Candy

Illumise and Carvanha for me Oof I hope I can answer well~

1. I felt it was weird too, but perhaps it ain't for Vanilla is known to treat those who are much older than her with cold respect xD Though sometimes I feel her keeping her mouth shut would be better (the few times she talks, she talks too much haha). 2. Let's see if Vanilla will allow Saphira to do as she pleases Like Charlotte alluded, they're like each other (violent, "edgy", leader-like, selfish(?), to give a few traits) so they tend to clash. Let's hope Vanilla can keep her promise to Shelly and keep Illumise from danger. Poor pokemon. I wonder if you scoop the pokeballs out of the lake and try to avoid short-circuits, you could rescue the pokemon outta there... This time I couldn't use your videos much since I had battled Sigmund before. Took me a while to remember how things progressed in this house haha Do you think? To me, she just looks like the oblivious senpai xD If yaw have set recommendations, I'm happy to hear 'em~ Right now Tsareena is like extra fairy (main being Slurpuff) and fighting type (main being Medicham) player. The hype is increasing indeed, but don't expect it to explode anytime soon the best dishes are served on a cold stomach muwahahaha

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 28 When I joined Serra in her living room, she seemed low in spirits, even more than how she had been since I met her. I wondered for a second whether the Pokémon Center had really fallen on top of the mansion. “Good news Vanilla,” she said, though her expression didn't convey such. “The pokemart disappeared from our balcony, though I can't tell for sure where it'll appear.” “Good,” I said and thought about leaving, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to walk out the door and leave the woman alone. “Something troubles you?” I asked, knowing fully well that I would regret it and that I was acting out of character. Serra looked at me with a face that had exhaustion written all over it. “Well, Bennett has left me a note. He has left semi-permanently together with El.” I listened but didn't say anything, expecting Serra to want to speak more. “Everything has a tendency to leave me, so by now I should be used to it,” she sighed looking down. “Your son decided to walk his own path. You have accomplished your duty of child rearing. I don't see what is there to be gloomy about.” “That is because you have never had a child,” she said, and I can't say I didn't expect her to say it. “When you have sacrificed so much of your time and energy for a single person, it feels like your heart goes empty when they leave.” “Perhaps, but I didn't think you looked happy while he was here either.” Serra was quite stunned, but then her eyes softened and her rigid cheeks gave way to a smile. “You seem to give your opinion freely, regardless of social decorum,” she pointed out. “Yes, I know,” I nodded. “People follow certain norms to keep peace in society, and to be liked by others. Since I'm interested in neither of those, I don't see a point in circumventing things or adding unnecessary fluff to my language.” “You contrast with me, given that my career was all about being the most likeable personality. Even now, when my days are spent in this house and this small town, I guess the habit has stuck with me.” I saw Serra move on the couch a bit to casually make space for me to sit, but I didn't. If I did, the distance between her and me would be less than my personal comfortable distance. “Now that Bennett has left, perhaps you should follow his example and resume your life.” “It's common knowledge that modeling careers have an early expiration date,” Serra said with her eyes closed. “Unfortunately for me, I'm already passed the due date.” I shook my head sideways. “Even if I don't understand child rearing or even the people who decide to have children, I'm sure I'm not wrong when I say that parenting isn't a death sentence. What about starting an acting career? One in fashion design?” I said with cold civility. “You are an adult and older than me, so I won't try to change your thoughts - it's too late for that. However, if you want to rot alone in this mansion, that's all your choice.” That was the last thing I said, because Serra politely asked to be left alone as she was going to meditate in her room. When I exited the Voclain manse, Nilla buzzed in my ear. Her face was had her eyebrows droopy. “I merely told her what others think when they look at her, but are too afraid to actually say,” I explained. Nilla buzzed again, and looked at the door behind us. “You're afraid I might have depressed her?” I asked, and the ladybug did a little turn in the air. “If you are, look for her in one of the second floor rooms.” I pointed to several windows, some which were open. Nilla understood the message, and instantly flew up to the westernmost window. From there, she diligently checked every room, until apparently she hit the jackpot on the window before last. She used her whole body to knock on the window, which Serra eventually opened. I couldn't hear or see anything from where I stood, but when Nilla came back down, I saw Serra looking at me from the window and waving. I raised my hand for a moment, and shifted my focus to finding the pokemart. The kids must be wondering why I'm taking so long to get a single bottle of medicine. The damned thing wasn't even in this town anymore. I had to bike through the enchanted forest again, wasting another hour or two just to get out. During the ride, though, Nilla cried out and clung to my back once. “What is it,” I asked. The ladybug raised her face but it was pale and visibly scared. “Did you see a ghost or something?” I patted her head until she was feeling better. It wasn't too long after that, that we found the western border of the forest. Interestingly, the pokemart was just there, neighboring the forest. I bought the medicine and took the opportunity to buy some goods for my team as well. “You sure took your time,” Charlotte criticized when she saw me entering her family house. “You wouldn't believe the shit show happening in that town,” I replied, placing the bottle of medicine on her hand. “Glad you weren’t hurt or something,” she shrugged. “You should go comfort Shelly over there.” She pointed to Shelly, who was sitting on a chair at the table in the corner. She shrunk when she saw me looking at her, but smiled shyly. “Did something happen to her?” I said, since she didn’t seem hurt or anything. “No, but she has been waiting for your return for hours. I just happened to come down to see if she wanted some tea moments ago.” I blinked twice. Then I put two plus two together so I walked over to Shelly. “Sorry for making you worry,” I said, even though the words burned my tongue. “Don’t worry, though. I wasn’t going to place your pokemon in danger anyway.” Shelly looked up at me with round eyes. “Ah, um… that’s…” she said, trying to form her thoughts into a coherent sentence, but in the end she gave up. “It’s fine.” I raised an eyebrow, but looked away when I heard Charlotte purposefully sighing loudly and running up the stairs to give Anna the medicine. Shelly followed her with equal haste, but I went with a more relaxed pace. “Here Anna, this medicine will make you feel better,” Charlotte said. She opened the bottle and gave it to her. “Oh, Vanilla. You went to get Nostra some medicine? Thank you,” Anna smiled and proceeded to pour the hard-earned medicine all over her Jirachi doll. “Anna!” many exclaimed at once. I'm glad everyone's attention was on Anna, for I wouldn't have wanted them to see me making murderous faces at a little girl. Anna, oblivious to everyone's thoughts, jumped off the bed with an incredibly better semblance. Right then though, the door downstairs flung open and we all froze in place as we heard frantic footsteps coming upstairs. “What is everyone doing here?” asked the stranger, whom I remember from an exchange of gazes in front of the orphanage. “Ah Saphira, it's you,” Laura let out a breath of relief. “Don't scare us like that.” “There's no time for chitchat right now,” Saphira said. “Team Meteor and the Doctor are headed this way right now.” Everyone gasped and started freaking out among themselves until Saphira shouted for everyone to shut up. “Listen. Team Meteor is moving on boats through the lake so that we have no route of escape. I'll give them a lovely light show of Draco Meteor, since they love meteorites. The kids must find places to hide, and Laura and you, albino girl, must be the first line of defense. Got me?” Saphira said just that, sent me a sharp look and left us to our own devices. “Alright, Anna and Noel can stay here, and Laura will guard the second floor,” Charlotte commanded. “Shelly can stay in the kitchen while Vanilla and I take care of everything that comes in through the first floor door.” “No, Charlotte. You will stay in the kitchen with Shelly. I don't want you to put yourself in danger,” Laura said, showcasing a little of her responsibility as older sister. “Agh. Whatever. Let's take our positions then,” the little punk said and practically jumped down the stairs. Even though Laura and I would be pulling the whole weight, fighting all those who came into the house, I wasn’t even mad. My pokemon are growing into my reliable partners, but I also needed to practice more. Sometimes I forget the type match-ups, or don’t foresee that the foe will have a move that is super-effective move against my pokemon, which has made some battles too dangerous for my liking. In the future, when I fight stronger foes, such amateur mistakes could be the difference between win and loss, life and death. Such were my thoughts when our first guests arrived. “I have no intention of fighting you again,” was what Dr Connal said as he came in and saw me standing in the center of the living room. “My staff will take care of you while I go upstairs.” “Don’t think you’ll have an easy time up there,” I said, remembering a passing comment that Laura was one of the Reborn Elite Four. In the meantime, I dealt with the small fry that the Doctor brought with him. Just when I was finishing up a 2-vs-1 battle, though, the entrance opened again, and a man dressed all in black entered. He was drenched in water, though it wasn’t raining outside. “That damned woman,” he said with rough breathing. When he raised his face and I saw his eyepatch, I recognized him as none other than Meteor Admin Sirius. “If you ask me, you’re the damned bunch,” I said. Sirius frowned at me and walked forward. It was just my intuition, but Laura wasn’t going to be happy with how this guy was wetting the living room’s wooden floor. “Looks like Saphira forced you to take a bath,” I sneered. “If you die from pneumonia, don’t invite me to your funeral.” “Stop with the irony, and send out your pokemon. If you’re trying to stop us, you must be ready to fight.” “That goes without saying.” I sent out Kame, who welcomed the battle with an extra splash of water on top of Sirius. The man’s face was beyond describing - on a different timeline, I might have even laughed. The man sent out minior, who despite having increased defences while on shelled form, went down with one hit of Muddy Water. He then sent out chandelure, which was an odd choice given I was working with a water type. However, the damn lamp almost knocked out Kame with a single Energy Ball, which probably was Sirius’ intent. On top of that, the speedy pokemon dodged the Muddy Water, so I had to ask Kame to use one Aqua Jet before it went down. Next up was Wolfie, who being faster than the chandelure, knocked it out with Rock Slide. To deal with his seviper, I sent out Aladdin, and the snake went down with just Fake Out and Psycho Cut. Toucannon looked like a dangerous opponent, but the poor bird didn’t even get to attack after receiving a Rock Slide from Wolfie. Against the tyrantrum, I decided to give Queen of Hearts a debut chance. I had trained her up on the side, and now was a reliable pokemon with STAB Trop Kick, Play Rough, Hi Jump Kick and Teeter Dance. The only problem was that she had strength but not speed. That’s why when tyrantrum used Dragon Dance to set up on her, she was almost knocked out by Dragon Claw. However, she managed to overcome the hit and revenge fossilize the dinosaur back to the ground. The last pokemon was a golisopod, which I clearly was ill prepared for, since its bug type weaknesses, fire and rock, were filled in by its secondary water type. Still, I thought I could defeat it by team effort… only that I got lucky and Wolfie flinched the giant bug with Rock Slide, and one more was just enough to make it faint. Sirius looked disappointed and perhaps gloomy, but I attributed that to the amount of water that was dropping off his hair tips onto his face. “I swear I don’t plan on leaving empty-handed after losing so many of my men,” Sirius said from in between his clenched teeth. “Looks like you’re out of luck,” I shrugged. “If you want, I can break your nose and allow you to carry your blood on your hands.” Just then, though, we heard a loud shriek upstairs. “All the jokes were fun and games,” Sirius smirked. “But the best part is who laughs last. Are you going to waste your time here stopping me, when you could lend a hand to your comrades upstairs?” I knew I couldn’t guarantee the safety of the twins upstairs. Even if I ran up, the Doctor could as well have gotten away with them already. I wasn’t stupid. Once I left my post, Sirius was going to start searching the first floor and find Charlotte and Shelly in the kitchen. “I was put in charge to guard the first floor,” I said. “And I don’t plan on moving an inch.” “Do as you wish. To me it makes no difference, since I won't be here to listen to your regrets.” The Doctor’s staff, Sirius and I actually stood there for less than a minute, though the silence was awkward enough to make me want to choke the other three just to be left alone. Just then, though, a person I dislike by default entered and helped to relax the atmosphere. “Fuck off. Didn’t you learn your lesson at the lake?” Saphira asked Sirius. As she came closer to him, he moved backwards step by step, until he bumped into me. “My pokemon got all the action, but I could brush off my skills,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “I’m not scared of a little girl in a pink dress,” Sirius laughed. “However, I’m also not going to play house with you two. Until next time… or never.” He used the gassy trick again, and left together with the Doctor’s orderlies. Hence I was there with the girl with the murderous aura. I felt the air around us tensing by the second. “Why do you look at me like that?” she asked. “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” I replied. “Even as a stranger, you seemed to have something against me back at Lapis.” Saphira flipped her hair, and shifted her weight from one leg to another. “You instinctively ring my untrustworthy alarm,” she shrugged. “I don’t want any risks of danger close to my sisters.” I smirked. “How ironic.” “What was that?” Saphira asked, but I shook my head. “There was someone crying upstairs. Maybe you should check your sister out instead of wasting your time with me.” Saphira widened her eyes and ran over to the staircase, but it wasn’t necessary. Laura came down by herself, moving with random and unnatural twitches. “Laura, are you alright? What happened?” “The Doctor… h-he didn’t even try to fight,” Laura explained. “He u-used his pokemon directly against me. Like b-back at the orphanage.” Saphira embraced her shaky sister. “H-he took the twins. We h-have to save them.” “Yes, I will do it. You have to rest and get better,” Saphira said, looking at Laura’s eyes. Laura nodded, and the older sister escorted her to a nearby couch. “Where is Charlotte?” Saphira asked me. I bobbed my head in the direction of the kitchen. She patted her sister on the head, and walked with long strides to the kitchen, but when she passed by me, she asked me to follow her. Shelly and Charlotte were unharmed in the kitchen. After Saphira explained the situation with the twins, Charlotte immediately volunteered to go together with Saphira to rescue them. “No, you will stay here,” she said in a stern tone. “But why? You know I’m perfectly able to fight those idiots off.” I agreed, but overprotective older sister was having none of it. “I’m not going to place my family in risk,” she said. “Vanilla will come with me.” The two girls’ eyes shifted away from Saphira and focused on me. I hadn’t been following the conversation that closely, so I was at a loss on dragon-girl’s logic. “What?” I blurted out. “You just said you don’t trust me a couple of minutes ago.” “That’s why you’re coming with me,” Saphira responded. “I can keep an eye on you, and you can prove your trustworthiness if you perform well.” “B-but, that’s dangerous… um, actually, Charlotte is a strong g-gym leader. More t-than, um, sorry but, um Vanilla,” Shelly stuttered. Saphira looked at Shelly as though she had realized her existence for the first time now. “Let’s be honest here. I don’t really need a partner to fight off those losers,” dragon-girl said. “But I want to get to know Vanilla better.” “I can’t say I feel the same about you,” I rolled my eyes, but could still feel Saphira’s sharp gaze on me. “You will come. No choices. Get ready, now,” she ordered, purposely bumped her shoulder against mine and left the kitchen. “Guess that’s that,” I sighed. “I’d rather have gone alone than with that sociopath, but whatever.” I also left the kitchen, but heard Charlotte making an intriguing comment to Shelly. “Wasn’t it a rule?” she said. “Opposites attract, likes repel.” VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

U wot. why is ppl suddenly voting for me? I'm bamboozled 1. Walpurgis 2. Bean 3. Bandorkitty

Please, I'm a prince and I'm as sweet as candy... what else would you call me?

Maybe because your avi is already a selfie beauty was already known without my even seeing your selfie, rendering such quizzes unnecessary

Tch. I was betting on you not going to post a pic after making us open all those spoilers. Guess I underestimated your character, Crash.

@Ainz Ooal Gown I'd like turtonator if you don't mind

Dayum son just when James battled the second poison-type gym leader... feelsbadman xD

Noice smack, Aya's mom haha~ She's a lil sassy at times but can't really hate her And interesting story about the cubone - I wonder if it's Alolan or shiny or literally a Kantonian cubone with goop on its skull

Inb4 it becomes a love-square jk jk

From Everland to Reborn ~ Giveaway Hello everyone, Candy here~ Hope you're enjoying my cousin's adventures in Reborn As you probably know, this run's implicit rule is that Vanilla can only use the 12 shiny pokemon that I bred for her. This makes things interesting for the readers and for me (but perhaps frustrating for Vanilla, who has to come up with strategies). That means she can catch wild shiny encounters, but she can't use them in battle... Now, here's a little anecdote about a side quest. Vanilla went to inspect the Byxbysion Grotto, in search for more resources (word of mouth was that you could get a focus sash somewhere). She did find what she was looking for, and defeated Mr. Bigglesworth... because you know, Vanilla isn't exactly the hugging type (Poor Mr. Bigglesworth). Then, however, she found an interesting light-brown stone pillar which was a little broken and missing a piece. Since she didn't have a keystone to fit into the hole, she just shrugged it off and started mining the glowing rocks... when, lo-and-behold! She found an Odd Keystone in the glowing stone right next to the brittle column! Since now she had the missing stone, she thought might as well fit it in and see what happens. Out came a Lv40 shiny spiritomb! Of course, Vanilla didn't miss the chance to capture a shiny pokemon, and successfully caught it in a dusk ball. That means Vanilla has a shiny Spiritomb that's just sitting in the PC. She asked me whether I wanted it, but you see, I'm a breeder. Caring for people's pokemon to give them their offspring is my job. Poor spiritomb would be wasted on me, since I'm not a trainer :/ That's when I thought of you guys Here's the lovely spiritomb, who of course has random IVs since it was caught: This is your chance to get a pokemon from the one-and-only Vanilla (who is becoming famous, right right~?) I guess just to make stuffs fun, I'll add five questions below. If you're the first person to answer all five correct, the spiritomb is yours~ 1. What is Vanilla's code name while she was part of the Defiance? 2. Which line is Vanilla a descendant from - Hansel's or Gretel's? 3. Who was Vanilla's crush? Vanilla if you're reading this, please don't kill me 4. What is the name of the forest that marks the eastern edge of Everland? 5. Which region had Candy been a champion of, before settling down in Reborn? That's all folks~ Have fun answering the questions and winning the spiritomb ... Inb4 no one is interested and the poor shiny gets sentenced to a life-time PC imprisonment.

A-Sandslash: 21 A-Ninetales: 10

Obviously, Florges

*Wipes sweat* Dragoknight be careful~

*Places Thundermaze on my white horse* *Dragoknight asks me to be his prince* *Wynaut both* Official playboy prince status ON

What if I told you I'm the most handsome prince, ever? You lucky girl

Hehe keep your hopes up for PULSE Abra and Dittoceus, because contrary to popular belief, I didn't use Cinderella's Destiny Bond for all these boss battles hahaha

*Sends out Toucannon* Yer cheek is gone bruh

*Buys a bucketful of popcorn* *Gives it to RedAlert* Thanks~ It's difficult to keep it "blind" in a sense, but I just try to remember what I thought of the characters on my first ever run haha

Tru, even Gossip Gardovoir talks about it, so I don't see why not. At least a-la-Ame-style passive comment ("I hear you've been busy lately with babysitting?") And yah I was like, let's cover this whole stuff cram it all~~~ because I'm lagging behind on writing compared to gameplay haha

*doesn't post pic of herself* *sees @Thundermaze pic* *turns gay*

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 27 Once we were outside, however, Heather flew away on her salamence. Not a word was said, not even a thank you or a goodbye. Unsurprisingly, it left many of us puzzled and rather disappointed. “Um, bye I guess?” Shelly said when she was already too far up the clouds to see her. “Not that I wanted to h-help my friend, or anything.” Cain, as expected, fared us well and left the group to search for the little girl who clearly didn’t want him to stalk her. However, each of us are entitled to do what brings us satisfaction, and Cain wasn’t going to cause trouble… or so I hoped. “Anyway, let’s head north. Beyond Tanzan mountain is our home,” Charlotte encouraged us and we ran together. If I thought the green of the forest back there was pleasing, I had yet to see the beautiful arrangement of wildflowers I had ever seen. Tanzan cove, as this place was called, had a large lake - not as large as Azurine, and fortunately not nearly as polluted - surrounded by colorful wildflowers that swayed like waves on the sea. I could see pokemon, mostly fairy, bug and flying types, dancing in the breathtaking meadow. The view reminded me of my early days of my childhood, when I ignored the pain of the future and just collected flowers with Candy. I closed my eyes, and let the memory fill my heart, for it had already sunk back to oblivion when I opened them again. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Charlotte said, with a hint of pride. “Now, let’s go around the lake. If you see in that direction, that house over there is where we’re headed.” The house looked small from afar, but that was just because the distance across the lake was large. When we arrived, I realized the place was pretty sizeable but without the stiffness associated with noble mansions. “Charlotte? Anna, Noel? What are you doing here?” asked a pink-haired girl in green dress whom I remembered from somewhere. “Chillin’,” Charlotte shrugged. “Vanilla and Shelly helped us escape from the stupid orphanage.” “Erm, Laura, Charlotte,” Noel said and the two girls looked at him. “I think Anna isn’t feeling well.” Anna, who apparently had exerted herself too much, was looking pale. No wonder she’d been silent all along. “No, I’m fine. It’s Nostra who isn’t feeling well,” she said. “Anna, you’re paperwhite,” Noel said, giving her a hand for support. “Let’s get you inside. I’ll prepare a bed for you to lie down,” Laura agreed. “Don’t worry about me. I really am fine, it’s just Nostra,” Anna insisted, but followed everyone into the house. “Yo, Vanilla. Would you mind going into Spinel Town to get us some medicine?” Charlotte asked me. Since I knew I wouldn’t be much help here, I chose to do it. Since I didn’t have siblings and given that doctors were always available anytime anyone of my immediate acquaintance was sick, I had limited knowledge about how to treat a sick person. However, buying medicine was definitely something I could do. I rode my bike through Tanzan mountain and then into the forest. At plain sight it looked like any other forest, but as I went further in, I realized that it was an enchanted forest. We had one back in Everland, too, but it was off-limits to anyone unless they were mages of Class 7 and above. Unlike the one in Everland, though, this one didn’t have an aura of dark magic casted on it. Whatever was causing the trees to teleport around, making me walk in circles, was not caused by magic - perhaps by pokemon, since they have strength to do these things but their force does not flow from the same origins as either light or dark magic. Eventually, though, I managed to reach Spinel Town after, perhaps, an hour or two of biking. I was exhausted. “Let’s get the damn medicine and take a little rest before going back into that crazy maze.” That was my plan, but unfortunately, Spinel Town was affected by the same malady of the enchanted forest; things were disappearing - especially small things like flower pots and in some cases, trees. Never did I expect that such a heavy and large thing like the pokemart could also disappear just before I could reach it. “Did the whole pokemart disappear just now?” I heard a woman gasp behind me. Yes, apparently that’s how my luck rolls. I didn’t need to look for the pokemart for long, however. On the northeastern part of town was an old-fashioned red brick building, on which veranda the pokemart had landed on. The door to the pokemart, however, was facing outwards, meaning that even if I went in the mansion and went up to the balcony, I wouldn’t be able to access it. The only option left was to climb the wall, which I was calculating how to do, when a boy of around his mid-teens came out of the mansion’s large white doors. He looked up, found the pokemart on the top of his house and sighed. “It’s the pokemart, mom. It landed on top of our house.” A woman, beautiful despite her faint wrinkles, also came out of the mansion to join the boy who appeared to be her son even if they looked nothing alike. “Great. No wonder we couldn’t open the doors to the veranda,” she said, placing a hand on her cheek. She then took notice of me. “Oh, are you a visitor?” she asked. “If you are, pretty visitor, you should come in right away,” said the boy. “No, I was hoping to get medicine from the pokemart. If you don’t mind, I’d like to climb up your mansion’s wall.” “Goodness,” she sighed. “Please don’t. That is mighty dangerous. I’m sure the mart will change locations soon enough, so why don’t you come in to wait meanwhile?” The stares from the randomass kid with pointy black hair were rather upsetting, so I was going to decline, but the woman’s timely introduction of her being Serra, the ice-type Gym leader, made me change my mind. The interior of the house… well, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Everything was either silver, a sky blue with an emerald tint, or a magenta pink. I guess one could call it extravagant, but I rather thought it was just a product of ill design. “Well, welcome dear visitor,” the boy said. “I’m Bennett by the way. I’m a lepidopterist - you see, I study butterflies and moths. On that regard, I’ve attained local fame.” Instead of carrying on with the topic that Bennett proposed, Serra chose to speak of something that was more of interest to me. “As you already saw, strange things have been happening in this town for a while now,” she sighed and sat on a couch. “Things keep disappearing and appearing randomly, making the whole town a mess. I may be a Gym leader, but buildings dropping on top of each other isn’t something I have the power to solve.” “Hopefully the pokemart will relocate elsewhere soon,” I said. “Meanwhile, I would like to challenge you to a Gym battle.” “Sure thing, I must do my Gym leader duties after all.” “Luna is also a Gym leader,” Bennett interrupted. “Yes, she is,” Serra said, for some reason not happy with her son mentioning this certain person. “However we’re not talking about her now, and she’s not here.” “Vanilla, have you at any point seen a young girl with very pretty blonde hair, a fancy monochrome dress and very pretty everything? Sorry to say, you’re pretty but she’s the prettiest of them all.” “That’s enough, Bennett. I’m sure she’ll come back if she feels like it,” Serra said with a stern voice. For some reason getting called ‘pretty’ by this creep didn’t feel like a compliment. Seeing that I wasn’t following the conversation since I didn’t know who this key figure was, Serra explained how Luna was a random Gym leader girl who came knocking on her door and insisted that she was her daughter, even though she clearly wasn’t. “Just as her coming here was sudden, so was her escape. I think it’s all for the better, though,” Serra shrugged. If she’s a Gym leader, however, that meant I would have to find her somewhere and battle her eventually. Why can’t the Gym leaders, or people in general, act more normal in this region? “I’m surprised she hasn’t ended up in Dr Connal’s orphanage,” I rolled my eyes. “That’s probably because she has living parents,” Serra said. “However, I don’t know how to go about finding them, for it’s not like they’d randomly appear at our doorstep one day.” Whether chronometrated by fate or the devil, a knock was heard at the main entrance just then. Bennett, thinking it might be his beloved Luna, ran over to allow her in… only that the person who entered was much older and definitely not Luna. “Prosperitas, Pax Pacis, Obsequium,” the stranger said, even though none of us understood the language. “My name is El, a servant of our Lord Arceus.” “Welcome El,” Serra said to the visitor. “If you are hoping to access the pokemart too, I’m afraid you will have to wait since we can’t do anything about it right now.” “No, my intentions are not such. I have come looking for my daughter, Luna,” El said, and carried on speaking for all three of us were speechless and unable to hide our surprise. “Luna is a child who has lost the Lord’s light. My hope is to find her and direct her on the path to salvation.” “My, I wasn’t expecting this at all,” Serra responded. “That is all splendid, but I’m sorry to inform you that Luna has ran away from here too.” “And to where has she gone? Do you have any ideas?” “No, she didn’t say where she was going,” Bennett interjected. “Indeed, unfortunately we have no clues,” Serra concurred. “If you would like, though, you can stay to take a rest. Oh, and we are just about to have a Gym battle, so if you’d like to watch it for entertainment, you are welcome to do so also.” “That would be most helpful.” Serra asked Bennett to guide the guest to the Gym field room, which he did right away. “Vanilla, come join me whenever you’re ready,” Serra said, before disappearing behind the doors directly behind her sofa. I walked over to talk with Ame as per usual. “Hello Vanilla, how are you doing?” “Fine.” “So you’re at Serra Voclain’s, am I right? She used to be a famous model, so she’s all about beauty and mirrors. In fact, her field is covered in all directions by large mirrors.” I checked the pokegear when it finished downloading the Field Effect read-out. “I see that the pokemon in this field suffer from lower accuracy, and it will be a pain in the neck for physical attackers.” “That is right. That also means that Serra’s pokemon can attack yours from their increased blind spot. Beware of critical hits. And if your pokemon are physical attackers, well, try not to miss, is all I can say.” “Alright.” I entered the Gym’s foyer, which apparently was a thing in this Gym, where Bennett and El were waiting even though they should have already moved on to the Gym’s spectator seats. “Hi Vanilla,” Bennett said with a wide grin. “Before you battle my mother, I’d love it if you’d allow me to battle you too.” I batted my eyes, and glanced once at El before accepting the challenge. A warm up hurts no one, and if he’s a lepidopterist as he says, the battle will be rather easy with Wolfie’s Stealth Rocks. As I expected, the foe suffered greatly from the floating stones - especially his bug/flying type butterflies. In the end, Bennett couldn’t flip the course of the battle, even with the boosted signal beams that posed a great threat for some of my pokemon who lacked defence. “That was a great showcase of skill,” El clapped. “I see you both have been gifted with Arceus’ light.” “I don’t believe it’s any such thing as ‘light’, but instead diligence and commitment,” Bennett said, and I internally agreed. “Such diligence will indeed take you far,” El nodded. “However, Bennett. Would you believe me if I told you that you’re dreaming too small?” Bennett looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “That is, you aspire to be a Gym leader, but I am sure that with your natural gift and diligence, you could even join the Elite Four.” I checked Bennett, and he was dumbstruck with his eyes wide open. “Are you serious, sir? Ugh, but I still have a long way to go.” “Perhaps,” El said. “But I believe you are close to attaining that level of skill. Let us discuss the details elsewhere, shall we?” “Right away, sir!” Before El passed me, though, he showed me a slight bow. “Blessings to you too, Vanilla,” he said. “Do remember. Everything is reflected in the eyes of the Lord.” Once he left the foyer, I spat at him imagining him standing there. “As if there was such ‘Lord’ I ought to fear.” When I opened the doors to the Gym field, I realized I could barely walk myself from the many reflections of myself. The mirror wasn’t straight like I supposed it would be - instead, it was as though a couple thousand mirror soccer balls had been fitted into the walls, the ceiling and the floor. “I see you’re puzzled by this field,” Serra chuckled. “It is normal. Mirrors are beautiful, but like everything that is beautiful, they are dangerous as well.” “Sounds about right,” I shrugged. “This battle will not be a battle of strength alone. The most sneaky pokemon will win.” When the battle concluded with my win, her first comment was that she had “already reached her breaking point”. Whatever she could have meant by that, I could hardly imagine. Even then, she gave me the badge and the TM for Aurora Veil with a smile. “I suppose that is the end of the show,” she said, just when the floor shaked and we both almost slipped on the mirror. “... Or not. Who wants to bet that that was the pokemon center falling on top of our house now?” We headed out of the Gym field room. Unbeknownst to us was a certain talk that was taking place just outside of the mansion. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

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Perhaps I should've, but I felt like Vanilla would've been speechless at the stunt Charlotte pulled (I was) and also there'd be little time to discuss these things if they were raiding a place irl but tru she should've at least given a word or two about how risky that was... Haha! Good, for fiction writing is the art of deception xD Yep I always felt left out when Shelly named all her pokemon but not with our names :'( So for the realm of this story, illumise has a name and it's Vanilla/Nilla. She'll be just like Pikachu. No battling and out of the ball (Shelly has the empty ball).