Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 24 - To Death and Back

After the unnerving encounter with Deca in town, Owen had a gut feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea to go out again for a while. Hindsight—after the thrill of meeting a fellow Charmander—suggested that even if Deca was someone he could trust, he wouldn't want to endanger him with this Guardian business. He sighed at the thought. Just when he thought he'd be reuniting with a normal friend...

Why did that not settle right? Deca didn't seem like a normal friend. He knew that for sure. He shook his head. It was a memory still locked away.

A few days passed after that where they went back to their usual routine of meditating and training—for Team Alloy, it was to calm their auras for their inevitable evolution. For the Guardians, it was to continue their everlasting struggle to tune their auras with their Mystic spirits.

Owen fell into a routine on the third day and meditated with Zena the most often. Each day they greeted one another, sat nearby—or in Zena's case, coiled up—and closed their eyes. Zena mentioned that this was what she did on most days when she was in her cave, but that it was much better now that she had company. Owen couldn't understand how lonely it must have felt before.

On the fourth day, right when he was leaving his room, Amia approached.

"Owen, everybody else is gathering together for some training. The scouts at Kilo Village didn't turn anything up yet and, apparently, Star hasn't been able to find anything good in the spirit world, either."

"Oh, okay," Owen said. "What kind of training? Meditating again? Why'd you tell me if..."

"Umm..." Amia rubbed the back of her head. "We're going to be pairing off, actually. An advanced Mystic training a junior Mystic, so to speak."

"And I'm... a junior Mystic? So, you'll be training me?" Owen said, perking up. "That sounds awesome!"

"Actually," Amia said. "I am going to be training Willow."

"Oh," Owen said. "So... Zena?"

"Zena's going to be trained by Anam, actually," Amia said.

"...ADAM?" Owen said.

"ADAM and Valle are going to be sparring one another as fellow mid-tier Mystics."

"W-wait, then who's left?" Owen asked, mentally going over everyone in his head. A spark of hope: "Wait! Am I gonna be trained by—by Rhys?!"

"No." Amia sighed. "Rhys is going to train the other three." Owen counted on his claws, trying to recall who was left. "Owen... Manny personally asked to be the one to train you."

Owen felt the ice in his stomach return, this time from dread. "Y-you mean... the Fighting Guardian?" he said. "B-but I barely beat Azu..."

Amia shrugged, though she was clearly trying to be delicate. "It's okay," she said. "I'm sure Manny will... do something helpful."

"C-can't you ask him to maybe... not?"

"Believe me, I tried," Amia apologized, "but everybody else was in favor of it, dear. I... I couldn't go against the majority. And they did have a point. Of all of us, you have the most potential to grow—and Manny knows how to do that. He specializes in training your... you know. Your kind. S-so, er... Let's go!" She headed out.

"W-wait! Don't I have to eat breakfast?"

Amia paused in her exit. "Do you?"

"I," Owen paused, feeling his stomach. "...I guess not. Huh."

Amia smiled and led the way out.

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"Hah! Th' sleepyhead's finally awake," Manny said, clapping his paws together, making a muffled, furry pat. "Took long enough! Oy, did yer mom fill yeh in?"