Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Search of a Soul

Chapter 8

"Where are you taking me?" Blaze asked aggressively as we dragged him down a dark corridor, "What's going on here?"

"Are you sure this will be the best spot?" I asked Raven, ignoring him.

"Yes, this should be the darkest part of the Guild." she responded.

"I don't appreciate being ignored!" Blaze exclaimed, trying to wriggle out of our grasp.

"We need your flame for something, it should be quick unless you struggle too much." I explained.

"You could at least tell me where we're going." he said sullenly.

"Somewhere dark enough for this to work," I responded, "like right around here."

We stopped in a particularly dark room. We could see a little bit due to Blaze's tail, but other than that it was pitch black. I steered Blaze into a corner and held the wanted poster up to the flame. The picture underneath flashed through and I could make out the figure of a Luxray. It had a scar over one of its eyes; the mane was shaggy and looked like it hadn't been washed in quite some time. I pulled the poster back before it got too close to the flame and placed it on the floor. I then pulled out another sheet of paper, where did I get this, and started to draw the picture I had seen. Every stroke was confident, which surprised me, and when I had finished I had an exact copy of the Luxray.

"Thank you for your time, we appreciate your help." I said to Blaze, "there's one more thing I'd like to do before I get going."

"You mean before we get going?" Raven corrected me.

I was stunned for a moment, "We?"

"I'm not letting you go alone," she said to me, "who knows what kind of traps and tricks Alvin has placed in your path. I know better than anyone how he is. You need my help, so I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

I pondered this for a moment, and decided that this was likely the best course of action. She did know much more about this world than I did, and she was probably the key to learning more about my dreams and their meaning. But before I could do that, "is there anywhere around this place where I would be able to see my reflection?"

"Your reflection? Like a mirror?" she asked matter-of-factly as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

I blushed a little, embarrassed that I had not known better to assume that mirrors were not a thing here, "Yeah, a mirror will work. I want to try something."

Raven led me through the Guild once again, zigzagging in and out of different rooms. The amount of detail that had gone into building this place was absolutely astonishing to me. Every new room I went into felt like it could hold its own adventure inside. I wanted to explore every single little nook and cranny as much as possible. Unfortunately, I had a test to complete, with no set time to shoot for. We finally came across a vacant room with a single mirror on the far wall. I stared at it, wondering what it could possibly be for.

"This is my old room," Raven explained seeing the confused expression on my face, "I've gotten pretty much everything out of it at this point, except for that pesky mirror. No one wants to try and move it due to how fragile it is, but I also can't move it by myself. Go ahead and do whatever it is you want to do I suppose."

Her attitude towards me was still very suspicious, but I don't blame her for that. She's been through so much in just the past few days and I've done nothing to help make myself less suspicious. Maybe there would be a day where I could talk to her about my past, what I really am, or think I am. My real name, and maybe even ask her about her old partner. Come to think of it, isn't this room way too big for one Pokémon by herself? I feel as though there's more to this place than she's letting on. I paced up to the mirror and was finally able to get a good look at myself.

I was looking at a Pikachu, like I expected, but there was something a little off about my figure. I was much more lean, streamlined even. In human standards I was the perfect body type to play a sport such as basketball or baseball. My fur was much more floofy than I was expecting considering how I would normally depict a Pikachu in my head. The fur was still the same neon yellow, albeit a bit dirty. I was glad that I now knew exactly what I looked like, but that wasn't what I really wanted to see. I looked down at my fist and started channeling the familiar energy of my Thunder Punch, closed my eyes, and turned my head towards the mirror. I wonder if this will actually work?

I opened my eyes, and saw a status window instead of my reflection in the mirror. I couldn't help but let out a gasp of awe. Raven turned to see what I had reacted to, only to scoff and look away again. It seems she could, or was just used to it. I looked up at my level and saw the number 95. I'm level 95?!? How? Why? I then looked at my nature and realized it said Bold. That means I get a boost to my physical attack stat while my defense gets a debuff. No wonder I like spicy flavored foods so much. This also somewhat explains why my attacks are so strong. Hmmm, I wonder...

I looked down at the box that said "Held Item" and saw that it remained blank. I didn't think I was holding any kind of item, it wouldn't make much sense if I didn't feel it on me in any way. When I looked at the ability, I was shocked though. It didn't say Static or Lightning Rod, but displayed question marks instead. I tried focusing on it, but nothing happened. That's odd, why is my ability not displayed? I should either have Static, which is the normal ability for Pikachu to have, or Lightning Rod, which is the rarer ability. Guess I'll have to test to see what ability I have. That is very strange. There didn't seem to be anything unusual going on with my stats at all when I looked at them, but my memory of exact stats was a little fuzzy. An idea came into my head and I turned around to see if I could view Raven's stats.

She was level 90, which was only a little less than myself. Wow, she's been on the grind. She did indeed have the Flash Fire ability and had a Rash nature which helps her special attack stat while hurting her special defense stat. That's pretty good for a Vulpix, they're usually really fast hard hitters and don't usually take many hits in return. I wonder how that translates into her fighting style. These are things I'll have to think about now that I've realized the difference between battles here. Her moves were Heat Wave, Extrasensory, Energy Ball, and Dark Pulse. This explains why she didn't continue to attack the Houndoom and Houndour, she didn't have any good moves to attack them with. None of these moves would do much damage to Dark-Fire types. At that moment I realized I had forgotten to look at my move set. I looked back over to the mirror.

My moves were Thunder Punch, Iron Tail, Brick Break, and Agility. That's interesting. It seems I have a physical setup even though Pikachu usually runs special moves. I guess its physical attack stat is technically higher than its special attack stat. Agility must be that feeling of everything slowing down for me, now it makes much more sense. This still didn't explain my random use of Aqua Tail earlier though. I wonder what else this status window can tell me?

"Are you done admiring yourself?" Raven asked, irritated, "we don't have all day you know."

"Right, of course," I said as the status window disappeared, "sorry."

"So we're looking for a Luxray then?" She asked as we left.

"Well yes," I responded with a smile, "but I would also like to meet this Absol as well."