1 day before…
"So, why have you called us all here today, Miss Tanaka?" Kotoko Himegami asked, the Onic City Gym Leader confused as to why the Elite Four's Grass-type specialist had called all of Octiva's Gym Leaders to the Pokémon League headquarters out of the blue.
"Is it because you wanted to show off something you did again?" Raina Kitamura sighed, the Perto City Gym Leader starting to have flashbacks about the time Tanaka completely wiped the floor against her in a 6-on-1 battle. That had not been a pleasant experience for her.
"I'm sure there's a better reason than this, Miss Kitamura. Please calm down." Hirone Torizuka pleaded, the Edian City Gym Leader not wanting the rift between the Gym Leaders and Elite Four to deepen due to the massive difference in power between them. After all, both parties were under the Pokémon League's umbrella.
"Well, you'd better say it quickly. I've got better things to do with my time than entertain you here." Juri Sawada complained, the Subdomi City Gym Leader wanting to go soak in a hot spring along with her subordinates after a series of particularly tough battles today.
"If it's really that important, then why aren't the Gym Leaders of Minant City and Eigve City here as well?" Hideri Noguchi questioned, the Ubmedi City Gym Leader feeling slightly cheated upon learning that two of his colleagues were allowed to skip this 'mandatory' meeting on short notice.
"They're the Gym Leaders with the most on their plates, so they sort of get a free pass on this sort of stuff." Narai 'Knuckle' Tanabe explained, the Subton City Gym Leader wondering if Noguchi had fallen asleep somewhere in the conversation and missed important details again.
"Alright everyone, please settle down." Haruka Ogasawara clapped her hands together. "Miss Tanaka's about to start, and since none of us know the reason she's suddenly decided to call us here, we all need to listen carefully to what she's going to talk about."
"Haruka's right." Aoi Saitou agreed. "I'm working on an important case together with Miss Tanaka, and not even I know what this is going to be about, so this will certainly be something of great significance."
"Um, you all know that Asu-Miss Tanaka is in the same room as us, right?" Kaori Nakaseko noted. "She can hear what all of you are saying right now, and a lot of it really does reflect poorly on your opinion of her."
"No need to worry about that, Kaori. We all need to air out our greivances sometimes" Asuka Tanaka gave some words of reassurance, causing Kaori to smile. "Now that everyone's got their last complaints out of their systems, let's get down to business. Two words: Azusa Sasaki."
"What?" Everyone in the room was confused as to what Asuka just said. With the conversation being started that abruptly, nobody had any idea where Asuka was planning to take this conversation. Even Kaori was left grasping for straws, despite being the person closest to Asuka in the room.
"Please clarify, Miss Tanaka." Kotoko stated. "Just who or what is Azusa Sasaki, and why are you bringing this up?"
"I was just about to get there, Miss Himegami." Asuka replied, sarcastically stressing the honorific she used. "Simply put, Azusa Sasaki is a light-blue devil in human form, an azure angel sent to grace the Earth from the heavens, a force of nature few people can stand against. And she's my number-one nomination for a Gym Leader position in the future."
"You still haven't told us anything about her yet, Mis-Tanaka." Raina caught herself, not wanting to face Tanaka's wrath once more after her previous devastating encounter. "What makes Miss Sasaki so special in your hard-to-please eyes?"
"Well, she's one of the most powerful Trainers at Rikka, and we all know you need to pass an extremely tough battling exam to get in, so I think that alone justifies it." Asuka explained. "I've even heard rumors that she's almost up to her mentor Sezaki's level."
"No way… Sezaki?" Hirone was breathless at what Asuka just revealed. The Gym Leader of Eigve City, she was one of the two Gym Leaders absent at this meeting and the strongest among them. If Sasaki could match Sezaki, the delicate power balance of the League would tip in the Gym Leaders' favor, something no one wanted ever since the two mass resignations in the last 14 years.
"That's right! Azusa Sasaki is almost as strong as 'the next Elite Four member' herself." Asuka didn't seemed phased about this, even casually referring to the fact that Sezaki was the only Gym Leader who could give all members of the Elite Four trouble in 6-on-6 matches, and sometimes even win in extreme circumstances. Even the other Gym Leaders couldn't hold a candle to her feats of power.
"Can you give some examples of what she's done?" Juri asked, twitching at the memories of her losing battles against Sezaki. "We don't have a complete idea of how strong she is, so we can't just guarantee her a Gym Leader position in the future solely on your whims."
"Well, let's start from the beginning." Everyone in the room could audibly hear a sharp glint coming from Asuka tilting her glasses upwards. "Last year, she defeated a swarm of rabid Scyther during her middle school's summer camp in the dead of night by herself, saving everyone before anyone else noticed. Remember, this was before she started training at Rikka."
"I know that Scyther are some of the strongest Pokémon out there." Hideri seemed dubious at what Asuka claimed about Sasaki. "But is there anything she did recently that gives us a clearer picture? We can't rely on a single incident alone."
"There are three other things that spring to mind." Asuka promptly answered. "Six months ago, she single-handedly led her middle school's Triple Battle team from the brink of defeat to overwhelming victory in the beginners' Little Cup tournament, taking over for her relatively inexperienced team members. I'll hand it over to Knuckle to tell us more about what happened three months ago. Can you fill us in about the Galarian Darmanitan rampages?"
"Every so often, the band of Galarian Darmanitan living on the slopes of the mountain Eigve City is on go crazy for no reason, barging their way inside the city and destroying everything in their way." Knuckle explained. "Sezaki and the Rikka students are usually the ones responsible for subduing and returning them back to the wilds. If the situation gets bad, then I'm sometimes called in since I'm the closest to Eigve."
"The situation was really three months ago." Asuka continued on. "For some reason, the Galarian Darmanitan were using Z-Moves and Dynamaxing despite the lack of a Trainer or Power Spot, which nobody found an explanation for even now. During the fighting, the battle was split into four fronts: one handled by Sezaki, one by the Rikka students, one by Knuckle and the Trainers at his Gym, and… can anyone guess?"
"Let me try, Sasaki?" Haruka asked. "You don't need to hide something so obvious from us."
"Precisely!" Asuka ignored Haruka's lamentation. "In the middle of the fight, Sasaki got separated from the rest of Rikka and was forced to be on her own, which nobody expected she could escape unscathed from. However, during the final tally of Galarian Darmanitan knocked out, Sasaki was found to have accounted for 25% of the total, all without having a single Pokémon faint. That was what put her on the League's watchlist."
"Now that really is impressive." Aoi commended Sasaki's feat of strength. "Though I'm curious at how much Galarian Darmanitan Sezaki managed to defeat by herself, since you say that she's still stronger than Sasaki."
"According to records Rikka sent back to the League, Sezaki was responsible for 30% of the Galarian Darmanitan defeated." Asuka replied. "But, I've saved the best for last. The most impressive thing Sasaki pulled off only happened last month, when she challenged an Articuno residing near Eigve City. And won."
The level of shock currently felt in the room rose to an all time high. Normally, matching a Legendary Pokémon in sheer power was something only someone on par with the Elite Four could reasonably do. To have an ordinary Trainer walk out a battle like that with a victory in hand was almost unheard of.
"So you're saying that Sasaki is almost equal in strength with the Elite Four already?" Kaori had a mixed reaction to this fact. "Then why not recommend her as an Elite Four member directly?"
"Two reasons: Firstly, Sezaki's our prime choice for promotion, so we don't want competition between mentor and mentee for the position. That's bad juju." Asuka answered. "Secondly, Eigve City will certainly need a new Gym Leader when Sezaki inevitably becomes an Elite Four member, and what better choice is there than her adorable kouhai?"
"I get what you're trying to say, but I still can't understand your hyperfixation on Sasaki." Kotoko was starting to suspect Asuka's motives for doing so had more than meets the eye. "Aside from being strong, what is it that endears her to you? You rarely get that excited over a person."
"Hmm, looks like I've left out some details during our conversation." Asuka mused, thinking back to what she said over the past few minutes. "What I'm about to say sounds like a coincidence, but I'm sure it's not since the strong attract the strong. When I was doing some digging about Sasaki, I found out she attended the same middle school as Kumiko Oumae and Reina Kousaka."
"You mean those two girls you gave Mega Stones to?" Raina remembered her battles against the fledgling Trainers well, since they were sandwiched between her own battle with Tanaka. "Is that why you're so interested in them? You believe that since Sasaki knows them, she's ought to be special as well?"
"That's one way of putting it." Asuka seemed content with Raina's theory. "During the Triple Battle tournament I mentioned earlier, Oumae was actually one of Sasaki's teammates. Imagine my surprise when I learnt that little Oumae-chan wasn't always that good at battling! Sasaki must have taught her well!"
"Now that we all know how ungodly strong Sasaki is, what do you want us to do with this information?" Hirone asked. "Though she's currently studying at Rikka, there are currently no Gym Leader or Elite Four positions available for her in the short term, and she wouldn't really fit in as an aide for any Elite Four member. I'd suggest sending her to another region, but…"
"Nothing." Asuka bluntly stated, shocking everyone in the room again. "After everything I've said about her, I know all of you want Sasaki to join the ranks of the League as a Gym Leader or part of the Elite Four. However, I've got a grander goal in mind for her: the wandering ronin outside of the League's control, keeping watch over the region without prying eyes noticing, then striking when they least expect it!"
"Ah, I get it now!" Juri exclaimed, remembering the term from a samurai movie she watched yesterday. "You don't plan to offer Sasaki any sort of recommendation for a League position, so that if something bad happens and we're too tied up to do anything about it, she can act outside of our control and solve it for us, right?"
"Exactly!" Asuka was pleased that someone else was finally on the same wavelength as her. "She's going to be the League's hidden dagger, our secret weapon in times of crisis, an invisible wall shielding us from the incoming waves. Mark my words, when the storm comes, Azusa Sasaki will be the one to save us all!"
"ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!"
"Azusa-chan, are you OK? You've been sneezing quite a lot for the past few minutes. Have you caught a cold?" Amika Nase asked while slightly panicking, pulling some more tissues out of the gradually empty box.
"Don't worry, Amika. I'm all right." Azusa Sasaki replied, taking the tissues currently in Amika's hand and blowing her nose on them. "I think that something got in my nose back then."
"Thank goodness! You had me worried there!" Amika was relieved, but her expression immediately shifted into one of panic upon looking at the wall-mounted clock. "Oh no! We're going to be late now! Taichi and Shiho are going to get grumpy at us if we don't hurry!"
"Yeah, like they aren't stuck in that mode most of the time." Azusa snarked, though she toned her voice's edginess down in Amika's presence. "I mean, none of us would really mind if Sezaki-senpai was still here, but since she's left the Gym to me while she's dealing with some business, I've got to act the part as a good leader."
"But you are already a good leader, Azusa-chan. You don't need to pretend to be one." Amika blushed upon remembering how Azusa had lovingly coached her on the basics of playing the trombone. "But I'm still confused as to why Sezaki-senpai left you in charge for today. Wouldn't Takagi-senpai be a better choice?"
"Beats me. I don't know either." Azusa had some theories, but she decided to keep them to herself. "But temporarily being in charge isn't what scares me the most. I've still got that 'thing' with Serina after that."
"Oh…" Amika could sense Azusa's mood change, but she didn't know what direction it had taken. "Still, I know you can do it! After all, you're Rikka's one and only Azure Angel!"
"Amika, I like that nickname, but only you call me that." Azusa teased. "Now come on, we've still got to face the world ahead of us. But whatever happens, we'll always keep our smiles on our faces, because…"
Amika chimed in and finished Azusa's sentence along with her. "We love music! We are Rikka!"
A/N: Happy Birthday to my favourite character in Hibike, Azusa Sasaki! Even though she hasn't appeared much in the show, her similarities to me already made her one of my top characters, since we both have black hair, like the color blue, are some of the best trombonists at our schools, and have a habit of doing crazy things (myself more than Azusa).
However, what truly made her my favourite character was when I started reading the Rikka novels through a Chinese fan translation, and discovered even more about the awesome school that is Rikka, firmly solidifying Azusa as my favourite character in Hibike. Sadly, there are currently no translations or plans by anyone to translate the Rikka novels into English, so there is no way I can fully convey how much I like the Rikka novels without going into spoiler territory (though I do namedrop Rikka characters in this chapter. They'll be introduced later on, so don't worry).
In regards to Azusa in this fic, it may seem weird to most people that Azusa herself only appears very briefly at the end of the chapter, especially since it's her birthday chapter and she's my favourite character. The reason I wrote the chapter this way is because she plays a massive role much later in the story, and revealing too much about her this early on will spoil the surprise, but I do hope that this chapter will hype you up for Azusa's proper debut in the story.
Stay tuned for the badassery Azusa will bring! (in the future)
