“Hey.”
Buizel looked up from his desk where he had been staring at it despondently. Sneasel was standing in front of his desk with folded arms, looking slightly impatient. “School’s been over for 5 minutes.”
“What? Oh.” He looked around at the other kids chattering excitedly. Haunter had neglected to show up for some reason, which had made Buizel uneasy. He returned his gaze to Sneasel, confused. “Um, do you need something?”
“I need to talk to you,” she said without preamble.
This caught Buizel off guard. “Oh, uh, alright.” He stood up and stretched, very aware of Sneasel watching him. “I guess we should get going, then.”
The walk home wasn’t terribly long, but it lent itself to interesting conversations. The path was surrounded by woods as it curved its way around various hills and immovable boulders, and the oddest things seemed to happen on it.
Buizel walked relatively slowly, still very unhappy with himself. Sneasel wasn’t in a hurry to get back to town either, he noticed.
“What’s been eating you?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Buizel sighed. He really didn’t want to elaborate about his feelings right now.
After a moment in which she obviously expected him to elaborate, she rolled her eyes. “Go on.”
“No, really, it’s nothing,” Buizel said, a little miffed.
Sneasel snorted. “You’re not a very good liar.”
He stumbled over a rock in the road, conveniently masking his sudden confusion. “What?” he asked as he straightened back up.
“Something is very obviously bothering you,” Sneasel said with a small smile as they continued walking. “I’ve been around you enough to know that you’re not usually like this.”
“I mean, I guess it’s kinda personal,” Buizel said after a moment of silence. “Not really something I want to talk about.”
“Family fight or something?” she guessed.
Buizel opened his mouth to disagree, but paused. “Kinda?” He said. “I mean, it wasn’t an argument, it was a battle, and it wasn’t my parents, either.”
“You’re talking backwards,” said Sneasel in an accusatory tone.
Buizel looked at her in bewilderment. “Huh?”
“You’re talking backwards,” she repeated. “My dad did the same thing. He started with the end of his statement, and worked his way backwards through clarification. He usually only did it when he was trying to avoid telling someone something.” The last few words were left floating in the air as an unspoken accusation.
Buizel thought carefully for a moment about how to word it. “I accidentally pushed someone too hard to the point of sickness.”
Sneasel nodded slowly. “I see.” There was a moment of silence, unbroken even by the rustling of wind in the trees.
“Did you know that there’s a mystery dungeon on Fifty Island?” she asked out of nowhere.
“I- huh?” The question caught Buizel off-guard.
“There is,” she continued. “It’s one of the town’s best kept secrets.”
“That’s- why is it kept secret?” he blurted. “Surely you’d want to warn people about it, or something?”
“The reason,” replied Sneasel, “is that it leads to the island’s Time Gear.”
“Oh. Oh.” He suddenly realized how that could be a very bad thing.
She eyed him askance, obviously expecting a bit more from his response, but didn’t push it. Instead, she followed her previous statement with, “Did you know that the Time Gear has gone missing?”
Buizel stopped in his tracks, horror dawning on him like some sort of twisted sunrise. “What?”
She obligingly stopped as well. “The Time Gear, the flow of time on the island, has gone missing.”
He suddenly realized that she was fishing for something. “Why are you telling me this, of all Pokemon?” he asked suspiciously. “Like, that’s terrifying and all, but surely there’s other Pokemon that should get this kind of news other than me?”
Sneasel smiled in genuine surprise. “Oh good, you’re not as dumb as I thought.” She folded her arms and gestured at him with a claw. “You’re the only ‘mon I know that has connections to that Shinx. As far as- I can ascertain, the Time Gear went missing around a week ago, which has been about as long as it’s been on the island.”
“Ah.” Buizel felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “And you suspect him of stealing it.”
“Bingo.” She started down the path again at a leisurely pace. “I have a vested interest in not being frozen in time, you know.”
He followed her. “Wait. If from what I’ve read is correct, when a Time Gear is removed from a location, doesn’t all time in that area stop?”
“Yep.”
“Then why aren’t we frozen in time? If it’s gone missing.”
“Because it’s still somewhere on the island.”
Buizel opened his mouth and shut it again.
“You can see the problem,” Sneasel said matter-of-factly. “We can’t just interrogate everyone on the island, because that makes people start to worry. It’s much better to look for oddities and go from there.”
“But you can’t see Sha- the Shinx right now,” he protested. “He’s-“
“Sick?” Sneasel cut him off. “I’d be inclined to say ‘likely story’, but judging by your attitude at school today, I have to believe it.”
“Oh.” Buizel cocked his head in confusion. “Why are you inclined to not believe me?”
“He was discharged from the hospital yesterday,” she listed off on her claws, “there were multiple sightings of it in town- hanging out with you, might I add- and Haunter hasn’t shown his face at all today.”
“What does that last part have to do with it?” Buizel knew that Haunter not showing up and Shaun roasting Haunter yesterday were probably related, but he didn’t see how she would also come to that conclusion unless she was also there.
“I just have a feeling,” Sneasel said vaguely. He was suddenly almost certain that she had been there, somehow. “I believe you because of what you said earlier about pushing him to be sick and your general mood today.”
“Wh-“ Buizel quickly replayed their entire conversation in his head. “I never said that I-“
“‘Admission through omission’,” she quoted with a smirk. “Doesn’t take a genius to extrapolate that kind of thing.”
There was another moment of silence, which Sneasel broke with a sigh. “Look, I’m sorry that I have to do this, but I really need to talk to this Shinx. Or whatever you call him,” she added, to Buizel’s chagrin. “I just need to figure out if he stole the Time Gear or not.”
“Well, uh, there might be a slight complication with that,” he replied. “Besides the whole ‘being sick’ thing.”
Sneasel groaned. “Don’t tell me he has, like, amnesia or something.”
Buizel resisted the urge to grin. “I’ve got some bad news.”
She stared at him. “No way.”
“Way. That’s part of the reason I’ve been hanging around him so much,” he admitted. “He doesn’t remember any life to go back to.”
“That’s a depressing way of looking at it,” she remarked.
He shrugged. “It’s apt.”
The conversation came to a close as they finally arrived in town. It was much less busy than yesterday, but there were still quite a few Pokemon roaming the plaza. Buizel cut through his usual alleyway to get home faster and was slightly disconcerted to see Sneasel still following him. “I thought you’d have left by now.”
“I need to talk to this Shinx,” she insisted.
Buizel felt wary about letting another complete stranger into his home, but he told himself that this one only wanted to see Shaun. It didn’t help.
As they approached the lighthouse, Sneasel raised an eyebrow. “Why are we going to the lighthouse?”
“Huh? Oh, I live here,” Buizel answered nonchalantly.
“What.” The disbelief in her voice was so palpable that it was almost a solid object.
“Yeah, our family maintains and runs the lighthouse,” Buizel said.
“Your father is the Keeper?” Sneasel asked incredulously. She put such an emphasis on the word that it made Buizel think that there was something more to it than just a title.
“Keeper of the lighthouse, I guess,” he replied as he pushed open the door to the house. “Hi, mom! I’m home!”
“Welcome back,” his mother called from the kitchen. “You should go see Shaun, he’s been asking for you since his fever broke.”
“His-“ Buizel’s brain processed what he had just heard as he was already galloping up the stairs.
His room was the same as usual, save for the bed’s occupant who sat up and smiled at him. “Hi, Buizel!” Shaun said brightly. “Your bed is really comfortable.”
Buizel was a turmoil of emotions that he didn’t want to analyze right now as he stood beside the bed. “You’re- you’re completely well again?” he asked around the lump in his throat.
“Yup. Though your mom is keeping me on bedrest until she’s completely sure I’m well.” Shaun rolled his eyes. “Talk about deja vu.”
Their conversation was cut short by Sneasel’s entrance into the room. Buizel stepped back, suddenly worried about how Shaun would handle the situation. “Oh, uh, Shaun, this is Sneasel. Sneasel, this is Shaun.”
Sneasel raised an eyebrow, thoroughly unimpressed. “I see. I thought you said he was sick?” she asked as she walked over to the bed.
“I was,” Shaun said, “Until I just suddenly got well again. Second time this has happened,” he muttered.
“I see,” she repeated. “Alright, I’m going to ask you some questions. Is that alright with you?”
Shaun gave Buizel a What in the world have you gotten us into look. “Sure,” he answered nonchalantly, “even though you’ve already asked one. Ask away.”
Buizel blinked. What was Shaun doing? Whatever it was, it was certainly throwing Sneasel off. She stood still for a moment before taking a deep breath and continuing, “Do you know what a Time Gear is?”
“Yeah,” said Shaun. “We were translating an old tome when it mentioned one being bestowed upon the island by Dialga or something.”
Sneasel nodded, seeming to already know this information. “Did you steal the Time Gear?”
The question was so blunt that even Buizel felt like he had been backhanded. Shaun just sat there with a blank, disbelieving look on his face. “Excuse me?”
“You appear out of the blue and suddenly the Time Gear vanishes,” she said, folding her arms. “Both on the same day.”
“Ah.” Shaun chuckled mareepishly. “I can see how that would make me suspect number one.”
Sneasel stood there silently, waiting for him to continue.
“No, I didn’t steal the Time Gear,” Shaun said after a moment, rolling his eyes. “I don’t even know what it looks like. All I can garner is that it’d probably be- gasp!- a gear shape.”
Sneasel’s mouth twitched in some form of amusement. “So you’ve never seen one? Blue, six teeth, engraved with a special pattern?”
Shaun raised an approximation of an eyebrow. “Really? I thought it’d be green, for some reason.”
Buizel glared at Shaun with a What in the world are you doing look, which Shaun pretended to not notice.
Sneasel huffed. “You’re exasperating.”
“You’re cute,” he shot back.
Amidst Buizel’s utter astonishment, Sneasel blushed violently. “Oh?” Her voice came out in a sort of squeak.
“Yeah,” Shaun said. He didn’t elaborate, he just sat there, staring at her.
“I- I need a minute.” Sneasel didn’t run from the room, but she moved in a jerky way that implied that she wanted to.
Buizel stared after her, dumbfounded. “What- I… how?”
Shaun grinned wickedly. “Flattery will get you everywhere.” His grin faded as he looked at Buizel. “Who is she, anyway?”
“Sneasel goes to school with me,” Buizel explained. “I’ve never really talked to her, but she insisted on talking to you today.”
“From the way she was asking questions, I was more inclined to believe that she was law enforcement,” Shaun replied. “She’s scary. But cute,” he added.
Buizel rolled his eyes. “I should probably go see if you scared her out of the house. If she really is law enforcement, that wouldn’t bode well for anyone.”
“Good idea,” Shaun said as Buizel left the room.
Sneasel was sitting halfway down the stairs with her face in her hands. Buizel paused, unsure what to do. “You alright?” he finally asked.
“Arceus, he’s so cute,” she groaned from behind her hands. “He doesn’t know when to shut up and then goes and flirts with me.”
“Uh, if it’s any consolation, that caught me off-guard too,” Buizel said awkwardly. “I didn’t know he would… do. That.”
Sneasel let out a hysterical giggle. “Oh my god, I suck at this. I don’t know if I can face him again after that.” She took a deep breath and stood up, embarrassment and something else Buizel couldn’t identify dancing in her eyes. “I need to at least ask about his amnesia, though.”
She climbed back up the stairs, with a nonplussed Buizel following her. Shaun was lazily studying the ceiling as they walked in. “Oh hey,” he said with faint surprise, “you’re back.”
“Yes, I’m back,” Sneasel replied. “Okay, you have amnesia, right?”
“Yeeessss?” He drew the word out into a question. “I thought I told you to keep that a secret,” he muttered to Buizel out of the corner of his mouth.
“I can’t confidently say that you haven’t done it, then,” she said. “There’s every possibility that you worked with somemon else to wipe your memory so that you’d have plausible deniability.”
“So you’re saying that they wiped my memory and then ditched me on a beach to fend for myself,” Shaun said skeptically. “I don’t find that likely.”
“My point,” Sneasel said, trying to hide a smile, “is that even the best Psychic-types can’t permanently erase memories, only suppress them. If you are innocent, then there should be nothing to fear.”
Shaun pondered this for a moment. “My only worry is that I’ll find out that I was a horrible person or something before I woke up here. Even just having that kind of knowledge changes someone.”
“Well, it’s either that or you get tried for a crime you may or may not have committed,” she said airily.
Shaun cocked his head. “Touché. Is there a Pokemon that specializes in memory restoration or something around here?” he asked, obviously not expecting a serious answer.
“I know somemon,” Sneasel replied. “We could probably see him now if we left within the hour.”
Shaun shrugged. “Sure. I could go for a walk after being cooped up in here all day. Besides, I want to get this resolved today so I don’t have it looming over me tomorrow.”
“Good call.” She turned to Buizel, who had forgotten he was standing there. “Are you coming with?”
Buizel scrambled for a second as he comprehended what he was being asked. “Um- Yeah! Yes, I’m going.”
Sneasel smiled. “Good. Shall we go?”
The wind rustled in the trees as the odd group made their way to a part of town that Shaun hadn’t seen before.
It was an older, more residential part of town, the buildings looking slightly more practical and less colorful. Still, a lot of care was put into maintaining the tall townhouses that lined the sloping streets. Shaun saw a Pokemon he didn’t recognize repairing a roof with new shingles and smiled slightly despite himself.
It was less busy than the actual village, but there were still plenty of Pokemon in the area. Sneasel deftly wove between Pokemon and buildings, like she had done this a hundred times before. She probably had, Shaun reflected as they turned into an alleyway.
The alley ended in a dead end, with wooden wall on one side and stucco wall on the other. “Wow, nice dead end you got there,” Shaun said sarcastically.
Sneasel rolled her eyes and knocked on the wooden wall. The part of the wall she knocked on slid aside to reveal a darkened passage into the building, much to his chagrin.
“You know, I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to how many secret passages and doors there are in this town,” Shaun remarked to Buizel as they followed her inside. “Makes me think that it’s hiding something.”
“It is,” Buizel said with a hint of humor. “Time Gear, remember?”
“Ah. Right. The one I’ve been accused of stealing.” He bounced a paw off his forehead. “Hu-douy.”
This left Buizel snickering as they entered into a large white room. The walls were painted white, and there were white tiles on the ceiling. About the only thing that wasn’t painted white was the blue cat-looking Pokemon who was leaning back in a white chair behind a white desk with its eyes closed. “I’m starting to think that this guy likes the color white,” Shaun said out of the corner of his mouth for Buizel’s benefit.
“Hey, Meowstic,” Sneasel said with all the casualness in the world. “This Shinx has amnesia.”
The Meowstic didn’t respond for a moment, leaving Shaun to wonder if he was really awake. Then he opened his eyes to reveal stunning green gems that narrowed as they looked at him and Buizel. “I see. Any particular reason you’re bringing him to me?”
“I have my suspicions,” she responded. She left it at that.
“Ah. This is about that.” He sighed irritably and set the chair down, causing Shaun to realize that it had been floating in the air. “Alright, sir,” he addressed Shaun. “Where do you come from?”
“I- don’t know?” Shaun thought this was obvious. “I have amnesia.”
“I meant where you currently come from,” huffed Meowstic. It was clear that he thought he had asked an easy question.
“Oh. I’m currently staying at the lighthouse,” Shaun replied. This particular Pokemon was already really rubbing him the wrong way.
“Do you deny stealing any sort of Time Gear?”
“I deny it.”
“We’ll see about that,” concluded Meowstic ominously. “Step onto this desk, please.”
Shaun obliged, even though it was more of a leap than a step. “How will this work?”
“You lie down on the desk on your back and I put my paw on your forehead,” he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You shouldn’t notice a thing, because if you do, then I’ve messed up somewhere. But I don’t,” he added with a smirk.
Shaun had thoroughly developed the opinion that this cat was a jerk, but he kept it to himself as he laid down on the desk, facing the ceiling tiles. Meowstic stood on the chair to get extra height and placed his paw squarely on the center of Shaun’s forehead, closing his eyes.
Shaun was expecting some sort of lightshow hallucination to take place, but nothing seemed to happen. The white tiles seemed to distort a little, merging into larger ones as he stared, but they snapped back to normal when he blinked.
Shaun let his mind wander. How on earth did I get into this mess? He had been putting off thinking about that question, as the potential answers scared him. He had most likely been put here to do something, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to do at all. He had just been rolling with the punches so far, but he couldn’t stay this passive forever. He’d have to do something.
His mind turned to waking up on the beach. Why there? It seemed like such an odd place to wake up. Sure, Shaun reasoned, he could’ve gotten tossed overboard in a storm or something, but he couldn’t remember anything from before waking up on the beach. All he remembered were the few small facts that he kept close to his heart. Like the date, which was probably woefully inaccurate. Like his name, Shaun.
Like the fact he was a human.
That particular secret felt like the single most dangerous one to share as Shaun thought about it. Humans were considered fairy-tale creatures by probably every Pokemon, and no one would believe him if he did tell them, because he was also a Pokemon. It made him want to scream with frustration. He knew he had an old life, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to it, at this point. Something deep inside himself told him that it was probably for the best that he had lost his memory.
It’s also possible that the idea he was a human was planted in him by a third party.
Something deep in his soul rejected this notion. He had been human. He wouldn’t’ve been able to explain how he knew this, but he knew.
A new Pokemon walked into the room at this point, but Shaun was too distracted by his own thoughts to notice or hear the greetings from the other two. His thoughts returned to that beach again. Was there really nothing before waking up on the beach? He tried and tried to recall, but all he found was the massive, cloudy wall that defied any attempts at piercing it. He tried just walking through it, but it was like trying to walk into a cloud that actively didn’t want him there. He frustratingly found his memory starting at the beach again. Meowstic’s brow furrowed, matching Shaun’s own frustrations.
Shaun suddenly had the thought to try a new tact. Maybe if he tried sliding in at an angle, he’d find something behind the clouds. Reasoning that it was a good idea as any, he tried it.
It did no good. He found himself at the memory of the beach again. He mentally glared at the cloud wall before charging it head on.
This seemed to have the most success. He found himself tumbling through dense and choking fog, with faint bubbles of sensations and memories floating around him. He tried to lunge at them, to remember anything, but he was back at the beach again.
Someone nudged him to try again. He tried, but was met with similar results. He glowered at the memory of the sand again. Why wasn’t this working?!
The sentiment echoed throughout his brain. Recklessly, he charged again, leaping into the dense cloud.
Someone gave him an extra boost through the fog. He was flying through the clouds, towards a pinprick of light. If he could just make it there-
Something ripped him away from the clouds. No.
He heard himself gasp as something in his brain snapped like a rubber band. He was suddenly aware of the white room again, with its painted wooden walls and strange tiled ceiling. Meowstic was still for a moment before unconsciously falling backwards out of the chair and hitting the floor with a thud.
Sneasel and a chinchilla-looking Pokemon he didn’t recognize rushed over to Meowstic, exclaiming. “What happened?!” Sneasel was sitting next to the other Pokemon with her claws over her mouth, who was shaking Meowstic gently.
Shaun pushed himself up, wincing at how much his head ached. Buizel was standing by the side of the desk, looking pale. “You good?”
“I’ve lived through worse,” he said faintly. His brain felt like it had come disconnected from his skull.
“If you say so,” replied Buizel dubiously. They both turned their attention to the unconscious Pokemon on the floor. “I think he got the worst of it,” he muttered woefully.
Meowstic was slowly rousing from his unconsciousness. “Oh, hey Cinccino,” he muttered. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I needed to talk to you about something, but I seem to have caught you at a bad time,” the Pokemon that Shaun thought was Cinccino said. Shaun wanted to laugh at this, but his head was still floaty and distant.
“Mmm. Let me sit down,” Meowstic said in a worrying tone. Cinccino helped him into his chair. “Get off my desk, please,” he said to Shaun with his eyes closed. Shaun obliged, still not feeling quite well himself.
Meowstic put his head in his paws and rested his elbows on the desk. “Okay,” he spoke slowly. “The way I see it, you’re still not cleared of suspicion of grand theft, but if… that… was anything to go off of… I can’t in my right mind continue to cross-examine you.” He waved a paw at the door. “Go away, all of you. I need some time to recover.”
Shaun almost complained that his head was still messed up, but thought better of it as Sneasel and Buizel left the room. Cinccino also lingered for a moment before giving up and also leaving, causing Shaun to follow him.
Out in the alley, Sneasel rounded on Shaun. “What did you do?!” Her voice was full of indignant fury.
“I dunno,” Shaun replied in the same distant tone he had used earlier. “Something snapped.”
“That is not an explanation,” Sneasel said, crossing her arms. “I need you to tell me what happened. Meowstic doesn’t just fall over like that.”
Cinccino sighed. “Children, this is not the place for this.”
Sneasel rounded on him angrily. “And where do you propose we have this discussion?”
“That’s an easy one,” he replied. “My house.”