[BOOK 2 - Female Yandere Lopunny] She Loves Me Not

Part 4 | Pink

It's so subtle, but the atmosphere in the house is suddenly a mix of Lopunny's unholy presence and Aubrey's fear. To think you had only stood just beyond the door to your own home and had already been hit with these truly strange happenings in such a short amount of time... the realization baffles you.

Lopunny's eyes, radiating danger, stick to Aubrey's human figure. To the Pokémon, if it can even be called one, Aubrey is nothing more than an insect.

"Well," Aubrey says between a sharp breath, "you never told me you got ahold of mega evolution."

Hearing this makes you clench your jaw tight. What do you say to that? Lopunny mega evolved on her own? How crazy does that sound? Even though it's true, and the Lopunny that died had suddenly returned in a brand new form, no one will believe you. Absolutely no one.

"And no report ever mentioned she can talk," Aubrey adds.

Lopunny and Aubrey stare off for what feel like fragments of eternities, the human girl glaring deep into the false soul of the Pokémon; Lopunny lifting her chin, staring down at the trainer with a menacing bite in her eye.

Lopunny's crimson stare finds you. An invisible pressure is suddenly clawing at your back. "You always do find the most interesting characters," she says. You shrink beneath her hard eyes, feeling tears well up within yours; it's as if Lopunny has filled the air with an incredibly toxic fume, affecting both your physical and mental health in this moment. You might even call it an attempt at mind control.

You've felt this before. A school hallway, when Lopunny tried to lead you outside, away from Ian and Bella.

"Cinccino," Aubrey announces and breaks the tense stare between you and your former partner. The girl grabs a Poké Ball from her side and holds it out, casting forth a stream of crystalline-blue energy that wafts through the air in a beam of light. It hits the floor, staggers, and summons a Cinccino, wrapped comfortably in its elegant scarf.

Upon seeing Lopunny, and as Lopunny herself silently scowls at the Pokémon, Cinccino flinches.

Everything is silent again. No one makes a move; Aubrey doesn't command her newly-summoned Cinccino, Lopunny simply glares, Cinccino itself appears too afraid to move just yet. And you... you don't know how it came to this.

You're so lost, so confused. Right now you wish you had a Pokémon of your own to call on, because then you would confront this Lopunny and erase her from your life.

But that is your Pokémon. That is your partner to call on.

You've let everything slip out of your grasp so easily that you forgot you were the one who raised her. Maybe not the way a trainer would, and the one battle you and Lopunny were meant to partake in might have become an independent struggle in the end, but...

Maybe she will respond to your commands.

She does love you, after all.

"Lopunny," you say after turning the idea over in your head a hundred times. Lopunny's grim eyes leave the Cinccino, drift over to you. Aubrey calmly looks back over her shoulder, giving you a skeptical glance. You gulp and proceed, holding up your hand and gesturing to the Pokémon. "Come here."

There is no hesitation, no pause. Lopunny blinks, her red eyes washed away when they are open again. Soft pink irises fill her eyeballs, and she nonchalantly comes to your side, standing at attention like a soldier on duty.

"Dude," Aubrey mutters. Both her and her Cinccino stare in awe at how you have just commanded a murderer like a normal trainer. Yet you've never experienced a real battle.

Aubrey clicks the button on her Poké Ball and away the Cinccino goes, disappearing into the stream of light it emerged from. The human girl, still skeptical and just as curious, sets a hand on her hip. She faces you and your Lopunny, eyes narrow.

"How can you still think you own that... thing?" Aubrey asks. "It can talk. It's a killer. It's scary."

You look from Aubrey to Lopunny, see the calmness in her face. She looks the way she had when she was herself, just an innocent Lopunny who liked to play with dolls and toy trains. She looks down at you and smiles. Pure.

"Lopunny, why don't you... explain yourself to us?" you say. Since she can talk and all, and she listens to you, she can clear up the mysteries surrounding herself. And when you get the chance, you can even ask her how she's alive. What happened that night that led her to live again and be reborn as a mega evolution of former self?

Before she says a word, Lopunny goes walking off toward Aubrey. The girl reacts with quickness, backing up a little and raising her Poké Ball again. "Hey! Keep your distance!"

You stand still, confused. Lopunny leans into the human girl, the palm of her hand risen.

Aubrey's hand shakes. Her Pokémon does not escape from the ball. "Get back! D-don't lay a finger on me!"

Lopunny's hand is firmly stamped on the girl's head. She jabs Aubrey so hard that Aubrey starts to go flying backward. Lopunny grabs her waist to keep her from being flung, holding the girl up on her feet.

Your eyes go wide and you rush forward because you just can't see past Lopunny's body. And if she took another life... if she killed another just like that...

"Lopunny!" you scream, grabbing her arm tight. You look over her shoulder at Aubrey's limp body, her forehead unscathed despite the attack just seconds prior. "Lopunny!" you cry again, tears in your eyes, this time not summoned by Lopunny's aura, but rather the realization that you let someone innocent die again.

Lopunny does not react. You yank on her arm and scream her name and pull her, try to do anything to get her away from Aubrey's body, but she's too sturdy. All she does is stare at the closed eyelids of the girl you just met, holding her corpse. To think all it took was one hit.

One hit.

"Lopunny!" you scream again, not sure if you're sobbing.

"Keep it down, would you?" A response. You pause, stop trying to pull Lopunny, and look at the Pokémon's lips to see if they're moving; her eyes to see if they're closed. Nothing. She is still staring at Aubrey.

"Aubrey?" you whisper, looking to the girl's body.

Her eyes slowly peel open like she's just taken a long nap. You don't expect her to be so calm in Lopunny's arms. When she realizes where she's at, she'll freak out.

"You really let me fall asleep in your house?" Aubrey yawns, stretching out a little. Her hands brush over Lopunny's furry ears and recoil at the soft sensation. "Did you put me in a bed or something?" She squeezes Lopunny's fluff. "What is this?"

Aubrey's eyes then shift to find Lopunny's. The two stare at each for a second, a lot less tense than when they stared at one another the first time. Aubrey's lips do not break into a scream or a shout, no -- she's smiling.

"You didn't tell me you had a Lopunny!" she exclaims, her smile so wide you'd think she was beaming for a bucket of sweets. "Look at these ears! So soft and warm and fluffy~"

Your heart drops to the deepest pits of your body. Fear is written all across your features. Confusion, too, boils at the core of your flesh.

Lopunny's head slowly cranes so that her eyes are on you, and a tight, all-knowing smile is upon her lips as Aubrey compliments her body and plays with her ears.

The whole world feels gray. You feel breathless.

This life... no, this world... it belongs to Lopunny. You are only a pawn in this giant game of deceit and puppetry. And Lopunny has the tightest grasp on every string.