Into the Unown Ch 140

Author's note:

Urgh... My insomnia is back. The past few days have sent my mind into overdrive and I'm having trouble shutting down.

***

Chapter 140

Second round for Nina was against a representative from the Verdant Orchid itself. And while it wasn’t exactly ideal since she wanted fodder for Brucey and Sir Clodington, it wasn’t exactly as bad as her very first round which most would consider to be the climax of the second year’s bracket.

“It’s a pleasure to have this exchange with you, Miss Jones. May the best trainer prevail.” said the amicable boy whom Nina was facing. Nina returned the sentiment with a genial smile and wished him all the best as well. Dealing with civilized and polite people was always a joy.

The boy from the Verdant Orchid’s first pick was a Tauros. A bit unconventional, but a good opponent for Brucey, a Flying Type, so most of its inherent moveset was ineffective against him. A sentiment that the boy seemed to agree with as he frowned and swapped the Tauros out for a Vileplume.

It didn’t matter, Nina persisted with Brucey since he had quite a few new moves that he wanted to try out.

Right off the bat, Vileplume began with a triple whammy of Poison, Stun, and Sleep Powder amidst a raging Petal Blizzard. Nina whistled with a frown, signalling for Brucey to conjure up a gust of wind to surround himself and insulate against the hazardous environment. It was a nascent Hurricane that Brucey was still trying to learn from Itachi, Purple Shadow’s Crobat. But unfortunately he wasn’t quite there yet.

Nina whistled once more, prompting Brucey to start spamming Supersonic and Confuse Ray. He couldn’t juke around like he always did given he needed to maintain the winds surrounding him, but against the slow moving Vileplume, it hardly mattered anyway.

Seeing that Brucey was unaffected by any status conditions, Nina’s opponent called on his Vileplume to drop the spread of powders and focus on disrupting the Golbat instead. In response, the previously scattered and wide area Petal Blizzard began to converge on Brucey in a spiral, slipping past the bat Pokemon’s wind barrier and slicing into his skin.

“Kukuku…” Brucey laughed in pain, strengthening his wings with Fighting Type Energy to spin in place and dispel the encroaching petals with a Quick Guard, buying the Golbat some reprieve to reposition himself.

Nina clicked her tongue, signalling for Brucey to use Kage Bunshin, followed by another whistle to call for a Steel Wing.

“Kukuku…” With another sinister laugh, Brucey split apart into five different clones, each clashing against the Petal Blizzard to force an opening for Brucey to fly though and strike at Vileplume with a Steel Wing.

“Vaii…” The Vileplumed moaned in pain as Brucey’s sharp wings struck its flower, simultaneously spitting a massive seed from its rafflesia’s central cavity. The Seed Bomb exploded in mid air, blasting shrapnel everywhere, striking at Brucey and forcing him to pull away.

Another whistle, and blades of wind began pelting the Vileplume in an attempt to suppress the Grass Type. “Make the flowers bloom, Sunny!” The boy called, prompting his Pokemon to endure the incessant harassment and erupt into seeds and pollen which seeped into the ground and sprouted into a miniature garden of vibrant vegetation and flowers — this was Grassy Terrain.

Immediately following that setup, Vileplume conjured another Petal Blizzard, this time centered around itself as a barrier against Brucey’s aerial assault, while the Grass Type continually spewed all sorts of debilitating powders into the air.

Nina groaned, the boy was a staller, much like herself and Brucey. Except in this case, prolonged battle would result in her loss, since Vileplume had a much wider arsenal of moves than Nina’s Golbat. “Either I swap Brucey out or I need to end this quickly.” She thought.

“But on the other hand, Brucey desperately needs a win.” Nina sighed. Her Golbat’s confidence had been faltering as of late, and swapping him out would impact his ego all the same. “I have no choice, I have to let Brucey win this match.”

Nina blew a long and winding whistle, followed by three consecutive clicks of her tongue. The former was a signal for Brucey to prime Brave Bird, the latter was to tell the Golbat to let loose with an unrestrained Kage Bunshin.

Nina had instructed Brucey to limit her usage of Kage Bunshin to only five clones in public to avoid too much scrutiny. If questioned, she could just feign ignorance and say that it was a special variant Substitute she devised. But with the dozen of clones that Brucey was able to conjure at this stage of his training, the chance of plausible deniability was slim to none.

The girl sighed. “Oh well, I’ll just have to trust in Lilian and Alfred’s promise of protection.”

With Nina’s concerns shelved for the time being, Brucey’s entire body shone in a radiant light as a dozen clones of him flew towards the spiral of Petal Blizzard surrounding the Vileplume, each clone exploding on impact and thinning the storm of petals just enough for Brucey to charge in with his Flying Type Energy empowered body, the light encompassing his body shifting to take on the appearance of a shining bird of prey.

The impact sent Vileplume flying against the arena wall and Brucey tumbling onto the ground from recoil. Both trainers cried out to their Pokemon, begging for them to get up. Which they eventually did.

“Kukuku…” Brucey staggered to stand, one of his wings limped to the side as he took in a deep breath and sat on the ground to Roost. Meanwhile, the tanky Vileplume, while looking rough with its ripped and torn flower, looked like it could still fight. 

It was unfortunate that Brucey had yet to master Brave Bird, so the resulting recoil was equally as damaging to him as it was to his opponent.

Nina sighed and tightened the fit of her earplugs. “Uproar.” She called, prompting her Golbat to break out into a noisy ruckus, deafening the ears of everyone in the arena. 

Brucey could now hold his Uproar for three whole minutes, way exceeding the duration of any Protect or defensive move that a Pokemon may reasonably have. Not that he needed to, since the worn out Vileplume succumbed and fainted after only a minute.

Brucey laughed at the hard won triumph and his trainer’s cheers as his opponent was returned to its Pokeball.

“Great work, Brucey. Come back and rest for now.” Nina also returned her Golbat, seeing that he was in no shape to battle any further. The following match was barely worth mentioning as Espy just swept through her opponent. The poor Tauros didn’t stand a chance.

***

“That was a mistake.”

Nina jolted in fright at the shadow that suddenly came to life on her way out of the arena. “Dammit, Sebastian! You nearly scared me to death.” Nina exclaimed. The person that emerged from the darkness was indeed Purple Shadow, who was still dressed in his butler outfit.

The man scoffed. “Hah! Better you die now then fall into the hands of Koga.” He remarked. “Those kids from the Fuchsia school? Over half of them are initiates from the clan, and nearly all of them saw what your Golbat did in the arena.”

Nina sighed in resignation. She figured as much, the name of Fuchsia’s premier trainer school was named Kage no Niwa, which literally meant Shadow Garden. You couldn’t get anymore on the nose than that.

“It can’t be helped. I didn’t want Brucey to lose.” Nina responded. “Besides, I got you to teach him Kage Bunshin knowing full well that he would have to use it at some point. If not now then somewhere down the line. It’s not exactly something we can avoid. Otherwise, Lilian and I wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble to look for you.”

“Looks like you’re still a kid after all.” Purple Shadow snorted in disdain. “You coulda waited until the little missus took over the mantle of Champion. Despite all her puffery, that girl isn’t as powerful as she would have you believe. She’s still very much at the mercy of her elders and that’s hardly going to change anytime soon… Especially with how distracted she is with frivolous matters.” That last sentence was said with a barely concealed sneer aimed at Nina.

The girl groaned and responded with a helpless shake of her head. “Welp, what’s done is done. I’ll consult Mr Alfred on the matter when we get back tonight. It’ll take some time for news to reach Koga’s ears, and I doubt they’ll trust a bunch of kids to pull off an assassination or whatever.”

Purple Shadow laughed. “Heh! Can’t argue with you there. If Koga wants someone dead then he ain’t gonna take any chances. But that’s the least of your worries. What you should really worry about is if he wants you alive.”

Nina scoffed. “Right, kidnapping someone under the employ of Misty Mizuhana and sponsored by two renowned Pokemon Professors. All under the full knowledge of the Blackthorn clan’s scion. I’m sure that’s gonna go well for Koga.” The girl said, voice full of sarcasm. “As if Koga was dumb enough to implicate himself like that. Better to just stage an accident and feign ignorance.”

Purple Shadow responded with a wry chuckle. “Yeah, ‘cause keeping a dumb little girl from getting herself killed is somehow easier than keeping her from getting kidnapped. Sure…”

Instead of responding, Nina just walked away, confident that the ronin would continue to guard her in the shadows. “I really should get myself a Ghost Pokemon at some point.” Having her own personal shadow guard would be very helpful right about now. Much better than having to rely on the grace of others. Especially when said grace involved a washed-up ninja with a bad attitude.

***

The third round was a much needed reprieve for Nina, since she was facing a representative from one of the generic trainer schools. Not that the kid was much of a slouch, but compared to her previous two opponents, he wasn’t much of a challenge either.

Sir Clodington handily defeated the boy’s Growlithe with copious amounts of Poison, a feat that he was quite proud of given the spectacle of Nairy’s previous match. The Paldean Wooper seemed to have perceived it as a battle between apostles of sorts.

His second choice was Victreebell, which was a lot trickier to deal with since it was also partially Poison Type.

The flycatcher Pokemon kicked things off with a Sunny Day, a classic strategy to use among Grass Types. But was handily countered by a violent Sandstorm conjured by Sir Clodington. The granules of sand whipped around the arena, and combined with the intense glare of the false sun, the entire arena turned into an arid desert — a very hostile environment for the Victreebell.

And this was where the difference between the two Pokemon Trainers became readily apparent, because Nina’s opponent was completely stunned, unsure of how to deal with the situation before him. 

To his credit, the boy did his best, calling for an indiscriminate Leaf Storm to stall for time and keep the invisible Wooper away from his Victreebel. Unfortunately for him, Sir Clodington had already dug deep underground by this point, sneakily closing the distance and repeatedly jumping out of the Ground with an endless assault of Bulldoze, like the land shark that Nina trained him to be.

In the end, Sir Clodington ended the match with his newly learned Earthquake, the range of which wasn’t exactly ideal just yet, but when used directly underneath the Victreebel was devastating nonetheless.

Nina cheered out in celebration of Sir Clodington’s first ever sweep, a feat that even Brucey, his senior had yet to accomplish. Though to be fair, as far as wild Pokemon went, Sir Clodington was already pretty experienced when Nina first found him.

Recently, Nina even noticed that her Wooper’s tail had taken on a much more bulbous shape and that pale little nubs had begun to emerge on his back, signifying that Sir Clodington was now close to his Evolution. 

“If this was a game instead of real life, I suppose I can say that Clody was already pretty high leveled when I encountered him.” Nina mused. That and the fact that a Pokemon’s drive was a big determiner of their growth. And in the case of Sir Clodington, he was probably the most driven out of all her Pokemon by a long shot.

“This is good, Brucey has developed a rivalry with Clody. So if he sees his junior evolving ahead of him, it’ll give him a motivational boost.”

***

Author's Note:

The next part is just me yapping. Cause I feel yappy today. Nothing to do with the story really.

Recently went grave digging in my graveyard folder.

It's honestly kind of interesting how the human mind works. Cause I can barely remember half of the stuff that I wrote in the past. A lot of them seriously felt like they were born from the mind of a stranger and not my own. Couldn't even tell you what the original idea was even if you asked.

Some of them were quite interesting though. One in particular really stood out. A 20 chapter, incomplete story I wrote called Untitled Journal.

This was around the time that I was binge reading Lord of the Mysteries. So I was really inspired to write something in a similar setting. i.e. a Victorian era, Sherlock Holmes-esque detective novel but centered around lovecraftian and paranormal elements. The MC was a John Watson-like character following a brilliant and beautiful, but eccentric, detective, and written in a journal format, hence the title.

However, what really stood out was the quality of the writing. Not to toot my own horn since I barely remember writing the story. But the prose was of a professional quality, way better than anything I've ever written for Into the Unown.

Haha! Seriously, Zebra? How is it that your writing has only gotten worse over time?

Anyways, I took the story and combined it with another idea I had cooke dup recently and wrote a single test chapter on a whim. Honestly, it's not very good. I couldn't capture the magic of the original and the writing was no where as good.

<Sigh> That lockdown period really did feel like a different time. To the point where past me was almost like a different person.

Other more promising works that I might revive include an anthology of short stories called Death is Depressed; a collection of slice of life short stories where Death goes around hanging out with people on the verge of death, trying to understand the meaning of life.

And another one with a similar premise. Also an anthology where an orb suddenly showed up in the sky with a countdown timer in the center, counting down to the end of the world. This one is untitled but it's about the various lives of different characters and how they choose to spend their final days.

Haha! You can kind of guess where my headspace was at during this time. I've pretty much surrendered the wheel over to my depressive side.

The last one is the most promising and likely will be the one I'll pursue if I ever decide to write an original. I even have 2 books worth of events outlined for the story. Though the ending remains vague. I hate committing to a story without an ending in mind.

Anyways, that's it for my yapping. If you've managed to read up to this point; Kudos! My hats off to you. And I hope you have a great day/night ahead.