Candy

Tfw the only reason Cain was replaced by Charlotte is so there could be time for Cain and Shelly to talk about Pikachu's death... sorryto dorito for taking away your spotlight Cain

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 26 “Aww, your hair Vanilla. You know, that light pink suited you well,” was what Cain said when he first saw me. The weather had been rainy all the while, and I hadn’t bothered to buy myself an umbrella, so it appeared that Aster and Eclipse’s cheap hair dye or paint or whatever had already washed off. If you asked me, I was rather glad, for I didn’t want to be a walking cotton candy. “Aya sends you her regards,” I said, though it was a lie. Cain laughed awkwardly and scratched his nose. “I'm guessing mom and Aya told you all about how I ran away,” he said. “Actually, I didn’t care to hear the story, so no,” I shrugged. “If you wanted to run away, I don’t see why you shouldn’t.” “I ran away because my mom took issue with, you know, who I have fun with,” Cain smirked. “But once I ran away, I realized how difficult it is to get by alone. That’s why I want to help Heather. One must use one’s experience for the better, right?” I wondered whether what I did back in my teen years also was considered ‘running away from home’. I guess not, because I never had the urge to help neither Heather nor Cain just for that. “Do as you wish.” “Ready to go kick some ass~?” Cain asked me, moving out of the way so I could access the large boulders that hampered our way. “Let’s go before I change my opinion.” I moved the boulders with the newly acquired move, Strength, and ran to the doors the Team Meteor grunts had disappeared to. We entered a connection, but our way was limited since the eastern doors were shut tightly. “If they went that way, we’re going to have trouble,” Cain commented. “Let’s try up the stairs for now.” Up the stairs we found an inaccessible portion of Obsidia Ward. From where we stood, I could see the giant apartment complex neighboring the Department Store. We walked the only path that wasn’t destroyed, and found one really ominous building. “Ah, it’s the old Yuyeyu building,” Cain explained. “Only a few years ago, it was the heart of Reborn’s economy, you know.” We entered the building. The inside was worse than the outside view. The lights, of course, were off but sometimes flashing intermittently. Tables were broken and chairs were turned and resting on their side, pieces of ceiling had fallen on the floor, exposing cut cables and bent pipes. It was rather scary to enter a building that in my opinion could fall down on us at any minute. I heard some noise and was startled, though I really shouldn't have been since we suspected Team Meteor of being in the same building. “Alright, let’s inspect the place,” Cain said, and I followed im upstairs. Team Meteor was, indeed in the building. Why they thought of using a worn out building as their hideout was beyond me, but that was not a question right now. We battled the grunts, until we found Shelly in a room with a knife up to her jugular. “Take one more step, and she’ll drop dead,” one of the grunts holding her threatened us. Under the seconds that I could see Shelly with the shorted-out light, I saw her cheeks were damp with tears. “V-Vanilla, I’m scared,” she whispered. However, there really was nothing I could do right then. Even if I take pride in my speed, there was no way I could run over in the time it would take for him to stab her neck. I grinded my teeth. “D-don’t worry about me,” Shelly said with a shaky voice. “It doesn’t matter what h-happens to me... A-alright?” “We’ll go upstairs,” I sighed. “We’ll come back for you, I promise,” Cain added. On the floor above, a contrasting scenario was taking place. We found Charlotte sitting on the floor together with two Meteor grunts whose faces I had faint recollection of. “You really took your time, Princess,” Charlotte sneered at Cain. “Sorry, we ran into some issues, 'kay?” A great deal of issues after issues, to be exact. “You two, step away or we’ll kill her!” the male grunt said. “How exactly, if you aren’t even sitting close to her?” I asked. “Really guys? You’re still on that?” Charlotte shook her head in disapprovement. Both Cain and I looked at her with confusion. “Well, uh, you know that’s what the boss told us to say.” “Besides this is Vanilla, the one who always messes up our plans!” “Right right, but no hard feelings now,” Charlotte said. “Cain, Vanilla, this is Simon and Tara.” Cain, who snapped out of his amazement, brushed his long fringe backwards, exposing his forehead. “You can’t be serious, Charlotte. You actually made friends with Meteor grunts?!” “They’re people too, you know.” “Yeah, except you’re missing a tiny detail: we’re enemies!” “Well, whatever. It beats being locked or tied up.” I wondered whether it was the personalities of Simon and Tara or Charlotte’s that had allowed the punk girl to avoid a situation like Shelly’s. Probably Charlotte’s, I thought. You need a special kind of creativity to even come up with such an outrageous scheme. “It’s not like we can let you go because of a casual conversation, though,” Tara said. “So, Vanilla and Cain. Prepare to fight us!” And fight, we did. When we fought in the past, their battles didn’t stand out from the rest of lame grunt battles, but this time around I had to say that I saw some improvement. I would even say that their pokemon’s rhythm and cooperation were better than my pokemon with Cain’s, perhaps as a result of Simon and Tara spending a good amount of time together. If this was what Team Meteor’s leaders had in mind when making their grunts work in pairs, then there is nothing I can say. Their idea was brilliant. Even though our combination was lacking compared to theirs, we won thanks to sheer strength. “Again? How disappointing,” Simon sighed. “Charlotte, tell your friends to stop their Justice-complex and join Team Meteor instead,” Tara suggested. “This is an honest recommendation. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to be rebuilt together with the world.” On further encouragement, Tara explained about how the current world would end and the new one would emerge under the rule of Team Meteor. “If you are part of Team Meteor, you’re guaranteed to be at the top of the food chain,” she said with much enthusiasm. “That’ll only happen if you’re on the winning side,” I clarified. “As of now, I don’t see that happening any soon.” Charlotte smirked at my comment. “Alright, I’m going now,” she said. “Don’t try to stop me, since you obviously can’t.” She sent out her ninetales, who intimidated the two grunts until they were pushed to the corner. “Take care,” Charlotte waved her hand, and returned her ninetales to her pokeball. “Do you think we can rescue Shelly? She’s downstairs with… well, a knife to her throat,” Cain explained. “Sure thing, let’s go.” Downstairs, one of the grunts was guarding the room, but scurried to grab Shelly when he saw us approaching. “Don’t take a step, or I’ll kill her.” “Kill her if you want, I don’t care,” was Charlotte’s response. Both Cain and I looked at her as though she’d grown an extra pair of heads. It was dark, but we saw that she still had a single head. Shelly started sobbing again, while Charlotte slowly moved forward. “I’m warning you, I’m about to stab her in the neck,” the female grunt reminded her. “I don’t care. She isn’t one of my sisters.” She still went on walking. My heart was racing, and I was barely pushing down the urge to pull Charlotte back by the arm. Part of me, I guess, wanted to believe the punk had a plan. “Stop that,” the male grunt said with increased exasperation. “I just need to use that display real quick to unlock the gate upstairs.” “C-Charlotte,” Shelly uttered with rough breathing. I thought Shelly was dead meat, when Charlotte suddenly turned in a half circle and pulled Shelly by the shirt with force. “Ah,” Shelly exclaimed, for the knife skimmed her neck but didn't actually make a cut. Both grunts were left stunned as to the turn of events. When they saw that four people were ready to battle them, they just ran out of the room and down the stairs. “Guess that’s that then,” Charlotte said. “Let’s go save Anna and the others.” We went upstairs, where more Meteor grunts awaited us. Noel was also there, standing behind bars. “Shelly and Cain, take care of them,” Charlotte said. “I will go upstairs with Vanilla.” We followed the suggestion, and left Cain and Shelly to fight most of the grunts. Of course, the grunts who heard our plan tried to gang up on us, but honestly every one of them could have been taken care of by Charlotte alone. I must say that she was a stellar battler. Her ninetales and her seemed to be like two flames of fire - when the wind blowed, both of them moved in synchronization. In no time were we going up the stairs. On the next floor, we found the infamous Dr Connal with Heather, who had no change from the last time we saw her. She looked like a large doll rather than a living human. “You’ve returned. No surprise there,” the Doctor said to me. “Glad to see me doing whatever the fuck I want again, Doctor?” Charlotte laughed. Dr Connal just knit his lips. His silence encouraged Charlotte to continue speaking. “Hah, siding with Team Meteor because you aren’t capable of capturing us by yourself,” she said frivolously. “Can’t say I’m surprised you turned out to be that cheap.” “You misunderstand me. I am not part of Team Meteor, for the sole reason I have teamed up with them is to recover what was stolen from me, and because I was intrigued by a certain name I have often heard spoken among the grunts.” “Do I look like I care whether or not you’re Team Meteor?” I asked. “You’re not sided with me and are hence a threat to be disposed of.” “Hm. Then, do you intend to battle me?” I sent out Prince, who croaked loudly. “Is that even a question?” The battle lasted quite a while, eventually ending in our victory, or rather, Charlotte’s victory. That’s right. Even though we won the battle, I was left with a bitter taste of my own weakness. My pokemon and I were helpless against the Doctor’s team. Halfway through the battle, and the fight had turned into a 1-on-1 between Connal and Charlotte, with me just standing by without no active pokemon. Of course, ninetales couldn’t handle the whole weight and fainted, but every pokemon Charlotte sent out was equally as strong as the previous. Even with the field advantage giving boosts to the Doctor’s electric-type pokemon, Charlotte simply overpowered him. No wonder he had to take away her pokemon while she remained under his care; the girl’s battling abilities were not match for him. “Do as you like,” Dr Connal spat as he collected his pokemon. “If you and the others escape, that only means I have to recover you once more.” He left Heather and exited the room. “Heather, go downstairs and help Cain and Shelly out if you can,” Charlotte said, but Heather looked at her with unfocused eyes and didn’t reply. However, the message was clearly understood, since she left us and went down the stairs. “... Right. Let’s carry on,” Charlotte shook her head and followed me upstairs. The lights were surprisingly stable on this last floor. “So, the Doctor didn’t serve as enough of a challenge, did he?” sighed Sirius, who was standing opposite to Anna. “Vanilla, Charlotte! He took my pendant,” Anna complained. “It’s daddy’s pendant. It’s the only thing I have to remember him.” “Your father gave you this pendant?” Sirius laughed as though he’d just heard a joke. “He was always a fool.” Anna stared at him with her round googly eyes. “You know my dad?” she asked, but Sirius did not answer her question. Instead, he turned towards us and showed us two artifacts: an amethyst pendant and a ruby ring. “I have no need to fight you, for I have obtained what I looked for,” he said. “Here’s to hoping we never see each other again.” Sirius throwed a smoke ball, which exploded and released tons of dark but non-toxic gas. When we waved it away, though, the man was already nowhere to be seen. “He took my pendant, Charlotte,” Anna started sobbing. “And he knew my dad. I don’t know my dad. How’s that even fair?” Charlotte approached her, and I just looked away with my arms crossed. “It’s okay, Anna. We’ll get your pendant back when we see him again, which is likely going to happen pretty soon.” From the corner of my eye, I saw the punk girl giving Anna a friendly hug, which stopped her crying. “Let’s join the others then,” I said, and we ran out of the creepy building. Shelly and the other three were waiting for us outside. “Are we still going to our family home in Tanzan Cove?” Charlotte asked. “We have to avoid the cops, so yes,” I replied. The punk led the way down the stairs back to the railnet. We noticed that the gates that led to the eastern side of it were unlocked, probably by the Team Meteor people who escaped in that direction. “It appears that Team Meteor has another base in that direction,” Noel noted. “I guess our crossing ways is inevitable.” Better that way, I thought but did not dare say aloud. After all, Team Meteor was a plain annoyance to these kids, but they were also a source of training material for my personal use. While we were figuring out the maze of rails, which were so convoluted I quite honestly wasn’t sure how they were traveled by actual trains once upon a time, Shelly walked up to me slowly. “Um,” she said to catch my attention, but fell silent when we met gazes. “What’s the matter?” I asked. “C-Cain told me that, um, about your t-traveling companion,” she said with shakiness in her voice but still making an effort to look at me in the eye. “I’m sorry…” I internally rolled my eyes. Victoria didn’t give me the impression of being a blabbermouth, but she had apparently told Cain about Pikachu’s death. “It’s okay. Bad things happen, but one must carry on living,” I said. “Um,” Shelly repeated to regain my attention, which was shifting towards the present maze. “I was w-wondering, if maybe… um, you’d accept to travel with m-my illumise.” I batted my eyes, for this wasn’t something I expected. “I k-know that she can’t replace your p-pachirisu, but, um, I thought maybe she could be l-like together with you when… when I’m not around… Um, to keep you, um, company.” Shelly closed her eyes and became stiff, as though she thought I would either shout at her or hit her in the face. Poor girl didn’t know that I had met Cal, who had made me understand her circumstance better. “I’ll borrow your pokemon, then,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She was, however, stiff for a couple of seconds after I spoke, which made me wonder if she had heard me at all. “Eh?” she said, opening her eyes widely. “S-sure. Here.” She sent out her purple firefly known for setting up the rain as fast as a lightning bolt. “Her name is, um, Vanilla,” Shelly pronounced my name in an especially small voice. “B-but you can call her Nilla so it’s not, um, confusing.” “Fine,” I said. “Nilla, be a good f-friend to Vanilla, alright?” Shelly said and patted Nilla’s head. The firefly buzzed with bliss, and then flew energetically in a circle around me. “Ah, l-look, we’ve found the way out,” Shelly exclaimed. “Indeed,” I said, following the others to where we could hear birds chirping. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS Hehe, I actually recorded the battle vs Dr Connal, but since I changed the plot to have Charlotte as a buddy instead of Cain, I didn't feel I could place it in... You're free to watch it though~ Also 4,000 views and counting, pals Thx as always for the support~ QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

*Boards the hype train*

Yoo welcome welcome welcome~ to last week tonight enjoy your stay!

Gonna save them for myself... but Vanilla hasn't got any incentives to do that~

Only asked because they're my resource for writing xD If you wanna know, I already went thru Yuyeyu, beat Serra and beat PULSE Abra... but on my run I haven't yet reached Yuyeyu xD

It's the start of it, because she ain't doing it for the kids but for the memory of her long lost companion Pikachu RIP.

(this is me always, except for this last episode which wasn't based on game material) Did you also check your Awesome Manly Challenge vids? hahaha

Inb4 the joke ain't the sprite but a typ0 xD Answer some questions, raise some more. That's how we row this boat

Yay me thoughts yaw were on hiatus mah dude. This part is still fresh in my mind, but really it's interesting at least for me see James take different actions (based on the personality you've given him) to say, Vanilla.

Wai do I not kno dis meme? Existential crisis switch ON Dx Moral of the story: 1. be ware of rabbit holes, 2. listen to the wolf

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 25 The issue now was whether to go help the kids, wherever they are, or tell Cain to go find someone else to help. My rationale was that I had already saved those kids, who are neither related by blood nor by friendship to me, once when we stormed the orphanage to save shy girl’s headstrong friend. That wasn’t my business, and yet I did it because of solidarity to Heather - even if I disliked her attitude, I wasn’t going to stand by while she got her brains fried by thunder shock. Now, I wasn’t being a hypocrite when I told Aya not to be a half-assed Gym leader. If I’m going to be the gifted kids’ guardian, I would have to do it no matter how many times they got their stupid selves caught by the same lab-coated psycho. “That also is to put myself in danger,” I sighed, as I sat on a chair in the small connection between Obsidia and the wastelands. I had already put myself in enough danger, and as a result almost gotten myself killed once. Yet, could I ever become stronger if I don’t train myself in the face of danger? After all, I only knew one way to train - the way that King built my current self from the ground up. “King,” I whispered, remembering the old man’s face. It had been a long while since I last visited his grave, but the recollection of him reminded me of another grave I could visit. As I set foot on the way to Beryl, my mind drifted to the long lost days of my childhood. The fateful day of my encounter with King had come by thanks to my nosey curiosity at the young age of fourteen. “Wolfie, look,” I pointed to a crack in the ground, somewhat resembling a rabbit hole. “I wonder where this path leads to.” “Haven’t you paid attention in class?” Wolfie sighed and shook her head. “Professor Wonka warned us about rabbit holes. You never know which one leads to Wonderland.” “I think they exaggerate how bad Wonderland is,” I shrugged. “You’re always such an irresponsible optimist, aren’t you, Vanilla?” Wolfie pinched my hose, as she used to do when I was being ridiculous. In revenge, I would sometimes tickle her, but that day I just pushed her doggy nose. “I’m going in, for nothing scares me more than boredom,” I said and crawled into the hole. Before I went completely in, I turned to see whether Wolfie was following me. “Sweet Red Riding Hood, brave Huntsman, o my misunderstood ancestor Wolf. Please don’t leave me as I give in to peer-pressure,” she said, looking at the sky. Perhaps the problem had been that Wolfie’s ancestors turned a blind eye to her back then, but at the time we would have had to be psychics to know it. The narrow rabbit hole became even narrower as we crawled in, until I noticed that the consistency became more of a metal feel than supposed ground. Just as I was inspecting the parallel walls, though, the whole tube or whatever I was in made an awful cracking sound and went falling down to what I thought would be my death. However, the fall, though painful, hadn’t been long enough to cause more than a sprained arm. I was glad to realize that I could still feel my surroundings and see with my eyes, because that meant I was alive. I pulled myself out of the metallic box, which turned out to be the external portion of an air duct. Apparently, the hole that had started from a corner of Red riding hood forest in Everland was connected to an unused air duct of wherever place we now were. “Vanilla, are you ok?” Wolfie asked. I saw her looking down from what remained of the broken air duct. I showed her an okay sign, and she carefully came down from the air duct’s opening, taking balance with her long and fluffy tail. Her touchdown was definitely more graceful than mine had been. I took her hand with the arm that wasn’t lesioned, when she offered it for me to stand right up. “Is this Wonderland?” I asked in a low voice. If the place indeed was Wonderland, then Professor Wonka hadn’t been exaggerating not one bit. The buildings were unpainted, with visible patches of moss and vines ruling over them. Just in the minute that we had been there, we saw giant rats - the type that did not understand human language, cross the street with pieces of trash held in their mouths. We also observed - and smelled - the dumpsters that had been filled to their absolute maximum capacity, which were smelling as though a corpse had been rotting in there for months. “Vanilla, let’s just go back,” Wolfie suggested, and I had no intentions of disagreeing. However, when we tried going back up the air duct to rejoin the rabbit hole, the air duct dislodged from its place and fell with us inside. The hole was now too far up to reach, even when I stood on Wolfie’s shoulders. “Oh no. Now we’ll need a ladder,” as I said aloud, a chill went down my spine. “Let’s not lose our cool yet. I’m sure we’ll find someone among the residents who can lend us one.” We walked together pushing against one another, that we could barely walk on a straight line. “Excuse me,” we said to a very thin and old woman, who was holding her groceries. “Madam, do you happen to have a ladder at your home? We would be grateful if we could borrow it.” The old woman kept walking, as though she could not hear us. However, she clearly did, since her walking speed increased. “Please wait,” I called, and the woman stopped. “I have no ladder for you, pair of scums. Now begone, I have nothing,” she said, but she seemed unable to control her slobber when she did. “We were going to return it though,” Wolfie shouted after her, but the woman had already found her apartment and gone inside. We were left alone again, in the eerily empty street. Feeling ashamed about putting Wolfie in this trouble, I couldn’t bring myself to speak like I usually did. Hoping to find another person, we started walking aimlessly but still taking note of where the rabbit hole was. We rejoiced when we found a young man reclining on a wall, lighting his cigarette. He scared us when we got close to him, however, because he had yellow eyes with red irises, resembling of a dragon’s. “You need a ladder?” the guy repeated. “Yes, do you have one we could borrow?” I asked, practically pleading. “Sure, come with me.” So we did. We walked about fifteen minutes, seeing more of the hideous place. There were more people in the way that he took us, actually - they were all lying around with half-naked bodies, some waving their hand to shoo the flies but others just letting their rotting skin be covered by them. I wasn’t sure how long I would last before the stench became unbearable enough to make me sick. When we passed by some more dumpsters, we saw a half-tiger man eating out of it and being defensive, perhaps thinking that we could be interested in stealing his food. “By the looks of it, you’re not from here,” the dragon-eyed man commented as he saw us react to everything from the corner of his long eye. “Well, we don’t really know where we are, but we’re from Everland,” Wolfie replied shyly. “This is also technically Everland,” he shrugged. “Albeit we’re called the Underworld.” “The Underworld?” I repeated, glancing at Wolfie since she was the knowledgeable one. Wolfie shook her head. “There, right at that corner is my apartment,” the guy pointed. “Come on.” We followed him and made the turn, when out of nowhere two gigantic women with long lilac hair swiftly approached us from behind and locked our arms on our backs. My sprained right arm hurt so much that it almost knocked me unconscious. “What is this?” I exclaimed, but the woman just kicked me on the back without answering. I fell to the dusty ground chest first, unable to move my arms. “Good job, Roquil. We’ll have a feast tonight,” said a voice, and a floor tile lifted just in front of my face. I saw a bald woman’s face underneath it, but as we met gazes, she spat on my face. “These Overworld fletchlings smell like losers, but at least they’ll make good stew,” she said and grinned, revealing teeth full of advanced cavities. The lilac-haired twins and the Roquil guy who set this trap moved us one by one to go under the dislocated floor tile. Underneath was, unsurprisingly, pitch black. All the while they left me alone in the darkness, my head was questioning what the girl could have possibly meant by “stew”. Just thinking of the possibility that she meant it as is, made my brain go high wire. I remembered the stories of my ancestors - Hansel and Gretel - which were recounted over and over again in family gatherings, formal events and holidays. My mind was just recalling that one time a nasty noble woman had visited us, and I let a giggle slip when she criticized the old witch in the tale as “unpleasant”. My grandmother had to apologize every time she met the unpleasant woman ever since… Just then, Wolfie and I were picked up with rough mannerisms, moved farther away and thrown onto the floor where there was more lighting. My eyes by then had gotten so used to the dark, that they couldn’t instantly focus on the large figure sitting in front of us. “Tiny fry,” the unknown individual said with a low and raspy voice. “With them, we won’t be able to feed even half of us.” “I think it’s better than nothing. I’m starving,” said a female voice, who I recognized was the bald woman who spat on me. “Indeed better than nothing. I had raised my expectations too high when Roquil said he’d captured Overworlders. The wolf is one thing, but the albino girl can’t be from the Overworld.” I couldn’t see, but apparently the gazes of everyone had pressured Roquil to explain himself. “No, King. She is also from the Overworld, for both of them didn’t even know this place existed.” The large figure stepped into the light, where now I could clearly see him. I believed he belonged to the humanoid class, but in unrefined terms, he looked like a giant toad. Perhaps if I studied more, I would have known exactly what species. “So there can be exceptions to the rules, huh?” the toad said, for some reason displeased with me. “A-are you going to eat us?” I blurted out without thinking. King blinked once and looked down on me with what looked like unfocused eyes. “But of course. Whether you’re from the Overworld or Underworld isn’t an issue when we’d take any meat.” Laughter surrounded us. Apparently we couldn’t see them, but there were multiple people around us, looking at how our ends met us. “Please don’t,” I begged, hoping that there was something I could do to prevent the inevitable. “I look larger than Vanilla, but actually I’m as skinny as her under all this fur,” I heard Wolfie joining in with tremor in her voice. “I-I am hairy and a carnivore so wouldn’t taste good at all.” “Silence,” the toad man commanded, and we both fell silent. “You think you have the right to beg for mercy, when you Overlanders have banished us to this Hell without even the chance to say ‘please don’t’?” “We? Banished you?” I was becoming more confused by the second. “I don’t know anything.” “Of course you don’t,” the toad sneered. “You live in the bliss of luxurious ignorance, while we pay with our blood and sweat.” He then stretched his arm, which was shaped more like a human’s, and squeezed my face with his hand. “Tell me, what would you know about that?” He let go of me, but the momentum made me hit my nose and forehead on the floor. I felt warmth accumulating on the back of my nose and eventually pouring out in the form of blood. “I swear, please. Don’t punish us for our ignorance,” I shouted. “If you’re starving, I- I mean- we can help.” I said that, but really couldn’t tell what I was saying anymore. What was coming out of my mouth was just random stuff that my brain thought could spare my life, or at least prolong it. However, it seemed to work for now. King looked at me with one of his circular eyes. “And how exactly do you propose to help?” “I-I’m a… the daughter of a high ranking noble. We have lots of food at home. If you need money, I also have some of that too. I’m sure my parents would pay a ransom to have me liberated.” “That’s too bad, young one. We don’t have a method of communicating with the Overworld.” “There’s the rabbit hole from where we came from,” Wolfie suggested. “Of course we know of it, sweetheart,” the bald lady laughed. “It’s a shame that whoever made it to reach the Underworld didn’t consider the average size of an adult.” Again, the place was engulfed in laughter. Whatever could be funny about this situation, I could just not fathom. “I can go through and come back with food,” I suggested, but I only managed to increase the magnitude of the laughter. “What makes you think we could trust you?” King asked. Before I could reply, though, a voice I had not heard before interrupted the laughter. The person or magical being seemed to be increasingly shy, because he refused to speak in front of everyone, and instead walked around where the light could not touch him to deliver his message to the toad King. “Ah, so a prototype of the poison sting bracelet,” King exclaimed with something like joy. “We were going to use these against the police officers, but this whole conversation has given me a better idea.” King squatted in front of me, and brushed my hair off my face so I could have no choice but to see him. “Are you sure you will do anything just to save your and your friend’s lives?” “Absolutely,” I said without an ounce of hesitation. King and I exchanged gazes for a moment, before his round eyes narrowed and his long lips elongated further into a grin. He grabbed my handcuffed left hand, and slipped the beaded bracelet onto my wrist. “Then, join the Defiance. You will help us overthrow the Queen of Everland.” Beryl cemetery, as usual, was empty. “That was the start of my Hell,” I spoke to the tombstone, as though Pikachu was there, listening to me. “King was a merciless instructor. If I didn’t die under the three years of his intensive training, I guess it was because I just hadn’t suffered enough.” I fell silent, observing the stone in front of me. I could tell that I wasn’t fully operational when I made the stone, for Pikachu’s name was not engraved properly. “The day he died, he appointed me as his successor,” I closed my eyes, remembering the mixed emotions I felt right at that moment. “I will never admit it to anyone, but I’ll say it now. He made a mistake. How disappointed he would’ve been had he been alive to witness the catastrophe.” I fell silent again. The degree of quiet when I wasn’t speaking was disturbing. How I longed for Pikachu’s squeaks. “Pikachu… You would’ve wanted me to rescue the kids, right? You were that type of companion.” Just then, I thought I saw a shadow cross the tombstone. However, when I looked around me, I found nothing but solitude. It must’ve been my imagination, I chuckled internally. The eerie atmosphere probably makes me hallucinate, since I fear ghosts. “Fine, I will go. For once, I’ll stop being a disappointment*.” I walked away from the grave with my chin up high, but then a thought came to mind and I took a half turn to say it. “And I will live.” VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS - No characters so no rating changes * If I'm allowed to make jokes about my own writing - the field would trigger the quote "Adieu to disappointment and spleen" xD ... Inb4 the real joke is that Wolfie's sprite doesn't look like a wolf :sadpepe: QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

She's a pain in the butt to write but I can't say I dislike her either

I'd have thought greninja is a useful boi (if it doesnt have protean, you can use an ability capsule). I don't see why you need a water mon tho, since you can cover water with golem and roserade me thinks Whabout gallade or medicham for psychic/fighting coverage?

Thx for reading~

Sorry for double post but comment was made just when I sent mine in lol She was going to earn 3/10 like Hardy but she showed ego in the slap, so Vanilla rated her higher.

Ha! You psychic! But even if you're psychic... fake out is a priority move This episode was difficult to write. I had to go through some of the older chapters to understand Vanilla better. At first glance, I thought Vanilla would like Aya, because they're both apathetic... but this wasn't the case. If you remember, Vanilla had a confrontation with Florinia because she wanted to 'quit the job' rather than do something she doesn't care about in a "half-assed" manner. I realized Vanilla is the type of person who is all-or-nothing. On the topic of respect, which has come across several times already, Vanilla has always made herself be respected- even if she is a child, woman or petite sickly-looking girl. However Aya just lets Fern's comments pass, unlike Vanilla who struck back at him and now he doesn't dare disrespect Vanilla too much. Those two reasons are why I changed my mind and gave Aya a 4/10. I was also surprised Vanilla didn't hit Aya back. But then I realized, Vanilla doesn't use violence unless 1. She is disrespected (remember she clearly states the importance of fighting for respect in this episode), 2. She wants to protect, or 3. She has been rendered without other choice (aka Victoria vs Vanilla). Here she wasn't in any of the three scenarios, so she needed not to slap back. Sorryto for a long-ass analysis but the more I think of Vanilla, the more I see the glamour of this interesting character.

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 24 Upon entering the wastelands, two things struck me simultaneously: the first was the pungent smell of something like vinegar, and the other, the amount of trash that made up all of the town. Some trash, such as the old machines, had remained practically intact with some wear and oxidation, but much more of it had degraded to the point that I could not tell what every piece was from anymore. I tried biking, but soon realized that the goo was going to end up destroying the wheels, so I stopped pedalling. The long way to wherever this Gym was, I would have to go by foot. I started walking over the trash, which was gooey at some parts and brittle at some others. I chose to walk over the places where I could see distinctive shapes of trash, finely crushed into small pebbles, rather than over the sticky pulp that threatened to steal my shoes. “It was incredible to see trees and vegetation in Azurine Island,” I recalled. “But the fact that there are trees in this junkyard is even more astonishing.” I saw almost no houses, as expected, and the few that I passed by had been morphed into disorganized storage rooms. On the south of the town, if the place could be called that, I found some buildings that looked like apartments. They were all in terrible shape, but one was especially bad because it had broken and fallen on its side. If I thought Jasper looked like Satan’s abode, this place was Satan’s cat’s sandbox. “Perhaps it would have been interesting to know how the place looked like in the past,” I commented. On the far northwestern edge of the wasteland, I found the only house that had people living in. “Yeah, just come right in, will you?” said a middle-aged woman with purple hair that was starting to turn gray. She was visibly unhappy with the intrusion. “Excuse me?” I asked, and the woman sighed. “Sorry, I guess I should start getting used to this,” the woman rolled her eyes. “After all, the living room’s now a Gym now. Goodness!” I spoke a little more with the woman, who apparently could not speak without irony. She told me she was the Gym leader, Aya’s mother, and went on rambling on about how the house had been full of noise and strangers while the Gym’s field was set up. Finally, when she noticed she wasn’t getting appropriate response from my part, she called Aya, who was in the living room. “I’m a little busy right now,” the girl shouted back. “I guess she hasn’t finished the Gym battle with that rude green-haired guy.” So I wasn’t wrong to assume that the trash would call more trash. Fern must’ve moved at snail’s speed, if he is only now battling the Gym leader after rubbing the wasteland key on my face just before all that storming the orphanage happened. Talk about pathetic. “I’ll be back,” I told Aya’s mother, and went out to the wasteland to train my pokemon. Of course, my main players for this battle would be pretty much the same ones I sent in the battle against Corey: Aladdin, Prince and to a lesser extent, Golden Key. I wondered if Aya would also have a crobat, in which case Wolfie would also be great help. When I came back, I downloaded the Field Effect read-out for the wasteland field. Ame told me about how this Gym was new, and was telling me some advice about Aya’s team (for instance that she was also a double-battler), but her mother interjected. “I didn’t know the machine had been installed to tell trainers how to beat my daughter,” she said in her usual sarcastic tone. Ame apologized and shut the communication. I didn’t need much advice, anyway. Looking at the Field Effect read-out, I found out that Wolfie and Golden Key could become more handy than I initially thought, since it said that Stealth Rock and Spikes would cause damage at the end of the turn. Not that Wolfie needs that, given it has the powerful rock-type move Rock Slide. Entering into the Gym field, also known as the living room, I found Fern receiving the badge from Aya. “Yo, Vanilla. Late to the party as usual,” Fern said. “You’re lucky. This Gym leader? Total noob, so it’ll be an easy badge unless you lose, since you’re another noob.” “Excuse you? I beat you once before this,” Aya said. She was a skinny girl with a voice that seemed to come out of her nose. Given that she was Cain’s sister, I expected her to be as unique as Cain, but she seemed to be the average teenage girl. I could have sworn Cain wears more makeup than her. “Yeah I was caught off guard by you fighting in doubles,” Fern made an excuse. “That’s why there’s a display to ask Ame those questions,” I shrugged. The green-haired jerk sent a sharp look to me, but said nothing. In the end, he’s just another coward. “Anyway-” Just then, Aya’s mother announced that there was another visitor. “They’ll have to wait,” I said. However, the visitor happened to be someone who hadn’t come for a Gym battle. The guy was tall but with red hair so abundant that it made him look like a lion. “Oh, it’s you,” Fern said with a monotonous voice and expression. “Yeah, it’s me,” the stranger replied. “What’re you doin’ here?” “Sweepin’ scrubs. How about you?” “I heard there was a new Gym letter, so I figured I’d come down and welcome her to the club,” the lion guy said, and walked over to Aya. He introduced himself to the girl as the rock-type Gym leader, Hardy. “Yanno, the plan was to give you a warm welcome, but,” he glanced over at Fern. “Looks like you kinda already got a sour one, huh, mate?” “You can keep your snide comments to yourself, thanks,” Fern retorted. “So you two know each other?” Aya asked, and the two guys sighed simultaneously. “Unfortunately. I had the misfortune to be stuck in the same class as Fern at OTS.” For a moment I felt a little sick just thinking what going to school with Fern would’ve been like. If my school life was a nightmare, I couldn’t imagine adding an all-talk narcissist. “In short, Hardy’s jealous because I was the top dog and he was just one loser more,” Fern sneered. “Keep tellin’ yourself that, mate.” The two also went over briefly about their sisters’ friendship but Hardy ended the conversation prematurely. A small silence ensued, and Fern, who could never stop talking, decided that he’d battle me right then. “Why?” I asked. “You know, you don’t have to battle me every time you see me, just to lose and be bitter about it.” “I’m never bitter. Why should I be bitter when I lose against beginner’s luck?” I shook my head. Whatever. I guess an extra training session won’t hurt. I led off with Anna, since Fern had a higher ratio of grass types, but he read me and sent Rhyhorn. As expected, the foe tried to get my fire pokemon knocked out with Stone Edge, but I had quickly switched Anna with Prince. One Muddy Water was enough to destroy the Rhyhorn. Against roserade, I sent out Aladdin, but he was outsped. Giga Drain, however, doesn’t do as much damage as I feared, and Pure Power Aladdin takes out the roserade with a single critical-hit Psycho Cut. Fern flashed a new addition to his team - a scyther, but just moments after it got knocked out by Anna’s Heat Wave. By this point, I could see frustration in Fern’s eyes at having all his pokemon OHKO’d. He sent out a krookodile, and again, I took it out by sending Prince to Muddy Water him once. Once the last pokemon, his started that had evolved into decidueye, was in the field, I felt like having a little experiment. I wanted to see whether it was true that the Stealth Rocks get absorbed and expelled by the wasteland field, so I sent out Wolfie despite the foe being a grass type, and set Stealth Rock. Of course, Wolfie went down to one Leaf Blade, but on the same turn, I saw the pebbles shoot out of the ground like small bullets. It did some damage, not as much as I would’ve liked, but at least I felt it was something you don’t see everyday. I sent out Anna and finished the battle. “I think seein’ Fern get beat is worth the trip out here in itself,” Hardy clapped at me and Anna. “Stow it, rocky. I was going easy on Vanilla, since I’m a gentleman unlike you.” I rolled my eyes. “Shall we have our battle?” I asked Aya, who shrugged and nodded. “I wanna see this,” Fern said and ran over to the spectator seats. Hardy volunteered to be the referee. Once we took our places, the battle was served on a… well, toxic plate. The battle itself wasn’t hard, as, and I hate to admit this, Fern had told me. Only once, when Sludge Wave was used, did I doubt my odds at winning. However, with a team as well-trained as mine, it was hard to steal my win. “So I lost,” Aya murmured. “At least that means I don’t have to deal with you again, I suppose.” “Hah, what a joke. The Gym leader is even more of a noob than Vanilla,” Fern laughed as he reclined his arms on the bar. “Cut it out, alright?” Hardy scolded him, but Fern had no intentions of letting it slip. “I’m out now. I’ll go tell my pals that if they want a free badge, they should head over here,” he said and stretched his apparently sore neck muscles. “Peace, losers.” Once the guy was out of the room, I walked over to Aya to collect my badge. “Don’t listen to him, alright Aya?” I heard Hardy as I walked. “He’s just a plain jerk. Also, don’t take a couple’a losses too hard on ya either, ya hear me?” “I don’t care,” was Aya’s response. “C’mon, there’s no reason to be so distant about it,” he insisted. “No really. I don’t care,” the girl also pressed. “I never wanted this. It was never my job, but now it is thanks to my stupid baby brother. And I don’t care what anyone says about me, either. I know I’m a bad person anyway.” “If you don’t fight for respect, you’ll never earn it,” I said once I was close enough to Aya. “And if you don’t earn respect, then you’re as pathetic as Fern.” Aya looked at me as though I’d just killed her mother. “What, you didn’t expect me to say that? Did you expect me to lick your wounds like lion-head over there is trying to do?” “Hey, girl you-” Hardy tried to say something to me, but Aya cut him short. “If you want your badge, take it and leave me alone.” “What about you stop whining about getting a job you don’t want? If you don’t want it, leave it to someone who wants it. It’ll be better for you and all of us if we don’t have someone half-assing their job.” Right then, Aya slapped my cheek. Her pointy nails probably left pink scratch marks. “Ah,” she exclaimed, as though she couldn’t believe what she just did. Instead of making a revenge, as she surely expected me to do, I just smirked. “At least you do care about your ego,” I said. “That’s at least better than some people I know.” Aya was completely puzzled, and not following what I was saying by now. “I don’t even know what to say,” she said. “Nothing. Train harder,” I said, as I picked up the badge and TM disk she was holding absentmindedly. I looked back at Hardy, who had stopped on his way to stopping the fight he thought was about to errupt moments ago. “If you want to help her, let her decide whether she wants to give up the job or give 100% to it.” I left the wasteland hideout behind. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS TEAM RECAP QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

For a long time, I've felt that life is actually not for your enjoyment but for others' happiness. I would never kill myself even if I do believe death is ultimately better than living, because I have people I cherish and would not like to make them sad with my death. If you have people like that- be your friend or family, I'd recommend focusing on them because it helps me get out of suicidal mode myself

If you hover over my name, you should see an option to send PM. If you can't find it, you can go to my profile and send me a message from there too

Welcome~ hope you enjoy your stay fren

So far the story seems fine but rule of thumb is this: the majority of people don't really like reading. On top of that, you're running Reborn, which story we already know. So what does this mean? Large walls of gray text aren't palatable to the average player. Id suggest taking screenshots (and since you have several characters that deviate from the original storyline, use photo editing to add Radomus and Gardevoir in). Use color too, though how you use it depends on your ways. For my run, I used certain colors for major characters' dialogue. One more thing- what about adding in the pokemon's icons next to the name? That'd allow the reader know who "Min-min" is without needing to scroll down to check. Hope that was helpful~ ganbatte!

What I did was to copy the link (top right of each post has a triangular symbol next to report post) and paste the link on the opening post (next to the strikethrough button, there's the linking button)

1. Why can't I successfully stalk you? 2. Why is there only one Roberto Corso from your Italian town on facebook? 3. What is Lenz's Law (in dumbass-level explanation pls)