Everyone has something they regret. It sometimes isn't even something big that we regret the most, but rather the small things that looking back we realize we had the most opportunities to fix. No one is free of regret, everyone goes through life and whether knowingly or not, they rack up quite a few of them. The past isn't something that can be changed, but rather accepted, so that when a similar situation occurs later on in life you know what to do to keep from adding that regret to your list. Regret is the leading reason for people to want to be able to travel to the past, to fix what we otherwise couldn't. Though, when the regrets we get are lodged in an unchangeable past, can we really do nothing to change them?
"I hate the rain," a boy stated from his seat at a bus stop, a sad expression plastered on his face, the only shelter from the rainy weather being the small terminal surrounding the lone bench, his arms hugged around his legs as his clothes were filled with so many holes in it that the cold couldn't be kept at bay. He hadn't been talking to anyone in particular as no one else had saw it fit to travel in the weather, but this boy had no choice in the matter. Sighing as he removed his gaze from the wall of rain that obstructed his vision beyond the railing separating the cliff's edge and the street to the piece of paper he'd read over at least ten times since arriving. It simply told him to meet someone there, but they didn't write who wrote it and as time passed he began to question if they would even show up. "I really hate it."
"Yo, kid. You akiko?" A voice asked, loud enough to be heard with ease over the pounding rain. Turning to see who had spoken, he had visible surprise on his face when his eyes fell on a man with strict green eyes and long black hair tied into a ponytail that matched his suit and umbrella.
"Uh, yeah... Why? You from the Yakuza?" Akiko questioned, now standing on the bench, his arms shielding his face as his wide blue eyes eyed him with fear.
"You can relax, I'm not with the Yakuza." He laughed, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, taking a puff as he muttered with a chuckle. "Are you with the Yakuza? Haha, classic. Kids."
"Well, then who are you?" Akiko asked, slowly returning to his seated position on the bench. "And how do you know my name?"
"I'm Ibiki, and I'm the one who sent you that paper you're holding right there." He gestured with a small nod to the crumbled paper Akiko held. "I've got a proposition for you, kid." Once the words were out of his mouth Akiko snapped his fingers and before Ibiki could defend himself, he found the unhappy forms of two pokemon surrounding him, both of which he reasoned came from the woods behind the terminal that followed the street. One a Mightyena, its snarling form dripping with venom, and a Grovyle, it's form not as inherently scary, but the glowing green blade held up to his neck made it seem so. "Wha...?" Was all Ibiki could manage to say, the cigarette falling to the wet pavement, extinguished easily.
"I don't like that word." Akiko walked forward to the edge of the terminal's protection, his blue eyes narrowed deviously as his untamed black locks covered his left eye and most of his back. "The last person who said that to me wasn't a good person."
"The rumors are true I see," Ibiki replied, his surprise replaced by a relative calmness. "You really were raised by the pokemon out here."
"Yeah," Akiko replied looking to Mightyena, whose black fur made it hard to see in the pouring rain, the blackened sky above offering only scarce light in the form of cackling lightning. "The pokemon around here raised me when my parents died, they're all I know." Akiko explained, relaxing slightly as his expression returned to one of sadness.
"I noticed you could read that note well enough."
"I was young when they died, but I was old enough to now the basics of reading and writing. I don't know too much aside from what the pokemon managed to steal for me to learn from, or what the Yakuza taught me." Ibiki giving him a weird glance that Akiko just ignored. I know we shouldn't, but they only wanted to help me." Even the pokemon had relaxed, lowering their guards and looking back to Akiko with saddened eyes.
"I may not be the Yakuza, but that doesn't mean I'm the police - you don't have to justify what you've done to get by. I'm actually a professor, and in fact," Ibiki paused to take a piece of paper out of his pocket, "I'm here to help remedy this by offering you admittance into the school I work at." He handed the paper to Akiko who looked skeptical about it, turning the paper over, peering at its contents with a weary eye. "We've gotten wind of your living situation. A rare case, often only heard of in fiction novels - a child being orphaned and raised by pokemon in the wild - it isn't something you can turn a blind eye too. So if you'd like, you can attend." Akiko kept looking at the paper like it had a great mystery hidden in its print, not even looking at Ibiki as he spoke.
"I hope you know I can't read like half of this."
"Right." Ibiki hung his head, putting the pieces together to realize how stupid it had been to give him reading material. "I'll explain then, the school is a recommendation only school, so to put it simply, a gathering of the best. You, however, have the luxury as being the only student we've ever come too and admit into its walls without any form of recommendation."
"Why? What's so special about me?"
"You're seventeen, elementary education, and unaware of how to act in normal society, so I can see why you'd be questioning it." Ibiki smirking upon noticing Akiko's angry glare. "However, you're in the best shape I've seen, you can truly connect with pokemon as seen with these two," he gestured to the two pokemon surrounding him, "and as I've seen from the way these two pokemon came at me, both of which decently trained despite being wild pokemon, you're a natural training prodigy that when refined may be the greatest trainer we've ever seen."
"As nice as that offer sounds," Akiko replied, his words indicating he was about to decline, but his tone indicating that he didn't want too. "I can't leave these two. They're my family and without them I wouldn't want to become this great trainer you see in me anyway. So if that's all you wanted to talk about, you've got your answer." Akiko explained, walking into the rain without any protection, his untamed black hair becoming matted down to his back, even his scraggy beard had drops of rain caught in its twisted hairs, his tattered clothes revealing the fit body he lifestyle had awarded him. The two pokemon looked between the two, as if silently pleading for him to try his case again before leaving to follow behind Akiko as he walked down the barren street.
"I'm not asking you to go without them, kid. I'm saying that if you accept my invitation you can get an education and be made into this great trainer, but what kind of trainer would be without your pokemon?" Akiko stopped upon hearing the question, looking up into the sky, letting the rain drip down his face as he mulled it over.
"Mightyena has babies, I couldn't take them all with me and unless I could, I can't take her away from them."
"I think Mightyena wants you to go judging from how she was looking at me earlier." Akiko looked at the pokemon that stood obediently at his side, her eyes looking into his as she nuzzled his hand, licking it as if to tell him her message. "You've done a lot for them, but now it's time to do something for you. It's not like you'll never see them again, you'll be allowed to come back and visit them all you like during the holidays." Ibiki smiled as he saw Akiko turn around, his expression giving away his inner conflict over it.
"I just don't know... I need to see what the others think. I don't want to just leave them, I would only regret it if I left without all of them being okay with it."
"Take all the time you need, kid." Pulling out another paper he stuck it on the bench and pinned it underneath two shrunken pokeballs, the bright red and white spheres even visibly to Akiko from where he stood. "Should you decide to do it, I've left you a ticket for where to meet me when I head back, and two empty pokeballs for you to decide who to bring along. It will allow you to match with the school rules that way." He explained as he began to walk the other way down the road as Akiko had walked, stopping to look at Akiko over his shoulder and add, "and as for regrets, you'll find that it's hard to live life without getting a few. No one is free of regret, even you, they shape us into who we are, what we do, how we act, whether we know it or not. See ya, kid."
"I reached my limit on regrets a long time ago..."
Authors Note: And that is my newest story prologue. Inspired largely by HDD by NightFall00, but hopefully it has as much of a bright future as HDD does. The story will be based upon regret! It sounds kind of depressing when worded like that, but I have high hopes for this.
I also plan to keep doing my other stories as well, even if it doesn't seem that way because I keep making new ones pretty close together.
The OC form will be on my profile and in case you don't know what HDD is and want to see the inspiration, you can check out NightFall00's profile. Yes, I managed to insert shameless promotion of others into my authors note. I needed too though, always gotta give the credit where it is due. Anyway, that is enough out of me.