This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
It reminded him of one of Bacchus Town's concert halls or gallerias prior to the Scourge invasion. Perhaps he should not have come here. Gilded in gold, it was as if he had stepped gently into an operatic hall, and in no time, the curtains would rise to reveal his mother in a flowing black gown (or some other ridiculous ball gown special to the show that she had been assigned to). It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A touch of home was always nice. After all, Mordecai was one who had been lucky enough to escape with others at his side for the most part.
It was as if the Scourge plague had never hit.
"Molly, quit it," Mordecai whispered to the ferret fox Pokémon as she nibbled gently on his ear. In reality, he knew that she meant no harm, nor did he, because he scratched at the top of her head with two fingers. His words and actions contradicted each other. Mordecai smoothed out her thick fur before approaching the front desk. Even the simple piece of furniture was wrought of pure marble. It was nearly suffocating how successful the breeder's guild had become in the wake of the Scourge.
A secretary at the front desk looked up to attention when Mordecai approached. Almost immediately, he started matching his face to all the usual suspects: the rich and wealthy that came to visit the Lady Mercedes. When his memory (perfect, else he'd have long since been fired) turned up nothing, he rifled through the Eos Programme's papers until a photo matched up.
"Hello and welcome," the secretary said. "I take it you are--" he frowned down at the papers, squinting over a pair of spectacles, "--young Mr. Delacroix, here to see the Lady, yes? She's expecting you, so I'll call for her immediately."
A silence passed as the secretary pushed a handful of buttons, made a call, speaking briskly and politely to request Mercedes' presence, and setting down the receiver primly. He nodded to his guest, saying, "She'll be here shortly."
By shortly, he meant only a matter of a minute at most. Lady Mercedes swept down the hall, a fashionable belt of pokeballs at her hip and a frown on her face.
"You are the new breeder?" she asked, eyeing Mordecai with obvious doubt before she saw something that caused it to fade. "Excellent. I have high hopes for the Eos Programme, you should know. Don't let me down."
She gestured for him to follow as she turned sharply to head down a different hallway. "Come along--there's nothing for you in the foyer. I have a gift in mind, call it an investment into the future, but I'll need access to my PC."
As she walked, she asked, "So tell me, why pokemon breeding?"
That was one way to cut to the chase. He liked that Lady Mercedes wasted no time. After all, there was no time to waste with the Scourge. Mordecai felt Molly stiffen on his shoulder, relieved that she knew after all when she was supposed to behave. The Pokémon fluttered her lashes with a deceiving grin on her face. Only Mordecai knew truly how much energy was bundled up in the little body of hers. He followed the other breeder quietly down the hall, this one still gilded in gold.
"I'm from Bacchus Town," he replied. "If I can help in any way, I will." He still remembered the blood red eyes of the Mankey that had clung to his face. He wasn't sure how the Pokémon had managed to get so close in the first place, but one unfortunate trait of Scourge Pokémon were their exponentially enhanced abilities not limited to agility. "... kind of hoping that the Pokémon I breed will find a certain Mankey and bring it back to me. We owe each other something." Or rather, humanity itself owed the Pokémon, and the damn thing owed him half an eye.
"... always was guilty of sneaking small Pokémon into the house when I could," he added with a chuckle. "You take care of them and get to see what happens, then they're off on their own and you hope you did a good enough job that they do fine. Granted, you breed Pokémon in hopes that they'll grow strong, but it's a bond that breeders refine, isn't it?"
He paused in his words. "Oh, I seem to have rambled quite a bit."
A well-behaved eevee and only one eye: they weren't particularly good clues as to character, but Mercedes judged from what she saw. His manner was measured, mild even, but she didn't think that meant his approach to his pokemon career would be lackadaisical--no, rather the opposite.
Her lips pulled back into something more like a grimace than a smile. "Good. Debts are meant to be repaid," she said, with a note of satisfaction.
"The bond... yes. For us, it starts even before the egg. We craft pokemon from before the womb for strength and for grace; we are not parents, but we are guardians all the same. A common trainer only makes soldiers--like an overjumped drill sergeant."
She led them into a room with a pokeball receiving bay, filled with crisp white light and a pokemon PC.
"I believe I spoke of a gift. Please, a moment," Lady Mercedes said. Her thin hands tapped at the PC, until a pokemon box appeared in holographic display overhead.
"Select any two. Take them as my vote of confidence in you."
Mordecai glanced briefly over the display of ten Pokémon, each of them as lifelike as possible. It was clear that all of them had been carefully bred, groomed, and preened to become potential parents. He felt Molly's plush fur rubbing against his cheek as she examined each of the Pokémon upon the display. "See a new friend?" he asked her, to which the Eevee made slight chirping noises.
His hand moved over the holographic image of the Tirtouga and the Swablu. Molly's tail wrapped around the back of Mordecai's neck as a pair of Pokéballs appeared from the PC. Briefly, he wondered if it had been custom or specially made, for it appeared to have far more working parts than the average system. No matter though. It did what was required of it.
He took the pair of Pokéballs into his hands, slipping them into his pocket. Mordecai gave Lady Mercedes a half-bow, of course, considering that the Lady was still his superior. "I thank you greatly," he said to her, to which the Eevee perched upon his shoulder mirrored his gesture.
She returned his bow with a curt nod. Graciously, she replied, "You can thank me by not letting me down--I would be most embarrassed if the Eos crop of breeders fail to match up to the trainers and researchers, and what is there now? Oh, yes, the rangers."
With a wave of her hand, she dismieed Mordecai. "Good luck on your journeys, young man, and be sure to feed those two pokemon right."
ZULF ? woop sry i edited this accidently orz ;; - mond
