#Yeah Pokeballs aren't good where Akari's from

[kettouryuujin]

In Which Pieces Come Together

[Inspired by @monsoon-of-art's Pokerus AU]

The trip back to Jubilife Village had been...interesting. Namely, for the distinct silence from Lord Braivary and Warden Sabi. Akari looked back, finding the pair’s shared glances cute - although the shared smirks were somewhat worrying. But as they got back to town and gone to bed, the Dewott brushed it off. Surely it wasn’t THAT big a worry, was it?

She was regretting those thoughts now that she was running through town like a mad’mon, Warden chasing her with strange half-and-half orbs. Those things had sucked Akari in once, but she’d gotten free. It wasn’t gonna happen again if she could help it!

“OOOH YOU AIN’T GETTING AWAY THIS TIME MISS SHINY DEWOTT!!” Oh, and apparently they’d dyed her leg fur light purple. For...some reason.

Of course, her thoughts were curtailed when a gust of wind kicked up, Lord Braivary descending. A few townsfolk knelt or bowed, while the sane ones - like Akari - noticed he had more of those suction spheres in his psychic grip. The wide grin on his face was all the young Explorer had to see before moving to dart down an alleyway. “Oh Akari~ We’ve got presents for you~” And of course the bird was in on this too. Of course. 

Well, regret not picking up the signals before. Keep dodging and weaving between telekinetically-lobbed balls for now. In and out, back and forth... y’know, this would be great training if she wasn’t terrified of getting Hoovered up (not that she’d tell anyo-)

*dink*

“...Distortion take me.” Not the most famous last words, but then again it was just getting sucked up and not, well, dead.

---

Rei (along with everyone in the Medical Corps) couldn’t help but burst out into laughter when Sabi returned to the Medical Corps tent, jumping into a pose with a Pokeball in hand. “Dewott Get!”

*da da da doo!* Odd sound for Lord Braivary to make, but really it just sent everyone into more hysterics. The ‘ball shook in response, which its wielder took as a cue to open it. 

Akari re-appeared in a beam of energy, stumbling and blinking. “Wooogh... That was...not fun...” She plopped her faux-Shiny rear on the floor, unable to really stand as she swayed to and fro.

Rei approached, chuckling. “So they caught you, eh? Guess they were bound to land a Pokeball on you sooner than later.” He snickered, not noticing the dawning horror on Akari’s face.

“...pokeball?”

It was so soft it came out like a whisper. Confused, the ‘chu looked Akari in the eye - and stepped back, seeing the look of pure horror on her face. 

“That...no. No no no no.” And she was panicking. What was wrong? “ There is no way that was a Pokeball. You guys wouldn’t lock me up like that, right? Right!?!” The sheer volume and fear in Akari’s exclamation made everyone step back. 

“L-lock up...?” Rei stammered out.

The Dewott shuddered and nodded. “Y-yeah... Momma said that the meanest ‘mon get locked up in ‘balls, lucky to see light a few minutes a day... UFF!” 

Without warning, the Water-Type was bowled over by a Fire-/Psychic-Type, Sabi hugging Akari within an inch of the latter’s life. “I’m sorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msor...”

The stream of apologies kept flowing, the Dewott’s features turning from scared to befuddled as the Magby cried her heart out. “I-I hadn’t seen you being scared... just...just how to get you with the ‘ball...I’m sorry...”

The Dewott numbly patted the Magby on the back as Rei’s brain was able to get past the pile of emotions to Akari’s tale. He’d been intentionally ignoring his “partner’s”...quirks...ever since they’d met. But this whole debacle thrust them back into the spotlight - and he had questions to ask. Questions he really didn’t want to ask.

...he could wait until everyone had calmed down. Well and truly calmed down. No reason to rush, especially with Akari and Sabi’s current states.

-----

Several hours later, whilst eating at the Wallflower (along with a lot of other Galaxy Team members), Rei took his shot. “So...Akari.” 

“Hmm?” She turned to him, mouth full of potato mochi. Another thing for the “Akari wasn’t transformed” list... oh he wasn’t looking forwards to this.

Maybe he should start small. “You never did tell us where you came from.”

*chew* *chew* *GULP!* “Oh. Well, I came here from Lively Town, but I was born and raised in Serene Village.”

“Y-you actually came from a town?!”

“Yesss?” She tilted her head, eyes narrowing as Rei realized he’d said that out loud. Whoops!

Still, that was a point in the “was transformed” column. “Um, what was it like there?”

“Lively Town? Eh, not that different from most other places. Admittedly, I only went there to join on a Exploration Team.”

“...you’ve mentioned that a few times. What is an Exploration Team?”

“Oh! An Exploration Team is technically any Guild-recognized group of Pokemon that go delving in Mystery Dungeons.” And a point for “wasn’t transformed”. “I was...more a trainee, than anything. Didn’t have any official team to call my own... I was actually coming back from my first solo mission before I fell down on...what was it called? Prologue Beach?”

“Prelude Beach.”

“Ah, thanks.” As Akari moved to keep speaking, Rei opened his mouth to try and interject. Then he saw the glimmer in Akari’s eyes.

It was the same kind of glimmer some people had on Galaxy Team. The people who joined purely because it had been their dream to see new places. The ones who would ramble at length at their experiences.

...Rei shut his mouth. Far be it from him to interrupt a girl discussing her passion. “So there’s two types of Exploration Teams, divided mainly by what they do. Expedition Teams are the ones who go check and see if a new Mystery Dungeon has popped up, and delve into it to try and get as much information as they can, so the brainy types can go over it and all. The other type are Rescue Teams - they’re the ones who go in and rescue ‘mon who’ve wandered into a Dungeon and been trapped.” The grin on Akari’s face was the widest he’d seen (barring Mr. Emmet, but his smile seemed a bit...abnormal. This was pure, natural joy). “Kinda like what we’ve been doing.”

“I...yeah, it kinda is, isn’t it?” Rei took another bite of mochi, thinking. “And Survey Corps... it’s kinda like the Exploration Teams, I guess.”

“Wait, really?” Akari leaned in, stars in her eyes. 

The ‘chu leaned back at the sudden invasion of his personal space, thankful for Captain Cyllene coughing and drawing attention to her. “Rei is...probably correct. While I’m not exactly sure what an Exploration Team does and how it operates, the job of the Survey Corps is to go out into places unknown and gather information. Why, Galaxy Team itself was formed from people outside of Hisui who wanted to see if the land was fit for settling. Heh...I suppose as it is now, human settlement is quite impossible, what with the rift’s apparent need to convert people into Pokemon.”

“Huh...” The Water-type nodded, seeming to accept the explanation - before blinking. “...what’s a human look like, anyways?”

----

The Wallflower’s diners used Eruption! It was super-effective.

---

Questions flew as the Dewott was dragged into the swarm of curiosity and confusion. Rei, for his part, just sat there with his mouth open. Akari... didn’t know what a human looked like. That basically proved his theory - that she was originally a Pokemon. But...her home was a town? And apparently there were many more like it?

...maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing after all. If what she said was true, then that meant that Pokemon could either use the ruins of civilization that man had left, or maybe even make their own...

He’d have to ask about it later. The poor thing was being bombarded with a trillion questions right now, and he didn’t want to add to the pile.

Especially since it looked like she was on the verg-yup. She’d Fainted.