"Don't cry, my Dear. We'll meet again.
I promise."
"Hey Mom."
It was a bright day. Brighter than it had been in a long time, Touko realized. The wind whipped through her hair, sending a few pieces of it whirling into her eyes. One hand stayed gripping onto her pink and white baseball cap, keeping it from whirling off of her head and to the ground far below, the other wrapping around Zekrom's neck so she wasn't the one that ended up falling. Normally, someone would be freezing from the cold air and high speeds she was traveling at, but Zekrom always leaked warmth, so that even with her small shorts there was never an instance of cool.
"I'll be home in just a little, don't worry. I'm so sorry I'm late though, there was a last minute challenger. I made sure to file in for the rest of the day off, though. Can't miss Mother's day, right?" Touko yelled into her Xtransceiver in order for the sound to be picked up over the wind.
"Touko-"
The harsh wind drowned out the sound of her mother's voice, which was already small to begin with. Champion duties had eaten up almost all of her time lately, leaving little to none to spend with her Mom. Day after day was spent defeating challengers who still had a long way to go before they would pose too much of a challenge to her. Every so often Cheren and Bianca would fly over to eat lunch with her or watch the matches, which made the days more bearable, and she was growing steadily closer to the elite four members. Touko was always close to her mother, though, so when she realized that Mother's day itself was steadily approaching she made sure to do everything in her power to be able to take the day off.
"I know we haven't been able to spend much time together lately, and I'm really sorry about that. I promise I'll make it up to you. All the challengers just have it in their head that I must be easier than Alder to defeat since I'm new, so it's been endless battles. It'll slow down soon. Did I tell you earlier that Cheren and Bianca are bringing over their moms too? It'll be just like old times, all of us together-"
"Touko."
Touko heard her mother's voice that time, loud and clear. Her stomach dropped. She knew that tone of voice. That was the tone her mother used when something was oh so very wrong. The last time she had heard that was when she was ten, six years ago, and her mother had to break it to her that Daddy wasn't coming home this time. Not because he had died, of course not, but because he had fallen in love with someone else.
"Mom? What's wrong?"
The brunette's arms unconsciously tightened around her trusted pokemon. Zekrom immediately slowed his flying pace, turning his head to look at his trainer and giving off a concerned growl.
"It's your Dad."
It always was, wasn't it?
Touko sighed quietly, her grip once again loosening on Zekrom. He had probably just showed up at their house begging to be taken back, or something. He had always been one for changing his mind at the drop of a pin.
"What'd he do this time?"
"He's… He died, Baby. I'm so sorry."
The world stopped. Suddenly, Touko was no longer racing through the skies on her trusted partner, a smile on her face as she looked forward to spending the day with her loved ones. The day was no longer bright, it was dark, and menacing, and one she would not forget for a long time to come.
Zekrom howled, feeling the sudden change in emotions and the rapidly loosening grip on his body, swiveling his large head.
"I'm so sorry, Baby. His wife called me earlier today. She- she said it was a freak accident, that no one could have done anything. I know that despite everything that happened he still meant a lot to you- I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry-"
The voice coming out of the machine was choken, broken, heartbroken and sad- but not a second of it reached the young champion's ears, as the machine had long since slipped through her fingers. It spun blindly through the air, picking up speed as it went, the rambling words of a grieving mother reaching no one but the wind.
A second later and a trainer followed its example, feeling so suddenly lost that keeping a grip on her teether to life was truly the last thing on her mind. There was a brief second of fear, pure, unadulterated fear, before it all left her body, and she was left with a sense of peace. As she watched the clouds grow smaller and smaller above her, the blue sky stretching wider, her mind shifted to Reshiram, with its boundless grace and beauty that outmatched even the limitless clouds - and then its trainer, who shared that in common with the beautiful beast.
She silently apologized to him for breaking her promise.
But then she realized that a strange sound was following her, and her eyes shifted from the clouds to Zekrom. Electricity slightly crackled around him as he cried, his strong wings tucked inwards so he could catch up to his rapidly descending trainer.
A few seconds more and he was under Touko, angling himself so she could easily land on his back - just before they both crashed into the ground, sending tons of bits of grass and ground flying up around them and creating a small crater.
Touko laid there for a second, her chest heaving up and down, before Zekrom suddenly jerked, throwing her violently off his back and onto the ground. She blinked slowly, forcing her eyes to refocus. When they did, she was greeting with a pair of angry red eyes, and then the largest howl she had ever heard from Zekrom. The cry was long, and furious, and exasperated, and so many emotions she had never heard from the black beauty that it brought a small smile to her face. But that only made him even more furious, if the growing blue electricity around him was anything to go by.
Touko's eyes widened slightly, just before she burrowed through her bag, causing Zekrom to pause in his howling for a moment to wonder what his trainer was doing. A second later, she pulled out a hyper potion, and began spraying it on the legendary's wounds. Zekrom let out a short cry of protest, trying to communicate that they should get her help first, though she only kept spraying.
"Sorry," she choked out, leaning her head up against his. "I'm really sorry, Zekrom. Sorry."
There was a brief second of silence, before Zekrom let out a low whine, brushing his large head against her tiny one in an affectionate manner.
"I'm so sorry," she said again, throwing her arms around the pokemon and clutching. "Sorry, sorry, sorry." Tears leaked out from her eyes, and hiccups were interrupting her words, but she just kept repeating them.
She was always sorry.
"I have to leave now, Darling."
"I don't understand, Daddy. Why can't you stay with me and Mommy? Are we not enough for you anymore?"
"No, Baby, of course you're enough. Me and your mother just need some time apart."
"But I don't want you to leave!"
The older man reached forward to wipe a few tears from his daughter's cheeks, his other hand planting a white and pink baseball cap he had just recently bought for her onto her head.
"I'll be back, Touko. I promise."
Everyone broke their promises.
Contrary to popular belief, making a promise does not magically make something stronger. It doesn't make a difference, in the end. All a promise did was provide temporary relief and peace to the parties involved.
Promises were worthless. Or at least that was what Touko kept trying to tell herself.
But as Touko stared at her father's gravestone and the bright flowers curling around it, her mind drifted not only to the promise her father made to her long ago and ended up breaking, but the one N made to her, just a few months ago. A promise to meet again.
Touko had waited too long when it came to her father. She had taken him for granted, and let him slip through her fingers when she could have done more.
A promise is only kept when a person fights with everything they have to keep it intact, and she did not do that with her father. She would not make the same mistake twice. She never did.
The sound of rain hitting the ground around her was the only sound to be heard, as she was the only human in the area. Samurott stood boldly alongside her. Normally he would be relishing in the feeling of rain hitting his skin rhythmically, but concern for his trainer kept any thoughts of enjoyment far away. Touko absent mindedly rubbed Samurott's head for a moment, before her hand reached up to the same hat her father had given to her six years ago.
"I'll make you proud this time around, Dad," she whispered, feeling the cool touch of the stone under her fingers. "I'll keep my promise."
"You're… what?"
Bianca had an incredulous look on her face as she stared at one of her closest friends, wondering just what exactly was going through her head.
"I have to leave, Bianca. I've already relinquished the title of champion back to Alder. He wouldn't have taken it, but he swore that it was only a little longer until Iris was strong enough to defeat him." There was a slightly fond and proud tone to Touko's voice as she spoke of the purple haired girl.
"You can't leave though, Touko, we need you here."
A sad smile took place on Touko's lips.
"You don't, though. You've come so far, Bianca. You're strong, now. You don't need me. You haven't for a long time."
"That's not true," the blond girl spoke, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. "You're my best friend, I'll always need you! The only reason I became strong in the first place was because I had you!"
Touko squeezed her eyes shut, before she took a step forward and placed her hands over Bianca's cheeks. "Find your own strength. You have it in you, I know it. You're the strongest person I know."
"Don't leave me, Touko, please. I'm begging you."
Touko silently wished that she could have never seen the tears pouring down Bianca's cheeks.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, letting go of Bianca's cheeks and beginning to move toward Zekrom, who was patiently waiting to fly off. "I only came to say goodbye and… thank you. Just as much as you claim I've been your strength Bianca, you've been mine."
Even after Zekrom and Touka had been flying for minutes, Touko still could have sworn she could still hear the frantic cries of her best friend echoing in her ears.