blueteamnovel Chapter 265.5: Shrines; Gate
Chapter 265.5: Shrines; Gate
Author's note:The placement of this chapter might be a touch awkward, but I didn't exactly want to delay it any further either.
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“Bi! Bibibi!!!”
“Hehe. Are you glad to be back home, Celebi?” Nina cooed as she picked up an adorable little Oddish. Ilex Forest, specifically, the parts surrounding Celebi’s shrine were a lot livelier now that the onion pranker’s domain had been dispelled, freeing the way for all the Pokemon who sought to bask in the Mossy Stone’s soothing embrace.
“Biii~”
“Yeah, well, you brought it on yourself, y’know? And you even deprived all these lovelies of their home as well…” The girl nuzzled against the ticklish Oddish and pampered it with Berries, attracting the attention of the nearby Pokemon as well.
“Hehe… No need to crowd around me like that, there’s more than enough Berries for everyone.”
The Pokemon cheered and in particular, the shine of a Cherubi’s lustrous skin caught Nina’s eye. “Does it count as cannibalism if I feed Berries to a Cherubi?” But then again, if the cherry Pokemon were offended by the prospect, then they wouldn’t have approached her to begin with.
Tempering her growing urge to take a little nibble out of the dainty little Cherubi, Nina sat down on the forest floor and basked in the gluttonous affection of all the surrounding wildlife.
“Hehehe… Your fur’s all stinky, Furret, you should have Surskit give you a little bath later.”
“Bi! Celebi!”
“You already get your fill of Berries on the regular, Celebi. Let your friends have their go first.”
“Bi-ii-iiii!” The precocious brussel sprout flailed her arms around in a faux tantrum, only to be ignored by her human companion who was too enamoured by the cuties surrounding her to care.
Nina continued with her silly giggles, making sure to have her fill of Pokemon goodness before moving on to the main goal of their visit today with a sulky Celebi in tow. In fact, the only reason why she was even back in the forest was because she was in the area and figured she would take a small little detour to take care of some unfinished business.
And speaking of unfinished business, she planned to stop by Maizie’s village later as well to pick up her commission of Apricorn Balls. The young Pokeballsmith also seemed to have made some progress on recreating the Beast Ball’s functions, which was great.
“I’m not looking forward to that conversation with Kurt about what Celebi did to the GS Ball though.” And speaking of that rotten onion, Nina looked towards her pouting companion.
“Oh cheer up, Celebi. We already ate a whole bunch of amazing food with Zuki and Morty last night, didn’t we? Honestly, I have no idea how you can even fit so much in that tiny body of yours.”
“Hehehe. Celebi is tiny and cute!”
“Not my point…” The girl retorted with a wry chuckle. “But since we’re back here anyways, I guess this is the end of the roadtrip?”
“No! Forever roadtrip! Nina feed Celebi!” The demanding pixie pointed at Nina’s face then snuggled up tight against her chest.
“Hehe. I dunno~ It’s quite a lot of work on my shoulders to take care of such a naughty little Pokemon~”
“Wrong! Celebi is the cutest and most adorabliest Pokemon in the world!”
The girl giggled once more and nuzzled affectionately against her tiny green friend. “Alright, but you have to behave alright? Starting with helping me investigate this mysterious shrine of yours.” The dilapidated shrine which Nina was coming up to right now as she pushed through a particularly stubborn patch of shrubbery.
“Bi! Bibibi-bi!”
And the moment that they did, another Celebi showed up. Presumably the main body of the temporal image that Nina was holding. “Great, now there’s two of you…”
“Bi! Celebi, bi!” Celebi prime pulled at the hems of Nina’s jacket, demanding to be fed Berries as well.
The girl chuckled in exasperation. “Nuh-uh, I already fed you just now. I mean the two of you are basically the same entity right? Just share your memories or whatever it is that you guys do.”
“Bi-iiii-ii!!!” Celebi-prime cried, saying that it was not the same while her clone just puffed her chest out with a haughty smirk.
Nina sighed. “Alright, fine. But this really is the last of it. I’ll need to restock once we get back to civilization.” Especially since there were only spicy and dry Razz Barries remaining, much to the sweet-toothed Celebi’s displeasure.
“Alright, you two.” Nina commanded, once the other Celebi had her fill of Berries. “Time to turn back time a little. No need to exert yourself, I just need to examine the shrine before it got all broken down. Do you think you can do that for me?”
“Bi! Bibibi—”
“Celebi, bi!” Celebi-prime began bargaining, wanting to extract promises of food from Nina, only to be interrupted by her own clone who disregarded her and went ahead to establish a small domain by herself.
Nina withheld her mirth as her surroundings transformed; the wilderness receded, trees shrunk and bushes vanished into the ground. The air lightened as sunlight streamed in from a thinner canopy, illuminating the wood and stone structure beyond the red arches of the spirit gate — Celebi’s shrine, restored to its wholesome state.
“Thanks, Celebi-two. You really are the best Celebi. I’ll make sure to get you some nice little treats for when we go home later.”
“Bi~ Bibibi!”
“Bi! Celebi!” Celebi-two, the temporal image that had been accompanying Nina all this while, cheered at her triumph while Celebi-prime pouted, arguing that she was the real Celebi and that all treats and tributes should go to her instead.
The image of Celebi stuck her tongue out in ridicule while her main body flailed her arms around in protest.
“Hehe. Alright, Celebi, stop fighting with yourself. Silly onion…”
“Biii-iiiiii!”
“I know, I know, I promise I’ll bring some snacks to you at some point. Maybe even have a full on picnic with cakes and stuff.”
“Bi!” The promise of cake instantly made the gluttonous Myth perk right up.
“Right, let’s see what secrets you hold…” Nina bowed as she approached the precipice then clapped her hands and closed her eyes in prayer. Meanwhile the two Celebis floated in front of her and nodded haughtily as if to intercept the girl’s worship.
“Heh. Since you two appear to be in charge, I’m assuming I have permission to enter, O Adorabliest One?”
“Bi, celebi bi.” The onion heads bobbed with imperious dignity as Nina giggled and stepped beyond the offering box to slide open the door leading into the diminutive shrine. And it really was diminutive with the top of the door barely reaching Nina’s shoulders, necessitating that the girl crouch down just to peer inside.
A cushion, worn and well-used, set atop mouldy tatami flooring, likely serving as a bed for Celebi. And beyond which was a wooden plaque, the Unown etched atop its lacquered surface not scrambled nor contrite but forming a fully coherent sentence;
LET OUR MEMORIES TRANSCEND TIME
AND REACH HOME TO THE ORIGIN
Nina gasped as the alphabets came to life, the Unown wiggling free and escaping Nina’s grasp, leaving behind only vestiges of the original sentence; O, T and H.
“Wait, I didn’t even get to snap a picture yet!” Nina scrambled to catch the Unown, but they had already scattered, some into the blue skies high above and others into the dark embrace of Ilex Forest.
“Damn it…” Nina sighed as she settled for writing down the message instead. “Let our memories transcend time, and reach home to the origin… Is that what happened to the other shrines?” Someone got to the plaques before she did and the Unown escaped after conveying their message. “Whoever it was, I hope they took notes…” The stoic visage of Red came to mind, though Nina doubted he was the only one. There were also Futaba and Whitney’s ancestors as well — the Tsukigami clan.
“Alright, Celebi, spill it! What’s the deal with the Unown?” Nina looked up from her notes with a glare but naturally, neither of the two pixies were around, having conveniently wandered off at some point. “Of course, stupid mystics and their stupid puzzles…”
But speaking of the Unown, Nina released Espy and asked her and Azzy to help investigate the site while also expanding her Beast Ball to summon Zed, her personal Unown.
“I guess now would be the best time to test out this new toy…” After rummaging through her backpack, Nina produced a janky-looking device — a bastardized version of her uncle’s old radio. She had tried to use the radio app on her Pokedex but it seemed that the gadget was a little too advanced for Zed. So Nina figured she would try something more old-school — something with a simple enough construct which even the Unown could manipulate.
“Arceus bless Ali’s heart for being such an adorable luddite. I mean, who even owns cassettes these days?” Her uncle, apparently, who had a whole collection of the archaic tapes stashed away in his closet.
“What’s wrong with cassettes? They’re small and compact which makes them great for travelling! Unlike, say, records — those fragile things.” The man said when Nina questioned him about it. The latter of which, he also had a sizable collection of, by the way.
Nina chuckled to herself at the memory and proceeded to hook the metallic sock-like implements attached to a cable to Zed’s protruding ends. “Sorry, buddy. I promise this won’t hurt. In fact, if this all goes according to plan, you should be able to use this little doodad to communicate with me from here on out.” Project Bumblebee, that was the name that Nina had come up with for reasons that would become clear soon enough.
Once the relevant parts were firmly secured, Nina turned on the radio to a whining buzz as the speakers came to life.
[Welcome to Johto FM—]
[-another episode of Poketalk with Prof—]
[♫ So, get away~ Another way to feel what you—]
The device cycled through every single broadcast in the air, occasionally buzzing with static and noise before finally settling down to a steady crackle.
[LATITUDE: 34.4711417. LONGITUDE: 135.8215426]
[LONGINUS. NOMAD CALLING ON LONGINUS. REQUESTING EXTRACT.]
Nina smiled. “Is that you, Zed?”
Silence, static, then… [Yes-] came the familiar voice of Professor Oak.
“Hurray! We did it! You can talk now, Zed!”
[Bzzzt...Yes-]
There seemed to be quite a bit of delay as Zed struggled to splice out a response from the available tracks, but it was better than nothing. “And no doubt he’d get more efficient with practice.”
The girl, in her excitement, pulled the Unown into a hug with almost teary eyes. “I can finally talk to you, Zed…”
[Bzzzt...Yes-]
Nina giggled. “I guess it’s just easier to repeat yourself, huh? Can you try saying anything other than ‘yes’.”
[Bzzzt...No-]
Nina froze to process the response, then burst out into unbridled laughter. “Hehe. Silly Zed. Good to see that you have a sense of humour at least... Anyways, seeing as we weren’t able to get a direct answer last time. Allow me to formally ask again; my name is Nina and I’m looking to travel the world and unravel its mysteries. Would you be up for joining me on this journey, Zed?”
[*music* Say yes to—]
“That’s close enough. Gosh, you’re so adorable.”
[-lebi is the cutest and most adorabliest—]
Nina frowned. “And where did you get that soundbite from, I wonder.”
[-ere’s no way to know where the Ely—]
“Heh. Fine, keep your secrets. But speaking of secrets… Mind telling me what you are and where you came from? What’s the meaning of that message you and your friends keep playing on repeat? Who was the one who gave it to you? What’s Longinus?”
An uncomfortably long silence, then… [-latina Darkness!— mysteries of the world are deep and fathomless. There is no way to know—] This time, it was the cry of some cartoon character followed by the familiar voice of Sabrina on some hoax-y mystic show.
Nina let out a hapless smile. “So you don’t know then? I suppose it was my fault for dumping all those questions on you all at once.”
[Bzzzt…yes-]
“Can you at least tell me why you were glitching out when we first met? None of your other friends were in a similar state.”
[The unknown is all around us—]
She sighed once more. “Don’t know either, huh?”
[Bzzzt...Yester-]
“Alright, this might not work as well as I had thought it would. But at least it’s something, I guess… How about this? What do you eat? I haven’t fed you all this while since… Y’know, you don’t have a mouth and all. Do you even need to eat anything?”
[Behold, the power of infinityyyy— but you stole my mouth~! *laughter*]
“Right, that remains a no. But I guess I was right about Infinity Energy.” Nina chuckled. “So, what can you tell me?”
[Thank you— I love— You—]
Nina shuddered, tightened her embrace and buried her face into the Unown. “I love you too, Zed. Whatever mysteries surrounding you, we’ll figure it out together. I promise…”
[-together—]
The radio crackled amidst the silent wind and rustling leaves.
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Author's note:
Here's a reminder that if ever this story gets removed from NovelFire, you guys can always find me over on Royal Road.