It almost felt like yesterday when I had arrived in that place. A region beyond expectations. Fights that set me on edge faster than a horror movie. People who scared the living soul out of some. The pressure. The greed. The evil. The world of wrath and(truthfully) a living hell in itself. That was Korono, before th Second Korono War.
Let me explain things first. Keep in mind if I told this story detail by detail, if I mentioned every single event that took place, you'd be reading for years to come, no matter how fast you are. Another thing to note when reading this is that the story is yet to end. Korono still stands to this day, although no one I know other than me and a few other friends can reach it at this point. Well, I guess we'll see.
My name is Quartz. I'm a dude. I'm seventeen. I also happen to be a Pokemon trainer.
Many of you know what it is. I mean, it's a pretty popular game franchise right now, or whatever generation you may be from, I'm positive it's still a thing. I started when my parents got me a Gameboy Color for my seventh birthday, which I still treasure today as my entrance to this fantastic world. Without it, none of this would ever have happened, and you wouldn't be reading this. In a nutshell, it's pretty important.
I was not only a very avid fan, I also happened to be a shiny hunter, which if you knew the fandom well, you'd immediately recognize the first word, "shiny". These refer to alternately colored Pokemon, very rare in nature. My first was a Raticate in Silver(a Pokemon game), and by then my hobby started and continued to grow. By the time this story started, I had about a decent amount of 70-90 Shinies myself.
Pokemon was a very important factor in my gaming life. I played other games too, like first person shooters and open world games. They were fun, but not as fun as that relieving feeling when your shiny legendary finally gives in to the Ultra Ball or when you finally defeat Cynthia, literally the strongest trainer ever. That was what I loved about the monster-capturing game. It was so unique, so new, and was better than most RPGs I've played in a long time.
Anyway, now that you probably are educated in my background as a Pokefan, you'd be all set for this extremely long epic adventure with Pokemon, an evil team, heart-pounding Gym Battles, and a legendary Pokemon to strong to even be next to...
And it begins.
The sound of leaves crackling, living organisms slowly succumbing to the fire. The warmth of the heat was good, but the surrounding forests slowly crumbling... not so much. It was a heated battle... a little but harmful to my health. I felt my life slowly misting away, like water flowing from a faucet. It felt like my time here was over. I have served my purpose after all.
Then I hear a voice. It comes from a three headed monster next to me, with dark skin the color of that sad night and wings the size of trees, flapping faintly. A truly spectacular Legendary Pokemon, he was. Its eyes were golden and clear, reflecting the horror scene around perfectly, like a mirror or a puddle of water, without ripple.
"Rest now, child... You will return soon.."
I had no idea what he meant, but I felt like it was best. My subconscious told me that I slowly closed my eyes, the world dissolving around me, my body slowly becoming numb and soon I couldn't feel anything at all. I was dead.
--BEEP!!!--
--BEEP!!!--
--BEEP!!!--
"AAH!" I awoke with a start, my bed vibrating violently. My phone just alarmed. I hit "Snooze" like I always did, and my head fell back on my Pikachu pillow. My hair was very messy, standing up like always. I had grown so tall my feet barely fit, and some part would be hanging off the edge, so I usually curled up. My Shiny Gyarados blanket was smooth, soft and thick, perfect for my cold air conditioning unit. I felt my numbness go away, and my hands felt the soft bed sheet that I lay on, folds and all. I realized the sun was shining down on my face, preventing my sleep. I was just about to close the curtains on the light when I realized something. It was shining... So brightly...
I was terribly late for school.
I ran out of my attic, still dressed in pajamas. My house was this three floor building with a green roof and a garage. It had a decent amount of rooms, with two bathroom on the second and one on the first. However, there were no bathrooms at all in the attic, so going up and down was very common for me. I fled quickly to the bathroom and took a quick shower(with soap. I still don't know why some of my classmates don't do this). After brushing my teeth very evenly(about twenty seconds per tooth), I changed into the standard uniform and ran downstairs for the food. My mother was on the living room couch, sewing the new cloth she bought the night before together into a pattern, watching the morning news. She must have heard me running through the hallway, because when I took a step down the staircase(keep in mind this was behind a wall which she obviously couldn't see through) and she firmly said, slightly raising her voice, "You're late. Again."
Instead of arguing like I normally would, I just say down in order to not waste time. I eat pretty fast if the food's really good, but today it was spam. I didn't want spam. Another fifteen minutes of my time wasted.
After grabbing my bag I headed for the street. Tokyo is a cool place, even more so if you've only been living there for three months. My new school is not that difficult to adjust to, and so I've been looking forward to it everyday. Today however, I don't think they'd be pleased.
The city streets, clogged with citizens and traffic were still ringing in my ears as I entered the grounds. The school was this four hectare lot in the southeast part of the city, and I lived about seven blocks away. Another reason why I should be early. It had a few tall buildings, some sports areas, a pool and a grass field. The place was cool, and very organized. We had monthly earthquake drills, even more so that Japan was disaster-threatened each year. Overall, a great choice of education.
My classroom was at the top floor, me being a third year already. My friends Diamond and Jasper were waiting there for our next class. I went over to them to ask how many classes I had missed when Diamond walked over to me and stared me in the eyes, seriously. "PE's cancelled."
"WHAT THE FU-", I managed to blurt out before the principal,came our way. She was about seventy years old and her grey hair was even duller than the old walls of the hallway wasting away into nothingness. Her aura was not good, and she smelled of cat perfume. Wrinkles on her skin were too large and numerous to count, and so I always thought she wasn't quite human. Her attitude showed it too.
"WHY AREN'T YOU AT CLASS?!" She barked at us, spit flying everywhere, Jasper wiping some off his left checking looking disgusted. She knew it was a free period, and that our next class was cancelled, but she still hated us. We were known in the school to be pretty bad, even troublemakers to some. But hey, it was just the one time. And she was the one who hit me with a softball first.
Anyway, Diamond, who was usually tougher than the weaklings beside her(if you don't understand, it's me and Jasper.), stepped forward to give some of her brainy and if possible, scientific explanation. "Our next class is cancelled, so we had a free period. We were just heading to the, uh, courtyard." She said quickly, before pulling us out of sight. We ran down the staircase, almost out of breath. "How do you get us out of these situations so well?" Jasper asked, huffing and puffing. "I'm pretty good at making things up." Diamond answered before we reached the ground floor. After breaking through the stubborn glass doors that always don't open all the way, we were at the familiar red brick street with cherry blossoms lining the sides. Wooden three person benches were there, even the one with gum sticking out of the bottom. We hung out there all the time. It was the place where I accidentally put glue in my sandwich instead of mayo. The place where Diamond did that (almost) graceful fall over the bench and landed on her feet. The place where Jasper... well.. the place where he sat around, I guess?(Nothing really interesting happened to him.)
We sat in our favorite bench, the one in the middle because Diamond said three years ago when we first settled down in that spot that it was "in the middle, so it's special". I was always on the right side of e bench, at least from my perspective. Diamond's in the center because(again) it made her feel special, and Jasper on the other side. We often talked about what was going on with the world, like the weather and Pokemon and our next class and Pokemon and recent earthquakes and Pokemon and new albums and Pokemon. Basically, all three of us loved Pokemon, and I had the honor to introduce it to them. I still remember the shock and confusion going through my head when they told me they haven't played any of the games yet, even the spin offs! "Actually, we've never actually tried a Pokemon game." "WHAAAAAAAAAT???!!!!!"
In a nutshell, it's been our favorite topic since. Especially since the release of Sun and Moon recently, we've been online for hours. We'd trade and battle which each other almost every day. We even had a race to complete the Pokedex, which(of course) I won. Jasper's third place loss was no surprise either, since Diamond and I both know he's slow and tedious when catching some Pokemon.
After talking for a bit about competitive battling and(once again, for like the billionth time) fighting over our favorite starters, which I OBVIOUSLY sided with Popplio because reasons(Diamond was always a Rowlet lover, and Jasper adored Litten like no tomorrow), we decided to head in to the cafeteria for some real food. We loved eating as much as Pokemon, so lunch time was the hour to be.
We ate in our usual table, where we sat day after day. One of us would guard the stuff while the others would go buy food for themselves and the one guarding. Today, it was Jasper. "Go buy me some good ramen! make sure they put loads!" He shouted back at Diamond, who was already holding the money. Both of us knew Jasper was the heaviest eater of our trio, and it couldn't be helped.
As I was picking out some vegetables with my traditional Pokemon Eeveelutions chopsticks, Diamond turned to me and stared me in the eyes so seriously I almost dropped my bread, which was on my non dominant right hand. "What? Am I getting fatter?" I asked, legitimately looking down on my body. I ate a lot, after all, but I never seemed to exceed our "overweight' rule. Surprisingly, neither has Jasper. He always seemed to be a point kilogram away.
"I... I've had a dream lately. About a burning forest."
I finally dropped the bread. It was so delicious too, and I wanted to eat it while we walked to our next class. But the words that came out of her mouth stuck me like a holographic chainsaw. Not real, but the feeling of pain passes you for a moment.
"How...?" I was beyond confused. I was terrified for myself. The odds of two people who actually knew each other in real life having the same dream is like, nuts. Could it be a coincidence? An impossible psychic connection unlocked?
"What exactly happened in your, uh, dream?" I asked her. Her body and face were facing towards me, but her eyes were away, staring at the table beside us if the stainless steel used was so interesting to her. She was avoiding the question. "Nothing, nothing. It was probably an old memory I recalled." She one to me calmly, and she smiled. However, I was still afraid something had gone wrong, as she didn't quite meet my eyes when she spoke. She still stared at the table.
"WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG? I'm hungry!" Jasper called out to us as we were approaching the table. He snatched the food away from Diamond and munched away like usual. I calmly sat down next to him and laid my tray down. The usual orange juice that awaited me soon got into my clutches and through my mouth. The food was truly glorious.
The afternoon was a breeze, but a complete blur. Our music teacher just asked us to copy notes on the proper tempo terms and whatnot. Math was also very unmemorable, as we just solved a few geometric problems. The entire time, I was staring at the window, pondering on the conversation before. Had Diamond and I really have had the same nightmare? Could both of us be haunted similar if not exactly alike occurrences? I looked over to Diamond, also staring at the window. From my view, it looked like she was thinking the exact same thing.
"See you later!" Jasper said as he walked away into the other district. Damond and I were neighbors, so we always walked home together. The sunset shone above the city so beautifully, a sky almost impossible during November. The autumn trees blended in with it perfectly, like a painting featured in a famous museum like the Louvre. Diamond was also a photographer, so she took a picture the moment she noticed the perfect combination of artistic color.
When we walked, it was silent and awkward. At this time, we would have talked about the battles we'd have with Jasper that night, or the Shinies we'd have acquired, or our useless grinding time during the mid plot. However, even as the sun was shining like a true star, the atmosphere was all the while gloomy and dark. It was as if the sun had already set in our eyes.
"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you." Diamond spoke softly to me as she headed down the pedestrian lane. I waved back at here, although no words came out of my mouth. My brain wasn't exactly cooperating either, my mind forever stuck to that one memory...
That night, I was too troubled to sleep. I felt like all the hair in my body had severe goosebumps that would never cease. My blanket, which usually warmed me comfortably during the night, wasn't so inviting anymore. The dark of the night was too thick to see even a single plane taking off. The traffic noise also seemed to have died out. For once, I felt cold and alone.
Seeing as staring at my bedroom wall for eight hours isn't gonna do me any good, I decided to rest my eyes, even for just a little bit. I proceeded to close them.
But they never opened.
At least, not to my bedroom anyway.
I felt nature's scent and aura ghost upon me the birds were chirping nicely, although I couldn't tell what species they were. I felt soft, fertile land below me, covered by an abundance of grass. My eyes were still softly closed, but It felt just as it would have been if they were open. Strangely enough, I couldn't feel any ants or worms other bugs that might have been crawling on the ground. Instead I felt a large orb, sort of like a circular capsule, on my left hand. Suddenly my view became dark. I finally opened my eyes to the scene around me.
A girl was standing next to me, peering down with confused grey eyes. She looked very happy-go-lucky, and her caramel hair was tied around her head like a ponytail but different. Her clothes were out of this world, literally. She had space buttons and badges all over her vest, which was an odd shade of lime green. "What are you doing down there, Quartz?" She spoke to me as if she was a robot or something. I put the orb(whatever it was, I didn't see)firmly on the ground, then used my arms to prop myself up and stand up. I stretched for a bit before noticing her.
She was roughly the same height as me, and looked to be the same age. She was also holding a similar orb. Then I focused on the orb and my eyes widened. I looked down on the orb on the ground with my heart pounding, and it was just the same. "Aren't you gonna pick up your Great Ball, Quartz?"
