Unbroken Disguise

As the group walked out of the Pokemon Center, N found himself wondering how to start such a difficult conversation. It wasn’t that he was afraid of calling out the abuse of Pokemon, but that he was unsure of how to do it without alienating the trainers he was with. With any other group, it wouldn’t matter, but…

They had agreed to travel with Ash and company for a reason, and their goals had not been achieved yet. Perhaps after that had passed, he would be able to get some catharsis in really going off on them, but doing it now seemed counterproductive.

Brock forced him to put those thoughts on the back burner for now.

“So, that’s Ash’s Gym battle done and over with. I believe you owe us an explanation for why the Champion of the Sinnoh region is bringing you up to her Gym Leaders.”

He said it with a casual tone, but N could feel the undercurrent of impatience. There would be no getting out of this one.

“I think they deserve ta know, since they’re travellin’ with us an’ all, but maybe this ain’ the sorta discussion ta have in the middle of an area with high foot traffic.” Mimikyu said from the ghost’s spot on his shoulder.

That was a good point. With the League releasing them the way that they had, they weren’t exactly sworn to secrecy on the matter, but if Cynthia was already talking about them enough for Roark to comment on it, he wasn’t keen on drawing more of her attention by causing an uproar.

He turned to Ash. “Have you found any good out of the way spots for training in the area? It might be best if we talk about it there.”

The boy was clearly surprised by the request, but agreed easily enough, leading them to an outcropping of coal ore not too far from the city’s mines.

“I figured this might be a good spot for some training if I had lost against Roark, since there’s so many different types of rocks in this area!” he happily shared with them. “Though with the performance we gave… I might use it anyway, once my team is all rested up.”

So he didn’t think their showing in the Gym was as it should have been? The real question was whether he was referring to his newer Pokemon losing their bouts, or the injuries they had sustained. But that would have to wait a bit longer.

“The way that different Champions handle confidential matters with their Gym Leaders varies from region to region, so it’s possible that you already know what this is about, Brock.”

The stony look he received in reply didn’t indicate whether there was any truth to that or not, but he supposed that context clues would indicate that Lance wasn’t exactly forthcoming with this sort of thing.

“The long and short of it is that according to the League, a new type has just been discovered.”

That clearly threw Brock off, but Ash was excited.

“A new type?! No way! I haven’t heard of anything like that since going to Johto!”

Since Johto? What was he on about?

He must have made a face, because Brock thought to explain.

“For people who live in Kanto, Dark and Steel types basically don’t exist. I mean, they’re there, but dark types are so few and far between that most people go their whole lives without seeing one in person, and Steel types… well, it’s a bit embarrassing, but back home it’s a common misconception that the Magnemite line are pure Electric types. Add the fact that Johto wouldn’t export any Metal Coats until Lance cracked down on them…”

“Ya know, I ain’ sure if I should consider that a stupid reason or a reasonable one.” Mimikyu muttered into his ear.

That was… a very strange regional quirk, but in a way it would make this easier for him as far as the Kanto natives went. Dawn… well, she seemed accepting and naive enough that she’d believe anything he told her.

“Right, well, there are currently 18 officially recognized types, with the newest being the Fairy type.” Mimikyu gave them a wave as N, with occasional input from his fairy friend, told the group a very abridged version of what he knew about the Fairy type, and why things were on the down low.

“...so Champion Cynthia isn’t exactly happy with us, through no fault of our own.”

“That doesn’t make any sense though, Pokemon don’t just randomly change types like that.” Brock denied, though thankfully it was less accusatory and more disbelief.

“I’m not sure how true it is myself,” N agreed, “I’m just taking the word of the Champions at face value for now. With how limited communication is between the League and regions outside of it, it’s not like we can easily get information from people who have been studying the Fairy type for a long time.”

“Studying the Fairy type…” Dawn repeated, looking like she was trying to piece together a puzzle in her mind. “Is this why you’re helping Professor Rowan with his research on Pokemon evolution?”

Maybe she was a bit brighter than he had initially thought. “Yes, though I’m not sure he wants that known right now. A few Pokemon gain the Fairy type upon evolution, and he’s hoping that we’ll see that first hand and be able to give him some data on it.”

“That makes sense,” Ash agreed. “Professor Oak is always complaining about how the League is ‘stifling his research’ and how ‘things were better when the League wasn’t so bureaucratic’.” His attempt to mimic the Professor’s voice wasn’t very good, but it got the point across.

“Professor Oak complains about that?” Dawn asked, shock evident on her face.

“Sometimes. Mostly when a research grant gets denied.”

Tucking away the knowledge that Professor Oak of all people could be a potential ally against the League in the future, however unlikely it might be in reality, N wasn’t ready for Ash to suddenly get in his personal space.

“Wait! I forgot about the most important part! Will any of my Pokemon become Fairy types?!”

Unsure of that himself, he turned to the resident expert on the subject, and Mimikyu was able to answer with a simple thumbs down.

Ash quickly devolved into ramblings about how this would affect future battle plans, and N…

N thought that had gone over… surprisingly well, given the fact that he’d just openly put himself at odds with the League, if only through circumstance. He just hoped the same would be true of the next important conversation.

Today was turning out to be pretty exciting! He’d won a badge, learned about a new type, and his Pokemon, the two who were still in fighting condition anyway, were having a good time getting some more training in.

He worried about how Aipom and Turtwig were holding up in the Pokemon Center, but he’d see them soon enough, even if Nurse Joy had said Turtwig would have to get some time off from battling after his release. That was just how things worked though. Gym battles were serious business, and you had to bring out your A game.

Dawn had said something about practicing for her next contest and ran off a little while ago, and Brock mentioned doing a bit of research and had gone to use the Pokemon Center computers, which left Ash and his team with N and Mimikyu.

Mimikyu the Ghost and Fairy type… how cool was that! An immunity to Dragon sounded pretty useful, even if you didn’t see them all too often. Of course, he and Pikachu had shown that type immunities weren’t everything, and something strong or smart enough would probably be able to work past it. Though that depended on the strength of Mimikyu as well. And frankly, he wasn’t sure how to judge the little guy.

On the one hand, Mimikyu only knew how to use Shadow Sneak. A single Iron Tail from Pikachu had sent him flying, and there wasn’t much power behind his moves. His ability might save him in a pinch, but at first glance he seemed rather weak. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, everyone had to start somewhere after all, but that was the reality of the situation.

On the other hand… being near Mimikyu unsettled him in a familiar way. He and N had played it off, and supposedly Mimikyu were reasonably common in some far off regions, but… well, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d heard some sort of cover story. He thought they were pretty cool, and he’d support them if they needed help, but everything about them screamed that there was more than meets the eye.

He just hoped that the familiarity he felt didn’t end the way it usually did. He had more than enough experiences giving him nightmares, and adding another to the list wasn’t something he was looking forward to, even if he knew it would come for him eventually.

His idle thoughts about the duo were interrupted when they stopped quietly talking on the sidelines, instead walking up to him.

“Hey guys! Are you thinking of getting in on the training? The more the merrier!”

N smiled in response, but it was strained. Mimikyu… well, unless that horrifying aura was leaking out, it felt pretty impossible to read the little ghost due to the disguise he wore.

“Not quite. I was hoping to talk to you about your Gym battle.”

“Really? Sure, I guess. What about it?” It wasn’t often that people wanted to talk about Gym battles with him after they had happened beyond a “congrats” or “you’ll get ‘em next time”.

N took a moment to respond, which was perfectly fine with Ash. He was more than aware that his big mouth talking before he could think properly often landed him in trouble.

“I’m not heavily involved in League matches, so maybe I just don’t understand something, but… it seemed like Pikachu could have taken the whole Gym on by himself. Why did you have Aipom and Turtwig fight before him?”

“Well, so they could get stronger! You have to really challenge yourself if you want to make progress, you know. If you only go into battles that you know you’ll win, that’s… well, it’s kind of boring, isn’t it?” Ash thought that much was obvious, but he couldn’t assume that everyone would understand the ways of a trainer.

That didn’t seem to be the answer N was looking for though.

“I’ll admit that you have a point there, but that’s not quite what I meant.” He hesitated, trying to find the words.

“Mimikyu-kyu,” his partner chimed in, not that Ash could understand him properly yet. He thought it was something reassuring, though.

N turned away from him, watching Pikachu and Staravia practice their moves on the coal ore. “Gym battles… they’re rather intense, aren’t they?” he hedged his words. “The state that both teams were left in… If Pikachu was able to take out his opponents with such ease, and with so little damage to Roark’s Pokemon physically, then why put the others through what you did? If you’ve been a trainer for as long as you say you have, then you know that a Grass type should never end up like Turtwig is right now.”

Ah.

It was one of those conversations.

Though given his suspicions about Mimikyu… maybe it was for the best that they had it.

“I think that’s enough training for now, guys!” he called out to his Pokemon, recalling Staravia, and letting a confused and concerned Pikachu climb up onto his shoulder, mirroring N and Mimikyu. “Good job out there today.” He scratched under Pikachu’s chin just the way the little mouse liked it as he tried to formulate his thoughts into something that made sense.

“I didn’t get it for a long time either, you know. When I first started my journey…” he found a nice rock for the two humans to sit on side by side, preferring to have an excuse not to look into N’s eyes as he recalled his past. “It was a rough start. I grew up in Pallet Town, with Professor Oak right down the road. Pokemon were everything to me, and the way that he talked about battles… I thought they were amazing. Still do, in a way, but it’s not quite the same anymore.”

Pikachu crawled down into his lap, and Ash started rubbing between his ears. “Pikachu and I didn’t get along very well. We had a run in with a real nasty flock of Spearow on the way to our first Gym. And then we get there, and we find out that Brock’s Pokemon are Rock and Ground types. You can probably imagine how that went.” He laughed dryly. “All throughout my Kanto League run, I was thinking to myself that the way they did things was stupid. All those Pokemon getting so hurt all the time… but I wanted to be strong. The very best, even, like no one ever was. And since I was travelling with two Gym Leaders at the time… well, if that was what it took to become a Pokemon Master, then that’s what I would do. I tried to be as kind about it as I could, but…” Even if he had been a bit of an arrogant little shit back then, he liked to think that he was the nicest little shit that his Pokemon could have been caught by. He loved them all. Still loves them, even if he doesn’t see all of them very often.

“What changed, then?” N interrupted him. “If at the start of your journey you understood how awful all of it was, why keep doing it for so long? I can… begrudgingly accept that the arrogance of youth makes people do stupid things, but this is your fourth League run, isn’t it?”

N really was a nice guy, wasn’t he? Just glancing at his face revealed the truth. N couldn’t accept it at all. He would have hated Ash as he was back then. Might still hate him now, having seen what it meant to be a Gym challenger. But he was trying to make an effort to understand. The world needed more people like him.

“What changed? Well… N, do you know why Gym battles are the way that they are? Normal battles aren’t like this, and wild Pokemon are generally pretty friendly so long as you don’t do something stupid, so to a lot of people it must look like it’s just cruelty on the League’s part.”

The silence that followed was pretty telling. It’s not like he could blame N for thinking it was just the League being unnecessarily cruel. It was like he’d told him, he’d thought something similar back in Kanto. Sensing that he wasn’t going to actually get an answer, Ash continued.

“It’s because the League needs strong trainers. Trainers that know how to handle real consequences. You, me, and plenty of normal people might realize that the right thing to do is to be kind to Pokemon. They’re our friends, our family. But not everyone can see that. Think of groups like Rocket, Aqua, and Magma. Criminals. Scum. They don’t play nice. They torture and abuse Pokemon, steal them from the wild or loving homes…” he tried not to let the bitterness creep too deeply into his voice. “If all trainers did was friendly battles with no real consequences… Well, I don’t know what the situation is like in Unova, but I think everyone knows what happens when a group like that rolls into a town that can’t defend itself properly or when they set their eyes on a wild Pokemon.” Saffron, Alto Mare, Samiya…

“They make Gym battles like this so that if push comes to shove and you find yourself as the only thing between people like that and their victims, you can do something about it. People and Pokemon who don’t have this kind of experience have a tendency to freeze up or panic when some Rocket thug does something nasty. If a Pokemon has experience in Gym battles, understands that while a broken bone might hurt, they can still get up and fight, then they’re that much better equipped to stand against evil people. And even outside of groups like that, there are occasionally incidents with a rampaging Tyranitar, or a Salamence terrorizing people over small territorial disputes…” Or living legends threatening to destroy the world. But he still hoped that those days were behind him, and thus didn’t mention them.

If he didn’t think about how similar Mimikyu felt to some particularly rare Pokemon, then nothing would happen, right?

In a way, N could empathize with what Ash was saying.

At a basic level, they weren’t too different. While he found Ash’s admittance of his attitude in his younger years to be barbaric at best, it sounded like he went through these things now in order to protect those weaker than him. A small bit of suffering on his team’s part in order to stop the cruelties of those far worse.

N had captured Mimikyu in a pokeball. He fully intended to use the power he sought to force the League into compliance so that he could free Pokemon the world over from the cruelties of humanity. Through a certain lens, one might say that he and Ash had similar goals, if at different scales.

But that didn’t make what was being done just.

Ash had framed it as if this was the rationale of the League itself. And perhaps it was. Ash had probably interacted with people within the League a lot more than N had, so it stood to reason that he would understand them better. Yet at the same time, that would also make him more open to any propaganda they exposed him to. At the end of the day, what he’d just been told boiled down to “Good men must abuse their Pokemon in order to stop Pokemon abuse.”

Was convincing their foot soldiers, the thousands of trainers within the league, that they were morally justified in their actions just a tool used to spread their control? It was hard to tell.

“Wait, if thugs like that’re sucha big concern, then how does anyone survive…” he heard Mimikyu mumble.

“Survive what?” Pikachu asked.

Mimikyu jolted, apparently not having intended to spark a conversation with that.

“Uh, just, ya know… Ya hear rumors sometimes, about Pokemon that are… larger than life.”

He didn’t say it, but if what he’d been told about Ash was true, both Pikachu and N knew exactly what he was referring to.

Legends were portrayed as being extremely powerful. Something that a normal Pokemon had no chance of standing against. If that truly was the case, then Mimikyu had a good point.

If groups like Team Rocket were such a concern, then how were people meant to make it out alive after an encounter with something infinitely stronger? The group that Mimikyu had frightened off hadn’t seemed very impressive, even if Wobbuffet's psychic abilities were potentially cause for concern. What were they next to beings like Zekrom or Reshiram?

N had been pursuing the stone expressly because of that vast power. It would be what allowed him to reign as king, and change the world as he saw fit. Team Plasma, or at least those high ranking enough to be in the know, were fully convinced that the League would stand no chance against such an opponent.

And yet Ash had somehow survived multiple encounters if Mimikyu was correct.

“I think I know what you mean.” Pikachu answered, as if saying their names, or even just the word “legend” would anger them and be cause for the group to be struck down where they sat. “Ash and I… have more experience than most when it comes to that sort of thing. You want to know how people survive that?”

Mimikyu nodded.

“Luck, mostly.”

“Luck?” N found himself repeating back, dumbfounded.

“Well, it’s either that or divine providence, and I’m not too sure that I want to find out that we keep finding ourselves in those sorts of situations because it was planned that way.”

Keep finding ourselves in those sorts of situations? Well, that was practically direct confirmation that Mimikyu’s intel was accurate. Part of him was relieved to know he was on the right path. The rest of him grew worried.

Being told that only luck would get you out of meeting a legend alive was not exactly welcome news for someone with goals like his.

“Look, I’ll be honest with you,” Pikachu continued. “It’s been a bit since our last run in, and if you two keep travelling with us, odds are that you’ll get dragged into the next one relatively soon. Nobody really likes to talk about it, since it’s… intense, let’s say. But, as much as it might hurt at times, that is what really makes the Gym battles necessary. If you can’t put everything into something like a Gym battle, where the pain is real, but the stakes are actually pretty low, then wandering into a situation like that is a good way to wind up dead.”

“You call that low stakes?” N found himself saying. “You saw the state Turtwig was left in, how could that be low stakes?”

“Because he’s still alive.” Pikachu said as if that were a simple thing. “Gym fights are brutal, and they’re not for everyone. But at the end of the day, Gym Leaders and their teams are professionals. They know how to really mess you up without taking you out for good. They know how to pick apart your weaknesses, how to force you to grow. When Ash and I get someone new on the team, a Gym battle is a good way to test them. Are they going to crack under pressure? Is this too much for them? If either of those is true, that’s fine. We’ll still welcome them with open arms, because a team is a family. But we know that we can’t rely on them when it comes down to a life or death situation. Ash is an idiot-” he saw the boy frown, as if he fully understood the insult, “-and he’s self sacrificial. If he sees someone in danger, he’s going to involve himself, no matter the situation.”

Even if there are legends at play.

“He’ll throw himself headfirst into danger if it means he can help someone out, but he at least has the brains to know that if he’s going to be doing stuff like that on a semi regular basis, he needs to have Pokemon with him that can handle his brand of insanity. That’s why I’m always with him.”

The little Electric type let out a sigh, a tenseness leaving him that N hadn’t even realized was present. “And even with all of that, it comes down to luck at the end of the day. You wanna know why we deal with Gym battles and how much they can suck? It’s because we know that every little bit we can learn from each ordeal gives us a fractionally better chance of making it out of the next one alive. With how often we survive that shit, I’m not sure if we’re blessed or cursed, and I fully intend to do everything I can to improve our odds.”

“...thanks for explainin’.” Mimikyu said softly.

Ash had a bitter smile on his face. “I may not understand Pokemon as well as you do, N, but I have a feeling that Pikachu just said what I needed to much better than I ever could.”

N looked between Ash and Pikachu, thinking for a moment, before coming up with a pathetic “You might be right on that. You two have given us a lot to think about. Excuse us.”

“If you have any other questions… well, I can’t promise my answers will be the best, but I’ll certainly try.”

N let Mimikyu secure himself a bit more properly to his shoulder before standing. “I’ll… keep that in mind.” As he walked away, he heard the sound of a Pokeball opening, and Ash’s team diving right back into training.

Perhaps he and Mimikyu needed some of their own.

N and Mimikyu found themselves in the Oreburgh Museum, hoping that seeing remnants of the past would make the future clearer. Giant slabs of coal, ancient fossils, and shining gemstones were on display. The crowds parted around them as they stood there, unmoving, lost between the sights before them and their own thoughts.

“What do you think of all of that, Mimikyu?”

“The claw fossil? It’s nice enough I s’pose, but I dunno how well ya’d do with an Anorith.”

“No, I mean-”

“I know what ya mean. Just… tryna lighten the mood or somethin’, I dunno.”

“...right.”

A commotion from the counter drew their attention, but it was just some obnoxiously loud blonde kid and… that Lucas guy from Jubilife? N almost thought to walk up to him, if only for a distraction, but there was no point. They didn’t really know each other. The boy had just done them a favor. He heard the blonde yell something about a fine before running out, leaving Lucus to hand over what looked like a fossil to the employee. Interesting, but not relevant to him.

Just a distraction from the problem right now.

“I s’pose ya saw what my initial reaction was.” Mimikyu tried again.

“I did.” Mimikyu had seemed to share his shock at the very least.

“I think… that Ash and Pikachu are too genuine for them ta ‘ave been lyin’ to us.”

“They told us what they perceive to be the truth.”

“Ya don’t think it’s the actual truth?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“That’s… I wanna say uncalled for, but with what I’ve seen outta the League, I ain’ sure I can.”

A beat of silence between them, but the background noise of the museum’s visitors kept their minds from drifting too far.

“Do ya think that goin’ after legends is a fool's errand? Knowin’ what we do now?”

“No. It can’t be. I must do it.” The safety and happiness of Pokemon everywhere was riding on him becoming a hero.

“Right. Right…” Mimikyu seemed to decompress at his reassurance. “Gotta do what ya gotta do.”

There was more uncertainty now. The dangers involved were more… not quite tangible, as they’d not yet seen it firsthand, but they were approaching that threshold. The two of them were now knowingly approaching danger that they had not quite comprehended before. That they still did not fully comprehend.

But it was like they had agreed.

No matter what potential dangers awaited, they had to keep going.