Ah, Frontier Town. It definitely felt like a lifetime ago since Silver had breathed in the warm and dry air of the fairly lively town. Once again, his body had traded the thick winter coat with the usual dark and thin pelt, even though there were still a few silver-y patches here and there.
As soon as they touched town, his group met a few Wayfarers who had arrived as well, and they agreed to meet by the Main Street to discuss the events of those past couple of weeks. However, Silver felt the intense urge of taking a stroll through the town. To better organize his thoughts, he told his companions, but he knew that deep down there was that pang of shame still burning in the back of his mind. Sure, the world hadn’t been reduced to post-apocalyptic ruins or anything catastrophic (yet), but that didn’t change the fact he had failed like a loser.
To make things worse, that moody embodiment of darkness was most likely hunting them down to make them pay for further straining the fabric of the world. To get back at them and at the newcomers they had dragged from their worlds, including…
Wake up… Please, hang in there…!
Who are you?
Silver stopped by the fountain and sighed somberly, staring at his frowning reflection while trying to figure out whose voice that was.
No Totodile, Zubat, Gastly, Magnemite, Abra or Sneasel he had encountered so far seemed to know him. But then… what unfortunate soul did he accidentally bring to Forlas because of his failures?
So that was Frontier Town! How exciting!
With all those saloons, country-ish attires and dusty roofs, it truly felt like walking in the set of a cowboy movie! Expect that this was no fiction! That town was really real for real!
During the journey to their new home, the former-human-now-Buneary had been chattering away with her companions and learned a lot of information about Forlas and, especially, about Silver. For starters, he was a Sneasel here, an extremely rare venomous variant and endangered breed in Sinnoh (but not here!), and he and the others had pulled off all kinds of incredible feats.
Like! Silver had faced off a power-hungry Hydreigon that wanted to rule the world! And he helped in defeating Team Cipher (ugh, those meanies!) and freeing a lot of prisoners! And he had arrested a corrupt mayor? That was so amazing! She knew he had a lot of potential, but
this much potential? Wow!!
She grinned at the mental image of Silver taking the role of a noble hero with a slick ninja suit and swords for fingers, and sighed to herself as her heart swelled in admiration. But while she relished that warm daydream, it also intensified her desire to see him again.
But oooh, where was he?! He hadn’t connected to the Betey-Link and the other Wayfarers didn’t know where he was. They told her that he might be training out of town or with Red (!!) in a dimensional Giovanni’s (!!!) hideout, or taking care of his barber duties, or simply enjoying a drink by Nina’s, or… well, something productive.
Where are you?
When her group reached a random crossroads, something strange happened: An empowering sensation rushed through her small body, and the Buneary abruptly stopped walking to look frantically around, her ears and nose twitching unconsciously.
It was that pull again, just like back home. The invisible link that had connected her to Silver through her dreams had appeared again, whispering an irresistible temptation. Could it be…?
As if spellbound, the Buneary bounded away from her companions, with her heart as her only compass and guidance. Before anyone could stop her, she hopped right into the crowd.
And that proved to be a
big mistake! The Buneary squeaked in a panic as she found herself nearly trampled by a horde of paws, hooves, fins, and anything that could flatten her tiny body. Her rabbit instincts took over, and the Buneary relied on her reflexes to dribble through the crowd with speedy steps and long jumps, taking full advantage of her slim frame to slip through the gaps between the much bigger ‘mons.
The pull was strong and clear, leading her somewhere specific, but there were so many ‘mons! How could she get through that?
An idea flashed into her mind, which lit up a wave of determination, and she adjusted her hat with defiance. If Buneary could zoom, then she would have
zooomed as hard as her body could afford. A few hops to gain enough momentum, following the link, and then a leap of faith.
“Weeeh!” she squealed as she kicked her hind paws to gain altitude, holding down her fluttering ears by pressing her hat against her head.
Whoa… that was such a beautiful view of the town, and she was so high she could almost pet nearby birds! The Buneary grinned, enjoying the desert gusts ruffling her pelt, and her entire body shook with pleasure.
The link prodded her again, making her look down, and she gasped when she spotted
someone beneath her and by a nearby fountain.
Red feathers. Dark blue and silver pelt. Purple claws. A Sneasel, definitely a male judging from to the length of his feathers, with a red pelt half-shrouding his eyes.
She could hear her heart singing a triumphant symphony of happiness…
“Silver—!”
…but the
gravitational pull reminded her that Buneary
can’t fly and that Bounce didn’t have any magical gravity-cancelling brakes, and it dragged the flailing rabbit back to earth, far too quickly for her own liking.
“—
aaaaaaaaah!!”
“…Hm?”
Silver averted his gaze from the fountain, his ears twitching and his eyes narrowing in alarm. Where did that scream come from—?
The Sneasel’s thoughts were cut short by
someone falling on his head, sending him and the attacker sprawling into the road as a pile of moaning ‘mons.
The Bounce hit its mark! Silver took a whopping 4 HP of supereffective damage!!
Silver sneezed harshly to push out the dust that had slipped into his nostrils, and he heard the
someone that collided with him devolving into a similar sneezing fit.
“Oof! Oh my! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, um… fall into you like this, hehehe! Err…” stammered the smaller ‘mon, wiggling erratically on his chest.
With a hiss of annoyance, Silver pulled himself off the ground to sit down, making the attacker roll onto his lap with a surprised squeak.
“Hmph! What the hell is your probl—?!”
But as quickly as it came, his rage dissipated like vapor, and the emerging curse died in his throat.
He saw a hat, but it wasn’t a regular cowboy hat. It was a white, oversized marshmallow hat with a ridiculous, girlish, giant red ribbon. The small hat-wearer shifted on his lap and lifted her garment by the beret, revealing a young Buneary with pink tufts on her ears. She stared back at him with such gentle eyes shining with a mixture of embarrassment, relief and boundless happiness.
There was only one person he knew who would always wear that stupid hat, and the realization made his mind freeze in shock.
“Kotone…”
Kotone.
The way her name had been pronounced resonated deep in her soul. No more mysteriously translated ‘Lyra’ (even if she didn’t mind it at all!), ‘Cetra’, ‘Celesta’ or ‘Qinyin’.
Just
Kotone, the way pronounced in
her world. Whatever hint of doubt she still had from her talks with Kimiko, it got crushed to smithereens. That Sneasel was really him. Silver.
Her Silver.
The two former human teens stared at each other, too overwhelmed by their respective emotions to do anything more than that. Their surroundings grew quieter and quieter, leaving only them and the realization that fate had opened a way across dimensions to make them meet again.
Unable to control her emotions any longer, Kotone threw her short arms around Silver’s waist, and oh gods and stars, he was really
there! Alive and well and tangible.
“Silver…!” she gasped, her tail wagging as she barely held back her tears of joy. “It’s really you! Oh my gosh, I found you! I finally found you!”
Silver stiffened in her grasp, still too stunned and bewildered by the whole ordeal. So that voice… it was Kotone’s? Did he really think about her at the Covenant’s hideout?
Kotone… was here. Oh no.
Kotone was here. Out of all people and ‘mons from his world, why
her?
Reluctantly, Silver pulled Kotone away from him and stared her down, earning a confused ‘hm?’ from her. “What’re you doing here?” he asked, even though he was dreading the likely answer.
At this, Kotone perked up, tapping her chin contemplatively. “Oh! Right! It’s kinda a long story! Y’see, I’ve heard a call for help from you while sleeping, or something like that, then Betey did some kinda swooshy teleportation magic that turned me into a rabbit, and I woke up in a mystery dungeon where I met—”
Kotone blinked when Silver pressed his retracted claws on her lips. He had forgotten how much that girl loved going into tangents and motor-mouthing to her heart’s contents. But as much as her presence could be comforting (sometimes), he needed to get straight to the point.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
The Buneary tilted her head, a light frown forming on her face. She didn’t understand why Silver was acting so… aloof toward her? While she knew he disliked showing his emotions openly, she still hoped he would have been glad to see her, just as she was to see him.
“Um. But your call—”
“I don’t want you here.”
Kotone felt her ears drooping and her shoulders sagging. Her confusion morphed into dismay. Was he
mad at her? Why? What did she do?
“But… Silver, aren’t you… happy to see me?” she asked with some trepidation, holding her paws to her chest.
“No.”
Wrong answer. Kotone sniffled, the deep hurt flashing in her saddened gaze, and Silver immediately berated himself for his lack of tact.
Crap, crap, crap…
“No! I-I mean! That’s not what I meant! Not like that! It’s just… huh…” he stammered and waved his claws in a pacifying way, but promptly lowered them when Kotone tensed up. Right, holding knife-like fingers close to her face surely didn’t help. He rubbed the back of his head and averted his ashamed gaze, searching for a way to take back his words. “Look, it’s… not like I don’t appreciate you being here, but, well, it’s a complicated situation.”
“…Then explain.”
This time, it was Silver who blinked at the other teen. A rare seriousness spread across Kotone’s face, her ears fully trained on him as a sign of pleading curiosity. It was obvious she wouldn’t have taken another ‘no’ as an answer.
The Sneasel sighed and nodded in defeat. No way outta that, it looked like. “Okay.” He glanced briefly at his hind legs, where Kotone was still sitting casually on them, and he looked away, flustered by their positions. “But first, huh, let’s make ourselves more comfortable…”
“…and this is it. A summary of the most important events that happened here since we arrived in Forlas.” He paused, scratching his cheek with a claw. “Kinda the mess we’re in, as you now know.”
A contemplative silence settled on the two teenagers, with the soothing splashes of the water as their background noise. Silver was lying on the border of the fountain, his body stretched fully, while Kotone had compacted herself into the typical rabbit loaf shape. (Gods, why did she look so infuriatingly adorable?)
The Buneary hummed, assimilating everything he told her. “Wow. That’s… a lot to take in,” she admitted. “But I had gathered as much already. Kimiko and Mhynt told me a few things.”
Silver flicked his ears, intrigued by that morsel of information, and tilted his head. “Oh. So you’ve met them.”
Kotone nodded. “Yup! Gotta say that you’ve made a big name of yourself here. You’re a true hero now!” she chirped, a bright grin stretching on her lips. “I’m so proud of you!”
“…You really shouldn’t,” he grumbled back, glaring at his reflection in the water. “I’ve screwed everything up.”
“Please. Don’t be like that,” she murmured, placing a paw on his crossed arms. He flinched at the contact, making her heart twinge. “I’m sure there’s a way outta this. There’s
always a way.”
Silver growled, shrinking back from her touch. “But it didn’t have to end like this! Breaking things just to fix them! If I didn’t fail to begin with, if I had been a 'true hero' like you claim, then you and the others wouldn’t have had to come here!” And then he pressed his head to his crossed arms, his feathers drooping low. “It’s my fault. I’m a failure.”
“Silver…” she whispered, heartbroken to see Silver blaming himself like this. Once again, he was hurting himself for something he couldn’t control or prevent. It was… the shadow of his hyper-successful family's impossible expectations hanging on him all over again.
Slowly, she reached out and ran her paw through his red fur to reassure him, combing through the small knots in his smooth hair. She felt him shudder, despite him trying desperately to hold back.
“Hey. It’s gonna be okay. Mistakes happen. Nobody’s perfect and you know that already.” When he didn’t react, she brought up a memory from someone she knew Silver compared himself to constantly. “If it helps, Hibiki used to think like that and blame himself often, too.”
That did the trick. Silver lifted his gaze to look at Kotone in bewilderment. “Hibiki…?”
“Yeah.” The Buneary sighed, a haunting aura in her eyes. The memories still hurt her a little inside. “You’ve got no idea under what kinda pressure he was under all the times. Between his self-made image of always looking strong to other Trainers, the weight of stopping Team Rocket, and the fear of failing at the worst moments…” She shook her head, feeling compassion for one of her best friends. “That was a lot for him to handle. He might’ve shown plenty of bravado and confidence, but behind the scenes, he often felt… very insecure and scared of his future.”
“Really?”
Kotone nodded, a sad smile plastered on her face. “There’s a lot he’s unwilling to admit or show. But if there’s something he had learned, it’s that he didn’t become a hero all by himself. He had friends who helped him throughout his journey. Myself, Kris…” Her smile warmed a little. “Even you.”
Silver blinked, confused by her remark. “Me?”
Kotone nodded again. “You're frustrated with everything that happened, and that’s fair. But here’s the most important thing: true heroes recognize when they mess up, but most importantly, they learn from their mistakes and know when it’s time to ask for help. Not doing so is just… arrogance.”
Her expression grew determined. “And if this world needs extra help, then I can’t simply turn my head, plug my ears and do nothing!” She winked at Silver and pulled one of her ears. “I mean! These ears aren’t easy to plug, either.”
The Sneasel snorted in amusement, appreciating the small joke. What Kotone said about not ‘doing nothing’… didn’t he say the same thing to that illusory Nidoran?
“Whatever obstacle we gotta face, we’re gonna find a way through it!” she affirmed, clenching a fist. “Just like we always did at home!”
Silver frowned, still conflicted. “This isn’t like Johto, though. Things are… way more difficult and dangerous here.” A wave of concern radiated from his gaze and tense muscles, and he forced himself to say, “I don’t want you to get hurt…”
“Awww. That’s so sweet of you.” Kotone pressed a paw to her heart, warmed by his words. She understood that confession had taken a lot out of him. “I appreciate you being worried about me! Really, I do! But I can handle it. I’m way more resilient than I look.”
“But…”
“I’m not going back, if that’s what you’re gonna suggest,” she insisted, her tone and expression firm. “Not without you, and there’s no force in the entire multiverse that’s gonna change my mind. Not even a grumpy and vengeful god of death.”
Kotone pulled herself forward and cupped Silver’s face in her paws. The Sneasel’s gaze darted away, and she felt some warmth building in his cheeks. She smiled tenderly.
“I’m here to help
you. Whatever there is that you’ve gotta face,” she beamed her most luminous grin, “we’ll face it together, like a team.”
…Well. It seemed like there was no way for Silver to dissuade Kotone from taking his same dangerous path, and he couldn’t really criticize her decision. After all, he had accepted the call for help all those months ago, so who was he to judge whether or not someone should accept the call? No Wayfarer could.
“…Alright, then. If that’s what you want.” He sighed, finding himself pressing his cheeks against her paws. “I can’t really force you to leave, anyway. It’s not like I have that power, either, so…”
“Yay~!” she squealed, clapping her paws, before eyeing Silver with renewed energy. “Oh my gosh! You’ve got no idea how things have been back home! It’s been a lot of…” Kotone trailed off, then shook her head. No, that was a topic for another time. Without hesitation, she wrapped her paws around his neck and rubbed her cheek against his, feeling lighter than air. “Well, it doesn’t matter! I just missed you so much!”
“H-hey! What’re you—?!” he hissed, startled by her sudden clinginess. He felt his heart hammering, flustered by her action, and briefly contemplated pushing her away. But she was
so happy, and he was feeling…
so good. He relented, but not without adding an affectionate and sarcastic, “…You idiot.”
He heard her giggles rumble through his face, which made him feel surprisingly relaxed. After some deliberation, he pulled Kotone to him and buried his muzzle into her hat, relishing the sweet herbal aroma and the softness of her fur and embrace.
A piece of his home had found its way in Forlas, and Silver was going to protect and cherish it with all his might.
I missed you, too…
<><><>
