3 Context

It took a moment for Nova to calm down and logically reassess the situation. Being moments away from your first kill to being told he 'passed' was giving him mental whiplash.

Shakily, he dropped the empty gun and sat down on the closest chair. Putting his head in his hands, a habit he picked up when stressed, he tried to logically reassess the situation.

'I- am I stupid?' Nova couldn't help but think.

When he really thought about it, it was fairly obvious it was some sort of test. If the boss wanted him dead, she could've informed the guard to kill him with the Mandibuzz. That Drapion threatening him had to be intentional.

Either that, or it was just a bloodthirsty Pokemon.

'Wait… But, what about the girl? How the hell did she survive in a duffel bag with no air?' he realized, only to look up and see something he hadn't even considered.

The girl, the duffel bag, and even the pee were just a Ditto. Because of course, it was.

Suddenly, a gentle hand landed on his shoulder causing him to flinch slightly due to his jumbled nerves. The silver-haired woman crouched to his eye level.

"Sorry about that. That wasn't the traditional initiation test, but I had to be a bit harsh since you're a child," she explained in a much softer, yet still monotone voice.

Seeing that she seemingly had a reason for doing so, he calmed down considerably. Nova didn't trust her in the slightest, but at least it didn't seem like he would die for making the wrong move.

"Now that you're clearheaded again, it's introduction time. My name is Soleil, but most people call me Sol, and I'm the leader of the unofficial Shade Guild," she spoke with a bit of pride in that last part, although it was hard for Nova to tell.

"What now? I thought this was a gang, did I walk into the wrong place? Oh, and I'm Nova, nice to meet you." Nova decided to be polite since his earlier impression of her was clearly a ruse just to scare him. Something about what she just said rang alarm bells in his head, but he decided to ignore it for now.

She sighed, ignoring his pleasantries. "Yes, that is sadly the general consensus these days. But before I get into that, do you have any questions about your initiation? I know it was a bit mentally taxing." Although her voice was flat, her expression made Nova think she was actually worried for him.

"Just… why? Like, why did you even let me in the building? Why did you make me take that initiation test specifically, and what was even the point?" he said, more confused than angry.

"Oh, good. I was expecting more questions. That would've been annoying." she muttered.

"To start, I let you in because you're a child who isn't afraid of Pokemon." She stated as if it was obvious.

Flinching, Nova looked into her eyes, "Afraid? Why would I be afraid of Pokemon?"

To this, she tilted her head in confusion. "Most children and even adults are afraid of Pokemon around here. Since most don't have a proper education, they just see Pokemon attacking people and think of them as monsters. Most adults aren't that ignorant about Pokemon but children tend to think illogically."

'I guess that makes sense. I still would've probably tried to befriend a smaller-looking Pokemon even if I thought it was just a bloodthirsty monster.'

Shaking off her confusion, she continued. "Onto the second question. The reason I made you take that test is that I don't have time to coddle you. If you didn't react acceptably, I would've just hypnotized you and kicked you out."

"Uh… Hypnotized?" Nova felt like the more he spoke with her, the more confused he became.

"Using Pokemon. And if you're wondering how I set that up so quickly… Pokemon. Also, we have cameras." she admitted.

"Ah." 'That'll do it.'

She inhaled, before explaining all in one breath. "Lastly, the test had three parts. The first part, the Drapion, was to see how good your instincts were. If you can't even tell when you're about to die, that means you only survived this long thanks to either luck or being sheltered.

"The second part, where Drapion just stayed there, threateningly, was to see how you would react to having your life at risk. Being able to think calmly even in the face of death is essential. Panicking or reacting with immediate violence would've been a failure.

"And finally, the gun. That was to see how far you would go to survive. If you had chosen to sacrifice yourself for the random little girl? You'd be dead where you stand. I know that's biased, but I don't care; Sacrificing yourself for others is stupid."

He shivered at the way she said that last part, her tone laced with venom. 'Well at least I know I'm not expected to be deathly loyal. The silver lining, I guess.'

"Now that that's over, follow me. I'll explain the whole guild thing on the way." She stood up from her crouch, walking away without looking back.

Nova nodded and stood up as well, dusted himself off, and followed her into one of the many doors surrounding the entrance room. It led to a hallway, and it was obvious the inside of the building had been completely revamped. Some of the people walking in the halls gave him strange looks, probably since he was a kid, but they ignored him when they saw Sol walking next to him.

It was only a few moments of silence before Sol spoke up again, glancing at him in blatant curiosity. "Not even going to ask where we're going? You're a strange kid, Nova. Eh, less useless chatter." She shrugged.

'But what you just said was useless chatter…' he thought but didn't voice it. He only shrugged and kept walking, making a mental map of the building.

"Anyway, as I was saying earlier, this isn't a gang. It's a guild. People commission the guild to get a job done and a guild member does the job and the guild itself gets a percentage of the reward. In return, we help you with bettering yourself and improving economically, physically, and as a Pokemon trainer." She clarified.

Nova "I sorta get it but… how? No offense but this place isn't exactly hidden. It wasn't hard to find this building and most people think this is a gang, why haven't the police taken action?"

"Well, at one point we were a gang. We were more of a tribe back then, letting anyone take leadership if they were stronger. So, I became the strongest, took over, and killed everyone who didn't like it. Eventually, we were able to legally buy this land and create an unofficial guild, but people still remember us as a gang since we haven't done much. Plus, no one here is legally a criminal since no one's been caught."

Nova was stunned she could say she killed almost an entire tribe of people so casually but shook it off. No sane person would threaten a kid, psychoanalyze him, and let them join what was essentially a mercenary guild.

"Gotcha. One more question: Why do you keep saying it's an unofficial guild?" If he just joined an unofficial guild, then that meant there must be better ones. The fact he thought it was a gang at first was really destroying his confidence in their competence.

'Then again… I was going to join a gang anyway; this might actually be a lucky break.' he mused.

"Guilds can be created through the Pokemon Association if the leader has defeated the fourth gym leader of their respective region. Or if they have a trainer license. With the Association's backing, our public image wouldn't be in the dirt, and we'd be provided with a lot of benefits." She spoke faster as if trying to cover up that fact by glossing over it.

As she finished her explanation, they arrived in a dark room. Sol opened the door and the lights slowly flickered on one by one, revealing a very tall screen. When the lights finally turned on, the screen flashed to reveal several illustrations of Pokemon.

There were multiple lines of text under each one, but Nova never learned to read the language of this world. The spoken language sounded like English to him, but the written portion looked like hieroglyphics in his opinion.

His confusion must've shown on his face because Sol commented. "Can't read, eh? Not surprising. Do you at least recognize any of these Pokemon?"

"Some of them, yeah. I remember seeing a few of them around before." In reality, Nova knew all of them, but he was starting to realize that the people of this region were exceptionally ignorant to information about Pokemon. If he, a random child, started spewing out the names of each Pokemon and specific information about each one it'd be suspicious.

She nodded, "That's good then, it might make this decision easier. Sucks that you can't read but I'll just tell you the names of each one from left to right, okay?"

Nova nodded, though he wasn't really paying much attention. He was growing more excited by the second. "Alright, keep in mind all of these are dark Pokemon. We've got Murkrow, Sneasel, Scraggy, Stunky, Pawniard, Vullaby, and finally Inkay. Take your time choosing." She finished, looking at him expectantly.

"Wait, like, to keep? Like, you're giving me it?" He questioned, getting closer to her with each word. His excitement was almost palpable, stars in his eyes.

Amused, she answered. "That's the idea. This will be your partner for as long as you're a trainer, so don't hesitate to take all the time in the world. After all, this decision could be the difference between life and death."

Nova's attention snapped to the screen, deep in contemplation. While his excitement was still obvious, he was staring at the screen with needle-like focus, one central question guiding all his thoughts.

'Which Pokemon should I choose?'