Post by Ghost on Apr 29, 2017 2:47:09 GMT
Chapter 2: Memories
Three weeks had passed since Yuki accepted the position at Professor Hemlock’s lab. Between the sheer volume of rubbish stacked around, the strange sounds and smells of the experiments, and the general chaotic nature of the place, it had been the most bizarre three weeks of her life. That’s not to say that it was entirely bad. True to the employment agreement, Yuki had spent her days deep cleaning and organizing everything she possibly could. The foyer was now completely free of debris and garbage, and the office she had once spent so much time cowering in was fully organized. All pertinent research materials and books were on the shelves in alphabetical order while photographs and other various trinkets were placed strategically around the room. The same treatment was applied to every room she touched. There was a bit of calm and happiness in Yuki’s heart to see that the rooms she had worked so hard on were actually staying clean for the most part. Yes, messes would still happen due to experiments, clumsiness, or Haunter being completely inconsiderate of other people’s possessions or desires. Even so, the condition of the lab was far better than when she had first arrived.
In all honesty, Yuki enjoyed cleaning. While cleaning, she was more firmly in her comfort zone - alone with her own thoughts - as most of the staff didn’t want to disturb the organizational process if they saw her working. As the days dragged on, however, Yuki noticed that she was beginning to enjoy the brief moments she spent with the people and pokémon of the lab as well. Jojo was always good for a laugh or at least a smile depending on her level of sass that day. Stuart, despite his slight obsession with the ancient wars of the pokémon world, seemed to always be pleasant and helpful. Yuki looked forward to her daily tea breaks with Heracross who made the most superb Lavender Tea. Her favorite part of the day, though, was utilizing her lunch break to spend time with the various pokémon both in the lab and on the grounds. Day after day she would spend her lunch hour petting Glameow, playing fetch with Houndour, sneaking bits of sandwich to Flaaffy, or soaking her feet in the Corsola pool.
The only part of this arrangement that continued to be confusing was Professor Hemlock. While he was never unkind or overly disconcerting, he was still profoundly odd. It was like spending three weeks with that weird uncle you generally only see on major holidays. Day after day Hemlock continued to dress as though he had just woken up. He played fairly harmless practical jokes more often than any adult should, and seemed to approach experiments and problems in the most bizarre and backwards way possible yet still reaching a desired or at least satisfactory result. While this certainly was eccentric, this was not what Yuki felt was so odd about her employer; it was the strange way in which he looked at people on occasion. More than once during her lunch break with the pokémon, she would catch him observing her with a kind but knowing look on his face. It was as if he was seeing something else in the room with her though she had no clue what.
Another Monday morning arrived faster than Yuki could fathom as she made her way through town and down that now-familiar pathway towards work. Lately, she had abandoned the pink dress in exchange for more appropriate cleaning attire; this generally consisted of sneakers, an old pair of blue jeans, pink shirt, white cleaning apron, and blue rubber gloves with her hair tied back in a pink bandana. After grabbing her cleaning supplies from the newly created Cleaning Closet and greeting Heracross for the morning, she quietly made her way to the next room on her list. It was the storage room off the main lab. The lab, which was louder and busier than usual for a Monday morning, smelled strongly of burned electrics. Yuki also noticed the atmosphere of the room seemed more stressful today as the lab assistants were frantically running around, pouring over documentation and examining equipment. Generally, Professor Hemlock was the culprit when such chaos was unfolding, however the only evidence of his involvement was a half-eaten donut on a plate near a brand new scorch mark on the table. Yuki, realizing this was firmly in the “I don’t want to get involved with this” department, made her way to the storage room and quietly shut the door behind her.
Yuki began to sigh but the volume of dust floating in this particular room made her cough violently. Pulling out her safety mask to avoid this unpleasant feeling, she began to scan the room. This room was different than the others she had encountered; Yuki honestly couldn’t think of any word to describe it other than abandoned. With the large pile of boxes tossed haphazardly in the middle of the floor, the mostly empty shelves lining the walls, the excessively grimy windows which blocked the sunlight, and the years of dust engulfing everything within the room, a true feeling of neglect hung in the air. Shaking her head, Yuki picked up the dusting solution and got to work.
It took Yuki three solid hours and five trips to the dumpster before the room was presentable once again. Clean shelves were lined with usable items from the boxes, fresh air and sunshine were able to enter through the open clean window, and some sort of containment device was placed back on the pedestal it once inhabited. The young woman couldn’t help but smile at what she felt was her greatest cleaning triumph yet. The only item left to sort through was a large box in the corner of the room labeled “Memories.” Given the label, Yuki would normally have not touched the box in question as to not invade the owner’s privacy. However she also remembered finding several boxes in the office labeled “Serious Research” which were filled with potato chips and snack cakes, so there was no guarantee the label was genuine. As it was long past time for her tea break with Heracross, Yuki dusted off the box and hauled it to the office where she placed it on the desk facing away from the foyer.
“Her Heracro!” Heracross stated as he walked into the office with his usual tea tray and smile.
“Hi Heracross.” Yuki greeting him returning the smile. “S...Sorry I’m running behind today that room was… well you know how it is. What have we got today?”
“Cross Heracross” He replied as he pointed towards the tin.
“Oh Chamomile? That’s new. You’re r...really spoiling me on these teas, Heracross. One day you’re going to run out of new types and I’m not sure if you’ll know what to do with yourself. Thank you very much.”
Yuki placed three cubes of sugar into her tea cup, patted Heracross on the head, and began to sip. The tea was wonderful just like every other day’s selection. She couldn’t help but wonder who it was that taught Heracross how to make tea as nobody in the lab seemed quite the type. Placing down her cup, Yuki once again smiled at the bug.
“It’s amazing, just like every day! Thanks again!”
Heracross bowed in appreciation.
“I umm… I probably need to finish up this last box from that storage room before lunch so I can keep on my schedule. If you want to stay here with me then you can but I’ll probably be looking through this box the whole time. If… if that’s okay with you that is.
“Cro!” Heracross said cheerfully as he took the cup and saucer from the tray, placed in on the office desk and carried the tray back towards the kitchen. Yuki watched the cheerful pokémon leave. She couldn’t help but giggle a tiny bit. If anyone had told her three weeks ago that she would be looking forward to daily spending time with a large blue bug she would have thought they were crazy. She turned her attention towards the mysterious memories box on the desk. Lifting the lid carefully, Yuki gazed into a box filled with the most random assortment of items she had seen yet; some of which she couldn’t tell if it was garbage or a keepsake. There was a folded Rage Candy Bar wrapper, several luminescent stones, a small box of feathers and fluff, a glass jar filled with sand, what looked like an ancient pokéball with a manual corkscrew opening device, and a leather bound book tied shut with no title. Yuki lifted the book to examine it but found something far more interesting beneath it, a picture inside a simple black frame with five people inside.
Yuki placed the book down and began examining the photograph. The people appeared to be between thirteen and sixteen years old. The first to catch her eye was a portly young man with long sideburns and spiked brown hair who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. With his obnoxious orange and black Alolan shirt left open to reveal a Charizard shirt underneath, she knew this had to be Professor Hemlock as a teen. Beside him was a young girl with very long purple hair. She was wearing a sort of school uniform which consisted of a long-sleeved white and red shirt, purple tie, and purple skirt. Yuki had only ever encountered one person with brilliant purple hair before, Silvia, whom the Professor was speaking to on video chat during her interview day. As such she assumed this young girl to be the very same Silvia. However, the three others in the photograph were not familiar. Silvia appeared to be pulling another girl into frame who clearly didn’t want to be in the picture. This other girl was shorter than Silvia and quite skinny with long red hair. She wore a light blue tee depicting Unown spelling out “Super Effective” and large black headphones hanging around her neck. Behind the struggling girls was a young man with incredibly short brown hair wearing a solid black shirt. He seemed to be ignoring the events in front of him and chose instead to focus on the pokéball which he was seemingly spinning on his finger. In the background was another young man with slightly curly brown hair wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants. He remained seated at the table Yuki assumed they were all sitting at prior to the photo. His expression was that of mild concern having apparently been interrupted from the rather thick book he was reading by the commotion in the foreground.
Yuki paused for a moment. Realizing that you don’t get to see a picture of your boss as a teenager every day, she pulled her phone from her pocket and snapped a quick picture of the photograph. Placing the picture frame on the desk, she picked back up the leather book. She began to untie the straps binding the book shut. She was so engrossed by the contents of the box that the outside world had become completely silent to her… and that’s when it happened.
“Howdy!” rang an incredibly loud voice from behind Yuki.
Everyone has a fight or flight response when they are scared. For sixteen years, Yuki’s instinct was to always scream and either run away or fall to the ground accepting her fate. Whether it was due to her more frequent interactions with people, or her trauma from experiencing Haunter on her first day in the lab is unknown, however for the first time in her life, Yuki’s fight instinct took over. Grasping the book firmly she turned on the spot with all her might and slammed the book hard into whatever had made that noise. With a loud smack and a thud, Yuki began scanning the room frantically for what she had struck and found a young man with blond hair wearing a red flannel shirt, dirty blue jeans, and black suspenders on the ground rubbing the side of his face.
“Dang!” Shouted the young man in a thick country accent as he stared at Yuki. “You pack one heck of a wallop there! Ain’t been smacked that hard in a real long time.”
As Yuki noticed the side of the young man’s face glowing ever more red from the impact, horror flashed across her face. “OH! I’m I’m I’m … I’m so so sorry. Oh my gosh I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry” she squeaked out as she curled in towards herself and buried her reddening face into the book out of pure embarrassment. “I’m… I’m… sorry.”
“Woah there, no need gettin’ all in a tizzy. When yer trainin’ up Tauros you get used to a rough time. S’pose that’s what I get fer walkin’ up unannounced. Ma always said I got a mouth bigger’n a Exploud. Sorry fer scarin’ ya, Miss.”
The young man stood up from the floor and took a step towards Yuki. He was at least a foot taller than her with broad shoulders and fairly thick arms. Yuki, slightly trembling, managed to peer her eyes over the top of the book at the tall boy who had his hand extended towards her.
“Don’t think I ever seen you ‘round these parts. Name’s Chuck… well truth told my name’s Charles but ever’body calls me Chuck. Who’re you?”
“Y.. Yuki” she said as slowly lowered the book and inched her shaking arm towards him.
Chuck, seeing her reluctant hand, leaned forward, grasped it firmly despite her flinching at his touch, and shook her hand. “Ya don’t hafta flinch at a handshake ya know. I don’t bite or nothin’. I just come by to drop off the milk and some other goods fer my cousin. My family runs Tranquil Acres Farms and I get to deliver sometimes, ‘specially if I get to come here. So, you one of them scientist types? I don’t really understand a lot of that stuff myself, but I sure do appreciate folks who can. You workin’ on a special project or somethin’?”
“Oh N… No. I c… clean and…”
Chuck cheerfully interrupted. “You the one been cleanin’ this place up? Lord knows it sure needed it. This place looked worse than a trailer park after a hurricane.” He began to look around the office and whistled loudly. “Yer doin’ a good job. Who’d have thought someone this purty could clean this well and knock me flat on my butt?”
Yuki’s face flashed deeper red than it had already been. No random stranger had ever said anything like that to her before. She stood there in a state of mild panic and confusion. How was she supposed to react to that? The complement seemed to be genuine but also wasn’t coming with an overtly flirtatious meaning. He had just sort of said it then kept looking around the room at her handiwork. Thankfully her salvation from this awkward situation came from an unlikely source, Professor Hemlock.
“Is this hoodlum causing you trouble, Yuki?” Hemlock asked as he stood in the doorway of the office. He was as lazily dressed as ever as today’s outfit included bright orange shorts and a shirt which consisted entirely of a Lillipup face. Despite the tackiness of his attire, it didn’t distract her from the Professor’s hands. Yuki noticed he was has holding his left hand which now had a large thick bandage across the palm.
“Cuz! How ya been?” Chuck shouted as he turned and approached the Professor. “Brought yer food boxes. I left it sittin’ near the door in that fo-yay or whatever it’s called.”
“Y… You’re cousins with the Professor?” Yuki asked as she looked from Chuck to Hemlock and back.
“Yeah, second cousins to be exact” Hemlock answered instead. “Our grandparents were siblings. My grandfather was the oldest of eight and his last sibling was Chuck’s grandmother, which explains the age difference between the two of us. I’ve been getting goods from their farm for…” Hemlock suddenly stopped and looked at Yuki with a combination of surprise and contemplation. His eyes scanned from the picture frame, to the memories box on the desk, to the leather book in Yuki’s hands. He stared for a moment before finishing his sentence. “...years.”
“Yeah we’ve been feedin’ this big ole galoot ever since he built us some milkin’ machines, crop harvesters, and a bunch of other stuff we’ve had problems with over the years.” Chuck said as he placed his thumbs under his suspender fronts. “That reminds me, I got another idea fer ya, cuz.” Hemlock didn’t answer as he kept staring at the memories box. Chuck continued. “Uh… I said I got another idea. Earth to Hemlock! HEY!”
Hemlock jumped at his cousin’s loudness. “WHAT?” he shouted instinctively before clearing his throat. “Sorry, I got distracted. What were you saying?”
“Well I got to thinkin’ on another food idea and..”
“This isn’t another raw chicken sushi thing is it?”
Chuck’s smile turned into instant irritation. “You Rapidash’s backside! You said you’s never gonna bring that up again. Ya make one mistake tryin’ to be all fancy and some folks just keep bringin’ it up!”
“Well I’m sorry, but you can’t exactly control when traumatic and potentially deadly memories decide to show back up again.”
“Well do yer best and forget about it this time okay? This ain’t got nothin’ to do with that thank ya very much. Ya know how when yer wantin’ a biscuit but gotta get out both the jelly and the butter outta the fridge? Why not just grab a tub of a fruit butter? It’s butter with fruit flavorin’ and maybe jam mixed in or somethin’. This way you can just spread one thing ‘cross yer biscuit and be done with it.”
“That has to be the…” Hemlock paused as the wheels began spinning in his head. “That’s actually not the worst idea i’ve heard all week. Write down some ideas on that before you leave. I’ll get one of my guys to see if that’s even a possibility without making a giant mess and I’ll let you know.”
“I’ll get right on that then!” Chuck excitedly replied as he turned towards Yuki. “Well then Miss Yuki, I best be gettin’ back. If yer ever out at Tranquil Acres, give me a holler! Just don’t bring anythin’ to hit me with again. Nice meetin’ ya!”
“Y… you too” Yuki replied
Hemlock turned his attention back to Yuki as he waved his cousin goodbye. His expression hardened instantly. “So, you’ve been assaulting members of my family with stuff, have you?”
Yuki’s heart began to pound once more. “N N N N No I… I just. He…I mean I accidentally…”
The Professor busted laughing as he couldn’t keep the act up any longer. “Calm down. No need to have a heart attack over there. I know my cousin well and I’m sure if you hit him, whether accidental or on purpose, he did something to deserve it. Anyway, I was wanting to have a word with you. Why don’t we have lunch together with the Corsola?”
“I… okay then.” Yuki barely managed to speak.
“Great!” Hemlock said as he clasped his hands together. “I’ll see you there in about ten minutes. Bring that box you were looking through with you.”
Yuki slumped into the office chair as she watched Hemlock walk out the office door. Why was the Professor wanting to meet with her all of a sudden? Was she doing something wrong and not knowing it? Was she going to get in trouble for opening that box of memories? Her heart continued to race. She had no idea what could be up his sleeve as he always acted erratically. A few minutes passed before she accepted her fate and slowly walked to the kitchen. She retrieved her bagged lunch from the fridge where Heracross was putting away the recent food delivery. Returning to the office, she packed everything back into the box and made her way to Aquatics Room B. The closer she approached the more her trembling became noticeable.
The door opened as Yuki approached; she could see that Professor Hemlock was already there soaking his injured hand in the pool. He was completely surrounded by the Corsola. Some were happily dancing around him while others were looking concerned towards his soaking hand. Upon seeing Yuki, he lifted his red, blistered hand from the cooling water and motioned her over. As he applied more ointment to his burn, Yuki placed the box and food on the floor, took off her socks and shoes, and placed her bare feet into the water.
“D.. Did that burn mark I saw in the lab cause that?” Yuki asked as she looked at his hand.
“Yeah, It looks a lot worse than it feels… mostly. Something went wrong with the current amplifier. It was only supposed to go so high, but it just skyrocketed and burned the whole thing up in a flash. The counter top and my hand got the brunt of the problem, but thankfully Rotom wasn’t hurt.”
“R...Rotom? You’re working on something for another Rotom?”
“Yeah and honestly that’s half the reason I asked you to lunch. We’re approaching completion of this and it would be easier to have all my Rotoms out in the main lab. I know you aren’t exactly comfortable when you’re around ghosts. I thought for sure you’d never accept this job after your run-in with Haunter that day. Since there will be so many ghosts around, I’d like you to take the rest of the day off... paid of course. While I do love pranks that scare or freak people out momentarily, there’s a difference in that and inciting pure terror. I don’t want to do that to you, so you can leave when we’re done here.”
“O...oh” she said as her anxiety melted away. “Th… thank you. I don’t know why but ghosts have always just been that one thing that t… terrifies me. So… thank you.” She smiled as she took a bite of her sandwich. The Professor was always so enigmatic and bizarre to her that it was comforting to see this caring side of his personality. Seeing this level of thoughtfulness was probably the most reassuring thing she had experienced in quite some time. “Wh… what are you doing with the Rotom?”
“Oh I’m just trying out some prototype thing for Silvia. You may have caught the tail end of it on your first day tour around here. Speaking of Silvia, scoot that box over here, please.”
Yuki gently slid the box over to the Professor who opened it and began examining everything inside. He mostly remained quiet with the occasional chuckle. She watched as his expression slightly changed with every item, though mostly it conveyed what Yuki could only describe as a happy sadness. She began petting a nearby Corsola, when Hemlock leaned over with the picture frame in his hand.
“You probably figured out that the big guy here is me, and that this girl with the incredibly distinct purple hair is Silvia. Am I correct?”
“Y… yeah pretty much. Why is… she wearing a school uniform when the others aren’t?”
“That is an excellent question. She thought it made her look cool back then or something. I didn’t get it, I always thought it made her look like jailbait, but as Jojo keeps reminding me, ‘how can someone who works in their pajamas be qualified to comment on the fashion of others’ or something like that. She grew out of it eventually, but I guess she sort of had to.”
Yuki couldn’t help but giggle slightly. “So, you’ve known Silvia for awhile?”
“Longer than I’m sure she cares to admit. The five of us were the best of friends at one point. The girl with red hair is Elven. She’s a professor at the University now; we still talk from time to time. This guy who looks as though he’s engrossed in his own thing is Alastor. He was the most passionate and eager pokémon trainer I’ve ever met. Haven’t talked to him since he went missing a few years back. I would worry about him, but he’s always been so resourceful that I’m sure he’s doing just fine. Last is Snicket… that dude was always so engrossed in his books that he barely came up for air. He was especially concerned with the nature of spirituality and the bonds between trainer and pokémon. He liked to drone on about things that went over my head, but Silvia seemed to grasp the concepts he was throwing. If i’m being totally honest it was a strange group to have been friends in the first place. We went to school together, hung out all the time, and we even went on a bit of a world tour together. That’s what the leather book is; the chronicles of our journeys as well as some of the stories we’d heard of legendaries from different regions outside Dracorra. Those were good times until…” He paused and looked down at the picture in silence. “Well, some things are best left unsaid. I’m sure Silvia wouldn’t appreciate you hearing this story from my perspective. It’s probably best if you heard it from a more logic based standpoint than emotional… I’ve caused her enough trouble as it is. Perhaps you can meet her one of these days and she can tell you more about it.”
Yuki continued to look at her employer. She felt the sadness in his eyes as he looked down at the photo. It was as if the joker facade had been lifted briefly and she got to see something real from the man. Perhaps this sadness was why the box and room were so abandoned.
“Anyway” Hemlock said as he took a deep breath and shoved the photo back into the box. “I wanted to ask you something else. I’ve seen the way you are with the pokémon around here. You’re an absolute natural. You care for these pokémon as your own with such love and kindness. It makes me wonder, do you even have your own pokémon?”
“N… no I don’t.” she said quietly as she turned her attention towards the deep blue of the pool.
“You’re what, sixteen? Shouldn’t you have dropped by here six years ago like everyone else does and gotten a pokémon? I know that would have been under my predecessor, Professor Briar, but I can’t believe he wouldn’t have allowed such a natural as you to start your pokémon journey. Did something happen back then?”
“I…” Yuki hesitated and refused to look towards the Professor. “I don’t really remember. It’s all just kind of fuzzy when I think about it.”
In fact, Yuki did remember. Her mind flashed to her ten-year-old self standing there at the pathway to Professor Briar’s lab. Though her parents were behind her at the gate shouting their support for their daughter’s pokémon adventure, she felt utterly alone. She had never really made friends in the first place due to her timid nature, and her parents couldn’t come explore the world with her. She would have to be alone for the first time. With every step towards Briar’s lab she felt the weight of this potential decision. She would be leaving the only place she’d ever known. If she became a trainer, she would be leaving behind the only support she had with only a phone to connect her back to that love. She would be forced to fight battles she didn’t want to fight. As the anxiety and despair crept up on little Yuki, the decision to continue was too much to bear. Young Yuki, with tears down her face ran back to her parents and hugged them. “I don’t want to go! Please don’t make me leave you! Please don’t push me away!” she wailed as she held tight to her parents.
Yuki suddenly realized that she had been staring into the pool for quite some time in silence as she relived her memory. She quickly looked around the room and shoved the last bit of sandwich in her mouth hoping that Hemlock hadn’t noticed. Swallowing the sandwich, she looked over at Hemlock who, in fact, had noticed. His expression clearly conveyed that he knew she was lying but he didn’t press the issue.
“Hmm” he said as he turned his attention to a Corsola. “Well if you can’t remember then you can’t remember. It’s just a real shame you don’t have a pokémon of your own. I know they would be well loved.” He stood up and looked at the clock. “Oh gosh, is that the time? Well when you get done with the rest of your lunch, then you can head on home. I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for everything you’ve done around here, Yuki.”
Hemlock left the room in rather a hurry before Yuki could even respond. She finished off her drink and shared part of her potato chips with the Corsola before saying goodbye to them. With her cleaning supplies back in their proper place, Yuki left for home feeling quite strange about her day. Hemlock, however, watched from the office window as she walked down the pathway and out into the town.
“Haunter! Haunter!” Hemlock shouted as he walked into the hallway and through the lab. “Come on, where are you when I need you?”
Haunter floated down from the ceiling towards his trainer with a confused but happy look upon his face.
“Hello there old friend. I have a job for you.”
Three weeks had passed since Yuki accepted the position at Professor Hemlock’s lab. Between the sheer volume of rubbish stacked around, the strange sounds and smells of the experiments, and the general chaotic nature of the place, it had been the most bizarre three weeks of her life. That’s not to say that it was entirely bad. True to the employment agreement, Yuki had spent her days deep cleaning and organizing everything she possibly could. The foyer was now completely free of debris and garbage, and the office she had once spent so much time cowering in was fully organized. All pertinent research materials and books were on the shelves in alphabetical order while photographs and other various trinkets were placed strategically around the room. The same treatment was applied to every room she touched. There was a bit of calm and happiness in Yuki’s heart to see that the rooms she had worked so hard on were actually staying clean for the most part. Yes, messes would still happen due to experiments, clumsiness, or Haunter being completely inconsiderate of other people’s possessions or desires. Even so, the condition of the lab was far better than when she had first arrived.
In all honesty, Yuki enjoyed cleaning. While cleaning, she was more firmly in her comfort zone - alone with her own thoughts - as most of the staff didn’t want to disturb the organizational process if they saw her working. As the days dragged on, however, Yuki noticed that she was beginning to enjoy the brief moments she spent with the people and pokémon of the lab as well. Jojo was always good for a laugh or at least a smile depending on her level of sass that day. Stuart, despite his slight obsession with the ancient wars of the pokémon world, seemed to always be pleasant and helpful. Yuki looked forward to her daily tea breaks with Heracross who made the most superb Lavender Tea. Her favorite part of the day, though, was utilizing her lunch break to spend time with the various pokémon both in the lab and on the grounds. Day after day she would spend her lunch hour petting Glameow, playing fetch with Houndour, sneaking bits of sandwich to Flaaffy, or soaking her feet in the Corsola pool.
The only part of this arrangement that continued to be confusing was Professor Hemlock. While he was never unkind or overly disconcerting, he was still profoundly odd. It was like spending three weeks with that weird uncle you generally only see on major holidays. Day after day Hemlock continued to dress as though he had just woken up. He played fairly harmless practical jokes more often than any adult should, and seemed to approach experiments and problems in the most bizarre and backwards way possible yet still reaching a desired or at least satisfactory result. While this certainly was eccentric, this was not what Yuki felt was so odd about her employer; it was the strange way in which he looked at people on occasion. More than once during her lunch break with the pokémon, she would catch him observing her with a kind but knowing look on his face. It was as if he was seeing something else in the room with her though she had no clue what.
Another Monday morning arrived faster than Yuki could fathom as she made her way through town and down that now-familiar pathway towards work. Lately, she had abandoned the pink dress in exchange for more appropriate cleaning attire; this generally consisted of sneakers, an old pair of blue jeans, pink shirt, white cleaning apron, and blue rubber gloves with her hair tied back in a pink bandana. After grabbing her cleaning supplies from the newly created Cleaning Closet and greeting Heracross for the morning, she quietly made her way to the next room on her list. It was the storage room off the main lab. The lab, which was louder and busier than usual for a Monday morning, smelled strongly of burned electrics. Yuki also noticed the atmosphere of the room seemed more stressful today as the lab assistants were frantically running around, pouring over documentation and examining equipment. Generally, Professor Hemlock was the culprit when such chaos was unfolding, however the only evidence of his involvement was a half-eaten donut on a plate near a brand new scorch mark on the table. Yuki, realizing this was firmly in the “I don’t want to get involved with this” department, made her way to the storage room and quietly shut the door behind her.
Yuki began to sigh but the volume of dust floating in this particular room made her cough violently. Pulling out her safety mask to avoid this unpleasant feeling, she began to scan the room. This room was different than the others she had encountered; Yuki honestly couldn’t think of any word to describe it other than abandoned. With the large pile of boxes tossed haphazardly in the middle of the floor, the mostly empty shelves lining the walls, the excessively grimy windows which blocked the sunlight, and the years of dust engulfing everything within the room, a true feeling of neglect hung in the air. Shaking her head, Yuki picked up the dusting solution and got to work.
It took Yuki three solid hours and five trips to the dumpster before the room was presentable once again. Clean shelves were lined with usable items from the boxes, fresh air and sunshine were able to enter through the open clean window, and some sort of containment device was placed back on the pedestal it once inhabited. The young woman couldn’t help but smile at what she felt was her greatest cleaning triumph yet. The only item left to sort through was a large box in the corner of the room labeled “Memories.” Given the label, Yuki would normally have not touched the box in question as to not invade the owner’s privacy. However she also remembered finding several boxes in the office labeled “Serious Research” which were filled with potato chips and snack cakes, so there was no guarantee the label was genuine. As it was long past time for her tea break with Heracross, Yuki dusted off the box and hauled it to the office where she placed it on the desk facing away from the foyer.
“Her Heracro!” Heracross stated as he walked into the office with his usual tea tray and smile.
“Hi Heracross.” Yuki greeting him returning the smile. “S...Sorry I’m running behind today that room was… well you know how it is. What have we got today?”
“Cross Heracross” He replied as he pointed towards the tin.
“Oh Chamomile? That’s new. You’re r...really spoiling me on these teas, Heracross. One day you’re going to run out of new types and I’m not sure if you’ll know what to do with yourself. Thank you very much.”
Yuki placed three cubes of sugar into her tea cup, patted Heracross on the head, and began to sip. The tea was wonderful just like every other day’s selection. She couldn’t help but wonder who it was that taught Heracross how to make tea as nobody in the lab seemed quite the type. Placing down her cup, Yuki once again smiled at the bug.
“It’s amazing, just like every day! Thanks again!”
Heracross bowed in appreciation.
“I umm… I probably need to finish up this last box from that storage room before lunch so I can keep on my schedule. If you want to stay here with me then you can but I’ll probably be looking through this box the whole time. If… if that’s okay with you that is.
“Cro!” Heracross said cheerfully as he took the cup and saucer from the tray, placed in on the office desk and carried the tray back towards the kitchen. Yuki watched the cheerful pokémon leave. She couldn’t help but giggle a tiny bit. If anyone had told her three weeks ago that she would be looking forward to daily spending time with a large blue bug she would have thought they were crazy. She turned her attention towards the mysterious memories box on the desk. Lifting the lid carefully, Yuki gazed into a box filled with the most random assortment of items she had seen yet; some of which she couldn’t tell if it was garbage or a keepsake. There was a folded Rage Candy Bar wrapper, several luminescent stones, a small box of feathers and fluff, a glass jar filled with sand, what looked like an ancient pokéball with a manual corkscrew opening device, and a leather bound book tied shut with no title. Yuki lifted the book to examine it but found something far more interesting beneath it, a picture inside a simple black frame with five people inside.
Yuki placed the book down and began examining the photograph. The people appeared to be between thirteen and sixteen years old. The first to catch her eye was a portly young man with long sideburns and spiked brown hair who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. With his obnoxious orange and black Alolan shirt left open to reveal a Charizard shirt underneath, she knew this had to be Professor Hemlock as a teen. Beside him was a young girl with very long purple hair. She was wearing a sort of school uniform which consisted of a long-sleeved white and red shirt, purple tie, and purple skirt. Yuki had only ever encountered one person with brilliant purple hair before, Silvia, whom the Professor was speaking to on video chat during her interview day. As such she assumed this young girl to be the very same Silvia. However, the three others in the photograph were not familiar. Silvia appeared to be pulling another girl into frame who clearly didn’t want to be in the picture. This other girl was shorter than Silvia and quite skinny with long red hair. She wore a light blue tee depicting Unown spelling out “Super Effective” and large black headphones hanging around her neck. Behind the struggling girls was a young man with incredibly short brown hair wearing a solid black shirt. He seemed to be ignoring the events in front of him and chose instead to focus on the pokéball which he was seemingly spinning on his finger. In the background was another young man with slightly curly brown hair wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants. He remained seated at the table Yuki assumed they were all sitting at prior to the photo. His expression was that of mild concern having apparently been interrupted from the rather thick book he was reading by the commotion in the foreground.
Yuki paused for a moment. Realizing that you don’t get to see a picture of your boss as a teenager every day, she pulled her phone from her pocket and snapped a quick picture of the photograph. Placing the picture frame on the desk, she picked back up the leather book. She began to untie the straps binding the book shut. She was so engrossed by the contents of the box that the outside world had become completely silent to her… and that’s when it happened.
“Howdy!” rang an incredibly loud voice from behind Yuki.
Everyone has a fight or flight response when they are scared. For sixteen years, Yuki’s instinct was to always scream and either run away or fall to the ground accepting her fate. Whether it was due to her more frequent interactions with people, or her trauma from experiencing Haunter on her first day in the lab is unknown, however for the first time in her life, Yuki’s fight instinct took over. Grasping the book firmly she turned on the spot with all her might and slammed the book hard into whatever had made that noise. With a loud smack and a thud, Yuki began scanning the room frantically for what she had struck and found a young man with blond hair wearing a red flannel shirt, dirty blue jeans, and black suspenders on the ground rubbing the side of his face.
“Dang!” Shouted the young man in a thick country accent as he stared at Yuki. “You pack one heck of a wallop there! Ain’t been smacked that hard in a real long time.”
As Yuki noticed the side of the young man’s face glowing ever more red from the impact, horror flashed across her face. “OH! I’m I’m I’m … I’m so so sorry. Oh my gosh I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry” she squeaked out as she curled in towards herself and buried her reddening face into the book out of pure embarrassment. “I’m… I’m… sorry.”
“Woah there, no need gettin’ all in a tizzy. When yer trainin’ up Tauros you get used to a rough time. S’pose that’s what I get fer walkin’ up unannounced. Ma always said I got a mouth bigger’n a Exploud. Sorry fer scarin’ ya, Miss.”
The young man stood up from the floor and took a step towards Yuki. He was at least a foot taller than her with broad shoulders and fairly thick arms. Yuki, slightly trembling, managed to peer her eyes over the top of the book at the tall boy who had his hand extended towards her.
“Don’t think I ever seen you ‘round these parts. Name’s Chuck… well truth told my name’s Charles but ever’body calls me Chuck. Who’re you?”
“Y.. Yuki” she said as slowly lowered the book and inched her shaking arm towards him.
Chuck, seeing her reluctant hand, leaned forward, grasped it firmly despite her flinching at his touch, and shook her hand. “Ya don’t hafta flinch at a handshake ya know. I don’t bite or nothin’. I just come by to drop off the milk and some other goods fer my cousin. My family runs Tranquil Acres Farms and I get to deliver sometimes, ‘specially if I get to come here. So, you one of them scientist types? I don’t really understand a lot of that stuff myself, but I sure do appreciate folks who can. You workin’ on a special project or somethin’?”
“Oh N… No. I c… clean and…”
Chuck cheerfully interrupted. “You the one been cleanin’ this place up? Lord knows it sure needed it. This place looked worse than a trailer park after a hurricane.” He began to look around the office and whistled loudly. “Yer doin’ a good job. Who’d have thought someone this purty could clean this well and knock me flat on my butt?”
Yuki’s face flashed deeper red than it had already been. No random stranger had ever said anything like that to her before. She stood there in a state of mild panic and confusion. How was she supposed to react to that? The complement seemed to be genuine but also wasn’t coming with an overtly flirtatious meaning. He had just sort of said it then kept looking around the room at her handiwork. Thankfully her salvation from this awkward situation came from an unlikely source, Professor Hemlock.
“Is this hoodlum causing you trouble, Yuki?” Hemlock asked as he stood in the doorway of the office. He was as lazily dressed as ever as today’s outfit included bright orange shorts and a shirt which consisted entirely of a Lillipup face. Despite the tackiness of his attire, it didn’t distract her from the Professor’s hands. Yuki noticed he was has holding his left hand which now had a large thick bandage across the palm.
“Cuz! How ya been?” Chuck shouted as he turned and approached the Professor. “Brought yer food boxes. I left it sittin’ near the door in that fo-yay or whatever it’s called.”
“Y… You’re cousins with the Professor?” Yuki asked as she looked from Chuck to Hemlock and back.
“Yeah, second cousins to be exact” Hemlock answered instead. “Our grandparents were siblings. My grandfather was the oldest of eight and his last sibling was Chuck’s grandmother, which explains the age difference between the two of us. I’ve been getting goods from their farm for…” Hemlock suddenly stopped and looked at Yuki with a combination of surprise and contemplation. His eyes scanned from the picture frame, to the memories box on the desk, to the leather book in Yuki’s hands. He stared for a moment before finishing his sentence. “...years.”
“Yeah we’ve been feedin’ this big ole galoot ever since he built us some milkin’ machines, crop harvesters, and a bunch of other stuff we’ve had problems with over the years.” Chuck said as he placed his thumbs under his suspender fronts. “That reminds me, I got another idea fer ya, cuz.” Hemlock didn’t answer as he kept staring at the memories box. Chuck continued. “Uh… I said I got another idea. Earth to Hemlock! HEY!”
Hemlock jumped at his cousin’s loudness. “WHAT?” he shouted instinctively before clearing his throat. “Sorry, I got distracted. What were you saying?”
“Well I got to thinkin’ on another food idea and..”
“This isn’t another raw chicken sushi thing is it?”
Chuck’s smile turned into instant irritation. “You Rapidash’s backside! You said you’s never gonna bring that up again. Ya make one mistake tryin’ to be all fancy and some folks just keep bringin’ it up!”
“Well I’m sorry, but you can’t exactly control when traumatic and potentially deadly memories decide to show back up again.”
“Well do yer best and forget about it this time okay? This ain’t got nothin’ to do with that thank ya very much. Ya know how when yer wantin’ a biscuit but gotta get out both the jelly and the butter outta the fridge? Why not just grab a tub of a fruit butter? It’s butter with fruit flavorin’ and maybe jam mixed in or somethin’. This way you can just spread one thing ‘cross yer biscuit and be done with it.”
“That has to be the…” Hemlock paused as the wheels began spinning in his head. “That’s actually not the worst idea i’ve heard all week. Write down some ideas on that before you leave. I’ll get one of my guys to see if that’s even a possibility without making a giant mess and I’ll let you know.”
“I’ll get right on that then!” Chuck excitedly replied as he turned towards Yuki. “Well then Miss Yuki, I best be gettin’ back. If yer ever out at Tranquil Acres, give me a holler! Just don’t bring anythin’ to hit me with again. Nice meetin’ ya!”
“Y… you too” Yuki replied
Hemlock turned his attention back to Yuki as he waved his cousin goodbye. His expression hardened instantly. “So, you’ve been assaulting members of my family with stuff, have you?”
Yuki’s heart began to pound once more. “N N N N No I… I just. He…I mean I accidentally…”
The Professor busted laughing as he couldn’t keep the act up any longer. “Calm down. No need to have a heart attack over there. I know my cousin well and I’m sure if you hit him, whether accidental or on purpose, he did something to deserve it. Anyway, I was wanting to have a word with you. Why don’t we have lunch together with the Corsola?”
“I… okay then.” Yuki barely managed to speak.
“Great!” Hemlock said as he clasped his hands together. “I’ll see you there in about ten minutes. Bring that box you were looking through with you.”
Yuki slumped into the office chair as she watched Hemlock walk out the office door. Why was the Professor wanting to meet with her all of a sudden? Was she doing something wrong and not knowing it? Was she going to get in trouble for opening that box of memories? Her heart continued to race. She had no idea what could be up his sleeve as he always acted erratically. A few minutes passed before she accepted her fate and slowly walked to the kitchen. She retrieved her bagged lunch from the fridge where Heracross was putting away the recent food delivery. Returning to the office, she packed everything back into the box and made her way to Aquatics Room B. The closer she approached the more her trembling became noticeable.
The door opened as Yuki approached; she could see that Professor Hemlock was already there soaking his injured hand in the pool. He was completely surrounded by the Corsola. Some were happily dancing around him while others were looking concerned towards his soaking hand. Upon seeing Yuki, he lifted his red, blistered hand from the cooling water and motioned her over. As he applied more ointment to his burn, Yuki placed the box and food on the floor, took off her socks and shoes, and placed her bare feet into the water.
“D.. Did that burn mark I saw in the lab cause that?” Yuki asked as she looked at his hand.
“Yeah, It looks a lot worse than it feels… mostly. Something went wrong with the current amplifier. It was only supposed to go so high, but it just skyrocketed and burned the whole thing up in a flash. The counter top and my hand got the brunt of the problem, but thankfully Rotom wasn’t hurt.”
“R...Rotom? You’re working on something for another Rotom?”
“Yeah and honestly that’s half the reason I asked you to lunch. We’re approaching completion of this and it would be easier to have all my Rotoms out in the main lab. I know you aren’t exactly comfortable when you’re around ghosts. I thought for sure you’d never accept this job after your run-in with Haunter that day. Since there will be so many ghosts around, I’d like you to take the rest of the day off... paid of course. While I do love pranks that scare or freak people out momentarily, there’s a difference in that and inciting pure terror. I don’t want to do that to you, so you can leave when we’re done here.”
“O...oh” she said as her anxiety melted away. “Th… thank you. I don’t know why but ghosts have always just been that one thing that t… terrifies me. So… thank you.” She smiled as she took a bite of her sandwich. The Professor was always so enigmatic and bizarre to her that it was comforting to see this caring side of his personality. Seeing this level of thoughtfulness was probably the most reassuring thing she had experienced in quite some time. “Wh… what are you doing with the Rotom?”
“Oh I’m just trying out some prototype thing for Silvia. You may have caught the tail end of it on your first day tour around here. Speaking of Silvia, scoot that box over here, please.”
Yuki gently slid the box over to the Professor who opened it and began examining everything inside. He mostly remained quiet with the occasional chuckle. She watched as his expression slightly changed with every item, though mostly it conveyed what Yuki could only describe as a happy sadness. She began petting a nearby Corsola, when Hemlock leaned over with the picture frame in his hand.
“You probably figured out that the big guy here is me, and that this girl with the incredibly distinct purple hair is Silvia. Am I correct?”
“Y… yeah pretty much. Why is… she wearing a school uniform when the others aren’t?”
“That is an excellent question. She thought it made her look cool back then or something. I didn’t get it, I always thought it made her look like jailbait, but as Jojo keeps reminding me, ‘how can someone who works in their pajamas be qualified to comment on the fashion of others’ or something like that. She grew out of it eventually, but I guess she sort of had to.”
Yuki couldn’t help but giggle slightly. “So, you’ve known Silvia for awhile?”
“Longer than I’m sure she cares to admit. The five of us were the best of friends at one point. The girl with red hair is Elven. She’s a professor at the University now; we still talk from time to time. This guy who looks as though he’s engrossed in his own thing is Alastor. He was the most passionate and eager pokémon trainer I’ve ever met. Haven’t talked to him since he went missing a few years back. I would worry about him, but he’s always been so resourceful that I’m sure he’s doing just fine. Last is Snicket… that dude was always so engrossed in his books that he barely came up for air. He was especially concerned with the nature of spirituality and the bonds between trainer and pokémon. He liked to drone on about things that went over my head, but Silvia seemed to grasp the concepts he was throwing. If i’m being totally honest it was a strange group to have been friends in the first place. We went to school together, hung out all the time, and we even went on a bit of a world tour together. That’s what the leather book is; the chronicles of our journeys as well as some of the stories we’d heard of legendaries from different regions outside Dracorra. Those were good times until…” He paused and looked down at the picture in silence. “Well, some things are best left unsaid. I’m sure Silvia wouldn’t appreciate you hearing this story from my perspective. It’s probably best if you heard it from a more logic based standpoint than emotional… I’ve caused her enough trouble as it is. Perhaps you can meet her one of these days and she can tell you more about it.”
Yuki continued to look at her employer. She felt the sadness in his eyes as he looked down at the photo. It was as if the joker facade had been lifted briefly and she got to see something real from the man. Perhaps this sadness was why the box and room were so abandoned.
“Anyway” Hemlock said as he took a deep breath and shoved the photo back into the box. “I wanted to ask you something else. I’ve seen the way you are with the pokémon around here. You’re an absolute natural. You care for these pokémon as your own with such love and kindness. It makes me wonder, do you even have your own pokémon?”
“N… no I don’t.” she said quietly as she turned her attention towards the deep blue of the pool.
“You’re what, sixteen? Shouldn’t you have dropped by here six years ago like everyone else does and gotten a pokémon? I know that would have been under my predecessor, Professor Briar, but I can’t believe he wouldn’t have allowed such a natural as you to start your pokémon journey. Did something happen back then?”
“I…” Yuki hesitated and refused to look towards the Professor. “I don’t really remember. It’s all just kind of fuzzy when I think about it.”
In fact, Yuki did remember. Her mind flashed to her ten-year-old self standing there at the pathway to Professor Briar’s lab. Though her parents were behind her at the gate shouting their support for their daughter’s pokémon adventure, she felt utterly alone. She had never really made friends in the first place due to her timid nature, and her parents couldn’t come explore the world with her. She would have to be alone for the first time. With every step towards Briar’s lab she felt the weight of this potential decision. She would be leaving the only place she’d ever known. If she became a trainer, she would be leaving behind the only support she had with only a phone to connect her back to that love. She would be forced to fight battles she didn’t want to fight. As the anxiety and despair crept up on little Yuki, the decision to continue was too much to bear. Young Yuki, with tears down her face ran back to her parents and hugged them. “I don’t want to go! Please don’t make me leave you! Please don’t push me away!” she wailed as she held tight to her parents.
Yuki suddenly realized that she had been staring into the pool for quite some time in silence as she relived her memory. She quickly looked around the room and shoved the last bit of sandwich in her mouth hoping that Hemlock hadn’t noticed. Swallowing the sandwich, she looked over at Hemlock who, in fact, had noticed. His expression clearly conveyed that he knew she was lying but he didn’t press the issue.
“Hmm” he said as he turned his attention to a Corsola. “Well if you can’t remember then you can’t remember. It’s just a real shame you don’t have a pokémon of your own. I know they would be well loved.” He stood up and looked at the clock. “Oh gosh, is that the time? Well when you get done with the rest of your lunch, then you can head on home. I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for everything you’ve done around here, Yuki.”
Hemlock left the room in rather a hurry before Yuki could even respond. She finished off her drink and shared part of her potato chips with the Corsola before saying goodbye to them. With her cleaning supplies back in their proper place, Yuki left for home feeling quite strange about her day. Hemlock, however, watched from the office window as she walked down the pathway and out into the town.
“Haunter! Haunter!” Hemlock shouted as he walked into the hallway and through the lab. “Come on, where are you when I need you?”
Haunter floated down from the ceiling towards his trainer with a confused but happy look upon his face.
“Hello there old friend. I have a job for you.”
