Golden Rivals, Silver Friends
Chapter Eight:
Almost There
.
.
.
Second grade was nearing its end. It was the final Pokémon Lesson of the year, and the teachers were making it a good one.
"All right, kids!" one of them said. "Here's a review question for you. When you're putting out a fire, what kind of Pokémon would work well to fight it?"
A bunch of hands immediately shot up. The teacher's eyes scanned the multitude of kids, then smiled at one.
"Yes, Satoshi?"
"Water!" he shouted, perhaps a bit louder than necessary. Then again, maybe that was just a consequence for sitting next to him.
"Very good!" the teacher applauded him. Instantly, nearly all of the hands went down... except for one. The teacher seemed a bit puzzled; after all, not many kids would think of the other answer to the question. But then again, this wasn't just any kid...
"Yes?" she asked, calling on the last hand.
"Ground works, too..." the voice said, sounding quite small in the silent gym.
"Oh!" The teacher was a little surprised. "Well, that's also correct."
Satoshi glanced at the speaker, a disappointed look on his face. Quickly, he raised his hand. Without being called on, he at once said, "I wanna change my answer. Ground is better than Water!"
"Oh, don't worry, Satoshi," the teacher said cheerfully. "Both of you had terrific answers. Now, children," she said, turning to the whiteboard, "to put out a fire, you can either douse it with water, as Satoshi said, or, with dirt, you can..."
Satoshi was quiet. I was quiet, too.
Things were changing between us. The teacher finished her sentence.
"... smother it, like Shigeru mentioned."
.
.
.
Slowly, I became aware that the sun was up and that the shadows of the trees had moved off of me some time ago. Stretching, I clambered out of my sleeping bag and fixed myself something quick to eat. I let my Pokémon out of their Poké Balls so that they could stretch their legs a bit, too.
Changes... It seemed like that word was in my thoughts nearly all the time now.
Something had happened. I had caused that something. And that something had changed everything.
I was close to Tokiwa... close to home. And I was starting to get close to the answers I was trying to find. So many clues... but no clear answer for me.
I sighed and closed my eyes. All of my memories seemed so jumbled up... like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, some put together, some still in the box. Maybe even some lost for good.
Grandpa's field. Something I had to do. Pokémon Lessons. Satoshi.
Satoshi...
Satoshi growing up with me. Satoshi playing every day for hours with me. Satoshi virtually living at my house, and me at his. Satoshi following me from the day he could crawl. Satoshi learning with me, walking beside me, getting in trouble with me, depending on me, copying me--
Copying me.
That was it...
I sat up. It was time to set off. I quickly recalled my Pokémon and packed everything back where it belonged.
As I did, my hand knocked across the small pocket that had used to hold that half Poké Ball... That Poké Ball from the day we tied...
That was from after... whatever it was happened.
I'd seen Satoshi fishing out on the river that runs near Masara Town, when I decided to go out there and show him who was better at catching the Water Pokémon that lived there. Almost as soon as I got there, a Magikarp came flying out of the water...
... and proceeded to use Flail all over Satoshi's face. The stupid kid didn't expect a thing, and so fell over backward. Laughing at him, I challenged him and took complete advantage of his weakness...
"Name all of Magikarp's attacks!"
"No problem! Now, let's see..." A few awkward seconds passed, and once again I was in control...
Suddenly, when we least expected it, both of our fishing hooks caught the same thing; a rusty old Poké Ball. We eventually ran up and down the banks of the river, both pulling at it, until we pulled it right apart at the hinges.
"I guess... it's a tie, huh?" Satoshi said, an almost apologetic smile on his face.
"No!" I said roughly to him. "Tying with you is just as bad as losing!" And with that, I had walked off, leaving him with a shocked expression on his face. But when a few seconds passed, I could feel his anger penetrating my back. He didn't want to be my inferior any more...
He wanted to be my equal.
And like how I had felt before, he wanted things to be just like how they had been in the past.
.
.
.
He'd always copied me. Always, always, always. Never daring to try to get ahead of me. Never wanting to fall behind.
But he couldn't help it. I had Grandpa on my side. He didn't have anyone. In a way, we were both in the same predicament; he only had a mother, while I only had Grandpa and Nanami. Our families were tiny and broken. Even between the two of us, we were still missing what so many other kids had; aunts, uncles, cousins... even fathers.
Maybe, somehow, that was how we had ended up together. With so much missing in our lives, we banded together and formed a family of our own. After all, Grandpa had taken care of Hanako-san, who also didn't have any family, while she was still in school, and Hanako and Nanami were almost like sisters. Somehow, we had ourselves a different, yet happy family...
But even with that going for him, Satoshi still didn't have a chance next to me. Wherever I went, the people followed me; they wouldn't follow Satoshi.
Maybe that's why we went to the field so often. The field was virtually limitless, and no one in their right mind would go there. We had found ourselves an isolated paradise, where we were truly equal and there was no spotlight.
When I was friends with Satoshi, I shunned that attention, even though I was the kind of person who loved being in the middle of everything. But still, I thought, why should I have it when my best friend, who shared my dream and wished for it as much as I did, not get the attention that I seemed to have more than enough of? But after that day, I started to relish it and show it off. It was something that I had... something that I could prove to Satoshi that he didn't possess. It was almost like taunting him...
Taunting him... I'd done that, all throughout our Pokémon journeys. Making fun of him for the smallest things, downplaying any successes that he'd had. Making it seem like he'd never be able to reach where I was...
But he did. Even though the more recent memories were downers for me, there was no bitterness in them. He'd beaten me, fair and square. In a battle more intense than any I'd ever had, he'd proved to be the better Trainer. I guess he'd worked hard for that...
For some reason, that idea felt comforting to me...
I smiled. I guess, even though we'd been through years of rivalry, Satoshi's win had still been a reason for me to celebrate. Deep down, we were still friends.
I had given him back that half Poké Ball... and in that way, I had fixed something that we broke.
Something that, as I looked back, I broke. If I hadn't taken it away from him... if I hadn't been so stubborn...
... but he succeeded anyway. He made it.
And all I could do was be glad for him.
Maybe being his rival hadn't been such a bad thing. If we had stayed friends... and if we had ended up traveling together...
... he'd never have gotten to where he was now.
It was true. He'd have never gotten to the spotlight with me around.
My absence had been the difference. I just knew it.
And I was happy.
.
.
.
I knew what I had to do.
With me around, he couldn't grow up. As long as he was depending on me for everything, there was only so much he could do. He would never dare to try and surpass me as long as we were friends...
It's not like I really knew the consequences of what was going to happen. I only knew that I had been thinking about this for weeks, months... maybe even the entire past year. And at any rate, at this age, I thought I knew everything there was to know about life in general.
As I made my way to Grandpa's lab, my mind was made up.
I just didn't know how much it would hurt.
.
.
.
'Jeez, it's getting late...'
I glanced at the sky. If I hurried, maybe I could reach Tokiwa before the sun went down...
Without another thought, I quickened my pace, watching the ground and focusing on nothing.
