Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Chapter 278

The next morning, Nina returned to the mansion’s courtyard to practice Mega Evolving with Azzy. She had actually wanted to check out the Murasaki Clan’s archives instead, which she passed by on the way. But as Gretel had repeatedly told her, Agatha did not like to be kept waiting and there would hopefully be time for it later on.“So err… What do you guys do when everybody’s sleeping at night anyway? I mean, do ghosts even need to sleep?”

Mr Fuji laughed at the girl’s query. “Oh, this and that. I myself like to visit the orphanage, watch over the children and shield them from nightmares. Whereas Agatha tends to spend her nights checking on the local Ghost Pokemon, keeping them in line and making sure that their mischief does not result in harm — it’s always a tragic thing when some innocent soul gets spirited away by an overzealous Pokemon.”

“Pfeh! Serves them right for living in Lavender Town.” Or so Agatha said. Yet, her actions clearly betrayed her concern for the local populace. “But enough yapping, girl. Go on! Get Evolving already. The sooner you get your wits together, the sooner we can be done with this whole farce.”

The girl giggled and shared a determined glance with her Gengar. “You ready, Azzy?”

“Gen, gengar-gen!”

“Alright, let’s do this!”

“Gegegege…” At the same time, Brummig, Agatha and Gretel’s veteran Gengar, also emerged from the shadows to overlook the proceedings and make sure that nothing untowards happened when the pair inevitably messed up.

Nina took in a deep breath then began twisting her hands around in various Shadow Signs, a gesture that Azzy emulated.

The pair of them had given some thought as to how they would sync up their intent. Azzy’s bond with Nina was not weak by any means, given that they were together 24/7. But for that initial Mega, it was still helpful to have some form of physical expression. 

Folding origami was hardly practical since Azzy had always been faster than Nina in that regard, while the closest equivalent they had to Nina’s memories of diving with Nitey were their nights spent in Azzy’s dreamscape.

“First, azalea, Azzy’s favorite, her namesake.” Nina closed her eyes as she formed the first Shadow Sign. The sequence they had agreed on was Azzy’s favourite list of flowers in descending order. 

“Next are daisies, the flowers that used to grow around Azzy’s former home…” Sunflower, the first flower that could bear her chilling touch. Followed by a rose, vibrantly blue, just like Rice Showers flames. And on and on they went before looping back around again.

The Shadow Signs were disparate at first. Nina had always been a little clumsier in that regard. Azzy’s adorably stubby Gengar arms when compared to her Haunter form also meant that she was a little less dexterous than before, necessitating that she improvise by manipulating the shadows directly.

But slowly and surely, they fell into sync and the pair could feel it vividly, their shared bond. The temperature dropped, colours faded and Nina could feel her senses go numb while a mysterious pounding sensation intruded upon Azzy’s chest — rhythmic and warm.

The shadows around Azzy came to life and the Key Stone on Nina’s pendant emanated a light of radiant pure white. 

Darkness met light, Ying melded with Yang. And from that union emerged a Mega Gengar the colour of snow, her body half-melded with the surrounding shadows — shadows that were dyed white by her presence, gradually spreading in their influence. And between Azzy’s brow, a slit emerged and a third eye opened where the Gengarite was embedded, its iris glowing a sinister red and surrounded by sickly yellow sclera.

As Azzy’s Aura flared and her domain spread, the world became a pale monochrome, darkness bleached as colours vanished — white upon black just like a manga panel.

“No, this isn’t right.” A voice intoned, disparate yet whole. “Azzy’s world isn’t so bleak. Her world is alive, just like the grass in her dreams, green and vibrant.”

Nina’s eyes opened and with a gesture, the greenery returned, more vivid than ever. “In Azzy’s world, the flowers are fragrant, the sky is blue and the sun is warm.” She declared.

One by one, the colours returned; the blue of sky, the brown of bark and earth, the warmth of sunlight. And as the colours spread, a fragrant wind blew, carrying with it the scent of lavender and dirt, and imbuing life back into the lone figure of a waning wisteria tree in the courtyard, spurring vibrant green vines to pour down its flaccid branches as they bloomed into striking violet buds. 

And just like that, the domain of death and shadow was overturned, replaced by that of dream and life.

For the first time since Azzy was reborn as a Ghost Pokemon, she felt alive. She could touch every blade of grass, she could smell the fragrant pollen of lavender and she could feel the comforting warmth of sunlight. A single drop of moisture trickled from her eyes as Nina embraced her in a hug, the beat of the girl’s heart pounding against her chest.

Gretel gasped. Never in her life had she seen such a magical phenomenon before. All this time, she had been so busy feeling sorry for herself that she had never stopped to really look around at this magical world she found herself in, so full of life and wonder.

Agatha scoffed. “Heh. Seems you got more talent with spirits than you give yourself credit for.”

“What do you mean?” Nina asked as she reluctantly extricated herself from Azzy’s embrace.

“Your soul, girl. Your soul! Ghost Pokemon are some of the hardest to Mega Evolve with because the living and the dead are fundamentally opposed. How is one supposed to share their life force with something so anathema to life? It would be like shining light into a black hole — a never ending siphon until the living joins the dead.”

Nina shuddered. “And you didn’t think to warn me beforehand?!”

“Heh. I knew you’d succeed. And besides, I’m standing right here, aren’t I?”

The girl and her Gengar sighed in tandem, exasperated by the callousness of the old witch, and eliciting a mad cackle from the woman.

“Not to mention, your… unique circumstances. Not everyone can boast about giving the big ol’ middle finger to death and come back to tell the tale.”

Nina frowned. “You can see inside me, can’t you? Into my soul…”

Agatha scoffed. “Pfeh! What about it?”

The girl was almost afraid to ask. “C-Can you see her? Nina? The original Nina. Is she in there somewhere?”

Agatha sneered. “While an individual can house multiple egos, there’s only room for one spirit within each of us, girl.

“Err… What does that mean? Ow!”

“Gen!”

Agatha replied with a vicious whack on the girl’s head with her staff. “It means, you are who you are, girl! Or boy, or whoever you want to be! Stop fussing over such useless nonsense and simply live the life that you have been given. There is no coming back from the dead, not truly — as this decrepit old fool will attest.” The woman gestured towards the mirthful Mr Fuji.

“But that doesn’t make any sense.” Nina argued. “I mean I did come back to life, kinda. And Azzy too. Along with all the other Ghost Pokemon— Ow! Stop hitting me already!”

“I’ll stop hitting you when you get it together, girl! What did I just tell you, huh?!” 

Another bonk. “Ow!”

And back and forth they went until Nina wised up enough to stop asking questions and keep her mouth shut. After which, she and Azzy ran through a few exercises to test the Gengar’s newfound abilities.

“We’ll have to work on a method to compartmentalise our bond as well, Azzy.” Since dancing was out of the equation. This was especially important because Azzy was liable to receive soul damage when battling against Spiritomb  — an incredibly fatal prospect to the mortal Nina. “But oh well… We’ve still got some time. For now, let’s do things step by step.”

***

“Pfeh. If only you shared some of that enthusiasm with your training.”

“What do you mean? I always take Pokemon training seriously.” Nina retorted as she happily skipped into the mansion's library. Only to wilt in despair when she saw how empty the shelves were. “Why’s it so empty?! Half the books are gone!”

“Heh. As if I’d allow some random fool to stumble on our clan’s occult knowledge. I had all of that forbidden garbage incinerated ages ago! Be thankful there’s even anything left.”

“Aww…” Nina whined, but she still reached over to the shelf closest to her and pulled out a random tome for inspection. Which ended up being a registry of sorts for Agatha’s clan.

“Huh. Interesting. From what I can see here, it seems that the clan never used to have a ‘main’ family — all members of the branch families were equally entitled to the position of leadership so long as they put forth a sufficiently competent spiritualist for contention.” Nina murmured. “What does that word mean, ‘spiritualist’? Is it some sort of ritual title?”

Agatha snorted. “Of course, it is only natural that the clan is led by the most competent among us. This whole main branch nonsense only came about because they wanted a family of scapegoats to house the curse. Before this, Murasaki was a title, similar to that Koga lot — the Royal Priest, they used to call us.” Because purple was the color of royalty.

She also explained that the Lavender Mansion was even specially renovated just to house the ritual formation that would entrap Spiritomb within their domain, allowing no chance for any of the vengeful spirits to escape or rebel before the Odd Keystone was completed.

“Spiritualist is just an old-fashioned term for the likes of a ritual master. Their whole purpose was to oversee the clan’s ritualistic endeavours. Therefore, it would be the Murasaki of the time who was in charge of designing the Lavender Formation in this mansion and ensuring that every single member of our bloodline was bound to its influence in varying degrees.”

Nina nodded as she scribbled in her notes. “Fascinating… So how did you manage to so thoroughly wipe out the entire clan then? I mean, there would usually be a couple of stragglers in these sorts of purges.”

“Heh.” Agatha responded with a haughty smirk. “Simple. Every clan member who matters is bound to the ritual in some way.” The woman’s face slowly shifted into an ominous cackle. “Those fools… their biggest mistake was entrusting the core of the ritual to the very same person they intend to sacrifice! Turning it back against them was as easy as poisoning a nest of Rattatas! Haha! HAHAHA!”

Nina just shook her head in exasperation as she continued to explore the library, eventually coming across a very outdated bestiary of Ghost Type Pokemon. However, as archaic as it was, it still provided valuable insight on the clan’s workings at the time. 

“Also, these illustrations drawn in calligraphy are so pretty… And is this?!” As Nina was flipping through the pages, she came across the depiction of a Hisuian Typhlosion — a bipedal honey badger-looking organism wreathed in purple flames.

“Let’s see here… The fundamental difference between a regular Typhlosion and the vastly superior Yokai Typhlosion lay in their environment. As with all variant species, the split occurs by nature of necessity. A Cyndaquil destined to thread the path of a yokai is nocturnal. They hunt at night when predators are scarce, relying on their flames for entrapment and trickery.”

Nina frowned. The description ended there, strongly reminding her of those inane Pokedex entries she would find from time to time. “I don’t get it? So to Evolve a Hisuian Typhlosion, a trainer just has to keep their Cyndaquil active at night? There has to be more to it, right?”

The girl’s confusion was met with an amused chortle from Agatha. “Of course not, you dolt. Learn to read between the lines. What is most important for a nocturnal creature, especially one as feeble as a juvenile Cyndaquil?”

“Err… Detection and obfuscation? The Cyndaquil will need to be able to sense in the dark and hide in the dark to catch their prey unawares.”

“And how could they possibly hide with a blasted torch on their backs, hmm?”

“Cyndaquil does have control over their Fire, though keeping it suppressed for long periods of time may result in health issues… So you’re saying they would need an alternative outlet?” Nina returned her gaze to the passage she was reading. “Hmmm… Relying on their flames for entrapment and trickery. Not to mention the addition of a Ghost Typing… Will-O-Wisp, maybe?”

“Ha! That’s right. A nocturnal Cyndaquil uses Will-O-Wisp as bait, to lure in unsuspecting Pokemon attracted to light, think Volbeat and Illumise. Elsewise, they may also use their flames to frighten Pokemon, herding them into an ambush.”

Nina nodded. “And due to the nature of Will-O-Wisp, it also serves as an entrypoint to harnessing Ghost Type Energy.”

“Pfeh! That’s right! Seems you got a brain in there somewhere after all.” Agatha hovered near, then flipped a page and smacked her staff against the tome.

“Hyakki Yakou — the night parade of a hundred demons…”

“Otherwise known as Infernal Parade in your Pokedex — a Yokai Typhlosion’s signature move.” The phantom added.

Nina gasped, as if the last piece of the puzzle had finally clicked into place. “Will-O-Wisp is requisite to learning Infernal Parade. So the conditions for Evolving a Hisuian, or Yokai, Typhlosion is nocturnality and the development of Infernal Parade…”

Agatha snorted. “Hisui, back in the frontier era, was a lawless place. The Pokemon back then were not as friendly as they are now. Life was hard and a Cyndaquil did not have the luxury of being pampered by a trainer. So they had no choice but to hunt in the dark.”

“You’re saying that the yokai variant Typholosions are actually their natural form? But why didn’t your clan make use of them in the war? How come the species ended up being synonymous with Johto in their vanilla variant?”

“Heh. The war… What a waste. The height of human stupidity. All that kerfuffle only to debase the land and destroy our own people — humans and Pokemon alike. It was a foolish endeavour that took a toll on the region, especially Kanto with how reliant we were on science. Speak not of the war, child. The only lesson to be learned from it is the senselessness of it all.”

Nina nodded. That was something that she already knew. And in a way, she understood why the older generation was so reluctant to speak of their bloody history. After all, it was all too easy to glorify the likes of imperious generals and valorant soldiers. And yet the tragedy of conflict was seldom mentioned.

“Do you mind if I share the mansion’s archives with Professor Elm once you’re gone?” Nina asked, in lieu of a response. “He has a team of bibliographers who are dedicated to the digitisation and preservation of historical documents like this. Regardless of how you feel about your family, it’d be a shame to just let all this history go to waste.”

“Bah!” Agatha waved. “Do as you wish. Not like I’ll be around to have a say on the matter anyway. Although, you do realise that you’ll now have to work extra hard to avoid destroying the mansion in your battle, right?”

Nina chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah… Might be a good idea to go procure some tarps from Lavender Town to cover this place up. When Nitey goes all out, things tend to get very wet and I’m not sure if the roof will be able to hold.”

But that was an errand for later. Nina was thinking that she could maybe invite Gretel to come along as well, so that she could introduce her to Mr Fuji’s orphanage. Until then, she continued perusing the archives in search of hidden knowledge she could leverage.

***

Author's note:

A shiny Mega Gengar, for those of you who don't know what it looks like.