This question is a minefield. Much like a miscalculation on the battlefield, a wrong word spells his doom. Thinking back to that day, he remembers the many failures that resulted in the decimation of his Pokemon team.[break][break]
"I fought one of the Elite 4. The red-headed one." That's as close to naming MATIAS SILPH as he's likely to get. "I wasn't aggressive enough. I let him play by his rules. While he was killing my Pokemon, I could have had a Kartana sneak around. I could've killed him if I'd thought a little outside the box." And what a mighty prize that would've been, to kill Groudon's avatar.[break][break]
"The champion, too. Daryl Martinez." He names kyle lopez without realizing what he's doing. His words betray no mockery. The name his said with his whole chest and ample sincerity. "Couldda went for the throat. Got him to pull out Entei. Use that tera crystal to turn one of my Pokemon into a water-type. Go for its throat."[break][break]
On and on, until, at last...[break][break]
"I gotta play to my strengths. Build a good team. I went in half-cocked with whatever Pokemon I grabbed from my box. Any good assassin studies his target. Learns his patterns. Goes in with a plan. Knows how to adapt when the plan doesn't work. What I did on that island was...not even sloppy. Dumb." Human words, spoken through gritted teeth. He lives not by his own merit, but by the mercy of his enemies.

"Pay, huh?" The blade of the Hasegawa asks, swirling the liquid in his glass. He drinks the rest down in one gulp, savoring the sweet taste on the way down. He drinks like a man that doesn't know the value of anything. Placing the glass down, he grabs another.[break][break]
"Hahaha, I didn't even know we got paid. Whatcha spend yer money on? Got any cool hobbies?" It's in a small dog's nature to be friendly. His swaying shoulders and excited tone serve as fine stand-ins for a wagging tail.[break][break]
Only the sight of one man, alone at a poker table, can excite him more.[break][break]
"Oi! Rookie! You've got money! Let's go have some fun!" They're still on duty, both of them. He places his faith in the Kartana. Whatever his new friend, for he has decided this young man is his friend, decides, he has been thoroughly kidnapped. He trots up to BARNABY FINCH, one of the many dangerous individuals in the room, without a care in the world.[break][break]
"Oi, Admin-san! My buddy and I wanna play poker with you! Can ya like, pull rank a little to let him have a break? I bet he's really good at poker!" The dog has never spoken to this man before, but he speaks with warmth. His face he knows. His name, the dog wouldn't remember at gunpoint.[break][break]
Dog, human, or blade, his money will spend all the same if the smiling admin can swindle him out of it.

"I gotta use my brain. Even if it's hard. You had her under control. If I'd just thought about what you meant..." Voice trailing off, he considers all the things that girl would never get to do. He'd denied her the right to grow up.[break]
"Killing people we're not supposed to's sloppy. It's one thing if they're tryin' to kill us. At that point, they're idiots, but a kid? Nah. Bad call. Swinging a blade just to swing it's not the play." There's a clarity to his words, his mind working, growing pains. It's like a dog is trying to walk on two legs.

Before the festivities began properly, a brief security meeting was held. At its head was a dog in human skin.[break]
"Alright, guys!" He said with a big, carefree grin. At lease two of the people he addresses are not, in fact, guys. Another two are his bosses. Strange how things work out. "This ship's gonna run smooth tonight! We got everyone here! Which, uh, prolly means every Rocket avytar is in the building. It'd be real dumb for the League to pull some shit, but the real threat..."[break]
Closing his eyes for dramatic effect, he huffed. His Kartana, if no one else, waited on the edge of their seat for him to continue.[break]
"...is somebody pullin' a casino heist. Nobody's makin' off with all the cash while the bosses drink themselves silly!"[break]
So, he prowls the casino. By the time the party properly begins, he's walked its halls top to bottom. Having been here the better part of a year, he knows this place inside and out. With such a great team working so hard to secure the place, he feels content to stay at Yumi Hasegawa 's side. Her shadow. Her blade.[break][break]
Eventually, he excuses himself.[break][break]
"Oi. Gonna walk around. Put some gifts under the tree. Say some hellos. Don't worry, keepin' my eyes peeled." The words are spoken in their shared native tongue, a hushed whisper from servant to master.[break]
"You look great, by the way." With that said, he breaks off to mingle.[break]
Up above, two of his Kartana hover near Naomi Sato 's unown. They speak to the strange creatures in an alien language. Like their master, they try and mingle. At least two Unown are being distracted from their duties with riveting, pointless drivel about blades and worthless objects.[break]
Standing before the tree, he kneels and lays his gifts. The first, true to the spirit of the party, is a literal white elephant. With lots of income and few practical expenses, he's afforded the privilege to do dumb stuff like this. A carved marble cufant is his gift for some random party goer.[break]
But that is not all he lays under the tree.[break]
For jayden cross , he places a small, thin package wrapped in delicate silk. Inside is a wakizashi forged by Gwyar Wledig . Alongside it is a note that says 'at your side whenever you need me'. Someone transcribed the message for him. It is addressed to 'Senpai'. Someone has vandalized it to include a heart instead of a dot above the i.[break]
For Cillian Quinn and Tempest Quinn , he leaves a broader gift, wrapped in plainer stuff. Inside is a hand-carved image of the two arm in arm, looking out over a Galarian wilderness. Lugia flies overhead. Woodcarving is a skill he picked up in Galar, and he makes use of it still. The gift is addressed to 'Blondie & Brownie' for their hair.[break]
With the gift-giving done, he walks up to Steven Campbell and takes a silver drink. Amber eyes scan the room, sensing no threats. Yet. Resolving to make use of the occasion, he turns to the server.[break]
"Oi. New guy. How ya likin' Rocket?

Between training and duty, the months after the battle have proved a pleasant blur. Tomorrow becomes today. Today becomes yesterday. Yet the players in his life remain the same. Yumi and those friends he has made within Rocket make this existence seem brighter than it once was, even as doubts plague his mind.[break]
Growing up's hard. Trying to be human even harder. It's why he welcomes the distractions when they come.[break]
His own reaction to the name Marilyn Hasegawa is a cock of the head. It is a stroke of luck that his brain translates the name into his preferred format before he can say something silly. His lips were moments away from commenting how Hasegawa wasn't a personal name.[break]
Then it hits him.[break]
Hasegawa.[break]
Reflexively, he takes a step closer to Yumi. His Kartana, all three of whom had been floating about the room and laughing, sense his mood. They converge around Yumi, forming a shield of swords.[break]
"Hasegawa, huh?" Not knowing the woman by name, he expects a fight.[break]
"Sure, let's go, Yumi." And so, he follows.

At those words, he gives a polite bow. The motion is a mirror of one oft repeated in Galar. Details blur. Twenty years is a long time. Yet the dog remembers good service, and that baring his fangs against this man's enemies was not unenjoyable.[break]
"My blade'll be ready when you need it, Daimyo-sama." He favors the man with the same title he did in those days. Every blade needs its lord. If jayden cross is Rocket's long blade, then the dog is content to be its wakizashi.[break]
"Say!" Leaning up, he breaks the dire mood with a wide smile. "How 'bout we take your boys home and go get some ramen? I found a good stand here in the city!"

When the answer comes, he stands up straighter. His hand rests upon the hilt of his sword. Amber eyes are filled with resolve that borders on human. He looks less a hunched creature and more a samurai.[break]
"I made a promise to the one whom my soul is bound." He says in the language of Johto and Kanto. He says it in that language so there can be no misunderstanding or words lost in translation. "She made me promise not to die, and if we're gonna be fightin' the people on that island again, I gotta get better. Need somebody who'll tell me if I fuck up." Standing there, he wonders if that's good enough. Beneath the sudden dignity in the amber lies hunger - a desire to be better after a lifetime of lazy talent.

"And I never thought 'bout it. Not 'til..." He can't really say where the intrusive thoughts began. Was it in Galar, when people who flocked to him for twenty years died for him? People who had spoken their names to him while his brain simply didn't register the information? Was it when his kartana pierced a little girl's heart on that hit with Zev Harcourt? Was it the simple dread of the grave from Dewford?[break][break]
He couldn't say. All he knows is that the thoughts are here now. Lost, alone, and confused, he turns to one of the few people he knows besides Yumi.[break][break]
"...meh. Point is...it's on my mind. We send a lot of folks there, wherever there is. And everything just seems so confusin'. The stuff you're talkin' 'bout...I kinda get it when I boil it down to the basics."[break][break]
He gives the blonde a truth that could mark him for death, if framed poorly.[break][break]
"Legendary Pokemon. Fightin' for the region. All that stuff 'bout Rocket's glory. I couldn't kill for any of that. But I could kill for you, Senpai, or Yumi." He speaks of jayden cross, to whom he makes no secret of his adoration. "Senpai and you, you both love Rocket so much...so I guess that means I'm okay with killin' for Rocket, too."

"Beast." A curious word. So many of the words in the language spoken here taste odd on his tongue. He finds he enjoys this one. It seems a fitting word for the man before whom he kneels in all but fact.[break][break]
"Got somethin' to say to you. I'll try t'be quick." Recognizing an apex predator for what it is, the dog doesn't waste any time. The woman to whom he has sworn his life pledged them to dangerous creatures.[break][break]
"I fucked up on that mission. Killin' that girl wasn't the right play." Stupid as he is, he refuses to patronize the beast by specifying which one. "And I wanna do better. For Rocket. For me. Those trials you guys put us through were for somethin' called Spectra, right? Special training for grunts? What happened to that?"

It would have been better, in the end, if there were some great battle. That would be preferable to what happens in truth. As the wolf-maiden draws her blade, ready to do battle, the Pokemon beneath her seems ill-suited for cooperation. After ferrying them so long in silence, the Steelix roars. Its master shouts to try and bring it under control, but to no avail.[break][break]
Too late does he realize why. Pokemon, even steel-types, ornery ones like this massive snake, hold some love for their trainer. It remembers how the dog personally fed him. Watered him. Helped him find a place to stay in Sootopolis. A blazing gout of flame, amplified by an electric field, bursts up towards them. Shielding them with its body, the Steelix lunges forward.[break][break]
They are sent flying through the rift in the interdream mist. They cascade through there until, at last, they emerge on the boat of a ship. While they slept, the battle ended. Who won, neither will know for some time. All the dog knows is...[break][break]
His Steelix's head, melting into molten metal, sinks into the sea besides the boat.

"Creatin' this kinda world in the present?" He asks, looking back at the people of the village. They're happy. Content.[break][break]
"Is that really...?" The proper language eludes him. Language as a whole, wielding it correctly, is a difficult task for this creature.[break][break]
"Yeah, you're right." In part. In ways his words can't speak. Even if his life in this yesterday would be better, he wouldn't know the people he did. The blonde or his husband, his senpai, Yumi herself, all the other friends he's made, he wouldn't have known them if he had been born anywhere else.[break][break]
A rift opens before them. Out of it flies an Iron Moth. The machine stands in stark contrast to the past. Drifting along on its hydraulics, it looks at the two canines with displeasure.[break][break]
"Welp, there's our ticket outta here!"

A dog collapses into the sand. That last blow was too much. It's always too much. It's a reckless attack born of valor. Reeling from it, drained of blood again, he is only saved by the intervention of three Kartana. One charges forward, distracting the fresh-evolved legend. The other two, along with the dog's own Ceruledge, drag him back. They flee across the battlefield, only to be joined by the last Kartana when it's clear the dog has been safely delivered to a passing group of grunts and executives.[break][break]
There is no winning this fight for him - no further glory. Nothing except another loss, another Pokemon that has died for him. This day, his team has been utterly decimated by the League - reduced to its barest essentials.[break][break]
When one finds themselves at the bottom of the dark, there is nowhere to go except up.

"Then I promise." The dog says with the conviction of an animal. "I'll kill him for ya one day. Him and his dumb Grouhog too. I already did it once in that computer sim you guys ran." And it almost cost him everything. Almost every Pokemon brought into that simulation to fight Groudon died, including the Kingambit that landed the final blow.[break][break]
"Anyone that'd hurt you's my enemy." There's grim humanity to his words, quickly dismissed and forgotten.[break][break]
"...wow. This horse is fast. I think we're almost there." He observes, taken out of his reverie by Spectrier and its abilities. "This really feels like the horse a samurai would ride back in the day."