He is given one order.[break]

If this woman leaves this room, kill her.[break]

That, and none other. Hitoshi has been pulled from his normal job, guarding Rocket’s interests in its Sootopolis casino, to guard this mysterious woman. It speaks to how little he cares about the political structure of the region that he does not recognize her or even attempt to find out who she is. All he knows is that she’s a prisoner of Rocket. Anything else is irrelevant to him. They think he’s a consummate professional.[break]

The terrible truth is that he doesn’t care – at least about secondhand opinions. Dogs are creatures which form their own opinions. Whether everyone around a dog loves or hates someone, the animal’s opinion will always be its own.[break]

So, sitting outside of her cell, he peers inside. He sees a woman with long, pink, braided hair. A woman trying to find inner peace with meditation. She smells like a fighter. So, Hitoshi speaks. No one told him to be quiet.[break]

“Oi, that doesn’t work, you know. Meditation. Dunno how you manage to sit still like that…I’d probably try and claw through the wall or somethin’.” Just small talk, to pass the time. Hitoshi speaks to this woman with absolutely no malice. His voice isn’t dripping with sadism or contempt. He could be chatting with her in a bar or park from how he sounds.

Elinor Anderson

A voice breaks her focus, shatters the walls of mental isolation she had been slowly building with her meditation.

She hadn’t expected the guards to have personality enough to talk with her.

She opens her eyes, glancing in the direction of the voice as she retorts. “Perhaps it does not. But it’s not like I have much else that I can do.”

A small smile on lips. She had noticed the lack of malice in the guard’s voice.

“So, what’s your name?” She eases herself out of the meditation position, letting her feet fall over the edge of the bed instead as he kept her gaze toward Hitoshi.

LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

“Hitoshi!” He says with a grin. Swiveling around in his chair, he rolls over to the bars and looks through. They’re almost eye level. Nominally, he’s doing his job very well. Not like she can do anything while he’s looking right at her. [break]
“Man, this sucks. I don’t envy ya. Having to sit in there all day. It’s nice, getting to go home when my shift ends. I don’t usually kill people for free, but if I ever meet the guy who invented jail, he can get a one way ticket to hell free of charge!” He laughs, treating the ending of a life with all the gravity of picking daisies.

One name, and an ounce of light-hearted murder banter later. Elinor would introduce herself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hitoshi.” Not that she figured he would believe her. “My name is Elinor.”

“I mean, it’s not so different from what I am used to. Less paperwork strewn about, honestly, being in here almost feels like a vacation.” For now.

“So, professional killer, eh?” She began. “How did you end up doing that?” Speaking so casually about it felt weird. But she knew better than to adorn a holier-than-thou attitude deep in enemy lands.

LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

He remembers days running on the street. Fighting for scraps of food just to get by. Refusing the help of adults, refusing to be fostered. All the raw rolling anger of rejection by his own mother made him rage in those bygone days.[break]
“Just kinda fell into it, the way you do any old job. I like using my sword. It beats flipping burgers or pushing pencils.” His mind flits to the empty eyed people flipping burgers all day, every day, just to make end’s meet.[break]
“How ‘bout you? How’d you end up doing, uuuuuh…whatever it is you did before you came here? Bein real, it’s weird that you’re here. These guys don’t usually keep prisoners.” He places the same wedge he always does between himself and Rocket, not even realizing what he is doing.

She listened to his story, and realized that once again it was the familiar old tale of the system failing those who did not have the resources to get back on their feet. The more of those tales she heard, the more she was starting to think that introducing a bit of Socialism into Hoenn’s political climate might do some good.

But moving on, Hitoshi shot the question right back at her.

“The Darkest Day pushed me to it.” Her voice grew serious, cold even, as she remembered it all. It was awful how simply mentioning it all could pull forth memories she had tried to push away. “I noticed the League was able to do nothing against Necrozma, and I figured that needed to change. And so I started climbing the political ladder until I reached as far up as I could..." She paused and took a moment to breath. "I was hoping to enact some change for the better.”

She sighed.

“But between you and me, I think I’ve failed in doing that.”

She figured she might as well speak honestly with him. He was a Rocket Grunt, what was he going to do? Admit to be speaking all buddy-buddy like with a Council-member of the League?


LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

[blockquotes]Hitoshi listens, focusing solely on her. He nods along, hearing the words. The deeper meaning of them are lost on him. There was probably a news report in Johto about Hoenn’s darkest day. There may have even been side effects of that terrible cataclysm that reached those foreign shores. He doesn’t know anything about that. All he knows, all he has known for half his life or near enough, is that he has to keep Yumi Hasegawa safe. [break]
“Uhuh, mhm.” He says with nods to show that he’s following along with the conversation. He likes her voice. If she gives long speeches, he can see why people would vote for her.[break]
“Well, you can always do better when you get out, right? I’m sure yer buddies will come along and pay a ransom for ya, Elinor-chan. Or they’ll kill everybody between Sootopolis n’ here and take ya. It’s what I’d do if the person I care about got taken by your guys.” He’s a well trained dog. He doesn’t say her name. She has a life to live, a cover story to maintain. [break]
“It’s never too late. Well, until you’re dead, I guess.” He senses distress and he tries to comfort. It is simply his nature when the order to kill hasn’t been given.[/blockquote]

It felt nice, having someone listen, seemingly without ulterior motives.

And yet she felt doubt in her mind. Would FERNANDO SILPH and PENELOPE LIVY and the rest really expend the ressources to save her? Or would they see their chance to cut their losses and take the opportunity to hoard more power for themselves. Honestly, she almost expected them to. But at least there was one light in which she could see flickering at the edges of hope. Laurence Anderson, she knew if anyone was going to save her, it would be him.

“True, it is never too late.” She pushed thoughts of escape away. It wasn’t exactly comfortable to think about freedom when you were locked up.

“Do you really think Team Rocket will let me go ransom or not?” There was doubt in her voice.

“No offense, but Team Rocket really strikes me more as the type to kill me and make a spectacle out of it when they are done with me.”

Oh she prayed she was wrong about that.

LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

“I’unno. Tell ya what, if they wanna make a spectacle out of it, just pay me and I’ll do it quick!” He speaks with a craftsman’s pride. Like any professional, he advertises his services with a self-assured smile. A shame that his profession is murder. [break]
“But somebody will come for ya. You’re a politician, right? You don’t get to where you are without somebody lovin’ ya. Someone out there’s plannin’ to getcha out right now. Of course, I’ll have to stop ‘em, but it’s the thought that counts, Elinor-chan.” He speaks of murdering her friends with easy nonchalance. He does not hate them, anymore than he hates her.[break]
“I don’t get the hype with these Rocket guys. They’re pretty weird.” He exercises his capacity to understate an issue.

For a brief short second she considered asking for the ‘yelp’ reviews on his business. Then the grim mortality of his profession set in and she decided against it.

Still, he made a reassuring point even though he shot it down real quick. Luckily she figured her cousin Laurence Anderson could easily take this man in a fight if it came down to it.

But moving on.

“Oh? That’s not what I expected to hear from a member of Team Rocket.” Elinor admitted. “Why do you think they are ‘pretty weird’ ?”


LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

”They all have different ideas of what this thing is supposed to be! Even the bosses all think different things. Well…judging by how the grunts under them talk. Me, I don’t really care who I swing my sword for. I’m loyal to one person. Other than her, everybody’s fair game.” He declares that to her, same as he does to everyone. [break]
“What, Elly-chan, don’t think Rocket’s weird? They got a good sign up bonus.” He snickers at his impromptu, facetious attempt to play recruiter.

Elinor listened with newfound interest, taking especially note of the differences among the leadership. Though this was the word of a grunt, so she did need to apply a bit of salt to his words

“Loyal to only one? Does Rocket Leadership know that?” She teased. “And if I may who is this lucky person?”

Hitoshi tried to play the recruiter for a short second.

“Would signing up get me out of this cell?” She doubted it. Besides even if it did. She wasn’t about to sell her morals for freedom. No, she wasn’t THAT sort of politician.

LOCATION: Rocket Prison - Sootopolis City.
TAG: Hitoshi Inoue

”Hahaha, I don’t give a shit what they know!” He laughs a jolly laugh, not truly understanding or caring the true depths of evil some of these people can sink to. “They don’t pay me to talk, and they don’t pay me to shut up. They pay me to kill.” He nods as if there is some profound wisdom of the universe in that statement.[break]
“I can’t really talk about her! It’d suck if you arrested her. Killing everyone in a League prison sounds like a pain! You guys don’t fight fair! Ugh, all I have is my sword. You guys throw out your Syyyygnas, and yer fancy super forms, and those X-moves or whatever the hell! Plus ya got gods! That Melody broad has frickin’ Cobalion! That guy’s my idol! Rocket doesn’t pay me enough to kill my idols!” He pouts, talking about the conflict that resulted in Elinor’s capture in truly trivial terms.[break]
“You guys suck! Duel for stuff! Leave the Pokémon out of it!”