Chapter 11

I had been charged with killing someone who had severely injured a Celebi. I had killed a Kangaskhan, apparently a leader of sorts in that future time I had been taken to. I had been charged with stopping the future from occuring, which meant killing the Chosen One of Lugia. I suddenly wished I had asked who the Chosen One had been. The real question, though, was: Had the Chosen One had to do anything since I had disappeared? It made me suddenly realize just how important I actually was. That future had come about because I hadn't been there. It wasn't that I could stop it, but rather that only I could stop it. I had to stop it. I couldn't let Ethan or anyone else die like they did in that future.

When I had materialized in the center of the Pokemon Center, no one had even taken notice. Such a thing was pretty common with trainers who had Pokemon like Abra, who could teleport you wherever you wanted. Needless to say, the middle of a Pokemon Center was a common one. However, I was alone, and without any of my Pokemon. So, what did I do? I left the Pokemon Center and returned to the Ilex Forest. Being careful, I wandered through the forest, being sure not to be attacked by a wild Pokemon. When I reached Celebi's shrine, they were there, my Pokemon. They were all staring at the Shrine.

"Guys!" I shouted and rushed over to them, and they perked up.

"Kotone!" Blaze shouted and rushed to me. "We thought we had lost you!" The others followed not long after.

"Mama's okay!" Tepi spoke with a smile as she hugged me.

"Yeah, I'm all right, everyone."

"What happened?" Jake asked firmly as he walked over to me. "You have blood on your clothes." I looked away, but then turned back and explained what all had happened. I can't say anyone was exactly enthusiated about what had happened. "So, Celebi expects you to find this person and kill him?"

I nodded. "He said it was a test, to prove if I was ready to fulfill my destiny..." I looked down. "I can't kill someone, though. That's just...it's not right."

Jake nodded. "If the Elders were to hear of this...they'd have a fit."

"There's that term again. You keep talking about them, but you never explain who they are."

Jake looked at me a moment, then looked away. "I...I can't say...If I were to say, they'd have my head."

"Have your head? How so?" I moved closer to Jake.

Jake sighed. "I really shouldn't say anything but...you have a right to know. Once the Elders learn I'm not at the well anymore, they'll likely come for me anyway." He looked up at the sky. "The 'Elders' are nine in number. Nine is the perfect number, as it's an odd number, preventing stalemates in votes. However, nine is also just enough for a diverse amount of opinions, while also not being too many and having too many opinions. Tell me, Kotone. Do you know what a 'Slowking' is?"

I nodded. "It's a Slowpoke that had a Shellder bite it's head, right?"

Jake nodded. "Moreso, it's a Slowpoke who wore a King's Rock when it was bitten by a Shellder."

"Didn't being bitten on the head by Shellder give it intelligence equal to award-winning scientists?"

Jake chuckled. "No, that's just what we want you to believe. Tell me, Kotone, do you know how many Slowking exist in your world?"

"I...no...not really...I don't think anyone's keeping track." I looked at the rest of my team, then back to Jake. "Why?"

"There are nine." Jake turned to look at me. "They are the Elders. Every trainer who has a Slowking believes himself to be in control of that Slowking. In reality, the Slowking have the trainer under their complete control. The trainer does what it wants them to do, and the trainer never knows when their Slowking is missing. Rather, when the Elders meet, their trainers don't even know they left."

"So there's only nine in existance?"

Jake nodded. "If a Slowpoke wishes to become a Slowking, they must challenge one of the Elders. Fail, and the Slowpoke is destroyed. Succeed, and the Elder is destroyed and his King's Rock goes to the Slowpoke. That Slowpoke then evolves and becomes part of the Elders. There are only nine King's Rocks, and as such, there are only nine Elders."

"Then...what do the Elders do?"

"They watch...over everything. The Elders determine what Slowpoke and Slowbro alike are allowed to do and to think. When Team Rocket attacked the well, the Elders response was 'They'll go away eventually'. If I had not acted, they would not have gone away until all the Slowpoke in the well were dead. Because I acted, though, the Elders are likely angry at me. Even now, I am certain they are planning my downfall. When that time comes, I know not if they will allow you to live as well." Jake looked down. "I fear...I may have brought more danger to you then you need, especially now that I have told you this information."

I smiled. "No worries! If the Elders come after you, I'll show them a thing or two. They can't bully my Slowpoke and get away with it! Isn't that right, guys?" I asked the rest of the team and they shouted in support. "See? You've got my whole team and me to back you up. So no worries, okay? We can handle our own."

Jake looked at me and nodded. "I hope so, Kotone. I hope so."

. . .

My team and I continued to make our way through Ilex Forest. We had no real idea where to find the guy Celebi had mentioned, so we didn't concern ourselves with it. If we found him on the way through the forest, we would find a way to deal with him. If not, then we'd simply keep going on. Sure, it meant I'd essentially be failing Celebi's test, but to be honest? It was an unfair test...just like my Pokemon Trainer test. I was suddenly wondering if there was some connection here. I then started connecting that with the other weird things in my life, like the old man on Route 29, or the Monk Elder guy in Sprout Tower and how he had made me just suddenly leave the tower. I wanted to know if everything that had happened in the last couple weeks were connected to me being the Chosen One of Ho-oh.

"Hey!" I heard a voice shout and I broke out of my thoughts. When I looked forward, I saw a woman with black hair that was very short. It was kind of messy, and I noticed her outfit was an orangeish-redish color. It kind of reminded me of fire. That's when I noticed the fire design on the bottom and on the arms of the kimono she wore.

"Hello?"

"Could you tell me how to get out of here? I seem to be lost."

I blinked. "Umm...well...we kind of are, too." I walked over to her. "My name's Kotone." I held my hand out to her.

The woman stared at me a moment. "So, you're Kotone." She held her hand out. "I'm Mitsuru."

"You know me?" I asked as I shook her hand.

"My sister, Yuki, told me all about you." Mitsuru looked me over. "You don't look like a slut."

My eyes went wide and my anger rose quickly at that statement. "Is this the same Yuki that I met at Mr. Pokemon's? Blonde hair and wore a Vaporeon kimono?"

Mitsuru nodded and smiled. "That's the one!"

I growled. "Hate her..."

Mitsuru looked away. "She's a little old fashioned, but she means well." She looked back at me. "I don't mind that you like sex, though." She blushed and moved closer to me ear and whispered, "Actually, I happen to love sex a lot, too."

I blushed and stared at her as she giggled. "I...I never thought I'd hear a Kimono Girl say something like that..."

"My sisters are all old fashioned, but Yuki is the worst. She's the oldest of all of us. I'm the second youngest, actually. My sister, Sakura, is the only one younger then me. Come to think of it, she's not really old fashioned either... but the other three are." Mitsuru then blushed. "Oh, and if you ever meet Sakura and she tries to hit on you...don't worry about it. She just really likes girls." She rubbed the back of her neck, then blinked. "Unless...you like girls, too? In which case, I guess it wouldn't be so bad..."

I stopped her there. "I'm straight, actually."

Mitsuru nodded. "Then you'll probably want to tell her that when you meet her, otherwise she'll probably hit on you."

"So, you said you were lost?" I quickly tried to change the topic.

"Oh, yes! I have absolutely no idea how to get out of this forest. I've been stuck here since yesterday, and there's no phone to call my sisters for help."

"Would my pokegear help?" I held up the wrist that had my pokegear on it.

Mitsuru grabbed it off my wrist in an instant and dialed a number. "Hello?" I heard a voice ask, it was Yuki's.

"You dumb fuck! Why the hell did you send me into this forest? I'm lost, and it's hot, and I ran into Kotone, which is okay I guess, but I'm stuck here because neither of us knows how to get out of here!" She said all of that in one single breath.

"Mitsuru! Watch your language!" I heard a second voice shout from the pokegear. I didn't recognize it, but I guessed it was one of her other sisters.

"Then get me out of this damn forest before I decide to burn it down with Flareon!"

"Don't you dare, Mitsuru!" a third voice shouted, again, likely another sister. "Last time you let that demon fox out, she almost burned down our dance studio!"

"Then get me out of here!"

"Fine! We'll see if we can get Morty to send a Haunter to get you or something, just stay put."

"But it's hot here!" The pokegear went silent and Mitsuru groaned before handing it back to me.

"Would you...like a change of clothes?" I held out my purse. "I have a couple of other outfits."

"Really?" Mitsuru opened my purse up and rummaged through the clothes in it. She pulled out a simple black strapless top and a pair of blue shorts. "This should fit nicely." I didn't even have a chance to say anything before she dropped her entire kimono to the ground. She then slid the clothes on and smiled. "These are much nicer then that Kimono."

"Why were you wearing such a big outfit anyway?" I inquired. "Don't you Kimono Girls not usually wear them outside of Ecruteak?"

Mitsuru rolled her eyes. "Yuki says 'It's almost time for the second coming. We must be presentable at all times.'"

"'Second Coming'?"

"That's when Ho-oh will return to the Bell Tower. When that happens, Lugia will rise from the Whirl Islands. When that happens, the Chosen Ones of Ho-Oh and Lugia will fight, and whoever wins will decide if there will be another war or not."

"And that's where I come in."

Mitsuru nodded. "I really like this top of yours, by the way."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "It was just a normal shirt...then a certain fire-type of mine burned one of the straps. I turned it into that afterwards."

"Well, it fits nicely." Mitsuru turned. "So, shall we see if we can find the way out of here?"

I nodded. "Gladly." We were about to start walking when a thought came to my mind. "Mitsuru...earlier, I ran into Celebi. He told me he had been injured and that I had to find the one who injured him. Would you happen to know who it was?"

Mitsuru shrugged. "Don't know his name, but it was some ginger kid." Ginger...kid...? "He had a mean looking Croconaw. It beat up Celebi something fierce. If I hadn't jumped in with Flareon, Celebi might have died."

No...it couldn't have been...could it? "Silver..." I growled. "Mitsuru, do you have any idea who the Chosen One of Lugia is?"

Mitsuru blinked, then shook her head. "Not a clue, why?"

"I'm starting to think I may know who it is...and Arceus help me if I'm right..." The worst part about this was that I had beaten Silver several times in battle already, but if he was the Chosen One, then none of those was the "deciding fight". That made me wonder, how many more times would I run into him? How many more troubles would he cause me? When would the "deciding fight" take place? I could no longer take Silver as non-chalantly as I had till now. If he was the one, the Chosen One of Lugia, I had to be sure that every meeting with him ended in victory, because any one of those meetings could be the final one, the deciding battle.

On a side note, we did make it out of the Ilex Forest. It wasn't too long after that a Haunter appeared and carried Mitsuru off to the north, towards Ecruteak City. As for me? I kept going. My next stop was Goldenrod City, the monster of a metropolis that it was. Of course, I wouldn't know it yet, but I'd later find out that the city paled in comparison to Castelia City in the Unova Region. Of course, I wouldn't find that out until I moved there, but that's not until the end of this story. For now, this chapter of my life had ended, and the next chapter would begin in Goldenrod City. And, oh boy, what a mess Goldenrod was!