Lunar Dance: Part 4

They got very, very lost on the way through the route. So lost, in fact that Kaze and Issui reached level ten while they were walking. Yami, who had switched with Yugi, convinced he might have more luck than Yugi in finding their way, was training with Hane when they were attacked by a Starly.

Yami wasn’t too worried, by this point they had fought against so many wild  Starly that he was confident Hane could win against the larger Pokémon. The pair of bird Pokémon went at it, attacking each other by tackling each other in midair.

Keeping a close eye on Hane’s health using the Pokedex, Yami was about to use a potion on his bird, when suddenly the opposing creature managed to land a blow that sent Hane tumbling from the air. Before Yami could recall his Pokémon, the pokéball in his hand shattered and the bird falling from the skies disintegrated into purple shards before fading away.

“What the...” Yami stared at the empty air where his Starly had been. Pokémon didn’t do that when they fainted, not in real life. This had to be part of the rules of the Shadow Game. Probably yet another rule Bakura had failed to mention to them.

Yugi was just as shocked as he was. In fact he had started to like his Pokémon and watching one of them just disintegrate into the evening air. They were still in shock when they stumbled into town, where Hikari met them at the entrance.

She sulked when they had one more Pokémon in their Pokedex than her and then was just taking them to the Trainer School when they were interrupted by some strange man who claimed to be from the International Police. Codenamed Looker, the man was certainly odd enough to pull Yugi out of his shock and cause him to focus.

Author Note: Lunar Dance Team Update

Species: Piplup Nickname: Issui Gender: Male Nature: Calm Characteristic: Good Perseverance Ability: Torrent Level: 5 --> 12

Species: Pidove Nickname: Kaze Gender: Female Nature: Modest Characteristic: Mischievous Ability: Keen Eye Level: 4 --> 10

Lunar Dance: Part 3

A brief stop at the PokeCentre and the local mart later, Yugi left town fifteen pokéballs, one premier ball, one potion and two antidotes heavier and Y3500 poorer.  He wasn’t actually sure he needed all of that, but Yami had reminded him that they had started the game with that much money for a reason. It was better to be prepared than not when they didn’t know what they were getting into.

Hikari was waiting for them on the outskirts of town and shoved them back towards the houses, the game’s plot forcing them to detour back to their arrival point to talk to their ‘mom.’

Once there they got a journal to write in and a parcel from Jun’s mother to deliver to him when they saw him. Then it was back to town again. By the time they got back, Issui had learned Bubble and they had left a trail of knocked out Starly behind them.

When they got back to where Hikari was still waiting, she was a lot more helpful. In fact she gave them a demonstration of how to catch a Pokémon, her Chimchar allowing her to catch the wild Bidoof they encountered easily. She also gave them another five pokéballs, making Yugi wish he hadn’t spent so much money on them.

Once she was gone, Yugi managed to catch the first Pokémon they ran into. His Pokedex informed him that it was a female Starly and that it was currently level 4. He wasn’t sure what the levels meant in game terms, but since Issui had been gaining levels through battle experience he assumed that his Starly, who he decided to call Kaze, would need training in order to get stronger.

Something weird happened when he tried to catch the next Pokémon to come along though. The pokéballs refused to work. He wasted three, which he picked up after the Bidoof had been defeated, before he finally had to give up. Hikari was watching from the ledge above him and started giggling at him as he searched through the grass for the missing balls.

“You can’t catch any more Pokémon here.” She called down to him, causing him to turn to her, confusion obvious, “It’s a rule the Boss put down. You can only catch the first Pokémon you catch on each route.”

‘That means we can’t go back to the route between here and ‘home’ either.’ Yami huffed.

“No but the forest is still open, we never ran into any Pokémon there.” Yugi reminded him, before looking at Hikari, “Thanks for telling me.”

“No problem.” Hikari replied with a smile, “It’s not a fair game if you don’t know the rules after all. Oh, by the way, don’t forget you have to keep your Pokedex ahead of mine.”

“What?” Yugi asked, confused again.

“You agreed to it, remember?” She asked, “We’re racing to fill the Pokedex. Don’t worry, you don’t have to catch every Pokémon, just seeing them counts, but if I get ahead of you, the Shadows might not like it.” Yugi gulped, having not realised he had been adding to the rules when he had agreed to race her. “Good luck.” She waved and carried on down the route merrily.

‘So we can’t catch more than one Pokémon per route and we have to somehow keep our Pokedex ahead of Hikari’s?’ Yami asked with a growl, taking spirit form to pace through the long grass.

“And we can’t lose a single battle.” Yugi replied, nerves settling in a little as he realised the scope of their task. “We have to get to the Champion and beat him without losing a match.”

‘We’ll do it.’ Yami reassured Yugi, who headed back to the forest they had met the man from Galactic in. ‘It’s just another game. And we never lose, remember?’

“True.” Yugi allowed, the thought cheering him up as he caught their third team member. Another Starly, another female one, this one nicknamed Hane. “And Bakura will sulk for ages when we get out of here.”

Yami grumbled something Yugi didn’t quite catch, but he suspected was along the lines of ‘murder the bloody tomb robber.’ For once the hikari didn’t call his darker half on it. Yami was allowed to be ticked off about this and as long as he was just grumbling, he probably wouldn’t do anything that would get him in trouble.

They got into a little trouble with a Kricketot, the bug Pokémon had absorbed their attacks for a couple of turns before landing a blow that had nearly knocked Issui out. Yugi had had to rush back to the PokeCentre, where Yami skimmed through the Pokedex while they were waiting for Issui to be treated. ‘Bide,’ the move he finally figured out the Kricketot had used against them, absorbed the power of the attacks that they had launched at it and countered with that power.

It was something they were going to have to watch out for in the future if they wanted to get through the game safely.

Lunar Dance - Part 2

Part 1 

The walk from the lake to Sandgem Town wasn’t particularly difficult. The only problem that emerged was when a small, brown feathered bird attacked them, only to get slapped in the face repeatedly by Piplup. The tiny blue penguin seemed quite level headed, though it had lost its cool for a little bit when the other bird had gone for Yugi’s new backpack.

Talking to the non-player characters on the way proved had fruitful. One of them apparently worked for the local shop and gave him a free Potion. Jamie had explained what a Potion was ages ago, but he was not sure what the in game mechanics were for it. He guessed he would find out when he used it since he still did not have a Pokedex.

Nor did he own a map, so he had honestly expected to get lost when he reached town. However Hikari had been waiting for him at the town’s entrance and she had been about to lead him into the Professor’s lab when Jun had emerged at high speed, once again knocking Yugi on his rear.

“What the... hi Yugi!” Jun grinned at him, offering Yugi a hand up. “That old guy, he’s not scary. He’s just totally out there.” He continued as Yugi took it and pulled himself up right, “Aww it doesn’t matter, I’m out of here.” With that Jun was gone.

‘He’s nuts. Completely. You realise that?’ Yami asked Yugi, who just grinned after the NPC who was supposed to be his best friend.

“He reminds me a bit of Joey.” Yugi replied, before following Hikari inside, mentally grinning as Yami chuckled, easily able to see an overly excited Joey acting the same way.

‘Okay, you might have a point there.’ Yami allowed as they stood before the Professor once again.

“Ah there you are,” The old man nodded sagely as he looked him over, “Yugi? Was it?” Yami nodded, “Let’s have a look at your Pokémon.” Piplup wandered over happily and let the Professor look it over, “This Pokémon seems happy. I’m glad I entrusted you with it. So, are you going to give it a nickname?”

“A nick...” Yugi paused, then nodded, looking down at the penguin, “Issui?” He asked it. The penguin nodded happily and latched onto his leg.

“It’s a good name.” The professor nodded. “When I first saw you two about to step into the tall grass without any Pokémon I was shocked. Even the most foolhardy children know better. Now, however, you’ve proved that I was right to give you a Pokémon.”

“I’m so glad you’re kind towards Pokémon.” Hikari smiled at him, “If you weren’t, I’d have to... oh, I just can’t say it.” She didn’t have to, Yugi could feel the Shadows swirling, waiting to take a bite from them.

“Er-hem.” The professor interrupted, “Let’s move on to the main topic. There’s something I want you to do for me. I am Professor Rowan, I study Pokémon. First off I want to know every kind of Pokémon that lives in the Sinnoh region. To do so I need to collect data using the Pokedex. This is what I wish to ask of you. Please take it and record every type Pokémon in the region.”

“Sure.” Yugi nodded, knowing he would need a Pokedex if he was going to survive this Shadow Game and not wanting to tick off the man willing to give him one.

Rowan didn’t need any other impetus. He handed the small red machine over without question. “The Pokedex automatically records data on every kind of Pokémon you encounter. Any you catch adds extra data to the system.”

“I have one too.” Hikari informed Yugi, “We should race to see who can fill it first.”

“Sure.” Yugi agreed, thinking he was adding to the in-game chatter when he felt the Shadows shift and settle on something. Suddenly the Pokedex in his hand felt a lot heavier.

“What did you feel when you walked up route 201 with your Pokémon?” Rowan asked, “I’ve lived for 60 years with Pokémon and I still get a thrill when I’m with a Pokémon.” The professor smiled properly for the first time, “Now go! Yugi, your grand adventure begins right now!” He handed over a small computer disc. “Use this at a Pokémon Centre. It can teach your Pokémon a new move.”

“Me and Chimchar will help you out where we can.” Hikari promised before leaving the premises.  

“Good luck.” Rowan nodded to Yugi before ushering him out the door. “You’re going to need it.”

Lunar Dance - Part 1

‘Yugi. Yugi wake up.’

“Yami? What’s...” Yugi trailed off as he opened his eyes and looked around blearily, only to blink and rub his eyes and take a second look. “Where are we?” He asked as he slipped out of bed and gazed around at the room.

It certainly wasn’t his. He didn’t have a computer in his room, nor did he own a TV for his room, though he did, now, have a SoaringSky, the latest of Kaiba’s home consoles, but it was in the living room, not his bedroom, not to mention that this room was decorated in a completely different manner.

‘I don’t know.’ Yami’s admittance didn’t reassure Yugi, who slipped out of bed clothes that were not his own and into the clothes on the chair that seemed to fit, even if they weren’t his, hoping that whoever they belonged to wouldn’t mind and leaving the scarf and hat behind.

“The last thing I remember was turning on that game I got for Christmas.” Yugi said as Yami appeared in spirit form and considered what his hikari was wearing, “Then you said something, but I didn’t catch it and we were here.”

‘I felt Shadow Magic when you turned the game on.’ Yami informed him, feeling a little frustrated, ‘But you were already under whatever spell was on it and I barely managed to hold on to your mind tightly enough to get dragged here with you.’

“Sorry...”

‘You couldn’t have known that the game was a trap.’ Yugi sensed reassurance from the Pharaoh, ‘Just be careful until we know what we’ve been dragged into.’

Yugi nodded. Before he could say anything else the sound of footsteps caused Yami to vanish back into the Puzzle and Yugi to wheel around to face the staircase.

A blonde that Yugi had never seen before in his life darted up the stairs dressed in some rather odd clothes and practically bellowed, “There you are?”

To which Yugi replied with a very conversational, “Huh?”

“Don’t tell me you missed the TV show!” The blonde continued, moving over and pulling him over to the TV, flicking through the channels to see if there was a repeat of it somewhere, “Professor Rowan was on. He’s a really important Pokémon Researcher. He knows a lot about Pokémon. I bet he has a load too.”

“I guess.” Yugi pulled his arm out of the blonde’s grip and, sensing Yami’s irritation, sent reassurance over the link, hoping that this kid wouldn’t do anything else to aggravate the Pharaoh.

“I bet, if we ask, he’d give us some Pokémon.” The blonde grinned excitably, before getting distracted by the PC in the corner.

‘I doubt it.’ Yami snorted over the link, ‘Considering how protective Jamie is of her Pokémon I doubt this Professor will give up them to just anyone.’

“Yami, I think...” A thought occurred to Yugi, but he didn’t get to finish it before he was interrupted by the blonde.

“Where was I?” He asked, leaving the PC alone and invading Yugi’s personal space again, “Oh right, right! We’re going to see Professor Rowan and get some Pokémon. I’ll be waiting outside. Ok Yugi? If you’re late, I’m fining you Y10,000,000.” And with that the blonde shot back down the stairs again.

“Who...?” Yugi blinked.

‘More importantly how does he know your name?’ Yami appeared again, scowling in the direction the blonde had gone. ‘What was it you were going to say, Yugi?’

“I think I know what’s happened.” Yugi sent, Yami’s question snapping him out of his confusion, “You said the magic was linked to the game right?” Yugi sensed the mental equivalent of a nod, “I think we’re inside Pocket Monsters Sinnoh.”

‘Why?’ It wasn’t disbelief Yugi sensed from his dark side, but curiosity as to how Yugi had come to that conclusion.

“Joey told me that Professor Rowan is the head of the Pokémon Researchers in Sinnoh.” Yugi replied, thinking while trying not to wonder if the blonde would really charge them ten million yen if they were ‘late’. “And the present we received was the Sinnoh version of Kaiba Corp’s Pocket Monsters games. We can’t be in the real Sinnoh because we weren’t anywhere near any Rends and we already know that any Rends around the Game Shop are around Mt. Coronet in Jamie’s world so we wouldn’t be here, we’d be on top of some mountain if we had. Besides Joey mentioned that there’s a rival in every game that appears to know you from the very start and I’m guessing he’s the one for Sinnoh.”

‘Well reasoned.’ Yami sent, frustrated. ‘But you know what that means don’t you?’

“Someone booby trapped the game.” Yugi sent, worried, “And we’re now in a Shadow Game.”

‘And we don’t know the rules.’

That last worried Yugi more than anything else. They couldn’t know what they had to do to escape the game if they didn’t know what the rules were and what they were supposed to be doing...

The PC in the corner bleeped at them, causing Yugi to turn to look at it. If this was a video game then there would be some instructions lying around somewhere in order to help the players new to it. The information on the PC was completely useless and the poster on the wall wasn’t much better.

“Guess we have to learn as we go...” Yugi let out a nervous laugh.

‘Be confident, Yugi. We’ll get out of here.’ Yami promised his hikari as Yugi grabbed the backpack in the corner and headed downstairs, though he wasn’t sure of the fact either.

Almost instantly a woman pounced on them. “Yugi! Jun already left!” She said, as if she had the right to scold them.

‘Well at least we know the blonde’s name now.’ Yami sent as the woman continued, going on about the fact that ‘Jun’ had seemed in a hurry, before settling back down in front of the TV.

Yugi went to leave, only to be stopped again as he opened the door.

“Oh Yugi, don’t go into the tall grass. Wild Pokémon might attack you. It would be ok if you had your own Pokémon, but you don’t so... well, take care sweety.”

At her words Yugi checked his belt, only to remember that this wasn’t his belt and his Pokeballs and his deck were in the Game Shop in the real world.

Yugi felt almost naked without his deck. He hadn’t been without it since his match with Kaiba, back before Death T and, though he had the Puzzle and was grateful for its presence, since without it he wouldn’t have Yami here with him, the lack of his deck made him more nervous than he had been before.

“Bye bye Yugi.” The woman waved cheerily at him.

Yugi left.

It was dark and cold outside. Snow peppered the trees, though they were no type of tree that Yugi had seen before, and lay thick on the ground. The village pond looked slightly frozen and the small amount of houses around suggested that not many people lived there. The sign in the centre of the village said “Twinleaf Town” but it looked a lot smaller than any town Yugi had seen. He supposed that Kaiba’s employees hadn’t wanted to program huge cities of people into the games, so they’d taken short cuts.

Yugi tried to hold a conversation with the townsfolk, but they didn’t seem interested in saying much, though one did mention that Pokémon and people could be friends if you worked hard enough at it and another told him that Jun was looking for him and that he’d popped home.

Not that Yugi knew which house belonged to the blonde, there were a few homes around and all of them looked the same. How he was supposed to work out which one was Jun’s was beyond him.

Until he noticed the mailboxes.

Feeling like a complete idiot, Yugi checked each one until he found one that said ‘Jun’s House’ making Yugi wonder if anyone else lived there or whether he had a surname at all, and headed for the door, only to be knocked off of his feet when Jun came charging out the door and crashed into him.

“Oh, hey Yugi.” The blonde said with a goofy grin, “Hey! I’m going to see Professor Rowan! You should come too! And quickly!” Jun started to rush off, paused at Yugi’s tentative call and darted back again, “Oh jeeze! Forgot something!”

And with that he disappeared inside again.

“Should I follow?” Yugi asked his dark half, completely confused by the way this whole thing was progressing.

‘Since nothing else seems to be happening around here and we still can’t leave town.’ Yugi looked around the corner, only to see the guy guarding the entrance to town still stood there, watching him. ‘I’m guessing we don’t have a choice.’

Yugi entered the building, whose lay out was very similar to the one he’d woken up in, and was ushered upstairs by the woman that Yugi guessed was Jun’s mum,  to find the boy who was supposed to be his friend up there sorting out what he was taking with him.

“Jun?” Yugi asked tentatively, causing the blonde to jump.

“Oh hey Yugi! I’ll be waiting on the road! It’s a Y10,000,000 fine if you’re late!” The blonde vanished again, leaving Yugi stood, rather confused, alone in Jun’s room.

‘You know,’ Yami sounded amused, ‘He’s actually quite amusing to watch.’

“You would think that.” Yugi sent back, heading down and out, still wondering where Jun had gone and where they’d run into him next.

The guy guarding the town entrance was gone when Yugi exited the house, so they guessed, correctly, that that was where they were supposed to be heading, exiting town and, once again running into Jun. “Too slow!” The blonde crowed, looking amused, “Alright, let’s go to Rowan’s lab.”

Jun started dragging Yugi towards the tall grass but Yugi dug his heels in. No way was he going in there without a Pokémon.

“What?” Jun looked confused.

“We shouldn’t go in there.” Yugi pointed out, wishing he had Vulpix or Persian with him.

“Wild Pokémon live in tall grass, right?” Jun asked. “It doesn’t matter that we don’t have any Pokémon.” He continued when Yugi nodded, “Trust me on this one, I have an idea.”

Yami, who’d taken over when Jun had attempted to pull Yugi into the grass again, yanked his arm out of the blonde’s grip and gave him a sceptical look. He knew the sort of tone Jun was using rather well, it was rather similar to the tone Joey took before he came up with a bad idea. “Go on.” The Pharaoh said, ill amused.

“Don’t be like that Yugi.” Jun looked hurt, “All we have to do is dash through the grass and the wild Pokémon will never catch up to us.”

“No way.” Yami shook his head, sensing Yugi’s concern and having run into enough Pokémon to know better than to try something as insane as that.

“How about I go first?” Jun asked, backing up and not waiting for an answer before he shouted, “Here I go!” And went to leg it into the long grass.

“HOLD IT!”

Jun stumbled and fell over at the loud bellow from behind them. Yami wheeled around to face the person who’d shouted only to find a rather irate looking old man storming towards them.

“Neither of you appear to have a Pokémon with you.” The man ranted, “So why were you going into the tall grass?”

“I wasn’t planning to.” Yami commented when Jun seemed, for the first time, dumb struck.

“Very wise of you.” The old man said, nodding, before turning to Jun, “And you, young man?”

“Hey... Yugi?” Jun asked, “This old guy... It’s Professor Rowan... I think... What’re you doing here?” He asked the Pokémon Professor.

Rowan ignored him, merely turned around and started talking to himself about Pokémon and how the boys lives would change if they had their own Pokémon. Jun gave Yami a nervous smile.

When the Professor turned back to them, he had an odd expression on his face. “You two, you truely love Pokémon, do you?” He asked. Yami objected to being lumped in with Jun who seemed like a bit of a moron but, at Yugi’s request and because his other self did really care about all the Pokémon that he helped Joey look after, answered yes to Rowan’s question.

“Are you certain?” Rowan asked, prompting Jun to go off on one about no matter how many times he asked, he would get the same answer.

“You? A reckless kid who would try to enter tall grass without a Pokémon of your own and drag your friend in with you?” It wasn’t really a question, but Jun nodded anyway. “I worry what a boy like you would do with a Pokémon.”

“Uh... well...” Some of the wind left Jun’s sails. “Well then forget about me, but give a Pokémon to my friend here.” Jun indicated Yami, who gave him an amused look. “It was me who tried to go in the tall grass after all...”

The Professor looked surprised. “How big of you.” He thought for a moment, then nodded, “Very well, then. I will entrust the pair of you with Pokémon. However, you must promise me that you will never recklessly endanger yourselves again.”

Jun agreed readily enough but luckily Rowan got distracted before he could drag an agreement out of Yami, who knew full well that there was likely to be some dangerous situations in their future if they wanted to get out of here. The Professor turned around to look for someone or something.

A girl caught up with them. She was probably around Jun’s age with bluey black hair and an exasperated look on her face, “Professor Rowan. You left your briefcase at the lake.” She informed the old Professor before looking at the two properly, “Oh? Is something wrong here?” She asked, concern and protectiveness obvious.

“Ah there it is.” Rowan ignored her, “Hikari, nice work.” Yami started at the girl’s name and she gave him a small smile. “What I was about to do was entrust these two with their own Pokémon.” He informed her.

“Pardon!?” Hikari sounded shocked. “Those Pokémon are hard to replace. Are you sure about giving them away?”

Yami let control slip back to Yugi, more than willing to let Yugi pick their first Pokémon if they had a choice, as long as it wasn’t another trouble causing feline, while Rowan told Hikari why he was willing to let the Pokémon he had with him go to them. “Go on.” Rowan looked at them once he’d finished, “Open the briefcase and choose a Pokémon.”

“Really?” Jun looked like he was going to explode from joy. “I’m so happy that I can’t keep a straight face!” Then Jun surprised Yami by turning to Yugi and letting him pick first.

Yugi opened the briefcase carefully, only to find tons of paperwork and three Pokeballs.

“What...?” Yugi asked, looking up as his hand hovered over the Pokeball to his far left.

“That one’s a Turtwig.” Rowan told him. “The one in the middle is a Chimchar and the one on the right’s a Piplup.”

Turtwig was a grass type, Yugi knew because of Terra, Jamie’s Torterra, but he wasn’t sure of the other two and wished he’d paid more attention to the lessons Jamie had been giving Joey before she’d left.

“May I see them?” Yugi asked, hoping Rowan wouldn’t get offended.

Hikari looked amused and flipped open her Pokedex, showing him pictures of what the three young Pokémon looked like.

Seeing the pictures helped Yugi make up his mind and he picked up the Pokeball belonging to the water type Penguin Pokémon, Piplup and Jun swiftly chose the Turtwig. Something about that set off warning bells in Yugi’s head, but Rowan was talking again before Yugi could work out why.

“Very well! Both of you have chosen a good Pokémon, it seems. Now listen well. The Pokémon you have been entrusted with are unfamiliar to this world. In that regard they’re much like you.” The way Rowan looked at Yugi made the hikari rather uncomfortable. “As fellow newcomers to the world, I hope you’ll do well together. If you have any trouble, come see me at my lab in Sandgem Town.”

With that Rowan and Hikari left.

“Huh.” Jun spoke once they were gone. “That Professor was really nice. He seemed a lot scarier on TV.” It didn’t take long for Jun to go hyper again, “Hey! We both have Pokémon now. There’s only one thing to do, right? Are you up for this?”

“Huh?”

“I’ve always wanted to say this, the time has come. Yugi! I challenge you to a battle!”

Jun sent out his Turtwig and Yugi switched with Yami who sent out Piplup.

“Piplup... uhhh...” Yami hesitated, realising he didn’t know what moves Piplup could learn. “Attack!”

The Penguin Pokémon looked confused for a moment before slapping the Turtwig with its flipper. The Turtwig headbutted the water type and this continued for a while before, eventually the Turtwig fell over.

Jun looked incredibly put out, as he recalled his Pokémon, that he could have been beaten, and handed over Y500.

“You don’t have to give me...” Yugi offered it back, having taken over to pat the Piplup on the head before he recalled it.

“It’s a rule.” Jun shook his head, “Defeated Pokémon Trainers have to fork over half their cash.”

“That’s harsh...”

‘Now we know where Jamie gets all her cash from.’ Yami snorted in reply.

“Whew, let’s go home.” Jun said, looking more like he wanted to get out of there, “I’m beat after that battle. My Pokémon needs rest too. See ya, Yugi.” With that Jun disappeared back into the village, leaving a rather confused Yugi unsure what he was supposed to do now.

‘Piplup could use a rest.’ Yami interjected, ‘Perhaps we should emulate him for now. We can leave town at any time now we have a Pokémon.’

Yugi nodded and headed back into town, heading for the house that was supposedly his. He caught a few hours of sleep, then headed downstairs, noting that Piplup seemed healthier again now.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, the woman who Yugi guessed was supposed to be the player’s mother was waiting for him and, noting his concerned look, asked what was wrong.

Yugi hesitated in saying anything, unsure how much to tell the NPC considering this was a Shadow Game, finally deciding on everything, considering that he might get more information from a character that was, supposedly, his mother then he would from anyone else.

So he explained about getting a Pokémon and battling Jun and that he had no idea about what the rules were on keeping Pokémon or what he was supposed to be doing.

“I suggest that, before you do anything else, you go and thank Professor Rowan.” ‘Mom’ replied, “Tall grass should be less of a problem now.” She sighed, “As regards to rules...” Her voice changed from the nice polite tone she’d been using before, to the arrogant, sarcastic voice of Bakura, making Yugi back up slightly warily but she didn’t attack, only continued to talk, “If you want out of here, little Yugi, you’re going to have to complete the Trainer’s Challenge and defeat the Elite Four, without losing a single battle.”

“What?” Yugi paled slightly and Yami surged to the fore, furious.

“Bakura!” The Pharaoh snarled.

“Your hikari was the one who walked into my trap.” The woman, currently possessed by Bakura, shrugged, “Now I’m just fulfilling my part as the caller of this game by informing you of the rules. You may use any item within the game and you may use Pokémon Centres, however if you lose just one battle, you’ll lose a lot more than just half your cash.” The Tomb Robber sounded far too amused by this, “You’ll be able to use your Pokedex to tell you what your Pokémon know, attackwise, and what they’re trying to learn, but let me assure you the only way out of this Shadow Game is victory over the League Champion.”

“I don’t have a Pokedex.” Yami let out a low growl.

“Oh you will, and just so you know, I put your Dragonwing on charge so that it won’t go flat so you don’t have that to worry about. After all I don’t know what would happen to my prize if the doorway into the Shadow Game shut forever.”

“Prize? You’re after the Millennium Puzzle!”

“I assumed it didn’t have to be said.” FemBakura said with a shrug. “I think that’s enough explaining for now, you’ve seen Jamie in battle often enough to know how to command Pokémon in battle so I think, on that note I’ll depart.”

With that the woman slumped, only not hitting the ground because Yugi seized control and darted forward to catch her.

“Yugi?” The woman asked weakly, looking around confused.

When Yugi nodded, she pushed herself away. “I think I’ll go to bed. I must be more tired than I thought. There’s a brand new pair of running shoes by the door for you. I hope they fit.” She headed upstairs, confusing Yugi, who had only seen one bedroom up there, but didn’t question it as he put the, well fitting, running shoes on. “Well, at least we know what we have to do now.” Yugi commented waiting for the inevitable Yami explosion.

‘When I get my hands on that Tomb Robber...’ Yami snarled, ‘He’s going to wish he’d never been born.’

“In the mean time we’d better get going. If we’re supposed to defeat the Pokémon League in order to get out of here, we’re going to need more than just Piplup.”

When Yami sent his agreement, Yugi left town, only to run into Jun once again.

“Too slow! Yugi, I’m sick of waiting! I’m going to see Professor Rowan so I can thank him properly. So I had this great idea, listen up, ok?”

Yugi nodded, almost certain it wouldn’t be a great idea considering his ‘great idea’ from, Yugi guessed since the sun was now up, yesterday.

“You know that lake where we always play at? You know how they say a legendary Pokémon lives there? You guessed it! Let’s catch that Pokémon. That’ll make Professor Rowan happy, I’m sure of that!”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” Yugi told the blonde Trainer, “After all Piplup and Turtwig are only young, I don’t know if they’re ready to face a legendary Pokémon.”

“It’s ok, Yugi. Me and you together, we’ve got nothing to fear!” Jun half followed, half pushed Yugi in the direction he wanted him to go and Yami took over and would have put his foot down about this, had Jun not ‘accidently’ pushed too hard and sent them both tumbling down the hill to the entrance to the lake.

“Even if I was willing to go along with your stupid plan, which I’m not,” Yami sent a death glare Jun’s way, causing the blonde to back off about a foot, “We don’t have any Pokeballs.” Yami pointed out.

“Sorry, scary Yugi.” Jun apologised hastily, watching him warily. “I forgot. Could we at least check it out?”

“You know about me?” Yami asked, caught off guard.

“Of course, I’ve known Yugi for how long?” The blonde asked, with a cheeky grin, “Are the pair of you feeling alright? You’ve been acting a little strange.”

“We’re fine.” Yami waved it off; unsure whether this was a facet of the Shadow Game kicking in or whether Kaiba’s game designers had actually made the main hero schizophrenic. Neither would have surprised him by this point.

“Ok.” Jun looked like he wasn’t sure he believed Yami, but got distracted again, “So, lake?” He asked.

Yami sighed. “Fine, but we’re not going to attack the legendary Pokémon if we see it. Got it?”

“Fine, fine.” Jun half sulked as they entered the lake clearing.

There was an odd man there mumbling to himself with spikey blue hair who got startled when they approached and left almost immediately. Yami did catch one thing though. The man’s name had been Cyrus and he’d been wearing a top with the Galactic logo on it.

Yami darted after him, but the man had vanished.

“Yugi!” Jun caught up to him, “What’s wrong?”

“That man...”

“He was kind of odd, wasn’t he?” Jun nodded sagely. “Hey, I had a thought. Maybe we should go and see Rowan about Pokeballs. He did say for us to go and see him if we needed anything...”

“True.” Yami allowed.

“I’ll race you.” Jun grinned and ran off ahead.

“Does he ever stop running?” Yami asked the world in general. His only answer was Yugi’s giggling over the link.

“Let me take the lead?” Yugi asked, nudging slightly.

‘I don’t know, Yugi, this is a Shadow Game...’

“We’re only in danger while we’re in battle.” Yugi pointed out, “We can take it in turns. This is going to be a long game and if we take it in turns, neither of us should get bored.”

‘If you start to feel tired, let me take over, alright?’

Yugi sent the mental equivalent of a nod and Yami, hesitantly, relinquished control. Yugi sent reassurance over the link when he didn’t feel the painful, heavy pressure that he had when he’d been fighting Pegasus, and headed in the direction that Jun had gone.