The Friendly Necromancer

Chapter 19: The Next Step

Ho-Oh is a legendary avian pokemon with an affinity for fire and sunlight, known for its powerful healing abilities. Its feathers are predominantly gold and red, with long trailing yellow tail-feathers, a white underside, and green feathers at the tip of its wings. Ho-Oh has a green stripe on its neck, a yellow beak, black rings around its red eyes, and a feathered, yellow crest on its head. It has darkly colored feet and legs with four toes and long talons. Ho-Oh's wings are prismatic, and it trails a rainbow behind it.

Ho-Oh is considered the guardian of the skies and has a mythical power to resurrect the dead. It is said that when it flies its huge wings create bright, colorful rainbows. Those who revere Ho-Oh believe that the rare few who bear witness to Ho-Oh are promised eternal good fortune. Ho-Oh flies all over the world and many of its myths claim it does so in search of the one with the purest heart in all the world.

The Ho-Oh Shrine in Johto contains a miraculous tree branch which burns with an eternal flame that renews the branch instead of consuming it. The story goes that the branch was set alight by Ho-Oh's touch, the one time it has ever landed, as it came down from the heavens to put an end to a conflict between humans. It is considered an important emblem of peace worldwide and is sometimes brought out to play a symbolic role in meetings about goodwill and cooperation.

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Ranger Nils desperately wanted to leave his office and go to the bar. Not because he wanted to drink. Nils had seen what became of rangers who used alcohol to cope and he had no intention of ever following that path. But the bar is where he would find his colleagues gathered, along with his husband. They were there for the wake, though they weren't calling it that, and they would be company. Mostly importantly, they would understand the reality of the situation, as so many of the people he'd interviewed today did not.

But there were still calls left to make. Pointless calls, in all likelihood, but the procedure behind them was important. Nils had seen three lost pokemon and one lost child found because people followed procedure and checked where they'd thought there was no reason to to look. Maybe if he was lucky, the meeting at the bar could be a celebration and not a wake.

It was a cruel hope to hold onto. Nils held onto it anyway. He needed it to make the call.

The nurse picked up on the third ring. "Hello, this is Nurse Claire speaking, with the Canopy Town pokecenter. How may I help you?" She sounded genuinely happy to help, and Nils' heart ached.

"Hello Nurse Claire. My name is Ranger Nils. I oversee the bay area around Ledos Village. Can I have a moment of your time?"

"Of course! And … oh, I remember you! I think we met at the last meeting about Tentacool migrations. Do you still have that long beard?"

Normally Nils would have laughed. This time his response was flat, monotone. "No nurse, my daughter made me shave it. Said it made hugging me too prickly. I think I remember you as well. You were taking notes for a children's science exhibit about the migration, right?"

"Yup, that was me! So how can I help you, Ranger Nils?"

The smalltalk hadn't made it easier to say. "Claire … I'm sorry to say, but we have a missing child here in Ledos Village. We're exploring the possibility that he might have made it to Canopy Town. I need to ask you if you've seen a child matching his description."

Nils could all but feel the nurse's posture straighten through the phone. "Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that, ranger. Of course I can help. When was he last seen?"

There it was. The question that made Nils long for the bar, for the company of people who understood what the answer meant. "Six weeks ago."

The silence on the other end of the line was icy. Nils prepared himself to be yelled at, the way he'd been yelling at himself all day. It hurt more when Nurse Claire's voice came back over the line, so fragile he thought it might break. "What?"

"Last known sighting was the evening of the third of last month. If he-" Nils did his best to keep his voice steady and didn't quite succeed, "-if he made it to Canopy Town, he would have likely shown up on the fourth, or maybe a day or two later. If so he likely would have stayed at your pokecenter, or obtained supplies there."

"I … ranger, what? Six weeks? How am I only hearing now about a child who went missing six weeks a…go…" Claire's voice trailed off.

Nils knew what she was realizing. He'd had the same thought just before he realized that they were only going to find the boy's body once spring came and the snow melted.

Claire swallowed audibly. "I'm sorry, was this during the cold snap last month? And you said you're worried he came here? All the way from Ledos?"

"Yes. If I'm being honest Claire, we're … not hopeful."

"Okay. Okay." The nurse audibly collected herself. "Is there any chance he might have stayed in Ledos for a while and come this way sometime since then? Or- I'm sorry Nils, can you just walk me through what happened, and why you're only looking for this child now? Maybe if I understand, I'll be able to help."

"Of course." Nils flipped open his notepad. He wasn't sure why. He didn't need it, the details had been running through his mind all day. "I'll go through what we know, and what we're assuming happened." As he began reciting facts, Nils realized why he was looking at his notes. It was easier not to think about what they meant if he was just reciting words on a page.

"On the third of last month, Victor Abir, a minor in the custody of Selma Abir and Austin Abir, attended school in Ledos Village for the last time. None of his online accounts or his minor stipend account have been accessed since that night. The next day a minor theft of some clothing was reported from a public laundromat, with a message left behind which read 'Dear people who left your clothes here overnight, sorry for taking some of your clothes. I was very cold and needed them.' These two incidents were not connected at the time, but our assumption is that Victor took the clothes."

"The next day Victor failed to attend school, and his primary teacher contacted Selma and Austin over lunch. They claimed Victor was sick and apologized for forgetting to inform the school, citing concern for their son's health. Later that evening they called the teacher on their personal dex and told them that Victor was particularly sick and might not be in school for the next few days. Austin is a medical practitioner, so the teacher assumed the matter was cared for and left it at that."

"We interviewed the Abirs' neighbors today and some of them recall odd conversations with Selma and Austin around this time. Apparently their marriage has been rocky for some time and it wasn't uncommon for Victor to spend time, sometimes even days, with the neighbors instead of his own home. The neighbors suggest that Selma and Austin might have been probing to see if Victor was staying with them without informing his parents. As far as we are aware however, no one in Ledos has seen Victor since the evening of the third."

"The Abirs have been … unhelpful and their stories contradict quite a bit, so we can't say what they were thinking at this point. But we're guessing that at this point they'd assumed Victor had done what's called a 'soft runaway', temporarily leaving for the shelter of a friend's home nearby, and were hoping the situation would resolve itself quietly."

This was more information than Nils needed to, or technically even should, be sharing with Nurse Claire. But there was a reason he so badly wanted to go meet his colleagues and see his husband. He needed to talk to someone about this. And from the soft noises Nurse Claire was making on the other end of the call, as much sympathetic as horrified, she knew that too.

Nils tried to focus on the blurry pages of his notepad. "About a week later, Austin reported to Victor's teacher that Victor was seriously, though not dangerously, ill and would be staying home under Austin's care for the foreseeable future. He asked the teacher if they could pass on a light workload to keep Victor occupied. Text messages between Austin and Selma indicate he hadn't cleared this with her beforehand, but - after a fight so loud that emergency domestic counselors were called by neighbors - she appears to have agreed to go along with the ruse. They were committed to keeping Victor's disappearance a secret as long as possible while they made plans to leave the country. They never explicitly said so in text, but we believe that at this point they thought their son was dead. They realized the enormity of having effectively covered up his disappearance for a week, rather than declaring him missing, and panicked."

The background of Nils' pokedex was a picture of himself and his husband with their daughter posing between them. When he'd been scrolling through the messages copied off the Abir's dexes, reading how callously they'd talked about their son, he had been very aware that her smiling face was just behind them. He hadn't been able to stop wondering, how often had Victor ever smiled like that?

"During this time, their relationship appears to have disintegrated entirely. They quietly filed divorce paperwork and made plans to leave Kenomao. As best we can tell, their plan was to each go to a separate county, filing for Victor's dual citizenship in each country so they wouldn't set off any alarms about moving out of Kenomao without him. Then they told each country that the other parent would have long term custody of Victor for the time being, to explain his absence when they arrived at their destinations."

"Thankfully, their relationship worsened during the next few weeks as they prepared to leave. Several more calls for emergency domestic counselors were made and records of these events were automatically forwarded to the judge handling their divorce paperwork. She forwarded them to the local children's advocate, and he noticed that the Abirs were apparently filing for a divorce and hadn't made contact with the children's advocacy office for Victor to receive counseling. He sent them an order compelling them to set up counseling for Victor, and the next morning -today- told the children's therapists at the school to expect to see Victor soon."

This was when everything had started happening, all at once. "That's when one of the therapists told the children's advocate that Victor had been out sick for six weeks. He'd seen Victor frequently, though Victor was often quiet and spoke about his day instead of the specifics about what was troubling him. The therapist had been concerned about Victor for some time, mentioned a concerning report about Shuppets at Victor's house, and he reached out several times to the Abirs about remote or home-visit counseling while Victor was 'sick', but was told it wasn't necessary. He'd actually been preparing a report to the children's office when the advocate showed up."

Claire spoke up for the first time, her voice cracking, "Please tell me the advocate did something about that."

For the first time in the call a smile touched Nils' lips, though it was bitter. "I'm told his response was 'hell and fury' when he was told. At this point he believed there was a seriously ill child with divorcing parents -who needed regular emergency intervention- and the advocacy office and therapists hadn't yet been involved. Then one of the other therapists mentioned that they'd heard the Abirs were leaving the country." Charlie, the children's advocate, had been sobbing when he told Nils this part of his account. It had been the moment he realized something was wrong, Charlie had said. The moment when he realized that this boy's situation had been spiraling out of control without Charlie's knowledge for a very long time, and he had no idea what he'd find at the end of it.

"I was called in. I helped the children's advocate enter the Abirs' home, where Victor was nowhere to be found. Then we took the Abirs into custody, where they met with their advocates." They'd refused to share the local judicial advocate. Another one from Zima City had to fly in before Charlie could question them. "They gave wildly inconsistent testimony through their advocates, and we opened an investigation. My call to you is part of that investigation."

There was a long silence as Nils' story came to an abrupt end. Eventually Claire asked, "What do you think they did to Victor?"

"To him? Nothing. The Abirs' texts paint a fairly clear picture; they have no idea what happened to Victor. But our working theory is that he ran away on the third, and left Ledos."

"So you think he might have made it here? To Canopy Town?"

"Claire…" Nils hated this part of his job more than anything else. He'd only had to let down people's hopes about a missing person three times before, but every time left a scar on his soul. "The message in the laundromat indicates that Victor wasn't prepared for the cold when he left. And when we searched his house, his winter gear was still there, including his boots. His parents confirmed he only had the one pair."

Claire took a deep breath. "What did he look like?"

"Claire…" Nils needed to ask her if she'd seen the missing boy, but he knew it would hurt her worse if he gave her false hope before asking.

Her voice came out forceful this time, and almost angry. "What. Did he look like? A lot of children come through here but I have a good memory for faces."

More than anything, Nils wanted her hope to be well founded. But he knew what it meant, when a child ran away during a cold snap and vanished so completely. "We have an old school picture of him, though his hair was modded blue back then. I'm told it's a natural black now, and cropped shorter than it used to be. I'll send it to you while I give you a more current description, is that alright?"

"Please do, Ranger Nils."

"Alright. Victor Abir has dark brown skin, and short wiry black hair. He has a large nose and a round face. He was 164 centimeters for his last checkup, though apparently he had a growth spurt since. He is skinny, and under average weight for his height. He-" has a resting face described by his teachers as 'somber', Nils was going to say, when Nurse Claire interrupted.

"Does he have pink eyes?" There was excitement in her voice.

"Excuse me?"

"Does he have pink glowing eyes? Strongly psychic, mute, can teleport?"

"Er. No. I'm sorry, why do you ask…?"

"Oh." The disappointment in Claire's voice hurt to hear. "I just- There's a child who matches that description who just finished getting their badges and left only yesterday. Their name is Diya. They're nonbinary but their features are somewhat masculine and I guess I was just thinking that maybe they … I don't know. If they really were Victor and hiding their name, maybe they were also hiding their gender, or had come to a realization or … I don't know. I'm sorry."

"No, Claire, that's quite alright. I just sent the picture, can you take a look and tell me if it might be the same child?"

Nils waited as the picture uploaded and Claire took her time looking at it. Her voice was heavy when she responded. "No. I'm sorry. They look very similar, from what I've seen of Diya's face at least, but … I think I can see the differences. You said Victor wasn't psychic?"

Nils shook his head, then verbalized the gesture for her. "No. His eyes are brown too, not pink."

"It's not the irises themselves which are pink, it's the- No. Nevermind. I don't suppose there's any chance that your runaway Victor's stressful experience catalyzed his psychic powers and caused him to gain glowing pink eyes?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm mildly psychic myself, just detecting the presence of minds, but I can tell you that's not how being psychic works."

"I know. I was … joking, I guess, though it was a terrible joke. Anyway, I'll double check our records and tell Leader Ahmed so he can ask around tomorrow, to see if anyone has seen your Victor. But I don't remember anyone who matches that description better than Diya."

And Diya was psychic, had glowing pink eyes, and was the wrong gender to boot.

Nils had known not to get his own hopes up. It still hurt. "Thank you, Claire. Do you need anything more from me for your gym leader? I have a few more calls to make, if you don't mind."

"No, no. Once you have a case file assembled, please send it over, but this is enough for now. I … good luck, ranger. I hope you find him."

They always did, eventually. When the snow melted. "Thank you. We'll do our best."

Nils hung up. He sunk his face into his hands. There were two more pokecenters he had to call, and then another dozen he should call because of how much distance the dead boy could have hypothetically traveled if he were still alive.

He let the tears flow, instead.

Nils had become a ranger because sometimes he preferred trees to people. But even better than the quiet solitude was when he showed up in the wilderness and he could see the look on people's faces as they realized, 'A ranger's here. It's going to be alright.' Whenever people asked him about his job, he told them it was an honor to be a ranger, and he meant it. He could think of no better word to describe the feeling of his island putting that much faith in him.

But he could only show up for what his island called him to do. Nils couldn't help a kid when no one noticed how seriously he was suffering. He couldn't track a missing child when his own parents chose not to report his disappearance.

Long minutes later, Nils dried his eyes. He took ten deep breaths, counting each one out. Then he picked his dex back up and typed in the next number.

He knew how this worked. He knew what it meant when a child with no snow gear went missing in the middle of a cold snap and six weeks later the child hadn't contacted anyone or purchased anything with their stipend account. He wasn't stupid. The smart thing to do would be to stop inflicting this on himself and leave the office, so he could mourn the child he never got a chance to save with people who would understand.

But maybe he was stupid. Or stubborn. Or a fool clinging to blind hope.

Or maybe it was something else.

Nils had been asked to pick up runaways who had fled from bad homes before, or journeying trainers who refused to go home. Each time he'd been asked to stay with them, to keep them company until the children's advocate arrived. He listened to them. Comforted some of them. Let others cuss him out. Sometimes he did both for the same child. And he always followed up with them later, if he could.

One thing he'd learned, more than anything else, was how uncared for so many of those kids felt. Even with the ones like Victor who had teachers that worried about them, therapists who asked after them, and neighbors who loved them, it was too easy for what they felt from their parents to overwhelm everything else. So when Nils imagined what Victor must have felt like, driven to the breaking point, running away from anyone and everything, alone in the cold…

Victor had been loved. He had been cared for. So many people who weren't his parents had loved him. But if he had died not knowing that … it was too cruel to imagine.

Nils made the next call. Maybe it was pointless. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was self destructive.

But Nils cared. And every second he kept looking was how he could scream that out into the world.

I care! If nothing else matters, if no one else does. I. Care.

"Hello, is this Nurse Jeremia? My name is Ranger Nils. I'm calling about a missing child."

"Nurse Julia?"

"Nurse Karly?"

"Nurse Santos?"

"Leader Nacio?"

"Ranger Anica?"

"Mayor Sylvia?"

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Diya took a deep breath of the cool fresh air. It let its lungs fill, then slowly let the breath out. It wasn't spring yet. There would be plenty more snows before that happened. But it was that time of year when sometimes, for a few days, winter loosened its grip and the world sighed in relief.

Just because it could, the Banette skipped down the dirt road and twirled a few steps of a dance, the three new medals on its robe flashing in the sunlight. Then with a flourish it jumped up into the air and splashed down its own shadow. It waited a few moments in the dark place between shadows, and found itself caught by an idea just before it surfaced. It burst from June's shadow beside her and lunged, tickling her sides!

"What?! Aaahh! Hahaha, no! Nooo! Stop it, you menace! Aaaahhh! Madrabaz is a terrible influence on you! Bashak, make them stop!"

The bigger trainer looked up from his medal box, where he'd been softly touching his Ice battle badge. For someone who originally hadn't even planned to fight for one, it had touched him deeply when Alicia -the Piloswine he'd nursed back to health- had held her own well enough to earn him that badge.

"Bashak! Help! I'm being haunted! Get them off me! Get them ooooffhahahahaha, no, no, nooooo!"

Bashak, who realistically didn't weigh more than both of them put together but sure looked like he did, sighed and closed his medal box and put them away. With its precious cargo protected, he grabbed Diya by the scruff of its cloak and pulled the Banette off his ticklish friend. He peered over his glasses, locking his brown eyes with Diya's pink ones. "Really?"

Fwoomp.

A rush of air collapsed in on where Diya had been, before it reappeared a meter away, bouncing on its toes. <Sorry!> It hurriedly typed out. <Aren't you excited though??!!>

June was still wheezing, so in a rare turn of events Bashak was forced to speak for her. "Of course we are." Three new trainers each getting every badge they tried for on their first attempt, wasn't unheard of. It wasn't even that uncommon. But it was something well worth being proud of, and the warm glowing smile on Bashak's face said more than words ever could.

"Eugh. Of course I'm excited!" June griped. She straightened her clothes, taking special care with the chain around her neck where her badges hung. She wanted to keep them where she could see them, she'd said, because sometimes it still didn't feel real. "But we've also got, like, twenty more kilometers to go today, and I want us to have enough time for side trips if we see any interesting pokemon. And if my sides hurt the whole time because you couldn't rein it in and tickled me too hard, I will set my Ariadoses on you while you sleep."

Diya blinked in consternation. <Noted.> A moment later though it was rocking on its feet again, grinning beneath its sunny yellow scarf. It couldn't help but look out over the road to Zima City, just dry enough to walk on because of the warm e-storage cable buried beneath it, and feel a thrill.

This was it. They -it and its friends- were real trainers now. They had pokemon, badges, and the open road.

As it looked out over the distance they still had to travel, and looked back at Canopy Town receding in the distance, Diya's excitement was tempered by a bittersweet thought. Its boy would have been so proud to be in its shoes. To have come all this way and still be wondering just how much further it could go.

But this journey didn't just belong to the boy. They'd promised to go on their journey together. And even if Diya's boy couldn't be here with it, it had come so far and grown so much. It had learned how to be human, made friends, trained pokemon, won battles, and proved itself to be someone who could rescue those who needed help. Diya was proud of itself.

It hoped that if its boy were here to see it, he would be proud of Diya too.

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End of Book 1

R3D4K73D said:

sorry if I it's a bother, but may we have a version of the map that doesn't have any markings on it (such as the star)?

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Here you go!

R3D4K73D said:

further apologies, but may I be so humble as to ask what program was used to make said map of the region?

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Oh you ask the hard questions, don't you? Buckle up, because this is a hassle and a half. (Totally worth it though, in my opinion).