This dog doesn't know names. The titles of these two warring ideologies are almost as meaningless. Rangers. Beasts. Gym leaders. Significant enough for his mind to note them, but mostly worthless information. He knows faces, and he doesn't recognize hers.[break][break]
It's a shame. She doesn't look like a bad person. She doesn't belong here. Wrong place, wrong time. A story told a hundred times over. Sighing, he musters up his resolve and steps forward. The woman around whom his universe revolves has pledged her loyalty to Declan Walsh's cause. His senpai's sword and the blonde's knife are sworn to it as well.[break][break]
So, even if he doesn't like it, he follows his one directive: kill any League you find.[break][break]
"Oi." The masked dog asks with bare steel. Around him floats a pair of Kartana, chittering and chuckling in their strange language.[break][break]
"Nothing personal." He reassures her as the blades soar onto the attack. Neither Kartana aims for her Pokemon. They go for the girl. One is an air cutter, the other is a leaf blade. Both aim to end her life.

Nothing personal? Was that all the masked dog could say as the Kartana whirled around him? The sentiment fell on deaf ears when the unfamiliar Pokémon charged Shalin and her Pokémon with murderous intent. She and her Flygon glowed with Infinity Energy as Treble's CLANGING SCALES rocked her, amplified by the DRAGON ZONE her Flygon had created around dragon and rider. The vibration was deafening, only Shalin's suit protecting her from being reduced to mush from sitting astride the violently-shaking Kommo-o.

Not even her speedy Flygon could match that of the two Kartana, unable to reach the duo as their LEAF BLADE and AIR CUTTER sliced and diced clean through Treble's scaly armor. On top of the wounds he had already suffered earlier in the day, this would land the rattling Pokémon back in a League infirmary for a long time. Withdrawing her prized dragon, she hurled Letheia's Poké Ball to her feet, letting the Alolan Ninetales beneath her emerge from beneath her and landing her in the saddle. Drawing her bow, she took aim at one of the Kartana with an AVIAN ARROW before the arctic fox's eyed gleamed with a blinding CONFUSE RAY aimed at one of them... or both, if she could catch them within close quarters of one another.

The pace of the battle is lightning fast; too fast for Shalin as the SACRED SWORD cleanly cuts through the white fox's fur, the rider rolling off her mount. She withdrew her precious Pokémon just in the nick of time, a large puddle of blood where Letheia once stood. It was clear from the beginning that her team simply could not match an armada of Kartana.

Except one.

Clicking the switch on Lathiel's Poké Ball, the Type: Null leaped out of it, invigorated to see Hitoshi Inoue 's Kartana. She instinctively hurled herself at the one that had felled Letheia, the Ultra Beast Killer attempting to bend or dull its blades with her potent CRUSH CLAW.

Now on foot, Shalin heard Hitoshi's question; while his Pokémon were merciless and seemingly wanted the Ranger and her Pokémon dead, the Black Dog appeared to have some sympathy for her. "...I don't want to be here, but my duty as Captain of Rustboro demands I be here."

"Then fuckin' leave, idiot!" Though his words are laced with insults, concern dominates his tone. This dog is not the sort of creature to take pleasure - either in duty or ideas. Ideas, concepts, abstractions. Those things don't matter to him. People do. If this green-haired stranger said she was here protecting someone, he would understand. If obligation to a person bound her here, he would understand.[break][break]
But loyalty to an idea? The idea of League or Rocket? That he simply could not process. Even if he should walk the long road set before him, the path of a beast crawling towards humanity, that is an ideal that will never sit right in his heart.[break][break]
"Don't die for something dumb like that! You can only die once!" He throws out a pokeball on instinct. Krokorok doesn't have a name. Hitoshi hardly remembered he had this thing until today. All the same, his aim was true. The blow puts him between Kartana and the strange Type:Null. Having no idea what that creature is, he understands this: it had singular, unusual zeal at the sight of his origami blade. Though the Kartana might be no more than an insect before it, it flits around. While Krokorok bleeds, the Kartana searches for an opportunity.[break][break]
Its leaf blade strikes against the creature's artificial flesh, trying to find purchase there. It still has a heart, somewhere. The dog is sure of that.

Shalin wanted to take Hitoshi Inoue 's advice. She didn't belong on a battlefield. She belonged in the wilds, calming unruly wild Pokémon, rescuing those in need, and unearthing Hoenn's greatest mysteries. But she could not. Leaving now would be turning her back on the people of Hoenn. "It is my duty to protect Rustboro's people. Several Rangers who work under me are risking their lives against people like you, too. Only an idiot would turn their back on them. That is why I must remain here."

The chimeric Lathiel screeched, the LEAF BLADE piercing the Ultra Beast Killer's armor and slicing into the amalgamated flesh beneath. Though the Type: Null roared in anguish, she was still standing. She would not let the blow go unpunished, the three sharp edges on her restraining mask glowing red, yellow, and blue with the component beams of a point-blank TRI ATTACK headed at the Kartana.

Sandy had done enough scouting; with great speed, the Flygon zoomed to the ground, landing next to Shalin. Her Sygna Suit fully active, Shalin walked up to Sandy's wing. She lowered it to the ground before lifting the bonded trainer onto it, both of them glowing a faint green as she held onto the translucent appendage with all four limbs. Rider and mount both squinted in focus, Sandy stretching her wings as the duo prepared to discharge the full power of their Sygna bond upon Hitoshi and his Pokémon.

"That's better!" He huffs, like they aren't facing off on a battlefield. He says the words like the shores are not drenched in the blood of the fallen. How odd, the dog observes, that blood all looks the same. Rocket blood, League blood, Pokemon blood. Once it's out of the body, it's all the same sickly red.[break]
"Fightin' to protect people's good! Especially 'cause there's weirdos like me all over the place! Keep 'em safe! That's somethin' you can do! Hell, that's why I'm here. Gotta protect my lady, my Senpai, and my Blondie." He nods with pride, beaming ear to ear.[break]
Only the building tri-attack breaks him from the mood. One of his Pokemon charge from their ball. Baiken, his Kleavor, lumbers across the battlefield. Knocking the Kartana out of the way, he takes the blast full in the face.[break][break]
Were that the only injury he had suffered today, he would be fine. Mostly fine. He'd walk it off. Unfortunately, MATIAS SILPH, whose name Hitoshi doesn't know, inflicted an internal injury upon the Pokemon. Here, he receives his just deserves. The Kartana lives, but the Kleavor dies.[break]
"Baiken, no!" Hitoshi shouts. He's holding a black orb before he notices what he's doing. Kusanagi is encased in a blue crystal. When the Kartana emerges, its type has changed. Now, the blade is a water-type.[break][break]
Flying from the Type: Null's reach, it charges straight up at the Ranger. His edges become a blade of water. He levels a tera blast of physical might at the trainer and her ride Pokemon.

Foes who had a reason to fight were the most dangerous to square off against. Shalin had an entire city to protect, but it seemed Hitoshi Inoue 's stake in the battle was personal.

The Kleavor's death would have made Shalin gasp even a month ago. With her taking the Captain's seat soon, and all the warfronts she had been on, she had lamentably been desensitized to the finality of losses that didn't directly impact her. She used to be one of the most empathetic people in Hoenn.

War was slowly turning into her a monster she didn't think she ever would be, nor one she wanted to be. There was no time to think about it, though; she didn't even have time to flick her Flygon's reins to one side. The surge of water created by the Kartana's TERA BLAST slammed into them both, Shalin squealing as she, too, felt the pain of the water blast's cutting edge. They both remained in the air, though, and that was what mattered. In the air with the INFINITY ENERGY between them to blow Hitoshi's Kartana out of the sky.

The girl's SYNC STONE glowing green, a BUG ZONE surrounded Shalin as both her and her mount emitted a similar shade of light. Defying physics with the power of her Sygna Suit, Shalin lifted her right leg out of Sandy's saddle and slid halfway down the dragon's left wing. Grabbing onto it with all four limbs, she held on for her life as the wing began to BUG BUZZ with sickening, deafening volume. While it may not have been apparent at first, it was clear after the attack fired that Shalin's presence on the wing made the vibration far more intense than a Flygon was capable of on its own.

"Alright, then! Let's go for broke!" Kusanagi agreed. The Kartana began buzzing around in the air, flapping and looking for an opening. As he streaked to strike the ranger once more, it was caught in the bug buzz. Empowered though it was by the beast boost, that did nothing to aid against the assault from Flygon.[break][break]"Got only one trick left to pull. Lemme show you what it's like to fight for somethin' you care about!" At his side, this whole time, has been a sword. A finely made katana from Johto, a storied weapon. The Hasegawa Muramasa, as it was called. This sacred blade has been passed down, the family little suspecting the sword was haunted by a Honedge.[break]"Listen up! I've got important stuff to do! So have you! So you better not die here to this attack, alright?! This is everything I've got!" The blade came alight with fire. It burned with resolve and inner fire.[break][break]Ghastly fire gathered along the length, powered by his blood. When he swung it at Shalin, it blasted him back, across the battlefield and out of the fight. It was, effectively, a parting shot. One that recalled his fresh-fainted Kartana back to him.