How strange that he has never considered that possibility. Not once in ten years. It’s a notion so divorced from reality that his mind takes precious seconds to process what she said. If she meant him harm after saying that…[break]
Well, he’d be dead. His sword falls across his lap. Its magnificent light gone. In its place for light is the heat of Hitoshi’s cheeks. For a man on the wrong side of his twenties, he conveys himself like a boy in some regards.[break]
“Na, nah. Nothin’ like that.” Think fast. Sound cool. “That’s not my style.” He nods with a fake grin, the sort you see on an action movie’s lips when he delivers a cool one-liner.[break]
“Anyway, uh. Ahem. Yeah. So! Lemme ask ya honestly. What’re yer intentions with Yumi? You don’t know anyone we might know back in Johto? Anyone that’d pay money t’know where she is right now?”

GOODBYE GALAR SIGN-UPS

RAID: RUSTED SHIELD

CHARACTER: Hitoshi Inoue [break]

PKMN TEAM (6 MAX): TBD[break]

WHAT DO YOU DESPISE?: "These League bastards! They don't play fair! Come fight me with yer sword or fists! Also, anyone who'd hurt Yumi Hasegawa ."

He senses the command and he gives a vigorous back and forth nod that threatens to reopen his wounds again. Doing anything halfway, even the act of communicating, isn’t in his nature. Yumi truly opened a can of worms when she told him to act more like himself, all those years ago.[break]

“Yeah, I’ll kill Jetto-chan for ya if you want, Yumi. Dunno when I’ll see him again, but I’m sure he’ll be around! There’s only so many idiots like him n’ me in the world!” And there he has it, a solution. He thinks that ripping Jet’s throat out and trotting up to deliver it to Yumi with his fangs bloodied will make her feel better, so that is what he resolves to do.[break]

But there’s more to it than that. Her words stick with him in a way words normally don’t. Most things are in one ear and out the other if they’re not about what he should do. Tomorrow, especially, is a subject that holds little appeal to him. Held little appeal…[break]

“Yer right, Yumi…I need to get stronger.” He looks out the window, rolling back and forth in his stolen wheelchair. Munenori took the liberty of returning himself to his ball so these two could have their space.[break]

“Crazy how wild this place is. Back in the old days, I didn’t think I’d ever need Pokemon. I can just cut people down with my sword. But man, Yumi, I really mean it. Some of the people these League guys have…they’re crazy.”[break]

He speaks with resolve for the first time in a long while.[break]

“Guess I gotta show ‘em what crazy really looks like, huh?”

“See, it all worked out in the end!” He smiles and laughs, but he notices she doesn’t laugh. She answers his question but she seems…[break]
Terse? Hitoshi isn’t a wordsmith. He doesn’t know fancy terms. All he knows as they move through the overcrowded streets of a town that probably hasn’t seen this much traffic in a hundred years is that the person he has sworn his life to isn’t happy about something.[break]
Looking around from his meager post in the wheelchair, he looks at her eyes and then the crowd. He tries to see if there is any implied annoyance with anyone – something a knife in their throat might fix.[break][break]
Failing to find anything, he asks a question. That apprehension grips him as they near the taxi service. They’ll soon be away from this place, back to what passes for normalcy now. They’ll leave this seaside hick town in the boonies behind and be back in business.[break]
“Yumi…you seem, I’unno.” And he does, genuinely, not know. “There someone you want me to kill?”

Munenori, recognizing real power when he sees it, lets go of the wheelchair and steps away. Although he can still sense their emotional states, he can choose to give them some small measure of privacy. This is not a conversation for his ears. Let it stay between his trainer and this woman he has sworn his life to.[break]
“Nah.” He doesn’t sound sad that Jett Roan is still alive out there somewhere. “He got away. I brought this on myself. The guy didn’t even wanna pull his gun out. Then I went and pointed out I’d probably end up caring about people I cared about if he didn’t.” The words are accompanied out of his mouth by laughter. He laughs so hard that he almost breaks his bandages.[break]
“Man, that’s pretty damn dumb of me, huh?!” He made it out of there alive. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. He has made an enemy for life, but so be it. Maybe he’ll get a good, proper fight the next time he sees Jet. No Pokemon, no fancy moves. Just two men and their weapons, the way it’s supposed to be.[break]
“Bein’ honest, I don’t even know what a seal stone is.” Hitoshi was just one of a hundred or more men told it was time to move out under an admin’s authority – a nobody who only worked with one single Beast throughout the whole mission. “But nobody can deny I helped, huh? Maybe the admins’ll start to notice us more.” He can hope. “That’s what you want, right?”

“Well, that settles it, then!” He says as if that command settles anything. In his mind, dying is off the table now, taken out of the cards by her command - as if she has the power to deny death simply by willing it to be so.[break]
Picking himself up enough to reach his pokeball, he lets his Gallade out right there. Seeing his master’s sorry state, he runs out and grabs an empty wheelchair. Munenori rolls Hitoshi out behind Yumi after he has changed into civilian clothes. Back in Johto, Hitoshi never even carried around Pokémon. Now, he’s got six of them. They’re six more mouths to feed. He finds it annoying.[break]
The hospital is in chaos still. They’re wheeling in some guy in the hall past them who looks beaten half to death. A bear lumbers behind him like there’s nothing out of the ordinary. The chanseys and audinos of the hospital are working double time. People filter in and out.[break]
It’s a relief to be out in the streets. Looking up to Yumi, Hitoshi asks an obvious question. Maybe she’ll know the answer, since she isn’t some low level grunt.[break]
“So…did we win?”

He wants to get up and hug her. Being the way he is comes with its drawbacks and perks. After so long being around Yumi has keyed him into her heart. The way she turns, the turmoil he smells, it’s all the answer he needs. Here, where no one else can see, she lets him in. It’s something not even his own mother told him, even if she steeps the sentiment in her own way. Maybe it’s just what he, deep down, wants to believe.[break]
“Sometimes, I wish I’d been born a sword or a Pokemon.” He admits. “I’m no good at doin’ all the stuff you and Mei do. Talking. Makin’ friends. Getting all these idiots to listen to every word you say.” A laugh slips in there at the way people trip over themselves for Yumi. Having been a captive audience to people courting her, he feels bad for the guys.[break]
“But I can fight. I can kill. I can follow your orders and be used by you. I can keep you safe. Yeah…I think life would be way easier if I was somethin’ else.” A pause. What else can he say. “If you order me not to die, I’ll stay alive. No matter what.”

“The League doesn’t play fair, that’s how.” Hitoshi’s on the cusp of pouting along with the remark. “It’s hard to keep from gettin’ hurt in big scraps like this. Back when I worked for yer parents, before I got picked to protect ya, I’d get in some pretty big fights for turf.” It was all done at night, away from prying eyes. They were battles fought without honor or humanity.[break]
“Plenty of people died on both sides. Kids. Old men. Kind of crazy.” It’s the first time his life’s really been in danger for ten years. Hitoshi doesn’t think about death despite how he delivers it like a quick order chef. His own mortality is something he has never given much thought to. It was only at the last, as he faced down the barrel of a gun, that he contemplated this might be it for him.[break]
The nurse runs off to get him discharged. They have time. Hitoshi doesn’t think about how long they have or don’t have. For the first time in his life, a question about something beyond today passes his lips.[break]
“Would you miss me if I’d clocked out?”

He seems to be in on this joke, at least. He laughs back with her, slapping his knee at the thought. It’d be a good fight. Pokémon can zap humans like bugs. Even someone like this pig iron sword in the shape of a human understands there is a gulf that can simply not be breached. Maybe, with great effort, he could kill a regular Pokémon…[break]
But a god?[break]
“Hahaha, man, Elly-chan, sweeten the pot a little. Throw in a movie deal while yer at it. I want ‘em to get someone good to play me in the movie version.” He fancies himself a good leading man from time to time, in the way a child might.

She’s so pretty![break]

She reminds him of her, the woman that brought him into the world. It’s not some overt connection. It’s not in her facial features or her body. Hitoshi doesn’t even have a clear memory of what the woman looks like anymore. No, it’s deeper than that. It’s the grace with which she carries herself, the tone she uses. The obvious care put into her appearance. The scent of something masked beneath the surface he can’t place.[break]

He just knows it’s there. Now, as he did when he was a little boy. Hitoshi doesn’t even notice he’s gripping his sword tighter. His lips are spread in a wide grin. Some part of him senses danger. Screams danger. Screams that this could escalate into a terrible battle – something worthy of the movies that so defined his aesthetic choices.[break]

“Uhuh. You’re Yumi’s roommate.” He speaks open and honestly. Deception is not a weapon in his arsenal. Yumi’s world and his own were worlds separated by a thousand barriers. The delicate dance of subtlety and subterfuge are on the other side of those barriers. The hounds of the Hasegawa, its army of thugs, toughs, and ruffians, are gatekept by their own inability to play such games. Hitoshi is no exception.[break]

“I’m Hitoshi.” He says this as if it explains anything. It’s just a name. Maybe a name the woman he has sworn his life to has used in passing, maybe not. Either way, he provides his own twisted form of an elaboration.[break]

“It’s my job to keep her safe! You’re helpin’ her get her foot in the door in the underworld here, right? Well, there’s lots of bad characters down there. If you’re leading her astray, I have to kill you.” His tone when he speaks this last part isn’t a threat. He’s not taunting her. He’s not even saying it with malice. He treats the potential ending of her life with all the fanfare of saying that they were out of hamburger meat at the supermarket.[break]

“That’s just what a sword does, you know? It keeps the one who wields it safe.”

“Eh, not really my problem.” He shrugs. A dog’s loyalties ultimately lie to one person. Everything else is secondary. The place where the dog’s owner employs doesn’t matter. The place where the owner lives doesn’t matter. What matters is the person. The world can burn so long as the dog still has that one special person.[break]
“Not from Hoenn. Neither is she. We’re just here ‘cause this is the place where stuff happens! …also, it had the cheapest plane tickets from Johto. Wonder why.” There’s so many things that could be said about why it’s cheap to go to Hoenn. With everything going on, anyone with common sense avoids the place. His voice hints at no sarcasm, dry or otherwise. Malice just isn’t in his nature.[break]
“If things get too bad, we’ll just leave. If somethin’ like that Ozma thing you talked about show up, I’ll just kill it. Oooh, would yer League pay me if I killed some of its problems for it? I’ll kill anybody except my pal for the right price!”

Hitoshi waves his proverbial tail at the sight of her. He grins from ear to ear. It feels like years since he last saw Yumi. When the order came to head to the cave, he left with a smile and a wave. It was a chance to earn himself some cred among these people they’ve pledged to help. Their loyalties are surface level, but the League probably doesn’t care about that. Gangs and governments are absolute. One is either with them or against them. It’s so simple even a dog can understand the logic.[break]
“Oooooi! Yumi! It’s been a while!” He picks apart the strawberry ice cream like the edge of his spoon is a blade cutting into flesh. He talks with his mouth full. The old respect and decorum’s all gone. They’ve known each other far too long to stand on ceremony.[break]
“Youshouldvesheenwha-” He realizes on his own that talking with a full mouth isn’t getting any of them anywhere. He swallows. Brain freeze follows, which makes the grazing wound on the side of his head ache. Squirming agitates the wounds on his chest.[break]
“Ow ow ow. You shouldda seen how crazy things got down there! Everybody was throwing out the craziest crap you’ve ever seen! They were fightin’ with frickin’ gods, Yumi! I got to meet Cobalion! And some weird electric cat thing! These Hoenn guys are crazy!” He laughs, like he hadn’t just spent a full day of his life butchering, almost being killed, and fighting some of the wildest people the League has to offer.[break]
If Yumi’s here, everything will be alright. That’s where it ends and begins in his mind.

“Mmmm…naaaaah! Well, it’d be cool to fight with Cobalion, but it’s not like Melody-chan would just lemme have him. Besiiiides, there’s no guarantee you guys could win! You ended up in here, huh? Huuuuuh?” He leans his face up to the bar.[break]
“Plus, it sounds like we won at the cave! Isn’t that exciting?! So maybe Cobalion will just decide our side is just - er, or something’. I don’t really care about justice, he’s just cool ‘cause he’s a sword Pokémon.” His worldview is simplistic, much like animal so many call him.[break]
“Besides, what do you care?” His ambers gleam at her with curiosity.