David and Lucario followed his grandfather down the corridor.
They stopped outside a door, and when his grandfather pushed it open, David found himself in a study.
There's nothing here.
He looked around carefully. The room was simply furnished — not at all the kind of place you'd expect something valuable to be kept. Beyond two large bookshelves lined with books of various sizes, the most notable item in the room was a calligraphic scroll hanging on the wall behind the desk.
The scroll bore a single character: Martial. The brushwork was confident and flowing, and there was something quietly powerful about it on close inspection — a kind of presence that went beyond the ink itself. Judging by the signature at the bottom, this had been left behind by David's legendary great-great-grandfather.
So there's nothing here? Is there a hidden passage somewhere?
"Grandpa, what exactly are we—"
"Patience. Don't rush."
His grandfather smiled at David's puzzled expression, then stepped toward the calligraphic scroll, reached out, and gave the thin cords attached to the scroll's roller a few precise pulls.
Click.
The wall behind the desk swung open in its entirety. Through the gap, David could see a staircase leading downward.
"This is…"
He stared. He genuinely hadn't expected his grandfather's study to have a secret room — the kind of thing you only saw in films.
"Don't just stand there. Come on — what we came for is down here."
His grandfather led the way without ceremony, stepping through the opening and descending. David grabbed Lucario and followed quickly.
After a short stretch of darkness, the passage opened up and the room came fully into view.
Despite being called a secret room, it was nothing like the cramped, treasure-stuffed space David had imagined. It was genuinely large — almost spacious. His first impression was of a wide, open training area. He estimated there would be enough room for even Shelgon to move around comfortably.
Training equipment of various kinds had been set up throughout the space, and in one corner he spotted several wooden dummy stakes that looked thoroughly worn with age and use.
Past the training area, tucked along the far right wall, was a storage section. An antique-looking desk sat there, its surface lined with neatly arranged shelves of books. On the wall behind it, mirroring the study above, two scrolls hung — though both were rolled shut.
This place has some real history to it. And those scrolls look… oddly familiar.
The wooden dummies, the desk, the materials themselves — all of it carried at least a century of age. The secret room had almost certainly been established when the Lloyd family first rose to prominence.
His grandfather crossed the training area without pausing, leading David straight to the desk. He lifted the topmost booklet from the shelf and handed it over.
"Take a look."
David took it and turned it over in his hands — and felt his eyes go still.
What his grandfather had given him was a manual on Aura cultivation.
He ran his fingers over the paper. The material was unusual — the kind of thing that sometimes turned up recovered from ruins — but that wasn't what held his attention. When he flipped through the pages, he found that every section had been annotated, and the handwriting in those annotations belonged to his great-great-grandfather.
He looked up at the shelves. Dozens of books in various sizes and materials were arranged there in careful order.
"Are all of these…?"
"They are. Annotations on the cultivation and application of Aura — every technique and insight my grandfather left behind, along with his approach to raising Fighting-type Pokémon." His grandfather paused. "His main Pokémon included a Lucario."
"Luca!"
Lucario straightened slightly at that.
"This is incredible."
David's expression lit up. Ever since awakening his Aura, his ability had grown steadily over time — but without any real guidance or framework, his actual technique had remained rough. He had been making do. The materials in front of him were exactly what he needed, and the notes on raising Lucario were an added gift he hadn't dared to hope for.
"Don't get too absorbed just yet — there's still more."
David looked up from the booklet to find his grandfather walking carefully toward the two rolled scrolls behind the desk. His manner was deliberate, the way a person handles something they genuinely consider precious.
"Grandpa, what are those?"
His grandfather came to stand beside David and gently unrolled both scrolls.
"These record the exclusive moves of my grandfather's two main Pokémon — techniques he came across by chance inside a secret realm, long ago."
David looked at what was depicted on the scrolls, and something clicked into place.
They were the Scroll of Darkness and the Scroll of Waters — the two legendary scrolls associated with Urshifu's distinct fighting forms. The Scroll of Darkness carried the secret of Wicked Blow, a single focused strike of overwhelming power that always landed critically. The Scroll of Waters held the secret of Surging Strikes, a flowing sequence of rapid hits that broke through any defense.
This is similar in principle to the Agile Style and Strong Style techniques I have from Hisui.
And his great-great-grandfather's main Pokémon were actually two Urshifu? No wonder the family's reputation was what it was.
In this world, the function of these scrolls extended beyond what most people knew. They weren't simply held items or evolution catalysts. The martial arts knowledge contained within them could be studied and applied by Pokémon of many different species — and to a limited degree, even by humans with the right foundation. The Lloyd family's dojo had its deepest roots here, in these two scrolls.
That was why his grandfather had brought him to this room.
After walking David through everything, his grandfather stood back and watched his grandson settle into a focused, absorbed silence over one of the books.
"You'll have plenty of time to read before the New Year. For now, come back upstairs — your grandmother has been cooking since this morning. It's all your favourites, and she's waiting."
David set the booklet down with visible reluctance and followed his grandfather back up through the passage.
The secret room could wait. Dinner, apparently, could not.