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Breeder Nimh

Most people hate Mondays--at least that's what people tell her when seeing her so upbeat on such a dreaded day. Nimh loved Mondays. Mondays were her Friday--the day before her two day "weekend" when Ivan closes down the gym. More so now, of course, because this Monday is the last day of her vacation with a weekend still to look forward to. How can anyonepossibly hate Mondays?

Nimh felt a wave of cold half a second before her alarm went off. She reached out, trying to keep her eyes closed to avoid losing any of her sleepiness, but the blanket was gone and the alarm clock was now floating around her head just out of reach, "Caith, you jerk!"

"Espe espurr pur esp," The talkative little cat responded. Sure she didn't understand what he was saying, but she knew damn well when she was being sassed. And this espurr had all the sass.

"Fine, but you're making breakfast this time, you bug-eyed little villain," Nimh finally opened her eyes a slit, trying her best to block out the blinding light of the sun as the curtain swung open. Yes, she did tell Caith to make her keep to her sleep schedule, but every morning she regretted it. Why did she have to be responsible? And why did she have to raise such an obedient pokémon?

Baring the full brunt of the morning sun, the gray-and-white bunny sat up in bed, glad that her apartment was on the third story as the hot summer days mixed with bad central air conditioning forced her to sleep nearly nude each night, and Caith's rude awakenings would become increasingly embarrassing. Of course last night the AC had decided to work, and she felt the burn of cold seep past her fur and bite at her skin. Her ears flopped lazily behind her head as she walked over to the window, off to the side just in case someone was looking up, and closed the curtain before grabbing some clothes and walking into the bathroom while Caith, satisfied with his work, floated himself out of the bedroom while turning off the four fans on his way out. Nimh flipped on the lights and sighed, a small smile formed on her face. Inside the near-full bathtub was a wooper floating on its back, asleep. Shaking her head, she picked up the little creature, its eyes slowly flitting open and a smile formed on its own face, "Woop wah!"

"Tiiiiiinaaaaa," Nimh set Tina to the ground and pointed at the door, "You know you can't keep sleeping in my bathtub."

"Woo?" The wooper turned around and tilted its head at her.

"I bought you a kiddy pool for that, remember?" Nimh crossed her arms over her bare chest, remembering the scolding she got from her landlord over the flooding, "You broke it, now you gotta wait until a new one comes in."

"Woop," Tina turned around and waddled out the door, turning only to close it behind her. Tina was a considerate pokémon for the most part, but her sleeping habits were difficult to correct, even for an experienced breeder like Nimh.

Draining the tub and starting the shower, Nimh glanced at the taped up mirror above the sink. Catching a glimpse of light in one sliver between the duck tape, she grabbed the roll from inside the cabinet behind it and quickly added a small piece to it before putting the tape back, grabbing her toothbrush, and stepping into the shower, letting the water douse her as she brushed at her over-sized chompers. Her mind bouncing from thought to thought--video games, a recent tv drama,_was that one guy yesterday hitting on me or just being nice--_she noticed only after finishing brushing her teeth that she had left her panties on, which were now doused with the lukewarm water. She wrung them out and tossed them outside the shower, whistling nonchalantly like a cartoon character--acting for a nonexistent audience.

After a quick shampooing, she was out not even ten minutes later, now keenly aware of the smell of cooking eggs. Haphazardly toweling herself off, she dressed quickly and rushed out of the bathroom, dark spots appearing in various places on her clothing where she didn't dry herself properly.

"Colo!" Eicia cried out when he saw her, opening his arms for a hug as if he hadn't seen her in months when in reality it had been only six hours.

"Good morning, Ace," She said, wrapping her arms as far around the ludicolo as she could and squeezing him, "That smells delicious, hon! You always make the best breakfasts!"

"Ludi ludi," The ludicolo waved his hand dismissively, "Cooooolo ludi."

Nimh sat at the small two chair table listening to Eicia ramble. Soon Caith floated and sat down on top of the table next to her, tilting his head at the ludicolo. Nimh smiled and leaned over to the espurr, "I have no idea what he's saying, but I love him to death." She narrowed her eyes after a moment of thought, "Didn't I say you were to make breakfast today? Did you seriously just pass it off on Ace?"

The espurr smiled at her innocently and lifted the wooper, who had been hiding under her chair, onto the table with them. Caith had been her "starter" pokémon when she was thirteen, not liking the three pokémon that had been offered to her at first, and all three seemed to dislike her right back. She had met him as he was playing with Eicia--the family lotad that her dad gave to her when she took on her job at the gym (or rather he was asked to take care of her)--in their back yard later that week, floating around as the lotad took potshots at him with small spurts of water gun. Taking the opportunity to lift her spirits after a hard week of disappointment, Nimh picked up Eicia and used him as a large cannon, aiming and patting his cheek to tell him when to fire. The yard was drenched by the time they were done, much to her mother's chagrin, but the espurr came back the next day holding a small white pokéball, tapping it to his head a few times before handing it off to Nimh and smiling, arms outspread.

And so she started her journey as a trainer, but very quickly learned how little she liked battling. She easily managed to clear the gym in her home town, a ghost type gym that was once run by her uncle, but a series of new people had taken over when he suddenly had to leave the region when she was nine. She also easily managed to tear through the second gym, the previous leader in her current home town of Hyar. It didn't feel quite right, and after hours of discussing her life with a PC nurse and Caith, she decided to stop being a trainer. The next day the nurse, an incredibly flamboyant rabbit man named Jeffery, took her under his wing and taught her the trade of being a healer and a breeder. She picked it up quickly and found her energy returning, happy in her new trade. Two years later, she applied for a newly open position at the fighting type gym in Hyar as the on-site medical professional and breeding official. She took the job one week later and still works there now, going through two more gym leaders and raising new teams for each one.

Eicia set a plate of scrambled eggs and maple sausage in front of her and two smaller plates of similar foods in front of Caith and Tina before setting a fourth plate down across the table and sitting down in the chair. He slapped his hands together, rubbing them, "Colo!"

"Thank you, Ace!" Nimh said, cut from her daydreaming. Similar shouts came from the two smaller pokémon next to her and they dug in.

Twenty minutes later, the crew were on the road. Ivan was supposed to be back today, and she wanted to ask him about the commotion around the gym. The day that he had left for his vacation, several people in hardhats and reflector vests flanked by machokes and machamps entered and left the gym--likely for some construction project she was not in the loop for.

It wasn't long before she ran into him, coming into town with a cute young wolf girl on his heels but dressed in a heavy dress that looked way too hot for the weather. Nimh skipped towards him, Caith standing on her shoulder and holding onto her ear for dear life and the other two rushing to keep up, "Goooooooood morning, Ivan! Welcome back!"

Several bystanders glanced their way, recognized the gym leader and his loud assistant, and went about their days. Ivan still looked embarrassed, possibly due to the girl following him closer than his own pokémon, "Good morning, Nimh..."

"Who's your friend?" Nimh smiled, wanting mostly to satisfy her curiosity about the gym, but felt it might be rude to bring up work the second he got back from his trip.

"Oh, uh," Ivan stepped to the side, letting Nimh get a good look at the sandy brown furred girl, who curtsied politely, "Nimh, this is Missy, she's here to challenge the gym when we open back up. Missy, this is Nimh, the gym's head of medicine."

"Nice to meetcha, Missy," Nimh gave a wide, toothy smile as she saw her opportunity arise, "Oh! Speaking of which, I saw a bunch of muscle-mon and construction workers over there all week. I didn't know we were remodeling!"

"Right, I probably forgot to mention," Ivan cleared his throat, "I requested the town let me remodel to give my own personal flair to the gym. Sorry I didn't mention."

"No worries," Nimh turned to the ludicolo, "Hey, Ace! Wanna go check out the finished product?"

"It won't be ready until tomorrow," Ivan interrupted, "How's the sawk doing?"

"Oh, I got a dozen responses, but I can't get to them until the gym opens back up," Nimh responded, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She had put out a request for nearby trainers and breeders with the pokémon sawk, one of the desired 'mon for Ivan's mid-tier team, and she managed to find several just before their vacation, however due to being on vacation, she couldn't vet any of them until she got back, which she knew would be a tough job with an all-male species.

"Ah, so my team won't be ready in time for Missy's challenge," Ivan added, though Missy's feigned disappointment stuck out to Nimh more than the biting half-reprimand from Ivan.

"It's what happens when you change you team up so often," Nimh said, giving a wide smile to try to hide the salt behind her words. She had been with the gym for eleven years, and no leader had changed their team as often as Ivan, "But I can always head over to the town recruitment offices today since I don't have any plans."

"Yeah, do that," Ivan said half-heartedly, already walking off towards home, followed by Missy, giving Nimh the confirmation she needed.

"Hey, Ace," Nimh leaned down towards the ludicolo, causing the wooper and espurr to lean in, "They fuckin'."

"Co-ho-ho-ho-lo!" Eicia laughed aloud, though it died off quickly as he turned away, looking around, pointing down when he faced her again.

Nimh glanced, noticing a small blue cone poking out from under the ludicolo's poncho-like coat "Oh, right! Season started for you guys a few days ago, didn't it? That why you've been sneaking out?"

"Ludi...." Eicia said bashfully.

"It's okay, hon," Nimh pat his shoulder, unlike most trainers, breeders were well aware of the "season" that came around this time of year and were often sympathetic. Hell, it is typically their most profitable month on top of that, "We were going to the daycare anyway, I'll just let you guys run."

"Colo!" Eicia smiled with a small blush.

"Purr es purr purr," The cat pokémon tugged at her ear from his perch on her shoulder.

"Yes, all three of you, Caith," Nimh reached up and pat the 'mon on the head, "Just remember, you two. Any eggs mom's afraid of keeping, you bring them to me."

The two males made various sounds of agreement and they carried on across town. While Nimh was technically hired by the town and couldn't work as an individual breeder on their dime, she spent her free time during the breeding heavy season taking in unwanted eggs and finding good homes for them, but they didn't reprimand her for this as any money she made off them went straight to the city shelter... and occasionally a new set of clothes when the new hatched 'mon tore/burned/melted hers. She learned quickly, as all breeders do, not to get attached to any piece of clothing.

They arrived at the daycare a few minutes later and the field warden, an older human named Bob with a mustache covering half his face, waved at them as they came closer, "Ho! Nimh, good seein' ya!"

"G'mornin', Bobbert," Nimh called out with her irritating nickname, her pokémon already splitting off and rushing towards the grounds behind the main building, "How's the wife?"

"She's doing better today," Bob nodded, crossing his arms, "Cold went away pretty quickly after you lent us Eicia. Boy works wonders."

"That's my Ace. Best mom in the world, I tell you," Nimh smiled wide, "So did the recruitment office have anything for me?"

"Yes, but you're still on vacation, young lady," Bob looked at her over the top of his glasses, "You even said to not let you work while you're on vacation, and I'm stickin' to that."

"I know, I know," Nimh groaned and dropped her head back, staring at the cloudy sky, "Ivan just got back into town, and he's impatient about his damn sawk. I just need to review them. It'll take me twenty minutes and I promise you won't see me until Wednesday."

"Oh, boy. I've 'ad bosses like him. Yeah, we got twelve sawks back there, but I'm afraid you might be out of luck," Bob waved his hand, "Only three of the trainers were okay with giving theirs up permanently, and all-male pokémon species are so difficult to breed."

Nimh stepped past Bob and walked into the field, "Welp, guess we'll have to see."

"Stay out of the treeline unless you have a raincoat," Bob yelled, laughing at his own joke.

Nimh was well used to it by this point--pokémon breeding cycles. She had been trained in anatomy of every pokémon egg group and how they... did the deed. On top of that, she had been present during various breeding sessions between her own pokémon and their temporary partners, and the idea of privacy between the four of them became non-existent, which often scared off her own partners. When she got further into the field, the part of the property that was just out of sight from the rest of the city, she began seeing various pokémon in various stages of coitus--a charizard balls deep in a drampa, her own ludicolo seducing a maractus with his dance, and two plusle rolling around on the ground with quick thrusts keeping them in motion.

She ignored it all as usual. New breeders were often either turned on or embarrassed or both to see a sight like this, especially with the more humanoid 'mon, but Nimh had long grown used to it after spending half her life around it. She walked around two female pikachu eating each other out and found her sawks. Twelve blue humanoid pokémon stood in a fenced off area, only one of them still with his signature karate suit still on and the rest either going at each other or looking outside the fence for their prey. Nimh grabbed the laminated paperwork on the fence that held most of the information for the dozen sawks. Of course, every trainer labeled their sawk as straight, but a quick glance up from the paperwork proved that wrong for at least nine of them--four of them had created a train, two more were spitroasting a third, and two more were sixty-nining. The tenth and eleventh both looked to be attempting to lure in females, but one hopped the fence and tackled a male lucario and went to town despite the other pokémon trying to fight back, having just walked away from a female lopunny. The eleventh watched for a moment before jumping the fence and walked towards the lopunny, who stacked a fifth egg onto a pile and spread her legs quickly upon seeing her new partner.

Nimh pulled out her phone and took pictures of each incident for her report later before walking over to the lucario, "Want help?"

The lucario, his arms held behind his back and head pressed firmly to the ground and the stony blue dick easing into his tailhole dry, moved his head as best he could in a nod. Nimh sighed and walked back to the fence, finding the labeled pokéball and returning the sawk and locking it, "Fucking rude."

The lucario stood suddenly, looking around, clearly embarassed, "Car... Iyo..."

"It's okay," Nimh said, walking back up to him with a big smile, "You were tired after a long day and he was well rested."

"Ruff," The lucario nodded before bowing to her, but his attention was quickly taken away as he trailed after a group of female mienshao.

With that, Nimh returned her attention to the final sawk. He stood watching the sawk orgy in front of him with a firmly pitched tent. With a quick look at the papers, Nimh approached him, "You know you can join them if you really want to."

The sawk looked at her with confusion but shook his head. When Nimh pressured him again, he made a sign with his hands, as if he was taking pictures, then pointed at her hand that still gripped her phone. She handed it off to him and he quickly opened a notebook app and started typing, much to Nimh's amazement. He handed it back, "I would like to join, but my master does not approve of such choices."

"Breeding?" Nimh asked, handing the phone back again. She loved when pokémon were intelligent enough to find ways to communicate.

"With males."

"Pff, fuck him," Nimh smiled, then rolled her eyes at her own comment, "Well, not him, but you know what I mean. Besides, on your papers it says that he's not gonna be your master if we decide to keep you for our gym."

"That is unfortunate. I liked my master."

"Well you'll be spending time with me instead," Nimh climbed up and sat on the fence, "And you've already impressed me with your ability to communicate, so I say... you can fuck whatever you want, buddy."

The sawk stood, conflicted, but hesitantly began removing his uniform, "Sawk?"

Nimh raised the pokéball in her hand that contained the rapey sawk, "Or if you want to teach this guy a lesson. If you need an excuse."

The sawk nodded fervently, dropping his pants to reveal a large and stony blue dick. The second the sawk was released from the pokéball, a foot connected with his chin and a fist to his face and he was on the floor. Quickly putting the sawk in a similar position as the lucario, the twelfth sawk spit on his unwitting partner's bum before pressing himself in, not giving Rapey a chance to get used to it, he simply pulled back and slammed himself in over and over, as the other wriggled and fought to get away, but was unable. It wasn't long before the sawk came inside his victim, letting out a shaky sigh before pulling out and staring at the slightly more open tailhole. With his foot still on the other sawk's head, he reached out and grabbed Nimh's phone again, "I will continue to teach him a lesson. I would be honored to join your team."

He handed back the phone and pressed his cock back into the now less squirmy victim. Nimh stayed and watched, feeling a mild guilt, but that quickly faded when she saw the pleasured face of the rapey sawk. The top sawk held back even less now, his hips now gliding with the extra lubrication, he slammed heavily into the other sawk, the noise echoing off the trees in the distance. Within another minute, the top sawk came again, pressing balls deep into the bottom sawk before going back again to pounding into him.

_Man, he is awfully pent up,_Nimh thought, shaking her head. She noticed then the same lucario walking their way, his cock dripping with various fluids, and she waved him over. The lucario walked over, confused, but obviously amused at the treatment his assailant was getting.

"Want a little payback?" Nimh asked with a wicked smile, "I know he's a guy, but... I'm sure you can make one exception."

The lucario gave a wicked grin in response and hopped the fence. Using one of the discarded belts to tie the sawk's hands behind his back, the two tops worked together to lift their victim up, and the lucario pressed his dog-like dick into the sawk's ass, widening it twice as much with the first sawk still in him. Their hips moved in unison like two men on a manual saw blade--as lucario pulled back, sawk pressed in. It was only after the lucario knotted the sawk did it stop, but it only made the sawk pull out, letting their victim fall forward, and he pressed his dick into his mouth, ramming just as roughly.

At this point, Nimh hopped off the fence, grabbed her phone, and returned to the building where Bob waited, "So, how did it go?"

"Well enough. I think we're gonna take sawk number twelve," Nimh said, remembering that none of the sawks actually had names, "He's smart and clever and has a lot of self control. All the others were just rabble. So I'll have to give him the final test on Wednesday."

"All that from just fifteen minutes in the field with 'em?" Bob shook his head, "Must really be impressive."

"I know I said I won't come back until Wednesday," Nimh added, talking quickly to get past Bob's retort, "But in case you haven't noticed, season's begun, and the crew needs some social time. Mind I bring them by tomorrow so they stop sneaking out?"

"For you, Nimh," Bob leaned in, "No charge. Consider it my gift to Eicia for making Cindy better."

"Thanks, Bobbert," Nimh hugged the man and skipped away, "I'll be back in an hour to pick them up!"

Three hours later Nimh returned to the daycare, enjoying the little bit of time she had to herself. As much as she loved her pokémon, she had so little time to herself. As she got closer, she spotted them on the opposite side of the fence, Tina and Caith sitting in Eicia's dish as he danced next to Bob.

"I thought you said only an hour," Bob said with a big smile mostly hidden by his mustache.

"Ah, they deserved some fun," Nimh replied as the ludicolo danced up to her, and hugged her, filling her nostrils with the smell of sex, "Well? Did you guys have fun?"

The three gave various cries of approval. Tina used her tail to group together a small swarm of eggs, all the light blue color of a wooper. Caith lifted one with his psychic power, a rough brown and cream colored egg denoting a rockruff. Finally Eicia lifted two eggs from a bag next to Bob, two dark green eggs likely from the maractus he was dancing with.

"So you guys did have fun," Nimh waved her hand in front of her face as if just smelling them for the first time, "You guys need a bath bad, though."

"They're free to come back for the rest of the season," Bob said after laughing at her comment, "Just so long as they keep taking responsibility for their eggs, o' course. We got too many to handle as is."

"Thanks, Bobbert," Nimh waved as they walked away, Caith taking his place on her shoulder holding the rockruff egg in his lap, "Happy Monday!"

The four wandered the town for the rest of the day after getting hosed off at a nearby park, enjoying their last day of vacation.

Nimh loved Tuesdays. They were her Saturday and the streets were never crowded when she needed to go shopping. Early in the morning she texted Ivan, asking if the gym was finished but never received an answer, and she fought the urge to text him again and again until she got one. She left her 'mon at the daycare again and did her shopping--making sure to follow Eicia's shopping list, a piece of paper with drawings of various foods and a multi-egg incubator that were surprisingly well drawn. Four hours after dropping them off, Nimh went back to the daycare and took inventory again of the eggs, which were surprisingly fewer than yesterday.

"You guys wanna go see what they did with the gym?" Nimh asked after forcing the three to hose off the smell of their activities and finally getting a text back from Ivan, "Ivan seems impressed by it."

The three gave their agreement, and they set off. Nimh felt butterflies in her stomach. She loved change. It brought just a little bit of excitement into her rather habitual lifestyle. They arrived at the gym a little early, and Nimh bounced from foot to foot impatiently waiting for Ivan.

"You're here early," She heard from behind her nearing ten minutes later. Ivan walked up, his espurr and spinda behind him with Missy just a little bit further behind in an even thicker looking dress than yesterday's, "You get any info on the sawk?"

"Yup, I got one picked out for testing on Wednesday," Nimh nodded vigorously, her ears jiggling behind her from the action, "Now hurry! You know I'm an impatient woman!"

"Fine, fine," The fox man shook his head and unlocked the front door of the gym, letting the door open to the darkness inside.

Nimh quickly walked inside, ignoring the light switch and positioning herself in the center of the main room, a huge, toothy smile spreading across her face, readying to take in the surprise of the room. Suddenly, there was light.

The first thing Nimh saw was another bunny in the room, smiling just as big as she was and even wearing the same clothes. Slowly, her smile faded away and she could hear everyone's voices behind her, but they seemed far away--unintelligible. She looked around, feeling her breath catch in her chest and her heart race and pound painfully until she could feel it in her fingertips. Her legs relinquished their muscles and filled their place with jelly, preventing her from moving, and her arms moved instinctively to her chest where one clung to the other almost digging anxiously into her fur and skin.

Mirrors.

The whole room seemed to grow dark and she saw her own face contort into a wicked smile, an evil grin with sharp teeth that were not her own. The eyes glowed red instead of the normal purple, and she stared at herself as her reflection twisted and deformed, slowly shaping the face of the Shadow. Sharp teeth turned chipped and gnarled, splitting off and growing inwards, filling the ear-to-ear mouth with jagged brown spears. The eyes widened and the sclera inked itself black behind the blood red irises and the lop ears simply sheered off and lay on the floor below the Shadow, rotting away and filling with far-too-large maggots. Digits fused together to form two clawed fingers and a thumb and the feet merged into two single spear-like peg legs. The clothing tore away revealing bones protruding through the skinless, muscular flesh.

"_ I've found you, my precious little poison ," The Shadow laughed at her, a guttural chuckle, with it's forked tongue licking each row of teeth. Its arm reached out for her, dripping blood and mucus generously onto the hard floor. The room grew smaller and smaller, forcing her petrified form towards him until she was close enough that he could pull her into his arms, and he caressed her face, trailing the boiling blood along her cheek. Nimh swore she felt her heart stop. It's voice echoed the room--a thick, wet noise like the bubbling growls of a bayou croc, " Now you can join me once again, little poison. I've missed our little ... games _..."

Nimh never realized she was screaming. Curled up on the ground with her ears gripped firmly in her fists, pulling hard and painfully, she howled until her lungs were empty. Ivan, after a moment of shock, rushed towards her and tried to comfort her, but he was quickly pulled away by the ludicolo.

"Let me help her, you idiot!" Ivan yelled at him.

Eicia's face dropped into a rare frown. Angry. He tilted back, opened his mouth, and let loose a torrent of water with a shriek, "LU! DI! COLOLOLOLOLO!"

The sheer force of the water sent Ivan off his feet, and Eicia immediately rushed to Nimh's side, careful not to touch her. He shouted commands to Caith and Tina, but they were entirely unnecessary, both were already working--grabbing paint cans left by the construction workers and covering the mirrors. Using Sweet Scent, Eicia blew a gust of sweet smelling air at Nimh's face, which seemed to calm her a little, the screams growing quieter, devolving into whimpers, so he continued.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Ivan stood, soaking wet, and grabbed a pokéball from the counter behind him, "Hitmonchan, stop them!"

As soon as the hitmonchan exited the pokéball, it was bathed in psychic light as Caith's ears flicked up an inch and stayed up. Much as the hitmonchan tried, it couldn't release itself from the telekinesis and stayed hovering just centimeters off the ground as the espurr shouted expletives in the pokémon language in his direction. Eicia placed himself directly between Nimh and the rest of the gym--and the mirrors--just as her grip around her ears eased up, but instead of trying to get up, she simply went limp and passed out.

Missy stood at the door during the entire episode, frozen, but now she finally spoke out, "What in Arceus' name just happened?"

"Ludi ludicolo. Colo cololo ludi," Eicia explained through his scowl. He knew she couldn't understand him, but he explained nonetheless for the espurr and spinda standing next to her, who both nodded in understanding.

"The city will be hearing about this, you stupid pineapple," Ivan said, his rage building with every mirror coated in paint. His spinda staggered over to him and drove her fist into his shin, "OW! What the fuck, Zui?!"

"Spin," She pointed at the mirrors and back at the unconscious rabbit, "Spinspinda," She wandered over to one of the mirrors that hadn't been covered yet, pressed her paws to her cheeks with a face of shock, and fell over backwards, looking back at her master in hopes he understood her show, "Spin?"

"What has gotten int--"

"What is all the commotion in--Nimh?" A stocky looking rabbit with a rather effeminate voice walked into the room and stopped just shy of the heap of fur. He looked up around the room taking in the scene. An espurr shouting angrily and covering several mirrors in splotches of blue paint with a wooper just behind him filling in the spots he missed with her tail and a hitmonchan floating in the middle of the room seeming to look ashamed of itself.

"And just who are you?" Ivan took his soaking shirt off and wrung it out on the wood floor.

"Doctor Jeffery Zhang from the Center next door," The rabbit replied, "Now tell me what possessed you to fill this room with mirrors?"

"Because all good gyms and studios have mirrors to watch your form," Ivan said, now more confused than angry.

"Despite the fact that that is the one exception given by the city in the renovation of this gym," Jeffery narrowed his eyes, "No mirrors?"

"I thought that was just a suggestion because of the battles," He looked out over the now almost fully covered mirrors, "I ordered the extra durable ones thinking that would be fine."

Jeffery shook his head, "Ace, baby, mind carrying her home? She should be fine after a good nap and some TLC. I'll be right behind you."

Eicia nodded, lifted the bunny girl into his arms, and walked out the door. Missy stepped out of the way and stared at the pair until they turned a corner. After a moment, she stepped inside, glancing at the spinda that seemed to have trouble standing back up, and her usual aura of authority was replaced with a sense of concern, "I take it she's afraid of mirrors?"

"Yeah," Jeffery kept shaking his head, "Poor kid has a panic attack at even a sliver of mirror. I've had to help her on multiple occasions, and I've even removed the mirrors in the center's girl's bathroom."

"What a stupid fucking fear," Ivan's anger returned as he lifted a pokéball and recalled the hitmonchan still hovering helplessly in the center of the room.

"It may be stupid to you," Jeffery jabbed a finger at Ivan's bare chest, "But it's very real to her. She's one of my best students and practically a little sister to me. If I hear you disrespect her again, I'll lay you out flat, little boy."

Jeffery stormed out leaving Ivan's following threat to fall on deaf ears. Ten minutes later, every mirror covered perfectly in blue paint, Caith and Tina left as well, Caith never ending his chain of curses even as he floated through the streets.

Nimh sat in a small room staring forward at a large painted-over mirror. An ornate golden trim held the accursed glass in place, but Nimh never took her eyes off the black paint. Below the mirror was a small pile of black shavings surrounding an empty paint can. The noise came again, as it did every time she had this dream.

Skrihk... skrihk... skrihk...

Three more shavings joined the pile. Then more. Then more.

Nimh woke up in her bed a couple hours later, confused and with a pounding headache and sore throat. Her ears felt as if someone had just tried to tear them off and she gingerly rubbed at them. Despite all this, her room was filled with the delicious smell of warm chocolate. She stood on shaky legs and walked out into her living room/kitchen and found Eicia cutting a tray of brownies with Caith and Tina sitting on the table talking to a rabbit man with a voice she recognized immediately.

"Jeffery?" Her busted throat croaked out.

"Nimhy! Sweetheart," Jeffery stood and immediately pulled her into a loose hug before leading her to a chair, "How're ya feelin', baby?"

"Like I got hit by a snorlax body slam," Her voice cracked constantly making some of the words come out as a whisper, "What happened?"

"Okay, first off, girl, you keep that mouth of yours shut except for food and tea cuz your voice needs some recovery time," Jeffery wagged his finger at her, "And it was another panic attack. It's been a long while, but your pokémon jumped to action, fast as always."

"Wh--"

"Ah-ah!" Jeffery corrected, pursing his lips and lifting his eyebrows before continuing, "You walked into a room of mirrors, but it's okay because that room is being taken down before you go back to work."

Nimh went to say something else, but an intense look from Jeffery made her close her mouth again. Eicia dropped a plate with two hot chocolate covered brownies and a cup of tea in front of her, patting her on the head gingerly. She ate slowly as she stared out the window, the sun dipping just below the trees. She tried to ignore the reflection on the window, but her eyes kept getting drawn to it.

"Nimh, I know it means nothing to say it," Jeffery said as he finished his own plate, "But the Shadow can't hurt you. I can promise you that. He's gone. Poof! All in your head, baby."

She nodded, but the reflection stared back at her.

"I have to get back to the center, but I wanted to stay until I knew you were okay," the rabbit man stood and kissed her on the head, "I love you, Nimh. Remember, if you ever need me, you text and I'll be here as fast as my old legs can carry me."

She nodded and hugged him before watching him walk slowly out of her apartment, grabbing a paper plate of brownies on his way out, but her attention went back to the faint reflection. The Shadow smiled at her and pressed his finger to his mouth in a shushing motion before mouthing something over and over at her. As if sensing her discomfort, Caith closed the curtain, covering the Shadow with thick canvas, "Purr. Espuuurrrr purr."

The small cat pokémon stood and walked over to her side of the table, laying his head on the front of her shoulder. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, "Thank you, Caith."

After a few seconds of letting Caith's purring sooth her, she felt as if the tea had flown through her--though it was more likely because she had been passed out for at least a couple hours and it _was_a hot day. She gave a gentle push with a quick explanation before she rushed to the bathroom, but she stopped as she flipped on the light, her breath catching in her chest again. Inside the sink just below the bathroom mirror was several dozen strips of duck tape.