[BOOK 1 - Female Yandere Lopunny] Meanie! Dance With Me!

Part XII - All Over Again

It was the next day. Exactly 13 hours after Ian received a text from his sister reading: "Going to spend night at friend's house for celebration" — but many of the words were not spelled correctly and the grammar felt off.

Ian believed it.

Lopunny seems more attached to you than ever. And it's weird because just the night before, she seemed bitter. Maybe a little jealous of you and Bella. You smile at the silly thought. Lopunny cuddles up to you, cooing her name in unfettered bliss. You sink back into the couch and caress her head, right in between her ears the way she likes it.

"Hey... I've been wondering. Would you be interested in battling?"

Lopunny stares at you expectantly, not quite responding to your question at all yet. She blinks a few times, seeming lost in thought, and then slowly a smile forms on her lips. She cries her name, joyful.

You weren't expecting her to accept. All this time she's been the sweetest soul, the most warm-hearted Pokémon. She's always brimming with glee and looking at you with love in her eyes. Such a pure spirit couldn't possibly want to spend time battling, hurting others and getting injured. You're surprised, but pleasantly so.

"We don't have a gym in town," you say, "not that we'd be strong enough to beat it. I don't know the first thing about battles. But how about we try the forest? Pick off some smaller Pokémon?"

Lopunny pauses for a few seconds, her expression going blank. You don't know why. After hearing mention of the forest, she's looking awfully bitter again.

"So... no?"

Lopunny shakes her head and gets off the couch, hopping to her feet. In an instant she's bouncing on her heels, heading for the door. You realize what's going on and scramble to grab your stuff.

Your bag for anything you may find in the wild, a few handy potions left behind by Ian as a gift, a bottle of water. Then you dart after her, and soon you two are marching to the very forest you found her in.

On the way she's completely silent. A few times you try to get her attention and she's distant. Mentally disconnected until she snaps back to the present and meets your eyes. Every time, a cold smile stretches her mouth. Her irises dance on the line of a hue of pink and red, her demeanor resonating with a sense of vengeance.

All of a sudden, as the edge of the forest filters into view, you connect the dots. This forest is not just the place you found Lopunny first. It was where she was born, and ultimately where she almost died. Once upon a time her parents showered her with love, with affection, until they were stripped clean of their life.

The pack of Mightyena still reside in there. You can almost sense the danger spilling from the entrance of the woods in a thick black mist. You stop walking, stare deep into the forest.

Lopunny stops, too. She looks to you, but she is not afraid like you are.

"Maybe we shouldn't go in there," you whisper. "Those hyenas are still in there. You can't battle them."

Lopunny glances from you to the forest and back, taking you by the arm gently as if saying It's okay, and then pulling you past the forest's threshold.

You smell death and decay in here. It's not a normal forest. It is the territory of a pack of wild animals. Anything that looks like food to them will be killed, chewed up, discarded. Rinse and repeat.

You also don't know why Lopunny is so determined. She keeps looking back at you as she guides you, a smile glittering on her face. Trying to reassure you that she's here with you.

Well, that's it, then. If you die in here, you'll die with her. You accept your fate, although it's such an abrupt end. You're fully expecting to be killed by the hyenas. Clearly Lopunny doesn't share the same mindset.

* * *

Lopunny finds a clearing in the woods. It looks so familiar to you, like the very spot you'd found her in. You flash back to when she was just a poor, weak Buneary, pleading for her life alone on the ground.

Now?

Now she's a cold-faced, determined Lopunny with a heart of steel.

"Why are we back here?" you ask. Lopunny doesn't respond with anything. She just walks to a low row of bushes and kneels down before it. You watch her curiously.

She says her name. Such a sad, defeated voice. She looks like she's... mourning?

You stand by her side, rubbing the top of her head. "Is this where... your parents were?"

Lopunny nods.

Your heart aches.

"I'm sorry. I bet if I were there sooner, I could've saved all of you..."

She shakes her head in a negative. The hyenas would have killed us all.

You hear a low growl and spin around quickly. Just like that, you're no longer alone with her. Standing in the path you two traveled to get here are three Mightyenas, all barring their razor teeth.

Your breath escapes you. In another corner of the clearing, another four Mightyenas. You can recognize a few of them from your first time wandering this forest.

"Lopunny..."

Responding to your call, Lopunny stands up straight and comes to your side. The two of you watch as the hyenas close in, leaving no exits open to you. Danger corners you and you suddenly want to cry.

Lopunny's not bothered. No — she's the farthest thing from bothered and afraid. In fact, she locks eyes with each of the hyenas and balls her fists.

Your voice is weak, shaky. "Lopunny, you can't fight—"

In no time at all she's piercing the air like a bullet, flying out at the hyenas with a flare in her eye. You've never seen her move with such deadly grace. It is a dance of imminent death.

You cry out in fear of her dying to the hyenas, and then your phone rings.