Celestic Town Ruins

A/N: Important announcement at the end!

Shuichi and Cheryl walked around Celestic Town. Celestic was a nice town with many buildings, but it was interesting that trees surrounded the town and even separated it in two.

"So Cheryl, what is your mission here?" Shuichi asked, she hadn't told him what assignment she had here in Celestic Town. "There are ruins behind the museum and from what I've been told they still haven't explored all of it, apparently they're stuck on something so it's the perfect opportunity!" Cheryl explained.

"I see, well I hope your exploration goes smoothly," Shuichi said, wishing her success. Cheryl looked oddly at Shuichi, "Are you not coming along?" She asked.

Now it was Shuichi's turn to look oddly at her, "Are you sure? I'm not a treasure hunter or explorer so I'll probably get in your way." He told her, he assumed that treasure hunters were trained in some way so that they would know what to look out for.

Cheryl shrugged, "It's not like treasure hunters are trained, we usually go by experience and word of mouth." Completely shattering Shuichi's vision of treasure hunters.

He looked at Cheryl as he stopped and realised something, "Cheryl, how much experience do you have again?" Cheryl smiled, "Oh! only 1 so far and that was with some other new friends I had made!"

Shuichi sighed and nodded, he doubted that Cheryl would find something of value in the ruins but who knows? Maybe her grandfather's stories would help her, she had been giving all sorts of weird sayings and sometimes they were completely accurate.

They went to the usual stop of the Pokémon Center first, they would need to book a room and also have their Pokémon checked up on. As for why the continuous checkups? Battles would get violent, really violent. And having free healthcare was always good.

('I suppose I should also call mother.') Shuichi realised it had been a while since he had called her, he wasn't trying to avoid her, he was still trying to find a balance between his habits of both lives.

At first, Shuichi was mainly in the driver's seat and he was pretty much like a child, now Kristoph was mainly in the driver's seat with Shuichi getting pushed aside. It sounded like a minor case of DID also known as Dissociative identity disorder.

('Will the mental problems ever end? At least I don't have nightmares anymore.') Shuichi tried to find a positive note and felt like he was moving in the right direction as far as 'healing' went.

The call quickly connected and Shuichi could see his mother on the screen again, "Hello Mother, how have you been?" He decided to start the conversation with a normal question.

Umeko was happy to see her son again, even though he still called her 'mother'. "I'm doing well dear, how have you been?" She asked.

"I'm doing fine, my Pokémon are also doing fine. Combusken and Eevee both evolved, Combusken into Blaziken and Eevee into Jolteon." Shuichi told the story of both of their evolutions to Umeko.

"It sounds like you had quite the trip to Celestic Town, how is Blaziken faring?" Umeko asked as she heard that Blaziken had some personality issues. "She's stubborn, but I'm slowly getting through to her. She just needs one final push." Shuichi said.

Blaziken had not gotten a single battle since she evolved and it was starting to annoy her, he also noticed that she had some minor regret when Jolteon was reintroduced to the team and their reactions. However, she still won't listen to him.

"I'm she'll come around eventually, just don't be too harsh on her," Umeko advised, they chatted for a bit and Shuichi asked her if Dawn had any new contests. She told him that there was no new news, however there would be a contest soon in Hearthome City that she would attend.

"Oh, I have to go. Nurse Joy is calling me." Shuichi said once he heard her. Umeko nodded, "It was nice to talk to you again dear," She told him. Shuichi nodded, "I don't know when I'll be able to talk to you again, love you Mom." He told her as he hung up.

Umeko looked shocked at Shuichi's last words, ('Did he just?') She smiled as she realised what he said, "He's indeed still there." She muttered.

Shuichi also suddenly realised what he said, he didn't know why he said that it just slipped out. ('One step at a time I suppose.') He thought as he shook his head.

"Jolteon's evolution was complete without a hitch, there were no problems with him. I have noticed Blaziken has mellowed out a bit as my sister has told me about her problems, so well done on that front." Nurse Joy told Shuichi.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy. Blaziken only needs one final push for me to convince her." Shuichi told Nurse Joy. "As long as you don't overdo it then it's fine." She still advised Shuichi.

Shuichi nodded and met up with Cheryl, he suddenly thought of something "Cheryl, do you not need to call your grandfather?" She would talk about him all the time but he had never seen her call him.

Cheryl seemed a little down, "Oh, he's not around anymore." Shuichi cringed a little, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Cheryl shook her head, "You couldn't have known."

The tension in the room turned a little sombre at that, "Come on! We've got a treasure to find!" Cheryl enthusiastically said. Shuichi was happy she decided to move on, "Let's go and find it, maybe your grandfather's wisdom will even help us."

She seemed to perk up at the thought of that and she walked towards the museum with renewed vigour. The trip to the museum was uneventful, there were some shops but Cheryl was too busy thinking about the ruins to even consider shopping.

Soon the duo came to the museum where they walked in and looked around, there were a lot of people walking around but no sight of researchers."Excuse me, we would like to help with exploring the ruins," Cheryl asked one of the female workers.

The worker looked a little awkwardly at them, "I'm sorry, we can't allow just everyone to enter the ruins." She told them. "I'm an experienced treasure hunter and he's got two A-rank badges." Cheryl tried to convince them.

The worker seemed to hesitate, "I see, I'll have to ask the lead researcher if that's enough." She said as she walked away. "Now we can only hope," Cheryl said and Shuichi agreed with her.

The worker soon came back, "Please follow me, the lead researcher would like to meet you." They nodded and followed the worker, they looked around as they were being led through the museum. 

Shuichi could see portraits of the legendary Dialga and Palkia along with a ton of books, "You've got quite the collection here." Shuichi noted and the worker smiled, "Thank you! Our lead researcher likes to collect all sorts of books and items towards the legends of Sinnoh."

They walked until they came to a room with a lot of computers and even more old tablets with text on them. There were also researchers and in the middle was an older woman with grey-blonde hair dressed in a researcher's coat and a purple shirt with a grey skirt.

"Miss Caroline, I've brought them here." The worker spoke, getting the old woman's attention. "Ah yes, but wait a minute these are just children." The old woman named Caroline said.

Cheryl seemed to take offence at that, "Age is not indicative of skill." She retorted. Caroline smiled instead of getting angry, "Quite the spunk you've got there missy, now what about you sonny?" She looked at Shuichi as she said that.

"Appearances can be deceiving." He said as he flexed a bit of his pressure, Caroline stopped smiling in an instant and regarded Shuichi with seriousness. ('He suddenly felt like my granddaughter when she got serious.') She thought.

Still, she smiled a moment later as she composed herself, "Interesting, may I know your names?" She asked them. "Cheryl Watanabe." "Shuichi Tsuki." They both introduced themselves garnering reactions from Caroline.

"Watanabe? Are you related to Harold Watanabe by chance?" She asked Cheryl. Cheryl was surprised, "That's my grandfather! How do you know him?" She asked her. 

Caroline smiled, "I couldn't count the number of times he's found something of history here in Sinnoh, so you've decided to take up the job now huh?" She commented, getting a smile and a nod from Cheryl.

Caroline then focused on Shuichi, "And you, Tsuki huh? Related to the Kimono girls from Johto?" Now it was Shuichi's turn to be surprised, "Indeed, they are my aunts and even my mother. Have you been to Johto before Miss Caroline?" He asked.

"Please drop the 'miss' that makes me feel old, as for your question. Yes, I did go to Johto. I've not only studied Sinnoh history but all sorts of history and the Kimono sisters have told the history and legends of Johto for a long time." Caroline explained.

"Then I suppose I should tell you, I didn't inherit any of their dancing talents," Shuichi told Caroline. Caroline laughed, "Ha! Those girls could battle just as well as they danced." 

"You fought my aunts?" Shuichi asked, he didn't think she was a battler. "Not me, my granddaughter," Caroline answered. Shuichi frowned a little as he recalled something from the games.

('A grandmother interested in history, a granddaughter who battles, and they're both from Celestic Town? It couldn't be her right?') Shuichi had a feeling that he was correct but he still had to ask.

"Your granddaughter? Might I know her name?" Shuichi asked innocently. He didn't want to act suspicious but apparently, Caroline saw right through him as she answered with a mischievous smirk, "Why it's the champion of Sinnoh! Cynthia!"

Shuichi had already guessed it but he still couldn't hide the excitement off his face, Cynthia was a living legend among champions. Most champions had specialised in a certain type however Cynthia was one of the rare ones without a speciality.

She was also easily the most popular champion of them all, and who could blame her? She had beauty and skill, of course, she'd be popular. Shuichi hadn't seen her in person so far, he had seen some of her battles on television and if he had to sum her up in one word it would be fierce.

She was a lot fiercer than he had expected, she was combining extreme power with expert precision. She would often switch to disrupt the opponent's flow and keep a calm head throughout the battle.

"You seem like you want to battle her, too bad she isn't here," Caroline said, making Shuichi think inwardly. ('Battling Cynthia now was nothing short of stupid and would only lead to a beat down.')

"Um, so can we help in exploring the ruins?" Cheryl asked, she felt like the conversation had gotten off track and she still wanted to explore them. "Ah yes," Caroline exclaimed before she closed her eyes and began to think for a second.

She opened her eyes and said, "Normally I wouldn't allow newbies like you two to go in. However, seeing that both of you have some form of history with me I'll make an exception this time."

Cheryl was ecstatic and thanked Caroline, Shuichi also nodded in thanks. "Alright, Alright, follow me." Caroline calmed down Cheryl and led them both away, the group walked a bit until they exited out the back.

At the back of the museum was the entrance to the ruins, there were crumbled pillars and other crumbled temples. "Here it is, the ruins. According to our research, it's a temple related to the legendary Pokémon Palkia. We've also found some tablets describing the three lake guardians." Caroline said as she walked to the larger building in the middle.

The building in the middle looked more like a big mausoleum than a temple which confused Cheryl and Shuichi, "Are you sure it's a temple?" Cheryl asked. Caroline nodded, "Yes, this is how temples were built back in old Sinnoh also known as Hisui."

Entering the temple revealed that there were stairs that went down near the entrance, the group went down the stairs and came to an open area with three paths. "There are three paths here and every path leads to a dead end," Caroline told them.

"Where shall we go first?" Shuichi asked Cheryl, he was fully willing to let her be the lead on this one. Cheryl looked around and said, "Let's start from the left, Grandpa always said with multiple paths it's best to go clockwise through them."

Caroline and Shuichi accepted it and they went left, the layout didn't change much as it just looked like a stone tunnel. They walked for a few minutes and found a small group of researchers.

"Found anything?" Caroline asked and received a negative from the researchers, Cheryl looked around for any clue while Shuichi also looked around while frowning. His senses were tingling but not the normal ones.

('Are these emotions? Are there Pokémon here?') Shuichi could sense emotions but couldn't pinpoint where the signal came from. This feeling meant that there was a clue here somewhere.

"Did you take anything from here back to the museum?" Cheryl asked and Caroline nodded, "There were some stone tablets here that we are deciphering at this moment, they are written in old Hisuain and thus hard to translate." She explained.

Cheryl nodded but didn't alleviate her thoughts, instead it only added more pressure on them. ('Those tablets likely contain instructions on how to move forward, but what sort of treasure hunter would I be if I needed instructions to find it!?') She thought.

Although she was a little slow on the uptake it didn't mean that she was dumb, she had noticed that Shuichi was a bit off since coming here. She had known Shuichi long enough to know that he had very sharp senses, if he could feel something was off then it meant there had to be something here.

She thought back to conversations with her grandfather, the amount of stories he had told her was uncountable. "Cheryl, there was once where I had encountered a dead end. There was no path forward, however, there was a faint feeling in the back of my mind that there had to be something there." Her grandfather spoke.

Cheryl asked in an interested tone, "So what happened? How did you find it?" Her grandfather smiled at her enthusiasm and said, "I released my Pokémon! Pokémon are a lot more sensitive than humans and soon we were able to find a hidden switch."

Cheryl snapped back to reality and she released her Pokémon causing surprise from everyone, she ignored everyone else as she talked to her Pokémon "There is something off about this place, can any of you feel it?"

Chansey looked around but couldn't feel anything, Tangela also couldn't find anything. Munchlax on the other hand sniffed a few times before walking to an empty wall, he looked at a certain portion of the wall in confusion. 

Cheryl noticed this and walked up to Munchlax, "What is it Munchlax?" She asked. Munchlax said its name and pointed to the wall, Cheryl furrowed her brows and looked closely. She smelled a faint fragrance and she began to feel the wall.

Her actions garnered the attention of the rest as they also walked closer, "Did you find something?" Caroline asked. Cheryl didn't say anything and continued to feel the wall, suddenly she felt something shift in her hands.

"Hm?" She exclaimed and felt that a rock was loose, she pushed it further in and a click sound was heard. Suddenly the floor rumbled a bit and a statue rose from the ground, everyone recognised the statue in an instant because it was a statue of Mesprit!

Now Shuichi could feel the emotions coming from the statue, it was likely that Mesprit left some emotions in there. Everyone looked at the statue but no one moved, Caroline moved over to Cheryl who was still by the wall.

Caroline looked closely at the wall and also smelled a faint fragrance, "This is soapstone." She identified. "Soapstone smells nice due to all sorts of minerals in there, heh leave it to the big eater Pokémon to smell it." She explained.

Munchlax was happy being praised and Cheryl gave him a little bit of honey as a treat and recalled her Pokémon. Caroline moved to the statue and looked closely, "We can't remove the statue, it's fully connected to the ground." She noticed.

Shuichi was still trying to understand the emotions of the statue, there were a lot of them and they were all faint. "Shall I touch it, Caroline?" One of the researchers offered, Caroline didn't respond but furrowed her brows.

It was completely unknown what would happen if someone were to touch it, it could be very dangerous. It wasn't uncommon for ancient artefacts to have some sort of protection on there and this one was of the legendary Pokémon Mesprit, there was bound to be something on it.

One of the researchers couldn't take it anymore and moved in to touch the statue, before Caroline could stop him he touched the statue. The man stopped and Shuichi could feel one of the emotions intensifying before it faded and another emotion came.

This cycle repeated a few times with all sorts of emotions as the researcher stood still, Caroline was about to move when Shuichi held her back. "Wait for a minute." He said.

Caroline was about to ask him to explain when the researcher moved, he furrowed his brows as if he was thinking hard. "It's odd, once I touched the statue all sorts of feelings came crashing into my body and now it spoke to me." He said to everyone.

"What did it say?" Caroline asked, "It gave me a question. 'What's the story?' I answered Mesprit but it was incorrect and now I can't answer again." The researcher told them.

"So it's some sort of riddle?" One of the other researchers stated. Shuichi nodded and he already had an idea of what sort of riddle this would be.

"Oh! Shuichi, could you try and solve it?" Cheryl asked, getting confusion from everyone, why would she suggest him? "You all might not know but Shuichi is very sharp when it comes to these things!" Cheryl explained.

Everyone now looked at Shuichi and he moved forward to touch the statue, he touched the statue and he could feel the same wave of emotions coming. His experience in sensing emotions came in handy as he accurately identified each emotion.

First, there was happiness. Then it turned into curiosity, which stayed there for a bit. Then it turned into confusion which was quickly replaced by fear, the fear stayed but it slowly waned as regret came forth. Finally, after regret was longing. 

The emotions came and went and then it all ceased, "What's the story?" A voice asked. Shuichi could recognise this voice as Mesprit's due to his prior encounter with it, still, he answered in his head.

Everyone watched with bated breath as Shuichi touched the statue, suddenly the statue's eyes lit up with pink light and Shuichi stepped back. "Did you figure it out?" Caroline asked and Shuichi nodded, "It was an emotional puzzle." He said.

He recounted the emotions which caused everyone to think, he gave out the answer after seeing that no one could figure it out. "It's the story of someone curiously exploring before getting lost and regretting their actions and wanting to go back home."

Everyone was surprised that Shuichi was able to figure that out, "Impressive, looks like you were correct. Doesn't seem like much changed here but maybe something changed in the other passageways." Caroline praised Shuichi and told everyone to move back.

The other researchers didn't join them but stayed behind in case they missed something there. Once back at the main hall, it didn't look like something had changed until Cheryl suddenly exclaimed, "Over there!"

Shuichi and Caroline turned around to see a pink light shining at the top of the entrance to the cave, "Looks like we'll have to do that again in the other paths as well." Cheryl said Shuichi and Caroline agreed.

"I'm already glad I took the both of you here, who knows how long it would've taken to find this out," Caroline spoke. "It's likely that the stone tablets contain some hints or even the solution on how to solve the puzzle." Cheryl shared her conjecture.

Caroline nodded and said, "Probably, but where is the fun in that? Plus, the faster it's done the better." Cheryl agreed with her while Shuichi was thinking about what was next, to the east was Mesprit and he guessed that to the north would be another lake guardian.

They talked as they walked with Cheryl being a lot more at ease, a lot of the pressure was gone now that she had contributed somewhat to the search. 

After a few minutes of walking they encountered another group of researchers with another dead end, Cheryl released Munchlax again who pinpointed the location of the next switch. Cheryl pressed it again to make another statue rise.

This statue looked very similar to Mesprit however the key differences were the eyes which were closed and the 'hair' which was neatly combed to the back instead of flowing freely like Mesprit's.

It was the statue of Uxie the being of knowledge, Shuichi couldn't sense any emotions from the statue which meant that it would likely be something else.

One of the researchers touched the statue at Caroline's insistence and his eyes faded for a moment before coming back, "Well? What was it?" Caroline asked. The researcher furrowed his brows and said, "I don't know." Confusing everyone.

He elaborated before anyone could ask him to, "I guess it's more of an I don't remember, I remember touching it and something happening but I don't remember what exactly happened." He explained.

Everyone was stumped before Shuichi shared his thoughts, "On the left we encountered Mesprit with a test of emotions, now we see Uxie with another test. If we assume it's based on their characteristics, then it's likely a test of knowledge and one that doesn't allow cheating by telling others what it is."

The researchers were a bit out of the loop but didn't ask, Cheryl and Caroline thought about it before nodding. "It certainly would make sense," Cheryl said. "Then let me try it, I'm probably the most knowledgeable of everyone here," Caroline said.

Nobody disagreed with her, even though Shuichi would technically qualify as well due to his mental age but he wasn't going to solicit himself like that. Caroline walked forward and placed her hand on the statue.

Caroline's eyes faded for a moment before returning, she had a smile on her face which already answered the question on everyone's mind. Uxie's eyes glowed yellow which signified a completed test.

"It was a riddle this time around, and I remember the riddle due to solving it," Caroline said before she shared the riddle.

"I grow over time and differently based on someone's actions. You can hand me to someone else where I will continue to grow. You can use me for good and evil yet I am neither. What am I?"

The riddle stumped everyone Shuichi included, he didn't have the slightest clue of what it could be. Seeing no one answering made Caroline shake her head, "I would've expected at least one of my researchers to get it seeing how it is literally your job." She hinted.

Even with the hint no one guessed, "Sigh, It's knowledge." Caroline sighed. Shuichi thought about the answer and nodded as it made sense, knowledge grows over time and is different per person, you can teach it to others and some will use it for good and evil.

The researchers stayed behind as the trio moved back to the main hall intent on entering the west path.