119 Sword of Darkness

I lay there awake in my new bed with the girls all snuggled around me, all with expressions of contentment on their faces after an intense session of rough fucking.

At first things had been slightly heated between us after May and I got back from the mountain kingdom, as they had seen her Livestream and knew that I had fought a Primeape. But shortly after dinner clothes had ended up going everywhere, and we then proceeded with performing the horizontal tango until Misty, May and Dawn passed out.

And while I would love to just fall asleep myself, I did not.

Instead I slowly crawled out of bed, so as not to wake them, and dressed lightly before making my way downstairs. There I found Joy, sprawled out on the couch and fast asleep herself as she and Chansey watched over my two eggs, which were currently wrapped up in a towel on my chair.

Seeing her made me shake my head wryly, since she was currently wearing a nightgown that had ridden up so much that her Togepi panties were completely visible. But apparently her Chansey sensed me standing there, as she opened her eyes to look at me quizzically.

"Shhh." I breathed out while putting my finger in front of my lips, indicating for her to keep quiet so Joy didn't wake up.

"..."

Without a peep, Chansey nodded in understanding before closing her eyes again to go back to sleep. I then proceeded to make my way out the front door into the night air.

The night was well lit under the light of a nearly full moon, illuminating the kunai that sat on the porch railing right outside the door. It matched the one I found earlier, which I knew to be a type of summons from Janine.

She was still trying to stay as low profile as possible, so Lucario and I were the only ones who knew she was tailing us, though Pidgeot did mention seeing something suspicious following us earlier. When I asked him about it though, it didn't sound like Janine...

Regardless, I looked at the way the kunai was laying, in which it was pointing towards a small copse of trees nestled at the foot of the mountain behind us. I picked it up to add it to the one I had found earlier, and started towards the trees while keeping my senses at full alert.

With the moon out there was enough light that I was able to avoid any missteps all the way to the trees, but when I reached the treeline darkness engulfed my surroundings.

Within the darkness I could feel Janine stalking me with all of the skill, intent, and determination of a deadly predator. And she wasn't alone either, as her Golbat drifted silently through the trees with nary a whisper, and her Ariados scurried between the trunks of the trees around me, no doubt spinning it's webs as it did so.

Despite their best efforts to remain hidden though, I could easily sense right where they were through their respective auras.

"Did you forget that you can't hide from me?" I called out to her, turning to look right at her position with my aura activated so she could see the amber glow in the darkness.

"Nope. I was just the distraction."

"!!!"

Right as she said that I felt something tug at my ankle, followed by the sound of something moving at high speed.

"Woah!" I exclaimed while stepping to the side in order to evade the wooden bolts that flew at me, only to feel something tighten around my ankle.

"!!!"

The next thing I knew I was being turned head over heels by what was probably a rope around my ankle, which dragged me up into the air before dangling me like a piece of choice meat.

"Rule number one, always be aware of your surroundings, and not just with your aura." Janine stated harshly without leaving the shadows.

"And rule number two..." I snapped back at her, pulling out one of kunai she'd left earlier as I did so. "Never give your opponent a weapon!"

As I stated that, I used the kunai to slice through whatever rope Janine had used as if it were butter. An agile flip later, and I was back on my feet on the forest floor just in time to intercept an attack from Janine herself this time.

*CLANG!*

The sound of metal striking metal rang out as I used her kunai to deflect the short dagger she just used to try and attack me with.

"Evening." I greeted her politely as I saw Janine face-to-face for the first time.

"Evening." She replied tensly, her frustration evident on her face from me blocking her attack with no discernable effort.

"So is this your way of asking me out on a date?" I asked her with a smirk.

"In your dreams." Janine growled back. Oh, if she only knew.

She then pushed back on her blade while jumping back to gain some distance from me, blending back into the shadows so that I'd lose sight of her.

However, along with sensing her aura, this time I channeled my aura into my eyes to heighten my vision so that I could see as well as during the day. The only problem with this was that my eyes were now lit up like a pair of beacons in the otherwise pitch black night.

And as if to prove my point, I sensed both Golbat and Ariados immediately move in for the attack on two different fronts.

Golbat swooped down onto me from above while gathering energy into it's wings for a Wing Attack, which made them glow in the darkness as well. Meanwhile Ariados was now scurrying across the ground at me as it prepared to deliver a vicious X-Scissor.

In a move that would've made Spider-man proud, I leapt up into the air while spinning my body sideways so that Ariados and Golbat both missed by going under and over me. And the second my feet hit the ground I slashed with the kunai to deflect the throwing star that Janine had sent my way.

*CLANG!*

A small flash illuminated the darkness from the metal striking and sparks flying, followed by several more as I deflected a literal barrage of throwing stars that came at me from every direction. After sending the last one flying into a nearby tree, I decided to give Janine a taste of her own medicine as I chucked both of my kunai at her with pinpoint accuracy.

Time seemed to slow as the two blades shot towards their target, seemingly honing in on her position like a couple of heat-seekers. But then, right as they were about to hit her, I saw Janine make a symbol with her hands while her aura surged, before she was replaced by a leaf that was pinned to a tree by the kunai.

"Substitution jutsu..." I uttered in awe, feeling like I had been sent into Naruto for a moment instead of pokemon.

"It's a technique mimicing the move Substitute, which allows a pokemon to trade places with an item around them to avoid an attack." Came Janine's voice from the opposite side of me, right before she rushed in for another attack.

"And that brings us to rule three, never throw away your weapon." She stated as I conjured a wall of aura to block her. She couldn't get through it with that attack, but I knew she was correct to an extent.

I had never trained with weapons, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me, but there was one fatal flaw that I had to admit when not having one. Now, instead of being able to deflect Janine's attacks with piece of metal, I had to either avoid them entirely or use my aura to defend myself, which will quickly drain my reserves.

My mind raced as Janine struck my aura barrier in rapid succession to break through it, aided by Golbat and Ariados as they returned to the fray. And while I was quickly repairing any damage they inflicted to my barrier, it was only draining my reserves even more.

My mind raced as I tried to figure out how to gain some distance or retaliate against the three of them, without using more of my aura and draining my reserves further. But the only thing I had that was even remotely close to a weapon was...

"!!!"

"That's it!" I exclaimed out loud, making Janine and her pokemon look up at me as I realized something. But rather than say what, I simply sent out a plea through my aura. Thankfully I had swapped her out with Blastoise shortly after we caught up with the others.

Through our connection I felt affirmation and urgency as she hurried to reach my side, which took no time at all since it was the middle of the night.

I stopped channeling aura into my barrier so that it began to flicker out of existence right as something seemingly shot out of the ground before me, allowing me to grab it by the hilt while the sash wrapped around my arm, and my other hand removed it's sheathe.

"I have THE POWEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

With a cry I held Honedge up into the air while channeling the power of Zapdos, creating a show of small arcs of lightning that lit up the forest around us.

Was it a stupid waste of my energy? Yes.

Was it worth it? Fuck yes.

I saw Janine's eyes widen as I lowered Honedge and twirled her in my hand experimentally.

"You good?" I asked the haunted sword, who hummed silently in affirmation.

The only problem was that I could feel her slowly draining my aura with each passing second, effectively feeding off of me. And if I ran out of aura, I had no doubt she would start draining my lifeforce instead.

The tradeoff however, aside from having an actual weapon in my hand, was that I could also feel more attuned to the darkness of the night around us. Plus, through our connection, Honedge and I could both feel what the other needed and wanted.

Exhibit A, I then proceeded to flick my wrist to send Honedge flying forward at Janie, which she continued doing even as the ninja used her Substitution Jutsu once again, so Honedge merely impaled a branch and pinned it to a tree. But with her sash still wrapped around my arm, all it took was another flick of my wrist before she came flying back to land in my hand perfectly.

"Well well well, how the turntables." I drawled with a smirk while turning to face Janine once more, who merely nodded silently to Golbat and Ariados.

The two pokemon backed off as Janine and I began to circle one another in a predatory manner, wating for the other to move first. Despite waiting for me, Janine was surprised when I suddenly stepped forward and swung Honedge in an arc, creating a blade of darkness that flew at her with deadly precision.

Instead of using Substitution Jutsu again, Janine nimbly leapt up into the air and flipped over the attack, which sliced into the tree behind her before cutting clean through it.

"Night Slash?!" She exclaimed after landing the flip, looking back in shock from how clean the cut on the tree was.

"Pretty neat, huh?" I asked her with a smirk while setting Honedge's blade on my shoulder, letting her rest there during the momentary lull in the spar.

"..."

For a moment Janine didn't say anything as she looked between the two of us and the tree, before finally saying, "Very well. We'll call it quits here for tonight."

I saw the tension leave her body as she said, before I allowed it to leave mine as well. I wanted to make sure this wasn't going to be a 'rule 4, never let your guard down' or something.

I then released my hold on Honedge, who similarly released my arm while I resheathed her.

"You did good." I praised the living sword, who hummed in appreciation.

"I wasn't expecting you to call your Honedge when I mentioned the weapon." Janine admitted as she watched us.

"Yeah, but she's the only weapon I have. I'll need to be careful with her though, cause while I hold her she drains my aura constantly. And if I run out of that, she'll drain my lifeforce instead." I explained to her with a frown.

"Swords have a gender?" Janine asked curiously, referring to how I called Honedge a 'she'.

"Of course! All swords are girls, just like all ships! Right Honedge?"

Again she hummed in affirmation, making Janine look at us weirdly before she shook her head in resignation.

"Let's do our sparring once every two nights." She said suddenly, drawing my attention back to her.

"Ok, that works for me." I replied, thinking also about the psychic training I was going to be doing with Sabrina. Just like last night we planned to do the training while I was asleep, so that it wouldn't disrupt my schedule at all, but not every night since it would become hard for me to truly rest if my mind was always so active.

With a nod of affirmation, Janine turned and made her way to what I could only presume was her own camp that was hidden a ways from our own. So, with Honedge floating beside me, the two of us also turned and returned to our 'camp'.

Instead of returning to the house though, I made my way to greehouse after hearing of something from Honedge.

Inside I could find the majority of our pokemon sleeping, while a few were active in the dead of the night. Tropius and Grotle for example were sleeping together in a patch of moonlight, while Delkatty and Glameow nimbly leapt between the branches of the trees throughout the greenhouse. Also sleeping near Tropius and Grotle was the young Kangaskhan that May had caught earlier, who wanted to explore the outside world like my Blastoise had when I first caught him.

I nodded towards the supposedly sleeping Lucario as Honedge led me further into the greenhouse, right to the base of the tree that Sceptile had claimed for himself. But, while he had been sent back to professor Oak's alongside Blastoise, someone else had moved into the tree. Or rather, UNDER it.

At the base of the tree was a freshly dug hole with quite the pile of dirt around it, which Honedge readily floated into without a second thought. I however had to take a breath before squeezing myself into the barely large enough burrow.

Thankfully the hole widened out after only a few feet of squirming into it, and it was tall enough that I only needed to crawl around on my hands and knees to move about. Plus there was enough space that I didn't need to worry about trampling those within, Cubone, Cranidos, and Tyrunt.

The trio were currently curled up together as they all slumbered, the latter two peacrfully, while Cubone tossed and turned with what was obviously a nightmare.

I readily crawled over to them before laying on my side, and reaching out to pull Cubone over so that he was curled up beside me where he could feel my warmth. I then channeled peaceful thoughts and feeling to him to pull him from his nightmare and help get a more peaceful sleep, which seemed to work as he began to settle down.

Soon his breathing became calmed as he entered a rhythm, and the negativity clouding him cleared up completely. I smiled down at him when I saw that, but then there was more movement within the burrow.

Cranidos slowly shuffled over so that he was curled up right where my head was, allowing me to use his body as a pillow. At the same time, Tyrunt crawled up onto my body so that he was laying right on top of me with his chin resting right under my shoulder.

I smirked at the two of them before giving one last look at Honedge, who was leaning up against the side of the burrow alongside Cubone's bone club.

We all then fell into a now peaceful sleep, as I allowed all of the exhaustion from my fights today to catch up with me.