Thanks to the help of Raihan and her Pokemon, Hiki was finally starting to take better care of herself. She wasn't as distant when friends and family called her, including Hop and Leon's mother Rosalyn, who both checked in with her whenever they could. Of course they were worried about Leon too, but they both had faith that he would be able to take care of himself wherever he might be, and chose to dedicate their energy on Hiki.
A few days after what happened with Sylveon, Hiki was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of one of her friends from her travels, Nic. When Hiki was finally comfortable enough to open up to people other than Raihan, she called her to tell her that her boyfriend took off and disappeared. Nic was furious after hearing this news, though she kept that anger to herself as to not upset Hiki further than she already was.
After her friend arrived, Hiki took her into the living room. "Just make yourself at home, okay? I'll go make us some tea!"
Nic was waiting patiently for Hiki to return when she heard a startling noise. It was the sound of the lock on the front door turning. She may not have met Leon in person before, but she could tell this tall man looked nothing like the pictures she had seen.
The tea was just about ready when Hiki heard a loud thump, followed by some yelling.
"Hiki! Call the cops!" she heard Nic yell.
"What is it!? What happened? Are you oka-" she started as she rushed out to see what happened. When she made it out to the living room she stumbled upon an incredibly amusing scene. Nic had Raihan, who must have just arrived, pinned against the floor with his arms behind him. She couldn't help but giggle a little. So after all this time of Raihan pestering Hiki for her friend's phone number… this was how they would meet for the first time. "Looks like you two finally met! It's okay, Nic… This is my friend Raihan. He's been coming over to keep an eye on me."
"Huh? Raihan? You mean the one who called you all the time when we were in Kalos?" She looked down at the man under her grip. Wow… it really was him! Imagine that! "Oh, my bad!" She finally got up and let him go.
"My bad? That's all you have to say?" the now grumpy Gym Leader responded. "You just attacked me!"
"Hey, who lets themself into someone's house without knocking?" She rolled her eyes and shook her head before turning her attention back to Hiki. "Is the tea almost ready? I've always wanted to try Galar tea!"
Raihan also looked at Hiki, somewhat confused over what just happened and mouth the words 'What the heck' to her. She just smiled and shrugged at him, mouthing 'Sorry!' in return.
Hiki returned to the kitchen to finish making the tea, making enough for a third person now that Raihan was there. She came back, bringing the tea in a tea set designed to look like Polteageist and Sinistea, along with cute little Yamper shaped cookies.
"Sorry for the scare, Nic. I guess I should have warned you that Rai has a key to the apartment. Ever since Leon left, he's been coming over to check up on me and bring food when I need it..." she rubbed the back of her head, feeling embarrassed. It was kind of hard to admit that she had gotten to such a low point that she needed to accept that kind of help from her friend. But she was starting to do a better job at taking care of herself. After all, she did prepare the tea herself this time! "But it will be nice to have you stay over for a while! This big apartment gets a little lonely when it's just me here..."
Hiki's Ninetales and Sylveon curled up close to their trainer, thankful that she seemed to be in better spirits that day. Ninetales was on the floor in front of her, while Sylveon rested on her lap.
The three of them sat and talked for what felt like hours. There were quite a few times, however, where Nic and Raihan would get into a disagreement about one thing or another during their conversation, but after a point, things got really heated between the two to the point where they were both standing and yelling back and forth. And it was all about where they thought Hiki should go out the next day…
"I'm telling you, the Wild Area is where she would want to go! That's where we went the other day!" Raihan argued.
"Well I think she could use a change in atmosphere! A quiet cafe would be a perfect place to help her relax and enjoy herself!" Nic fought back.
"She loves spending time with her Pokemon! The Wild Area would be the most relaxing place there is!"
"Some cafes let you bring your Pokemon too, you know!"
"ENOUGH!" Hiki interrupted, and both of her friends froze and looked at her. They had never heard her sound so angry before, especially not toward either of them. "If all you two are going to do is fight, then I would much rather spend time by myself. Just…" She sighed. "Just leave… both of you…"
"Hiki… look we're sorry, we'll just-" Raihan started to say before Ninetales stood up and growled at him. She didn't like how stressed they had made her trainer, and even if she appreciated what the two were really trying to do, if Hiki wanted them out, she was going to make sure they did as she asked. "...alright, fine. We will see you later," he grumbled before heading toward the door.
Nic followed behind him, whispering, "Look what you've done!"
"What I've done? I'm the one who has been looking after her all this time! I think I know what she needs," Raihan said as he shut the door behind them.
When they left, Hiki sighed and slumped back into the couch, her two Pokemon returning to her side to make sure she was okay.
After leaving, Raihan and Nic sat out on a bench in downtown Wyndon, trying to figure out where they should go next. Nic was supposed to be staying the night at Hiki's, but after what just happened, she knew that wasn't exactly an option...
Raihan looked up at the sky, a bit of concern starting to form in his face. "I wonder if it was really okay for us to leave her alone tonight…"
"What are you talking about? She's the one who kicked us out… Clearly she needs some space," Nic responded, not quite catching what he was getting at. At her words, he pointed up to the sky where her gaze shifted. There were some dark storm clouds beginning to form above Wyndon. But why did that seem to concern him?
"She may not talk about it much, but I know what happened with Eternatus still terrifies her. I highly doubt she'd handle a storm like this very well right now… especially not by herself," he told her.
She turned her attention back to him, raising her eyebrow in confusion. "Eternatus?"
Surprised, he responded. "You don't… know about Eternatus? I'm amazed she didn't tell you… though, I guess talking about it does bring back memories she'd rather not think about." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the bench.
It was something that scared her that badly? "What happened, exactly?"
He told her everything, straight from the very beginning, starting with the research and experiments Chairman Rose had been conducting and how he roped Leon into it, even if the former Champion wasn't exactly on board with it. He knew there were a lot of things that could go wrong if he didn't cooperate, and he couldn't risk any of that.
He told her how because of Leon's work, the two of them were apart so much, even though they were living under the same roof at the time and how it really started to get to Hiki. So when she started hearing rumors about the dangerous experiments Rose was doing behind the scenes and how the Champion was involved, things really started to get messy.
Next he told her how Raihan, himself, had tried to stop her from going into the Power Plant located under his gym, but she outsmarted him, took his key, and went down anyway, where she ended up getting caught and held as a hostage to get Leon to cooperate, since at the time he was more focused on the Pokemon League Tournament than he was with helping the Chairman.
He then explained how Rose awakened a dangerous Pokemon called Eternatus and refused to let Leon take Hiki home unless he captured it for him. After Leon's younger brother and his friend rescued her, they all went to the roof to help Leon take care of Eternatus, but it wasn't nearly as easy as they had hoped. Both Hiki and Leon ended up injured in the fight, though Leon was far worse off than she was.
"After Leon was hospitalized, none of us saw either of them for days… Not until the tournament, at least. I was sitting with Hiki in the stands when Leon lost his first battle in over 12 years. She told me she was going to his locker room to check on him… and next thing I know, she's texting me telling me there's been an emergency. And when I got down there, he was gone and she was sitting on the floor crying." He sighed and shook his head. "I really can't say for sure, since I hadn't actually talked to him since he got out of the hospital, but I'm sure what happened with Eternatus had traumatized him, too, since the thing just about killed him. I'm still pissed that he would leave her all alone like this, but I'm sure he's got a lot going on in his head too…"
Nic sat silently for a few moments, taking everything he just told her in. Why would she keep something like that from her? If she had known what was going on back then, she would have come to see her much sooner. But there was something in his story that really seemed to bother her. It was the fact that Leon went through the same events and was possibly even feeling the same fear she was after it was all over. "So… what you're telling me is… he knows exactly how she is feeling right now, and yet he still left!?" She couldn't help but find that cruel and selfish of him. The current sting of her own recently ended relationship wasn't exactly helping how she viewed this situation. "Does he even care about her at all?"
"Wait, that's not- I mean, it's not like he just…" That was what she took from his story? Another sigh escaped the Gym Leader. "I'm sure it was more than just that! Believe me, I know if he was thinking straight, he probably would have never done this… Or at the very least, would have put a little more thought into it, first. One thing I can say I know for sure is how much Leon does love Hiki. I know she's been having her doubts lately, but I really don't think that's changed. I grew up with those two. I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at her…"
After a pause, he continued. "Look, I'm not trying to excuse what he's done, but I can say with confidence that at the very least he didn't do this to hurt her, intentionally. I think he's just… lost," he told her. It was an ironic way of putting it, however. Though he didn't mean in the same way his friend usually got himself lost. He was referring to the stress Leon was probably feeling about not knowing what he's supposed to do next.
Still not exactly happy with her friend's boyfriend even after hearing all of that, Nic let out a sigh. She looked up to the sky as a bright flash of lighting lit up the sky above them. "Well, if everything you've just told me is true, then I agree that being alone during this storm is probably not the best thing for her right now."
Raihan stood and nodded in agreement. "Then why don't we head back?"
Nic tilted her head slightly. "Shouldn't we call her and apologize first? What if she doesn't want to let us back in after how we acted earlier?"
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "Knowing her, if she really is scared right now, I doubt she would answer her phone."
"Then… what are we supposed to do?"
He winked at her. "I have a key, remember?"
The storm had really picked up by the time they made it back to the apartment, and it seemed as if they made it just in time. As they approached the building, there was a loud clash of thunder and all the lights inside seemed to go out, meaning the power must have gone out…
Quickly they made their way inside, to find a frightened Hiki on her knees with her hands over her ears and her Ninetales and Sylveon trying their very hardest to console her.
"Hiki!" Nic shouted as the two of them ran over to be at her side.
Raihan put his hand on her back, unfortunately startling Hiki, who never heard them come in, but when she saw them both there, she felt so relieved that she ended up crying… "Hey, it's alright… We're here! Let's get you off the floor, okay?"
They both helped her over to the couch and Nic sat with her while Raihan fumbled around the apartment to find some candles to light.
The bluenette stared down at her lap, feeling embarrassed that they had found her like that. "Thank you guys… for coming back. I'm sorry for kicking you out earlier…"
"Don't worry about it. We're the ones who should be apologizing, not you," Raihan responded, taking a seat in a chair across from the couch. "You okay, now?"
Sylveon hopped up onto Hiki's lap and nuzzled her face, worried about her. She wrapped her arms around the Pokemon and hugged her close. "I think so… I just… started thinking about that night and…" She flinched, the flashbacks in her mind really getting to her.
Nic was still a little upset that Hiki had never told her that such a scary thing had happened to her, but she figured now wasn't the time to bring that concern up. Instead she put her arm around her to give her a hug. "Maybe it's best not to relive it…" Deciding to change the subject, she then said, "The last time we talked on the phone, you mentioned that you've decided to open a Pokemon Sanctuary. Why don't you tell me more about that?"
Raihan watched the two girls talk, feeling relieved that Hiki seemed to calm down over the course of their conversation. He wasn't sure how to explain it, but seeing someone else who cared for his friend as much as he did, really warmed his heart. It made him really happy! But of course after their not-so-pleasant introduction to each other, there was no way in hell he was going to admit that out loud to anyone. Still, he couldn't help but feel like something good might come from all of this…
They stayed up talking for hours, long after the storm had even passed, with no more arguments surfacing between Hiki's two friends. Some time during their chat, Hiki had fallen asleep on the couch, so Raihan offered to carry her to her room so they wouldn't have to wake her.
Once she was settled in, he came back out to the living room where Nic was. "I'm sure she will be fine, but we should probably stay here tonight just in case anything would happen," he told her, while keeping his voice low since Hiki was asleep. "Why don't you go ahead and take the guest room and I'll sleep here on the couch."
Nic nodded and gathered her things to head back to the room for the night, but stopped on her way out of the living room. "Hey, thanks for taking such good care of her during all of this. I had no idea it was this bad, but I'm glad she hasn't been completely alone."
He just shrugged. "Eh, no need to thank me. Like I said, we grew up together, so she's almost like a sister to me. It just feels right to help her when she's feeling like this." He rubbed the back of his head feeling a little embarrassed. "And uh… sorry for startling you when I got here before."
She waved her hand at him in response. "It all worked out in the end, don't worry about it. Just remember to knock next time!" she told him with a pout… before it turned into a bit of a laugh.
He chuckled a bit. "Yeah, yeah, I got it… Well, good night."
"Night!" she responded before heading down the hall to turn in for the night.