Miho Chan
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Eevee Therapy for Little Magi, Chapter 23, Lay Thee to Rest
🕑 Added 2024-02-01 23:21:22 +0000 UTCShadows gathered, power rose, and the monster at the bottom of the warrens peered from their perch to see the approach of four souls; two strong but mundane, one touched with golden light, and the last– W̷i̵z̶a̴r̴d̶.̸.̴.̸.The being murmured, rising up. A̶t̶ ̷l̵a̴s̶t̷,̵ ̵w̴e̴ ̶w̵i̵l̵l̸ ̴b̴e̵ ̶c̴o̷m̸p̷l̷e̶t̷e̵.̶
Shirou blinked as green lights coalesced in the middle of the room, rising out of a small pile of bones. The disc of the Spiritomb was nearly his own height, its massive maw forming and tongue unrolling.
“... Die.” Ritsuka snarled simply, leaping into the air and taking flight, the cavernous nature of the chamber that they were to battle in offering her a fair amount of room to maneuver.
Y̵o̸u̷r̵ ̴s̸o̶u̵l̴ ̷w̷i̴l̷l̷ ̵b̴e̶ ̴s̷p̷i̵c̶y̸,̸ ̸l̵i̵z̸a̴r̷d̸-̸r̶a̷t̷!̷ Spiritomb screeched as it splayed its hands, a barrage of Shadow Balls cascading upwards. The spray of purple burst forced Ritsuka to break off of her attack run, even as the ghost lashed across the ground with a barrage of Wil-o-Wisps, though they failed to accomplish anything, the groundbound combatants deftly stepping away from the inaccurate volley.
“Yagi, Foresight into Quick Attack! Keep the pressure up!” Shirou barked, a mundane sword appearing in his hands as he projected a weapon, holding the humble stick of sharp steel in a well practiced stance.
“Yoshi!” Yagi declared as he blurred, disappearing from human eyesight, only to reappear mere moments later and ram both his legs into the back of the spirit, “Dynamic Entry!” He declared with a voice far too loud for general use, flipping backwards as Ritsuka bathed the Spiritomb in a deluge of draconic fire seconds later, “A most youthful followup, my comrade!”
“Thanks Yagi, but focus!” Ritsuka barked, diving out of the way as the massive specter swung a shadow claw at her, clawed hands distorting and extending impossibly as it tried to tear her front the air. The ghost screamed, the blast of ghostly power sending Gabite and Yagi reeling momentarily, but failed, shaking neither Shirou or his partner. “I don’t think we’ve hurt it much, keep up the pressure!”
“Yagi, Force Palm! Gabite, help him keep the pressure up!” Shirou commanded sharply, professionally parrying a Shadow Claw sent his way by the ghost with grace he usually didn’t possess, “Ritsuka, keep the barrage up! Don’t give Spiritomb time to think!”
Yagi barked his agreement, gathering aura into his palm before he thrust it into the mass of spirits, sending the Ghost/Dark type reeling as Foresight bypassed the immunity ghosts normally possessed to fighting types and dealt super effective damage against the remaining one. Not giving Spiritomb a second to breathe, Gabite followed up with a flurry of Dual Strikes, draconic energy raking across the spirit’s ‘flash’ even as Ritsuka executed a picture perfect strafing run, a beam of draconic flames scything through the core of the enraged and potentially mad Pokemon, sending them into a frenzy.
“Pain! Sharpens the mind, brings me closer to completion!” Spiritomb roared, phasing out of reality for a moment before finally moving from its place in the middle of the room, the impact of its Phantom Force causing a shockwave which nearly knocked all of the ground bound combatants off its feet. “Living mage, your soul will complete us!” It roared, flowing across the ground towards Shirou, even as small green orbs emerged from its purple body, the soul fragments lashing out at Ritsuka and Yagi as they moved to intercept.
Gabite dashed in behind the Spiritomb, smashing her hand into the ground, opening a gap beneath the maddened ghost and forcing it to pause in its advance before it spun and slammed her with a spray of ice. “Augh! That’s… this isn’t normal! Where’s its keystone?”
Narrowing his eyes, Shirou looked around the room, batting aside a frenzied shadow claw with his sword, which, rather inconveniently, shattered from the force of the blow. Smoothly projecting another sword to replace the sword he had lost, he continued fending off the increasingly desperate and senseless attacks; he had to find the Keystone, which meant figuring out what the heck the Spiritomb had bound itself to. It was unlikely complete, given the fact it kept insisting it wasn’t, but-
There! A human skull, one with runes etched into it, glowing faintly with magic. Pushing aside another physical strike by the enraged ghost, he shouted, “Ritsuka, Dragon Pulse on that runed skull!”
“Which, ah, I see it! Clever fucker.” The Wyrmeon snarled, golden light gathering in her maw as it mixed with the blue-purple flames of draconic energy, the dragon very clearly charging up a finishing blow to ensure that the skull was thoroughly destroyed in one hit,
“Yagi, cover her!” Shirou barked as the Spiritomb whirled around to stop her, his sword flashing as it cut into the Spiritomb despite their incorporeal nature, drawing a hiss of pain from the ghost.
“Understood!” Yagi acknowledged, leaping into the air to bat aside a flurry of Shadow Balls launched towards his teammate with a construct of ground type energy in the shape of a staff, knocking aside or detonating each and every one, landing on the floor perfectly and springing forward, “Ritsuka, I shall follow up on the skull! Go for it!”
“Dragon” The Wyrmeon growled around the gathered flames in her mouth, wings flaring as she stabilized herself into a hover, “Pulse!” She declared, whipping her head forward, maw opening only slightly to let loose a tightly packed beam of golden-black dragonflame, searing a hole through the runic pattern engraved into the skull.
Spiritomb screamed as the pulse hit the skull, the runes hit by the pulse shattering but the remainder flaring with power while the bone beneath remained intact. As the runes flared brighter, a flare of emotions filled the room.
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They searched, following the trail. Benni had been a mage of no small power, wielding clan secrets lost to history with his passing. But through the interrogation of his students and the theft of their legacy, they were close. Benni’s lair, and the culmination of his teachings, his relics; they were just below.
They dove deeper, spells and dark magic killing the beasts who made their homes in the cave network as they delved, never noticing the accumulation of grudges and darkness which their necromantic slayings drew to them as they delved. Reaching the warrens, they set themselves to find the vault below, greed blinding them to the force which gathered behind them, to smash them into a pit trap and leave them bleeding and near death.
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Shirou gasped as the vision faded, his eyes blinking open as the Spiritomb lashed out at Ritsuka, forcing her to retreat for a moment. The amalgamation ghost growled, a stream of soul fragments flying from it before it clamped down on its form, now noticeably smaller. “NO! You will not be free! I will claim my prize, I am so close!” It screeched, waves of purple fire cutting Gabite and Yagi off from the ghost for a few moments, and it turned to try and rush Shioru, only for Ritsuka to land in front of him, driving back the Spiritomb momentarily with a gout of Dragon Breath.
“HIT THE SKULL AGAIN!” Shirou yelled, the two Pokemon currently not occupied keeping the relatively squishy human alive blurring into motion as they ducked and weaved around the frantic strikes from the Spiritomb. The two aimed for the only target that currently mattered as Ritsuka channeled fairy energy into her body, batting aside each lash from the Spiritomb directed at Shirou with paw, wing, or tail as she desperately ‘danced’ with the Spiritomb to keep her trainer and partner safe, snarling furiously all the while.
Yagi ducked backward, unable to close to melee, eyes narrowing. He set a stance, eyes narrowed, then began to rotate his hands against each other. “May the force of my aura be made manifest. May my strike extend beyond my paws and strike unerring. And may it strike down evil!” The blue orb formed between his fists took on its own spin. “AURA SPHERE!” He threw the attack forward, the sphere of energy bursting through the ghostly tendrils to smash into the skull, even more runes winking out as cracks began to form across the bone.
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Broken, dying. The weight of grudges and the power of hate and fear keeping them alive allowed the foul mage to keep itself alive, hands twisting into claws as it scrabbled at its own skull, layering frantic spells into its head as it bled out, lifeforce stolen from heart and soul to be imbued into the core of itself.
And then, it rose from the trap, weaving its way to the vault, its obsession in life drawing the new ghost to its prize– only to be stymied by the wards layered upon the door. Ones designed to keep Pokemon out; ones layed decades before, but still as strong as ever. The rage, the hatred the ghost felt as it failed to reach the goal which had claimed its life.
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As the vision faded, Shirou was forced to take a step back as another soul fragment zipped by his face, the Spiritomb screeching as more of its mass fled its body. “Dying– no, no, no, no!” It wailed, scooping up the skull with frenzied fingers. It thrust out its other hand, sending a massive blast of shadowy energy at Yagi, who yelped and ducked aside. “Accursed wretch, you will not kill me! I am deathless!”
“Be quiet!” Ritsuka roared back, a gout of golden-white draconic flame pushing the ghostly energy back, the aura of fairy energy surrounding the Wyrmeon intensifying greatly as she pushed herself past her limits, furiously ripping and tearing at the spiritual body of the amalgam of souls, “Die!” She declared, another gout of flame lancing towards the runic skull.
The Spirtomb yanked the skull out of the way, only for the blast of golden energy to smash its ghostly arm to pieces, sending it to hit the ground, bouncing. The rune-carved bone landed near the only human in the room; Shirou letting the sword in his hand dissipate as he formed a familiar cursed training weapon in his hands. Tora-Shinai swung in a brutal arc, smashing the skull to pieces in one final blow.
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It needed more power. More– it needed a way to become human-like again, to wield human magic. It needed… a soul.
And so the disembodied ghost lurked, waiting for the perfect moment, sanity and composure eroded, as it sought to draw in more power, waiting for the proper soul. Human treasure hunters, brave Pokemon, and other spirits were savaged, parts of their spirits drawn into the forming Spiritomb in a mockery of a true Pokemon. Eventually, all that was left was the desire to break the seal on the door, and the hunger, ever growing more savage.
And buried beneath it all– fear of what it had seen, in those last few moments between its death and false resurrection.
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“No- I- no… no…” The Spiritomb’s form collapsed, fragments cascading off it in a wave, leaving behind a vague outline of a humanoid form, purple and green shifting into grays and blacks. “I was so close–” A shadow appeared beneath the spirit, and the ghostly form panicked immediately. “Child! Don’t let it take me, please! Help me!”
Shirou and the others took a few steps back, not moving forward as the shadows rose into a dark form, a red collar surrounding a white-capped head. Blue eyes shone in the near-darkness, a slender hand reaching out to snatch the broken soul from the mortal world. With a wail, the spirit at the heart of the warrens vanished in a pulse of purple light.
Darkrai peered around the room, holding up one hand as the fleeing torrent of green lights swirled back to him. With a sigh, the lights turned blue before vanishing. The psychopomp looked around, gaze fixed on Shirou. With a sigh, Darkrai offered a quiet thumbs up before it vanished back into the shadows.
“Well… That was a thing.” Shirou muttered, turning to look towards Ritsuka and Yagi, “Are you two okay?” He asked, dismissing the projection and casting a keen eye around the room. The entrance to Beni’s hideout was close, but it seemed like there were no surviving traps in this room. That was a relief.
“Woof… I think I may have overdone it a little, to be honest.” Rituka sat on the ground with a thump. “Still, I’m just tired. Yagi?”
“I will need to add Aura Sphere practice to my routine post-haste! That took entirely too long to pull off.” Yagi admitted, panting slightly. “And I am fine.”
Gabite’s jaw was dropped open, but she slammed it shut with a click. “...why aren’t any of you freaking out? THAT WAS A DARKRAI!” She roared. “And that fight– oh my the Origins, that thing was nuts! How the hell are you three so calm?”
“Because of our circumstances, we’re already aware we’re Chosen to some degree. I and my team understand the duties and… troubles that come with that.” Shirou explained, sighing as he let himself drop to the floor, giving Ritsuka a pat on her head as he looked towards Gabite, “It’s just part of our destiny, as it were.”
“...well then.” Gabite huffed, padding over and sitting beside the boy. “There was no chance you would’ve walked away from this, was there?” As Shirou shook his head, the older dragon huffed. “...you need lessons in caution, but I don’t doubt your resolve. Or your power, not after all this. And I have been stuck in my training for a while…” She looked him in the eye. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spare Pokeball, would you?”
Shirou nodded, putting off his surprise for later. Actually, why was he surprised? It was clear that Gabite valued personal strength, and he had just proven both his team and his own personal strength quite clearly, “Yes, I do. I guess you wish to join me, then?”
“Join, chaperone, teach… yeah. You’re all strong, don’t get me wrong, but considering Marowak was able to talk you into a fight with that thing…” She glanced over at the bone fragments littering the ground nearby. “Actually, do we need to worry about those? I’m no mage, and I dunno if leaving them lying around is a bad idea.”
Shirou produced a Pokeball, handing it over as he slowly got to his feet. “Ritsuka? Do you mind checking those fragments?” He asked as he winced, noting the strain in his legs as he stood, “I don’t think they are,” He explained as he tossed the Pokeball over to Gabite, letting the Dragon catch it, “But it never hurts to check.”
Ritsuka pulled herself to her feet, trotting over and placing one of her paws on the largest fragment. “...nothing active, and nothing malicious. Just old bone and a faint tang of spent necromantic energies. Should burn themselves out in a few days.”
Shioru nodded, as Gabit finally triggered the Pokeball, vanishing in a burst of red light. Scooping it up, he released his new teammate as the registration ended, walking back up the main passage. “Let’s go disarm the rest of the traps, and then we can open that vault. Illya will strangle all of us if we don’t loot it now.”
“Damn straight, little brother.” A bead of sweat trickled down Shirou’s back as he turned to look at his older sister, looking more than a little annoyed with him, “After we do that, we’ll be having a talk about doing dangerous things for dubious gain…” She flashed him a smirk, “It won’t be a fun talk.”
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Shirou sighed as he approached the vault, rubbing the side of his face from where his sister had been pinching him. “I’ll say again; we had everything under control.” He grumbled. “We dealt with the ghost, the enemies, and the traps without your help. You don’t need to be so aggressive about this.”
Illya blinked, tilting her head to the side, “Your argument is perfectly valid only with the benefit of hindsight. You could not have possibly known that the Spiritomb within would have been a threat you could realistically overcome with just your team and help, Shirou.” She deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she sighed, “Besides, I’m your older sister. It’s my job to worry.”
“...thanks.” Shirou murmured as they walked up to a metal door. “I do appreciate you checking in, sis. And if I could’ve reached out, I would have.”
“You could’ve just fought your way out through the caverns, doofus. Or retreated and told Marowak that you couldn’t handle the ghost, if you didn’t want to hurt them.” Illya cut off his immediate objection to her first option. “As it is, I’m going to have words with that idiot.”
Gabite grunted as she inched back from the door. “Can’t say I disagree. He was out of line, sending you in here alone.”
Shirou shrugged, inspecting the wards layered over the door. “I don’t blame him for asking me to do something about the traps. The spirit… you guys might be right.” He tapped the door. “Pokemon repelling wards, reinforcement, layers of illusions which only came down as we disarmed the traps… It seems like a shame just to break them all. Illya, any ideas on how to get through?”
Illya shrugged, “Just break them.” The homunculus stated, blinking as her brother gave her a look, “What? It’s not as if they’ll serve any purpose, and we don’t reject Pokemon like Beni did.”
“I think he had a team before he died. He may have just not wanted any of them to get into his stuff.” Shirou replied, before reaching out and sending out an alternating pulse of Aura and magic, the interplay of forces causing the delicate nature of the wards to cut out. As soon as they fell, the door swung open, revealing a small chamber hewn out of the rock. “I’m pretty certain this was shaped by a Pokemon.”
The small room was packed with items, preservation seals covering racks of scrolls and small chests. But Shirou’s eyes were drawn to one item above all the rest; a set of swords, sheathed and on display at the back of the room. Walking over, he ran his hands over the blades, brow furrowing. “...all three of these have shed blood. Human and Pokemon.” He muttered. He frowned. “The katana and the tanto are mundane, and may need some polishing. But the wakizashi is pristine.” He picked the middle sword off the rack, sliding it free from its plain sheathe. The blade shone in the light cast from his headlamp. “...really weird. I can’t tell how it’s enchanted, or even if it’s enchanted.”
“We can figure out what’s up with it later.” Illya said flippantly, carefully cracking open one of the chests in the room. “Ooh, this one is full of evolution stones.”
Shirou set the sword back on the rack, pulling out his pack as Illya began to sort through the treasures she unboxed, then paused. “...do you think we should take everything with us, or leave it and have Cynthia look over it all? It’s kind of a historic site, right?”
Ilya blinked, then frowned. “Matilda…”
“This whole vault is ‘recovered treasure’, which is ours to take by law.” The Sylveon observed. “We should take pictures of the layout first, though; Cynthia would appreciate it, if nothing else.”
“Got it.” Shirou took a few steps back, pulling out his camera. “This could take a while…”
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Isabella’s eyes shone as Shirou pulled the lid off the steamer basket, revealing the golden brown of the foodstuffs within. “Potato Mochi… it is said Lady Akari ate this for every dinner while she stayed in Jubilife Village. The recipe’s been lost for centuries. I’ve always wanted to try it.” She paused and shot a glance at Illya. “Ah, no offense?”
“None taken.” Illya shrugged, blinking at Isabella, “Why would I take offense to you wanting to try an old favorite of… The Hero of Hisui. You’re part of the clans, you grew up with her stories.”
“Considering two weeks ago you were about to hex her…” Isabella retorted, then shook her head. “Whatever.” She took another bite of her potato, nomming thoughtfully. “You know, it’d probably depress her to know you had the recipe and weren’t sharing.”
Shirou shook his head. “I think it’ll be a couple of months before we could invite her to dinner. I know I might be willing, but I’m not going to make my big sis uncomfortable.” He looked across the fire. “Does that seem reasonable, Cynthia?”
The Sinnoh champion looked up from the scroll she’d been reading over, adjusting her glasses. “Hmm? Ah, considering what she did, some trepidation over her presence is… understandable.” She sighed. “Honestly, I see her as a great friend, but she’s not the most reliable person to be around. Not until you get a lot stronger. She did write me a letter of apology last week, though. Seems how badly things went, and how badly they could have gone, shocked some sense into her.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Matilda murmured, moving over to rub herself up against her partner’s legs. “Shirou, are you going to keep that piece of metal?”
Shirou nodded, rapping on the sword laying beside him with one hand. “It’s a good blade, and the right size for me right now. The foldable polearm is a little fragile, and as easy as it is to create a sword copy, they’re always much more brittle than the real deal.” He looked over at Illya. “Did you figure out the magic on it, sis?”
His sister nodded, “Yes, I have. It’s basic care and maintenance enchantments, though they’ve lasted far longer than they should have. Otherwise, a lot of the other enchantments appear to have faded away over time.”
“Which in turn, proves that Hisuan-era ninja clans had training in the magical arts, or contracted with contemporary mages for their work.” Cynthia leaned forward, eyes sparking. “Ninjutsu scrolls like this one,” she tapped the scroll against her leg “aren’t very common, either; most are either family secrets, or were destroyed to keep them out of rival clan hands. Do you think you can get them working, Shirou?”
Glancing quickly at the scroll, Shirou blanched, “No. Not without a teacher. Illya or Ritsuka might be able to figure it out eventually and teach me in turn, but this is far too difficult for me to replicate without, again, someone to teach me.”
Cynthia sighed. “A pity. There are a lot of people out there who still think ‘ninja magic’ is just stage tricks and superstition. It doesn’t help most of the shinobi clans who still practice encourage the assumption.”
Humming, Matilda glanced towards Cynthia, feelers raised in an approximation of a shrug, “To be fair, Magic was a dying art until fairly recently. While there are evidently more practitioners nowadays, it is still largely passed from teacher to student, and so far as I’m aware, no singular school of magic exists where people can simply learn, unlike Aura, which has examples among Pokemon, and the Lucario, who maintain at least one school for their own internal use.”
“I see. No Clock Tower, for better or worse.” Shirou murmured.
“You may not like them much, but having a world-renowned school and research institution does a lot to keep Magecraft alive back on Earth.” Illya agreed. “I don’t think we’re going to have time to settle down with a teacher, and hiring one to come with us would be prohibitive.”
“I might be able to figure some of this out, honestly.” Ritsuka mused. “Yagi says he sees some similarities with Aura techniques, and I understand Shirou’s magecraft and blooming skill with our world’s magic pretty well.” Her tail thrashed. “Speaking of teachers, though– we have a few Pokemon here who Cynthia could help us with.”
Gabite nodded meekly, Cynthia’s Garchomp watching the smaller dragon with a toothy grin. “Yes please ma’am. I’d be happy to hear any tips to get stronger.”
Cynthia glanced at her phone, reading the translation of Gabite’s words. “This app is really useful… I’d be happy to give you some training tips in the morning.” She said to Gabite before she turned back to Illya. “You’re still a few days out from Eternia City. Are you going to do your Gym Battle first, or go directly to the Forest for your Trial?”
“I’ve reserved a time for the Gym Battle now that we have a solid ETA for arriving in Eternia City,” Illya began, raising two fingers and pressing down the first as she continued, “So I’ll be doing the Gym Battle first, since it is an obligation. Given my research into the Warden’s path online, including chatting with people who have recently done the trials, Kleavor’s Trial is a battle, so I’ll be doing that the day after while my team is still fired up.”
“I haven’t set my time yet. Gabite is very new.” Shirou said simply. “And I don’t know if we need to apply for a three or four badge challenge yet.”
Cynthia went to open her mouth before Isabella interjected. “Look, Champion. If you’re not going to eat your food, I will. It’s starting to go cold.”
Cynthia chuckled, scooping her plate from beside the fire. “Fair enough. Tuck in, everyone. We’ll talk more in the morning.” She ordered, before taking a bite with a happy hum.
