Human Sacred Sword Of Justice

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter One: To Be A Sword Of Justice​

Alexiane

As usual, mine and my brother’s morning began with a sparring match with Virizion-onee-san. It was Keldeo's stupid Idea— Keldeo wanted to be a Sword of Justice now, and not have to wait despite the fact that he couldn’t manifest his sword yet. Well, I couldn’t either, but I knew that it would take time— After all, I was the only human ever to be raised by the legendary Swords of Justice, the peacekeepers of the Unova Region.

Rolling my eyes, I extended my senses like Cobalion-nii-sama had taught me. Sure enough, moving swiftly and silently through the grass was Virizion-onee-sama. I whirled around my wooden training sword in hand, long hair becoming a swift blond curtain behind me, meeting my sister’s attack head on as she jumped over Keldeo’s water blast. I had to have a training sword because I didn’t have a body part that could act as a sword, like Keldeo’s horn. Both of my older brothers as well as my sister had taught me to treat a good sword with respect.

“Keldeo, Alexiane,” Onee-sama praised, smiling. “You did well detecting my presence.”

Keldeo smirked. “I listened to the voice of the grass. The grass and I are friends now, Virizion!”

I grinned. “I felt you. I sensed you, just like Nii-sama taught me.”

“Excellent.” Our sister decided, smirking.

Keldeo ran at her. “Here I come!”

I braced myself and charged my legs with energy, preparing to chase after her when, not if, she made a break for it and disappeared into the grass. Sure enough . . .

“Catch me if you can!” Onee-san taunted, taking off. This was her favorite tactic.

I nodded and slung my sword across my back— it would only get in the way if I kept it in my hand. I charged after my Water Type twin and our older sister. While I did wish that Keldeo wasn’t so impulsive, nothing I did could or would change him.

Virizion-onee-san, Terrakion-aniki, and Cobalion-nii-sama took Keldeo and I in when we were both very young— I was only a year or so old and Keldeo was the Legendary Pokémon equivalent of the same. Because of that, we were raised as twins by the Swords.

She fired off a Razor Leaf at us. Keldeo just stood there and took it. I raised my sword and called up a barrier. Keldeo fired a Water Pulse at her, but I knew the battle was over the minute she called her sword. She could just slice right through it.

“Sword versus sword!” Keldeo announced, focusing and trying to call his own sword. As usual, it didn’t work and Virizion-onee-san beat us soundly. Onee-san fifty, Keldeo and me, none.

And that ended morning training the same way it always did: with our sound defeat. But that was okay— because Nii-sama told me that there was more to be learned in defeat than in victory, and that the only true defeat came when you didn’t learn anything from your battle. It was a lesson my dear idiotic Water Type twin had yet to learn, despite all the times he’d had his ass soundly kicked by our guardians and older siblings. How astonishing. I swore that there wasn’t a being on the entire planet as rash and impatient as Keldeo.

It had actually gotten to the point that Nii-sama wouldn’t even spar with my idiotic twin brother anymore, because Keldeo just wouldn’t learn anything from his numerous defeats. To my immense surprise (note the sarcasm) Keldeo learned nothing from our morning training with Onee-san and instead went straight to challenging Terrakion-aniki. Was he dense, or just plain stupid?

I wondered if he ever learned anything.

I snorted. “For the love of!” I groaned, throwing my hands up in the air. “Did you learn anything from morning training? Even Virizion-onee-san, who is— arguably— the weakest of the three, could beat our butts soundly without even trying.” I shot an apologetic glance up at the spot where Onee-sama and Nii-sama were watching. “No offence, Onee-san.”

She shook her head. “None taken.” What Onee-san lacked in pure power, she made up for in cunning and tactics. Because of that, she was nearly as dangerous of an opponent as Nii-sama. The only thing that made Nii-sama more dangerous to battle against was the fact that he had both Aniki’s pure power and Onee-sama’s impressive mind.

“I will admit that I’m slightly surprised you are taking part in this battle, Alexiane, because you clearly want no part of it.” Nii-sama added.

I shrugged by way of response, jerking a thumb in my idiot twin’s direction. “Someone’s got to keep the idiot grounded.” And given that we were twins, that someone was unfortunately basically always going to be me. Even though I really would have rather just let him learn how to Stop Being Stupid on his own. Honestly, I would have rather left my twin to learn by the Cobalion School of Tough Love, but as I told Nii-sama, someone had to keep Keldeo grounded.

My eldest brother snorted. “Indeed.” My idiot twin evidently didn’t hear, so intent on his battle with Aniki. I rolled when eyes when Aniki was kicked into a boulder, jumping in to defend Keldeo, knowing that Aniki would activate his sword in three, two, one . . .

Gotcha. I thought dryly as Aniki began glowing orange, lifting the boulder with his head. “Hey Keldeo,” I called. “Out of the way.”

I drew my wooden training sword and waited cautiously as Aniki’s sword appeared.

While that did mean all my dreams of actually winning a battle had just gone down the river, it was like Nii-sama said: there was more to be learned in defeat than in victory.

If you found yourself winning all the time, then it meant that you probably weren’t challenging strong enough opponents.

Keldeo paid me no heed and charged Aniki instead. Wonderful. Commence Keldeo getting his ass kicked. For what must have been the thousandth time.

I sighed, biting back a groan at Keldeo’s tactics. Couldn’t he ever just be patient? There were times when I had more sense than my idiot brother, and Keldeo was supposed to be a Legendary! I wondered what it said about me when I had more sense than a Legendary Pokémon. Because, really? That was just sad.

Good grief. I sighed. Why, why, why— why I ask you in the name of Arceus must my idiot twin be so impatient? He seriously could do with learning one of Nii-sama’s lessons in patience.

I had once been like Keldeo in that I wanted to be a Sword of Justice now. But Nii-sama, thankfully, had pulled me aside one morning after training and told me that if I didn’t learn to be more patient, if I didn’t realize that there was more to being strong than battling, then I would never be a true Sword of Justice, no matter how hard I trained, and I would almost certainly never be able to manifest my sword. Damn had that been a wake-up call.

He told me that a Sword of Justice didn’t fight and train for the glory or the power, but because helping others was what a Sword of Justice did. I wasn’t sure why exactly Nii-sama hadn’t given that talk to Keldeo, but I supposed it was because he wouldn’t take it well from them. He’d take it better coming from Terrakion-aniki rather than Nii-sama.

I had taken Nii-sama’s words to heart and actually started writing my own oath to take when I finally became a full member. That is, if I could ever manage to manifest my sword. I couldn’t exactly be a Sword of Justice if I couldn’t even create a sword.

As expected, Keldeo and I got our asses kicked.

But my idiot twin wouldn’t stop there— I was beginning to think that his intention was to become a Bash N’ Whacker (a term that Onee-san had used on more than one occasion to describe those who charged headlong into battle without thinking first).

“Cobalion! Let’s battle!” Keldeo challenged later that night as Nii-sama ran through the forest.

“Keldeo,” I scolded. “The storm’s about to get worse! There are more important things to worry about than your desire to battle!”

“I agree. The storm is only going to get worse.” Nii-sama told Keldeo.

“I don’t care!” Keldeo retorted. Nii-sama ignored my idiot twin and ran ahead as lightning struck a few nearby trees. A burning tree fell in front of me, and for a second I panicked— I couldn’t just jump over it and I didn’t have any attacks that could put the fire out.

However, Nii-sama’s sharp voice broke through my fear. “Alexiane, calm down. Focus. Your fear does not control you.” And that was a reprimand if I ever heard one.

I took a deep breath. “You’re right.” I gripped my training sword and a pair of yellow wings appeared on either side of my feet. “Flier Fin!” I pushed off with one foot and took to the skies. “I’ll keep a lookout from the skies!” I called.

A tree fell in front of Keldeo and he broke it with his horn.

“You’re reckless.” Nii-sama scolded.

“No I’m not!” Keldeo protested, shooting water out of his hooves to put out the fire. “I won’t let anything defeat me!” He fired a Water Pulse at Nii-sama, who casually dodged.

“Good grief.” I sighed. I was seriously tempted to whack my idiot twin upside the head with my training sword. That attitude of his needed a major adjustment.

Nii-sama summoned his sword. Keldeo smirked and charged him, only for Nii-sama to casually dodge every attack, hardly even taking a step.

“When will you let me battle Kyurem?!” Keldeo demanded. He lunged at Nii-sama, but was hurled into a tree by Nii-sama’s sword. “I wanna be a Sword of Justice! Let me battle Kyurem!”

I flashed a few handsigns at Nii-sama: he’s going to challenge Kyurem anyway, whether or not you give the okay. I don’t think Aniki’s had that talk with him yet. He still doesn’t get that being a Sword of Justice requires patience and dedication, something he clearly lacks.

Nii-sama nodded, and in return gave me a sigh. I know. I can only hope that he does not challenge Kyurem too soon. I translated.

Forcing that out of our minds for the time being, we helped the Pokémon who needed help and returned home for the night. The next morning, Onee-san, Nii-sama, and Aniki were all discussing whether or not to let us battle Kyurem.

“What do you think?” Onee-san inquired of Cobalion.

“Keldeo has gotten pretty strong.” Aniki added. “And so’s Alexiane.”

“Do you think we should allow a battle with Kyurem?” Onee-san questioned pensively.

“No.” Nii-sama said firmly. “Both of them are still unable to use their swords.” And he had a point, one that Onee-san agreed with. “Once the true weight of the sword is learned, and able to be used, then they will be able to become Swords of Justice.”

“Always the cautious one, aren’t you, Cobalion?” Aniki asked rhetorically. I didn’t know why he bothered to ask; Nii-sama was the leader of the Swords, and he was a well-respected Pokémon. Pokémon from all over the Unova Region, and even some from other regions, came to him for his advice because he was known for being fair to a fault, and wasn’t ruled by his emotions unlike others might be. I thought it was the Steel Type in him. He certainly wasn’t ruled by the Fighting Type in him, that was for sure.

Unlike a certain other half-Fighting Pokémon that I could name.

Keldeo raced over to them; apparently he’d been eavesdropping. Granted, I was listening in as well, but I was allowed to listen in as long as I didn’t try to pass judgement myself; that was a right reserved for full members of the Swords. As for Adrien, he was probably around here somewhere, listening from afar and storing everything away for potential future blackmail on Keldeo when he got too annoying. That was Adrien’s main method of dealing with out idiot triplet. “I heard everything you said!” He burst out. “What do you mean, weight of my sword?”

“Well, you see,” Aniki began before Nii-sama cut him off. Onee-san told him that he had to think for himself and Aniki sheepishly told Keldeo he didn’t really know himself. Keldeo declared that he was going to battle Kyurem, and Nii-sama told him no. Keldeo protested that it was why he had been working so hard. He thought he was ready to battle even the strongest Pokémon, which he quite obviously wasn’t. The strongest Pokémon was Arceus-sama, and Keldeo certainly wasn’t ready to battle with the God of all Pokémon.

I bopped him with my training sword. “Don’t be dumb!” I scolded. “There’s no way either of us are ready. That sort of thinking is just plain arrogant!” Our older siblings and guardians all agreed: we weren’t ready. But that night, Keldeo got an Idea— he was going to go battle Kyurem on his own, despite the fact that Nii-sama hadn’t given his okay.

And I could only hope that he’d let me follow him.

 

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter Two: The Battle With Kyurem​

Alexiane

“Keldeo!” I hissed as my twin left his nest to go find Kyurem. “This is insane! You know we don’t stand a chance against Kyurem! He’s one of the strongest Pokémon out there, even stronger than the Swords of Justice! If we can’t even beat Nii-sama, Onee-san, and Aniki, what makes you think we could possibly beat Kyurem?! We’re not ready yet!”

“We’ll be fine.” Keldeo dismissed.

I snorted, rolling my eyes. “If you say so. But I hope you know that I’m only coming along to make sure you don’t get your ass beat too badly.”

“If you’re really that scared, go home and train some more, and maybe you won’t be too scared in a hundred years or so.” The Water Type I called my brother grumbled, and I bopped him on the head with my ever-effective Bokken. “Hey! What was that for?!”

I glared at him. “What the hell do you think it’s for?” I demanded. I would have put my hands on my hips were it not for the fact that we were moving. “You may be a Legendary, but I’m still your twin. Don’t assume that you know better than me just because of it. We’ve had exactly the same training, have been raised exactly the same way. I know how you think and how you feel, and believe me, I want to be A Sword of Justice just as much as you do. That’s why I work so hard at training. But wouldn’t it be more worth it to wait for it? To work hard for it with blood sweat and tears, and to feel that great rush of triumph when you finally get it, knowing that you earned it? That you can hold your head up and say that you deserve the title?”

Keldeo debated for a few minutes. “Maybe you’re right.” He admitted at last. “But we’ve come way too far just to turn back now. Kyurem is up there and I’m going to challenge him.”

I sighed. “Alright, then. I’ll follow you.” I was just glad I left a note explaining what happened and why I was following Keldeo. I couldn’t very well let my twin go and face Kyurem by himself. No matter how much Keldeo vexed me, he was still my twin, and I still had to look out for him. Even if it meant willingly walking into the Dragon’s Den for a very stupid reason. I thought it was kind of a case of Catch Twenty Two: damned if you, damned if you don’t. So, reluctantly, I choose damned if I did. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Don’t worry.” Keldeo reassured me. “We’ll be fine. I promise.”

I wasn’t so sure we would be okay, and I thought that Keldeo’s voice might have had just a hint of uncertainty in it, but I decided not to call him on it— if it really was there, he definitely wouldn’t appreciate it and if it wasn’t he would most assuredly Not Be Amused.

I took one look at the abandoned mine where Kyurem waited. “I’ll ask you one more time, Keldeo,” I began seriously. “Are you ready for this?”

“I’m ready.” The idiot Water Type I had the unfortunate displeasure of calling my twin replied confidently. “We’ll beat Kyurem for sure.”

I snorted. “Don’t count on it.”

I thought my twin was being cocky, something Nii-sama always warned against, but there wasn’t anything I could do to stop him from being cocky.

We entered the old abandoned mine and made our way down to what appeared to be the arena. All the while, the Cryogonal circled us, talking in their own language, which I couldn’t understand— I may have been raised by Pokémon, but they were telepathic. They never spoke to me in their native language (hell, I wasn’t sure they even spoke to eachother in their native language; they certainly hadn’t where I could hear, at any rate). Maybe I’d ask Nii-sama for lessons when we got out of this mess.

If we got out of this mess, anyway.

We entered the abandoned mine, and I started to get a really bad feeling about this. I wished that Keldeo wasn’t so impatient, but unfortunately, my twin was one of the most impatient Pokémon on the face of the Earth. Unlike Nii-sama, Onee-san, and even Aniki, Keldeo let the Fighting type in him rule him completely, making him rash and reckless, cocky and impatient.

While I wished he wouldn’t be, Keldeo was Keldeo, and nothing I did could or would change that. It was just the way he was. And it wasn’t my place to change it. All I could do was accept it and try to keep him from getting himself killed. And idly wish he could embrace the Water Type in him just a little bit more instead of letting the Fighting Type rule him completely.

We came to an area that seemed to be a perfect circle. A perfect place for an arena. We leapt down onto the path that led to the arena, and then Keldeo called out “Come on out, Kyurem! Our names are Keldeo and Alexiane, and we’re here to challenge you to a battle!”

We heard a roaring sound.

I gasped. “Aniki.”

“Do you think you are worthy of challenging me?” Kyurem’s voice rumbled from deep inside the mine. Where it was coming from, I couldn’t tell.

“Worthy?” Keldeo echoed faintly.

“Well do you?” The great dragon demanded. The area became awash in an icy mist.

Keldeo shook himself. “I—” He stammered. “My sister and I are Swords of Justice!”

“Keldeo!” I hissed. He had now effectively made it so that I couldn’t correct him without looking like I was trying to save my own ass. Hadn’t Nii-sama always told us that once said, something couldn’t be unsaid? Another lesson that Keldeo either forgot or didn’t care about because it wasn’t about fighting. But there was more to being strong than battling. Really, just how many of Nii-sama’s lessons had he disregarded because they weren’t about battling?

Kyurem seemed to laugh. “Swords of Justice? Very well, then.” His eyes glowed yellow as he lumbered into view. I felt a shiver run down my spine. This was no practice spar where the second I lost I’d be told good job and here’s what you did wrong, train some more and let’s go again. No, this was a real battle. An archway made of ice appeared in front of us, interrupting my thoughts and making me worry even more. “Step through the gate.”

Reluctantly, we did so. I raised my Bokken and brought it up into a basic guard position. A ring of ice pillars shot up from the ground to form an arena.

Keldeo made the first move. He started by shooting water from his hooves, and I added lightning to that. It was counted by Kyurem shooting ice at the attack and freezing it before it ever reached him. We tried attack after attack, combination after combination, but nothing worked. Everything we threw was blocked, dodged, or countered. I wasn’t sure when it was that Aniki, Nii-sama, and Onee-san showed up, but they showed up and I knew I was going to be in so much trouble if we got out of this mess. Probably Keldeo more than me, but I was still going to be in big trouble. Especially with Nii-sama, who expected better of me.

Kyurem asked if we were giving up already. Keldeo just had to go and open his big fat mouth.

“Never!” Keldeo declared. “I am a Sword of Justice!”

“You most certainly are not!” I hissed. “Just surrender and let’s go home already.”

“Why don’t you surrender?” My twin shot back, making my eye twitch in a manner eerily reminiscent of Nii-sama. “Maybe in a hundred years you won’t be too scared.”

Oh, he did not just say that. I was going to get him for that so bad later.

“You are so getting bopped for that later.” I muttered, and threw up a Defenser Plus as Kyurem tried to hit us with a Shadow Claw attack or something similar. I tried to hit the Legendary Ice Dragon with a lightning attack, but I was blocked. Damn it, not good. What could we do from here? How in the world could we make it out of this unscathed?

Kyurem lashed out with the same attack, and I wasn’t fast enough to throw up a shield this time, resulting in Keldeo’s horn getting broken and him losing his nerve. Aniki and the other Swords of Justice tried to defend us, but Kyurem froze them. Keldeo ran out of the arena, not even bothering to surrender, and the arch collapsed. I tried to defend him, only to get my sword broken and the remaining guard— the piece still remaining aside from the hilt— frozen into an unfamiliar shape, one I wasn’t used to at all. How would I make this work?

I felt a wave of fury as I ran out after him, no doubt coming from Kyurem.

I knew this wasn’t a good idea, and now things were only going to get worse.

 

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter Three: Meeting Ash, Iris, And Cilan​

Alexiane

I hurried to follow Keldeo, hoping that Kyurem wouldn’t come after us for running away. I knew he probably would, though, and was admittedly scared to death of what would happen when he inevitably found us. It wasn’t going to be pretty, that much was for sure.

What would happen to us when Kyurem found us? What would he do to us? Would he kills us? Imprison us? What would he do to us for lying to him? I might not have lied directly, but I lied by omission, by not telling him that I’m actually not a Sword of Justice because I didn’t want to look like I was just covering my own ass. But what was I supposed to do? Keldeo had to go and shoot his mouth off and say we were Swords of Justice, and I was sure Kyurem would think I was covering my ass if I tried to contradict the idiot. What did I do to deserve such an impatient brother who couldn’t understand that the older Swords kept telling us no for a reason?

When Keldeo got better, I was going to smack him. None of this would have happened if Keldeo hadn’t gotten it into his head that he was ready to be a Sword of Justice now. If he hadn’t gone and gotten the stupid idea that he was ready to be a Sword of Justice now, none of this would have happened. And we wouldn’t be running away from a furious Legendary Dragon Pokémon.

And I was also going to tell him ‘I told you so’ loudly, repeatedly, and best of all truthfully.

We kept running— well, Keldeo ran, I followed— until we came to a hillside which we slid down rather involuntarily in Keldeo’s case and my brother was just able to jump onto the car of a passing train just before it left. I quickly looked around to make sure no one was within earshot, and the placed my hands on Keldeo, beginning to sing as I focused on a soothing, healing sensation that would hopefully heal Keldeo and keep him calm while I did.

“Flower, gleam and glow,
Let your power shine;
Make the clock reverse.
Bring back what once was mine.”

I called upon my Aura, just like Nii-sama taught me, and let it flow into my brother, hoping that this would heal him enough that I could move him way from here where humans might find him and try to capture him. Yes, I know I’m a human too. But unlike other humans, I would never try to capture my brother. Hell, I’m probably never even going to touch a Pokéball.

“Heal what has been hurt,
Change the Fates’ design;
Save what has been lost.
Bring back what once was mine;
What once was mine . . .”

Some of the burns and scratches disappeared but I wasn’t able to heal all of Keldeo’s injuries.

“Thanks for the help, Sis.” Keldeo murmured.

I sighed. “Don’t thank me yet. I could barely heal anything, even after all that practice I’ve had with Onee-san and Nii-sama.” I heard a voice behind me and turned to see a Pikachu. Scanning it briefly, I narrowed my eyes as I saw it belonged to a Trainer, seeing the fingerprint of a Pokéball on its Aura. “Back off, Trained Pokémon.” I snapped. “My brother is injured and off limits. We haven’t the time for your Trained Pokémon nonsense. So now if you are at all a sensible Trained Pokémon, you will leave us alone while my brother recovers.”

“Excuse me, miss, but we don’t mean any harm.” A green haired human tried to placate.

I snorted. “And how do I know you speak no lies to my face?” I countered, slipping into the formal speech patterns that Nii-sama used, which I usually used in a new situation. “My eldest brother has a saying ‘often, actions speak louder than words.’ So show me that you tell the truth. Prove to me that you do not tell me a lie to my face and scheme behind my back.”

The girl and boy looked confused. “What?” The boy said, puzzled, looking at the green haired young man. “Cilan, do you know what she just said?”

“She isn’t sure whether or not we’re telling the truth,” The young man I assumed was named Cilan translated. “She wants us to prove that we are with what we do. She wants to make sure we’re not lying to her face and planning to capture that Pokémon behind her back.”

Well, at least someone actually decoded my formal speak.

This elicited an “Oh” of understanding from the younger humans.

“Exactly.” I agreed. “Now leave, and let me tend to my brother in peace.”

“There’s no time for that.” Keldeo cut in, trying and failing to sound authoritative.

“What’s wrong, Keldeo?” I asked, concerned. “Why don’t we have time for you to heal?”

“Kyurem is coming.” He answered, forcing himself into a rather unsteady standing position.

I grimaced. “Not good.” I turned back to the humans. “I recommend you leave immediately.”

“What do you mean?” The black haired boy demanded. “Why the heck should we leave?!”

I sighed. “Because Kyurem is a Legendary Pokémon, stronger even than all my siblings.”

“Just go, before you get hurt too.” Keldeo added with what little strength he could.

“Now go away.” I added firmly. “I will not say it again— leave us this instant.”

“But we’re not going to hurt you!” The younger boy protested. “Really!”

“Nii-sama always says actions speak louder than words.” I retorted. “And you haven’t proven it. Besides, you cannot beat Kyurem. If my siblings could not beat Kyurem, you most certainly cannot.” I threw a contemptuous look at the Pokéballs on their belts.

“Who are your siblings?” The girl wanted to know. I just snorted; like I was going to tell them. I ignored her question and turned my thoughts towards how to make them go away without telling anyone about Keldeo.

Before I could make them go away, Kyurem appeared and leapt onto the train. Well hell. This was not good at all. I drew my broken Bokken and held it out in front of me, calling on my Aura to try to create a sword. One seemed like it started to form, but then it lost its shape. Damn it! I was so close to my sword finally forming! But how could I possibly defend Keldeo against Kyurem if I couldn’t even manifest a proper sword? Especially if I had to worry about these Trainers and their Trained Pokémon too? Just because they said they wouldn’t try to capture Keldeo didn’t mean I believed them. Humans, after all, were capable of lying and betrayal. Pokémon didn’t really have that instinct. Theoretically they could but the odds were so low that it wasn’t even worth mentioning. The whole train, starting with the car we were standing on, started ice to over just from Kyurem’s presence. The black haired boy on one side and me on the other, we managed to haul Keldeo out of the way. We ducked into a car probably meant to hold something, but Kyurem still found us. The younger boy demanded to know why Kyurem kept attacking them (never mind that it was Keldeo and I he was attacking, not the humans) but didn’t get an answer. It was only when the train passed though a tunnel that we were in the clear. At least for the time being.

The green haired Trainer took a look at Keldeo, and the others did the same. “It’s obviously really weak.” Black Hair mentioned. He told Keldeo to hang on, and that they’d get help in the city. It was at that point that I decided to take matters into my own hands.

“Out of the way.” I grumbled, shoving them aside. I knelt down over my brother, summoning up what little Aura I Had left after everything today.

Placing my hands over him, I took a breath. “What are you doing?” Bushy Hair asked, leaning closer. I ignored her.

“Flower, gleam and glow,
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse;
Bring back what once was mine.”

Some of my idiot brother’s injuries began to disappear, but given that I was running on fumes, there wasn’t much I could do. This was about everything I could do for now.

“Heal what has been hurt,
Change the fates’ design,
Save what has been lost.
Bring back what once was mine;
What once was mine . . .”

“Incredible!” Green Hair gasped. “What was that?”

“That,” I answered. “Was the ancient Healing Song that will let you heal anyone you choose with your Aura, provided you have enough. However, given that I am currently running on fumes, it does not work as it is meant to.” I threw a dirty look in Keldeo’s direction. “If someone had not decided that he wanted to be a Sword of Justice now, we would not be in this mess in the first place, and we would not have Kyurem chasing us!” Honestly, Keldeo was such an idiot. “You are so lucky to have a twin who cares about you.” I muttered in his direction. “I mean it.”

No one seemed to quite know what to make of that. Thankfully, true to their word, the Trainers didn’t try to capture Keldeo. Well, small miracles, I suppose. They took him to the Pokémon Center where the nurse on duty scanned him. She mentioned that his horn had been broken recently. She turned back to the rest of us. “So what happened?”

“As I’m sure you know, Keldeo and I were raised by the Swords of Justice and are in training as future Swords ourselves. Keldeo, the idiot, decided that he couldn’t wait, he had to be a Sword of Justice now. So he went and challenged Kyurem. He attacked Kyurem, but it got deflected and his horn broke off for his trouble.” I sighed. “All this because someone couldn’t just wait like Nii-sama told us to. I told him this was a bad idea, but did he listen? No . . .”

“So, wait, who are the Swords of Justice?” Black Hair asked.

“A group of three Pokémon who devoted themselves to helping people and Pokémon alike.” I answered. “My older siblings: Terrakion-aniki, a Rock and Fighting Type who has the most brute strength and power. Virizion-Onee-san, a Grass and Fighting Type, cunning and compassionate, she has the most flexibility of the Swords. Finally, my idol, Cobalion-nii-sama, the leader of the Swords of Justice. A Steel and Fighting Type, he’s a perfect balance of Virizion-Onee-san and Terrakion-aniki. He’s also the one who decides when the two of us are ready to move onto the next level of our training. In this case, being ready to face Kyurem and become full Swords of Justice. But since neither of us can use our swords yet, he didn’t give the okay. Keldeo decided that he didn’t care and wanted to be a Sword of Justice now, so he went to challenge Kyurem. I mostly went along to keep him out of trouble, even if it didn’t work.”

The nurse smiled at me. “Alexiane, right? Keldeo’s twin and the only human ever to be raised by a Pokémon, much less a group of Legendaries like the Swords of Justice.”

I nodded. “That’s right. They found me when I was really young. No one knows what happened to my parents or where I came from, but they decided to raise me alongside Keldeo when it was clear that my missing parents wouldn’t be found.”

“So, is that your name? Alexiane?” Busy hair questioned.

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

“So what was up with that formal speak earlier?” She questioned. “I mean, you sound a lot different now than you did earlier.”

“I do that in new situations. Nii-sama— uh, Cobalion, that’s what I call him— talks like that all the time. Onee-san, that’s Virizion, tends more towards the formal side of things, while Aniki is more informal than formal.” I explained. “Call it an automatic response. I’m the closest to Nii-sama out of all the Swords, so I tend to emulate him. Especially in new situations.”

“Huh.” Black Hair said. “Well, I’m Ash, and this is Pikachu.”

“I’m Iris, and this Axew.” Bushy Hair introduced.

“And my name is Cilan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Green Hair finished. I nodded back and went to check on Keldeo. He was discharged, and we all went outside. We sat for a while, and then Ash brought up the topic of what happened.

“So Keldeo, what exactly happened?” Ash wanted to know. “I mean, Alexiane told us a little bit, but I wanna hear it from you.”

Keldeo wouldn’t look the younger boy in the eyes. “I challenged it to a battle.” He admitted after several seconds of staring at the ground. Upon confirming that yes, he did mean Kyurem, he continued. “I wanna become a Sword of Justice.”

“To become a full-fledged Sword, you have to battle Kyurem.” I put in. “Nii-sama, Onee-san, and Aniki kept telling us that we weren’t ready. Keldeo wouldn’t listen.”

“But, as the battle started, I got scared.” He spat the word out. “And because of me, the Swords of Justice were all frozen in ice by Kyurem. And then I— I ran away!” He ran over to a nearby fountain and stuck his head into it. Ash wanted to know about the Swords of Justice, but as you might expect, they were still trapped. Kyurem was probably furious with us for running away.

“I tried telling him it was a bad idea.” I added. “But he didn’t listen.”

Keldeo snorted. “I didn’t want to listen.” He corrected.

Ash bounded over to my twin and bent over to look him in the eyes. “Keldeo, you still scared? Tell me.” Keldeo didn’t understand, but Ash continued “You can’t keep being scared just because you got beat! Remember who you wanna be!”

“I’m not scared of anything! I’m gonna go and save the Swords of Justice right now!” My idiot twin announced. I promptly bopped him with my Bokken for his stupidity. “Ow! What was that for?! I didn’t do anything to deserve that!”

I snorted. “To echo Nii-sama, you’re reckless. Not being scared of anything is just plain stupid. Also, are you sure you’re fully healed?”

“It’s okay.” Ash said. “The point is that he’s not scared anymore! So I’ll go with you guys to help you free the Swords of Justice!” And Iris and Cilan quickly gave their agreement. Despite my earlier misgivings, I smiled; maybe these humans weren’t so bad. Ash and Keldeo were about ready to go charging off the save the Swords, and Iris wasn’t far behind but thankfully, Cilan intervened and suggested that we all eat before we go on our rescue mission.

He brought out the Darumaka Boxed Lunches that they had bought earlier, and there were enough for everyone to have two. Cilan offered me an extra one, because unlike Pokémon, humans needed a lot energy to pull off Aura attacks like I did. He cited that there was an extra, and I probably needed it more than anyone else. I thanked him profusely and dug in. Keldeo and Ash both started devouring their food, only to choke as they forgot to swallow.

I snorted and hurled a weak magic blast in my idiot twin’s direction, and then slid a water bottle over to him. Gratefully, he downed it in one swallow.

“Thanks, sis.” He said, grinning.

I rolled my eyes. “Idiot.” I muttered. We finished our food and packed up, and then started towards the old mine where Kyurem lived. Unfortunately, the water feature near us started to ice over, and that could only mean one thing— Kyurem was here, and he was furious because we ran away earlier. I had no idea if we could realistically take him.

Our skills hadn’t changed in the several hours it had been since our ill-fated first battle. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that I could really defeat a Legendary Pokémon stronger than my siblings with the meager training I’d had so far.

I still had so much to learn— how could we possibly survive this? Was there any way to survive?

Cryogonal started circling us, seemingly chattering at us in their language (really needed to ask Nii-sama for lessons), and Keldeo warned the Trainers to be careful because they were friends of Kyurem. I raised my Bokken and tried to focus on a sword, but just when it seemed like it had formed, it fizzled out and vanished. I almost had it!

My idiot twin shot an Icebeam at the Cryogonal, and we ran for it.

If we could just evade Kyurem and the Cryogonal long enough to reach the abandoned mine where our siblings were, then maybe we had a chance of surviving.

But if not, there was no way we would ever see the other Swords of Justice again, and it would be all our fault, every last little bit.

No, I couldn’t think like that! I had to figure out a way to free the Swords.

One way or another, I would free the Swords of Justice. We would make it out of here alright. And we would see our siblings again.

Because I was going to make sure of it.

 

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter Four: Back To Kyurem’s Lair​

Alexiane

We kept running, even when we were attacked by White Kyurem, and then Black Kyurem. We took a bit of a wrong turn and got briefly separated from Cilan and Iris, and Keldeo used the jets in his hooves to blast the Cryogonal and lift Ash and Pikachu out of the way. I focused on my Aura and used it to create a pair of royal blue wings on my feet. I had to grab Pikachu at one point because he was barely holding onto Keldeo’s tail, and water jet flight was not exactly very steady. In fact, at one point Keldeo nearly lost control and Ash was practically running beside him along the side of a building, clinging desperately to my brother’s neck. If we weren’t in so much trouble, the image would have been pretty funny.

But finally, we managed to get to a better spot, not so far from Iris and Cilan where we could start running again. I briefly thought about not descending and keeping a lookout from the air, but, decided that it was better if I converse my Aura. The Cryogonal circled us, freezing the lake below our feet. Keldeo jumped out onto it, skidding at first, but quickly finding his balance. Ash called out his Boldore, while I pelted them with blasts of my Aura. As Boldore began to slide, I figured out what the Trainer had in mind and called up my flight spell again and followed him and Keldeo to where the other two were waiting.

Cilan quickly led us down to an unused subway area. Apparently the system was designed so that you could get just about anywhere you wanted in the city via the subway. The door was locked but a quick kick from Keldeo solved that problem quickly.

Ash and Keldeo announced that they were hungry at some point during the short walk to the place where they kept the trains. Iris was exasperated with them, but after that run, I couldn’t say I blamed them. I was getting kind of hungry again myself, especially with all the Aura I’d used because of those blasted Cryogonal. We soon came across another door, and Keldeo went to kick it again, only for Iris to stop him. She gently pushed it open, and turned to smile at him.

“Some doors are unlocked, you know.” She told him. My brother didn’t have anything to say to that. As we continued into the old storage area, Cilan explained that this old subway station had been converted into a museum. Once we exited though it, we would be just outside the city. Looking up at the blimps, Iris announced that she had the greatest idea.

She started the thing up and let it fly, and the Cryogonal chased after her while we made our quiet escape with a train car. I had to hand it to her; that actually was a pretty good idea.

“Will she be okay?” Ash asked worriedly, glancing at the quickly vanishing blimp.

“You have to believe she will be. She knew what she was doing when she suggested this.” I reminded. “She’s your friend, right? So believe in her.”

“Well said, Alexiane.” Cilan smiled. We looked up to see that Black Kyurem had caught up to Iris, and the Cryogonal had vanished. They had realized that we weren’t with them. So Cilan suggested that he do the same as Iris had and make himself the bait. It wouldn’t last long, but maybe, if we were lucky, we just might have enough time to get back to the abandoned mine where Kyurem lived. We climbed up the mountain paths, occasionally glancing over our shoulders to make sure we weren’t being followed.

Keldeo stared off into the distance, deep in thought. “True power,” He murmured, clearly remembering the Swords’ mantra. “And courage.” Ash interrupted by asking us what the Swords of Justice were like.

“Well,” I began. “Terrakion-aniki is kind of a goofball. Unlike what you might expect, he hardly ever speaks formally. He’s usually got a joke to lighten the mood if he thinks it needs lightening. Doesn’t much like being serious.”

“Yeah,” Keldeo added, grinning and trying not to laugh. “Like that time he was giving me a lesson and got sprayed by the Basculin.”

I burst out laughing. “I’d forgotten about that one.” I mentioned.

Ash looked between us, confused. “Sprayed by a Basculin?”

“He was giving me a lesson on concentration in a battle. He used his horns to knock one into the air, but it came back down and sprayed him in the face with a Water Gun.” My twin explained.

Our human friend chuckled. “Funny.” He said. “So what about Virizion?”

“Onee-san is calm and collected, never letting anything phase her. I dunno how she can possibly be so serene even when a pissed off Pokémon is yelling at her.” I shook my head. “Even Nii-sama has trouble keeping his temper if he feels like someone is disrespecting his position as the leader of the Swords of Justice.”

“What do you mean?” The Trainer questioned.

“About a year back, there was a troup of Simisear that came to ask for the Swords help. What they didn’t want to say at first was that the ‘help’ they ‘needed’ was kicking the Simisage and Simipour out of the area they lived in, and they didn’t really have a reason other than they wanted more territory. So the Swords wouldn’t help and they got really mad.” My twin began. “So they started yelling at them, and Cobalion wasn’t happy about it. Terrakion was just about to start yelling back, and Cobalion was probably going to do that thing he does where he cuts them down with just his words, but Virizion just stared at them.”

“Just stared at them.” I added. “When they were done ranting, all she had to say was I’m sorry you feel that way. They swore at her, using some pretty colorful language too, and all she did was look unimpressed. She just told them that’s very nice and sent them on their way.”

“Wow.” Ash murmured. “She sounds like nothing ever phases her.”

I snorted. “Nope, not much. I mean, even Nii-sama starts getting touchy if he thinks that someone is disrespecting him, but Onee-san? Never.”

“So cool. What about Cobalion? He’s your leader, right?”

“Right.” My twin confirmed. “Cobalion’s an inspiration to us all. And he’s Alexiane’s hero.”

I snorted. “Damn straight he is.” I muttered. “Kind of hard not to look up to him. He’s probably the least willing to coddle us; he prefers to the tough love approach. One of his favorite sayings is warriors, no matter the species, do not learn from coddling. They learn from adversity. And he likes to say that it’s what you learn from defeat that’s really important. Sometimes he’s even told me that there’s more to be learned in defeat than in victory.”

“Wow. They must be really cool.” Our friend commented. “Hey Keldeo, Alexiane? I hope you guys become Swords of Justice soon too.” I couldn’t find anything to say to truly express my gratitude, and neither could Keldeo. We climbed for a while longer, and then Keldeo asked the question that was on both of our minds: why Ash was doing this for us, because we literally just met earlier that day. The black haired boy looked back at us and smiled. “What are you talking about? Come on, we’re friends, right?”

“Friends?” My brother echoed.

“Friends.” Ash agreed, smiling. “Beside, you guys are a blast to be around. Even if you did think we were gonna try to capture Keldeo as soon as you turned your back, Alexiane.”

I shrugged. “Sorry. But you can’t deny there’re a lot of bad people out there who would. I had to make sure that you guys weren’t the type to do that.”

The Trainer shrugged. “Okay, I can see your point.” He conceded.

We continued to walk in silence until we finally came to the abandoned mine where everything had started. I heard the Cryogonal but they didn’t immediately circle around us and try to attack us. Instead they went higher, into Kyurem’s lair. Kyurem himself appeared but like the Ice Types he commanded, no attack came. He didn’t attack us, instead landing on the very same battlefield where Keldeo had lost his horn, and my training sword had broken.

As we approached, I stopped, squared my shoulders and slapped my face. I reminded myself that it was mine and Keldeo’s fault that the Swords of Justice were frozen in ice, and I had to help get them unfrozen. It was my responsibility, and if there was one thing that Nii-sama wouldn’t tolerate in a Sword of Justice it was someone who ran from their responsibilities. Someone who didn’t take them seriously. That was, according to Nii-sama, the worst sort of being, someone who couldn’t do what they had to do.

And so, for the sake of the Swords of Justice, the only family I had ever known, I would fight. I would fight the thing I was most afraid of, and no matter what I had to do, I would win.

 

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter Five: The Swords Earned At Last​

Alexiane

As I started to take a step forward, I noticed that Keldeo had stopped, probably reliving the first battle when his horn had broken. I looked at him and saw that he was having a full blown panic attack. Oh dear. That wasn’t good. I knew that last time had gone badly but I didn’t think it would elicit this kind of response. I didn’t realize he would have a full on panic attack.

“Hey, are you okay, Keldeo?” I asked, concerned. He didn’t say anything, his wide eyes staring fearfully into the distance. I waved a hand in front of his face. “Uh, Keldeo?”

“I, I,” My brother stammered, his voice shaking in sheer terror. “I told Kyurem that we were Swords of Justice! I lied when I challenged it to a battle!” He turned back towards the path we had taken to get here. I wondered briefly if he was going to run away again.

I sighed. “And, not looking like I was trying to save my own ass, I didn’t say anything either.” I muttered. “Although in my defense, you did put me in a no-win situation.”

Keldeo continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “That’s gotta be why Kyurem is so angry!”

Ash smiled at my hotheaded twin. “Don’t worry.” He said. “Pikachu, let’s go!” He turned in the direction of the mine, adjusting his cap briefly.

“Oh, no, not without me you’re not.” I retorted, marching after him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that my twin looked like he was going to follow, but then clearly remembered losing his horn and stopped. His breath came in heavy pants. I followed Ash into the mine, and we both immediately started looking around for the Swords of Justice. I laid eyes on them at roughly the same time that Ash did and we both ran to where they were. The Trainer called out Boldore and Pignite and had them use Rock Smash and Flamethrower respectively, also telling Pikachu to use Iron Tail. As for me? I pounded the ice until my fists were raw and bleeding. It wasn’t a very good way to go about doing things, but it was the only way that I had available.

I would regret it later, certainly, but for now, desperation kept away the pain.

Ice began to cover the ground and the Cryogonal briefly circled around us. Heavy footsteps came from the direction of the mine’s other entrance; Kyurem had returned. He shot a blast of freezing wind at us. Ash dropped the metal thing he was holding.

“This is no place for a human.” Kyurem rumbled. “Now leave!”

Given that I had been raised by the Swords of Justice, I was probably excluded from that category. I really couldn’t remember being a regular human because I had been so young when the Swords took me in and decided to raise me alongside Keldeo as his twin.

“We’ve got something to do and you won’t stop us!” The black haired Trainer retorted and returned to pounding away at the ice with the metal rod he found. Kyurem growled and fired an attack at us. I threw up a Round Shield, hoping it would be enough, when the attack was intercepted by a Water Pulse. I turned to see Keldeo on one of the upper walkways, looking as if he had never been scared in the first place. Huh. Guess he finally got over his fear.

I blinked. “Keldeo.” I greeted. “So, you finally got over your fear?”

He nodded. “I did.” He agreed firmly, leaping down to stand on the tracks. I used a Flier Fin spell and flew down to stand beside him.

“Keldeo!” Ash added. “I knew you’d come.” My brother made a noise of confusion, and the Trainer continued “Yep, I just knew you would.”

“Ash, Pikachu,” My brother said, at a loss for words. Then he shook his head and returned his gaze to Kyurem. “Kyurem!” He began sharply. “I lied to you! My sister and I aren’t Swords of Justice yet. We’re just training to be ones. I had no business challenging you to a battle, but I did it anyway. I wanted to battle you, no matter what!”

“And I didn’t say anything for fear of looking like I was trying to cover my own ass.” I added; even if Keldeo had put me in a no-win situation, there probably was still something I could have said. Although I’m still not sure what. Keldeo and his Ideas. Keldeo did not merely get ideas; oh no, he got Ideas, and the craziest ones imaginable at that. And he probably wasn’t going to stop getting them anytime soon, unfortunately.

Kyurem lumbered forward. “I knew it all along.” He rumbled. He let out a roar, and the area formed again, just like it had last time. “Pass through the gates once more. Time to finish this.”

My brother’s legs started shaking as I started forward. Win or loose, sword or no sword, I was going to see this battle through to the end, and it didn’t matter if Keldeo was too scared. I idly listened as Ash shouted some encouragement, but didn’t pay much attention.

For the longest time, I had gone along with Keldeo’s insane Ideas because I didn’t want him to get into trouble. Well maybe it was time to let him learn for himself. Not that I actually thought he would stop getting his insane Ideas; that was just who he was.

But I did pay attention as Keldeo came to his senses and started running, and then leapt through the archway into the arena, actually glowing. He seemed to finally realize that he didn’t have to do everything himself to prove that he was strong. That there was more to being strong than battling and being stubborn. And that he had family willing to stare death in the eyes and say not today for him, and then turn and walk away, head held high.

“This time, I’m not running away.” He declared. “I will become a Sword of Justice!”

And then, he changed.

His horn grew back and changed shape, and his mane grew out and seemed to gain three feathers: one green, for Virizion-onee-san, one orange, for Terrakion-aniki, and one blue, for Cobalion-nii-sama. Somehow, my twin had just Form Changed.

Okay, that was unexpected. I didn’t even know that Keldeo could Form Change.

I started firing off magic blasts (well, Aura, but used like magic from a holo-book series) in preparation for my ultimate attack, one which I had never actually used before, hoping that it would have the added benefit of distracting Kyurem while Keldeo pelted him with attacks. They weren’t likely to actually do much, but if we could keep chipping away at his health, we might be able to win. Although I wasn’t sure about that.

One last time, I focused on my sword, and this time, for a few brief minutes, a yellow blade actually appeared. It looked like it wasn’t a Katana, but I couldn’t really tell because it was still wavering. I had no idea why that was, and for a second I was disappointed because my blade might not be like Nii-sama’s, but pushed that out of my mind— I had gotten my sword! What I had been working towards for so long was finally mine!

I wanted to do a victory dance right then and there but quickly remembered where we were and returned my attention to the fight.

Sword held in my hand, I charged Kyurem. It was time to take a more active role in this battle. I winced as Keldeo got thrown back into one of the pillars, but I held my ground. My twin could take care of himself.

“You’ll never defeat me with that sword.” Kyurem taunted. My twin heaved himself to his feet, a defiant look in his eyes. As I slashed at the ice dragon with my Aura claymore, my brother took a leap, only to have his tail grazed by a Flamethrower. Ouch. That had to hurt.

Still he struggled to rise, his breath coming in heavy pants. I slashed at Kyurem again, but he ignored me, focusing instead on my twin. Probably because Keldeo was the one who challenged him to a battle in the first place. Sadly, this made my wavering sword dissipate.

Kyurem fired another Icebeam at us, and one of Keldeo’s legs ended up partially frozen. I rushed over and tried to use my new claymore to hack the ice away, but it wasn’t coming fast enough. Our ice dragon opponent Form Changed into Black Kyurem and I winced. This was going to hurt, no two ways about it. Ash shouted at Kyurem that that was enough, and had Pikachu use a Thunderbolt, but my twin fired a weak water pulse in their direction.

“This battle . . . is far . . . from over!” He shouted, and shooting water from his hooves, he managed to break the ice. The result, unfortunately, was that he went flying to a nearby structure. He managed to get back to his feet, but this was right as the ice dragon we were fighting started to charge up some sort of Electric attack. My twin used Double Team and then fired a Water Pulse at him, but it still wasn’t enough.

The resulting shockwave was, however, enough to free our siblings from their icy prison.

They gave their gratitude to Ash and his friends, and thanked him for saving us. Especially Keldeo. My twin, I thought, really just needed a swift kick in the ass sometimes.

I kept shooting spell after spell at Kyurem while my twin used several attacks in succession. Every time, we were beaten back. At one point, both of us were struggling to rise, and Ash thought that the older Swords should stop the battle, but Virizion-onee-san said that it wasn’t their battle. Nii-sama added that the only ones who could stop it were Keldeo and I.

Kyurem fired a Flamethrower. I jumped over it, but in the process my arm got slightly burned. That was going to hurt like hell later, but for now, I barely felt it. Keldeo was able to dodge all of the Ice Dragon’s attacks, probably remembering what the older Swords had taught us. At one point, my reckless brother launched himself at Kyurem to score a hit. The Ice Dragon in question was sent flying backwards, so I followed up with a Thunder Smasher.

Unfortunately, he transformed into Black Kyurem and started charging up some kind of attack I doubted I’d be able to counter, even with a Defenser Plus. Keldeo was hit, and got frozen in ice. I just barely managed to dodge in time, but my other arm now had a bit of ice on it. Wonderful.

I couldn’t last much longer like this. I only had one hope left, and running on fumes, and nothing else to pull out of my bag of tricks, it was now or never.

I raised my broken training sword and focused on forming a sword. Slowly, wavering a few times, a yellow shape began to form. It wasn’t, as I expected, a Katana, but instead was, I believe, a claymore— an old Johton sword. And this time, it was fully formed and didn't waver at all! I finally had my sword! I wasn't sure why it was a claymore, though. But it was interesting. But it did explain the shape of the guard, and why I’d never really pictured my sword as a Katana.

Every time I’d daydreamed about being a full member of the Swords, I’d always imagined myself with a long, straight sword, not a curved Kanata like Nii-sama and the others had. I guess now I knew why. Keldeo, who had also finally manifested his sword, had a Katana as well. That wasn’t really a surprise, considering he was actually using the move Sacred Sword, rather than just making an aura construct like I was.

My twin charged Kyurem again, and the Ice Dragon was knocked back into the pillars of the arena. Recovering, he fired a Flamethrower, and Keldeo blocked with his sword. I took this opportunity to take the fight to Kyurem. It wasn’t normally my style, but if our recent adventure had taught me anything, it was that sometimes, I Just had to take a chance and go for it. Like right now; Kyurem was probably going to focus more on Keldeo than me, so taking the fight to him would be a good opportunity to score a hit.

I managed to hit the Ice Dragon but that didn’t phase him much. He declared that he’d been waiting for this— for our true power— and now that we’d discovered it, it was a real battle.

Kyurem fired off some kind of Electric attack, and Keldeo fired a Water Pulse of his own while I threw in an admittedly rather weak Thunder Smasher. Given that I was running on fumes, was it really all that unexpected? Unlike the main character of the book series, I didn’t have an attack that drew all of the spent power in the air.

Unfortunately, all our attacks did was change Kyurem’s attack’s course so that it was now on a collision course with Ash, Iris, Cilan, and the other Swords.

Mine and my twin’s eyes met briefly and I took off, jumping in front of the attack. I tried to summon up the necessary power for a Defenser Plus, but all that managed to do was weaken it a bit. So Keldeo jumped in front of the attack sliced it in half with his sword, shielding all of us.

He was so getting whacked for doing something so reckless later. What if using his sword hadn’t worked? What would he have done then?

As it was, he was still badly scorched by the attack and landed heavily on the ground. He wasn’t going to last much longer, and I wasn’t far behind. But still he staggered out of the crater he’d made when he fell, barely standing. And then he wobbled on his feet and fell over sideways. Before Keldeo could try getting up again, Kyurem put a foot on his horn and roared.

“Yield.” Kyurem demanded.

Keldeo looked at the massive Boundary Pokémon and briefly seemed to debate continuing before he thankfully saw sense and spoke the ceremonial words to concede the fight. “I yield.” And Kyurem stepped off his horn. Looking like every step hurt, Keldeo limped off the battlefield and up to where the other Swords were waiting.

I tried to go for one more hit, but I was hurled back into one of the few remaining ice pillars and grimaced. “I yield.” I ground out through the teeth I had desperately gritted against the pain. You win.” So with that, our opponent nodded and reverted to his original form.

“Rather than pursue victory, you instead chose to protect your comrades.” Kyurem rumbled. “You both have a fine sword.”

I blinked, and then a wide smile slowly spread across my face. I wanted to cheer and jump for joy, and then I remembered the pain I was in. So instead, I bowed low to the Boundary Pokémon. “Thank you.” I said simply, letting the words convey all I wanted to say.

The dual Dragon/Ice Type merely nodded before he turned and lumbered back into his den.

Even if we hadn’t beaten Kyurem, it was still an incredible battle, and I had finally earned my sword. It couldn’t get more amazing than that!

I looked up at Nii-sama, who merely gave me a short approving nod. And that, more than anything else, made this whole adventure worth it.

 

[RaisingHeartSetUp]

Human Sacred Sword Of Justice
Chapter Six: The Oath Of A Sword Of Justice​

Alexiane

Ash and the others ran over to offer their congratulations to Keldeo and I, Iris noting that Keldeo’s horn had grown back. I wasn’t quite sure how that had happened, but I was glad that it did. We just might have been in real trouble if we hadn’t materialized our swords when we did.

Nii-sama looked at us. “Now you understand the true weight of the sword.” He said, and I knew that it wasn’t a question.

I smiled. “I do, Nii-sama.”

Keldeo looked at Ash, Iris, and Cilan and their partners. “Right.”

The other Swords smiled and nodded. Now we could finally be full Swords ourselves.

But unfortunately, the solemn moment was ruined by the fact that the arena was collapsing and one of the metal structures was about to collapse on top of us. Nii-sama ordered us to climb aboard— and this included me, because I didn’t have the energy to muster another flight spell, much less one that would get me out of here fast enough to avoid the falling debris. Onee-san took Iris and Axew, Aniki took Cilan, and Nii-sama took Ash and I. Keldeo had to grab Pikachu when he went flying off of Ash’s shoulder, but that wasn’t too much of an issue.

Right as the metal tower was about to fall, Kyurem froze it with some sort of Ice attack.

Well, that was one less thing for us to worry about, thank Arceus.

Cilan likened it to a castle made out of ice— whatever a castle was. Ash added that it looked kind of cold, and Iris shivered, complaining that she hated the cold. I wasn’t sure why she hated the cold so much; after all, Dragon Types were weak against other Dragon Types, as well as Fairy Types, and she didn’t care about them. Then again, there weren’t many Fairy Types in the Unova Region, and as far as I knew, there only two were native to it. The Kalos Region, where they were first discovered, had the highest concentration of the type in question.

With a final nod of respect in mine and Keldeo’s direction, Kyurem turned and lumbered back into his lair, where he hopefully wouldn’t be disturbed anytime soon.

As soon as we stopped traveling, all of my aches and pains caught up with me, and I fell to my knees in pain. I had to go and be stupid, didn’t I? I knew this would happen, however distantly and even if I didn’t quite think of it, but I went and battled myself into exhaustion anyway.

Pushing his way through the mini-crowd of concerned friends and siblings, Nii-sama looked at me exasperatedly. “Alexiane, I believe we have discussed the dangers of pushing yourself beyond what your body can handle.”

I sighed. “I know, Nii-sama, that was reckless and stupid and I pushed myself way too far, but I had to face Kyurem. I couldn’t let you and Onee-san and Aniki stay frozen in that ice prison for all eternity because I was scared. I had to do something.”

“Nevertheless, now that you are a full Sword of Justice, I shall expect better of you in the future.” My eldest brother reprimanded.

“You really overdid it, Lex.” Aniki told me, looking slightly worried. I scowled at him but didn’t say anything; Aniki was the only one allowed to get away with calling me Lex, and that was only because he wouldn’t stop doing it.

“You’ve pushed yourself beyond what your body can feasibly handle.” Onee-san added. “That was a reckless and dangerous thing to do. You could have been hurt much worse than you were.” She turned to our human friends and requested that they gather up a few herbs that grew around here which could be used to make a pain relief remedy, and a few others that would treat my various scrapes and bruises.

Finally, Nii-sama himself went to go find food because the last time Keldeo and I had eaten was last night, and the last time he and the others had eaten was the night before last.

In the meantime, I decided I would just lie down and shut my eyes for a minute, but I ended up falling asleep. I slept for several hours, nearly a whole day when I finally came to, according to Aniki, (Keldeo slept for a while but Pokémon healed faster, so he didn’t need as much time to recover), and was absolutely ravenous. And sore as all hell, but hungry more than anything.

Onee-san had apparently shown Cilan how to make the pain remedy and the bruise balm and how to apply it, and with this help had managed to wake me up for a few seconds— not that I really remembered— to get me to drink the pain relief medicine. Iris had been the one to apply the bruise balm by necessity, because I’d had bruises in places that required my usual black dress be taken off so that Iris could apply the bruise balm.

While I didn’t particularly care if Ash and Cilan saw me in just my underwear and my breast band, humans had a strange concept of modesty. Yes, I’m aware that I’m human too, but unlike most humans, I was raised by Pokémon who didn’t give a damn if I had to strip. Pokémon, unlike humans, don’t really have a concept of modesty. Why would they, really?

Finally, though, after a couple of days of eating and sleeping and not doing much else aside from doing a few katas with my sword (Nii-sama and the others did something to it so that now it stayed around all the time), we all headed home. The older Swords invited Ash Iris and Cilan to come along too, because Ash especially had been a big help to us. Especially to Keldeo.

Besides, they deserved to watch us become full Swords of Justice after everything.

And if half of what he had told us about his adventures were true (he told us as we walked, and we in turn told him about our training and about some of Keldeo’s more notable Ideas and some of the stupid things that I had done; just because I was the sensible one didn’t mean that I hadn’t ever done anything stupid), then he was capable of keeping his mouth shut.

The Ceremony of Swords was a sacred thing, after all. Our siblings didn’t want the human trio to go shouting it to the heavens that they had watched us become full Swords.

So Nii-sama brought us to the Altar of Swords, briefly took my sword to put in a sheath he had commissioned from a Heatran who didn’t live that far away, used his horn to draw a circle in the dirt, and called us forward one at a time. I was first, for reasons only Nii-sama was privy to.

So, in slow, measured steps, I walked up to the Altar until I stood in the middle of the circle.

“Alexiane Claiomh, apprentice to the Great Sword Cobalion.” Nii-sama intoned, using my full name. I didn’t really use my last name, but Nii-sama insisted that if I ever had to be in a human city for a while, I needed a last name. Apparently it meant ‘sword’ in Johton. Why Johton instead of another language, you’d have to ask Nii-sama. As for being his apprentice, this was news to me. “The time has come for you to take your place as an adult of the Swords of Justice and receive your sword. Kneel.” His eyes seemed to bore into me as he added “Your oath.”

Obediently, I dropped to one knee. “I am a member of the Swords of Justice. From this day on, I dedicate myself to the protection of humans and Pokémon alike. I shall not swerve in my duty. I shall defend my brother and sister swords in times of peace and in times of battle. I am the eyes in the night, the silence within the wind. I am the hands through fire, the shield that guards the innocent. All these things I do swear upon my honor as a Sword of Justice, until my days on this Earth cease to be. This is my life. This is my vow. With Arceus as my witness, by Reshiram, the Vast White Dragon of Truth I do swear.”