Okay, guys, here I am with the next chapter of HDD, and I'm sorry that this one is coming a bit later that what you'd all be hoping for, but with the addition of some of my newer stories, and the arrival of X and Y, I didn't really expect some people to be that hopeful of this story. That speaks highly of you, my readers, and not so for me, but then again, I'm borderline depressive, and whatnot, so it comes with the territory. Like I said in the last chapter, this is a chapter for June Kurosaki, which seems to be one of the more popular characters with you guys due to her uniqueness, but what can I do? I like her too, and let's just hope that I can play her right in this, and do the author that submitted her proud. I should be able to get a few more chapters in before I go back to school at the end of next month, so hopefully I should have more of this story writing by the time X and Y come out.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKÉMON, BECAUSE IF I DID, GHOSTS AND DRAGONS WOULD NOT BE WEAK TO THEMSELVES.

Chapter 11: The Truth in Nothing

A term that people never seem to know who to process is the concept of something being "pitch black," and it's something that most people could never understand at all. Being afraid of the dark is a common fear that children have growing up, not knowing what lurks in the shadows of your room, and always looking to make sure you got it before it got you. The dark that people refer to in the term above, though, is one where sight is impossible; no amount of light, no amount of color, and nothing that can be seen. Living in the world where nothing is visible is often considered one of the world's greatest tortures, but really, how does it cause us pain? Living in a world where nothing is seen can be one of the most enlightening experiences ever; the dark cannot hurt you, the dark cannot consume you, and the light is but a beacon of hope for anyone, no matter what you know it to be. People who live in the world of darkness know one truth above all others; the greatest torture one can bear is knowing they could when they didn't.

The final tone of the bell rang throughout the entire school building, a large sigh from every single student in it sounding out, the sound carrying across the entire area, after which many of the students looked as though they were struggling to even stand up, placing their faces against their desks, almost as though they were going to go to sleep right then and there. As the teachers watched their students walk through the door of the building, they all saw a similar look of despair on all of their faces, giving them some form of twisted satisfaction. Among them, the teacher stared through, seeing the crimson strands of June's hair walk by, her disposition positive, but not as much as she normally was.

Shuffling through the papers, the teacher looked down at June's test paper, seeing all the answers, written expertly with no words, but with the only way she could; nothing but a series of randomly placed bumps along the thick page. June was among the last to be writing, he remembered, needing to take more time to read back over what she had written, constantly finding some kind of mistake in her writing, but even then, the teacher new the kind of grade she would most likely get, and it had nothing to do with what everyone else thought, it was for something else, looking out the window of the classroom, June already walking down the hallway towards the music room.

As June walked down the hallway, Lairon sluggishly following her, she passed by people, most of them dodging her, others being warded off by her pokémon. After one person passed by her, an overpowering scent wafted into June's nose, a large grin coming across her face as she reached behind her, grabbing the person's shoulder, and keeping an incredibly tough grip on them. Feeling them tremble slightly, June couldn't help but giggle at his reactions, easing her grip off of him, and instead began to run her fingers through his hair.

"Your shampoo is just too obvious, Natsu-kun," she said, the ghost trainer blushing from the scent his hair gave off from his sister's incessant attempts. "But I'm definitely smelling something else, something even more delicious," she said, poking his shoulder, and then tracing it down to his chest, feeling something warm against her forearm. "That's right, you're in a cooking class, aren't you?" she remembered, a small trail of drool falling from her mouth, making Natsu shudder in fear from how hungry she looked.

"The teacher said I could have what was left over," Natsu explained, his voice not as positive as it had been in recent weeks. "If you'd like, you could have-," he said, June quickly grabbing him around the neck, running down the hallway with him in tow. "I never knew she was such a glutton," Natsu said, looking up at June's happy face. "At least she's happier than I am, but with happened last night, it's not like I have much cause to be," he said, looking forward at the door to the music room, clutching onto his cooking pot as June wrenched the doors open. "I guess I can pretend it didn't happen for June-senpai," his mind immediately filling with what happened between him and Koichi last night.

Last night, Natsu stood in the center of the main living area of the dorm building, his body shuddering in fear at the sound of the name constantly reverberating in his head. Holding his head in both pain and terror, Natsu almost fell to his knees, Koichi quickly catching him under his arms, seeing his fear not subsiding.

"Natsu, what are you talking about? Who is the Don?" he asked, Natsu almost afraid to answer, but conceded, knowing he would never hear the end of it, and the less he heard the better.

"The Don isn't a man," Natsu said, walking over to one of the two couches, still shaking profusely at the sound of his name. "He's a monster. Being a person suggest that he has a conscience, and he has everything except for that. In underground battling, all competitors are required to enter themselves under a single name moniker, and this person took his own name to new heights by actually becoming a Don."

"What's a Don?" Koichi said. "It's obviously not a Japanese term, so is it a Spanish thing?" he asked, Natsu nodding, but giving a slight contrary look on his face as he stood back up, his eyes still terrified of this man.

"It's Italian," Natsu answered. "It's what people in a mafia family call their leaders. People will always call their most important members 'Don' to show how powerful they are to other people. The Don I know is a person who runs an entire gambling ring for underground battling. He's like a bookie; you pay him for the bets, and then if you win, he gives you money, if you lose, you have two weeks to pay up," he explained, Koichi about to ask about what happened when you didn't, but the look in Natsu's eyes gave him enough of an answer.

"Did you ever see what he did? How bad he hurt people?" he asked, Natsu nodding as he walked back to the window, pulling the curtains closed.

"When I was still doing the circuits of underground battling, a lot of people were only cheering for the ones they betted on," Natsu began. "They would try to sabotage matches beforehand, or even during to make sure that they never had to deal with what the Don could do, but nobody could ever bet against him if he were to battle. When you didn't pay up for your bets, the Don would break at least one bone in your body himself, and if you were late a second time, he had a habit of making your pain more permanent. When he was arrested, it was after a person was killed by one of his henchmen. He ratted him out to the police, and survived another three days in jail," he said, Koichi almost terrified himself by what Natsu knew about.

"If he was able to get allies within the jail, then who else is part of his gang?" Koichi asked, Natsu finally able to stop shaking, thinking back, and then nodding as his answer.

"Scarface," he answered. "It was never an official name, but everyone called him that. When Judai was kidnapped last month, I recognized the scar the Don gave him as an initiation into his gang, and everyone called him Scarface from then on, and knew it was him. Nobody ever knew who he really was, but he was the absolute lowest henchman that the Don had. To my knowledge, he's the only of the Don's men to not be sent to prison."

"How do you know?" Koichi asked, almost afraid of the answer he was about to receive.

"There was a raid the last time I was in a large-scale underground battle," Natsu answered, Koichi almost sickened by what he had just heard. "One year ago, the warehouse we used for battling was targeted by the police, and when they burst in, Scarface jumped out of a window, and nobody was ever able to catch him after that. When the police found me, they treated me like a victim in all of it," he said, hearing a sigh of relief from his teacher. "They never thought I was part of the battles, and thought I was kidnapped for entertainment."

"For once, you're girly face got you out of a jam," Koichi said, Natsu looking at him not amused. "Sorry. For the past three years since it was put in the public eye, underground battling has been an offense punishable by five years of incarceration, and with everything else on this guy's list, he shouldn't be getting out any time soon. From everything you talked about, this guy must've been slated for life in prison, at least," he said, Natsu staying silent, looking forward at him before sitting back down, and taking an easy breath out.

"He was scheduled to be executed last year," Natsu said, Koichi not surprised by the sentence. "But for the past year, more and more crimes of his have surfaced, and he's been trialed for each and every one, prolonging the date of his execution, and he's been surviving on his own crime life for this entire time."

"Earlier, though, you said that he was back, though, what does that mean?" Koichi asked, sitting down next to Natsu, the ghost trainer frozen in position.

"Because I was found at the scene, the police asked me if I could identify the aliases with the names and the pictures they gave me," he answered. "When I pointed out the Don, he walked out proud of his crimes, and even though I was behind the two-way mirror, he looked up at where I was, and pointed at me. He had this habit of giving a person this big toothy smile before he would beat them in battle, or hurt them real bad. I've been waiting for him to be killed so I don't have to worry about him, anymore."

"He was behind the mirror, there's no way he could see you, so how do you know that he even knows that it's you that pointed at him?" he asked, Natsu looking up at him, a small groan coming from the teacher out of realization. "He knows you were at the crime scene, and unless Scarface is the one who pointed him out, he's gonna know it was the only other person."

"For the past year I've been worried about what would happen if he did find me," Natsu said. "People used to think that Reaper was also taken away in that raid, and in some ways, they were right. I stopped battling as Reaper, hoping that he might not recognize me without the cloak. After I thought it was safe, I resurfaced, and up until now, I haven't worried about him."

"The real question is how did Ichihana-san hear about this?" Koichi remembering it was just after Mitsu talked to Natsu that his fear came out. "According to what you told me, Scarface was burned, and almost engulfed in the flames from Judai's pokémon along with Lampent. Chances are he didn't walk away from that, so there could be another source for what Ichihana-san heard about this Don character. Either that or this guy is tougher than we thought."

"I'm not worried about how anyone else knows about him," Natsu said. "The Don is the only person both the Reaper and I are scared of, and for all the same reasons. I don't think I would last too long at all if he found me. He always said that any loose end he could find, whether real or not, had to be tied off. If he finds me, or any of the others, I don't think I could forgive myself," he said, a small tear beginning to fall from his eye, feeling Koichi's hand on his head.

"I don't think you have to worry about the Godfather wannabe as much as you think, Natsu," Koichi said, ruffling up his hair. "Chances are if anyone comes at you in the way you're thinking about, you have something that the Reaper could never have. As the Reaper, you're all alone with just your pokémon, but as Natsu Kohashigawa, you have more friends than most people can even dream of. If anybody tried to hurt you, none of those people would stop until they knew you were safe, and they know you'd do the same for them. Judai already knows about that firsthand."

"Even though he said that, my mind isn't any clearer than when I first heard that name again," Natsu said to himself, sitting across from June in the music room, reaching into his bag for a plastic ladle, removing the lid of the cooking pot. "I've been in hiding as the Reaper for the past year because of this person, and I can't have my life be destroyed for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, holding up the spoon, and handing it off to June.

Reaching her mouth out as the smell began to come closer to her; June stuck out her tongue, allowing Natsu to feed her the food in the pot, most likely some kind of pasta from the basic shape of the food. Slurping up the noodles as they entered her mouth, June's cheeks became slightly flush as she savored every last taste of the food in her mouth, swallowing with a large gulping sound and a large sigh, opening her mouth again, and waiting for the next bite.

"I think you can feed yourself, senpai," Natsu said, June looking at him with cheeks puffing out. "I'm sorry, but I'm not used to seeing you act like this. You always seem more active, and such. I just find it hard to see you acting like this," he said, June grabbing the utensil from his hand, and began scooping up the noodles into the white cup.

"Your turn," she said plainly, holding out her hand directly below the spoon, Natsu's face turning completely red. "Come on, you fed me, it's time I return the favor. Just be careful," she started, feeling Natsu's face come closer to the pasta dish. "If I get any of it on your face, I might be inclined to lick it off for you," she said as her cheeks became flush again as Natsu instantly froze in place, immediately imagining what she was talking about. "You get so embarrassed so easily, it's kinda funny to do this to you. That reminds me," she started again as Natsu carefully bit down on some of the pasta in the ladle. "You failed at asking Amira-chan out yesterday, right?" she asked bluntly, Natsu choking slightly on the noodle.

"H-How do you know about that?" Natsu asked quickly, his cheeks completely red as he remembered his constant stumbling over his words before Maaya stormed in on them.

"News travels fast in this place and people always tell me what I want to know," June said, reaching over the pot, lifting Natsu's head up from his chin. "I don't doubt that you and Amira-chan would make a cute couple, you might have some competition for that kind of title from Jiro-kun and Mika-chan, but I think you could pull it off. Either that, or you could be a couple with me," she said, inching her face close as Natsu instantly backed up into the wall. "I'm just kidding, you know that, right?" she said, Natsu unsure of what to say. "Still," she said, standing up. "Hard to imagine for a lot of people going for me in this case; my being blind does tend to put a damper on these kinds of things, you know. One of the only weaknesses I actually get from this," she said, Natsu looking up at her confused.

"Is being blind really not as bad as it seems?" Natsu asked, June giggling a little bit. "At the place I go to, one of Jii-chan's friends is blind, and he's always so depressed about it. When I think about him, and when I think about you, sometimes I wonder which way is the right one to be acting," he said, June almost bursting out laughing as she walked to the chair in the back of the room, sitting down, crossing her legs over each other, looking down at Natsu with eyes that could only see black.

"It's different for everyone," she said. "Being blind means that you can't use your eyes to apprehend your surroundings, it's not supposed to be a curse, like how some people make it seem. I guess you could say we see the world differently," she said, motioning for him to come up closer to her, instantly gripping onto his face upon feeling his hair. "I see the world through scents, feelings, sounds, and tastes," she said, licking some of the sauce from the bottom of her lip. "For instance, I think you used too much parsley. There are only two kinds of blind people in the world, you know. The kind that are born blind and the ones that are made that way."

"What's the difference in the end, though?" Natsu asked, moving his head back away from her.

"People who become blind over time can still remember what colors are," June said. "People who lose eyesight become entirely aware that everything they could see is going to change, and for some people, that's not something they're willing to accept. But for people who are born blind, this is the only eight we've known, and we've learned to live with it," she said, patting his head, feeling the individual strands of Natsu's head. "I was born this way; I could never see, and I guess this made me a bit spoiled for my parents, I only read and write in Braille, and don't know how you really look, but I know that I wouldn't be disappointed if I really could."

Natsu fell silent; he'd never thought of how June had viewed her condition, almost laughing at it, and the only one around her that didn't make a big deal out of it. She was almost always happy, upbeat, and never seemed to let her lack of sight keep her from having fun. Walking back to the corner of the room where his pot was, Natsu unplugged the cooker from the wall, and began to pack up the rest of the food, feeling June's Lairon walk past him, carrying its normal pouch with it, falling limp next to June. Natsu watched June reach down, stroking her pokémon's jagged body, reaching for her flute case. June didn't have to look anywhere but straight forward, assembling her instrument.

"Do you remember when I first met you?" she asked as Natsu answered yes. "You found me playing my flute, and since you treated me to something from your own talents, why don't I reward you with one of mine?" she suggested, bringing the mouthpiece up to her face, suddenly stopping in place. "Looks like I have even more of an audience today," she said, Natsu looking behind him; a girl about the same age as June walking into the music room, her midnight blue hair untied as she scanned the room, focusing on June. "Natsu-kun, I'd like you to meet Chifuyu Tomomiya; she's another music student like me."

"Please, you flatter me, Kurosaki-sama," Chifuyu said, bowing politely to June, despite the obvious contempt in her eyes. "Of course, you are the schools one and only true great achievement in the world of entertainment. Never needing lessons, or sheet music, not that it'd do you any good, and still able to perform so beautifully," she said, looking down at Natsu, her expression not changing. "Is this your boyfriend? Or your girlfriend?" she asked jokingly, Natsu not amused by her joke, as both she and June both shared a small amount of laughter at Natsu's own expense. "You two just seem so perfect for each other."

"I wonder, do you think we look like a couple, Natsu-kun?" June asked, Natsu shying away into the corner, trying to stay out of the conversation as best he could. "It might be a nice idea, but did you need something, Chifuyu-chan? You normally don't come into the music room if you see me in here," she said, Chifuyu looking at her slightly surprised. "I recognize your footsteps while I'm playing; they always are so light and match with the beat I'm playing. I appreciate you being so considerate about it all."

"You truly are deserving of your skills and your title of my dorm head," Chifuyu said, indicating she was a steel trainer like June. "I was just coming in to get my finals piece from earlier. I have to say, your performance was entrancing. It was much akin to the professional performances I enjoyed as a child. You would be an excellent for the contest fair in September."

"Sorry, I'm just a musician," June said. "I don't do any of that contest stuff; it's not really my thing, if you'll understand, Chifuyu-chan. I'm a battler by nature, and a musician by trade. Just like how Natsu-kun can make you melt with that food of his," she said, Chifuyu turning back to stare at him, her eyes as cold as when she came in, despite talking as sweetly as she did with June. "I suppose you'll be leaving for summer break tomorrow? If so, I hope I get to see you again before then."

"Ha-ha, good one, Kurosaki-sama," Chifuyu said, obviously not amused by a joke she's had heard hundreds of time. "If you'll excuse me, I must take my leave," she said, practically slamming the door behind her as June giggled slightly, Natsu still a little frightened by her.

"Um, June-senpai," Natsu started, June looking at him expectantly. "Even if you are blind, don't you think she was trying too hard to be nice to you? Her eyes weren't really sincere, and I thought the sound of her voice was a little forced, don't you?"

"This is one of those situations where I can say a blind man could see it, and it would actually apply," June said, chuckling at the subsequent joke she made about her condition. "I know how Chifuyu-chan looks at me, and I know it's not a pretty picture all the time. She's a little jealous of me for being the dorm head for this year, and we're always a little competitive with each other about music. She's a very gifted piano player, so I have my own kind of respect for her, but her attitude towards people being better than her is something I'd like to fix. At any rate, you ready to hear this?" she asked, her complete disregard of the situation with her classmate making Natsu look back, his own problems coming back up to the surface.

After a couple minutes of listening to June, Natsu stepped out of the music room, and began making his way out of the music room, June taking the same path after breaking her instrument down, taking a different turn as she walked in the opposite direction. Walking back through the hallways, now mostly emptied, June could hear almost every conversation being heard from either end of the hallway, smiling, able to understand each word being said, all the voices she could easily recognize, and all the new information she was getting all at once. Rounding one of the corners, June suddenly heard the sound of a pen running across a piece of paper, but there were two people in the room; one of them the teacher from the way he was breathing, and the presence of the other, plus the constant flapping of his pokémon, told her it was Gabriel.

"I don't see why you want me to grade your test now, Volantis," the teacher said.

"I understand it's unorthodox, but please indulge me on this," Gabriel said; he was always so polite with everyone, if not a little laidback about everything else. "I need to know what I got, it's a personal reason."

"As is the rest of your life," the teacher said, placing the answer sheet of the test on the table, and passing it to Gabriel. "Of course you were exemplary in your battling examination, but your academic scores fall slightly below the bar of what you were expected to receive in order to keep your worker's permit," he said, Gabriel letting out a large breath in disappointment, beginning to walk to the door. "However," the teacher started. "I did notice that from your previous test scores, these are significantly higher than what was projected from you. With this in mind, I can maybe talk to the principal about extending a temporary permit for the next two months. You'll have to renew it in September by getting your scores up, but other than that, there's not much I can do for-," he explained, Gabriel cutting him off with a low bow to him.

"That's more than enough for me, sir," Gabriel said, the teacher looking at him pleasantly surprised by his attitude. "Thank you."

As Gabriel walked through the door, June moved off to the side, saying nothing, figuring that just having the opportunity to work was celebration enough for Gabriel. As June continued back down the hall after Gabriel had passed, she felt another set of footsteps approaching her; rhythmic, controlled, and light, they didn't pose any actual kind of threat in their speed or length in stride. They were relaxed, and yet the presence spoke of something different; almost like something breathing down her neck. She knew who it was behind her, but even then, she couldn't help but feel that something was different, turning around, meeting her supposed fate.

As Natsu opened the door to the ghost dorm, he was automatically met by a thick cloud of furniture cleaner wafting out of the air transferred by several fans placed all around the openings to each dorm. Groaning as he saw Koichi running from one end of the dorm to the other in near record time, Natsu walked into the room, finding the smell not as potent past the fans, Lampent grabbing his bag before handing it off to Golett, walking it up to his room.

"Um, sensei?" he said, Kochi turning around like a robot to look at Natsu. "Don't you think you're taking this too far? Just because the others are staying here for the summer doesn't mean you have to do this again," he said, Koichi clamping his mouth shut, giving him a stern look as he quickly raced to the other side of the dorm, polishing every surface in sight.

"You have no idea of how much of a pick-me-up this is for me, Natsu," Koichi said. "Last night, my plans for the others to spend the night here were ruined by your awful timing in your studying," he said, Natsu failing to see how it was his fault. "But now, for the whole summer period, all twelve of them are going to be staying here while their dorms are being cleaned out for the summer. I know the others will be here soon, so I'm going to make sure that everything is ready, no matter what the cost."

"I think those cleaners are starting to affect your brain," Natsu said jokingly, walking up to his room, the darkened room left without the lights being turned on, just as both of his pokémon liked it to stay. "Summer, huh? Back when I was training, summer only meant that it got hotter, and days were longer, it never held too much special meaning for me. But now that I'm back in school, I think it might have a bit more weighted importance. I just hope those two will be fine during the next few months; ghosts aren't really too attached to bright areas," he said to himself, looking at both of his pokémon. "At least I'll still be able to see Judai; living with the others for the next few months might not be so bad if he's around," he said, thinking back to just last month, seeing Judai smiling devilishly as he sat in the chair; bound to it by duct tape.

"The Don really is back, isn't he?" he questioned. "Scarface doesn't make moves on his own, and nothing so far as kidnapping without someone pulling the strings in the background. If he is still alive after what I did to him, is it possible he's the one who told Mitsu about me, but does he really know who Reaper's identity is? If there was something the Don didn't know, the others weren't even allowed to know about it; everything went through him. But how did Mitsu-senpai learn his name; she said it so nonchalantly, almost like she was hoping to get me to react more on instinct rather than having me actually thinking about the response."

Natsu contemplated all of these things for hours, not even noticing as the other dorm heads trudged into the old building with bags under their arms for the long summer under Koichi's roof, most of them with a look of dread on them. As he sat back up straight on the floor, Natsu could see both Amira and Maaya passing by his open door, a small twinge in his chest as the psychic trainer walked by, making him turn away.

"Three months in the same building as that person?" he questioned, already able to see Judai's mischievous grin on his face as he turned around to see the fire trainer standing in the doorway. "I'm not going to survive this summer, am I?"

After Judai entered Natsu's room, as they'd be sharing for the summer, he kept giving off the same grin as when he first entered, Natsu barely able to face him.

"So, let's see," Judai began, Natsu jolting slightly out of fear for what he was planning. "Checklist for Amira-senpai's and Bro's Romantic Summer Memories," he said, Natsu's jaw dropping down to the ground at the steps Judai was already taking. "Let's see, first we gotta get 'em together in a very intimate settin', somethin' that automatically says they hafta be together," he began thinking aloud, suddenly grinning as he looked at Natsu. "How big was the bathhouse in this place again?" he asked, the sudden blush and smoke coming from Natsu sounding like a gunshot as he fell to the ground of embarrassment. "Oh, this is gonna be one summer to remember, I can tell ya that much, bro," he said, Natsu standing up with his face still flushed, and leaving the room to clear his head.

Walking down the steps back to the main living area of the dorm, Natsu looked up at the entryway, and saw Koichi tapping his foot impatiently, and continually checking his watch.

"Something wrong, sensei?" Natsu asked, Koichi turning around, nodding slightly as his answer.

"One of the dorm heads still hasn't made it here, and I'm getting kind of worried about it," he answered, looking out into the darkening sky. "Even if she doesn't make a big deal out of it, being blind does make things kind of dangerous for Kurosaki-kun," he said, Natsu confused about June not being in the dorm already. "Somehow, I get the feeling that something bad may have happened, and that she needs some help, and-," he started, quickly cut off by Natsu running out into the blackening scenery.

Panting furiously as he ran across the barely visible grass, Natsu made his way across the main pathway to the dorm set aside for steel pokémon trainers, his eyes wide with a certain kind of fear. "If the Don really is back, and knows who I am, it wouldn't take him long at all to know who my friends are. If anything happened to Kurosaki-senpai; I could never forgive myself."

It didn't take long for Natsu to make it to the doors of the steel dorm; nothing seeming to be out of the ordinary. As the doors slid open of their own free will, Natsu walked in through the lobby area, turning his head from side to side to find an elevator, already knowing June lived on the top floor. Praying silently to himself over and over again, hoping she was okay, Natsu knocked on the door to June's room, the door opening a few seconds later, the ghost trainer relieved to see his upperclassman still in the room, completely unharmed.

"Something I can help you with, Natsu-kun?" June asked, walking back into her room, Natsu noticing a small duffle bag on the bed.

"Um, Koichi-san was wanting to make sure you got to the dorm okay for the summer, but we never heard from you at all," Natsu replied, still looking at everything she was packing, which was literally, everything. "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Oh, that?" June asked, tapping her bag with the end of her cane. "Um, do you have a few minutes?" she asked, Natsu nodding as she sat down next to the bag on her bed. "See, the thing is, I'm…not going to be a dorm head, anymore," she said suddenly, Natsu about to say something, only to be stopped by June. "I don't want you to say anything; I just want you to listen so you can tell the others what happened. When I think about being blind, I don't want to think about what I can't do, even though it's inevitable I'll think about them from time to time. When I think about everything I can't do, I always think about one thing in particular, and it's something I can't stand because of what my life was like. I don't really expect many people to understand my positions on this, so I won't be surprised by what you say."

"Just tell us what's wrong," Natsu pleaded, June standing up, and walking around behind him. "What are you doing?" he asked, suddenly finding himself unable to see, feeling a thin piece of cloth wrapped around his head and eyes. June wasn't being playful, though, like she usually was, but was being serious. "Senpai, what's going on?"

"Tell me what you can figure out from this," she said, clicking a button on a remote of some kind, a sudden noise coming from the TV in her room. Natsu wasn't able to see anything, barely hearing some of the sounds, but it sounded like explosions to him. "Go on, tell me what you can figure out form what you hear," she said, Natsu's mouth opening, but his voice not coming through; he couldn't be sure. "It's a tape my sister sent me; the note she mailed with it said that it was her latest performance on the Contest circuit."

"When you were with your classmate earlier, you talked about not liking contests, so why do you have a tape of a contest?" Natsu asked, June walking back to him, and removing the blindfold.

"My family never expected to have their youngest child born blind," June started. "They always thought it must've been some kind of joke, maybe it was a mix up and I wasn't really their child. But nothing could actually change the fact that their second daughter made their chance at raising a duo of Coordinators completely lost. My older sister, Yuki, would always make us come watch her contests, but I guess you can figure out how well those would've went for me."

"Do you resent your family for being that way?" Natsu asked.

"In some ways, I do," June admitted. "It's not something I'm proud of, but yes, I was a little angry that we always had to do what our perfect angel of the family wanted to do. All I could do was listen to what was happening, but with all the cheering and clapping and pushing and shoving, contests were nothing but torture for me. I became a battler because it was something my condition didn't limit. But I guess somebody else found it for me."

"Are you talking about Tomomiya-senpai?" Natsu asked as June nodded in reply.

"I always knew she resented me like I resented my sister, but I didn't really expect her to actually do something about it," June said. "As a dorm head, I'm obligated to accept any battle challenge that's made to me, and if I lose, I have to turn over my title to the winner of the match. It's the rules of this school. Chifuyu-san challenged me earlier, and it was to the one kind of battle I could never do; a Contest style battle. A battle based on only on visual appeal, not strength. I can either battle her, and humiliate myself in front of the rest of the school, or I can forfeit, and concede my placement to her, no matter how much I don't want to."

"I don't think any of us really want to see you go, though," Natsu said, June giggling slightly as she began patting his head. "It's not right to just quit on everything, though. Why don't you actually battle her so that you can prove that you can do this kind of stuff just as well as she can?" he asked, June barely able to muster a small chuckle at his question.

"If everything were that simple, Natsu-kun, I'd do it in a heartbeat," she said. "You know me; I'm too competitive to let something that go unnoticed. But the fact remains that Contests are based on a visual appeal, and that's the one thing I can't pull off. You can't change the fact that I'm blind, and this is the first time it's ever going to affect me in such a big way."

Natsu didn't say anything for a while; June was still smiling, but Natsu could tell it was forced. She was really hurting over this entire thing, and the only way to keep doing anything was to beat a very competitive, very hostile classmate in a battling style she as no doubt more proficient in. No reaction ever came from her eyes, though, not that it would've come as any surprise, but the fact she was hurting so much from this, and not able to shed a single tear was something that Natsu could understand. Looking around the room, Natsu finally noticed her Lairon sitting in the far corner, silently grimacing at everything going on, and the Skarmory perched just next to him, a similar expression on its face.

"I expected more out of you, senpai," Natsu said quietly, just audible enough for June to hear as she suddenly snapped into a more serious mode, turning her head with an expectant look on her eye. "You always talked to me about being brave enough to face my fears about Amira-senpai, and not letting my own depressive attitude force my hand. And now you're talking about just giving up because it's a little hard to do? Maybe you should just give up; it'd be a more honorable way to go out then to just break down in front of her tomorrow," he finished a smile on his face as he was quickly pulled around with June holding onto his collar.

"Listen hear, buddy," June started "I don't need anyone telling me how I can and can't do something. If I wanted to give up that easily, would I still be around here? My pokémon and I have gone through more battles in this school to keep our title strong, and now that someone finds a loophole, you think that it'll be enough to keep me from doing anything?" Natsu didn't answer. "Well, I'll tell you what, I'll find a way to beat her at her own game, and prove to you specifically, that I can do what I have to in order to win no matter what. Just you watch me."

Looking back at her pokémon, Natsu saw the scowls on both their faces gone, and replaced with grins instead, nodding to him approvingly, rising up so they could move as June slung her small bag over her shoulder. "Let's go, Natsu-kun," she said, obviously reverting back to her normal personality. "I wonder if it'd be okay if I slept in the same room as you for tonight," she said, trying to feign innocence as Natsu quickly tried to pull away, June's strength, along with Skarmory, Lairon, and Lampent pushing him to keep him from going anywhere.

The next morning, June was the first to wake up, feeling the warm beams of the sun on her face as she opened her eyes, not that it did much for her, rising off of the floor to a seated position. As she held out her hand, she suddenly felt the cold steel of her Lairon's body, sighing out of relief at the rigid edges that decorated its armor, and then her other hand to where the polished metal of her Skarmory touched her palm. As she stroked the bodies of both of her pokémon, June's smile from before returned, no longer being the person she had become yesterday for a time. After standing back up, June quickly began to tie her hair back into the bun it was always held in, sticking the twin pair of chopsticks into the knot.

"You guys ready?" she asked, both Lairon and Skarmory grunting, or screeching in reply as she chuckled, walking towards the door to her room.

About an hour later, June was standing in one of the large gymnasiums of the school, the stands on both sides about half full each with many of the students having already gone home for the summer holiday. June's original composure had faltered a little bit as she stood there without Chifuyu making her appearance, knowing that all of the other dorm heads were watching her in a higher position in the stands. Next to her was her Skarmory, the steel bird pokémon rubbing its beak against her cheek as she did the same with her hand against the chilled metal.

"Well, looks like you didn't run away; I guess that's commendable," a voice said from the gym floor; Chifuyu's. "So, you know what happens when you lose this battle, don't you?"

"Doesn't matter," June said. "Because I'm not going to lose this battle," she declared. "I'll show you it was a mistake to mess with one of the dorm heads."

"We'll see," she said, throwing a pokéball into the center of the ring with the explosion of light making way for a sleek design of a pokémon, it's metal armor much more streamline, and in some ways nonexistent. "Mawile; let's see how long they can last out of their element," she said, the deceiver pokémon chuckling evilly as it faced the Skarmory.

The judges for the battle; Koichi, Asuka, and, for some reason, Natsu, all sat behind different desks, each with a small computer tablet on the face of it, most likely to calculate the points each person would lose with each technique employed. Both Koichi and Asuka seemed to be enjoying their positions as the judges, but Natsu's eyes weren't as ecstatic, they were distant, like when he first arrived at the school. His eyes stared straight forward, both of the steel types in front of him, and their trainers in his peripheral.

"Now, as we all know," Asuka started, standing up from the center of the judge's panel. "As opposed to most battles concerning the dorm heads, this one includes a dorm head and a rival student. The protocol for this is that if the dorm head were to lose this battle, her title will be passed onto her opponent, and the dorm head for the steel type will be Chifuyu Tomomiya. You will be given an extra two and a half minutes to the normal five minutes used in contests to accommodate for Kurosaki-san's condition, if she would allow that."

"Not on your life," June stated boldly. "I've never let this keep me from doing anything else, so why shouldn't I be able to do this just as well," she said, obviously referencing her blindness.

"In that case," Koichi said, taking the microphone from his superior. "If you are both ready, you may begin the battle as soon as the signal is made. Good luck to both of you, and I hope the rest of us are going to have a great time watching this."

"I'm going to enjoy this," Chifuyu said, her Mawile snickering again as Skarmory's wings instantly tensed up, the blades of metal sticking straight back as June stared forward, her eyes unable to see anything. No light, no movement, and as she began to breathe more easily, the sounds of everyone chattering, their cheering, and their talking slowly dimmed until the tense blades of her pokémon were all that she could hear.

With that, the large tone rang out over the intercom, and Skarmory made a quick dash for the center of the battlefield, holding out its wings straight, allowing them to begin to shine in a blinding white light. As the Steel Wing attack slashed across the gym floor, and connected with the small Mawile, the pokémon was flown back from the sheer force, Chifuyu not seeming to react to her pokémon being attacked like that. Instead a smile came across her face with a silent command coming through as soon as Mawile hit the floor.

After a few seconds of lying on the ground, Mawile sat up, its knees on the ground and its hands keeping itself up, a small tear appearing in the corner of its eye, soon turning into full blown bawling fest. As it cried like a child, June gave an annoyed smile as every eye in the gymnasium turned to her in spite for making a pokémon cry, the murderous intent definitely high in their presence. As Chifuyu watched this, her eyes began to sharpen in confidence and malice, Mawile's sneer returning as Skarmory could do nothing to fight back.

"Now, pirouette and Hidden Power," she commanded, Mawile instantly jumping into the air, spinning like top while a series of small orbs surrounded the steel type. "Release!" she shouted, the spinning of the steel type becoming even faster as she released all of the orbs, sending them out at Skarmory like an assembly line.

As the orbs of the Hidden Power attack reassembled into a large circle around Skarmory, the flying type was left dazed at how easily they were being controlled, and was quickly met by a series of electrical shocks coming from each of the spheres. Screeching out of pain from within the circle of electricity, Skarmory made a quick climb into the air to escape the attacks, the orbs disappearing soon after. After Skarmory was finally out of harm's way, June let out an easier breath, her heart racing as the sounds of a meter where the judges were sitting began beeping to show that somebody's points were going down, and she knew it was hers. Skarmory's flapping became labored after the attack, but it remained strong as it made another dive at Mawile with another Steel Wing attack, although, Mawile didn't seem to interested in accepting it this time.

As Skarmory slashed parallel to the ground, Chifuyu's Mawile simply jumped into the air, tumbling, and turning to dodge the attack. As its feet hit the ground, another Hidden Power was released, connecting with Skarmory in the same way as before, the screeching sound enough to make anyone deaf before it climbed out of the attack, and faced Mawile, and June who was right behind her, hearing the same meter depleting her points as it did before.

Back on the judges table, both Koichi and Asuka seemed impressed by the effort given by Chifuyu, Natsu still watching June specifically, his eyes dead to emotion, and completely focused on her expression. She was still somewhat confident, but it was easy to see her anger about to take over. She wasn't a contest battler, that much was obvious, but for her to get frustrated over it, Natsu began to watch how Chifuyu was acting. She was much more confident, snide, and condescending as she looked down at June.

Back in the upper stands, the other dorm heads watched the battle, all of them having similar expressions that Natsu did; they were analytical, not always appreciating the same beauty of movement that Mawile kept showing off. Instead, most of them were watching June, and it was obvious she knew that. They were expecting more out of her.

"Are we so sure that keeping her around anymore would be a good idea?" Maaya asked suddenly. "On the plus side, we wouldn't have to deal with those horrible jokes of hers."

"June won't lose," Sienna said in reply, the others looking at her. "She's too powerful to let something like a contest take over her judgment. Being blind just means she can't appreciate physical beauty as much as we can. It's why she's attracted to Natsu-kun so much."

"She understands pain like none of us can," Kaname continued. "Not being able to see, or know what color is, is something none of us could ever fathom. We can tell her what something looks like, and if we were to use anything to describe it, it would mean nothing to her. She has to feel something, hear it, smell it, taste it, anything that doesn't require her eyes, and if she can just figure that concept out, she can win this with no problems."

Back on the battlefield, Skarmory's continued use of Steel Wing to attack Mawile resulted in the same kind of dodging from the smaller steel type, but instead of getting struck by the Hidden Power; Skarmory had finally been able to dodge some of them, finding a speed pattern in its attacks. As Chifuyu's attacks continued to miss, she could hear the faint sound of some of her points being dropped from the meters, making her turn around to look at the meter. Seeing her own points depleting from just Skarmory dodging, Chifuyu's fists began to tremble in anger, and turned to June, whose face was still stern, but there was faltering in its expression. She sneered at this, and called Mawile back from attacking, the steel pokémon acknowledging the command.

June knew that Mawile had gone back, but didn't know what for, calling Skarmory back to her side, waiting for some kind of movement from Mawile. Instead she began to hear a loud scraping sound in her ears, makes her quickly cover them in pain, Chifuyu chuckling as her Mawile scraped the jaws of its second mouth together, making almost anyone in the gymnasium hold their ears in pain, some of the dorm heads barely flinching at it though, from their perch.

"This may prove that Tomomiya-san is the better battler," Gabriel said, laid back in one of the seats on the bleachers. "Using June-san's weaknesses and her strengths against her is the mark of a true inventive. Maybe June-san isn't right to be a dorm head after all," he said, looking down at the gym floor, seeing June's eyes turn up to where he was speaking, a small grin coming across Gabriel's face. "Or maybe she is."

Back on the battlefield, the sound of Mawile's scraping continued, but June's ears weren't being covered anymore as she stood up, and stared directly at Chifuyu, her classmate staring her down with angered filled eyes, not that it did any good on June. Watching the battle with their own ears covered, Koichi looked at the scene amazed while Asuka and Natsu just watched; the latter having his eyes finally warm up. He watched June breath as her breaths slowly became less and less erratic, her heart had finally calmed down, and her eyes had finally softened.

"How is she doing that?" Koichi asked, the jaws finally stopping the tactic knowing that it was no longer effective. "We can barely stand it, and we're ten away from Kurosaki-kun."

"Muscle control," Natsu said; the first word he spoke since the battle had started. "Kurosaki-senpai can control her ears so that she can drown out all the background noise, and focus on what she wants to. I guess you could call it selective hearing."

"Furthermore, June has the advantage of being blind," Asuka said; the first time anyone had considered it an advantage. "Being able to fixate on specific things is something that blind people have to do; they're not good with multitasking, I guess you could say. So if she focuses on a single thing, then she can easily drown out anything that keeps her from noticing it."

"Still, does this help her win the battle?" Koichi asked, almost as though he were leading them on to continue. "Even if being blind helps her in one respect, contests are largely visual appeals."

"But not exclusive to that concept," Natsu said. "Appeals are anything that can make you feel something. Kurosaki-senpai doesn't need to be able to see to make something beautiful, I think," he said, June turning to him as she smiled and turned back to face Chifuyu.

"He's right," June said quietly, just loud enough for Skarmory to hear. "I can make something beautiful without being able to see. Skarmory, sorry for the delay, but now you need to listen to everything I say. I know this is more your scene than it is mine. But I think we can come to an understanding on this. Now, let's try a nice slow waltz to start off with," she said, Chifuyu looking at her surprised. "Three four time signature."

With that Skarmory instantly sped towards Mawile, both of its wings glowing in the same white light that was necessary for a Steel Wing attack, slashing at Mawile with both of them. As the smaller steel type began dodging them expertly, June began to tap her foot barely above the audible, only for Skarmory to hear, but then suddenly began to quicken in pace with Skarmory's wings moving faster and faster, far above what Mawile was capable of dodging. Dodging only the first attack, Mawile was quickly caught up in the second attack, following with the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and every other attack that was made.

After the final slash of the Steel Wing attacks, June's foot continued to tap in time, Chifuyu finally noticing it, and looking up at her with a look of spite.

"You think you can beat me by using rhythms?" she asked. "You forget that I'm a nationally acclaimed pianist. I can read any rhythm without thinking for more than ten seconds."

"A lot can happen in ten seconds," June said with a large grin, her signature fang showing through as snapped her fingers once. "Skarmory, Metal Sound!" she shouted, Skarmory opening its mouth with a deafening screeching sound, like all form of metals falling to the ground, scraping their jagged edges together, and grinding each other to form such a noise.

As the noise continued, even the dorm heads from their high stands could barely handle the noise that Skarmory's lungs could give off, the judges down at the bottom almost falling to the ground. Natsu tried his best to stay in his seat, smiling as he watched June's expression turn to its brightest it had been since last night.

"Now, Guard Swap!" she commanded, Skarmory's eyes glowing a light pink color, the same color surrounding Mawile as it looked at its body, not feeling too much different as Skarmory sneered the same it had since the beginning of the battle. "We finish this now. Brave Bird!" she shouted, Skarmory's body almost disappearing with its speed.

All that could be seen from any angle was a blazing avian, its wings outstretched, glowing with another, final, Steel Wing attack, the speed of it almost too much for Chifuyu to handle just by watching. It was like it was all in slow motion, each second passing like a minute as Skarmory flew past, and slashed across Mawile's body. At the moment of impact, time returned to its normal state, Skarmory speeding past it, and making a quick loop through the air before deactivating its own attack, flying high above the battlefield, giving a loud victory cry.

June changed her hearing to where the judges were, hearing a steady beeping noise; the timer was still running, and her opponent was close to, if not already, beaten down with all of her power. She then heard the sound of a pokéball contracting a beam of light to where Mawile was, and heard a series of footsteps walking away without even hearing the final result.

"I lose out to you again, June," Chifuyu said, looking back at her, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to do anything with that knowledge. "But mark my words, one of these days I will defeat you, and make sure everyone knows which one of us is the better battler," she said, walking out of the gymnasium as June could barely hold in her excitement, jumping up for joy with both of her pokémon sharing in her celebration, Natsu smiling at her as she laugher with both of her pokémon nestled up close to her.

"ABSOLUTELY, NOT!" June shouted at the top of her lungs from within her room at the ghost dorm, Skarmory looking at her with a confrontational look. "Let me tell you something, buster; that was a onetime thing, only, and it will never, repeat, never, happen again. If back in a contest after I'm dead and gone, it'll be too soon, so you can just get that idea out of your head right now!" she commanded, her pokémon not looking like it was listening as it turned its head, and seemed to be muttering something. "Don't take that tone with me!"

"Well, she sounds better," Judai said from the next room over, both Monferno and Torkoal chuckling with him as Natsu did the same. "So, what exactly happened to make that Brave Bird so powerful? Skarmory's power was really weak from being attack by all of those Hidden Powers, and that Fake Tears made 'em even more powerful."

"When Kurosaki-senpai used Metal Sound, it greatly decreased Tomomiya-senpai's Mawile's special defense," Natsu started out. "After that, she used Guard Swap to switch around the two different kinds of defensive stats to make her regular defense lower than what it should have been. Her Brave Bird and Steel Wing attacks were more than powerful enough by that time to defeat her Mawile."

"So, even in contests, June-senpai, can't help but be a little more than physical when it comes to these kinds of things," Judai joked as he stood up, and walked towards the door. "Well, I have preparations to make for a few things, so I'll see ya later, okay?"

"Okay, bye," Natsu said, lying down flat on his floor while staring up at the ceiling, letting out a relieved sigh, suddenly hearing a knock at the door that made him sit back up straight. "Something I can help you with, Kurosaki-senpai?" he asked, looking at June as she smiled at him, walking into the room.

"Do you always keep your room so dark?" she asked, Natsu nodding as his answer, looking around, and then quickly realizing what she had said. "I thought it might be fun to do that. I always hear how you keep your room dark because of your ghost types. It's too much fun playing with you that I think it might become an addiction."

"Why are you in here?" Natsu asked, getting right to the point.

"I wanted to thank you for last night, and getting me off of my butt, and doing that contest battle today," she said, sitting down next to him, wrapping an arm around his neck. "If it wasn't for what you said to me last night, I might not have been here today to still be a dorm head. Skarmory also enjoyed being in a contest battle for the first time, so I think we both owe you that one," she said, squeezing him in a hug momentarily. "You know, when I think of everything that I can still do while being blind, I never thought that being able to do a contest battle would be one of them. Something I've noticed is that a lot of us are able to do things we'd never thought we'd be able to."

"It reminds me of the stories of Aura, I guess," Natsu said. "The mystic force that resides in us all, and shapes the kind of person we can be no matter what kind of situation we're in. When I think about you, senpai, I sometimes think that maybe your Aura isn't one of bravery for doing something you didn't think you could do before, but maybe something a little different."

"Then what do you think my Aura is?" June asked, resting her head on his shoulder, knowing that Natsu's face was beet red without having to see it.

"Your Aura, I guess, is something that keeps you from being what people think about you all the time," Natsu started. "A lot of people think of you as just a person who does what she wants, and is used to getting what she wants, but you also are kind, happy, and friendly with everyone around you. Your Aura, I think, isn't something that people can really gain in their life without experiencing the same pain that you have, and maybe it's something more of an Aura of Joy."

Hearing this, June's cheeks suddenly became incredibly flush, giggling slightly as she wrapped her other around Natsu, pulling him closer so that she was directly next to him, knowing how embarrassed he was in this situation. She giggle lightly, not hearing the conversation that was going on outside.

"I'm tellin' ya, Amira-senpai," Judai said from a few feet from the doorway. "I know that my bro wanted to say something to ya, but he's still tryin' to get himself composed to make sure it comes out all right. He didn't want the same fiasco as what happened a couple of days ago," he said, reaching the doorway. "Hey bro, I'm comin' in, and-," he began looking inside the room, and instantly freezing with his mouth left gaping open, Amira looking inside and quickly feeling a large amount of pain in her chest.

In front of both of them, they could only see Natsu's face in complete, and utter shock as June kept her lips connected to his cheeks, holding his head in place, and then letting him go, knowing the other two people were watching them. She then whispered a "thank you" into his ear, and walked away from Natsu, and over towards Judai and Amira, not paying much attention to Judai, but knowing which of the two was Amira, facing directly towards her, and then walking by.

"I won't lose to you," she said quickly under her breath to Amira, the psychic trainer's eyes shooting wide open. "I'll see you tomorrow, Natsu-chan," she said, winking at the emphasis in the honorific, making Natsu fall over onto the ground, unconscious.

With that Amira left the doorway, her face still completely red, Judai trying to stop her, and watched June reenter her room, making the fire trainer look directly into the room, his temporary roommate still left in shock as he twitched along the ground. "Somehow things between my bro and Amira-senpai just got a bit more difficult."

Characters:

June Kurosaki: Lairon & Skarmory. Lady Island Rose

Natsu Kohashigawa: Lampent & Golett. NightFall00

Gabriel Volantis: Archen & Tirtouga. WereDragon EX

Judai Ryuzaki: Monferno & Torkoal. Jexo

Maaya Yoshida: Hitmonchan & Hitmonlee. Emmausgirl94

Sienna Smith: Vibrava & Fraxure. Fluttersong

Kaname Misaki: Sableye & Absol. Ariesbird

Notes:

"Kurosaki-kun": So, if you watch anime in the Japanese Raw with English Subtitles, or whatever subtitles like I do, you're bound to pick up on how people refer to each other by honorifics. One of my reviews that was from a guest, so it doesn't show on the actual page told me that I was using the honorific "kun" wrong when I used it with Koichi to refer to Maaya. This is both wrong and right, and I would like to address this, because I'm doing it again here. Kun is an honorific primarily used for male people, generally younger or about the same age. However, sometimes a person can call another person "kun" if they are, in fact, much younger than them. Koichi, as a teacher, exercises the right to refer to some of his more tomboyish students as "kun" as either his own way of referring to them, or to mock some of them for their being more masculine. Japan is a very traditional country, and genders are supposed to act a certain way; so being called feminine when you're a boy is a big insult in Japan, so it's why Natsu doesn't embrace the idea more.

Musical Terms: This is more for those of you readers who are not very musical, and may be wondering what I'm writing about. When June refers to a time signature, it means the number of beats that are used to count out a single unit of measure in music. When you talk about a "three four" time signature, it merely means you count out three beats per measurement, and the beats are control by a note called a "quarter note," hence the use of the number four. A lot of this works better when you actually play music, so this is about as good as I can do for you.

Chapter eleven complete. I am so sorry that I did not come out with this sooner, but there are always those spots in a chapter that make me think, "Where do I go from here? How do I make this transition seamless?" and all that good stuff, and sometimes I fail miserably. But with this time, we got a bit more into June, which is apparently some of your guys' favorite character because of her uniqueness, but we also get into a bit of Natsu's battling past, a bit more into the man with scar, and the ultimate villain of all of this, the Don. Next chapter will include more about that plot point, but I'm also going to narrow in on two characters that I have done next to nothing with, and I think you already know how those two are. Even if you're a new reader to all of this, so stayed turned for the next chapter. Also, let's have a big round of applause of Lady Island Rose, the creator of June, and make sure she knows what an awesome job she did to make this chapter possible. Until we meet again, ja nee.