26"Nothing in this sector either, Chief."
"Hm, proceed to Area G3. The size of the wormhole was too big to just dump off some junk. Anabel out."
Anabel hung up her walkie talkie and scratched off another section of the large map. She shuffled past some other Interpol agents towards a different section on the table in the brightly-lit navigational room and circled an unmarked area with her finger. The screen spanning across the table updated and displayed a new course for their voyage. There weren't many unsearched routes left and they still hadn't found what they were looking for. Worse still, a small sealed container stored in the back of the ship limited the operation's time frame.
A Dragonair necklace, found on the ocean floor, was sealed inside the crate. Based on the Ultra Wormhole Energy the scanners found radiating off it, there is no doubt that the Ultra Wormhole dumped it last night. However, Anabel fretted over the massive amounts of UW Energy the necklace's center gemstone contained. If it was compromised, the entire container would become a massive hazard risk that needed to be disposed of immediately.
Anabel had the authority to return to HQ and dispose of the hazard material painted on her back whenever she wanted, but she wanted to give the coastline a clean bill of health first.
More still, she had a gut feeling that the owner of the necklace was still around, and she would never leave some poor soul drifting in the seas of a world they knew nothing about.
After all, she understood how lost they would feel. Not knowing where to go, who to speak to, what things are. And anytime you try to frisk through your mind, you get nothing. Without any frame of reference, you experience everything purely.
Suddenly, her phone rang once more. She excused herself from the ship's bridge, stepping out onto the deck.
"Anabel speaking. Looker? Yes… Alright, I understand. I'll be there shortly." As she re-entered the navigation room, she had already picked out a Pokeball from her belt.
"A man believed to be the Faller has been found. Turn the ship towards HQ and start a containment procedure F-I. I'm going to pay Looker a visit."
Her colleagues nodded and immediately charted a new route back towards land. Anabel tossed her Pokeball upwards, and with a pop, an Alakazam appeared on deck.
"Mona? We'll need a Teleport to Looker's position."
Her partner nodded, concentrating for a moment, and both Trainer and Pokemon disappeared after a pink flash of light.
As Anabel's vision came back into focus, she and Mona found themselves in front of an untagged door in the Heahea City Hospital, where Looker was waiting.
"Chief!" he saluted. "I've already taken the liberty of informing hospital staff of our current situation. They're not to interact with our suspect without our permission and transfer all medical documents to our Faller division. From what I've seen, he's most likely our Faller; his face isn't registered on any medical record. Although, we were a few hours too late." Looker shook his head.
Anabel grimaced as she pressed the central button on Mona's Pokeball and returned her partner. "Did the staff…?"
"Yes, if he is our Faller, ah, then he's... he's already had conscious contact with the hospital staff. There was a Pokemon present in the room as well: an Audino."
"Oh, great," Anabel mumbled. Throughout their various encounters with Fallers, Interpol quickly learned that it was vital to gradually introduce Fallers to Pokemon. The process starts with a verbal reveal, then still images, before ending off with a face-to-face encounter. A trained Audino was far from the worst option as a Faller's sudden first encounter, but they could still be shaken by it. It'd be up to them to find out how much.
Looker handed over a folder filled with copies of the Faller's diagnosis. She raised an eyebrow at its contents.
"Good, he remembers his name. That's a start. 'Haruki Eika…'" She turned the page. "Mild cases of dehydration, exposure, and hypothermia. Nothing here that he can't heal from. After they get all the foreign disease tests and vaccines sorted out, we can prepare a transfer to one of our safe houses. Do you have the scanner?" She adjusted her tie and straightened out her suit.
Looker patted his left coat pocket. "Right here."
Anabel nodded, activating the recording function on her phone, and opened the door.
The young man didn't even acknowledge their entrance. He just sat there on his bed, staring out the window.
Both agents seated themselves in the straw chairs in the room and scooted next to the bed.
"Hello, Haruki," Anabel said, leaning forward. "My name is Anabel, head of an Interpol division that helps people like you. This is my partner, Looker."
Haruki stiffened and turned towards the two. Anabel watched his eyes immediately glance upwards towards the top of her head.
"If you may, we would like to run a few quick scans of your arm for residue extra-dimensional energy on your body."
As Anabel spoke, Looker took out the scanner from his coat and held it up for Haruki to see. It was a small cylindrical device with a transparent flat top. A currently dark screen ran along the length of its body. Looker rolled up his sleeve, pressed the top of the device to his forearm, and moved the device up and down. A few seconds later, the device emitted a low-pitched beep and displayed a red zero on its screen.
Anabel looked away from the demonstration. "Is that alright?"
Haruki gave a small nod, and as Looker repeated the procedure, he turned towards Anabel and his eyes traveled up to her head once more. He stared intensely, then, as if he realized what he was doing, quickly looked away. He couldn't resist a few extra glances before he shifted on the bed and switched his focus to the view outside.
What did he find so interesting about her?
"Is there something you want to say?" she asked.
"Your hair," Haruki pointed with his free arm. "Is that natural? No dyes?"
"Yes, it is. " Anabel ran her hand through her ponytail. "What's the matter?" She expected a more serious conversation starter, not one over something as mundane as her hair color.
He nodded. "It's purple."
"Lilac," Looker corrected as the scanner emitted another beep. He ran the device along Haruki's forearm once more.
"I've never seen anyone with- um, lilac hair like that," Haruki admitted. "The only person I know that has anything close is my uncle; he dyed his red." He glanced at Looker.
Anabel froze. "Excuse me, you remember your-?" Her question was cut short by another beep from the scanner. Looker immediately stood up, grabbed Anabel's hand, and walked towards the door.
"Ah, it looks like this scanner is broken! Sorry about that, we'll go get another one. Be right back!" Looker urgently bowed before closing the door behind him. He immediately replaced the apologetic look on his face with one of concern as he turned towards his superior.
"Two scans. Nothing showed up." He turned the scanner's screen towards her, showing a result log of the tests conducted in the past few minutes. All three returned a null result.
"Try again." Anabel rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm. This time, the device emitted a high-pitched beep and displayed a green number on the screen; a lower result since her last self-scan.
Looker smiled sheepishly. "Well, congratulations on that! A few more weeks and you'll be cleared!"
"Thank you, Looker," Anabel smiled. "But then the scanner is working properly. Are we sure he's the Faller?"
"I've checked and rechecked already." Looker extracted the medical documents from his coat and pointed at various unfilled categories. "No residence in Alola is owned by an 'Eika' and no 'Eika' has a son with his name. No record of travel in or out of Alola either. He just popped up one day. So either he's a Faller or he's really good at staying off the grid."
"But we still need concrete correlation between him and the wormhole appearance last night…" Anabel thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. "The necklace! We detected a strong UW energy signature in the ocean last night, thinking that it was the Faller. All we found was a necklace laced with UW energy. If he recognizes it, then-!"
"That's not possible," Looker cut in. "Every Faller's amnesic, except for their name."
Anabel grumbled in resignation. Then, she remembered something.
"'The only person I know that has anything close is my uncle.' That's what he said, wasn't it?" Anabel quoted. Looker thought back to the conversation and nodded.
"But how could he 'know' anyone?" Anabel continued. "He shouldn't have any frame of reference, and yet he remembered his uncle."
Looker's jaw dropped. "Then, that means… He's not an amnesiac?"
Both agents fell silent. A non-amnesic Faller. Such a person defied all existing information about Ultra Wormholes. Looker leaned in close.
"This changes everything," he whispered. "He might be the answer to every mystery we haven't uncovered about Ultra Wormholes. Where Fallers originate from, how to prevent memory loss, identities of other Fallers-"
"Slow down," Anabel placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's confirm how much he remembers first."
Looker took a deep breath and nodded. Both agents steeled themselves and stepped back into the room, where a confused Haruki stared at them.
"Did you get it?" he asked.
Looker nodded, jamming the device back into his coat pocket. It wasn't needed anymore.
Anabel strode over to the side of the hospital bed and pulled out her phone. She tapped it a few times and turned the screen over.
"Does this look familiar to you?"
Haruki's face paled at the sight of his necklace.
"How the fuck did you find that?"
"We fished it out of the sea," Anabel admitted. Haruki wasn't convinced.
"The ocean's massive-"
"The necklace gave off a unique energy signature that we locked onto. Do you have any idea as to why?"
Haruki shook his head. Anabel leaned closer.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright? Do you feel like there's something you're forgetting?"
"Should I be?" Haruki asked innocently.
"Yes. Yes, you should."
"Chief…" Looker's eyes darted between the two Fallers. He raised a hand, but Anabel didn't seem to notice.
"I'll reiterate. What exactly can you remember? Friends? Family? Your home?"
Haruki paused, looked down, and nodded. Anabel immediately placed her hand on his shoulder as he wrung his hands.
"I'm sorry. I pushed too hard," she spoke softly, gently rubbing Haruki's shoulder. A moment later, he looked back up, his eyes glistening.
"Why does it matter so much to you?"
"Because you're not alone. We've encountered others who originate from other worlds; they are designated as Fallers. Every Faller we've investigated so far has been amnesic, except you. Friends, family, and home. All forgotten. Do you recognize anyone here?" Anabel swiped her phone to a new app.
Haruki stammered for a moment, then sighed and took the phone. He aimlessly scrolled through the list of names and mugshots, until he reached halfway into the list. He squinted at the phone, then glanced at Anabel with a puzzled expression.
"You're a Faller too?" He turned the screen over, which currently displayed a stoic photo of the agent. Anabel nodded.
Haruki looked confused for a moment, then slapped his forehead. "Ah, that's right. I forgot about that-"
"-You 'forgot?' So you knew beforehand?" Anabel suddenly interrupted his muttering.
"I didn't say-"
"Did you or did you not know that I was a Faller beforehand?" She leaned in close.
"Y-Yes? I know who you are," he whimpered, leaning backwards.
"Oh my." Looker covered his mouth.
"How much more do you know?" Anabel asked eagerly. She slowly took her phone from Haruki's hands and turned it over, checking if the recording function was still on.
"You used to work at the Hoenn Battle Frontier," Haruki answered immediately. The two agents didn't react in the slightest and waited for a follow-up.
"...Is that all?" Looker broke the silence, "Anything else notable worth mentioning?"
Haruki looked puzzled. "Isn't that a big deal? Didn't she forget about all that stuff?"
"Oh gods-" "-I remember it. I worked there years ago," Anabel cut Looker off.
"Wait wait wait," Haruki raised a hand then pointed. "So you work for Interpol."
"Yes."
"You're a Faller."
"Yes."
"But you remember working at the Battle Frontier?"
"Correct."
"...what don't you remember?"
"Anything from before I turned ten," Anabel answered bluntly.
Looker placed his hand on Anabel's shoulder, but her face remained stoic. On the other hand, Haruki looked completely baffled. But before he could say anything else, there was a knock at the door.
Looker turned to see a doctor clutching a small plastic bag. Inside was a purple-cased smartphone.
"I'm terribly sorry, but we've forgotten to hand this over. This is his phone, you see, we took it from his pocket shortly before admission-"
Looker immediately leapt forward and pressed the scanner to the bag. A few tense seconds later, the scanner returned the fourth null result of the day. Both agents let out a sigh of relief.
"You're lucky it's not contaminated," Anabel said as she leaned back and took the bag. "If it was, we would've had to rope off this entire building."
As Looker reassured the doctor amidst their profuse apologies, Anabel glanced at the smartphone. She thought back to the portion of Haruki's file that detailed how he was found.
"Would you mind us taking this?" She raised the phone towards its owner. "We'll need to examine it to make backups of any files. It was submerged in seawater, wasn't it? Although I don't know how much we can save."
"S-Sure?" Haruki nodded. Anabel pocketed the phone as the doctor raised a quivering hand.
"Erm, once you two are done, I'd ask that you step outside. It's about time for his next examination-"
"-We are. Let us know if the both of you need anything. We'll be back by tonight." Looker stood and nodded at Haruki, much to Anabel's confusion. He took Anabel's hand and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. Looker stepped closely to his superior.
"I think we can stop for now."
"We still have so much to ask-!"
"Let's slow down. We've given him enough to think about. Besides, that seemed like a good place to end things."
Anabel took a deep breath and nodded. Yes, their last topic had clearly given Haruki quite a shock, judging from his reaction. She reached into her pants pocket and retrieved his phone. Perhaps this would give her some answers before their next meeting.
"Let's send this to the cyber division. They should be able to find something by tonight, then tomorrow, we can ask Haruki about anything we find on it." Anabel said as she grabbed a Pokeball off her belt. After a quick puff of smoke, Mona reemerged, and having overheard the conversation, ready for teleportation.
"Sure, boss!" Looker saluted as the two agents clasped the Alakazam's hands. "Mona? To the cyber division!"
Right as Anabel exited the safe house's shower, a notification rang from the laptop propped on the bedroom desk. The cyber division had scrutinized the phone for viruses, corrupted files, and missing data through the afternoon, rewarding them with four categorized folders: Locations, Culture, Screenshots, and Miscellaneous.
Anabel pulled up a chair next to Looker and drummed her fingers on the keyboard.
"What would you like to see first?" she asked.
"Locations," Looker said eagerly. "To see what another world looks like, beyond Ultra Space…"
Anabel nodded and clicked on the folder, then on the first image listed.
It was a picture of a city skyline; taken in the evening and from behind a window of sorts, as Anabel could see the phone's reflection in the glass. The city itself was very drab; all the colors of each building had the same dullness to them. There were only two exceptions; the slightly brighter brown clock tower in the center of the photo and the massive glittering ferris wheel to the side.
"Wait a minute," Looker pointed at the clock tower. "Isn't this Wyndon?"
Anabel blinked and thought back to the Galarian city. Yes, it was! A tall clock tower with a ferris wheel to the side; that's the Rose of the Rondelands, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region! What was a photo of it doing here?
"Maybe his world was a variant of ours?" Looker said as he traced the city skyline with his finger. "The large landmarks are the same, but the rest of the city is completely different. I can't tell for sure from this angle, but this 'Wyndon' seems more urbanized. There's normally a lot of green space next to the tower, but here, it's just buildings."
"Perhaps. Let's see if they found other landmarks," Anabel tapped on the right arrow key.
They were immediately greeted by a close picture of a steel gray tower. From the green space where the picture was taken, Anabel could see a spider web of patterns constructed through the tower's numerous interconnected beams. Marvelously, the architect maintained synergy across the entire structure. She wished she could see this wonder in-person.
But, she faintly remembered seeing something similar. Not the same structure, but something with the same general shape…
Anabel took out her pocket notebook and sketched the tower's basic outline. A wide base, a narrow top, with an eye-catching arch at the foot, and two thick horizontal lines above it…
"It's the Prism Tower!" Anabel explained, snapping her fingers.
Looker sputtered. "That's-? Hang on, let's see." He pulled out his phone and held an image of the Prism Tower to its lookalike.
Separately, it was easy to say that these two buildings had nothing in common. One was a gleaming silver pillar embedded in the center of a city. The other was a hollow tangle of lines given structure by its architect. But once put side-by-side, faint similarities were revealed: the wide angular base narrowing into a needle at the very top, the same criss-crossing lines at its neck, and the same half-circle and trapezoid shapes at the towers' base and neck respectively.
Looker leaned in close to his superior. "That's two near-identical landmarks. This can't be a coincidence."
Anabel rested her chin on her hand. "Hm, that's only major landmarks though. Architecturally, we don't know if 'normal' space in his world is similar to ours. Let's see…"
She scrolled past image after image, but most were just major landmarks, judging by the focus and crowds within each image. Anabel exited the folder and moved on to "Culture."
The two agents scrolled through women wearing kimonos, museum displays of medieval armor, New Year festivals, and vibrant paintings; all of which Anabel and Looker had seen counterparts of. Past an image of a parade float was the end of the gallery. Anabel clicked one last time and was greeted by a photograph of a family gathering. For the first time, Haruki beamed a bright smile, arm over the shoulder of who Anabel assumed to be his sibling, with their parents to their side. The round table in front of them was loaded with cuisine and at its very center, was a dissected fish.
Its body was split open for the vegetables stuffed in its stomach cavity. Milky-white eyes and an agape mouth left a blank expression for the camera. Charred and peppered skin split and cracked to reveal steaming white flesh.
Looker's face turned pale. Anabel slammed the laptop shut.
The two were quiet as they each stepped outside into the fresh night air.
Author's Note
I would like to credit Vergolophus for their hard work on many pieces of Anabel artwork, stories, and headcanons that will be used as the basis for her characterization in this particular story. Check out their work if you like to see some more Anabel!