Chapter 72 - Matcha
It was the Hoenn summer once again.
Yurie laid in her futon and looked up at the ceiling. Torchic rested on her chest. She took in a deep breath, and Torchic looked up at her. It had been one week since she said goodbye to both Himawari and Logan.
Yurie had been gone for one year, and almost nothing about her room changed. The light blue curtains kept the sun out. The tatami mats that made up the floor were as clean as ever. Her clothes were neatly organized by color in her closet, although she had grown out of most of them because of her journey. The one change, a very small change, is that she now had a picture frame of her and her team of Pokémon displayed on her desk.
In the picture, she held onto Torchic while each of her other Pokémon all held onto a ribbon that they had helped earn over the past year.
"Torchic?" the Pokémon said quizzingly as he observed his trainer fight back tears, something she had constantly been doing for a week.
"I wish I would have told him how I felt," she replied. "I wish we could travel more."
"Tor-chic."
"I mean, me and you will travel more! Don't get me wrong, but…" she started. One tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm so stupid. I didn't even hug him."
"Yurie!" her mom's voice called. "Can you come down here please?"
Yurie groaned. She lifted Torchic off of her, stood up from the futon, and then walked towards the door. "Let's go, Torchic." She then went down the stairs to greet her mom.
"I have to say, your Aggron has really taken a liking to the flower shop," Yuriko said while watching the Steel-type take in the smell of the flowers. Masquerain rested on his head and looked curiously at the different colors. "I might just have to ask you to let them stay here with me."
Yurie smiled. "Aggron has finally found some peace. Did you need something?"
"Oh yes! I received a call from Professor Birch! He needs you to go to his lab when you get the chance."
"Is it urgent?" Yurie asked.
Yuriko shrugged. "I'm not positive! But, if you would be a dear and take these flowers to the lab for me, that would be wonderful!" She handed over a small bouquet of white flowers.
"Daffodils?"
"For new beginnings, dear!"
Yurie had walked to Professor Birch's lab hundreds of times before, and this time felt no different. Torchic followed her closely as Yurie walked down the familiar path slowly and silently.
Littleroot Town was always a quiet place, and the people who lived there were friendly. They would wave at Yurie as she passed by. She used to be known as the daughter of the cute flower lady, but since she performed so well previously, there was a new sense of pride that the townsfolk had for her.
Yurie stopped walking when a familiar face appeared on the road. Standing in front of her in an unbuttoned green flannel shirt and dark green pants was Yuta. On his face there was a rare, but genuine, smile.
"Hey, Yurie," he said. "Enjoying the summer?" Behind his leg a small creature with a round blue face shyly peeked out.
"I've slept a lot."
"You'll get fat."
"Shut up!"
Yuta simply laughed to himself. "Where you off to? Delivery?" He motioned towards the two flowers that Yurie held tightly.
"Yeah. Birch ordered these. I've been pretty bored, so it gets me out of the house. And you?"
"Me and my new companion are going to Slateport to get on a ferry to Kanto."
"So, you're off on your next journey? And when did you get your new friend?"
Yuta knelt down and picked up the Pokémon. It retracted into its shell, and Yuta chuckled. "My mom has been very busy with work since dad passed away. She's been breeding Pokémon like crazy, and she miscounted, so I got a free Squirtle."
"It's cute."
"He'll become very strong."
"Good luck on your journey. Maybe I'll see you around sometime?"
"Maybe. I think I'm gonna learn from you, and I'm going to find someone to travel with. It'd be nice to have a training partner, I guess."
"You got lonely? Maybe you'll finally get a girlfriend."
Yuta didn't respond. Instead, he just put his Pokémon back on the ground and then continued, walking past Yurie. "See you around, Little Miss Yurie."
Yurie didn't watch him walk away, but instead chose to continue forward on her path. It wasn't long, and Yurie and Torchic arrived at Birch's door. She knocked softly.
Birch opened the door wide and smiled as soon as he saw Yurie. "Little Miss Yurie!" he cried out.
"My mom said that you ordered these flowers," Yurie said as she held the daffodils out.
He shook his head. "I-I did not. But I'm happy to see you anyways. You should come in and drink some tea!"
"If there was a mistake, then I have to get back home so these don't wilt."
"We have a vase that we can use. I insist! I insist!" he said with a boisterous voice.
Yurie slowly thought about it and then nodded. She walked in, and Birch led her to the kitchen where Tania was making tea. She poured boiling green tea into a small glass cup that was painted blue, and Yurie sipped it carefully.
"So, you really turned out to be a little firecracker!" Birch exclaimed. "We were all blown away by your performance in the Hoenn Grand Festival."
"Thank you."
"Everyone came from all around! We had a viewing party in my backyard! Everyone was so proud of you and Yui!"
"I gotta admit that I was wrong about you," Tania said. "You have some natural talent."
"I had a really good teacher."
"How's the tea?" Birch asked.
"Bitter, but that's matcha for you," Yurie said quietly.
"Do you think he'll like it?" Birch wondered.
Yurie perked her head up. "Who?"
Before Birch could answer, the doorbell sounded. Tania stood up and walked out of the kitchen.
Birch laughed. "Anyways, you were able to master Mega Evolution with your Aggron. We were all blown away when we saw it on TV! What immense power!"
Yurie nodded. "It's like nothing I can explain. The energy that comes from the mega stone is unbelievable."
Suddenly, Yurie felt a slight tug on her hair, and then everything went black. Something covered her eyes, and she quickly pulled it off of her head and looked at it. In her hands, she held a black hat with a white Poké Ball insignia sewn on the front. She jolted around to find Logan standing directly behind her chair. His hair was now slightly shorter than when they last met.
"Brought me flowers, huh?" Logan asked.
"Logan!" Yurie yelled. She shot up and gave her friend a hug. "You-You're here!"
"Yeah," Logan laughed. He gently pried himself from Yurie and then took the seat next to hers.
"Torchic!" the Pokémon said happily as he reunited with Logan's Mightyena.
"I've decided where I'm going next, so I figured I should let you know."
"What? Where?"
Logan winked. "Kanto!"
Yurie sighed as her entire body felt the sudden sensation of relief. She started to chuckle nervously. She had bottled up her emotions for one full week and had no clue how to handle herself at the moment.
"And I wanted to ask you something, Yurie."
"What? Me? Ask me something? Ask me what?"
"Yeah. Something I probably should have asked a long time ago." Logan took a drink from the tea that Tania had poured from him.
"What?" her face went red. People don't just say things like that.
Logan appeared physically nervous, and he gulped down one more drink of green tea. "D-do you want to travel with me?"
Yurie smiled, and she put her face into her hands, taking in a sigh of relief. "Of course!"
Logan laughed nervously as the weight of the world was finally lifted off of his shoulders. "Well then. Off to Kanto we go!"
"B-but first! Drink the tea!"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
When I first came to Japan, I joined a tea club, so I think it's fitting to have the last chapter be titled Matcha. At first, I hated the tea, but now it's something that I find very soothing. Yeah.
And so, Healing in Hoenn ends. This was so fun to write. Sorry for posting the past five chapters in quick succession. I'll be starting their next journey in two weeks or so (taking a small vacation to Tokyo). I still need to think of a good title for their journey through Kanto. But first, I want to give myself a small posting break with Logan and Yurie's journey. Awakening Alola will continue posting schedule for the time being (if I have the time to post). I guess I can give you two weeks to get caught up on that! It's gonna get intense! It'll start tying into Logan's story soon-ish.
Before I move on, I want to thank everyone (as of writing this) for reviewing. Thank you so much to wisdom-jewel for your support from the beginning. Thanks to pokestets23 for your OC and being my friend. Thanks to Crescent Night for the insightful review. Big thanks to mortiz555 for all of the reviews and reading everything I put out. Another big thanks to pokemonking0924 for all of the lengthy reviews. Thanks to the Imprisoned of Hell for John Manson. Thanks to Eevium Z for her OC. Thanks to WyldClaw for all of the short and simple reviews. A HUGE thanks to Besprizornye for their very thoughtful reviews. They are an extremely talented writer, and I can't recommend their stuff enough. And finally, a big thanks to UKEagleClaw for fun discussions and all of the reviews. I highly recommend reading his story "Pokemon: Infinite Legacies." He's a wonderful writer with a lot of good ideas. Thank you all so much!
Thanks for reading Healing in Hoenn. I'm very happy with how it turned out even if there are things I wish I could improve on. I know it was a lot, but I hope that you enjoyed the characters and their little adventures. I hope I'm able to make their next journey just as entertaining. It'll be following a more original path.
Till next time.