Chapter 9
Arborville Forest / 10 Years Later
The lake reflected the moonlight so beautifully. Shin, now 20 years old, was asleep by the lake, the Pokéball in which Meganium was inside still attached to his sash near his embroidered name.
With a hesitant blink, Shin opened his hazel eyes and slowly came back to his world. He quickly looked up into the air and noticed that he was back home, with the giant lake that had healed his heart for 10 years now, ever since he first visited it. He progressively realized that he had woken up from a mysterious yet soothing sleep. But every slumber came with a dream, and as he slowly remembered what he dreamt of, he looks around, surprised to see absolutely no creature in sight.
"Celebi…?"
Shin whispered under his breath and stood up, wandering around the edge of the lake. After all these years, Celebi appeared in front of him in the form of a dream, and to Shin's surprise, the Guardian of the Forest was quite far from what he had ever imagined it to be. He didn't remember exactly how Professor Oak described the Legendary Pokémon, but it was close enough to remind him of that conversation.
Celebi was hardly Godly. In fact, it was one of the most endearing Pokémon he had ever seen in his life. This playful Pokémon was the Guardian of the Forest, and it was his duty to keep the promise of remembering its message and its voice. Shin's mind was in a complex state as he tried to put his perception and his observation together. But one emotion he did not feel was disappointment. In fact, Shin felt joy in the encounter. But it was only what was in his mind, and he could be wrong. Nonetheless, even though it was merely a dream, Shin felt like he finally had an idea of what it felt like to witness Celebi in front of him, and how it would show him the way down the road of pilgrimage he had walked through his life here at the Johto Region.
Shin takes a deep breath and tries to gather all of his thoughts together, so he can go back home and continue to seek and pray for the day that he will meet the Guardian; this time while he was wide awake…
But as the seconds passed, an even larger portion of Shin's memory returned to his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Shin walked closely over to the bed. The little boy remained silent and said nothing in response. From the looks of it, he seemed to be afraid of Shin. However, Shin wondered if he could help.
"Did you have a bad dream?" Shin couldn't help but feel sympathy for the boy. He knew it was a nightmare that had been keeping the boy awake. He once had a little brother of his own, and he would show an expression of both fear and loneliness every time he successfully escaped his nightmares but still remembered them.
"I'm sorry you had to see all of that. Come here…" Shin remembered the old times when he had someone to protect, and someone to love. The little boy in front of him pulled his heart in such a similar way, even though this was a unique encounter on its own, with a sense of care that Shin had never experienced in his entire life: after all, he had never seen this boy in his entire life, and he was much younger than Shin was.
Shin moved closer and smiled at him. The boy's pale and soft cheeks and rather eccentric appearance invited him into a world of curiosity. To further comfort the boy, Shin moved closely to him and placed his arms around, holding him tightly. However, not being able to decipher the moment, the boy started to scream, as though a monster was attacking him. Shin widened his eyes and quickly tried to stop the screaming!
"Shhh! Shhh!" Shin whispered, not wanting the strange men and women that were chasing him to hear the commotion. He didn't let go of the boy, however. In fact, he tightened the hug and pulled him even closer to his chest and neck, patting the boy on his frail back.
"Don't worry… it's okay… I won't hurt you…"
Shin's feet froze as the image of the little boy came back to his mind: the fragile-looking boy with shiny blue eyes and green hair. Purity was all he could see in him, and those memories of fraternal instincts and his sense of endearment he had for the boy started to come back. How the boy was crying after experiencing a terrible nightmare, and crying even harder when he tried to comfort him. He had no idea where that boy came from, and why he was even in his dream. But as time went on and he started to think back even further, he wondered why the boy was so stuck in his heart. It could have been because it reminded him of his Late Little Brother, but that wasn't the entire story. At that point, 'a gut-feeling' was the only way to describe his attachment. In fact, it even seemed like the boy himself was a part of his now 10-year old pilgrimage.
Shin walked back towards the lagoon and sat down, gazing at the reflection of moonlight and putting his hands together and praying that he will find an answer that would explain the dream he just had in its entirety, and that Celebi would provide him with answers along with his further encounter with his Guardian.
When Shin heard the tiny sound of something falling onto the ground, he looked near his arm. It was the old book he had been carrying every single day since his voyage began. Somehow, it seemed like having the book of maps that Professor Oak gave him would show him the way, even though he didn't expect it to actually happen. He flips around the pages, looking at all of the circled forests around the world, wondering if any of them were similar to the forest Celebi took him to in his dream (Shin dismissed such curiosity soon after asking himself, 'Why would a fictional forest in my dream exist?'). But as he turned the pages, he noticed that there was a region he had overlooked after all of these years. In fact, it seemed like this page appeared out of nowhere, even though that was impossible. However, Shin had never seen these pages. He looked at the map in its entirety and the thought of progress boiled in his mind. He couldn't emphasize enough in his mind that all of this was a dream and nothing else. Even then, somehow it just seemed like Celebi was telling him to go there, to this region where the new forest stood. Shin didn't know which forest it was, but that would be the place where he would receive yet another message from the Voice of the Forest, and that he would treasure it along with the experience. As he read the top of the map, Shin whispered the name of that region, the gut-feeling getting even stronger as he did so.
"Unova…"
Nimbasa City / 2 Months Later
N looked down at his lap as he heard Shen's devotion to Celebi, and how passionate he was. There was once a time when he would have cursed at it, but for once he had absolutely no idea what to think of it. He didn't exactly have any emotion of respect coming out of him, though. It was merely a dogma that he couldn't unlock in any way. Even though he knew Shin had stopped talking, he didn't want to keep eye contact with the young man.
"How pathetic…"
As silence behind the soothing music continued, he remembered his own words, and his facial expression got gloomier and gloomier as he realized that he had started a cause of his own that would have miserably clashed with Shen's purpose, and even his life itself.
Team Plasma had targeted the Messengers all around Unova. N genuinely believed that they were a group of human hypocrisy, and that they resorted to a Legendary Pokémon that deserved to be left alone. They had also taken his friends out of their natural habitat and take advantage of them to spread their Message. All of that remained true in his heart until he later found out that targeting these poor souls was yet another plan of Ghetsis, who was consumed with greed and had been expanding his ambition to a point that N had never anticipated.
But at that point, none of that mattered. What mattered to him was what would happen next. Shin seems to know about Team Plasma, but he doesn't seem to know N's status of "King." Let alone the truth behind the entire cult of radical ideology.
What would Shin think of him if he found out? Even though he never particularly cared for what others thought of him, with Shin, the boy in front of him, it was a completely different case. He spent the next few moments to seek for an explanation for all of these thoughts. All he could think of was the fear of losing the hug that he once got: the only hug from a human being that he had ever received. Shin was the only human being that he was exposed to before being named King of Team Plasma. Even though N didn't care for listening to the voice of the heart of humans, somehow, a sense of kindness and sympathy came out of the young man. N's entire life felt like one big lie, being treated like a puppet figure and being betrayed by all that he believed in. But inside the swamp of lies was honesty that came from Shin. After a tremendous amount of fear, confusion, and seclusion, Shin was there for him, even if it was for just one moment. He didn't want to lose it for even a second…
He asked himself one more time, if he believed that Shin would accept him for who he was, and how he has been raised, and what was a long lasting purpose of his entire life even when Shin ran into his room in a hurried and terrified manner.
As thunder rumbled in the gray sky, N and Shin both looked out the window to hear the weather's downfall yet again.
"Ugh… It was so beautiful this morning. The weather over here has been ridiculous lately." Shin took the teacup and empty pot from N's table and moved them back to the sink on the counter. He glanced at N and was only able to see his back. Somehow, he wanted to see him smile.
"N? Are you going to be alright? I don't want this weather to keep you from going home." N raised his head at the word 'home.' Shin turned on the faucet at the sink and started to wash the teacups with cold, clean, and clear water.
"Unless, you want to spend the night here? It doesn't look like it'll get any better. I'm sure the owner of this shop wouldn't mind."
N blinked and remembered how he had spent the night at a Pokémon Center earlier. He was provided shelter to hide from the rain yet again. N didn't have a real home. His only home was one he didn't want to remember.
"Besides, I wanna… I wanna know more about you, N. I was flattered that you were curious about me. Now I'm curious about you myself. After all…"
After all, the boy he encountered in that room seemed like the heart of his travel to Unova, especially considering how it wasn't a dream. All that Shin had experienced before opening his eyes in front of the forest lake was real, and it was only two months ago that he had actually met Celebi, and that Celebi had taken him back in time, to a forest near the castle-like structure that N grew up in.
