"Diaaa!" That loud, shrill voice was soon accompanied by a full-body tackle, and Dia yelped as she was taken to the ground by her enthusiastic friend. Grunting upon contact with the ground, she squirmed around to look up at the big smile on Mari's face.
"Wh-What do you want, Mari?" As much as she tried to sound stern, her voice never failed to drop to a more meek level when talking to Mari. It was the same with Kanan, if she was honest with herself. In their little group, she was the quiet one, the one who was in the background while her more boisterous and confident friends took center stage.
"Guess what I got last night?" Mari jumped off of Dia and stood in front of her, smiling even brighter if that was possible. At first, Dia didn't understand what she was talking about, but then it hit her. Eyes widening, she jumped back onto her feet and clasped her hands together.
"Y-You got a Houndour?!" At first, Dia hadn't been interested in getting involved in the Pokemon phenomenon. Though both Kanan and Mari had begun playing it, she had resisted, not wanting to get hooked. That all changed on her birthday, however. For a present, Mari had definitely surprised her with a DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond. Though it was kind of cute that Mari had chosen the version that basically had her name as a title, she'd been hesitant to spend too much of her time playing. Then she actually started to play, and it didn't take long to get her hooked.
"Yup! You wanna trade?" For several weeks, Dia had been trying to get Mari to breed her a Houndour. The first time she'd seen its evolved form, Houndoom, it had been the most recent Pokemon that Mari had caught. She loved the design and really wanted one for herself, but of course it just so happened that Houndoom were only catchable in Pearl, the version that Mari had.
Originally, Mari had tried to trade Dia the evolved version, but she wouldn't take it. She couldn't just have the final form: she needed its previous form too. Plus, she wanted to add a Pokemon to her team that came from Mari. That seemed to make Mari happy, and she promised to deliver a Houndour, though apparently laziness had gotten the better of her. Well, better late than never.
"Y-Yes!" The two of them hurried back into the school to grab their backpacks, where their handhelds were stashed. Since their free time had just started, they had time to make the trade before they were ushered back to class. Fishing in her backpack, Dia grabbed her DS and flipped it open, turning it on and impatiently starting the game. She was really eager to get that Houndour.
Soon enough, the two of them had entered a nearby Pokemon Center and gone into the trading area, where a frustrated Dia had to catch Mari before they could start trading, since Mari was running around the small area. "C-Come on, Mari!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Mari laughed and finally stopped, allowing the two of them to begin the trade. In exchange for the Houndour, Dia had caught an Aron, which had been Mari's choice for a return Pokemon. According to her, Aron looked like 'a good friend', though Dia didn't know what that meant. She put up Aron first, only to be met with a pout from Mari. "Diaaa, why don't you ever name your Pokemon?"
"They already have names. The creators worked hard on them." That was one of the things that Dia remained stubborn about. She didn't want to name her Pokemon, since they already had names the creators thought were appropriate for the designs. Mari pouted some more, but if Dia went to rename it, they wouldn't have time to trade, so she just went along with it, putting up her Houndour in exchange.
Wait... That didn't look right. When she'd originally seen the evolved form in Mari's game, it had clearly been black. This one was blue, though. She stared at it in confusion, then inhaled sharply. When she'd been looking up information on the games, she remembered seeing something called a shiny. They were the same as regular Pokemon, but their color palettes were different, and they were incredibly rare. She'd never seen one before, even through breeding, but here one was, staring her right in the face.
"M-Mari, y-you got a shiny Houndour?"
"It's really shiny, isn't it?" Mari smiled proudly, pointing on Dia's screen where its name was: SHINY!
"Mari, this is really rare. It's almost impossible to get one of these." Dia's eyes were still wide in disbelief, unable to believe that Mari would just trade her such a rare Pokemon for some common Aron. Her morals wouldn't let her take it like that. "I-I can't take this. You should keep it. You're the one who obtained it."
"I got it for you, though." Rather than listening to what Dia was saying, Mari pushed A on the 'accept trade' option, looking at Dia and waiting for her to accept as well. "Dia deserves the coolest Pokemon!" The statement made Dia blush, but Mari wasn't backing down, so she had little choice but to hit accept as well. Was she really getting a shiny Houndour for her team?
When the trade was finally completed, and the congratulatory music declared her the proud new owner of a shiny Houndour, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was so cute, and it was even better because it came from a friend. "Th-Thank you, Mari!" She really wanted to show Kanan, since she knew that her other friend hadn't obtained any shinies either. As luck would have it, Kanan entered the room at that point, apparently having been looking around for them.
Excitedly, Dia rushed over to Kanan to show her what she'd gotten, while Mari followed with that prideful smile still on her face. Just as predicted, Kanan was shocked and ecstatic, and the three of them celebrated their first shiny together. They could only celebrate for a short time though, since class was going to start again soon. The two of them quickly saved and shut off their handhelds, stashing them back in their backpacks before heading outside with Kanan. Dia couldn't wait to get home and train her new Houndour.
From that birthday back in elementary school until their first year of high school, Dia kept playing Pokemon with her friends. She'd moved on from Diamond to Black and then to Y, but throughout each generation, she'd transfer a select few Pokemon to each new game. Even when she became forced to pay an annual fee to use the Pokemon Bank in order to keep transferring, she did it because she wanted her favorite Pokemon with her in each new generation.
By the time Pokemon X and Y came out, Kanan was no longer playing, leaving just Dia and Mari to keep playing. However, Dia's younger sister Ruby also began to play, so they still had a third person to trade and battle with. It still felt weird without Kanan, though. The only thing she had left as proof of Kanan's previous gaming was a level eighty-five Salamence with the OT name of Kanan.
Most of the Pokemon she had received from Kanan and Mari were transferred from game to game, but her absolute favorites were that Salamence and her trusty shiny Houndoom. He may have started out as a cute level one puppy, but by the time he was transferred to Y, he was a ferocious level one hundred beast of a canine. Though he was way too high-leveled to use in regular battling, Dia refused to leave him behind.
Even better, the new generation of Pokemon had introduced Mega Evolution, and both Houndoom and Salamence had mega evolutionary forms to go with it. Her, Mari, and Ruby all worked hard to collect every mega stone, and she very nearly squealed with joy the first time she mega evolved her Houndoom in battle.
However, there wasn't as much time for gaming as there was before. Her, Kana, and Mari had decided to finally start their own idol group, which meant more time was spent practicing. On top of that, Kanan didn't play anymore, so neither her nor Mari wanted to make her feel unwelcome by continuing to play while they were all hanging out. She still enjoyed playing when she found the time, however.
Things didn't truly change until after their first real performance, however. They'd been slated to compete in an event in Tokyo, but Mari had sustained an injury that made performing extremely difficult for her. She'd been prepared to gut it out, but Kanan wouldn't have it, and when it was their turn to perform, she just... didn't. Stage fright is what she had claimed, that the bright lights of Tokyo had paralyzed her vocal chords. She told Dia the truth, though: that she'd done it on purpose so as not to aggravate Mari's injury.
Dia hated lying to Mari, but she agreed with Kanan that it wouldn't do them - or Mari - any good by performing and having her worsen her injury. Besides, Kanan was her friend too, which only made it more confusing what to do. In the end, she chose to keep what Kanan had done a secret, a decision she came to regret on the day that Mari left.
Kanan had come to believe that Mari was wasting her time in their quaint little seaside town, when she could be out somewhere grander, becoming someone truly incredible. That was the reason why she pushed Mari to study abroad, and despite her great reluctance, she eventually agreed.
Watching Mari leaving in her helicopter was the worst moment of Dia's young life. She stood next to Kanan as the helicopter took off, barely able to make herself wave as they both watched their friend eventually disappear into the sky, perhaps forever. Neither she nor Kanan knew what to say, so they both silently went home, a gulf already starting to open up between them.
That night, Dia cried harder than she'd ever cried before, sobbing inconsolably into her pillow. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and she already missed Mari enormously. It didn't take long for that sadness to turn into anger, though. She was mad at Kanan for making Mari leave, even if her intentions had been good. They had both considered Mari to be a best friend, and now she was gone. Dia blamed Kanan.
Before school one day, the two of them got into a heated argument over it. Kanan reiterated that she had done what she'd done because she wanted what was best for Mari, but Dia refused to forgive her for making their friend leave. Wasn't it Mari's choice whether or not she went? Things already felt lonely without Mari.
Of course, things became even lonelier without Kanan. Their friendship was, for all intents and purposes, done at that point, even if neither of them had said that they didn't want to be friends anymore. Friends usually talked though, and neither of them would break the wall of ice that had formed between them. It even strained Dia's relationship with Ruby. Nothing bad had happened between them, but one of the things that had been a bonding point between them was idols. Before the idol group, it was Ruby whom Dia had shared her love of idols with. The disintegration of their group had left a bad taste in her mouth though, and even the mention of idols made her internally recoil.
In a moment of angry petulance, she turned on her 3DS again. Without all the idol practicing, there was time now to play Pokemon, but seeing those creatures she'd gotten through trading made her feel ill. She felt intense sorrow looking at her strongest team because Mari's Houndoom was there, while also feeling a blood-boiling anger due to Kanan's Salamence being there as well. At that point, she nearly released all of Kanan's Pokemon in a fit of rage.
She couldn't do it, though. They were just creatures in a video game: they hadn't done anything wrong. Besides, even in her worst moments, she couldn't get herself to throw away the only remaining things that connected her to her friends. Well, former friends, it would seem. Instead of releasing all of them, she instead hid the Pokemon she'd gotten from Kanan away in the final box of her PC. Then she closed her 3DS and cried again.
Dia's third year in high school was a lot more eventful than her second. Out of the blue, Mari showed up again, claiming to be the director of the whole school. This was a claim that ended up being true, leaving Dia in stunned silence. If she'd ever believed Mari was going to return, this was not the way she expected it to happen.
Since her second year, Dia had taken over the student council roles at the school. They weren't getting many applicants - none, really - and the students didn't really want to deal with the work that came with being part of the student council. Dia took to it with aplomb, enjoying the fact that all the work helped distract her from the negative feelings she'd been having concerning Kanan and the departure of Mari. In a way, she was glad that she did all of it alone. It proved to her that she could do things on her own, and she didn't need anyone else to prop her up.
That all changed when Mari came back. When she returned, everything seemed to cycle back to their first year. The idol dreams were revived once more, successfully at that. Kanan returned and, after a big emotional blowup between herself and Mari, their friendship began to repair itself. It was like things hadn't changed at all.
Something had changed, though. At first, Dia had been upset that Mari returned without even telling her, but she eventually felt better because she was back. Then she was further delighted that Kanan and Mari resolved their feud and became friends again, because that meant they could all go back to being good friends as well. That wasn't exactly the case, though.
On the positive side, she and Kanan were able to become friends again. It was like their own feud hadn't even happened... and maybe that was the problem. With Mari back and a new idol group born, everything kept going like what had happened in the past didn't even occur. It wasn't that Dia wanted to reopen those old wounds, but it didn't feel right to act almost like newfound friends rather than what they used to be.
What was worse was that working out their problems brought Kanan and Mari closer. They started spending a lot more time together, and it was clear that they were becoming really into each other. That left Dia on the outs, and she would often find herself trudging along behind them, trying to not notice the way they stared at each other, or the way they seemed to forget that she was even there.
There would be times where she'd pull out her 3DS again, and boot up her copy of Pokemon Y. She hadn't even bothered to ask if Mari still played, since that would mean she'd have to stop looking at Kanan for five seconds to answer the question. Besides, the topic had never been brought up, so she felt justified in assuming that, like Kanan, Mari had stopped playing.
When the game loaded up, she opened the PC and went into the final box. There were all of the Pokemon that Kanan had traded her, hidden away due to her anger. She sat there staring at them for a couple moments, then she grabbed Salamence and dragged her into the party, right next to her shiny Houndoom.
Looking at the two of them together, she smiled a bitter smile. Right underneath them, in the third slot, was her Empoleon. She had picked Piplup as her starter all those years ago, and like the others he had followed his trainer from game to game. It seemed fitting that her starter would be in the third slot, since that was where she apparently was meant to be.
After exiting the PC, she looked up from her 3DS and out the window, sighing wistfully as she stared at the night sky. Everything seemed so peaceful outside, completely opposite of how she felt. Things had definitely changed, but they had made everyone else happy. Why did she have to be the only one who felt this way?
Looking at her team, it reminded her of elementary school, back when her, Kanan, and Mari were an inseparable trio, not a duo plus one. She wished so badly that things could go back to the way they were. Now all she had left was a team of Pokemon from a different time: a group of pixels that represented better days.
Resigning herself to her fate, Dia flopped down on her bed and took her old team to the Elite Four, allowing herself to drown in the memories. It was all she had left.