“No.”
After seeing the state that Whitney was in, Nina categorically refused to approach the creepy ghoul of a mystic.
“Not until you explain yourself. What do you an when you say true descendant? And what qualifies as one?”
An awkward silence fell and Nina could almost feel Futaba’s vacant eyes bore into her. “A true descendant is anyone born of the Origin — those who ca before, the progenitors of humanity.”
Nina’s stance loosened. “So a Faller then? An Earthling?”
“Not all Fallers are of the Origin. But yes.”
Nina’s brows furrowed in suspicion. “How old is your clan? And this shrine? Are you seriously expecting to believe that, in all of your extended history, not a single Faller had ever crossed paths with your ancestors? Or that not a single one of them had ventured out to look?”
Futaba stood, eeriely still as ever. “When we first t. I promised you the mysteries of this world. Are you no longer curious?”
“You're dodging the question!” The girl retorted. “And yes, I am still curious. But I’m also not dumb enough to let so creepy zombie lady ss around in my head.”
Maybe she was being paranoid, but Nina took solace in the fact that Celebi was silent, content to just watch as the confrontation took place.
With a mournful wail, Futaba’s ghostly aura faded and the woman slumped. Whatever spirits possessed her dispersing like the wind. “You are overthinking things, girl… No harm shall befall upon you.”
“Maybe, but between all the deception, manipulation and obfuscation, you’ve given no reason to trust you either.”
The ghoul and the girl continued in their silent standoff, dead air creeping up Nina’s spine, until Celebi chid in with a boop to her nose.
“Bi. Bibibi…”
Nina looked down at pixie with a frown, those bulbous crystalline eyes staring back at her with a shimring light.
“Urgh… Fine.” The girl groaned and reluctantly approached, but not before releasing Espy from her Premier Ball with the order to intervene if she sensed sothing wrong. “And you, you’re staying right here with .” She said to the Celebi in her arms, eliciting a genial pat from the Myth as she cuddled up with w.
Nina shuddered. The air surrounding Futaba was almost freezing, like her baby Amaura when she was asleep. “I dunno about this, Celebi…” Nina hesitated and was just about to double back when Futaba’s claw-like grip lashed out and grabbed hold of her arm with uncanny litheness.
“Shit!” Nina jolted and pulled back instinctively, only to have her vision be taken and transported to another world.
***
It was a city of black.
Black monoliths, black towers and blackened ground. Even the sky was grey and lifeless, illuminated by a feeble sun, dim and dying.
“███████, are you sure about this? Our hyperspace tech still isn’t mature enough and there’s still so ti.”
Nina’s gaze turned around, to look at the titanic space-faring vessel looming in the background. Longinus, the soldier who pierced Christ with a spear, so nad because the ship was an act of defiance against God — a rebellion against rapture and God’s intended end to all He created.
It was humanity’s final hope, a lifeboat that would whisk them away from the encroaching doom.
She watched as droves of citizens march lifelessly into its bowels, the line snaking all the way from the city. And yet, it would not be enough. In the end, so would have to be left behind, here in this dying world.
“Does it matter?” Nina replied, with a voice not of her own — one that sounded distorted and androgynous to her mind. “The ti that we have on hand is woefully insufficient. Not enough to expand the Longinus’ hold, nor enough to further our science. We would need years, not the weeks that we actually have…”
“There’s still a possibility!” Her companion exclaid. “A chance that a mber of the team might make a breakthrough in that ti! You can’t just give up like this!”
As it was, there was a very significant chance that the hyperspace engine in the Longinus would either fail and leave them stranded in the void or ferry them into an entirely separate reality. ███████ did not know which was worse, but they were willing to take the risk and self-destruct asures were already in place should it co down to it.
“The evacuation will take ti to complete. And better to leave now while we still can than be caught flatfooted and risk losing what little remains of our people.” Without waiting for a reply, Nina walked away towards the spaceship in the distance.
The scene shifted to a familiar sight; a turbulent storm of energy, colorful plasma, roiling black clouds and spinning debris. Only this ti, she could see the slithering form of a jade-scaled silhouette lurking within the storm.
Her vision shrank, and Nina found herself standing above a chaotic scene of people, flashing lights and frantic yells.
“███████, the screen— the letters! They’re coming to life!”
Nina looked down at her own terminal, mouth agape at the jumbled ss of words dancing across the screen. “Impossible…”
“███████! Snap out of it! What are your orders?!”
“D-Disengage hyperdrive! Get us out of this cosmic storm right this instant!” She exclaid.
“We can’t! We’ve lost all control of Longinus! T-The ship! It’s fighting us!”
A wave of rage and impotence took over as Nina yelled. “Then get sobody in the engine room and trigger the manual overrides—”
The room exploded and her words were drowned in a torrent of pain and noise.
The vision shifted once more. This ti, hundreds of years into the future in a foreign world different from the last and a vibrant civilisation where humans and Pokemon walked hand in hand.
And in their midst was a giant — a walking, hulking mass of gold and ceramic — who freely moulded land, mountains and forests like clay. The six jewels embedded on the giant’s torso shone and glead with life as the humans laid offerings of jewels, tal, and even the crystalised skull of a Dragon by their feet.
“O mighty titan, we beseech you. Please grant our request and raise a pillar so towering that it may pierce the heavens and deliver us beyond the skies. Open a path to the Origin and render salvation upon our ancestral kin.”
The giant stirred. But just as they were about to respond, the vision ca to an abrupt end and Nina’s trance was disrupted by hacking coughs and a broken wheeze.
***
“Futaba!”
Nina awoke to the distressing sight of the woman falling to the ground, her pure white kosode now stained red with blood.
“The mont has passed and my ti is up…” Futaba rasped, her breathing shallow and vapid. “Go and seek the Creator, should you wish for answers after my demise.” The woman heaved, spitting a thick globule of blood on the ground which she knelt.
Nina jolted in alarm but held herself back from rushing to the woman’s aid, for fear that this was yet another trap to catch her unaware. “The Creator… You an Arceus?”
“No, child… Arceus is the Light and w is the Ancestor… The Creator is the one who shaped the world; He who distilled the oceans from Water and Ice, He who sculpted land from Fire, Rock and Ground, and He who painted the skies with Flying and Electric—”
“Regigigas.” Nina concluded.
“Indeed. Seek He who once walked among us.” Futaba smiled. “One more question, child. I have ti for one more question…” She slumped, eyes drooping close.
Nina’s fist tightened. The girl was paralyzed by choice, her mind filled with questions and regrets. Maybe she should have surrendered herself to the spooky shrine maiden possessed by the spirits of her dead ancestors right from the start after all. “No. Nope!” Nina shook her head. “Definitely a bad idea.”
She sighed. “Tell about your clan’s relations with the Moon Shrine. What is it exactly?”
“The Moon Shrine…” Futaba whispered, her voice feeble and quiet. “The Lunar Observatory Station… A legacy of regret… Fools gazing upon the stars, pining for a long lost ho…”
“Bi…” Celebi bumped her forehead against Nina’s nose, then imparted upon her a vision of the past.
Nina was on the moon, its silver surface rough and craggly. Looking up, she saw not the vibrant jewel the moon was orbiting, but the dark expanse of space. The sight of which made Nina realise that she was looking at the dark side of the moon, a realm that would normally be concealed from mortal gaze.
Then, her sight wandered, and what she saw was not an empty plain of grey dust and brittle rocks, but a deep, fathomless crater. Within which lay broken debris and a tal monolith — the remains of the Longinus, having crashed onto the surface of the moon upon its voyage’s untily end.
Nina gasped. But just as she intended to jump into the crater for a better look, the ground disappeared beneath her feet and she was once again whisked away to another scene.
This ti, it was of a lone monastery standing atop a grey mountaintop and a circle of humans surrounding a ring of dancing Clefas praying to the moon. Their intent? A ritual to amplify trono — the species’ signature move — to invoke a miracle and summon to them what was left behind on that celestial body high above.
The dancing intensified, their singing climaxed. However, what ca was not the miracle they had wished for, but a streak of silver light and a devastating fall as chunks of the moon ca falling down in the Longinus’ stead.
In the end, all that remained of the monastery was but a broken crater and grief-stricken faces. And the humans, upon their failure, abandoned their foolish ambitions and scattered to the winds.
But even as ti passed, so remained, to construct a shrine around the moon’s children in vigil and pass on those forgotten mories — their origin, their ho — in the hopes that one day, a successor might arise to bring salvation back to those they had abandoned.
The vision faded and Nina gasped, waking just in ti to see Futaba slump against the ground and Whitney going slack like a broken marionette.
The girl was briefly torn on who to help first, but ultimately rushed to catch the young Gym Leader before she could fall on her face.
“Nghh…” Whitney moaned as she struggled against Nina’s grasp.
“Hey, hey, hey… It’s okay, it’s okay… It’s over now. You’re safe.”
“Guh… Feels like I just got my head kicked in by a Tauros…”
Nina sighed in relief. It seed that whatever Futaba did to her granddaughter had minimal effect on her personality at least.
“That old Zubat… Urgh.” The weight lifted from Nina’s shoulders as Whitney wobbled on her feet before faltering again.
“Take it easy…” Nina guided Whitney to sit a few paces away from her grandmother. “Futaba’s… Actually, I don’t know. Sit tight and let go check on her. Try not to stand up on your own.”
Whitney groaned in affirmation and Nina cautiously approached the willowed husk by the lake, until her shadow stirred and a Gengar erged.
“Gen!”
“Are you offering to help check for , Azzy?” Nina giggled.
“Gen-gar!” The world’s most adorable Ghost girl gave her trainer a loving pat as she floated over to the limp figure and waved her stubby little hand in front of Futaba’s glassy eyes.
“Gen?” A few more pokes and a little shake of the lifeless corpse and Azzy was finally content enough with Futaba’s torpor to allow Nina’s approach.
“Hehe. Thanks, Azzy. Love you.”
“Gen! Gengar!” The Gengar nodded proudly as her human rewarded her with hugs and kisses.
“But still…” Nina sighed as she gently unfolded Futaba’s fragile body and laid her among the field of flowers. And after seeing that brittle form and feeling the lightness of her bones, she couldn’t help but think; was she too harsh on her in the end?
“So she finally kicked it, huh?”
Unsurprisingly, Whitney had completely ignored Nina’s concern and now stood shakily behind her.
“Yeah…” Nina murmured. “You wanna talk about it?”
“I…” Whitney sat down next to the girl and slumped against her shoulder. “I need so ti to think. Maybe give it a couple o’ days?” There was a pensiveness to her voice, one that contrasted starkly against her usual, peppy persona.
Nina nodded. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Whitney grunted.
The two sat there wordlessly, surrounded by a chorus of dancing Clefas and rustling petals.
“Do you regret coming to see her?” Nina asked, her voice quiet and coarse.
Whitney did not imdiately respond. rely sat there, staring at the peacefully smiling visage of a woman she never knew.
“No. I don’t think I do…” There was a wistful look in her eyes, as if Whitney was reminiscing on a distant and hazy dream.
***
Nina had no idea how she ended up on Mount Moon. Just that it was done without notice, as evident by the number of missed calls and frantic ssages on her Pokedex.
So, after checking in with the concerned parties and contacting the Pewter Gym for assistance with Futaba, Nina left Brock, Whitney and her grandma to handle the funeral arrangents for the deceased shrine maiden in favor of a personal errand.
She left w and Celebi behind by the lake as well, promising to co back to check on them later on, which Celebi seed fine with.
As she soared through the air on Nitey’s back, Nina’s eyes gazed upon the starry night sky in silent lancholy.
“Did I screw up, Nitey?”
“Niiiite…” The Dragonite whipped up a warm breeze around his partner in lieu of a hug.
Nina smiled in return and nuzzled lovingly against the back of Nitey’s head. “Love you too, buddy.”
“Niiite~”
The girl wasn’t sure how to feel about Futaba’s passing. By all accounts, she had only really engaged with the woman for less than a day. And yet, the impact that she had on her life was substantial.
“So many regrets…”
“Nite. Dragonite?”
“Am I happy?” That’s right, regrets were secondary to happiness.
“Honestly, I don’t know, Nitey… What about you? Are you happy? I know I haven’t been spending as much ti with you as we used to.” Given how much her team had expanded over the years, trying to give all her Pokemon the equal amount of attention they deserved was quite the challenge.
“Nite. Dragonite-nite!”
“Hehehe… I know, you’re all grown up now.” That’s right, even Nitey had a life of his own, and a girlfriend too! A fact which Nina still found to be a little incredulous at tis. “It feels like just yesterday you were a little blue noodle boy all wrapped up around my waist.”
“Niiiite~”
Nina thought back on the vision she saw and to the grief and despair she felt towards that dying world. It was Earth, the planet she once called ho. An Earth far into the future from when Miles once lived.
“What happened to it…” She wondered. Global warming? An alien invasion? Nuclear war? There were myriad different possibilities, given how absolutely incorrigible humanity was in their vandalism of their howorld. Though in this case, she suspected it had more to do with that dying sun in the sky — a celestial force beyond their control.
“I didn’t live through that era… I didn’t suffer as they did. And yet why do I feel so sad, like the passing of a parent.”
A single teardrop ran down Nina’s face as she pressed herself against Nitey’s muscular back, prompting another warm breeze to envelop her as the pair glided steadily through the night.
***
“Nina? What’re you doing here so early?”
Nina chuckled as she approached the sweltering heat of the Pokeball forge. “Hey, Maizie. I see you’re hard on the grind as usual.” It was barely dawn, around 4.30 AM in the morning, and the young Pokeballsmith was already up and about working on her craft.
The older girl shrugged. “Eh, a whole buncha orders ca in over the week. If I don’t get hustling then it ain’t ever gonna end.” Maizie set down her tools before peering closely at her surprise visitor. “What about’chu? Ya look like ya just got chewed up by an Arcanine.”
Nina chortled. “I wish. Arcanines are cute and fluffy at least.”
Maizie just continued staring, thoughtfully taking in the girl’s dishevelled appearance and puffy eyes, before beckoning for her to follow. “Co on in, it’s about ti I start cooking breakfast for gramps anyway. You can go wash up in the anti—”
Nina opened her mouth to protest, but was swiftly silenced by a glare from the stringent smith. “I insist. I ain’t lettin’ you stink up our house with blood, sweat and smoke.”
“Said the girl with a gosh darned workshop attached to her house!” Nina pouted but ultimately conceded to Maisie’s demand.
“Here, so miso to tide ya over while the rice cooks.” Maizie offered, when Nina eventually got out of the shower with a fresh set of clothes.
“Thanks, Maizie…” The girl blushed as the sll of ho cooking enticed a loud grumble from her stomach. “I really needed that shower — really helped to clear my head.”
The stoic craftswoman nodded and joined Nina at the dining table with a couple of lapis blue Apricorn Balls in hand.
“Are those?”
“Yep, the next round of prototype Beast Balls. Figured this is probably what you’re here for.” Maizie raised a questioning eyebrow at her client.
Nina nodded. “That last prototype we tested didn’t work and I was wondering if you’d made any progress. I’m surprised you even had ti to work on it, given how busy you’ve been.”
The last ti Nina ca to visit was after her trip to Celebi’s shrine. Back then, Maizie only had a couple of barely functional prototypes ready, saying that she was barely halfway through the process of finalizing the design.
“Yeah, well, gotta strike while the iron’s hot. Gramps always said that inspiration was like fishing in a raging river; if you don’t get reelin’ then the fish’ll get swimmin’.”
Nina laughed. “So these two are close to final then?” She asked as she savored a salty sip of her miso soup while rolling one of the Apricorn Balls in her palms.
The ball itself was smooth and barebones, looking just like the shell of a raw Apricorn with a seam and a button down the middle. It was clear that Maisie was more concerned with function over form at this stage.
The smith shrugged. “I’unno. Gotta test it first. But the scripts should work, in theory.” The script referred to the Unown script carved into the inner grain of the Apricorn shells, of course.
Nina nodded. “I’ll bring them over to the Ruins of Alph for a test run then.”
Maizie snorted. “You in a big rush or sumthin’?”
Nina returned with a feeble smile. “I guess you could say that…”
“Sure, just bring ‘em back to before you release the Pokemon like last ti. I gotta run so tests on it to see what’s workin’ and what ain’t.”
Nina squird a little under Maizie’s admonishing gaze. “Hey, I told you I was sorry! And besides, the Psychic signature didn’t apply, so no harm done anyways.” Except for the fact that Nina had to double back to catch another Unown with the prototype for Maizie to examine.
The young smith scoffed. “It ain’t my ti you’re wasting.”
Their banter paused as Nina continued sipping at her broth while Maizie went back into the kitchen, eventually returning with a simple fare of rice, pickles and natto.
“Thanks for the al.” The duo expressed their thanks with a clap before digging in with their chopsticks.
“So, that's all? You flew in here at the crack o’ dawn just to hassle ‘bout my progress?” Maizie asked, in between crunchy bites of pickle.
Nina sheepishly swirled at her bowl of rice to incorporate the fernted beans with a healthy dollop of mustard. “Well, actually… Promise you won’t be mad?”
Maizie sneered at the girl’s Baby-Doll Eyes. “Spill it.”
Nina averted her gaze. “O-Once the Beast Ball is completed, I wanna put in a commission for them.”
The smith’s brows furrowed. “Well, duh! Who else am I gonna sell it to?” It’s not like she could advertise to the world that she was fabricating contraband. Maizie had undertaken the task of recreating the Beast Ball’s functions purely out of professional curiosity. She had no expectations for profit at all. If anything, Maizie was fully prepared to take the loss on her ti and research funds.
The younger girl nodded, eyes still stuck to her bowl as she absent-mindedly swirled her chopsticks. “T-Then, erm… Can I commission a minimum of twenty-seven of them..?”
A crack. The sound of wood snapping reverberated throughout the house.
Nina looked up, to see the bulging veins of Maizie bearing down on her with a deathly glare, a pair of splintered chopsticks trembling in her hand.
“Co again?” She hissed.
“I-I know you’re super busy and all.” Nina sputtered. “B-But I would really appreciate it if I could request a minimum of t-twenty-seven Beast Balls from you, Master Maizie!” The girl dipped her head low, forehead barely brushing against the table. “At your own ti, of course!”
Maizie twitched, then sighed as she considered her already onerous schedule. “You better be ready to pay out your nose for this, sister…” It seed the Pokeballsmith might be able to profit off her niche creation after all.
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