This job sucked. When Howard had been promoted to Rocket Admin, he had been excited at the employment opportunity. Now that the honeymoon period had ended, all Howard was left with was a pile of paperwork, mountains of charts, and a dozen illegal mining operations.

He still missed the archaeology he used to wholeheartedly pursue.

"Oh, it's you, dog boy." Howard looked up from his desk, frowning. He lounged at Admin Fox's desk with purpose. He did not lounge at his desk like Fern, nor did he own the desk like Jayden or Barnaby. He simply took on the task and kept marching on. "A Dynamax Band? Yeah, I—he can can do that."

The bag is pulled open and cash spills out onto the desk, spilling through Howard's fingers.

"Where'd you get this?"

---

Hitoshi Inoue

"Turns out that if ya don't waste all your money on all you can eat Kanto Barbeque, pachinko parlors, soaplands, gachapon, and Houndoom fightin', you can save up a pretty penny. Y'know, bein' head of security at Hoenn's best casino and a SPECTRA agent." He grins a toothy grin, childish, carefree. Another man, somewhere far away, preaches about the evils of this energy a dog will soon thoughtlessly harness and unleash upon a man he counts as a friend.[break]
"Gotcha somethin', too." Out from a sleeve comes wild torchic, a brand of whiskey named for a species rarely spotted in the wild. It's a warm, spiced, sugared whiskey. It hits like a fireball on the way down.[break]
"It ain't an easy thing, fightin' a friend and survivin' Reginald Ice or his brother in the Reginald clan, Reginald Steel. Ya did it. Maybe you won't be a rookie fer too much longer." Out comes two shot glasses and he pours.[break]
"Man...I need a sygna suit...but I can't save up quick enough fer the war. We're gonna need all the help we can get here in Sootopolis."

Hoenn's best casino? That remained to be seen. If only more than one city could bear witness to Yumi Hasegawa's casino, Howard would've agreed. As it was, Starlight was like a distant star in the sky—too dim to be seen by many, yet bright to those nearby.

Still, Hitoshi was a dime a dozen and the perfect representation of the average member of Rocket. There was no investment, no hope, no looking towards the future, but only the now. Why bother looking forward when your body was likely going to be blasted apart by one of the League's many strong trainers?

Why invest when there was no home to begin with?

"Won't say no to a generous gift, though. What's another one for the pile?" Chu-e Choi kept sending him random gifts, and he was drowning in exotic teas, expensive wine, and other various knickknacks that the former underboss sent to his office. "Thank you kindly."

Reginalds. His eye twitched.

"You humble me, Admin Fox thinks I'm floundering." Two glasses appeared, carved from crystal hewn from Kalos's Reflection Cave, on the desk. They filled with amber liquid. "You're worried about Sootopolis?" The city is well-defended."

---

Hitoshi Inoue

"I ain't a complicated guy, Rookie." He sips on the whiskey and tastes of all the fruits, spices, and vegetables that decayed so he could take the sip. "I know what I'm 'bout. I know what I can do." Out comes a tanto into a spare hand. It's small, even for a tanto. The blade is balanced just for him, too short for a bigger man "I could cut a jugular vein like an electrician cuts a wire in a breaker box. It's that simple, endin' a life. There..."[break]
Another sip. Another thought. Another reminder of the vision shared by Kouji Matsubara and a black dog. Sootopolis burns. People scream. They die. They are all cast into torment. They scream, and the gods that hear are indifferent to their torment.[break]
"...there ain't nothin' simple 'bout this. None of it. SPECTRA agents fight gods. Folks like us ain't meant to fight gods. They're..." He stands, and he goes to a book near the desk. He holds up a tome on ancient myth, emblazoned with a colorful, inaccurate illustration of a legendary Pokemon. "They're old history, but they're right here! Yeah this city's well defended from tanks, battleships, maybe even Morningwood's dragons, but gods? How the hell we supposed t'hold the city against that?

"With your bodies." The glass clinked against the table as Howard tossed it back. Heat filled his gut and radiated outwards in waves. "Gods don't know death, and they haven't for millennia. Mortals can die, so you will fight against them with your everything."

Howard inspected the glass, his face reflecting off the various facets of the perfectly carved crystal. The tome is one of the legend of Ho-Oh and the Burned Tower, fact blurring into fiction as the years eek by.

"Down to the last drop of blood, if need be." freya morningstar was strong, but she could be drowned in a mountain of corpses if need be. Even dragons grew fat on an overabundance of flesh, if enough was provided.

That was what the texts said, anyway.

I heard about your S.P.E.C.T.R.A promotion. Congratulations." He had filed the increasing pay, after all. "Do you feel that your assessments have trained you for the field?"

---

Hitoshi Inoue

"General Barcode trained me damn well. Senpai, Blondie, Barcode...they're strong. Our strongest." How beautiful they all are in different ways. Zev Harcourt is a void cast into darkness in a man's shape. He exceeds humanity, stands above it. He walks far along a road, farther than a dog like him could ever go. Cillian Quinn moves with purpose. He serves with singular, human loyalty. His bond makes him a shadow. But the third...[break]
The third...[break]
The third...[break]
jayden cross is a man. He is a human. He swings his blade with enlightenment and purpose. To watch him swing his Doublades is to observe poetry written in red, dripped on a blade's edge across burned parchment. The dog wishes he could swing his sword like that. He wishes he could walk the roads they do, though he has no desire to treat with gods.[break]
Is it even possible, for something like him to be strong?[break]
"But I ain't gonna learn everything I need from him. I...shouldn't say this. Don't tell Admin Fox or anybody else." He lights up a cigarette, washing the taste of burning rotten corn and sugar down. "I ain't dyin' fer Rocket. I made someone a promise, and I'm gonna keep it. Last drop of blood in my veins ain't mine to spill. I don't get t'decide where I die."

Hitoshi's wants were irrelevant. If Howard was forced into this charade, than Hitoshi would be as well. A contracted killer was a killer bound by his word. Words were wind, but blood was eternal.

Hitoshi would give ever last drop, because everyone else was expected to do so.

"Your killer does, though. Nothing matters when you're bleeding out on some ill-gotten field.' No wonder the Black Dog had chewed through his leash to run away from Registeel. He had not wanted to die, and Howard could not blame him for that. "Your secret's safe with me."

He could hate him for it, though. A black-blooded beast had no right to chew off its leg for freedom.

"Just don't say that again." Howard stared off into the distance, before snapping back to reality. "Right, your band."

The scratch of pen on paper filled the office as a form was produced, signed, and scribbled out, before being passed across the desk to Hitoshi. Another form followed.

"Take the form to the warehouses and requisition some Dynite Ore and a Wishing Star. Take them to the forges and your band will be forged. Shouldn't take more than a day or two."

---

Hitoshi Inoue

"Nah, I ain't sayin' that to anybody else. Not even Senpai." He picks up the form, looks down at the form, and nods. There it is. When the time comes to save Sootopolis city, his Lapras will serve as a fine defense. In his ignorance, the dog forgets one vital fact: a sword is a tool for killing. To deny that is to deny his blade its purpose.[break]
"Thanks, bud. Careful, Admin Fox is gonna get mad if he sees yer forgin' his signature. Well...guess it kinda counts, since yer his secretary." He taps the whiskey, right where a devilish Torcic grins up at them.[break]
"Enjoy yer brew, and don't get yerself killed in the fightin'. Ya look like shit."

"I prefer the office to the battlefield." The compliment is waved off sheepishly as Howard scratched his chin. "And don't remind me."

When Hitoshi left the office, Howard was left alone. He tapped his pen against the desk in absentminded thought.

"Admin Fox. Heh." The admin produced a phone and dialed a number. When the phone was placed against his ear.

"Clayton, it's me."

---

Hitoshi Inoue