Gotta Catch Em All In Ni No Kuni!

Chapter 7

"What!?" They all exclaimed.

"The worlds are going to collapse onto each other!?" Misty shrieked. Aaliyah nodded.

"Yes, and I'm afraid the only way for the world's to stay together is for people to stop going in between the worlds altogether." Oliver felt a pang in his chest.

"You mean... Never use Gateway again? Not go through the Door of Worlds ever again?" Aaliyah nodded sadly.

"We have limited uses of either before the worlds will tear apart. So, the best option would be to pick the world you want to stay in Oliver, and never go back to the other one." Oliver felt his face turn pale. Choose between the worlds and never go back to one of them?

Harmony came over and put her arm on Oliver's shoulder. "How many more uses do we have of Gateway and the Door of Worlds?" She asked quietly.

"Twenty." Aaliyah told her. "If I'm correct. The Conductor and I have been talking about this for a while now, and he told me the numbers. And with these last few, I'd expect that we should space them out quite a bit. Try to cover the holes before we make new ones." Harmony nodded in response, then looked down at Oliver, who's fists were clenched tightly.

"Oliver..." The boy said nothing, but instead ran out of the room. "Oliver!" Harmony made to run after him, but Esther took her by the shoulder and stopped her.

"Give him some space." She told her. "This... Might take a while for all of us to comprehend." Swaine nodded, and Aaliyah looked to Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, Jessie, James, and Meowth.

"Can you guys give us a minute? I can have Abull take you all to the dining hall if you're hungry." Usually, they were all pretty hungry, but after seeing that, they'd almost completely lost their appetite.

"Thanks, anyways." Misty told Aaliyah, and they left the room, to be led down the hall by Abull, where they found that there were bowls of soup set out for them anyway.

"Queen Aaliyah asked that you all have something to eat, after your journeys." Abull explained, before leaving.

Jessie, James, and Meowth dove right in, but Ash picked at him soup. Misty ate slowly and Brock ate steadily. Pikachu didn't eat at all.

"Pika." He murmured, and Ash rubbed his back.

"I know, buddy. Its tough all around. But this isn't any of our business."

"Actually, its very much our business." James retorted. Ash looked up at him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jessie set down her spoon.

"Don't you know? We have to get back to our world, after all! And they need time for the holes in the universe to be covered, as she put it, before we go back. We maybe stuck here for a while!"

"Gee. I never thought of that." Ash murmured. Misty nodded.

"I wonder if my sisters will notice I'm gone. Or if Professor Oak will worry about Ash disappearing." Brock shrugged.

"Well, maybe while we're here, we can learn about the creatures here! After all, Misty, you were wondering about different creatures from different worlds the other day!" Misty nodded.

"I was, wasn't I?" Brock nodded again.

"And I want to see if I can find that Rhinosaur again! It was a cool sort of creature to have around!" Ash nodded, getting more excited about this.

"Hey, yeah! And maybe I can catch some cool new familiars to go along with my Pokémon!"

As the three talked, Team Rocket listened intently.

"Hm, catching familiars for the boss isn't a bad idea!" Jessie told James and Meowth. James tapped his chin.

"But if we steal familiars, Esther would never like me! And I'm certain Swaine wouldn't like a thief either!" Jessie sighed.

"Fine! Then we'll just steal the rare ones and catch the easy ones! We'll just need Oliver to tell us which ones which!" Meowth wasn't so sure, however.

"I don't know, you guys. I mean, the kid seems to be in a bit of a bad spot right now. Maybe we should lay off of him for a while." James and Jessie looked at Meowth in surprise.

"Meowth, I've never heard you talk so thoughtfully about someone else like that!" Meowth just shrugged.

"Hey, the kid was nice to me. Its easier to care about him."

OM

"Poor, Ollie." Harmony murmured, pacing back and forth in Aaliyah's room, Esther sitting on the bed, while Swaine leaned against the wall, Aaliyah next to Esther. "Poor kid doesn't deserve this."

"Its nobody's fault that the walls of the universe are coming down." Swaine muttered. "It just sucks that it has to happen so soon." Aaliyah looked between them.

"Guys. Do you think he's going to pick Motorville over Ni No Kuni?" Harmony shrugged.

"I almost hope not. I don't know what I would do without him." Swaine and Esther both nodded in agreement.

"And Drippy will be heart broken when he hears about this." The four of them tried to imagine Drippy's reaction to possibly never seeing Oliver again.

"He'd probably want to go with Oliver back to Motorville." Swaine remarked. "After all, Lantern Face practically helped raise Oliver. The most he'd want to do is go with him."

"But we're here!" Esther insisted. "And so is his father, don't forget!" Swaine had almost forgotten about Wayne, Oliver's father. Wayne still lived in Ding Dong Dell, and Oliver went to visit him all of the time. If Oliver and Wayne never got to see each other again...

"Shouldn't one of us go tell Wayne what's going on?" Swaine asked. Harmony looked to Aaliyah.

"Is it still safe to use Travel?" Aaliyah nodded. 

"Yes, as long as its not between worlds." Harmony nodded.

"Then I'm going to go and tell Wayne what's going on. He deserves to know that he may never see his son again." Then she was gone in a flash of light.

Meanwhile, Oliver was sitting outside, trying not to cry. What was he supposed to do?