Music: 「Spice」by SCANDAL

That old man didn't judge me, Mindy thought as she entered Galaxy Mall, tearing her gaze away from the blue and yellow exterior to the galactic wallpaper skilfully spray-painted by the teens of Eterna. The thought occupied her more than the various items on display, her eyes flitting across the storefronts, her figure lingering, sometimes with a finger on her lower lip, sometimes with a lock of hair twirled round the same finger, sometimes with her hands on her breasts, and in this multitude of expressions she conveyed how successful of a mannequin she would've been had she the opportunity to be one, how glaring the public eye was she must do something to remind herself she's human, however much she was objectified and criticised, and if being human meant turning into a happiness machine, a reaction machine, she would do it for the sake of keeping up appearances.

Mesprit begged to differ. Capitalism made humans happiness machines, more psychology trick than natural instinct. Happiness was something you can only see when you want to, zie opined, it's always there.

Azelf snorted at Mindy's farce, deeming it as an expression of low self-esteem and lack of willpower instead. Zie conveyed that she was giving into the pressure, not going against it.

Uxie simply said the more the mind avoided what it abhorred and beat around the bush, the more the bush grew to capture it.

Mindy scowled and typed, will you stop getting into my head?

They sighed in unison.

Mesprit glanced across the stores and pointed to one leaning against a beige wall. "There's a café! Let's eat!"

Secret Room Café seemed average on the outside, and however much the menu was embellished with fancy words for food and drinks with marked-up prices, Mindy couldn't shake off the feeling that they were better off eating street food that, while oily, was most likely wallet-friendly and beyond tasty. She was right. The girl serving her gave her a bunch of leftovers and stale bread that was a far cry from what she expected a stack of soufflés to look like. Of course, royal treatment was given to the Lake Guardians, with hot coffees that bore their images in foam and cream on the surface. Mindy had scalding hot water instead.

"Ohmi! She's scraping the bread crumbs!" The girl giggled as she streamed Mindy's meal online. While most of the comments were the typical spiteful ones, a few stood out in their coarse expression of envy and polite idolatry of the legendary Pokémon. "She can't talk! Sasha was right! Thank you for the comments! Like! Share! Keep 'em coming and slay!"

"Should we do something about her?" Mesprit nudged Mindy and placed a piece of cheesecake on her plate before glancing over zir shoulder at the girl posing and replying to comments.

Mindy shook her head and rested her back against the wall. They had chosen a table in the corner to avoid such unnecessary attention, but alas, there was no one as infamous as Mindy and no Pokémon as famous as those of myths and legends.

Not that they could do anything in particular to begin with, not when Mindy gradually sunk into the wall and the Trio, for the love of their lives, could not hold her back and fell in together with her. Their surroundings went from passive-aggressive quaintness to dull vacuum. All sounds were lost to the mechanical hum of electrical appliances: a lawn mower, a rotary fan, a microwave oven, a washing machine and a refrigerator, all lined up in a straight row, each separated by a pristine white tile. A table identical to the one they sat at in the café stuck to the wall, the stack of papers on it yellowing and damp.

where are we

Uxie scoffed at zir surroundings. Upon noticing that the appliances took turns to bear eyes, zie knew at once what they were up against.

"This is Rotom's Room. I thought Charon's Rotom had gone back to the Old Chateau after the Galactic fiasco, but it appeared to make this place home, even sealed it from the rest of the world."

"We should get a better sensing of everything," chimed Azelf.

"On to it!" Mesprit scanned the papers and absorbed whatever zie could of the information. Charon discovered Rotom when he found his toy robot and Rotom slinked out of a mower, and decided to keep its existence a secret to figure out just what it's capable of.

"Rotom is a Pokémon that is simply sensational. The fact that it can turn invisible is simply the beginning. What makes Rotom unique is its ability to enter and operate machinery!" Charon wrote these in his old notebook. That much was frightening. Mindy cursed her luck. The only Pokémon she had by her side were Psychic-types who were weaker than Ghost-types, and she lost her voice. How was she to go against Rotom and think of winning? It could be here, there, anywhere right now, given that it was invisible. Maybe the lawn mower would run her over or the microwave would burn the place or the washing machine would drown her with an onslaught of water or the refrigerator freeze her or the rotary fan blowing away every ounce of security and esteem she possessed.

Her phone vibrated incessantly. She didn't know who would be calling her at all when she barely had any contacts left. Flipping her phone over, she shrieked at the pair of sky blue eyes staring back at her. Words formed onscreen letter by letter, bold and crimson:

YOU WILL PAY

Sweat pooled on Mindy's forehead.

i don't know you

Frenetic clacks surfaced from her keyboard as she typed. When she met Gaspar in the Old Chateau, she certainly didn't cross paths with a Rotom. Unless the Pokémon was harbouring a grudge against her for trading Gaspar away? Or could it be...

"You're finally being honest with yourself about those... Haunter Tongues," Uxie cut in upon reading her mind.

Of course the tongues had to come from somewhere! Then it must be the Old Chateau, and who wouldn't be more than furious at anyone involved in their friends' sufferings?

Mindy froze. In a split second, she was back in the blizzard, alone, blending in like the Kunekune she deemed herself to be, becoming invisible, becoming cold.

The Rotom wouldn't let her go and took over her phone with a gleeful smile. Static crackled as her notepad gave way to a video of trainers casually slicing the tongues of Haunters, the purple ooze sizzling on silver blades, dripping onto the once-red carpet of the Old Chateau. Since Kōki had once calmed the ghosts of the mansion's original human inhabitants down and helped them move on, the Ghost-type Pokémon were left defenceless against the variety of Pokémon that barged into their homes, commandeered by the worst of humans who had little to no heart in the right places. Her trembling hands couldn't force her phone to slip out of her grasp; her eyes were compelled to see the violence through, however much her heart thrashed about like the red Gyarados in the Lake of Rage, except the confusion wasn't part of the aftermath, but dished out to her concurrently. For greed, for mindless revenge, the innocent were hurt. Some trainers scouted for Haunter to get their own Gengar, but the hours they were at the Old Chateau hardly coincided with these inhumane people so nothing had been done to curb the illegal activities. The innocent would only learn to suffer and accept it as their destiny.

I SAW EVERYTHING

why didn't you do anything

The Rotom closed its eyes.

Mesprit extended a quivering hand and touched it. Static consumed her being. Mindy's eyes widened.

"It tried to scare them away, but as a result, the place was wrecked. Fearing greater damage, it ran away," Mesprit translated Rotom's thoughts to the rest.

"Fantina from Hearthome City tried to step in after hearing word of it from her Ghost-types, but these trainers crushed her with their Pokémon and threatened to burn her gym down, and wreck the whole of Hearthome, if she went to the police or sought further help," added Uxie.

COMPENSATE THEIR BLOOD WITH YOURS

The Rotom zinged out of Mindy's phone and made its rounds through the appliances. Thanks to the electric terrain, Mindy was rooted to the floor. If she so much as moved an inch, the static would hurt her and a burning sensation would engulf her. Each appliance lit up with an eerie glow (yellow, red, blue, green, purple, yellow...) which came and went, and they shifted themselves closer towards her, encircling her, giving her no way out, her companions no way in. Mindy yelped, the fine line of a mouth making her choke.

Everything happened in a flash; each of Rotom's form cut each of her finger with their specialised moves of fire, water, grass, ice and air; blood spilled all over the room; Mindy suppressed the urge to scream; the Lake Trio watched on, their Psychic dealing minimal damage to Rotom; Rotom's blood coalescing with Mindy's. A deafening whir entrapped them. The room was at once stuffy and icy and wet and dry.

Then nothing.

Pause. Silence. Nothing.

Mindy gazed at her finger cuts and winced. Her phone shook and she checked it.

BLOOD CONTRACT
「MINDY WILL HEREBY PROTECT
THE OLD CHATEAU AND STOP
THE TRAINERS COMMITTING AND
PROFITING OFF EVIL」

"That's..." Azelf gasped.

Whimpering, Mindy nodded at the Rotom when it materialised again as its usual self.

MY FRIENDS WILL RETURN.

"We can't promise you that," Uxie intervened. "You know the dead cannot come back."

The Rotom gave them a mischievous smile and vanished. Mindy's phone returned to normal. The Lake Trio glanced at each other and sighed. A door materialised on a wall. It led to the back alley of Galaxy Mall and disappeared once Mindy closed it behind her.

The afternoon sun beat down on them as they waded to Eterna Forest in silence. The wooden bridge was a spot many people and Pokémon would gather at to take pictures using their reflections in the clear waters, and to be frank, that's what Mesprit yearned for at the moment. Mayhaps it would being some cheer into their situation.

"If you endure this, it's a different form of redemption," Azelf reassured her.

"We didn't pay for the food," Uxie mumbled.

it sucked

Mindy fixed her gaze on the floor. The transition from baked earth to an overgrown undergrowth was as gradual as her steps.

"You can't even speak. Are you sure about this? You can't get your point across in this state, can you? Will those monsters even listen?" Mesprit rambled on and on, too attuned to zir worrisome heart.

then we battle but i cant depend on you

Mindy frowned and turned on her heel.

"Where are you going?" Azelf snapped at her. "You need to see through this. You can't run away!"

Uxie giggled. "She isn't running away."

I'm going to buy some Poké Balls. Mindy sighed, her chest heaving, her reflections caught in the water resigned on her left, hopeful on her right. She didn't understand her circumstances just yet. She didn't know if where she stood was indeed the middle ground. But it was a bridge and all bridges led somewhere.

The singular thought dominating Mindy's head then switched to one reflective of all her emotions, willpower and knowledge. She would have to write her narrative hereon out.

A narrative that began with Time to catch a Pokémon.