Part #4 – Lady Kira Reidan of Umute

That evening, when he got home, he went straight to the kitchen, where Hanako and Takeshi were cooking. Kasumi was feeding her new eevee, which the professor had been talking about giving to her, and which would – as soon as she got her hands on a water stone – be evolved into a vaporeon. Satoshi sat down beside her, pikachu hopping up onto the table next to him. When his mom looked at him, she saw him staring at her. She knew there was something on his mind so she set down the knife she had been cutting up the vegetables with and went to sit next to him.

After a moment, he looked down at the table. "Mom? Who is Kira…really?"

A sigh escaped her lips. Oh, how she wished she could tell him the entire truth about her, but she was one of the few never to have been to Umute that had been sworn to secrecy about it all. She gathered her thoughts together and then began. "Lady Reidan is the person in charge of all the research facilities on the Isle of Umute, an island far out into the eastern ocean, which I don't know the exact location of, as I've never been there, and would not be able to tell you even if I had been. Though the goings-on there are very secret, she and her researchers are still renowned worldwide for their study of rare pokèmon, but is even better known for the protection and breeding of them. Her entire island is a pokèmon sanctuary. She is very choosy about the people that she asks to work for her and, even then, swears them all to secrecy about all the things on the island. Most do not even leave her island once they arrived there."

Satoshi was still curious about his father, though he had not asked his mother any more about her since after he got home from his first meeting with Kira. "How, exactly, did she have a hand in my dad's death?"

"That's a rather difficult subject for me to relate." She gave another weak smile, like she had that day she first spoke of his father a week ago. "Let me begin at the beginning. He was only fifteen when she asked him to go to her island. She listens to stories of great trainers all the time, but his, in particular, caught her attention for some reason. He was thrilled to be given such a chance, and immediately left from his training to go to her island. He stayed there for four years, learning about pokèmon that no one else in the world had seen. He told me that he loved it so much there, and that he hoped one day he could take me there to see it all.

"Well, he was sent to inspect many of the research centers around here. At that time, Yukinari had just recently started his own here in Masara." She blushed some. "I suppose you could say it was love at first sight. He was funny and charming and so very intelligent. He bubbled with energy, just like you, Satoshi. Everything between us went so fast. We were married so quickly. Everyone in town was shocked. We bought this little house and were so happy together. But he always told me that there might be one day when he had to go back to Umute.

"You see, there are many people on this planet that covet the pokèmon that she has on her island. That's why she employs the best trainers she can find to not only help her with her research, but to also help her protect her island and her pokèmon. Less than a year after we were married, she contacted him and told him he was needed back on Umute, that there where people coming to try to take her island from her, as had happened before in the past. She told him she would understand if she wanted to stay with me, but he went to help.

"A few days later, Kira showed up at my door, looking terribly distraught. I knew something terrible had happened without her saying anything. She told me that he had been killed, along with all his pokèmon. I burst into tears, not able to truly believe it. She held me as I cried, as though she was a mother comforting a child. She cried, too. From what you father told me, she loved him probably as much as I did." She smiled at her son and Kasumi, who was also listening, when they gasped at her saying that. "After I had stopped crying, she gave me a weak smile and put her hand to my stomach. She congratulated me on having at least one lasting memory of him. I don't know how she knew I was pregnant…I hadn't even told your father yet.

"We talked about Yuuto for a while. We laughed some. We cried some. Then I asked her about herself, because your father had never really mentioned much about her. I know she only told me the things she did because she thought it would help me through everything. I swore I'd never tell anyone what she told me, and I still haven't…"

"You won't even tell me," Satoshi asked, looking a bit disheartened.

Hanako shook her head. "It was shortly after that that she told me she had something very hard to ask of me. She knew that you would be much like your father – and she hoped more so, in some respects. She asked me, when you got older, if it would pain me too much to have you come to her island. Though it did, indeed, hurt me for her to ask it, I knew it would have been what your father would have wanted. He had planned to take me to Umute soon, anyways. I would have gone with her then, but I did not want to be somewhere that I didn't know anyone. So, she told me that, one day, she would come back to get you. I didn't know when it would be… I had actually thought it would have been before now."

"But now she's come to get me…"

"Yes." She looked down. "I want you to accept her offer, Satoshi. I think you would enjoy being on her island. You love finding out about new pokèmon all the time, and those that reside on Umute you probably would never have a chance to see in your life if you didn't go there."

"But, Mom," he was sort of surprised she was asking him to go, "I don't want to leave you here by yourself, though."

"I have Mimey." Hanako looked at the Mr. Mime sweeping the kitchen, singing a little song. After a moment, she turned back to her son. "And I'm used to you not being here. You are a pokèmon trainer, after all. You've always been traveling since you got your pikachu."

Satoshi frowned. He had begun to think, in recent months, that his becoming a pokèmon trainer had made his mother terribly lonely (not to mention worried half the time). He had said he would start spending more time with her. Now… "But, Mom…"

"It's not like you can't come back home to see me." She smiled for a moment. "Granted, most people do usually marry there and raise their children there, but you can leave the island to do things."

Kasumi looked at her old friend, rather wanting to go along, too. Seeing new pokèmon seemed very interesting to her. "What about me and Takeshi?"

Satoshi looked at the young woman beside him. "She said the two of you could come with me if you wanted to."

"Why didn't you say so!" Takeshi spun around, a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. He had apparently been listening, too. "We would have been gone last week! I'm ready! Let's go!"

"Ah, Takeshi," Kasumi was stifling a laugh, knowing he was infatuated with Kira, even if he had not seen her face when she had been at the professor's the week before, "we need to eat first."

Takeshi stopped just before he got to the kitchen door and laughed a little, the frying pan still in his hand. "Oh, yeah…"

& & & & & & & & & & & & &

Just as a reminder in case you forgot –

Satoshi - Ash

Shigeru - Gary

Kasumi - Misty

Takeshi - Brock

Yukinari (Ookido-hakase) - Samuel (Professor Oak)

Hanako - Delia (Ash's mom)

All traditional pokèmon and characters are copyrighted to Nintendo/GAME FREAK/Creatures (and any others I've forgotten) from 1996-2006. Author's created pokèmon and characters, though, are copyrighted Sati.