Chapter LI- Mystery of the Tarot Cards
We continued to fly over route 33 then continued on past the National park and
route 36 until we finally came to violet. It was a small town with much fewer buildings
then I had expected. Compared to Goldenrod Violet was more of a village then a town.
There was one building in particular that spotted out among the leafless trees.
"Hey Erika!" I shouted ahead and she slowed down to come closer to us. "What's that
building there?" I asked and pointed to the shito looking building that was at least 3 floors
tall. Erika pulled out her map as we made our way down to the ground and examined it.
"I think that's Sprout Tower...these people have some sort of weird obsession with them i
guess...Hey! Why don't we stop in and have a look?" She said as we landed and people
stared at us.
"Bellsprouts hugh? Weird....whad'ya say Noki? Shall we go look?" Jarod remarked and
turned around to see her back facing him. "Ok...right then. Let's go I say!"
"Ya! I wanna see what this is all about too!" I said as Erika folded up the map and stuck it
back into her backpack.
"Ok, but we should put this stuff in lockers at the pokemon center first." Erika said and
began to unload Ryu. I turned around and looked at my sleeping back and backpack
attached to Pidgeot.
"Good idea...." I put Raichu down much to his dimay and took my stuff off Pidgeot,
calling her back into her pokeball. As soon as we were all ready we walked a short
distance to the pokemon center with townspeople staring at us most of the way. Just as
we were about to go into the doors I heard Raichu say something behind us and I turned
around to discover Shirushi dressed up in a blue and red kimono, with her hair in a neat
bun this time, with Raichu in her arms tickling his nose.
"Shirushi! Hey! Wow....what's with the kimono?" I asked and she walked back to us,
putting Raichu back on the ground.
"Oh...this?" She lifts up her arms to reveal a beautiful purple obi with flowers on it, "I'm
doing Tarot card readings at Sprout Tower today! They're pokemon tarot cards! It's really
cool! You should come and have me do one for you!" She said and put her arms back
down, bowing to us slighly. "Must be going! I have to get to the third floor in 5 minutes!"
She said and ran off towards the tower.
"Pokemon tarot cards? Cool! Sounds like fun!" I said and we finally made our way into
the pokemon center, fitting all our stuff nicely into two of the larger lockers. We had our
pokemon healed, and headed out the doors for a slight detour to Sprout Tower.
"Um...I think I'm just going to wait out here you guys..." Noki said as she stoped walking
when we approached the enterance.
"Aw...come on Noki! Come inside with us...Please?" Jarod said, all of us turning around
to look at her. She just slowly shook her head no and folded her arms the way I sometimes
did when I was lonely, hands on the opposite elbows.
"What's wrong? It's not going to change anything if you come with us....is it?" Erika asked
and looked at her suspiciously.
"Uh...well...I suppose not..." Noki said and reluctantly followed Erika, me, Jarod, and Ryu
into the building. It was actually quite large and open inside with a large wooden pillar in
the middle that moved around like a bellsprout in the wind. I stared at it and tried to figure
out how the building stood with that weird support pillar.
"I'm sorry miss...but that pokemon is to large to be walking around in this fragile building.
It will have to go back it it's pokeball if you please." An old man in a monk suit had
walked up to Erika, motioning to Ryu as he spoke. Ryu was slightly taken aback and
didn't like not being directly addressed. He looked at Erika though and they both shrugged
their shoulders then Erika said,
"Sorry baby...but you heard the nice monk..." She said, and Ryu let himself back into his
pokeball on her ribbon, after making a nasty face at the monk, to his slight shock.
"Oh...you're Erika Crimson aren't you? I'm sorry it's just that he's so large...we don't want
to risk these old boards breaking. Please appologize to him for me later." He said and
slowly walked away with his beads in hand, back to the wall he was standing near before.
Erika and I exchanged looks, then we all walked up the stairs. The next floor was basically
the same design, but with the stairs near the front of the building instead of the back, and a
few more monks on guard. They all were chanting prayers, but when Erika passed by
them, they watched her intently, then after she passed them, they continued their ancient
prayers.
"That's weird...." I said and looked at all of them as we came closer to the flight of stairs
that led us to the 3rd floor.
"I know...what's their problem?" She said and we walked up the stairs; To our suprise
there were no monk on this floor, only Shirushi sitting like a Buddah statue infront of the
pillar with a huge deck of cards on her right and candles and incense on her left.
"Um....Shirushi?" I said and she suddenly opened her eyes startling me a little.
"Oh hey! It's you! Glad you could make it!" She said, but stayed seated where she was.
"Well....I mean it wasn't really that hard..." Jarod remarked and pointed toward the stairs,
"We just made a short detour coming over here."
"Oh...no?" She paused and stared at us. "You mean the monks didn't stop you? They
usually stop people from coming up here. They say they have to prove themselves worthy
of having their destiny revealed." She giggled a little for a moment then continued. "I
really think everyone should be able to know it though."
"Hugh...that's weird." I said.
"Maybe we already proved ourselves through the pokemon leauge...?" Erika remarked.
"Probably. They follow that almost as closely as they follow the ancient laws." Shirushi
said then added, "Ok...so who's first?" We all looked around at each other and finally all
our eyes landed on Jarod.
"Why do I have to be the guiney pig?" He asked and sat down infront of Shirushi. We all
sat down behind him, but moved around so we could see what was going on.
"Ok." Shirushi said and took the deck, handing them to Jarod. "Shuffle these however you
want 3 times then spread them out on the cloth however you want and pick up three out
of the pile you create." As he shuffled them, she took out a rather elaboratly decorated
square cloth, with astrological designs and all sorts of magical symbols. After he had
finished, he put them onto it and mixed them around until they were all in one big circular
pile. He quickly picked up three and held them faced down in his hands while she moved
the rest of the cards off the cloth and to a large pile on the side. She put her hand out and
Jarod gave her the cards, face down. She put them down left to right infront of her, then
arranged them on the cloth, linning them up in the shape of a triangle ontop of some
symbols. "These three cards right here represent your past, present, and future. These can
be interperted as many things, all of which should pertain to you, but for right now I'm
going to tell you about your personality, how you were, how you are, and how you will
be. Is that ok?" She asked and put her hands in her lap.
"Yea...that sounds cool." Jarod said, simply amazed that she could remember all of this.
"Ok. Here we go!" She said and turned over the card that was the lower right corner of
the triangle. It appeared to be a beautiful black wolf like pokemon. It said at the bottom,
'Mightyena'. "This card tells me that you were sort of an adventerous loner in the past..."
She turned over the top card, the one that was the point of the triangle, and it had a cut
little pokemon with colorful wings. At the bottom was written 'Beautifly'. "This card tells
me that you are very happy where you are right now. You're not confined by anything and
are truely happy..." Jarod shot me a quick smile as she continued to turn over the last card,
the lower left point of the triangle. It was a beautiful pokemon, another one I had never
seen before. It almost looked like a Dragonair, but was far more graceful. 'Miloric' was
written at the bottom of this card. "Hm..." She said and picked up the card to look at it. "I
didn't think I had this card in this deck..." Both me and Jarod looked at each other for a
moment then looked back at her and she continued. "I know what it means, but that's
funny. Oh well." She put the card back down and looked at him, finishing his reading.
"This one is a rather interesting card. It is also known as the 'Melody of Time', it tells me
that you will basically stay the same. Forever happy, and forever young at heart, no matter
how old you get." Jarod smiled and looked very satisfied with himself.
"Ok! My turn!" I said and he squished over, so I could sit infront of Shirushi and the
pretty cloth. She picked up all the cards, making them neat, then handed them to me and I
did the same thing Jarod did, but I put them in a line, overlapping them slightly. "I want
you and Erika both to take an extra card though...there is something I want to see..." She
said and I took one other card then handed them all to her, spreading them out, putting the
fourth off on the corner of the cloth. She then turned the right one over. It was labeled
'Gardevoir'. She went on and said, "This is a nice card. This card says you were very wise
for your age and that you were a very respected person with both kids your age and
adults." She turned over the next, the top one, 'Pidgeot' "This card tells me you have the
abilities you need to succed, you just have to harness them." She finally turned over the
last card and slightly gasped as she put it down, 'Melotic'. "That's strange...well...your
futures are looking very similar you two!" She turned over the other fourth card and her
mouth gaped. 'Shi' It was a scary, but beautiful looking black skelatal dragon. "Just as I
thought..." She said and continued, "Shi...the Dragon of Death is the Antithesis to
Ryu...the pokegod known as Inochi, the Dragon of Life. Ryu, or Inochi, brings Life where
there is death, water where it is barren...Shi brings destruction where there is prosperity,
Lighting where there are clear skies...Together they make up two of the most powerful
forces in the universe...good and evil..." I just stared for a moment, but didn't ask her what
the card ment, I squished over and made a space for Erika now. She did the same as I had
done, but made four smaller piles, then picked a card from each of the piles. She gave
them to Shirushi and she layed them out like mive were. She turned over the first card.
'Golem' "Hm...this says you were a hard worker and strived to do what was right..." She
turned over the next card, the top one. 'Blaziken' "This one tells me that you are ready for
anything and are ready to defend anything that you belive in." She turned over the last
card and gasped again. 'Melotic' "Ok...this is really weird...were you guys in on this
together?" She asked and looked at us, from one to the other.
"No..." We all said and she picked up Erika's fourth card. She just stared at it, then turned
it around to show us. 'Inochi' it said at the bottom with a similar picture to that of Erika's
Ryu. "Why am I not suprised?" She almost laughed it was so creepy. "One gets life, one
get death. Hm....weird....oh well. Hey...How about you?" Shirushi asked and noticed Noki
hidding behind me and Jarod. "Oh hey! You were the girl that answered the door when I
came by your house! How about it? I've been getting some interesting vibes from you."
she said and pushed all the cards back together again.
We continued to fly over route 33 then continued on past the National park and
route 36 until we finally came to violet. It was a small town with much fewer buildings
then I had expected. Compared to Goldenrod Violet was more of a village then a town.
There was one building in particular that spotted out among the leafless trees.
"Hey Erika!" I shouted ahead and she slowed down to come closer to us. "What's that
building there?" I asked and pointed to the shito looking building that was at least 3 floors
tall. Erika pulled out her map as we made our way down to the ground and examined it.
"I think that's Sprout Tower...these people have some sort of weird obsession with them i
guess...Hey! Why don't we stop in and have a look?" She said as we landed and people
stared at us.
"Bellsprouts hugh? Weird....whad'ya say Noki? Shall we go look?" Jarod remarked and
turned around to see her back facing him. "Ok...right then. Let's go I say!"
"Ya! I wanna see what this is all about too!" I said as Erika folded up the map and stuck it
back into her backpack.
"Ok, but we should put this stuff in lockers at the pokemon center first." Erika said and
began to unload Ryu. I turned around and looked at my sleeping back and backpack
attached to Pidgeot.
"Good idea...." I put Raichu down much to his dimay and took my stuff off Pidgeot,
calling her back into her pokeball. As soon as we were all ready we walked a short
distance to the pokemon center with townspeople staring at us most of the way. Just as
we were about to go into the doors I heard Raichu say something behind us and I turned
around to discover Shirushi dressed up in a blue and red kimono, with her hair in a neat
bun this time, with Raichu in her arms tickling his nose.
"Shirushi! Hey! Wow....what's with the kimono?" I asked and she walked back to us,
putting Raichu back on the ground.
"Oh...this?" She lifts up her arms to reveal a beautiful purple obi with flowers on it, "I'm
doing Tarot card readings at Sprout Tower today! They're pokemon tarot cards! It's really
cool! You should come and have me do one for you!" She said and put her arms back
down, bowing to us slighly. "Must be going! I have to get to the third floor in 5 minutes!"
She said and ran off towards the tower.
"Pokemon tarot cards? Cool! Sounds like fun!" I said and we finally made our way into
the pokemon center, fitting all our stuff nicely into two of the larger lockers. We had our
pokemon healed, and headed out the doors for a slight detour to Sprout Tower.
"Um...I think I'm just going to wait out here you guys..." Noki said as she stoped walking
when we approached the enterance.
"Aw...come on Noki! Come inside with us...Please?" Jarod said, all of us turning around
to look at her. She just slowly shook her head no and folded her arms the way I sometimes
did when I was lonely, hands on the opposite elbows.
"What's wrong? It's not going to change anything if you come with us....is it?" Erika asked
and looked at her suspiciously.
"Uh...well...I suppose not..." Noki said and reluctantly followed Erika, me, Jarod, and Ryu
into the building. It was actually quite large and open inside with a large wooden pillar in
the middle that moved around like a bellsprout in the wind. I stared at it and tried to figure
out how the building stood with that weird support pillar.
"I'm sorry miss...but that pokemon is to large to be walking around in this fragile building.
It will have to go back it it's pokeball if you please." An old man in a monk suit had
walked up to Erika, motioning to Ryu as he spoke. Ryu was slightly taken aback and
didn't like not being directly addressed. He looked at Erika though and they both shrugged
their shoulders then Erika said,
"Sorry baby...but you heard the nice monk..." She said, and Ryu let himself back into his
pokeball on her ribbon, after making a nasty face at the monk, to his slight shock.
"Oh...you're Erika Crimson aren't you? I'm sorry it's just that he's so large...we don't want
to risk these old boards breaking. Please appologize to him for me later." He said and
slowly walked away with his beads in hand, back to the wall he was standing near before.
Erika and I exchanged looks, then we all walked up the stairs. The next floor was basically
the same design, but with the stairs near the front of the building instead of the back, and a
few more monks on guard. They all were chanting prayers, but when Erika passed by
them, they watched her intently, then after she passed them, they continued their ancient
prayers.
"That's weird...." I said and looked at all of them as we came closer to the flight of stairs
that led us to the 3rd floor.
"I know...what's their problem?" She said and we walked up the stairs; To our suprise
there were no monk on this floor, only Shirushi sitting like a Buddah statue infront of the
pillar with a huge deck of cards on her right and candles and incense on her left.
"Um....Shirushi?" I said and she suddenly opened her eyes startling me a little.
"Oh hey! It's you! Glad you could make it!" She said, but stayed seated where she was.
"Well....I mean it wasn't really that hard..." Jarod remarked and pointed toward the stairs,
"We just made a short detour coming over here."
"Oh...no?" She paused and stared at us. "You mean the monks didn't stop you? They
usually stop people from coming up here. They say they have to prove themselves worthy
of having their destiny revealed." She giggled a little for a moment then continued. "I
really think everyone should be able to know it though."
"Hugh...that's weird." I said.
"Maybe we already proved ourselves through the pokemon leauge...?" Erika remarked.
"Probably. They follow that almost as closely as they follow the ancient laws." Shirushi
said then added, "Ok...so who's first?" We all looked around at each other and finally all
our eyes landed on Jarod.
"Why do I have to be the guiney pig?" He asked and sat down infront of Shirushi. We all
sat down behind him, but moved around so we could see what was going on.
"Ok." Shirushi said and took the deck, handing them to Jarod. "Shuffle these however you
want 3 times then spread them out on the cloth however you want and pick up three out
of the pile you create." As he shuffled them, she took out a rather elaboratly decorated
square cloth, with astrological designs and all sorts of magical symbols. After he had
finished, he put them onto it and mixed them around until they were all in one big circular
pile. He quickly picked up three and held them faced down in his hands while she moved
the rest of the cards off the cloth and to a large pile on the side. She put her hand out and
Jarod gave her the cards, face down. She put them down left to right infront of her, then
arranged them on the cloth, linning them up in the shape of a triangle ontop of some
symbols. "These three cards right here represent your past, present, and future. These can
be interperted as many things, all of which should pertain to you, but for right now I'm
going to tell you about your personality, how you were, how you are, and how you will
be. Is that ok?" She asked and put her hands in her lap.
"Yea...that sounds cool." Jarod said, simply amazed that she could remember all of this.
"Ok. Here we go!" She said and turned over the card that was the lower right corner of
the triangle. It appeared to be a beautiful black wolf like pokemon. It said at the bottom,
'Mightyena'. "This card tells me that you were sort of an adventerous loner in the past..."
She turned over the top card, the one that was the point of the triangle, and it had a cut
little pokemon with colorful wings. At the bottom was written 'Beautifly'. "This card tells
me that you are very happy where you are right now. You're not confined by anything and
are truely happy..." Jarod shot me a quick smile as she continued to turn over the last card,
the lower left point of the triangle. It was a beautiful pokemon, another one I had never
seen before. It almost looked like a Dragonair, but was far more graceful. 'Miloric' was
written at the bottom of this card. "Hm..." She said and picked up the card to look at it. "I
didn't think I had this card in this deck..." Both me and Jarod looked at each other for a
moment then looked back at her and she continued. "I know what it means, but that's
funny. Oh well." She put the card back down and looked at him, finishing his reading.
"This one is a rather interesting card. It is also known as the 'Melody of Time', it tells me
that you will basically stay the same. Forever happy, and forever young at heart, no matter
how old you get." Jarod smiled and looked very satisfied with himself.
"Ok! My turn!" I said and he squished over, so I could sit infront of Shirushi and the
pretty cloth. She picked up all the cards, making them neat, then handed them to me and I
did the same thing Jarod did, but I put them in a line, overlapping them slightly. "I want
you and Erika both to take an extra card though...there is something I want to see..." She
said and I took one other card then handed them all to her, spreading them out, putting the
fourth off on the corner of the cloth. She then turned the right one over. It was labeled
'Gardevoir'. She went on and said, "This is a nice card. This card says you were very wise
for your age and that you were a very respected person with both kids your age and
adults." She turned over the next, the top one, 'Pidgeot' "This card tells me you have the
abilities you need to succed, you just have to harness them." She finally turned over the
last card and slightly gasped as she put it down, 'Melotic'. "That's strange...well...your
futures are looking very similar you two!" She turned over the other fourth card and her
mouth gaped. 'Shi' It was a scary, but beautiful looking black skelatal dragon. "Just as I
thought..." She said and continued, "Shi...the Dragon of Death is the Antithesis to
Ryu...the pokegod known as Inochi, the Dragon of Life. Ryu, or Inochi, brings Life where
there is death, water where it is barren...Shi brings destruction where there is prosperity,
Lighting where there are clear skies...Together they make up two of the most powerful
forces in the universe...good and evil..." I just stared for a moment, but didn't ask her what
the card ment, I squished over and made a space for Erika now. She did the same as I had
done, but made four smaller piles, then picked a card from each of the piles. She gave
them to Shirushi and she layed them out like mive were. She turned over the first card.
'Golem' "Hm...this says you were a hard worker and strived to do what was right..." She
turned over the next card, the top one. 'Blaziken' "This one tells me that you are ready for
anything and are ready to defend anything that you belive in." She turned over the last
card and gasped again. 'Melotic' "Ok...this is really weird...were you guys in on this
together?" She asked and looked at us, from one to the other.
"No..." We all said and she picked up Erika's fourth card. She just stared at it, then turned
it around to show us. 'Inochi' it said at the bottom with a similar picture to that of Erika's
Ryu. "Why am I not suprised?" She almost laughed it was so creepy. "One gets life, one
get death. Hm....weird....oh well. Hey...How about you?" Shirushi asked and noticed Noki
hidding behind me and Jarod. "Oh hey! You were the girl that answered the door when I
came by your house! How about it? I've been getting some interesting vibes from you."
she said and pushed all the cards back together again.