Chapter 39: Corruption starts with a Smile
"NO! PLEASE LET ME GO!" Acerola tried to struggle to get out of Korrina's firm grip, she was even trying to phase through her body, but all of her attempts were blocked effortlessly. But it didn't mean that her attempts didn't have any effect on her captor.
"Is this really necessary?" Korrina asked sheepishly, as she felt worse from each plea that Acerola threw. She wasn't the only one to feel that way as Yellow also closed her eye each time she heard the pitiful cry from her, as despite her willingness to save her, she knew that she didn't possess the authority except that she didn't possess enough authority among the group to voice her opinion, so she kept quiet.
Of course Aaron noticed their feelings, and he wouldn't let his own plan torture them from their ideal, so he tried to reassure them. "Sigh, I know how you feel, Korrina. I also felt similarly to you with one particular kid in my orphanage. He was always acting like a brat…well more than his age would allow, he was never listening to any order and always annoying other children. But when an adult caught him in the wrong, he suddenly acted as if the whole world was against him and pleaded with them to let him go. Like she's currently doing." Aaron pointed toward Acerola while calmly smiled as he remembered this moment with nostalgia. "The problem was that when we released him without consequence, he resumed committing trouble right after, so for him to properly learn his lesson, we had to make him suffer punishment. Of course he didn't like it, but after that, he made a lot less problem, until he changed his role from a nuisance to a helper. So you see, it might be disagreeable at first, but it is necessary for her to grow, and anyway, it's not like we plan to cause her any harm."
"…I suppose…" Korinna was lost in thought until she realized that Acerola was no longer struggling inside her arm.
'Did she finally accept her fate?" Korrina quickly inspected her face, just to realize that her captive had a perverse smile…the one of a sadist.
Before she could warn the other of her sudden change, she saw Aaron suddenly raised his arm as his expression grew serious.
The group waited for an explanation, but whatever reason he made this decision, it was also a good enough reason for him to not tell a word. Yellow was thus the first to ask what was going on? "Is there a problem?"
Finally noticing that he seemingly stopped them for no reason, Aaron explained the situation, but not without making sure to fully inspect the hallways. "My instincts are telling me something wrong will happen very soon…but even stranger, I'm unable to even detect the reason why."
Korrina frowned as she sent an accusing gaze toward Acerola. "Did you do something?"
As if her previous fear had completely disappeared, Acerola returned to her snarky behaviour. "What? Me? Little death me? How could I have possibly done anything? I was inside your oh so annoyingly strong arm, how could I have made any attempt to free myself?"
Aaron made the same assumption as Korrina as he turned toward the Ethereal Archon. "Do you really think you can escape from us? We're three archons and you're alone, what could you possibly do?"
"Well, if you're so confident that I cannot do anything, then there's no reason to ask…or are you scared that you are wrong? But, if you do happen to be wrong, why would I tell you how much you're screw?"
Aaron was about to try to threaten her again, but Natural approached her first before he could continue. Acerola was at first confident even while seeing him approach her, but the more he did, the more she started to feel afraid as she remembered a warning a ghost told to her about him, but it was impossible for her to escape, so she could only bite her tongue to hope to survive what will come next.
"Would you have the kindness to answer why you are suddenly blessed with a smile?" Natural asked in a seductive voice, that were able to put Acerola's eyes in a trance for a short moment, but the pain inside her mouth was able to keep her in all the functions of her body.
She felt so happy about her victory that she couldn't help herself from taunting them. "Ha! You can't seduce me with your power you life breather!"
She said it as if it was an insult, but the prince didn't even acknowledge it, as he instead focused on the small wound on her tongue and didn't hesitate to grab it.
"Hahah…eh? Acerola could only push a small laugh when she noticed the action of Natural, and her whole face paled as she noticed some pokenergy enveloping his hand. "Wuh! Nnn! Staph!"
But it was too late, as a soft green hue shone around her tongue, and the wound on her tongue disappeared. Her eye widened as she tried her shake herself inside Korrina's arm, but right before she could bring herself to harm herself in another way, the light inside her eye also disappeared, before being filled with another type of light, one of adoration. "Father! You have no idea how much I missed you?"
The people surrounding Natural immediately shuddered at the change Acerola showcased on such short notice, as they couldn't imagine them being able to resist such a weird attack, the worst was that Natural didn't even seem to be aware of their fear. Especially the one Yellow, who was the most afraid of the bunch.
'That's what would have happened to me if my monarch was more evil…good thing his heart his filled with joy…'
But Natural didn't acknowledge their fear, nor the fact that he was just called a father, instead he peacefully looked at her. "Ah, I'm glad to see you healed without any problem." He slowly caressed Acerola's cheek, as she didn't hesitate to take the most advantage of it as she moved her face toward it. "Could you still be a treasure and tell us why your heart was filled with joy previously?"
"Hrmm." Despite clearly being in a trance, Acerola still ignored his question just to have more time getting petted by the one she currently considered as her father.
"Ah, a little selfish one? It's fine, you can never be too selfish when receiving love, but as much as it breaks my heart, I must stop until you answer my question." Natural had a clear look of pain as he removed his hand from her cheek, especially on the look of devastation on her face. But he held strong as he was truly curious how such a devious smile could have been born from so much despair.
Noticing he wouldn't resume his petting, Acerola pouted, but still answered the question while sulking. "It was because a ghost of mine told me that Geeta was coming here."
"Oh, were you the one to have called her?" Natural asked nonchalantly, but Aaron tensed up to her answer.
"Mmmh…caress first…" She said while presenting her cheek to him, which he did after making an apologetic smile. "Mmm…no, it was not me…mmmh…it was…" But suddenly, Acerola's eye widened as she tried to bite Natural's hand. "You breathing puppet! How dare you do this to me!"
Korrina was able to remove Acerola from biting range of the king, but Natural was still affected toward what he considered an unjustified aggression.
"Oh…how unfortunate that you had a will to resist, you were so much beautiful when you did not think by yourself." Natural lamented as his eye started to get watery.
Acerola looked at him in disgust as she tried to create the much distance as she could from him. "Get away from me you weirdo!"
Before it could degenerate, Aaron put himself between the two. "Alright, I know that both of you hate each other! But…"
"I don't hate her, I'm only saddened that she decided to stay as she is." Natural didn't mind interrupting him, which just made him take a deep breath in exhaustion before resuming what he was trying to say.
"I know that both of you have your differences, but right now our priority should be the fact that…" Just as he was about to continue, his instinct suddenly stopped ringing any alarm, which momentarily gave him hope that she was gone. But it soon disappeared when he saw the widened eye of Korrina, which forced him to reach the most likely event. He caressed his eye as he prepared himself for a headache "…And Geeta's already there, so it's too late to run anywhere."
Aaron turned around as if he was already tired from the problem Geeta would bring, and sadly for him, it didn't disappoint as he was faced with Geeta standing tall with an expressionless face, which contrasted with her usual professional smile they always saw her with. She was still a pretty long distance from them, just enough to make them believe they could have the time to run away, but this was obviously just an illusion to just gave her another excuse to punish them.
He knew very well that whatever excuse they could bring wouldn't be able to affect her. No amount of threat would work either, as even if Acerola decided to work with them, he saw no way of even touching her Glimmora. Only Lance possessed a pokemon strong enough to challenge her…and she already showed that this wasn't enough.
Finally, Aaron looked around for any possible distraction, but all of the other students were still in the dining hall, so there was no one who could intervene to help them…not that there were any who could actually change anything, even if they were there.
So with a sigh, Aaron acted on the only option that would lessen their punishment. "Korrina, drop her."
The words barely had the time to register inside her brain, but the surprise made her stop the energy that was restraining her in the first place, which allowed the Ethereal Archon to phase through her and instantly reappear right beside the dean.
Finally feeling safe, she immediately returned to her mocking tone. "MISS! These bully try to kidnap me and make me their slave for their diabolical cause of world peace!"
Aaron's eyes widened as he tried to defend himself in panic. "Wait! No, she's lying! That's not what we were trying to do! We just wanted to show that there could be real punishment for her causing trouble to those weaker than her."
"And by that, he means forcing me to work for them as a slave to help them with world peace!"
"Stop saying we will enslave you!"
"You were going to!" Acerola barked back.
"No we…" Aaron stopped himself before he could continue, as he noticed that not only was this argument going nowhere, but also that Geeta wasn't concerned by any of their argument. She simply stood there, silently. So he decided to do the same.
But Acerola didn't interpret it that way, as she took it as a victory instead. "Ah! Nothing to say back! That's just the proof that I am right! Miss Geeta, punish these ruffians!" But as she continued to point at them, her expression changed to confusion as Geeta still didn't say a word, she only sent her a cold gaze filled with disgust that made her realize the reality of the situation. Geeta wasn't there to save her…she was there to make them pay. And in this place, there was no witness who could call themselves guiltless.
This silence continued for an awkwardly long one minute, one so uncomfortable that even Acerola lowered her arm just to look at the ground. The only exception was Natural who simply looked in front of him as if he was completely unfocused from reality. It was only after one more minute of silence that Geeta finally broke it. "Acerola, for the crime of investigating another one of your classmates to panic, you shall receive a complete deduction of all your given SP, with supplementary mandatory work that shall be given to you during your first day of class."
Acerola raised her head so she could protest these consequences, but a cold gaze from Geeta was all that was needed to cool her down as she lowered her eyes to the ground once more as she lamented with a ghostly face. "My money…the blood of the breather…gone…how am I supposed to buy little puppet now…"
Ignoring her lamentable cry, Geeta looked at the other investigator on her current headache. "Aaron, for the crime of investigating your other classmate to take the authority of an official worker to do your own punishment to another of your classmates, you shall lose half of your SP, with mandatory homework that shall be given to you at the start of your class."
Aaron didn't even raise his head in complaint at the mention of his fate, he simply took it. He didn't even try to defend himself on the fact that he was the leader of this operation, as he was sure she was already more informed about the situation than himself. But her next word forced him to raise his head in surprise.
"Now, I shall ask you, did you force your other classmate to follow through with your action, or did they willingly obey you?" She passed her gaze onto the other archon, but Aaron acted before she could pass any judgment of her own.
"Yes I did! I forced them to kidnap Acerola by…threatening of beating them, up in a pokemon battle!" Aaron used the first excuse he could think of.
However, Geeta's eye didn't even narrow toward such an obvious lie, instead she simply nodded. "Very well, then for the added infraction of forcing one of your classmates into your misfit, you shall instead receive a deduction of two-thirds of your SP, or do you have any objection?"
Thinking she was speaking to him, Aaron was about to disagree, until Korrina raised her hand. "Yes, I object! I was not coerced into this operation! I did it out of my own free will!"
Aaron looked back at her in panic. 'This idiot! This is not the moment to play the hero! I just spared you from the punishment, don't do thing worst for us!?' But he didn't voice out his indignation, and just looked in front of him while squeezing his teeth.
Geeta briefly nodded to her admitting her crime, before looking at Natural to see if he was going to do the same, but was soon left disappointed as she noticed he didn't even seem focused on their conversation. Yellow did look as if she wanted to raise her hand, but a quick gaze from Concordia shut her down. "Very well then, Aaron, your charge shall be lower, as for you Korrina, you will receive a confiscation of a third of your SP."
Korrina gasped at the amount before gulping it down and nodding.
Without waiting for longer, Geeta brought out her wrist and tapped on her Meltan and to make appear a screen with every student's face inside of it with detailed information for each of them. With a few other clicks, she administered the punishment for all who pleaded guilty on this occasion. Acerola's face dropped even more when she saw all of her SP gone, but she knew no one here would bother to listen to her complaint, so she simply phased through the nearest wall from her. "Very well, I hope this will be the only lesson you will have to learn from me. You can now resume your personal activity that will not include punishing by yourself one of your classmates, for example you could go back to the banquet I prepared with so much difficulty. Or you could go back to your room to take some rest before your class tomorrow." With her hand on her back, Geeta left them behind, but she stopped when she heard Aaron asking a question.
"Miss Geeta, may I know what the punishment was for the Gloom Archon?" Geeta's face hardened at the sudden question, but it was clear that Aaron wouldn't back away from it. "Don't tell me he received absolutely no punishment for the panic he caused?" His last question was less of a question and more of a declaration, as it was clear he didn't believe he received a single punishment.
Turning around to fully face him, Geeta reached for her tie to tighten it before addressing him back. "Luciel was indeed responsible for the panic he caused, however, it was in no circumstances voluntary and was purely accidental. But of course to make sure such an accident never happens again, we will force him to attend therapy. Does that satisfy you?"
"I don't have the choice but to accept it, do I?" He mocked as he looked at Geeta in derision.
"Our choice can always be simplified in such manner." Instead of being offended, she responded calmly. "So it's just to say that the only thing that matters is your justification for your answer." With this finishing touch, she put back her hand behind her back and walked away from them.
After a short moment, she completely disappeared from their view, but the frown of Aaron never disappeared.
"I forgot to mention one thing about why we should be the ones with the power to punish the other." Aaron said coldly, as he gathered the attention of the other beside him. "We aren't corruptible as they are."
***
"I will presume you failed." Lance said without even bothering to look behind him to observe Aaron who had just entered his room. He preferred to simply look out of his window to admire the vastness of the island.
But Aaron's focus wasn't on him, but instead, he looked at the wreck inside his chamber. "Poor handmaiden, you do realize that they will have to clean up that, do you?"
Lance didn't even bother to reply to this question as he stayed silent, but he did firmly raise his hand, as an energy covered the whole room, before it forced each furniture to go back to the state Lance wanted them to be, thus in perfect condition…and with now more gold incrusted around each of them.
Noticing it as his signal to now answer his question, Aaron could only sigh at his extravagance. Sadly, he was also way stronger than him, so he was forced to acknowledge him as their leader. After all, he might be an Archon just like him, but Lance possessed a whole organization behind him, which gave him access to way more resources than Aaron could ever produce. But the good thing about that is that Lance swore that he would help him accomplish his own goal after his own was completed. And it wasn't like he was against assuring peace around the world, so he agreed like Natural and Korrina did.
"It seems someone signalled Geeta and…"
*CRASH*
Aaron didn't even have the chance to finish his sentence that every piece of furniture got destroyed once more. Aaron could only sigh as he looked at Lance who tried to act calm, but his fist tightly closed was enough to show in how much anger he was currently feeling from the simple mention of this name. "Why did you stop, Continue."
Forced to not even acknowledge this destruction, Aaron continued. "So the dean stopped us from bringing the Ethereal Archon to you, and even removed a lot of our SP points. Which means we will have to be completely complacent toward the Nature Archon and his new maid if we want to finance any of our operation."
"Hmm, how useless from her, it seems she doesn't have as much power inside this academy as she wants to let us think. If the best she can do is to remove her own currency, then she cannot do anything else to stop us."
'Well except beating us.' Aaron thought, but he wasn't suicidal enough yet to say such a thing out loud. Instead, he just waited for Lance to finish thinking about receiving the future order.
While he was thinking, Lance directed his energy in the middle of his finger to materialize a gold coin that he played around his finger. "Hmm, if this women have any shred of honesty inside her, then she will keep her words. So make sure that everyone inside our group achieves our score so we can regain our lost SP, and at the same time, we will make sure our followers will also bathe in this success. This will allow more people to join us in our cause, and the more there are, the less justification this woman has to stop us!"
Aaron nodded as he completely agreed with this plan, he just had one little interrogation. "What will we do about the Archon who didn't join our cause?"
"Leave them be for now, they are causing more problems for themselves by simply acting like how they are. We can instead ensure our control over the rest of the students, then we might look to make some teachers join us." Lance responded without hesitation.
"Very well, I will transmit the message to the other."
"Then also add something." He said while raising his hand once more to repair his room. "Make sure that tomorrow you make no mistake, we must show that no roadblock can stop us." Lance finished by crushing the gold coin inside his hand, just to open it again to reveal golden powder that slowly fell onto the ground. "Let's make peace as precious as gold shall we?" Lance finally turned around to face Aaron with pride in his world, as the view outside let place to the sun slowly falling down.
***
"These stupid bunch of Archon, can't they just sit on their throne all day and do nothing instead of harming my plan?!" Klara complained as she walked around her room while pulling her hair in frustration.
"Well maybe you could just take that as a signal that maybe you shouldn't execute your plan and instead just try your best at school instead of continuing with your stupid revanche? And it's not like the Archon group is wrong, they do have the best interests of our society in mind, maybe they can fix the injustice better than we could ever do! " Piers responded with exasperation from behind his screen. Marny wasn't with him right now, so he was able to speak fully about what he was thinking.
Klara immediately shut him down with a look as she approached her Meltan to fully look at him. "Did you finally gain a taste for the boot of your superior, Piers? Were my words not sweet enough for you, or maybe do you prefer the taste of leather with a little supplement of mud that your future leader will so gladly give you a taste? If you want I would gladly help you practice your grovelling, I will make sure to spite on you like the trash loves to be. Oh also, remember the one who saved your only relative? Well I'm sure they love to hear to story about how you let her rot alone, I'm sure they will find a lot of similarity with their own life. If you're lucky, they might only slap you once a day!" Despite having a joyous accent, Klara's expression was anything but happy, as he could already imagine the way she would slice his throat with this gaze.
Not that she would be able to succeed of course, but this was still enough for him to agree to her proposal. "Fine, I will still help you…just consider it…please."
"Oh but I already consider it…but it's not my fault that I'm too smart for such a stupid idea to stay in my genius brain." Klara teased him as she played with her hair.
He could only push another sigh as he tried to caress his face. "Then miss genius, what is your plan to beat a whole group of archons?"
Klara appeared shocked by his declaration. "Wow, I didn't know you held me to such high standards, but sorry, but I cannot bring down an archon, even less a group of one."
"…you know, I prefer that you waste my time than you waste your life, so please go on."
Klara's smirk disappeared from her face as she frowned. "Fine, the plan is to reassemble all of the multiple groups that were created into only two, then make them fight each other, like a good old fake war that they talk while running children's lives. While they do that, I will try to manipulate the members inside the dragon tyranny so they let them infight for a while. Preferably I would like to also make them fight with the group of the Gloom Archon…but, I don't think I would be able to manipulate any of them." Klara stayed pensive for a moment before shaking her head. "Anyways, what we will need is to create enough chaos to be able to be able to ruin these filthy rich lives without the direction being able to narrow it down to me. The problem is evidently the Archon group who would love to stop the chaos the moment it appears, so I will need to find something for that…I will have to see how much influence Yellow have on the group…well I guess the best case scenario is her becoming their personal…nah, their children listening, I can't finish that." She chuckled as she saw Piers turning bright red.
Piers looked disappointed that she had an actual plan, but he still nodded to her. "And I suppose you would wish to separate the two groups according to their wealth?"
She smiled at his answer. "You're right in the middle of the Poliwhirl." But she noticed that Piers only looked more demoralized, so she at least tried to reassure him. "But it's not only because of my very minor vendetta, it's because it's a sentiment that a lot of people share. So not only will it be easy to gather everyone around this goal, it will also be harder for them to find out who started it."
Piers eyes softened at the reasoning. "It makes sense…what should I do then? You did tell me not to gather anyone during the banquet, so what was that about?"
"Yeah, sadly I realized that you were too weak to become the leader of my operation, so I had to change my plan to find someone better suited to face to wrath of these snuck up lechonk." Piers face hardened as he was prepared to rise from his chair, as he could let her insult him about almost everything about him, but his strength was one of those things that he could let pass. Of course he noticed that he wasn't the strongest here, contrary to Spikemuth, but it doesn't mean he couldn't hold his own. But her next sentence completely shut him off. "Plus, you wouldn't want them to target Marnie right? I mean, except if she developed a taste for hospital food, I don't think you want these snobs to target her as a revenge against you. Well of course if you think you're ready to believe in the goodness of their rotten heart, then I can change my plan just for you, would that make you happy?"
Piers could only sit down in shame, as he was forced to agree with her. "No… It's going to be fine." Her smirk only irritated him even more, so he tried to change the subject. "So…it doesn't answer what I should do…and who will be the target?"
"Oh, just a little Galarian like us, I think I remember the richest hypocrite talking about him like the champion of our generation, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we change that title to puppet, what do you think?"
***
"This was the best day ever!" Iono exclaimed as she entered her room and jumped on her bed. But despite lying down, she couldn't help herself but to move her leg in the air with how excited she was.
'I made a bunch of friends, I received my access back to my pokelive account, and I even attended an incredible fight with a delicious meal at the end of it! What is there not to love!' She thought happily, until her smile slowly disappeared as she answered her own question.
'Right…that.' She remembered the crisis Luciel caused as she pushed a deep sigh. 'Well, at least he seems to look better now.'
She remembered how Luciel acted when she saw them coming to his rescue…even if he didn't look like he was in danger. Despite his face being as expressionless as before, she was able to deduce that this time his lack of reaction came from him being under the shock…and she hoped it was for a good reason.
'Well…not that I know anything about him.' Everything she thought was purely based on assumption. '…I'm probably biased because he was the one who helped me…in reality this guy is really bad news, now almost everyone is scared of him…If I stay with him even longer, they might think I'm as creepy as him…' But just as she was thinking of leaving him, she shook her head strongly. 'No, no, no! I can't leave him for that! My fans love me because I'm true to myself, I can't just quit someone because I think people would hate me for it! And I also know that it's probably not his fault that he's acting that creepy, so I can abandon him just for that…' But just as she was about to agree, another thought came through her mind. 'But what if he doesn't care about me? What if he only wants to exploit me and eat my bones!'
But once more, the thought left as quickly as it appeared, which left Iono to grow.
"My stupid power…hurgh…" As she massaged her head, she saw the Meltan on her wrist as her eye shone for a moment. 'That's it! I just have to distract my mind by rewatching my stream! And I can also read all the comments directed to me!' But as she tapped on her Meltan, it suddenly flared up to show a red notification.
"Hmm? What is that? I sure hope it's not a link toward a dancing glameow that will sing about not giving up on me." She joked as she clicked on the link without any precaution.
A wall text written in Paldea suddenly appeared in front of her. 'Welcome, student Iono Shockiol, we welcome you into the Zenith Academy. Your class this year shall be the 1-B classroom…'
"And blablabla." Iono stopped reading out of boredom and simply closed the text to try to join her pokelive account, but eventually, she realized she couldn't access it. "Wait!? Where is it!" Iono stood her back from the bed as she frantically searched for her pokelive application, but no result showed up.
"No no no NO! Don't tell me this is some creepy soulbound router situation?! Is my account HIS now?! DOES THIS COUNT AS COMMUNITY PROPERTY?!" She grabbed her head and shook it as if she had a headache. "Then what am I supposed to do! Just wait for him to come back to me? Or should I walk to his place?! It's not like we are anything more than business partners, why would he go to see me…" But as she screamed out loud, her own words made her remember something that froze her.
"Wait…business partners…what did I exchange with him again?" The more she tried to remember, the more her face turned red. She wasn't even able to control her mouth that constantly wavered in embarrassment, she could only try to cover her face to hide it, but the shame had already covered her mind. "I…I…actually…choose to be his boyfriend…"
This was the only words she could muster before the distortion was let loose, as she rolled around inside her bed. "Awawawawa, what would dad and mom say if they knew I sold my first relationship without thinking! You idiot! You idiot! Awawawa! He must think I'm an easy prey! And my fan will think the same! And I will be poor, and hated, and then I will have to hold hands with him…AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
What was sure, was that she wasn't bored for the rest of the night.
***
"Why do I even care about him?" Cynthia wandered into her bed.
Even when she lunged toward Luciel, that question stayed as her biggest concern. And it was normal for her to think that, as she barely knew Luciel, yet she suddenly acted so defensive about him. Something she wasn't used to, even when the other Ashtorn of her clan begged her to help them, she ignored them in favour of focusing on herself. So at least she was sure that this wasn't because she found Luciel pitiful.
But at the same time, she didn't have any other explanation. It was true that she first noticed him when Volo talked about him, and she was curious about this island they were residing in, so she tried to collect information…even if she barely asked him any questions since then.
Cynthia looked to the side and saw the pokeball her gible resided in, and remembered their first meeting.
Her master had sent her to collect some berries at the bottom of the mountain for a party they would organize later. Of course, the fact that she was barely eleven years old at this point didn't stop them from sending her all alone without any winter equipment on the coldest day of winter reported yet.
Nor did she send any complaint toward them, she was more than strong enough to survive such a little blizzard…and if she couldn't…well, she wouldn't have to worry about it by then.
But, it was also there where she realized that maybe she wasn't as strong as she thought, as she felt the emotion she thought was the signature of the weak…pity.
It all started with a state of confusion, she and the rest of her group had the bad luck to meet a wild pack of snovers with their leader being an evolved abomasnow. Whether they felt threatened by their presence, or they just had the sadistic pleasure to kill them didn't matter at this moment, as he unleashed a giant tempest of hail around him. She didn't know where the rest of her group was at that point, but she already rightfully assumed that they were dead.
She was the only one who was able to run away, but not with some frostbite and a pin inside her arm, but she didn't care about the pain, and had only in sight a dark cavern that seemed deep enough for her to hide in.
She still had the berry in her hand at this point, but her hideout finally let her stop holding it. Not like she cared if they collected dust, as she was already planning on throwing them at her master once she come back.
Which was how she discovered that she wasn't the only inhabitant inside the cave, as a small being lashed out at a berry to rolled to it side.
She had easily noticed the pokemon as a gible, which was often considered as a useless dirt eater in their clan, which was why she felt the situation particularly funny when she saw it raise its teeth to threaten her.
She was ready to throw had at the pokemon the moment it dared to lunge at her too, which was why she was left surprised as to why it didn't move from its place and only growled.
'Tch, all growl and no bite.' That was what she was thinking then, as annoyance started to build up, as this sight only reminded her of her own family.
But she stopped when she finally noticed a bigger shadow behind the gible, so out of curiosity, she raised herself to inspect what it was, completely ignoring the threat of the pokemon.
But her curiosity soon changed to fear, as she saw the immense body of a gabite.
She immediately considered running away, as she might be able to handle a gible, but it evolution was out of the question. But she stopped when she noticed that some frost particles started to surround its body.
'Oh…it death…' A quick look toward the blizzard outside was enough to give her the reason why. 'It probably dies from its injury after putting its child to safety.' A smirk appeared on her face as she looked at the gible in disdain.
"Well how do you feel to be the cause of your mother's death?" She didn't think that the pokemon would understand, and even if it did. What was it supposed to do. From a quick look, she could tell that not only was it currently dying from the cold and hunger, it also looked extremely small for its race. So it could do nothing to her…or that's what she thought.
"AH!" Cynthia screamed in pain as she looked at her arm where the gible bit her arm with a vicious look in its eye. She tried to shake him off, but he held on dearly just to cause her more pain than it could do to her, no matter if it was going to die from it. Even when he saw that Cynthia was about to slam him into the wall, he didn't even flinch…until he realized that he didn't feel the impact.
"I guess that was my first moment of pity." Cynthia murmured in her bed as her flashback ended inside her head. She still remembered the scene vividly, especially when she stopped her arm at the last second…because…"…no, it wasn't pity…it was…selfhisness"
Cynthia looked at her arm, where the scar that Nibble gave her, no matter how much she looked at it, she never felt sad about it. Instead, it always left her wondering why did she spare him? Why did she even bring him home so he could be healed…and then make him her friend?
And todays she wondered the same question that she already had an answer for.
…Because she didn't think they deserved their fate. That they were still fighting against it.
Nibble, despite being a dragon and ground type being extremely weak against cold temperatures, still decided to fight for his life out of pure spite. Despite that she walked over his pride, he instantly bit back with no hesitation. Despite its fate being visibly already sealed, it fought to the bitter end…and she couldn't let that happen…as she didn't think he deserved this fate…as much as she believed she didn't deserve her.
Which was the contrary of the other member of her clan, who despite being subjugated to a horrible fate, they never tried to fight against it. Once they meet the wild pack of pokemon, they didn't even try to run, instead they smiled because they considered this as a better alternative than surviving with their master. They preferred to give up rather than fight, and it disgusted her.
"Or maybe I just felt alone." She remembered her attempt to raise Iono's morale, or even trying to make the rest of the group happy.
But Cynthia tries to rationalize it by telling herself that they all shared the same goal…just in less intensity than her or Luciel. They all try to fight who they were…with the exception of Clair, which was why she liked her the less.
"But even more…Luciel is cute."
***
"…was that what they called joy?" I said while looking at the ceiling in wonder…well my head was, as currently I could only see my face as this is where Pandora was looking.
"Kyky. (I don't know.)" Pandora responded as he approached my arm to receive a cuddle…cuddles that he received immediately as he pushed small cry of satisfaction. Of course for me it sounded cute, but apparently, for other people, it sounded the same as a scream a pikachu would push while getting beaten to death.
I have no idea why so many people seem to get the same idea…are Pikachu hated in the other country…they probably deserve it then for daring to look uglier than Pandora.
But how ugly they were didn't matter right now, on the contrary, what mattered was that I just saw a beautiful sight.
People…actually running toward me…happily…just to see if I'm doing alright. I never imagined that they would actually try to see me again, voluntarily. Their relief was directed at me…and they felt happy that I was…fine…I…don't realize anyone being…sincere to me before…I love it. The assault of Cynthia did feel less sincere this time…but the fact that I received it in the first place was enough for me…
…what am I saying…I'm selfish…this wasn't enough…I want more! MORE!!! ALWAYS MORE!!! I LOVE TO BE LOVED!!! THUS ALL THE LOVE SHALL BE MINE!!! IT'S MY…"
"Kyu. (Luciel.)" Pandora simply called my name, but it was enough for me to come back to my senses. I looked down apologetically while rubbing my finger together in shame.
"Sorry… thank you Pandora for calling me back to my senses." I thanked him as I remembered the weird sensation that happened inside my head.
I don't know why, but sometimes my thoughts are completely influenced by some strange feeling…but it has been a long time since I felt this, as it was repeatedly broken down by my progenitor by torture…but now it seems it coming back now.
…I hope it won't make me cause any harm to my friend...
…no, I shouldn't rely on hope, it has never saved me before, action did!
I remembered the advice both Joy and Rika gave me, that I should find things that I love, and by remembering these things, I will be able to stop myself from harming anyone that I care about!
…but right now…I only have two of these memories…I don't think it would be enough.
I looked shyly at Pandora. "Say Pandora…you wouldn't mind that I change the objective you gave me…right?"
He looked at me in confusion before shaking his body.
"Really… thank you."
But just as he was about to reassure me, his eye squinted as he looked at me in suspicion. "Mi, kyuku, mimi kyky muuku! (Wait, what is your goal then, it better not be something that will hurt you!)"
I shook my head hastily to reassure him. "No, my goal is instead to never cause harm to those that bring me happiness, and to do that, I must make a lot of happy memories, memories that I won't try to delete from my mind! And with this, I could finally feel like I deserved to be alive!" I said excitedly as I embraced Pandora into my arms and fell onto my bed excitedly.
But as I enjoyed the luxury that was my bed, my door suddenly opened. A quick look from my side revealed Allister who looked more angry than scared, which contrasted with the previous time he joined my room. However, he was still holding tightly the plushy I made for him.
Without saying a word, I patted the side of my bed, which gave him the signal that he could join me without a problem.
Allister slowly entered my sheet as he took one of my pillows to rest his head on. He already looked less embarrassed from doing that…or that what I thought until his face was covered in red again. "Ah…I'm sorry…I…I…didn't even say hello…and I already joined your bed…so…"
I leaned my head to the side in confusion. "Why are you embarrassed?"
Allister was about to answer this question, before slowly shutting down his mouth as he started to calm down. "You're right…I don't have to…because you care about me…and you don't expect me to be brave…not like Bea…who thinks I need to grow when I don't want to…I like feeling small, I like to have someone protecting me…so thank you Luciel for protecting me."
As he was about to close his eyes to go to sleep, I silently murmured my thanks. "Thank you…for expecting me to be good."
Allister raised his eye halfway, clearly being both confused and too tired to ask for more precision, so he answered with the first thing he could think of. "…I'm bad a expecting good things from others…so thanks you for making it easy for me." He sheepishly smiled before finally sleeping with his arm tightly around his plushie.
…I am good?
If he realized he was wrong…would it pain him?
…then I should prove him right.
With a quick look toward Pandora, my pokemon immediately understood what I wanted as he brought out a bag filled with cloth.
Now, I will see what I can do before having to go to class tomorrow…I hope it won't be as painful as the one of my progenitor.