It was odd how much ground you could cover in a couple of weeks, Mai mused as they finally reached the first of the 'Rend Sites' as Jamie referred to them. She hadn't thought that, on foot, they would get as far as they had.

Then again she'd let Jamie set the pace, and while the other Trainer was being good about how fast she went and how difficult a route she took, at the end of the day she'd had years more experience at traversing rough terrain than Mai, and as such she tended to set a gruelling pace.

Each day was getting a little easier for Mai as she adjusted to the pace. After the chaos of Battle City, and Marik's assault on her mind during the Shadow Game she had needed time to put herself back together. Finding out that Jamie (a Pokémon trainer who had been dropped on her friend Yugi Mutou's doorstep by the Lord of Space and Alternate Dimensions, a Pokémon called Palkia) was planning to take a journey to find others like her who might have been displaced in the same manner had been the perfect opportunity. The fact that it was also likely to involve much therapeutic beating up of bad guys was just icing – Palkia was under the control of Team Galactic, who were after Palkia's rival Dialga, Lord of Time.

Dialga, which Jamie was carrying with her.

Mai glanced at her travelling companion as the younger, yet more experienced Trainer scanned the circular valley below. Jamie was trying to see if she could spot anything from this height, and Mai couldn't help but wonder what was going through the girl's head.

When she'd first been introduced to 'Jamelia Francis of Littleroot Town, Aspiring Champion of the Sinnoh League' it had been at the start of Battle City and the small, slightly built girl with icy blue hair and huge sapphire eyes wouldn't have been given a second glance had she not known Yugi rather well and arrived on the back of a huge, red, dragon like creature known as a Charizard. That and the other Pokémon the girl carried had certainly caught Mai's attention - not that Jamie was carrying her League team with her now.

The Aspiring Champion had arrived in Mai's world with her League squad on her, which consisted of a Glaceon, a Charizard, a Gyarados, a Raichu, a Mightyena and a Torterra, however when she'd left Domino she'd had to leave most of her team behind to protect the Day Care Centre, which had been built by Kaiba Corp in order to look after any Pokémon that got sent through the Rends from the Team Galactic members that seemed to pop up all over the city at about the same time that Jamie had first arrived.

Not that all of them were in the Day Care for the time being. Iblis, Jamie's Charizard currently lived with Joey Wheeler, since he was the only other person that the huge Fire/Flying type wouldn't throw a temper tantrum at (and Mai wondered how he'd managed to get that sort of respect from the dragonic Pokémon), and Aisu, the Glaceon that had apparently saved Jamie's life once, had come with them, acting as Jamie's protector, just as Gale, the Staravia that Mai had chosen after fighting alongside it, acted as hers.

Of course if the reports of 'flaming horse spirits' was correct, Mai had a feeling that the amount of Pokémon in Jamie's team was about to double, since Jamie was convinced that those same spirits were in fact a group of, hopefully wild, Ponyta and Rapidash who would make a good addition to the team as they ran at incredible speeds and would make covering the land much quicker.

"Mai, look." The delight in Jamie's tone was obvious and as Mai glanced in the direction the other girl was pointing, she felt her jaw drop. Having never seen a herd of Ponyta and Rapidash before, she hadn't really known what to expect and watching a group of the creature race past, their manes and tails blazing away, was an astonishing sight. "There are Pokémon here. I knew it! And one's a shiny!"

Mai tore her eyes away from the sight of the red flamed herd of Ponyta and Rapidash racing across the plains below, a blue flamed one, probably quite young considering that it was being kept in the middle of the group with a couple of other Ponyta its size, standing out among them, to look at her travelling companion properly. Just last night Jamie had been feeling down because she had yet to hear of any other Trainer who wasn't with Team Galactic or one of the ones that she'd personally helped gain their Pokémon and here she was, excitable and bouncier than Mai had ever seen her.

"So what do we do?" Mai asked, knowing that Jamie's official orders from her 'superiors' at Kaiba Corp, who were funding this trip, was for them to hunt out the Rends, and see if there was anyone or anything around that required assistance and report back to the company, but not entirely convinced that Kaiba wasn't angling to acquire some of the incredibly advanced technology that the Pokémon world appeared to have.

Jamie was already moving, heading for the edge of the cliff in order to find a way down, and, after a moment to roll her eyes, Mai followed, wondering if the fifteen year old she was following remembered her own warnings about startling a wild Pokémon. There was, after all, a reason that Jamie had insisted that Mai got herself a Pokémon if she was going to travel with her.

Before Mai was down safely, Jamie was already approaching the herd, who were watching her warily, pulling a couple of berries out of her pack, trying to entice a couple forward without scaring them. Mai could imagine that the herd had had enough of that in being sent here in the first place.

The blue flamed Ponyta attempted to approach but the bigger horses, the ones that looked more like fiery unicorns, the ones Jamie called Rapidash, ushered the younger one away, while the biggest of the horses bellowed something that sounded kind of like a challenge and galloped away, the herd in tow.

Mai reached her friend's side, watching the blue flamed Ponyta leave wistfully, as Jamie let out a soft snort. "Well that went better than I hoped."

"It did?" Mai asked, surprised, since, as far as she could tell, it hadn't exactly gone to plan.

"Uh huh." Jamie nodded, eyes flickering in the direction the herd had gone for a moment before returning to Mai, "No Flamethrowers. That's always a good start."

Mai just snorted. "We staying or going?" She asked, having discussed both options last night and having agreed that it would depend on what happened when they arrived at the Rend point as to what their plans were for the next couple of days as there was a town just a few hours' walk from here and they had three days worth of supplies left.

Jamie frowned as she scanned the area. She wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand she was quite willing to camp here for a couple of days before moving on, but on the other she knew that Mai wasn't used to the whole living-in-a-tent thing and was much happier on the days when they managed to get a hotel room or stay at a B&B.

"How about we stop for lunch," Jamie suggested, trying to buy more time to decide, though she wanted to stay and try to catch the blue flamed Ponyta, "And then we can..."

"Hey! You down there!"

Hand automatically going to Aisu's Pokeball after an incident last week were a group of guys had tried to jump them, being two women travelling on their own, Jamie turned to look at who was calling them and almost melted in visible relief, when it turned out to be a brown haired teenager, who looked to be around Joey's age, who had an, to Mai's eyes anyway, odd looking cat like Pokémon with him.

"Hey!" Jamie waved up to the Trainer, grinning at the sight of a Delcatty, "Come on down, it's perfectly safe!"

The teen scrambled down the cliff face, his Delcatty picking its way down a bit more carefully, and approached them warily, as if he wasn't sure what to make of them.

"Jamie Francis, of Littleroot Town." Jamie introduced herself immediately, surprising Mai by leaving off both her full name and the 'Aspiring Champion' bit that, a couple of weeks ago, she had been so proud of, offering her hand and putting the other Trainer at ease, "It's nice to finally see another Trainer."

"Jax Daniels, of Cerulean City." The teen replied shaking Jamie's hand, "And this is Murr." He indicated the Prim Pokémon, who wound its way around Mai's legs, "Same to you, I was beginning to think I was the only one sent here." He glanced at Mai, curiously before looking back at Jamie and asking, "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Mai Valentine." The Duellist turned Trainer informed him, "I'm from this world, but this lunatic has got me training Pokémon."

Jax chuckled, nodding in understanding before turning to Jamie, "I have to apologise, but I'm not challenging anyone right now, so if I could get the same courtesy..."

"Of course." Jamie nodded, "I'm only carrying one Pokémon with me at the moment anyway."

"Really?" Jax looked surprised, wondering if she'd leant the other one to Mai.

"Yeah, there's a Day Care Centre set up in a city about a two week walk in that direction," Jamie indicated the direction they'd come from, "Called Domino. I had to leave most of my squad there." She glanced at Mai, "Do you mind if we set up camp here and stayed for a couple of days?"

It took the blonde a moment to run through a mental list of everything they had in their packs, to try and work out if they had enough supplies to last another couple of days. Water wasn't an issue with an ice type Pokémon around, they just had Aisu use Ice Beam and melted the resulting ice for water and they'd stocked up on food just a day or two ago, enough to last a week and it was, supposedly, only a day's walk to the next town.

"I don't see why not." Mai shrugged, not really wanting to camp but aware that she had volunteered for this when she'd agreed to go with Jamie in the first place. "We need to be moving Thursday at the latest though."

Jamie quickly totalled it up, that would give them three days to check there was no one else around and nothing else was wrong in the area. "Sounds good to me." The icy blue haired Trainer nodded, smiling even as she shook herself free from her backpack. "Hungry, Jax?"

Jax shook his head, but his stomach grumbled, telling the lie. "Sorry." He apologised, "I don't have any money so I've been living off the last of my travelling rations and I ran out some time yesterday. If you don't mind..."

"I don't..." Jamie trailed off and looked at Mai, suddenly realising that she'd invited someone to dinner without asking her friend and travelling companion.

Of course Mai felt a bit backed into a corner. On the one hand she didn't really like the idea of sharing a meal with a complete stranger even if he was another Pokémon Trainer and as such much more trustworthy than some random stranger from her world, on the other if she didn't let him eat with them, he wouldn't be able to have a proper meal for a very long time and Jamie would probably be pissed at her.

"No, it's fine. You'll have to give us a chance to set up camp though."

"You need a hand?"

LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN

Nanoha Miko adjusted her gillet, feeling uncomfortable. It was bad enough moving to the New World under Commander Mercury, but at least the blue-haired Galactic had been somewhat reliable and, in the end, a good person. Now she didn't even have that safety-net. There was no way the Team's shadowy allies at Paradias would accept two additional Galactic 'liaisons' – the reposting had been a death sentence for Mercury, and both of them had known it. Mercury – Rio – had gone into hiding under the protection of Kaiba Corp, while Miko had taken her Orichalcos stone and gone to Dartz.

Travelling overland, living off what she and her remaining Pokémon could find it had taken her almost two weeks to reach Paradias headquarters. She'd left almost everyone at the Daycare back in Domino City, taking only Kithila and Fuujin with her to the airport to see Rio off and catch her own, separate plane.

Not that her decision had been accepted by all of her friends – Demise had joined her at boarding, dropping his pokeball into her hands and sealing himself as she crossed the tarmac. It had been far too late to do anything about it by then, so she'd accepted his company with a sigh and a smile. It wasn't until she'd landed and switched her Pokegear's phone back on that she'd been able to pick up any of the irate voicemails from Mokuba Kaiba's office, complaining about her 'damn insect' cutting up one of his Day Care workers' arms when the man had tried to prevent him escaping.

She was here now, however. The black Paradias building loomed over her. Taking a breath, she stepped through the doors into a surprisingly corporate lobby. She lifted Rio's green pendant out of her shirt, letting it hang in plain view as she walked up to the reception. One of the two secretaries manning the desk glanced up at her, then did a double-take at the pendant, before smiling.

"First time, dear?" She asked, and Miko nodded mutely. "Don't worry, everything's going to be just fine. I'll see if Mr. Dartz is available." She pressed a button on her console and spoke into her headset, listening to the response before smiling at the somewhat wild-looking girl before her. "I'm afraid he's in a meeting at the moment, but if you take the elevator behind me to the fifteenth floor, then go down the corridor to the end, there's a room where you can freshen up a little while you wait."

"Ano... thank you." Miko replied, conscious of how much her accent stuck out here – at least in Japan it had been somewhat similar to the local one. Here, she was speaking an entirely different language and it showed. She supposed she was lucky that Galactic had seen fit to teach Mercury's team both English and Cantonese, but her lack of fluency still made her feel self-conscious.

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be ok now." The woman told her, slightly patronisingly, before waving her on. Miko swallowed, running her fingers nervously over the stone about her neck, before stepping into the lift and pressed the button for the fifteenth floor. It would be good to have a wash, at least, after two weeks in the field.

To her surprise, however, the 'prep room' she'd been told about was, in fact, the changing room for the employee's gymnasium and swimming pool on the same floor – including fully enclosed shower cubicles. Hanging up her jacket, she went into one of the stalls. Piling her clothes on a little bench, she hesitated before putting the orichalcos pendant on top of the pile, next to her trainer belt. She kept the necklace containing Fuujin around her neck, however.

She was just rinsing out her hair when she heard a rattling sound coming from the pile of clothes. Frowning, she wrapped herself in a towel and moved back over to check on them – one of her dusk balls was vibrating.

"Nincada, come on out." She ordered, opening the ball with a deft touch. The root-feeding bug she'd found wandering, confused and displaced as she crossed the Peninsula ranges materialised with a relieved sigh. Nincada curled up, starting to glow softly and the trainer realised what was happening. "Oh, wow..." She murmured with a smile then frowned. "But why now..?"

Her answer came as the green orichalcos symbol formed on Nincada's forehead, green lines spreading out across the bug Pokémon's carapace, which started to split open down the back.

"The stone set it off..?" She wondered, frowning slightly. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

With a heave, Nincada tore its way free through the back of its previous body, leaving the husk on the floor.

"Ninjask..." It murmured, identifying itself, scanning the area for a moment before coming to alight on Miko's shoulder. She smiled at the small creature, reaching up to stroke its head gently.

"Well, you're pretty." She murmured. "I guess we'll have to wait and see if the stone's hurt you..."

"Ninjask." The Pokémon shook his head, and she blinked before directing her gaze to the shed skin. The room seemed to darken, as if all light were being drained away. The shed skin was glowing softly.

"Shed..." A dry, whispery voice echoed. "Shedinja..." It continued, and the empty husk rose, eyes glowing green and the orichalcos symbol glowing upon its forehead. After a moment, the light returned to the room and the glowing symbol faded until it was a black tattoo upon the ghostly Pokémon's brow. The Shedinja floated forward, and Miko held up a hand for it to land upon. Rather than taking the opportunity, however, it floated up to rub affectionately against her cheek.

"Well, hello." She smiled. "I didn't expect to meet you today, either. Welcome to the team, Djinn. You too, Sora." She turned her smile upon the Ninjask, before convincing them to find another perch so that she could get dressed for her meeting with Dartz.

LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN

Listening to Jamie and Jax interact over lunch, left Mai feeling a little like a third wheel. As the pair of them discussed how they'd gotten there and bonded over bad travelling experiences the Duellist - who hadn't long started training Pokémon - wasn't sure what to say.

It wasn't something Jamie was doing deliberately. In fact if she'd known that she was making Mai feel that way she would have made more of an effort to include her friend in the conversation. As it was, she was so pleased to have someone from her world that she could have an open and honest conversation with, without having to worry about someone seeing them that she didn't think about it.

"I thought I saw an odd coloured Ponyta in the herd," Jax commented as the conversation slowly wound down, "If you don't mind, I might stick around and try to catch it."

That got a reaction from Mai. When they had sent Jax to get some water so they could start cooking, Mai had mentioned to Jamie that she preferred the look of the blue flamed Ponyta to the look of the red flamed ones and Jamie had promised her that she'd help her catch it. "I don't know…"

"I kind of promised Mai I'd help her catch it." Jamie shook her head, "So I don't mind you sticking around but…"

"Race you to it." Jax grinned at Mai, challenging her.

Mai scowled at him. Jamie had warned her about the competitive nature of the Pokémon Trainers, in fact she'd outright admitted that if Mai hadn't wanted the blue Ponyta she would have caught it, not that getting it away from the herd would be easy.

"Hey, hey, down guys." Jamie chuckled, getting between them, "How about we come to an agreement? If we," She indicated herself and Mai, "Can't catch it by Wednesday, the day before we break camp, you can have a shot, is that ok? We were here first after all."

Mai thought about it. That gave them two days to catch it.

Jax shook his head. "I have no food."

"That would be a problem anywhere you go." Mai commented.

"I know," Jax sighed, "But..."

"The Day Care Centre in Domino City welcomes all Trainers from our world." Jamie grinned at him, "I was working for them for months. If you don't mind tagging along with is to the next city, I'll buy you some food and hook you up with some maps. If that's ok?" She asked her travelling companion who nodded.

"Thank you." Jax looked surprised.

"Hey, us Trainers have to look out for each other. We're a rare breed after all." Jamie chuckled. "I can pay for enough supplies to last till you hit Domino, but it will all be dried stuff."

Jax frowned. Jamie knew what was going through his mind. Other then Pokémon Centres, which were league sponsored, she didn't like taking charity from people she didn't know. "Thank you." Jax said finally, "I'll pay you back if I can get some work at the Centre."

Jamie just nodded, giving the other Trainer a smile before it died slightly and she looked between Jax and Mai. "We still haven't sorted out what we're doing about that blue Ponyta."

"Well after that offer I can't exactly try to steal it out from under you guys." Jax snorted, slightly irritated about that.

Jamie, noting Jax's tone just gave him a brief smile. "I promise, if we haven't caught it by Wednesday afternoon, you can go for it."

Jax just gave her a short nod as Mai's phone went off. "Give me a sec." The blonde said, getting up and moving away from the camp.

"I guess I'll wash up then." Jamie chuckled, having already started heating water to wash the plates and cups with.

"Let me. You girls cooked." Jax interrupted, taking the plates from Jamie as Mai wandered off to phone the other Duellist turned Pokémon Trainer, needing something to do. She was gone five, ten minutes at most and when she came back she was highly amused.

"What's tickled you?" Jamie asked, sapphire blue eyes dancing, causing Mai to wonder what had cheered up her travelling companion, considering that she'd been in a foul mood yesterday.

"Apparently Yugi's got himself some friends." Mai explained, "You know about the ghosts?"

Jamie nodded. Of course she did. She'd spent at least ten minutes laughing as she imagined the look on Yami's face when he realised that his precious charge had been stolen away by ghost Pokémon only to find Yugi an hour later playing games with the same ghosts that had kidnapped him.

"Well apparently there was a Vulpix and Persian following him around too."

"There was?" Jamie asked, giving Mai a slightly confused look.

"Uh huh. He's adopted them now." Jamie nodded at Mai's words, "One question," The blonde continued, "What are…?" Mai trailed off when Jamie pulled out her Pokedex and hit a few buttons before handing it over. She examined the two pictures Jamie called up before snorting. "Figures Yugi would get a cat, surprised about the kitsune though."

"Kitsune?" Jamie asked as she gathered up her essentials. Since their camp was here and there was someone to guard it, she didn't need to take everything, and she figured that a decent amount of berries, a couple of Pokeballs and her Pokedex would be enough.

Mai explained about the Japanese legend of the kitsune as she gathered together the things that Jamie had suggested, then the pair of the moved away from the camp. Their Pokémon, who had eaten with them, followed.

Mai glanced up at her Staravia as she followed her friend across the valley floor, towards the group of Ponyta and Rapidash, trying to spot the horses before they spotted them.

It didn't work.

The lead herd's lead stallion had been aware of their movements the entire time and was keeping the group ahead of the girls, not that the Pokémon went very far. The valley was wide, and, though the sides of the enclosed valley were too steep to allow the horses to climb it, there was a hidden exit behind some rocks that led out onto a whole bunch of fields, which had a much saner angle on their slopes.

Mai and Jamie were just emerging into those field, chasing the herd, when a whinny came from the biggest of the Rapidash and flames erupted around them.

"Aisu! Blizzard!" The call came quickly as Jamie tugged the much taller blonde woman behind her. Mai, who had been caught off guard by the sudden burst of flame, watched in shock as the huge wave of ice that appeared at Aisu's call smothered the flames. "Stay back Mai." Jamie advised, though Mai thought she sounded odd, and, she could have been mistaken, but she thought Jamie's hair and eyes had changed colour.

The herd backed off as Aisu and Jamie stepped forward, the two biggest Rapidash in the group standing their ground as she approached.

"We don't want you." Jamie told the pair, her tone low and dangerous. "But I will fight you if you stay in our way."

One of the Rapidash spat a flame towards the floor, while the other whinnied at her, pawed the ground and leapt into the air.

Jamie rolled out of the way as the huge Pokémon came down, its Bounce attack narrowly missing as Gale, on Mai's orders, used its Wing Attack to knock the Rapidash out of its decent trajectory.

"You take one, I'll take the other." Jamie told the more inexperienced Trainer, "Aisu!"

The Glaceon hesitated just a moment, then she bellowed a challenge to the horses, loosing an Ice Beam that froze the ground and caused the pair of Rapidash to lose their footing, only then have to dodge a Fire Blast attack that shot past both Trainer and Pokémon to explode against the hillside.

Gale swept in, using it's Whirlwind attack to send the Rapidash sprawling as Mai moved to Jamie's side. "Jay?" The blonde asked, a little worried as another pair of Rapidash stepped forward and the rest of the herd surrounded the injured pair, supporting them.

The girl tossed her head, irritation obvious. "I don't really want to go through the entire herd to get to the one you want." She commented, well aware that all it would take was a couple of lucky shots and Aisu would go down, fire did, after all, have an advantage over ice. "Normally wild Pokémon attack in ones and twos, not eights and nines."

"Stand down then." Mai advised. "If we act like we were defending ourselves..."

"We want one now, we have to fight." Jamie snorted, "They won't come quietly. I'm guessing they've had run ins with humans before and if you combo that with the fact they were Rended..." This point was emphasised when one of the Rapidash whinnied at Aisu and the Glaceon's reply sounded rather rude, if Jamie was reading her tone right. "Aisu, ready for round two?"

The Glaceon didn't pay any attention to her, she was too engrossed in her heated conversation with the lead stallion, who had gotten back to his feet. Before too long the lead stallion was pawing the ground, shaking his head as he did so.

"Aisu." Jamie snapped. The Glaceon just gave her an irritated look over her shoulder and turned away, continuing her conversation with the Rapidash, surprising Mai with her attitude towards her Trainer, considering that she had always treated her Trainer with respect.

"I don't think Aisu wants to fight them." Mai commented, amused by Aisu's attitude. She glanced around to see where her Staravia was, and became amused when she spotted the bird in a tree, preening himself. Obviously when she wasn't under attack, the Normal/Flying type was unconcerned about wild Pokémon.

Jamie scowled at Mai's words momentarily, then, when it became obvious that the fighting had stopped and the leader of the herd wasn't about to attack her Glaceon, let out a heavy sigh, her shoulders sinking and her exhaustion obvious.

"You alright?" Mai asked, concerned considering that Jamie hadn't appeared this tired on their journey so far.

"Yeah, I'm..." Jamie looked a little confused, concerning Mai further. She didn't get to ask any questions though as at a whinny from the lead stallion, two of the Ponyta, the blue one and one of the red ones, separated from the herd and wandered over to the girls.

Aisu bowed to the lead stallion, who whinnied back, his tone threatening before leading the rest of the herd away.

"What just happened?" Mai asked Jamie, who was a little confused herself but was approaching the red flamed Ponyta warily, reaching out to pat its neck and flinching slightly when the flames picked up.

"Easy girl," Jamie murmured, not sure what Aisu had said to the lead stallion but hoping that these two they'd left behind would be friendly, "Easy..." She put her hand on the horse's neck and let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't that burn?" Mai asked, before getting nudged by the blue flamed one, causing her to look at it in shock as the blue flames wrapped around her but didn't set anything on fire, then, cautiously patted its head.

"No. Ponyta and Rapidash flames only burn what the Pokémon in question want them to burn." Jamie said, pulling one of the empty Pokeballs off of her belt and tapping the red flamed Ponyta on the head with it.

The Pokémon turned into a bright red light which was absorbed by the Pokeball. The button turned red and the ball shook in Jamie's hand for a few seconds, then the button turned white again and Jamie grinned. "Not how I'd normally catch a Pokémon, but..." She shrugged.

"How did you...?" Mai asked, pulling an empty Pokeball from her pocket and yelping when the blue flamed Ponyta nudged the hand the ball was in and got pulled into the ball. "What the...?"

Jamie chuckled as she watched the Pokeball shake for just half a second before the button turned white.

"Pokeballs hold the creatures they're linked to as energy." The Trainer explained, "When you first catch a Pokémon it might escape the Pokeball. Until the button turns white, it's not securely captured. I thought I explained that two weeks ago."

She tossed the Pokeball into the air, pressing the button as it left her hand and the red flamed Ponyta reappeared. "I don't know why you've joined our team, but thank you." The Ponyta tossed its head.

"No, you explained how to send out a Pokémon, but you didn't tell me that." Mai said as she sent her Ponyta out, smiling slightly as she did so, "So, do we nickname them now?"

"Can do." Jamie nodded, looking her Ponyta over, "What do you want to call him?" She paused, looked again, and chuckled, "Call her, sorry."

LINE_RECOGNTION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN

While the other Pokémon played games and chowed down on the food that their Trainers provided, Aisu watched her Trainer carefully.

She knew her Trainer, and that girl earlier hadn't been her Trainer in the same way that the Pharaoh wasn't Yugi. That was why she'd acted up the way she had.

Never mind that HER Trainer wouldn't have been so rude as to interrupt her mid-conversation and that she had been trying to explain everything as she knew it to the Ponyta and Rapidash to try and get some more allies.

But then her Trainer had been acting weird for a couple of weeks. If Aisu could have talked it over with the other Trainer that hers was travelling with she would have done. Instead she was just left to watch and guard over her Trainer and hope that she wasn't getting sick or worse…

LINE_RECOGNTION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN

Author Note: - Well here it is. Sorry for the delay. This is the sister fic to Sheer Cold. I'll be updating them in story timeline order, so you're unlikely to get two chapters at the same time with both of them again for a long time.