"Wow, Nikozo, your family's that rich? Don't you get kidnapped all the time?"
Nikozo read Hinano's message and let out a laugh that didn't know what it wanted to be.
"No. Where would you even get that idea?"
He typed it out, genuinely curious.
"That's what always happens on TV."
"Come on. It's not like I walk out my front door and run into Team Rocket and get dragged off."
He answered while packing, watching the cruise ship come in toward the pier.
Days at sea, and the only thing that had kept the boredom off was Hinano messaging him.
"Okay, that makes sense."
"Yep! We're docking, so I'm getting off. Later!"
"Later."
The ship had reached the outermost island of the Archipelago region.
Nothing this size went any farther in. From here the islands crowded together so tightly that you could only get between them in boats built for one or two people.
Nikozo disembarked, found the boat he'd reserved, and settled in for the ride toward Central Island.
They hadn't gone far before something felt off.
"You've got the wrong heading. This isn't the way to Central Island," Nikozo called up.
The boatman cut the engine and started walking back toward him.
Nikozo read the situation and moved to go over the side.
The water exploded. A Pokémon came out of it and struck him down before he could see what it was.
He was unconscious before he could get a look.
When he came to, he was lying in a small room on a small bed. Not big. Soft, though.
His head hurt. He rubbed it and took stock of his surroundings.
"Great. Hinano actually called it."
He patted himself down. Clothes untouched.
His Poké Balls were gone.
So was his phone.
He tried the door.
It swung open with a groan of hinges. Unlocked.
He leaned out. The corridor beyond was dim and completely empty.
He thought about it, then stepped out anyway.
He kept one hand on the wall and picked a direction. The hallway was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat in it.
At the first corner he turned straight into somebody's chest.
"You—"
He looked up at the man in the brown suit and backed off.
"You're awake." The man closed him into the corner, his voice flat and cold.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Nikozo asked, watching his hands.
"You ask a lot of questions. Come with me." Giovanni started down the corridor. When Nikozo didn't move, he glanced back. "You'd be smart to follow. If you'd like to keep breathing."
Nikozo's jaw tightened. Every instinct he had said nobody in the Archipelago region would dare lay a hand on him.
But this man didn't look like he was joking, and Nikozo had no idea who he was.
Publicly, Giovanni was nothing but the Leader of a minor Gym in the Seichu region—not even one of the eight. There was no reason on earth for a kid from the Archipelago to recognize his face.
In the end, Nikozo followed.
Giovanni tracked him with the corner of his eye and led the way.
The corridors branched and rebranched like a maze. Nikozo rapped a knuckle against the wall as he walked.
He didn't recognize the material. It was unbelievably hard.
"So this is your secret base?"
Giovanni didn't appear to have any intention of attacking him, so Nikozo tried a question.
"Mm," Giovanni said, without interest.
"How much do you want? Let me go home. My Growlithe just got over being sick—he's waiting for me."
There was something close to pleading in it.
"Money." Giovanni didn't turn around. "Ha."
That made Nikozo's brow furrow.
They walked all the way to the end of the hall, where a single door stood.
Giovanni pushed it open and went in.
Nikozo hesitated, then followed.
What he saw stopped him cold.
Machines filled with some kind of fluid stood in rows, each fed by a tangle of tubing, and inside each one something floated that he couldn't identify.
The things were white sometimes and violet other times. Their shapes drifted and reformed at random.
He followed the tubes to the center of the room.
The largest tank stood there.
Inside it was a stone. Milky white bubbles rose off it in a steady stream, clumping together, and then dissolving almost immediately.
As if some particular Pokémon were assembling itself and coming apart, over and over.
"What is all this?!"
Nikozo's voice cracked.
The room was perfectly quiet, and the fear moving through him had no bottom.
"Are you familiar with the strongest Pokémon in the world? Mewtwo?"
Giovanni looked back at him.
Inside the cloning tank, a white Pokémon condensed out of the fluid.
Then, with a bang, it burst and scattered into nothing.
Nikozo's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
....
"Land ho."
Akiyama held Gardevoir's hand and filed down the gangway with the rest of the passengers.
Gengar flew alongside them, obnoxiously energetic.
It was April ninth. A few days at sea had put them back together. Akiyama was no longer the kind of person who vomited at the slightest roll of a deck.
They still had a distance to cover. Phoenix Landing City sat in a basin at the heart of the forest, and no ship could reach it. You got off here and walked.
The only road to Phoenix Landing City ran from Lonecliff City. Every other approach was undeveloped, which meant going through old-growth forest on foot.
That was no obstacle for them. They stopped at the local Pokémon Center to restock, bought groceries, and headed for the treeline.
A breeze slipped through the gaps in the leaves and played something easy.
He walked beside her, dirt under their shoes.
Branches swung down as if to block the view, and Gengar drifted up and pushed them gently aside.
Sunlight came through in pieces and lay across them, rinsing away the last of the ocean.
"This is nice."
Akiyama stopped and looked into Gardevoir's eyes.
Without quite deciding to, he slid an arm around her waist.
She went still. Her face colored, but she didn't pull away.
He leaned in slowly—and then discovered that he still wasn't as tall as she was.
It was like a cold front rolled through.
He was still growing. Give it a while and he'd probably pass her. Right now, though, there was a gap.
Gardevoir blinked at his suddenly ordinary expression, then understood exactly why he'd stopped.
She covered her mouth and snickered.
"Laugh. Go ahead, laugh it up." Akiyama made a noise of disgust, took her hand, and kept walking.
Just wait until I'm taller than you. You're finished.
He resolved on the spot to eat more.
Gengar watched all of this with wide, blank eyes, comprehending nothing.
This was all a long way off for him.
Akiyama took another step and realized Gardevoir wasn't moving.
He turned around, and she caught him around the waist.
That threw him.
She kept leaning in.
His pulse jumped.
She bent slightly, and their cheeks were nearly touching.
Then their foreheads knocked together.
Now he was really rattled.
And then—
Gardevoir blew a soft puff of air into his face.
She took one look at his expression, laughed, straightened up, and pulled him along down the trail.
~~
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