Pokemon BW fic
Chapter Thirteen: After
On the first day after the end of the world, Touko woke up.
The blanket she and N had been sleeping on in the woods outside the ruins where the castle had been was scratchy. She was relieved to find that they were both full dressed and unless her memory was suppressing deeply nothing had happened in terms of that. It would have been too soon, too young… In fact, her clothes felt stiff and pinched from having been slept in and there was an ache at the back of her head from having slept on the knot of her still-tied ponytail.
N was still asleep. He looked… younger like that, though she had always guessed him to have four, five years on her, despite his man-child mannerisms. Shorter, at least, from his usual head-taller-than-her.
She picked up her bag, the dust her Pokéballs had dissolved into already blown away, and her badges were cracked in dozens of places but still in their slots in her carrier, like stained glass she should be framing on a wall or in Burgh’s gym. She went to look for her Pokémon.
Samurott was swimming, but Zebstrika and Unfezant were grazing and perched on shore. Simisear she couldn’t see anywhere, nor Scrafty.
Screwing up her courage against disappointment, silly as it would be at this point, she announced, “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
So it hadn’t been her exhaustion causing hallucinations last night. “Hello. Everyone. I’m Touko--”
“Dearie, we know who you are. It’s been a while.”
“It’s just that I couldn’t understand you and wanted to ask about you and didn’t know how well you could understand me.”
“My mother called me Pattern-of-Wisteria-Against-Sky, but you may keep calling me Celena.”
“Is that alright?” she asked the Unfezant.
“I just said it was, didn’t I? Worrying about names is for males.”
“Worrying about names is for birds,” Zebstrika shot back, flicking his ears placidly.
“Where are the others? Did they… leave?” Now that they’re free.
“The monkey went to look for food. The good-for-nothing punk took it upon herself to go down to the ruins and the League to look for your friends.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I don’t think I have anything to eat.” She reached into her bag and eventually returned with a gem between each finger. Reflecting on the strange Rin Tohsaka fetish she seemed to be developing and how glad she was to have not found a magical girl’s soul gem to have appeared in her possession in exchange for a wish, she offered them to the Pokémon. Elemental gems were like rock candy to Pokémon, people said. “What do these taste like?”
“Seeds.”
“Rocks.”
“What were you doing eating rocks?” Celena squawked. “Miltank.”
“Woobat.”
“I hope she gets back soon.” Touko pressed random buttons on her Xtransceiver, but the large crack through it indicated it was very broken. “I wish I knew what was going on. Are there riots in the streets? Are there a lot of Pokémon running back to the wild or taking revenge? What do people think is going on? They’re more likely to think Team Plasma won than that this was someone else’s wish, that the means of compulsion be broken and the barriers between us fall so that everyone could have the understanding N has.”
“There are many old stories about ‘How humans became deaf to the speech of Pokémon.’ What they all agree on is that the curse was old when Unova was born. So good job.”
“I’m going to be either the most reviled or most beloved person in history, if anyone finds out it was me.” And not trying to explain it wasn’t Team Plasma would be a worse idea, even if she could silence all the witnesses like Ghetsis had tried to.
“Everyone knows who you are, bright lady,” a Tranquill she’d never seen before cooed.
“Hist.” Celena pecked at the air. “You were not given permission to approach. Leave Her Majesty with us.”
“‘Her Majesty’?” Touko asked quietly. Listening closely she realized: these woods were jam-packed with Pokémon, all lurking at a respectful distance but watching her.
“We know you, but you must understand what it looks like to others. You are the legendary Hero of Unova; the savior from slavery, among those not as fond of their human as we are; the most powerful trainer and she who can call the power of the Dragons to reshape the face of the world; the mate of N Harmonia, acknowledged king of and friend to the people, all making you the queen.”
“Harmonia? Is that another title or his last name?”
“Names.” She shrugged her wings, a strangely human gesture.
“I can’t believe I don’t even know that and we’re dating. Technically everyone thinks we’re already married. I really do want to make it work, though.” She loved N, she’d come to realize and admit, even if they annoyed the heck out of each other as often as not. Still, if she ever wanted to break up, she wasn’t going to let anyone else’s expectations get in the way. Her mother hadn’t married her bio-father even when she got pregnant, and she’d only ever gotten the occasional birthday gift from the guy.
“Do you know where the Legendary Dragons are?”
Touko closed her eyes and it was there, like knowing the direction of the sun by feeling it on her skin. “Yes.”
“Can you call them back?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to try without good reason. I don’t even have a wish anymore, let alone one I want with my whole being, that can change the world. Even if my last, impulsive one just destroyed human civilization, I intend to move slowly and really think through the consequences of my actions before doing anything else.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. Talk with N, see how much we need to deal with the remnant of Team Plasma in person, find Cheren and Bianca, make sure Mom’s okay. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going with you,” Zebstrika told her. “Without Pokéballs, you’d better find a flying Pokémon that can carry all of us or get used to even more walking.”
“That… never occurred to me. My dreams weren’t the most well thought out things in the world.” She wondered what Cheren’s dad would be doing since she retendered his job obsolete.
“Fortunately, I think you’ll find no shortage of Golurk or Salamence who want to be your charioteers. We’re staying with you because we’re friends and have had good times together, but you must understand we’re going to get a huge amount of status from our association with you and you’re going to be swarmed with social climbers soon.”
“I understand that I’ll be dealing with the consequences of my choice for the rest of my life. I just hope not that many other people have to pay the price.”
“You don’t have a monopoly on responsibility what others choose to do wrongly, and there will be many things that will be deserved. Do not forget that we were denied freedom and voice.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize after what you already did.”
“But I am. I listened to N some and I couldn’t stand the thought of the status quo any more than I could Team Plasma’s world, but I didn’t think there was anything wrong with being a good trainer. I took you from your flock and you from your herd, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did, but that was a long time ago. It should not be forgotten, but everyone knew that was how the world worked, and we must move beyond it. There will be those who do not feel that way and are angry. Plenty of them.”
She shivered at the thought of Castelia City in flames, which she’d been imagining since she woke up. Was there an option of doing like Alder and running away, maybe living here, in the woods, like a hermit, forever. Even if she eventually got found, maybe she’d look so eccentric and unwashed people would just leave her in her cave and maybe make pilgrimages there, if they insisted.
She couldn’t imagine how to be the sort of person that could do that. Then again, she was the girl whose determination had led her to remake the world.
“You woke up and went away.”
That was N-speak for ‘Good morning.’ He had a bruise on his face from where she’d hit him and more from falling and from Ghetsis and his Hydreigon. She didn’t regret anything, but felt ashamed of having put even one there anyway, because he might have hospitalized Alder but she didn’t want to be like that.
“I had to talk to my Pokémon.” My Pokémon. Was that rhetoric politically incorrect and part of the old slavery regime now?
“Good morning, Celena, Sol.”
Oh, unlike her they got politeness, did they? Jerk. She shouldn’t be surprised he knew their names. She shot out too quickly, “Ghetsis was totally wrong about you being freakish or heartless. You’re just undersocialized and kind of autistic and that just happens to some people, and my dream for humans and Pokémon understand each other was because of how much I admire it in you.”
“I can’t believe you had such bad timing about yelling that you love me.”
“As though you have ever had better yourself! You trapped me on a Ferris wheel, kissed me, then confessed to me when I’d just gotten shot out of a cannon while we were vowing to oppose one another.”
“That’s over.”
“The issue of being the hero and summoning the Dragons is over. There’s still the rest of our lives. What will either of us think about the world I made? I just wanted people and Pokémon to be together, but with understanding and without coercion.”
“I love you.”
“You’re right: that’s really annoying and solves nothing.”
“Teach me about being human, in this new world of humans and Pokémon you want to build. There are many Pokémon already. I have the possibility of becoming something potentially useful, someone both Pokémon and human. I’m human-shaped, but don’t know humans.”
She shook her head, but meant ‘yes’ not ‘no.’ “Let’s find something to eat, then go down to the League,” the queen told the king.
It was the day after the end of the world and the first day of the rest of their lives.
Back to main page
On the first day after the end of the world, Touko woke up.
The blanket she and N had been sleeping on in the woods outside the ruins where the castle had been was scratchy. She was relieved to find that they were both full dressed and unless her memory was suppressing deeply nothing had happened in terms of that. It would have been too soon, too young… In fact, her clothes felt stiff and pinched from having been slept in and there was an ache at the back of her head from having slept on the knot of her still-tied ponytail.
N was still asleep. He looked… younger like that, though she had always guessed him to have four, five years on her, despite his man-child mannerisms. Shorter, at least, from his usual head-taller-than-her.
She picked up her bag, the dust her Pokéballs had dissolved into already blown away, and her badges were cracked in dozens of places but still in their slots in her carrier, like stained glass she should be framing on a wall or in Burgh’s gym. She went to look for her Pokémon.
Samurott was swimming, but Zebstrika and Unfezant were grazing and perched on shore. Simisear she couldn’t see anywhere, nor Scrafty.
Screwing up her courage against disappointment, silly as it would be at this point, she announced, “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
So it hadn’t been her exhaustion causing hallucinations last night. “Hello. Everyone. I’m Touko--”
“Dearie, we know who you are. It’s been a while.”
“It’s just that I couldn’t understand you and wanted to ask about you and didn’t know how well you could understand me.”
“My mother called me Pattern-of-Wisteria-Against-Sky, but you may keep calling me Celena.”
“Is that alright?” she asked the Unfezant.
“I just said it was, didn’t I? Worrying about names is for males.”
“Worrying about names is for birds,” Zebstrika shot back, flicking his ears placidly.
“Where are the others? Did they… leave?” Now that they’re free.
“The monkey went to look for food. The good-for-nothing punk took it upon herself to go down to the ruins and the League to look for your friends.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I don’t think I have anything to eat.” She reached into her bag and eventually returned with a gem between each finger. Reflecting on the strange Rin Tohsaka fetish she seemed to be developing and how glad she was to have not found a magical girl’s soul gem to have appeared in her possession in exchange for a wish, she offered them to the Pokémon. Elemental gems were like rock candy to Pokémon, people said. “What do these taste like?”
“Seeds.”
“Rocks.”
“What were you doing eating rocks?” Celena squawked. “Miltank.”
“Woobat.”
“I hope she gets back soon.” Touko pressed random buttons on her Xtransceiver, but the large crack through it indicated it was very broken. “I wish I knew what was going on. Are there riots in the streets? Are there a lot of Pokémon running back to the wild or taking revenge? What do people think is going on? They’re more likely to think Team Plasma won than that this was someone else’s wish, that the means of compulsion be broken and the barriers between us fall so that everyone could have the understanding N has.”
“There are many old stories about ‘How humans became deaf to the speech of Pokémon.’ What they all agree on is that the curse was old when Unova was born. So good job.”
“I’m going to be either the most reviled or most beloved person in history, if anyone finds out it was me.” And not trying to explain it wasn’t Team Plasma would be a worse idea, even if she could silence all the witnesses like Ghetsis had tried to.
“Everyone knows who you are, bright lady,” a Tranquill she’d never seen before cooed.
“Hist.” Celena pecked at the air. “You were not given permission to approach. Leave Her Majesty with us.”
“‘Her Majesty’?” Touko asked quietly. Listening closely she realized: these woods were jam-packed with Pokémon, all lurking at a respectful distance but watching her.
“We know you, but you must understand what it looks like to others. You are the legendary Hero of Unova; the savior from slavery, among those not as fond of their human as we are; the most powerful trainer and she who can call the power of the Dragons to reshape the face of the world; the mate of N Harmonia, acknowledged king of and friend to the people, all making you the queen.”
“Harmonia? Is that another title or his last name?”
“Names.” She shrugged her wings, a strangely human gesture.
“I can’t believe I don’t even know that and we’re dating. Technically everyone thinks we’re already married. I really do want to make it work, though.” She loved N, she’d come to realize and admit, even if they annoyed the heck out of each other as often as not. Still, if she ever wanted to break up, she wasn’t going to let anyone else’s expectations get in the way. Her mother hadn’t married her bio-father even when she got pregnant, and she’d only ever gotten the occasional birthday gift from the guy.
“Do you know where the Legendary Dragons are?”
Touko closed her eyes and it was there, like knowing the direction of the sun by feeling it on her skin. “Yes.”
“Can you call them back?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to try without good reason. I don’t even have a wish anymore, let alone one I want with my whole being, that can change the world. Even if my last, impulsive one just destroyed human civilization, I intend to move slowly and really think through the consequences of my actions before doing anything else.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. Talk with N, see how much we need to deal with the remnant of Team Plasma in person, find Cheren and Bianca, make sure Mom’s okay. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going with you,” Zebstrika told her. “Without Pokéballs, you’d better find a flying Pokémon that can carry all of us or get used to even more walking.”
“That… never occurred to me. My dreams weren’t the most well thought out things in the world.” She wondered what Cheren’s dad would be doing since she retendered his job obsolete.
“Fortunately, I think you’ll find no shortage of Golurk or Salamence who want to be your charioteers. We’re staying with you because we’re friends and have had good times together, but you must understand we’re going to get a huge amount of status from our association with you and you’re going to be swarmed with social climbers soon.”
“I understand that I’ll be dealing with the consequences of my choice for the rest of my life. I just hope not that many other people have to pay the price.”
“You don’t have a monopoly on responsibility what others choose to do wrongly, and there will be many things that will be deserved. Do not forget that we were denied freedom and voice.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize after what you already did.”
“But I am. I listened to N some and I couldn’t stand the thought of the status quo any more than I could Team Plasma’s world, but I didn’t think there was anything wrong with being a good trainer. I took you from your flock and you from your herd, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did, but that was a long time ago. It should not be forgotten, but everyone knew that was how the world worked, and we must move beyond it. There will be those who do not feel that way and are angry. Plenty of them.”
She shivered at the thought of Castelia City in flames, which she’d been imagining since she woke up. Was there an option of doing like Alder and running away, maybe living here, in the woods, like a hermit, forever. Even if she eventually got found, maybe she’d look so eccentric and unwashed people would just leave her in her cave and maybe make pilgrimages there, if they insisted.
She couldn’t imagine how to be the sort of person that could do that. Then again, she was the girl whose determination had led her to remake the world.
“You woke up and went away.”
That was N-speak for ‘Good morning.’ He had a bruise on his face from where she’d hit him and more from falling and from Ghetsis and his Hydreigon. She didn’t regret anything, but felt ashamed of having put even one there anyway, because he might have hospitalized Alder but she didn’t want to be like that.
“I had to talk to my Pokémon.” My Pokémon. Was that rhetoric politically incorrect and part of the old slavery regime now?
“Good morning, Celena, Sol.”
Oh, unlike her they got politeness, did they? Jerk. She shouldn’t be surprised he knew their names. She shot out too quickly, “Ghetsis was totally wrong about you being freakish or heartless. You’re just undersocialized and kind of autistic and that just happens to some people, and my dream for humans and Pokémon understand each other was because of how much I admire it in you.”
“I can’t believe you had such bad timing about yelling that you love me.”
“As though you have ever had better yourself! You trapped me on a Ferris wheel, kissed me, then confessed to me when I’d just gotten shot out of a cannon while we were vowing to oppose one another.”
“That’s over.”
“The issue of being the hero and summoning the Dragons is over. There’s still the rest of our lives. What will either of us think about the world I made? I just wanted people and Pokémon to be together, but with understanding and without coercion.”
“I love you.”
“You’re right: that’s really annoying and solves nothing.”
“Teach me about being human, in this new world of humans and Pokémon you want to build. There are many Pokémon already. I have the possibility of becoming something potentially useful, someone both Pokémon and human. I’m human-shaped, but don’t know humans.”
She shook her head, but meant ‘yes’ not ‘no.’ “Let’s find something to eat, then go down to the League,” the queen told the king.
It was the day after the end of the world and the first day of the rest of their lives.
Back to main page