Spent of all her blood, Kazumi flits through dreamless fits of sleep. Occasionally there is the odd moment of consciousness. The sound of folding paper, the feeling of something strange and medicinal running down her throat. Finally, the fever breaks, and she opens her lucid eyes for the first time in what seems like ages.

"Hitoshi..."

The wolf looks up at him. Normally so strange, an antiquated notion of a samurai displaced in time, he looks right at home here surrounded by Johto's fall colors and a distant shrine. More than he ever had in Hoenn or Orre.

It's her first cue that something is wrong.

"... I am awake."

A lie. But she blinks, dragging herself to her feet all the same. She does not say things that she cannot make truth. Her legs still tremble from blood loss, but she uses Onimaru's scabbard to stabilize herself and keep her grounded. In more ways than one, that sword was the only thing that kept her on two feet.

"Are we... in Johto?"

Kazumi had only seen pictures of the land of her ancestors. She was an heir to their legacy as Johto samurai, something so fiercely protected that they maintained that identity even after generations in another region, and yet she had never been. Aside from the fact that she first spilled blood only a short time ago, it was her greatest shame.

"Yeah." Sitting up, the dog turns his amber eyes up to the trees. Their leaves are the same color. As the world wanes towards winter, leaves wilt on the branches. It makes for a beautiful picture. Life and nature work in their cycles. The world will little remember these little leaves, nor the creatures that look upon them with ill-understanding eyes.[break][break]
There is more to be done than stare at leaves. Stumbling to his feet, the dog sheathes his katana. The Hasegawa Muramasa does not object to its slumber. Instead, it closes the demonic eye resting near the grip. When it is needed, it will answer the call. For now, the blade deigns to dream - of a world where it can sup upon more dog blood to its heart's content.[break][break]
"Guess this mist really does show the past." She is afforded a comfortable eloquence no one else in Rocket hears. They share a language. Through language, they forge understanding. Although they are in the wrong place, they play the right role. This is what they're meant to do - what is meant for them.[break][break]
"There'll be a way out somewhere. We've gotta find it. Go back through. Get back to Yumi, Senpai, and the others." Here in this queer world, the pokeballs at his side look more like apricots. Tossing one out, a massive Steelix roars. Bending low, it allows the hounds to mount it - ride upon its head.[break][break]
It will be an easier journey that way.

"I've never seen it with my own eyes."

Eyes as the sea marvel at the mountains for a moment, before she falters and clutches her head.

Her thoughts swim. She resents that. A honed mind is a more useful weapon than any sword, and her thoughts are a mess. Nothing makes sense here. A thousand questions race through her mind, questions never considered with Onimaru in hand. She grasps her head in frustration.

Breathe.

Bend as a blade of grass in the wind.

See the world as it is, not what you wish it to be. No matter if this is a world of paradoxes, the mark of a strategist is to adapt.

She moves to the top of the Steelix's head alongside the dog, rising above the treeline to survey things from a bird's eye view.

"You act as though you've experienced one of these dreams before."

Looking out over this beautiful landscape, the dog is silent. Lost in silent contemplation. On their way, they pass a small village. Children point at their Steelix and whisper to one another. Looking up at them, peasants bow with respect. Being given such respect makes the black dog blush. It has been years since someone has treated him like more than just a bloodthirsty animal.[break][break]
For just a moment, he wonders...[break][break]
"I've been in one or two, back durin' that battle in April." Yawning, he gives the children a bashful wave back. The thoughts grow somber. There is not yet anything hostile in their path. Only this dream of a bygone era.[break][break]
"Would it be so bad?" He asks a question that is a sin, "if we just stayed asleep? Bet we could throw our lot in with one of the daimyo that the dream's made."[break][break]
At least in this dream, his skills would earn him glory. Earn him praise. Allow him to be more than just a dog or a criminal.

The children look so much smaller from above. Their cries of fear and wonder wash over her. She has never commanded anything but scorn for upholding the old ways back in Hoenn, but somehow this rings hollow. It feels unearned.

Kazumi bows her head to the children as she passes all the same. Their innocence is pure, unadulterated. That innocence is the soil that will nurture the future. They will one day know of war and hardship, but for now, this moment is one of peace. They must enjoy that.

She plays along.

"No, Hitoshi. Dreams change like the seasons, and I could not be content knowing that my work might be undone."

A dream will satisfy one for a short time, but it will not sate you. The wolf longs for real blood.

This dream is real enough for now, but how long could it last?

"Besides. You already owe loyalty to another, don't you?"

The woman known as Yumi.

The way he speaks of her makes Kazumi wonder, just what kind of woman commands such respect in his amber eyes?

"This era is one the rest of the world has left behind. Like us. We look to the past and honor it, while the rest of the world laughs. But staying here, when our allegiance lies elsewhere... it is the easy way out.

"I aim to change the world in my image, to build this kind of world in our present. I cannot turn my back on that."

Whether this dream shows them the paradise they long for or not, it is illusory. It is not real. Everything here is like cupping water in one's hands. It will slip through their fingers eventually.

"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!"

The past collides with the future. A robotic fiend tears open the skies.

The two cannot coexist. One is necessarily a threat to the other. They would tear each other apart.

It is a shame for the children still marveling at them from below that they should learn so soon what the end of peace looks like.

"Yes. It is really possible, Hitoshi. I would have you aid me in that dream as well if you are so inclined.

"But first..."

Kazumi glances over the landscape one last time. This was the land of her ancestors, the world they built before it was tainted by outside influence. She sears it into her memory, as an aspiration she may yet reach.

"Onimaru, it's time!"

She draws her blackened honedge, and the sword draws greedily upon her blood.

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.

The body of the Steelix lurches beneath her, but even on unsteady ground she maintains her dignity.

The future burns away at the past, consumes it as fuel. Inherent in that desire to reach toward progress the world is set ablaze. Change in its most potent form, the air combusts. None can stop the forward march of time.

Kazumi raises her blade as they rush toward the rift, an opening called upon by unconscious desire.

I wish to leave the past as it were. I wish to change the present. I wish to grasp the future and make it my own.

"Onimaru... prepare thyself!"

The black blade reflects in it the hope for tomorrow, carried upon the metallic wings of the moth. The menace comes to reap what the past has sown, and Onimaru takes it unto itself.

"Tettei-kōsen!!"

A single strike raised over her head, and the Steel Beam cuts its way toward that future. The artificial sun reflected in the blade carries a cursed hope, for it may only kill -- nevertheless, the blade slices the paradox in twain, granting them the dawn of tomorrow they strive toward.

The beam is absolute for all but a moment, tearing open a hole in the mist. The Honedge expends everything it has til it faints, Kazumi with it.

... And then, they are adrift amid the sea, as if nothing ever happened.