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!
ikram left behind carnage and destruction in her wake. well -- perhaps it was a bit of an overstatement. she didn't really wreck anything. in fact, she had done nothing at all. it was her heart sign that had caused all that trouble, really.
like uprooting trees and freezing taverns. she hoped there wouldn't be a repeat of that when she found this ...
... hieronymous person in the shrine by the lake. apparently he had a sign to teach as well.
wukong chattered away by her side, excited about the prospect of finally getting to do something. he had been really distracted in the tavern.
as if they had been designed by some higher power, hieronymous and polymnia could not have been more dissimilar on the surface. where she smiled, he frowned. where she encouraged, he screamed at for better results. she was no bark, all bite. hieronymous was all bark and--well, also all bite.
and right now, he was barking indeed.
"sloppy! careless! dead!"
he hobbled out of the shrine with dramatic flair, leaning on the cane he didn't need and glaring at ikram. hieronymous did not yell, but he did speak at a volume erring just on the side of "uncomfortably loud".
"you never made it to the shrine," he snapped at ikram. "you died."
this old man had a penchant for the dramatic. ikram watched him for a moment, and eyed the cane. she wondered if he really needed it -- some old men liked toting them around for the sense of superiority it gave them, and hieronymous seemed like one of them. she made a mental note to test this hypothesis when given the chance.
she didn't flinch from his voice, but her chimchar did. it took a few steps back and squinted at the old ranger in displeasure.
"i died?" asked the ranger, "well then, you should tell me how not to die next time."
he jabbed his cane in the chimchar's direction, still scowling.
"you're far too loud," he said to the monkey. "i heard you chattering away long before i ever saw you, and so would any enemies. they'd have been drawn to you faster than the maggots would have swarmed to your rotting corpses. and you--"
he turned on ikram.
"is your styler activated? ready to be used at less than a moment's notice? why are you approaching the shrine head-on, without doing any sort of recon? you were told this is a place of safety. that doesn't mean it will never fall. never assume anything, entering a new area. you could have walked into a trap, walked unawares into a building full of scourge."
both ranger and pokémon spoke in unison. this old man was yammering on about something that made little sense. were they -- oh. they were supposed to act like seasoned troopers with experience beyond their current age, or something like that? maybe it was an old sergeant sort of thing. ikram didn't know, but let the worst of it tide over.
she suspected there was more to come.
"yes, my styler is activated," she said, confidently -- and drew her heart sign. it manifested as metronome -- which in turn manifested as ...
hail.
shards of ice started to pelt the shrine and lake area.
ikram didn't flinch. she looked up at hieronymous, and shook her head confidently.
"my heart sign is not that simple. allow me to demonstrate," she stated, lifting the arm that bore the watch-like device. she drew the heart sign -- metronome, and the sign glittered like the ice that continued to assail the area.
shadows started to rise from the cavern ground, extending into dark tendrils that snaked towards the shrine -- before turning into a fully-fledged shock wave that jolted the cavern walls. her heart sign had manifested as night daze.
hieronymous settled back down, ruffled feathers apparently soothed for the time being.
"acceptable," he grunted. "metronome is much more acceptable than hail." he snorted. "but unreliable. remember that, ranger. it might be amusing now, but be careful that in battle you don't use it and draw fairy lock when what you really need is a secret sword."
he turned on his heel and started to walk away. although he did wave the cane once, beckoning for ikram to follow him up into the shrine proper.
ikram nodded, despite getting smacked in the back of the head by some shards of ice. it hurt, but she didn't want to look weak in the face of this old person. "got it!" said the ranger, "i'll remember to use more useful signs in battle."
come to think of it, she really hadn't used it much. there were better signs for her to use, actually.
she followed him up and into the shrine, wukong quietly at heel. the chimchar didn't have anything to say after getting chided by a retired old geezer who spoke way too loudly.
the shrine was light and airy inside, and a handful of pokemon in nurse hats and carrying med kits could be glimpsed beyond the entrance hallway as they bustled about to carry out their duties.
hieronymous didn't lead ikram back there. he turned aside once they were in the entrance and wrenched up a trap door that lead only into blackness. he began to climb down.
"death?" she said, racking her mind. nothing really came to mind at first, but the darkness helped somewhat. "it comes easy, i guess. it's everywhere. i mean, that incident at the juno memorial hospital is evidence enough. or ... there's the alternative of sacrificing yourself like a martyr for the eos cause on the frontlines, but i don't intend on doing that.
he stepped off the ladder leading down from the trap door onto a stone floor.
"i know that death comes for us all. regardless of whether we intend for it to or not," hieronymous said. "how will it come for you?"
he struck a match and lit a lantern. the light pushed back the darkness: it was becoming clear that the two of them stood in a massive morgue, surrounded by rows of pokemon and human corpses.
"i don't know, but not today or tomorrow, or for the next few years," said ikram, dropping the last few feet off the ladder and onto the point where hieronymous had landed upon. "i haven't given it much thought. do you think i should?"
she choked back a cough upon realizing that she stood within a morgue, filled with dead things. what those things were didn't interest her. ikram spared a moment to wonder why hieronymous had brought her here, but she remembered that she had been asked a question about death.
"you signed up for a war," he growled a la J. "i don't know why you aren't thinking about it. you don't plan your death, it'll decide to plan itself. might as well dictate the terms of how you go out."
he surveyed the nearest row of corpses, holding his lantern over the silent rows.
"pick a pokemon, any pokemon. as long as it is dead."
ikram shrugged. "i don't think i'm going to die until i want myself to," she said, but obeyed nonetheless. she walked over to the row of corpses, staring at their frozen faces. some were peaceful, some seemed shocked --
-- she pointed at a ninetales, face frozen in an angry snarl.
