Ender had been putting off visiting the Canalave Library, for whatever reason. 
Realistically, she knew she should have started there. The place was supposedly chock full of information about, well, everything. But Ender hadn’t wanted to travel all that distance. None of her pokémon knew how to fly, and getting there on bike while being as out of shape as she was didn’t exactly sound appealing. So for the first few months of her research into Hisui, she played it safe and kept it close to home, both figuratively and literally. She kept to Hearthome city, only venturing to Solaceon Town and maybe Pastoria City if the promise of information seemed legitimate and relevant enough to her studies.
Alas, all those wells had run helplessly dry, and so Ender pedaled her ass all the way from Hearthome to Canalave City, cursing herself all the while for never bothering to catch an Arceus-damned Starly in her life.
The fresh air of the seaside town served to soothe her somewhat, especially after such a long journey. She pedaled past the local landmarks, eyes trained on the building growing larger and larger in the closing distance. Eventually, she parked her bicycle outside the library, hooking it to one of the racks before sauntering inside. 
The size of the place immediately intimidated her. Before this, she’d only managed to get the basics about Hisui from ratty tomes tucked away in small antique shops, or the occasional book store. Those places were always cramped, thick with dust and inattention. This? This was a paradise of pages, a sweeping spread of spines. 
She didn’t know where to start. Instead, she stood in the entryway of the library, mouth gaping uselessly open like a caught Magikarp. 
“… everything alright, ma’am?” a voice called.
Ender’s mouth snapped closed, teeth clicking together. She turned her head, cheeks burning a bright red as she spotted the older woman running the front desk.
“Um- yeah! I’m fine!” she lied, quickly shuffling into a nearby aisle. Oh Arceus, what a terrible first impression! Ender quickly started scanning the titles on the shelves, trying to distract herself from the awkwardness she’d just caused. A lot about myths, myths, myths. She didn’t want anything about myths- she knew enough about the myths of Sinnoh already! Those were the first things she’d learned, and most of them she’d already been told as a child. She wanted facts, damn it!
Sighing, Ender reached for the poke balls on her belt. She was going to need some help if she was going to get through these shelves in a timely manner. She grabbed two of them, tossing them onto the ground and releasing the pokémon within- her Lucario and Empoleon.
The large penguin pokémon immediately stood at attention, letting out a loud “Empo!” 
Ender cringed, flailing her arms and “shhh”ing her overzealous companion. She gestured wildly around, motioning the stacks (on stacks) of books. “Library! Shhh!”
The Empoleon flinched, reproachfully covering its beak with its flippery arms.
Ender gave the pokémon a sympathetic pat on the arm, offering a smile. “There there,” she said, keeping her voice low. She looked between her Lucario and Empoleon, stepping back grab a tome off the shelf. “No battling right now, sorry. I just need you guys to help me look for books!” 
On the word ‘books’, she held up the one she’d grabbed, and the pair of pokémon made (somewhat quieter) noises of understanding. 
Ender grinned. “Just bring any you think I might need for my research, okay?” she asked. “I’m counting on you guys to help out.”
Her Empoleon nodded, and her Lucario sped off, immediately hurrying to an adjacent aisle to start looking. The Empoleon waddled after it, breaking off in another direction to cover more ground. Ender went back to scanning the current row of shelves, eyes peeled for anything that looked like what she sought. 
More myths, more myths. Nope. Next aisle.
More books. Mostly cookbooks. Man, did people in Johto really eat this stuff? Nope. Next aisle.
More books. Mostly travel guidebooks for the wanderlust-y tourist. Nope. Next.
Halfway through the next aisle her Lucario sped back, book clasped in its paws. Ender looked it over, heart fluttering with anticipation. Some fiction book about a kid getting turned into a Kadabra. Nope. Away Lucario went behind the maze of rows. Better luck next time, buddy.
The longer Ender looked, the more frustrated she got. If she had to see one more ‘Shiny Hunting for Dummies’ volume or a risqué paranormal romance about an average joe and a tragic half-Gardevoir girl, she was going to flip her shit. 
“Empo!” 
Ender whirled around, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of her pokémon. What had she said about staying quiet?! She turned in time to watch the penguin creature leap down the stairs to the bottom level, a thick tome in its clumsy flippers.
Mid-bound, however, the Empoleon tripped. The book flew from its grasp, careening across the room and slamming into Ender’s chest.
It was super effective.
Ender crumpled to the ground, the wind momentarily knocked out of her. She groaned, simply lying there for a few moments as the air returned to her lungs. With a grumble, she lifted her head, eyes landing on the book seated casually on her chest. She could read the title from where she was lying, but from what she could see, the book looked pretty big and important.
“Pleeeease don’t be a Gardevoir romance,” she whispered, pulling herself up into a sitting position to investigate.
It wasn’t. Instead, it was a thick, leather-bound tome, the cover marked with the carefully embossed image of Arceus. Hisui: Its People and Pokémon, the title read. A few, vaguely humanoid figures peppered the rest of the cover, along with a few symbols Ender recognized from her previous research.
She grinned. This was exactly what she needed.
She glanced between the book and the Empoleon with dark, gleaming eyes, scrambling to her feet to address her loyal companion. “Okay- good- this is good! I’m gonna need you to find more books like these, okay, Em?” Ender asked.
Her Empoleon saluted, proceeding to bound back up the stairs to the second floor with little incident. 
Ender didn’t bother finding a table or anything. Instead, she placed the book on the top of one of the nearby shelves, flipping it open to the table of contents, and then beyond. It had everything- and more. References to the rival Diamond and Pearl clans, a map of the region with its pre-Sinnoh landmarks named, and pages upon pages of information about the customs of the era. Ender’s mouth began to hurt from all the smiling. Why had she waited so long to actually come to Canalave?!
She stopped flipping on a dime, taking in the resulting images. It was a two-page spread of Arceus, beaming both beatifically and ominously downward at a pair of humans. One, the smaller of the two, held a flute to their mouth, while the other nearby stood scowling.
She reached down, fingertips gently brushing against the inked image of the fluteless stranger on the page. It was moments like this in her research that really made her think. Sure, the myths were cool, and the customs of those who came before her were always so fascinating, but it was the little things, really, that set her mind to work. 
Who was this? Was this a person, or a representation of a person? Why weren’t they playing anything, but the smaller figure was? Were they meant to oversee this ritual or something? Then why did they look upset? Maybe these were rival clan members, and the one with the flute was victorious? A previous chapter probably had an explanation for this, she concluded.
The page felt warm under her fingers. Ender took little notice. She was captivated, glancing between the figures to the illustration of Arceus. What power it wielded… she could only imagine what it felt like to be able to create a world of one’s own. 
The warmth spread to the digits on both hands, and it was only then that Ender noticed the odd sensation. She glanced down, pulling her hands away from the book’s pages. Before her eyes, her fingers twitched, the chubby digits beginning to slim and lengthen, their softness giving way to worn, but deft extremities. She sucked in a surprised breath, watching as the thinning of her fingers leaped to her palms, spreading them longer and broader.
“W-whuh…?” she managed to whisper, the half-formed word barely leaving her lips.
The warmth moved to her arms, grabbing the out of shape limbs with a vice grip. A light yelp escaped her as the heat intensified- not to a painful degree, like a fire, but still hot enough to make her begin to sweat. Perspiration beaded along her arms, the sweat taking with it the fat of her upper limbs. Pound by pound the fat melted away into the air, rising into dispersing nothing like smoke from a fire. Before long, her arms were lean, a layer of light muscle visible as she pulled her sleeves back with a curious, changed hand. 
As she did, the bones in her arms cracked and refused, the limbs pushed a few inches longer. Like the thinning of her arms, it didn’t hurt like she would have inspected. Instead, it felt more like she was trying to reach something on a high shelf, and her arms were finally extending to get her what she needed. She dropped her arms to her sides, spotting the several extra inches the appendages poked out of her sleeves. They looked gangly on her now, too thin to be hers, too long.
Did she scream? People weren’t supposed to scream in a library, right? But people weren’t supposed to have this happen to them, either! Did she really care about library etiquette at a time like this?!
Okay, maybe a little, but only because she was still nursing that embarrassment wound from earlier!
The warmth rose to her shoulders, then her chest. Firm, invisible hands grabbed either shoulder, pulling them taut before popping them slightly wider. She adjusted her stance to compensate, feet wobbling as she tried to place them the right distance apart. As she did, the metamorphosis pressed against her upper torso, her breasts melting away beneath the force of the alien power’s heat. Smaller and smaller they shrunk, smaller still, until all that was left of them was a firming set of otherwise flat pectorals.
Glancing down, the color on Ender’s face rivaled that of a Kricketot. She’d always wanted a smaller chest- but she didn’t expect she’d actually get one at some point!
A tugging sensation gripped her spine, and Ender instinctively sucked in a breath. As she did, her stomach retreated, gut pushing flat against her lower torso before her spine gave, dragging her up a few inches to help match the proportion of her shifted arms. Her core tightened, a light, but slightly visible set of abdominal muscles carving into shape along the space her pudgy stomach once resided. She placed a slimmer hand on the spot, feeling just how much more empty the top half of her dress felt now that her chest and stomach were flat. 
The warmth fell to her hips, the same invisible hands seizing either in their grasp. With a light click of bone her flared hips narrowed, sliding closer together into a more masculine configuration. She grabbed onto the nearby shelf to stop herself from falling over, her rear losing its rounded definition as it slimmed like the rest of her. Her legs followed suit, the fat in her thighs and lower limbs reduced and replaced with the strong, firm leg muscles of someone experienced in traveling long distances. And speaking of long-
Her bones popped again, shooting her up a final few inches. Her trembling frame and tight grasp shook the shelves, threatening to knock some of the books to the floor. Her feet grew longer and wider in her boots, the sides pinching against the increasingly cramped fabric. She squirmed, confused and embarrassed- again. Library: 2, Ender: 0.
As the changes finally finished off her feet, Ender tried to remember where on her body hadn’t been touched. Was it over? It didn’t feel over. But where else hadn’t it gone?
Before long, she realized the warmth in her face wasn’t just from her humiliation.
“Oh no-gh-!” Ender choked, her neck yielding and slimming beneath the building heat rising in her features. A small lump pressed against the front of her throat, her tones shifting with its arrival. “Wait- my voice?!” 
That wasn’t her voice. That was a man’s voice, mature, light, smooth, and definitely not her own. Calm, but with something underneath. Something less… calculated, for lack of a better word. Something more intense, primal. She felt over the lump at the front of her throat, feeling it bob as she swallowed. 
She shut her eyes tight, the heat finally washing over her face. Her features slimmed, roundness pulling into tight narrowness. Her jaw drew to a soft point, her lips thinning and curling into an inadvertent, quiet smile. Her round nose grew slightly longer, pointing at the end like her chin. Her eyes softened, lids drooping and narrowing into something slightly smaller. She blinked a few times, her dark eyes lightening with each opening and closing. Dark brown, light brown, lighter brown, and then settling into a warm hazel.
Like her eyes, her dark hair began to lighten, the strands turning a vivid gold. Her hair retreated up her back, the remaining length pulling into a loose bun at the back of her head. A pair of thin strands fell on either side of her slimmed face, a thick bang joining it on the left side to cover up the respective eye.
Okay, okay, now it had to be over, right?
Wrong.
Her black boots grew larger over her feet, finally letting them breathe. They tugged higher up her longer legs until they reached her shins, the black leather lightening into a muddy brown. The ends of her dress stuck tight to her leggings, the purple fabric resewing and merging until her top and bottom were a single, uniform garment- one that turned a vivid, deep blue. 
The material puffed up slightly as she looked down to investigate, growing a little insulated and better suited for Sinnoh’s harsher, frigid climes. Fluffy yellow cuffs wrapped around either of her wrists, a similarly puffy yellow collar sprouting about her neck. A long white apron fluttered down her front, lined at the bottom with yellow and marked in the center with a stylized pair of gingko leaves of equal hue. A brown leather belt with a silver buckle wrapped around her waist, helping to keep the apron in place. To top it all off, a soft, yellow and blue hat with a yellow brim tugged tight atop her head.
“Empo?!”
“Lu!?”
Ender turned around, eyes landing on the source of the noise. Her Empoleon and Lucario had come back from their search. In their shock, they’d ended up dropping all their collected books onto the floor.
Ender chuckled nervously, unsure of how exactly she (or maybe he; he felt a little more comfy, now that he thought about it) should reply. 
Before he could think to give an explanation, however, the universe intervened one last time.
A heavy weight formed on his back, courtesy of a suddenly spawning, bulky backpack. The sudden weight on his back from the pack yanked him to the floor, pinning him there like an overturned Turtwig. Immediately his pokémon sprung into action, attempting to help him to his feet.
Ender sighed.
Hisui research would have to wait. He needed to figure this out first!