Mission 2: Secrets From the Moon, Part 1-2

Part 1-2: Guess Who’s Coming to Town?

Normally, inside the rather large teepee on the hill that Amy and her dad shared, it was pretty dark, and rather ideal for sleeping for quite a while even when it got light outside. However, this morning, something seemed to get into Amy's eyes, and it wasn't the morning sun.

It was an unusually large pink glow coming from the direction of her father.

"Nngh...Dad...could you turn off the Chargestone already? And why is it pink...?"

As she rubbed her eyes and blinked, it soon became apparent that the light wasn't coming from any Chargestone, but the large Clefable himself. "...Dad...?" Her voice gave off an edge that became more worried by the second. "...Are you okay...?"

"Hmm? Wha...?" Jukidoor coughed a few times before rolling over to face his daughter. "Well, other than this weird cough, I'm fine. What about you, Paikea? I mean, you're glowing pink! I mean, even MORE pink than you already are!"

"Pink...? What are you—no, Dad! You're the one who's glowing pink..."

She brought her stubby arms up to see for herself and noticed that, indeed, if she were to look closely, there was a faint bright pink glow to her skin. "...HOLY CRAP!" she screamed. "DAD! Did you give this to me!? What's going on!?"

The Clefable held his hands over his extremely sensitive ears as usual, ducking the Hyper Voice that Amy accidentally launched. "That's what I wanna know! My first guess is that it would be a prank, but even I don't know how to pull off a prank THIS elaborate! Except unless if it was a Zoroark—"

But before he could even finish his sentence, Amy had already run out the flap of the teepee.

The frantic Jigglypuff ran down the hill and through the streets to Ryoshi's house, freaking out all the way, yet trying her best to avoid making any sounds until she actually got there.

When she did, though, that was when all heck broke loose.

"RYOSHI!" She pounded on the door. "Are you there!? I think I got it from my dad! This is crazy! I can't stay with him!!"

For a few seconds no response came. Then finally the door swung ever so slowly open.

"Ugh... Amy, I love you, dear, but I have the worst headache right now, so could you tone the yelling down a bit?"

The Mawile clumsily stepped out into his door frame, his eyes tightly clamped shut and a hand gripping part of his forehead. But... that wasn't the worst part. As the door opened wider and Ryoshi actually stepped outside a bit, it quickly became apparent that his normally yellow and black skin was also resonating with the same strange pink glow.

"Alright, tell me again, quieter this time, what exactly is going—" Ryoshi finally opened his eyes to the outside world, and more importantly, Amy, and quickly stopped mid-sentence.

"Y—You're glowing too? I—I thought it was just me..." He stopped to let out a few harsh hacks. "I woke up this morning feeling queasy and glowing pink like this. I was going to go see Guinevere, but... I got embarrassed about the glow."

It honestly took everything Amy had in her to avoid freaking out as she saw that Ryoshi had the same symptoms too, and for a frightening moment, she thought that maybe it had inadvertently passed to him from her too. But then something he said brought her back to reality.

"Embarrassed?" She blinked in confusion as she paused to cough a bit. "Why?"

"I'm sure I've told you before, about how I dislike being called feminine..." Ryoshi looked down at his feet and cleared his throat. "Well... pink isn't exactly a masculine color. I didn't want anyone calling me out on it..."

He sighed and looked back up at her. "I know it probably sounds stupid to you, but I hope you understand."

He was right; to Amy, such a thing was like calling the fact that normal Mawile were supposed to have yellow and dark-gray skin in the first place was socially unacceptable. How could such a standard exist? And if pink was a "feminine" color, then how the heck would it explain guys like her dad and other naturally pink species of Pokémon who had such things to begin with? Even if the gender ratios in them could be arguably skewed towards girls...

She noticed that her fist had clenched and that she was about to punch the wall of Ryoshi's house, and stopped it just in time. Instead, she then turned to him and hugged him. "Aww, it's okay, Ryoshi...you know I'd love you no matter what..."

The glow around Ryoshi's body then reminded her of a trick she probably should have known about for a while now, but never actually occurred to her until now. Using Psychic, she dragged his head so that he was brought to his knees and his face was low enough for her to reach up and gently kiss him, trying to make him feel better. She sure hoped it would work. Besides, they were both sick, so how much worse could this sort of thing get?

"Heh, thanks..." He gave off a small smile. Usually it was him trying to cheer Amy up, not the other way around. But as she managed to prove, she was entirely capable of doing so for him when he needed it.

The Mawile lead the Jigglypuff inside the house and shut the door behind them. Normally, the windowless home would need a candle or two for anyone to see, but the faint glow coming off the two was ample enough. Ryoshi would have pulled out the chairs, but quite honestly, he felt terrible, so he just flopped back onto his recently expanded bed and signaled Amy to follow suit.

"So, is it just us?" he asked. "Or have you noticed anyone else glowing like this..?"

"It's my dad too," she explained, climbing onto the bed, but nearly failing due to her usual subpar upper body strength being worse than usual due to the illness. "That's what I was trying to tell you, and that's why I freaked out so much that I ran all the way here. I thought that maybe I'd gotten it from him, but since you did too...huh. It could be the evil spirits, actually. I heard that they'd been attacking people at night lately in this town. And in my tribe, it's usually evil spirits that cause these problems with us in the first place. Though I tried telling Guinevere that, and she looked at me like I was nuts! Then again, her cures always work, so..." She looked up at Ryoshi and hugged his arm. "...She might know something about how to deal with this too."

"Most places don't seem to really have vengeful sprits like your home did. Or at least, nothing LIKE yours. No offense to your people or anything; personally I have no idea what causes crud like this." He groaned and flopped to another part of the bed. "Man I hate getting sick... Anyway, I guess you're right about Gwen, though, she seems to know her stuff. She did know exactly what plant could help cure me the last time I got sick. Guess we should go see her, huh?"

Ryoshi suddenly flew into a bad fit of coughing that rocked his whole body. By the time he could stop, he curled up and shivered before throwing one of the sheets over himself. "...Right after I sleep a little more..."

"It's okay..." She crawled up to him and petted him on his arm. "I can go see Guinevere for you, ask her about it, and get back to you before you know it~. If there was anything I was good at back in my tribe, it was running. I can get there and back before you know it~."

Her slightly prideful claims, however, were interrupted by another round of coughing. "...Ugh, you're right, this isn't fun. Maybe all that running tired me out, so maybe I should lie down for a bit before I go..."

"That's... fine..." Ryoshi muttered the last two words before he could no more, and his consciousness faded out and he quickly passed out.

"Oh..." Seemed like Ryoshi was more tired than she thought he was. Well, probably even more reason than ever to take a quick rest before going outside.

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She wasn't entirely sure how long she fell asleep for, and when she woke up, she certainly didn't feel completely better, but at least she felt a tiny bit better than she did before. If this kept up, she might even be able to fight it off on her own, just like all the other diseases she ever had. Ha! Take that, evil spirits! She grinned at the thought.

"Hey, Ryoshi...?" she whispered into his ear while gently nudging him. "I'm gonna go visit Guinevere's place. Wait for me here until I come back, okay?"

"Mmhmm..." He replied rather drowsily. He was barely awake enough to hear, much less answer.

Grinning, she gave a soft kiss to his cheek before flopping off the bed and heading for the door, shielding her eyes from the glare of light from outside. Urgh, she sure hoped she could get used to that.

Though her head still felt a bit dizzy, she could walk more or less the same as usual on her way to Guinevere's place near the castle. However, she barely managed to start walking on the hillside towards it when she saw some sort of...mass of pink in the distance. Huh, that was weird. She squinted her eyes and tried to make it out. Why would there be a mass of pink like that...?

Then her heart stopped when she realized just what it was, and a cold shiver seemed to clench at her spine. No way...no way...

But there was no mistaking that group of Clefairy, Clefable, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff, and even little Cleffa and Igglybuff, especially not with the type of accessories and face paint that they were wearing, as well as the dark-blue teepees they seemed to be struggling to carry along.

"..........Ryoshi!?" All thoughts about seeing Guinevere had completely vanished from her head as she now had another reason to rush back on over to Ryoshi’s house.

As soon as she got back, she slipped through the door and ran up to him, urgently whispering, "Ryoshi, Ryoshi, wake up! You'll never believe this, but my ENTIRE TRIBE is here! Here! In Aether! Mom, Kovo, Maka, Peluna, Lady Zeena, and everyone! I don't know how or why, but they're here!"

"Hnng?" Ryoshi sat up as quickly as he could and his eyes fluttered open. "Huh? Y—Your whole tribe? Wha—Why—I thought they lived really far from here!  Why are they here...?"

"I don't know!" She was practically in a panic at this point. "I came here to tell you as soon as I saw them! Now come on! If we can hurry, we might be able to catch up and ask them! I'll help you stand up if you need me to."

"N—No, I can walk on my own." Ryoshi grunted as he shoved himself off the bed. His legs rocked a bit a first, but he quickly got himself back upright. "Let's go."

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After Amy helped Ryoshi throw on his helmet and tunic, as soon as they could, with the Jigglypuff dragging the Mawile along as fast as she could, they had caught up with the tribe right outside the castle entrance. It seemed as though they were planning to go in, though at this distance, Amy could clearly see one thing.. 

Practically all of them were suffering from the same symptoms she and Ryoshi were. 

"Hey...! Lady Zeena...! Everyone...!" But before Amy could get out anymore, she ended up coughing. At least she could still manage to draw out star sign in midair.

The one elderly female Clefable, easily identified with not just her large, elaborate headdress of feathers and fuzzy coat around her shoulders, but by the fact that she was the only shiny Pokémon in the tribe, was the first to notice Amy. "Paikea...? Is that you...?"

Upon hearing this, the diminished, suffering air of many of the members seemed to be jolted awake.

"Paikea's back?"

"Is that her?"

"Who's that Mawile with her?"

"They don't look too good either...curse this disease..."

The Jigglypuff with the red bow nodded as she and Ryoshi walked up to Zeena. "Yeah. Goddess Cresselia sent me here to live here eight months ago. Why is everyone here? And why is everyone sick too? Normally, the stars don't ever lead us this far..."

"It was not the stars that led us here, necessarily, but visions from Goddess Cresselia, similar to you. In the weeks before we came here and were afflicted with this strange phenomenon, many of us—" She paused to cough. "—received the same visions, far more powerful than before, that urged us to come here, to this hilltop with a stone structure on it...am I to assume you saw the same, but much earlier than us?"

"Seems like it. This is King Alaric's castle." Amy gestured to it before having to cough again. "He's a Serperior, but he's really nice! I wonder why she wants us to come here..."

"I would like to know the reason, as well." The elderly Clefable then pointed to the Mawile. "And who might this be with you?"

"H—Hello, Miss...Zeena." Ryoshi bowed, but whether that was due to his customs or the large hack he let out at the same time was unclear. "My name is Ryoshi, Ryoshi Sumiura. I'm...Amy's fiancée."

The elderly Clefable blinked in confusion. "Amy? Who's Amy?"

"That's me, Paikea," the Jigglypuff explained. "Or rather, it's the new name I chose so that people here couldn't steal my soul or anything. Speaking of which, why aren't you guys going by your outsider names?"

"Because we found out that it doesn't matter in this culture. And..." Zeena shook her head and gestured to the entire crowd. "Look at us. At this point, I would think that we would need to worry about more important matters. But on the other hand, congratulations, er...Amy! Now, if only we could figure out a way to calm whatever angry spirits are causing this—"

Before she could respond any further, several squeals erupted from the women in the crowd.

"Paikea is ENGAGED!?"

"She found someone all the way out HERE!?"

"Lucky her!"

"Then again, we did see that there are waaaaaaaaaaaaay more guys out here than there ever were in here—"

"Pssh, how do we even know if they're even compatible with us? I mean, it sucks if you want kids and can't have any, you know what I mean?"

"What I want to know is, how in the world did THAT girl even found someone, especially considering how she herself said she never wanted to—"

"SILENCE!!"

A slam from the Cresselia-headed wooden rod that Zeena was holding was enough to get them all to quiet down at once. She then addressed them both. "You know the rules. We shall welcome Paikea—er, I mean, Amy, if she wishes to be called that, and her fiancée among us once again, as well as find out what they know about the catastrophe that we are all under."

"Ah...about that." Amy stuttered before coughing. "We were on our way to find out too—"

"Oh my. Erm…"

Nearly 152 pairs of eyes were immediately drawn to the Kricketune meekly standing in front of the gate to the palace, causing him to shrink back a little before standing straight up again. "Ah...my name is Gaius, and I am the king's official advisor. He says the rooms for you all are ready, so if you would just follow me..."

Zeena turned to him and nodded politely. "Of course you may, Mr. Gaius. Please show us the way."

"R—right away!" The Kricketune nervously bowed and ran through the doors, opening them along the way.

Zeena then turned to Amy and Ryoshi. "Well, we have already explained our situation to your King Alaric, and he has invited us in for sanctuary. You two can come with us if you like. If we are to discover the answers behind why Goddess Cresselia sent us all here, we might as well."

Amy nodded. "Yup. It's been so long since I've seen ANYONE here! Too bad about this stupid disease..." She coughed. "But we might as well see what we can do."

NEXT PART >>> 

Table of Contents for Ryoshi Sumiura: fav.me/d67tvml

 *Amy-the-Jigglypuff's comments: 

And another one down! Wow, this one went way faster than the last picture. But hey, this is getting into the good part of the story. Man, a lot of people Amy knew somehow keep coming to Aether! First her dad comes back, then Kel-Zich, and what's next? Her whole entire tribe!? ...Oh wait...

 =ChicoChikorita's Comments: 

Whoops. Looks like Amy not only didn't get over her sickness, but got worse. And no she's glowing because of it too! But wait... It's not just her. It's her dad, Ryoshi, and her whole tribe--Wait, tribe?

Yup, looks like the entirety of the Hoshizora Tribe has been led to the kingdom of Aether, all having similar afflictions. Ugh, with this many sick people, are they actually going to be able to find a cure?

Fun fact about Ryoshi: Although he resists illnesses very well, when he does get sick, it hits him hard. That's why he seems a lot grumpier, worn out, and over all worse off than Amy, who on the other hand takes illnesses better.

Prose by both of us!
Art by *Amy-the-Jigglypuff, unless otherwise specified.

Cameos in this pic:

My Zeena Apirana the shiny Clefable (Official PoA NPC)