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!
The ring is smooth and cold in his palm (or maybe it's his clammy palms) as he clasps it tightly in his hand. There isn't anything suspicious about a child hurrying down the streets of Nerio City with both his fists clenched. The streets were crawling with abandoned children, some crying for their parents, some with their lips pursed and wrinkles in the corners of their eyes.
But Mikael is not like any of them. His eyes are fierce to the world, but peel the angry scales away, and he is left with eyes full of terror.
He slips away into the warehouse through a door that creaks all too loudly. It's cold, and he can see his breath, but he's already somehow managed to get his hands on four blankets for Maria. His fingers are red at the tips, but he doesn't care. There is only one thing on his mind, particularly that Maria is not okay.
The twelve-year-old boy crouches next to a small bump in the pile of blankets and peels the top of them away, gently resting his free hand on a feverish girl's forehead.
"You'll be okay, Maria," he says quietly. "Your brother's here."
there's not much that gets past the nose of a piloswine. odor sleuth only made it that much easier. although daniel was aware of the ring's true value, even without the sentiment attached to it, he was in no hurry. better to take his time with observing his surroundings than to walk into an ambush. sending a child thief was a rather elementary tactic. the piloswine slowly covers the surfaces lightly with powder snow as well, in case chattering teeth give away any assailants in wait. daniel is nothing if not careful.
the warehouse is a good place for an ambush, he thinks. there's much that he doesn't know about this place, and too much he has to risk. should he turn back? would the infiltration be worth it?
he thinks about the ring, heavy with gold and a bright emerald that had always reminded daniel of his mother's eyes. that was the reason that his father had bought it. it was the reason why daniel had still struggled not to pawn it, although he had come close many times.
daniel stifles his doubts and nods curtly to the piloswine. a single icy wind would be enough to slow the enemy in the case of an ambush. he can only hope that there will not be many. or none at all, if he's lucky.
one good look at the door tells daniel that there will be no subtlety. not with those layers of rust. he opens it boldly, waiting for the world to come crashing down upon him.
It's a worst nightmare come true. Mikael's managed to slip away without getting caught for a good three years. The door flies open as he rises, fists clenched, the band of the ring he'd pilfered digging into the skin of his palm. He thinks, perhaps, if he stands his ground, this man will go away. He just needs to tell himself that he needs this ring more than this man does.
His stomach drops as he recognizes the person with the Piloswine. He'd been careful to take alternate routes, but he knew that he wasn't a match for that Pokemon's sense of smell.
Mikael steps in front of the shivering girl, and he's terrified, terrified that they're going to take Maria away from him, that they're going to separate them, that he'll never see her again, and that gives him enough temporary bravery.
a child's naivete is a dangerous thing. thankfully, it is only the adult world that makes it dangerous.
sometimes, it does not have to be dangerous at all.
"...are you alone?" hopefully this is a misunderstanding. hopefully none of his enemies lie in wait, ready to make daniel pay for the crimes that he has committed. not yet. not while he still has important things to protect.
he looks rather intently at the little boy. of course he's alone. he's scared, with none of the assurance that comes with having a solid backup. desperate, even. "...seems like it. i would really like that ring back, actually. it's the only thing that i have left from my father"
the shivering girl is not the first thing that daniel sees, but it is the first thing that the piloswine takes an interest in. aggression is not the pokemon's first priority. no pokemon of daniel's could be. no, there was something that was more interesting than the boy. the piloswine moves forward to investigate the pile of blankets.
"oi, phillip--" daniel pauses when he finally sees the shivering lump. "...oh"
gently, the piloswine lays his floppy ear against the girl's forehead. the underside of the piloswine's ear was slightly cold. not a cure by any means, but it was a longtime habit. sophia had always been somewhat sickly as a child. ZULF ?
Mikael has half the mind to lie to this man, say that he isn't alone, and that Daniel had better run before he gets hurt. But when he tries to open his mouth, no sound comes out. So instead, he grips the ring tighter in his small hand to the point of pain. This ring is his lifeline, Maria's lifeline, what would bring in the money to get her proper care.
(Or so this twelve-year-old boy thinks. He has no experience with medicine or hospitals.)
"S-stop!" Mikael manages to spit out, stepping protectively in front of the wooly Pokemon, but the Piloswine merely circles around the boy and flops next to Maria. He doesn't understand what the Pokemon is doing, but Mikael doesn't feel any hostility coming from the large Pokemon. In fact, the creature is incredibly gentle, and Maria curls up, twining her fingers in the Pokemon's fur in her feverish hallucinations.
Mikael crouches next to the Piloswine keeping a watchful eye over his sister. It may have appeared that he hadn't heard Daniel's words. But he understands that this ring must be very important to the man, especially if it really is the only thing that he has left from his father.
His father would have patted him on the back, proud that his son was giving it his all in defending his daughter. He knows that his mother may not have patted him on the back, but perhaps held him close and whispered that she was sorry that things had come to this point.
"... Maria is all I have left," he retorts quietly, but his grip on the ring seems to soften slightly.
well isn't this mikael's lucky day, since the man before him is the eldest son of a dynasty of doctors. he might not have had sophia's potential for the field, but he's pretty sure that he knows of the common cold when he sees it in a kid.
maria is all that i have left. daniel is not usually a man of unnecessary words, but what he was about to say seemed absolutely necessary to him.
"hey, i think there's an easy fix for this. i mean, my parents were both doctors and my kid sister would get like this every winter." he kind of learned how to roll with it after the tenth time, but he's guessing the boy didn't have such a luxury. not when they didn't have a maid to attend to a sick child and a fully stocked medicine cabinet. "there's a herbal medicine shop by sixteenth street. it's not too expensive of a place, and the bitter powder is a centuries-proven cure for the common cold."
his words are gentle, but with the assurance of an adult. the boy's panic is something that he once knew too well, back when it was only the two rosenburgs against the world.
"i know the lady who runs the shop. there's no need to bring anything to trade -- just tell her that daniel sent you" although he didn't have much money to his name, the rosenburgs had supported that shop for years. daniel doubted that it would even be open if not for his mother's faith in the bitter medicines. "just remember that it's called heal powder"
daniel lets out a quiet huff of breath. "i don't. it's alright, though. i'm at least old enough to find work."
work that involved a lot more blackmail and bribery that he was comfortable with, maybe, but it put food on the table and the apartment warm. it kept sophia in a reputable school.
Mikael knows the herbal medicine shop that Daniel speaks of. He's spent days passing by the store, trying to figure out the most inconspicuous way of obtaining medicine. Then again, the most difficult part of the situation was deciding which medicine would be the most helpful in getting Maria better.
He doesn't know who this man is, but there have been plenty of adults that had been kind to him. Perhaps Daniel is another one of them. Mikael gives the man an earnest nod, drinking in all the information that he's giving him.
He also has half the mind to run out to the medicine shop, but leaving so soon after a "hunt" meant that he ran the risk of someone recognizing him. He'd go tomorrow, then. "Herbal medicine, sixteenth street, Daniel sent me," he mutters to himself, memorizing those words like a mantra that his life depended on.
"I've tried finding work," Mikael responds. "No one will hire me." No one will hire a scruffy twelve-year-old when his only skills were how shoot a gun or crawling into small spaces to disarm bombs (so maybe his father had occasionally smuggled his son out the apartment, but these were skills that people needed in Nerio if they didn't come from a reputable family).
Mikael quietly lowers himself to the ground, sitting with his knees pulled into his chest. He slides a hand under the blanket, and Maria reaches out, grabbing onto his fingers before opening one eye. "It's warm," she says to him.
"You're okay," he responds.
"Who... is he?"
"It's okay. He's a nice man."
Only then does Mikael finally open the hand clenched around Daniel's ring. He turns it over, imagining just how many pretty pennies he could cash it in for, how this ring was going to let him take Maria back to school again. But he can't hold onto it, not after what this man has done for him. He chews on his lip, deep in thought.
"let's forgive and forget, then" sometimes, daniel wishes that he could have had the same luxury. but he's no petty thief like this child, and the people who could have given him what he wants are either ruined or long dead. he is not in a position to judge a pickpocket."no harm done here"
he watches them quietly and thinks back to a time when the world had been similarly unkind to the rosenburg siblings. the boy might have counted today as a small blessing, but daniel knew better. blessings don't last for orphaned children without a guardian. these moments are the eye of the hurricane, but the storm has not ended, not by a long shot. neither the boy nor daniel speak as if their lips have tasted fortune, the real kind. not the temporary relief. the piloswine keeps his cool ear against the girl' head, but it is no permanent cure.
"...have you and your sister been like this for long, then?" daniel reaches out to claim his birthright, but his fingers hesitate. here he stands, about to claim a gold-emerald ring from a couple of homeless children. daniel makes the impulsive decision. "no, you know what? keep it."
he lets his hands rest at his sides. "she's depending on you too, you know? we all gotta be a little selfish for people that we love"
daniel thinks about his father, and what he would have thought of his son giving away the family treasure. somehow, there isn't the usual weighted guilt that is associated with his memory. "you're not going to get as much as it's worth if you sell it underground, but nobody's going to ask too many questions about a kid with that kind of ring"
maybe it would have been better to have sold it himself to someone reputable, but daniel isn't sure if he can handle such a transaction. giving it to this boy, he'll bite. a merchant, not so much. ZULF ?
It's only fair that Mikael gives Daniel his ring back, especially considering the fact that the man's name would help him claim medicine for Maria. This man has done more for the Rogers siblings, far more than either of them can afford. At the end of the day, he can give this ring back without any qualms.
He nods, unsure about exactly how long the two of them have been like this, but he knows it's been at least a year. "... I don't know how long, but it's been a long time." So Mikael stands and holds the ring out. He should return that important heirloom to the man.
But then Daniel tells him to keep it.
Mikael blinks, as if he is unable to fully process the words that he is hearing. His eyes widen at Daniel's generosity, thumb rubbing against the emerald set in the band of white gold. Now that it's been given to him, he doesn't know if he's actually worth taking it. Suddenly, it's awkward that he's taken a family heirloom, and it catches him off guard because just a moment ago, he would have sold the ring off in a heartbeat.
There's something that Daniel knows about, something about the gravity of having people depend on him. Mikael can see it in the man's eyes. And he can't believe his ears, the man giving him advice on how to get rid of the ring. He glances at the sickly Maria, still huddled next to the Piloswine, before giving a slight nod.
