Hitoshi waves his proverbial tail at the sight of her. He grins from ear to ear. It feels like years since he last saw Yumi. When the order came to head to the cave, he left with a smile and a wave. It was a chance to earn himself some cred among these people they’ve pledged to help. Their loyalties are surface level, but the League probably doesn’t care about that. Gangs and governments are absolute. One is either with them or against them. It’s so simple even a dog can understand the logic.[break]
“Oooooi! Yumi! It’s been a while!” He picks apart the strawberry ice cream like the edge of his spoon is a blade cutting into flesh. He talks with his mouth full. The old respect and decorum’s all gone. They’ve known each other far too long to stand on ceremony.[break]
“Youshouldvesheenwha-” He realizes on his own that talking with a full mouth isn’t getting any of them anywhere. He swallows. Brain freeze follows, which makes the grazing wound on the side of his head ache. Squirming agitates the wounds on his chest.[break]
“Ow ow ow. You shouldda seen how crazy things got down there! Everybody was throwing out the craziest crap you’ve ever seen! They were fightin’ with frickin’ gods, Yumi! I got to meet Cobalion! And some weird electric cat thing! These Hoenn guys are crazy!” He laughs, like he hadn’t just spent a full day of his life butchering, almost being killed, and fighting some of the wildest people the League has to offer.[break]
If Yumi’s here, everything will be alright. That’s where it ends and begins in his mind.

“The League doesn’t play fair, that’s how.” Hitoshi’s on the cusp of pouting along with the remark. “It’s hard to keep from gettin’ hurt in big scraps like this. Back when I worked for yer parents, before I got picked to protect ya, I’d get in some pretty big fights for turf.” It was all done at night, away from prying eyes. They were battles fought without honor or humanity.[break]
“Plenty of people died on both sides. Kids. Old men. Kind of crazy.” It’s the first time his life’s really been in danger for ten years. Hitoshi doesn’t think about death despite how he delivers it like a quick order chef. His own mortality is something he has never given much thought to. It was only at the last, as he faced down the barrel of a gun, that he contemplated this might be it for him.[break]
The nurse runs off to get him discharged. They have time. Hitoshi doesn’t think about how long they have or don’t have. For the first time in his life, a question about something beyond today passes his lips.[break]
“Would you miss me if I’d clocked out?”

He wants to get up and hug her. Being the way he is comes with its drawbacks and perks. After so long being around Yumi has keyed him into her heart. The way she turns, the turmoil he smells, it’s all the answer he needs. Here, where no one else can see, she lets him in. It’s something not even his own mother told him, even if she steeps the sentiment in her own way. Maybe it’s just what he, deep down, wants to believe.[break]
“Sometimes, I wish I’d been born a sword or a Pokemon.” He admits. “I’m no good at doin’ all the stuff you and Mei do. Talking. Makin’ friends. Getting all these idiots to listen to every word you say.” A laugh slips in there at the way people trip over themselves for Yumi. Having been a captive audience to people courting her, he feels bad for the guys.[break]
“But I can fight. I can kill. I can follow your orders and be used by you. I can keep you safe. Yeah…I think life would be way easier if I was somethin’ else.” A pause. What else can he say. “If you order me not to die, I’ll stay alive. No matter what.”

“Well, that settles it, then!” He says as if that command settles anything. In his mind, dying is off the table now, taken out of the cards by her command - as if she has the power to deny death simply by willing it to be so.[break]
Picking himself up enough to reach his pokeball, he lets his Gallade out right there. Seeing his master’s sorry state, he runs out and grabs an empty wheelchair. Munenori rolls Hitoshi out behind Yumi after he has changed into civilian clothes. Back in Johto, Hitoshi never even carried around Pokémon. Now, he’s got six of them. They’re six more mouths to feed. He finds it annoying.[break]
The hospital is in chaos still. They’re wheeling in some guy in the hall past them who looks beaten half to death. A bear lumbers behind him like there’s nothing out of the ordinary. The chanseys and audinos of the hospital are working double time. People filter in and out.[break]
It’s a relief to be out in the streets. Looking up to Yumi, Hitoshi asks an obvious question. Maybe she’ll know the answer, since she isn’t some low level grunt.[break]
“So…did we win?”

Munenori, recognizing real power when he sees it, lets go of the wheelchair and steps away. Although he can still sense their emotional states, he can choose to give them some small measure of privacy. This is not a conversation for his ears. Let it stay between his trainer and this woman he has sworn his life to.[break]
“Nah.” He doesn’t sound sad that Jett Roan is still alive out there somewhere. “He got away. I brought this on myself. The guy didn’t even wanna pull his gun out. Then I went and pointed out I’d probably end up caring about people I cared about if he didn’t.” The words are accompanied out of his mouth by laughter. He laughs so hard that he almost breaks his bandages.[break]
“Man, that’s pretty damn dumb of me, huh?!” He made it out of there alive. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. He has made an enemy for life, but so be it. Maybe he’ll get a good, proper fight the next time he sees Jet. No Pokemon, no fancy moves. Just two men and their weapons, the way it’s supposed to be.[break]
“Bein’ honest, I don’t even know what a seal stone is.” Hitoshi was just one of a hundred or more men told it was time to move out under an admin’s authority – a nobody who only worked with one single Beast throughout the whole mission. “But nobody can deny I helped, huh? Maybe the admins’ll start to notice us more.” He can hope. “That’s what you want, right?”

“See, it all worked out in the end!” He smiles and laughs, but he notices she doesn’t laugh. She answers his question but she seems…[break]
Terse? Hitoshi isn’t a wordsmith. He doesn’t know fancy terms. All he knows as they move through the overcrowded streets of a town that probably hasn’t seen this much traffic in a hundred years is that the person he has sworn his life to isn’t happy about something.[break]
Looking around from his meager post in the wheelchair, he looks at her eyes and then the crowd. He tries to see if there is any implied annoyance with anyone – something a knife in their throat might fix.[break][break]
Failing to find anything, he asks a question. That apprehension grips him as they near the taxi service. They’ll soon be away from this place, back to what passes for normalcy now. They’ll leave this seaside hick town in the boonies behind and be back in business.[break]
“Yumi…you seem, I’unno.” And he does, genuinely, not know. “There someone you want me to kill?”