Chapter 23: Aren't true friends supposed to be able to be honest about their feelings?
Chiaki had just quietly sat there while Hercules told him and Sera about the events that had transpired at Lightning Plateau, which had led to Blitz coming to Fenix Town. Chiaki had been observing Sera while listening to the story, as Sera's ears had kept drooping down a bit, only to perk back up as she tried to pay attention. When Hercules got to the part where Blitz used his Fire Fang on Charge and accidentally damaged the Luxio's leg, Sera's ears had been pointing straight up in shock and had stayed that way until he was done telling them about the battle.
While a lot of things about Blitz now made much more sense, Chiaki had been surprised to hear just how bad things had been for Blitz in his old home after his father had abandoned the pride.
"… And, that's about it," Hercules said, having finished the story.
"No way…" Sera said, her ears drooping down. "Blitz… never told me any of that…"
"Like I said earlier, Blitz didn't want anyone to know," Hercules responded, sighing. "He was afraid that the situation from Lightning Plateau would repeat itself if anyone other than me found out…"
"But, the Pokémon of Fenix Town aren't like that!" Chiaki replied.
"I think he knows that, but he was still afraid it would change the way the Pokémon here saw him," Hercules explained. "He doesn't think anyone would understand his feelings…"
"Understand his feelings…?" Chiaki responded, thinking about it for a moment. "I guess I don't really understand it, but I'm sure there are other Pokémon that would! Right, Sera?"
Sera didn't respond.
"… Sera? Are you okay?" Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.
"… I'm going home now," Sera said, getting up and walking away.
"Huh?" Chiaki said, briefly turning and waving good-bye to Hercules before chasing after Sera. "Sera, wait for me!"
Hercules sighed, and returned to his work, hoping that things would turn out okay.
As Chiaki followed Sera outside, he expected her to be heading towards the café. However, it didn't seem like she was headed in that direction.
"Sera, where are you going?" Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Didn't you hear me?" Sera responded, not looking at him. "I'm going home now."
"But… Blitz and the others are waiting for us at the café, remember?" Chiaki asked, grabbing onto Sera's tail in an attempt to keep her from leaving.
"Chiaki, let go of me," Sera said, her voice carrying almost no emotion.
Chiaki reluctantly let go of Sera, and watched her walk away.
"… See you tomorrow, then," Chiaki said, before deciding to head over to the café.
As Chiaki reached the café, he wondered just how he was going to explain what had taken so long and why Sera wasn't with him. He stepped inside, noticing Blitz, Lita, Azure and even Frederick sitting at a table, talking. As he walked over to join them, he realized that Azure seemed to be telling the other three a story.
"… And to this day, whatever reasons he had for jumping into that barrel of tree sap remain a total mystery," Azure said, shrugging slightly.
"Sounds like that must've been a crazy day, huh?" Blitz asked.
"Yeah…" Azure responded, nodding. "I'm not sure if I'll ever get all the details on whatever it was that happened that day."
"Did you at least find out whether they found that missing slingshot that apparently started that whole mess?" Lita asked.
"Apparently it turned up a few days later in a mystery dungeon on the other side of the continent," Azure responded. "As for how it ended up there, I'm guessing there's an even longer story behind that one…"
"Weird," Blitz commented, before noticing Chiaki. "Oh, there you are!"
"Hey, guys," Chiaki said, joining them at their table.
"What took you so long, buddy?" Azure asked, taking a sip of her berry juice.
"Oh, um… Just… got held up by… some stuff," Chiaki responded, having trouble thinking of an explanation. "Yeah… stuff…"
"Where's Sera?" Blitz asked, looking around.
"Oh, she went home," Chiaki responded.
"Why?" Blitz asked, looking concerned. "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, no… I don't think so," Chiaki responded, not wanting his friends to worry. "I think she was just tired."
"Oh," Blitz replied, nodding his head slightly.
"Azure, are you going to tell that story you told us again now that Chiaki is here?" Frederick asked.
"But I've just told it," Azure responded, shrugging slightly.
"Yeah, I know," Frederick replied, smiling sheepishly. "But I wanted to hear it again!"
"Maybe some other time," Azure responded.
"Oh, okay," Frederick replied, nodding his head. "Maybe you could tell another story, then?"
"Hmm…" Azure thought about it for a moment. "Oh, right! I've got another good one!"
"Yay," Frederick responded, smiling.
"All right, so it all began on a Tuesday morning," Azure explained, motioning for the other four Pokémon to pay attention. "It was raining outside, and we'd just discovered that our Oran berry delivery was late. Then all of a sudden, this Vigoroth comes charging into the café, slams his paws on the counter and shouts: "Have any of you seen the guy who stole my ukulele!?""
Chiaki sat there as Azure told her story, thinking about how everyone probably had their stories. Things like where they were from, things that happened to them, things they had been witness to… But Chiaki didn't really have any of that, at least nothing from before he was found by Sera and Blitz that day in Meridian Forest. Aside from Elina, he still hadn't regained any memories.
With no memory of where he was from, any family he might have, any experiences he'd made prior to meeting Blitz and Sera… Chiaki felt bad for his friends, and wanted to help them, but with no such memories, how could he truly help them with their problems since he didn't have any experience with the things they'd experienced?
Chiaki thought about it for a moment, not really paying attention to Azure's story, and then remembered what he had said to Hercules earlier.
"I guess I don't really understand it, but I'm sure there are other Pokémon that would!"
Of course! If he couldn't truly understand what his friends were going through, then all he had to do was find someone who did! Surely there had to be someone in Fenix Town who had similar concerns and experienced something similar. All he had to do was ask someone with that kind of experience for advice, or ask if they could talk to his friends so they'd understand they weren't alone!
However, who would he ask about such a thing? And since Blitz hadn't wanted anyone to find out about his problems, then perhaps Chiaki would run into a similar problem with other Pokémon? He figured that most Pokémon probably wouldn't want to open up about their personal thoughts to someone they barely knew.
"So much for that idea…" Chiaki thought, sighing. "Maybe I should ask Elina for advice…"
He wondered what Elina had been up these past few days, as he hadn't really seen the Elgyem around lately. Perhaps she had been busy with something? He looked over at Azure, and since he hadn't really been paying much attention to her story, he wasn't really sure what was going on. From what he could tell from the context, it apparently involved Azure having secretly tagged along with a rescue team on a mission, and watched them fight an outlaw over the Vigoroth's stolen ukulele.
He wasn't entirely sure why there also seemed to be a Qwilfish that spoke backwards involved in the events of Azure's story, though.
At the rescue team HQ, Kala was currently massaging Elina's shoulders in an attempt to get her to relax, but it didn't seem to be helping. They hadn't exactly made much progress with the telepathy lessons, but neither of them planned on giving up despite the lack of results.
"Maybe we should call it day…?" Kala asked, yawning. "I don't think we're getting anywhere…"
Elina looked up at Kala, feeling a bit embarrassed about her lack of progress.
"Hey, don't feel bad…" Kala said, giving Elina a supportive pat on her shoulder. "I'm sure you'll pick up on things quickly once we get past this stage…"
Elina nodded her head slightly, but before she could do anything else, Kala had fallen asleep on top of her.
"Mm… Might need another spoonful of sugar before we can reach the moon…" Kala muttered in her sleep, snoring lightly.
Elina just shook her head, and tried her best to move the sleeping Abra over onto the somewhat worn out looking dark green pillow she always rested on.
Blitz, Chiaki and Lita eventually headed back for the night, and Blitz and Chiaki began dividing up parts of the straw that made up their beds to make a bed for Lita.
"I hope it's comfortable enough for you," Blitz said, doing his best to make the small pile of straw into a bed. "Since Chiaki's bed was already made up of half of mine, it might be a little small…"
"It's okay, big brother," Lita responded. "I'm sure it's all right."
"Oh, okay then," Blitz replied, smiling to his sister. "We can probably look for something to make it more comfortable tomorrow if it's not enough."
Chiaki quietly watched the way Blitz and Lita talked to one another, while once again finding himself wondering if he too had a family somewhere.
Blitz had Lita and his mother, Sera had her parents and older siblings, Azure had her mother… His teammates all had families, but Chiaki couldn't even remember if he had ever had one. Perhaps he could ask Elina about it, even if her ability to communicate was limited. Still, she was the only one he knew of who could tell him anything about his life prior to his memory loss.
It occurred to Chiaki that he had never really asked if Elina knew how he had lost his memories. Perhaps she knew that too.
"Chiaki, you okay?" Blitz asked, looking over at the Mienfoo. "You've been sort of quiet for a while there."
"Oh, sorry," Chiaki responded. "There was just something on my mind. Nothing serious, though!"
"If you say so…" Blitz replied, nodding his head slightly.
Sera was sitting in the bedroom she and her older siblings shared, staring out of a window. Flare the Flareon noticed that his younger sister had been acting strangely since she got home, and had decided to go check on her. He walked up and sat down next to her, taking a look through the window to see if she was looking at anything in particular, but there didn't seem to be anything out there at this moment.
"Sera? Is something wrong?" Flare asked. "You barely had any dinner."
"I'm not hungry…" Sera muttered, continuing to stare out the window.
"Sera, I can tell something must've happened today," Flare responded. "Come on, tell me. I won't tell anyone else if you don't want me to."
"It's nothing, really…" Sera replied, shaking her head. "Just found out that I didn't know Blitz as well as I thought I did, that's all…"
"Oh?" Flare responded, tilting his head slightly.
"He kept all this stuff about his old home and stuff hidden from everyone…" Sera explained, her ears drooping down slightly. "He didn't even tell me…"
"Hmm… But doesn't everyone have their secrets?" Flare asked. "Some things that they prefer to keep to themselves?"
"You don't understand!" Sera responded, shaking her head slightly. "I always tell Blitz about things that happen, about my feelings and stuff, but apparently Blitz didn't even trust me enough to tell me he has a younger sister!"
"Oh…" Flare replied, realizing what was going on. "So, you're worried about what this means for your friendship with Blitz, aren't you?"
"Aren't true friends supposed to be able to be honest about their feelings?" Sera asked, a few tears falling from her eyes. "Does this mean… that Blitz and I aren't true friends?"
"I'm sure it's not that bad…" Flare responded, comfortingly wrapping his tail around Sera.
"Did I do anything wrong?" Sera asked, looking up at her brother. "Is it because I didn't show enough interest in Blitz's feelings outside of our rescue team work?"
"I'm sure it's not your fault," Flare responded, hugging his sister. "It's nobody's fault, okay?"
"But… maybe if I had been a better friend, Blitz would've been able to trust me…" Sera said, sighing. "All I ever cared about was my own problems…"
"Sera, I think we both know that's not true," Flare responded.
"Huh?" Sera asked, looking up at Flare.
"While you may be a bit self-centered at times, your feelings for Blitz are real, right?" Flare responded, smiling at Sera. "Your friendship with him clearly means a lot to you."
"I guess…" Sera responded. "Still… How do I know if it means as much to him as it does for me?"
"I'm sure the friendship between the two of you is important to him too," Flare replied. "So, don't worry, sis. I'm sure you and Blitz will work things out."
"I hope you're right…" Sera responded, looking out the window.
"I'm sure things will look a little brighter tomorrow," Flare commented, patting Sera's back reassuringly. "If you have trouble sleeping, you can use my tail as a blanket, if you want to."
"Thanks, Flare," Sera responded, managing a small smile.
Sera continued to look out through the window, hoping that Flare was right and that things would be better tomorrow.
Elina was sitting on the roof of the café, looking up at the night sky. She was glad that Kala was willing to keep trying despite the lack of progress they were making. Elina still hadn't figured out how she could make herself relax enough to get into the right state of mind for the telepathy to work. There had to be something she could do, but what?
She then thought about Chiaki, realizing she hadn't really seen him around much in the past few days, even if she had heard about how he and his teammates had helped retrieve two of the crystals from Clarion Desert and the Sapphire Seas. Elina hoped all eight crystals would be brought back together soon, and returned to their rightful place.
Although, thinking about it, she found it a bit strange that the crystal thief hadn't tried to interfere directly with the rescue teams' work yet… Thinking about that Sigilyph made Elina shudder, and she decided to go find a secluded spot to sleep.
Deep inside a forest full of plant life with a shimmering silvery color was a cottage where a purple witch-like ghost Pokémon and her younger apprentice lived. The apprentice, a smaller dark blue ghost Pokémon resembling a floating head with red beads around her neck and hair with pink tips, was watching the older ghost Pokémon chant an incantation while focusing her energies on a small black box made of stone with purple gem stones adorning the sides.
A shadowy purple aura was surrounding the box as the Mismagius chanted her spell, but it watched in anticipation as the Mismagius began chanting the last part of the spell.
The Mismagius focused all her energy into the spell as she finished the last part of the incantation, only to be knocked back from the purple aura exploding.
"Oh, not again!" the Mismagius said, floating down to the stone box to make sure that the explosion hadn't broken it.
"Wow, that was a really great explosion!" the Misdreavus commented, giggling a little.
"Malefica, this is not a laughing matter!" the Mismagius responded, sighing. "I just don't understand… We've gathered all the necessary materials and built the box after the instructions on the scroll, and I am pretty sure I pronounced every part of the incantation right…"
"What do we need the box thing-y for?" Malefica asked, cheerfully floating around. "It has something to do with something your pen-pal told you, right?"
"… Malefica, haven't you been paying attention?" the Mismagius responded.
"Um… Paid attention to what?" Malefica asked, smiling sheepishly.
The Mismagius just sighed, and decided to just call it night. It would be easier to look over that old scroll again during the day when the sun was out. If she kept trying, she would hopefully be able to successfully cast the spell.
"Maybe I should ask Stella if she can help me figure out why this isn't working…" the Mismagius muttered, telekinetically picking up the stone box and putting it on a shelf.
She then closed her eyes, and went to sleep so she could regain her magical energy.
It had been a long day, and even if some things hadn't gone as well as some would've hoped, at least there would be new chances to get it right tomorrow.
End of chapter 23.