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Nomi cocked her head, pink hair sweeping over one shoulder. The black crystals that rippled across his flesh were not lost on her.[break][break]
"My apologies," she murmured sincerely, offering a slight bow of her head - a Johtonian custom from her youth. "It seems that you share a history with us."[break][break]
She flashed Kallistatus a meaningful look, then turned her attention back to her guests.[break][break]
"The DRK Triad have a nasty habit of using powerful Pokemon such as yourself - such as the Unown - to further their own agenda. Too many of the Unown have long been held against their will, forced to hunt, spy, and capture for the DRK Triad. We are trying to remedy that."[break][break]
She and Kallistatus, who, when the choice had been offered to it, had chosen Nomi over Holo.[break][break]
"Your refusal makes perfect sense. You want to be free of their influence. And, I suspect, you'd like to make them pay for what they did to you."[break][break]
Deviations mattered. The DRK Triad had likely expected Zev to ally with them - for power, perhaps. But just like they had misjudged Nomi and her relationship with the Unown, so too had they failed to recognize the sheer scale of compatibility between a man like Zev and his would-be Patron.[break][break]
But it was clear to Nomi. After all, she knew a thing or two about kinship.
[break][break][break]

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"You'll be able to rest soon," Nomi assured her, arms wrapped around Elisabeth as if she were something precious - fragile, even. This bone-weary, battle-worn woman was so unlike the Underboss Nomi was familiar with, it was jarring.[break][break]
In fact, Nomi almost second-guessed her initial assessment - but the angles of this woman's face, the curve of her lip, the way she exuded a natural elegance even in an exhausted state...
And those emerald eyes were unmistakable. Unforgettable. How Nomi had hated the blood-red bitterness that had replaced them.[break][break]
"Do you have all of your Pokemon?" Nomi asked softly, hardly daring to hope. The absence of Wo-Chien was a disturbing thing in its own right: where would a miserable creature like that go, if not with its Avatar, the sustenance fueling its grudge against humanity? But if Elisabeth had managed to free herself from it, then its awful influence would not be able to poison Rocket from within.[break][break]
It has its own agenda, Nomi thought. They all do.[break][break]
Her heart ached for jayden cross, too.[break][break]
But it must be gone, or she wouldn't look like her old self.[break][break]
As the breeze picked up, tendrils of pastel pink hair blowing about her face, Nomi couldn't help but feel uneasy rather than relieved.
[break][break][break]

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It was a very good question, one that Nomi approved of. This young woman clearly had a clever head on her shoulders.[break][break]
"We don't know exactly," she answered matter-of-factly. "Current research tells us that there is some connection between the space-time distortions and the distortion world within which the legendary Pokemon Giratina sometimes resides." She sighed. "I have been trying to gather data on the distortions, but they are rather fickle - here one day, gone the next."[break][break]
The young woman surprised Nomi, then, by claiming she, too, was in possession of an Illumina Pokemon. Curious, Nomi watched as she released a Flareon that did, indeed, have the very same otherworldly glow as Valerian.[break][break]
"Yes! You have found one," Nomi exclaimed, kneeling down to get a better look. She held out her hand for the Flareon to sniff. "Where did you find it, if not a distortion?"

[break][break][break]

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"Come in!" Nomi called, though she already knew who to expect.[break][break]
It had pleased her when Tempest Quinn had reached out: due to how busy both of them were, she had not had a chance to see him much lately. At first, she had been eager to get to know the man because he was Cillian Quinn's husband, but over time, she had grown fond of him because of, well, him. He was a unique mix of brains and brawn, far more clever than he initially appeared, and a hell of a fighter when the situation called for it. Nomi had come to think of him as someone she could rely on to notice things other didn't - as well as jump head first into solving a problem, no matter how dangerous it might seem.[break][break]
Crazy? Perhaps. But he hadn't failed her yet.[break][break]
"What can I do for you, Temp?" She asked, waving him over to the seat across from her desk. Kallistatus, the shiny Unown-K hovering by her shoulder, watched him with an unreadable expression, its singular eye ever vigilent.
[break][break][break]

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Satisfied with Shred's commitment to her cause, Nomi turned her attention back to the violent waves crashing into their ship. As it rocked, Nomi held tight to the railing, hyper aware of her unsteady footing. She wasn't the sort to get sea sick, but she wasn't exactly a seasoned sailor, either. All the same, she felt ready for anything.[break][break]
"Kal, I need a better view," Nomi urged, turning to the shiny Unown-K beside her. It bobbed up and down in the air, then drifted out over the deck of the ship and into the open ocean: high enough to avoid getting drenched, but close enough to get a good look at what might be lurking beneath the depths.[break][break]
Nomi's eyes went white, and she switched her vision so that she was looking through Kallistatus's singular eye. Like a camera, it panned over the waves, searching...[break][break]
"There!" She exclaimed, noticing a dark shape approaching the ship from the north. It was massive, and it seemed to give off a faint blue glow, as if generating power - which only meant one thing.[break][break]
They'd found Kyogre, and it was heading directly for their ship.[break][break]
"Brace for contact!" Nomi shouted at Shred.
[break][break][break]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

MADE BY GUNSMILE

MADE BY GUNSMILE

MADE BY GUNSMILE

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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"Jayden?"[break][break]
He looked ill. Nomi's brow furrowed, and she held out a hand to steady him. Though he had run into her, he looked like the one about to fall over. Valerian cocked his head by her heels; unlike Cillian Quinn's Sylveon, he did not have the ability to calm minds with psychic energy - ever the vigilant protector, but not necessarily a practiced caretaker.[break][break]
"Stop," Nomi commanded, small in stature but firm in tone. "Take a deep breath. You have to what, exactly?"[break][break]
She had a day's worth of work to do, but in that moment, the wellbeing of her chosen brother mattered far more than any of it.
[break][break][break]

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Nomi hurried down the narrow corridor, turning abruptly and skidding to a halt at the entrance to the scientific records section of Slateport University's main library. Valerian crashed into the back of her legs with an offended hiss, having been forced to run after his trainer, and Nomi had to catch herself on the nearby doorframe to keep from falling forward due to his momentum.[break][break]
She looked around frantically, before spying Ceri standing by the first row of stacks. She began to mouth - sorry, bus was late again! - to her friend, but a hand suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. Nomi jolted, whirling around in surprise, and found herself standing face-to-face with a completely unfamiliar woman.[break][break]
[break]
"Apologies, I did not mean to startle you. You're Naomi Sato, yes?" The woman asked pleasantly, her peridot eyes regarding Nomi with a measured gaze.[break][break]
"Yes," Nomi confirmed, somewhat awkwardly. "Do I know you?"[break][break]
"Not yet," the woman answered, the corners of her mouth quirking into an amused smile. "But I've been looking for you. I knew your parents, Dr. Yuri and Karin Sato. Brilliant minds, the both of them. I'm so sorry for your loss."[break][break]
Nomi's face drained of color, and she felt her heartbeat quicken with a sudden rush of adrenaline. Forgetting about Ceri entirely, Nomi stared intently at the white-haired woman as if doing so might suddenly unravel the mysteries of the universe. A hoarse, tense whisper replaced her usual upbeat, kindly tone as she finally found her words.[break][break]
"Thank you," she managed. "Did you work with them?"[break][break]
"In a sense," the woman murmured, somewhat cryptically.[break][break]
Hope was such a fickle thing - so easily dashed. But in that moment, Nomi's chest surged with it, filled to the brim with it, and it took all of her willpower to keep from lunging at the woman, afraid she might suddenly disappear.[break][break]
"Do you know what happened to them?" Nomi whispered, entranced.[break][break]
A pregnant pause that seemed to last an eternity.[break][break]
"Yes, in fact, I do."
[break][break][break]