Jaye
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So this was a short story (about 6 or 7 chapters) I was working on but have kinda neglected lately for other projects. I'm thinking of finishing it at some point, but thought it'd be a good idea to put up what I've written so far to get some feedback.
A brief summary of the story: set after the events of Pokemon XY, told from the perspective of the rival character as he attempts to rediscover his purpose as a trainer.
Calem had lost again.
He really shouldn’t have been surprised. Serena, his neighbour and appointed rival, had not only beaten him several times before, but had since defeated the Elite Four and the Champion. He couldn’t remember what drove him to even challenge her again – did he think that she would have grown complacent after attaining Champion status?
The sky above Kiloude City was clear obsidian and dotted with countless stars. The moon was full and impossibly large, almost reachable from the hill they were standing atop of. Serena stood in front of it, her pretty face slightly flushed from their recent battle and beaming at her success. Her shoulder length blonde hair was covered by a navy blue cap. Now wearing her large blue overcoat with gold embroidery, she looked the part as Kalos’ new Champion.
Then there was Calem, still in the same clothes from when he left his home many months ago, still with the same boring haircut.
“You’re really amazing, you know that?” he said.
Serena’s smile turned sheepish, and she scratched her cheek with her finger.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “If it weren’t for my Pokemon, I would have never gotten this far. And I always had you pushing me to get better.”
Calem tried to smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He had been the one to start their rivalry, solely with the intention of having her push him to get better, with the end result being him standing ion top. He hadn’t considered that the opposite would end up being true.
“It looks like I’ve done all I can now, though.”
Serena tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Calem leaned back against the railing surrounding the hill-top plaza. He looked up at a streetlamp glaring at him. It flicked momentarily, then continued to shine on him.
“The gap between us is too wide now,” he explained. “Hell, if I’m being honest, it’s been that way for a while. The moment you beat me for the Mega Ring you just… accelerated way beyond me and I could never hope to catch up.” He chuckled humorously and looked down at his wrist where his own Mega Ring resided. “Not that I’m saying that Mega Evolution is the difference between us. I might have thought that before, but that’s clearly not the case.”
Serena frowned. “I always found you a difficult opponent, though.” Calem raised his brow. “I mean it! Even today, I had to really give it my all to win.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Calem said. He had no doubt Serena was being sincere, but he just couldn’t accept her assessment of their battle. He may have forced her to use all six members of her tea, but he only managed to defeat two.
There was silence between them. The streetlamp continued to flicker on and off above Calem’s head.
“What will you do now?” Calem asked.
“I’ll be taking a short break,” Serena said. She looked up at the moon and the smile returned to her face. “The last month or so have been so crazy, what with the Team Flare incident, preparing for the Elite Four and the parade. Some downtime would be great.”
“You deserve it.”
“We deserve it,” Serena said, looking at him. “After that, I’ll be starting my new schedule. Events, seminars, interviews – things like that. What about you?”
Calem was silent. He had spent the past month training with the Mega Evolution Guru in an attempt to catch up to Serena. He hadn’t given much thought about what he’d do afterwards, whether he won or lost.
“I guess I’ll go home and put my feet up for a bit,” he said eventually. “After that… I don’t know, maybe I’ll go to another region or something.”
“Oh, that sounds great!” Serena chirped. “Just imagine – you could become the Champion of another region, and we could have exhibition matches.”
He gave an unsure smile. “That’s the dream, I guess.”
The street lamp flickered once more before the light extinguished.
Calem stayed in Kiloude City for the night before he parted with Serena and boarded the train headed back to Lumiose City. He stepped out of the station and into North Boulevard. The sky was overcast despite it being a warm, summer’s day, giving the air in the city a clammy feeling. Several of the people walking across the city’s many streets were visibly sweating, and a long line was forming in front of a gelato stand not far from the station. He walked over to the taxi bay and took a seat on a bench, intending to take a taxi to the Pokemon Centre on South Boulevard and then leave the city via Route 4. After that, he would head straight home.
As per usual in Lumiose City, he didn’t have to wait long for a taxi to pull up in front of him. Calem told the driver where he wanted to go and got into the back seat of the blue and white car. The car drove along in silence. Calem busied himself by looking out the window at the city’s traffic, idly wondering if it’ll take longer to get to his destination.
“If you don’t mind me saying, sir,” the driver, a portly man with silver hair and moustache, started, “but were you not one of the five awarded the Star of Kalos two weeks ago?”
Calem grimaced. Sycamore had honest intentions when he arranged a parade celebrating their efforts to take down Team Flare. Serena, as the newly crowned Champion, had been the undisputed star of the show, but that didn’t mean the rest of them escaped the spotlight. When he took to the city’s streets the following morning and was instantly recognised by several people, he grew even keener to isolate himself in a mountain somewhere for training.
“I was.”
“I thought so,” the driver said, voice high in admiration. “To be able meet heroes like you is one of the perks of this job.”
Calem stared at the back of the driver’s seat. “A hero?” he said. “I don’t know about that. It’s not like I did much, honestly.”
“Don’t sell yourself so short, my boy. Anyone who faced Team Flare that day was a hero.”
He remained silent and looked out of the car window again. They were stopped at a traffic light, surrounded on all sides by other vehicles. He felt sweat form on his brow and he wiped it with his sleeve. The taxi was stifling.
“Shall I turn the air conditioning up?” the driver asked, having spotted his movement in the mirror.
“Yes, please.”
The driver tapped a button on the car dashboard. The whir from the air vents increased and Calem immediately felt cooler.
“So I have to ask,” the driver started. Calem sighed quietly. “How well do you know the Champion, Serena? She had a lot of nice things to say about you in the interviews.”
There it is, he thought. Having people wanting to know more about him would have been flattering, but he knew he was far from the star of the show.
“She moved to my hometown a few months ago, we left on this big journey together, and were rivals for a bit. That’s all there is to it.”
“To beat Diantha at such a young age is incredible. That girl will be a huge success.”
“Of course she will.”
“But you’re not bad yourself, right? Maybe you could challenge her for the title.”
Calem gave a non-committal grunt. “Yeah, maybe.”
The light finally turned green and the taxi accelerated. They passed the Hotel Richissme, where Calem, Serena and the others had stayed the night before and after the parade, and eventually turned into South Boulevard. The trip went by mostly in silence, broken only by the driver asking questions about Serena that Calem answered patiently.
“Is there anything else happening in the city right now?” Calem asked, keen to steer the conversation away from Serena’s choice in fashion.
“Oh, not much, really. I had a passenger in here the other day who was concerned about children frequenting dark alleys, but I don’t believe it’s anything sinister.”
Finally, they arrived just outside the Pokemon Centre on South Boulevard. Calem thanked the driver and handed over the fee, then left the vehicle. He walked in the Pokemon Centre and immediately felt the chill of the air conditioning turned on at full blast. The centre was a little more populated than usual, and he suspected people were more keen to take advantage of the air conditioning than to use the centre’s services.
Calem spotted an open spot on the lounge sofa and took a seat. He wanted to use the centre’s phone services to call home and inform his parents he’d be home soon, but every booth was occupied. Beside him, two mature women, dressed in business suits, were talking animatedly about their work conditions. Calem ignored them, until the conversation turned.
“My boy went into one of those alleys,” one said while scrunching up her face.
The other looked aghast. “Not again.”
“I keep asking but he won’t tell me why he’s going down there.”
“Maybe it’s about time someone went and checked on what they’re doing.”
“But I want to trust him when he says there’s nothing going on…”
He stopped listening then and took a look at the cue for the phones. Seeing that the lines weren’t going to go down any time soon, he rose from the sofa. He figured he could just call his parents in Santalune City when he arrived.
Calem left the Pokemon Centre and walked down the path towards a crossing. There, he would cross over, and then head towards the Route 4 gateway. Along the way, he passed a narrow alley way. He looked down the narrow strip of path leading into a shadowed area, and wondered what kids could possibly be doing down there. Exploring, maybe. Grand cities such as Lumiose had no shortage of unexplored nooks and crannies that could be claimed as secret hideouts or something. Yet it was also possible that there was something more untoward and sinister going on; this was, after all, the city that Team Flare resided in under the noses of all its residents.
Maybe I should check around, just in case, he thought. And with that in mind, he turned down the alley.
It was a tight squeeze, with barely enough room to extend his arms either side of his head. As he progressed deeper, he caught the sound of young, high-pitched voices. He stopped and listened for a bit, but couldn’t quite make out their conversation. He went in further, until the path fed up into a much wider, rectangular cul-de-sac. Awaiting him there were four children huddled around something. Two he recognised as school children, a boy and girl in uniform shouldering backpacks. The other two were small girls with blonde hair, most likely twins.
The moment Calem took a step towards them, their heads snapped in his direction. Calem immediately froze, as if he had just been spotted by a horde of wild Pokemon.
“Um, hi?” he said lamely. “I’m not going to hurt you or anything—“
“It’s an adult!” one of the blonde girls cried.
“Adults aren’t allowed!” said the other.
The schoolgirl stepped in front of the blonde twins and pointed dramatically at Calem.
“You shouldn’t be here!” She turned to the boy, who was standing nervously to one side. “Come on Macon, say something as well!”
Macon stood to attention. “Huh? Oh, yeah, um… no grown-ups allowed. Yeah.”
The girls all sighed, gazing at Macon in disappointing as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. The schoolgirl looked to Calem again who, by this point, was more bemused than alarmed at the children’s aggressive behaviour.
“If you don’t leave peacefully we’ll make you leave.”
Calem smiled down at her. “You don’t need to threaten me. I’m not here to hurt you.”
She frowned. “Yeah, right, we’ve heard that one before!” She pulled a Pokeball from her skirt pocket. “Help me out here, Marcon.”
Marcon sighed and also took a Pokeball from his pocket. “Fine, if I have to.”
“I really don’t want to fight you,” he said, holding his hands up in a placating way. “I just need you to listen to me.”
“We’ll listen to you if you win,” the girl retorted.
Calem considered his options. He had only turned down the alley out of concern for the shadier elements of the city, but he had stumbled into one of those secret hideouts. Anything keeping him there now would just be his own curiosity, and he certainly wasn’t about to be battling kids to satisfy that.
“You know what? Forget it. I don’t care what you’re doing,” he said, and turned to leave.
Marcon gave a sigh of relief. “We won’t have to fight after all.”
The girl latched onto his shoulder. “Don’t let him leave!” she hissed down his ear. “He might tell on us to our parents…”
“I don’t even know who your parents are, kid.”
Calem could feel a headache coming on. Were kids always this suspicious? He decided he couldn’t be bothered to deal with them anymore and began walking away, ignoring the indignant cries from the girl to stop.
“Why did I even bother?” he grumbled.
He only got partway down the alley, however, until he felt something soft bump into his shins. He glanced down to see a pair of lilac, vacuous eyes staring back up at him. They belonged to a bipedal, feline Pokemon with pale grey fur. He instantly recognised it as an Espurr, a Pokemon he was very familiar with.
“Where did you come from?”
He knelt down to pet it on the head. The Espurr evaded his hand and darted into the cul-de-sac behind him.
“Mimi’s always been there,” a new voice said. “You just didn’t notice, mister.”
He looked up to see another girl. She was taller than the others, with thick, dark hair bunched together into two messy ponytails and blue eyes. Her face was grubby, like it hadn’t been washed in days. She wore a white blouse with a thinning, patched up pale blue sweater, a stained brown skirt and a ripped pair of tights. Yet despite her ragged appearance, the girl was smiling, and her eyes were clear and bright.
“I see,” Calem said. “Have you always been there, too?”
The girl tilted her head. “No, I just got here. What about you, mister? When did you get here?”
Before Calem could answer, the four children gathered around the newcomer and burst into conversation, each voicing their opinion about Calem’s presence at the same time. He grimaced as he caught words like “suspicious”, “sneaky” and “snitch”. The older girl raised her hands up and told them to calm down.
“It’s not nice to make accusations about someone you don’t know,” she said. “Why don’t we let him explain his side of the story?”
All eyes turned to him. Calem sighed. “Well, you see…”
He stood at the window and squinted through the binds at the busy avenue. His face was rough and unshaven, and his eyes red and puffy. In his mouth hung a lit cigarette, idly smoking away; a rare indulgence but one that felt entirely necessary after an all-nighter spent pouring over files and documents in his office, with nothing but his sleep-addled brain for company.
He had been in the city for only a few days, but he could already see why it was the number one tourist destination in the world. There was an abundance of things to do and places to see, and to be associated with the city’s style, if only for a short while, was an enticing prospect for anyone. Yet little did those people know that the web-like design of the city was also a trap.
He took a long drag of his cigarette and exhaled loudly. The larger and more complex a city became, the easier it was to hide away its criminal elements. It was common knowledge now that Team Flare, who but a month ago threatened all life in the region, operated from a café tucked away in an alley not for from Lumiose Tower. But before then, people walked past the very same café without suspecting a thing. It wasn’t a lack of vigilance on their part; they just had no reason to suspect anything was going on.
That was why people like him existed.
The same people would go on with their daily lives, thinking the problem was resolved. Previous experience told him otherwise. He had been sent to the city for the very purpose of tying up that inevitable loose end.
The sun emerged from behind the thick cloud cover and light filtered in through the binds. He turned away and stood next to his desk. Scattered all over the surface were pieces of paper and cardboard folders. In one corner was an empty mug where the scent of strong coffee lingered. Next to it was an ash tray. He placed his cigarette inside it and extinguished it, then looked at his watch.
12:30.
There was a meeting with an informant scheduled later that day. In the meantime, he would head out to patrol the city. Rumour had been rife about suspicious activity taking place in the city’s alleys. It may not have any connection to the other case he was working on, but his gut was telling him it was worth investigating.
And when you had a gut as hard boiled as his, it was worth paying attention to.
A brief summary of the story: set after the events of Pokemon XY, told from the perspective of the rival character as he attempts to rediscover his purpose as a trainer.
-----------------------------------------
Chapter One
Cul-de-Sac
~*~
Chapter One
Cul-de-Sac
~*~
Calem had lost again.
He really shouldn’t have been surprised. Serena, his neighbour and appointed rival, had not only beaten him several times before, but had since defeated the Elite Four and the Champion. He couldn’t remember what drove him to even challenge her again – did he think that she would have grown complacent after attaining Champion status?
The sky above Kiloude City was clear obsidian and dotted with countless stars. The moon was full and impossibly large, almost reachable from the hill they were standing atop of. Serena stood in front of it, her pretty face slightly flushed from their recent battle and beaming at her success. Her shoulder length blonde hair was covered by a navy blue cap. Now wearing her large blue overcoat with gold embroidery, she looked the part as Kalos’ new Champion.
Then there was Calem, still in the same clothes from when he left his home many months ago, still with the same boring haircut.
“You’re really amazing, you know that?” he said.
Serena’s smile turned sheepish, and she scratched her cheek with her finger.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “If it weren’t for my Pokemon, I would have never gotten this far. And I always had you pushing me to get better.”
Calem tried to smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He had been the one to start their rivalry, solely with the intention of having her push him to get better, with the end result being him standing ion top. He hadn’t considered that the opposite would end up being true.
“It looks like I’ve done all I can now, though.”
Serena tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Calem leaned back against the railing surrounding the hill-top plaza. He looked up at a streetlamp glaring at him. It flicked momentarily, then continued to shine on him.
“The gap between us is too wide now,” he explained. “Hell, if I’m being honest, it’s been that way for a while. The moment you beat me for the Mega Ring you just… accelerated way beyond me and I could never hope to catch up.” He chuckled humorously and looked down at his wrist where his own Mega Ring resided. “Not that I’m saying that Mega Evolution is the difference between us. I might have thought that before, but that’s clearly not the case.”
Serena frowned. “I always found you a difficult opponent, though.” Calem raised his brow. “I mean it! Even today, I had to really give it my all to win.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Calem said. He had no doubt Serena was being sincere, but he just couldn’t accept her assessment of their battle. He may have forced her to use all six members of her tea, but he only managed to defeat two.
There was silence between them. The streetlamp continued to flicker on and off above Calem’s head.
“What will you do now?” Calem asked.
“I’ll be taking a short break,” Serena said. She looked up at the moon and the smile returned to her face. “The last month or so have been so crazy, what with the Team Flare incident, preparing for the Elite Four and the parade. Some downtime would be great.”
“You deserve it.”
“We deserve it,” Serena said, looking at him. “After that, I’ll be starting my new schedule. Events, seminars, interviews – things like that. What about you?”
Calem was silent. He had spent the past month training with the Mega Evolution Guru in an attempt to catch up to Serena. He hadn’t given much thought about what he’d do afterwards, whether he won or lost.
“I guess I’ll go home and put my feet up for a bit,” he said eventually. “After that… I don’t know, maybe I’ll go to another region or something.”
“Oh, that sounds great!” Serena chirped. “Just imagine – you could become the Champion of another region, and we could have exhibition matches.”
He gave an unsure smile. “That’s the dream, I guess.”
The street lamp flickered once more before the light extinguished.
~*~
Calem stayed in Kiloude City for the night before he parted with Serena and boarded the train headed back to Lumiose City. He stepped out of the station and into North Boulevard. The sky was overcast despite it being a warm, summer’s day, giving the air in the city a clammy feeling. Several of the people walking across the city’s many streets were visibly sweating, and a long line was forming in front of a gelato stand not far from the station. He walked over to the taxi bay and took a seat on a bench, intending to take a taxi to the Pokemon Centre on South Boulevard and then leave the city via Route 4. After that, he would head straight home.
As per usual in Lumiose City, he didn’t have to wait long for a taxi to pull up in front of him. Calem told the driver where he wanted to go and got into the back seat of the blue and white car. The car drove along in silence. Calem busied himself by looking out the window at the city’s traffic, idly wondering if it’ll take longer to get to his destination.
“If you don’t mind me saying, sir,” the driver, a portly man with silver hair and moustache, started, “but were you not one of the five awarded the Star of Kalos two weeks ago?”
Calem grimaced. Sycamore had honest intentions when he arranged a parade celebrating their efforts to take down Team Flare. Serena, as the newly crowned Champion, had been the undisputed star of the show, but that didn’t mean the rest of them escaped the spotlight. When he took to the city’s streets the following morning and was instantly recognised by several people, he grew even keener to isolate himself in a mountain somewhere for training.
“I was.”
“I thought so,” the driver said, voice high in admiration. “To be able meet heroes like you is one of the perks of this job.”
Calem stared at the back of the driver’s seat. “A hero?” he said. “I don’t know about that. It’s not like I did much, honestly.”
“Don’t sell yourself so short, my boy. Anyone who faced Team Flare that day was a hero.”
He remained silent and looked out of the car window again. They were stopped at a traffic light, surrounded on all sides by other vehicles. He felt sweat form on his brow and he wiped it with his sleeve. The taxi was stifling.
“Shall I turn the air conditioning up?” the driver asked, having spotted his movement in the mirror.
“Yes, please.”
The driver tapped a button on the car dashboard. The whir from the air vents increased and Calem immediately felt cooler.
“So I have to ask,” the driver started. Calem sighed quietly. “How well do you know the Champion, Serena? She had a lot of nice things to say about you in the interviews.”
There it is, he thought. Having people wanting to know more about him would have been flattering, but he knew he was far from the star of the show.
“She moved to my hometown a few months ago, we left on this big journey together, and were rivals for a bit. That’s all there is to it.”
“To beat Diantha at such a young age is incredible. That girl will be a huge success.”
“Of course she will.”
“But you’re not bad yourself, right? Maybe you could challenge her for the title.”
Calem gave a non-committal grunt. “Yeah, maybe.”
The light finally turned green and the taxi accelerated. They passed the Hotel Richissme, where Calem, Serena and the others had stayed the night before and after the parade, and eventually turned into South Boulevard. The trip went by mostly in silence, broken only by the driver asking questions about Serena that Calem answered patiently.
“Is there anything else happening in the city right now?” Calem asked, keen to steer the conversation away from Serena’s choice in fashion.
“Oh, not much, really. I had a passenger in here the other day who was concerned about children frequenting dark alleys, but I don’t believe it’s anything sinister.”
Finally, they arrived just outside the Pokemon Centre on South Boulevard. Calem thanked the driver and handed over the fee, then left the vehicle. He walked in the Pokemon Centre and immediately felt the chill of the air conditioning turned on at full blast. The centre was a little more populated than usual, and he suspected people were more keen to take advantage of the air conditioning than to use the centre’s services.
Calem spotted an open spot on the lounge sofa and took a seat. He wanted to use the centre’s phone services to call home and inform his parents he’d be home soon, but every booth was occupied. Beside him, two mature women, dressed in business suits, were talking animatedly about their work conditions. Calem ignored them, until the conversation turned.
“My boy went into one of those alleys,” one said while scrunching up her face.
The other looked aghast. “Not again.”
“I keep asking but he won’t tell me why he’s going down there.”
“Maybe it’s about time someone went and checked on what they’re doing.”
“But I want to trust him when he says there’s nothing going on…”
He stopped listening then and took a look at the cue for the phones. Seeing that the lines weren’t going to go down any time soon, he rose from the sofa. He figured he could just call his parents in Santalune City when he arrived.
Calem left the Pokemon Centre and walked down the path towards a crossing. There, he would cross over, and then head towards the Route 4 gateway. Along the way, he passed a narrow alley way. He looked down the narrow strip of path leading into a shadowed area, and wondered what kids could possibly be doing down there. Exploring, maybe. Grand cities such as Lumiose had no shortage of unexplored nooks and crannies that could be claimed as secret hideouts or something. Yet it was also possible that there was something more untoward and sinister going on; this was, after all, the city that Team Flare resided in under the noses of all its residents.
Maybe I should check around, just in case, he thought. And with that in mind, he turned down the alley.
It was a tight squeeze, with barely enough room to extend his arms either side of his head. As he progressed deeper, he caught the sound of young, high-pitched voices. He stopped and listened for a bit, but couldn’t quite make out their conversation. He went in further, until the path fed up into a much wider, rectangular cul-de-sac. Awaiting him there were four children huddled around something. Two he recognised as school children, a boy and girl in uniform shouldering backpacks. The other two were small girls with blonde hair, most likely twins.
The moment Calem took a step towards them, their heads snapped in his direction. Calem immediately froze, as if he had just been spotted by a horde of wild Pokemon.
“Um, hi?” he said lamely. “I’m not going to hurt you or anything—“
“It’s an adult!” one of the blonde girls cried.
“Adults aren’t allowed!” said the other.
The schoolgirl stepped in front of the blonde twins and pointed dramatically at Calem.
“You shouldn’t be here!” She turned to the boy, who was standing nervously to one side. “Come on Macon, say something as well!”
Macon stood to attention. “Huh? Oh, yeah, um… no grown-ups allowed. Yeah.”
The girls all sighed, gazing at Macon in disappointing as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. The schoolgirl looked to Calem again who, by this point, was more bemused than alarmed at the children’s aggressive behaviour.
“If you don’t leave peacefully we’ll make you leave.”
Calem smiled down at her. “You don’t need to threaten me. I’m not here to hurt you.”
She frowned. “Yeah, right, we’ve heard that one before!” She pulled a Pokeball from her skirt pocket. “Help me out here, Marcon.”
Marcon sighed and also took a Pokeball from his pocket. “Fine, if I have to.”
“I really don’t want to fight you,” he said, holding his hands up in a placating way. “I just need you to listen to me.”
“We’ll listen to you if you win,” the girl retorted.
Calem considered his options. He had only turned down the alley out of concern for the shadier elements of the city, but he had stumbled into one of those secret hideouts. Anything keeping him there now would just be his own curiosity, and he certainly wasn’t about to be battling kids to satisfy that.
“You know what? Forget it. I don’t care what you’re doing,” he said, and turned to leave.
Marcon gave a sigh of relief. “We won’t have to fight after all.”
The girl latched onto his shoulder. “Don’t let him leave!” she hissed down his ear. “He might tell on us to our parents…”
“I don’t even know who your parents are, kid.”
Calem could feel a headache coming on. Were kids always this suspicious? He decided he couldn’t be bothered to deal with them anymore and began walking away, ignoring the indignant cries from the girl to stop.
“Why did I even bother?” he grumbled.
He only got partway down the alley, however, until he felt something soft bump into his shins. He glanced down to see a pair of lilac, vacuous eyes staring back up at him. They belonged to a bipedal, feline Pokemon with pale grey fur. He instantly recognised it as an Espurr, a Pokemon he was very familiar with.
“Where did you come from?”
He knelt down to pet it on the head. The Espurr evaded his hand and darted into the cul-de-sac behind him.
“Mimi’s always been there,” a new voice said. “You just didn’t notice, mister.”
He looked up to see another girl. She was taller than the others, with thick, dark hair bunched together into two messy ponytails and blue eyes. Her face was grubby, like it hadn’t been washed in days. She wore a white blouse with a thinning, patched up pale blue sweater, a stained brown skirt and a ripped pair of tights. Yet despite her ragged appearance, the girl was smiling, and her eyes were clear and bright.
“I see,” Calem said. “Have you always been there, too?”
The girl tilted her head. “No, I just got here. What about you, mister? When did you get here?”
Before Calem could answer, the four children gathered around the newcomer and burst into conversation, each voicing their opinion about Calem’s presence at the same time. He grimaced as he caught words like “suspicious”, “sneaky” and “snitch”. The older girl raised her hands up and told them to calm down.
“It’s not nice to make accusations about someone you don’t know,” she said. “Why don’t we let him explain his side of the story?”
All eyes turned to him. Calem sighed. “Well, you see…”
~*~
He stood at the window and squinted through the binds at the busy avenue. His face was rough and unshaven, and his eyes red and puffy. In his mouth hung a lit cigarette, idly smoking away; a rare indulgence but one that felt entirely necessary after an all-nighter spent pouring over files and documents in his office, with nothing but his sleep-addled brain for company.
He had been in the city for only a few days, but he could already see why it was the number one tourist destination in the world. There was an abundance of things to do and places to see, and to be associated with the city’s style, if only for a short while, was an enticing prospect for anyone. Yet little did those people know that the web-like design of the city was also a trap.
He took a long drag of his cigarette and exhaled loudly. The larger and more complex a city became, the easier it was to hide away its criminal elements. It was common knowledge now that Team Flare, who but a month ago threatened all life in the region, operated from a café tucked away in an alley not for from Lumiose Tower. But before then, people walked past the very same café without suspecting a thing. It wasn’t a lack of vigilance on their part; they just had no reason to suspect anything was going on.
That was why people like him existed.
The same people would go on with their daily lives, thinking the problem was resolved. Previous experience told him otherwise. He had been sent to the city for the very purpose of tying up that inevitable loose end.
The sun emerged from behind the thick cloud cover and light filtered in through the binds. He turned away and stood next to his desk. Scattered all over the surface were pieces of paper and cardboard folders. In one corner was an empty mug where the scent of strong coffee lingered. Next to it was an ash tray. He placed his cigarette inside it and extinguished it, then looked at his watch.
12:30.
There was a meeting with an informant scheduled later that day. In the meantime, he would head out to patrol the city. Rumour had been rife about suspicious activity taking place in the city’s alleys. It may not have any connection to the other case he was working on, but his gut was telling him it was worth investigating.
And when you had a gut as hard boiled as his, it was worth paying attention to.
