Melody of the Flute Chapter 1:
The Broken Flute
Two weeks after Emiko came back from Crown City, Mint and Ichigo had gone back to fighting. Today's was the worst yet; both of them had transformed and went outside. Everyone in the house was hiding somewhere except Emiko.
When Emiko heard a cry of pain from outside, however, she grabbed the flute she used to calm them down, and ran outside.
She saw Ichigo holding her arm, and Mint with her bow out. Mint was starting to fire again, when Emiko shouted, "STOP IT!"
She started to raise the flute to her lips, but her shout had startled Mint, and the arrow she had meant to shoot at Ichigo headed straight for Emiko, and sliced the flute in half!
Emiko looked at the broken flute in shock. It was the only thing she had left of her mother, and Mint had broken it. Emiko started to cry as she screamed, "Mint, you've gone too far this time! I've put up with your behavior long enough. I'm sending you back to Earth!"
Mint looked shocked. "But- I'll get killed!" she said.
"I DON'T CARE!" Emiko shrieked. "You've been nothing but trouble since you got here! All you ever do is sit around and complain, or pick fights with Ichigo, who never did anything to deserve all the insults you throw at her! You're nothing but a nuisance, and I'm telling you right now, that I've had it. You're gone, Mint!" Before Mint could say anything else, Emiko snapped her fingers, and Mint disappeared.
Ichigo started to say something, but before she could, Emiko teleported to the other dimension, her broken flute in hand.
Since she didn't concentrate on anyone in particular, Emiko ended up in a forest. She looked at her broken flute, and curled up in a ball on the ground, crying.
Half an hour later, she was still crying, when she felt something touch her leg. She looked down at her leg, startled, and saw a small yellow Pokémon with a shield-shaped head pawing her leg. It looked sympathetic. Emiko slowly reached down, and started petting it. It leaned into her hand, smiling.
Suddenly Emiko heard footsteps, and turned toward the sound of someone calling, "Shieldon! Where are you?"
The footsteps got closer, and a boy with spiky brown hair came around the corner, followed by a bunch more of the little yellow Pokémon. The boy stopped dead when he saw Emiko petting the one that had found her. "Hey, don't I know you?" he asked.
Emiko thought, and suddenly it came back to her. The time she, Kisshu and Ichigo got sucked into this world, they had met a boy named Gary. "Gary?" she asked.
"Yeah, aren't you that girl with the ability to freeze people?" Gary asked.
Emiko nodded. "I'm Emiko."
Suddenly Gary noticed that Emiko's face was tearstained, and the small Pokémon was leaning against her leg. "Hey, why were you crying?" he asked.
"One of the girls I live with broke my flute," Emiko said. "My mom left it for me before she was killed, and it's all I have left of her. I got really upset, and teleported to this dimension, hoping no one from mine would find me."
"I'm really sorry to hear that," Gary said. "What's the flute made of?"
"Wood," Emiko said.
"I have some glue," Gary said. "Do you want me to see if I can fix the flute?"
"I'd like that, if you don't mind," Emiko said.
"I don't mind," Gary said. He came over and sat next to her, and she showed him the flute. "That's really pretty," Gary said. "Let's see. It looks like a clean break, so I think all we need to do is glue the pieces together again." He dug around in his pack, and pulled out a tube of glue. Then he took the pieces of the flute, and squeezed some glue onto the bigger one. Then he gently maneuvered the pieces together again, and glued them together.
"All set," Gary said. "Now it needs to dry. I'll wrap it so it dries straight." He took out a piece of cloth, and carefully wrapped it around the flute, then handed the flute back to Emiko.
"Thanks, Gary," Emiko said.
"No problem," Gary said with a smile.
"What kind of Pokémon is this?" Emiko asked, rubbing the yellow Pokémon's head.
"That's a Shieldon," Gary explained. "I'm taking this group to another part of the valley here, so they'll be safe from poachers."
"There are poachers after them?" Emiko asked.
"Unfortunately, it's Pokémon Hunter J," Gary said. "She's the worst of them all. People hire her to steal Pokémon for them, and pay her a lot of money. She's got a weird way of catching the Pokémon, too, she freezes them with this machine she has on her arm."
"Do you want help to get the Shieldon to safety?" Emiko asked.
"If you want to, that'd be great," Gary said.
"Sure," Emiko said. She stood up, and said, "Lead the way."
Gary nodded, and started off. Emiko and the Shieldon followed.