"oh? that's good then."

broadswords have been the blade of choice that terrakion helped kyle with. their roles in the battlefield embody what he believes his champion should take, and it is one that he shows now.

it doesn't, however, match kyle despite the learned proficiency.

terrakion pushes back with force, creating distance between keldeo and eddie. though it seemed comfortable against its student, gnawing emotions eat up the sword, causing it to avert its gaze from its previous partner.

"i tried to believe in him, but he couldn't return the sentiment fully. the best he can see me as is a friend to be protected, never brother-in-arms."

the blade on kyle's hand is thrown at terrakion, only to be caught by keldeo with his mouth. the colt uses it to strike at terrakion, who parried it with its sacred sword and causes it to fly away.

the fake out is followed up with keldeo's own sacred sword. it is matched with quick guard but it becomes clear that the student plays with his strengths to delegate the mentor on the defensive.

"he acts as the shield to my sword. do you think that suits him?"

between the swords, kyle lopez is the one least known to brandish his blade for the sake of his own justice. they are a failure.

the noise continues to be a nuisance.

it gives him an excuse to halt his work. the noise makes it difficult to concentrate, he tells himself, and trying to force himself to do what needed to be done would only entice him to rush, jeopardizing the quality of his admin work.

kyle needs to shift his attention to the distraction, yes. it wasn't because he was procrastinating.

with a retractable baton on hand, he approaches the window. carefully, he silences his steps. the reflection of the light within obscures what is outside, but kyle is ready.

as he approaches, he swings the window wide open with a weapon ready to swipe. it should be enough to deter any wild zigzagoon or murkrow that tried to trespass.

a crash distracts him from the journals, though it didn't seem like he'd be getting anything useful from them. it might be from not spending enough time parsing through its contents, but kyle is quick to discard it for more pressing matters.

the statues should have invoked some sense of longing, but they didn't.

he picks up a piece of the rubble that rolled too far from its source, allowing it to reach him. what would have been a tendency to keep things as they were had been replaced with an act of testing if it can be crushed with his hand.

"everything's fine!" he assures noah, though the tone appears more carefree than one in this situation would be. "we're fine. we're fine."

inhibitions are loosened. the situation builds up to a genre of fantasy that can build up adrenaline, whether as a spectator or participant. with a hand over noah's shoulder, his eyes start to dart from one side of the mansion to another, excited for future developments.

tl;dr

• with noah
• riddle: alabaster

with an opened tab showing a list of emails on his monitor and printed documents on his hand, kyle sits on his office chair with his feet up his desk.

the season helps with the business, though kyle cannot call it a positive. more work was more work, and the conflicting nature brought by easy money and illogical requests was enough of an irony to cause him a headache.

office hours have passed. alone in his room, his moment of silence was interrupted by a sudden noise. it was faint, but it can be heard.

he tries to remain seated, passing the unnecessary disturbance as a byproduct of a busy city in slateport. still, he was a wary man. his eyes move to the source of the sound, tense and ready to act in a moment's notice.

part of him wishes it was just his imagination so he can get back to reading his list of requests.

"it doesn't feel like i have forgotten anything," he tells noah.

they have been reformatted after all. the same file size remains, regardless if the content has been retroactively changed. every single day has occurred in his head, though the manner of which they have been edited makes it certain that contradictions were smoothed out.

still, they exist.

the door is closed while his other hand holds noah's. he squeezes, mentally preparing himself for what comes out of his mouth.

"c-can you stay friends with me?" he asks noah. "i-if it turns out that i really don't belong in this world. if your husband really does come back."

he had always been independent. he prided himself in being able to do things on his own. to willingly ask for help for a task he doesn't know the solution to was a sign of defeat, but it felt different with noah.

it felt strange to have someone offer their entirety to him, and kyle is here to take the offer.

kyle freezes, evidently affected by the weight on his shoulder. the act of trying to look cool and composed crumbles as he appears tense and nervous in front of their guest instead.

perhaps it's the sight of someone looking more distraught than she was that the girl finally found it in her to speak up. she stops trembling as she flips the flap and reads out the fortune behind the number.

"flattery will go far tonight," she says proudly.

after reading their fortune, she says her thanks and waves goodbye.

kyle remains on the door, eyes following her back down the stairs of the apartment, as noah's act of bridging the distance between them leaves him anxious for when they were left alone in the room once more.

it wasn't in a bad way at least.

"l-looks like she's the last visitor," kyle tells noah.

technically, it wasn't his fortune but noah's, but he feels inclined to work with it nevertheless. without turning to the gym leader, he nervously makes a comment. "i haven't mentioned it, but, uh, i like your costume. it is very, um, flattering."

she registers the topic, but then looks back again to kyle.

he can only scratch his head as he reads her. in front of an imposing adult of more than decent musculature, fear can easily mix in with her social anxiety. a sigh follows a decision.

"let's do red."

she flips her paper origami once every letter, and then reveals four numbers written on each flap.

"then one."

she turns it to a different page, revealing another set of numbers.

"then eight."

seven turns follow kyle's choice. it opens in a position where the numbers 3, 4, 7 and 8 are shown. she raises it up to kyle, who then turns to noah.

"your turn to pick," he tells him, a finger pointed to the art project of a device.

at this point, kyle hasn't realized what the question was, having tuned it out in favor of trying to remain calm in front of his guests, forgoing logic for composure. implications of noah being inside his residence did made him feel things.

"someone from the neighborhood," kyle answers. he doesn't actually know her full name and has only heard nicknames from other neighborhood kids.

when she looks at kyle, he defers him to noah with a motion of his head.

"she said she's here to tell my fortune, but i told her she can do that some other time." he places a hand on noah's shoulder. "but since you're not from around here, i thought we might as well let her read yours instead."

she smiles with kyle's explanation, relieved that she doesn't have to say all of that to a stranger.

in her little witch costume, she stares up to noah readily. it's a childish game, but there was no harm in participating unless he, specifically, was taking a nap. noah is fine.

"come on. ask her something," kyle invites.

the expiration of the lives of three pokemon during a massive fire many years ago had been undone on the whim with a simple wish. reformation that was celebrated for so long it was regarded as a legend worth praising to the heavens was equivalent to what can only be considered as a defamation of nature.

time shifts perspective. like ashes of a great flame, kyle stood as a remembrance of what had been done. before him was a mirage of the dying ember, ever so expectant of the law to take in effect while simultaneously skirting on the edge to test its limits.

with a plunge of the illusory shiv against flesh, kyle suddenly appears alone in the middle of the field as if nothing happened.

pixels and static took the place of their figures the moment their stay on this plane ended, from the mist, to the weapon on his hand, and to the suicune that aided him.

he thinks that perhaps the better choice was to, indeed, forget about everything that happened. he came here looking for ghosts and got more than what he bargained for. there's nothing to prove that what he experienced was the truth, or if it was the lingering paranoia materialized to voice out statements he pushed to the back of his mind.

to think he'd reach to this conclusion from following urban legends was unimaginable, but at the same time, not entirely unexplainable. hoenn had always been like this, and clarity only made things more difficult to digest.

at the very least, he gets a glimpse of what the ghost people saw in him: someone confident and carefree that can be approached easily, all while amassing enough respect through his title as the top champion.

he was the doppelganger.

an anomaly.

that's what they are. it wasn't just him, nor was it just the other him. it was both of them simultaneously as one.

"you don't need to remember all of these. it's not like they're useful information that you can act on. it might even be better if you forget everything that happened just now."

it's only then that kyle notices the thick layer of mist that surrounds them. he wasn't sure if this was the suicune's doing, or if supernatural forces are at play.

"who you think you really are isn't really indicative of your identity. at the same time, you're also more kyle than i will ever be. i-it's a complicated thing."

answers only turn into more questions. as more statements from the specter are explained, doors to what most people would deem as fictional are opened. the completionist in kyle aim to unravel every corner of a dungeon.

the raised eyebrow, accompanied by a confident smirk, appears in his doppelganger's expression. he knows what goes on his own mind, and so does his counterpart.

"the emergent. that's who you're talking to."

the suicune raises itself, subsequently pushing the top champion back to his feet. he offers a hand, which the private investigator takes, and brings both of them up from the ground.

"but he should be gone," he says. "he isn't supposed to be perceived."

a knife of ice is presented to him. the blade is pointed towards the one with suicune, offering the hilt to the fragment that was meant to be a remnant of what was once great.

"you will be involved again whether you like it or not, there's no doubt about that, but before anything else, you should know it's just inevitable. you've already been branded anyways."

there is silence as he takes the blade.

"that's why we made it a decision to game the system ourselves. we got caught this time, but your presence means it's not exactly a failure."

he was the doppelganger.

words from another kyle affirmed it. he feels empty while simultaneously feeling whole. anxious, but relieved. confused, but lucid. there is no clear adjective to describe him, but self-contradicting statements about himself all reach an equilibrium.

"no, but i don't think it matters."

he sees himself smile.

kyle watches him casually fall to his back, only to be caught by a sudden appearance of a pokemon of legends from johto. billowing lavender mane flows with the win, providing as a cushion for the specter.

"you're already here. can't you just take my place? people want you, not me."

a chuckle as a response can only be interpreted as mockery, but a snap of a finger from the other and he feels all the weight in his heart drop. like the crisp sound of a chime, he is left with clarity.

with the fear of the future is tamed, the envy of his supposed past quelled, the grudge from self-depreciation forgotten and hatred of himself set free, the world is seen in a new light.

"i don't like being in this position."

underneath the swath of stars, the two sit on the ground. silence lingers for a bit as precious moments burn. this faithful encounter wasn't meant to be had, but the world can only print from what has already been saved in its memory.

in an effort to make the best use of the opportunity, kyle makes assumptions based on what little statement had been said. his logic jumps from one fact to another-- and should the other apparition truly be him, connections will be made without confusion.

"then what am i? why do i exist when..." he makes gestures with his hands, which end up pointing to his other self. "...when you're supposed to be-"

the suicune catches his attention and stops his flow of words.

he felt uneasy, all while he sees himself act rather carefree about the situation.

saying his nerves have calmed down was a stretch. he had moved from being frozen in fear to evaluating a fight or flight response. his heart remains beating fast, all while chanting a mantra in his head that all will be well.

he sees him raise a hand and point a finger to his pocket, where his phone had been. though it was met with skepticism, kyle complies nonetheless.

"take the camera..."

without taking his eyes away from the doppelganger, kyle follows the instructions. fingers swipe in a coordinated manner, navigating blindly through screens and squares for the right app.

"...and check."

with his hands shaking, he slowly raises the device on his hand. his eyes switch to the screen. what he sees is a smile from his own image. the genuine documentation of the unknown, unblemished by the tricks of the mind, was the solution he needed.

like clockwork, realization was the oil that greased up the gears of the machine.

"i'm not a hallucination. you're fine," the echo comforts him.

kyle's arm drops to his side before his weight pulls him down to the ground. he sits in the middle of the wilderness, bewilderment causing a loss of words.

"how do i explain this...? um, i'm more of a manifestation of what was once was from a natural phenomenon." he snaps his fingers, trying to get the attention of the slumped kyle. "i took your place, not the other way around. are you getting me?"