Hi everyone! It has been far too long, but now I finally have a new chapter ready for you all!
I had hoped to have something ready for you much sooner, especially with this year being the ten year anniversary of when I posted the original version of the first chapter over on . However, this year has been a very difficult one for me. I won't go into details, but it has been really rough.
Anyways, on the subject of the anniversary, I've been working on multiple chapters, so maybe I'll be able to get something more done before the end of the year. I had some plans for some fun stuff to mark the anniversary, and I still plan on working on those, but I'm thinking I probably won't get those done before the end of 2022.
Well, for now, how about we get to what we're all here for? Here is Chapter 62! I hope you all enjoy it!
Chapter 62: Oh, not this 'destiny' stuff again!
It was the start of another new day in Fenix Town. As Chiaki was waking up, something felt off. He let out a grunt of discomfort as he glanced down at his bandaged right arm. Something felt… strange. He was about to reach for the bandages, when he heard Blitz yawn. He looked over at Blitz, who had also just woken up. Blitz sat up, and began grooming himself.
"Good morning," Chiaki said.
"Good morning," Blitz replied, looking over at Chiaki. "Sleep well?"
"Uh, I guess so," Chiaki responded, nodding his head slightly.
Chiaki glanced down at his arm again, deciding to hold off on checking under the bandages for now.
Sera was getting ready to head out. As she was checking her appearance in a mirror, she noticed Flare approach her. From his expression, it was clear that he wanted to say something.
"Is something the matter?" Sera asked, turning around to face him.
"I was going to ask that," Flare responded. "You seemed kind of lost in thought during breakfast."
"Oh… I see," Sera replied, looking away. "I'm just concerned about Chiaki…"
"Ah, right," Flare responded, nodding slightly. "Last night, you mentioned that he was acting strange."
"Yeah…" Sera replied, frowning. "Something's clearly wrong, but he won't say anything. Blitz said it was best not to push the subject, but… I still want to know what's going on."
"Well, that's understandable," Flare responded. "So, what are you going to do?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Sera replied, sighing. "I don't want to cause any problems for my friends by prying into their secrets again. So, I'll just have to wait until he's ready to tell us."
"I see," Flare responded, nuzzling Sera in an attempt to comfort her. "That's probably the best way to handle the situation for now."
"Mm… Yeah," Sera replied, nodding slightly. "Well, I'm heading out, then. See you later."
Flare watched as Sera went outside and ran off towards the town plaza. He hoped things would work out for her and her friends.
Bow was woken up by something tugging on one of her pigtails. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see Malefica hovering over her.
"What are you doing?" Bow asked, sitting up.
"I'm bored," Malefica responded. "Come on, get up."
"All right, all right…" Bow replied, rubbing her eyes and looking around. "Where's mom and Samara?"
"They went off somewhere," Malefica responded, glancing around. "Don't know where."
"Ah, right," Bow replied, standing up. "I guess they're out scouting out a fitting location to place the trap for Erebos."
"Yeah, that!" Malefica responded, grinning.
Bow walked over to a table where a map was laid out. A few locations were marked on the map, with Stella having asked the stars to reveal a few locations which weren't too heavily affected by distortion for their plan to stop Erebos.
"Hmm… Guessing they probably won't be back until late tonight," Bow said, looking over the map thoughtfully. "So, we're on our own today."
"All right!" Malefica replied, floating around in circles. "Come on, let's play!"
"Shouldn't we eat breakfast first?" Bow asked.
"Nah, I'm not hungry," Malefica responded, shaking her head. "I wanna play!"
"Mm, I'd still like to eat something first, though," Bow replied, smiling sheepishly. "I'll play with you afterwards, so can you wait just a little longer?"
"Hmm… Fine," Malefica responded, pouting. "Don't take too long, okay?"
"I'll try to not keep you waiting," Bow replied, nodding slightly. "So, behave yourself, okay?"
"All right…" Malefica responded, sighing. "I'll just wait over here."
Bow smiled, and began to telekinetically pick up a small stone knife and some berries.
"Hmm… Actually, maybe I should save my power for later," Bow thought out loud, quickly putting the items down on the stone counter.
"Save it for what?" Malefica asked, tilting her head slightly.
"I don't know," Bow replied, picking up the stone knife in one of her hands. "But someone might need my help later."
"Who?" Malefica inquired. "Help with what?"
"Well, since mom will be busy with the plan to stop Erebos, she won't have time to read the stars," Bow responded, beginning to cut up one of the berries. "If any of the Pokémon in town suddenly find themselves needing the town oracle's advice while she's away, I should do my best to help out."
"But there's no need for that?" Malefica replied, blinking a few times. "They know that you're not the town oracle yet. You won't be for like… many years."
"Yes, that is true," Bow responded, nodding slightly. "But time passes by much quicker than you think, doesn't it?"
"Does it?" Malefica asked, looking confused. "I don't get it…"
"Ah, well, I guess it might be a little hard for a ghost-type to understand," Bow replied with a thoughtful expression. "Since you don't age the same way most other types of Pokémon do."
"Yeah, that's one of the things that's great about us!" Malefica responded, grinning.
"I suppose it is," Bow replied with a slight chuckle as she continued preparing her food.
Blitz and his teammates had met up and were relaxing in a quiet spot away from the town plaza. Or, well, they were trying to relax. There were too many things on their minds keeping them from being able to properly relax.
"Shouldn't we be doing something?" Azure asked, sighing. "I saw some of the other rescue teams helping out Pokémon who came here needing a place to stay until the distortion stuff is dealt with… Makes me feel like I should be doing something too, you know?"
"Um… What would we do, though?" Frederick responded.
"I don't know," Azure replied. "The others seem to have things under control for the most part, but still…"
"I get what you mean," Sera said, her ears drooping down slightly. "So many Pokémon are being affected by the distortions way more than any of us are at the moment…"
"Won't the distortions eventually reach Fenix Town?" Frederick asked.
"Probably," Blitz responded, looking over at his teammates. "If that happens, I wonder where everyone is supposed to go?"
"Wyvern Island?" Azure suggested, shrugging slightly. "It didn't seem like the distortion had reached it yet…"
"How would we get everybody up there, though?" Sera asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Those big fliers would have quite a lot of work to do, to say the least," Azure responded.
"Well, hopefully the whole situation with Erebos and the Axis Tower crystals will be resolved before any of that happens," Sera said, smiling sheepishly.
"Yeah…" Azure replied, nodding slightly. "Hmm…"
Azure suddenly stood up.
"Sorry guys, but I think I'm going to head back to the café," Azure said. "At least then I can do something by helping out there."
"Oh, uh, that's fine," Blitz responded. "Do whatever you have to."
"No problem, we can spend more time together later," Sera said, smiling at Azure.
"Thanks," Azure replied, smiling back at Sera. "I'll look forward to it."
Azure quickly headed off towards the café. Suddenly, Frederick got up too.
"I think I'm gonna follow her," Frederick said. "I want to make sure she's okay, and I'm sure River would appreciate the extra help."
"Sure, go ahead," Blitz responded, nodding slightly.
"See you later!" Sera said, waving her paw as Frederick went off to catch up with Azure.
Chiaki had barely been paying attention to the conversation, glancing at his arm and tugging at the bandages. Just what was this strange feeling?
"So… How are things at home?" Blitz asked, looking over at Sera.
"They've been okay, I guess," Sera replied, thinking for a moment. "Met some of Sirena's friends yesterday, seems they'll be staying in town for a while."
"Sirena's friends?" Blitz inquired. "What are they like?"
"Well, they seem nice," Sera responded. "Sirena told me a bit about them before."
"Oh, I see," Blitz replied.
While Blitz and Sera's conversation continued, Chiaki began to quietly unwrap the bandages on his arm in order to see if he could figure out what the strange feeling that had been bothering him since this morning was. Eventually, he was able to get a peek at the state of the wound…
… and quickly had to cover his mouth with his left paw to avoid letting out any sound that would alarm his two friends.
"W-What is this!?" Chiaki thought to himself, staring at his arm in shock.
There were several tiny, transparent crystals poking out from the wound, shimmering in the sunlight. Chiaki then glanced over at Blitz and Sera.
"… Honestly, I feel a little silly for not realizing Sirena had a crush on Svanhild until I saw the two of them together," Sera admitted, chuckling.
"Well, since they're in different egg groups, I think it makes sense that you wouldn't have made that connection right away," Blitz commented.
It didn't seem like either of them had noticed anything yet. Chiaki slowly got up and tried to slip away unnoticed. He couldn't let them see this. Keeping his eyes on the two, Chiaki slowly moved backwards one step at a time, while Blitz and Sera continued their conversation. He had almost managed to sneak away, when Blitz spotted him from the corner of his eye.
"Chiaki?" Blitz said, looking over at the Mienfoo.
Chiaki quickly turned around and began to run, holding his arm to make sure they didn't see the state of his wound.
"What's going on!?" Sera said, standing up.
Blitz stood up, looking over in the direction Chiaki ran off in.
"Blitz?" Sera said, looking over at Blitz expectantly.
"… Let's go after him," Blitz responded.
"Right!" Sera replied, nodding her head.
Once he had managed to get to a place where he was certain no one would see him, Chiaki began to inspect the wound. He gently tapped one of the tiny crystals with a claw, before grabbing one and attempting to rip the crystal off of his arm. He winced in pain as he felt his skin being pulled at along with the crystal.
"Come on…" Chiaki muttered, trying to ignore the pain. "Why isn't it coming off?"
After a few more painful seconds, Chiaki let go of the crystal. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and wipe away some tears of pain. He began examining his arm once more, wondering how exactly it had ended up in such a state.
"Should I go see nurse Giselle?" Chiaki wondered out loud. "Would she know what to do about these?"
Chiaki considered it for a moment, before deciding against it. He had a feeling that this wasn't something she could help with.
"Chiaki? What's going on?"
Chiaki's eyes widened and he turned to see that Blitz and Sera had already caught up to him. He quickly tried to cover the wound with his other paw, but it was already too late.
"What's… that on your arm?" Blitz asked, squinting at his arm. "It was… sparkling…"
"Ah… Um…" Chiaki wasn't sure how to respond.
As the two walked over to check on him, Chiaki reluctantly moved his other arm out of the way so they could see the crystals.
"What the…!?" Sera exclaimed, taking a step backwards.
"Are those… growing out of your skin?" Blitz asked, looking uncomfortable as he examined the state of the wound.
"I don't know what's happening either," Chiaki responded, shaking his head. "My arm felt strange this morning, and when I looked at it, it was like this."
"But how?" Sera asked, pointing a paw at the crystals. "This can't be normal! Mienfoo don't have crystals growing on them!"
Chiaki was about to repeat that he didn't understand it either, but then a thought popped into his head:
"But you're not really a Mienfoo, are you?"
Chiaki froze. For a moment he didn't even register that Blitz and Sera were still there as he let the thought sink in.
"So that's how it is…" Chiaki muttered, slowly turning his head to look at the crystals forming on his arm. "The Axis Tower crystal wants to return to its original form…"
"Huh?" Sera said, staring at Chiaki. "What did you just say?"
Chiaki looked over at Blitz and Sera. At this point, he realized that he couldn't keep the truth a secret from them any longer. Not after this.
"Um… How do I put this?" Chiaki said, still trying to find the right words. "You see, I… I used to be one of the Axis Tower crystals…"
"You… what?" Blitz responded, staring at Chiaki.
"Chiaki… What are you talking about?" Sera asked, her ears drooping down slightly.
"Elina told me the truth…" Chiaki explained, looking down at his arm. "You see…"
Chiaki began telling Blitz and Sera about what Elina had told him about the night the Axis Tower crystals were stolen, and of how Elina's attempt to prevent Erebos from taking the last crystal led to it accidentally being transformed into a Pokémon when she tripped on a Pokémon trap. Throughout his explanation, there were a few points where Chiaki had to pause and think about what to say next.
"And, um… I guess that's everything?" Chiaki said, finishing his explanation.
"No way…" Sera said, shaking her head. "This… this can't be right!"
"I found it hard to believe too," Chiaki responded. "But the more I thought about it, I realized… that it must be true."
"S-Seriously?" Sera replied, glancing over at Chiaki's arm. "I mean, I suppose that explains what's going on with your arm, but… even so…!"
Chiaki held his paw over the crystals, as if covering them up would make things go back to normal, or at least ease Sera's distress. Chiaki glanced over at Blitz, who hadn't said anything since he began his explanation. He seemed calm at a first glance, but his expression made it difficult to tell what exactly was going through the Shinx's mind.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away," Chiaki said, looking away. "I just… didn't know how…"
"Wait…" Sera said, her eyes widening. "If the Axis Tower crystal is returned to normal, what'll happen to you?"
"I… don't know for sure," Chiaki replied, glancing down at his arm. "Elina said… I might disappear…"
"Disappear…?" Sera responded, staring blankly for a moment before shaking her head. "No! There's no way we're letting that happen!"
"Huh?" Chiaki replied, looking over at Sera. "But… all of the Axis Tower crystals need to be returned to the tower, otherwise it won't work."
"That's…" Sera trailed off, glancing around. "There's… got to be something…"
Sera looked over at Blitz, as if expecting him to have a solution.
"Hey, Blitz?" Sera said, looking at her friend pleadingly. "What… what do we do? There's got to be something we can do, right?"
Blitz slowly turned his head to look at her.
"… Why aren't you saying anything?" Sera asked, her ears twitching slightly. "C-Come on, Blitz…"
Chiaki looked on as Sera continued to plead with Blitz for an answer. Unconsciously, he reached for the wound with the crystals on it once more. Part of him wanted Sera to be right, but he couldn't think of any way it'd be possible for him to stay with the others while also being returned to Axis Tower with the rest of the crystals. It wasn't possible to be in two places at once, after all.
Sera was getting increasingly agitated, while Blitz tried to answer her and calm her down, but could barely get any words in. Chiaki thought he could see some blue sparks of electricity rippling around Blitz's legs, and if he looked closely, it seemed as if the Shinx was trembling slightly too.
Chiaki didn't know what to do. What could he possibly say to calm his friends down? If only they hadn't seen…
… Chiaki's train of thought was interrupted as he suddenly felt something wet on his paw. Looking down at his arm, he noticed that he had unconsciously been scratching at the tiny crystals with his claws, as if trying to remove them. A few drops of blood were trickling down his arm from that spot.
"Chiaki! What are you doing!?" Sera suddenly exclaimed, having noticed what had happened.
"I don't know!" Chiaki replied, shaking his head. "I wasn't thinking!"
Blitz flinched when he saw the blood, a certain unpleasant memory coming to the surface. Looking down, Blitz thought for a moment he could see drops of blood in the grass near his own paws. No, it was just his imagination. Blitz quickly tried to push the memory back down and ignore it, knowing he couldn't let it get to him at a time like this. He had to help Chiaki.
"Um… Maybe we should get back to our house…" Blitz suggested, trying to ignore how hot his fangs suddenly felt. "We should be able to get back without anyone seeing, and then we can treat this…"
Blitz took the old bandages and quickly shoved them into the treasure bag, before pulling out a red bandana of sorts from it
"This Power Band should do," Blitz commented, before offering it to Chiaki. "You can use this to cover your arm, just in case."
Chiaki nodded and took the Power Band from Blitz, holding it against the wound.
"Okay… Let's go."
The trio managed to get to Blitz's house without drawing too much attention to themselves, quickly heading inside.
"All right… Let me see the wound once more," Blitz said, looking over at Chiaki.
Chiaki nodded slightly and showed Blitz the state of his arm.
"Let's just… clean this really quick, and then we can put on some new bandages to cover it up," Blitz said, sighing.
While Blitz helped Chiaki cover the wound once more, Sera was pacing about inside the house.
"Okay, once it's covered back up, then what do we do?" Sera asked. "We can't just leave things like this!"
"Sera…" Blitz said, shaking his head. "I don't think… there's much we can do about this."
"Huh?" Sera responded, her ears drooping down. "Why… why would you say that?"
"Isn't it clear?" Blitz replied, gritting his teeth. "I don't like it either, but… sometimes, there's nothing we can do to change things…"
"No…" Sera responded, shaking her head in disbelief. "You're… just giving up like that?"
"I…" Blitz looked away, sparks rippling through his fur. "Some destinies can't…"
"Oh, not this 'destiny' stuff again!" Sera suddenly shouted, stomping her paw for emphasis. "I thought we were over that!"
"Destiny can't be changed, Sera!" Blitz shouted back with a pained expression.
"There is no such thing as destiny!" Sera snarled as she glared at Blitz. "You're just making excuses!"
"Sera…" Blitz replied, his tail twitching slightly. "Please listen…"
"Chiaki, don't worry," Sera said, ignoring Blitz and looking over at Chiaki. "I won't give up! We'll find a way to save you! If we work together, I know we can do anything!"
"S-Sera…" Chiaki responded, staring wide-eyed at her while tugging at the new bandages wrapped around his arm.
Sera ran up to Chiaki and nuzzled him. Chiaki blinked a few times, before petting Sera's head.
"It's going to be okay," Sera said, smiling at Chiaki. "Just believe in us, okay?"
Chiaki didn't know what to say. It was all happening so fast.
"We'll figure something out," Sera said, as if trying to reassure both Chiaki and herself.
Blitz sighed and shook his head, as Sera stepped away from Chiaki and made her way back to the entrance of the house.
"I'll be going now," Sera said, looking back at Chiaki and Blitz. "I need some time to think about things."
"… I think we all do," Blitz responded, looking away.
Chiaki was about to say something, but Sera had already run off.
"…" Chiaki stood there, staring at the door until Blitz walked up to him.
"Hey…" Blitz said, sitting down next to Chiaki.
"Blitz…" Chiaki responded, looking at Blitz.
"… I'm sorry," Blitz said, sighing. "This is… what you wanted to avoid, isn't it?"
"… You and Sera shouldn't fight," Chiaki replied, his voice barely louder than a whisper.
Blitz nodded his head slightly, before putting on a sad smile.
"Yeah… You're right," Blitz responded, hugging Chiaki. "Don't worry, I'll… I'll sort things out with her."
Blitz couldn't really blame Sera for her reaction back there. While he knew how cruel destiny could be, he had never experienced anything like this before, and as far as he knew, neither had Sera. It wasn't surprising that she'd find it difficult to accept. However, if she stayed like this for too long, wouldn't facing reality hurt even more? He certainly had to do something about that, but if he went after her now, he had a feeling she wouldn't listen to him.
"I'll talk to her tomorrow," Blitz said.
"That's good," Chiaki responded, sighing in relief.
"… How are you feeling now?" Blitz asked.
"… I'm not sure," Chiaki replied, glancing at his arm.
"Does it hurt?" Blitz asked.
"Not really…" Chiaki responded, shaking his head. "It feels really weird, though. That's why I had to look, see what was causing it."
"Understandable," Blitz replied, looking at Chiaki's arm. "We should probably keep an eye on it these next few days, see if anything changes."
"Huh? Changes?" Chiaki responded, his eyes widening slightly. "You think it'll change?"
"Well, we don't know what to expect here," Blitz replied. "This isn't exactly something that happens a lot. So, I think it's best to check it every day, in case something happens."
"All right," Chiaki agreed, nodding. "I get it."
"Okay," Blitz said, pausing for a moment to think. "Um… Do you need anything else?"
"Huh? Right now?" Chiaki replied, tilting his head slightly. "I… I don't know…"
"I see," Blitz responded. "Well… If you think of anything, let me know. I'll do what I can."
"Uh, okay," Chiaki replied, looking at Blitz. "Um, Blitz?"
"What is it?" Blitz asked.
"… Thank you," Chiaki said, managing to smile at Blitz.
"… No problem," Blitz responded, smiling back. "I'm here for you."
Now that Blitz and Sera knew the truth, Chiaki felt somewhat relieved, despite his reluctance to tell them the truth earlier. Knowing he had Blitz's support now felt somewhat reassuring, even if he still didn't know what was going to happen. The only things he knew about the near future was that they had to make sure Sera was okay, and that they would probably have to tell Azure and Frederick the truth soon as well. Perhaps it was best to focus on those things first.
After she left Blitz's place, Sera stayed around the town plaza. She didn't feel like going home just yet, and there wasn't really anywhere else she could go either. Her mind felt all cluttered as she tried to think of something that could help Chiaki. She just kept aimlessly wandering around the area as she tried to collect her thoughts. She continued to do so until…
"Sera! There you are!"
"Huh?"
Sera's ears perked up as she snapped out of her thoughts. Sera blinked a few times, before looking over to see Flare approaching her.
"Sera, why are you still out here?" Flare asked. "It's dinner time."
"It is?" Sera said, looking up at the sky. It was only now that she realized that the sun was setting and it was starting to get dark. "Huh… I guess I lost track of time."
"Sera, did something happen?" Flare asked, looking concerned.
"…" Sera couldn't answer. Her ears drooped down slightly as she looked away from Flare.
"… I'll take that as a 'yes'," Flare responded, stepping closer to Sera. "Well, what's wrong? Is this about Chiaki? The stuff you mentioned this morning?"
Sera slowly turned to look at Flare, before quickly moving closer to him and burying her face in the fur around his neck.
"Whoa, Sera!? What happened?" Flare asked.
"I don't know what to do…" Sera said, her voice slightly muffled by Flare's fur. "Blitz is no help, so I have to…"
"Sera… Calm down," Flare said, nuzzling the back of her neck. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Sera glanced up at Flare and shook her head.
"I see…" Flare responded, petting Sera's head. "Well… Why don't we head home for now? Maybe you'll be able to think more clearly after a good night's sleep."
"Yeah… Maybe you're right," Sera replied, sighing.
"All right, then," Flare responded, giving Sera a reassuring smile. "Come on, let's go home."
As the two walked home, Sera continued trying to sort out her thoughts. There had to be something she could do. She considered explaining the whole situation to Flare, but remembered that Chiaki seemed to want to keep this a secret. Besides, Flare probably wouldn't know what to do either.
"It'll be okay," Sera muttered under her breath. "I'll definitely think of something… You're going to be okay, Chiaki…"
Sera took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She didn't want to deal with her family asking her a bunch of questions she couldn't answer right now, or them trying to talk her into giving up on finding a way to help Chiaki. Telling her there was nothing she could do…
"Blitz isn't right about everything," Sera said to herself in a whispering tone. "He can be wrong about things, sometimes…"
Sera sighed and tried to clear her mind. She would just try to relax for the rest of the evening, which would hopefully help unscramble her thoughts so she could find the answer she needed. And hopefully once she had that answer, she could convince Blitz to help out too.
End of Chapter 62