The Friendly Necromancer

Chapter 11: Bashak's Interlude


Mareep is an ovine pokemon with fluffy cream-colored wool covering its entire body, as well as a curly tuft of wool in the middle of its head. Its head is blue, and it has black eyes. Its four feet are blue and have two digits on each foot, and it appears to be on tiptoe at all times. Its conical ears and tail have a yellow-and-black striped pattern. Mareep has an orange sphere at the end of its tail, which acts like a small light bulb. This sphere glows brighter the more electricity it has. It tends to avoid battles in the wild and has a mild disposition. Mareep which experience combat despite this tend to evolve rapidly into Flaafy and then Ampharos.

Mareep's wool, which grows continuously, stores electricity, rubbing together and building a static charge. Its volume increases when it builds up with electricity. Touching the wool when it is charged will result in a static shock. During the summer the fleece is shed, but it grows back quickly. Air is also stored in its fur, which allows it to stay cool during summer and warm during winter. In the wild Mareep is most often found in grassy fields, though it is also raised by herders in a variety of climates. Its wool is used in high-quality clothing, though it needs to be specially treated before it is safe to wear.

-----

Bashak watched curiously as his companion devoured their lunch. The small ghost-costumed trainer ate in the oddest way. First they filled a cupped hand with trail mix. Then they lowered their scarf just enough to expose their mouth and placed their hand so that it covered their mouth. Only then, with their mouth completely obscured, would they eat as if feeding from a small trough.

The herder's own lunch was yogurt sprinkled with blue bluk berries. Bashak spooned himself a mouthful, taking care to squish some of the sour-skinned berries between his back teeth so he could taste their sweet insides too. He never took his eyes off Diya as he ate though, and he never stopped wondering about the younger trainer.

At first, when June had told Bashak about the weird way Diya ate, he'd assumed they were a child used to lean times. He'd met a few children like that before, who lived further out on the frontier. They ate hunched over their meals like they were worried someone or something would take it from them if they didn't protect it.

Diya wasn't eating like that at all. They were happily chatting with their Gastly - at least that's what Bashak assumed was happening as they stared at Svartis and their face flickered through shades of laughter and affection. When Diya put down their tin of trail mix, they set it casually on a flat rock behind them out of their line of sight. And when Bashak had offered them some bluk berries, they'd unreservedly offered some of their own trail mix in exchange.

Nor did Bashak think Diya was hiding some deformity behind their scarf and their hand. He'd seen their face earlier when they'd taken down their scarf to smile at him. It could be a deformity inside their mouth of course but … no, he didn't think so. Between their pink eyes, casual demonstration of discomfiting powers, and cheerfully open attitude, Bashak didn't think Diya was someone who'd be uncomfortable displaying a deformity.

A cultural custom about not showing one's open mouth to others? No, Diya was a local, and a dyed in the wool local by their mannerisms and the clothes they wore under their cloak. Bashak would be surprised if this was a tradition they'd inherited from a foreign family.

Bashak shared a comfortable silence with the ghost trainer as they ate, and he watched.

---

"Ready?" Bashak asked Diya.

The young trainer stood with their feet spread in a broad ready stance and streamers of black energy flickering around their hands. Svartis floated next to them, crackling with the same black energy. The two of them nodded in unison. They were ready.

Bashak looked down at Greta, who was standing across from them. He crouched down to scratch the ruff of her neck fondly. Out loud he told her, "You're gonna do great Greta. Don't worry, I promise they're not as scary as they look." Then under his breath he whispered, "Greta, open with baby-doll eyes."

The herder stood up and smiled guilessly at his pokemon's opponents. Just because this spar was all in fun didn't mean he had to play fair.

"We start on my whistle," he told them, and they nodded again. Bashak slipped his old whistle into his mouth, a thin triangle of bone with the inside carved out and a hole through the middle of it. He tongued it into place and waited a moment, sizing up the competition. Then, right when Diya and Svartis started to fidget, he blew a high piercing shriek on the whistle.

The two of them started, dark energies crackling around them with a renewed intensity as they readied to meet his Herdier's charge.

His Herdier who did not charge. Instead Greta whined plaintively at the loud noise, shuffling her feet back and forth in the snow. Her butt wiggled as she looked nervously between the scary ghostly pair and her trainer. She whined some more, intimidated and unsure of what she should do.

Diya and Svartis hesitated. The pair looked back and forth between Bashak and their opponent as well. Bashak could see their reactions written plain upon them. They were unsure. Diya shuffled their feet, falling out of their broad ready stance and into something more ashamed, uncertain about fighting this poor innocent little dog. Svartis' broad smiling mouth dropped into a frown. She mirrored her trainer's uncertainty and added some extra uncertainty of her own, unsure what it meant that no fighting was happening when her trainer had told her there would be fighting.

Bashak waited until Diya reached for the pokedex in their coat pocket before letting his guileless smile transform into something sharper and victorious. And if Diya had been a little more alert, a little more aware, they might have seen his smile shift and realized something was wrong. But Fairy powers like baby-doll eyes were subtle and effective. Diya didn't see through Greta's act and the ghost trainer's defenses were down until the very last moment.

Bashak blasted his whistle, one quick sharp note and then a patterned chirp. The first note told Greta the command was for her and that she would be using sparring -not lethal- force. The chirp told her to bite.

Greta rocketed forward with such speed the snow exploded into flurries behind her. Diya barely had time to blink before the small pokemon missile slammed into their leg and took it out from beneath them. Diya went down in a tangle of limbs. Svartis looked sideways to where Diya's head had been just a moment before and blinked owlishly, not yet processing what had happened.

Then Greta nipped Diya's leg lightly, with teeth wrapped in the deeper-than-black Dark energy that accompanied a Herdier's bite, and the fight really got started.

Diya yelped out loud at the touch of the Dark energy, throwing their hands up a moment later to press against their scarf-covered mouth. Svartis realized what was happening all at once and unleashed her own attack in response. A barely visible line of oily black smoke rippled through the air from the Gastly.

But Svartis was panicking and disoriented, and not in a state to remember Herdiers were Normal type pokemon. Whatever mental effect her Ghost attack was supposed to have flowed through Greta without touching her and a moment later Greta pivoted and leapt away, making good her escape.

Diya staggered to their feet. They swayed with disorientation and favored their nipped leg heavily. Tints of pink light lit the forest's shadows as they blinked and stared around them, trying to get their bearings.

Bashak didn't give them the space to do that. Which is not to say he pressed his advantage as hard as he could have. In a real fight, this would be the moment where he'd have Greta take her woozy opponent out of the fight for good so she could focus all of her attention on one remaining opponent . But this was just a spar, to teach and to have fun, so instead he ordered her to go after Svartis.

Another whistle blast had her leaping up high to bite the floating spirit, deeper-than-black Dark energy wrapping around her teeth again. Svartis shrieked a high tea-kettle noise and tried to dodge, but was too slow. Greta didn't get her main spherical body, but she did get the edge of Svartis' purple gaseous form with her teeth.

Svartis yanked her gaseous form out from between those dark teeth with a pained shriek. And Diya's glassy disoriented eyes finally snapped back into focus. Or tried to at least. They were still a little cross-eyed as they raised their right hand and let loose a blast of tattered black and purple streamers.

The night shade -at least that's what Bashak thought the ghostly attack was- missed by meters, sending up plumes of churned snow and earth. Greta was already wheeling away again, dashing for the cover of the trees at Bashak's whistled direction.

Bashak frowned as the plumes of debris collapsed back to earth. That had been entirely too much force for a practice spar. Any attack rooted in the physical world enough to tear holes in the earth would do the same to Greta, regardless of how Ghost and Normal energies interacted. He'd have to talk to Diya about that after the match. If they couldn't keep their use of force under control while disoriented, they shouldn't attack at all. Until he could have that talk with them though, he'd just have to keep Greta from using anymore mentally compromising Fairy moves.

For that same reason, Bashak judged it was a good idea to let the mystic powerhouse get their head on straight before a serious accident happened. He whistled to Greta to stay put in cover and work herself up instead of continuing to harry them. Greta slid to a stop behind a tree and hunkered down. With a low growl of effort and exertion she began the process of pumping her muscles with Normal type energy.

To Diya's credit, the first thing they did once they'd regained their bearings was to look around frantically for Svartis. They found their Gastly cowering above them in the shadows of the forest canopy, pulled up out of Greta's reach. Trainer and pokemon locked eyes, and something passed between them without words.

Bashak watched intently as they communicated. Diya had just been played for a fool and battered about. The pokemon they were fighting was untouched. And their own pokemon was cowering with fear, hesitant to reenter the battle. So. What were they going to do about it?

June wanted Bashak's opinion on whether they should invite this ghost trainer to travel with them on their journey. Her own mind was already made up. She adored this child and thought the two of them should take Diya under their wing. And Bashak was inclined to agree. But still, he watched. When a trainer was hurting and losing, and their pokemon was uncooperative, you could learn a lot about them by how they let themself be affected by that.

Truth be told, Bashak would have accepted a fair degree of less than ideal behavior from Diya right then. Some general frustration and anger wouldn't have been out of place, so long as Diya didn't take it out on Svartis. Few people were at their best right after being knocked on their ass. So Bashak was surprised when Diya didn't get upset. And not in the sense of successfully controlling themself, Diya didn't get upset at all .

Instead Diya was smiling when they looked up at Svartis, excited and beaming even as they heaved in labored breaths. Then a moment later that look of excitement vanished, replaced first by wide-eyed concern and then the immediate desire to comfort. Diya ushered Svartis down from the canopy and into their robes, petting down the front of their robe with soothing one-handed gestures. With their free hand they opened their pokedex and typed, <PAUSE! Can we stop?>

Bashak nodded his agreement immediately, whistling for Greta to stand down and return to his side. And start using baby-doll eyes again, just a little to defuse any tension. Bashak slipped his whistle out of his mouth and knelt down to scratch Greta behind the ears, giving her a good hard scratch. She'd done so well, and she deserved to know it. The herder did his best to keep his attention divided though, one eye on Diya for further typing.

And Diya did explain themself as quickly as they could type. <I'm sorry about that. I should have realized this would happen. Svartis is the spirit of a prey animal. Bottom of the food chain, no combat abilities. Even though she's a lot stronger and harder to hurt now, she got really scared when Greta attacked her. Mind if I take some time to calm her down?>

Bashak told himself very firmly that he was not as impulsive as June and he hadn't just decided the two of them were adopting this tiny caring child. As he lied to himself, Bashak answered Diya, "Of course. But remember, we should fight again in a minute or two."

That gets him a confused head tilt from Diya. <???>

Oh, of course. This was Diya's first pokemon, they wouldn't necessarily know this. "It's okay if the next spar is gentle and low-intensity, but there should be a next spar. Flinching is a bad habit to build when training to fight, and learning to not give in to fear is a powerful lesson."

<Oh! That makes sense!> Diya turned from Bashak and began communicating with Svartis very intently, holding open the collar of their robe with their eyes fixed on Svartis inside. After a minute they looked back up and asked, <Can we practice being on the offensive? Just for the start of the spar, to ease Svartis into it?>

Bashak nodded. "Of course." Greta ought to get in some dodging practice with their attacks anyway. She could dodge the lead spark of a Mareep's lightning bolt like a champion and weave through a Piloswine's ice storm like it was nothing, but that was because she'd done both a thousand times each. Some exposure to unfamiliar attacks would do her good.

An almost invisible purple mist flowed out of Diya's collar, coalescing above their hat into Svartis' semi-corporeal body with its too-wide eyes and sharp-toothed mouth. Diya tilted their head back to look up at her, communing. When they lowered their head again they were grinning, and Svartis too. <Ready.>

Bashak slipped his whistle back into his mouth and gave a series of quick relatively quiet chirps. Without hesitation Greta did as bid, working herself up with Normal energy to strengthen her muscles and tensing her legs in preparation for a dodge. He slipped his whistle out for a moment and asked, "On my mark?"

Diya slipped their pokedex back into their cloak and nodded, settling back into a ready stance. Again, black energies crackled around their hands. Above them a dark purple mist coalesced around Svartis, pulling in to orbit her in dark swirling clouds.

This time Greta didn't pretend to be intimidated. She'd faced down Gabites, a dragon pokemon, to protect the family's herds before, alongside the rest of the family's protectors. Bashak's companion had fought worse than this and he knew she would only give these two young whippersnappers the respect of fear when they earned it.

Bashak let loose a starting blast with his whistle.

For an instant the forest flashed black as Diya let loose, like an inverted flash bulb had gone off. Tattered streamers of black and purple shadow shot forth from their left hand in a wide spray meant to cage and contain the small Herdier.

Snow blasted into the air before the night shade even landed as Greta made good her escape. She shot sideways on empowered legs at Bashak's direction, not even touching the snow again until she landed meters away and pivoted, turning back to face her opponents. She threw herself across the snow in bounding leaps, covering the distance between them rapidly.

Diya had asked Bashak to let them go on the offensive, but he saw Diya's right hand still crackling with power and the swirling mist about Svartis. The two of them would have an answer for Greta's charge, and he wanted to give them an opportunity to show it off.

And they did. Diya slashed with their right hand and released a wide fan of streamers in front of Greta, blasting into the snow and blocking her path. Greta jerked to a stop, ready to leap sideways to avoid whatever attack Svartis had waiting for the moment she was stalled.

But no attack came forth. The dark clouds only swirled tighter around Svartis, pulling inward.

Bashak whistled for Greta to tackle Diya, confident she could attack and retreat before Svartis could unleash whatever counterattack she was preparing. But when Greta pulled her legs under her to leap, she didn't go flying at them like a missile. Instead one of her legs buckled, collapsing beneath her.

The ghost trainer raised their hand, night shade crackling around it and Bashak didn't wait to order a retreat. A rope of hazy black and purple streamers flew forth as he did, kept purposely weak enough to not do any real damage if Greta couldn't dodge. Greta did dodge though, throwing herself to the side and rolling through the snow. She got back to her feet only to waver again, legs threatening to buckle again. She shook her head blearily.

Floating high above Svartis grinned, and the dark clouds spiraled in, swirling ever tighter.

Bashak whistled for a retreat a second time, as loudly as he could. He was relieved when Greta managed, dashing away from the ghostly pair and taking cover behind a distant tree. He whistled again as soon as she was in cover, a special pattern that asked after her condition.

Three short yips answered him. Greta was -somehow- exhausted. He whistled again, asking for the location of her injury, hoping she could interpret what he was asking. There was a moment of silence before she barked her answer - all-over. Bashak thought furiously. It was the signal she'd normally give after long hours of herding, when she needed to sleep. Somehow Svartis must be doing something that made Greta sleepy. But Svartis couldn't be using Ghost powers to do it. She had to be using a secondary move type, like how Greta could use Dark for her bites. Maybe Svartis was using Dark herself, or Psychic?

A streak of darkness and a heavy thumping boom interrupted Bashak's thoughts as Diya fired a shadow ball. The tree Greta was using for cover shook, bark blasted away from a blackened crater in the tree's surface. Bashak blanched. From the thin, almost insubstantial appearance of the shadow ball in flight it was clear Diya had been holding way back with that attack. The message was clear. In a real fight, that tree would be gone.

Bashak signalled for Greta to move on, leaping to the next cover she could find. But as she moved Svartis launched an attack of her own, that same rush of oily black smoke she'd used in the first match. Except this time it was very visible, a heavy black cloud that clung to everything it touched. It didn't seem to affect her any more than last time, but what it did do was cut her visibility down to nothing.

A web of shadowy streamers from Diya plunged into the smoke and knocked Greta clean out of the cloud. She flew sideways with the impact, feet flying up in the air as she rolled to dissipate her momentum in the snow. The attack's push restored her visibility though and a moment later she was up on her feet again, weaving through the trees so fast Diya and Svartis had trouble tracking her.

Off to the side, out of their line of sight now that they were following Greta, Bashak held a hand over his racing heart and smiled. Well now, he thought to himself. It looked like this wasn't just going to be an exercise for Greta in dodging unfamiliar attacks. He had no idea what that exhausting move Svartis had used was and had never imagined a Ghost move could be used against a Normal as the smog had. He could barely keep ahead of the ghostly partners' attacks long enough to strategize.

This was going to be a challenge.

Bashak whistled for Greta to wrap herself in Fairy energy that would amplify the emotional impacts of her attacks. It was time to play rough. If Greta could get the two of them to flinch and break their momentum, he might still be able to lead her to a win.

Another piercing whistle directed Greta forward, moving as fast as she could to get in and out of Svartis' draining effect before it could slow her, and darting side to side to dodge Diya's barrage of shadowy attacks. Bashak smiled as she wove through a night shade attack. She could do this. He believed in her.

---

Bashak sat in front of his yurt and spun thread. Greta was still 'sparring' with Diya and Svartis, but really it had devolved into friendly roughhousing and games of tag well over an hour ago. His commands weren't necessary to direct Greta for this and he was perfectly content to let them play without him. He wasn't needed right now and that was fine with him. He could just sit and watch and spin.

The herder smiled to himself. His mom always called him an old soul when he said things like that. And maybe he was. But maybe he just had a good life. What was a young soul, after all, if not someone who was filled with passion and fire and the need to change the world? And what was an old soul, if not someone content to take life slow and the same, day after day?

Over the last few years some of Bashak's childhood friends had left the mountains for college or a trade in the cities. And he always congratulated them when they did. He hoped they found everything they were looking for. But him? This was all he had ever needed. He had loyal companions by his side, pokemon to take care of, and honest work to occupy his hands. Why would he need to set the world afire when he already had all he could want?

Off in the distance there was a yip and a flash of darkness as Greta nipped Svartis and she retaliated with her own blast of Dark energy, learned from being on the receiving end of one too many Dark bites.

"Hey!" Bashak shouted so they could hear him. "Greta, no biting. Diya, whatever Svartis did to prompt that, tell her not to!"

No more yips or flashes of darkness occurred, so Bashak assumed the problem was solved.

He returned to spinning, smiling despite the interruption. Or maybe because of it. After all, he might be an old soul, but it wasn't a bad thing when young souls came around to shake up the old souls a bit.

---

The sun was slipping over the horizon and Bashak eyed its position, judging whether June would be up by now on her nocturnal Spinarak hunting schedule.

<Junebug, you up?> he texted her.

Her response came after a few minutes. <Barely and miserably, but yes. What's up? How are things going with Diya?>

Bashak answered by taking a picture and sending it to her. The picture showed a sleeping Diya splayed out on a pile of cushions in his yurt, with Svartis sleeping wrapped around their neck like a scarf and Greta flopped over their stomach. One of her front paws was just barely touching Svartis, who'd extended a small pseudopod of gas to wrap around the paw.


<BASHAK>

<!!!>

<YOU CAN'T JUST DROP THAT ON ME WITHOUT WARNING!>

<THEY'RE TOO CUTE!>

<Awwww, little Greta is drooling. She's all tuckered out.>

<Diya looks exhausted too, poor kid.>

<OH MY GODS SVARTIS IS HOLDING GRETA'S HAND THAT IS TOO PRECIOUS!>

Bashak smiled and muted his pokedex so the notifications wouldn't wake the sleeping puppy pile. He watched June's texts roll silently in, waiting for her to finish rambling about how cute they were. That took a while.

It wasn't like she was wrong though. They really were that cute.

Eventually she asked, <So you're okay bringing Diya along with us then? I mean, they're sleeping in your tent with Greta. You trust them, Greta likes them, it's a done deal yeah?>

She wasn't wrong about that either. <Yeah.>

<Woo! I knew it! See, I told you! They're a great fit to travel with us. They're friendly, and helpful, and they've got those cool ghost powers.>

And it was a good thing they were friendly, Bashak thought, because June would have invited them along to satisfy her fascination with their unusual powers either way.

<And speaking of their powers->

Bashak did not think 'called it' to himself, because that would imply it was ever in doubt.

<Did they show you anything interesting today? Any new psychic powers, variations on the ones I told you about, what could Svartis do in a spar, you sparred with her right? What's she like out in the wild, how did she interact with Greta and the Swinub? Oh, did you finally catch the Swinubs today?>

<Diya's not psychic.>

<WHAT?! What do you mean, Bashak you big lug, don't leave me hanging like this, what do you mean Diya's NOT PSYCHIC?!>

<Immune to Normal. They're not a Psychic person using Ghost powers, they're a Ghost person.>

<WHAT?! What do you mean they're immune to Normal?! Like, totally immune? And what do you mean by Ghost person? What does that even mean?!>

Bashak shrugged to himself. <Dunno. But Normal affects Psychics. They're not Psychic.>

The following wall of text June sent was long and rambling and had two different article links in it, but it could be summed up as, <There are no Ghost type humans, but only Ghost types are totally immune to Normal type moves, but there are no Ghost type humans, what, how, why> sprinkled with, <Do you think Diya thinks they're really not a psychic, or is it just an easy explanation for something complicated, you should ask them, wait don't let them sleep, aaaaahhhhh I need to know.>

Eventually she wound down enough to ask, <So did you see them use any other ghostly powers?>

<Phantom step.>

<???>

Oh, right. <Diya's name for phantom force.>

<Oh! Oh oh oh! This explains how Diya visits the phantom world> Bashak choked on his own spit, the kid what , <of course they used phantom force. Step. Whatever. Of course that's how phantom force works it makes perfect sense. Where else would Ghost types be vanishing to when they use it?>

And then June's stream of texts went quiet. Bashak waited for a few minutes. She was probably reading an article she'd looked up, or composing another wall of text to send him. Bashak nibbled on some Mareep cheese while he waited. Today was exhausting, and he was still hungry even after sharing dinner with Diya.

When fifteen minutes had passed without another text from June, Bashak rolled his eyes at whatever research rabbit hole she'd dug herself into. <Junebug? You there?>

He waited minutes for her reply before it came. <Can you meet me at the pokecenter tonight, in person? I know it'll be late for you. I promise it's important.>

<Of course.> Minutes passed. <June what's up? June?>

<I'm sorry, fell down a research hole. Talk to you later.>

Bashak did not believe for a moment that she just 'fell down a research hole'. Something was off about her texts. He stepped out of his yurt into the evening cold, leaving his sleeping companions behind so he could call June without disturbing them.

She didn't pick up. Just sent back a one-word text, <Busy.>

Greasy cold coiled in Bashak's gut. That wasn't like her at all.

Later, when it was finally time to wake Diya up and walk with them back to town, June still hadn't sent any more texts. There were no overwhelming rambles on what she was looking up. No followup queries about the deluge of questions she had earlier which Bashak didn't have time to answer. No belated questions about Bashak's Swinub expedition, and no equal measure of sincerely meant praise for his success and sincerely meant apologies she didn't give him space to talk about it.

Awful intuition raked its hands through Bashak's insides and he knew her silence meant nothing good.

---

Bashak finished the process of dropping his Swinubs and his new Piloswine off with Claire at the pokecenter. Part of him was excited. Claire confirmed that yes, his capture of the injured Piloswine was legitimate and he'd be able to keep her. And Claire's machines would be able to cure her, though she'd almost certainly lose the tusk.

But the other part of him was wondering what June wanted to talk about. An uneasy apprehension was still crawling up his spine which he couldn't shake.

Bashak knocked on his friend's door.

"Come in," she said.

The first thing Bashak noticed when he entered was that June had been crying. Her eyes were bloodshot and the skin of her upper lip was a raw red where it had been irritated by mucus. Her curly black hair was out of its beanie and hung down to her shoulders in messy tangles. And she was sitting cross-legged on her hotel bed, hunched over her pokedex and surrounded by scattered printouts which she stared at with a burning intensity.

The cold anxiety in his gut was threatening to come crawling up his throat. The only reason Bashak didn't run over to comfort her was because she had that look in her eyes she got when she was onto something, the one that brooked no distractions. Eventually he uttered a quiet "June?", hesitancy and worry lacing his voice.

She looked up and it hurt Bashak to see the pain in her eyes. Thankfully some of that too-sharp focus in them leaked out when she saw him in the doorway. "Hey," she answered, exhaustion creeping into her voice. "I … I could really use a hug. But um, can we talk about this first?"

Bashak's heart ached. He wanted to tell her that whatever it was could wait, that what she needed was a hug, and chicken noodle soup, and a good night's sleep. But if she said she needed to talk first…

The bigger trainer settled himself next to her on the bed, pressing his leg and shoulder up against hers to make sure his presence was as tangible as possible. Greta leapt up onto the bed with him, draping herself across both their laps. "June, what's wrong?" Bashak asked.

"I-" June rubbed her bloodshot eyes. "One second, Igor can you get me that paper, the one over there?" She pointed to a corner of the bed out of her reach. Her companion obligingly crawled down from his ever-present perch on her shoulder to get it, bringing it back a printed out table of information clutched between two of his forelegs. She took a moment to scan over the table, as if reminding herself of its contents, and then sighed.

Finally she looked up at Bashak and asked, "So. You said Diya used phantom force?"

"They called it phantom step, but yes."

"You're sure? Bashak I need you to be one hundred percent sure about this? You saw Diya use phantom force- step- whatever, with your own two eyes?"

Bashak hesitated. After thinking for a moment he said, "I startled Diya. There was a whirl of shadows, I felt cold on the inside, and they vanished. A few seconds later, same thing and they came back."

"They called it phantom step, right? Any chance it's actually a different move than phantom force?"

He shook his head. "No. They complained about how phantom force is a bad name and phantom step is better. A lot."

June takes a deep breath. "And you said they used it when startled?"

"Yes."

"So it looked easy for them?"

Bashak shrugged, his arm shifting against June's as he did. "Maybe."

"Eugh, wrong phrasing. Did it look … how to put it … automatic?"

That Bashak could answer. "Definitely." Diya had done it on reflex when startled, he'd call that automatic.

With an exhausted sigh, June let herself collapse against his side, rubbing her eyes some more. Under her breath she muttered a disturbingly sincere "fuck".

"June," Bashak said as calmly as he could, "you're scaring me. What's wrong?"

The research trainer took in a deep breath and began talking. And once she started she didn't stop, as if she was trying to get it all out in one breath.

"I can count on one hand the number of pokemon species confirmed to be able to use phantom force. That number extends to maybe a dozen if you count unconfirmed anecdotal reports. And those unconfirmed reports all have a unifying thread, which is that the ghost pokemon seen using it -and it's always ghost pokemon- were all extremely powerful wild pokemon. Like, they'd probably be strong enough to compete in A-tier or even S-tier league battles. Too strong to catch and examine, especially when they can hop dimensions."

"There are only four species, four, in the entire world which can use phantom force easily enough for there to be confirmed records of it. And three of them are evolved pokemon and one of them is twice evolved so saying it's 'easy' for that one is extremely debatable. Even direct pokemon modification in virtual space using technical machines has only been able to grant the ability to a handful of Ghost species. It's just … Bashak I looked at the research. This isn't an ability a human can use. It is definitely not an ability a human can use instinctively as part of an automatic reflex."

Bashak frowned. "Alright. So they're not a psychic using Ghost moves, they're a Ghost-human-"

"Bashak," June interrupted firmly, "there are no 'Ghost-humans'. This isn't like how some humans have an affinity for Psychic energy or Fighting energy, or Dark humans who are naturally immune to Psychic powers. Ghost-type humans do not exist. Gods, the only human psychics capable of using any ghost moves at all are on Gym Leader Sabrina's level, and that's a minor hex or a curse at best. Certainly nothing like phantom force."

That couldn't be right. Bashak had seen Diya use phantom step. He'd seen them throwing around night shades and shadow balls like they were candy when fighting Greta. They'd told him, to his face, that they were immune to Normal moves like Ghosts were and then seen that in action.

"Could it be … illusions?" Bashak ventured. He couldn't imagine why a psychic would be faking specific Ghost powers, or if that was even possible. And it wouldn't explain Diya's immunity to his Chansey's singing. Nor did it make any sense for someone with Diya's personality to be doing that. But if June said humans couldn't do that, he believed her. Illusions was the only possibility that made even half a lick of sense.

But June shook her head. "No just … take a look at this." She gestured for Igor to get her another sheaf of paper. This one was an academic paper, with a grainy picture of a Herdier stapled to it.

Bashak gave June a puzzled look, but took the paper. Immediately the Herdier's health caught his eye. The poor pokemon was gaunt and haggard, with ribs showing underneath patchy fur and a drooping tail. Their eyes were so badly bloodshot they couldn't have slept in days.

Without realizing it, Bashak's hand dropped down to pet Greta.

Wondering what this was about, Bashak read the paper's title: 'Necrobiosymbiosis in the Shuppet line'. Confused, he looked over at his friend. "June what is this?"

"Just … read it."

So he did. Most of the technical terminology in the paper was beyond him. But as Bashak read through the paper a picture began to form. A very disturbing picture.

Necrobiosymbiosis is an extremely rare Ghost-type possession process as yet only observed in the Shuppet line, whereby an evolving Shuppet reanimates and possesses a recently deceased or well preserved pokemon corpse in which all neural activity has ceased. As with necroanimism [1] the evolving Shuppet, now a Banette, fills the spiritual hollow left behind by a deceased pokemon. Unlike with necroanimism however, the pokemon's body fully reanimates and displays all the vital processes and needs of life (see Sec. II). Furthermore evidence suggests that the Banette might fully integrate with the body on a spiritual level, taking the place of the passed on soul (see Sec. IV).

Bashak looked back at the picture of the gaunt Herdier attached to the paper. Now that he was looking more closely, its eyes weren't bloodshot as he'd first assumed. The sclera were a uniform pink.

He could imagine how June had felt while reading this. The dawning sense of realization.

Despite its apparent similarities necrobiosymbiosis should not be confused with the more common necroanimism observed in the Yamask [2], Dusclops [2], Phantump [3,4,5], Pumpkaboo [5,6], Delmise [5], or Nincada [1] lines, which is the process by which Ghost pokemon possess or puppeteer corpses or corpse detritus to serve as shelter or a means to interact with the physical world. Necrobiosymbiotic Banettes appear to be more thoroughly integrated with their living hosts, and have not been observed to abandon their physical shell even when under duress and provided with an alternative host.

Nor should necrobiosymbioisis be confused with necroneuroparasitism [7,8,9,10,11,12,13], in which a Ghost pokemon overrides the cognitive functions of a living creature to possess their body. In all three cases we observed, neuroimaging showed no signs of dual or overridden mental processes, and in one case pokecenter employees confirmed a full neurological shutdown before the possession occurred.

Bashak skipped ahead.

According to reports from neighbors, Subjects H1 and H2 had been suspected of neglecting their Herdier for some time. However no action was taken before they moved out, leaving their Herdier behind in the locked apartment. After three days an unusual concentration of Shuppets and reports of noise led the tenancy council to open the apartment, finding the abandoned Herdier severely dehydrated and almost dead. The Herdier was taken to the local pokemon center -followed by the Shuppets as it did- where it expired despite medical care. Neuroimaging at the time confirmed a complete cessation of brain activity and that it was not a candidate for stasis and later revival.

It must be stressed that at this point the Herdier was dead. What happened next was not a case of necroneuroparasitism, as there was no brain activity to be hijacked.

No one was in the room with the Herdier at the time of resurrection, but witnesses report shadows in neighboring rooms lengthening and flickering with spectral purple fire, culminating in a loud cry of "Banette!". At this time the heart monitor attached to the Herdier reported renewed activity, albeit at an unusually steady beat lower than what would be expected in a pokemon having undergone such severe trauma. Witnesses who rushed in reported the Herdier's eyes had glowing pink sclera and that it was leaking smoke from its open mouth.

Note: The report about leaking smoke cannot be confirmed, as at no point after this was the Herdier observed with an open mouth. However this would seem to correspond with what happens to standard necroanimistic Banettes with punctures or cracks in their animated form.

It is our presumption that one of the Shuppets which followed the Herdier to the pokemon center had evolved into a Banette, using the physically and emotionally abandoned Herdier's corpse as its evolutionary catalyst. From this point on, the Herdier's body will be referred to as a Banette.

Shortly thereafter the Banette fled the pokemon center, using phantom force [22] -a signature move of Banettes [23]- to move through the walls. Its exact movements over the next two days are unknown, but over the next fifty hours it successfully tracked down the former owners of the body it was inhabiting. While the motive for Banette 'vengeance hauntings' and the means by which they track their bodies' former owners is a matter of intense debate [24,25,26,27,28], we should note that in this case the Banette was observed by a witness to be sniffing at the ground as it approached their domicile, possibly suggesting use of the Herdier's sense of smell to facilitate the tracking.

Bashak didn't need to keep reading to put the pieces together, but he finished the paper anyway. It gave him time to put his thoughts together and rub the tears out of his eyes.

Gods, he could see why June had been crying. Bashak buried his hand deeper in Greta's fur, scratching her as strongly as she would tolerate.

"So?" June asked when he'd finished collecting himself.

"Diya is a Banette," he admitted.

June choked out a laugh. "Yeah I'll say. It's pretty damn obvious in retrospect. Glowing pink eyes, won't open their mouth, eats negative emotions, uses Ghost type powers, and phantom force especially. And I don't even know what to say about the way they apparently brought Svartis back from the dead, but it sure makes a lot more sense if they're a Banette than a human with Psychic powers."

She shook her head ruefully. "You know when I first saw them in the forest, coming out of the dark with those glowing pink eyes, the first thing I thought was 'But I kissed my stuffed animals goodbye'? I had this crazy thought that they were a Banette of one of my stuffed animals I'd left at home, coming to haunt me for abandoning them. Well in a way I was right! I was right and I should have known the moment I saw those pink glowing eyes."

Bashak wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders, holding her close.

"I just … Bashak, what do we do?"

The taller trainer leaned back a bit and looked down at his friend quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"What you mean, 'what do I mean'? Bashak, they're a Banette. They're a living incarnation of ghostly vengeance. Or unliving, or undead, or whatever it is you'd classify a necrobiosymbiote as! We can't just shrug that off! This isn't something you can zen your way out of!"

The corners of Bashak's mouth twitched and he felt a twinge of something light in his heart working through the tragedy of the story he'd just read. "Sure it is."

"Bashak. they're. not. human. They're a Banette. You know what Banettes can do to people, you just read that paper! I've got more stories here of what they can do when haunting people if you want to read them, one of them even has a body count!"

It was just like June to focus too much on what she was reading and not enough one what she was seeing, Bashak thought. He fished around in his jacket pockets for his pokedex while she was talking.

"And don't even get me started on- what is this?"

Bashak was holding his pokedex out in front of them with his free hand, flicking through its pictures until he settled on the one he was looking for. A picture of Diya sleeping sprawled out in the careless haphazard manner of exhausted children, with Greta on their chest and Svartis wrapped around their neck. "This," Bashak said clearly, "is a kid Greta was playing with earlier today."

June swallowed heavily.

"They're probably a Banette, yes. They're also a playful kid. Energetic enough to run Greta into the ground. Kind, too. They helped an injured Piloswine today. No hesitation, even when it was dangerous. They care for their pokemon-"

That drew a half-manic snort from June, "Even if they are one."

"-even if they are one, yes. June, they're a kid. I don't know how this thing…"

"Necrobiosymbiosis?" The eight syllable word rolled off June's tongue.

"...that, thank you. I don't know how that works. But with Diya? The end result is a happy, loving kid."

June took in a deep shuddering breath and leaned into Bashak's chest. "I know," she said quietly.

Bashak looked down at her and waited for the 'but'.

"But … Bashak, someone died for Diya to live. Somewhere out there, probably recently if Diya was telling even half the truth about their story, some teenager died totally alone. They were abandoned and they died. And what's walking around in their body isn't them, it's some ghostly parasite! And they're a parasitic ghost that's interesting, and nice, and fun to talk to but-" June trailed off helplessly and Bashak teared up again, seeing his friend so twisted up.

But he shook his head and said, "They didn't die alone."

June looked up at him. "Bashak that's literally the requirement for a Banette evolution. Something, or someone apparently, has to be totally abandoned. A kid had to die in the most awful misery for Diya to be what they are." She shook her head miserably. "That's … I don't know if I can handle that about them."

"You've never spent much time around Shuppets, have you?"

"... they're bad omens which hang around places filled with misery and despair, so no, I haven't."

Bashak sighed. "You know old lady Diane back home? Her herds are on the south-western slope?"

"Yeah?"

"She's got depression. The serious lock-the-knives-away kind. So she keeps some tamed Shuppets around, and they help her whenever it's bad. They take the awfulness of it away."

"Oh. That's…" Bashak could see the gears churning in June's head, thinking through all the ways Shuppets' grief eating could be useful to people now that it had been pointed out to her.

"Mhm. And whenever I've visited Diane I've noticed: Shuppets don't like leaving people alone."

"Well I mean they eat our negative emotions, I'd be kind of surprised if they walked away from their primary food source. In fact it would shock me if they gave you your distance."

The herder shook his head. "Even when they're full, or you're as happy as can be, they'll follow you around. I told one to shoo once while I tended to nature's call and when I was done it was the most anxious little spirit you ever saw. Fretted over me for an hour." Bashak smiled, and swallowed a lump in his throat. His chest was heavy with a blend of warmth and sadness he couldn't put a name to. "June, every one of those hosts in that paper you found? They died with a Shuppet near them. And Shuppets want nothing more in the world than to look out after people, and make sure they're not suffering."

Bashak hiccuped, wiping his eyes even as he smiled wider. "Diya didn't kill this kid, whoever they were. And the kid wasn't alone when they died either. Because Diya would have been the one who held their hand as they passed, telling them everything would be alright."

June swallowed heavily. "Oh," she said.

And then she burst into tears.

Bashak didn't try to stop her. He only hugged her close, and let his own tears come. Because she wasn't wrong. A child had died. They'd seen the body. And that was a tragedy worth crying over.

---

The sink in June's bathroom gushed, carrying with it the mechanical hiss of water being forced through an opening under pressure. Bashak splashed his hands in the stream and washed his face, wincing at the uncomfortable sound and the acidic chemical taste of the treated water. He was usually better about ignoring his discomfort with manufactured spaces, but the night's revelations had scraped him as raw as an exposed nerve.

When he was done scrubbing the tears marks off his face, Bashak looked up into the mirror. His dripping face was marred by five o'clock shadow and reddened puffy eyes. It was still obvious he'd been crying. He hoped he'd look better tomorrow, that there wouldn't be any signs for Diya to notice.

Speaking of which.

In the bedroom June was getting ready for her nocturnal Spinarak hunt, strapping on equipment which would go under her down jacket and reviewing the maps she'd marked on previous nights. Bashak called out to her from the bathroom, "So June," he waited until she'd made a noise of acknowledgement, "are we telling Diya?"

"What, that we know they're a Banette?"

"Yeah."

Bahsak caught a glimpse of her shaking her head in the mirror. "I'm still a bit worried what they'll do if we know. As best I can guess from the story they gave me on the road, and that state I found them in, they're a new Banette. Very new. And trying to hide it, however poorly. I can see them being skittish if we confront them with this. We're new to them, all of this is new to them, it'd be easy for them to just cut and run and start over somewhere else."

"No," she continued, "let's give them some time to settle in with us. Ask them if they'd like to travel with us, spend more time with them hunting for pokemon and at the Canopy Gym. If they're as new as I think it won't be long before the majority of their life as a Banette has been with us. Then we can tell them we know, when they'll be less likely to skittish and less likely to cut and run."

"Mm. Makes sense," Bashak replied. "What if other people figure it out?"

June shrugged. "And do what about it? Capture them? I'd have to check the local laws on sapient or sapient-adjacent pokemon, but I'm pretty sure they're the same as everywhere else. You know, 'don't mess with them for the love of all that's good in the world, just leave them be, oh gods, oh gods, just leave them be we want to live'."

Slowly, Bashak leaned out of the bathroom to squint at June. "I thought those laws were about self-determination and respect."

"Nah it's cus most sapient pokemon are powerful beyond all reason and capable of wiping towns off the map, and too mentally alien to meaningfully negotiate with, so not messing with them is the only safe option. Do you not remember that incident with those cloning engineers and the Mew? Most of the 'leave sapient pokemon alone' laws were passed after that."

"Fair. Diya's not that strong though."

June turned to look at her friend with a bemused look on her face. "Bashak. They can walk through walls, hide in another dimension, start fires, and hurl shadow balls strong enough to turn trees into splinters. I'll grant you they don't fit the 'too mentally alien to negotiate with' bit, obviously, but of course they could destroy a town if they wanted to. They'd just do it from the shadows rather than like a rampaging Gyarados."

Bashak blinked rapidly, trying to process that even as June kept talking.

"That's actually another reason to think well of the kid, honestly I should have thought of it earlier. They're really strong for a Banette. There's still a crater in the forest from when they were fighting my Wurmple and threw off a half-baked shadow ball. If they had an aggressive bone in their body, there would be another crater wherever their body's parents used to be and it would still be smoking. Assuming it was their parents who abandoned them. Regardless of who did it, we would have heard about it on the news."

And speaking of that, Bashak had another question to ask. "If we don't tell Diya we know, do we tell emergency services?"

"Mm?" June let out a distracted noise as she struggled with a particularly awkward equipment buckle.

Bashak came out of the bathroom to help her tug it into place, then sat on the bed and asked her again. "A kid was mistreated and died. Do we tell someone?"

"Ah." June's face soured into a grimace and she winced. "That's … tricky."

The herder raised an eyebrow.

"It is! Look, for all we know Diya already did the classic Banette vengeance haunting. And the legality of that could be … it could be questionable. We don't want to involve the legal system only for it to hurt Diya. Especially if whoever it was already got what was coming to them, and there's no point involving the legal system. Besides, Diya is perfectly capable of leaving their own anonymous tip about the mistreatment of their body's former owner, or for that matter just explaining the whole deal in person to whatever authority figure they choose. If they haven't…" she shrugged, "well we should at least ask them why before we do it for them. And that means waiting until we tell them we know they're a Banette."

Bashak chewed over that for a moment. That was fair enough. "And if Diya wants help telling the authorities-"

"Oh, we help them of course," June interrupted, "no question about it."

Bashak smiled. "Good."

"Also, I'll keep up with the news and keep an eye out for missing persons reports. I checked earlier before you came over and there wasn't anything yet, but that doesn't mean there won't be. If a report does go out and Diya is recognizable in it then we'll have to talk to them sooner rather than later. And if it doesn't … hmm. How about we wait until I'm done with my nocturnal Spinarak hunts and can spend some daylight hours hanging out with you two. Then we ask them to travel with us and if they say yes, tell them we know they're a Banette then."

Bashak nodded. "And in the meantime?"

The question drew a fond smile from June. "All you need to do, Bashak, is care for the kid. Do what you do best, be patient and be kind."

That brought a smile to Bashak's face. Because despite the rollercoaster of a day it had been, despite the tears and all the uncertainty the future still held, that was something he could do.