Unbroken Disguise

“What do you mean, you fed Suicune a cookie?” N somehow found himself asking.

Ash looked at him like he didn’t understand the question. “I mean I… took a cookie… and gave it to Suicune… and Suicune ate it?”

“I know what feeding means, Ash.” N deadpanned.

Pikachu laughed, though N wasn’t sure who the Electric type was laughing at.

“It’s jus’ normal for ‘im, N. An ev’ryday occurrence. This is why I suggested we travel with ‘im.” Mimikyu tried to calm his friend down, low enough that Pikachu wouldn’t overhear.

“I think N is trying to say that your story sounds fake, Ash.” Brock added.

“Why should it? With how many we run into, everyone must have experiences with Legends at this point! Never seems to stop…” Pikachu complained, not that most of the group actually understood.

“Wait, why would it be fake?” Dawn looked between the boys. “I don’t know what a Suicune is like, but don’t all Pokemon like sweets?”

“Well, no, some Pokemon dislike sweet foods,” Brock corrected, “but N’s problem with it is probably the fact that Suicune is a Legend.”

“A Legend? Like, those old stories about the ancient people of Sinnoh? I think I learned about those in school…”

“Not that kind of Legend.” N sighed, in disbelief that he was really having to explain this. “Suicune is a Legendary Pokemon. They’re Pokemon with unbelievable power. Capable of things you could never even imagine. People tell stories, pass on traditions, try to make sure that future generations never forget about them, because when Legends roam, it has a tendency of going very poorly for some people.”

The Dragon Pokemon that the twin heroes befriended had created the Unova region in its original form. The power necessary to bring such a large expanse of land under one banner must have been breathtaking…

And once the original Dragon split into Zekrom and Reshiram, their power had destroyed the region, forced to rebuild anew.

The power necessary to be called a Legend was nothing to scoff at, and Ash was here claiming to have fed one a cookie out of the palm of his hand.

“The Legends that you hear about growing up are going to depend on where you live,” N continued, “so any names that you might be familiar with won’t be as well known to us. I doubt that you three are familiar with the Tao trio, for example.”

“Not yet, anyway…” Pikachu muttered.

Ash shivered and looked a slight bit paler when he said that, but N couldn’t fathom why. He hadn’t felt anything from Mimikyu. Or maybe he’d just gotten used to it?

“But, wait!” Dawn’s eyebrows furrowed. “If that’s true, then why do you guys all know Suicune? If it’s here, it must be a Sinnoh Legend, right?”

“Because while what N said is true, it’s not universal. Suicune is a bit different from the average Legend.” Brock answered.

“Yeah, Suicune is really nice!” Ash cheered, his color returned and a smile on his face.

Brock grimaced, but quickly hid it. “Well, yes, Suicune is nice, but I meant that it’s what some people call a roaming Legend. It doesn’t stay in one place like most Legends. Instead, it constantly wanders from one place to the next.. Suicune is actually native to the Johto region, so you’re most likely to see it there, but I guess it comes at least this far out. Maybe even further! I don’t actually know where all of the sightings have been. It’s hard to keep track of because there are so many false reports…”

“Wait a minute.” Mimikyu suddenly jolted. “Was that what we felt? I s’pose the breeze makes sense now…”

N’s eyes widened. “You must be right. Suicune is known as the North Wind Pokemon, isn’t it?”

“Actually, Suicune is the Aurora Pokemon, but it’s been said that it dashes away with the North wind.” Brock corrected.

“Yeah!” Ash cheered. “When Suicune is around it gets all windy, and all the water turns pure! I saw it turn a really nasty lake crystal clear one time!”

Dawn still looked a bit confused about something, but she didn’t comment on it, instead saying “Wow! Suicune sounds really impressive!”

“Wait a minute.” Something was still bothering N. “So you’re saying that the breeze and the water purification was Suicune,” which, with no other explanation, he found himself begrudgingly believing, “but that still leaves that other feeling. That… I’m not quite sure how to describe it…” The fear that hadn’t quite been fear. Or maybe it was fear? Just of a different sort than the kind he had started to grow used to?

“Pressure?” Ash suggested.

“I guess you could call it that…” N hesitantly agreed. It sounded as good as anything he had come up with.

“Yeah, that’s something a lot of Legends have. Just being around them tires you out more, and Pokemon might not be able to keep going for as long as they normally would. You just feel this constant pressure pushing down on you, wearing you out…”

“...making you afraid?” Dawn meekly added.

Ash and Brock frowned, but replaced those with smiles as fast as they could. “A bit, yeah, but Suicune didn’t mean anything by it! Suicune is super nice, like I said, it’s just something that sort of… happens. Suicune can’t really control it, I don’t think…”

“I see…” N tried to break the silence that followed. It was certainly something to think about. If he could casually talk about meeting Suicune of all Pokemon so easily, then more and more evidence was weighing up to suggest that there had been no exaggeration about his past. At this rate, he might even be one of the foremost experts in the world when it comes to Legends. If Ash said that a lot of Legends exerted this Pressure, then it was a warning that he would need to take to heart.

Perhaps it would be something he would have to grow used to. The twin heroes had fought by the side of Reshiram and Zekrom, so it must be possible. He would just need to measure up to their standard.

His thoughts of the future were interrupted by mumbling though.

“..what Pressure does? I guess with ‘is explanation it sorta fits…”

“Something on your mind, Mimikyu?” he asked the ghost on his shoulder.

Mimikyu jerked up. “Ah! Uh, no, I’m jus’ uh… thinkin’ aloud is all, don’ mind me.”

How odd. Not Mimikyu getting lost in thought, but rather how familiar the term Pressure seemed to the Pokemon. N had only heard a snippet, but… did his friend already know the term?

He might need to investigate that.

The group didn’t run into anything terribly interesting as they made their way north. Every once in a while they would stop for a break or some training, and of course N made sure to observe every wild Pokemon that he could, but for the most part it was merely… peaceful.

At least, until they saw the trees suddenly get much more dense in the distance.

“Looks like we’re coming up on the Eterna Forest,” Brock informed them. “We’ll have to pass through it if we want to make it to Eterna City.”

“Really? I thought I heard that there was a path around it?” Dawn mentioned.

“Are you kidding? If we try to look for shortcuts then think of all the Pokemon we’ll miss! Your future teammates might be hiding in that forest right now, just waiting for you to meet them!”

N still didn’t like the idea of stealing a Pokemon from their home, but… he supposed that he did meet Mimikyu in a forest like this. If he could form a bond as… unconventional as that, then it wasn’t out of the question that it could happen again with one of the others.

Besides, forests were always teeming with interesting Pokemon. He would surely run into some he hadn't seen yet if they went through it. Could he truly say that he had explored Sinnoh if he didn’t investigate an area like this?

“I have to agree with Ash.” N made his opinion known.

Dawn pouted. “Fiiine.” N wasn’t sure what reason she would have to want to avoid the forest. Perhaps she was worried that all the foliage would affect her hair? She did worry about it an awful lot.

“Woah, look at that Pokemon!” Ash suddenly called out.

Ahead of them, scurrying across the forest floor, was a small black Pokemon whose head sort of reminded him of a few ice types back home with the way that it swirled. Covered in leaves and twigs, the rest of its body was obscured.

It quickly disappeared into the brush, but Ash wasn’t deterred. “Come on guys, lets see if we can catch up to it!” He yelled before running off ahead of them, Pikachu hanging tightly onto his shoulder so as not to be bounced right off.

Brock sighed. “We better chase after him before he gets lost in the woods again.”

Lucas held the Soothe Bell up before his eyes, wondering what exactly it was meant for. Cheryl hadn’t exactly explained herself as she shoved it in his hands and walked off. She was still in sight, he technically had the ability to shout out to her and ask what it was, but…

“I’m sure we’ll meet again somewhere! Bye for now!” She shouted back to him before leaving the forest.

Hm. What a strange lady.

He gave the old building to his left a once over. It was as he had thought when he and Cheryl had approached this area, the entrance was just too overgrown to get inside. He’d have to come back later when his team was capable of clearing a path for him.

And he would be coming back. He’d been noticing more and more areas along his journey that were just out of reach for him, but must have all sorts of goodies for him to steal!

Er- recover! Yeah, that sounded better… If a trainer had left their items out in the elements to rot, then they clearly didn’t want them anymore, right? So it wasn't stealing, he was just recovering them to… give them new life! It was like recycling! In a way…

He’d work on that. It was only a matter of time before someone started to question why he had so many loose odds and ends, and he needed to have his story straight for when that happened.

Shoving his new Soothe Bell into the items pouch of his bag, he pulled out his Journal, documenting his journey through Eterna Forest and looking back at his recent logs.

“今日はソノオタウンに行ってきました。お花がたくさんありました！” He had thought that he knew his flowers, growing up in a backwoods town like Twinleaf, but Floaroma was really something else! The town itself was filled with flowers, the fields around it were filled with flowers, he didn’t think he’d seen so many in his life!

“ギンガ団が 谷間の発電所のオペレーターをつかまえた。” He might have had to copy the kanji for the Valley Windworks off of their sign… but nobody reads these things besides him anyway, so they’d never know!

Beyond that though… Those Team Galactic weirdos had shown up again, and apparently they were a lot more serious than he thought before. Kidnapping a worker? That was some messed up stuff! Who knows how long they might have kept him locked up if not for his daughter running to get some help. And even then, how many people in Floaroma were even trainers? She was lucky that he had gotten to that section of route 205 when he did…

”マースをたおし。” Mars… she was interesting. She called herself one of the three commanders of Team Galactic. Or, no, she said it was four now, didn’t she? And the way she talked to that Charon guy made it seem like he was the fourth, newest member…

Anyway, he had expected one of the leaders of a group that was full of terrible battlers, weird outfits, and apparently really messed up plans to be even more of a weirdo than all of the grunts. But in a way, she almost seemed like the most normal? Sure, having to fight her right after fighting his way to her was annoying, and he wondered if he would have won if Bidoof hadn’t evolved into Bibarel during the fight against the grunt right before her, but beyond that, he could sort of respect her.

He didn’t really get the whole “creating a new world” thing she was going on about, and he didn’t like that she called him an “uppity brat”, but she had played things fairly. She offered a battle between the two of them to decide who would have to leave Valley Windworks. She took her loss well, and even told him that she enjoyed the battle. If he was being honest, he had enjoyed it too. It had been pretty close, and Turtwig evolving into Grotle had been what pushed them over the edge to victory.

How many other trainers had left such a good impression on him? At least, when it came to the actual battling. If she wasn’t a member of some crazy criminal group, he thought that she might make for a good training partner. Someone to push him to grow. Like Barry, but without the constant threats of fines he could never pay off.

Now that he thought about it, was being a criminal any worse than what he had to deal with when Barry got involved?

Lucas shook the thoughts out of his head. He couldn’t stand here thinking about Team Galactic all day. The Looker had run after them, they could be his problem!

Besides, Eterna City and its gym were waiting for him! So he quickly scribbled his latest exploits into his Journal.

”シェリルさんと一緒にハクタイの森を歩いた。シェリルさんはやさしいです。” Travelling through Eterna Forest with Cheryl had been… interesting. He hadn’t really travelled with someone else up until this point. Sure, he and Barry met up every once in a while, but that was just running into each other. They didn’t actually walk down the different routes together.

But there was no way he could turn her down when she asked. She was scared of Team Galactic, he had just sent two of their Commanders running from their latest crime scene. She was willing to heal his Pokemon as much as needed, he was a hoard- er, uh, collector! He was a collector! If she and her Chansey wanted to keep his team’s health in perfect shape while they travelled through a dark forest filled with Pokemon who would inflict status conditions, who was he to stop her? Especially when he ended up getting Bibarel poisoned more times than he had Pecha berries and Antidotes in his supplies…

It was like a match decided by Arceus! She hadn’t even complained when he spent all that time searching the forest floor for items that people had left behind!

Plus she was kind of cute… er- cooties! She probably had cooties!

Lucas let out a sigh.

Why was he trying to justify his thoughts to himself? It’s not like he spoke enough for people to ever pick up on his slip ups.

Maybe he needed less self reflection and more battles. He slipped the Journal back into the Key Items pouch of his backpack, stepping onto the northern section of route 205. A group of fishermen lined the edges of a small bridge…

Their Magikarp would make for perfect training fodder!

…after he checked every nook and cranny in the area for loose items.

N wasn’t sure that he could trust any of the group in a forest again.

Or perhaps more specifically, Ash.

The boy had gotten them lost for days, and they were only just making it out now, much later than they should have. If the group didn’t have him and his ability to talk to the wild Pokemon… well, he wonders if they would have made it out at all.

Dawn was practically growling at the boy as she carefully plucked twigs and leaves out of her hair.

“Well how was I supposed to know that Combee was leading us back to its nest instead of the way out of the forest?” Ash argued, not for the first time.

“Perhaps you could have waited until I was actually in earshot before running off again?” N suggested.

“But you said that Combee couldn’t even hold a conversation! How would that have helped?!”

Indeed, Combee had been much like the Bidoof he and Mimikyu had met during their first days in Sinnoh. Or perhaps even worse? It had been the first time he’d seen anything like it.

Apparently, while the evolved form, Vespiquen, had enough intelligence to hold a conversation, Combee were not at that level. They didn’t do much thinking on their own at all, it would seem, instead living their lives as their queen ordered. If Vespiquen said to defend the hive, they would defend it. If she said to attack, they would do so. If she said to gather pollen for their honey, that is all that they would do. It was all that they could do.

It was like they had no will of their own, just blindly following her Attack Orders or Defend Orders.

Or rather, most of them did. He had noticed a small portion of the swarm had a special red marking on them, and they seemed to have a bit of independence, but they’d not run into any of them until Ash had blindly led them to the hive. Maybe Vespiquen kept them there for protection, deeming them more valuable…

“Because if they couldn’t hold a conversation with N, then they definitely hadn’t understood your request to lead us out of the forest.” Brock answered when it was clear N was too annoyed to do so himself.

It seemed it was only then that Ash realized his error.

“...oh.”

Mimikyu was annoyed with someone else though. “Why didn’ you stop ‘im? Ya coulda saved us so much hassle!” He demanded from Pikachu.

The Electric typed turned to Mimikyu, looking at him from one shoulder to another with a deadpan expression. “I used to try that. I gave up a long time ago. The qualities that make him such a good person are also… very bad for situations like this. His trust in Pokemon lets him make friends with new teammates easily. It also lets him blindly follow them into danger. After a while you just learn to accept it.”

“...maybe we need ta rethink this whole travellin’ with Ash thing, N.”

It was probably a sign of his mood that N didn’t immediately disagree with that, knowing how helpful the boy could be to his future plans.