No More

The Old Building

They had to find somewhere to stay. Kazan looked up to the skyline, and saw a tall building. The lights were out.

"This way," Kazan said, picking up the pace.

They arrived at the building as the sun was setting. Kazan noted a few broken windows, the space now occupied by spider webs. There was a large, purple 'D' on the side. It seemed sinister, but the place was abandoned and it was starting to snow again.

Kazan opened the door. In every corner, it seemed, there were spider webs. He heard mice running around in the ducts, and even saw a few on the ground. He used Flamethrower and they scattered.

A light turned on and Kazan saw Kage by the light switch. He walked in and looked around.

"Maybe there's some rooms untouched?" he wondered out loud.

He walked down the hall, Kage following. They were still holding Kuro and Kurai.

He reached the end. There was a door. He reached out and opened it and stepped inside.

The room looked like a war zone. There was a hole in the wall. The bed in the corner was toppled over, the sheets were scattered, and the mattress was torn open. Colored bits of paper lay scattered all around.

"What happened here?" Kage asked.

"I don't know," Kazan said.

He backed out, Kage following, and closed the door. He would never open it again.

"Let's go higher up and see what's there," Kazan suggested.

It took a bit for them to find an elevator, and it took a lot of jabbing of buttons for it to work. The whole building hummed as it came to life. The elevator moved up.

After a short time, the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened and they stepped out. They were in some kind of office. A laptop sat on a desk, covered in dust and webs. There were some cactuses here and there. Cactuses? Of all things, cactuses! And there was also a large, circular hole in the larger window. It seemed to indicate that someone had broken in a some point. Snow flew in through the hole and melted as soon as it touched the floor.

"You all should go to sleep."

"And you?" Kage questioned.

"I will too."

Kage set Kurai down and Kazan set Kuro down. They laid down on the floor.

"It's too cold," Kage whined.

"Let's change forms" Kazan suggested.

And they did. They pressed themselves against each other, enjoying the warmth, and slept.

The next day, Kazan was out in town. He was in his Pokemon form. Not many paid attention to him. And those that they chased him away. What was with these people? Why did this town have something against Pokemon?

There was one that did seem to care for him.

It was a young boy, probably five. He had brown hair and green eyes. When he saw Kazan, he left his parents' side and walked over to him.

"Wow, a new Pokemon," the child said.

He grabbed Kazan's horns. Kazan snorted and pulled his head away. That was when the mother came over and scooped the child up.

"Baby be careful," she said, casting glances of hatred Kazan's way. "I think that's a Houndoom. If it burns you, it'll hurt forever."

Hurt forever. Kazan was struck with guilt as he thought of Furui.

"Get back here!"

Kazan ran, sausages in his mouth, as if his life depended on it. And it might have. He was being chased by the butcher, a cleaver in hand.

His shoulder throbbed with pain. He tried to ignore it, but it just came back sharper. He cried out, the sausages went flying, and he crashed to the ground.

The shadow of the man loomed over him. Kazan gulped and closed his eyes. But in a moment, he was gone. Kazan opened his eyes to find that he still had those sausages. He got to his feet, grabbed them, and ran off.

What he didn't see was a woman in the distance watching. She saw Kazan run off, and then she disappeared.

"I don't like this," Kazan said, now in his gijinka form.

"What do you mean?" Kage said through a mouth full of sausages.

"Stealing," Kazan answered.

"Well, it's not like we can get a job or anything."

"Yeah," Kazan agreed. "Just, don't do it."

"I won't."

"Promise?"

"Promise."