Finally updated! Don't have much to say…Finally updated! Don't have much to say…

Cheers to Aurorabeam Corporation, DarFoxxKit and cottonmouth25 for help with the story so far... Check out their stories, they are really good.

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Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon... If I did there would be OH SO MANY changes. And the above slogan is Nikes

'Welcome to the annual Ryuu games! We have many strong men and woman competing today, all ready for the challenge ahead of them. So without any further ado, let's kick it off with the sword fights!'

The crowd cheered loudly, filling the wooden amphitheatre with excited chattering and general noise. The speaker lifted his hands for silence, then began again.

'As usual, we'll start off with a team battle. The first team to either knock out or cause their opponents to yield will win. The best four players from each team will continue to the next round. The teams are as follows…'

He continued to list off a group of people, mainly males, and organised them into two teams, 'The Haxoruses' and 'The Hydreigons'. Below the steps, in one of three unfurnished rooms, were the competitors.

Sekitan and Yamato were standing together in the third room, listing out for their names.

'Sekitan Kardia, Yamato Theda and Crystal Sivaro, all three of you are in The Hydreigons. Angelo Tamiko is in…' His voice drawled on, calling out the other competitors' names.

A small passage between the clustered bodies formed to let the three youngsters out.

'There's a girl on our team now Tan, we'll lose for sure,' Yamato muttered, 'All my luck. We won't even make it through the team match!'

Tan kept quiet. He was determined to keep his focus on the match. He and Yamato had been the youngest competitors last year, yet still managed to reach the 2nd stage, where competitors fought in pairs, before both being knocked out by the same person, a travelling Ronin, a mercenary samurai with no leader. He was determined not to let it happen again.

The teams had been read out by now, and competitors took a variety of stances on either side of the arena.

A loud 'BONG' was made on the arena's gong, prompting both teams to run into battles, screaming out battle cries. Mato and Tan ran in together, dodging random sword blows from heated battles. They found an unoccupied opponent, a scrawny looking boy, and charged, swords high. They began to execute tricks they had practiced together, each of them picking a side to attack from, trapping the boy in a scissor movement. Until the boy dropped his sword, symbolising his yield. The two friends looked at each other in confusion, until the boy spoke, or rather squeaked.

'Y-you win. I don't want to be doing this. I'm crap at swordsmanship, my parents pressured me into it. I-I'm gunna be a monk. Y-yes, a monk, writing books and spreading peace. Yes, a monk.'

The boy seemed to calm down, running off to the loser's corner. Mato sighed in disappointment, then ran off to find another opponent.

Tan however, stood considering this. Did he really want to do this? He'd always liked pokémon. It didn't help that he was naturally good with a sword, but he was a good trainer too. He was the only member in his lesson to be able to understand pokémon, and was often complimented on his care for them.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of a sword swing in his direction.

He slashed his sword up to defend himself, deflecting the blow. He sensed another attack from behind, and span to deflect it, leaving him open to from the original aggressor. Tan mentally prepared himself for the blow, not giving up on his defence.

The blow never came. A small, black haired girl came flying in, sword whirling, slicing at the man's legs (knocking him to his knees), and sent him sprawled on the floor, unconscious, with a sharp tap to his head.

This save left Tan to 'dispose' of his other opponent, a sharp jab to the stomach left him winded and unarmed, causing him to tap thrice on the floor. A yield.

The snow-haired teen let out a breath, then turned to his scornful saviour.

It was Crystal.

'The great Tan, needing a girls help?'

She tutted mockingly, then span ducked as another Haxorus member attacked. Tan sped into action, his hands moving as a blur. Crystal's attacker stood no chance, left disarmed and unconscious on the arena floor. Tan smirked at Crystal.

'Nope, I think it's the other way round.'

By now, the battle had stopped, and Crystal's reply was drowned out by the announcer's voice.

'From the Hydreigons, we have chosen…' The crowed murmured among themselves, placing bets on the quarter finalists.

'Sekitan.'

He smiled, and stepped into the middle of the arena, soaking in the cheers and, in some instances, catcalls, of the crowd.

'Crystal.'

The cheering was less here, many people disgruntled that a girl had made it into the final eight.

'Yamato.'

The crowd loudened, playing to the showy attitude Yamato was showing. He was currently bowing in gratitude to the crowd, sending kisses to random girls that caught his eyes.

'Turi.'

The noise now rose to unbearable levels as a muscled male took the stage, the last qualifier from the Hydreigons.

Tan returned to the waiting rooms, and sat down in a quiet, or quieter, corner, contemplating his next battle.

Ten minutes of meditation later and he was called back into the arena.

'Okay then ladies and gents, our first pairing is Tan and Cryst-'

He was cut off by a loud roar. At least ten hydriegon, ironically enough, flew above the arena, flames leaking out of their mouths. The crowd started panicking, people charging out of the arena. Those too slow to react were trampled underfoot.

The hydreigon struck. Their hands let loose dark purple balls which exploded on contact, while the heads let loose an unstopping flame. The gong previously used to commence the battle was now used to alert people of one. Fiercely dressed samurai charged from all directions around the village, slashing down anything in their way. Archers revealed themselves from on top of the dragons, shooting down a hail of arrows, slaying mothers, daughters, sons and fathers alike. By the time the villagers could set up a defence, the village was in ruins, fires roaring up houses, the weak and venerable running in fear, only to have their life ended by flying projectiles.

Tan dodged and ducked, aiming for the elder's house. He had no immediate family members, but the elder was a father figure to him. He instinctively dodged to the left, an arrow missing his head. It was followed by a heavy thud sounding behind him as the archer was shot by a Ryuuite's arrow.

Finally reaching the main house, he was halted by the cry of a female not one hundred yards away from him. He ran to the sound to see a woman dead on the floor. A blue pokémon with a dark mane was nudging a small baby. It looked at Tan with its red eyes, gesturing with its head towards the baby.

Tan gently picked it up, its head resting on him shoulder. The luxray nodded its head, then turned and ran into the fray, knocking one samurai and shocking another. Tan turned and continued to the elder's house, bending to grab a sword in his unused hand.

He was faced by a strangely peaceful sight. His teacher and guardian was surrounded by a pile of enemies. He finished the last one of with a small flick of his wrist, the man dropping to reveal the old man bearing no weapons, his hands held out in a martial artist's position. The previously jovial attitude was gone. He wordlessly threw an empty cloth bag towards Tan, who held out his sword, and wriggled it till the bag fell onto his shoulder.

'There are some items in the arena's basement. Take them and go.'

Again, Tan turned, the small sensei preparing for the next wave. He spotted Mato at the bottom of the hill, fighting ferociously back to back with who seemed to be Crystal.

Tan was stuck between two minds. Part of him wanted to go down and help his best friend, but he had a baby to look after. He decided to do the next best thing.

He ran into a nearby house, laying the baby on the table and his sword on his back and grabbed the bow and arrows that every family had on the left wall of their house. He ran back outside the house, standing in the doorway with a clear view of his friend's battle. He drew an arrow, took a breath and fired. His target, the tallest of the raiders, fell back, an arrow in his eye.

Soon he was shooting arrows at a rapid pace, clearing the way for his friend, who started to retreat to Tan's position. As he was putting away his final arrow, he noticed a shadow on the floor to the left of him, obvious thanks to the roaring flames from further down the village. Holding his arrow in his hand, he span to the right, piercing the arrow through the leg of the shadow's owner, not going for the head in case it was an ally. It wasn't.

Roaring in pain, his opponent lifted his katana to strike. But in his heavy armour, he was too slow. Tan stood back with his unsheathed sword, panting furiously. His attacker was still standing, but he was missing his head and collapsed on the floor, dead.

He spotted Mato and Crystal running towards him, Mato lagging about five metres behind. Gesturing them into the house, he stooped inside, his hand on the door.

Only Crystal made it in.

A stray arrow from the battle made its way into Mato's head. His eyes widen in shock as he fell, landing next to the headless samurai.

Tan shouted out it shock, running to his friend. He was held back by Crystal, who shut the door behind them.

'He's dead Tan. You can't do jack shit, all you would do is kill yourself, which I'm pretty fucking sure he wouldn't want. Get a grip and calm down.'

Tan span round, shouting and sobbing hysterically.

'HOW? HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, YOU BITCH!?. HE WAS MY FRIEND!' His temper softened as he heard the baby crying. 'He was my friend, dammit.'

Crystal took him into a brief, uncomfortable hug, then slowly released him.

'Look, we've all lost friends in this battle. But we need to keep living. So what would you have done if he had made it?' Her voice was soft yet demanding, trying not to be too sympathetic.

'The arena. Elder told me to go to the arena.'

Gathering his wits, he returned his sword to his back scabbard and picked up the baby, tears still in his eyes.

'A luxray gave me this baby to care for. Let's go.'

There was no need to talk about its mother, Crystal already knew her fate. She nodded, and grabbed her own sword, putting Tan's bow on her back. She counted down on her fingers, then the two of them ran out, heading for the arena.

Surprisingly, the two made it unchallenged and stormed down the stairs to the basement. On a table were five items; an ornate katana and dagger, a hand-carved bow, a leather pouch of strange knives and an egg.

The katana had a white handle and a black blade, the edges left metal. It had a sphere in the middle of the blade, with small tarnishings which made it look like a moon, and at the base was written in Japanese a series of symbols:

暗いです

Next to it lay the dagger. This also had a black handle, but there was a yellow spike symbol on the hilt. The blade itself was largely uncoloured, but with a similar spike in the centre of it.

The next weapon was the bow, with a quiver of arrows. The bow itself had an intricate design, with a variety of animals and symbols carved into it, including a small sandshrew and a host of other ground, dragon and fighting types. The quiver had similar designs sewn into the leather, and the arrows had a blue and yellow coloured flight.

Next were the knives. These were the same colour scheme as the katana, with strange protrusions coming out of the back of the blade, like small blades in themselves. The leather pouch was dark brown, and had small pockets attached to it, which could hold things such as money and small snacks. Like the sword it had some symbols etched into it.

Finally was the egg. It was a normal pokémon egg, but it was wrapped with some thin, black threads round the centre, which someone had attached a purple oran stick to for use of carrying.

Both Tan and Crystal were confused by these 'gifts', but couldn't deny the use of them. Except the egg. Tan replaced his sword with the katana, and attached the knives to his belt and Crystal took the bow over her shoulder and the knife in her belt.

The egg went in Tan's backpack, nullifying the use of the stick, so Crystal took the baby in her hands.

By now the aggressors had left with a string of prisoners following behind. The rest of the village was either dead or dying. Tan made a small cross for Mato, then went to see if the elder had survived.

The pile of samurai were still there, doubled in height, but the elder was nowhere to be found.

Night was falling and Tan didn't want to stay around, knowing either a looting or conquering party would re-enter the village. So, with Crystal and the baby, which Tan had named Yama after his friend, they set off into the forest to find shelter and safety for the night.

Back in the village, a small man watched them leave with a wry smile on his face. He chuckled then jumped into the air. He never landed. The ground he had jumped off started to sprout grass. In the middle of this patch was a single flower, with gold petals and an emerald pistil.

Wow, okay, horrid ending … But I went over 2000 words!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. This story has got over 200 views (Thanks guys :) ) But only 2 reviews, both of which have which have been requested. Tell me ANYTHING. You hate this story? Shame, but tell me why? Love it? Ditto. PLEASE REVIEW! I'm new to this, so need feedback.

And lastly, a few points about this universe…

1. Some of the typings may change, cos a lot of them annoy me. Like Darkrai, he is SO obviously a ghost type…

2. Pokemon are not 'caught' per se, but link, similar to Avatar but without tentacle things.

3. I had more, but can't remember them :/ Will add them later if I remember.

Sekitan = Coal

Those weird symbols? A secret :)

I THINK that's it!

Qu#1… What are your guesses about that last bit? I think I may have made it obvious…