Chapter 55- Oak (In-Progress, I promise)

I smiled to myself as I continued to run away from Agatha and her pokemon. Now, my trap had failed. It hadn’t even triggered. Not really at least. Gengar had ignored the solar beam like it was nothing, and Agatha had somehow been able to break through the bindings Hashirama had placed around her. Our attempt to separate them had failed before it even began, so now we were back to square 1. Not really square 1 since we had valuable date. I saw valuable data, but I mean that we now know nothing we try will have much of an effect against them.

Nothing we’d try without exhausting ourselves at least. Hashirama still had quite a few tricks up his branches, guaranteed to work on Gengar, but I was loathe to use them. We still had more stages to pass through, and stooping to such advantages now might as well be an admission of defeat. I’d thought myself superior to Agatha. Why would I yield to her.

It took me almost tripping over some loose foliage to realise that I was being an idiot. What the fuck was I thinking actually? Insanity had finally caught me out? I scowled as I turned to face the old woman and the ghost by her side.

“We’ve seen this trick already, boy. Not impressed” She said in that cackle of hers that had been ringing in my ears since the moment this test started. All around us, trainers were making progress, eliminating each other and moving through the forest I’d practically trapped us in. And here I was, facing off against an old woman who seemed to be pursuing me with all the dogged intensity of a scorned woman, or jilted lover. It drove me just a bit barmy and I issued orders to Hashirama at the speed of aura. Not thought, since I couldn’t actually share those. All I could share was aura. It was how pokemon actually understood each other, so you could say I learned pokespeak.

“What do you actually want, Agatha” I tried asking again. This time, I was actually curious. Thirty minutes into this trial, and the woman still kept coming after me. She hadn’t veered off or even ceased her pursuit for a second. I would have been worried for her health if she didn’t seem determined to make her last act on this world ending me.

Hashirama tore himself out of the ground with a savage intensity. He looked terrifying, if I was being completely honest. His branches were blackened in the spots were Gengar had gotten to him. His previously smooth body had grown all shorts of thorns and short branches as the battle went on and he had to stress himself even more and more to keep himself going. Less energy to maintaining his physical form, and more to fight the monster seeking our death.

A claw made entirely of shadow shot out of one of the blackened branches, making its way for the poison type that had been so problematic. I smiled at how the attack was larger and faster than ever before.

Ghost type, psychic type, and dark type energies were often called the ethereal trinity. They played off each other in ways no other elements out there did. Each and every one of them working in different ways, powered by different states of mind. For psychic energy, it was logic and calm. One needed a clear mind to use psychic energy. It’s why human psychics were so rare. Our emotions weren’t really suited to being shunted aside like actual pokemon psychics’ were. We weren’t really built for it in the same way they were. For dark type energy, it was a strange void. I couldn’t explain it. Not really.  It was why dark types were so different. They represented a sort of mid-point between dark and ghost types, having the power to somehow mess with all the other types and somehow still being advantaged against the others. They required a strange balance of calm and malice that the other two etherealki types didn’t.

Ghost type energy, though. Pure unadulterated malice was the only requirement. It’s why ghost types were feared above dark types. They were different and there were so many theories and rumour circling around about them that it was difficult to distinguish fact from fiction, especially when the former tended to be even wilder than the latter. Truth is stranger than fiction, indeed.

All that was to say that shadow claw, as a ghost-type move was supercharged by all the malice that suffused Hashirama’s body right now. Getting injured repeatedly, while trying to fight through bone-chilling exhaustion would leave even the lightest of chaps in a right foul mood. Considering Hashirama was literally from a species specially predisposed to malice, was it any surprise that he was overflowing with the stuff.

The shadow claw cleaved straight through Gengar. Even transforming to gas at the last instant wasn’t enough to leave him completely unfazed as his screams rang through the clearing. I shared the feeling of satisfaction with Hashirama as we enjoyed the sounds of the creature that had done so much to hurt us being placed on other end. I’d hesitated to move into using purely ghost-type attacks since Hashirama’s mental state wasn’t the best for it. It had never become a problem since he was usually more than strong enough for it, but as tired as both of us were, and as angry as we were, messing around with ghost-type moves was a bad idea. Very bad idea.
Gengar reformed, we attempted another claw, but this time, it was ready. I closed my eyes in irritation as I  watched the attack fail to work a second time. It simply dodged the attack fluidly, and continued to avoid the rest of our attempts to tag it. Fuck. I sent the next orders through the aura bond, and watched Hashirama switch up. This attack would be even more risky, considering how tired he’d been getting, and the fact that shadow claw only required a simple outlet for malice he already possessed. No risk, no reward though.

A/N; Writing feels so hard right now. Nothing I’ve written feels good enough. Might be the pressure, might just be that it’s harder because I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking of myself as a good writer. We’re making progress though. I don’t want to promise a timeline because I don’t know, but I’m going to keep writing, and I will finish this chapter, and the next one, and the one after that, and eventually this entire fucking story. Just that it’s going to take a bit longer than expected. I hope you remain with me through this. If you can’t, I completely understand.