Chapter Nine – First Steps Forward
-One year prior to disappearance-
My bag seldom weighed more than a few pounds, even when I first traveled across Hoenn. At that time, I carried no more than just a single change of clothes, a small TM case, and a plethora of Poké Balls and Potions. When I needed food, I'd pick from the forest or stop at a convenience store or Pokémon Center.
Somehow, though, my collection of letters seemed to fatten my bag up and weigh it down. Paired with the bag of money that I had my Salamence carry in its mouth, the bag suddenly felt like an incredible burden for the beast that it never had to deal with before. Still, there wasn't any other option.
I leaned down and patted Salamence's side, and it roared quietly back at me. "Ready?"
It rose gently off the ground, but by the time we began soaring, it moved fast enough that my hair whipped madly around my head. I leaned forward and pressed my face against its neck. Sometimes I liked to sing as we flew to pass the time, and I could've sworn that Salamence gurgled something back as I hummed.
With the completion of my movie, another stage of my plan passed. It also wasn't so difficult to convince my parents that all I wanted to do was look for Steven as a favor to his dad. Just like that, I had been set free like a bird breaking out of its cage for the first time. Suddenly I could taste the end, and it was sweet.
Rustboro became so familiar in the past year, and that this was the first place I needed to go to deliver my letters could hardly be coincidence. It wasn't where the first of my letters would go, though—nor the second or the third. But it made the most sense to make this visit first while closest to home.
Besides, someone had a promise to keep.
"Ah, it's everyone's favorite Champion!" Devon's receptionist greeted when I walked through the headquarter's automatic doors. Sure enough, nothing much about this placed had changed. Not the people, not the building itself. It was the perfect preservation of time.
"Don't let Mr. Stone hear that. He's a little biased towards my predecessor, I think," I warned with a smile, and the receptionist winked at me. "Speaking of Mr. Stone, I'm here to see him. I have a delivery. It'll only take a minute."
I held up one of the many letters I carried, one with a sticky note with a tiny number four on it, and waved it back and forth. Maybe it was unconventional for me to start delivering and placing the letters out of their intended order, but what could I do? The sooner I told Mr. Stone the plan, the sooner I could get out of here.
"I'm afraid he'll be in a meeting until eleven. You're welcome to take a seat and wait, though. I'll clear up some time once he's done," the receptionist offered with a smile.
I glanced back at the tinted glass doors, through which I could barely see, and thought about my poor Salamence sitting outside and guarding the laundry bag. No one would think to touch it with Salamence there, but I had to admit him a lazy old thing. There was a strong possibility Salamence was taking a cat nap right now.
So, it probably wouldn't be a problem to wait a little while…
"That's fine," I agreed, and I lowered myself into one of the comfy brown leather chairs in a small alcove near the desk.
The hour passed slowly, and my foot tapped frantically on the floor the whole while. During a slow period of work, the receptionist came over to me once and offered me coffee or tea, and somehow the black coffee never tasted so good. I finished it with a burnt tongue and fifteen minutes to spare, which probably wasn't quite enough time to get sensation back.
But eleven o'clock came nonetheless, and I was ushered up to Mr. Stone's familiar office. The plain décor of the room never ceased to surprise me, though it made a lot of sense considering his house and his personality. And not even the man sitting at that desk had changed in the past year.
"May! She returns!" Mr. Stone exclaimed upon seeing me. "I have the strangest feeling that I'm about to keep my word, aren't I? You look serious."
I forced a smile so as not to appear so serious, but I could hardly think that convinced him. "You know everything, don't you?" I joked, but even this was half-hearted. Still, it garnered a short chuckle from him. "I have a small favor to ask of you, sir. It might… sound weird… but it's important to me."
These past few months, I thought a lot about Mr. Stone and what I might say to him. I thought about how he might not understand or ask the wrong questions. I thought he might judge me negatively for everything I'd say. But standing here in front of his desk, I realized what an idiot I was.
Mr. Stone was a good man. He was one of the people who made this world worth living in and living for.
"I said it before, and I'll say it again," he began, and his gaze went soft. "Anything for you."
I nearly started crying again, but I held my breath for the briefest moment and stifled the sensation of tears. "Thank you," I managed to choke, and then I cleared my throat and held up the letter. "This is not meant to be read by you. In some time… I'm not sure when, if ever… someone is going to come to you with a large amount of cash. I'm afraid I don't know who yet. But I need you to take the money, and in exchange, give this letter to that person."
With a shaking hand, I tore the sticky note off and passed the letter to Mr. Stone. He grabbed it away from me and turned it over in his hands, possibly expecting more than what it was.
"The money that this person is going to give you… is mine."
It came to mind as I prepared this speech in my head that I oughtn't tell Mr. Stone that, but he had no idea at the moment how much money was in that bag. He didn't know anything more than what I was telling him now. So what did it matter to him that the money was mine? It gave him more of a reason to follow my orders than it would if he took a stranger's money.
"You're a man of substantial influence and power—even more so than I have when it comes to finance. Which is why I'm asking you to do this for me," I explained. Mr. Stone sat the whole while staring at the letter with his eyes turned down. "I need you to take the money and then distribute it to one thousand random people. No thought involved. Just random."
Mr. Stone looked back up at me then, and any hint of a smile was no longer there on his face. "Why are you doing this?" he asked.
It was the question I didn't want to hear, so my gaze shifted towards the floor. "I want to give back," I responded quietly, because although it was a partial answer, it wasn't the complete truth of the situation. I didn't like lying to Mr. Stone. "And I'm using someone else to deliver the money to you because I want them to see what it feels like, too."
Somehow, I didn't notice Mr. Stone rise from his desk and stand beside me. So when his chubby finger touched my chin and lifted my head, I was so surprised that a small gasp escaped from me. But even still, I managed to control the tears that continued to threaten—strong because I needed to be, not strong because I wanted it.
"You are an extraordinarily wise and kind young woman, May," he told me, dropping his finger once he knew I'd look him in the eye. "But you still look tired and disinterested to me, perhaps even more so than before. Why's that?"
"I've just had so much to do. I'm always busy," I lied, and then I told the single biggest lie of all with the most convincing smile on my face: "But I promise you that I'm fine."
Mr. Stone bought the lie. I could tell right away that he did. His tense shoulders relaxed, his eyes lost much of their concern. And when he smiled back at me with a bubbly chuckle, I couldn't help but laugh, too, at my own power over him.
"I'm glad to hear it." Then, he smacked his desk and started around it back to his seat. "Well, Champion May, if you would like to change the world and give back, then I'd be happy to be the vessel to that."
I bowed to him, low with my head down, and then stood tall again. "One more thing, sir."
"Anything," Mr. Stone said again.
My heart hit hard against my chest, and I grabbed the hem of my shirt just to have something to hold onto. "Your son. I'm going looking for Steven. And if you don't have any qualms about it, I'd like to bring him back."
Mr. Stone boomed in his laughter now, and he had to wipe his eyes dry to compose himself. "Oh, you have my blessing," he squeaked. "You truly have my blessing. Go ahead and bring him home. I've missed that sorry lad."
Salamence was annoyed with me that I woke him from his nap, so he flew a little more wildly than he usually did. By the time we landed outside Fortree, my hair had been pulled almost completely from my pigtails and knotted like a nest on my head. I shot him a look, but he only huffed, wrapped his arms around the bag, and let his head fall against the ground.
I chose not to react to it, instead pushing through the tall grass towards my second home.
And my secret base was really just that. When I needed some time away from everything, I would hide out there. It was often too damp to be livable because the pond right outside flooded with every rainstorm. But I couldn't bring myself to move. This place meant so much more to me than just a shitty little hideaway.
The musty smell brought a smile to my lips, and I took a breather on one of my few chairs. I didn't like to keep a lot of furniture here because most of it rotted quickly, but I placed other decorations here. All of my childhood toys sat on a shelf attached to the wall—ones I could never bring myself to throw away.
With a sigh, I reached into my bag and pulled out the stack of letters again. This time, I tore the sticky note off the first one and placed the letter on the table.
It was a complicated thing. If anyone had ever found this base, they left it untouched. But surely someone had been here before. I had stumbled into other people's bases while searching for one to call my own. Surely someone would come here and find this letter, but it wouldn't—and couldn't—be just anyone.
Of course, there was also nothing saying that this would be the first note found. A lot of this relied on chance. But I liked to think that if someone found a different note first and opened it, they might go searching for the rest regardless. The order didn't matter so much as my planned end goal.
Once I managed to calm myself down, I stood back up, and the chair squished down into mud even more as I did.
"Good luck," I muttered.
And just like I did for all of those cameras for all of these years, I blew a kiss to the letter that would start this.
I took a pit stop in Lilycove before heading to the next of my deliveries in order to buy some tickets for a ferry. Despite the hustle and bustle of the city during the day, things slowed down considerably at night here. Even the Pokémon Center was quiet, and anyone who was there couldn't possibly recognize me since my face was partially covered by the laundry bag.
"Good evening," the nurse greeted as I walked up to the desk. I balanced the laundry bag on my hip with one arm and reached into my bag with my free hand.
"Hello." I grunted as I dumped the Poké Balls onto the counter. "Could you heal these guys up for me please?"
The nurse asked no questions, and I went over to an empty corner where I could take a whole couch to myself. I almost dozed off with the bag at my feet by the time the nurse came over to me to give me my Pokémon back. Her cheeks went red when I sat up, likely because my face was exposed completely this time. She bowed and returned to the desk without a word.
I rolled onto my side and peered between my eyelashes for a little while, watching with my eyes half-open for nothing in particular. Eventually, though, without even knowing it, I succumbed to sleep.
It was light out when I awoke, and the sunlight poured straight in through a window beside me and onto my face. I squinted and lifted my hand to block the light, but by that time, I was already wide awake. With a yawn, I sat up and stretched, and something in my shoulder cracked with the movement.
The bag remained untouched by my feet. Maybe I was brave leaving it relatively exposed by my feet while I slept—at least when I visited Mr. Stone or went to my base, I had Salamence to watch it. Here I didn't have much of anything.
But as it turned out, the Pokémon Center emptied out overnight. The same nurse sat at the desk, though I had to imagine her shift ended shortly. Everyone else who had been here when I came in had left. If anyone wanted to have taken the bag or look inside, they missed their opportunity. Poor things.
I couldn't be entirely trusting, though. I took the bag with me to the bathroom, which was admittedly a pain in the ass.
It was better than peeing in a bush, of course, and fifteen minutes later I was out the door anyway. It was just slightly inconvenient and made me wish that I had dropped this bag off first rather than waiting until the end of my trips in Hoenn—which was exactly what I was doing. But for whatever reason, this made sense to me.
Salamence was the one who had to worry about it the most, so it didn't bother me that much. When we arrived in Sootopolis, too early for the town to even be stirring, it curled up outside the Cave of Origin and wrapped its tail around the bag. Barely a second passed before the sound of snoring startled me, and I couldn't help but be concerned that the poor thing had been flying as tired as he was.
Whatever. It would get a break from flying not too long from now.
I tiptoed around the beast regardless, but I wouldn't be able to do much about the creaking of the doors to the Cave of Origin.
That was what I thought, at least, but as it turned out…
I banged my fist on the doors, as if that might help anything, but they didn't budge. "Damn it," I growled, hitting my fist one last time for good measure. I had been hoping coming this early meant that the guardians wouldn't be around, which proved to be the case. But I didn't expect to be locked out completely.
Well, I had no clue who the guardians were. I rarely came by the Cave of Origin, and Sootopolis was too ritzy for my liking. But I did know someone else who was in charge of the complete protection of the cave.
His was the next door I knocked upon, and though it was early, he opened the door. I couldn't say he looked happy about it.
"Wallace," I greeted shortly, and one of his brightly colored eyebrows rose. He hardly moved out of the doorway before I stepped into his home and kicked my shoes off in his entryway. It wasn't custom and was, in fact, very rude, but I didn't exactly have time to mess around with the pleasantries or tea or anything like that.
"May," he responded just as curtly, crossing his arms with some expression of amusement. Despite how tired he looked, I couldn't deny he was still beautiful to gaze upon. "To what do I owe this honor? It's not every day a Champion shows up on my doorstep. This early in the morning."
I smiled and gave a quick little laugh. "You can't mean that. Steven's your best friend, isn't he? And I know him to be a morning person."
"Do you?" Wallace laughed, too, and then he gestured for me to follow him into his living room. It was quite the ostentatious set up, but considering Wallace's personality and appearance, that didn't exactly surprise me. It almost troubled me to sit on such lovely—and probably expensive—furniture, but I lowered myself into an armchair nevertheless.
"Here's the deal," I began, folding my hands together and leaning my elbows on my knees. "I need to get into the Cave of Origin."
His smile faded quickly, and his eyebrows knitted together. "Why? Your business should be concluded there. Kyogre's been contained."
I didn't expect Wallace to put up a fight, and I still didn't think he would. But his suspicion was enough to make me back-track a little, to take a breath and quickly think up excuses that might make sense. Then I reached into my bag and pulled out a Poké Ball, one that didn't belong to the one I'd say it did.
"Exactly." I held the ball out towards him, but he didn't touch it. "Team Aqua isn't a threat anymore. I'd rather Kyogre be able to swim free where it belongs rather than stay cooped up in a ball. I don't use it in battles, and I would love to release it in a place it knows. What do you say? Can I enter?"
Wallace seemed to turn it over in his mind a couple of times before he responded. "I see no problem with that," he finally agreed, and I clasped my hands over the Poké Ball and smiled. "But I'm sure Kyogre has grown attached to you over time and will visit the Cave of Origin if it senses your presence. Will you visit it occasionally?"
I nodded despite knowing that was a promise I would be unable to keep. I doubted I would return between now and the time that I left for good, and then…
In any case, I didn't even have Kyogre with me. This was my Salamence's empty ball.
"Wonderful. I will grant you entry. Just… please allow me to put on more appropriate attire," Wallace requested with a grin, and I stifled laughter. He excused himself, and when he vanished from sight, I put my head in my hands and groaned.
This was quite the trail I left behind for myself. I would definitely need to put some time between this trip and my final one.
Nearly half an hour later, Wallace finally returned to his living room dressed more formally than anyone needed to be walking down the street. He gestured for me to follow him without a word, and we made our way back to the Cave of Origin where my Salamence still slept. Wallace eyed it carefully but said nothing.
It was no more than a lock blocking my way, which bothered me more than it should have. "All yours, Champion May," Wallace said, holding his hand out towards the open entrance now.
I thanked him and then entered the vast dark space. I forgot how frightening this place had been to me in my younger years. The darkness never ended—at least not until a blindingly blue room with sapphires sparkling by a pool of water. But to get there, one had to navigate through the cave without much to go by. My Blaziken was a godsend.
It was in the deepest part of the cave where Kyogre once challenged my strength—where I became the hero everyone loved—that I placed the next letter. I removed its sticky note, too, and set it beneath a rock in the corner of the sparkling cavern.
But once I set it down, I put my hands on my hips and surveyed this spot. It had been years since I'd been here. And all of a sudden the years of pent up anger and rage that I had been so long suppressing broke free. I didn't scream or cry, but I turned around and dug sapphires out of the wall with my bare hands. I threw each and every one that I could get into that lake in the center of the cave, watching the light fade as each rock sunk.
My fingertips bled terribly by the time I finished my rampage, and I had to dip my hands into the water to ease the pain. The blood dissipated like smoke in the clear water. No one would ever know what happened here. My name would be written into textbooks, but the reality of what happened would fade just like my blood.
After awhile I stood up and returned outside, where Wallace couldn't be bothered to wait for me and Salamence still slept. But before all that time passed, I knelt beside that lake and remembered everything that happened and everything that history would never say.
Time didn't pass so slowly when I first traveled around Hoenn. Of course, that wasn't so much like this. I went through every town as I came to it and took a couple of days to explore. Hoenn's culture differed greatly from Johto's, so I took every opportunity to learn more about my new home. By the time I got to every town and city, more than a year already passed.
One would think, then, that traveling across Hoenn in two days as I did now would feel rushed. But I only visited a few towns—there was nothing new to learn here. I was making deliveries, nothing more. And without anything new to take from this, I couldn't wait to leave. Unova was waiting.
What was the possibility of arriving in Unova and finding the world a much better place than here? What if everything I thought about the world applied only to my very small one? I already realized the naïve memories of my childhood were not reliable representations of the world. Because I remembered Johto as better than Hoenn didn't necessarily mean that was the reality. Children tended to see the best in their surroundings. But best hardly equated to real.
Still, that was all I could think about as I flew to my final destination in Hoenn, Ever Grande City. What if I started planting all of these letters and found I was wrong?
Well, at least Hoenn would be done. Because what I had seen of Hoenn needed to change.
Things were almost deadly quiet in Ever Grande. Without Steven around, there was no point in anyone actually coming to their posts every day. He was the acting Champion of the Elite Four because I asked him to be, and without someone standing at the top of the Elite Four…
He was doing me a favor. I ought to have been the one standing there, even more so when he decided to go on his little "soul-searching" adventure. We all knew that I wouldn't, of course.
The last of my Hoenn letters fit perfectly at the edge of Victory Road among the roses. Flowers bloomed beautifully all year long, which was something that never happened in Johto. I could appreciate that.
But I couldn't waste time smelling the roses. Not like my Adventurer.
Next: the Hall of Fame. And fame it gave.
Considering that I was practically forced to interact with Wallace, I assumed that at least one of the Elite Four would be there to block my path. But even the building, not just the mountain, was eerily quiet. The nurse in the Pokémon Center fell asleep at her desk, and I passed by her without causing the slightest stir.
I walked through the halls without being disturbed or doing any disturbing. Maybe it was still too early for anyone to show up here. But I had a feeling Sydney and the others didn't find their jobs as enjoyable as of late, anyway. What was the point of any trainers coming to challenge them if the Champion couldn't even be battled?
At the very back of the building, the Hall of Fame remained untouched. It had been awhile since the last time I challenged Steven, making it awhile since I had been in that room. I struggled for a moment to remember the code to the room—a stumbling block I never considered amongst every other disaster that could happen along the way.
"Think," I told myself, tapping my fingers on my forehead as I stood in front of the door. "Four digits. There's a three in it… I think."
If I couldn't even remember… well, how was the Adventurer supposed to make it into this room?
No, that wasn't even the issue. When Steven returned—and he would return—he would have access to the room again. The Adventurer wouldn't even have to challenge him. If he simply mentioned my name, Steven would let the Adventurer into the room in a heartbeat. I knew that much. That could mean simply going to his house and asking, if beating the Elite Four wasn't a plausible option.
But I needed to remember first. What buttons did I watch Steven press time after time that I beat him?
The memory was a funny thing. Things that I told myself I'd never forget were forgotten long ago. But things unimportant or painful to remember always seemed to be right in the back of my mind just waiting for a chance to creep forward. Sifting through sometimes brought the more painful memories to the forefront.
Then again, sometimes what I was trying to find was hidden between all that mess.
I pressed the keys on the pad and the door clicked open. I wasn't sure if I remembered the code exactly or if it just felt right. Occasionally I'd find myself typing my phone number from Johto when I hadn't used it in years. Maybe this was the same.
The lights turned on with the opening of the door, and I stared down at my reflection on the mirrored floor as I stepped forward. I could still picture Steven walking beside me the first time I ever came through here. For this to be the last time and for me to be alone seemed wrong somehow.
And instead of walking up to the computer and entering my information as I did in the past, I stepped around and peered at the wall behind it.
"Blaziken," I whispered, sending my most trustworthy ally to my side. It leaned down and nudged my head with its beak, and I patted it. "I need your help. Can you push this computer forward a little so I can get this bag back there?"
I held up the bag as high as I could manage, and Blaziken cawed in response. It gripped the gigantic computer in its talons and pulled, and the computer screeched along the floor. I just hoped that it wouldn't leave scuff marks.
I was confident that the bag would be easier to get out than in. If the Adventurer could just reach an arm back and hook it, they'd be able to slide it right out the back. But to get it back there was a little bit more difficult than that. I couldn't just open the door of the panel behind the computer and push the bag in. It needed to fit perfectly.
And fit perfectly it did. The panel wasn't particularly large, and there were extra unused cables stored within it. But the laundry bag with all of my many bundles of money fit inside like Cinderella's slipper fit on her foot.
Blaziken pushed the computer back into place, and I brushed off the scuff marks on the floor with my sneakers.
"Perfect," I announced, staring at the sight before me with some admiration of a task well-done.
Yet with this placement of Hoenn's final piece of my game came the tears. I wiped my eyes dry before they could really begin, but that terrible tiredness of crying hit me all the same. I fell against Blaziken, and it screeched in surprise.
"You don't hate me, do you?" I asked it, and it cawed an answer I couldn't decipher. However I acted like I could understand my Pokémon, it wasn't as if I could truly know what they said. It was all a feeling—and even though I felt as though Blaziken told me it would never hate me, how long would that be the answer?
"Well," I huffed, standing up tall again and petting Blaziken's feathers. "Unova awaits."
Author's Note: Aha, I did it! Updates should continue to be regular on Mondays. Whoot!