Caitlin shot up in a cold sweat.
Plushies, sofas, books, and drawers, which had all been suspended in the air, floating in veils of shimmering pink energy, came CrAsHiNg down onto the floor as soon as she opened her eyes. Moonlight bled through the sliding door leading outside, and for some inexplicable reason, the curtains were dancing and flapping without any windows being open.
Something was gravely wrong.
Sweat had swamped everything from the neck up—something that rarely ever happened. She sat up in her bed, which was like an ocean covered in a duvet with how huge it was. A strange tingling sensation filled her head, like that feeling you get when your legs fall asleep, only this was in her brain.
But that wasn’t all.
“Priscila…” she uttered, holding her head as a small bright red light glittered in her eyes. Snoozing in the centre of the bed, a mystique Espeon awoke from its slumber, its pearly violet eyes shimmering with a lustrous sheen. “Your jewel... it''s glowing.”
The Espeon suddenly sprang from the bed, the jewel in her forehead throbbing intensely, leaving a trail of rosy red light. Skipping over fallen furniture, Priscila made her way to the sliding door and walked straight through it as if it were a sheet of rippling water.
Caitlin wasted no time, throwing off her duvet and chasing after her. She slid the door open, a gush of the resort’s warm breeze billowing her nightgown. Stepping onto the balcony barefoot, she looked around frantically for the little Espeon, but what she found instead made her fall to her knees.
“Oh my goodness…” Her breathing suddenly became laggy.
The air was heavy, swirling with strange energy. But it wasn’t just energy—it was presence itself.
It was... feeling.
Caitlin could feel everything. The vigour of the palm trees flapping in the unusually powerful wind. The tranquillity of the stars in the sky. The exhaustion of nearby neighbours slumbering in their own villas. Her own stress, curiosity, fear, anger, sadness, and excitement stewed in the densely energised air. It was too much. She struggled to lift her head as it stared down at her, a little smirk on its face. Three perfect red jewels shone with otherworldly brilliance, divine magenta energy serenely swirling around its levitating body.
The young girl couldn’t think—not at all.
Her mind was being scrambled by the overwhelming force of her own emotions crashing in and out of her body like a tsunami exploding out of a bottle before being forced right back in.
“Why…?” she asked, “Why are you here…mesprit?”
The legendary Pokémon floated in the air, its alien topaz eyes beaming into her. Caitlin’s eyes suddenly glowed hot pink, a series of pictures crashing into her mind over and over again on repeat. Things she’d never seen yet seemed all too familiar. Things so close and yet so out of reach, divided by an uncrossable chasm.
“I died.”
Her head throbbed, the images still scrambling her mind. A dark blue void, a demonic shadowy beast... a man with a crown of pale blue hair. She couldn’t have been imagining any of it—not at all. It was all too specific.
A blonde woman screaming her lungs out. A glowing chain of what looked like red jewels. A boy with arctic blue eyes and a dead, ice-cold stare. All before a horrible explosion consumed everything: the stars, the moon, the entire planet. People, Pokémon—all gone.
All tied together by one final image. A lone Pokémon sitting atop a glass staircase.
Caitlin shot up in a cold sweat.
Plushies, sofas, books, and drawers, which had all been suspended in the air, floating in veils of shimmering pink energy, came CrAsHiNg down onto the floor as soon as she opened her eyes.
She''d died. She''d died?
The whole world—no, the universe—had been completely and utterly destroyed, and yet... here Caitlin was. Alive. Or maybe she was looking into it too much...
No. A vision as viscerally real as that...what was going on?
At her side, wearing his usual calm-natured expression, his knightly figure watching over her so serenely, was Julius.
“Julius!” She sprang out of her duvet. “You saw that, right? You felt it too? We''ve been here before!”
The Gallade calmly nodded, assuring her he’d seen every bit of her mythical vision, before turning his gaze to the little Espeon yawning awake in the centre of the bed, the light from her jewel dissipating.
Knock knock knock!
“My lady, it’s a quarter past seven; your bath is ready. We should be going soon,” Darach said, his voice muffled by the shut door. “I’m preparing—”
“My breakfast...” Caitlin froze, mortified by the fractured thoughts in her head. “Darach, are you by any chance preparing Nanab Berry pancakes and a glass of warm Moomoo Milk?”
...
“Why, yes, young mistress. Is the scent leaking into your quarters?” the butler asked in a voice of surprise.
Caitlin exchanged worried glances with Julius. This was a repeat. A mirror of a past day. She usually paid no attention to what she ate on a day-to-day basis... but this day was different.
She couldn''t remember the exact details, but there was someone she met on this day...someone very strange.
“Make sure my milk is warm by the time I’ve finished bathing, Darach... I hate cold milk, (； ?`ω?′)” she spat.
She specifically remembered starting this day on a flat note with a glass of putridly cold milk. Something had told her to say that... a feeling of past grievances.
She splashed herself with warm water, rinsing off the foamy soap bubbles in the hot bath, and dried herself off with a soft Wooloo wool towel.
She had truly died.
“I don’t understand, Henry.” Her voice echoed in the steaming bathroom.
Henry simply stared at her with his permanent derpy face, wagging his big pink tail, (^o^)／~~. Not that the Slowpoke didn’t understand what she was saying—no. In fact, he’d seen her vision just like Julius and Priscila during their time in the bath. It’s just that the little rubber Psyduckies bobbing in the water were far more captivating than the temporal shenanigans.
“Why would the world be obliterated? How? Say we give the obscenely powerful night-deities out in the wild the benefit of the doubt and say they wouldn’t do anything of that sort, the question still stands. Wouldn’t the League do something about it beforehand? And who was that boy in my dreams? He bore such a grim stare I was almost scared to see him, and that ghastly man with the blue hair as well...”Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
She took her seat at the table, Darach pushing her in. The sweet scent of Nanab melting in her nostrils was nothing short of delicious. She took one of the finely polished forks and knives on the table and began indulging in her breakfast, while her little Espeon dug into a bowl of berries a little distance away from her.
With Darach flocking up and down the dining room, she had to hold her conversations with her partners in the confines of their minds. Priscila was too busy snacking to engage, but Julius was always ready at her side for anything she had to say.
“We died. That’s not anything that needs further questioning, I believe. No. Rather, it is our mysterious reappearance. Most importantly, the circumstances...” Her eyes glowed a faint pink, Julius nodding as they conversed internally. She reached for the glass of Moomoo Milk next to her plate. What a puzzle this was indeed—for all of them. To relive the same day once again... “There’s something else, other than that boy and that strange man, that I cannot avert my attention from. Just what on Earth was that creature atop that staircase? Such a strange figure, and I couldn’t make out what it was...”
“PTOOEY!” Caitlin spat out the milk, her face creasing and crunching in disgust. “DARACH! (*｀Д′)ノ！！！I INSTRUCTED YOU TO… warm the… milk...”
Realisation dawned on her.
Nothing had changed.
<hr>
Jubilife City.
<hr>
Lucas Gray marched with the hordes of commuting workers dressed in their “serious business” clothes. Women clip-clopping in heels and men moving with so much Purpose it made Lucas reflect on his own goals.
It was dizzying. Seeing so many people in one place—it looked way calmer on TV whenever the news was on. But nothing about this city was calm.
Not the capital of Sinnoh.
Jubilife was a busy metropolis, with electric billboards popping with bright colours and cyclists striding by on the asphalt roads, which lacked the vehicular hoots and exhaust fumes you''d expect for a huge city. Of course, you''d only expect that if you were a foreigner and didn''t know the strict regulations around cars and other gas-emitting vehicles.
No, sir, the only thing filling the road were legions of pedestrians parading around on their ways into the towering, skyscraping office buildings armoured with lustrous glass panels from head to toe.
As he wandered around, the smell of sizzling meats invaded his nose—
“Grilled karp! Nobody does it better—you! You''re on your way to school, right? Bet you haven''t even had breakfast, I can tell by your walk, buy some grilled karp!” said a man standing by a little wheeled stall with a cool red umbrella and vibrant starry-eyed Magikarp logo on it.
“I don''t have a lot of money, sorry,” Lucas said, putting up his hands as if to defend from the backlash of what he''d said.
“Then get some! Then get some! (。?`з?)? Grilled Karp! New barbecue Sitrus glaze, start your day in a grade-a way! You! Lady! Nice heels, ever tried some Cheri Karp...”
The man''s voice was drowned out as Lucas continued his march downtown, catching an entire swarm of people emerging from a tunnel underground with a sign written JCM on it.
Jubilife City Metro. The biggest station in the region, and just like the capital: the most developed. People from all over the place travelled to the capital for work using the metro.
She was no different.
Lucas had noticed a happy-looking girl wearing nothing but a light white shirt.
“Is she insane?” Lucas said in a breath of morning fog. “She''s WAY underdressed. No ways she isn''t feeling this cold!”
She was crazy.
To Lucas, at least. Something about walking around Jubilife City in the freezing 8am air with your jacket wrapped around your waist instead of on your body screamed ‘Hi, I''m insane!’ to good old Lucas here. It was mid Winter–Sinnohan Winter!
Truthfully, however, he wasn''t complaining.
It saved him the effort of finding his way to the school. She was probably headed there, right? Plus, he''d probably get lost. Not that he wasn''t already, but Lucas didn''t expect anything from a na?ve kid with no real skills in the big city like himself. He was half-expecting to get kidnapped or something. What if he was groomed and initiated into a gang?
He''d just follow her instead. Was that creepy? Maybe. It was the fastest solution, sorry. Or maybe not. Also, he was starting to get super hungry.
It didn''t help that the alluring earthy smell of coffee wormed its way into his nostrils. He was right outside a café, and it smelled great! But his eyes almost blew out of his head when he saw the sticker of a Spidops spinning a web stuck to the window.
“No way…Patisserie Soapberry! Am I dreaming?” His eyes sparkled like geodes next to a campfire. All the times he''d watched Food Network with his mum and Katy would pop up to bake the most wonderful treats...all those times…
Now he was at a crossroads.
Either he followed the girl to school and starved, OR (really big ‘or’, by the way), he went into the café and used his pitiful pockets to pay—
He was already in the café.
The air was deliciously sweet, with people murmuring and mumbling.
He walked up to the counter and almost fell to his knees. It was far too beautiful. Behind a glossy glass encasing, a dreamy gallery of the most delicious sugary morning baked goods you could imagine sat in perfect rows, just begging to be eaten!
A legion of sugar-frosted donuts rubbing shoulders with a delightful squad of chocolate brownies drenched in dripping melted chocolate—
“Hi! Three brownies and an Eevee muffin, please!” Lucas couldn''t contain himself, salivating with rainbows in his eyes as he ate up all the eye candies behind the glass.
The lady in an apron behind the counter smiled, getting the trademark pink box with a shiny Spidops sticker on it and filling the box with tongs.
“You certainly aren''t holding anything back. Got a bit of a sweet tooth, do you?” A slick, deep voice smoothly slid into Lucas''s ears.
“Sorry, am I taking too much…?” He hadn''t even noticed the guy until he started talking.
“No, no…nothing like that. You take as much as you like. I''m just…observing. Your bag’s open, by the way…”
“Wha—” Lucas snapped his head around like a Hoothoot. He was right. The zip was wide open, hanging like a broken jaw. “Thank you, sorry, I didn''t even see—”
“That''s okay.” The man smirked. “Now you know for next time, right?”
“Right…sorry…”
“Three.”
“Sorry?”
“Four. That''s the amount of times you''ve said sorry since we started talking. Call it a bad habit of mine. Everyone I know says I look into things too much. But that''s just how I am. I also noticed how you don''t look into people''s eyes much—first the server, now me. Or maybe I''m looking into things too much…”
For some reason, Lucas began to pay more attention to the guy when he started talking about looking into things. He felt like they were boring into his heart. Aloof yet sharp. He couldn''t maintain eye contact.
He looked tired. His face was cleanly shaven and…aged. Finely. Like wine. Plus, the trench coat gave him extra mysterious points…and nostalgia. Was it the detective show he used to watch where that one guy and his Linoone went all around town busting bad guys or…
No.
There was something about him—his voice. That ‘Hi, I''m an adult and I drink coffee’ voice. Easy on the ears…familiar on the ears.
“Here you are. That''ll be 2700…” The server lady said. “We take E-wallet…”
“Wha—how? Sorry, how?” Lucas said in a softer tone.
“Well, your brownies are 800 and you got three of those, plus one Eevee muffin—although I prefer coffee muffins—is 300, so that''s 2700…” the mysterious man said in his finely aged voice.
Lucas pulled out his remaining cash from his pocket. 100…300…1200…
“I''ve only got 2100,” he shook his head. “Please take out—”
“I mean, it is an inter-regional store. It''s okay. I can pay the rest. You said you take E-wallet, yes?” the trench coat guy said to the server lady, pulling out a sleek brown Bidoof bank card—
“No!” Lucas blurted out. “Sorry…but please, you don''t have to pay, mister.”
“You don''t want me to?”
…
Lucas shook his head with such little power you''d barely notice. The trench coat guy smirked, shrugging his shoulders and taking the cup of coffee sitting on the counter.
“That''s okay too,” he said. “You be careful, kid—oh! And be on the lookout for any weirdos with crazy costumes and funny hair, ‘kay?”
Just like that, the mystery man was out of sight the moment the door closed behind him.
…
“So…am I still removing anything?” the server lady asked, snapping the tongs at Lucas, her hand on her hip.
There was something about that noise, that snap! snap! It irritated him.
“Yes. Sorry…” he said. “Please take out two brownies…”
The lady watched his eyes zigzag onto everything but her eyes. That trench coat guy was right. It was a shame. He wasn''t a regular, of course—not many kids were, most were at the school by this time. Anyway, he was just one of billions of customers. As long as she got paid for feeding them all that sugar—who cared? Eventually, she rang him up, and he was out of her life like all the rest.
Back outside, Lucas scarfed down his breakfast, the noise of people''s marching and the air blowing into his ears still showering his ears.
But something was still bothering him. Two things: that trench coat guy. Specifically, the last thing he said. Weirdos with funny hair and crazy costumes? What kind of funny hair? What kind of costumes? The aftertaste of their conversation lingered in his mouth, regardless of the sweet, gooey caramel Eevee muffin he was chewing.
Speaking of which—the second thing! The brownies were MUCH bigger on TV! Way more chocolate too! He''d completely embarrassed himself in there too, not looking at the price tags and planning ahead. Such an idiot! It would''ve been even more embarrassing if the trench coat guy paid for it all—then he''d really be a helpless loser.
If he''d known it''d be so expensive, maybe Lucas wouldn''t have even gone in there instead of following the girl. Maybe he''d be at the school too!
Side note: he didn''t even know where it was. It’s not like he didn''t already know that; he was just too stupid to take the chance given to him and follow the schoolgirl!
He continued battering himself internally, verbally kicking himself up and down the street as he marched down the street with no aim. A red flag for anyone new to the busy city—an easy way to get your stuff robbed blind.
Ironically, Lucas''s eyes were stolen at that moment. Robbed blind. A red flag. Literally. But not a bad one. He''d seen it before. That red coat.
Hold on!
Yes! In the middle of a crowd of pedestrians! He couldn''t mistake that for anything else. Any ONE else. His heart filled with hope the moment he saw her.
The moment he saw—
“Dawn!”