Chapter 52 - 76-78

Putting the conflict I had with Callum Carrillo aside, the main event of the fundraising proceeded smoothly. The handbag which I donated to the Aguirres was being auctioned off at a nice price, although I was a little surprised that the bidder was a young man who could only be a few years older than I am.

I didn't dwell too much on that though, and even bidded for an item that was almost certain to have nobody bidding for it in the auction. I decided to bid for it as a show of thanks to Myles for all the help and support he had provided thus far. Nobody seems to be interested in the item anyway, because it has a very specific purpose and use to it.

What I bidded for was a Ghost Gem. It's a held item that is able to boost the power of the holder's damaging moves that are Ghost type in nature. However, usage of held items are forbidden in the formal competitive setting of League regulated battles and very few would invest the time and effort to train their pokemon to master Ghost type moves. As such, I wasn't surprised that nobody had bidded for the item. I thought it would look very bad for the Aguirres if there's an item that nobody bidded at all, so I decided to help them out in my own way. Besides, at least to me, it's not like this item is entirely useless.

Vance had given me a black little credit card with no credit limit on it, saying that I can use it to pay for any expenditures incurred for anything that arises from helping to manage the family's businesses. At least, that is the "excuse" he gave for shoving this card into my hands and not giving me a chance to reject the gift. In truth, this card is my family's gift to me and I am free to swipe as much as I want with it because my family trusts me enough to not spend excessively or to overindulge in needless expenditure. Although if I have to be honest with myself, I could easily buy an entire building with it and my father probably wouldn't even bat an eye since he likes to spoil me so much. In any case, that card was what I used to pay for my bid and it was how I received the Ghost Gem.

I don't know much about gemstones nor am I familiar with the purpose and usage of such a held item, but even someone inexperienced like me could tell that this Ghost Gem is of a very high quality and its size should be much bigger than the average ones found on the market. I guess that in a way, I had struck the lottery with this one, because the size and quality of the Ghost Gem is also a factor of how effective this held item will be when used.

"You like it?" I asked Dolly when I noticed that Dolly was intrigued about the gem, going so far as to reveal herself in public just to stare at the gemstone I was playing around in my hand. Dolly replied with excited nods of her head, and I decided that I might as well give the Ghost Gem to the very first pokemon that I had met and caught from the wild.

"Okay, this is yours now. Take good care of it."

Dolly carefully received the stone from me, still staring at it in childish curiosity. I could understand why, because the lustre and glow from the gemstone was just so fine and gave it such a mysterious shine that I almost had the impulse to get it crafted into some sort of jewellery ornament. It really made me wonder who donated this item up for auction.

The crowd didn't immediately disperse after the last item was being auctioned off, but rather stayed and mingled with whoever had caught their interest. I'm not spared from it too, and I had collected the contact information of quite a handful of individuals that I believed might be of help to my family or to the interpol. For some, it may be both. Likewise, I had also given away my contact information to a few individuals who I believed might be worth the effort and time to get to know better.

"May I have the pleasure of speaking with you, Ms Vera?"

It was after the last person I spoke to had left, and I was on the verge of using this opportunity to quickly make my escape and head back to my residence when I heard that unfamiliar voice. I turned around to greet that person, knowing that it's wishful thinking on my part that I could make my way out of here without networking with at least a few more individuals.

Oh well, I'll just get this over and done with.

"I am Mikhail Sawyer."

I recognised that the person who I am speaking to was the same person who successfully bidded for my handbag from earlier. Black hair, bespectacled, a little on the lean side; there's nothing unusual about what I could observe about him and he would blend into the crowd very well if he stayed out of the spotlight.

It's obvious that he's only a few years older than I am, and I wasn't aware that there is any influential family in Unova that goes by the name of Sawyer. That immediately caught my attention.

In such an event, there would only be two kinds of people that will be invited. The first category would be people like me and Callum Carrillo, people who came from powerful families of significant social status and are true members of high society by virtue of our background. Those made up the bulk of the attendees of today's events.

The second category would be individuals who had made such a name for themselves that the host would deem them worthy to be invited into such events. I had done my research, and I am certain that there is no family which goes by the name of Sawyer which had significant influence or weight in Unova. In that case, this person had to belong to the second category, and these are people worth looking out for because they had to have some serious skills in their respective areas of expertise for them to be invited by Myles himself.

"Velda Vera, as you might have already heard," I returned the greeting in kind as a waiter walked past us with drinks on his tray, and I asked for another glass of red wine from him just to have something for my hands to hold onto and not look awkward. Mikhail took a glass as well, but his drink of choice was white wine.

"Do you like the Ghost Gem? I thought that it might find its way to you if I donated it for the auction. I will have to admit, it took me a while to find a gift as suitable as that."

"You were the one who donated that gem?" I asked in surprise and I could feel Dolly's surprise as well, who had been hovering beside me while caressing the precious gem that had caught her undivided attention. That was not all. He had made it very clear that he intended to discreetly pass the gem to me all along through the proceedings of this auction, and I had no idea for what reason or purpose he had done so.

He had obviously done his homework about me and researched my background, but I had never seen or heard about him until today. His words had set off several alarm bells in my head. He had also bidded for the handbag that I had donated when he obviously had no use for it, so he must have had a purpose in doing so, which is to have an opportunity to get close and approach me for unknown reasons.

"I apologise if my words had unsettled you, it wasn't my intention," Mikhail let out a brief laugh as a whimsicott playfully floated in the air near him, which obviously belonged to Mikhail. "I was simply curious about you after hearing what Leticia and Amelia had to say, especially so after witnessing how you dealt with Callum. Well done, by the way."

Leticia and Amelia? Is Mikhail associated with the Dandolos?

"Pardon me for asking, but your relationship with Leticia and Amelia…"

Mikhail simply replied with a polite smile, raising his glass a little in my direction in a toasting gesture.

"Similar to how Amelia is related to Leticia, I am related to them in the same way."

My eyes widened slightly in realisation and everything suddenly fell into place. Now I understand why Mikhail, a seemingly unimportant person, was invited to this event. He's not a nobody, he is a Dandolos. The Aguirres are close allies with the Dandolos, so it would make sense for Myles to invite them to the event that he was hosting. It's just that similar to Amelia, Mikhail hid his true identity and background under a false family name.

"I hoped you heard good things about me."

"I assure you, all I heard about you were good things," Mikhail replied and the mood of our conversation got a little warmer once we broke the ice. "Amelia was very happy to have made friends with you and for that, I thank you. She really does not have many friends her age due to her maturity and the responsibilities she had to shoulder from a young age."

"She's very capable, more so than I do," I agreed.

"Don't sell yourself short, I witnessed your capabilities for myself. Truth to be told, I was there when Callum approached you, but I wanted to observe how you would handle the situation and only step in if needed. I wasn't disappointed by the show you put up."

"What is Callum's reputation in his social circle?"

"Not very well-liked by people who are similar to you and I. Conversely, the kind of crowd that he usually mixed around with are also of a similar nature as he is. It's best to stay away from him if you can help it because it is an unfortunate fact that in… certain matters, women are naturally at a more disadvantageous position when compared to men. I know you are fully capable of protecting yourself, but I feel obliged to inform you that there were already victims who fell prey to Callum and his hooligans and they managed to escape the eyes of the law every single time."

"Thank you for your reminder. I will keep this in mind," I dipped my head a little in thanks for the concern and warning Mikhail had offered. A part of me was simply incensed because if I interpreted his words correctly, he's warning me that Callum is a rapist. Not only that, Callum is a repeat offender who used his family's influence to escape the clutches of the law every single time. Truly, the lowest of the low in human society.

"As long as you take my words to heart and keep your guard up around him, I don't think that there will be anything for you to worry about. Do not worry, I will take good care of him too, you were not the only one he offended just now."

"I wasn't aware that he offended you earlier," I allowed my surprise to show since I now know that Mikhail is my ally on account of the partnership between my family and his.

"Oh, don't you remember? Earlier he said, and I quote," Mikhail kept his voice lower such that only I could hear him. "Dandolos? Hmph, don't lump me together with those losers. Now, I like to think that I am a forgiving man and that there are many things that I can tolerate. But that? I might have to reevaluate my earlier assessment. Who does he think he is? The Carrillos? Hmph, who are they? They are nothing but insecure fools who had been vying for the position of the Five Weapons but had never succeeded throughout the long history of our region, not even once."

"I dislike him, but as of now I'm starting to pity him with how he had made himself an enemy out of you," I joked and Mikhail joined me with a polite smile before smoothly changing the topic of conversation.

"So, I heard Amelia introduced you to her preferred reading materials? Quite the exotic choice, aren't they?"

"Very… exotic," I agreed with a slow nod of my head, unable to find another word to describe her choice of literary works. Mikhail simply laughed.

"About that, you can just be truthful around me and be honest with your thoughts."

"They really are… exotic."

"You are just too kind," Mikhail sighed and took a sip out of his glass. "And ah, before that, I have to get to the main reason about why I approached you tonight. Leticia had specifically nagged at me for hours on end to make sure I talk to you about this in person."

I had consumed a fair bit of alcohol throughout the night. Still, I wasn't drunk nor was I feeling tipsy, but my mind still sobered up after hearing Mikhail's choice of words because whatever this may be, it must be important.

"I'm not sure if you remembered, but you did tell Amelia about your experience and of your run-in with a suspected Plasma agent in the underground auction you infiltrated into. Ring any bells?"

"I did tell her that," I agreed. "There's been progress in this matter?"

"Yes," Mikhail affirmed, and gave me a little shock when he suddenly gave a very deep and apologetic bow. "And before I continue with my explanation, Ms Vera, let me first apologise to you on behalf of the Dandolos family. We sincerely apologise for the assault you experienced that day and we hope that this will not affect the relationship between our families. We truly cherish the trust formed between our families and if there is anything our family could do to make up for it that is within our abilities, please let us know."

"Please, raise your head," I quickly tried to get Mikhail to raise his head, but he's determinedly not budging an inch, which really leaves me no other choice if I don't want people to start noticing our odd interaction and stare at us.

"Mr Sawyer, I have no idea what your apology is for, but I promise that I will at least hear you out before coming to a decision, because my family cherishes the partnership we have with yours as well. So please, get up."

"That is more than I could ask for," Mikhail finally raised his head and straightened his back, visibly letting out a sigh of relief. "To put it simply, the person who assaulted you, we are of the belief that he is our wayward cousin that we had lost in Indigo two decades ago, the one who we had been searching for and the one who you assisted my uncle in rescuing from the Rockets at Five Island."

That piece of information is a shocker. So he's telling me that the person who had made me truly fear for my life and gave me nightmares for that period of time was Jayce? He's that looney masked guy with the weavile? What was he doing with the Plasmas?

"How certain are you?"

"Fairly certain, certain enough to know that we have to apologise to you for the attack on your person," Mikhail patiently explained. "All of our leads about him came to a dead end and we were at a loss until now. Prior to that we received a similar tipoff from the Interpol as well, but it wasn't until Amelia noticed the oddity about your descriptions of the attacker through your conversations that we really started to look into it."

"I… Glad to be of help?" I replied awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say. Oh, I'm pissed alright, but those feelings were directed to Jayce and Jayce alone. I hold no ill-will towards the Dandolos because they all seem to be genuinely nice people thus far and let's face it, who would have thought that something like this would happen? Our families were having such a nice relationship until he appeared from practically out of nowhere.

And to think I risked my life and limb to rescue him from Ariana's hands back on Five Island… that ingrate.

Or… maybe that was why my life was spared and he didn't kill me that night after taking off my mask and finding out about my true identity? Was he even aware that I had helped to rescue him back on Five Island?

What a mess.

"Once again, we apologise."

"I won't lie, I'm angry, but that anger is directed to that cousin of yours and him alone. I accept your apology, I assure you that this incident will not affect the relationship between our families in any shape or form. My grudge is with him and him alone."

"I thank you," Mikhail dipped his head in thanks and I cannot help but wonder about Jayce, who I had admittedly kind of forgotten about until he was mentioned now.

"Do you have any idea what he is planning? Why would he join the Plasmas?"

"Truthfully, we are still unsure if he had really affiliated himself with the Plasmas because after all, he had not done anything to officially identify himself as one. As such, our assumptions might have been wrong to begin with," Mikhail elaborated, subtly pointing out that our line of thinking might have been flawed from the start. "What we do know, was that he was adamant on seeing them eradicated as soon as possible so in this sense, we are all on the same side. What we do not know is the method in which he had chosen to employ to reach that very goal, and why he had not contacted us even having arrived at Unova for a period of time. We are still trying to figure that out."

"As long as we are all on the same side, then it should be fine. Although I will say, I cannot promise you that I would not slap him at the first given opportunity for what he had done to me."

"By all means, go ahead," Mikhail laughed after hearing what I had to say as the awkward tension between us began to disappear. "I would love to hear about it. If it's not too much trouble, could you send me a picture of it too when you finally slap him?"

"Isn't he your cousin?"

"First off, I had never met him before. Secondly, that still is not going to stop me from laughing at him for the stupid things that he might have done. The same goes for the rest of my family."

I don't know anything about Jayce, but from what I can tell about the other Dandolos that I had met thus far, they must have a very close knitted relationship with each other despite the size of their family. Hopefully, Jayce will get to meet them someday, because they seem to be genuinely nice people, discounting Grimsley's grumpy attitude. After getting to know a little about his history, I think it would be nice for him to meet his family in this world at least once.

Even so, my point still stands. I am going to slap him at the first given opportunity.

Serves him right.

The event eventually concluded as the attendees started to disperse and go their separate ways one after the other. It was late into the night by then and I had called for Sebastian to pick me up. I didn't wait for long. A familiar looking car soon pulled up and I quickly entered before I could catch a cold waiting outside in the chilly night autumn breeze. The interior temperature of the car was nice and warm, much to my liking.

"From the looks of it, I take it that things went well for you, Miss Velda."

"Better than expected," I yawned from where I was seated in the backseat, the fatigue finally setting in after I was able to drop the mask that I had to wear in public as Velda Vera. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Sebastian. I wasn't expecting the networking to take up so much time."

"Waiting is part of my job, Miss Velda. There is nothing for you to apologise about," Sebastian reassured me as he started to drive the car out onto the streets.

"And oh, in case I forgot to do so, please help me to inform my father or my brother that we will not be doing business with, or allow the Carrillos to conduct any of their businesses in Hoenn. They were being very disrespectful to us and I think that there is a need to show them just who they had messed with."

"I will convey your wishes to Master Griff and Young Master Vance."

"I will have to trouble you to try and investigate them. Remember the attack we experienced at Nimbasa after meeting Leticia? I have reasons to believe that the Carrillos were behind it or at the very least, were involved in the execution of the attack. Remind me to inform my family about it tomorrow morning."

"The Carrillos? They are very closely allied with the Euclid family," I could see Sebastian frowning from the rear-view mirror of the car. "I see. I will step up protection around our residence. You cannot come to harm, Miss Velda."

"They can certainly try, but now that I am aware of who had tried to take my life I will not be making the same mistake twice," I looked out of the window, trying my best to not scowl at the thought of Callum Carrillo and also at the Euclid family. What did I ever do to warrant a death threat from them? Was it because I had sided with the Dandolos? If so, how very petty of them.

Whatever, that can wait. I'm tired.

"I'm tired, Sebastian. Wake me up when we reach our residence."

"Understood. Have a nice rest, Miss Velda."

I closed my eyes and rested my head on the headrest, wanting nothing more than to catch some sleep right now. Rena curled up on my lap, her presence providing me the comfort and warmth like she always did.

Networking in the upper class society really wasn't easy, and now I have a newfound respect for Dad and Vance who had to do this on a regular basis when I was younger and was more ignorant about the world and my family's duties.

I had grown up now, now capable of sharing their burden, even if it wasn't much.

I just hope that I can be of help to them, even if it's just a little.

77

Things slowed down a little after attending the fundraising event that the Aguirre family had hosted.

For one, my family is now officially at odds with the Carrillos. Our actions to prevent them from making any progress in their Hoenn investments were not subtle and they were brutal. I could see traces of Vance's handiwork in it and I'm sure my father was involved in some of the more sadistic business methods that we used to block their entrance into the Hoenn market.

They were really furious when I called and told them what Callum spoke to me that day, especially about the part when he wanted to make me his "girlfriend". Apparently, Dad had agreed that Vance was really not kidding when he told me that in high society, it's not uncommon for people like Callum to view "girlfriends" and "playthings" as one and the same thing, and there's no way my father would allow anyone to view his precious little girl as anybody's "plaything".

The Dandolos and the Aguirres, on the other hand, were more than happy to provide us their support the moment they learnt about the conflict we had with the Carrillos, because they are not on good terms with them as well. I also gave my father and Vance the contact information which I gathered from the people I had gotten to know from that event. These are people I felt might be useful for our own benefit, so it's up to them to decide just who we would want to work with.

As for the Interpol, I also managed to get us a few supporters who were willing to aid us in removing Team Plasma from the picture. They helped to provide certain information or things that we wouldn't be able to easily obtain in Unova otherwise, and Looker was satisfied with the results thus far.

Case in point, the interpol had been a lot more active and successful in locating and raiding Team Plasma's hideouts ever since we were acquainted with these people.

"This is like, what? The fifth hideout we raided this month?"

"Sixth," Nova replied to Skye's remark as she dusted her hands. We were finally done with our work for today.

"Woah, we raided that many? That's an average of one hideout about every five days."

"Blame Vel. She gave us sooo much work to do."

"Not my fault. Blame Looker, blame the Plasmas, don't blame me."

"I know, I was just kidding," Nova grinned. "Still, it's been a long time since I regularly worked out like this. Isn't that right, Jaws?"

The absolutely huge and terrifying tyrantrum strolling right behind us voiced its agreement with a low rumble of its throat, creating minor tremors with every step. A freaking tyrantrum, Nova has a freaking tyrantrum and I saw for myself the kind of devastation it could bring about in our raid earlier. I saw for myself earlier how its jaws actually tore through an aggron's armour with ease and that was a very scary thing to witness. I had seen many things that pokemon with similar physiques to a tyrantrum could do with their jaws. Even so, the jaw strength of Nova's tyrantrum was truly off the charts and beyond anything which I had previously witnessed.

I can really see why researchers referred to this species of pokemon as the ancestor of all modern day Dragon type pokemon. Solid defences, extreme physical power, unyielding tenacity; under the right hands, its power is truly terrifying and devastating and a mighty sight to behold.

"Everything fine, ladies?" Akamu called out when he finally rejoined us. I would never expect that his strongest fighter would be the unassuming ditto sitting innocently on the top of his head. The Plasma grunts who we fought just now had nearly shitted their pants when the ditto transformed into an Ultra Beast right in front of their eyes in a split second. It really is a very scary thing to be on the receiving end of. Even after that display, unbelievably, Akamu had confided with us that ditto is still not capable of replicating an Ultra Beast's full strength. It really makes us wonder just how powerful these creatures are and at the same time, thankful that they could not be found in other parts of the world.

Imagine if these creatures were to freely roam across Hoenn as they do in Alola. It will really be a disaster, walking disasters.

"Someone's eager to knock off early," Skye teased, eliciting laughter from everyone. Akamu shrugged and took it all with grace.

"You will understand when you finally get married and settle down."

"Silver is starting on his first words, right?"

"He can say Pa and Ma now, so that's something," Akamu grinned as we walked out of the ruined hideout that we had a part in raiding earlier. As usual, we will leave it to the local Unova forces to deal with the cleanup.

The little baby Silver that the couple adopted was the same one we remembered to be as the antagonist in the original games, Akamu had admitted and revealed that much to us in secret during our stay here. I'm still not too sure how Silver ended up in Akamu's and Mary's care because Akamu did not go too deep in his explanation, but that is no longer important. A child should never be judged for their parents' crimes, that is a belief that we all shared.

"Looker better give us a damn break after today. He made us work overtime for two months. Can you believe it? Two goddamn months," Skye raised two fingers up to further emphasise her point, making her displeasure known very clearly.

"I warned you guys," Akamu reminded us and even then we all could not help but sigh.

"I can now see why you called him a slavedriver."

"A slavedriver? He's the slavedriver. He's a sadistic bastard. Trust me, I worked with him for years."

"Excuse me, I'm just right here."

"Oh, hi Looker!" Skye acted as if we hadn't just talked about Looker behind his back, waving enthusiastically at our direct superior who had magically made his appearance from seemingly nowhere. "How are you going to slave us out this time?"

"Believe it or not, I was originally going to give you guys a one week break, but since you asked…"

"Oh hell no, I'm outta here. See ya in a week!" Skye immediately backed away and whistled for her pidgeot to immediately swoop down and in an impressive display of acrobatics, Skye did a high jump, somersaulted in the air, and landed just nicely on pidgeot as it flew past her right at that very moment for her to land on its back. They quickly became a small black dot in the skies overhead in the span of a few seconds.

That was so cool.

"Show off," Nova huffed with her arms crossed.

"I can never do that," I stated plain and clear, still trying to figure out how Skye did that without an accident happening or breaking a bone or two. How long did she practise to be able to do that?

"She's just showing off," Nova insisted.

"I prefer the safer option of teleporting. Anybody else hitching a ride?" Akamu offered as he released his alakazam out of its pokeball and it was an offer that Nova and I immediately accepted.

"Nuh uh, Looker, we reached the passenger limit here," Akamu declared when Looker attempted to hitch a ride back with us.

"Oh I'm so hurt," Looker replied dryly. "What happened to the good old times we shared?"

"Old times, yes, but I'm not too sure about the good part," Akamu replied wittingly and Nova and I laughed. We do have many complaints about Looker and his slavedriver tendencies when it comes to work, but ultimately we are still on very good terms with each other. The fact that we feel comfortable enough to joke with Looker like this was an indication that we have a good relationship with each other.

"Oh fine, I know when I'm not welcomed," Looker lamented exaggeratedly as he joined in our little game. "But before you go, Vel, I need you to be around tomorrow at approximately nine in the morning."

"Wait, everyone else got their break except for me? How can you?" I gasped, maybe a little too dramatically, but it's also kind of true that this news was a real downer after hearing that Looker had planned to give everyone a one week break.

"Don't be dramatic, I only need you for the morning. We will be meeting someone important that I think you would want to meet. I will fill you in about the details tomorrow. For now, enjoy your time off."

"Quick, let's go, let's go! Who knows if he would decide to change his mind and get us to stay back tomorrow too," Nova quickly urged Akamu and this time I didn't bother to hold back my laughter.

"Excuse me-"

Whatever complaints Looker had, we never knew. Akamu's alakazam teleported us out of there just right at that very moment.

"You… gotta be kidding me."

"I'm afraid not."

The next day came quicker than I expected it to be. I came to find Looker before nine and he led me to the meeting room on the third floor of our residence where he said we will be meeting whoever we would be meeting today.

We will be meeting Elesa. No surprises there, we had been working closely with her this entire time as this is her city that we are staying at and she is one of our main points of contact in liaising with the Unova League.

However, today's meeting is a little special than the usual ones because she's bringing along a guest today.

Guess what? That VIP is Jayce Dandolos. Yes, that same guy who is also one of us, one of those "Seven Sages", the same guy who I helped rescue from Five Island, and the same one who nearly killed me and gave me nightmares for quite a while when I went undercover in that underground auction.

As you can tell, I'm not really in the best of moods after learning that piece of news.

"So… The Dandolos finally found him?"

"They did. I think they found him about two days ago."

"Wonder if it was a tear jerking reunion," I cannot help but remark, still feeling a little irritable at the thought of meeting Jayce after what he subjected me to. To be fair, our encounter was probably a result of a series of coincidental misunderstandings. I would admit that trying to rob him of the little girl was probably not the best way to introduce myself to him and he had the right to retaliate. It's also a fact that he never took my life when he clearly could, and the Dandolos were being very sincere with their apology when Mikhail approached me that day.

Still… Oh well, whatever.

"Wait, what about the girl he bought from the auction?"

"She's under the protection of the Dandolos now. From what I gathered Jayce had been hiding her from the Plasmas the entire time. That would mean that back there at the underground auction, both of you were bidding for the same cause, and that is to not let the girl fall into Team Plasma's hands."

"So we need not have fought at all if we knew of each other's intentions from the start."

"Technically, yes."

"Great."

"At least all that goes well ends well?"

"It will only end well after I have my revenge. Seriously, those nightmares…" My body involuntarily shivered at those memories and I could still feel some phantom tingling around my neck where I remembered his dagger had lightly slid across my skin to cut me. I decided to not dwell on that topic any longer. Either way, I just don't feel satisfied if I don't get my payback in some shape or form.

I could feel the anger of the ghosts residing in my shadows as well, and the emotions I felt were very intense. Like me, they hold a grudge too, but somehow I just instinctively knew that their grudge is not something that can be easily appeased and I am starting to doubt if I can control them when Jayce eventually makes his appearance. Like Agatha once taught me, nobody can claim to control ghosts, even for Ghost Masters. This is one such time that I would not be able to control them because they are really mad.

Sucks to be Jayce right now.

The perfect timing just had to be the time when I was lost in my thoughts and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. The door to the meeting room opened just a crack and right after, the shadows around me burst forth before I could do or say anything.

Elesa and Jayce must have arrived.

I knew that my ghosts' attempt to kill Jayce in murderous fury must have failed when their frustrated howlings continued to grow in volume. I managed to spot a bisharp and ninetales blocking their advances through the inky shadowy mass between us just as my ghosts bombarded them with Shadow Balls and other forms of ghost type techniques.

That still didn't work, and I had no time to ponder over just how they managed to defend themselves from an ambush of such scale because I found myself being held hostage a split second later.

"Checkmate."

I seriously had no idea how he did it. One moment he was there at the other end of the room where the door was, the next moment he was behind me and had held me in a chokehold with his right arm. I knew he meant no harm because I did not feel choked at all, but his other hand was holding that blasted dagger against Looker's neck, who was observing the scene beside me the entire time.

I knew my life was not in danger because if he really wanted to kill me he would have done so the first time we met that night, and he also had the opportunity to do so just now. I knew he would not kill me because Elesa had brought him here herself and that Looker was beside me the entire time. Jayce may be dangerous, but I doubt Looker is any less skilled than he is. It's obvious that Looker let himself get caught on purpose.

Seriously, this guy, the last of us seven, is truly a dangerous individual. No matter how I racked my brain for an answer I still could not figure out how he suddenly closed the distance and reappeared behind us in the blink of an eye. Just what kind of trick did he pull?

"Now, are you guys calm enough to listen, or do we have to scatter you into wisps of smoke?"

I finally heard his voice for the first time. His voice was surprisingly nice to listen to, a cool smooth baritone and weirdly, the first thought that came to my mind after hearing his voice was that probably he would have made a very good voice actor or a documentary narrator if he ever chose to pursue that path. His question was directed to my army of ghosts who were fully in view, hovering in the air and their numbers filling the space of the entire room while glaring daggers at him. They dared not move because they understood that any rash decisions on their end might spell danger for me. This was probably what Jayce was aiming for when he decided to take me hostage to quickly deescalate the situation.

"Not bad," Looker broke the awkward atmosphere with a low whistle, and I could tell that he's truly appreciating the skills that Jayce just displayed in that brief exchange. From the point when my ghosts started their assault to when I was taken hostage probably only lasted somewhere between five to seven seconds, and even then we spotted enough to know that the skills Jayce displayed in that brief moment of time were nothing to scoff at.

I do not know what other words I could use to describe him other than saying that he's a dangerous man.

"Rocket's Exterminator indeed. After our previous encounter I can understand why Skye said running into you just once is able to give her nightmares for months," I spoke up as well, and I will admit that even in my current position I'm still a little pissed for what he had done to me. I'm pretty sure he picked that up from the tone of my voice.

"Anything I say now would only seem like an excuse, but I do apologise," oh, now we are finally talking. "I had thought that you were Plasmas or people along that vein. In my defence, I do have the right to do what is needed to prevent myself from being robbed of something I spent more than a hundred million on."

That's… true. Vance and I were the aggressors who tried to rob him of the little girl who he spent more than a hundred million on. If I were in his shoes, I might have reacted similarly too.

I'm still pissed though.

"Fair enough, it's partly my fault too," I admitted. "I had also thought that you were one of those people. Now, are you going to continue holding me hostage, or are you going to let me go?"

"Are they planning to allow us to talk like civilised people?"

Our attention was brought back to my little army of ghosts who were still hissing threats at Jayce. Truthfully, they looked to be far too angry to listen to anything that even I might say, but I guess I will have to try.

"Dolly, Wacky, thanks for the concern, but please head back to the shadows. He's not going to hurt me."

The response I received was a huge negative. Dolly clearly didn't trust Jayce enough to leave me alone with Jayce and so do the other ghosts. I'm really touched by their protectiveness over me but their actions were also making it hard for us to talk things out with this seasoned killer like civilised people, if I were to borrow Jayce's words.

"You have no pokeballs to recall them into?"

"Only for a few. Most of them are wild, they aren't mine," I explained when Jayce asked, then decided to just throw the blame to him because technically, this is his fault too. "They are usually rather protective of me and what you did to us last time had made them very mad and you know just how ghosts are, they are vindictive. Even I cannot control them when they are like this."

I wasn't lying. I truly have no way to control my ghosts when they are this infuriated right now. If even Dolly is not going to listen to me, then no other ghosts would. I cannot do anything right now but to let them vent all their pent up rage out of their system. This is the only way left.

I think I might have heard the man give a very soft yet frustrated sigh, but I believed he had come to the same conclusion I did as well. The words he said next proved it.

"Let's do this the stupid way. I saw a training ground located right behind this building when I arrived so let's settle our score there. Five seconds, I will give them five seconds to give all they got in trying to kill me. If they succeed, they will have their revenge. If they fail, then let bygones be bygones and we finally get on with what we are here for this morning. Deal?"

This time, my ghosts screamed vengeance, and I knew that the talks were not going to proceed until one party experienced a thorough defeat.

Can my ghosts really take on the Rocket's Exterminator? I honestly doubt it, because this was the man who managed to go up against Giovanni on his lonesome without backup. Yes, he might have lost, but I was told that even Giovanni paid quite a costly price for his victory. As a pokemon trainer, skills wise, Jayce has to be on the level of a Pillar.

Nevertheless, this is an army of ghosts he will be facing, and they have grown substantially stronger as compared to the first day when they decided to follow me. Ghosts are troublesome foes to face due to the nature of their skill sets and the recklessness that they can afford to show due to their immortality.

Furthermore, there's no reason for me to stop this battle. After all, I can learn a thing or two from this as well.

Jayce is a Dark Specialist and maybe this time, I can see for myself once more just what a bona fide Dark Specialist is really capable of.

"Not planning to stop them?"

"It's not that we don't want to, but rather, we can't," Looker informed Elesa as they watched the fight that was about to unfold from where they were in the meeting room on the third floor of the building. Jayce and Velda had both disappeared and subsequently reappeared on the training ground outside in their own respective usage of Shadow Sneak.

He knows that Velda might be pissed at what Jayce did to her, but she's not foolish. She won't participate in a battle that she cannot win but at the same time, there's no backing out of this battle. Her ghosts won't allow her to and as a Ghost Specialist, he understands that better than anyone else would.

"You can't?"

"Ghosts are creatures who are well-known for holding grudges, and the grudge that they held against Jayce this time is not something that can be peacefully settled until one side goes down. Velda clearly understands this as well," Looker explained as Velda's ghosts began their assault, their attacks dotting the skies and space around them in a miasma of ghostly dark purple. They could barely see through it to properly witness the battle. All they could tell was that Jayce and his team had somehow managed to properly defend themselves. That's rather impressive considering that he wasn't given much time to prepare.

Five seconds were almost up, and even Looker thought that this was how this score was to be settled until he spotted Jayce's counterattack.

"That madman."

Those words left his mouth even before Looker realised it, and by the time he did so a heavy artillery bombardment of Draco Meteor rained down on the entirety of the training ground outside. The attack was wild yet surgically precise, as the only area affected by the damage of the Draco Meteor was the training ground and nothing else. The earth in their vicinity violently trembled and this had Looker very worried. That area where Draco Meteor had fallen included everyone there: Jayce, Velda's ghosts, and Velda. It's a very self-destructive method of counterattack and just one misstep would end up in somebody being killed. Jayce must be very confident in his pokemon's abilities to defend themselves even from the extremely powerful Draco Meteor fired by Jayce's hydreigon.

He knows that Velda is entirely capable of protecting herself and that Jayce probably wouldn't commit outright murder in broad daylight, but he still cannot help but worry. He was about to send Sparkles down to check on the situation outside when he realised that there wasn't a need to. It seemed that Velda had also released several other pokemon out before the Draco Meteor could fall on them, and Rena was protecting her with a powerful psychic barrier with a huge scowl on the feline's face.

The most noticeable fact would be that there were no longer traces of Velda's ghosts. Their physical bodies must have been dispersed and destroyed from hydreigon's attack earlier because there's no other explanation for their mass disappearance. In that agreed five seconds, Jayce had not only managed to survive the ghosts' onslaught, but defeated all of her ghosts with just one move. It's a brutal but admittedly wise move, because this way the ghosts would definitely be dissuaded from trying to hold a grudge against someone that clearly surpassed them by far in terms of both power and skill.

Jayce probably wanted to strike fear into Velda's ghosts to warn them not to harass him any further and he did a really brilliant job at it. He conveyed his message to them loud and clear in the one universal language that all pokemon could understand: power.

"That idiot," Elesa facepalmed, her exasperation for the Dandolos plain to see. Looker continued watching as Jayce walked up to Velda and had what he imagined to be a passive aggressive conversation between them both. Velda definitely wasn't thrilled to be on the receiving end of a Draco Meteor that fell from out of nowhere. Looker's skills at lip reading confirmed this fact when he vaguely made out the contents of their conversation that he was reading from afar.

He was in for a brief surprise when Jayce and his pokemon momentarily froze for a split second, and his surprise peaked when Velda slapped Jayce's face -hard- before quickly stepping away. Dolly reappeared beside its trainer, bruised and injured, but otherwise gleeful that their vindictive revenge had been had.

Ah, Dolly had used Phantom Force to hide itself before it could be taken out by that Draco Meteor, Looker deduced with an appreciative glance. Jayce's freezing up was probably a very crude application of Imprison on Dolly's part. The true nature of Imprison is not a move to restrict movements of your foes but when used in certain manners, could achieve this effect for a very short moment to provide a very brief opening, and it was an opening that Velda seized to have her revenge by slapping the Dandolos' face.

"She's got spunk alright," Elesa let out a laugh at the sight. Velda had obviously put a lot of force in that slap, seeing that Jayce actually spit out a bit of blood although he didn't look too bothered by it. In fact, judging from what he could observe, Looker would actually daresay that Jayce's opinion of Velda had risen a few notches after that little vindictive act of hers. Velda had succeeded in making him drop his guard before she struck back. As a true Dark Specialist, Velda's cunning was definitely something Jayce acknowledged and respected.

"I think the grudge between them is buried," Looker stated when the descendents of two powerful families shared a handshake. Based on his understanding of the girl, Velda might have held a grudge, but that grudge disappeared the moment she slapped him in payback.

"He got slapped, I'm not going to let him live this one down," Elesa grinned mischievously.

"They should be back anytime now. Let's get to work, shall we?"

"Fine by me."

78

We got back to work after Jayce and I were done settling whatever grievances we had with each other. The interpol shared with Elesa what we had done and found out thus far and she did the same on her end. Earlier, the interpol had noted a significant decrease in Plasma activities on the southeastern side of the region, but we certainly wasn't expecting that Jayce was the reason behind it. He was quite literally the sole reason why the Plasmas were so afraid of conducting their activities in southeastern Unova.

Imagine it. One person, being terrifying enough to dissuade a terrorist organisation like Team Plasma from expanding their operations in one part of a region. He only just reunited with his family very recently so it would only mean that he had achieved all of that on his own. He achieved that with no backup, no support, nobody other than himself and his pokemon. He had to start everything from scratch because like the interpol, he's new to the Unova region as well.

And he had to take care of and protect a little kid on top of it all. I have no idea how he managed to juggle all of that.

Iris was the name that the little girl chose for herself and from what I was told, was probably abandoned into the wild since birth. She is a feral child raised by wild pokemon- specifically, dragons- until she was found and taken by human traffickers. Now, she's under the care and protection of the Dandolos family, the best protection that could be offered to her in Unova. As such, the interpol has no reason to interfere with this affair any longer. Personally, I'm fine with such an arrangement as long as the girl's well-being is taken care of.

The Unova League made progress in their own investigations as well. To our horror, after learning what the Dandolos had uncovered we had now identified Isaac Euclid, the current head of the Euclid family and one of the Five Weapons of Unova, to be a supporter of Team Plasma. This is overall bad news but at the same time, aligned to what we had found out on our end as well ever since I identified the Carrillos as the perpetrator behind the attack on my person when I first arrived into the region. Everything is starting to fall into place.

Elesa is a Euclid, but she had been unofficially exiled from her family and obviously held no love for her grandfather from the tone of her voice. Jayce had proposed that he could go undercover into Team Plasma to obtain more information about their plans but Elesa was not agreeable about the proposition he made. I was inclined to believe that Elesa and Jayce were on the verge of breaking out into an argument until they both unanimously decided to not discuss it any further.

In the end, due to the nature and risk of Jayce's plan, it was decided that we would wait and see if the Unova League would agree to Jayce's idea, because for his idea to work Jayce would first need to gain Team Plasma's trust to infiltrate into their ranks. Team Plasma had been eyeing a specific item within the Unova League's possession for a while now, a fossil of what was supposedly an extinct mythical pokemon. Regardless if Jayce's infiltration succeeded or not, or whether the information obtained from a successful infiltration was worth it or not, we would be delivering the fossil of a mythical pokemon into Team Plasma's hands and that is not something any Pokemon League will lightly give away just for the sake of bringing down a terrorist organisation.

Our meeting ended there, and I decided that now was a good time to finally confront Jayce for real and reveal my status as a reincarnator to him. I managed to get him to leave the meeting room with me, leaving Elesa and Looker behind, and had Dolly Shadow Sneak us to my own room where we would not be eavesdropped upon, accidental or not.

"That was a very skilled usage of Shadow Sneak," Jayce complimented when we finally arrived in my room, a praise that I could feel was genuine.

"Thanks. Make yourself comfortable, this entire floor belongs to me, nobody else is here."

"If you have anything to say, say it," Jayce got straight to the point, knowing that I called him here to have a private conversation for a reason. I decided to heed his suggestion and be direct with my queries.

"You… have another set of memories, don't you?"

His eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing my question and he didn't give his reply right away. He remained silent for a short moment before speaking up.

"Mewtwo did say that there were people like me in the interpol and I had my suspicions. So, what do you want me to say? Welcome to the afterlife, comrade? Amitabha? Hallelujah? Wait, I just remembered, Jesus isn't real."

There it is. Now I have confirmation that we had indeed found the seventh. He was right here all along.

"There are seven of us, which coincides with a certain prophecy that-"

"Look, I'm going to cut you off there," Jayce interrupted me before I could say anything else. "I don't care, and don't wish to know about any of this prophecy crap Mewtwo vaguely told me about. So what if we all know that everything here used to be fiction? Does it change the fact that we are now here? It doesn't. I don't care what you guys are planning to do because this simply doesn't concern me. As you would have known, I don't have long left to live anyway, so this is none of my problem."

… Maybe I should have expected that. In any case, he doesn't seem willing to actively help out or be a part in averting the prophecy. Convincing him to join the interpol would definitely be a lost cause as well.

Nevermind, we can't have everything in life. I sort of expected this to happen anyway.

"I just knew it will be hard to get anything out of you. Then can you at least answer this to the best of your ability? Do you or do you not know for any possible reasons why we were brought here?"

"Who knows? Maybe fate? Everything seems to be just a sick cruel joke done by whatever supernatural beings residing up there, if there are indeed any."

"So you also have no clue?"

"Even if I do have one, what makes you think that I will share?" Jayce snarked back as he popped one of the sweets placed within the bowl on a nearby table within my room into his mouth. "The power of friendship? That bullshit never worked for me."

"It's still worth a shot," I shrugged before walking towards the table that he was leaning on and picked up a pokeball that was placed there. It's the pokeball containing haxorus, and I tossed the pokeball in his direction which he easily caught with his free hand.

I had finally found the girl, Iris. She is now under the care and protection of the Dandolos, and the method of reuniting the haxorus with Iris as per its wishes is now right in front of my eyes.

"You were the one who gave me the haxorus, weren't you? It doesn't want to stick with me, so you can have it back."

Jayce took one glance at the pokeball, then back at me, before deciding to just pocket it.

"I generally don't accept things that I had gifted others, but this saves me the trouble of trying to get a dragon companion for Iris," Jayce voiced his acceptance of my actions before continuing. "Take this as me owing you a favour, be it for this or for the mishap that happened when we first met, is there anything you would like me to help you with? Maybe remove someone that has been a pain in your ass?"

Unless I was mistaken, was he seriously offering to help assassinate anyone who I dislike? A certain Carrillo does come to mind but…

"No need for that. I already told you, we are now even, you don't owe me anything. As for help…" I paused, then quickly added. "Maybe next time, do consider sharing with me whatever information you come across, be it for this Plasma problem or anything relating to… our shared secret."

Because if this unsocial prick is really that good in espionage as people made him out to be, if anyone could uncover information that the six of us couldn't, he might just be the guy who could do it.

"Doable," he agreed without hesitation, which was a relief on my part.

"The seven of us are all Ability Holders," I explained further because I have no idea when we might meet again. "I have no idea where to start searching because such resources are not readily available and even my family's archives have very little information relating to it, but since you are one yourself and your family has been here for centuries, maybe they do have some records that might explain how we came to be."

Maybe my words managed to catch his interest, because he did ask me for more details.

"The other five, what typings do their abilities relate to?"

"Seven of us, one from each region that made up the PWL. In the order of the regions that were first founded, from Kanto to Alola, they are dark, flying, ghost, electric, psychic, ground, fairy. According to a prophecy we found we each have a title and yours is Shadow, Vanquisher of Darkness. Mine is Traveller, Companion of Chaos. The order of the titles not only foretold the region we were born in, but the title itself also clues in on the typing which our ability corresponds to. Figuring yours out was pretty straightforward but for mine, it took us a while to realise that chaos refers to ghost types. Our abilities are similar in the sense that we can very easily befriend pokemon of the typing we are "fated" with in accordance to what the prophecy had foretold, detect their presence around us, and we can also converse and understand what they are trying to say to us. You had also met your Johto counterpart before. Not sure if you remembered her but she was the Ranger you fought at the Johto National Park during the attack. Her title is Flier, Symbol of Courage."

Maybe it would be best to warn him in advance about Skye's intense hatred for him. My vendetta with Jayce had nothing on the one Skye had for this man. They probably will meet again one day, and it might be better if he had an idea of just how much Skye hated his guts.

"...Her? The one with the aerodactyl?"

He actually remembered her. What a surprise.

"And she really hates you."

"Splendid, that means that I did my job well," He remarked in such a carefree manner that I knew that he really doesn't care what the other six of us think about him. He really had no plans to associate himself with us anything more than strictly necessary.

"Pass her my thanks for the praise, yeah?"

"Are you always this unlikeable?" I asked, feeling a little annoyed that my concern had fallen on deaf ears.

"Being likeable never helped in my survival nor did it help in protecting who I wanted to protect. Are you done interrogating me? Cos I would rather not stay here for long."

"Nope, nothing else," I decided, knowing that he's no longer interested in this conversation. "Need me to see you out?"

"Why, thank you for your generosity, comrade."

This guy, I swear-

My first ever meeting with Jayce aside, I was really looking forward to the one week break that Looker granted us because I finally got the chance to travel around Unova for real without needing to think about work. As usual, Sebastian wanted to accompany me, worried about the possibility of being attacked by the Carrilos or even maybe from the Euclids in which the interpol is now aware that they might very well be supporting Team Plasma from the shadows.

Unfortunately, I prefer to travel alone and I had always been travelling alone ever since I became a trainer. It felt weird to have a servant tag along with me. It took me a long while, but I managed to persuade Sebastian to have some faith in me that I can take care of myself and to let me go alone.

Skye had recommended visiting Lentimas Town and Mistralton City because these places were known for their own unique charms. I chose to first visit Lentimas Town, a town well-known for their pottery and porcelain products made from the volcanic clay gathered from a nearby volcano, Reversal Mountain. In a way, it's very similar to Lavaridge Town in Hoenn because people had chosen to undertake the risk to build a settlement there due to the benefits brought about by living near a volcano. Unfortunately, unlike Lavaridge, there were no hot springs in Lentimas Town. It's been a long while since I visited one and I was kind of hoping that there might be a hot spring or two in Lentimas.

Come to think about it, it's been quite some time since I last talked to Flannery too.

I paid a fee for a teleport service to Lentimas Town in the interest of time. There was a huge market in Lentimas where pottery and porcelain products of all kinds were being sold, a sight that I never saw in Hoenn because Hoenn is not known for their pottery products. The market reminded me a little of the one I remembered visiting at Slateport, although where the individual stalls at Slateport were much more spaced out, the ones at Lentimas were very much packed together. I also bought several souvenirs. They were mainly little trinkets which I thought were cute and they weren't expensive, and I thought it would make great gifts for my family and also for Sebastian. Thankfully, the stall which I bought from does provide delivery services to foreign regions which in truth, surprised me a little. I had never thought that a roadside stall in a pottery market would be able to provide such a service and I was fully prepared to have Sebastian help me arrange a courier to help deliver my gifts back to Petalburg.

There were also stalls that, after paying a fee, allowed you to try your hand in making pottery and afterwards, you can bring your finished product home. I tried my hand in making a mug and even took a photo of it and sent it in my family's group chat. Vance was the first to reply with the message [Is that a bowl?] when it was clearly a mug.

My response was doing the really mature thing by blocking all of his text messages for the rest of the day. It may be my first time attempting pottery, but my product is not that bad to the point that an ordinary person couldn't tell that it is a mug at first glance.

There was nothing much to see at Lentimas Town after I finished touring the famous Lentimas Pottery Market, so the next attraction was Reversal Mountain. Kratos was delighted at finally being back in a mountainous region, announcing his presence with a deafening roar the moment he was released from his pokeball and scaring away all the wild pokemon in the vicinity. As usual, he was chided by Rena for his brutish behaviour, but it didn't seem like Kratos cared much about what Rena had to say anyway.

Reversal Mountain is a mysterious place, because from what I heard from Nova even the origins of its name were a real mystery that historians were still arguing about to this day. Some said that Reversal Mountain is a dormant volcano, some said that it is an active one. Some say that the mountain's interior is filled with huge bodies of water while others argue it is filled with magma. Somehow or another, nobody can seem to arrive at a consensus about what Reversal Mountain truly is and everytime an expedition team was dispatched to investigate the mountain the teams would return with starkly different findings. From what I was told there was a time where eight different teams were sent into Reversal Mountain at the same time from different points of entry, and four of those teams claimed that Reversal Mountain had to be a dormant volcano because its interior was filled with such large volumes of water that it cannot possibly be active. However, the other four teams immediately rebuked that claim, saying that they had also visited that particular spot which they mentioned and it was filled with scorching magma. Nobody ever managed to explain that mystery.

As for me, I have zero interest in going deep down into a volcano because I'm sure my body wouldn't be able to take the heat on the off chance that it is filled with magma. Besides, I didn't come prepared for such a level of exploration. I am more than content in enjoying the scenery from where I am and taking pictures.

"Let's see if we can go higher, shall we?" I asked, and after seeing that my team were agreeable to my proposition, I had Kratos help move us to a better spot higher up on Reversal Mountain. It was child's play to him as he could easily command stones and sand to do his bidding and he simply levitated the ground beneath us to rise until we reached a higher elevation. Kratos is in a good mood today from how eager he is to explore the place.

"Don't go scaring all the wild pokemon now, I don't want us to accidentally cause a wild pokemon stampede in the direction of Lentimas Town because they were trying to flee from you," I reminded Kratos when it seemed like he was actively looking for a fight. Kratos gave me a look that showed how hurt he was by my lack of trust in him, but I knew better. What I said was clearly something that he would do if given the chance, just because he can.

We spent most of our afternoon there, exploring the place, enjoying the view, taking pictures of the beautiful landscape and of my pokemon, maybe adding a few selfies to fuel my vanity and ego. Then, I heard a surprised roar from Toothless, which had me turning to his direction to see what was wrong.

"Toothless, get back here! Don't attack it!"

Thankfully, I had Rena, and she was quick in stopping Toothless in his tracks with her psychic powers before he could do something that resulted in a very irreversible outcome. Seeing the aeroplane flying past us overhead really had me breaking out in cold sweat because if Toothless was quicker or if Rena was a tad bit slower, Toothless might have just roasted the flying aeroplane in his shock and confusion.

This was my fault. It had totally slipped my mind that none of my pokemon had ever seen an aeroplane before. Of course they would be shocked and wary of a huge unknown object flying past our heads with such high speeds at such a loud volume. I was not surprised that Toothless' very first reaction was to try and launch an attack on what he perceived to be a possible threat. How Toothless reacted was one big reason why till date, aeroplanes are a very unpopular means of transport in the pokemon world. If Toothless was wild and that was his reaction from seeing an aeroplane for the first time, how is that aeroplane going to defend itself from a wild charizard? Its passengers are all going to die.

This was totally my fault. I was aware that Lentimas has aeroplanes, it is one of their unique trademarks. I should have briefed my pokemon that such a thing existed in this part of the world before coming over. I really owe my thanks to Rena because if it wasn't for her quick reaction I might have just committed an act of mass murder simply because I wasn't able to control my pokemon. Vera or not, I would have been sent to jail.

"Toothless, that thing you saw there, that is an aeroplane. It is a form of public transportation. Remember all the buses and cars you usually see on the roads back in Hoenn?"

Toothless nodded, obviously still a little confused and bewildered by the presence of aeroplanes. He was still glancing warily back up at the skies every now and then as if expecting another aeroplane to suddenly fly past us.

"Right. Remember how there are people sitting in those buses and cars? That's the same thing for those aeroplanes. There are people in there. You almost killed a whole bunch of people in that aeroplane earlier if Rena didn't stop you in time."

Toothless looked as if he just wilted from my stare, but still putting on the face that screamed that he's innocent because he didn't know.

"Yes, it's my fault. I should have briefed you about the existence of aeroplanes before coming over," I sighed, still trying to recover from the shock of what could have happened and the kind of outcome… I don't want to think about it.

"Anyway, guys, the same goes for the rest of you as well. If you see something like that, don't attack it. You guys will land me in jail, and by that, I mean that I will be punished and you won't be seeing me for a long long time. If Toothless were to destroy that plane earlier, I would have been arrested, and I may be an old hag by the time I was released, if I am released."

The atmosphere fell silent after my team heard what I had to say. Toothless looked very guilty with how his wings were tucked so close to his body and the expression on his face and I felt very sorry for it too. He almost landed me into big trouble, but at the same time I know this is not his fault. It's my fault as his trainer for not having warned him about the presence of aeroplanes in this part of the world.

"Nothing happened, so it's fine," I reassured the big bad fire breathing dragon that I had raised ever since he was a newborn baby, patting him on his snout and telling him that everything's alright. "It's my fault, not yours. Actually, I will be taking a ride in one of those later in about an hour's time. I have a ticket to Mistralton."

Toothless and Snap looked at me as if I had gone crazy, as if silently asking me why I would choose to take a seat in one of those things when I had them to ride on to fly from place to place. I guess they still are not used to the idea of aeroplanes or just not very accepting of the existence of aeroplanes in general.

"I haven't sat in one before."

My explanation to my pokemon as to why I wanted to sit in an aeroplane didn't seem to help my case. The last time I sat in an aeroplane it was in my previous life, and even then it was a local flight, not an overseas flight. Hoenn has aeroplanes, but they are so rarely used that I never had the chance to ride in one before. I'm not going to miss experiencing another flight now that I have the chance to ride one.

Toothless huffed and turned the other way, throwing a childish tantrum and telling me that he's offended that I would choose to ride an aeroplane as opposed to flying through the skies on his back. I simply laughed at his childish display, unable to control my laughter after seeing such a childish side from him.

"Aww, come on, don't be jealous. This is just a one-time thing," I coaxed and gently rubbed Toothless' scaly back with my hand. He's still determinedly not turning his head back to look at me. Now, even Snap had joined him in his little childish tantrum, standing side by side with Toothless with his back facing me.

"Guys."

Both of them gave a loud snort, still ignoring me. I'm still unsure if I should laugh or be mad at their childish display.

I was saved from my predicament when Ness simply walked up and knocked them on their skulls with her fists, huffing angrily at them and giving them a good telling off. The two adorable winged lizards of mine looked suitably chastised as Ness proceeded to talk their ears off and several other members of my team had no qualms laughing at their plight.

"How about the two of you take turns to give me a ride back to Nimbasa at the end of our vacation?" I proposed a middle-ground and Snap and Toothless finally ended their little tantrum, affectionately nuzzling their snouts at me and making me laugh from how ticklish it felt. Seriously, they are adorable.

We soon descended from Reversal Mountain when it got closer to the time where my plane would depart. There's a runway on the west side of the town where the aeroplanes would take off and land and it is where I would board my plane. There's no such thing as an airport in Lentimas Town, and the place where I was directed to looked more like some dilapidated old train station. I also spotted the plane that I am supposed to be riding on later, which looked like the antique vintage kind that reminded me a lot of the one I remembered reading the Wright brothers flying on from my past life.

I guess aviation technology still has a lot of room for growth in this world.

It was soon my time to board the plane and from what I could observe, I am the only passenger. I'm not sure if this is normal, or if I coincidentally chose a day where passenger traffic was at an all time low. I was about to climb the stairs to board the plane when Toothless gently pulled at my shirt with his claws. He was adamant at seeing a plane up close so I hadn't returned him back to his pokeball like what I did for the rest. I was planning to recall him after I walked up the stairs.

"What's wrong?"

Toothless simply shook his head and audibly whined, then got on all fours on the ground, spreading his wings with the universal gesture of inviting me to ride on his back instead. I simply facepalmed in fond exasperation.

"It will be fine, Toothless. The planes have been flying back and forth between Lentimas and Mistralton for decades and nothing ever happened."

Toothless furiously shook his head, punctuating his point with a low growl.

"You coming up, lassie?" I turned around, spotting a bearded man approximately in his fifties standing by the door of the plane. From his getup, he's obviously the pilot who will be steering the plane. He spotted my charizard soon enough, being too large to miss.

"Oh, your pokemon doesn't trust my little birdie to take you to your destination safely, I take it? That's normal, I saw that happen to many trainers and their flying types in my line of work," he laughed it off and I felt a little relieved that he's so understanding. "Though I would say, I think this is the first time I see a charizard up close like that."

"Is it possible to have him fly beside us throughout the trip? He won't hinder you, I promise," I tried my luck and asked, because I know it would give Toothless a peace of mind if he is able to fly beside the plane throughout the entire journey. He's simply worried about me and I would never fault him for it.

"Sorry lassie, I cannot do that, because your charizard is not familiar with how planes work and letting it fly beside us is just an inherent risk waiting for an accident to occur. There's always a chance that it might unknowingly obstruct me in my work just by having it fly alongside the plane, but if it helps to ease your charizard's mind a little…"

He released a braviary, a mandibuzz, and a skarmory out.

"These guys are more than capable of defending the plane from any possible wild pokemon attacks. That good enough for you, charizard?"

Toothless stood back up on his hind legs with a huff, releasing a large puff of ash from his nostrils in the process. He is still worried about me, distrustful of the security the plane can provide me because he himself had nearly shot one down earlier. Still, he had reluctantly agreed, choosing to place his faith in me when I said that I will be fine.

"Thanks for understanding. Don't worry, I will have Fuzzy and Rena beside me at all times, so nothing will go wrong. I have the ghosts too, remember?" I reassured Toothless and scratched him underneath his jaw. Toothless gave one last reluctant growl before he was willing to be recalled back into his pokeball.

"Yer got a good pokemon, lass. It clearly loves you a lot," the pilot laughed as I climbed the stairs to reach the door of the plane. "You want to sit in the co-pilot seat? You are the only passenger today anyway."

"Can I?" I asked in eager anticipation, not expecting to be given such a privilege. To sit in the co-pilot seat, how cool is that?

"I only give that offer on days with only one or two passengers for the ride. Come on in," he welcomed me into his plane, showing me to the pilot's cabin and the seat which he allowed me to sit on. The kind man also generously allowed Rena and Fuzzy to accompany me on the strict condition that they would not be messing around with the buttons and panels and the same goes for me as well. It was something I agreed to immediately, knowing that it was already very kind of the pilot to allow me to sit on the co-pilot's seat beside him.

"You can wear the headset if you want, complete the look and all. It will take me a while to start the plane so you can use this time to take some pictures or whatever you youngsters like to do and post on the internet. Brag to your pals that you sat in the co-pilot seat or something, just don't touch anything you are not supposed to touch."

I did little to hide my excitement and took the pilot on his offer, wearing the headset and quickly snapped a few pictures of the cabin, and also of me wearing the headset and sitting in the co-pilot's seat. Rena does seem to look a little nervous from how she was curled up in my lap and sticking herself closer to me than what she would usually do, Fuzzy just seemed unaffected and is sharing the same excitement I was feeling.

"Please don't touch anything you are not supposed to touch," I reminded the little troublemaker one last time and Fuzzy acknowledged my orders with a cute little salute that he learned after watching too many TV dramas through the TV in my room while I was busy doing my work in the office. I think Fuzzy's favourite drama is the recent one that's been trending in Unova recently, a drama with the background of the main characters being from the Unova Special Forces or something. That was probably where he learnt how to do a proper salute.

"Ready, lass?" The pilot asked after the plane was started and its engines warmed up. He sat in his seat, wore the headset over his head, and began speaking into the headset. I could also hear the conversation because I am wearing the same headset too.

"This is Swanna one-niner, requesting takeoff."

The other end of the radio crackled to life and we heard the response from the control tower.

"Acknowledged. Taxi to runway three four."

The pilot started to drive his plane into a specific runway and I am sure that I was vibrating at my seat in excitement at finally being able to experience up close what goes on during the departure of an aeroplane. I have no idea how similar or different this might be when compared to the departure procedures in my previous world, but being able to have the chance to experience it right now isn't that bad either.

The pilot parked his plane at the start of runway three four the moment he reached. It didn't take very long as our plane is the only plane currently present as far as I could see.

"Control to Swanna one-niner, you are cleared to Mistralton via SKR33 departure, RGR transition, then as filed. Climb maintain five thousand. Departure frequency one-four-seven, decimal niner, squawk four-seven-six-three. Swanna one-niner, you are cleared for takeoff runway three four."

"Cleared for runway takeoff three four, Swanna one-niner," the pilot repeated back into the comms and the engines really roared to life after he acknowledged the instructions he received from the control tower. I could tell that Rena really didn't like the scare from the loud noise resulting from the sudden revving of the engines. Unlike the planes that I remembered flying on in my previous life, the one I am sitting on now clearly is lacking behind when it comes to aviation technology, and that includes how to properly silence the noise from the engines such that it couldn't affect the passengers and the pilots within.

"If it's too loud I can recall you back into your pokeball," I offered, but Rena stubbornly refused to do so with a shake of her head, taking it upon herself to stay beside me for the entire duration of the flight for my protection. Like Toothless, she still wasn't able to completely bring herself to entrust my safety to the plane while we were flying because it's true that our options are rather limited in the event of an attack or accident.

What had I done to deserve such wonderful pokemon companions?

The plane began to accelerate in a powerful charge and at this point both Rena and Fuzzy actually clung onto me in fear, not having experienced such a thing before in their lives, too shocked and bewildered at what's going on to know how to react properly. If it wasn't for my prior instructions to behave they might have really done something that would have obstructed the plane's flight. Rena probably would have forcibly halt the plane with her psychic powers, Fuzzy might try pressing one of the many buttons in the pilot cabin in his panic, it really depends.

"It's fine, it's fine," I reassured them both and decided that it is better and safer to just hug both of them close to me. Like this, I can provide them some comfort while ensuring that they wouldn't do anything that they shouldn't do while in the pilot's cabin. I don't want to break the pilot's trust in me after he had so generously offered me to sit in the co-pilot's seat and experience the view from here.

The plane finally tilted upwards and took off, the familiar brief sense of weightlessness setting in before that was quickly replaced by the swift acceleration of the aeroplane as it ascended the skies. Soon, the plane righted itself and stabilised after reaching its required altitude.

"Not bad, lassie, couldn't tell that this is your first time on a plane with how calm you were."

"It's not too different from flying on a pokemon's back," I replied with a half-lie because I had been on a plane before, just not in this life. By now, curiosity had gradually taken over the initial fear that Rena and Fuzzy both felt as they tried looking out of the windscreen to glimpse at the view overhead. I could see the pilot's flying types flying beside the plane through the glass panes, easily keeping up with the plane's speed.

"I guess in a way, that's true," the pilot replied. "Most people still prefer flying on the back of a pokemon as opposed to riding planes and I don't blame them for that. This little baby here can only safely fly between Mistralton and Lentimas on this particular flight route, anywhere else is too dangerous. We will be shot down by wild pokemon."

"How many passengers do you usually have per trip?" I cannot help but ask, because from what I can see this plane's capacity was only at about twenty passengers or so. It's a very small plane.

"It depends on the time of the year and also the time of the day. It's our off peak season now, so we expect to have less traffic. Actually, the bulk of our business are the cargo planes segment, the planes that deliver cargoes between west and east Unova through Mistralton and Lentimas. That service line rakes in the bulk of our revenue, the passenger business is more like a side job. Cargo planes bring in good business as this is the fastest option for Unovans to get anything delivered between both ends of the region."

"I didn't know that."

"Well, now you do," the pilot gave a hearty laugh after hearing my reply. "Don't think I introduced myself yet, eh? Just call me Mike. Usually I would have to give an announcement before take off that goes something like Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard Flight Swanna 19 with service from Lentimas to Mistralton blah blah blah, but I think we are past that now and it's kind of a moot point with you being my only passenger for today. You are not local, aren't ya? Where ya from?"

"Hoenn. I heard that we have planes there too, but I never saw it myself."

"Ah, Hoenn, nice place. I've been there once in my youth. I love the beach at Slateport," Mike recalled fondly.

"Have you been to the Slateport market?"

"Of course! I remembered that the things there were nice and cheap… that was about twenty years ago though. Is the market still there?"

"It is, and the things there are still nice and cheap."

We had a pleasant conversation for the rest of the trip. It was a very lucky coincidence that I'm the only passenger for the day because I wouldn't be able to experience such a fun and novel experience otherwise.

This really should be what travelling the world should feel like. Fun, no stress, and simply enjoying the view, meeting new people and talking to the locals. It would be perfect if I didn't have to try to save the world while I'm at it, but I guess I cannot have everything in life.

For now, I should just enjoy the present and take what I can.