In the morning, the three of them said a very long goodbye to a very teary Hanako. She clutched to her son for a while, making the other two rather uncomfortable to be there and Satoshi a little embarrassed. Finally they parted, Hanako waving and calling after them to make sure they had everything. They were sure they did, though. Aside from having washed all their clothes the night before, she had actually provisioned them quite well – enough to feed them and all their pokèmon for nearly a week.
When they arrived at the professor's research center, he asked Satoshi for his pokèdex. Though a little curious as to what he needed it for, he handed it over. He watched as the professor hooked it up to a machine, punched some buttons, then put it up with several others that he had. Satoshi was rather surprised he was not getting it back. He wondered what it was all about but did not question the professor.
The professor gave a heavy sigh then looked along the shelves that contained all the pokèballs that belonged to Satoshi. There were a lot of them but it would soon be empty…and lonely. All of Shigeru's pokèmon had also been sent to Umute. "I will be sending your pokèmon to Lady Kira's island this afternoon. You will only be allowed to have one of each sent to the island. All the others that you have more than one of will most likely be sent to breeding centers or released to the wild. That is her rule, not mine."
Satoshi nodded, understanding somewhat. All of this suddenly seemed a bit too complicated for him. First his pokèdex had been taken from him, now most of his pokèmon were going to be released back to the wild?
"You'll be given a new pokèdex when you get to her island. I had a short look at one when Shigeru was here and they're far more advanced than these I have." He glanced over at the row of pokèdexes by his desk then turned his attention back to Satoshi. "Anything you don't already know will be explained to you once you arrive on her island. And that's about as much as I know about her island and its policies."
Again, he nodded. "Well, is there anything else you can tell me? Like…how to get there?"
Yukinari nodded. "It's tradition, when an outsider goes to her island for the first time, that they use a water pokèmon to get there. Most pokèmon are said to somehow know how to get there. Granted, from what I've been told, Shigeru didn't get there in any traditional sense." He smiled for a moment, remembering the story his grandson had told him a few years earlier about that, then he turned to the young woman beside Satoshi. "Kasumi's gyarados should work fine for getting the three of you there."
"He's not very well trained," she said, a little worried about using him.
"I think that if he knows he's going to Umute, he will be very cooperative."
Kasumi gave a very doubtful look. Her gyarados was far more wild than not. "If you say so. He's a lot like Satoshi's charizard used to be…"
"Hey!" Satoshi could not believe she actually brought something like that up. "That was a long time ago! I'm sure if I had him now he'd be well behaved!"
The professor laughed. "Now, now. No need to argue about something like that. You all really need to get going. It'll take at least a day to get to her island. Though, from what I've heard, pokèmon don't tend to take a direct route to her island for some reason. It could take a while for you all to get there. So, I wish you all luck!" He took Satoshi's hand and shook it vigorously. "I'm glad you're going. I feel privileged to have the two greatest trainers from Masara chosen to work for Lady Kira."
That sort of embarrassed Satoshi. "I hope I can live up to the expectations, then."
"I'm sure you will."
"Oh, and by the way, Shigeru's mother will be taking you guys down to the coast to save you guys from having to walk there."
"What," all three of them said in shock.
Ookido-hakase nodded. "She should be outside by now, too."
When they all headed back outside, Shigeru's mother was not there waiting yet, but they could see her driving up to the research center. Satoshi questioned the professor about it but said that even he did not really know why she was going to drive them to the coast. She smiled at them all when she stopped and told them to get on in the car. They clamored in, she said goodbye to her father-in-law, and they were off.
"So why did you want to take us to the ocean?"
"Shigeru stopped by to see me a week ago when he came here and asked if I could locate something of his." She patted an old leather-bound book that was slightly worn with age on the seat between her and Satoshi. "It was a treasure of his when he was a child. I was going to get Yukinari to send it to him, but he called last night to tell me you were going to Umute so I thought I could get you to give it to him." She gave a small laugh. "Plus, I could cut five hours off your travel time to the coast, too."
"And it's very appreciated, Mrs. Ookido," Kasumi said, beaming.
Satoshi had picked up the book and was flipping through it. It was just like the picture book Mii had had. There were the pictures of all the legendary pokèmon – the unown, entei, suicune, and more he had heard her tell stories about after everything had returned to normal at her family's mansion. Shigeru had had a copy of this book as well? And why did he want it? At the end of this book, though, was a picture of two pokèmon he did not remember from Mii's book – both were large birdlike pokèmon, one gold, one silver, circling around like a yin-yang. He stared at it, fascinated, for a long while.
On the hour drive to the coast, they discussed Shigeru and why no one had ever said anything about where he had vanished after the end of the Jouto League. His mother said that the professor had returned home and simply told her that he had been offered a job in a very prestigious research facility and that he would be very well taken care of. It had, of course, troubled her at first, but after several reassuring letters from her son, she felt better about it all.
In no time at all they could see the ocean and Kasumi lit up when she saw it, only to groan shortly thereafter remembering that the professor had suggested her using her gyarados to get them to the island. When they got to the docks, Shigeru's mother let them out and made sure Satoshi had the book. She smiled at them.
"You two have a safe trip. And make sure you get that book to Shigeru."
"I will." Satoshi bowed deeply in thanks. "The ride was greatly appreciated."
With only a smile, she waved and drove off. The three young adults watched her leave, waving as well. Once she was out of sight, they turned their attention to the nearest pier that was devoid of boats and headed towards it. They did not need Kasumi's gyarados going into one of its tantrums and thrashing some poor boat. Kasumi looked more and more worried – nearly terrified – as she walked down to the end of the pier.
Pulling out her pokèball with her gyarados in it, she sighed. He was a lot like charizard had been – ill-tempered and ill-mannered. He loved blasting her with ice like charizard had done to Satoshi with fire. She was really going to dread this. She closed her eyes, holding the ball tightly. Why did the other two not have large enough water pokèmon for this?
"Kasumi," Satoshi looked at her a little impatiently, "are we going or not?"
"Gyarados, please, please, be good. Get us to Umute quickly and safely." She tossed the ball out over the water and the water snake came out with a deafening roar. Kasumi shrunk back a bit, still not used to having caught a while gyarados. "Ummm…"
Pikachu, being brave, said a few things to the much larger pokèmon and it seemed to actually listen and then agree with whatever the little electric pokèmon said. Pikachu then jumped onto the gyarados' back and climbed up to sit on his head before calling Satoshi happily. His trainer could only look in awe of his little pokèmon for a while. Then, with what almost seemed like a growl from the water pokèmon, the three humans climbed onto its back and they were quickly off without a word from Kasumi.
For the rest of the day they traveled along the sea heading south some times and east others. The pokèmon they rode did, indeed, seem to know how to get to the island they were headed for by instinct. Both Kira and the professor had said that all pokèmon could get to the island so they were not going to ask questions. The three humans speculated as to why this was – perhaps it being the center of a strong electro-magnetic field that water pokèmon were naturally drawn to was the theory they settled on.
Lunch passed and neither Pikachu nor Gyarados ate anything. While their trainers were worried about this, they did not press their pokèmon – Kasumi especially. Though the pokèmon could not tell their trainers this, they knew about where they were going and considered it more of a privilege than any of the trainers with them. And from the stories they had heard from other pokèmon, the trip to Umute was to be observed with fasting and a sleepless journey, even if it would surely worry their trainers.
The three humans passed the day by reminiscing about how they had all met and their trip through the Sekiei League. They laughed about the two Roketto-dan members, Musashi and Kojirou, who were always after Pikachu and any other pokèmon they happened to think was rare. They had gotten rather annoying, but they were all glad that, at long last, the two of them and their talking meowth had left them alone. But, they at least were not nearly as bad as some of the other members of Roketto-dan.
By the time the sun was setting and they were digging out something for dinner, they were on to talking about the Jouto League. Satoshi and Kasumi offered their pokèmon food again, but Pikachu shook his head and the gyarados just grunted in an almost angry way. While Kasumi was cowering back in fear of her pokèmon, Satoshi was looking very worriedly at Pikachu, who was staring off at the distance like he had been since they set out.
When the three humans had gone to sleep, the two pokèmon stayed awake, keeping their vigil. Pikachu actually laid down on the water snakes head and looked at the stars for the longest time. Neither of the pokèmon got tired during the night, which was probably attributed to nerves. But, since they only had one water pokèmon to take them to Umute, the gyarados was sure to not make the trip too very long, for he announced to the little pokèmon on his head that he was starting to get tired as the sky started to lighten, signaling morning.
After the sleeping passengers woke, they went about getting breakfast ready. Satoshi pleaded with Pikachu to eat, but the pokèmon just shook his head again. Kasumi did not even try to ask her gyarados, remembering the response she had gotten the day before. But, still, they were all very worried about the two pokèmon since they did not know why they were not eating. And they both were sure that neither of them had slept either.
Lunch came and went, too, without either of the pokèmon eating. They could all tell that Gyarados was starting to get tired as well, for he was noticeably slowing down, almost like he was dozing off. Satoshi tried to get his little pokèmon to tell him what was wrong, but Pikachu knew even if he did tell his trainer he would not understand a word of what he said.
They were getting ready to dig out some dinner from the food Hanako had given them when an island seemed to just appear in the distance off to the east. They all gazed at the island for a while, wondering why they had not noticed it sooner, for it was a lot closer than it should have been without them seeing it on the horizon first. Pikachu pointed towards the island and shouted excitedly, sounding thrilled. The gyarados changed course and headed straight for the island, and it grew larger with every passing moment, leaving them all in mild awe.
High mountains formed the entire island and green forests were growing up along the entire side they were approaching. As they got closer, they could tell the island was shaped something like a crescent or "J". The entire island was huge – at least sixty miles long. They were headed for the large lagoon that was nearly in the middle of the island.
As they entered the protected bay, they saw a large island (at least a mile across) jutting out of the water near its center. The cliffs that rose from the water were at least fifty feet high in the shortest of places, though one area looked to rise a good hundred feet up. They could just vaguely make out pokèmon staring down at them from the trees that covered the little island. They all voiced their curiosity about what was up there at the same time.
Beyond the small island was what seemed to be a city, though there were no impressively tall buildings that they could see. This was apparently where they were headed to, for that was where the gyarados was taking them. The three humans and Pikachu, though, all stared at the island a little longer, entranced by it.
When they reached the city, they saw only one small pier sticking out into the water. As the water snake approached, the riders could see a group of people gathering around. Where these people all there to greet them? Was their arrival that much of an occasion that so many people would turn out to see them get there? They were all baffled by this.
When they got to the pier, they all got off, Pikachu on Satoshi's shoulder like always. Kasumi thanked her gyarados immensely and returned it to its pokèball to rest. The three trainers then just stood there, looking at all the people gathered around them – all of whom had very curious looks on their faces. The people knew, though, that if they had been allowed to come to the island that they were no threat, but that still did not make them any less curious as to who the newcomers were, since it was so rare they saw anyone new.
After a moment, the crowd parted some and a man in a simple blue hakama came forward. It took a second for Satoshi to realize that this man was Shigeru. The traditionally dressed man smiled at his former rival when he saw the shock of realization come over him. "I'm pleased to see that you've finally made it, Satoshi. Welcome to Umute."
Whispers had risen around them when the crowd heard Satoshi's name. He felt rather embarrassed. All these people knew him? They seemed excited about his arrival. As he began to turn a shade of deep red, the same mew he had seen with Kira at the pokèmon convention floated up in front of him, nearly turned upside-down staring at him, then giggled at him. The whispers then stopped suddenly and Satoshi saw everyone bow very deeply as Kira approached in a green and white kimono – well, everyone bowed except Shigeru. She stopped at Shigeru's side. Satoshi and the other two bowed as well, though not as deeply as the others gathered there. It had taken Kasumi tugging on Takeshi's ear, though, to get him to bow and not run up to Kira and ask her to date him.
"Hello, Satoshi, Kasumi, Takeshi." She nodded slightly to each of them, smiling the sweet smile Satoshi remembered from their past two meetings. "There are many things that must be done today, preferably by a decent time, too. So, please, come with me."
Kira took Shigeru's hand and turned, leading the three newcomers. As they walked off, Satoshi noted that all the people were still bowing deeply to her. Who was she to have all these people bow to her like that? Just because she was their boss did not seem like the real reason. Shigeru had not bowed, though it seemed he might be far more familiar with her – they were holding hands, after all. He was rather puzzled but hoped he would find out soon.
& & & & & & & & & & & & &
Just as a reminder in case you forgot or to clarify –
Satoshi - Ash
Shigeru - Gary
Kasumi - Misty
Takeshi - Brock
Yukinari (Ookido-hakase) - Samuel (Professor Oak)
Hanako - Delia (Ash's mom)
Mii – Molly (the little girl from Pokèmon 3, though I think I explained her well enough earlier)
Musashi and Kojirou – Jessie and James
Sekiei League – Indigo League
--A hakama resembles a wide, pleated skirt and is traditional for men to wear over their own kimonos to help keep them clean (granted, from what I've read recently it's usually worn today in only formal settings or by practitioners of martial arts). I would have said "kimono" for Shigeru, but I just see him as wearing a hakama for some reason, probably because when I usually think of kimono I think of women's attire (as does most of the rest of the Western world).--
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.
