Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – Rupture

“Ba–stard…Haaa…Haa.” 

 

“Thanks for the ride~ A bit bumpy though.” The Plant shamelessly critiqued me, hopping off my shoulder as I collapsed onto the ground. The last two hours were something of nightmares and just thinking about it gave me the urge to vomit or maybe that was because of my exhaustion. 

 

It wasn’t just the trek back up the tunnel. For some god-forsaken reason, Pokemon came out of the woodwork as we came across a total of 8 Pokemon on my hike back up. It started off well enough with a Sandshrew followed up with another Paras, and then the real problem showed up as two Durants dug up directly in front of us.  

 

The Steel/Bug combination was a death sentence for us mere Grass Types, and with two of them at once, it was definitely Arceus’ anger towards us 2v1ing everything. Thankfully, everything we fought was substantially weaker than that Geodude which thankfully included these two and we essentially forced all our attacks towards one before taking out the other since they couldn’t catch up to our movements.

 

The last 4 were much simpler to deal with considering how 3 of them were either Zubats who stayed away from us or the Sandshrew who tried very hard to hide from us. However, with the uphill walk, the constant battles and my desire to keep Leaf Blade up for training left me extremely tired. Who knew lower aura correlated to lower bodily functions… I could’ve sworn Iris talked about aura exhaustion or something to that effect when she first healed me. 

 

And now I’m here, being crowd-surfed by Iris’ Grass Knots as she waddled her way over to the light once again. Had I not continuously and stubbornly kept Leaf Blade up I probably could still walk. Thankfully, it seemed my resilience and increased aura from beating up Pokemon showed results, and I could safely say that my Leaf Blade grew to around 3 inches, as it now extended past my middle finger. Still a long way to go to achieve what I want but it’s progress… at least there’s a chance for growth. Back in reality, I was gently let down from the roots as the light hit my head. 

 

“Look at your hair, I think it got damaged by all that battling, there’s even some dust laying around.” She chided on, her weird fascination with my hair was something I never understood. Sure I liked the long hair, except for when it got in my way mid-battle but Iris seemed to worship it, maybe it’s because Lilligants have similar long green hair… I still haven't got a good look at myself yet. 

 

“Ah… before you start, you said you have Aromatherapy before right? Can you use it on me?” Though confused she nodded and I slowly closed my eyes. I knew [Aromatherapy] had been used as my senses were blessed with a flowery scent, my body felt relaxed and everything just felt good. ‘I could get addicted to this…’ were my last thoughts before I lost consciousness. 

“Nggh–”

 

“-ak- up-.” 

 

“...”

 

“Can you wake up already?!”

 

“O-Oh… I…Iris? G-Goo…d Mornin’.” A gentle smile broke out in response to her voice and when I opened my eyes I was met face-to-face with Iris who was standing on a [Grass Knot]. She turned away immediately as our eyes met, saddened by her actions I grabbed her and tried forcefully rotating her to look at me. It didn’t take much effort as she willingly allowed me to do so, turning her towards me she looked… flustered? 

 

A bit more awake I asked, “Why’d you turn away?” Even after she faced me, Iris never made eye contact with me. ‘Did she suddenly get my social anxiety?’ Now with a bit more concern, I asked again. “Y-Your face is a weapon…” she responded back, and here I thought I was the sleepy one.

 

“Ah… ok? Anyways, thanks for the Aromatherapy, I think that was the best sleep I’ve ever had.” Really, I should’ve found this out sooner, sadly I was both too poor and too lazy to bother trying back on Earth. At least I have it now.  She nodded back and I used one of her roots to help myself up, ready to start the day. 

 

“So, what’s the plan today?” 

 

“Toda–”

 

A dangerous amount of shaking was felt throughout the cavern, cutting off Iris’ sentence and I held onto her as she swiftly deployed a [Grass Knot] over our heads. 

 

"..."

 

The shaking only continued for a few seconds later and I gave out a sigh of relief as nothing in our area had been affected. 

 

“T-Today, we’ll go down the left path with the Paras. I haven’t got the chance to get more mushrooms.” Somewhat disturbed by what just happened. I wonder what the move Earthquake could do to the environment. How destructive would it be compared to the real thing? Surely it doesn't utilise any tectonic plates for the move to function… 

 

"Ay–" 

 

Even without them, I'd wager the effects of the move could be amped up to surpass the damage a real Earthquake could do, with less range though. There's also magnitude which is a literal copy of the metric people use to describe the strength of an earthquake… Don't a lot of cave Pokemon learn Earthquake or Magnitude…?

 

"AYLA!!"

 

"Hwaa–?" A weird noise came out, and I turned to Iris in confusion.

 

"?"

 

"I've noticed this a lot but you space out a lot, even when there's an enemy in front of us. Are you okay?"

 

"Ahh… I guess I think about things a lot… whenever something pops into my mind I barely focus on anything else…* And wasn't that too real… between keeping up with Leaf Blade, sudden surprise attacks and my random thoughts, there were way too many close calls. May–

 

"Ayla." 

 

"Ah… I did it again, sorry… force of habit… it was always a nice way to escape from reality." 

 

"...Whatever, just please stay focused during battles. Now let's go into the left tunnel." Rude, I only ever got distracted before a battle started, not in the middle of one. 

 

“Paras huh…” I wasn’t against that idea as much as I was yesterday, the… brutality of this Petilil has tainted me completely. Though skinning and eating body parts is too much… Hopefully I’ll remain that way.

 

Quickly snapping myself from my next spiral, I walked after Iris who decided not to bother with my next mind-deep-dive and started off without me. 'I'm not that bad… am I?'

 

---

 

Now in the left tunnel, things were certainly much different compared to the right one. It hadn’t even been 5 minutes since heading in and the path already began to change. It swerved to the right ever so slightly, maybe enough for it to likely connect with the middle tunnel given enough distance. It also shrank to about 2/3rds of its original size, now maybe 14ish meters wide and tall? Though, My eye for measurement wasn’t the most accurate. 

 

Mushrooms were found on the sides of the tunnel both familiar and unfamiliar, there were notably fewer of the familiar mushrooms in this area probably due to Iris, and the unfamiliar ones were probably not as poison-friendly…  

 

It was a breath of fresh… however fresh cave air could be,  as I saw something different from dirt and stone. We continued onwards until we had reached a crossroads in the cave, because of course there had to be one. The area around the crossroads wasn't anything special, only the occasional Zubat lazily swung from above watching us for any signs of hostility and the odd Sandshrew hiding between the mushrooms. 

 

"It's gotta be the left one, right?" I pointed. There were several reasons for this. First was that it inclined upwards, nothing that goes up could be bad. And secondly, there was moss and the area in general looked humid, with almost double the number of red mushrooms in the entrance alone compared to the area we had just recently passed by. Not that we wouldn't check the right path later as the completionist inside of me would not allow for such a sin.

 

Iris complied easily enough and we proceeded onwards, however as we approached the entrance and got closer to the mushrooms, several Paras much larger than their peers before them emerged from the ground and immediately began fleeing from us. 

 

“Iris? I think they’re scared of you.” 

 

She gave me a very dark grin in response before using [Grass Knot] to cut one of them off from escaping. Sadly, this little guy was on our list of Pokemon to fight and kill unprovoked, the only other being Geodudes.  

 

The poor crab was completely surrounded, Iris and I slowly… menacingly… approached it from its confines. The roots pinned it down and I brought out my [Leaf Blade] to seal the deal.

 

“Wha–!?”

 

As I swung my arm down a yellow gas permeated from the Paras. I quickly retracted my arm and tried hopping backwards. 

 

“Gghh?!?”

 

“AYLA!!”

 

A shock was felt throughout my whole being the moment I made an attempt to move back from the Paras. My body failed me completely and I collapsed onto the floor. ‘W-What happened?’

 

I remained there on the floor afraid to move in hopes the jolts would stop. I watched as Iris quickly made her way towards me, another shock was felt and my body jumped in response. “H-help…” I whispered, my expression was probably not what the traumatized plant wanted to see.

 

A soothing and familiar scent helped calm me down as Iris cast [Aromatherapy] to combat the paralysis I only just realized I was conflicted with. “Ayla! Nononono, not again, dd-don-’t please no-tt again.” The one who was meant to reassure a very disturbed and paralyzed individual ended up being the one who needed reassurance.

 

“D-Don’t write me off… like that Iris…” The Aromatherapy seemingly did its job as the jolts stopped. Though very terrified by the whole situation, I could barely spit out my words as all I could remember was the sudden pain. “I-Iris, I-I’m still here.” It took a few seconds of deep breathing before I moved my arms, pausing for a moment to wait for any shocks before hugging the panicking plant. 

 

“Sshhh, I-I’m… still here…” Slowly I began to tense the rest of my body, still afraid of the shock before sitting myself up. I looked around momentarily as the little bastard had come back with friends, 3 Paras significantly larger than the usual Paras we found surrounded us and I knew neither Iris nor I was fit to fight right now.

 

With her in my arms, I quickly rushed towards the clearing before the three could surround us, and thanked Arceus for how slow the crabs were. A minute of sprinting passed by as the tunnel opened up and the ray of light came into my vision. I ran past the light and almost collapsed as I hid in our little ditch where I had first woken up, my partner constantly talked in hysterics the whole way. ‘She’s completely gone… I didn’t know it was this bad…’

 

“I-It’s okay now…” 

 

‘It’s all my fault…’ 

 

“B-butt I– fail-lled again!”

 

“I-It wasn’t your fault… I got c-careless, I didn’t listen to you…” 

 

‘Stop blaming yourself…It was all my fault…’

 

“I-#((#) @#@.”

 

I continued to try and soothe my friend as everything she said felt like a punch to the gut and every attempt to calm her down not only barely helped reel her back in but also gnawed at the guilt that began to fester within me. 

 

---

 

I woke up feeling like crap which I found somewhat amusing. The day before I had considered that night as the best-quality sleep I’d ever had, now followed up by probably the worst I’ve ever had… 

 

I wondered when I lost sight of the potential severity of our situation. Was it when Iris was easily beating up the wild Pokemon? Or when I began trying to figure out moves… or maybe even earlier. Even despite her overprotectiveness she willingly let me fight alongside her and risk the life she so vehemently wants to keep safe. And in the end, what actually managed to hit me was a Paras’ stun spore… a Paras pinned down by Grass Knot. What the fuck was wrong with me. 

 

The feeling of electricity coursing through my body was still in my mind, it was like tiny jolts constantly popping in my body which was bearable. What really took me down back there was a massive shock that my whole body felt at once… I failed to realize what it was at the time, just that I knew I was in pain and I was panicking like hell. While I’d probably fare better under paralysis… I’d rather not ever experience that again.

 

I looked down at my lap where the source of all my guilt lay. She seemed serene and at peace with the world, nothing like what she was before when she tired herself to sleep. My heart continued aching as I let my thoughts continue. A gurgling sound abruptly ruined the silence as my stomach also began aching. The hunger only served to remind me of how big of a failure I am… 

 

Unfortunately, the sound had woken her up as she slowly started to move around before opening her eyes. 

 

“Morning Iris…”

 

“A-Ayla?” 

 

"...hi." 

 

I tightened my grip around her and brought her up for a hug, Both for her and me. We stayed in comfortable silence as I basked in each other's touch. 'God… I'm so useless.' 

You are reading story Crescere at novel35.com

 

"Ayla, I–" 

 

"P-Please stop, It was all my fault, I didn't listen to you and got careless in a fight." I interrupted whatever she was about to say when I heard her tone, regardless of what she would actually say. My conscience could not handle her self-blame again. "Thank you…" Her head shifted up, confusion evident on her face. "If… If it wasn't for you, I'd probably have died there so… thanks…" 

 

She didn't refute my thanks which I took as a small victory, though I’d be naive to believe it did anything to her guilt as my previous month of socializing apparently meant nothing. "L-Lets just move past it… and do-do better." I tightened my arms again and we fell into a peaceful silence. 

 

*gurgle*

 

"..."

With Paras and the mushrooms about the only thing available to eat around here, we needed to make a choice.  Despite how many Pokemon we've killed, I had no knowledge of how to prepare… food nor did we have the tools or know-how to create a fire. Without communicating with each other we unanimously decided to avoid the left tunnel and hunt for Paras on the right tunnel. 

 

Walking downwards for a few minutes led us to our target. The Paras in question were currently in a battle with a Geodude and was winning. Not for much longer… 

 

Iris and I spewed out our respective leaf attacks and indiscriminately rained hell on the two Pokemon. With both [Razor Leaf] and [Magical Leaf], we continued our generation well past the 5-second mark as we both stood there, the leaves continuously manifesting and flying towards one single point. The only thing heard was the oppressive sounds of the leaves repeatedly slamming into whatever still stood there.

 

Only then did we stop when a minuscule surge of aura entered my body. The smoke from the attacks cleared and there lay the two Pokemon from earlier, both past the point of unconsciousness. We approached the site with caution and I had to withhold a grimace as the Paras' mushrooms were long past the point of recognisable. 

 

"...whoops…" 

 

The mood lifted ever-so-slightly and we continued onwards to find another Paras that we hopefully wouldn’t grind to a pulp.

"Iris…" 

 

She looked at me in response to my voice but didn't make a move to say anything back. We had only just returned back to our home after safely securing a pair of mushrooms for the day.

 

"For now… let's stick to the right tunnel. I… I want to at least have a few more moves… and improve Leaf Blade before we continue anywhere else." 

 

She seemed surprised at my actions, did I do something wrong? But nonetheless, she made no effort to refuse anything. In fact, she hasn’t said much of anything today.

 

"Iris… please speak to me, I want your input as well. Despite whatever you think this isn't just how I feel, it's also about you."

 

"..." 

 

"...ok…" 

 

That… was probably the best I’d ever get for now. Anything outside of blaming herself came out as a peep or nothing at all.

 

"L-Lets go to the light so you can tend to my hair, you can also instruct me on how to get a few moves." 

 

"...That sounds nice." With that I scooped Iris into my arms and walked over to the centre, sitting down as she hopped off and walked behind me to begin her daily hair treatment.

 

I took the time to focus on my Leaf Blade as my index finger turned green and began pumping aura into it. My current goals were to double the length and have it replace both my index finger and my middle finger at the same time. I made decent progress that day and lightly hummed a tune as we both continued on with our work.

 

---

 

Time passed after that first setback and one could describe the air between us… awkward. For the first week, not much was said past a simple ‘Good Morning.’ Every day I’d wake up and remember exactly what I had failed to do that day, watching her subdued self following me everywhere I went without getting too close unless I had specifically asked. Is that what she felt back then with Ayla? That was a bad joke, this was nothing compared to what she probably felt. 

 

The days blurred, and we started every day heading down the right path. Fighting any Pokemon who willingly took the first attack, barring Paras and Geodude of course. Frankly, I was caring less and less about the innocent lives of these wild Pokemon, all I cared about was my Pokemon… though I guess without the bind/bond between us I couldn’t consider her mine. Plus, I’m sure the wild Pokemon would kill me in a heartbeat if I was any more vulnerable. 

 

What always confused me the most was how Pokemon would always pop up in that tunnel every time we checked, despite there being no conceivable way for them to get there outside of digging or walking past the clearing, and nothing walked past the clearing. Maybe some aura-related BS was spawning these creatures in, Arceus knows there aren’t enough adult Pokemon here for them to conceive this many.  

 

During that first week, I easily managed to pick up two new moves for my repertoire, Magical Leaf and Energy Ball. Both were simple enough to learn however only Magical Leaf was immediately battle-ready while Energy Ball was as useless as my Leaf Blade… maybe even more. Odd, as even Razor Leaf was instantly usable for battle.

 

The second week was much the same, only this time I focused more on Leaf Blade and Energy Ball, the length of my blade had grown an inch or two while the Energy ball… was still quite rough. It took approximately 2-3 seconds to gather the aura into a condensed ball before I could shoot it forward, the size was around a baseball which wasn’t the best considering how Iris’ was practically the size of her body.  

 

Speaking of Iris, things got… better. Through my skilful conversation starters, she slowly started to open up again, if we ignore how blatantly she kept her distance from me… not physical just mental? I couldn’t explain how I knew it, it just felt like she was avoiding me. 

 

Then the third week arrived and soon we’d face our demons. The aura gained from the fights was getting smaller and smaller and if I didn’t know any better I’d say we’d pretty much ‘out-levelled’ this area. My moves had increased in ability, Energy ball took a bit shorter to form and my blade was now 6 inches in length… I think. Though the biggest event to have happened this week was… 

 

“A-Ayla… w-we have a problem…” 

 

“What's wrong?” 

 

“T-There’s no more… m-mushrooms in the right tunnel o-or the middle one.” 

 

That wasn’t good, I also had to wonder how far into the middle path she did explore but that was for a later date. As of right now, there was only one place that housed a plentiful amount of food for me. And after a bit of silence, I had to bite the bullet and make the suggestion we both knew was coming. 

 

“We’re going to need to head into the left tunnel…” or as I had called in, the Paras Den. With that many mushrooms laying about and with how big they were in comparison to the ones we found on the right, it was an apt name. 

 

We stared at each other for a bit before I sighed and signalled for Iris to follow alongside me into the left tunnel. After a few minutes of slow walking in silence, we arrived back again at the dreaded crossroads where it all began. Though this time with much more caution. There were a number of Pokemon just staring at us inquisitively around the walls of the space, not making any moves to interact with us. 

 

Wary of them we stood in silence waiting for a reaction. Slowly they decided we weren't the effort and moved on and walked away. Sighing in relief, I realized Iris had already taken a position in front of me while we stood there, staring at the left entrance after the Pokemon left. We again tensely did nothing as one made a move to go in. “L-Let’s go…” I whispered nervously. 

 

A nod in response was all I needed and we walked towards the left entrance. As we exited the crossroads and now firmly into the hellhole the same curiosity I held for the new environment in the past was now nothing but wariness. The left tunnel had tightened even further, going from the 14m I had previously mentioned to now only being a mere 5 meters in width, which didn’t help my nerves. 

 

“Y-You ready?” Iris didn’t respond but nodded and slowly we began making our way towards the entrance. 

 

The tunnel was littered with mushrooms, and I shot out [Leafage] at every single mushroom pair that I deemed similar enough to the appendages on a Paras. Nothing. 

 

The atmosphere had felt increasingly wet and the amount of greenery had also increased drastically. The ground changed to pure stone, and the walls and the gaps in the stone were riddled with moss and mushrooms alike. 

 

For some reason, both Iris and I felt compelled to continue onwards instead of quickly grabbing the entrance mushrooms and running away. Was it pride on Iris’ part or perhaps a renewed sense of curiosity and adventure with me?

 

We pressed onwards, the lack of Pokemon in this small mossy tunnel was freaking me out. With only the sounds of my footsteps and the leaves hitting mushrooms we quietly made our way forward before moments later we reached another clearing. 

 

“W-What the hell?” I blurted out. My reaction was not unwarranted as the sight before me was definitely… rare… to say the least. 

 

The cavern was maybe two basketball courts in size which was relatively small. It had the usual dirt and stone however it was completely covered in some form of moss. Like the tunnel leading here, the ground was mostly stone and mushrooms were even more plentiful here. What took me by surprise was the feature in the middle. 

 

A pond. Water. Granted very murky water but water nonetheless. The area seemed perfect for mushroom growth… unlike our clearing, this place was littered with obscurities in the form of boulders and other objects. On the other side of the cavern much further away was another exit leading downwards.

 

We walked forward, barely having left the tunnel before a [Grass Knot] had taken shape in front of me and stopped me in my tracks. “Iris?” confused as she had separated us, which was something she was very keen on not doing.  

 

“W-Wha–?” My questioning stopped as a larger than usual Paras erupted from ground and took a swipe at where I had been monetarily, destroying the Grass Knot Iris had just created. The Paras’ size struck a chord in me. ‘Oh…him.’ It might not have been the same one but it was close enough. Another two Paras also came out of nowhere and stood menacingly alongside the first, all three had grown past my knees and now stood around my thighs in height.

 

I briefly wondered how small I really am now. With the usual Paras’ height already around my knee and Petilil being around the same height as these three. I’m very certain these things were much larger than their earth counterparts but not to what extent. 

 

“Oh Sh—” I quickly ducked out of the way of a seed shot by one of the Paras standing before me. ‘This habit is getting out of hand…’ 

 

“You looking down on us, human?” ‘Technically Yes.’ I withheld that thought in my mind. “Well, It works better for us, all we have to do is hold this one back while the chief finishes the evil one.” Another Paras added on.

 

At the… reasonable description of my depressed plant, I remembered she existed and looked over the crabs for a moment to quickly find the reason as to why Iris didn’t immediately kill these three from the get-go. A mushroom that seemed to reach my ELBOWS had stood stoically in front of Iris, guarding the tunnel ahead. 

 

I sucked a breath in. ‘The first second stage evolutions?! And a x4 resistance?!’ With the type-match up heavily against us, them having doubled our numbers and would probably overpower us in a direct fight we needed to leave, Now. 

 

“Iris quick!! Jump back over to me!!” I yelled out in panic, my heart sinking as several new additions joined the fight. When Iris made a move to run back to me, a second smaller Parasect jumped directly in front of her, cutting her off. Adding onto the troubles another two regular-sized Paras had walked over to the trio of Paras ready to stop me in my tracks.

 

“...”

 

‘How… How are we getting out of this??!’ Panic quickly built up inside of me and for the first time since the Geodude fight, I felt as if we could actually die here. My mind went into overdrive as I tried thinking of anything I could do to get us both out. 

 

“Ayla.” My thoughts broke as I heard Iris speak clearly to me for the first time in weeks. “Y-You should leave me here…” 

 

“Huh?!”

 

“T-They only want me here… and this way… you can bond with your first Pokemon… I know you’ve held back because of me… I-I fail-iled you once before…I’m a curse… at least this way you don’t have to be with someone as u-useless as me…I should’ve died alongside A-Ayla when we fell down here…” 

 

‘Is that how it is?’ 

 

A strange calmness took over me and my body felt truly ready for what was to come next. Our time was short, less than a year but to me, it felt like a lifetime. Enjoying every day down here despite our situation, those days felt so warm yet so distant with our recent rift, I want to go back to those happier days. 

 

“S-So… please l-leave…” 

 

‘No.’ 

 

For the first time in my life...I truly felt happy not being by myself, to actually be with someone. So I’ll show you, I'll show you that you weren’t useless, that you weren’t a curse, that you deserve this second chance at life, and that you’re irreplaceable to me no matter what. So just wait for me, and I’ll break those shackles holding you down.

 

A steady determination in my eyes set, and I took a step forward. The faint glowing light of my [Leaf Blade] shone brightly in the darkness. The three Paras(s) from earlier had lost their joking demeanour and stared at me cautiously as my whole being felt different. Slowly I approached the blockade of 5 before I made a mad dash forward, initiating the beginning of this bloodbath. 

 

‘I’ll show you all.’ 

 

---