got dressed and scanned his room for anything he’d forgotten. The flight would be less scary knowing Sally wouldn’t appear out of nowhere to bite the other students for thinking Red was weird.

Aunt Delia made him a very ginger-heavy congee for breakfast, like she was anticipating his stomach being unsettled. She was right, and Red didn’t know if he was feeling affection or anger. He’d seen her every day of his life he could remember. He was about four when his mothers died, but Aunt Delia was the first person he could remember. Red hadn’t even gone on school trips or had a sleepover before.

“Your big trip to school…” Aunt Delia murmured as Red ate. “Are you excited?”

Red nodded.

“Professor Oak’s going to give us a lift to Viridian City, and you’ll meet Clavell there.” Delia was just going over the plan to fill the silence. Red nodded again, but his mind was blank. “Are you all packed?”

Red managed a, “Yeah.” It was so little, but his aunt beamed at him anyway.

The drive took about an hour. Aunt Delia sat in the front with Professor Oak (who also asked about Red’s excitement levels), which meant Sally burst out of his Ball to lie across the backseat with Red. He took up most of the space and kept accidentally hitting Aunt Delia and Professor Oak with his wing, but they laughed about it.

Nothing except Sally felt entirely real. The scenery was going by too fast for Red to process, he couldn’t quite hear his aunt or the professor, and his mind was buzzing with things he didn’t know how to think about. Next thing Red knew, they were at the airport, Sally was grumbling about going back in her Ball, Delia was fussing with his luggage, and Red hoped he’d be normal enough to talk the other students without being bullied.

It was a small airport, so they spotted Director Clavell and the four students around him almost immediately. Three of them were about Red’s age, one a tanned boy with a spike of black hair pulled through his backwards cap, one a girl with chestnut brown hair pulled into a high ponytail, and the other, Red wasn’t sure if they were a boy or a girl, but they looked a lot like the girl. They were probably twins, though the girl had blue eyes and the other had brown, and their noses were distinctly different. The other student looked a few years older, maybe fourteen, and something about him was familiar. Red had no idea what — the guy looked like what would happen if you tried to create a child star in a lab, so maybe he was actually an actor. The red scarf he was wearing was pretty dramatic. It was impossible not to feel overwhelmed, but Red did his best to approach Clavell like he wasn’t bothered by anything in the world.

“Ah, good morning Red, Delia, Samuel.” Clavell nodded gentlemanly at each of them in turn. “We’re waiting for one more student. Your grandson, Samuel.”

Dread filled Red. He glanced up at Professor Oak, who also looked confused. Gary was a lot of annoying things, but he wouldn’t forget to tell his grandpa if he’d become a student again.

“Ah, here they are now.”

Red turned to the entrance. Through the glass, he could see a kid who looked like a miniature of Gary, strutting towards them. He already hated him. The man with him looked much less familiar, with his cropped blue-ish-green-ish hair, and pinstripe suit. It wasn’t until he was standing next to Oak that Red could see any resemblance.

“Father.” The man was pompous even in one word. Of course.

“Archer.” Oak looked… angry?

“I hadn’t expect to see you here,” Archer said. His eyes, too cold to be like Oak’s, dragged over Delia. His lip curled.

“Daisy told me you’d had another child she wasn’t allowed to meet.” Oak was looking at the mini-Gary, and smiled at him. “You’re Green?”

Oh, fuck off, Red thought.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Green’s voice wasn’t as nasally as Red expected but he still hated it, on principle.

“Red, come on,” Aunt Delia whispered in his ear, inclining her head towards the others. He nodded and started to follow her. “The Professor’s family situation is messy. You don’t want to hear any of that.”

“Yeah.” He glanced back to see Clavell trying to defuse the situation.

The kid in the hat immediately asked Delia, “Hey, o’nee-chan, what’s happenin’ over there?”

Aunt Delia laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about that, they just haven’t seen each other for a long time!” She clapped her hands together and leant down slightly. “I’m Delia, and this is my nephew, Red.”

They all looked at him, and Red wanted to hide his face. He tried waving. It felt like the most awkward thing anyone had ever done in the history of the world.

“Whoa,” hat-kid gasped. “Dude! You’re like, the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen.”

Red stared, confused. The oldest one started laughing. So it had to be a joke then. But hat-kid slid up closer to Red, taking his hand like Red was a princess or something. At least he stopped short of kissing it.

“You can call me Gold,” he said, grin wide, “Venus Guided champion of love and luck.”

“Oh, my,” Delia giggled. The oldest one was still laughing, and the girl started too. The other one stepped in, giving Red the chance to pull his hand away.

“Stop being so weird.”

“Aww, little bro,” Gold whined. Red was thankful for the gender reveal. “I just get so overwhelmed by beauty when I see it!”

He elbowed Gold in the gut before introducing himself, “I’m Black. That’s my twin, White.” The girl waved. “And our brother Diamond.”

“C-call me Dia.” He smiled at Red too. “Tell me if Gold’s being weird.”

Red nodded. At least he and Green weren’t the only ones with colour names. It’d be mortifying if that stood out any more than it already did.

The others still were looking at him. Oh, right. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Look, it’s all been sorted,” Delia said happily. Red looked over his shoulder at Green and Clavell approaching. Oak was standing by the door, and that suspicious-looking Archer guy was storming off. No wonder Oak said his family was weird. “Red, you’ll call me as soon as you’re at school?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll be very careful?”

“Yes.”

“And Sally’s staying in his PokéBall?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll remember to wear clean underwear every single day?”

“Yes, I’m not Ash.”

Aunt Delia hugged him tightly. Red hugged her back automatically, and then tighter when he remembered he wouldn’t see her for months. He could still feel the anger and betrayal, but she was still his aunt. She was still the person who’d always been there, no matter how much of that time had been spent lying.

“Stay safe, sweetheart,” Delia whispered, “I love you so much.”

Red nodded.

It was weird walking away. Nobody said anything about Delia’s emotional goodbye. Clavell started talking about flight arrangements, reminding them to keep pokémon secure if they had any, and handing out tickets. Red ended up sitting at the window, next to Gold, with Green in the aisle seat. In the row in front of them, Dia was on the aisle, then White, then Black. Clavell was across the aisle from them.

“Why’m I stuck in a shitty seat,” Green complained.

“It must be by name,” Gold guessed. “I’m Gold Kinyou. And you’re…?”

“Green Oak.”

Gold nodded. “And, Red, what’s your family name?”

“Hanano.”

“Yeah, right, and they’re,” he pointed at Dia, “Reikyuji,” then the twins, “and Touryuu.”

Why did siblings all have different family names?

“You just said a bunch of weird names, but I’m stuck on,” Green looked at Red, sneering, “Red Hanano. As in ‘flower red’? Seriously?”

Red stared. “Your name literally means ‘green tree’.”

Green flushed with rage. Satisfying.

“And like, it can’t mean anything else,” Gold said. “Hanano could be a lot of other things. Leaf, blade, nose, coast…”

It was nice to have someone his own age stand up for him, but Green was basically right. Red’s comeback couldn’t be ‘Actually it’s field of red flowers’. Green didn’t need to know any of that though, and as Gold got into rattling off potential kanji compounds (“What if it’s feather-quince? Or waves-on-the-shore? Or the sound of waves-on-the-shore?”), Green looked more and more annoyed.

“Whatever!” Green eventually cried. Then he started speaking quickly in a different language, and Red was reminded of the weird secret magic society of it all. He almost tuned it out, but Green said his name, so Red listened harder, and when he listened harder he realised he could understand the last thing Green said: “I don’t need to care about something as stupidly human as kanji!”

Dia’s dark grey eye peered through the gap between seats at Green. He asked in a tone full of concern, “You can’t read?”

Green snapped, “Of course I can! Kanji are a redundant form of communication that’s dying out! Shut up!”

Dia hummed thoughtfully, and kindly said, “Ask your senpai if you need help with anything, okay?”

Of course, Green started to say something else, but Red’s focus was shaken by the airplane taking off. He stared out the window, watching as Viridian City got smaller and smaller, and disappeared beneath the clouds. The next time he stood on solid ground, it would be in Paldea. He wouldn’t set foot in Kanto again until at least winter break, maybe longer if he could get away with it. There was a stirring in his stomach, but it wasn’t the usual one that made him want to throw up. It was a different, nicer one that made him want to smile.

“Have you ever been on a plane before?” Gold asked him.

Red nodded. “When I was a baby.”

“Me too, when I was a baby, but this is my first time I can remember.” He craned his head like he was trying to look out the window without annoying Red.

“It’s okay,” Red said, “you can —” He gestured at the window.

Gold grinned at him, then shamelessly leant across him, whooping at the clouds. “They’re like giant cotton marshmallow balls!” He sat back, leg bouncing excitedly. “Someday I’m gonna use my powers to fly in the clouds all on my own!”

“Gold, c’mon,” Black whispered from behind them.

Gold waved his hand dismissively, and asked Red, “What’s your one?”

Red blinked. “My one?”

“Y’know! Your power?”

Oh. He was asking about magic. “I can talk to pokémon.”

Gold gasped. “So can our little sister, Yellow!”

“Really?” So maybe Aunt Delia had lied about how unusual Red was.

“Uh-huh! And Black and White have matching magic ’cos they’re twins —”

White’s hand reached between the seats to pinch Gold. “What was that?”

Gold squirmed out of the way. “— and Dia’s really cool but he can barely do anything —”

White slapped Gold’s arm.

“Hm, no, that’s accurate,” Dia agreed, “instead I’m burdened with being the only funny one.”

“But me.” Gold was beaming. “I can do weather stuff.”

Black sighed.

Red asked, “Weather stuff…?”

Gold was absolutely beaming with pride. You’d think he was the so-called Solar Demi-God.

“I can make it rain more!” Gold cried. “And, sometimes, if I try really hard? I can make it rain less.”

Black muttered, “At least you’ve stopped bragging about being able to ‘make it windier’.”

“Hey! Shut up!”

“Wow,” Green said flatly, “What an interesting ability.”

Wasn’t it, though? Even if a lot of pokémon could do it, it was still interesting.

Gold chuckled. “Yeah, I’m pretty cool.” He grinned at Green. “What’s your power?”

Green sneered, “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”

Gold’s smile became a frown. Red sighed. White’s hand popped out in the other gap between seats, hitting Green.

“Ow! Watch it!”

“Don’t be a dick,” White hissed.

“He kinda walked into it,” Black said.

Gold was still frowning and it kinda sucked to see. Red told him, “Ignore him. That’s just how Oaks are.”

“Excuse me?!” Green was sounding more shrill. “What do you know?!”

“Your brother, sister and grandpa,” Red replied, “and how much they all hate your dad.”

“You —!”

“Students,” Clavell’s voice cut in, “please. Behave and be friendly.”

Green spluttered some protests, but Red was much more interested in how Gold gasped, “Are you from Pallet Town?!”

Doing his best not to sigh or look disappointed, Red nodded.

“Do you know Ash Ke—”

“Gold, he’s clearly related to him,” Dia said, “maybe keep it on the DL.”

Hopefully Red didn’t look as embarrassed as he felt.

“Sorry, I was just — he’s so cool.” Red nodded, wondering which of the usual questions about Ash would follow. Instead Gold’s grin turned wicked and he asked, “How much does that pikachu swear?”

“Only when it sees a meowth,” Red replied, before realising he’d never heard that one before. There were perks to people knowing he could talk to pokémon already. 

“Really?! It has this vibe about him like it’s always swearing —”

“I guess, if you’ve only seen it in battles…”

“Do you know any pokémon who swear a lot?”

“Um, my bulbasaur…”

“You gotta meet my togepi, ’cos I reckon, from the look on his face —”

Gold launched into a series of anecdotes about the togepi his cousin Lyra’s grandparents had given him as an egg and how no matter what he did, ‘Togebro’ was an insufferably ‘ungrateful child’. He then started speculating about which pokémon of his siblings’ swore. He seemed really caught up on the idea of pokémon swearing like it was a novelty. Maybe his sister hadn’t told him how common it was? At any rate, Gold was still talking about it when people came by and gave them food, which Red mostly felt too nervous to eat, so he gave it to Gold, who asked if he was a vegetarian, called that cool too, and thanked Red eternally for giving him food. Green made a few comments about Gold needing to shut up, and it only made Gold talk louder about less and less relevant things. His siblings seemed wholly immune while Green looked increasingly desperate for death. Gold was still chattering about some manga called Fruits Basket as the plane landed. Then once they were in the airport, he started cheering about being in Paldea.

“You have a wonderful spirit Gold, but please try to shout less,” Clavell said.

“Sorry sir! My heart is full and I must scream!”

“And I appreciate that heart, if not the volume.”

Of course, this was when Sally decided to burst out of his Ball again. He stretched his wings out while pulling Red towards him, growling at Gold, Clavell, everyone.

“S-sorry!” Red muttered to Sally, “You promised.”

“You are no long on the plane,” Sally replied, scanning the crowd staring at him. “Which ones of these do you hate, baby?”

Red glanced at Green, but chose mercy. “None of them. Can you please go back in your Ball?”

Sally growled.

“I’m safe! We’re almost at school!” Red let Sally nibble on his fingers a bit as he glared around at the group before repeating, “Please.”

Finally, Sally went back in the Ball, muttering about how weak all the children looked anyway.

“Sorry,” Red said again, keeping his head down, “My mum…”

“Whoa,” Gold gasped, “your mum is a salamence?!”

The tone wasn’t convincing at all, but it caught Red so off guard, he couldn’t help laughing. Gold beamed at him. Nobody had ever looked so happy at Red’s laughter before.

“I did hear about the salamence,” Clavell said, “though it seems you mostly have it under control, as Ash said.”

Red’s happiness faded at the mention of his cousin. It wasn’t a fully unfamiliar feeling, but it was different. Usually he was more ashamed of himself than sad about stuff Ash had done. But he didn’t get to think about it for long — another group of students was headed their way, and a teenager in purple shorts was running over waving at Red like he knew him. 

“Hi!” He chirped, “Ash really wasn’t kidding about the salamence, huh?” 

Red was so embarrassed, but the guy kept smiling at him. He had brown hair under a wide-rimmed straw hat, olive skin closer in shade to Ash’s than Red’s but with freckles sprinkled across his face, and eyes as purple as his shorts. The shorts were part of the uniform, Red could now see, along with a short-sleeve white shirt.

“Florian?” Red guessed.

Florian nodded, giving him a thumbs up and a somehow brighter grin. “Pleased to meet’cha, Red!” He turned to Clavell. “Sir, we’re all here in one piece, sir.”

Trailing behind Florian was another small group of people around Red’s age, and a couple closer to Dia and Florian’s. One of them Red wasn’t sure about at all — they were taller than Dia or Florian, with long green hair, but their face didn’t look any older than eleven, and they were already wearing the school uniform but with an orange skirt, and a really out of place and really big black-with-silver-metal-plates leather bracelet clasped around their right wrist. Well, forearm, more like. Beside him, Red heard Gold give a breathless, “Whoa.” He was going to agree but then he realised Gold was staring at the redhead, who would probably be pretty if not for the intense scowl and terrible vibes. It occurred to Red that they were both staring, and he quickly looked down. Whoever that green-haired person was, something about them was… warm.

“Gold. No.”

Red hadn’t even noticed Dia coming up behind them and grabbing Gold’s hood. Gold strained for a moment, eyes still on the redhead, but he stopped.

“You really can’t read the room at all,” Dia sighed.

“Let him go, I wanna see what he does,” White suggested.

Gold cried, “It’s not my fault there’s so many beautiful people in the world!”

The redhead was glaring at them.

Clavell quickly brought the two groups together, keeping a calm composed authority as he directed them through getting luggage and to a bus outside the airport. Red barely had time to take in the humid air, the stones that somehow blended seamlessly into nature despite usually being painted in bright pastels, the abundance of colourful clothing, and all the pokémon he’d only seen pictures of. This had to be the right choice, because the first wild pokémon Red saw was a pawmi. A real live pawmi! He held onto that adorable image as the bus pulled up to the school.

Sagrada Academy was impressive in photos, but overwhelming in person. Red had never been more aware of how short he was than when he had to tilt his head way, way back to see the PokéBall tower. And right when he was so impressed he might have exploded from it, they walked into the giant entrance hall, and he saw all the books. You could fit Delia’s entire house in the hall twice, and they chose to fill it with millions of books. Too lame to be imaginary.

Clavell led them further into the hall before he addressed them again. “Welcome,” he said, spreading his arms out wide, “to Sagrada Academy.”

“Woo!” Florian said.

“Woo!” Gold said back.

Nobody else joined in, but Clavell didn’t seem discouraged. “It’s been a long day for you all, so rather than tour you around the entire academy, let’s show you to your dormitories and pick up tomorrow, shall we?”

On the website, Red had read about four dormitory groups, each a reference to a treasure from an old Paldean myth. The dorms were in two of the six school buildings that jutted out from the central tower (one for Uva Academy students, one for Naranja), but Clavell didn’t direct them to any of those buildings. Instead he led them past the reception desk, to the side of a staircase, past a weirdly placed bookcase with columns in it, to an elevator hidden under the stairs. There was a card reader next to the buttons to call the lift. Clavell held up a purple swipe card for show before using it, and selecting the topmost button marked with an unfamiliar symbol. It looked sort of like a bottom-heavy spirally S. The doors opened and immediately let them in to an enormous elevator.

“Of course, as you’re all dainisa, we wanted to create a space for you to practice your magic and culture without concern.” Clavell said it so casually. “We have been operating this branch of the school for some time as a small club activity, but decided to expand and actively recruit students under the guidance of Prince Florian and Their Majesty Wallace.”

A majesty? Was that like a king or a queen? Florian’s mum or dad? But wasn’t that the name of the Hoenn region champion?

“Yeah, we thought it’s silly not to do it,” Florian said brightly, before giving them another thumbs up. “Thanks for making my dream closer to reality!”

“What is your dream?” the green-haired person asked. Their accent was so interesting. Red wanted to hear them talk more.

“Uh, going to a sick-ass magic school,” Florian replied. “Oops, sorry, Director.”

“It's fine Florian,” Clavell said, “I am down with the cheugy slang.”

The elevator stopped. They stepped out into an enormous circular room, divided into sections like a little library, a little lounge, so on, all bathed in purple light. The walls were purple glass, curved to form a dome, and in the centre of the room there was an extremely long spiral staircase.

“Oh, we’re in the PokéBall,” Black whispered.

Red could’ve figured that out himself if he weren’t too busy being stunned by everything.

“Yeah!” Florian turned to the group, grinning widely. “The Lang family had this included with the founding of the academy. It’s as old as the building itself!”

The Lang family? Nobody else seemed confused. That had to be Florian’s family, then. And everybody else had to know more about magic and dainisa or elves or whatever than Red. Dammit.

“Now, this is your common room area,” Clavell explained unnecessarily. He gestured to the central pillar. “These are stairs to your dormitories. Florian and I will now let each of you know your placements.”

Red tried to listen closely as they called out names and details, but it was pretty hard to focus. He got that a lot of them had colour names, but really, all he wanted to know was what the green-haired person was called. His eyes kept drifting their way, taking in their height and confidence stance, the ways their pale skin differed, how wild their green hair was even pulled back into a ponytail, how cool it was that no amount of staring made their gender more apparent… And then he was being told where his dorm was. He went up the stairs (which took a long time, with only tiny little windows to offer glimpses to the courtyard far below them) to the halfway point, as instructed, and stepped out into a long corridor with purple and orange doors. Tapped to each door was a piece of paper with five names on it. He quickly found:

Florian Violet Lang

Red Hanano

Natural Harmonia Gropius

Hibiki Gold Kinyou

Touya Black Touryuu

So at least he was mostly with people he’d already talked to. Staring at the unfamiliar name, he thought about the person with the messy green hair, and hoped. Then he went into the room. To his relief, there was a small tiled area with a shoe rack, pressed up against the counter of a tiny almost-kitchen. Red placed his sneakers on the rack, stepped onto the wooden floor, and opened the door immediately to his left. It was a bathroom, and thankfully, the door locked. In the mini-kitchen, there was a mini-fridge, a microwave, a sink, and a mix of purple and orange cups, plates and bowls in the cupboard. There’d been a big long dining table downstairs, so Red wasn’t sure what the purpose of this kitchen was. There was another door opposite the entrance, and next to it, a blank whiteboard. He opened the door to find a large room. The walls were a soft purple, and in each corner there were beds with… violet curtains? Red didn’t know beds could have curtains. Next to each bed was a dresser and wardrobe, and in the middle of the room there was a plush couch facing towards the very big window. In front of it was a pile of five suitcases, Red’s at the bottom, but he was much more interested in the enormous arch-shaped window. There were also beds on either side of the window, light streaming onto them, and the view was of the entrance courtyard. The pathway looked bright, even in the sunset, even from far away.

Red took a picture of the view and sent it to Aunt Delia. She’d said to call, but he didn’t feel like he could talk to her right now. She responded immediately, so he quickly said the flight was fine but he was tired. Red glanced at the bed to his right, wondering how they were assigned. As he wondered, Sally once again burst from his Ball, soon followed by Saur and Aero. He ended up with Sally’s neck around his waist, Aero perched on his shoulder, and Saur headbutting his leg once before exploring the room.

“I guess this is fine,” Red mused. He glanced over his shoulder, noticing there was one more door, between the other two beds. “Huh…”

There was a sign on the door declaring, ‘FLORIAN’S ROOM’. So Florian got his own room specially assigned? Was it because he was older, or because he was a prince? There still wasn’t any sign of anyone else.

“Should I look?”

“No,” Sally said, “let me.”

Red was about to agree when the front door opened. Sally turned, growling, but it was Gold and Black. Completely unfazed by Sally, Gold nodded approvingly at Red, “If it couldn’t be that redhead I’m glad it’s you, beautiful.”

“Thank you?”

“Ignore him, he spends all his time reading shoujo manga and listening to musicals,” Black said, eyeing Sally nervously. Red placed a hand on Sally’s head, and the brothers came further into the room.

“Those are positive traits!” Gold cried. “I’m destined to be a love expert!”

Red hadn’t ever thought about love and didn’t like shoujo manga, so he decided it was okay to stay silent.

“Mm, whatever the stars say.” Black pointed at Florian’s door. “Dia said they’d assign us a senpai in our dorm but I didn’t know what he meant.”

Before Red or Gold could say anything, Black walked over and opened the door. It wasn’t all that remarkable — another small room, this one with no windows, and the same type of curtain-y bed they had. Maybe a bigger wardrobe.

“One bathroom and five people could be a problem,” Black mused, shutting the door again.

Gold shrugged. “Oh well. Better sharing with me than White and Yellow, right, bro?”

Black raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see.”

Gold turned to Red, gesturing at Black with frustration. “Give ‘em love and what does it getcha?!”

Red didn’t understand, so he shrugged. For some reason that made Gold grin.

They walked back to the centre of the room, standing behind the couch. Red wondered what he was supposed to say, or if there was anything he should say. He wanted to be friends with the people he lived with. Maybe they were thinking the same thing.

“Red, if you want a bed by the window, that’s fine with me,” Black said.

“Huh?”

Black pointed at Saur. “For her? I’ve got a rufflet, and Gold already told you about his togepi.”

“Can I meet them,” Red blurted before the thought even properly entered his brain.

Black looked surprised, but nodded. He and Gold were looking for their PokéBalls (having to look for them! What!) when the door opened again. Florian walked in, grin in place, and behind him towered the green-haired person, just as Red had hoped.

“Hey guys!” Florian seemed entirely unphased by Sally’s growling. “As you’ve probably figured out, they decided it’d be best to put you newbies in experienced upperclassmen. My dad shilled out for a private room in the main dorms too but I’d rather be in here properly getting to know all the dainisa.”

Why was Florian telling them that?

The green-haired person (Natural Harmonia Gropius?) was staring at Sally. “Where is this salamence from?”

“His mother,” Florian answered. “Red’s the son of Champion Cynthia,” Red was about to clarify that Sally wasn’t Cynthia’s pokémon, but Florian kept bragging on his behalf: “and the cousin of Ash Ketchum.”

Natural Harmonia Gropius had extremely blue eyes that Red could only meet for a millisecond. Maybe less. Was there anything shorter than a millisecond?

“Cynthia wasn’t from Hoenn,” Natural Harmonia Gropius said.

Sally growled, “What is this shithead saying?”

Red ran his fingers along the spot where Sally’s head met his neck. “Don’t worry.”

Sally growled again, but settled.

“It seems protective,” Natural Harmonia Gropius observed, “I wonder why.”

He couldn’t do anything when my mum died protecting me, Red didn’t say.

“Um, so, anyway,” Florian said. “As you can see, we’ve got a li’l kitchenette if you desperately need snacks or water or anything, the bathroom’s next to it, that’s my room, and this is you guy’s room!” Florian gave them a thumbs up. “If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on my door. Speaking of.” He turned to the luggage pile and pulled out an extremely large, extremely purple leather bag. “I’ll be unpacking.” And with that, he went to his room.

“Cool,” Gold said, voice weirdly flat.

Black asked, “You’re, um, Natural Harmonia Gropius?”

Was that a scowl? “Call me N.”

“Wow, I didn’t think they’d put a girl in our dorm.” Gold grinned at N, nodding weirdly. “S’up?”

“For the purposes of conversation in human languages, I am a boy,” N said.

What did that mean?

Gold’s smile vanished. “Oh, shit, fuck, sorry about that! I just assumed ’cos the skirt, but that was pretty ignorant of me, huh?”

“Yes,” N replied.

“Not really,” Black said in the same moment.

Gold looked between them, unsure, and very faintly whispered, “Trans rights…?”

Black sighed and whispered back, so softly Red almost didn’t hear it, “Stop, you’re drawing attention to me.”

Red wondered if ‘trans rights’ was another thing he was supposed to know about.

N started to say, “It is ignorant because gender is —”

But Florian re-entered the room. “Oh, you guys haven’t moved at all, huh?” He went to the pile of suitcases, and took another enormous bag. He seemed to process the implications of this in the same moment as they did. “Are you all light travellers?”

Red shrugged. Gold said something about ‘being from Johto’ like that explained it instead of implying the opposite. Black mumbled something about not having many clothes. But N looked down at Florian and said, “I had thought we would be sleep outside to be among the pokémon, but I suppose, with the humanification of our society…”

Red stared. Gold hunched over, body shaking, either laughing or crying. Black repeated ‘humanification’ in complete disbelief. But being older and wiser, Florian simply asked, “What are you talking about?”

N scratched at the bracelet around his right wrist. “My… father said —”

“Does your dad not let you sleep inside?” Florian frowned. N nodded with confusion, and Florian muttered more to himself, “Should I be telling this to Clavell? Is this a police matter?”

“No,” N said, “it was a —” He looked like he was struggling to remember a word, which made it all the more concerning when he ended up at, “a joke. It was a joke. I apologise.”

Florian sighed in relief. “Okay, phew. Sorry for not laughing.”

Gold made a bizarre choking noise. Black elbowed him in the stomach, which certainly didn’t help.

“Hey, c’mon guys,” Florian said sternly, hands on his hips.

“S-sorry,” Gold said, “I liked your joke, N.”

N’s face was completely blank. Too blank. It was familiar, but Red couldn’t place it.

“Okay, well, I’m beat, so I’m gonna leave you to it for real this time and take a nap before dinner.” Florian smiled around at them in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring before leaving, closing the door behind him with a final, “Welcome to Sagrada Academy!”

The air was uncomfortable. Red didn’t know where to look.

Black calmly asked, “You don’t believe in beds, N?”

There was an explosion of laughter and Gold was hunched over, hands on his knees, slapping at Black between wheezy cackles. Black bit his bottom lip, but there was a clear twist to it, like he was trying not to smirk.

“Juvenile,” N snapped. “Some of our kind are so willfully blinded they understand nothing, and I see you are one of them.” And then for some reason, he turned to Red. “This is what happens when the most prominent of us is someone like Ash Ketchum.”

Red’s fists clenched. The laughter vanished.

“Hey, man, c’mon, he’s just standing there,” Gold said. “Get mad at us.”

“To so celebrate those who force pokémon through painful battles and mock those who strive for genuine connection,” N said, “what a sad world that is.”

Red’s eyes narrowed. “Ash loves pokémon more than anyone in the world.”

With a click of his tongue, N turned away. He stormed over to the nearest bed (to the left of Florian’s room), climbed onto it, and pulled the curtains shut.

Red had been disappointed a lot recently, but he still had room left to be disappointed by the gap between what he’d hoped N would be and what N actually was. But he found it hard to linger on when Gold lightly bumped his fist against Red’s shoulder (avoiding Aero’s feet), murmuring, “Don’t worry, man.”

“Take a bed by the window,” Black suggested again, “for your bulbasaur.”

“You’re clearly gonna need a lot more space than us for your ‘mons,” Gold laughed. He dragged a beat-up duffle bag to the bed opposite N’s, which left Black with one of the other window-side beds. “Hey, when we’ve finished unpacking, I’ll introduce you to Togebro.”

“Yes,” Black sighed, “he really named his togepi Togebro.”

Red smiled, and it wasn’t as much effort as he thought it would be. Yes, it had been an extremely long day. His mind was buzzing with so many things he wasn’t sure about. Everything was unfamiliar, he wasn’t sure of anything he used to be sure of, and he was worried about his place in all this, how he should feel about his family lying to him his entire life, whether or not school would be worth it, if Gold and Black really liked him or were just nice to everyone…

One thing was for sure — Red and N would be enemies.

Chapter Text

They were called together to have dinner in the common room, but Gold didn’t want his togepi running loose on the table, so that sucked. It was a long mahogany table covered in dishes, one side of which made Red feel extremely sick, the other side of which less so. So he sat there, Gold and the twins joined him, and horribly, so did Green Oak. There was also another green-haired boy, but Red had learned his lesson from talking to the last green-haired boy. This one was called Wally and he kept turning away to cough. Red appreciated that he covered his mouth. A lot of them were speaking in that Dainisan language and Red couldn’t focus on what they were all saying, nor was he sure he cared to know.

N sat at the opposite end of the table and kept glaring at Red.

“Wow, how’d you piss her off?” Green sneered. “Insulted her family too?”

“Her pronouns are he/him,” Gold snapped, “so mind your business.”

Black sighed. White laughed. Red shrugged, and tried to eat something.

After dinner, Gold and White wanted to go around meeting everybody, but Black said he was tired, so Red took advantage of that to go back to the room with him. Green had made some snide comments about Ash too. Red wondered if Ash had actually done anything to these people, or they just hated him for being famous. Perhaps Black was wondering the same thing, because he asked Red, “Are you and your cousin close?”

“Yeah.”

Black nodded. “He seems nice on TV.”

What was Red supposed to say back? Everyone in Pallet Town had met Ash, they didn’t need Red to tell them anything about him. Should Red say something about Black’s family? But obviously Black got along with his siblings, so what was he supposed to ask?

“We moved to Johto from Unova to be closer to Gold’s cousins,” Black said, “but I like them better than he does.”

Was it rude to ask why they were Gold’s cousins, not both of their cousins? Red was about to ask anyway but they made it back to their dorm, and Gold’s togepi was staring down Sally.

“You think you’re so tough, heh,” Togebro sneered, “but just you wait.”

“Infant,” Sally growled, “one bite is all I’d need.”

“Sally.”

Sally looked over at Red for a moment before turning back to Togebro. “This isn’t over.”

“Yes, it is,” Red groaned. “Don’t pick fights.”

“Pick fights,” Saur ordered, “amuse me.”

“I fight not for your amusement, other infant.”

Red quickly went to Sally’s side, offering his fingers for him to nibble on. “Did Mum raise you to be this weird?”

It wasn’t the first time he’d asked, and it wasn’t the first time Sally had replied, “We were raised alongside one another as beings of myth.”

Why say so many words when you can just say yes?

“Um.” Black sounded nervous. “Is your salamence okay?”

Red had forgotten he was there. “Yes.”

Black’s eyes were still very wide.

“He likes showing off,” Red explained, ignoring Sally’s protest. “And I guess Togebro must too.”

Togebro turned away. “Hmph, no, I’m kickin’ asses.”

Red replied, “You can’t say that when your voice is so high pitched.”

Togebro stared at him. “The fuck’d you say to me?”

Sally growled.

“It’s fine,” Red told him. “You’re gonna have to get used to this.”

Sally grumbled sulkily.

The wideness of Black’s eyes had only gotten worse. “You can talk to them?”

Red frowned. “Gold said, your sister…”

Black shook his head. “Not like that. Not that much.”

“Oh….”

Was Red doomed to be weird just by existing? Is that what being the so-called ‘Sun’ meant?

“It’s amazing!” Black scooped up Togebro (who fruitlessly struggled). “Maybe this is what Yellow’ll be able to do after she spends more time with pokémon?”

“Yes.” Red was relieved with the out. “Exactly.” And surely it would be fine to steer the topic by asking, “How old is Yellow?”

“Just a year younger than me, White and Gold.” Before Red could ask, Black explained, “Gold and Yellow are adopted.”

“Oh.” Red ran his hand along Sally’s neck, focusing on him so he didn’t have to focus on Black. “Is your mum nice?”

“I guess? Mum’s just… Mum,” Black said, sounding confused. Red didn’t know why it was the wrong thing to ask, but it clearly had been.

Red decided to finish unpacking so he didn’t have to continue the awkward conversation. He’d barely done anything because Gold couldn’t wait to introduce him to Togebro. The wardrobe already had two summer uniforms hanging up, one in purple, one in orange. He arranged his clothes around them, trying not to think too hard about how little he understood. Which was only worse when he saw the stupid purple book with his stupid birthmark on the cover. He shoved it in the bottom drawer of his bedside table and kicked it shut.

“I’m gonna go to bed.” It was probably right to announce that when he was sharing a room with people, right?

“Sure,” Black replied, “night.”

This was going to take some getting used to.

When Red woke up, the sun was rising. He opened his bed curtains near the window, letting the sunlight break through until he was staring at the symbol on his wrist, wondering. Was this why he always woke up so early? Some stupid sun magic thing?

He covered the symbol with a sweatband and got dressed. They wouldn’t have classes for three more days; apparently Clavell was going to explain more about the school? Or were they resting today? Either way, judging from the snores, nobody else was waking up any time soon. Red pulled out Sycamore’s book and tried to read the first page.

The field of pokéology has long struggled with an existentially fundamental question: Why do some beings exhibit power and abilities that others do not? Further, what is the nature of these powers and abilities? Where do they originate? While research into this topic is vast, there is yet to be a unifying theory emergent among researchers. When finding a quantitative approach to the analyses of phenomena exhibited by those beings we know as ‘Pokémon’, it is imperative to consider the limitations imposed through the process of categorisation.

….

Red opened to a random page further in the book.

The manner in which power can be channelled and shared through the material or corporeal body remains less clear than to be channelled through a non-corporeal body, however there are noteworthy similarities that could be compared to the process through which energy is channelled and transferred during the process of Mega Evolution.

Okay, so, he could sort of understand some of it. Red found a chapter titled ‘A Dialectical Analysis of the Transformative Solar Mythology of the Dainisa’ and did his best to read it.

From what Red could figure out, it seemed that an old Dainisan (Elvish?) story about why solar eclipses happened. The Sun (Minaci?) was the magical giver of light, which was magic and also life, and when the Moon killed the Sun to steal their light (because the moon has no light of its own, only what it reflects from the sun, Red knew that from Grade 1 science), light left the world. The Moon was evil or something and created false light that led people astray and their name was Kuzmik. Or was Kuzmik just the word for Moon in that language the others all seemed to speak? Did Kuzmik also have a stupid birthmark? Or was all of it made up because it sounded dumb? And why had his family lied to him his entire life so Red didn’t know any of this?

He shoved the book back in the drawer and decided to watch the courtyard until his pokémon woke up. There was a girl in orange shorts running around with a pawmot. The pawmot was so obviously fluffy, even from hundreds of metres above them. Soon another girl joined them, with an enormous red lizard pokémon that had wings. Red tried looking it up on his phone but he couldn’t find anything except confused forum posts describing the same pokémon. When he peered down at them again, the strange pokémon had the pawmot on its back and the two girls were holding hands while walking. Weird. Why would you have a pawmot and hold hands with a person instead?

N woke up next. Red looked over at him, but he was fully ignored and N left the room. Fine, Red didn’t want to share a dorm with him anymore anyway.

Eventually the others woke up, and they went down to breakfast with Florian talking about how cool it was gonna be to show them around the school later. Annoyingly, Green sat near him again. This time he brought with him a girl in a black dress with really pretty long brown hair.

“Why don’t you change your name to Shironanten? Like Cynthia’s?” Green asked. “So people know?”

Red stared.

Gold leaned in front of Red. “Dude, why are you so obsessed with his name?”

“So he can marry him, obviously,” the girl said.

Green started shouting in that Dainisan language. Red concentrated for long enough to realise his was shouting insults and swear words and about his father hearing of this. Green’s face was so pink it was almost glowing. Very funny. The girl fully ignored him, instead offering her hand to Red.

“I’m Blue,” she said. “I hear you’re Red Hanano, Cynthia’s son and Ash Ketchum’s beloved cousin.”

Is the colour thing a dainisa thing, Red didn’t ask. He did nod and awkwardly shake Blue’s hand.

“Well, I can see the family resemblence,” Blue said, batting her eyelashes, “you’re almost as pretty as I am.”

Gold shouted, “You wish you were prettier than my bro!”

Blue laughed, loud and haughty. “Oh, you’re gonna be my rival in heartbreaking, huh Red?”

We’re eleven, Red didn’t say.

“We’re eleven,” Black did say.

Blue giggled. “I’m just playing.”

Fuming, Gold said, “Love’s not a game!”

“You’re being so weird,” Black informed Gold, “just chill.”

Florian suddenly said, “If you’re done, let’s go.” He stood up, looking around, before calling, “Hey N! Let’s go!”

N popped out from behind a bookcase, carrying a thick hardcover book. When Red tried to see the title, N hissed at him, and clutched it tighter to his chest.

“…alright.” Florian gave them an awkward thumbs up. “We’re gonna do a quick tour of the school before things get too crowded! I do draw a lot of attention, you know.”

After exchanging incredulous looks with Black (who it seemed was the reliable person for that type of thing), Red followed Florian through the school. There weren’t a lot of students around, but the ones who were there were mostly adults. It was weird seeing so many adults wearing school uniforms, especially school uniform shorts, and they kept staring at him. Red knew he looked a lot like Cynthia but they didn’t have the same hair or eye colour, and he wasn’t tall like her, and it’d been seven years since she died, so why would did people keep looking at him and seeing her? At least nobody approached him, and the teachers only really reacted when Florian deliberately introduced him as ‘Cynthia’s son and Ash Ketchum’s cousin’. Most said something about how amazing Ash or Cynthia were, but were restrained enough that Sally didn’t even burst out of his Ball. Then the art teacher, Hassel, gushed excitedly about Mimey and offered Red a copy of the portrait he’d painted for Aunt Delia. As Red wondered how to decline, Florian laughed and said, “You’ll need it to inspire this year’s classes!”

“Oh, you’re right,” Hassel gasped. Tearfully, he apologised to Red, and gushed about how important art is, and Red nodded along like he was listening, and was glad when Sally did growl at Hassel… Until Hassel got emotional about that and wanted to paint Sally too.

“Why does the pitiful being not cower,” Sally growled.

“I dunno,” Red replied.

“Such a beautifully maternal pokémon,” Hassel sobbed, and Red was glad to be led away.

The school was really big and overwhelming. Obviously Red had known it was big, but now he was wondering how he was going to get everywhere in time. Unlike schools in Kanto, he’d have to go to classrooms, instead of the teachers coming to his classroom. Apparently there were short breaks between classes to give them time, but was five minutes really long enough to get from one side of the school to the other?

Florian showed them inside some rooms but not others, and led them into fewer after Hassel’s outburst. But outside the Home Economics kitchen, Florian peered in through the porthole window, grinned, and said, “This one’ll be worth it!”

Inside looked a lot like the kitchen at Aunt Delia’s restaurant, and Red wasn’t at all interested until he saw the enormous dog pokémon walking towards them. Its was brown with a long white stripe from the top of its head to the tip of its tail, and its head was so big and fluffy and it had jowls and bright friendly orange eyes and such a deep bark and there was a teenager sitting at the table behind the dog who called it, “Mabosstiff, buddy what’s —”

Mabosstiff was such a good name for a big dog.

“Oh hey Florian!” the teenager said.

“Bwoof,” Mabosstiff said, pressing its big head against Florian’s hand.

“Hey, good to see you’re doing great, Mabosstiff!” Florian started patting Mabosstiff. The lucky bastard. “Arven, this —”

There are a flash of light and a purple lizard pokémon appeared. Red had never seen anything like it. It looked metal and electric, but moved so much more fluidly than Clemont’s Magnezone or Brock’s Steelix. It sniffed Mabosstiff and said, “Agias?”

“Oh great,” the teenager said with a heavy sigh, “the sandwich thief is still loose.”

“Miraidon is a good boy, he can do whatever he wants forever,” Florian said fondly.

Miraidon and Mabosstiff started sniffing Red at the same time. He held his hands out flat to them, and Mabosstiff nuzzled against him with a soft bark, and he thought he might die from happiness. Then Miraidon rubbed against his other hand and he was sure of it. Sally burst out too, but stood behind Red, muttering about ‘lack of threat’, before disappearing back into his Ball. Really odd for Sally, but Red tried to focus on Mabosstiff’s soft fur, and Miraidon’s weird warm metal ‘skin’…

“Whoa, dude, pokémon really love you,” Gold said.

“No, he was simply closest,” N said.

Florian laughed. “Don't be jelly, Miraidon loves everyone.”

“Agias,” Miraidon said again.

“Do you talk?” Red asked. A lot of mechanical pokémon communicated through electricity, but Miraidon had a mouth, and was making noises…

Miraidon cocked his head to the side, and leapt across the room to eat the sandwich on Arven’s plate.

“HEY!” Arven shrieked. “Get out, that’s not for you!”

Rather than be mortified, Florian just laughed. He must’ve seen the looks on their faces, because he quickly explained, “Miraidon and Arven grew up together. I’m just his Trainer.”

N said, “Pokémon should be free to live as they please.”

Everybody was learning fast to ignore N. But Arven, midway through trying to wrestle a sandwich from Miraidon’s mouth, stared at N and snapped, “He’s not free to take the food from my mouth!”

Arven was a weird looking guy, and he looked weirder with his teeth exposed in anger. His hair was really long and streaked, and he was wearing a bright yellow puffer vest, and he had really bizarrely long eyelashes. He was also the same height as N, but that could mean anything. Honestly, looking at him closer, Red couldn’t tell if he was a teenager or Ash’s age. And Florian seemed like the kind of person to casually call an adult his friend.

“Bwoof,” Mabosstiff said again, and Red scratched under his chin then along where he was holding his front left leg at an awkward angle. “Thank you.”

“That’s okay,” Red replied.

"My muscles are still stiff sometimes.”

Red looked along Mabosstiff’s side. “What happened?”

As was often the case, Mabosstiff just took it in stride that Red was talking to him. “I was injured but now I’m fine.”

“Do you need anything to help?”

"My best buddy has done everything that can be done,” Mabosstiff said, looking at Arven, “but thanks all the same.”

Red glanced at Arven too, and that was when he realised everybody else had kept talking to each other and Arven was staring at him, flabbergasted.

“Um…” Red looked back at Mabosstiff to avoid eye contact with people. “His leg was sore.”

“His leg…?” Arven was suddenly shoving Red back, cradling Mabosstiff’s paw. “Buddy! Tell me these things! Scarlet found more Salty Herba Mystica, I’ll make you a sandwich right now!” And Arven was dashing off to the kitchen.

“Ah, Arven’s a bit protective,” Florian said airily, helping Red to his feet. “Did Ash tell you anything about him?”

Red shook his head.

“That’s good, I guess, it's private.” Florian did seem upset for some reason.

Gold asked, “Hey Arven, you speak to pokémon too?”

“No, I don’t need to,” Arven replied. He was cutting up ingredients so fast it could even impress Aunt Delia.

Red could feel N’s freaky eyes on him. He glared up at him.

“Why do you speak to pokémon,” N demanded.

Red shrugged.

“My little sister speaks to pokémon,” Black said, “do you wanna pick a fight with her too?”

“Guys, chill out,” Florian sighed. “Bad vibes ruin sandwiches.”

In the time N was being a weird jerk, Arven had made an entire platter of sandwiches. One was set aside and cut in half, with Arven holding one half out to Mabosstiff, and the other to Miraidon. Both seemed to inhale their sandwiches in one bite. Mabosstiff barked in approval, and Miraidon nuzzled Arven.

“You shouldn’t feed pokémon that,” N muttered under his breath, “but I suppose I should be happy they are being fed at all.”

Seriously, what was wrong with N?

“I made enough for everyone because I’m not a monster,” Arven said, “but with these two gluttons…”

“I still have to take them to the club rooms, let’s eat them there,” Florian suggested.

Gold perked. “Clubs? There’s clubs at this school?”

Arven covered the sandwiches with a cloth and picked up the platter. “Of course.”

“And I founded the best one,” Florian declared, “the paranormal investigation society.”

Red looked at Black, who looked back just as sceptically.

“Yeah, sounds cool.” Gold had never sounded so bored in the entire day Red had known him. They started following Arven and Florian out of the kitchen. “So like, what kinds of clubs?”

“All kinds,” Florian replied. “Battling, calligraphy, drama, flower arranging, soccer… If you’re into that kind of thing.”

“Florian’s sister is the captain of the soccer team,” Arven said.

“She’s not my sister, we just have the same dad,” Florian ‘explained’. Red was pleased that, at least, was equally confusing to the others, and had Arven doubling down:

“If you have the same dad, you’re brother and sister,” he sighed. “It doesn’t matter what ‘royal protocol’ says.”

Florian sighed, “It shouldn’t, but it does, and — She’s cool with it, okay?”

They followed them down yet another set of stairs to a floor with a variety of colourful doors, each labelled with a themed sign.

“So like, not all the clubs operate out of these rooms,” Florian explained, “you can’t play soccer in an old classroom. But they have a room for meetings.”

Red had never thought about joining a club before, but Gold was peering at each door with extreme interest.

“So, okay,” Gold said, “What if I wanna break a vase and live my Ouran High experience?”

Florian laughed. But Arven responded like it was a serious statement:

“Even if we had a club like that, they wouldn’t let a child in.”

Gold spluttered, “It’s a learning experience, for future reference, and others! As a Venus Guided —”

Black covered Gold’s mouth, sighing heavily.

“Just enjoy being a kid while you can,” Arven said, confirming he had to be super old, like thirty.

“And if you are actually Venus Guided, maybe don’t brag about that,” Florian suggested.

Arven snorted. “You’re the last person who should be telling other dainisa not to brag, buddy.”

Florian laughed and shrugged.

So the others knew what Gold meant by ‘Venus Guided’? Red had thought (or maybe hoped) it was a reference to some anime he hadn’t watched. He glanced at Black, who did seem judgemental but also kind of nice, and wondered about asking quietly, when Florian excitedly declared, “This is it!” and threw open a door. It was also purple. Florian seemed to really lean in on his middle name.

Inside looked like a completely normal classroom, but the books on the walls had all kinds of weird titles about ‘cryptozoology’ and mythology. There were pictures pinned around, some of weird scenery (like an otherwise sky with a weird dark section that looked almost like a tear), but a lot of weird creatures. On the chalkboard was pinned a giant poster of one such creature, like a midnight lycanroc but blue and striped and wearing jeans. It was so viscerally upsetting Red didn’t notice the girl until it was too late.

“¡Buenas! Florian, Arven, newbies!” The girl was wearing the orange uniform, her skin was tanned, and her dark hair was mostly pulled into a ponytail except for some green streaks. “I knew if I waited here I’d get to meet you sooner!”

“N-N-Nemona.” Florian went bright pink as she hugged him and kissed his cheeks. He stayed slack-jawed and wide-eyed even as Nemona did the same to Arven.

“Ohhh,” Gold gasped.

When Nemona pulled away, for some reason, Arven started staring at his watch.

“It’s so exciting to meet you all! I’m Nemona, I’m the student council president but I hang out with Florian’s weird club when I’m not too busy, and I’m sixteen like Arven but we’re in different homerooms.” She gestured at the orange parts of her uniform and the purple parts of Arven’s. “Any of you wanna battle?!”

N made a disgusted noise. But maybe nobody noticed, because at the same time, Arven looked up. "That took almost a full minute.”

Nemona nudged him. “How about Mabosstiff? He was loving it this summer!” Nemona’s eyes fell on Red, and she gasped. “Oh! Ash’s cousin, right?!” She was suddenly in Red’s face. “Ash was so cool! He wiped the floor with me but he showed me that Z-Move he and Pikachu do and it was amazing, I never thought I’d get to experience a Z-Move in real life, do you know how to do those?”

“Um… no, I —”

“That’s okay! He said it took forever to learn in Alola, so I’ve been thinking, what if I did a school trip to Alola? Oh but I wouldn’t wanna leave Scarlet behind, have you met Scarlet yet?”

Red shook his head.

“She’s the only one who loves battles as much as me, except maybe your cousin, and she’s my neighbour and also my girlfriend! Isn’t she the coolest?”

“Nemona, chill.” Arven pulled her back, and shoved a sandwich into her hands. “You’re gonna scare the kids.”

“Ah, I’m sorry! I’m just totally battle-crazy!”

N asked, “Are your pokémon equally as ‘battle-crazy’?”

Red rolled his eyes. But Nemona actually thought about it before cheerfully declaring, “Yep! They love it!”

“So you assume, but can you hear their voices?”

“Well, yeah, my hearing’s really good,” Nemona replied with a warm smile and a laugh.

Holy shit, she really was just like Ash.

“Hey, N, if you’re that worried about it we can always get Red to ask them,” Florian suggested. “I know that where you’re from —”

“No.” N shoved past Florian and head to the door. “I have reading to do anyway.” And just like that, he was gone.

“Wow,” Arven said, “what’s her problem?”

“His,” they all corrected on instinct.

“N’s a little weird,” Florian understated. “I asked Director Clavell earlier and he said N’s dad is a pokémon rights activist who wants to change the laws around battles.”

“That is weird,” Arven agreed, “but why’s Clavell —?”

“It’s a whole story, about ways people in Unova misused pokémon in the fight against Team Rocket, especially that Alder guy.” Florian waved a hand dismissively. “Just give N some time to warm up to us, I’m sure he’ll tell us all about it.”

But if N hated Team Rocket so much, why was he mad at Red’s mothers, who had died taking out Giovanni? And Ash, who’d spent the past seven years tracking down the remaining branches of Team Rocket all over the world? Maybe the others all knew that too. They were looking at Red strangely again. Except Nemona, who was eating her sandwich with an unphased smile. Red turned to stare at the poster of the weird lycanroc wearing jeans.

“Oh, are you interested in cryptids?” Florian asked excitedly.

“What’s that, senpai?” Gold asked.

Arven sighed.

“Cryptozoological creatures, like legendary or mythical pokémon, but ones that haven’t been proven for sure to exist,” Florian replied. “Miraidon and Koraidon are cryptids.”

“They’re not, my parents have a lot of peer-reviewed articles about them,” Arven muttered.

Florian ignored him. “That cryptid is called WereGarurumon.” He smiled fondly at the image, like a weird pokémon in punk jeans wasn’t upsetting. “Some people say they’ve seen it when playing VR.”

Red frowned. “Can’t people make their body look like whatever they want in VR?”

“Yeah but it’s definitely different.” Florian didn’t explain how. “I’m gonna meet it someday, in the digital world.”

It sounded like Florian should’ve met Goh, not Ash.

“Is this what you do in your club?” Gold asked. “Study digital monsters?”

“Sometimes!” Florian grinned widely. “But I’m super interested in all mythology and folklore. Y’know, like the Celestica myths in Sinnoh and the Draconid Lorekeepers in Hoenn, and obviously Minaci and all that.”

Was Red the living embodiment of what Florian started a club to study? Not that it mattered, when Red didn’t know anything about his mothers heritage or being Minaci or whatever. Sally did, though — He appeared at the mention of Lorekeepers and growled suspiciously. Florian was too busy ranting to notice.

“Except,” Florian continued, “at the moment I’m most interested in the Heroes of Kitakami and I haven’t been able to find much about them at all except this one kid’s blog about the Ogre they fought and I’m trying to convince Clavell to let me go to the Festival of Masks next month.”

“Do not get him started about Kitakami,” Arven advised. “And anyway, I thought we had something else the club needed to focus on? In Area Zero? Re-mem-ber?”

“I was training for that all summer,” Nemona said, “and Scarlet too.”

“And me, but let’s talk about that later.” Florian didn’t even hide what he meant; he literally gestures from Red, to Gold, to Black.

“Aw, thanks senpai squad,” Gold cooed, “I don’t wanna go into a pit anyway.”

“It’s more like a caldera,” Arven muttered. “Ah, forget that! Come eat these sandwiches already!”

They sat at the desks and Arven passed around the platter. Red tried to assess them without looking at them, but it was hard.

“Um,” he eventually said, “I’m a vegetarian, so —”

“I didn’t make them with meat.”

“Okay, thanks…”

Arven was really blunt. Red wasn’t sure if he’d done anything wrong. He was quickly distracted by Nemona cooing at Sally, who had absolutely no issue with this. Probably because Nemona was commenting on how tough he looked.

“Can we battle sometime, Red?” Nemona pleaded.

“Um… Sally’s not really mine… so… if he wants…”

“What do you mean, he’s not yours?” Arven asked.

“He’s my mum’s.”

“Oh, like how I got stuck with Miraidon and Koraidon instead of my mum and dad,” Arven muttered. He took a very aggressive bite of his sandwich.

“Should we do an orphan show-of-hands,” Gold wondered.

“Dude,” Black groaned.

“I’m not an orphan, they’re alive, they’re just not around.”

Red kind of preferred how flippant Gold was about it to how angry Arven was. Maybe he’d be angry too, if his parents had disappeared on him instead of just dying. Red couldn’t really wonder if they’d loved him when they died for him.

“Hey Nemona,” Florian said, clearly trying to change the subject, “d’ya wanna battle me later?”

“Sure!” she chirped. “But it’s time for me to run right now, I gotta find Scarlet, nice meeting you all, especially you Sally, thanks for the sandwich Arven, bye!”

Nemona patted Sally on the head one last time before bolting from the room.

“Buddy,” Arven said, eyes on Florian, “let it go.”

“I have,” he insisted, but his cheeks were pink again.

“Senpai, you shouldn’t be in love with your sister’s girlfriend,” Gold said. “That’s what got Scar to kill Mufasa.”

Black sighed, “Didn’t he just wanna be king?”

“Yeah but in the stage musical —”

“Do not talk to me about musicals.” Black seemed to remember the others were there. “And don’t be rude to Florian-senpai, he’s already gonna be king.”

Gold nodded sagely. “Like Simba.”

“And I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Florian was a really bad liar. “I don’t like Nemona like that anymore —” (Arven looked sceptical) “— and I’ve never seen The Pyroar King. Or any Disney movie.”

“You’ve never seen any Disney movies?!” Gold cried. “Senpai! This is an outrage! What do they teach you at prince school!”

“Just a lot of really annoying protocol.” Florian sighed. “They don’t even teach us magic.”

“That’s so wild.” Gold shook his head. “Not even Tangled? Rapunzel’s a magic princess!”

Florian recited, “The Disney depiction of Rapunzel is a problematic human appropriation of our sacred myth of Minaci.”

“…what?”

“She’s got Solar magic but she’s human-coded.”

Black and Gold exchanged looks, and started laughing. Florian joined in.

“That’s so stupid,” Black said.

“I know, so much of what they say is stupid,” Florian agreed. “Like we’re the only ones allowed to have stories about the Sun?”

Red’s heart was racing. It was an important opportunity, and he knew he might look stupid, but, this was a small group of people. Black and Arven were judgemental no matter what, but Gold and Florian would probably just explain it to him. He fought against his hesitation and asked, “Um. What’s that, Minaci? That you mentioned before?”

To his relief, Arven said, “Ash asked the same thing.”

A weight he didn’t realise he’d been carrying lifted from Red’s shoulders. “I get that it’s, the sun, but I don’t know…”

“It’s cool Red, this is my zone,” Florian declared. He pulled a pair of glasses from his shorts and put them on. There were no lenses in them, not even fake ones. Nobody commented on it. Maybe Black and Arven weren’t as judgemental as he’d thought.

“I don’t really know what the royal families say,” Black said, “mostly we just know —”

Gold pressed his wrists together and splayed his hands cradling his face. “Me! Venus Guided champion of luck and love.”

“You forgot deception,” Florian said. “Venus is a trickster who used her powers of deception to protect Minaci.”

Gold just kept grinning. “But I don’t lie, I’m like a pure-hearted male-maiden.”

Black rolled his eyes.

Florian was looking at Gold in a strange way. “I’m not gonna get distracted yet,” he decided, and turned back to Red. “So there’s a few versions of the myth depending on where it’s being told and for what purpose, but the basics are: a being from the Divine World created our world but she couldn’t create any life here. She just made like, the land and sea and sky, and space and time, all that stuff. Sometimes that’s Mina, a humanoid goddess, or sometimes that’s Arceus. You know about Arceus?”

Red nodded. “Ash met it.”

“Of course he did,” Arven muttered, but not in a bitter way.

“Minaci, the Sun, is either Mina’s child or a person blessed by Arceus from the same Divine World as Arceus. And they have Solar magic, which is everything to do with life and light.” Florian started listing on his fingers. “Healing, growing plants, sometimes even necromancy, and always, giving magic to others.”

None of that seemed to have anything to do with talking to pokémon. So maybe Aunt Delia was wrong.

“So Minaci gave life to the first pokémon and the first dainisa. Oh, I think Mina made their bodies but couldn’t give them life.”

“That’s the way I heard it,” Black agreed.

“And after all that, Mina or Arceus, the Creator, went back to the Divine World, but Minaci wanted to stay. So their closest friends,” Florian gestured to Gold, “including Venus, followed them.”

“It’s a mythologised explanation of the ecliptic, the orbital plane of planets,” Arven said, sounding frustrated. “It looks like all the planets follow the same line across the sky as the sun.”

Red hadn’t known that was a thing either. He’d take Arven’s word for it, he seemed to have scientific opinions to go with his scientist parents.

“Arven, it’s about to get dramatic, it’s not science time,” Florian complained. He repeated, “Minaci’s closest friends followed them to our world and so did,” he pushed his glasses up like an anime character but there were no lenses to flash, “their worst enemy, Kuzmik. The Moon.”

“Oh,” Red said. Would this match what he’d understood from that French guy’s book?

“Kuzmik was obsessed with Minaci because they had no magic of their own, and Minaci had so much. Minaci used to share it with Kuzmik.”

Arven unnecessarily added, “Moonlight is a reflection of sunlight.”

“But, it was never enough for Kuzmik, who always wanted more light, more magic. He travelled the world leading people and pokémon astray with his false light, and stealing their magic too. The ones who gave over their magic became humans, and Normal Types.”

“Normal Types really catching a stray,” Arven said, “like Hyper Beam doesn’t exist.”

Florian gestured again for Arven to shut up. “Kuzmik wanted to take Minaci’s magic too and tracked them down and killed them for it. But all that happened was the light left the world. Until Minaci’s friends, the Cejzu, the Protectors, combined their powers to make sure Minaci’s light would always return to their world.”

“I prefer Planetary Protectors, it sounds more epic,” Gold said. “I’ll also accept Sailor Scouts.”

“That is also forbidden media for portraying the moon positively,” Florian said, “but Scarlet smuggled me a hard-drive with it all and it slapped.”

“Right?!” Gold cried. “I’m gonna be the second best Sailor Venus ever after Aino Minako, that’s my life goal.”

“So, yeah, that’s basically it.” Florian took off his glasses. “The Sun and their friends get reincarnated over and over and so does the Moon.”

“And it’s a myth to explain the solar eclipse,” Arven added.

“And it’s a myth to explain the solar eclipse and why we have magic and humans don’t,” Florian agreed. “Some people think the Sun is meant to bring about a golden age for dainisa but they’re weird people like my dad. It’s just a dainisa with a lot of healing and nature magic.”

Red processed everything he had just heard, and asked Florian, “Does that mean we’re not supposed to use Normal Type pokémon?”

“Oh, yeah. There’s some exceptions though, like eevee are good and clefairy are evil. Or I guess, any pokémon that evolve with a Moon Stone.” Florian rolled his eyes. “My dad freaked out when he saw me playing with a lechonk.”

“I guess it didn’t help that Giovanni was always with that persian, huh,” Arven mused.

Florian snorted. “I think he’d kill me if he ever saw me with a meowth.”

Red knew he should probably ask about Giovanni, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He had enough to think about already without adding his parents’ murderer to the mix. He glanced around the room, and his eyes fell on a book about the Draconids.

“Maybe I’ll join your club,” he said, without realising he’d even been thinking it.

“Red!” Florian gasped. “I would love that! And then we can both find the Digital World and meet WereGarurumon!”

“….or maybe not.”

Over the next few days, Red got used to sharing. He’d never really had to think about it before. Ash or his friends would stay with them sometimes, but never for long. It wasn’t hard to get used to though. Like it was pretty obvious that he couldn’t take as long as he wanted in the bath anymore, or that he had to ask Aero to keep it down in the mornings and Sally not to growl at people so much, or that he couldn’t expect everyone else to get up at sunrise too. It wasn’t rocket science. He just had to take time to think about if his actions impacted other people. Luckily he was a quiet, boring person. Red took to spending the mornings reading the book Oak had given him, or texting Aunt Delia reluctant updates, hidden behind the heavy curtains of his bed.

Of course, N was annoying. He did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Twice, Red and Gold had to work together to physically restrain N to keep him from walking in on Black in the bathroom, something Gold was particularly hysterical about. If N couldn’t sleep he’d have no hesitation walking around making as much noise as he wanted or turning lights on. If they complained to him about it, he’d tell them to stop oppressing him. If they got Florian to tell him off, N would imply bad things about the Lang family to mixed reactions, and one memorable time, N said, “Wallace is a false king who failed us all as a species.”

Florian actually scowled. “Wallace is the reason we’re still alive!”

“He covered up our existence yet again so that we could continue to be subservient to the humans,” N said, “and Minaci will not be kind to him.”

N actually threatened Minaci’s wrath a lot. It was really weird. Obviously Red didn’t want to be the Sun, but if he was, it was weird seeing his enemy using him as a threat. And it sounded like N was just using the name ‘Minaci’ to avoid admitting he was the one pissed off. Plus, if Red was the Sun, then N would surely be the evil Moon who ruined his life.

Eventually, the day before classes started, Director Clavell came to their dorm room. He was accompanied by a pale girl with blue and red hair and the best eevee backpack Red had ever seen, genuinely, almost as cute as a real eevee (not that he’d ever had the luck to meet one), he would ask her where to get one if it weren’t so girly.

“Students, this is Penny,” Clavell said.

“Hi…” Her voice was very soft.

“Penny’s the head of Team Star, an organisation that supports students struggling to adapt to our school,” Clavell explained. “N, your father thought it would be a good idea for us all to have a chat.”

N stared at Clavell. “Ghetsis is here?”

“No, no, you, me and Penny,” Clavell replied, “he just wanted me to let you know he supports Team Star.”

With an irritated huff, N left the room, and was quickly followed by Clavell.

“N-nice to meet you,” Penny said, “say hi to Florian for me…” And she dashed after Clavell.

When they passed on the message, Florian confirmed that Penny was the leader of an organisation called Team Star.

“Now they’re like a support group for troubled students who aren’t adjusting to school well,” Florian explained. “They were a bunch of students who were bullied so bad they stopped going to school, but this is a boarding school, so, they made these bases they could stay in. And I guess they still use them as clubhouses?”

“Maybe it would be better if N stays in one of those,” Gold muttered.

Florian shrugged. “I hope I don’t miss N versus Ortega. Rich kid versus activist.”

Whatever the conversation was, N came back very quiet, and stayed quiet through the first day of classes. The unease of N’s weird behaviour only made it harder to fall asleep that night, and Red was already worrying about everything that could go wrong in class…

He dreamt about standing outside a school gate, not wanting to go in. He’d transferred from a cosy public school down the street to this huge academy on the other side of Saffron City because apparently being at a school with his friends was wasting his potential. He stared at the patchy grass around the gate, watching as it grew to fill in the gaps, to avoid thinking about how Selene was going to be alone at their old school now —

Red woke up confused. He’d never even been to Saffron City. And he didn’t know any Selenes. Or how to make grass grow. The images faded quickly as he scrambled out of bed to get ready for class.

It turned out class at Sagrada Academy wasn’t too different. School was school. Unlike his school in Pallet Town, they didn’t have assigned seats, which meant Red got to sit with Black, White and Gold. That girl Blue sat near them too, and so did her red-headed friend, the one who made Gold act even weirder. From role-call, Red learnt that was Silver Rossi, and if he hadn’t learnt it from that, he’d’ve learnt it from Gold repeating the name under his breath with reverence. And when they moved to different classrooms, everyone sat in pretty much the same places. Their teachers mostly talked about what they’d learn that semester, the classes were all things like Maths, Science, History, all that boring stuff, but they had two classes Red was really excited about: One focused on environmental studies (basically pokémon and nature), the other on battles. And even better: N wasn’t in their battle classes.

They had magic classes too, down in the common room, but they were much less structured. To Red’s relief, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t really know the language or culture, and it seemed like most of them couldn’t really do magic. He pieced this together from watching people — a blue-haired girl called Crystal who could sort of make water move around in a cup, and that Silver guy managing to half-freeze it, or Black and White being able to make candles burn brighter — that it was just little things they could do that were hard to see much benefit to. Florian said he had telekinesis, and people clapped and gasped at him managing to move something about a foot. This had to be what Aunt Delia had meant about most people not being able to do much magic. But surely they all just needed to learn?

“You’re all pretty young, don’t worry about it too much,” Arven advised. “They’re gonna get guest teachers in eventually.”

It ended up suiting Red fine. Gold couldn’t read the Dainisan language either, so they and a few others got tutored by Florian. (“We have to make sure that jerk Green Oak doesn’t find out there’s something I can’t read,” Gold whispered, and Red agreed.) He also explained some things about the language that Red tried to internalise, but it was hard when all he had to do was think about it consciously and he’d understand the language. He couldn’t speak it back though.

If they weren’t learning about the language, they were being led on a guided meditation that Red didn’t understand. It was something about closing their eyes and feeling their ‘inner light’. They did it every other day and he just didn’t get it. He understood ‘light’ was basically interchangeable with ‘magic’ to dainisa, but he didn’t know what magic felt like.

After about a week, Red started feeling comfortable with the routine, and nobody seemed to realise how little he actually knew. There also hadn’t been further comments on how easily he spoke to pokémon. Their classes about pokémon were still the highlight of his life, especially when their teacher (a really happy woman about Ash’s age named Dendra) decided it was time for them to start having battles.

“This is always the highlight of first year for me too,” Dendra said, “let’s head to the yard!”

The schoolyard was under the PokéBall Dome, an enormous field of grass lined with trees, a running track, and in the middle, two battle arenas. Waiting for them there were two upperclassmen in orange shorts. Red immediately recognised Nemona, and the short girl next to her looked just like… Florian in pigtails.

“Red, hola!” Nemona beckoned him over. “You’ve met Scarlet, right?”

Red shook his head. Up close, he could see the differences in their nose and eye shapes (and Scarlet’s orange eyes), but both Florian and Scarlet had dark brown hair, faint tans, and freckles. However, Scarlet didn’t react much at the sight of them. It was weird to be able to imagine what Florian might look like without emotions.

“But it’s pretty obvious it’s you,” Gold supplied from behind him. “You and Florian are twins or something, right?”

“I’m two years older than him,” Scarlet replied, “and I’m not a Lang. I’m a Koito.”

“Juliana Scarlet Koito,” Nemona sang, and giggled when she was elbowed. “Sorry, Scar.”

Scarlet’s face hadn’t changed at all in the exchange. It was honestly inspiring.

“We’re gonna help Ms Dendra out with this class,” Nemona explained, “since we’re both Champion-Ranked Trainers.”

Red blinked. “You are?”

“Uh-huh! I wanted to battle you myself but we’re here to supervise.” Nemona sighed. “So you’ll have to battle me after, okay?”

Red hadn’t really had a pokémon battle before. Aero was too young, and it was weird even suggesting what Sally should do. Sally knew a lot about battles all on his own, so Red just let him do what he wanted. But Saur wanted to have battles. And Red had promised Saur battles. He was scared, but it was a good scared.

Dendra divided them into pairs, had them line up to battle. Excitingly, Red was first up. Terribly, he was partnered with Green.

“Well, well, well, Flower-Boy,” Green sneered from across the battle field, “let’s see what you can do.”

Red focused on the warmth of Saur’s PokéBall for a moment before throwing it. Saur growled at Green, “Bring it, pussy.”

“Ha!” Green threw his own PokéBall to reveal an eevee. The eevee tossed his head, ears bounding adorably, and Red was kind of annoyed that the first time he was seeing an eevee in person it belonged to this jerk. Very quickly, the eevee became less adorable when he started bearing his teeth.

“Ooh, this is gonna be great!” Nemona cheered.

“Go, Eevee!” Green shouted.

Red expected the eevee to lead with an attack, but it leapt forward and brushed its tail in Saur’s face. Saur huffed and smacked at Eevee with her vines.

“Do that again,” Red said, assessing Eevee’s stance. “Back legs.”

Saur’s vines lashed out at Eevee’s legs. Her aim wasn’t very good, they kinda just flailed in the direction, but it was enough to trip Eevee up. Literally. Eevee crashed to the ground with a confused noise before scratching at Saur’s vines, trying to get back to his feet.

“Again,” Red said.

Saur slapped Eevee across the face with her vines. Not exactly what Red had been imagining, but it worked — Eevee slumped over with a soft whine.

“Eevee is unable to battle,” Nemona announced, “Red’s the winner. Yay, Red!”

Red ran forward to Saur, scooping her up into his arms. He hugged her tightly, and she licked him on the cheek. It was such a lame, clumsy battle, nothing like what Ash would do, but he was happy, and so was Saur, and his cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much but he couldn’t stop. He looked down at Green (who was crouching by Eevee’s side, stroking him), and was thrilled to see him frowning at Red, face flushed with what had to be embarrassment.

“Good job,” Red said, because Ash had always talked about how important sportsmanship was.

Somehow, Green’s face flushed more. He picked Eevee up, and held out his hand. Red was about to shake it (as much as he didn’t want to) when Nemona ran over, hooting and hollering, and giving advice on what they could focus on in training. Red already knew they needed to work on Saur’s aim, and he’d never really thought about how to command pokémon. He went and stood by White (who said “Good job wiping the floor with Smug Oak”) and watched the others battling, heart still racing with excitement.

Chapter Text

The first month of school was great. Apart from N and Green, nobody seemed to hate Red. They didn’t act like he was a boring disappointment either. He wasn’t quite sure he was friends with anyone, but he spent a lot of time with Gold, Black and White. They always sat together in classes and sometimes Red went to play soccer with Gold and White, and usually Sally and Togebro would join in too. Black was always completely unwilling to participate, but he watched them with a black-haired twelve-year-old called Cheren who was apparently his ex-neighbour. None of it was as good as when they’d all watch their senpai doing Tera Battles. They weren’t qualified for Tera Orbs yet but it was amazing to watch, especially Nemona VS Scarlet. The way Tera Pokémon absorbed the light around them and shone so brightly… And still moved so fluidly with light crystal surrounding them… It was something else.

N didn’t like it. Obviously. But N didn’t like anything except reading and insulting Red, especially when Red woke up before him. But it wasn’t like Red had any control over that, and he didn’t like going to sleep so much earlier than everyone else. It meant he missed a lot of things with other people making finds, and Gold or Black would try to introduce Red to new people they were clearly friends with already, and he’d feel really weird about it all.

At least Red had pieced together a bit more about what was happening with that whole mess of a family. Black, White and Dia all had the same mother, but different fathers. Dia’s father had died, while Black and White’s was a human who got ‘freaked out’ and wanted nothing to do with dainisa (according to White, Black didn’t agree, and they didn’t talk about it). Gold’s mum had been dating the others’ mum at the time she died, so Gold was adopted. Gold’s dad had apparently been killed by Team Rocket too. He said it with a bright smile and a, “So we can always be trauma bonded if you want!” that Red didn’t know how to react to. And he hadn’t figured out the relationship to Yellow, the little sister who also spoke to pokémon.

Gold’s cousin was a girl called Crystal Eigawa. She was one of the first ones they introduced him to, and she was really smart. Her dad was a Gym Leader (she didn’t say what type or which Gym) and she’d memorised Professor Oak’s PokéDex book. She revealed this casually in a class with Mr Jacq when he asked them to download his PokéDex app.

(“But do you know what’s in their hearts?” N asked, and Crystal replied, “I would have to meet each pokémon individually to know,” proving how smart she was and thoroughly annoying N.)

Because Crys was so smart and Black wouldn’t help them, Red and Gold ended up finding her the first time they had trouble with homework.

“But if she’s with Silver we need to bail and find Arven,” Gold said as they walked down the stairs. “I cannot face him again so soon.”

Red hadn’t been there the first time Gold talked to Silver, but everyone had heard about it by now. Apparently Gold had walked up to Silver and said something weird (something that Gold insisted Dia told him to say) and immediately got punched.

“Why did Dia do that to me,” Gold whined yet again, “now Silver totally thinks I’m crazy in a bad way, not a cute way!”

There’s a cute way? Red didn’t ask. Gold would probably say something about Red being crazy-cute. Or reference a shoujo manga.

When they were in the common room, Gold ran to the library and straight up Crystal. Her desk was covered in so many boring looking books.

“Cryyyyyys!”

Crystal didn’t even look up. “We’re not friends any more Gold. Silver said so.”

Gold slumped into the seat opposite her. “Is he really that much of a bitch? How d’ya even put up with him?”

“By not insulting him. Or creeping him out.”

“It was a cute song from a cute musical okay?!”

“Didn't you lead with 'Come home with me'? That's so creepy.”

Red did his best not to look at Gold, but he really hoped that wasn't true.

“It was Dia's idea! Shut up! And it was ironic, cute, and! He insults me for the crime of wanting to know him!” Gold protested. “I’m the victim here! Stop blaming the victim for reacting justly!”

“Shh, library.” Crys glanced over her shoulder. “Do you want help too, Red?”

Red didn’t know how he was supposed to act around girls in particular. They always made him feel strange but not in the way that was normal, where you think they’re so pretty it makes you stupid, but Red didn’t know what it was. Probably just having dead mothers. He nodded at Crystal, knowing it was awkward. Gold pointed at a chair and Red quickly sat down, realising his other error. He did his best not to apologise, knowing it was only make the whole thing worse.

“You’re here pretty often, Red,” Crystal observed, “so I thought you would’ve finished your History essay by now and not need my help, right?” she sweetly continued. “Unlike somebody.”

Gold snorted. “You’re the brilliant girl genius so I don’t even see what the problem is. Also, you’re really pretty. Gorgeous, even.”

“Mm, we’re cousins,” Crys deadpanned.

Gold winked. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes.”

Red stared in disbelief.

Crys stared in disgust. “You know, this is why Silver says you’re a creep.”

“Oh, whatever, it’s a joke!” Gold cried. “I don’t mean it! I’m just trying to flatter you so you’ll help us! D’ya want me to call you an ugmo? That gonna help?”

“Ahaha, go do your own homework.”

Gold started to whine. “But you’re a nerd! You people think homework is fun!”

And with that, Gold was dragging Red running back up the stairs to escape Crys’ wrath. Rather than hide in the obvious place (their dorm room), Gold shoved Red into a supply closet and clambered in after him.

“She’s so unreasonable,” Gold panted, “it was just a joke.”

“It was a bad joke,” Red corrected.

“Aw, bro, c’mon —”

Red shushed Gold as footsteps approached. He’d thought it would be Crystal, but he heard Arven’s muffled voice. He pressed his ear against the door to hear better.

“— need to get down to Area Zero fast, and you’re gonna go to Kitakami?!”

“It’s related,” Florian’s voice replied, urgent and defensive. “Your dad wrote about this one town being the only place outside Paldea to have natural Terastallization, that’s huge!”

“It’s barely relevant when the issue is his stupid lab.”

“No, it is, Terastal Energy is the entire reason your parents did this, right? It’s gotta be the same energy, so if I can find out why I’ll —”

Florian’s voice became too muffled to understand. Red glanced up at Gold, surprised to see he wasn’t eavesdropping too.

“I don’t wanna hear Florian-senpai fighting with his future husband,” Gold explained, “now what’re we gonna do about the homework?”

They ended up stealing N’s to copy. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, and as Gold justified, N absolutely owed them for quietly tolerating his bullshit. It was right when they were returning N’s homework to his bag that a message came on the intercom.

“Calling Red Hanano and Hibiki Kinyou to Director Clavell’s office. Repeat, calling Red Hanano and Hibiki Kinyou to Director Clavell’s office. Thank you.”

They exchanged looks. Red glanced around the room for cameras.

“Bad enough to get called in, but do they have to call me Hibiki over it,” Gold muttered.

It couldn’t be about the homework, right? But if it weren’t about that… Well, Gold weren’t by his side, his heart may have exploded worrying what had happened to Ash now. As much as he didn’t want to talk to his cousin or aunt, he wanted them to be completely fine when he was ready to talk to them again.

Clavell was standing in front of his desk, chatting with Florian and Mr Jacq. Contrary to how stressed he’d sounded an hour earlier, Florian was practically bouncing with excitement.

“Ah, hello boys.” Clavell beckoned them over. “Has Florian told you about his club’s planned trip to Mossui Town, Kitakami?”

Red nodded. It was most of what Florian talked about during their club meetings, while Red tried to coax Miraidon into speaking to him. Which he was extra invested in because Scarlet hadn’t let him try with Koraidon yet, because she didn’t want to be separated from it but she also didn’t want to listen to Florian. And when Scarlet, Nemona and Florian were all the same thing room, things were really awkward and polite.

“That’s right Red, you’re a member,” Clavell recalled.

“That’s why we picked Red to come with us,” Florian declared, “because he’s my precious kouhai.”

And probably so Red could talk to that ogre pokémon, if they found it.

Gold pointed at himself. “And me?”

“We held a lottery among all students for the remaining place, and you won,” Clavell explained. “Congratulations.”

“Oh, cool, yeah, that tracks.” Gold didn’t seem remotely surprised. Was his talk about luck actually based on something? "So, when’re we leaving?”

“Thursday night to arrive on Friday,” Jacq explained, “I’ll be accompanying you to conduct some research on local pokémon. You’ll be back in time for homeroom on Monday!”

“Oh, cool,” Gold said in a very different way.

“It’s gonna be super cool!” Florian cried. “We’re gonna get to go to the festival and Mr Jacq was just saying his colleague from Blueberry Academy is gonna be there with three students and we’re all gonna work together and —”

“Yes, it’ll be a good trip for you,” Clavell interrupted. “Gold, are you happy for me to speak with your guardian?” To Red, he said, “I’ve already spoken with your cousin.”

It was probably smart to talk to Ash instead of Aunt Delia, but how did Ash have any authority to sign off on things like this? Was it because he was Ash Ketchum? And, wait, if Clavell had spoken to Ash, why hadn’t Ash tried to call Red to rant about how cool Kitakami was? Was Ash mad at Red?

They had three days to prepare. Red spent most of those three days wondering if he should say anything to Ash, and not being able to bring himself to. He didn’t want to call him, and Ash wasn’t good at texting, and he didn’t know what to say anyway. So he just packed a bag, listened to Gold gloating about his luck to Black, Florian ranting about the festival, and hoped for the best. Kitakami was closer to Kanto than Paldea but way in the mountains. Red had never been to the mountains before.

It was a long trip with two very talkative people. Red wondered if Black and N, left to their own devices, had even spoken a word to each other. And when they landed they had to get on a bus right away, to lead them deep into the mountains. A woman named Briar joined them at the airport. She wasn’t dressed at all for the mountains, and her earrings were huge glittery Terastallization symbols that were very distracting, but she smiled very kindly at them when she greeted them.

“It’s good to see you again, Briar,” Jacq said, shaking her hand and peering around. “Say, where are your students?”

Briar sighed, cradling her chin with one hand. “One pulled out last minute due to illness. The remaining two are already in Mossui Town.” She brightened up, smiling at them. Red quickly lowered his head before she could look at his face too closely. “We’ll have a great time though!”

On the bus, Briar and Florian started talking immediately. There was something strange in Florian’s voice that normally wasn’t there, and he didn’t bring up digital cryptids once. But Red honestly didn’t pay much attention; he was tired of listening to people. He thought Gold would start chattering away again, but he sat quietly next to Red and dozed off. Which left Red to marvel at the mountains that were increasingly surrounding them. Mossui Town was at the base of Oni Mountain, where one mountain range ended and another began. The plants that survived were bigger and greener, and when they finally arrived, they had to walk past wide rice paddies carved into the hill. Red quickly noticed the air was thin. He glanced at Gold, who had some kind of wind and rain magic, but Gold didn’t seem to notice. Maybe because he lived near Mt Silver. (Wait, was that why he was so obsessed with Silver?)

As soon as they were off the bus, Florian bolted for the town. Miraidon burst from its ball and ran alongside him, though it was more like a walk for the giant purple lizard thing. Gold was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and yawned loudly as they started walking. Red tried to catch glimpses of the pokémon rustling in the long grass, but other than a glimpse of what was probably a sentret, he mostly saw poliwag and poliwhirl playing together in the stream. He wanted to get a closer look, but Gold grabbed his elbow and muttered, “We can do that after we ditch our stuff wherever we’re staying.”

That was when Red noticed they were literally walking into the outskirts of the town. Florian was ahead of them, in front of a boring, rundown building, talking to a very tall adult with very weird hair. Most of what he could see was black, but the underside was red. And two sections hung in her face in a super weird way that made her yellow eyes scarier. She was wearing a dark blue uniform that was vaguely familiar, holding out a PokéBall towards Florian. Florian held out his own in response.

They’d only know each other for two months, so maybe it wasn’t that weird, but Red had never seen Florian battle. He’d met Miraidon and Sire the clodsire, but that was Florian knowing off pokémon Red hadn’t known existed. He was, therefore, thrilled to see the woman send out an extra tough-looking mightyena, and Florian send out a floragato. There was a sweet scent in the air as floragato twirled its yo-yo-like flower.

It was a cool battle. The woman had a strong sense of disruptive strategies but Florian and his floragato were unflappable. It reminded Red of how Ash and Pikachu worked together, springing through obstacles with the very attack that would defeat opponents. They took down her mightyena, even her ninetales, getting a bunch of rude comments from the woman in the process.

“You’ve gotten a few lucky hits, but now you’ll see!” The woman declared, before sending out a Sinistcha. It was a more vivid green than Goh’s, and its bowl was nicer looking. Maybe after the battle, Red could ask her more about the pokémon?

“I guess we will see,” Florian agreed, pulling out his Tera Orb. “Is it okay if we try this out here?”

“Ha!” The woman pulled out a Tera Orb of her own. “Let’s do this, pretty boy!”

From somewhere, Red swore he heard a pathetic voice whine, “Sis… embarrassing…” but he was immediately distracted by the whole Tera Battle thing. He’d seen a lot of people Terastallization their pokémon, but not Florian, who struggled to hold his Tera Orb as it absorbed the light and energy around them, then tried to pass it off by doing a full dramatic spin as he tossed it towards his floragato. The woman, unfortunately, looked way cooler as she effortlessly tossed her Tera Orb to her sinistcha. Both were immediately encased in blinding light, covered in green crystals, and seemed to pulse with the energy boost. Unfortunately, it didn’t last for long; one hit with a Tera Aerial Ace was all Florian needed. He seemed just as surprised as the woman.

“You… Who are you?!” She shouted. “There's no way you should've been able to beat me!”

Floragato’s Terastallization dispersed in a swirl of light, and Florian ran over to it with an excited yell. He was still celebrating with it when another teenager with weird hair popped out of nowhere, staring up at Florian with wide eyes and said, “Wowzers…”

Red knew he wasn’t good with people, but he was better than that, right?

“Hi!” Florian said brightly.

“You beat my sis with one pokémon…” the other guy said, “you’re crazy strong, huh?”

“Argh! Kiki! Don’t rub it in!” the woman shouted. Red was starting to wonder if she was an adult or just tall. “Here, I’ll take on one of these other outsiders and show you —” She did a double-take looking at them, like she hadn’t realised they were watching the entire battle.

“Hello, Carmine,” Briar said with a wave. “That was a good battle.”

“Where’s that lazy idiot Drayton?” Carmine was suddenly speaking in a much calmer, cooler way. “You said it was gonna be three of us from Blueberry and three from Uva Academy.”

“Unfortunately Drayton was too unwell to accompany me.”

“Unwell, sure,” she muttered, rolling her eyes, “it should’ve been Amarys…”

Red glanced at Gold. Usually he had something to say about love in situations like this, but Gold was frowning at Florian and ‘Kiki’ or whatever. Florian was talking in that intense quick and quiet way and ‘Kiki’ was still staring at him like the only word he knew was ‘wowzers’.

“Amarys was busy with club responsibilities as you know. Now, let me introduce you…”

Red quickly looked down at his feet again.

“This is Carmine, she helps me with research at Blueberry Academy. And her younger brother Kieran, he’s a first year.”

Kieran made more sense than ‘Kiki’. He looked up and over at them at his name, and jumped away from Florian, running to his sister’s side. The family resemblance was pretty obvious in their weird hair, which hung in their faces in the same way, but Kieran’s was black and purple.

Carmine drawled, “Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you outsiders, I mean, visitors from Paldea. Heh.”

“Sis,” Kieran groaned.

Briar just ignored that remark. “This is Jacq, he is one of my research associates. You’ve met Florian, this is Gold, and this is Red.”

A smirk crossed Carmine’s face, and she said in that Dainisan language, “Lots of colour names means lots of us.”

“Sis, stop,” Kieran sighed.

“That’s beautiful Carmine,” Briar said, “is that some of the local language?”

“Yeah, something like that, miss.” Carmine’s eyes were dragging slowly over them as she insisted in a very fake voice, “It’s so nice to welcome you to our town.” Her eyes met Red’s, and suddenly, she froze. “Wait! That’s —”

Dammit. He’d been so distracted by how weird she was, Red had forgotten he was still in the danger zone for people bringing up Cynthia. He stared at his shoes, bracing himself.

Carmine shouted, “You’re Cynthia and Zinnia’s kid?!”

Wait…

Red stared up at Carmine in surprise. He was halfway through asking how she knew his mum when Sally burst from his Ball, growling at Carmine.

“Whoa, Sally, dude, that was a new record,” Gold remarked.

It wasn’t, but Gold didn’t need to know how relaxed Sally had gotten at school.

“I-it’s because she mentioned my mum,” Red muttered.

“Sorry, little salamence, I’m just a big fan,” Carmine said. It would’ve sounded convincingly soothing if not for the rest of her behaviour so far. She seemed like an exhausting person to be around. “I’m not gonna make a thing of it I’m just surprised.”

Sally growled again, softer.

“He wants to know why you know my mum,” Red said, “um. Zinnia.”

Aunt Delia had barely anything to say about Zinnia. Apparently she was a very private person who didn’t even like to be in photos. Ash mostly just talked about all her pokémon, but that was horrible too because only Sally was left. And none of Ash’s friends seemed to know her either. All Red had were Sally’s stories, blurred pictures and a faint memory of her humming.

“Your mums did a double battle tournament in Unova once and it was the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.” Carmine sighed dreamily and muttered to herself, “Me and who…?”

“Sis! Stop!”

“He asked a question and I’m answering, Kiki!”

“You’re embarrassing.”

“Erm, yes, well, let’s get settled, shall we?” Briar suggested. “Carmine, your grandparents’ place is —”

As the others talked logistics, Red held his hand out to Sally. Sally nuzzled against it and nibbled on the tips of his fingers.

“Mum double-battled with you?”

“I hated that garchomp,” Sally grumbled unconvincingly.

Sally had probably never mentioned it because Cynthia’s pokémon were as gone too. And people acted like it was a tragedy because they were so strong, not because Garchomp was someone else Red only had pictures of. Which of his mothers had put baby Red on Garchomp’s head in that one picture? Had Sally and Garchomp been rivals, even when working together?

“Hey, Red.”

He glanced at Gold.

“Let’s go to that community hall, then down to the river?”

Red nodded, glad Gold was leading the way. Everything felt far away and his skin was numb. He didn’t even realise he’d been digging his fingernails into his hand until he set his bag down and saw the marks. He hid them before Sally or Gold noticed. Sally was in a mood too, but he kept nuzzling up against Red, and soon he wondered why he’d felt so weird.

They were sharing a room in the Community Centre. The Mayor ranted at them for a bit, and the woman at the front desk, while Red stared at her Clefable. They were much bigger in person than he’d expected. Florian kept edging away from it, looking uncomfortable, and Red remembered what he’d said months ago about dainisa fearing things associated with the moon, even pokémon. Florian’s discomfort only grew when they were shown the room. It was small and cramped, with two bunk beds across from each other.

“Hey senpai, you were shared a room before?” Gold asked.

Florian went pink. “It’s fine.”

“Y’know, back home, Dia and I share,” Gold teased. “When Pearl comes over they have to share a bed.” He quickly added, “No homo.”

“Everybody knows Pearl’s a straight man, he says it constantly.”

“No, senpai, that’s a comedy thing —”

“I know what jokes are too.” Florian was staring at Sally. “Red, is he gonna go back in his Ball overnight?”

“Um…”

“Usually all of our pokémon do what they want at night,” Gold explained. “That’s why you keep getting scared by Aero sleeping on the fireplace.”

“I meant.” Florian sighed. “Red, are you and Sally okay?”

Red glanced at Sally, and nodded.

“Good.” Florian set his bag (just the one, which took a lot of bullying to achieve) on the bottom bunk of one bed. “Kieran asked me to apologise for Carmine.”

“Carmine can apologise herself,” Gold said. “Senpai, why’re you talking to that guy?”

“Huh? Because I wanna be his friend?” Florian pulled out a toiletry bag. “I’m gonna go clean up, I asked Kieran to meet me for a battle in a bit.” He quickly left.

Gold looked angry. “What about Arven-senpai?!”

Red shrugged.

Mossui Town was really nice. After Gold reassured himself that his ‘Florian X Arven’ ship hadn’t sunk yet, they walked through the town towards the riverbank. It was a pebble river with very shallow water, and the pokémon splashed happily, completely unbothered by the people watching them. Watching the poliwag team up to beat a poliwhirl filled Red’s heart with a soft warmth.

“Don’t you wanna catch any of them?” Gold asked. “Or battle?”

Red shook his head. “I only wanna catch pokémon that wanna be my friend.” It was something Ash said a lot.

They went back to the Community Centre to eat with Briar and Jacq, who were talking enthusiastically with each other about the local pokémon. Gold was fuming because Florian wasn’t back, but was happy to go back outside with Red.

It was funny. Red had lived most of his life in Pallet Town, but after two months in Mesagoza, he’d gotten used to light pollution drowning out some of the stars. He lay back on the grass and stared up at the sky, tracing the faint patterns of the Milky Way.

“You live in New Bark Town, right?” he asked Gold.

“Yeah.” Gold lay down beside him. “It’s actually more urban than here.”

“Same with Pallet Town.”

“I thought we’d have more time for big city adventures,” Gold mused, “but Dia told me we’d be too busy with homework and clubs and stuff. And he was right.”

“Plus, the stairs.”

Gold groaned. “The bloody stairs, man!”

Red knew he wasn’t exactly Gold’s friend, it was more that they travelled on the same plane and were put in the same dorm. But in that moment, it felt like having a friend. Gold wouldn’t have chosen him, but Red was happy circumstance and proximity had forced them together. His eyes drifted closed.

The thinness of the air was creeping into his lungs. It’d been a bad idea to go from the coast up the mountain within a few hours, but there was another tear in the sky and a distortion forming. The air was crackling, the wind whipping long teal hair from his bandanna, and Rei was calling out —

“Red!”

He sat up, panting, glancing around. The snow was gone, the mountain was completely different, and he didn’t have long teal hair. Gold was frowning at him in concern.

“Red, what’s Hisui?” Gold asked. “You kept muttering…”

Red shook his head. “I have weird dreams sometimes.”

Gold gasped. “You can’t like, see the future or something?”

“No… They’re more like…” Somebody else’s memories, he didn’t say. “I dunno. Just weird.”

Gold stared at him for a long moment, before climbing to his feet and stretching. “I should’ve known better than to keep you out this late, it’s way past your bedtime!” He offered Red a hand, and pulled him to his feet too. “When we get older, you gotta stay up later, bro.”

It was about nine when they got back to the Community Centre, and Florian still wasn’t back. Both Red and Gold had taken showers and gotten settled into their beds by the time Florian came stumbling into the room.

“Kouhai, listen up,” he declared, “I am in love.”

Gold shouted, “No!”

Red really didn’t care either way. Kieran seemed uncool, but Florian was definitely uncool, so maybe it was fate.

“You don’t get it, Gold, I’ve never met anyone who I just —” He made a clicking noise. “Y’know?”

“No, I don’t know!”

“He would’ve beaten me with a sentret if my pokémon weren’t so over-levelled,” Florian sighed dreamily. “To even bring out the hidden power of a Normal Type pokémon… And okay, he hasn’t used any magic of his own yet, and he said he’s half-human but Carmine has really cool magic so he’s gonna have awesome magic too eventually.”

“He’s what, fourteen?” Gold guessed.

“Yep, just like me,” Florian sighed.

“If he’s fourteen and hasn’t used magic, he doesn’t have magic, senpai.”

“No, that’s only mostly true, and even if he doesn’t I can fake it so my father will approve of him. And if Father has an issue with him being half-human, that’s just hypocritical, Scarlet’s mum is fully human.”

Red stared at the ceiling, wondering why every dainisa he’d met had a dramatic family situation.

Florian sighed again, somehow the dreamiest yet. “He caught an applin while we were together, tell me that’s not fate.”

“You’re not in Galar!”

Florian babbled about Kieran’s beautiful face and ‘shy compassion’ and ‘love of local legends’ for so long it became white noise. Red wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he woke up to sunlight creeping through the blinds, got dressed, and went to talk to the Clefable. She didn’t have much to say, but it was all more normal than anything Florian had said in the past 24 hours. She recommended Red go up Oni Mountain if he wanted to meet more pokémon.

When the group gathered again outside the Community Centre, Briar weirdly led the greeting with ‘TGIF’, whatever that meant. She then explained they’d be splitting into groups to find signboards telling the myth of the Heroes of Kitakami. With how Florian was staring at Kieran, it was easy to forget that had been his original motivation in coordinating this school trip.

“Originally we’d planned on doing pairs with one partner from each school, but…” Briar sighed, looking at the group.

Gold was mouthing and gesturing something to Carmine. Apparently she took the wrong thing from it, because she said, “I’ll take the two kids, and Kiki can go with Princey.”

“S-sis…” Kieran muttered.

“What, Kiki? You’ve been all googly-eyed since yesterday.” To Florian, she added, “I seriously couldn’t get him to shut up about you.”

“Sis! W-what’re you tellin’ him that for, dummy?!”

“Who’re you calling dummy, dummy?!”

“It’s okay Kieran,” Florian said, “I couldn’t shut up about you either. Right, guys?”

Red stared, not sure what was happening. Gold huffed and looked away.

“Aw man…” Kieran mumbled. “Y-you don’t gotta pair up with someone like me, Minaji… I can follow behind an’ not bother you.”

“Kiki!” Carmine continued angrily in Dainisan, “Don’t talk like that because he’s so-called royalty, he’s a bigger loser than you are!”

“Sis! I ain’t talkin’ to you, a-and, don’t be bein’ rude to Prince-sama!”

Was it Red’s imagination, or was Kieran combining three languages in the same sentence? A kind of Japanglishnisan? The only one who looked as confused as Red felt was Briar. He hoped it didn’t show on his face. Gold was looking at him closely.

“I am a bigger loser than you Kieran,” Florian said with a laugh. He sent out Miraidon, who he must’ve introduced to Kieran last night, because Miraidon immediately tried to lick him. “Let’s go, I wanna hear more about the Ogre from you.”

“Wait, what is that purple pokémon?!” Carmine cried.

But rather than explain, Florian climbed on Miraidon’s back, pulling Kieran up behind him. Kieran said ‘wowzers’ again as Miraidon raced off.

“Argh!” Carmine shouted. “Ignoring me?!”

“He’s just like that,” Gold said flatly. “Looks like we’re all paired up, huh, nee-chan?”

“Y-yes,” Briar said. “Yes, have a great time, kids!”

“Fine.” Carmine breathed in deeply and exhaled heavily. “The first signboard’s this way.” They started walking towards the base of a hill. Carmine kept glancing over at Red.

“Listen, about yesterday… I’m really sorry.”

“Okay.”

“My parents died in the war too,” Carmine said casually, as Red frantically wondered what war? “I wasn’t trying to be a jerk but it would probably suck having people bring it up whenever they meet me. So, I’m sorry.”

Red shook his head. “I didn’t… my mum — I didn’t know…” The words wouldn’t come out.

Gold said, “I think he means he didn’t know his mums were in that tournament together.” He checked, “That right?”

Red nodded, filled with relief.

“Really?” Carmine gasped. “Hey, kid, Blueberry Academy specialises in double-battles, y’know? So we have all these videos of tournaments like that. If you give me your email I can send it to you when I go back. Sound good?”

Seeing a video of both of his mothers… Not just Cynthia… Red’s heart was pounding. He nodded again.

“It’s the least I can do after that uncool introduction,” Carmine said. They reached the base of a hill filled with apple orchards. “The first signpost is up this way.” She was quiet for maybe three strides before asking, “So what’s up with that prince guy? Is he making fun of my little brother or does he really care about the ogre?”

“He super cares about the ogre myth,” Gold sighed.

“It’s not an ogre myth, the ogre’s just in it,” Carmine insisted. “We’ll find out more at the signpost.”

“Or you can just tell us and we can spy on your brother and Florian,” Gold suggested.

Red shook his head.

“I don’t wanna do anything bad to Kiki but… He’s so shy and bad at talking to people. He’s a real baby sometimes too, and, he’s so sensitive about magic…”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a dainisa without magic,” Gold said, “so I’d be sensitive about it too.”

“He has magic for sure, he just can’t calm down enough to use it,” Carmine insisted. But she was glaring so defensively Red had to wonder if it was true. “Don’t bring it up to him or else I’ll make you pay. He thinks it means he’s weak and the last thing I’m gonna let happen is some tweens bullying my poor li’l bro!”

Was it really that uncommon? Most of the dainisa Red had seen use magic could do so little it was barely noticeable… Including Gold. Wouldn’t it make sense for a lot of dainisa to have so little magic they couldn’t materially do anything at all with it?

Gold made a thoughtful noise as he put his hands together on the back of his head, elbows up. It was clearly meant to be casual but he had to place his hands awkwardly under the rim of his backwards cap. “Well, nee-chan, Florian said he’d fake magic for Kieran so his dad approves of him.”

Carmine stopped dead. Gold kept walking, but Red watched as she seethed with rage, fists clasped and shaking in front of her. “The arrogance of that brat…! Kiki’d be fine if he was more confident, don’t make it worse!”

Honestly, Red’s first impression of Carmine was that she was a snobby bully like Green Oak. One who weirdly bragged and flexed on people while being a loser like Green, too. But he was starting to see she was really loyal and protective, and deep down, she had a kind heart. Why did she try to hide it?

Instead of saying any of that, Red told Carmine, “You remind me of my aunt.”

“Urgh! Can't you at least say I remind you of your awesome tough mum?”

“No, I don't really remember her.”

Carmine’s hands dropped to her side. “I’m sorry, kid… I should think more before I talk…”

It really proved what Red had been thinking. She acted like she didn’t like them or want them around, but she was so worried about hurting his feeling. And it wasn’t even her fault last time. People had said way worse things to Red about Cynthia, especially in Pallet.

Red shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m pretty used to them being dead.”

For some reason that made Carmine look sadder? Red looked at Gold, who had turned around to watch them, and was biting his lip like he was trying not to laugh.

“You know, Kieran doesn't remember our parents either,” she said. “I think that’s kind of worse.”

Red wasn’t sure what to say. He did remember his parents a little, but they were small little things and feelings he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined or not. Stuff like the way they’d hug him, or their voices, or a flowery perfume, or how they’d guide him through playing with pokémon. He remembered Zinnia more than Cynthia, but that could be because Sally told him about her more. Sometimes he remembered a man’s voice too, soft and tinged with Hoenn dialect, but that didn’t seem possible when people always said Cynthia ‘famously didn’t like men’. And he wasn’t sure if the faint memories made it better or worse that his parents were dead.

“Maybe it just sucks no matter what,” Red said.

“Yeah,” Carmine agreed, “but one’s got to be worse than the other. Right?”

Red wasn’t sure what to say, or what to think. It hurt, so he didn’t want to think about it.

“Well, we’re all orphans here, it’s fine,” Gold declared. “Hey, nee-chan, what’s with all the apples? Are they free or somethin’?”

“No!” Carmine shouted. “Apples are the economic backbone of Kitakami! Steal the food right out of my mouth why don’t you?!”

“That’s what I’m askin’ if I can do —”

“ARGH! Why are you kids such brats?!”

When they made it to the signboard, Carmine was well and truly done being sad about dead parents and magic. Instead, she became enraged at the sight of Florian and Kieran having a picnic. Miraidon was stretched out beside Florian’s sprigatito-print picnic blanket, and a bunch of sandwiches were laid out on plates. They looked a lot like Arven specials.

Carmine hissed, “Is that brat trying to rizz up my li’l bro?!”

Red didn’t know what to say, so he looked at Gold. But Gold was grinning in a way he didn’t like, and said, “Better than him rizzing up his sister’s girlfriend.”

Carmine shouted something in her outrage so loud Red’s ears popped. Kieran leapt to his feet, what little they could see of his face bright red.

“Sis! Are you spyin’ on us!”

Carmine put a hand on her hip, once again trying to sound cool as she drawled, “We’re going to the same place because we’re all doing the same assignment, Kiki, that’s not spying.”

“You saw us headin’ this way, you coulda gone to another one first.” Kieran glanced around at them all, eyes wide and filled with tears. “I — I’m goin’ on ahead on my own, Florian!” And with that, Kieran ran off. He was really fast.

Florian sighed, “And he was just opening up to me…”

Carmine let out another frustrated sound, which only became louder as Florian climbed on Miraidon’s back and sped off after Kieran.

“Grab a picture of the signpost, fast,” Carmine ordered, “we’ve got to make sure he’s not messing with Kiki!”

They didn’t have to go far.

Halfway across the bridge, Florian was leaning against the railing, head down and shoulders slumped as he talked. Kieran was leaning close to him, freaky yellow eyes as wide as ever. Red stopped Gold from walking right up to them, and Carmine tried to pull them away so they couldn’t hear, but, well. Red had always had really good hearing.

“— get what it’s like to have overprotective family,” Florian was saying.

“She thinks I’m weak,” Kieran said bitterly. Red glanced at Carmine, but she clearly couldn’t hear anything. “Just ‘cos I can’t do magic, and I lose battles a lot, and I don’t have friends in my class…”

It was getting really uncomfortable eavesdropping on them.

“To be honest, I don’t really have friends in my class either,” Florian said. “And everyone else’s my sister’s friend, or only interested in me because I’m prince…”

Why was Florian calling Scarlet his sister when he’d denied it before? And Red hadn’t thought they were friends exactly, but… But he didn’t like hearing Florian say that either. He didn’t even understand what Florian being a prince meant, so why would he care about it?

“I’m sure you only think that,” Kieran said, “you’re really cool, Florian.”

Thankfully, they started walking again, and were soon out of earshot. Red’s heart hurt, but he wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Okay, neither of you have like, super-hearing or anything, right?” Carmine checked. “You didn’t hear any of that?”

Asking a bit late, Red didn’t say.

“Nah, nothin’ like that,” Gold replied. “I got weather magic and Red can talk to pokémon. Whaddaya do, nee-chan?”

Carmine held out her hand. The skin started to glow with a faint red light, and then, suddenly, one of her PokéBalls leapt from her belt and into the palm of her hand. She rotated it, the Ball remained stuck in place.

“You kids ever heard of Magneto?” Carmine asked.

Gold tilted his head to the side. “You mean the evil bad guy who tried to kill all the humans and broke the bald guy’s heart?”

The glow faded, and the PokéBall fell. Carmine snatched it before it hit the ground, shouting, “At least call him a revolutionary rebel!” She placed the Ball back on her belt. “Anyway, you should know, it’s the other way around, the humans always try to kill us.”

What?

“Even so nee-chan, I don’t think Magneto-kun is an aspirational character,” Gold said.

“Stop being such a brat, you know what I’m saying! And I just showed you such cool magic in such a cool way! Argh, whatever, let’s just go find the next signpost!”

She stomped off across the bridge. Red wanted to be as amused as Gold, but he was mostly confused.

They didn’t run into Florian and Kieran at the next signpost, thankfully. It made it a lot easier to appreciate how beautiful Kitakami was. Red was getting used to the air being thinner, but he wasn’t sure how long it’d take to get used to how steep everything was. The pathway up to the next signpost were almost as bad as the stairs to Sagrada Academy. Not quite, because it was soft dirt beneath their feet rather than stairs, at least they got to see pokémon along the way, They reached a flat clearing where stairs did being, and on either side of the staircase there were statues of growlithe with fluffy manes and tails, and horns on their heads. Red hadn’t ever seen that type of growlithe, but he with certainty it was a growlithe, and something about them was so familiar…

“That’s a Hisuian Growlithe,” Carmine explained. Red jumped, having completely forgotten everything except the growlithe. “Back in the day, a lot of people from Kitakami moved to Sinnoh, when it was still called Hisui, to found Jubilife Village. They brought back a bunch of these adorable little guys but, they’re not around here any more.”

Somehow, Red felt like he already knew that, too.

Carmine turned to the stairs. “It’s up here by Kitakami Hall.”

They followed Carmine up a series of staircases. Right when Red had been happy with how few stairs there were in the town. To his distress, there were a lot of people around, setting up stalls and lights, and a lot of boxes of masks. He kept his head down and followed close behind Carmine, which was a relief, because people kept calling out to say hello to her and ‘the kids from Paldea’, and Carmine seemed to revel in the attention.

“Nee-chan, you’re so popular,” Gold observed, “you got a boyfriend or girlfriend back at your school?”

“D-don’t ask questions like that, you damn brat!”

“Aw, don’t worry, it’ll happen for you sometime,” Gold said. He ran ahead to the shrine to avoid Carmine’s fist. It was red and triangular, at the foot of Oni Mountain, and the donation box was covered in gaudy signs talking about repairs.

The signpost was off to the side, in the middle of a rest-spot overlooking the town. Gold read aloud, “‘The ogre possessed four mysterious, glimmering masks. It is said that depending on the mask the ogre donned, the powers of its cudgel would change.’ Hey, nee-chan, what’s a cudgel?”

“It’s like a club,” Carmine replied, “I thought a little troll like you would know that.”

“I didn’t even read that other signpost, so I don’t really get this one.” Gold looked up at Carmine. “Can you just tell us the story?”

Carmine looked up towards the mountain, and recited, “‘Long, long ago, there was a fearsome ogre in the land of Kitakami. The ogre made its home in the mountain behind the village, frightening all who ventured there.’

“‘One day, the ogre came down from the mountain in a terrible rage, causing great fear in the village. By some stroke of luck, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti all happened to be there as well. The three Pokémon laid down their lives to fend off the ogre and send it back to the mountain.’”

“Damn,” Gold said, “they actually died?”

Carmine nodded. “‘In admiration, the people of the village bestowed upon this brave trio the title ‘the Loyal Three’. Their remains were given a proper burial.’ That’s what the statues are in Loyalty Plaza. The last signpost we went to.”

“Huh.” Gold glanced back in the direction of the spot at the top of the hill of apple orchards. “I didn’t even notice them. That’s kinda sad.”

“We’ve got one more signpost to get to,” Carmine said, “and by the time that’s done, it’ll be time for us to get ready for the festival.”

The last signpost was on the other side of Mossui Town, past a pond surrounded with flowering wisteria trees (even though it was autumn), in the middle of a field of rocks. Some of the rocks were terrifying — enormous rocks the size of buildings just sticking out of the ground above them, somehow not falling. Even so, Red got pretty distracted by seeing a bunch of sudowoodo having a race. Brock’s sudowoodo always stood super still, no matter what Red said to it, so he was surprised to find out they could run at all, and especially, so fast. There were also nosepass around, and they genuinely always faced north, even walking backwards to get away from Carmine trying to battle them. Red wasn’t actually all that interested in the signposts, but Gold read it aloud anyway.

“‘If you see a shadowy figure approaching you outside the village at twilight, be wary. Don a mask at once, and hide your face.’ What’s up with this ghost story, huh?”

“People used to say the ogre would fight anyone who wasn’t wearing a mask,” Carmine explained, “and it lived around this area.”

“This ogre doesn’t sound very nice, but your brother really likes it, right?” Gold was frowning. “Should I be worried for my senpai?”

Carmine rolled her eyes. “Urgh, no, Kiki’s just going through an edgelord phase where evil things are cool to him. Everyone’s awful when they’re fourteen. Terrifying to imagine how much worse your personality could get, kid.”

“Actually that’s the year I’m gonna fully commit to being a theatre kid, so I’ll be fine,” Gold replied with a wide grin.

Red couldn’t quite figure out what level of sarcasm Gold and Carmine were both operating at. A couple of bonsly had come nearby to watch them, so he decided to ask them, “Have you seen an ogre pokémon around here?”

“Ogerpon is looking after us as always,” the smallest bonsly replied.

Red crouched down. “It’s called Ogerpon?”

“She always protects us,” the bonsly insisted, “and the humans in the village are so mean!”

“What does she protect you from?”

“Humans,” the little bonsly said.

“Pecharunt,” another bonsly chirped.

“Starvation!”

Red couldn’t help smiling. “She sounds nice.”

The bonsly bounced excitedly. “A human wants to be friends with Ogerpon again!”

The other bonsly started chattering excitedly, repeating this.

“Yeah, I do.” Red hadn’t thought about it before, but he really did. Ash and his friends had met so many pokémon there were scary stories about, and every single one had just been trying to help pokémon at the expense of humans.

“Red…?” Carmine sounded unsure.

“Where is Ogerpon?” Red asked the bonsly. “Is it okay to tell me?”

“No, no, she’ll find you if she trusts you,” the bonsly replied. “Leave her alone! She’s been hunted enough!”

“Okay, I promise, I won’t look for her,” Red replied, “but I want to talk to her. If she wants to talk to me.”

The bonsly chattered amongst themselves about whether or not they could trust him, before running off. They were also really fast despite their size and shape.

“What was that?” Carmine demanded.

“I told you, Red talks to pokémon.” Gold pulled Red back to his feet and slung his arm around Red’s shoulders. “What were they tellin’ you?”

“Ogerpon protects them. Um. That’s, the ogre. She’s called Ogerpon.”

“What?!” Carmine shook her head quickly. “No, the ogre is violent and kills people!”

Red asked, “What’s Pecharunt?”

“I’ve never heard that before in my entire life. Are you trying to say pecha fruit?” Carmine growled and kicked at the ground. “Whatever! Just don’t tell Kiki any of this, or he’s gonna spend all night crawling around the mountains and break his arm again!” She turned back towards the trail with a huff. “Now let’s all go back and get ready for the festival!”

Red really hoped Ogerpon came.

Apparently they were meant to wear jinbei and masks to the festival. The staff at the Community Centre had spares for them to wear, and Gold declared, “Let’s match with our names!”, digging through the pile. So Gold ended up in a bright yellow one, and Red in a red one. All of them has the same pattern of three different masks, one like a bird’s beak and crest, one like a monkey’s face, and one like a dog’s ears and eyes.

“That’s the Loyal Three who protected us from the ogre,” the receptionist explained, “Okidogi is the dog, Munkidori is the monkey, and Fezandipiti is the bird.”

Red wondered why Ogerpon had gotten so angry and attacked the village. Had something happened to her? Did she just hate people? Goh said he’d met a lot of pokémon that didn’t like people, and called it ‘relatable’, and that was how Red had learnt the words ‘relatable’ and ‘misanthrope’ at six years old.

Florian came bursting in, scanning them with a wide smile, and gave a thumbs up. “Nice, kouhai! You look adorable!”

“I look cool as hell,” Gold insisted, pulling some hair through the hole in his backwards cap. “Red looks adorable though.”

Pulling a pikachu mask over his face, Red agreed.

“Hey, senpai, Red was talking to some bonsly earlier and —”

“Hold that thought, I gotta go grab some stuff,” Florian interrupted, running towards the hallway. “Kieran asked me to go to the festival together! My first ever date!”

“But it’s about —”

Florian was well and truly out of it, though.

Gold sighed heavily. “Red. Bro. Is love actually annoying as hell?”

Red thought about Ash and Goh, and Delia and her husband who he’d never met, and nodded.

Florian ran past them again with a, “Wish me luck!” and Gold bitterly muttered, “I hope he ogre-stomps your heart.”

Outside the Community Centre, they ran into Carmine again. Instead of a jinbei, she was wearing a long-sleeved dark blue yukata covered in a pattern of morning glories, pikachu and fireworks. She’d pulled her long hair into a twist, pinned in place with a butterfree hair clip. The way her two hair colours came together was like a spiral, and looked really cool actually.

“Holy shit, nee-chan!” Gold cheered. “You look amazing!”

“Heh.” Carmine pulled a fan from her sleeve, flicking it open casually. “Oh, this? Nothing for a beautiful girl like me…”

Red felt so weird looking at her, and he didn't know how to explain it. Like he was scared but also wanted something, maybe?

“I was going to wear a jinbei too, but…” Carmine twirled. The long sleeves of her yukata fluttered. “Don’t I look dazzling in my mama’s yukata?”

She really did. Red wished he could wear a yukata like that. That had to be the feeling. That he wanted that yukata and couldn’t have it.

“Nee-chan, it’s less impressive when you say it yourself,” Gold huffed.

Carmine waved her fan dismissively before snapping it closed. “Listen, you have to help me,” she said. “I’ve reluctantly come to terms with Kiki going on his first date before I’ve had mine. Because he doesn’t realise it’s a date so it doesn’t count.”

“Florian called it a date,” Gold said.

“Well Kiki didn’t so it doesn’t count! You brat!”

“So, what, you want us to spy on them with you?” Gold asked. “Why waste how good you look on that, nee-chan?”

Carmine waved a hand dismissively. “I’m the only seventeen-year-old here anyway.” She led them back towards the festival grounds. Music was playing already, mostly taiko drums. “So, Kiki’s gonna go get candy apples first, or maybe a mask for Florian since I couldn’t find one… But we’re gonna be right there, ruining the mood before it gets too lovey-dovey!”

Red glanced at Gold. Gold cackled evilly. “All right, let’s try this anti-Cupid thing!”

Isn’t this just bullying, Red didn’t say. He couldn’t imagine liking anyone like that, so he couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if his friends or Ash meddled.

The festival looked amazing. Red had only ever seen festivals on TV, so he wasn’t ready for how colourful the lanterns looked in person, the slightly sickening smell of fried yakisoba and takoyaki everywhere, the chatter of happy people. He wanted to take a closer look, but Carmine found a dark corner near the entrance of the festival plaza and dragged them there to watch as Florian and Kieran walked in. Kieran was wearing a white jinbei and weird green mask on the side of his head, with his usual yellow eshay bag strapped across his chest, but Florian was wearing a flashy silk jinbei that shone a different colours as he walked by.

“Urgh,” Carmine muttered.

Apparently, to lead out his date, Florian was once again talking about his digital cryptids. Red was embarrassed to be associated with him, but Kieran was staring at Florian like it was awesome.

“— and some people say they’ve met a really friendly one called Gargomon, it’s like if a pawmot had guns for hands.”

Red had never heard anything worse in his life.

“Wowzers, it’d be real cool to meet him,” Kieran said, because there was clearly something wrong with him, “but I’m not supposed to play video games.”

“That’s so tragic!” Florian grabbed Kieran’s hands. “Kieran, you have to come to my school, there’s so many games you’d love!”

Carmine was audibly grinding her teeth, but didn’t intervene.

“Maybe, I dunno if — oh hey, candy apples!” Kieran ran ahead to a stall, and waved for Florian to follow him.

Carmine snapped, “Kiki isn’t allowed to play games because he got mad at Hello Kitty Island Adventure and smashed our Switch! Before I could max out Keroppi on my save, too! Argh!”

“Nee-chan, if he’s so far gone he’ll listen to Florian talk about Digital Monsters, we’re probably too late,” Gold said. “Why don’t we just —”

Carmine made a loud gagging noise, pointing. Red followed her finger to see Florian standing very close to Kieran by the candy apple stall, his hand brushing something from Kieran’s cheek.

“No,” Carmine gasped, “Kiki can’t have his first kiss before I’ve had mine…!”

Red grabbed her arm, but she brushed him off and ran over, shouting loudly, “YOU TRIED OGRE OUSTING YET FLORIAN?! I BET YOU CAN’T BEAT ME!”

Gold laughed in disbelief. “This has gotten way too crazy, huh?”

Red nodded, watching Carmine drag Florian towards a game stall, Kieran spluttering and following behind them.

“Let’s get some yakisoba and check it out while we can, yeah?” Gold suggested.

Red nodded again.

Honestly, the stalls weren’t all that interesting. They were all games, like throwing darts through balloons or scratching out little chibi Loyal Three mascots from candies, catching toy fish from plastic ponds, or lottery things. Gold lit up at the lotteries, said, “Let me show you how good I am,” and won every single one first try. He came away with a collection of candy, a giant plush pikachu, and a wad of 5000 pyen bills.

“I can’t explain it, I’ve always been lucky like this,” he said, squeezing the pikachu tight. “I was gonna give this guy to you but I really like him!”

“You won it, you keep it,” Red replied. At the corner of his eye, something bright and green — He turned quickly, and saw something moving in the dark area rest area next to that second signpost. He quickly walked over, pulling his mask to the side of his head so he could see better.

“Red…? Hey!”

It looked like a child, hunched under a green poncho, wearing a big ornate mask. They shook as Red approached, so he stopped, and softly asked, “Are you Ogerpon?”

The figure froze.

“Some bonsly told me about you. Can I talk to you?”

Very, very softly, Ogerpon asked, “Minaci?”

Heart pounding, Red nodded. He checked Gold was still far enough away, and carefully pulled down the edge of his glove to show Ogerpon his birthmark. She came closer. The mask gleamed in the festival lights. Red covered his wrist again.

“Do you need help?” Red asked her.

Ogerpon shook her head.

“What really happened?” Red gestured back to the festival. “Why do the humans say you’re bad but the pokémon say you protect them?”

“The humans sided with Pecharunt and those stupid goons,” Ogerpon replied, “I don’t — I’m safer away from them.”

Red frowned. “Then why’d you come to the festival?”

Ogerpon didn’t answer for a long time. Then, she said, “I was friends with one, once. The people of this town didn’t like us unless we wore masks… But Pecharunt’s goons killed him and stole our masks… So I killed them. And the people chased me away and kept our masks.”

“Oh…” Red wasn’t sure what to say, or what to even feel. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter any more,” Ogerpon said.

“I can get you the masks?” Red offered. “I can explain to them, and…”

“Red,” Gold whispered, “Florian’s —”

But Florian had already run over. “Kouhai, what’re you doing in the dark, and why did Carmine tell me I had to be the one asking what you’re doing?” He stared at Ogerpon. “Oh hey, kid, that’s a cool mask.”

Ogerpon tensed. “I have to go.” She started to run to the stairs.

Red called, “Wait,” but she was running.

“Hey, you shouldn’t go up there on your own!” Florian ran after Ogerpon. “Are you okay?”

Ogerpon jumped backwards up the stairs to get away faster, but she stumbled on her landing, and her mask fell. It slid down the stairs and Florian picked it up, holding it out to her.

“C’mon, let us help you,” he said, smiling warmly.

Ogerpon hesitated, and started to take a step towards them. Her face was adorable, orange with enormous starry yellow eyes. She almost came back. And then Carmine came in, calling, “Hey, Florian, Kiki said the funniest thing about Ogre Ousting —”

And Ogerpon was running away again.

“Whoa! Where’s that kid going?!” Carmine cried. “Kid!”

“That wasn’t a kid,” Florian said, stunned. He showed Carmine the mask, before approaching Red. “Hey, you were talking to her, right? That was… the ogre, wasn’t it?”

Red nodded, feeling awful that he’d caused her to lose her last mask.

“Wow,” Florian whispered. “Wait until I tell Kieran. We can return her mask together!”

“No, no, no, none of that,” Carmine said. “If you go telling Kiki about this, he’s gonna run up the mountain after her right now, and he’ll be real mad he didn’t get to meet her, and who knows how dangerous she is.” There were more footsteps approaching. Urgently, Carmine grabbed Florian’s hands, and hissed, “If you don’t want him to hate you forever, don’t tell him what just happened!”

It sounded ridiculous to Red, but Florian frowned, and shoved the mask into his bag.

“What — what’s happenin’ over here?” Kieran asked as he stepped into the rest area. He looked between them all, frowning at what had to be the weirdest atmosphere.

“Nothing you’d be interested in at all, Kiki,” Carmine said flatly. She added a menacing, “Right, boys?”

Red was so uncomfortable, he didn’t know where to look. All he’d wanted was to talk to Ogerpon and find a way to help her. Why did he have to lie about that? Surely Kieran wasn’t so edgy he’d take that the wrong way?

“Oh, I get it,” Kieran muttered, “you were all makin’ fun of me behind my back, weren’t you?”

“What?” Florian took a step towards him. “Kieran, no, it —”

Kieran turned away. “I’m going back to the festival.” He ran off again.

“Argh!” Florian glared at Carmine. “Are you happy now?!” He ran off after Kieran again.

“I’m doing the right thing,” Carmine insisted.

Red looked at Gold. Gold held out his giant pikachu. Red took it, and hugged it tightly, desperately wishing he were as good at talking as Ash was. Maybe then he’d’ve managed to convince Ogerpon to trust him and stay. Instead she only talked to him because of his birthmark and he hadn’t even thought of how to help her.

“Bro, let’s get some shaved ice,” Gold suggested, “get the bitter taste out of our mouths.”

Red nodded, wondering what he’d do without Gold.

Chapter Text

Red planned on taking the mask from Florian and tracking down Ogerpon the next morning, but Florian was already awake and getting ready at sunrise.

“Sorry Red, didn’t mean to wake you,” he said softly. Halfway out the door, he said, “I’m gonna go fix all this, alright?”

Red knew he should tell Florian what Ogerpon said, but he was so overwhelmed the words wouldn’t come out. And somehow, in all the drama with Kieran, Florian seemed to have forgotten Red was talking to Ogerpon.

After getting dressed, Red went to talk to the clefable at the front desk again. She was walking around tidying up some toys, so Red went to help her.

“Thank you,” Clefable said. “Put them in the box over there.”

Nodding, Red did as he was told. “Do children come here a lot?”

“Yes, a lot of the farmers’ children,” Clefable replied. “There’s no babysitters, and not enough people to work the land, so I help out.”

“That’s nice of you.”

Clefable looked really happy, but Red was just stating a fact.

“I saw a pokémon called Ogerpon last night,” Red said, “do you know anything about her?”

“That’s the Ogre. She killed some pokémon, you should stay away from her,” Clefable replied. “Don’t go too far into Oni Mountain, and don’t go to the Crystal Pool. She uses the sacred power there with her masks.”

“I’ll be careful, thank you,” Red replied, wondering how hard it would be to climb to the Crystal Pool. Now to get that mask back… “I heard the Ogre used a mask? But everyone wears masks?”

“I heard she wears them to become stronger and use different abilities.” Clefable turned to the window, looking out towards the shop and bridge. “Up in Kitakami Hall, they have the masks those poor pokémon took from her to save the village.”

So there was more than one mask? Red had to get them.

“Thanks for your warnings,” Red said, “I’ll be careful when I head out.”

He spent a while longer helping the Clefable clean up (enough to not be suspicious) before stepping outside. He was just wearing jeans and a short-sleeve jacket, but Red still felt like he stood out against the locals. Hopefully there’d be enough tourists around the festival to hide him…

Red only made it a couple of steps before he spotted Kieran, standing at an old lady’s market stall, holding something purple and talking to her. Red’s stomach lurched uncomfortably at the sight. Was it worth trying to sneak past? He didn’t know how to talk to edgy teenagers. But Kieran immediately spotted him, so Red awkwardly waved. Kieran replaced the purple thing (it looked like a poisoned pecha fruit?) and walked over to him, scowling.

“Did ya meet the Ogre too?” Kieran demanded.

Baffled, Red nodded, before remembering Carmine had told them to lie. His heart raced as Kieran’s fists clenched, so tightly his gloves squeaked.

“Why…" Kieran muttered, “why’d he lie…?”

Red’s brain couldn’t even form thoughts, forget audible words. He shook his head, because he had no idea. What was the point of lying about Ogerpon more?

Kieran turned like he was about to run away, but unfortunately he just as suddenly turned back. “Florian says ya talk to pokémon. Right? Didya talk to the Ogre?”

Again, Red nodded. Kieran kept staring at him intensely.

“What,” Kieran eventually said, voice shaky, “don’t I even get’a hear that?”

Oh. “She said…” There was something so viscerally off-putting about Kieran, particularly his intense yellow eyes, glaring down at Red like he’d done something horrible. But it would be worse if he couldn’t say anything, right? Kieran would probably hurt him. “The, the Loyal Three…. killed her…”

“Killed her friend. It’s the other way around than the story, I know,” Kieran interrupted. But how did he know that?

Red shook his head. “That’s all she said.”

“So the Ogre told ya that an’ then she ran off? Why’d she bother?”

There was a burning in his right wrist, along the spirals of his birthmark. Red tried to look innocent and shrugged.

“I… I gotta find Florian,” Kieran muttered before running off. Thankfully, deeper into the town, not towards Kitakami Hall.

Red breathed in deeply, hoping the nausea from that terrifying social interaction would pass before he reached the temple. It was still early, so the festival hadn’t started up again yet, but the miko were cleaning the steps to the shrine with the help of stallholders. Red hung back in the shade of a tree, heart racing and stomach churning.

I need to not be seen, Red thought desperately, please make sure nobody sees me…

He thought it so desperately he became almost hyperaware of his body, feeling a strange tingle across the surface of his skin. It was much better to focus on that strange sensation and moving quietly through the area than how the rest of his body felt. There was an old monk holding the door to the shrine open, sweeping out dust, confetti and coins. The little room was extremely small, but Red could see three little statues, and on the wall behind each one, a mask. The masks all had human-ish faces with exaggerated eyes and mouths. One mask was grey and looked like a stone statue head, the middle one was blue and heart-shaped with tears falling from the eyes, and the last one was red and yellow, shaped like a flame. Each had glittering gems embedded in the details.

For the first time, Red was glad to be small for his age. He slipped behind the monk and into the little room, waiting for a moment to see if he’d been caught. The monk was bent over picking out the coins. Quickly as he could, Red pulled each mask from the wall, and shoved them in his backpack. He turned to tiptoe out again and found the monk faced right towards him. For a moment, Red froze, and the old monk narrowed his eyes. The room must’ve been darker than Red thought though, because the monk turned away, and kept counting coins. Red stepped outside into the clearing where he’d met Ogerpon, and ran up the stairs into the mountain base. The further from the temple he got, the less stress he felt, until his skin, heart and stomach all felt completely normal again.

With how easily he’d gotten the masks, it was almost like Red had been invisible. Now he just needed to find Ogerpon.

There were a couple of Trainers walking around the grassy ascent to the mountain, but it was probably fine. Red sent out Aero and Sally. Aero perched on his shoulder with a soft coo, while Sally immediately started stomping off towards a random Trainer.

“Sally, no, we’re doing something else.”

“I would crush your enemies with ease and obtain for you riches,” Sally replied.

“1000 pyen isn’t riches.”

“But the enemy paid in the two ways that hurt most.”

Red didn’t have time to try and explain how Trainer Battles were supposed to work. “I wanna try to find Ogerpon. Did you see her from your Balls last night?”

Aero roared something that almost sounded like a word. Sally muttered something about a green child. Good enough.

“Sally, can I get on your back?”

Sally stomped towards him, nudging Red’s knees with his head so he fell sprawled between his wings. Aero roared angrily, taking to the sky.

“Thanks,” Red muttered, squirming around to sit properly and wrap his arms around Sally’s neck. “Aero, can you go towards the town? And we’ll —”

“Red?”

Shit. Red peered around Sally’s head to see Carmine and Florian walking towards him. Couldn’t it have been Gold? Gold would surely be fine with Red stealing Ogerpon’s masks back.

“What are you doing, kouhai?” Florian demanded.

Red shrugged.

“Because it looks like you’re trying to track down Ogerpon with a level 5 bulbasaur, a baby dinosaur and a pokémon that doesn’t reliably follow your commands,” Florian said.

Red shook his head.

“Don’t lie you brat!” Carmine cried. “You have to be more careful, the mountain is dangerous.”

“Is it?” Sally asked Red, a tension in his voice.

“It’s fine,” Red muttered. But Sally twisted and Red slid off his back. “Sally!”

“I will not risk your safety for that of another child,” Sally growled.

Red jumped to his feet, brushing off his jeans. “It’s just a mountain! You’d be with me the whole time!”

“And if one of the clefairy got mad and attacked you?” Florian asked coolly.

“Fairies,” Sally growled.

Red glanced up at Aero. Well, if he played along for now… He held his arm out for Aero to perch on and started walking back to the town. He felt more than he saw Sally returning to his Ball.

“Hey! You’d better not be planning on going up the other side of the mountain!” Carmine shouted.

“Of course not,” Red lied.

Carmine ran to his side. “You think I don’t know when a brat is lying? Have you seen my brother?!”

Maybe that was a way to distract Carmine. Like how he’d distract his aunt by telling on Ash. “Yes. He was looking for Florian.”

Carmine glanced back at Florian, biting her lip.

“We didn’t go to all the signposts yesterday,” Florian said, “maybe it’s that.”

“Yeah… maybe…”

Red eyed Florian’s bag, wondering how he could get Ogerpon’s last mask back. Unless… “Senpai, why were you on the mountain?”

“Why don’t you mind —?!”

“We were getting crystals to fix Ogerpon’s mask.” Florian smiled widely at Red. “So, don’t worry about it, your senpai’s gonna handle it.” He laughed. “If anything happened to you, I dunno what your cousin would do to me.”

Probably be very nice and understanding about the whole thing, Red didn’t say.

“Do you have the mask?” Red asked.

“My grandpa has it, he’s gonna fix it right up for poor Ogerpon,” Carmine explained. “Our family is a long line of mask makers, and my great-times-ten grandpa made the original masks.”

She was bragging like it was something she did.

“Fine.” Red knew how to sound like he was giving up. He kept his head down and dragged his feet all the way back to the Community Centre. It was a little worrying to see Gold talking animatedly to Kieran outside, but mostly because they seemed to be making each other laugh. Red didn’t make Gold laugh. What did it say that even someone as emo as Kieran could?

“Hey!” Florian ran ahead. His voice sounded strained as he asked, “What’re you two talking about?”

Gold’s grin turned cruel. “Nemona-senpai.”

“What?! W-why would you —?!”

“School Champions in general,” Kieran corrected. “I didn’ know your school had those too.” He raised his eyebrows at Florian. “Ain’t we goin’ to the last signpost?”

Florian nodded. “Y-yeah, I —”

“No, Kiki, Florian’s hanging with me today,” Carmine interrupted. “It’s your turn with the brats.”

“Sis, Gold was just tellin’ me y’all went to all three signposts yesterday,” Kieran replied, “unless there’s somethin’ else goin’ on?”

“Kieran —”

“Why you gotta talk back, Kiki?! I said it’s your turn babysitting, now scram!”

Carmine stomped off, dragging Florian behind her as he reached pathetically for Kieran.

“…fine,” Kieran grumbled. “We’re goin’ to the Wisteria Pond.”

Red wished there was a way to subtly ask Gold what his read on Kieran was. Then he remembered smartphones exist. He pulled out his phone and found Gold’s number.

What do you think of Kieran?

Holding up his phone slightly, Red stared at Gold until it clicked and he checked his. They kept walking behind Kieran as they texted quickly.

red bro is this really the first thing you text me about

I stole Ogerpon’s masks from the temple.
Will he be mad or will he help me give them back to Ogerpon?

Gold gasped and spluttered. Kieran glanced back at him, eyes narrowed.

“A-a real, um, yanma!” Gold cried, pointing at it like he didn’t have the world’s most obvious Johto accent. “I never seen one before!”

DUDE ARE YOU FOR REAL

They’re hers and she didn’t do anything wrong.

okay well no he won’t care

he’s actually really nice

gave me good tips for raising my son Togebro right

but back to your THEFT

how did you even do that???

Being quiet is helpful sometimes.

Gold snorted and shoved his phone away. He ran ahead to catch up to Kieran. “Hey, o’nii-chan, why’s your sister like that?”

“Something about our dead parents.” Kieran’s voice was so sulky. Red ran closer too to better hear him. “Gramps says I gotta be patient ‘cos she’s just lookin’ out for me.”

“Well, my big brother never gets mad, but he almost never talks to me at school,” Gold said. “But I dunno if that’s better.”

“Sis’d have to leave me alone for me to find out,” Kieran muttered. He asked Red, “What’s Ash Ketchum like?”

Red quickly looked away. He was extra uncomfortable talking about Ash with Kieran, but he wasn’t sure why. “Nice.”

“He can’t be around a lot though?”

Red shook his head. “But… birthdays… and New Years…”

“Didya learn to battle from him?”

Again, Red shook his head. “M-my aunt, doesn’t…” He couldn’t say anything else. And he must’ve mumbled it because Kieran asked what he’d said.

“Red’s not very good at talking to people,” Gold explained. It was embarrassing to hear. “He’s only been in Pallet Town since his moms died and his aunt’s super overprotective.”

Red’s face felt hot. He stared at Gold, wondering why he knew all that.

“Dude,” Gold sighed, “your aunt called the school ‘cos you didn’t text her back once.”

Kieran looked extremely sympathetic. “Sis’d do that if I had a smartphone… She’d be breakin’ into my dorm if I don’t text her back for five mins…”

It was so easy to imagine, down to the level of rage on Carmine’s face, that Red couldn’t help laughing.

“O’nii-chan, do you get private dorms at Blueberry Academy?!” Gold cried. “Lucky! Only the rich kids get them at Sagrada Academy! Except Florian, he’s the worst rich kid, he told me he’d only been on private jets before starting at our school, but he’s slumming it as the head of our dorm.”

“Oh, yeah.” Kieran glanced down, looking sadder now they were talking about Florian. “He said he gave his dorm room to Scarlet so she could go to school. Their dad wasn’t gonna pay for her to go, an’ her mom couldn’t afford it.”

“What?!” Gold cried. “I was judging him for slumming it and he’s being pure-hearted in support of his disowned sister?!”

Kieran sighed like it agonised him to admit, “Yeah… he’s amazing…”

It didn’t seem that amazing to Red. All Florian was giving up was some privacy. Who wouldn’t give that up for their family?

Gold was staring at Red pointedly. It took Red a moment to remember. He glanced around, making sure they were far enough from the town and the apple orchards. Nobody would reasonably be able to see them, he couldn’t see any pokémon in the sky… He stopped walking and waited for Kieran to do so too.

“What’s up?” Kieran asked, turning to look back at Red with a hand on his hip. “Y’all need a break?”

Red opened his bag and pulled out the blue mask. Kieran inhaled sharply.

“Ogerpon deserves the masks back,” he said. “They’re all she has left.”

Kieran reached out, and Red put the mask in his hand, watching closely as he ran his fingers over it with reverence, tracing the crystal tear drops.

“That’s what she said to you?” Kieran asked.

Red shook his head. “It’s what I thought.”

“Gramps knew all along.” Kieran sounded angry. “He said I ain’t ready to know the truth, but he told Carmine and Florian this mornin’.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Gold asked, looking between them.

“The myth about the Ogre bein’ a vicious monster is a lie,” Kieran said. “The village outcast her ‘cos she was different, an’ then the Lousy Three pokémon killed her friend an’ stole their masks, so she killed them for hurtin’ an’ her friend.” He clenched the fist not holding the mask, his leather glove squeaking. “Three weaklings teamin’ up like that and not even winnin’… And they get remembered as the heroes? What a joke.”

“Uh —” Gold looked alarmed, but Red wasn’t sure why. Kieran was right, even if he personally would’ve focused more on the whole murdered friend thing. “O’nii-chan, why’d your Gramps keep that a secret?”

“Our great-great-great-whatever grandpa tried tellin’ people at the time, an’ they banished him.” Kieran’s eyes narrowed, and his fist uncurled, but he started tapping his fingers against his thigh thoughtfully. “But I reckon… comin’ from me or Carmine, an’ all the old folks… Plus, I mean, it’s the truth, ain’t it?” He handed the mask back to Red. “I’ll get the other one. Then we can return ‘em all to the Ogre.”

Red nodded.

“Wait for me by the Wisteria Pond.” Kieran ran off.

“Uh, that was…”

Red sent out Aero, Saur and Sally before Gold could finish his thought. “Can you help us find Ogerpon?”

Sally growled, “There are fairies on the mountain.”

“I won’t go up there, you just have to fly around for a look.” Sally still looked sceptical. “Or even just tell some wild pokémon to pass on to Ogerpon that I have her masks and I’m waiting for her by the Wisteria Pond.”

“Baby, if this is some trick…”

Red shook his head. “I’ll wait.” He gestured to Saur. “And she’ll protect me.”

“That’s right,” Saur declared.

Sally was clearly thinking it through, but he had to know that if he didn’t agree to this, Red would just go up the mountain himself. He huffed angrily and turned away, getting a running start before flying. Red grinned, and turned back to Gold. “Let’s get to that Wisteria Pond.”

“You’re a little scary when you’ve got a goal,” Gold said. “I’m gonna have to watch out, aren’t I?”

Red pretended he had no idea what Gold meant.

They made it to the Wisteria Pond quickly. Saur wanted to battle all the wild pokémon, but instead Red told them the same message: He had Ogerpon’s masks and he would wait for her by the pond. Gold flopped down on the grass, groaning, “Now we hurry up and wait.”

Red sat next to him, and pulled Saur into his lap so he could massage her bulb. Aero ended up perched on his head. Pretty soon he’d be too heavy to do that.

“So…”

Red glanced at Gold.

“Red, there’s somethin’ I’ve been meanin’ to ask you.” Gold was definitely trying to keep his tone reassuring, but Red’s heart started racing to the same pace as his mind speculating. “You don’t gotta answer but just lemme ask, yeah?”

That was extremely scary, but Red wanted to trust Gold, so he braced himself and said, “Okay.”

“It’s just, the way you are when people are talkin’… You don’t speak Dainisan, do you?”

Of all the things Gold could’ve asked, Red hadn’t expected that.

“‘Cos I noticed, when you talk to pokémon, you’re not making the same noises they make, you just talk normally,” Gold babbled, “and you always understand what people say when we’re speakin’ Dainisan but you don’t ever speak it. Even when it’d be super useful, like when you’re stealing masks and scheming.”

Red hadn’t thought about it. He didn’t want to think about his magic too much, because he didn’t want to be their stupid Solar Demi-God. But, also… He’d spent months being constantly confused. And so far, Gold had been kind of weird, but he’d never done anything to hurt Red. He’d actually tried really hard to look after Red.

So Red admitted, “I didn’t know dainisa existed until three months ago.”

Gold sat up, gasping, “What?!”

“My aunt and cousin didn’t tell me.” For some reason, Red was shaking. “They said… to keep me safe.”

“That’s insane.” Gold’s hand clasped Red’s. “You know that’s insane, right?”

Red nodded. He focused on the warmth of Saur on his lap. It was easier thank thinking about just how insane it was.

“How can you be safe from stuff you don’t know anything about?” Gold cried. “And your moms died fighting Giovanni, and, you don’t even know why?!”

Red shook his head.

“That… that pisses me off so bad!” Gold threw his hands out. Red startled, but stopped himself, hands maybe gripping Saur too tightly, Aero’s clawed feet stepping down onto his shoulder for more stability. “Red, I thought your cousin was cooler than this.”

“Me too,” Red muttered. Seeing Gold be so angry on his behalf made him remember how angry he’d gotten at Aunt Delia the night before he left, and how hard it was to message her, and how he couldn’t message Ash either, and, maybe he was right to be angry. Maybe Gold too was thinking, No wonder I freeze up when people ask about Ash.

Somehow, imagining Gold was thinking the same thing made it feel less embarrassing. He patted Saur on the bulb and Aero on the foot.

“Okay, leave it to me.” Gold nodded with determination. “I was gonna offer to teach you Dainisan on the D-L but I can teach you everything I know.”

This would be a good opportunity to tell Gold the rest of it. To just come clean about everything. He may not even need to say anything. Gold said he was Venus Guided, which had something to do with the Sun, so he’d probably take one look at Red’s wrist and know, just like Ogerpon had. But…

But wasn’t it embarrassing enough how little he knew, without Red also being their damn Solar demi-god?

“Carmine, she mentioned a war,” Red said instead, “what was that about?”

“Okay, um.” Gold pulled his cap off and started playing with it. Was he that stressed? “Giovanni wanted dainisa to exist openly and rule the world. Humans didn’t like that. I mean, he has me in the first half, not gonna lie, but ruling the world? Gross.” Gold sighed heavily. “So, Team Rocket started killing a bunch of people, a bunch of people started killing dainisa back, Giovanni personally killed both our parents, your parents managed to defeat him though, and King Wallace used his magic to make all the humans forget it ever happened and that’s why he’s king now.”

“Wallace, as in —” Red dug put his phone and found a picture online. The green-haired man was posing dramatically in a colourful suit with his milotic in Sootopolis. “— this guy?”

“Uh-huh,” Gold agreed, “he’s like. A siren, they call it? He can control people with music. Magical music.”

Red scrolled down his Bulbapedia page. “So, these albums he’s released…”

“Uh-huh.”

“Isn’t that kinda… mind control.. and bad?”

“I guess? But some governments were trying to round us up and put us in camps,” Gold replied, “so I think it’s okay.”

Red closed the page. “Yeah. You’re right.”

But it was scary to think there was a Champion out there who was really famous and could make people do whatever he wanted.

“D’ya know what Giovanni’s magic is?”

Gold winced. “Yeah. He had like. Soul magic.”

“Soul magic…”

“Yeah he um.” Gold pulled his cap back on. “He ripped our parents’ souls out, dude.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

Red stared at the grass, feeling the wind pick up. He looked at Gold. Was he getting so emotional he was changing the weather?

“No, man, that’s not me,” Gold said, like he was reading Red’s mind. “I gotta be like. Fully in the zone to do anything.”

“Oh.” Red felt like he had to say, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault you don’t know this. I want Ash Ketchum himself to apologise to me.”

Red couldn’t help laughing. “He would.”

Gold rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes. Red pretended not to notice. “I just — why wouldn’t they tell you?”

Red shrugged.

“Well, I guess now you do,” Gold sighed. “Isn’t it nice to know a lot? And a little bit not.”

“I’m still sorry,” Red mumbled. “You shouldn’t have to…”

“It’s fine,” Gold sighed. “You kinda, relive this stuff a lot, when you’re living with your dead mom’s girlfriend and everyone’s at least half an orphan.”

Red still felt bad.

“Okay!” Gold sniffed. “Let’s start with ‘thank you’, that’s ‘mizlea‘.”

“Mizlea,” Red repeated.

“You’re welcome! Leazici!”

Gold ran Red through a bunch of basic phrases and sentences while they waited for Ogerpon. It was easier than Red thought, but a lot to remember all at once. Aero quickly got bored and started skimming the surface of the lake with his feet. Red kept one eye on him and the other on Gold. At least Gold wasn’t upset anymore, and wasn’t making fun of Red for not knowing stuff. Maybe when they got back to school, Red would tell the twins too. White probably would make fun of him, but she’d also beat up anyone else who did.

There was a loud rustling in the long grass. Red jumped to his feet, turning around, still holding Saur in his arms. But it wasn’t Ogerpon he saw. It was a black monkey, about a metre tall, with a blue face and a purple chain tied around its head like a hachimaki.

“Who’re you?” Red asked. He let Saur leap from his arms and stand between him and the monkey.

The monkey chuckled. Gold scrambled to his feet next to Red, handing him his backpack. The masks. Right.

“Give me the masks, before it’s too late,” the monkey said.

Red quickly recalled Aero. He glanced to the sky. No sign of Sally.

“C’mon kid,” the monkey urged, “don’t’cha know the Legendary Hero Munkidori when ya see him?”

Red shook his head.

“Heh, must be an outsider.” Munkidori chuckled to himself. “Your little bulbasaur isn’t going to do much to me, so why don’t you hand over the masks and scram, see?”

Again, Red shook his head.

“Alright kid, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Munkidori extended his arms towards Red, and his blue hands started to glow —

A blast of wind knocked Munkidori off his feet.

“C’mon!” Gold cried, grabbing Red’s arm.

Red quickly recalled Saur and ran with Gold. Gold could run so much faster, but he didn’t let go of Red’s arm. Not even when Munkidori came after them, shouting about what he’d do to them when he caught them. They made it into the barren rocky area. Red almost slipped on the different terrain. Gold just pulled his arm harder and kept going.

“G-go on ahead,” Red suggested.

“Shut up and keep running!” Gold shouted.

Where are all the bonsly and sudowoodo?, Red wondered. Where’s Sally? Sally always saves me.

“There, behind that —” Gold shoved Red behind one of the enormous rock pillars. He turned to rapidly approaching monkey, his hands and eyes glowing with a silvery-blue light as he wove them through the air. He threw his hands out towards Munkidori, and the pokémon was blasted back like in a wind tunnel. Munkidori shrieked loudly as he flew spiralling through the air, landing in the Wisteria Pond with an enormous splash. Gold collapsed to his knees, panting heavily.

“Shit,” he said, “I thought I could do more.”

“I-it’s fine,” Red said, “you’re amaz—”

A loud oafish laugh came from the top of the pillar. “Easy shit, smart guy!”

The ground shook as a pokémon landed in front of them. He was huge, a black and green bipedal dog that looked stronger than even a bewear or machamp, with a purple chain wrapped around his neck like a scarf. The dog sneered, slamming one fist into his palm like a bully, but with enough force to make Red flinch.

“Youse the one speakin’ our language, kid?”

Red pulled Gold further from the pokémon, keeping his hand as tight on Gold’s arms as Gold’s remained on his. He didn’t seem to be able to stand, and his eyes kept slipping closed. He was that tired? That’s what using magic did to most dainisa?! Why bother! And if Red was so good at magic, why couldn’t he do anything? Why couldn’t he burn this pokémon, or, make Gold feel better somehow, or —

All he could do was stall. Maybe Ogerpon was close. Maybe Sally was right above him.

“W-why’re you doing this?” Red demanded.

“Oh, ol’ Okidogi ain’t a bad guy kid,” the pokémon said, “just hand over them masks and nobody’s gotta get deadified.”

Gold stumbled to his feet beside Red. Red was flooded with relief.

“Oh-ho!” Okidogi guffawed, tossing his head back with laughter, pointing at — Red’s hand was glowing with a very faint golden light. He quickly pulled away from Gold, hoping he hadn’t seen it, or was too out of it to notice. But Okidogi’s sneer only grew when he looked at Red again. “Youse back, Minaci?”

Red shook his head.

Okidogi threw his head back and guffawed again. “No wonder youse helpin’ that bitch Ogre out, youse —”

A dark grey bat pokémon slammed into Okidogi, knocking him back several paces. Red glanced up in time to hear Sally shouting, “I’m coming baby!” as he swooped down. He was still far from the ground when a person jumped from his back, landing between Red, Gold and where the bat pokémon was attacking Okidogi. Kieran looked over his shoulder at them as he straightened up, yellow eyes sharp, and all of a sudden Red understood why Florian was so obsessed.

“Gliscor, back to me,” Kieran ordered. The bat pokémon flew back to Kieran’s side, hovering in the air, tail swishing in anticipation.

“O’nii-chan,” Gold gasped, “holy shit.”

Kieran’s eyes narrowed further as Sally landed in front of Red, growling at Okidogi.

“What’re you thinkin’, sendin’ away your only strong pokémon?!” Kieran shouted. “You’re lucky you got magic to fight ‘em with!”

Sally took a step towards Okidogi. “You threatened the baby.”

“Sally,” Red started.

“Forget it! I’ve got this!” Kieran sent his gliscor forward again. “Get outta here already!”

“But —”

“Get outta here so you’re not holdin’ me back!”

Red glanced at Gold, still struggling to stay on his feet. It felt wrong, but — But Kieran was right. Red was too weak to help. He’d almost gotten himself and Gold killed. He pulled Gold closer and called Sally over.

“Can you carry us both?” he asked.

Okidogi shouted, “Why’re you gettin’ in my way?!”

Sally growled, and Red scrambled onto his back, making sure Gold was sitting in front of him, holding onto Sally’s neck. He wrapped his own arms around Gold’s waist, hooking his legs around Sally’s back legs.

“Youse got the boss all over ya and youse ain’t helping us out?!” Okidogi hissed, stomping towards Kieran. “This some kinda trick?!”

Red couldn’t wonder what Okidogi was talking about. He needed to get Gold out of there. He needed to trust that Okidogi was stupid and Kieran was a good person.

Gold shouted with surprise as Sally started running and leapt into the sky.

“OI!” Okidogi roared after them. “YOUSE GET BACK HERE MINACI! OKIDOGI WANTS YOUR POWER!”

Red buried his face in Gold’s shoulder, fighting the urge to look back, and trying to keep it together. He couldn’t start shaking. He couldn’t start crying. This was his fault. He didn’t have the right to be upset when it was his fault.

Why had he thought pokémon would never hurt him?

“S-Sally, f-find Ogerpon, or, or, Fl-Florian.”

He didn’t have to say anything. Sally descended into a grassy ledge on Oni Mountain, past the waterfall, where Florian was standing with Ogerpon, looking frantic.

“What happened?” Florian demanded. “Where’s Kieran?”

Gold tapped Red’s arms and slid off Sally’s back. He took a few steps towards Florian and collapsed again. “Aw, shit.”

Red jumped down and ran to his side. How did he do that thing before? His hands started to shake as he remembered Okidogi screaming ‘Minaci’ after him.

“I used too much magic,” Gold explained. “A fuckin’, psychic monkey was after us? And then a psycho buff dog.”

“Munkidori and Okidogi,” Red mumbled. “I… I thought I could… I’m sorry.”

“They were just here attacking Ogerpon,” Florian said. Red glanced at her. She was clutching the back of Florian’s shirt, peering cautiously around at them with one eye. “Why did they go after you? And why did you tell Kieran to steal that mask?”

Red sat down in front of Sally, pulling his backpack off. Sally immediately mumbled, “Baby” and started nuzzling his head into Red’s back. He swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, and pulled out the three masks he’d stolen.

“Oh,” Florian said.

Ogerpon shouted and bounced with excitement, running forward to pick up the flame mask. She put it on and, in a flash of light, her cloak turned red.

Florian sighed and walked over to Gold, crouching down in front of him. “You okay? You haven’t passed out or anything?”

Gold shook his head. “I thought I was gonna but then Okidogi attacked us and I guess the adrenalin fixed me!”

“That’s not how it works at all,” Florian replied, “but if you’re okay…” He stood up, looking down the mountain. “Kieran just took off with Sally. Carmine ran off to find him. He’s, gonna be fine, right?”

Red remembered the look in Kieran’s eyes, and nodded.

Florian bit his lip and looked away.

Ogerpon gestured to Red, stepping from leg to leg in excitement. He glanced at Gold, then turned around to Sally, before walking over to Ogerpon. She took his hand and led him into a little cave, setting the fiery mask down by the entrance. There were paintings on the wall, crude and faded, of masks, of a big person and a little hunched figure, of gemstones, and a spiralling sun. Ogerpon led him to this one, pointing at it enthusiastically.

Red didn’t know what to say. She looked so happy, and he’d never felt more useless.

“I knew you before,” Ogerpon said, “long ago, when you were someone else.”

“Oh.”

Ogerpon was smiling at him. “You went to Hisui.”

There was a buzzing at the back of Red’s skull, a soft voice whispering words he couldn’t quite hear, and a familiar sensation of long hair being blown in his face by the constantly changing winds. What was she saying?

“The man in the Teal Mask saved me,” he whispered, “when I ran away because I didn’t want to go with Lord Berlitz.”

“You were scared of me.” Ogerpon said it like it had disappointed her for a hundred years. “I’m glad you’re not now.”

“I can’t imagine being scared of you,” Red admitted, “I dunno why…”

The name faded before he could speak it.

“I want to go somewhere else.” Ogerpon touched the painting of the man. “We used to go so many places together.” She looked over at Red. “Can I trust the one with the purple eyes?”

“Sure, but…” There wasn’t a nice way to phrase it. “Why him?”

Ogerpon’s eyes were filled with stars. “I’ve never had a more delicious sandwich.”

Red couldn’t help laughing. “His friend taught him.”

But Ogerpon didn’t seem to mind.

They stepped out of the cave. Red went quickly to Sally’s side before he’d stomp over to him, running his fingers along his snout, and letting him nibble on them.

“I’m okay,” Red mumbled.

“You’re reckless and stupid,” Sally said, “just like your mother.”

Red asked Gold, “Are you okay?”

Gold gave a Florian-style thumbs up with all the mockery in his heart. “I rasengan’d the hell outta that monkey, I’m good bro.”

Ogerpon was cheerfully showing off her masks to Florian, who kept glancing to the walkway when she wasn’t looking. Red wanted to run off to find Kieran, but Sally wasn’t gonna let that happen, and he couldn’t go on his own. He’d already messed things up enough. And Carmine wasn’t around, she had to be helping Kieran. She wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

But, also, why had Okidogi looked at Kieran and mentioned a boss…? He should’ve asked her about it while they were alone, but he was so overwhelmed by her bringing up his past life. Now he’d have to interrupt her while she looked so happy.

“Ogerpon,” he called, “can I ask you something?”

Ogerpon ran over to him. She side-eyed Gold, but asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Um. I’m sorry, but.” He glanced away from her smiling face. “Okidogi said something about a boss?”

Ogerpon quivered. “Pecharunt. A mind-controlling jealous jerk.”

“What’s Pecharunt look like?”

“Tiny. Like a purple fruit.” Her eyes flashed with rage. “Squishable.” She added, “Nobody’s seen Pecharunt for years, but sometimes they find mochi or chains she made.”

“Mochi…?”

Ogerpon nodded with a scowl that definitely didn’t belong on her cute little face. “She feeds people mochi she made and forces them to do things… Horrible things…”

“So, Okidogi and them ate mochi and —”

“No, they’re just jerks.”

Why had Okidogi looked at Kieran and mentioned Pecharunt? Obviously Red couldn’t ask Ogerpon her opinion. She looked ready to start smashing things with her cudgel just speaking about Pecharunt.

“Red, if you and Sally are keeping an eye on Gold and Ogerpon,” Florian started walking backwards down the track, “I’ll go help Kieran and —”

“I ain’t need help.”

Ogerpon ran back to Florian’s side as Kieran walked into the clearing, Carmine right behind him. They both looked… the same as normal.

Carmine chuckled. “Don’t look so surprised, Red! You’re looking at two of the best battlers in Blueberry Academy. Those Lousy Three ain’t got nuthin’ on Kiki ‘n’ me.”

The corners of Red’s eyes were burning. He wiped at them. Tears started flowing. Dammit. And his heart was tight and painful, and his stomach felt awful again, and his throat was starting to burn, and he just had to say, “I’m sorry.”

Carmine’s hand patted him on the head. “Aw, c’mon, you were just trying to help Ogerpon.”

Red nodded. How pathetic, he thought, Ash never would’ve cried over this.

“Thanks us by gettin’ stronger so you’re not in that situation again,” Kieran said.

“Kiki, c’mon,” Carmine sighed. She patted Red on the head one more time before walking over to Gold. “Here, I got this for you.” She handed him a bottle of a super sugary sports drink. “It’s not the best but you probably need the sugar.”

“Cheers, nee-chan.” Gold cracked open the bottle and started drinking. Red sat by his side, feeling an overwhelming need to apologise again. He bit his lip to keep it from slipping out.

“Fezandipiti,” Red tried to ask.

“That vicious bird attacked me on my way out to Kiki!” Carmine cried. “I took it down no problem, of course.” She tossed her hair. “But Kiki had already beat Okidogi and Munkidori!”

“Well, Gliscor’s a Ground-Type,” Kieran muttered.

“And, get this, he was telling the village the truth about Ogerpon, and everyone believed him.”

“Really?” Gold asked. “O’nii-chan, that’s so cool!”

Kieran mumbled, “It was just, worth tryin’.”

Carmine grinned widely at Ogerpon. “Ogerpon! You go village again! It okay!”

Ogerpon hid further behind Florian. Florian looked down at her and softly said, “You can go back to the village. Thanks to Kieran.”

“One more thing for you, dear Ogre.”

Kieran approached Ogerpon, holding out the Teal Mask. Ogerpon peered around Florian at him, shaking.

“It’s, your last mask.” Kieran held it out further. “Don’t… don’t’cha want it…?”

But Ogerpon stayed hidden behind Florian.

“Okay.” Kieran shoved the mask roughly into Florian’s arms. “That’s — that’s totally fine. Yep.”

“She’s just shy.” There was a hint of desperation in Florian’s voice. “She knows you’re from the village, and I’m obviously not, so…” He turned to Ogerpon, handing her the mask with a wide smile.

Kieran’s fists clenched, head bowed. “Ya gonna catch her, Florian?”

Florian turned to look at Kieran. “What?”

“Only if she’s gonna leave here, I… I…” Kieran suddenly shouted, “I want Ogerpon to come with me!”

“Kiki, don’t be —”

“Shut it, sis!”

“Excuse me?!”

Kieran pulled out a PokéBall. “I’m the one who saved the kids… I’m the one who told the village the truth, even though you all lied to me ‘n’ made me an outcast… An’ she still won’t even look at me?!”

Red climbed to his feet, Gold doing the same next to him. He gestured for Sally to return to his Ball and was surprised when he did despite the growing tension.

“She doesn’t owe you anything, Kieran,” Florian snapped. Red had never seen Florian look so angry before.

“It ain’t about that!” Kieran shouted. “I get it, you’re a cool magical prince from the richest family in the world, you’re impossible not to love, I’m just, a weak half-breed with a hick accent, but I’m — I’m —”

“That’s not how I see you!” Florian cried. “And it’s not how she’d see you, if she got to know you!”

“She ain’t gonna if you both leave!”

Ogerpon was stepping backwards towards her cave, shaking harder than Red had ever seen her shake, softly saying, “There’s something wrong with him.”

“What?”

Ogerpon stared at Red, quivering intensifying.

“What’s wrong with him?” Red asked, and then realised he really shouldn’t have. Gold had said, he spoke to pokémon in the same languages he always spoke. Kieran’s head whipped in his direction, eyes wide with tears and distress.

“He smells.” Ogerpon bowed her head further away. “Like Pecharunt.”

“What did she say?” Kieran demanded.

Red was shaking too now. “Pe… Pecharunt…” He glanced at Gold, but Gold couldn’t help. He hadn’t told anyone about Pecharunt. He tried harder but words couldn’t come out. They couldn’t even come to his mind. All he could see was the furious anger deep in Kieran’s eyes.

“She’s probably just saying you’re upset Kiki,” Carmine said in a soft, soothing voice. “Come on, don’t do this, I know you’re upset, I know how much you love Ogerpon, but you have to think about her feelings and stop being such a little brat.”

Maybe if she’d kept it up, it would’ve worked. Instead, Kieran turned back to Florian, holding out his PokéBall again.

“We’re battling,” Kieran hissed.

“I’m not battling over her, she’s got her own free will, she needs to make her own choices.” Florian crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s just talk it out, Kieran.”

“No, we’re battling, you’re not getting out of this.”

“I’m not treating her like a prize!” Florian shouted.

“Neither am I!” Kieran’s fists were shaking. “I’m proving I’m strong too!”

“Strong?” Florian laughed bitterly. “Fine. It’ll be the same outcome it always is, but if this is the only way you know how to deal with your damn feelings…” He sent out his clodsire.

Kieran sent out his poliwrath. “I got this,” he mumbled, “I got this.”

He did not got this.

Florian had gushed before about how smart Kieran was. Red could see what he meant. Kieran analysed the physical terrain and used it to his advantage, laying traps. He knew exactly how to order his pokémon to resist attacks. He spotted weak points immediately and went for them full power. But his pokémon simply weren’t as strong as Florian’s. Florian had been tutored by the two best battlers in the school. He hung out with League Champions. And the gap between their strength was too much.

It was exactly like Florian had said. Kieran would’ve beaten him with a sentret, if Florian’s pokémon weren’t over-levelled.

Kieran’s last pokémon fell, and he recalled it with a frustrated growl.

“Can we talk about this now?” Florian asked, recalling his armarouge.

Kieran’s head was bowed. He muttered, “Congratulations.”

“What? Kieran, I’m not hap—”

He whispered very softly, “Why… Why can’t I be like you…?”

Maybe if it’d been a friendly battle, Red would’ve told Kieran his style reminded him of Cynthia. It’d mean a lot, right, coming from her son? Enough to undo whatever the hell was wrong with Kieran, maybe?

“Kieran,” Florian pleaded, “c’mon.”

Kieran started walking away without looking at any of them. He made it several steps before Florian reached out, hands glowing purple, and Kieran froze, glowing with the same light. He looked terrified.

“Sorry!” Florian cried. The light faded. “I didn’t mean to, I just, I don’t want you to leave, Kieran, please —”

Kieran ran off.

“Why would you do that?!” Carmine cried. “Using magic on him?!”

“It’s, it’s just telekinesis, I didn’t hurt him, I, I didn’t mean to!”

“Don’t you get how that’s worse?! You should’ve just let him go!” Carmine gestured after Kieran. “He’s just gotta cry it out and be a baby for a bit, then he’ll be fine!”

Florian buried his face in his hands.

Red glanced at Gold. Gold looked as upset as he felt.

“Hey, Carmine, I don’t think that was actually about Ogerpon,” Gold said. “Maybe you should talk to him. Point out he literally saved me and Red’s lives?”

Carmine shook her head. “He’s gotta get his anger out first. I’ll, I’ll do that tonight.” She wiped her eyes and turned to Florian. “Hey, sorry for shouting like that, but.”

“But it was a really dumb thing to do.” Florian looked up at Carmine, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I’m not trying to rub it in, I think Kieran’s the best, I…” He wiped his eyes. “I just need look out for Ogerpon too.”

“I know,” Carmine said. “Kiki’ll realise too. It’s gonna be okay.”

Florian turned to Ogerpon’s cave with a weak smile. “Hey, Ogerpon… Sorry if we scared you…”

Ogerpon peered out, the Teal Mask in place. “Is he gone?”

“It’s fine,” Florian said. He reached out his hand to her, and Ogerpon took it.

Red muttered, “She told me she wants to go with you. A while back.”

Was it only forty minutes ago? It felt like a month ago. He was so, so tired.

“Yeah,” Florian said with a strained smile, “I had a feeling she did.”

Red wasn’t sure if any of them slept that night. The Mayor personally invited Ogerpon to come to the festival of masks that night for a formal apology. Florian took her with a wide smile while Red and Gold lay on the bottom bunk together, playing a game on Gold’s phone. You had to make cosy campsites for weird mascot-looking creatures that were halfway between humans and pokémon. Red liked the grumpy octillery-looking one, Octavian. Gold liked the white purrloin-looking one in a sentai helmet, Kid Cat. When Red started nodding off, he climbed back up to the top bunk, and couldn’t sleep all night.

They had to leave the next morning. It was a shame. Red didn’t want his last impressions of Mossui Town to be scary and sad. Even walking around the apple orchards with Carmine had been fun.

When they gathered early the next morning, Briar was babbling excitedly about Tera energy, Jacq was quietly commending Florian on his help with Ogerpon while she held his hand, and it seemed like all the locals he’d never spoke to had to come over and say something about how nice it’d been having them visit.

“Most people come to festival of an evenin’ ‘n’ go on to the city to stay,” five different people explained to him, “so it’s nice seein’ some young outsiders havin’ an interest.”

“That’s so nice of you to say,” Florian told all five of them with a wide smile, “I’ll be back, for sure! Ogerpon, too!”

Red kept looking around, but it wasn’t until about ten minutes before the bus came that Carmine walked over. Her smile was way less convincing than Florian’s.

“Hey,” she said, not looking at Florian. “Um. I tried, but, my brother’s not feeling well, so…”

“I can go to him,” Florian said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Well…” Florian reached into his pocket. “What’s his phone number? I’ll call him, or, or I’ll text him, I’ll —”

“He doesn’t have one, remember?” Carmined sighed. “Not until he’s 17.”

Florian dropped his hands by his side and nodded.

“Listen, I’m sorry for trying to get in between you two,” Carmine said, “it’s just, Kiki’s so insecure about a lot of things, and, well, they’re all things you have. I didn’t want it to go this way, but, I had a feeling.” She quickly clarified, “Because of Kiki! He’s too young for this kinda thing. Actually, you probably are too, what were you doing, bragging about Wallace’s private estate?”

Florian looked down with a laugh. “Normally that’s all people like about me.”

“Jeez, c’mon.” Carmine toyed with the hair hanging into her face. “You’re a sweet kid when you’re not bragging.” She glanced around at all of them. “I don’t like when outsiders come here. They don’t get what’s special about this place except the Festival. And people like the Mayor just wanna turn our home into a tourist trap without bothering to get anyone to understand or care about the history and…” She smiled warmly. “You all cared so much, you helped set things straight, and brought Ogerpon closure.” Amazingly, Carmine dropped her hands to her sides, and bowed deeply. “Thank you very much for everything.”

“Aww, nee-chan!” Gold cried. “You didn’t have to say all that!” He threw his arms around her as Carmine stood up straight. “Come to our school some time, okay?!”

“I’m graduating soon, I won’t have time,” Carmine replied, “but hey, this isn’t goodbye, you hear me? You kids’d better keep in touch. I’m your mentor now and someday we’re gonna have a proper battle.” She locked eyes with Red. “Got it?”

Red shrugged.

“Urgh! Kid! Be more respectful to your beautiful teacher!”

Red looked around.

“Red!”

Gold stepped back, peering up at her. “What about me, nee-chan?” He pointed at himself. “Aren’t you gonna teach me?”

“You’re beyond teaching,” Carmine snapped.

“Aww, nee-chan, why’re you back to bein’ so cruel?!”

“You started it, brat!”

They quickly traded phone numbers. Carmine already had Red’s school email, but he liked getting a cute cartoon morpeko from her. When the bus pulled up, Carmine again reiterated, “This is not goodbye, okay?"

It still felt like it was.

On the bus, Florian sat out the back, staring out the rear window, Ogerpon by his side, swinging her legs. Gold pulled Red to a seat closer to the front, but it was hard not to glance back at Florian. For the first time that day, he wasn’t smiling at all. The smaller the town got behind them, the sadder he looked. Maybe he’d been hoping Kieran would show up, even beyond the point where he’d be able to talk to him.

“Hey, Red?”

He turned to look at Gold.

“I was thinking, maybe we should give N another chance.” Gold bit his lip, frowning thoughtfully. “There’s… gotta be something more there. Right?”

Red remembered the way N’s fists clenched before he started insulting Ash. He remembered Kieran, head bowed, fists clenched, asking him if he’d seen Ogerpon too. The light in Kieran’s eyes when he talked about Ogerpon and strength was so similar to N’s when he talked about ‘humanisation’.

And he’d never figured out why Ogerpon said Kieran smelt like Pecharunt.

“Yeah,” Red agreed, “there’s something going on there.”

Gold threw an arm around Red’s shoulders and pulled him into a hug. “Our next bro-trip is gonna end happier.”

“It’d better,” Red muttered.

“We’re best friends, you can count on me,” Gold declared.

The ache in Red’s heart was soothed. Maybe he’d messed things up trying too hard to help Ogerpon. Maybe he would’ve died without Gold and Kieran. Maybe he hadn’t been able to help Carmine or Florian. But it was the first time a person had called Red a friend, and that counted for a lot.

Kieran snuck out when he was sure everyone was saying goodbye to the visitors. He didn’t think they’d be staking out his room but he couldn’t risk running into Carmine, hearing what she had to say… Or his grandparents looking disappointed.

Tomorrow, he and Carmine were meant to go back to Blueberry Academy. Kieran couldn’t stand the thought of going back to being pitied by all those smug Unovans. He didn’t have any friends, he didn’t do well enough in his classes, he kept getting mocked in the BB League Club for having a sentret on his team… And he wasn’t sure how he’d handle any more of it, now he’d met and been rejected by even Ogerpon.

He needed to be stronger.

It was a long hike up to the Crystal Pool. Usually Kieran needed help from his pokémon, but he couldn’t this time. Not after embarrassing them with his poor tactics against Florian. His muscles ached and burned when he collapsed by the sparkling waters, panting heavily, brain buzzing as he stared up at the clouds.

How many times had Kieran climbed all over these mountains, and never found the spot where Ogerpon lived? How lonely had she been for all these years? How had he ever thought he could be good enough for her, especially if the choice was between him and Florian?

Kieran closed his eyes, picturing Florian’s wide friendly smile, and wondered how he’d thought he was Florian’s friend. He’d thought it was all a trick at the start, and he was right. The Prince of Dainisa wouldn’t want anything to do with a half-breed with no magic. And now Florian definitely knew about the rot at the core of Kieran’s soul.

But then again, if Florian was so good, why had he lied to Kieran?

“Because you’re weak,” Kieran reminded himself, “you’re too weak and everyone knows it.”

He remembered the anger in Florian’s face as they battled that last time. Of course he’d been angry. It’d been such a childish, stupid thing to do. Who cared that Ogerpon belonged in Kitakami? Who cared how hard and scary it’d been battling off Okidogi and Munkidori on his own? Who cared how much work Kieran had put in getting the townspeople on her side? She wanted to leave. She wanted to go with Florian, and Florian wanted to go with her. She didn’t care how Florian had lied, or how fake he was, or anything except how strong he was. Everything always came back to what a crybaby and brat Kieran was, and how nothing else about him made up for it.

“If you were strong like Florian, people would like you,” Kieran told himself. “You’re never gonna be worth anything until you get stronger.”

There had to be a way to become strong. A way to make Florian feel like he mattered then take it away from him just because Carmine said so. Something equivalent.

“Hello? Is someone there?”

Kieran scrambled to his feet, wiping his eyes, hoping he didn’t look pathetic. No, hoping wouldn’t cover it. He called forth his anger and scowled to make sure he didn’t look like what he was inside.

The man who stepped into the clearing was very, very tall. His blond hair was swooped under his cap, which was yellow and blue in contrast to his otherwise very bland and beige clothes. But his face — his face was too familiar. Very symmetrical, long, with a thin slightly upturned nose, and upturned steel grey eyes.

“Hi,” the man said, voice cheerful. “I’m relieved I found someone.”

“You, you look like, that kid, Red,” Kieran spluttered. “Like, like Cynthia?”

“Oh, yes, I get that a lot,” the man chuckled. “Cynthia’s my cousin. My name’s Volo.”

With the same shade of hair, the cool smile, the bright eyes, Volo looked so close to all the pictures of Cynthia plastered on Carmine’s walls. Kieran was used to being around taller people, but he was still overwhelmed by just how tall Volo was. The man perpetually leant forward, like he was used to hunching or bending to be heard. Was that Red kid gonna be freakishly tall someday too?

“I’ve been all over this mountain, trying to find something, and I got myself lost,” Volo explained. He peered down at Kieran with a wide smile. “But maybe it was your spirit calling to mine.”

What did that mean? “Why… why are you here…?”

“Oh, I keep an eye on Red,” Volo replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “And I enjoy researching mythology.” His smile tightened. “You sound like a local, tell me… Why are people in the town suddenly big fans of the Ogre?”

Did he know somehow? Had he been watching closely enough to have picked up on everything? Kieran didn’t remember seeing this guy around. He would’ve immediately connected the dots, he looked so much like Cynthia and Red. Did everyone in the family have that overly symmetrical androgynous face?

“Ogerpon was caught by…” How could he describe Florian? After everything that happened, they definitely weren’t friends. And Kieran had actually thought Florian liked him a little. What a joke. “She was caught by… an outsider from Paldea.”

“Aw, what a shame.” Volo sighed heavily, his entire body drooping. “Another legendary pokémon I just missed out on meeting…”

“She was at the festival,” Kieran said. “I didn’t meet her there. Maybe you did.”

“The festival…” Volo looked thoughtfully around the mountains. “Hm, no, I was preoccupied. I almost missed saving Red too — thank you for that, by the way.”

“You’re… you’re welcome.”

“So, someone from Paldea caught the Ogre, hm? Sounds like an annoying brat,” Volo sighed. “I’ve met a few of those in my time. Annoying brats who don’t even seem to realise how fortunate they were to be recognised by a legendary pokémon.”

Florian had laughed off Kieran’s questions about Miraidon. He acted like a pokémon nobody had ever seen before was nothing special. Like power was nothing. It probably was to him. A beloved prince who was friends with everyone… Even Carmine… Even Wallace and Steven Stone… Even Ash Ketchum… And he’d tried to act like it was bad people only liked him for his power. Kieran had almost believed it. But at the end of the day, at least people liked something about Florian. At least he had something to offer.

There was something about the way Volo looked at him. It was like he knew exactly how Kieran felt. And Kieran had barely said anything, but Volo asked one question, and Kieran ended up telling him everything. How stupidly he’d felt like he mattered to Florian, how he’d thought they could be boyfriends even, how long he’d wanted to meet Ogerpon, the amount of time he’d spent during his entire life defending her from people who said she was evil… And none of it had mattered. Ogerpon had looked at Kieran with fear in her eyes like he was just another paranoid rural hick, and said there was something wrong with him.

“I’m sorry all that happened to you,” Volo said. Kieran fought back his tears. “I had a similar experience — all I’d wanted was to see Arceus, to prove it existed, and I thought Rei would help me, and yet…” He shook his head. “Yes, I know exactly what it’s like. Just wanting to meet a pokémon from myth, and getting pushed aside… Ignored… Like always…”

Trembles broke out across Kieran’s entire body.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Volo said very quickly. “I didn’t mean to make you feel worse. And I was only trying to find my way down the mountain, too.” His smile was still in place. “Maybe it was fate for us to meet like this.”

There was something in his tone that had Kieran asking in Dainisan, “Are you one of us?”

Volo nodded, but didn’t switch language. “Though my powers are not anything overtly impressive.”

“At least you have one.”

Kieran hadn’t meant to say it. He never meant to say it. But he was so mad. Carmine got awesome magic, Florian was so impressive he was the prince of magic, and even the little kids showed Kieran up. Why would Ogerpon have wanted to meet him? He was so weak he couldn’t even use magic.

But Volo wasn’t looking at Kieran with pity like dainisa usually did. His small smile was still in place, a thoughtful glaze over his eyes, and he gestured weirdly with his pointer finger as he said, “You know, there’s a legend about a dainisa born without innate magic.”

Kieran’s heart raced. He’d hoped it wasn’t him, but… But there was something deeply wrong with him. Something everyone else noticed instinctively. There had to be a reason why even the first person he’d thought could be a friend (more than a friend) somehow knew Kieran was the worst and lied to him and left him and took Ogerpon too. Wouldn’t it just make sense, if he was actually evil down to his rotten soul? If he were the reincarnation of Kuzmik, the Moon-cursed dainisa who destroyed lives?

Ogerpon had looked at him with such terrified eyes, and said there was something wrong with him… 

Clenching his fists, Kieran looked up at Volo. “Tell me more.”

Volo’s grin widened.

Chapter Text

Black did his best not to be jealous, but really. What kind of school sends students who’d only been there for a few months on an international school trip? And via lottery? Okay, Gold was unnaturally lucky, but what were the odds that cousin of Ash Ketchum and the Prince of Dainisa would be chosen by lottery? And why did it mean Black had to be stuck in their dorm room alone with N?!

Truthfully, N hadn’t said much to any of them since that first night. Black could’ve gotten away with not talking to him at all, but… The silence was so awkward. And he wasn’t used to nobody being around. Gold was the chattiest person in the world, White was a close second, and both Dia and Yellow could talk your ear off once you got them comfortable. Black was quiet mostly by necessity.

Black hadn’t had trouble making friends either until about a year ago, when they’d started learning things at their normal school about what puberty would do to their bodies, and suddenly he was scared all the time. He’d told Dia all about it after one nightmare too many, and Dia had suggested Black try out being a boy at their new school. Black was immediately less afraid in one way, only to become more afraid in others. What if it didn’t help? What if he was wrong about himself? What if White got upset they couldn’t match anymore? What would other people say if they found out? What if people told him he was wrong? What if Mom found out and got angry at him?

Everyone always said dainisa didn’t care about gender, because their language didn’t have gendered pronouns. But that wasn’t the same thing as not caring about it at all. How was he supposed to look at people like Green Oak, who cared about name meanings, and think they wouldn’t care about him being transgender?

Black missed Gold because Gold was the simplest one. That sounded mean but it wasn’t. Gold loved Black because they were siblings, but he liked Black because they liked the same things. Black didn’t like anything as much as Gold liked everything, but it mattered.

And they were friends and all, but Black wasn’t really sure if he and Red had anything in common except sarcasm. It was hard to get a read on someone so quiet. At first Black thought Red didn’t like them very much, but Gold pointed out how often Red’s hands shook, and Black wasn’t sure being scared all the time was something worth having in common.

So Black was pretty miserable the night Gold and Red left. He tried to sit with Dia, who he spent more time with than Mom anyway, but it was clearly annoying him. Dia got really quiet when he was around Black and Pearl, even though Black liked Pearl, and Pearl didn’t seem to mind. Black wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong but it was something, so he left Dia alone.

He tried hanging out with White, but White was in a mood over Scarlet Koito again.

“She’s just so cool and tough, and she’s never looked at me once, not even in soccer club,” White sighed, “when will senpai notice me?”

All the girls in their year gushed over Scarlet. A few times, White had even said a few times “Scarlet should be the real prince”, because she thought Florian was lame. And well. Florian was kinda lame, but he was Black’s RA.

White wanted to go follow Scarlet around again, but Black was already bone-deep-tired and his stomach hurt a bit. So he decided to call it a night and go read in bed. When he was walking to the staircase, Green Oak got in his way, sneering, “Yo! Where’d they take Flower Boy off to?”

“Flower Boy?” Black asked, like he didn’t know exactly who Green was talking about.

“Your weird celebrity friend.”

“I don’t have a celebrity friend?”

Green’s eye twitched.

“Oh, wait, you mean Florian, right?”

Green started grinding his teeth.

“Yeah, Florian’s club is doing a field trip to Kitakami for the weekend,” Black explained.

“Kitakami? What is it, the apple eating club?”

“Yes, exactly.” Black stepped around him and started up the stairs.

Tragically, Green followed him. “What’s the club actually?”

“I don’t know, you should go check the club sign up sheets,” Black replied. Which probably was the incorrect thing to say, because Green seemed like the type of person to sign up for the same club just to annoy Red, but whatever.

“Kitakami…” Green muttered. “What’s in Kitakami he’d be interested in…?”

Black pretended he didn’t hear him. He thought about directly asking why Green was so obsessed with annoying Red, but he wouldn’t get an actual answer. It was probably just that Red was pretty in a gloomy rainy day way, so Green wanted to make him gloomier.

In their dorm room, Black took a long shower (for him) and climbed into bed with I Reincarnated as a Psyduck and Became a Rescue Ranger?! hidden behind a cloth case so it could look like a more mature book. He was just getting to the part where the Rescue Team fought Skarmory when N came in. walked by him without a look and disappeared behind his bed curtains. Did N even change out of his uniform? He definitely showered, at least, but his hair was always a mess and Black had never seen him in anything except their uniform. He’d said that thing about sleeping outside and Black had assumed it was like when Yellow would sleep in a tent in the backyard. Maybe, like Yellow, N also needed to be reminded to brush his hair and change his clothes?

Black went to sleep feeling miserable. He missed Gold, he missed Yellow, he wished N wasn’t a jerk, and the book wasn’t as good as the last one in the series.

And of course, when Black was already miserable, it had to happen: his first period.

He woke up with a dull pain in the pit of his guts that didn’t immediately register as anything unusual. Then he climbed out of bed. A small patch of bright red blood was there. A larger matching patch was on his pyjama pants. His mind immediately started buzzing. He scrambled away from the bed. Maybe he screamed? Maybe he swore? He must’ve done one or the other, because N came up behind him.

“D-don’t,” Black said, his mind coming back to him in fragments. He needed to hide this. This wasn’t a thing normal boys did. This was a thing that would make people say he wasn’t a boy. This was a thing that would make him be a girl again. “Don’t, it’s nothing, I cut myself or something or I’m dying ot —”

“Oh,” N stared at the bloody sheets like it was normal, “your menarche?”

“My —” Black faintly remembered a period romance novel he’d read talking about marrying off women after their menarche. Did it mean their first period?! Had he been reading people his age being forced to get married?! Like he didn’t have enough to freak out about!

N asked, “Has your twin had her menarche yet?”

“Stop calling it that!” Black cried. “No! She hasn’t!” He couldn’t stop shaking, but he also couldn’t take his eyes off the blood on his bed sheets. “I thought I had longer. I don’t even know for sure —”

He couldn’t say it, not even when he was already so upset. But Black wasn’t sure he was a boy. He hadn’t ever been happier in his life than these last few months, and okay he was 90% sure it was because everyone was treating him like a boy, but what if that was because his siblings had shown they were willing to con everyone for Black? Either way, he’d thought he’d have longer. He barely had breasts, even Mom said it wasn’t worth getting sports bras, and he was only eleven, and he’d thought he’d get to ask Mom if it was okay to get puberty blockers before this happened, and he’d hoped in a big city he could find something that would explain it to her in a way that meant he wouldn’t have to actually talk to her about any of it.

“You’re shaking,” N observed, “are you in shock? Do you need to go to the nurse?”

“No!” Black cried. He started pulling apart his bedding. “No, I can, I can deal with this, I can, nobody has to know, you’re not telling anybody, it’s fine, I’m fine, this is fine!”

N’s hands grabbed Black’s, still bundled in the sheets. Black couldn’t look at him. “It is fine,” N said, voice steady and forceful. “I live with a lot of people in Unova. Some of them are women, some of them are men, some are both, some are neither. And sometimes this even happens to adults. Even old adults, like my father. So no matter how I look at this, you’re overreacting.”

“Sh… shut up…” Black muttered. But even with N insulting him like that, he did feel reassured. “Your — your dad’s trans?”

“Yes. Though he only talks about that in relation to my birth.” N paused with a frown. “And sometimes when calling people ‘trans trenders’.”

Black whispered, “What..?” in disbelief.

Rolling his eyes, N replied, “It is a belief too stupid to warrant repeating. Just the rambling of a stupid old man.” N stood up. “I will be back soon.”

“What — where —?”

“Take a shower while I’m gone.”

“Hang on —”

But N walked out of their dorm without looking back.

“His dad’s trans…?” Black muttered to himself. He hadn’t heard much at all about N’s dad, but none of what he had heard sounded like a good person. Was it weird to be kind of reassured that bad people could be trans too? Whenever trans people came up in the media, everyone always talked about Cynthia because she was an amazing person, but she was so much to live up it had given her son anxiety. But if good people were trans, and bad people were trans, well, it felt closer to being just, a neutral way of existing. Just a fundamental type of person with no value judgement.

N told him to take a shower. Black didn’t want to look at his body right now but he knew it was the right call. He kept his eyes firmly closed the entire time, mind buzzing again as he scrubbed himself with soap, and he almost got through it without throwing up. He didn’t know how much he was going to bleed. They said it in health classes but he couldn’t remember. He wadded up some toilet paper and put it on the base of his underwear. Maybe if he did that, it’d be enough, he wouldn’t ever have to ask for pads or (god forbid) tampons, and nobody would ever have to know. Nobody except N. And there had to be a way Black could get N to keep it a secret.

Somehow Black ended up on the couch in their dorm, staring at the floor. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t he just be okay with his body, the way White was? Why did this make him feel so disgusting and wrong? N was right, it was normal. Half the population had periods. But thinking about his body doing this to him for every month for the rest of his life, or even for another week, he wanted to stop existing. He wasn’t supposed to live like this. It was wrong he had to.

The door opened again. Black jumped, but N came marching in, carrying a paper bag. He shoved it at Black. Inside was a collection of pads, medicine, heating packs, a hot water bottle, and pamplets.

“I told the nurse I am experiencing my menarche, and she had a lot of advice,” N said. Black pulled out a colourful pamplet, staring miserably at the cartoonish girl on it. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Yeah, but…” Black looked into N’s bright blue eyes for the first time maybe ever. He couldn’t get a read on his emotions. “Wasn’t that, I don’t know, embarrassing?”

“It’s just a thing some bodies do.”

“But, what if you…”

“I won’t menstruate myself,” N replied, “I have no ovaries.”

Black laughed in disbelief. He’d just have to be direct, wouldn’t he? “You’re not scared of people telling you boys don’t menstruate? Or that girls don’t have dicks? Or that you have to be one or the other?”

“No. That’s their ignorance. It doesn’t change the truth.”

There were tears rolling down Black’s cheeks. He quickly wiped them away.

“Nurse Miriam said it’s normal to be emotional during this time. Perhaps that is why Ghetsis is often so angry.”

“N, that’s — you can’t say that, that’s misogynistic.”

“How is it misogynistic when I’m talking about a man?”

Black wasn’t sure. “Sexist, then… Just, don’t say it, okay?”

N stood up. Black wasn’t sure where he was going now. He tried to look through the bag, but it was still so daunting. Maybe N could be so confident in the truth, but a part of Black was still stuck on that first pamplet with a cartoon girl on it. It wasn’t enough for it to be true to Black. He needed it to be true to everyone. He needed there to be no doubt in anyone’s mind he was a boy.

A steaming mug was shoved in his face. It smelt like peppermint.

“Many creatures consume mint when they are nauseous,” N said, “and hot beverages aid in the treatment of shock.”

“Um. Thanks?”

N nodded, and picked up Black’s bedding. “I will tell them it’s mine.” And with that, he was off again.

The first sip of peppermint tea cut through Black’s feelings. He wasn’t sure when he stopped shaking, but by the time he finished it, everything felt… Not good, but doable.

Was N actually a good person?

Over the weekend, Black spent a lot of time curled up around the hot water bottle N had gotten him, watching him. Normally N wouldn’t be in the dorms, he’d be down in the library, but he seemed to feel weirdly responsible for Black. Black knew he should just tell White, but he didn’t want N to go back to hiding in the library. They’d been kinda rude to N when they first met (even if it had obviously been a joke), they were friends with someone N really hated for stupid reasons, and by all logic, N should’ve just ignored Black. But he hadn’t. And nobody had ever sounded so convincing calling Black a boy before.

But why was that? Dia had suggested the whole trial like he expected it would be a forever thing. White immediately came up with ‘Touya’ as part of his new name, laughing about how they’d match in a much funnier way now. If Gold hadn’t been by his side aggressively calling him a boy every step of their first week at Sagrada Academy, Black probably would’ve chickened out. And even when they ran into Cheren again, Cheren just took it in stride. Everyone was supporting him every step of the way. And yet… Black couldn’t help the suspicion they were looking at him and remembering how he looked with long hair. How similar he and White always looked. How Mom called them her “special girl set”.

N didn’t know any of that, and he wasn’t as spaced out as Red. If all this had happened while Gold and Red were here, Gold would’ve run around panicking and screaming and tried to lock Florian in his room to ‘protect the secret’, and Red probably wouldn’t have even noticed so long as a pokémon was nearby. N had a lot of strange beliefs, but he was really smart, and he always watched them with analytical eyes. N watched them like he was constantly coming up with reasons to hate them, and he still confidently called Black a boy while helping him deal with his first period.

Black whispered to himself, “I’m on my period and I’m a boy.”

It helped to state it as an undeniable fact.

“What are you always reading?” Black asked on the Saturday evening.

N looked suspicious but showed Black the cover of a book, The Great Crater of Power: The Pre-Modern History of the Terastral Phenomena by Professor Sada. “I need to learn more about the history of Paldea and its relationship with pokémon.”

“We have a class for that though? With Ms Raifort?”

N’s eyes narrowed. “If you trust the nationally approved curriculum….”

Black scooted closer to the edge of his bed, which was about as close to N as he could get without making him more suspicious. “I don’t, it’s obviously simplified, but it’s a good way to know what to look into later.”

“And do you look into it later?”

Black laughed nervously. “Sometimes.” He adjusted the hot water bottle. “But is any of it actually sinking in?”

“…sometimes,” N muttered.

“And it’s not gonna help with,” Black gestured around the room, “this specific dainisa set up. Right?”

“Florian said his father would be providing resources shortly.”

Black raised his eyebrows. “And won’t the secret magical government have biases too?”

“Of course they will,” N replied, “but it will be worth reading anyway.”

“Hmm, I dunno, I heard Mustard mostly talked about his hot wife in his record,” Black replied, watching N’s face closely. He looked a little flustered. Just a little, but it was enough to be cute. How did N have no hang-ups about periods, but was embarrassed by relationships? Taking pity, Black asked, “What do you want to find?”

“The truth,” N replied. “An absolute history. An account unbiased by those in power.”

“Huh.” Black looked closely at the stubborn scowl, the bright eyes, the furrowed brow, and realised N was just as much a kid as the rest of them in his own way. “Everyone has biases, y’know?”

“Yes. But some things are subjective facts, no matter how others would like to debate them.”

Could such a thing be true about history itself? Probably not, but… Black was a boy on his period. No matter what anyone else said, Black was a boy on his period.

Black smiled at N. “I guess you’re right.”

For some reason, N quickly looked away. “D-did you take any of the paracetamol?”

“What?” He’d never heard N stutter before.

“The medicine. The nurse said it would help.” N got up. Through the unkempt strands of his hair, Black could see hints of pink cheeks. “I’ll…” He bolted for the kitchenette.

Black bit his lip to keep from laughing. He took the pills and a mug of peppermint tea when N presented them to him. He’d even cooled the tea enough to not be boiling, somehow. Was N actually the nicest person he’d ever met?

“How’d you cool it down?” Black asked. “Do you have ice magic or something?”

“No.” N stayed standing in front of Black, posture awkward. Black couldn’t look up at his face while drinking his tea. Smart evasive tactic. “But I did use ice.”

“What is your magic then?”

N’s left hand closed around the thick black bracelet on his right wrist. “I… understand pokémon.”

“Like Red?” N’s hand tightened around his wrist. “Oh. Right. Sorry.”

“No,” N said, “not like that.”

Black stared into his mug for a moment.

“What is…” N looked uncomfortable asking. “What is yours?”

Smiling, Black shrugged. “Fire magic.”

Disappointment flooded N’s face.

“N, do you believe the stereotypes about fire dainisa?”

N quickly shook his head. “I would not be so —”

“Because it is common,” Black interrupted, “but I’m not some will-o’-wisp trying to lead you from the holy path of the Sun.”

“I had, for some reason, thought you had electricity-related magic,” N said, a little too loudly. “But I must have been thinking of your twin.”

Black’s smile widened. “No, White has fire magic too.”

N grumbled, “Surely she should have ice magic, twins are usually opposing elements to balance the magical energies.”

“No, that’s a stereotype too.” Black shrugged. “Sorry.”

It made Black kind of happy that N thought he had different magic. N clearly had a more fundamentalist upbringing, he’d pretty much declared himself a dainisan rights extremist the first time they met. Black hadn’t met a lot of them before, but he knew they usually hated fire magic and called it evil. The only good light is sunlight and all that. So if he was from that background and in denial about Black’s magic, N clearly liked Black in some way.

Maybe that was why N always pretended to go to sleep so early, to avoid cursing himself with moonlight. Sun-worshippers were so weird.

“Would it bother you that we’re half-human, too?” Black wondered.

“No.”

N didn’t seem to be lying, but Black still wondered.

“Isn’t it a big scandal, that Florian’s dad had a child with a human? You don’t think there’s anything to that?”

“It’s a scandal because they are of royal blood, and they are the ones enforcing our kind’s recluse,” N replied, like Black didn’t know that too. But he wasn’t being smug, just matter-of-fact. “I believe dainisa should exist openly.”

“Well. I’m not ready for that conversation.” Black finished his tea and set the mug on his bedside table. “You’re actually really thoughtful and kind, you know that?”

N’s face went pink again, though he unashamedly agreed.

“I’m starting to think our whole first meeting was a misunderstanding.” Black scratched the back of his neck nervously, avoiding N’s eyes. “I um. I wasn’t really trying to make fun of you. Or, I guess I was, but, not in a bad way? That’s just how me and my siblings are with each other. So I didn’t think you’d be upset and,” he made sure to meet N’s eyes, “I’m sorry.”

Stiffly, N said, “Thank you.”

“But.” Black stood up too. “You shouldn’t’ve said that to Red about his cousin.”

N scowled. “It is hardly my fault Red has been indocrinated in a culture that glorifies violence since birth, to the point of saying Ash Ketchum loves pokémon more than me.”

Oh, so N was sulking about that, huh. “Do you have any pokémon?”

“I have friends,” N huffed. “I wouldn’t act as though I own sentient beings.”

Black’s eyes kept drifting to N’s hair. This was obviously an important conversation, but he couldn’t really argue with N about it on Red’s behalf, and he wasn’t particularly invested in training pokémon. He loved his rufflet, obviously, but she’d been a gift from Dad. And that didn’t seem like the right thing to bring up to N.

“I’m just saying, he’s not his cousin. Or his mother.”

N grumbled, “I suppose.”

Black could see the frizziness, the knots, and N had been looking after him, so he felt okay to ask, “Do you want me to brush your hair?”

N looked startled. “What?”

“My little sister, she doesn’t really believe in beds.” N didn’t seem to appreciate the callback. “She um, sleeps outside a lot, she grew up in a forest I think? I have to brush her hair a lot. So it won’t get painful for her.”

N nodded like he understood.

“I’m good at it,” Black promised. “I used to have long hair, so I know how to look after it.”

“Why did you cut it?” N asked.

“So I’d look more like a boy.” Black replied. He thought about it some more. “And I didn’t like it. I only grew it out because Mom likes it when White and I match.”

“But you’re your own person,” N said, “or was I misled about twins?”

“No, we’re definitely individuals, that’s another stereotype.”

N nodded with a thoughtful look, like he was mentally updating a list of ‘offensive twin stereotypes’.

Black shrugged. “So. How about it?”

Slowly, N reached up to his ponytail. His fingers got snared almost immediately. “…I suppose…”

Black went to the bathroom to find a comb, a brush, and a spray bottle. Florian had a lot of unopened beauty products featuring Wallace’s milotic. Once he’d gathered supplies, he sat back down on his bed and got N to sit on the ground. He was so tall, he still ended up at about perfect height. He sprayed a layer across a section of N’s hair.

“Tell me if it hurts too much at any point, okay?”

“I will.”

N started wincing almost as soon as the comb entered his hair. For a few minutes, they didn’t talk. Black kept apologising when N flinched too much but really had to focus on getting the knots down towards the lower half of N’s hair. Then he’d be able to pull on N’s scalp less.

“Do you like having long hair?” Black wondered. If N didn’t, he could just cut it off at a point.

“Yes. It reminds me of a precious friend I lost.”

“Oh…” Black switched the comb for the brush. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“That you lost a friend.”

“It isn’t your fault.”

“I know that, but, I wish you hadn’t lost them.”

N didn’t say anything, but his shoulders relaxed.

“You said yesterday you live with a lot of people,” Black recalled, “are any of them your friends too?”

“None of the people, no…”

It was significant that N said people, and not dainisa. That meant wherever he lived did include humans, which didn’t match the weird-Sun-worshipping-cult image Black had been building up.

In a small voice, N asked, “…too?”

Black was going to have to come out and say it, wasn’t he? “Yeah. I want to be your friend. If um. If that’s okay.”

N gave a hum that sounded so suspicious. “I’ve never had a dainisa friend before.”

“Then I’ll be your first.” Quickly, he added, “If you want.”

N glanced over his shoulder at Black, eyes moving like he was looking him up and down. Probably judging how sincere Black was being, or running cost-benefit analyses. Eventually though, N simply said, “Okay.”

Black smiled. N turned away again and Black kept brushing his hair.

“You aren’t as infirmed as I was led to believe you should be,” N remarked, “though that is not a bad thing by any measure.”

“I guess Mom told me it wouldn’t be as bad as I imagined, but…” But it kind of was. Sure, there was a lot less blood than he’d feared, but the cramping was much worse, and whenever he thought too long about what was happening to his body and why he would start to feel spacey. “Does your dad tell you a lot when he’s on his period?”

“No, Ghetsis hasn’t menstruated since I was born,” N corrected. “He has made sure I am most aware of this fact and the delay in his transition I caused.”

“That — what?”

“When taking testosterone, you cease to menstr—”

“No, I mean, he holds that against you?” Black frowned. “N, that’s awful. You know that’s awful, right?”

“I can’t say I particularly care about much of what Ghetsis thinks,” N replied, “but he is aware the world would be worse without me in it.”

And Black thought he had a complicated relationship with his father. “What about, your other parent?”

“I’m not aware of his identity,” N replied, “only that there were many things he has legally bound Ghetsis to do in regards to my upbringing. Such as my attendance at this school.”

That answered a question Black had been trying not to think too hard about over the weekend. Obviously it was strange that someone who didn’t like pokémon battles was at a school where they were on the curriculum. It was strange that someone who hated the dainisan royal families was attending a school set up by their prince. And of course the answer raised a lot of questions, but for now, the only one Black cared about was:

“Is that good or bad?”

N turned his head to stare at Black. It wasn’t as harsh as his gaze usually was, but Black couldn’t figure out what the emotion glistening in his eyes was. “I thought it was bad. But I may have been wrong.”

It was, frankly, impossible not to smile at him. “Turn around, I’m not done yet.”

Black continued working the brush through N’s hair as gently as he could. He’d definitely been all wrong about N. N had made this awful weekend better for him. Figuring out a way to make school better for N was the least Black could do in return.