"... Think this city'd be better off if you and people like you actually did do nothing."

She looks down at the repair efforts on the ground. Up here, it all seems so small, but an entire city was drowned not long ago. Most of the bodies had just been dredged from the crater. A battle had been fought not long ago, only ceasing with the rise of the emerald drake.

Not before.

"Instead, you think you're 'helping', using Kyogre's attack to stage an assault. Why wouldn't you come with aid? Why wouldn't you try and stop it before it hit the city? If it was really about helpin' your home, you wouldn't have come with guns drawn.

"Don't give me that shit, admit it-- you guys were lookin' for any reason to kill."

Her skarmory snorts impatiently behind her, rustling her feathers. She looks down on the man, scorn in her eyes. It's only for the fact that her master doesn't reach for her swords at her hip that the bird remains placated enough to suffer him here. A single flap of her wings and he'd go tumbling off the side of this white rock.

They had been walking for what seemed like ages. Mist swirled about them, white curtains on either side of the pass that obscured the tumble from either cliff face. A gulf of empty air flanked them on either side, as if they strode along a bridge into another realm.

Hana had kept her mouth moving to distract from the fact that she had lost her bearings long ago, though she did not know how familiar the man she was with was with tales from old sailors and fishwives. It seemed more for her own benefit, than anything...

"... The prince announced his marriage with the temple woman, and the Primarina's heart broke. The day of the celebration, her sisters came from the sea and handed her an enchanted dagger, saying if she'd kill the prince, and soaked her feet in his blood, she'd be able to return to the sea and become a pokemon again. But she couldn't do it. She loved the prince too much!

"Hah! You believe that!? I woulda done it, not a man out there who'd make me hesitate."

She looked back to see where the medic had gone, the silence of the mist weighing on her paranoia.

06 engage in battle with a malevolent spirits.

08 experience immense grudgefulness, fear, envy, or hatred.

10 become possessed by a spirit attempting to return to life.

14 engage in battle with the vengeful and vestigial spirit of moltres or victini.

15 become lost in the mist.

EXPEDITION TEAM

FAREWELL, MY FREE ADVENTURERS!

CHARACTERS: Aoki Hana Shion Murasaki
EXPEDITION #: 1st for both
SELECTED PROMPT #s: 6, 8, 10, 14, 15
NOTES: hana has a mega accessory

The towering skarmory behind her lets out an angry squawk and scrapes its feathers together like blades, sending down a shower of sparks. Hana turns to face the man, placing a hand on her agitated pokemon's breast to soothe her. Yoshitsune flaps her wings dangerously, but she doesn't attack, merely staring daggers at the intruder.

"The more pertinent question is, why're you?"

Hana stares into his ruby eyes, her own azure gaze as cool as the seas. All the aggression she'd had in the pitch of battle was no more, the wind in her sails stolen by Walsh's ceasefire.

"This ain't your town, is it? You ain't even from Hoenn, from the looks of you. So, why'd you take up arms against us here? Why do you think it's yer job to, what'd you call it? 'Clean up'?"

Hana stops, mere feet from the kid. From here, she can see her own reflection in his eyes-- the innocent little girl lost on the sea so long ago, staring back.

"... Those aren't our orders, Dog."

She says it, but she doesn't move. Her fellow agent moves to wipe the kid's memory, to protect him from the worst of it, and Hana merely watches, a few feet away. Breathless.

She does not sheathe her sword.

"No matter what you do you won't make this right. Kid's father's already dead. News'll come outta this camp that Rockets killed everyone. The moment he hears that, even if he don't remember, he'll know what happened. He'll go lookin' for the ones responsible even if he don't know our faces.

"We've created another League recruit tonight, Hitoshi."

A final, wistful look, and she sheathes her blade.

"Havin' a heart ain't so simple, Dog. You gonna be his daddy now? Who's taking care of him?"

For once, she doesn't smile.

Hana narrowly avoids the King's judgement, the Dog's onryou managing to fell the beast before it can deliver its blow. She lands gingerly on her feet, courtesy her floating blade, and hefts it over her shoulder.

"C'mon, yer so serious! Wag yer tail as much as your sword now an' then, learn to cut loose!"

She lets out a cheery laugh, carefree like she's just out to drink with friends. She doesn't even stop to look when her sword lashes out and slits the throat of a man unfortunate enough to round the wrong corner. He falls, clutching his throat, choking on his own blood.

His son stops short behind him, ghostly pale, eyes wide as he stares down at the body of what was once his father.

"Hey there! You're lost, ain't'cha?"

He doesn't respond, mouth agape.

"You really shouldn't be here."

Hana takes a step toward him, readying her sword...

"Hah!"

She laughs incredulously at that, and downs another cup of sake, setting it down sharply before the man upside-down and drained of its contents.

"You don't show it, but you've got a hell of a sense of humor, don't'cha, eh, Harbie?"

She smiles. No hard feelings.

"I'll do ya proud, don't you worry. Things'll change. Amount of 'balls' SPECTRA'll have at its disposal are about to double overnight, I'd imagine.

"So, you put my name forward... what next?"

He's no Warrior.

One look at the man makes that apparent. He moves with a gracelessness that betrays him, as if all that's ever mattered is what's in his head and the words inside a book. His body had been an afterthought his whole life. Some men just like him are all pride, but at the very least, he's smart enough to acknowledge as much.

"That's why they've sent me," she responds curtly.

All her past record, brief as it was, had to show was a string of failures. But as those had been multiple scraps with an Elite Four and the Top Champion, the brass took interest enough, even for her failures.

Not as much as they would have, had she the skill to bring them down, but...

"... Bait."

She catches on, following with a hand on the swords at her hip...

Iron-clad feathers scrape against one another, jangling in the wind. It is the only sound all the way up here, at the highest peak of the broken walls. Down below, the rebuilding efforts continue.

A shattered white wall. A flooded city. Though washed away in the deluge, it had all been stained in blood not long ago.

"... Can't tell when someone wants to be left alone?"

Hana looks up from the sight finally, remembering herself. She does not bother to turn to face the one who approaches her silent vigil. She simply stares out at the sapphire on the horizon.

"Takin' pity on lil ol' me? Not a lotta faith I'm stickin' by Rocket for long, eh?"

Hana crosses her arms with a grin, looking at the hopeless smith. She'd successfully talked her down to a price that could bankrupt her, all without trying.

"Don't need a discount that'll starve you, neither. Don't worry, I'm not your everyday sellsword. A samurai's fealty isn't given easily. I'm Rocket for the foreseeable future. And there's a lot of other ways of earnin' cash than a paycheck from Walsh, lemme tell ya...

"You'll have your coin." She insists. "And more, if you do a good job. I've got lots of swords in mind if this job pans out the way I expect. Heard a lotta good things, y'know..."

She trails off, examining the swords on the walls. They're immaculate, more than anything she'd imagined when she'd heard talk of 'em. Proof of the smith's brilliance. It's all so promising, the start of something great, assuming she can deliver on this.

"But I'll take yer invitation and watch. Always like seein' how the sausage is made."