Chapter 6: Have you and I met before?
It was another bright and sunny day in Fenix Town, and the rescue teams were already busy making their preparations for their missions today. Wade the Lombre had already sold a lot of items today, and there were still plenty of rescue teams wanting to buy something from him. Too bad he just didn't have enough items for everyone.
"Sorry ladies, but I'm all out of Reviver Seeds," Wade said apologetically to a green snake like Pokémon with leaves on her backside and a chinchilla like Pokémon with light gray fur.
"Oh, that's too bad," the Servine responded, while her Minccino teammate used her fluffy tail to clean some dust off the leaves on her back.
"I'll try to get more," Wade said. "So, come back tomorrow, I might have some in stock then. No promises, though!"
"Okay, we'll stop by again tomorrow," the Servine said, before turning her attention to Vic. "By the way; we need something from you too."
"Eh?" Vic responded, looking up from polishing an orb. "Oh, what do you need?"
"Well, we're going on a rescue mission today, and we'd like some orbs that can change the weather," the Servine said. "Some of the Pokémon in the dungeon we're headed to can whip up some pretty nasty sandstorms, so we'd like something to counter that."
"Ah, I see," Vic responded. "Lucky for you, I happen to have several Sunny and Rainy Orbs in stock right now."
"Excellent, we'll take a few of each," the Servine replied.
Sera and her teammates had overheard the conversation between the shopkeepers and the Servine and Minccino duo. Sera seemed a bit disappointed to hear that the Reviver Seeds were already sold out, but Chiaki assured her they would probably do just fine with what items they did currently have. The three decided to go check on some other things before heading to the rescue team HQ, when Chiaki suddenly noticed a certain green Pokémon and stopped in his tracks.
"Chiaki, what is it?" Blitz asked. "Is something wrong?"
"It's her again!" Chiaki said, pointing to the Elgyem that they had met outside the dojo yesterday. The green little Pokémon seemed to be looking in Chiaki's direction, before floating away.
"Strange," Blitz commented. "Why does she seem so interested in Chiaki?"
"Maybe she has a crush on him?" Sera said teasingly, but Chiaki didn't seem to notice.
"I don't know…" Chiaki responded. "I have a strange feeling about this… I felt this way when she was looking at me yesterday too…"
"Maybe it has something to do with your memory loss?" Sera suggested. "I hear Elgyem can use their powers to mess with the memories of others!"
"Yikes!" Blitz responded. "Y-You really think that Elgyem might've had something to do with Chiaki's memory loss?"
"No, I don't think she would do that…" Chiaki replied, seeming to be in deep thought. "There's something else, something I can't quite place a paw on…"
"Wow, this is the first time I've seen you be all serious like this!" Sera said. "It's kind of weird, actually."
"So… Was there anything we needed to do before heading to the rescue team HQ?" Blitz asked.
"Hmm… I forgot," Sera responded. "But hey, whatever it was, I guess there's no reason we can't do it after stopping by the HQ!"
The three of them began heading over to the rescue team HQ, but as he followed shortly behind his teammates, Chiaki just couldn't stop thinking about that Elgyem. The way she looked at him with those small green eyes, before just leaving like that. What did it mean? What was it about the Elgyem that made him feel so strange? He closed his eyes halfway, staring down at the ground as he followed Blitz and Sera, still deep in thought about the Elgyem.
"Elina…" Chiaki muttered under his breath, before suddenly stopping again.
"Huh?" Sera said, before she and Blitz turned to see Chiaki. "What was that?"
"Elina…?" Chiaki said again, having some sort of strange epiphany. "That's her name! That Elgyem's name is Elina!"
"Wait, what?" Sera responded. "How do you know that? She never told us her name."
"I don't know…" Chiaki replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "It sort of just came to me…"
"Okay, this just keeps getting weirder," Sera said. "Blitz, do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Well… Maybe Chiaki knew her before he lost his memory?" Blitz suggested, while rubbing the rings on his forelegs together.
"Whoa, you really think so?" Chiaki asked, staring wide-eyed at Blitz.
"I don't know, but it might be possible," Blitz responded. "And perhaps she had left such a strong impression, that your subconscious still somehow remembered her?"
"Whoa, maybe you're right!" Chiaki replied. "I mean, it's not like I didn't exist or something before I lost my memory, so I guess I must've known some other Pokémon before."
Chiaki seemed to be getting pretty excited at this possibility, and seemed to be back to his usual energetic self.
"Maybe I did know her! And if I did, maybe she might be able to give me some answers?" Chiaki said, grinning. His eyes seemed to be sparkling with excitement. "And maybe she can help me find out who I really am?"
"Maybe," Sera responded, shrugging slightly. "Well, let's get to the HQ and find ourselves a mission!"
Sera excitedly looked over the rescue team board, trying to decide on what mission they would take today. There still seemed to be plenty of missions available for rescue teams at around Bronze rank level.
"So, what will be our first mission as a Bronze rank team?" Sera cheerfully asked as she looked over the board. "Help some Bidoof gather wood to repair their dam? Or head into the Thorny Hollow to save this Drifloon? Or how about searching for a Dragon Scale for some Seadra that wants to evolve?"
"That last one looks a bit difficult," Blitz commented.
"Hmm, I guess that one does look a bit tricky," Sera responded, before looking over at Chiaki, who didn't really seem to be paying attention. "What do you think, Chiaki?"
"Huh?" Chiaki replied. "Oh, um… Actually, can you do this mission without me today?"
"What? You don't want to come along?" Sera asked.
"I kind of need to speak to Elina," Chiaki responded, wanting to get some answers now that he had the oppurtunity. "So, you two can handle this on your own, right?"
"Well, I suppose that's okay," Blitz replied. "I mean, if you want to know more about yourself, I guess we should let you do that."
"Thanks!" Chiaki said, and ran off. "I'll see you guys later!"
"… So, looks like we're on our own today," Sera said, looking back up at the board. "So, Blitz? Did you have any opinions on which of these other two missions here we should take?"
Chiaki quickly ran back into the main part of the town, his excitement building as he thought about the possibility of Elina being able to answer some of his questions. It was strange, until now he hadn't cared all that much for learning his true identity, but right at this moment it was the only thing he could really think about. That and barely avoiding running into annoyed Pokémon yelling at him to watch where he's going.
Perhaps it would've been wise to slow down, at least that way it might be easier to avoid crashing into someone. However, Chiaki ended up running into someone before this even occurred to him.
"Oh, I'm so sorry…" Chiaki said as he dusted himself off, only to realize the Pokémon he'd just crashed into was none other than Elina! "Oh, it's you!"
The Elgyem got back up, looking up at Chiaki while shyly backing away from the somewhat hyper Mienfoo.
"Hey, I need to talk to you!" Chiaki said, excitedly approaching the Elgyem, who kept moving backwards to keep some distance between herself and the Mienfoo. "You see, I've lost my memories, and I was wondering if you might have…"
The Elgyem suddenly turned around and began quickly floating away from Chiaki, much to the Mienfoo's confusion.
"Wait, where are you going?" Chiaki asked. "You didn't even let me finish my question! Come back!"
The Elgyem glanced over her shoulder at the Mienfoo, but continued moving further away from him.
"Wait up!" Chiaki shouted, and began running after the Elgyem. "I just want to talk!"
The Elgyem hadn't yet figured out how to deal with the situation, and just wanted to avoid Chiaki until she could think of something. However, she quickly realized that getting away from Chiaki wouldn't be easy, as he seemed pretty determined to get some answers.
Mirage and her two teammates had just finished depositing the money they had earned from their missions the previous day into the bank, and were now having a talk amongst themselves, trying to decide on what they would do today.
"I hope all the highest reward missions haven't been taken yet," Mirage commented.
"The mushroom hopes we don't have to deal with angry fire types this time," Cordyceps commented, before briefly shooting a glance at their Magmar teammate.
"Hey! Why are you looking at me like that!?" the fire duck shouted, waving a clenched fist at her Parasect teammate.
"Well, no offense, Megara, but you are kind of hot headed at times," Mirage commented.
Before Megara had a chance to respond to Mirage, a certain Elgyem suddenly floated right over their heads, seeming to be in a bit of a hurry, followed by a certain Mienfoo running after it, jumping off the mushroom on Cordyceps back in an attempt to catch up to her. Being suddenly jumped on like that caused the mushroom to involuntarily release a cloud of spores, causing Mirage and Megara to break into a coughing fit.
"Hey, come back!" Cordyceps said loudly, angrily shaking one of his orange claws. "The mushroom is not a springboard!"
However, Chiaki was already out of the Parasect's earshot, and continued chasing after Elina, hoping to get her to stop and listen to him. They continued running, suddenly coming across a line of Pokémon delivering wares to the café. Elina just floated right over them, while Chiaki attempted to follow by jumping over them. However, despite his best effort, one of his legs happened to hit the top of a bottle of milk on top of several other bottles being carried by a Carnivine.
The green hovering venus flytrap-like Pokémon attempted to grab the falling bottle with a vine, but failed and it shattered against the ground.
"Oh, no!" the Carnivine exclaimed as he looked down at the broken glass bottle and the small puddle of milk.
"Sorry!" Chiaki shouted back to the Carnivine as he continued his pursuit of Elina.
The Carnivine continued to stare at the small puddle for a moment, to which the Pokémon behind him in the line, a muscular humanoid Pokémon with purple skin, suddenly spoke up.
"Dude, just hurry up and get the rest of the bottles safely inside," the Machoke said. "It was just one bottle, so don't cry over spilled milk."
"You just had to say it, didn't you?" a brown bear Pokémon behind the Machoke in the line asked.
"Well, I couldn't just pass up the opportunity, could I?" the Machoke said, with a sheepish smile.
"Yes, yes you could've," the Ursaring responded.
While the Pokémon continued delivering their wares, Chiaki had in the meantime nearly caught up to Elina. He made another high jump into the air, and managed to grab the floating Elgyem.
"I've got you!" Chiaki said as he landed on his feet, while Elina tried to wriggle out of his grip as he pulled her down with him. "Hey, relax; there's just something I'd like to know."
However, Elina suddenly vanished in a burst of light, having teleported herself out of Chiaki's arms, much to the Mienfoo's confusion.
"Hey, where did you go?" Chiaki asked, looking around for her. "Come back!"
Chiaki went back to the main part of Fenix Town, and soon caught up with the little green alien-like Pokémon. The chase began once again, and Chiaki kept getting close to catching her. However, the alien decided to try a different strategy this time, by teleporting Chiaki away.
"Hey!" Chiaki shouted, as he suddenly found himself reappearing on a shelf containing the weather changing orbs Vic was selling.
"Huh?" Vic said upon hearing Chiaki's voice, looking up at the shelf with the startled Mienfoo on it. "How'd you get up there?"
Chiaki quickly jumped down from the shelf so he could follow Elina before she got too far away, accidentally knocking over and activating a Rainy Orb in the process. Chiaki ran off as a rain cloud appeared above the shop and it began raining on the two shopkeepers.
"Hey!" Vic shouted. "Get back here!"
"Relax, it's just a little rain," Wade responded. "I don't think it'll damage the merchandise."
Vic gave the Lombre an annoyed look.
"Relax? When that weasel just used up one of my orbs without paying for it? I don't think so!" Vic said, jumping over the counter. "You can handle the shop on your own for a few minutes, right?"
"Vic, you can't just…" before Wade could even finish the sentence, the Nuzleaf had already run off in pursuit of Chiaki. "… Well, tomorrow's newspaper headlines should be interesting."
Chiaki continued running after Elina, before a certain Zoroark and her two teammates spotted him.
"You!" Cordyceps said, suddenly moving into Chiaki's path, forcing him to stop in his tracks. "The mushroom demands an apology!"
"Why are you running around like a crazed Tauros, anyways?" Mirage asked, grabbing the Mienfoo by the back of his neck and lifting him up.
"Um… I…" Chiaki wasn't entirely sure how to explain the situation, and looked around to realize he'd lost track of Elina, who had probably taken the opportunity to teleport herself away. Before he had time to think of anything else, he suddenly heard another voice getting closer.
"There you are!" Vic shouted, as he ran towards them. The Nuzleaf jumped at and attempted to grab the Mienfoo, but ended up missing and accidentally landing on Mirage's face instead.
The Zoroark gave a startled yell before dropping Chiaki, and the Mienfoo ran off as fast as he could. Mirage managed to shake Vic off while her confused teammates watched on, and before she had the chance to ask Vic about what he was doing and why he wasn't at work, the Nuzleaf had already run off in pursuit of Chiaki, much to her annoyance.
"Okay, I don't know what is going on here, but I am going to find out!" Mirage shouted, giving chase.
"You punish the shopkeeper; the mushroom will punish the weasel!" Cordyceps said, before joining his leader.
"Oh, boy…" Megara said, before chasing after her two teammates. "I bet we'll be reading something about this in tomorrow's newspaper..."
Over at the café, River was feeling a bit unnerved by a customer resembling a combination between a cactus and a scarecrow that had been standing at the counter for a while. He wasn't saying or doing anything, just standing there and staring. At least there wasn't a line of increasingly impatient Pokémon behind him or anything, but still.
"… Aren't you going to order anything?" she asked. The Cacturne just continued to stare.
"Hey, mom!" Azure shouted out, while standing on Frederick's head and looking out of a window. "You have got to see this!"
"What is it?" River asked, joining her daughter over at the window, while the Cacturne just continued to stare. "What is going on out there?"
"I'm not sure, but it's looking pretty crazy!" the Azurill commented excitedly, watching Chiaki being chased by Vic, who in turn was being chased by Mirage and her teammates.
"A rescue team member being chased by an angry shopkeeper, being chased by another rescue team..." River said, watching the strange scene going on outside. "I'm guessing it all makes sense in context, somehow."
"Do we have any popcorn?" Frederick asked, trying not to move around too much so that Azure wouldn't fall off his head. "I can't actually see what's going on out there, I just really want some popcorn."
Chiaki continued to run, even though he wasn't sure where to go, as he couldn't see Elina anywhere. Before he could resume his search, he probably had to figure out how to get away from the Pokémon chasing after him. But where would he go? Everything was suddenly so chaotic.
"I hope Blitz and Sera have had better luck than me today…" Chiaki muttered to himself, before suddenly tripping on a rock and falling. "Ah!"
Unbeknownst to Chiaki, Elina was currently sitting on the roof of the rescue team HQ building, watching him. She wasn't entirely sure about what to do. She looked down to see that Vic, Mirage, Cordyceps and Megara were getting close to reaching the Mienfoo on the ground as he tried to get back up. Elina wasn't really intending to intervene, but she also knew that this mess was sort of her fault…
In only a matter of seconds, the little green Pokémon teleported down from the roof, grabbed the Mienfoo in a tight embrace, and teleported away with him before the four Pokémon could get to him, much to their confusion.
"Hey! Where'd he go?" Vic said, looking around.
"This displeases the mushroom!" Cordyceps commented.
"Can somebody just explain what the heck is going on!?" Mirage asked, rubbing her head. "I'm so confused!"
Elina and Chiaki reappeared in a quiet area outside of Fenix Town, where no one was likely to disturb them. Elina felt she needed some rest after using so much of her energy, and soon realized she was still embracing Chiaki, and before she knew it, the Mienfoo had wrapped his arms around her.
"Thanks, Elina," he said as he hugged her. "I owe you one."
He pulled back slightly from the hug, to see that the Elgyem was staring at him in confusion. Elina didn't seem to understand how the Mienfoo knew her name, and tried to express that by pointing to herself with one hand quizzically.
"How I know your name?" Chiaki asked. "It sort of just came to me, which is why I wanted to know if perhaps we knew each other, or something."
Elina blinked a few times, before tilting her head slightly. Chiaki seemed a bit confused at her reaction.
"Yes, that is what I wanted to ask," he said. "What did you think I was trying to say?"
The Elgyem awkwardly glanced at the ground for a moment, before briefly touching Chiaki's head with her hand. Chiaki had to think for a moment before he realized what the Elgyem was trying to communicate to him.
"Oh! No, I wasn't accusing you of anything!" Chiaki quickly clarified. "I didn't think you had anything to do with my memory loss!"
Elina blinked, before pointing to herself again and shaking her head, before looking up at Chiaki quizzically again.
"Of course I didn't," Chiaki said, holding Elina's hands and gazing into her eyes. "You don't seem like the kind of Pokémon that would do such a thing at all!"
Elina felt flattered that Chiaki would think of highly of her, even though he didn't actually know anything about her. Elina and Chiaki continued to gaze into each other's eyes for a few moments, before Chiaki began talking again.
"So, can you give me any answers?" Chiaki asked. "Have you and I met before?"
Elina looked away for a moment, unsure how to respond to this. Chiaki sighed, and redirected her gaze back to him.
"Although… I guess it might be a little difficult for you to tell me anything about that," Chiaki said. "I mean, I can make guesses about some of your questions and stuff, but this would be a little different, and I'm guessing you won't be able to really explain this very well this way, am I right?"
Elina nodded her head slightly, gazing up at the slightly disappointed Mienfoo.
"I thought so…" he replied, before looking into her eyes again. "But, you do know me, right? You know who I really am?"
Elina thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head again.
"Well, then I guess for now, that's good enough for me," Chiaki said, smiling and giving the Elgyem another hug. "It's good to meet a friend I had from before I lost my memory."
Elina blinked for a moment, before returning the hug.
"Don't worry, even if I don't remember you, we're still friends," Chiaki said, patting the Elgyem on the back.
The two stayed that way for a moment, before pulling apart and wondering what to do next.
"… You think it's safe to go back to town, yet?"
Blitz and Sera eventually returned from a successful mission, and picked up their reward from the rescue team HQ. The two were now looking for Chiaki, so they could tell him all about it. Sera was pretty proud of her and Blitz's performance today.
"We sure did great today!" Sera said, happily wagging her tail. "Well, except when I got stuck in the Ariados web... twice. Thanks for getting me out of that, by the way."
"You're welcome," Blitz responded. "At least that's something I can use my Fire and Ice Fang attacks for, even if I don't use them in battle."
"Yeah," Sera replied. "I bet Chiaki would've liked to see that."
"Speaking of Chiaki, do you see him anywhere?" Blitz asked.
"Hmm… No," Sera replied, looking around. "You'd think he would've shown up by now..."
"I'm over here!" Chiaki called, waving from behind his hiding spot in some bushes.
"Chiaki?" Sera said as she walked up to him. "Why are you hiding in a bush?"
"Is everything okay?" Blitz asked.
"Well, yeah," Chiaki responded, crawling out from the bushes. "Except, I have a couple of Pokémon I need to apologize to, and you guys might have to help me pay Vic for an orb I accidentally used up."
"… Chiaki, what exactly have you been doing all day?" Blitz asked, tilting his head slightly.
"It's a long story," Chiaki replied, joining his two teammates as they were walking back to the main part of town. "You'll probably be reading something about it in tomorrow's newspaper."
As the three walked off, Elina secretly watched from a distance. She thought about how this whole mess could've been avoided if she only knew how to properly use her telepathy, so that she could've read Chiaki's mind and known what he wanted to ask her instead of jumping to conclusions. However, at the same time, she was also a bit relieved that she couldn't communicate directly that way yet, and so could keep the truth about Chiaki a secret for now.
She wasn't sure how Chiaki would react, when he eventually would learn the truth…
In a forest near a large tower called the Axis Tower, there were several Pokémon gathering, all looking rather concerned.
"From the looks of your faces… I'm guessing you couldn't find anything either?" a light purple weasel like Pokémon with long sleeve like fur on its arms asked the other Pokémon that had gathered.
"I'm afraid not," a blue bird with white cloud-like wings responded.
"We can't find them on our own!" a chandelier like Pokémon with purple flames said. "We have no choice but to inform everyone!"
"You're right," the weasel replied. "We need all the help we can get."
The Mienshao looked around at the gathered Pokémon, who nodded in agreement. They decided to inform the Pokémon of Fenix Town tomorrow.
End of chapter 6.