Reader (Male) X Zoroark (Female) A Dark Bond

New Encounters

A week has gone by, and you've already gotten six Z-Crystals. Normal, Fighting, Water, Fire, Grass, and Rock. While walking through Akala Island, you found an interesting building called the Battle Royal Dome. You had also gotten two new members to the group. An Eevee, and a Salandit. You were taking a break with everyone, walking around Royal Avenue with Zora disguised as a human. You would've questioned it, but, well, what if it was just her own thing now? You didn't want to be rude to her. Zorua was sleeping in his pokéball for once. Jarom had been wandering more than actually doing the trials. When you did talk with him though, his cough just kept getting worse. You were really starting to get concerned, especially when you saw him cough up some blood, but he insisted everything was okay. You may not have known Jarom for too long, but it still worried you to see your friend like this.

You were looking around Royal Avenue, seeing other people with their Pokémon out. You saw a Lopunny, a Delphox, a Gallade, an Incineroar, a Mienshao, and a Machamp. Seeing others out with their Pokémon kind of caught you a little off guard. You haven't seen so many people walking with their Pokémon ever. Not in Kalos, not in Unova. You turned your head back towards Zora, who had her head facing the other way. You were about to ask her if she was enjoying everything when you felt something rub your waist. You jumped a little bit, then looked down and saw an Absol looking up at you. It had a bag on its side, and from how the bag was molding, there were a few items in there. The Absol looked at you a little confused, as if it were looking for someone and thought you were them.

"Hope! Over here!" You and the Absol, Hope, looked towards where the voice came from and saw a man with a black coat that went down and almost touched the ground. It also had a unique pattern of dark purple on his coat. If it was zipped up, you could tell the lines made a dark purple Y with the bottom part going along the zipper. He had black fingerless gloves, short blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked to be about 6'2. Hope looked back at you for a second, then ran over towards the person. As Hope went to its real owner, someone else showed up behind the man. A woman with long black hair with purple tipped at the end, blue eyes, purple finger nails, looking to be about 5'10, wearing a short-sleeved black leather jacket, levies, and some black eye-liner. For some reason, the air felt a little thicker. The man opened up the bag and looked inside, then started rubbing its head. Zora nudged you with her shoulder.

"You okay?" You nodded a little hesitantly.

"Yeah, guess there was just some confusion." You grabbed Zora's arm slightly and started to whisper. "There's something off about them, it's like I can feel an aura around them." Zora nodded a little.

"Yeah, I can sense it too, but I can't put my claw on it." You turned your eyes back towards them and saw they were looking at you. The woman was speaking to the man, then both of them started to approach. You tensed up a little bit as the man put his hands in his pockets and smiled.

"Hey there, sorry about the misunderstanding." He said. "Hope must have gotten scents mixed up."

"Y-yeah, don't worry about it." You said. "I've definitely had worse happen." He straightened his stature, but it was the woman that spoke up.

"That's right, you're (Y/n), aren't you?" You felt you had to be a little careful with your response. Whether or not they were going for intimidation, it was sure working for some reason.

"Who's asking?" The man started to laugh.

"Oh Arceus, I remember when I asked that at Gladion." He said. He gave a sigh and calmed down. "Anyway, my name is Sephtis. This lovely vixen here is Fenna." Fenna blushed a little and slugged Sephtis in the shoulder, and from how he recoiled, it had to be a hard hit.

"Sephtis, you know better than to say that out here!" He chuckled a little bit, rubbing his shoulder. He looked back at you, giving a smile.

"We've heard about you."