FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Skye pulled her shirt and boots off the moment she and Ruki were inside, tossed the top and yesterday's outfit with her trainer one, and went to part the curtain nearly halfway to let some light in. With a sigh, she crawled into bed and rested her cheek on the pillow, slipping her hands under it. "What a day…" she mumbled.

She stretched her legs and aching calves. She still wanted to see where the stairs in the courtyard led to. Skye sat up and looked ahead at Ruki, who was sitting on the carpet while grooming himself. "Ruk'."

He stopped mid-lick and lowered his paw to look at her.

"I want to see where the courtyard's stairs take us. Want to come with?"

"Nih."

She grinned. "Okay. Give me some more time."

They rested for close to an hour before hunger set in and evening neared. Skye sat up on the bed, pushing strands of hair behind her ears and looking at Ruki napping beside her. "Baby…" She placed her hand on his side, shaking him lightly until he woke up.

"Did you get enough rest? You looked super tired today. Felt laggy?"

Ruki nodded.

She gasped playfully. "What was it? Some day fatigue, hm?"

Ruki nodded again, outstretching his legs.

"My poor baby. I saw you yawning. I felt a bit disoriented on our first night too. It's when my sleep was broken and I woke you up accidentally." Skye reached her hand and scritched his head. "I'm glad you're better, but better enough to go up the mystery stairs?" She watched him sit up within a second, making her giggle.

His curiosity and anticipation gauge was at max. Ruki would need a bit to build the required energy, though.

While he gathered himself, Skye went to her backpack to find a different shirt. There was no way she was putting on that tight safari one again.

Ruki watched her get into and zip up the thin white jacket she'd worn during the cruise from Alola, then go to the heater.

Skye glanced over the jacket and picked off any noticeable strands of Ruki's fur, then dialed the heater's temperature. "I'm gonna do this now so we can come back to a warm room."

Ruki got down from the bed and followed her out the door after she put on her white boots.

Low winds whistled against the suites and rustled bushes. Luckily, Skye had on her jacket, but it didn't prevent her from quaking since the air hit her hands and face. "It's up here."

She took a right from their suite and headed north toward a tan-colored building with a blue roof. Skye also spotted a pool at the far west end of the courtyard on the way with several people around it and a couple in the water. "Who gets in a pool in this kind of weather?"

Ruki caught whiffs of food as they approached; Skye pushed and opened the door when she got there, holding it open for him. This had to be a restaurant, which Ruki would be stoked about if so.

Plenty of people, mainly trainer types, sat at rows of wooden tables with napkin holders and salt and pepper shakers in what Skye now assumed was a restaurant as well.

A chubby, rugged, bearded man sat at a table with his garchomp while drinking a beverage from a can.

A group of what looked to be a biker gang occupied four seats around another, who'd stopped chatting and turned from their meals to look Skye and Ruki up and down after they entered. A couple of creepy grins followed.

Other tables had teens in extravagant outfits with hardened battle pokémon beside them. Most kept to themselves with their heads down, eating at plates.

Skye scoped it out and took furtive glances at everyone, then looked at the door behind her.

Ruki caught a lucario and cranidos eyeing him from across the room by the teens, along with others. He returned the two pokémons' solemn stares with just as much energy.

Slow rock reverberated off soft tan walls. The exterior looked more inviting, but inside was a different story.

Skye noticed a young man in a black suit with white hair standing by the entrance off to the side; he spoke after she looked at him.

"Oh, have you come to battle?" he asked.

"Battle?"

"Have you ever been to Seven Stars?"

"No, sorry... This is my first time in Sinnoh."

"Ah, well, while a restaurant, this is also a prime spot for trainers to engage in double battles."

"Oh, well, I don't–"

"And to have a meal—a free one… you would have to face the owners, Roman and Kylie, in a double battle."

"Huh?" What kind of restaurant was this? It was starting to sound more like a shady bar. "But, I… I don't have two pokémon." Something nudged her leg.

Ruki stared up at her. He would take on two opponents for Skye. He had no experience as a ninetales and not much in general besides what his mentor and friends had taught him back at home. This would be a grand opportunity to gain more.

"Hm. Hold, please." The man went through a door at the other end of the restaurant.

Skye watched him disappear and crouched by Ruki. "I don't think we should do this. You need to take it slow since you've just evolved, and I'm not dressed to battle," she said. "We don't need anything for free either, you know?"

"Nin." He still wanted to try. Battling for free food wasn't something to pass up. He also wanted to test himself and impress Skye.

"Gosh, I don't even have potions…"

The door opened, and Skye stood again when the man approached.

"So, I have good news. The owners said you may still battle them–if you choose."

"Uh." Skye looked down at Ruki, who gave her eyes that begged for a chance. "Mh, okay." She sighed. "We'll do it."

He gave a charming smile and motioned with his hand. "Right this way."

He led her and Ruki through the back door, a hot kitchen full of delicious smells, and finally to a decently sized indoor battlefield behind the restaurant with fake trees and short bushes planted along the edges. The floor was a light aqua with white lining separating both sides.

Skye assumed the older blue-haired man and woman on the field were the owners. He wore an open blazer and blue shirt while she was in a casual white dress with a pink underline.

He walked to her. "So, you would like to try your hand at battling my fiancé, Kylie, and me, right?"

"Uh, right. We'll try our best," Skye replied.

"Ready when you are." He walked back to where he stood prior.

She took a breath, leaning down to meet Ruki. "Remember, it's two against one. Look back at me if you want to give in," she stated. "I have faith in you. I'm just nervous, you know?"

Ruki walked with Skye to the opposing end of the field and stood some feet in front of her while she backpedaled to give him space.

Roman and Kylie released their adversaries, a girafarig and munchlax, beside each other on the field.

Ruki spread his hind legs, lowering his body into an offensive stance while shooting vigilant glances at both pokémon. He would have to look out for two attacks at a time while listening to Skye's every command. He kept his ears on alert.

"Iron tail!" Roman leaned in and called to his girafarig, bringing a fist up and pointing at Ruki.

His partner took a step forward and smirked. "Bodyslam and follow up with bite!"

Ruki followed both pokémon and caught the girafarig preparing to run first, at first training his eyes on it; following that was the munchlax readying to. His mentor hadn't touched often on two-on-one situations.

"Ruki!..." Skye called to get his attention as the girafarig began to run. "Uh, R-Ruki, out of the way. To the right!" She leaned over and pointed away. Skye had no battle stance, so she stood almost awkwardly.

He darted to the right, barely keeping his balance and nearly stumbling over his paws. While Ruki managed to dodge the girafarig's rear end and the abnormal tail he wanted nowhere near him, he'd thrown himself in the path of a body slam. Ruki braced before the munchlax slammed him with its belly; he bounced off and hit the ground with a huff, sliding on his side with a chafe as his fur brushed over the pavement.

He stopped far enough to reset the distance between them on the field.

"Ugh." Skye winced. "He'll get his revenge... Ruki, get up, dodge, and use ice beam on that munchlax!"

He shook the attack off and was back on all fours in seconds to see the munchlax running at him with its mouth agape. Ruki prepared the ice beam with a slacked maw. It cooled within a designated sack beside his stomach and traveled up his chest. He aimed it at the pokémon that had just attacked him, a spherical blue aura growing in size over his tongue that crackled while forming.

"Watch for that ice beam!" Kylie called.

Ruki twitched his ear. Wait, he knew what he could do here. He could condition the munchlax; that way, he'd know exactly what was coming.

He swayed to the left ever so slightly, turning his head in the same direction as if about to attack. The munchlax hopped to the right and threw itself at Ruki face-first; that was what he'd hoped for. He had learned mind games like that in one-on-one situations from his mentor years ago and couldn't believe it worked in a real battle. This was a casual battle, and the munchlax obviously didn't think in layers, but still.

Promptly, he dashed aside and aimed while the munchlax munched air and left itself wide open. He released the frigid thick beam that screeched at a smooth, gleaming high pitch, whiff punishing his opponent effectively. "Ni!" Its recoil pushed Ruki back on his paws, and the frozen projectile hit the munchlax point-blank in its face with enough power to knock it over.

"Nice, Ruki," Skye said under her breath. "Weather ball'll rid of it!" Ice beam was his strongest attack since she'd had him use it often as a vulpix on top of it being one of the strongest general ones an ice type can use when mastered. Weather ball came in second, with psyshock and ice shard following pertaining to Ruki's moveset pool. She didn't want to tire him out by having him repeatedly charge up an attack that could drain him.

Ruki watched the munchlax push itself up off the ground and dropped his maw as it did, bringing energy from within and creating a normal-type cloudy ball with an isolated windy whirr.

"Evade that weather ball and take another bite!" Kylie threw her hand up and shouted to her pokémon, then looked over at Roman. "Overwhelm that ninetales. We must attack at the same time."

Roman nodded. "Right." He glared at Ruki, who was focusing on her munchlax and about to attack. "Interrupt with psybeam! Quick!" he ordered his girafarig.

The girafarig opened its mouth and charged the projectile, which sounded like airy static while winding up, the inside of its mouth glowing a bright yellow. It aimed at Ruki's shoulder with a determined glint in its eyes.

Skye caught on quickly and saw that Ruki hadn't because he was tunneled on that munchlax. He couldn't do that when it was two versus one. "Ruki, look out! Watch both pokémon!"

He was about to shoot but stopped and looked ahead in time to see the outset of a yellow beam heading straight at him. Ruki then looked aside and saw that the munchlax had recovered and was lunging to bite him.

"Uhm, u-uh." Skye shifted her feet and held her temple. "Ruki, t-take the bite! Take it and attack the munchlax again!"

With less than a second to react, he held his weather ball and jumped at the munchlax, wincing as the girafarig's passing hot beam singed his fur. Ruki next braced and endured a vicious bite to the side of his neck. "Nnh," he grunted as the munchlax's fangs pierced his skin upon it chomping down.

He almost lost his weather ball. It started disintegrating, but Ruki reformed it after the munchlax spit him out on his side. However, the pokémon didn't stop there and darted at Ruki again shoulder-first, tackling his neck and rolling him over before he could recover.

"Nhi..." An acute, sharp pain shot up his neck and made him wince, dissipating his ball, but Ruki shook it off as best he could and shifted onto his stomach.

He pushed himself off his paws and darted at the munchlax, who grabbed Ruki's neck, but Ruki clenched his teeth, headbutted its chest with a snarl, then nudged it back and again reformed his ball while the munchlax stumbled to regain balance.

Ruki immediately shot the sphere at its head, which made a heavy plink upon impact.

"Lax!" Its head flew back on impact against the solid ball. It fell and hit the ground, completely still as the attack turned to smoke and vanished.

"Ugh, that was a smart play. What a scuffle." Kylie gritted her teeth and took out her pokéball to return her incapacitated munchlax. "It's weakened, Roman. You can end this."

"Of course," he replied.

Skye blew air from her mouth at the outcome. "Didn't know he had all of that in him." Then grinned a little. "...But I did."

Ruki stood and smirked with triumph, wiggling his tails while the munchlax was returned in a split-second flash of white. He tensed his neck and looked back to Skye with a paw raised.

"Ruki, the battle!" She pointed ahead.

Okay, okay. She was right. Rookie mistake. He set his paw on the ground and looked back to see the girafarig preparing to strike a second time. He'd missed its trainer call the attack, so he didn't know what it was until the pokémon darted at him abruptly.

"Zen headbutt, Ruki. Dodge that! Dodge it!"

That would be easier to do if he was prepared for a zen headbutt. Ruki did his best and attempted to roll to his left, but as he started to, the girafarig slammed headfirst into Ruki's.

"Arig!" Their heads connecting with such force made a loud, dull, shallow crack. It sounded twice as brutal compared to the weather ball fainting the munchlax.

The impact caused Ruki's chin to hit the ground below him and forced his hind legs upward as he slid back before collapsing. His tails hit the floor.

"F-uck. Noo, baby..." Skye gasped underneath a concerned exhale and covered her mouth after seeing him take such a horrifying knockdown. She slightly lowered her hand and took a step forward. "Ruki?"

His eyes were winced shut, teeth clenched, and his breathing stuttered while he trembled. He snorted on his next strained inhalation. He had never been hit that hard. "Ssntales..." Arceus, he really should have been paying attention. His head spun— throbbing.

Ruki slid his paw out in front of him and pressed it onto the ground until he found it in himself to get up. He opened one eye, keeping the other shut as everything was out of focus and distorted, including Skye's voice. Reality fluttered in his periphery. Ruki stood slowly, his legs shaking, and stumbled to the side before somewhat regaining his balance and composure.

Skye needed this to end, preferably with a conscious Ruki. She could stop the battle and spare her boy the pain, which tempted her, but this was his first true battle as a ninetales in a new region. He'd be a wreck if she took that from him. "Ruki… Ruki, ice shard! Use ice shard!"

That muffled feminine voice had to be Skye. Ice shard, she said. Ruki opened his mouth enough to form several sharp crystals emitting a frosty smoke. He somewhat made out the girafarig in front of him and tried his best to aim them.

Ruki's unstable movements kept his opponent guessing, and a second later, he expelled five solid pieces of flash-frozen ice in a spread-out manner that whistled like daggers.

The girafarig braced and was pelted by three of them, making it flinch. However, it still stood and was ordered to use psychic. It gave a sly smile.

"You can do it, Ruki," she whispered. "F-Finish with another ice beam!"

Ruki's vision had fallen back into place for the most part. A pink aura came toward and sat over him, mesmerizing to look at, almost, but it wouldn't help his headache. It encompassed him for several excruciating seconds, an intense migraine plaguing him.

"N-Nnhn..." He went rigid and shut his eyes while it pounded his head and threatened to faint him. He swayed on his paws, quivering and fighting to stay conscious until it faded, leaving him dizzier than before and resetting his vision. His eyes felt like they'd pop out of their sockets.

"End this with a double kick!" Roman called with a smirk, looking to finish Ruki off.

Skye's heart dropped. That would end this battle if it landed. She started to panic and raised her hands, clenching her fists. "Ruki, p-please, ice beam!" She didn't want them to lose. They couldn't. Ruki was too close, and it would kill her to watch him get knocked unconscious after enduring so much.

Ruki shook his head and, through muzzy vision, saw an out-of-focus pokémon darting at him. He opened his maw and half-charged an ice beam on the fly, waiting for his opponent to get close since he couldn't aim reliably in his current state.

The girafarig hopped and turned around in mid-air, raising its back leg and kicking Ruki between the eyes. A resounding echo of hoof hitting skull bounced off the walls, making Skye want to scream—but before it could deliver the second one, Ruki hit it in the chest with a forceful cold impact at point-blank, sending it flying back.

"R-Ri." It widened its eyes; its back hit the ground while it spun out, making it arch in response with gritted teeth.

"Impossible..." Roman muttered and peered at Ruki. "Surely, all it will take is a sneeze to faint it."

"Double team," Kylie whispered while watching and turned to Roman. "Roman, order double team. After zen headbutt, psychic, and a kick to the cranium, that snowflake has to be seeing double."

"Hm." He nodded. "Good idea. Let's wrap this up."

"Nnts..." Ruki groaned deeply and fell onto his side with a thud, huffing and having trouble breathing after taking another hefty blow to the head. His limbs jerked.

Skye gritted her teeth and put her arm over her head. "What the ffh..." She wanted to run to him again. There was no way she could be a trainer. How did they watch their babies take constant abuse? "Ruki, y-you have to get up and ice beam one more time! Please get up, baby!" Ice beam would be a gamble in his current state, but Ruki could take no more. "He'll land it... Come on."

The longer he lay there, the more the girafarig would recover. Ruki attempted bringing himself up multiple times to no avail. He stumbled and fell repeatedly, but after his fourth try, he stood and spread his legs enough to keep himself standing.

His head drooped, his eye was closed, and his paws slipped.

Roman put one foot forward. "Hurry! Use double team and follow with psybeam!" he shouted.

Ruki watched his opponent glow and create a clone of itself. It was beyond difficult to decipher which was real while disoriented and on the edge of fainting.

Skye let her arms fall beside her and watched the scene in silence. She had nothing. She had no more orders for Ruki, no more help. It was up to him to land one more ice beam on the correct girafarig.

Ruki went on to create another weak ice beam as the girafarig started charging a powerful psybeam. He'd shoot first. The girafarig must be confident in its double. He barely aimed his attack, shooting a thin, cold beam from his mouth at the girafarig standing on the right and nearly falling over from its recoil.

The girafarig dodged it. Just before the beam disintegrated, he slightly repositioned his aim and hit the girafarig with enough of the attack to knock it over.

Ruki fainted.

---

He opened his eyes and looked around until they found Skye sitting in front of him.

"You did it." She spoke tenderly and reached to place her hand on top of his head. "Roman gave you a max revive." Skye grinned. She had to admit she was surprised Ruki had outplayed and took out both pokémon in his new form.

There was no technical bearing in what moves he knew how to use most effectively, at least on Skye's end. She'd had him perform what visually appealed to her back then in battles and during training sessions. She hadn't known the ins and outs of teaching pokémon specific moves either. She'd researched a few to teach Ruki, but it sometimes took a week or longer of trial and error for him to catch on and understand how to draw the ability from within his stores, and he sometimes never caught on, resulting in Skye giving up.

However, Ruki's mentor trained him with a competitive mindset and edge, focusing on a group of four moves. He knew precisely how to teach them to Ruki through years of experience and techniques the internet wouldn't tell her. Under his mentor's direction, Ruki learned moves in a couple of days and became effective at controlling and putting astounding power into them in a couple of more.

Roman had gone into the kitchen to break the news to the chefs after the battle. He approached Skye from behind after a few minutes. "As promised, you've earned your free seven-course meal. Your pokémon is well-trained and channels his offense exceptionally. That is truly a ninetales with potential."

Technically, the battle's result was a tie, as both Ruki and the girafarig had fainted simultaneously.

Skye stood and turned to him. "S-Seven course?"

He nodded. "That's the reward."

That would be the most food they'd ever received in one sitting. "Is there a way we could take it to go?"