There was nothing really holding me back now. Several days had passed since my surprise dinner with Rei and Alejandro, and I’d checked, rechecked, and triple checked all of my belongings.

  I had enough food for both myself and all of my Pokémon for a week. Was it overkill? Yes, but my bag just barely had enough space, and I didn’t want to run out of food half-way up the mountain.

  I had gotten a couple of climbing ropes and carabiners, along with some rock pitons and a harness. I wasn’t planning on needing any of them, but like the food, it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Perhaps the most important (and correspondingly expensive) thing I had bought in preparation for the ascent was a Technical Machine for Flash.

  Finally I had a better way to see in the dark, and I didn’t have to rely on the annoyingly-low quality flashlights I’d been using before now.

  After a little bit of discussion with my Pokémon, it was decided that Venus would be the one to learn the move, mostly because the only other one who was able to was Zetian, and she wasn’t willing to spend a lot of time out in the tunnels.

  The memory of the time in the caves underneath Oreburgh still lingered, and she wasn’t a fan of the idea of going back into the darkness.

  I privately resolved to get her something very nice once we got down off of Mount Coronet. In fact, I resolved to get all of my Pokémon something nice, even if I wasn’t sure what exactly I would get them.

  Venus had learned Flash easily enough, especially once she realized she didn’t need to know it for a battle. It was really just a stronger version of her natural illumination abilities - her golden rings already glowed in the dark when she wanted them to, and all that Flash did was hyper-power those rings with Type Energy in order to make them even brighter.

  And then there was nothing else I needed to do. I was just putting off the climb up Mount Coronet because… well, I didn’t even really know why.

  According to all of the maps and people I had talked to, the climb itself wouldn’t even really take that long. The Pilgrims’ Path took six hours, without any breaks, and the passages made by the old lava channels through the mountain itself added a couple extra hours.

  They both ended up in the same location, the viewing plateau below Spear Pillar, but between the two I was actually thinking of taking the lava tunnels. It was tempting to take the Pilgrims’ Path, to take the original way up the mountainside, but there was one big problem with that.

  It was getting cold, and the weather forecast had increasingly high chances of snow going forwards. The further I climbed up the mountain, the worse it would get - I could already see white on the peak of the mountain.

  No matter what I did I would have to suffer through the snow to get to Spear Pillar, but at least if I went up through the inside of the mountain, I would be able to avoid the worst of the weather.

  There was nothing really holding me back now. I sat in my hotel room, looking up at the moon as it slowly moved behind the peak of Mount Coronet.

  The mountain was too far away to make out any details, but if I squinted hard enough, my imagination filled in a small, impossibly distant set of ruins silhouetted against the moon.

  Tomorrow, then.

  /^\

  The speaker system on the train dinged merrily, and a scratchy voice roused me from the half-asleep state I had been in as the pre-recorded message let us know that we’d arrived at Tengan Village.

  I sighed and rolled my neck, wincing as I felt the bones click and pop together. It had been a long train ride, and the seats were old and uncomfortable.

  The train slowly screeched to a halt, and I tiredly stood up, getting my bag and stepping out of the doors.

  A wind blew down from the mountain side, and I shuddered as it swept over me with cold fingers, banishing the warmth from inside of the train. Tugging my jacket a little closer around me, I took stock of the small town laid out around me.

  Tengan Village was barely a settlement, even by Pokémon standards. The village consisted of a bed-and-breakfast for travellers going up the mountain, a small general store, the train station, and a handful of houses. Of all the places I’d visited so far, it was actually the closest to the games in how small it was.

  The conductor called for any travellers, but I was the only one on the platform, and after a few seconds, the train groaned and steam hissed as it began to move back in the direction of Hearthome City. That wasn’t unexpected, considering I had gotten the earliest train to Tengan Village.

  It was 5:45 in the morning, there was a heavy fog in the air, and the dew was still wet on the grass.

  As much as I disliked being up this early, it was important to get started on the journey up the mountain as soon as possible. If things went according to plan, which I doubted they would, it would take me roughly eight or nine hours to make it up to the peak of the mountain.

  That would put me at Spear Pillar around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, which wasn’t that bad. An hour or two of looking around, and then I would start on the descent. I was fully expecting the trip back to take longer, so I’d planned ahead to spend the night in the lava tunnels.

  If I could navigate the Grand Underground, I was confident that I would be able to spend a single night in some tunnels.

  So I adjusted the pack on my shoulders, and got started on the path to the mountain.

  I didn’t see a single other person as I walked down the path, and the fog felt like a heavy blanket on the world. There weren’t any Pokémon making any noises, nor could I hear any signs of life in the town. It was surreal, like I was all alone and was looking at the world in a strange, distant mirror.

  Eventually I reached the base of the mountain path, and stopped, staring up at the ancient red torii gate. It was simple, made up of straight, smooth logs instead of some of the more decorated gates I’d seen. The vermillion paint was muted, and even though the gate was well cared for, I could feel the age emanating off of it.

  There were no water fountains or any other ritual objects nearby, so I simply bowed deeply in front of the gate, and stepped on through, being sure not to walk in the middle of the gate.

  Nothing changed as I passed under the gate. There was no feeling of electricity, or frisson, and I didn’t feel any different. All that was different was now I was on the other side.

  The map I had gotten from the Feebas Pro Shop said that the point where the two paths, the Pilgrims’ Path and the lava tunnels, diverged a couple miles from the trail head, so I had a bit of a walk before actually getting into the mountain itself.

  I shrugged, and reached down to my belt, allowing Zetian and Kōjin out of their balls. They would enjoy the chance to be outside one last time before we entered the tunnels.

  Zetian buzzed, excitedly flying off to check out some of the plants and flowers on the sides of the trail, while Kōjin barked happily, jumping up and down before running and sniffing the torii gate.

  Smiling, I let them explore a little bit, before catching their attention a few minutes later.

  “Come on.” I said, gesturing towards the trail. “We have a mountain to climb.”

  /^\

  Kōjin, the lovable idiot, had exhausted himself running up and down the trail. Even his seemingly inexhaustible energy had been worn down after almost an hour of sprints, and now he was sleeping happily in his Poké Ball.

  Zetian, ever the pragmatist, was still contently floating besides me, having been much wiser in not burning all of her energy at once.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Of course, the hike wasn’t all fun and games. The air was a couple degrees colder than “brisk,” and I could feel the chill seeping into my bones and lungs. I was constantly taking off my jacket and putting it back on, although that wasn’t a bad thing necessarily.

  Careful regulation of how warm I was getting was crucial, but I’m sure it would be an entertaining sight if anybody managed to see what was going on.

  For once, I was actually beginning to look forward to going into the dark caves of the Underground, because at least then I would be out of the wind.

  But, of course, there was an issue.

  Because there was always an issue.

  I brushed the mud off of the sign post and sighed. Useless.

  Some Bidoof or Bibarel had been a little too industrious, or a little too hungry, and had decided to snack on the information board. They had knocked the entire thing over and chewed it to splinters, and I couldn’t make out a single bit of writing on it.

  Grumbling, I pulled out the map, only to sigh again.

  “Continue on the Green Path to reach the entrance to the tunnel” it read, which would have been very useful if the sign post had shown which path was which.

  I didn’t even have the benefit of only having two choices; the path diverged into three directions ahead of me. The map had marked them as Red, Blue, and Yellow, each with their own difficulty level. Red was the hardest, while Yellow was the Pilgrim’s Path - the easiest route.

  All three would get me up to the top of the mountain, but the Red Path was the one that I wanted to avoid.

  Eventually I sighed, and looked over at Zetian. “Well, what do you think?”

  She buzzed, moving back and forth across the three paths as she poked and prodded at each of them.

  Zetian was smart. We’d all gone over the plans for the ascent, me and my Pokémon, and she knew which one of the three paths we wanted to take.

  In response, Zetian settled down on the cleanest part of the trail, and stilled. Soon enough her abdomen began to buzz, and I relaxed as a few bees started to sluggishly emerge from her internal hive.

  Only one or two emerged at first, antennae waving miserably in the cold air, and took off. As more and more bees arrived, a sense of organization began to emerge as Zetain commanded her swarm with her pheromones.

  Waves of bees began streaming down each path, scouting the way faster than any of us could explore a single one of the possible options. Not all of them would actually make it - I could already see several of the bees get distracted by the few mountain flowers that were still managing to cling to life in the cold air.

  One particularly large specimen bumbled up to me, and I held out my hand. It sat down gently on my finger, and looked up at me with its big eyes.

  I smiled down at the bee, and very gently patted its head with my other hand. It sat there for a long moment, before buzzing off once again, following its sisters down one of the paths.

  There was no fear of being accidentally stung by any of Zetian’s bees anymore - she’d done a wonderful job of making sure they were as friendly to us as possible. I was pretty sure she had marked us all with pheromones or something, but I was happy to be able to not worry about being jabbed.

  While Zetian was busy directing her hive, I sat down next to her, and set up a small teapot. It was nothing fancy, just a portable stove and a pot of water, but it would do.

  By the time the bees returned, I’d poured a generous dose of nectar from a jar into a cup, and filled the rest up with the hot water.

  As Zetian stirred from her torpor, I handed her the tea, which she awkwardly held in her clawed hands.

  “Did you find the way to go?”

  She nodded and pointed at one of the paths.

  I smiled, and started packing up the stove.

  “Drink up. After this, we get started on the real ascent.”

  /^\

  “Okay.” I told Kōjin. “So, I may have overprepared a little bit, but can you blame me?”

  The little fire-dog panted happily, still a bit subdued from his run, but a quick nap had refreshed him.

  “I mean, every other time we went into a cave it’s been miserable: There was the Steelix cave, there was the Grand Underground, there was the tomb on Iron island, and there was the Ruins of-”

  I stopped, blinking. “Nevermind, ignore that last one. I guess that wasn’t too bad, just boring. Regardless! When I was expecting a cave I thought it was going to be, I dunno, more.”

  It wasn’t that I was disappointed, but I’d be the first to admit that I had been mistaken when I had heard about the “lava tunnels.”

  My mind had gone to the rough, sometimes almost unpassable terrain of the Grand Underground, and the only reason we were able to get through it at all was due to the fact that Pokémon had been using the tunnels as game trails.

  We had spent over two weeks in the Grand Underground, and I was prepared to spend a couple hours in the lava tunnels in the same way.

  One relatively major thing that I had overlooked however was the fact that those tunnels had spent Arceus-knows how long untouched by any human hands, and that the interior lava tunnels of Mount Coronet were a known tourist path.

  Oh, yes, it was one of the more difficult paths up the mountain, but the government didn’t want people dying on the route up.

  The roughest areas had been smoothed over, guide-rails had been installed where there were ledges, and the paths deeper into the mountain had been blocked off with barricades.

  If I wasn’t on a mission to get to the top of Spear Pillar, I would have been actually tempted to go deeper into the mountain. There were some rare Pokémon down there that I would like to see at least once, Lunatone, Solrock, Dragonair - and if I was lucky, I might even be able to see a Feebas or a Milotic.

  But alas, I was on a mission, and my goal was to go up - not down.

  “Still,” I mused aloud as we continued up the path. “It is rather pretty here.”

  Venus hadn’t even been needed so far - the paths had been lit up with small glowing crystals so it was easier to find my footing.

  Kōjin yelped.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked him. “You agree?”

  He growled, and I paused, looking around. That wasn’t his normal, playful growl.

  “What is it boy?”

  His nose came up, mostly covered by the rock-like fur around his head, and he sniffed the air.

  I shined my flashlight all around, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

  It wasn’t until Kōjin let out a full throated bark, his head pointing behind me, that I felt the breeze change and knew we were in trouble.

  Just on pure instinct and long hours of training with my companions, I threw myself to the ground.

  Most of the air was shoved out of my chest with the impact on the hard rocks, and it would hurt later, but for now the adrenaline was doing a good job of dulling the pain.

  Then a wave of… Something passed over me, and the pain and adrenaline receded, leaving behind… nothing.

  The Mismagius wasn’t particularly large, but the way it floated in mid-air forced me to look up at it.Its eyes were glowing red, and I felt my body begin to slump.

  It was almost as if I was a puppet, and my strings were cut. My body didn’t hurt, my mind wasn’t busy, I was wrapped in a thick cocoon of numbness.

  I would have been comfortable and relaxed, but even those feelings were stripped away from me.

  Next to me Kōjin’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground as well.

  I should have felt concerned about that. In fact, I recognized that I should be alarmed that I wasn’t concerned. But all I felt was a vast emptiness, and I couldn’t even be worried about that.

  Slowly, like an executioner, the Mismagius drifted closer.

  Oh. I thought blankly. So this is how I die.

  I wasn’t upset about that. I couldn’t be upset about that.

  I thought about closing my eyes. Wasn’t sure what the difference would be since I couldn’t feel anything anyways.

  Then there was Kōjin, and Venus, Zetian, and Jira.

  Even through the numbing haze there was a pang of grief that they would be trapped here. Maybe a Ranger would be able to find my Poké Balls and release them. They deserved better.

  The Mismagius hovered over my body. This is it.

  And then? A sun rose in the middle of the cavern tunnel.

  A primeval roar filled the air, and in it I could feel every emotion that had been stripped from me. Anger, pride, sorrow, joy, concern, wonder, and countless more.

  The breadth of emotion filled me with awe, and I turned my head to see Kōjin struggling to his feet.

  Fire was escaping his body, coming out in long tongues of flame from his mouth, and underneath the rock-like fur on his head I could see the defiance in his eyes manifest as literal flame, flowing out to surround his head in a magnificent wreath.

  He barked again, the sound resonating through my entire body, and the Mismagius staggered backwards in midair.

  Flame lashed out as he struck at the Ghost-type, a gout of flames shooting over my limp body to splash against the Mismagius.

  He needs to narrow his mouth more. I thought as he breathed fire. It’s not biologically necessary, but it’s a good mental trick.

  Our training with the water hose had paid off at least, because otherwise his previous fire blast would have roasted me along with the Mismagius. As it was I still got a little singed, but at least I couldn’t feel it right now.

  The Mismagius struck back, a wave of invisible force slamming into Kōjin, knocking him back.

  Red eyes brightened in intensity as it looked at the two of us, and for a second I thought it was going to launch another attack - this time directly at me.

  But it was interrupted by a comet of fire as Kōjin roared one last time, throwing himself forwards with a mighty leap, flames forming a cone around his head.

  I could have smiled. It was the ultimate expression of Kōjin - the ultimate, perfect headbutt into an enemy.

  The Ghost-type didn’t want any more. We had already proved to be too much effort, and this last attack was too risky for it.

  In a shimmer of purple and black flame, the Mismagius vanished right as Kōjin crossed into its space.

  My beautiful dog landed a little awkwardly, but hurriedly came over to me, licking my face and whimpering in concern.

  Slowly, painfully, I started to feel again.

  I smiled, and reached up to gingerly pet his face.

  “Good boy.”