I can't believe this is the third time I'm rewriting this all because of a technical problem! Hopefully no more mishaps will occur.
Episode 0
The wind from the open window played at the rims of the pages, the treatise placed on the table.
Though not long it lay abandoned, the sheets within are skewed. The sound it produced was as if a hand had been the one turning each leaf like a book, rather than the wind. The papers rubbed against each other, friction by the fingertips that would have read it. The ominous sound had been unnerving yet strangely something that could have been understood.
Three hours ago, a girl of ten who once stood in the same room knew it well.
She herself had felt it.
If anyone had asked of her to recite the contents, she would've done so in a fever pitch. Wouldn't that have been far too easy? By her mind she formulated its contents with ardent fervor, by her hands she wrote it down with strength, all the hundred pages of it.
Ah, but even if it had been realized, it was just as maddening as an effort of self-preservation and wishes of love.
There still lingered traces of the immediate past, when her laughter resonated down through the corridors. The hallways were filled with the sound of shoes striding against marble followed by soft-spoken yet commanding words, playing with the unassuming innocence of make-believe. The moment of a child's happiness are truly blessed.
"Princess Maisy, Princess Stacey, we think it would be a grand idea to take our Ponyta and have a quick ride through the meadows. An excursion like that would do us good, dost thou think…eth?" A girl with pink hair walked around her room waving to stuffed Teddiursa dolls and other toys, followed by a pair of twins…who were drooling. She looked at her constant companion beside her then behind at the twins. "Hmm, playing with a bunch of one-year-olds isn't as fun as I thought it would be. What do you think, Azurill?"
"Azu!"
She nodded in agreement and walked over to the twins, picking them up by their diapers with the Polka Dot Pokémon following her close behind. "Come on, you two. We're going back to your room." There wasn't really a point in keeping an eye on the twins if all they do is drool and make a mess in their nappies anyway. It was at times like this when she missed school and hanging out with her own age group, though her prolonged absence had nonetheless been one of necessity. The twins wailed at being held the way they were, probably getting a wedgie, so she took both of them into her arms. "Oof! You girls are heavy, huh? For a couple of twins you weight like quadruplets. Have you both been stocking up on baby food or something? When the two of you grow up, I'll tell all about the wonders of grown-up food, like ice cream and candy." The two just babbled with their saliva and blew bubbles. "Ew." She laughed at the twin sisters' infantile antics and held on to them tighter so they wouldn't drop on the floor. "I kinda wish I had someone to play with though. I mean, even a boy would do, even if they are gross and have cooties and like Bug-type Pokémon."
"You called, princess?" a new voice asked behind her.
She was surprised by the sudden inquiry that she nearly dropped the twins if she hadn't had faster reflexes and gripped them by their diapers again. She turned around and looked dead straight towards sparkling eyes and a big toothy grin. True to her wishes, a boy showed up behind her, one whom she was so familiar with. "Nomiya-kun?"
The boy known as Nomiya jumped over from the window ledge that he stood on and did a back flip towards her. "G'd afternoon, princess." His grin grew wider as he stood up in front of her. The twins looked at the new stranger before them but didn't cry. He looked at the twins with a charming smile and the two giggled joyfully in response, something the older girl had taken to rolling her eyes to. He snickered in response to her reaction and stood on his toes. "I didn't know you had any sisters. If they're lucky, they won't end up looking like you, princess."
"Azurill, use Water Gun!" A gush of water came from the Pokémon's mouth and drenched Nomiya. Rivulets of water dripped from his hair and his clothes towards the marble floor they stood on. The boy, still shell-shocked from the sudden attack, blinked twice before recovering and shaking all over like a Stoutland, soaking the girl in front of him as well. "What was that for, princess?"
The girl glared at him. "I am not a princess. Don't call me that."
He pointed to the top of her head, and reached out to remove a cardboard tiara entangled within her pink locks. "You were saying, princess?"
"I was playing make-believe, okay? My internet privileges were revoked because these two" she raised up the twins by the diapers before him and continued, "somehow broke a vase placed high above the study's shelf 2 months ago and I was in the same room working on an important treatise. I got blamed for it and got grounded for 3 months because I 'lied' which is so unfair. And don't call me 'princess!'"
Nomiya laughed heartily and shook once more to dry himself. "Whatever you say, Julia. Next time just say you were waiting for a prince like me to show up."
"You, a prince? Hardly!" She laughed back at him as if he had said a joke, though there was hardly any derision in her laughter even if it was at his expense. "You're one year older than me, and when we were in school you ended up bullying me with those weird friends of yours. Dipping my hair with a stamp pad, pushing me towards mud puddles, stealing my sandwich, Nomiya-kun, that bump I gave you was not enough." Julia shook her head at her old schoolmate's…whatever it was that he was doing.
"Tsk! And you're being such a bad influence to your sisters too; what if they grow up to be butch brutes?"
Julia, still holding up the twins by their diapers, looked back and forth between them "And are you talking about these? They're not my sisters, they're my cousins. My aunt and uncle are visiting dad."
"Why?"
"I dunno. They said it was to discuss something about grown-up stuff with a bunch of old people who look mean and scary. Actually, they've been talking about it since yesterday and they're still talking about it today. It sounds more like arguing though. I wandered near the room where they were talking but it was closed. I tried to hear what was happening inside, but Fifi found me and told me to play with these two and tried to keep me away from there."
Nomiya nodded while listening to her story before he cut in, "Fifi? Who's Fifi?"
"My nursemaid from Kalos. She's the one taking care of me when dad's at work and teaching me things when I was absent at school."
He scowled at the mention of her absence. He was always looking forward to seeing her at school, since she was the only girl who wasn't gross. He shivered when he remembered the girls in his class would try to sit close to him and even infect him with their cooties. "So, what are they talking about; something about money, I bet?
Julia was perturbed by his question and scowled a little herself, uncertain how to respond. Her forehead creased as she deeply thought on it, before replying to him hesitantly. "Well, no; they said they were talking about c-…c-…cu-something. They told me to go to the library, read up certain books, and make a very long treatise about it. Wait, why are you even here? You, wait here; no, wait, don't wait here, go home! I'll get in trouble with dad if he sees a boy over at our house."
"Why? I like it here. It's almost as big as my house." That was true. The school they attended together was usually populated by the affluent and talented. The only three ways in would be to have money that exceeded the national budget, have a noble bloodline that traced back to at least the Imperial Restoration, or incredibly high mathematics test scores. Nomiya had been so desperate for her friendship that he invited her right away to his home to play the day after she squashed him in the head, under her dad's watchful eye, of course.
"He said I can bring friends over if they're girls or Pokémon, but no boys unless they're relatives; and you're a boy, but we're not related, so you shouldn't be here. How did you even get here? This is the third floor, and the secluded part of the west wing." Julia asked in marvel of her old schoolmate's feat.
He took hold of her hand and led her and the twins back to her room. When they were finally inside, Nomiya pointed to the flowing curtains and the open glass door before them that led out into the balcony. Julia put the twins down and asked Azurill who tagged along to keep an eye on them while the two older kids walked out. Once out on the balcony, she inhaled the fresh air while Nomiya leaned against the railing pointing towards something on the wall. It was a trellis. She walked over and looked at it from the highest to the lowest, and regretted it immediately. "You stepped all over my aunt's prized daises! Are you insane? Do you want me to get grounded for another month, or ten? Couldn't you have knocked on the front door normally, or tossed pebbles at my window? Come on, my room is literally above the front door. When she left home to marry uncle, she left one task, only one; take care of her daisies, and what do you do, you trampled all over them just because they were in front of the trellis."
"Julia!"
The two young children turned around at the sound of Julia's name and they panicked. With no other alternative, Julia told her friend to hide under her bed, which he did, and she swiped the twins up before they could follow by example. "Sorry, Maisy, Stacey, now's not the time to play."
From under the bed, Nomiya could see three pairs of legs come in. He could hear her address them. "Oba-sama, oji-san, otou-san." 'Eh? There's something wrong about this. Julia…' He looked for the pinkette's smaller legs, and found them facing taller, more feminine legs. 'That must be her aunt. What's going on? Why is it so silent?'
"Ah!"
He was brought out of his reverie by the sound of her voice bawling. 'Julia? Julia!' Did something happen to her? What are they doing? He wanted to crawl out of bed and jump to her rescue, but as if anticipating his move, the girl in question stomped her right foot once on the floor loudly. It was a signal they once came up with in school to mean 'stay hidden' during the times he got into trouble with the Moral Committee with his antics. He continued to listen to their conversation.
"Julia?"
"Nothing, it was nothing. Please forgive my disrespect."
"Sweetie, it's time…"
He couldn't make sense of their conversation. He tried to listen in some more, but Azurill was heading his way and would expose him. He was relieved when Azurill was picked up by Julia and taken to her arms. That relief was short-lived when for just a small second, he saw her tear-streaked face. He would've jumped out to help her even if she didn't want to, but her dad was in the room, and the man scared him.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I…if only I…you're a smart girl, but kind-hearted as you are, you can't match their ruthlessness. Those old crones will do anything for the sake of money and status."
"But Naru-san vetted my petition, what could be wrong with it? He said it was well-done and foolproof. Aren't the constitutional laws of our lands almost the same? Oba-san, I don't want to!"
"You must! Julia, you have to, sis would have wanted you to live freely; wanted you spared from the misery they forced on her for years! You must be brave, like the heroes from the book, okay?"
"I should've punched him! Hiro, that bastard! Just because he's from the main family and hold power over the elders…I oughta-"
"Dad, stop! Even if Uncle Hiro didn't show up, the elders would've done something else. Oba-sama, can't we ask Naru-san to come here and help us?"
"I'm sorry, honey, but you know what the stories say. If we risk bringing an outsider here, we might get hurt. Even if that doesn't happen, there are repercussions that we can't afford to let loose. Everything's prepared. Fifi is waiting outside the room to lead you down to the basement. Make sure you aren't seen by anyone else. I have to talk to your uncle and dad, so you must wait faithfully."
Nomiya tried with all his might to stay down. He was helpless as he saw Julia's feet stride out the door in a sprint. The three grown-ups were left behind to talk. He stuck his head a little outward, just enough to remain concealed but enough to see who she talked to. He saw an unfamiliar man, probably Julia's uncle, and Julia's dad, who still scared him. He listened as the older woman talked to her husband.
"Honey, down at the wine cellar, turn right at the last passage where the amaretto solera is, you will find a small wooden door. When you open it, you'll see a wall of bricks; take it down by removing the loose cornerstone at the bottom right. From there, you'll see a stairway leading down to a dead end. Use the candelabra to smash the statue of the hero Everard and look for a key. Beneath the base is a keyhole. Use the key and the wall will open halfway, where a hidden passage leads to the lowest levels of Diglett Cave. It was my family's escape route during the Feudal States Era. We have to stay behind and give them enough time to escape."
She turned to Julia's dad. "My sister was smart to pick you. She loved you enough to allow you into her heart after…hm, in the study, there's a map of Kanto, take it and the book beneath it. After you get out of the caves, head south, as far south as you can, past the harbor if possible, beyond the Sevii Islands and the Orange Archipelago. I asked Sabrina to pray to the gods tonight in case of a moonlight flit. Good luck. You're the only one she can count on now. Protect her with all your might."
"I promise, I will."
The three adults observed a moment of silence in deep thought, then began to move at a pace as if their lives depended on it. As soon as they were out the room, Nomiya crawled out from under the bed and out into the balcony in a daze. He stayed there for a long time before he was snapped out of his daze by the sound of banging on the door and climbed down the trellis as fast as he could.
I had to take out a lot of things since it exceeded my word count. This isn't a prologue as it is so much as a chapter, but it's not really a "chapter" in the loose sense of the word either, hence the "Episode 0" designation. The expressions these characters showed in my head were hilarious, you guys have no idea how tempted I was to use interrobangs.