Music: 「ETERNA FOREST: Remastered」by Zame

"And why the fuck should I serve you?"

Mindy kept mum. If it wasn't for her mutism, she would have argued for her rights. Not that the woman in the blue apron would listen. Mindy felt so much in a span of hours. Those who were truly mute must feel worse.

"Word has it you don't pay for your food. How do I know you won't kill me and dash away with whatever supplies you need?" The woman sidestepped for a couple to enter the Poké Mart, and when Mindy inched forward, the woman blocked her path. "I don't care if you're broke. I don't care if you have some legendary Pokémon with you. You will treat me like a human, not like the spoiled brat that you are."

"And this is humane treatment?" Uxie rose to the call. "You humans indulge in discrimination, even if you know it's far from humane."

The woman shut up.

"C-Coming through!" Mesprit zapped into the mart and paid for three Poke Balls using Mindy's money.

"We just teleported the cash to the cafe," Azelf told the woman. "You'll know if it's true when 'word has it'."

The audacity to doubt and judge the benevolence of a Legendary Pokémon! Mesprit delivered the thought to Mindy. There are reasons why we're celebrated!

Mindy harrumphed and gestured for them to leave. She had better things to do than to teach a gullible, judgemental woman a lesson in rumour.

"I hope whatever Pokémon you catch with those Poké Balls will kill you!" The woman undid her apron and tossed it at Mindy. "You won't have your way, Mindy! You won't see it coming!"

Of course. I'd do anything to know when and how I die.

Mindy paused and turned around to confront her. She wished dearly that people like the woman could experience being mute for a change. Imagine yielding to the suppression of speech which they delighted in. Mindy could already see the woman resorting to violence to speak her mind, maybe even betray her conscience if it had yet to be flung aside like the job she was oh-so-proud of. It would be fun. The woman would go viral, would probably replace Mindy.

Brandishing a caustic smile, Mindy fantasised all the ways irksome people who were easily slighted and annoyed at every little thing life had to offer them would suffer doubly so if they took up the mantle of a Trader. A treasure trove of comedy, no doubt. If she had to go through this much humiliation in two Trades, she'd reckon the same would happen for them. The only difference perhaps would lie in the fact that they wouldn't learn as much as she did. Her suffering far outweighed their petty complaints about daily life.

Mindy was still swimming in her thoughts when she stepped back into Eterna Forest, immediately thrust into a world of darkness only pierced through by the most tenacious tentacles of light. A rustle in any patch of grass warrantied attention, even if it was the wind coming through or a harmless Buneary running to a fallen berry to lay claim before its peers. A chilly air enveloped the quartet. Thankfully, they had only to linger at the ends of the maze that was Eterna Forest or they would be lost.

From where they stood, the Old Chateau was prominent with its roof that seemed to collapse at any time, golden with ash and dust collecting on the eaves. Its grey walls hoarded cobwebs. The house had two attics with purple light flowing out from the shut windows, and with the red door, the Old Chateau screamed of murder and wayward justice, a public announcement that it was a place where all things went haywire.

Mindy averted her gaze with a shudder. Now wasn't the time to be distracted or skip steps. She must first get herself a trusty sidekick that wasn't a Buneary or Budew or Bidoof. She wouldn't want a Gastly or Misdreavus either.

"Something's amiss," opined Uxie. "The nocturnal Pokémon are roaming around at daytime."

A caw shot overhead, with a beat of wings sending a rain of dusky feathers onto the wet earth.

"A Murkrow," Mesprit whimpered. "Ugh."

Mindy picked up a feather and rubbed her fingers against it, the grime causing her to regret immediately. A coppery scent flowed from the feather and she wondered if Murkrow were really capable of murder.

"Don't think about it," Azelf mumbled.

Humans rejoiced in doing the opposite of what they were told, and Mindy was no exception. She declared through text that she was going to get herself that killer Murkrow. Anything with malice enough to cut even apparitions would fit the bill. So why not this Murkrow?

"Bad omens," Uxie told her. "You don't need more bad luck, Mindy. A Misdreavus would do well, or a Normal-type. They're resistant to Ghosts."

you know dark is stronger.

The Lake Trio sighed in unison. They felt equal ounces of fear and worry. A chance encounter with a Murkrow only ever meant that misfortune was smiling upon them. Mindy's irksome insistence and priceless obstinacy, the way she gritted her teeth and clutched a Poké Ball to the point where a tiny crack wriggled onto its surface, reminded them of the law of attraction in the universe. Misfortune begets misfortune. What gravitated towards them in a matter of seconds was the devil itself, a bejewelled ring held between its beak.

A Mega Ring, whose appearance was far more unnatural than whatever had already come their way. Mega Evolution was frowned upon in Sinnoh. Mindy glimpsed the purple-grey sheen of a Gengarite encrusted in the silver ring and cursed her luck. It only reminded her of her guilt.

we're chasing it

The crunch of dead leaves underfoot rang through the forest, accompanied by a series of pants and shouts. The Murkrow zigzagged about the labyrinth of trees, one eye locked onto the quartet, steadily gliding in and out of sight with the aid of the trees. Things would've been easier if the Lake Guardians could use their psychic powers on the Pokémon. Mesprit registered this as a symptom of ill luck.

"Should we go for another Pokémon instead?" Mesprit suggested.

Mindy shook her head vehemently and leapt over a fallen log, the Wurmple resting on it squealing at the sight of Mindy's undies.

"That Wurmple will be scarred for life," Azelf said as they ducked a few swinging vines.

Uxie shot psychic daggers at the tree barks they passed by, the bleeding resin becoming their marks.

we're not lost, are we?

"No," uttered Uxie. "But the Murkrow is too fast."

The Pokémon was now reduced to an inky blot, like the tail of an arrow aimed at a dying sun.

Bug Catchers sidestepped as the quartet burst through a bunch of rowans. Mindy didn't care that they were screaming expletives at her. Her mind was focused on the Murkrow with the Gengarite. She wanted to discover for herself the source of all that grime. She figured the Murkrow was still a wild one, given its cocky navigation about Eterna Forest, its devil-may-care attitude not once slipping up.

At last they came to a stop at a boulder coated with green clumps resting in a patch of sunlight, perhaps the only area of the forest where such warmth and brightness was possible. The Murkrow raised its head at them as it stood on the Moss Rock, the ruby glint of its eye conveying its bloodthirst. While the Moss Rock was an attraction, the area was deadly quiet at the moment. Mindy supposed it was because of the Murkrow whose untamed kleptomania spelt trouble if any of the Pokémon were to offend it. A couple of hawk-eyed trainers, picnickers and Bug Catchers did loiter around, however, brandishing their phones and cameras at Mindy, as though the quartet and the Murkrow were to be the subject of their impromptu photography club or a reference image for the Internet's next trending meme or painting. The tabloids would definitely have a field day with this - a better one, should Mindy fail to capture the Murkrow, for imagine an outcast cooped up in her home for so long she's forgotten the basic functions of a Trainer! What eye-catching headlines that would be! The stock market would become bearish in an instant!

Mindy swung the Poké Ball in her hand. It's just a Murkrow, and it's stationary, so why should she have any reason to fail? All that's left was to calculate the perfect trajectory, wish for a critical capture, and she would be over with this. Yet the Pokémon kept turning its head around like a corkscrew.

"Just throw it," Azelf hissed.

"Mindy can't throw a ball!" A picnicker chuckled, sending a ripple of laughter across the growing crowd. "Arms weak, knees heavy, and Mindy! Your mum spaghetti!"

More laughter. More distraction.

Mindy swallowed her snide remarks and covered them up with a smirk before tossing the Poké Ball. The Murkrow made eye contact with the sphere and cawed indifferently.

"You did it!" Mesprit cried as the Murkrow was absorbed into the Poké Ball. The Poké Ball shook once and stopped.

"No way! Isn't she cursed?" Someone called out and the Poké Ball exploded, its red and white smithereens stabbing the undergrowth. The Murkrow broke out of the smoke with its chest puffed up, eyes locked on Mindy with a burning hatred.

"She definitely is!" Someone else added.

"Just try again," Azelf encouraged, "you know not everything can be accomplished on the first attempt."

Crouching down, Mindy lifted the rim of her dress and levelled her gaze with the Murkrow. Her nostrils flared up as she reached for her second Poké Ball and tossed it at the Pokémon too arrogant to move, one leg up in the air to mock her.

The sphere wheezed through the air and hit the Murkrow on the beak. Mindy closed her eyes tightly. Maybe her vision was cursed too, other than her mouth, and anything she saw wouldn't come to fruition the way she'd liked. The Poké Ball shook twice now. The Murkrow beat its wings against the insides of the sphere, a series of faint bonks that evolved into wind-razing flaps as it broke free of its prison.

Mindy pried her eyes open to the Murkrow dangling the Mega Ring in her face, an open taunt she felt compelled to respond by seizing the Darkness Pokémon by the feet and throwing it towards the sun, so its wings would melt in the sweltering heat beyond the shadowy confines of Eterna Forest, and the darkness would be eroded by the light, rendering it the most vulnerable soul in existence, giving her an easy final chance. But the Murkrow wouldn't let her, instead slipping the Mega Ring into her ring finger and pecking her thumb to snap her out of her daze.

"Oh! She has one last Poké Ball!" A boy pointed at the glistening sphere in her other hand.

"I think she'll capture herself," said a girl to him.

The Lake Trio sighed at the cacophony. Even the native Pokémon were attracted to this will-she-won't-she scenario, maybe praying hard she wouldn't take away a part of the forest, even if this particular Murkrow did nothing worth their pity or protection.

One last chance, Mindy thought and stared at the cawing Pokémon perched on her middle finger, a slight pain chiselling at her nerves under the might of its claws. Her fingers caved in towards her palm slowly. The Murkrow descended along while its pride ascended to the skies above. Pride and darkness, pride and murder; the one who got away always had pride as their weapon.

What was a tragic Poké Ball to almighty pride? Besides, the Murkrow had Super Luck, something bereft in the foolish mortal beholding it.

Yet unlike the pride of Pyroar who descended upon their prey, the Murkrow's descent into Mindy's Poké Ball made its pride disappear with its hatred, turned it from dauntless predator to careless prey, and the Poké Ball swallowed every feather, every squawk and reduced its domineering figure into a palm-sized furball.

Pride came before the fall, sometimes alongside the fall. Thereafter, it's a matter of time before the pride was the one whose nerves were chiselled at and the pain of humiliation throbbed.

The pride, the confidence, the easy remarks of the spectacle suffered from the humiliation that held the Murkrow captive, humiliation that stayed when it saw the forest once more. Suddenly, Eterna Forest was no longer home, but a memory it didn't want to be in anymore. The wilderness was ripe with selfishness and strife with conflict. The naysayers had scattered, but the pain lingered. The Murkrow who believed in them came to know morose bitterness, the same bitterness that invaded Mindy when she was outcast.

At this point, Mindy didn't feel a hint of triumph. She caught her first Pokémon, a Pokémon who did not belong at the moment, just like her. She didn't need to carry a reminder of herself like this, but she asked for it. The realisation only dawned on her now.

What she called upon she must eventually answer to. And this was Darkness.

"Mindy," Uxie called her name as if she were driving and lost in her thoughts and drove into the next lane. "Sun's down."

And so was her drive, as she trudged to the Old Chateau soundlessly, the Murkrow reluctant on her shoulder.

"Just a warning, things might be gruesome in there if what the Rotom said was true," Azelf added, "but you will confront it."

Mindy exhaled and pushed the door open. In a matter of seconds, the Old Chateau swallowed them and they were in.

They were in the belly of the beast.