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 croconaw is finally in a good enough mood to follow hisham to the training center, and hisham thinks that he's put in enough effort to get a little reprieve from all the teasing that his trainer has put forth. so for the first time in awhile, their training is rather clean cut and free of foul play.
the croconaw swims laps around the water training room, and hisham sits in a folding chair, sipping wine from the anvil shield and devising new ways in which he can drive the croconaw even harder next week.
the scourge proved to be tougher than the reports had claimed, which pissed hisham off. kohaku has been riding on the legends of the veterans for too long, it seemed.
that, or he simply needed more training. hisham can't do anything about what others tell him about the scourge, but he could at least work on not getting his ass kicked. starting from his lovely hawlucha.
the hawlucha is agility training around an obstacle course today, and hisham can appreciate that he's self driven, at least. unlike his usual farces with the croconaw, hisham watches the bird with some interest. he had wondered where he could obtain a second training pass, like some of the other trainers who wandered the training center. hisham was less pleased when someone had told him that he had to wait until mors desert. he did not have a plan to travel that far, even.
at least the hawlucha seems like he would be hardy enough to make the journey.
even if the scourge had not invaded ceres, iker had always intended to make a trip to the amberwell. it is one of kohaku's most famous landmarks, after all. not that he had forgotten about messor rock, either. he keeps these places in mind as he trains his electrike partner. or rather, watching as jax darts around a maze obstacle course with ease.
jax was easily excitable, but at least he hadn't run off by now. iker had expected an electric type to be rather restless, but it was up to his skills as a ranger to keep the pokemon by his side. the life of a trainer is cumbersome. the life of a ranger is free.
hibiscus has been in what amounts to a freezer for the past hour or so. she doesn't look so good, but karimi tries to give what encouragement she can.
"c'mon hibi! this cold is nothing, not when you've proven yourself to be a scourge killing machine!" if that was encouraging, then hibiscus didn't show it. she was too busy trying not to get her flower to freeze up. "you can hibernate all you want when the fighting's over, but now i need your strength!"
karimi felt kinda bad for her meganium, but at least they'll wake up fine in the real world. that's certainly something to look forward to.
today, jax seems to be content to do little more than chase his tail in a circle. that's when iker decides that he should probably be doing actual... battle training, since he can't exactly count on some gym leader to save him out in the field.
so that's basically why he dragged in another ranger's bronzong. well, the bronzong actually levitated in but details. it seems content to sit there while the electrike attempt to tackle it over and over. which is exactly what iker needed it to do, actually.
after awhile, jax seems to lose interest in the bronzong, as surely as he would lose interest in a rock. he gives a small yip and attempt to rip a packet of chips out of iker's hands.
karimi doesn't relish in the prospect of stoning her braviary with rocks. at least it's not the enemy scourge who are attacking him, so nobody's going to die.
that still doesn't make her feel too good about it, but it's a start. she punches in the codes for the rock shooter, which will probably do a lot better than her throwing arm.
they're close to bacchus, and iker tightens up his training regimen in anticipation. he can teleport to safety, certainly, but that's no way to make progress. if he wants to return home, then he'll have to earn it.
he thinks back to all the times when jax had moved out of turn. they can't afford that anymore, not after leaving nerio city. for all of iker's lacksidasical attitude, he's seen enough to understand that survival is not a game. he gives the scourge the sort of seriousness that they deserve.
"i don't think you need any treadmill practice tonight, jax. you're plenty fast enough." they weren't words that he thought that he would have to say this soon. "tonight...i'll join you" he walks closer to the electrike on his dream-feet. "you haven't slowed me down, not a bit. but you can't drag me places anymore. not in bacchus."
the electrike looks vaguely confused.
"what i mean to say is, we're going together. i'm not as fast as our usual pokeassists, but i'm still yours. and you're still mine. we picked each other, didn't we?"
jax stares at him for a little bit before giving a sharp yip. they are partners, the two of them.
jogging with his pokemon is a surreal experience. iker only grunts and gives it his all.
karimi's training regimens barely fit within the usual parameters of 'ethical' for most people, but desperate times. today, her meganium is taking a relaxing hot tub soak...in a vat of poison.
she takes comfort in the knowledge that her pokemon are all equally eager to get stronger. stronger so that they can defend their trainer and the region from the scourge. hibi's skin doesn't look so good, but it would look worse in the thick of battle with scourge attacks flying from all directions. they suffer now so that they do not perish later.
iker isn't confident enough to be running off in the direction of pax without every bit of training that he can manage, and that's fine. better to know his own limits than to get them all killed.
the manectric is certainly faster than his old form. he dashes through the obstacle course with ease. this is an old territory for him. the ranger and pokemon were going to venture into a new one.
they can't always run away, though. iker pauses jax's usual regimen in favor of a more aggressive one. the manectric spams spark in front of a punching bag, over and over. by the time that he's finished, iker hopes that an attendant will get rid of the thoroughly-charged bag before anyone is able to use it. he wheels over to tell them.